If there’s one thing that everyone (even the most enthusiastic) has to say about Second Life, it’s that the software is ferociously resource-hungry and more bug-ridden than a hobo’s sleeping bag. Numerous projects are running toward the goal of a more user-friendly interface based on open source code, and one of them has just become the darling of the SL blogosphere by creating an AJAX-based text-only version of the client software – in non-geek language, that means it can run in your web browser. Which is pretty good going for a fifteen year old.
All posts by Paul Raven
Stross on the future of lifelogging
Charles Stross has an essay up on the BBC website about lifelogging and the future of compact data storage. If you’ve read a lot of his novels or followed his blog closely, a lot of these ideas won’t be totally new to you, but it’s interesting to read them pared down and packaged for Joe Average.
A magnetic generator that actually works as advertised
Once you’ve indulged in a bit of schadenfreude and watched the CEO of ‘perpetual motion’ company Steorn explaining why it is that his demo failed to work, marvel at the fact that magnetism can be used to create a ready source of energy – this
little gadget is powered by small vibrations {correction} moving a bundle of tiny magnets, which creates a tiny electric current that can power an equally tiny electronic device, like a sensor. How great would it be to have a phone you could recharge with a vigorous shake?
Robot soccer at the nanoscale
It appears that my home nation’s (inexplicably) best-loved sport has pervaded as far as the nanoscale; Georgia Tech is hosting a soccer competition for nanobots that takes place on a field smaller than a grain of rice. Not much space for the referee to hide, then.
Spacesuits and Sixguns – free fiction online
It’s official – there really is more free genre fiction online than I will ever have time to read, even if I stopped reading anything else. Still, diversity is a sign of a healthy growing market, so they say; so those of you who have more spare time than myself (which is most of you, I’m guessing) may want to wander over to check out the third issue of Spacesuits And Sixguns. If the fiction is of a similar quality to the artwork, it won’t be a wasted visit.