To run the risk of alienating my readers, I'm going to provide you with this link, and tell you that the first thing I thought of was teledildonics.
Even if you've never heard that word before, you know what it is. Honestly, is it just me, or is the first application of a virtual-to-real appliance interface NOT going to be a way to stimulate a partner over the Internet? Oh, sure, I suppose you could get excited by the thought of turning your homes' lights on and off remotely from work. It might be thrilling to think of turning on your air conditioner from your cubicle so that things are nice and cool by the time you get home. Or even, I suppose, manually engaging your security system to scare off that intruder you see lurking around your outdoors webcam.
But c'mon ... with the right rig, one-handed cybering could be a thing of the past. You will go to bed tonight thinking about it.
Here's an article on a bit of interesting news for us all, disabled or not: The University College London, in collaboration with the Graz University of Technology in Austria are developing a new technology that allows people to drive their avatars by merely thinking about movement.
While this is geared toward helping those with movement disabilities such as paraplegics and sufferers of ataxia, how cool would it be to avoid the whole initial awkwardness of learning to move in SL (one of the greatest frustrations confronting potential residents) by just thinking about walking around? Clearly, mainstream adoption of this technology is years off, but it's not too early to start brainstorming other uses of Thought-enabled Technology -- I'm looking at you, QDot!
Yes, folks, "sculpties" will soon arrive on the preview grid. Torley Linden made a blog entry on the official Linden blog regarding this momentous occasion. SLI reader Tao Takashi was able to get some information out of Robin and Joe Linden, with the announcement that sculpties will be added to a beta client next week. I guess we'll have to wait just a bit longer to taste the forbidden fruit. *sigh*
What will sculptable prims mean for us? Watch this machinima and see for yourself. Imagine being able to bypass the 31 prim limit of a vehicle because you molded the shape. Imagine lower prim avatars and furniture. Hell, just imagine, in general! This is truly the biggest news that has come out of Second Life since flexi-prims!
The ARG ended on a positive note, with qDot explaining the reasoning behind Cubesque and CubeOverload. For those curious, Funk Schnook appears to be the "winner" for finding that old blog entry. What was your opinion of the mystery?
Wow! Information is coming in from everywhere this morning. With just a few minutes left until 9:46am PDT/SLT, it seems as if the puzzle has been solved!
CubeOverload was updated with another jumbled song, this time, to the tune of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." The text says:
THE CUBE WENT DOWN TO GEORGIA LOOKIN' FOR A SQUARE TO STEAL HE'D LOST HIS MIND 'CAUSE HE COULD NOT FIND THE SPHERE THAT MADE THE DEAL
Qarl Linden informed Tao that they would be introducing "sculpties", which are something like NURBS. Apparently the pictures from his blog entry won't be possible until revision two, but for now, he hinted that they might be on the preview grid today or tomorrow.
This will change Second Life as we know it!
[UPDATE: Some readers pointed out that there was still some block room on Cubesque. A quick look at the GDX schedule points out that calculations were off. qDot will be speaking from 12:30pm-1:45pm PDT/SLT.]
Second Life Insider reader Funk Schnook sent me an in-world tip regarding Qarl's blog. As previously discovered by Moriash Moreau, the URL corners changed to qarners and then to qarl on Cubesque. Now it appears as if Qarl Linden is the person behind the event which we have not determined the nature of yet.
We now have solid theories, thanks to Funk. On September 15th, 2006 at 4:46pm, Qarl blogged about merging geometry in Maya. This would make seams between two parts smooth. This entry is not visible on his blog. The entry DID end up being cached in his RSS feed, which allowed pictures to be taken of this entry. Click here and here to see the step by step instructions he gave.
With no recent updates to the CubeOverload site, and the Cubesque site rapidly filling with blocks, only time will answer our burning question. See you at 9:46am PDT/SLT!
Since this is getting a bit spammy trying to fit everything together, I'm going to put down what we have so far in hopes that we can finish this soon:
We first saw Cubesque, given to us by a Linden. Soma-X speculated that it was owned by one Kyle Machulis with cube@lindenlab.com as an email. Mars Rickenbacker gave us the address on the domain registrar which leads to Linden Lab's headquarters.
The title of the page is, "perfection is not 90." The beginning of the page says "the journey begins here", while the end of the page says "the journey ends here."
Cubesque had variables which OneBigRiver Stork calculated to lead up to an event at exactly 9:46am PDT on Friday.
Nicholaz Beresford pointed out that the blocks were given a corner number.
Maxx Monde pondered about whether we would get chamfered cubes.
Click to read more conclusions as this will be long-winded, but hopefully clarify some things ...
On Saturday, Twitter was all the rage, even making it into panel jokes and discussions. If you needed something done, Twitter was the place to turn to. I think I received about 200 texts to my phone from just 15 friends. About mid-afternoon, I was getting tired and there wasn't a drop of Redbull in sight. A quick Tweet for help, and BarCampAustin came to the rescue. I was informed that not only did they have Redbull just a block over at Bourbon Rocks, but it was on them!
I arrived just in time to see Cube Linden taking the stage for his presentation about Second Life. During his speech, he mentioned flying penises, so Adri and I headed over to the sex shop about a block away. Once there, we purchased several inflatable phalluses to launch on stage. While in the restroom blowing them up, he ended his presentation. We were devastated, but not for long. We had plenty of drinking to do...
As brilliant plans don't always have a way of working out, I left for Austin quite late on the 9th. Not much was happening yet in the world of SXSW. Check-in took place from Noon to 8pm, but I was on a mission that could not be stopped. I was after the Nokia N800 tablet.
I arrived at 8:30pm after a two hour drive into Austin. I met up with BuhBuhCuh Fairchild and we immediately headed over to CompUSA to get the glorious device, which would later turn out to be downright awful. When we returned, it was time to party.
Word on the street was that the place to go was The Blind Pig...
I'm still in Austin due to unforeseen circumstances, but I managed to find a computer to share some of my stories with you, starting with my favorite. As previously mentioned, qDot Bunnyhug (Kyle Machulis) was at SXSW on a panel dealing with teledildonics. In preparation for his panel, he brought along some exciting new sex toys, some of which vibrated and others that were single use.
At BarCamp Austin, he gave me one of these single-use sex toys, which amused me to no end. I was so thrilled with it that, after a few drinks, I probably walked a good mile to Ze Frank's party at Malatov on Saturday night. I ran into Tony Walsh, of Clickable Culture, and asked him to film for me. I got in line and asked Ze Frank to finger the sex toy. You'll just have to see it to believe it! Stay tuned for more stories about the sights and sounds of SXSW.
South by Southwest, or SXSW for short, is rapidly approaching. Scheduled for March 9th-18th in Austin, Texas, it is an annual festival that celebrates music, movies, and web development. Attended by over 10,000 people from all over the world, it is a staple of Austin tourism. It is known for giving bands their big break and panelists major credibility.
There is a group in Second Life, appropriately named "SXSW'ers". If you are interested in attending and would like to hear about meetups, join that group. For now, I'm just askin' if you're going! Well ... are you?
To run the risk of alienating my readers, I'm going to provide you with this link, and tell you that the first thing I thought of was teledildonics.
Wow! Information is coming in from everywhere this morning. With just a few minutes left until 9:46am PDT/SLT, it seems as if the puzzle has been solved!
Since this is getting a bit spammy trying to fit everything together, I'm going to put down what we have so far in hopes that we can finish this soon:
As brilliant plans don't always have a way of working out, I left for Austin quite late on the 9th. Not much was happening yet in the world of SXSW. Check-in took place from Noon to 8pm, but I was on a mission that could not be stopped. I was after the Nokia N800 tablet.
