3pointD.com

Texas Instruments is looking to hire two positions into what sounds like an effort to get more TI product into games on both the harware and software levels. TI recruiter Brent Rogers tells me the company is looking for one “3D software design engineer” (an entry-level position) and one “gaming professional,” who would presumably help with contacts at game companies. (more…)

Occasionally, having an anchor corporate sponsor provides me with a good excuse to do something I wouldn’t normally be able to do — like blog about the 10,000 sheep that were created by online workers hired through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service, an online employment exchange for micro-tasks that need to be done by a person but which can be parcelled out via the Web. [Via we-make-money-not-art.] Actually, this is not so very un-3pointD at all. (more…)

Second Life resident Pierce Portocarrero is one of the virtual world’s premier machinima-makers. Part of the team working on the Ideal World documentary about SL fashion designer Nephilaine Protagonist (a film that will combine real-world and virtual-world footage), Pierce is also an enthusiastic SL resident, and seems to love digging up cool stuff and filming adventures and oddities about the world. He recently launched a new Web site, and though it’s not quite complete (and has some currently unavoidable audio on the home page), it showcases a lot of Pierce’s excellent work (he really knows how to work a camera in SL) and promises a steady stream of stuff to come. Above, Pierce’s prologue to Second Life, which gives you a better picture of his take on things.

We originally envisioned The Metaverse Sessions as a weekly serise (well, John Swords envisioned it; I just came along for the ride), but we bumped into so many good interview subjects in Palo Alto that we’re squeezing out episodes on a slightly accelerated schedule. One of the people we were very fortunate to cross paths with was Doug Engelbart, who is best known for building the first mouse and graphical user interface, but is simply a pioneer in personal computing like almost no other. He may not be very metaversal, but you wouldn’t want to pass up the chance at a chat with someone of Dr. Engelbart’s stature in the history of computing. In fact, the metaverse owes to him the very idea that computers could be used to augment an individual’s intelligence and capabilties in the world. Finally beginning to realize a dream that began more than 50 years ago, Engelbart talks about his “country boy” upbringing, changes in the Valley (where he’s lived since 1948 or so), the coinage of the word “online,” and the birth of the personal computer in his anxiety over his impending marriage. Well, I may be pushing that last one, but only a little bit. (Honest.) Listen here to a brief conversation with a man who has somehow managed to remain gracious and kind despite the world’s having largely ignored his brilliant ideas. (Read more about Engelbart’s Hyperscope project.)