Now, first things first... best pop over to UWA if you want to vote in the People's Choice thingy for this week or you'll be too late.
As SaveMe is keen to point out, and it's pretty obvious to all, you can't really vote for art as it's not, in essence, a popularity contest and, let's face it, some of the most popular things in this world are complete crap i.e. TV programmes and dodgy newspapers. Best advice is to relax, it's just a bit of fun and not really necessary to riot and burn cars in the street.
Alternatively, you could, if you are talented enough, use your artistic ability to produce a piece like Miso's and say everything that needs to be said about the Art Business in one brilliant work.
I enjoyed this piece too, by Loup Erin, TV Rules The Nation, Loup is one of those artists that really catches you by surprise at times ... great imagination and a lateral brain...
...and I like to pick out a piece to show you that may well get over-looked (it happens) as there is such an array of great work in one place. I loved this piece by Nino Vichan, it looks like a modern stained glass which would grace any RL gallery or modern home.... excellent.
So... the news about UWA Machinima competition is all here.
...and the "let's delete megas" debacle I already blogged here...
Yesterday some of our most respected and venerable Elite were admitted into the presence of our Toga Wearing Boss for a little Audience with Rodvik... not much was said of any note.. Rod's contribution being, basically, the following in reply to the basic "What are your plans" Question..
".....firstly to have more people come and enjoy the world you have all built, i would say empowering our current residents to enable easier creativity and better creativity...
........addressing lag and other fundemental issues that kind of take you out of the expereince...
...and address in a very significant way the usuability mountain new customers have. SL is a very very deep experience and many new users are overwhlemed by Ui issues.
........In general those are the areas i would think about. Obviously the hard bit is in the details of how each area is apporached."
Now, the cynical amongst us (who? Me?) could claim that nothing much was said, and they would be right.. but, those present did feel graced to be in the Presence and, let's face it, previous CEO's didn't do much Baby Kissing and Hand Shaking, preferring to keep away from the great unwashed masses.
My number two "mmm" point was that "empowering our current residents to enable easier creativity" are words I like to hear....
(might be my medication again, Brinda,...:))
Anyway...this wasn't what has got some bloggers hopping up and down this week, its the whole Patent Saga that got some peoples blood boiling...
It started with this....here. Reaction Grid announcing they were gonna take out a patent.....on....(and here's where fur started to fly...) ..." to setup, deploy and maintain virtual worlds on virtualized servers."....(the vagueness of it causing the fever).
Well, that spawned a host of comments and blog posts, especially because it was very unclear what exactly it was they were gonna try and patent. As it later became obvious, it wasn't Virtual Worlds they wanted to patent, just a crumby piece of software that no-one is really that excited about. Now....excuse me Reaction Grid Peeps if I have got that wrong...but...you know.... the reality is pretty Yawn.
This is a good piece about patents tho... here. Diva Canto needs a round of applause..... so no friends gained by this move .... just an Adverse Reaction.
On a good, healthy Philosophical level I was very impressed this week by Metanomics. A staggeringly interesting (excuse the superlatives...it goes with the job) chat about Digital Anthropology .. here... with an eminently sensible chap, Tom Boellstorff talking to Dusan Writer. It's a bit long... an hour, but many interesting points which I will, no doubt come back to at some point... food for thought.
InWorldz passed the 30,000 user mark this week and, as Tranquility continues to stick his metaphysical fingers into ancient holes in the Code Dyke, the news is that a new shiny physics engine is, according to Jim Tarber's guestimate still a month of coding away before testing can start...
I have noticed though a significant increase in the stylishness of people, better dressed, with better skins, all looking very chic.
On a personal level, I am starting to gather tools for Machinima production, Space Navigator first and then some software...will have to be ScreenFlow, unless I rob a bank, and ... really. Bank robbery is such a bore.
...as for skills...well..none so far and some of the worst video Tutorials on the planet (for ScreenFlow)...
But that never stopped me before...
:)))
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The Patent Law/Copyright Law trainwreck has been widely covered in TechDirt, Slashdot, MAKE and other places. The whole vagueness of the RG patent application looks more like a submarine patent or a future patent-troll deal; trying to patent a thought, not an application. Unfortunately, this is all-too-common now in the smoking crater which is "patent law." You can thank MS, SCO, Apple and various other miscreants for this problem, as well as Disney, TW and the rest of the "i am gonna hold on to my old business model until you all choke" companies and the utter corruption of the US Patent Office.
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