3pointD.com

I’ve seen this YouTube clip before, but I was finally inspired to install it after 3pointD contributor Chip Poutine sent me this link. It’s a very cool screensaver that renders all the blog posts coming from everywhere in the world in 3D on a 3D globe. Unfortunately, something in my system seems to be preventing it from working (which is plaguing a lot of my day today, frustratingly). I get the cool globe, but no posts show up. In any case, I love the idea. Download it yourself and tell me what I’m doing wrong. [UPDATE: Ooh, nvm, it’s working now! \o/ Very cool. And yes, you can click through to the posts themselves on the Web. (Sorry for the double-update.)]

Okay, Babbage is getting ready to give his acceptance speech at 3pointD’s Favorite Linden awards ceremony, but he’s got a little work to do before the committee ratifies the choice.

In computer gaming circles, a roguelike (yes, it’s a noun) is a game that borrows many of the characteristics of the 2D ASCII dungeon-crawling computer game Rogue. What Babbage is building borrows many characteristics of the Web-based ratings system Digg, so I’m calling at a Digglike. It’s coming along, but it isn’t done yet. (more…)

[UPDATE: Boo! Due to technical difficulties, the Sheep won’t appear on the Today show until sometime early next week. Stay tuned for details.] Sibley Verbeck, CEO of metaverse services firm Electric Sheep Company (still sponsors of this blog) will make a live appearance on NBC’s Today Show tomorrow morning, February 23, 3pointD has just heard. Sibley will be interviewed by Today Show host Matt Lauer, as Sheep Jessie Segal and Kerria Seabrook navigate their avatars around the virtual world of Second Life, checking out some builds and other interesting corners of the culture. The spot will air sometime between 8:00am and 10:00am Eastern (that’s 5:00am and 7:00am SL Time), so get up early and tune in.

Well, I was all ready to anoint Babbage as my favorite Linden, but I can’t get his gadget to work. This post on the official Linden blog describes a HUD that lets you Digg objects inside the virtual world of Second Life, if I’m understanding it correctly. It uses the scanner function of the Linden Scripting Language to automatically highlight nearbby object, which you can then give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to. My copy, though, didn’t highlight anything. Has anyone else gotten this to work? If so, I’d love to hear from you, as this kind of thing is just the kind of functionality I think SL needs more of. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can pick up a copy at Babbage’s plot »in Ambleside«. Sounds very cool, so I’m hoping I’ve just done something wrong. [UPDATE: It works! Almost.]

It looks like the Electric Sheep Company (sponsors of this blog) are getting ready to bring authors from Random House’s Bantam Dell imprint to the virtual world of Second Life. I was poking around the Grid today and dropped in on Sheep Island, where I spotted a Bantam Dell building just outside Sheep Tower. The inside is all set up for what looks like a reading or Q&A, the featured author being best-selling thriller writer Dean Koontz. While this could just be a test build, the Bantam Dell logo is slapped all over everything, and the place looks ready for a bunch of literary-minded avatars to show up and pelt Koontz with questions. I don’t have much information other than that, just a few screenshots, which you can check out after the jump. (more…)