3pointD.com

An interesting Trackback showed up on 3pointD.com this evening, from a reader called babysista_13, who wondered, “How can I get my identity off myspace.com?” Turns out babysista_13 isn’t a reader at all, just a panicked MySpace member who couldn’t figure out how to leave the MySpace service, and had posted a query over at Help.com. Following the link reminded me of something I think many of us don’t consider often enough: that there are even seemingly insignificant things about the interface design of sites like MySpace and Help.com that can have a real social impact on the people who use them. (more…)

Recursive Instruments is two students at the Art Institute of Chicago who’ve recently got hold of some Eyebeam OpenLab technology known as OGLE (for Open GL Extractor) and have been using it to create foam models of various structures from within the virtual world of Second Life. The images above represent the process of mapping and then milling a 3D representation from within the virtual world (in this case, of a sheep from the Electric Sheep Company’s Sheep Island; ESC is, of course, the anchor sponsor of this blog). Follow their progress and see lots more pink images at their blog. It seems only a matter of time before this kind of technology is put to some more directly useful purpose: prototyping, architecture, design testing — this is going to be very interesting to watch happen.

Model of proposed steampunk sim in Second Life

Second Life resident and filmmaker Dagny Hemingway has put together a perfect little one-minute video showing off a new project in Second Life, a steampunk region for which a new residents group is now raising money. What’s interesting about the project is how the group is going about promoting it: by advertising a scale model of what the region will look like once it’s been built out. (more…)

If you’re going to be in Irvine, California, on April 20th, there’s still time to register for the MASSIVE conference on “the future of networked multiplayer games” being held by the Game Culture and Technology Lab at the University of California at Irvine’s Institute for Software Research. There are a number of interesting panels, including one on “the art of social sculpting,” one on “networked play cultures” (featuring Betsy Book of There.com and Bob Moore of PlayOn), and one on “new production models and infrastructures,” which features Corey Bridges of the Multiverse and Robin Harper of Linden Lab (though the technical side of things at LL usually falls to Cory Ondrejka to explain). Both LL and Blizzard Entertainment, which is located just down the road, will have recruitment tables at the event as well.

Stefan Geens at Ogle Earth uses Google Earth to ponder what the World Trade Center site in New York City would be like with several different buildings on it: the old WTC, the newly designed Freedom Tower, and the under-construction Burj Dubai. (Warning: the post contains an image of the old WTC in flames, for comparison.) You can also grab the KMZ file of the buildings to check things out for yourself. (more…)

(Via Clickable Culture.) Ethan Kaplan, the Director of Technology for Warner Bros. Music, is looking for someone to build out a Second Life installation for one of Warner Bros.’ bands. “Please contact me if you’re 2ndLife Mojo is on overdrive and you want some cash. (ethan A T warnerbrosrecords.com).” No word on which group is involved, but it’s worth noting that Ethan has been running the R.E.M. fan site Murmurs.com for the last 10 years, “in a sort of collaboration with the band R.E.M. “