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Podcaster extraordinaire Johnny Ming has just posted the two most recent episodes of our weekly Second Life podcast, SecondCast.

Episode 27 features SL resident Oz Spade, who recently returned from the Second Life Views event, in which Linden Lab flew eighty of the virtual world’s residents to San Francisco to gather their views on the direction of the place. (Official coverage of the initiative itself can be found on Robin Linden’s blog at the following links: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5].)

I missed the session for Episode 28, and I’ve yet to give it a listen, but it sounds like a return to SecondCast’s free-wheeling form. Johnny Ming and the crew interview Cory Edo of the Electric Sheep Company (sponsors of this blog), discuss Cristiano Midnight’s ban from Second Life, and recap the SL Relay for Life last weekend that raised over $40,000. I’ve been told to stay with Episode 28 to the end for a nice (or not-so-nice, depending on your musical taste) surprise.

The upcoming Siggraph conference, which starts Sunday, will see demonstrations of a boatload of interesting new technologies, among them a fingertip digitizer developed by researchers at the University of Buffalo’s Virtual Reality Laboratory (which has a bunch of other cool projects going, to boot).

A small thimble-shaped device worn on the tip of a finger, the digitizer is interesting as an input device. Imagine dragging your finger across the surface of a solid object and having it gradually take shape on your screen, complete with surface texture. While devices exist to do such things already, a fingertip is arguably a more intuitive and responsive device than any stylus or other peripheral. The UB lab has also developed cool stuff like a touch-based CAD device. Toss ‘em all in the pot and you could very well have a powerful interface that closes the gap between personal intention and what a computer understands. [Via What’s Next Network.]

Building on the recent wave of promotional events in the virtual world of Second Life, independent film studio Lionsgate is releasing the first ten minutes of its animated Ultimate Avengers 2 feature film not in SL but via the isometric, teen-calibrated world of Habbo Hotel. “This event marks the first time the online community will be able to view 10 full minutes of a never-before-seen film prior to its release,” according to a press release on the Marvel.com Web site. The little Habbo sprites were even asked to dress up in black tie for the event! (more…)