3pointD.com

Reuters’ Adam Pasick reports that the popular reality-television show Big Brother is launching a Second Life edition starting December 1. While a press release from the producers doesn’t say the “show” will be televised or streamed to the Web, it will be open to all SL residents, and will run for the month of December. You can apply to be part of the show on »Kingdom of Media island«, where SL residents will also be able to watch the goings on. The requirements are pretty stiff, though: 15 participants will need to spend eight hours a day in the house, and complete a set of tasks that sound like they’re slanted toward those with facility in building. SL residents will vote contestants off the island one by one, and the winner goes “home” with a free 16-acre virtual estate. This is an interesting addition to the small universe of virtual television presence, pioneered by MTV’s Virtual Laguna Beach. More to come?

I always love coming across new useful applications that can be used in the virtual world of Second Life (especially now that I’m looking for stuff for the 3pedia wiki). Via a recent post on BlogHUD about an in-world RSS reader in development by resident Intolerable Ginsburg, I happened on the PixelTrix calendar, which I’ve set up at the »3pointD Think Tank« in Second Life. Though the process is slightly complex, the calendar can be loaded with notecards that emit event reminders or display what’s going on on a given date when the day is clicked. I haven’t loaded any into the 3pointD calendar, but I’ve set it to be accessible to anyone, so if you have an event upcoming, feel free to load it onto the calendar. You can buy your own at the »PixelTrix store«, run by Cherub Spectre and Nathan Oddfellow, where you can also buy interactive message boards, texture organizers, a customer service bell and answering machine, and various kinds of furniture all fitted out to store and organize inventory items. Nice stuff.

Check out SecondCast, Episode #42, in which Johnny Ming roams the halls of the 2006 Machinima Festival of the Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences. (I was there too, but would only sit still to be interviewed by Johnny about the New York City “Pay Walker’s Rent” Marathon.) There was some great machinima on display, and some interesting characters on the podcast, as always. Unfortunately, though we were all rooting for Pierce Portocarrero’s excellent Game Over to win one of the several awards for which it was nominated, Pierce will have to wait until next year. That’s understandble, though, in an environment in which a film about restroom etiquette wins the prize for best writing.