Cafe Bucky

Anyone that knows me will know my love for my ’97 ///M3. Once in a while, that love is put to the test …

Last night I was heading home from Silicon Valley – about an 85 mile trip. 5:45 pm… I was on 280 North, just approaching where 380 joins from the airport … It was dark …

Kaflump! Kablump blump! pssst!!!!

I was in the left lane, and *felt* something passing under the car. For a moment I thought I had hit something. Then the battery light went on. That’s bad … bad bad bad. Surrounded by rush hour cars doing 50 in the left lane.. ewww .. I wrestled the car over to the right (no power steering), and managed to stop in a nice clear spot next to a callbox. Lots of smoke (turned out to be steam) .. Towing was ~$300 (to be reimbursed …)

So what Happened????

• Water Pump exploded …
• which threw that belt off
• which got entwined with the other belt …
• which then shredded up the fan blades…
• .. and then a fan blade pierced the radiator…

In other words, a pretty impressive laundry list of damage from a chain reaction …

I’m thankful to have some track training which helped me stay calm. Feeling a car start to come unglued under you can be disconcerting :-)

Another one for Woody Allen, Bette Midler, and Carol Alt! (and me :-)

I wasn’t ready for this one. It kind of snuck up and tapped me on the shoulder. “psst!”, it said. “more age for you! a big tablespoon of it! .. here it comes!” And I dont mind. What am I gonna do? Take my birth cert back to the hospital and have them change a number?!

Nah, I really dont mind that much. I think age is more of a state of mind. It’s a “how open are you to keep learning new things?” kind of deal. The ones that shut off their mind when they get out of school bore me, and the ones that keep adapting, learning, and creating enthrall me. That’s the nutshell …

You wont generation gap me. I take pride in being on web early, and being in Second Life in the first few hundred thousand. I wont sit around and wait for developments to make their way to Readers Digest :-)

So, Age 46, let’s see whatcha got!

“One .. Two.. You know what to do …”

So begins “Elevator Music” off of Beck’s new album “The Information”.

One, Two, I know what to do. Back and bloggin’. I never quite left. Tuned into Second Life and dropped out of the web for while. Needed the break, now comes the balance. How to tie my newfound love into my oldfound profession?

Much of the following will not make sense if you have never spent time in Second Life …

2L Builder. 2L Scripter. I have a one-man photo exhibit. Own land. Happy in many dimensions. Lovin’ Second Life. It appeals to my creative and technical bents. Web 3D.

And there are wonderful people and flakes. Wow, just like real life. And there are great places to see, and virtual strip mall big box regurgitations of suburban fucking hell.

Most Second Life builders do what Desktop Publishers did in 1985. Prims are tortured. Textures are stretched. Real estate and virtual buildings are The Wild West – some people here and there seem to know what they are doing. The landscape of Prefabs reminds me of Gary, Indiana. I’ve seen gaps and overlaps; rooms too small and doors too tall. You want how much for that? Ya must be jokin’

And there is no sense of day. If you dont like the sun, make it midnight. There’s a menu for everything, if only you can find it in time.

So what happened in Web 2.0 while I was gone? Suppose I’ll catch up. Suppose I’ll blend these worlds somehow. The 2.0, and the Web 3D. I’ll even put up with LSL until we get Mono. Not like we have a choice on that one :-)

Yeah, I’m back. Hi there. I want a gig in the metaverse. See ya on the grid.

From my wonderful daughter today:

Father’s Day ‘06

You taught me how to walk
You taught me how to talk.
You put band-aids on my knees,
And remind me to take my keys.

You always know what’s best.
You comfort me when I’m stressed.
You sometimes protest about how I dress,
But just having you as my dad as always made me feel blessed.

You give me wisdom, guidance, and support
I love you so much, and it makes me so glad
To know that each and every day, I have a loving, caring, DAD.

Haven’t bothered to blog. Haven’t really thought about every last web site to check out.

It’s not for lack of interest. It’s just ..

I gotta sleep too! :-)

So I’m immersed in the online shared space of Second Life, and the work, and “Real Life”, and it’s all invigorating and exciting, and blah blah blah. If there was never time enough to get bored before, I’ve hit the next level.

See, I haven’t been so excited about a new bit of tech since 1993. That’s saying something, ’cause I’ve done a lot of keeping up (well, I did slack off from ’99-’03 a little :-) Second Life is flat out awesome. Is it Web 3d? I don’t know. It is a lot like the Metaverse of Snow Crash.

In 2L, there’s so much to learn: building, scripting, gestures, and so on. There’s also a huge social bit to it that I love. I’m hooked. That’s it. I’m frikken hooked.

So now the challenge is to work out the balance. There’s sleep to be slept, work to do, bills to pay, drives to take, and bbq’s to fire up. To say nothing of The Web and the things about it that have kept me fascinated for the last dozen years.

I keep pondering on how to write a proper post on “The Widening Web Gap”; where I’d compare the web geeks pushing the boundaries, versus the dialup folks that barely know how to check email, browse, or use IM. Every day that gulf opens a little further. I’m not even sure yet how to link 2L into that.. it takes the whole idea of interactive community and snickers politely to itself. Myspace? Friendster? The latest AOL or Yahoo Social Networking site? Forget it. Why bother? (that’s overstating it, but the kernel is that 2L can function as a heck of Social Space, if that’s what you’re looking for). I still respect LinkedIn though – there’s some utility there.

So my point here is that I’m working out the whole balance thing – there’s a ton of stuff to learn, and I haven’t felt this energized on a tech level for many years. I won’t spend 5 paragraphs talking about the awesome people I’ve met – suffice to say that being able to connect on a 3d visual level sure beats straight text anytime! More later.

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!