Real Face on an Avatar

In one of the last shows I was offered a free gift. My own face on my own avatar. I'm not sure I like this gift. but here it is. Larry Gardner CEO of CyberExtruder, says it is easy. you can try it for yourself in avatar island (see SLURL).

Potential Metaverse Interface

Jeff Han is a research scientist for New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Here, he demonstrates—for the first time publicly—his intuitive, "interface-free," touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure.

Nana Report on the connected Metaverse (Hebrew)

One of the leading Israeli news sites (Nana channel 10) wrote a good overview to the metaverse in general and to the need to connect the different worlds. See here (in Hebrew).

Microsoff Word: Well Done

I have been a user of Microsoft Word for more than 10 years. Just finished a 150 page document. Love this software. I had only few bugs; and this software does it all (almost). Love headings; love spelling; love styles; love table of contents. It is so much fun to work with something that work so well. I'm using Word ala Office 2003. It will take any competitor years to arrive at this level. On the other hand, how many people are crazy enough to write 150-page docuemnts that really need word?

Filthy Fluno: Artist sell RL work in SL

A joint friend has introduce me to Filthy Fluno, a new kind of Artist. His take: he sends real art to his customers. Check his place (SLURL).

Filthly in SLCC 2008

BBC: 'Virtual theft' leads to arrest

According to the BBC here:

A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from "rooms" in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.

The 17-year-old is accused of stealing 4,000 euros (£2,840) worth of virtual furniture, bought with real money.

Lets face it. The virtual world has crime, and we will see more crime prevention in it.

Inspire: Sir Ken Robinson on nurtures creativity, rather than undermining

20 Min Video of a unique talk as part of the Ted conference:

* We are educated out of creativity.
* Creativity is as critical as literacy.

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize -- much less cultivate -- the talents of many brilliant people. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. A typical review: "If you have not yet seen Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk, please stop whatever you're doing and watch it now."

Txs to Adeena for the post.

Gmail 2.0 is here (for most of us)

Google has released a new version of gmail. Most people will barely notice it. it look the same.
So what is new:

1. You have another command on the top that says "older version." If you do not have it then you are still getting the old version. Wait few days and it will appear.
2. You will notice a MUCH faster interface for reading emails. Gmail now pre-read your email so the feel is good. Txs.
3. Improved contacts management (this is the biggest interface change).
4. Few more small changes here and there.

Please note: changes are in English version.
To see screen demos look here at Orly's blog go2web2 blog (here).

Google Launches OpenSocial to Spread Social Applications Across the Web

Social stuff is HOT. Microsoft just took a part in Facebook, so Google is releasing its answer.
OpenSocial. It is "a set of APIs that allow developers to connect with social sites."

From Google site (here):

"The web is fundamentally better when it's social, and we're only just starting to see what's possible when you bring social information into different contexts on the web," said Jeff Huber, senior vice president of engineering, Google. "There's a lot of innovation that will be spurred simply by creating a standard way for developers to run social applications in more places. With the input and iteration of the community, we hope OpenSocial will become a standard set of technologies for making the web social."

One of the most important benefits of OpenSocial is the vast distribution network that developers will have for their applications. The sites that have already committed to supporting OpenSocial -- Bebo, Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, mixi, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING -- represent an audience of about 200 million users globally. Critical for time- and resource-strapped developers is being able to "learn once, write anywhere" -- learn the OpenSocial APIs once and then build applications that work with any OpenSocial-enabled websites.

Also see an hr long camp side video here.

My take: Classic standard setting effort. May actually work as it will make all social sites more powerful from the users point of view. Lots of players have joined. But what will Facebook/ Microsoft say?

Wikimedia Foundation Fundraising 2007

A 3 min info ad re Wikimedia. Both for those who know about Wikipedia, and for new ones. So cool.