3pointD.com

Second Life resident Ordinal Malaprop, who writes at the very nicely named blog An Engine Fit For my Proceeding, has apparently written a heads-up display for SL that lets you create a SLurl from within the world, rather than having to go out to a Web page to do so. What’s a SLurl? It’s an embeddable Web map of a portion of the SL grid, which includes a link that launches the application and teleports you directly to the location protrayed on the map. The SLurlPane at the top of the right sidebar on 3pointD (which needs to be updated) is my hack of the feature, so that you don’t have to go to a whole separate page. Ordinal earlier wrote the SLurlBuilder feature that lets you build a SLurl automatically instead of having to type the link out manually. The new HUD lets you simply stand in one place within Second Life, hit a button, and get the text for the link. Torley Linden blogs it today and says you can probably pick one up at Ordinal Enterprises [<– SL link] in Second Life, or simply contact Ordinal in-world. A nice new feature that pulls SL closer to the Web.

Sylvie Noel at Population of One blogs a haptic feedback system for touchscreens that could bring greater screen real estate to mobile devices. The system is from a company called Immersion that’s been making haptic feedback systems for gaming consoles and similar stuff. Their VibeTonz system can now provide tactile feedback when you hit a “button” represented on a screen. That means the entire surface of your mobile device could one day be a screen, with “keyboard” elements popping up only as needed. Nice idea.

The fashionistas of There.com are going frock to frock over the next nine weeks to find out who’s the best designer of fashions for the virtual world. The There Fashion Challenge pits a dozen of the world’s top designers in weekly design competitions, commencing with a pirate outfit challenge that’s currently up for judging. The competition is being run along the lines of a reality show, with residents voting a couple of designers out of the running each week. (more…)