After an amazing 14 month run combinedstory has shut its doors. We spoke at conferences, serviced futurists, businesses, non profits, media companies, met some incredible people and most important of all, we witnessed to the birth of a new industry: Virtual Worlds. We were among the first to inhabit Second Life and part of an even smaller community of those who made a business of developing within it. Now Boris Kizelshteyn and Dimitri Darras take the valuable skills they honed at combinedstory and apply them to independent ventures that will reverberate throughout the metaverse.

If you are looking for a build, consultation or instruction, please see what we are up to here:

Boris Kizelshteyn is now at boris@popcha.com

Dimitri Darras is now at ddarras@darleon.com

..just downloaded this, it has a fun interface, the same way KPT does for PhotoShop.

http://www.kanae.net/secondlife/

These two tools allow you to rotate a path with a specific number of veritices - really cool. To texture a sculptie, first create the texture with a tool like this, save it as a .tga, create a prim (square for instance), then select under “Object” the “Building Block Type” drop down for “Sculpted”. Click on the (larger-than-usual) texture square to select the Sculptie .tga

In the video posted by flightglobal.com, small aircrafts, loaded with data, fly around a 2D google map placed in Second Life. Each plane shows it’s “flight number, location and altitude in real-time as it mirrors the actual aircraft (5 minute delay).”

In a quote posted by Flight Global, ‘David Burden, managing director of Daden Ltd, said: “This is an example of the power of Second Life, and virtual worlds in general, in providing a shared visualisation system….offering possibilities for both the consumer and for business operations and scientific research. Being able to walk around data, and view it with others, can bring out insight and analysis that would be impossible in 2D systems, or PC-based 3D systems.”

Check out the video:

In a Linden Labs blog post, they wrote: “We imagine a future where Second Life is able grow beyond the borders of Linden Lab. We see regions running on open source, alternative simulators. We see web services that allow people to build mash-ups of Second Life and the Web. We see organizations being able to integrate their members and their members’ avatars.”

This is a very interesting future, or at least proposition, for Second Life and the evolution of virtual worlds, and we must keep a close watch on what Linden Labs will be doing to stay ahead of the virtual world game (so to speak). I commend Linden Labs in keeping open ties with the great SL community. Check out the post here.

Herewith some interesting quotations:

The problem is that for most Internet visitors, flipping through the pages of the World Wide Web is about as exciting as turning pages of a book or magazine once every 30 seconds or so. (Even some people with fast modems call it the World Wide Wait.) Some pages are fascinating, others are dreary, but nothing really happens on the pages. Browsing is a passive activity once the reader lands on a page.

Imagine, instead, a Web where each page is active and interactive, instead of static. A simple graphic image becomes an animation. A photograph becomes a video clip. Stock quotes and sports scores are updated on screen as the user watches.

-By PETER H. LEWIS, The New York Times,
Published: October 17, 1995

Sloth, the transgression of the slow moving and the unproductive, notorious as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, is alive on the Internet.

I like to read magazine articles while waiting for my next Internet event: 30 or 60 seconds to load a Web page or a minute to access a large news group. Any process that’s easily interruptable qualifies as an Interleavable Internet Activity (IIA). When the most recent command is done, I rouse myself and click on my next selection. Then it’s back to my alternate world for 15 seconds, 45 seconds or two minutes. A few seconds here, a minute there — they all add up.

-”Welcome to the World Wide Wait”, William Casey, The Washington Post, June 12, 1995

READ about the Internet, and thrill to the notion of a world wired at the speed of light, with all the information anyone could want just a mouse-click away. But actually use the cursed thing, and a more prosaic picture quickly emerges. Delay, break-downs and glacial transmissions are part of everyday Internet life. New users are amazed: surely this tepid data trickle is not the fabled “information superhighway”? Veterans shake their head wearily: the Internet has always been swamped, and as long at it doubles in size each year, it seems likely always to remain so.

True? That question-whether the Internet can grow out of stumbling adolescence and become as delay-free and reliable as the telephone network- ultimately comes down to one of economics.

-The Economist (US), October 19, 1996

http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9730042-7.html

From the article: “MIT Media Lab Director Frank Moss, who also spoke Friday morning, said society is in the very early days–”the first minutes, perhaps seconds, of the 3D Internet”

I disagree, we’re further along than that - by a couple of hours!

Here are some facts about the performance. Please refer to our flickr set for more photos.

• The program consisted of work by Kenneth Hesketh, John McCabe, Ravel, and Rachmaninov
• The RLPO purchased two islands to accommodate 40 or more avatars
• The avatars received tickets from a lottery on their web site relating to Second Life
• There was no real-time performer animation but rather video piped into Second Life from their live concert
• The audio/video feed was serviceable
• There has been significant buzz about this concert in Second Life related press, blogs, and web sites (my friends were jealous of the tickets)
• The capacity was close to full
• The RLPO created a virtual rendition of their concert hall
• The RLPO created a group to limit guests
• Avatars were attired in formal wear and respected traditional concert etiquette
• Their director of marketing of the RLPO was present and had an avatar
• The event manager was Texas Arizona (waiting to confirm design shop that produced it)
• The CEO of Linden Lab, the company that makes Second Life was present and had an avatar along with other senior members of the company (as best as we could identify!)

CPH

Do a map search for this island - the layout and buildings are impressive.

We have some photos on our flickr feed too…

The Map is a really effective means of navigation. Once you’ve located an island you are interested in, and the map has come into focus, you can determine how many people are there and where they are.

#1, the yellow dot, represents and avatar stationed at combinedstory’s orientation. #2, the larger white and yellow dot represents your avatar (the triangle is an overhead view of his or her view), and #3 represents another avatar who is close by and within view of avatar #2 (both are in Jurgen Gulick’s new winery).

You can click anywhere on the map and teleport there. This overhead view gives you the power to see in an eye blink how many avatars are there, but keep in mind it doesn’t include “z-axis” location, so you may have to fly up or down to find them.