Cafe Bucky

My vivacious new friend M (hey!) was IM’ing to me this week about second life. She meant the general idea of being online, being in chatting mode, and feeling detached from the real world. Face to Face as First Life, online as Second. I had asked her if she had heard of “Second Life”, as in Second Life from Linden Labs

I’ve wrapped up with Friendster, and am about to start a contract doing stuff with Second Life. In other words, my First Life (at least, the work bit) is changing, and I’ll be surrounded by Second Life, the work, and Second Life, the virtual world. Got that?

I’m looking forward to it. Check out the BusinessWeek cover story “My Virtual Life” which gives a good sense of what it’s like to wander in off the web, and into a much more immersive environment. The whole idea of how we ping pong between modes is changing quickly. At this point, many are happy to get the web on their mobile phone, but because of the way that feels, it’s not really convincing “being somewhere else” stuff. What happens in, say, five years when you get realtime photorealistic rendering on an ultra portable wireless device (less than a pound, 8″ screen, insert favorite specs here)? (btw, I am expressing a desire, and don’t know of anyone that’s doing anything that advanced) In other words, will First and Second lives start to blur a bit? Maybe they already have.

It’s going to be fun.

Damn, I have three albums to mention, and no time right now to really get into it. But I will! WolfMother, Snow Patrol (seeing @ the Warfield next month), and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (saw @ the Polo Field oh so long ago!)

Oh, and I have news a ‘comin! My First Life takes a cool turn.

I just noticed that Thomas Dolby is a bloggin’. Science! It’s good to get the look into the creative process. Check out his video clip from the TED Conference.

Over on the video and digital media side, check out What Alex Lindsay is doing. He’s leading up to a 1080p videocast called MacBreak. The first few episodes are wonderfully video geeked out, and I can’t claim to understand it all. It’s a subject that I wish I could take a year off and dive into. Alex is also doing a podcast called “This Week In Media”.

Two Pioneers!

This is post #404. Really. For a quick refresher on the term “404″, go check the Wikipedia Entry. btw, you should never confuse 404 and 420, and that’s the 411.

Rather than dwelling on things “not found”, I’ll look forward. I’m planning to have quite a bit of creative stuff posted by the time #500 rolls around.

I just noticed that the Google Maps API has added an overlay control: GOverviewMapControl() — thanks Digg’ers for the heads up!

I’ve updated the iframe file referenced by the post Fave Station. If the map doesn’t do the right thing, let me know.

See the Google Maps API Blog for more info.

Here’s a deliberately exaggerated example — I plan on heading to Amoeba Music sometime in the next week, which is near Golden Gate Park:

Worth pointing at: Caterina’s post on “It’s a bad time to start a company”. I can’t say I completely agree. Doesn’t mean I’m going to start one - I’m happy where I am on that score. It’s a good time for some to start a company that does something Original. It’s a terrible time to do anything “me too”. It’s a good time to keep developing skills, and to keep branching out. Think this will last forever? Silly Rabbit. Stay relevant, or there will be no carrots for you. Pay frikken attention :-)

The most tenuous of segues is this: It’s a great time to find some balance. I’ve decided to start living in SF part-time. More life, less commute. Eventually I’ll be back in NYC for a while. For a year or so, the West Coast version will be a great rhythm to get into.

Coming up on March 28th is my 3 year anniversary of writing this blog. I raise a Guinness in the direction of those who developed WordPress.

I’d love to cull some favorite posts, and do an Alcapulco Cliff Dive into the comforting warm waters of the Nostalgia Sea. But that’s not on the menu. Ok, I’ll think of one: “Revenge of the Overhead Bin”

Course adjustment. Taking a fork in the road. Blog stops for a bit. Work is great. Creating photos and music is great. Health is great. I just want to take a little break from writing here. cheers.