Jun 7, 2010

“Reality Is Overrated”
Postmasters Gallery, New York
Through June 19, 2010

I visited the new solo show from Eva and Franco Mattes (aka, a bit obnoxiously, as 0100101110101101.org) at Postmasters Gallery directly after catching the final weekend of Marina Abramovic’s “The Artist Is Present” at MoMA. This is significant, considering that the Matteses once staged virtual renditions of key Abramovic works — like “Imponderabilia” — using the virtual medium of Second Life. There’s more Second Life-facilitated art here at Postmasters — all of it oddly beautiful and bizarre, humorous yet also ingenious in its exploration of how digital animation and virtual reality can affect human interaction (and the nude anatomy).

The videos are displayed on monitors that are offhandedly set on the floor, propped against the wall. Gallery visitors can sit on crummy air mattresses and watch the Mattes duo, as avatars, flying, contorting, or suffering quasi-epileptic fits. The decorative aesthetic in the gallery is half college dorm room, half Bushwick squat. In one video, Medication Valse, Franco’s avatar “melts” into a chair in the center of a room; other avatars float around the space in various states of undress, part of a Second Life orgy fantasia. I know that it’s all a state of mind features the virtual Franco and Eva twitching, convulsing, falling through each other’s bodies, and generally performing the sort of high-pain, high-endurance antics that would be right at home over at that Abramovic retrospective. (If these descriptions don’t fully convey the content of the videos—and there’s little chance they do—all of the work can be screened in its entirety on the artists’ Web site.)

more…

James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game (PS3)

Jun 7, 2010

The nTeams solution also comes with over 40 hours of virtual team-building exercises that team leaders can use to build up a sense of team values and shared vision. Ideation tools that allow users to role-play situations, quickly prototype virtual items, or facilitate brainstorming. Users can also share documents in nTeams, display over 100 forms of multimedia, edit videos, and alter 3D prototypes in real-time in a secure environment.

more…

Jun 7, 2010

Like so many things in cyberspace, Second Life, a 3-D virtual world, began with a lot of hope–and hype. Who could resist what was promised? Islands full of new friends! A new era of human interaction! Hundreds of retailers opened virtual stores, and Reuters even launched a Second Life news bureau.

Well, the bureau closed early last year, and Linden Lab’s virtual utopia is full of malls selling nothing but pixilated genitalia. But Second Life is hoping to polish up its reputation in the business world by solving virtual reality’s very real problem: the absence of security layers and administrative control functions that would make such an environment a safer place to do business.

Second Life Enterprise, which will launch midyear, is designed to be a virtual meeting space and prototyping tool–except that instead of being out in open cyberspace, where hackers can attack servers and virtual streakers can ruin a presentation, Enterprise is a piece of hardware that allows companies to create a private world behind their own firewall.

The package, which will retail for $55,000, includes 10 customizable business casual-clad virtual workers and support for 700 more, comes installed with an auditorium, two conference rooms and prototyping areas. Businesses can also build their own virtual spaces (hot tub in the break room, anyone?) or import the buildings and spaces they’ve already designed on the public Second Life site. Using VoIP, text chat and document and CAD integration, companies can offer training, lectures, meetings and collaborations without rounding up the troops IRL (in real life).

iClone3/ CrazyTalk5 Bundle

Though it might seem like an expensive employee play land for anyone who hasn’t utilized a virtual workspace, the technology is becoming a necessity for companies with multiple offices, large numbers of telecommuters or scattered vendors. So far the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., has used the beta version of Second Life Enterprise on its secure network for training and to let engineers collaborate remotely. IBM and Northrup Grumman are also experimenting with the technology. A Second Life Work Marketplace lets third-party developers sell business-oriented apps, hairstyles and pantsuits to let companies tweak their virtual worlds.

more…

Apr 11, 2010

Astronomers in two UK-led international collaborations have separately uncovered a type of galaxy that represents a missing link in our understanding of galaxy evolution. Galaxy Zoo, which uses volunteers from the general public to classify galaxies and the Space Telescope A901/902 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES) projects have used their vast datasets to disentangle the roles of “nature” and “nurture” in changing galaxies from one variety to another.

Both studies have identified a population of unusual red spiral galaxies that are setting out on the road to retirement after a lifetime of forming stars. Crucially, nature and nurture appear to play a role in this transformation: both the mass of a galaxy as well as its local environment are important in determining when and how quickly its star formation is shut down. The scientists’ work appears together in a forthcoming edition of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Astronomers place most normal galaxies into two camps according to their visual appearance: either disk-like systems like our own Milky Way, or round, rugby-ball shaped collections of stars known as ellipticals. In most cases, a galaxy’s shape matches its colour: spiral galaxies appear blue because they are still vigorously forming hot young stars. Elliptical galaxies, on the other hand, are mostly old, dead, and red, and tend to cluster together in crowded regions of space.

The Galaxy Zoo team examined the connection between the shapes and colours of over one million galaxies using images from the largest ever survey of the local Universe, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the help of hundreds of thousands of volunteers from the general public. A key ingredient to their success was reliably classifying the appearance of galaxies by actually looking at them, rather than relying on error-prone computer measurements.

Surprisingly, they find that many of the red galaxies in crowded regions are actually spiral galaxies, bucking the trend for red galaxies to be elliptical in shape. These red spiral galaxies may be just the smoking gun astronomers have been looking for.

Dr. Steven Bamford, an STFC postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham, led the Galaxy Zoo study. “In order to have spiral arms, they must have been normal, blue, spiral galaxies up until fairly recently. But for some reason their star formation has been stopped, and they have turned red. Whatever caused them to stop forming stars can’t have been particularly violent, or it would have destroyed the delicate spiral pattern.” The Galaxy Zoo team concludes that a more subtle process must be at work, one that kills off star formation but does not disrupt the overall shape of the galaxy.

While Galaxy Zoo looked at the gross properties of millions of galaxies across a large chunk of sky, the STAGES project took a complementary approach by examining in detail just the sort of neighbourhoods where these transformations are expected to occur. Dr. Christian Wolf, an STFC Advanced Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, trained the Hubble Space Telescope on a region of space crowded with galaxies known as the A901/902 supercluster. Like the Galaxy Zoo team, Dr. Wolf also uncovered a surprisingly large population of spiral galaxies in the supercluster that are red in colour.

So has the star formation in these red spiral galaxies been completely killed off? The answer is no: despite their colour, the red spirals are actually hiding star formation behind a shroud of dust. Invisible to our (or Hubble’s) eye, this star formation is only detectable in the infrared part of the spectrum i.e. radiation emitted from the galaxies at wavelengths longer than visible light.

Dr. Wolf remarks, “For the STAGES galaxies, the Spitzer Space Telescope provided us with additional images at infrared wavelengths. With them, we were able to go further and peer through the dust to find the missing piece of the puzzle”. Within the supercluster, Dr. Wolf discovered that the red spirals were hiding low levels of hidden star formation, despite their otherwise lifeless appearance in visible light.

Putting the observations from both projects together, the picture that emerges is a gentle one: the star formation in blue spiral galaxies is gradually shut off and hidden behind dust, before petering out to form smooth “lenticular” (lens-shaped) red galaxies with no trace of spiral arms. To go further and transform the galaxy into an elliptical would require more violent mechanisms, such as the wholesale collision of galaxies.

Location is key: the red spirals are found primarily on the outskirts of crowded regions of space where galaxies cluster together. As a blue galaxy is drawn in by gravity from the rural regions to the suburbs, an interaction with its environment causes a slow-down in star formation. The closer in a galaxy is, the more it is affected.

But if environment decides where the process occurs, the mass of the galaxy decides how quickly it takes place. Because both STAGES and Galaxy Zoo looked at such large numbers of galaxies, they were able to further subdivide them according to how much they weighed. Sure enough, both groups find that galaxy mass is also important. Professor Bob Nichol of Portsmouth University, a Galaxy Zoo team member, explains: “Just as a heavyweight fighter can withstand a blow that would bring a normal person to his knees; a big galaxy is more resistant to being messed around by its local environment. Therefore, the red spirals that we see tend to be the larger galaxies – presumably because the smaller ones are transformed more quickly.”

Chris Lintott, Galaxy Zoo team leader at the University of Oxford, pays tribute to the role of the general public in the Galaxy Zoo research. “These results are possible thanks to a major scientific contribution from our many volunteer armchair astronomers. No group of professionals could have classified this many galaxies alone.”

Meghan Gray, STFC Advanced Fellow at the University of Nottingham and leader of the STAGES survey, comments on the agreement of the two projects on the role of environment and mass: “Our two projects have approached the problem from very different directions, and it is gratifying to see that we each provide independent pieces of the puzzle pointing to the same conclusion.”

The next step for both teams is to find out exactly what shuts off the star formation, by looking inside the galaxies themselves. One suspect behind the slow demise of galaxies is a process known as strangulation, in which a galaxy’s fuel supply is stripped away as it encounters the crowd. Starved of the raw material needed to form new stars, it will slowly change colour from blue to red as its existing stars age.

The STAGES team’s findings on the properties of red spiral galaxies will appear online on November 25 2008 at http://arxiv.org/list/astro-ph/new.
The Galaxy Zoo results are available online at http://arxiv.org/abs/0805.2612.

Image

A composite of images from the two surveys (click for high resolution version):

About this image

These images of three galaxies from the Galaxy Zoo (top) and STAGES surveys (bottom) show examples of how the newly discovered population of red spiral galaxies on the outskirts of crowded regions in the Universe may be a missing link in our understanding of galaxy evolution.

At left, both surveys find examples of normal spiral galaxies displaying all the hallmarks of youth: blue in colour, they are disk-like in structure. The obvious spiral arms host knotty structures where large numbers of hot young stars are being born.

On the right are examples of typical rounded balls of stars known as elliptical galaxies. The reddish colour indicates that their stars are mostly old. With no gas left to use as fuel to form any more, they are old, dead and red

In the centre are examples of the new “red spiral” galaxy found in large numbers by both the STAGES and Galaxy Zoo collaborations. While still disk-like and recognizably spiral in shape, their spiral arms are smoother. Furthermore, their colour is as red as the ellipticals. Astronomers from both teams believe these red spirals are objects in transition, where star formation has been shut off by interactions with the environment.

STAGES image credit: Marco Barden, Christian Wolf, Meghan Gray, the STAGES survey
STAGES image from Hubble Space Telescope, colour from COMBO-17 survey
Galaxy Zoo image credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Mar 30, 2010

Microsoft Corp. today brightens your video calls with TrueColor Technology, a groundbreaking new image processing technology that provides superior color and brightness in even the worst lighting conditions. TrueColor Technology automatically adjusts the picture quality to provide a more colorful video whether out on the porch with bright sunshine in the morning or in the living room with low light in the evening. This technology will be available in three new webcams launching today, the LifeCam HD-5000, LifeCam HD-5001 and LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks. These LifeCams will also feature 720p HD sensors and Auto Focus technology at a value price. In addition, TrueColor will be available with the recently launched LifeCam Cinema through a software update.

LifeCam HD-5000 Click for high-res version

“Color quality and brightness are critical aspects of video calls. Through our research we know that a large number of video calls are held in either low light conditions or uneven lighting, and these are challenging situations for any webcam and represent a common pain point for webcam users,” said Daniel Anguiano, product marketing manager for Microsoft Hardware. “Our engineers at Microsoft Hardware created TrueColor Technology to improve the video experience, combining software and firmware to help people look bright and natural in virtually any lighting situation.”

True Colors Shining Through

Microsoft’s new image processing technology analyzes the user’s environment and automatically adjusts the LifeCam settings to provide brighter and more colorful video. It does this through a carefully designed proprietary combination of software and firmware technology to deliver a great experience. To achieve these results, TrueColor Technology includes face tracking technology developed by Microsoft Research, which can detect a person’s face and help ensure it’s not overexposed or underexposed, so the video call picture looks great even in the most challenging lighting scenarios.

LifeCam HD-5000

Launching with Microsoft’s new TrueColor Technology, the LifeCam HD-5000 offers best-in-class video quality in most lighting scenarios and is the only webcam on the market to offer 720p HD widescreen video and Auto Focus for an estimated retail price under $50.¹ The LifeCam HD-5000 also features a flexible attachment base that bends to fit on most surfaces, including on top of flat-screen monitors and notebook screens, or directly on the desk, so people can use it at home on the desktop or with their notebook while on the road.

Best Buy will launch an exclusive version of this product, called the LifeCam HD-5001, that includes all the same great features as the LifeCam HD-5000, but will have a custom design with a white faceplate.

LifeCam HD-5001 Click for high-res version

LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks

Also launching today is the LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks, which includes TrueColor Technology, 720p HD widescreen video, Auto Focus and a design just for notebooks. The LifeCam HD-6000 features a 360-degree rotation view so people can point the webcam in any direction to share more with friends and family. With a compact design, short three-foot cord and carrying case, the LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks is the perfect webcam for sharing life on the go.

Pricing and Availability

The LifeCam HD-5000 and the LifeCam HD-5001 will be available later this month for the estimated retail price of $49.95² and the LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks will be available in May for the estimated retail price of $59.95.² The LifeCam HD-5000 and LifeCam HD-6000 for Notebooks will be available for pre-sale on Amazon.com and Buy.com starting today. TrueColor Technology will be available via a software download for LifeCam Cinema, which is already broadly available at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/downloads/default.mspx.

LifeCam HD-6000 Click for high-res version.

Microsoft backs these products with a worldwide three-year limited hardware warranty. More information about these and other Microsoft Hardware products can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware.

About Microsoft Hardware

For more than 27 years, the Hardware Group has employed innovative engineering, cutting-edge industrial design and extensive usability testing to create products of exceptional quality and durability that enhance the software experience and strengthen the connection between consumers and their PC. Microsoft Hardware leads the industry in ergonomic engineering, industrial design and hardware/software compatibility, offering consumers an easier, more convenient and more enjoyable computing experience. More information about Microsoft Hardware is available at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware and http://www.microsofthardwareblog.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

¹ Based on estimated or suggested current webcam products commercially available as of March 2010

² Estimated retail price. Actual retail prices may vary.

Mar 13, 2010

In real life the Buddy Walk is a one-mile walk raising awareness and collecting pledges to benefit Down Syndrome. In Second Life it will be a bit different, there will be a path to walk, but the main festivities will be the all day entertainment. There will be live singers and live DJs throughout the day. Kiosks will be available throughout the venue where donations will be collected. All funds collected will go directly to NDSS (National Down Syndrome Society).

Scheduled to appear are: AMFORTE Clarity [live singer], Sylar Morrisey [live singer], DJ Splash Kidd,  Phemie Alcott [live singer], DJ JL, DJ ETC, more to be added soon! Festivities start at 1:30p slt.

This year the walk will be held on March 21, which is also World Down Syndrome day. The date was picked because individuals with Down syndrome have 3 copies of the 21st gene.

Feb 22, 2010

LifeBook P1000 notebook Touch screen notebook PC in the smallest available form factor. Efficient in design and on the budget.

Store will feature Ice-T merchandise plus custom apparel from celebrity wife Coco

IMVU Inc. (www.imvu.com), an avatar-based social network and virtual world where people meet and interact in 3D, today announced the

launch of a co-branded storefront featuring custom-designed 3D virtual goods from Grammy Award winning rapper, actor and author Ice-T, as well as a special selection of apparel and lingerie from his wife, celebrity model and actress Coco.

LifeBook N Series Notebook This all-in-one notebook is performance driven. Its unique MVA screen offers wide viewing angles and displays richly colored 3-D graphics that will immerse any gamer in the on-screen action. The LifeBook N Series notebook is built to handle anything, from the mundane to the mesmerizing.

The Ice-T and Coco store is located at http://www.imvu.com/shop/icet_coco. On the left side of the store IMVU members will find virtual goods that reflect the Ice-T urban lifestyle and brand, including Ice-T branded t-shirts, hats and even virtual weapons such as bazookas, rocket launchers, nunchakus and more. The right side of the store features a specialty line of women’s apparel products designed by Coco. IMVU members can buy these items for their avatars and wear them when interacting with other members in IMVU’s 3D animated scenes.

“We love Ice-T and Coco because they are fun and fearless entertainers. Their branded merchandise will be a great addition for IMVU members,” said Jeff Titterton, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at IMVU. “We are excited about this partnership and look forward to working with Ice-T and Coco to add more items to the store each month.”

“Coco and I are excited to be working with IMVU on this project,” said Ice-T. “It’s cool how the avatars can use or wear the 3D products we created in IMVU’s animated rooms. It’s a whole new way to interact with people.”

Feb 22, 2010

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, IMVU Inc., an avatar-based social network and virtual world where people meet and interact in 3D, today announced that the company has partnered with Zoosk, one of the world’s largest and fastest growing online dating services, to bring the popular dating service to IMVU. The two partners have integrated Zoosk into the IMVU Web site, making it easy for adult singles who are IMVU members to join Zoosk.

“The majority of IMVU members are over 18 – in fact, the average age is 22 – and we wanted to partner with a leading dating service to give them a way to meet people offline,” said Kevin Dasch, VP of Finance and Business Development. “Our partnership with Zoosk affords both companies the opportunity to grow our membership bases and to increase the range of service we provide to our adults; however, we will not expose the dating service to our teen members.”

To join the Zoosk service within IMVU, members age 18 and over will simply click the “Dating” link under the Community tab. From there, they will follow the step-by-step instructions to create an account.

“IMVU is an excellent candidate for us to partner with, given that IMVU members already socialize and get to know new people in a fun and entertaining setting,” said Jeff Titterton, VP of Marketing at Zoosk. “Zoosk gives IMVU adult members the opportunity to scan our online database of more than 50 million singles around the world to develop friendships and relationships.”

About IMVU

IMVU Inc. (www.imvu.com) is an avatar-based social network and virtual world where people meet and interact in 3D. IMVU has reached 40 million registered users, 6 million unique visitors per month and a $25 million revenue run rate. IMVU has the world’s largest virtual goods catalog of more than 3 million items, almost all of which are created by its own members. Founded in 2004, IMVU is backed by venture investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, Bridgescale Partners and Best Buy Capital and is located in Palo Alto, CA.

Feb 21, 2010

IMVU Inc., an avatar-based social network and virtual world where people meet and interact in 3D, today announced the launch of a virtual branded storefront for clothing retailer Charlotte Russe, a growing, mall-based specialty retailer of fashionable, value-priced apparel and accessories. Charlotte Russe has teamed up with IMVU to provide IMVU’s registered members with the ability to purchase virtual Charlotte Russe clothing and accessories that they can use to outfit their IMVU avatars. Members can also link directly to Charlotte Russe online product pages to buy real clothing items.

“This exciting partnership marks the first time Charlotte Russe has partnered with a virtual world to extend our brand beyond our online store and the walls of our retail locations,” said Craig Gillan, Director of eCommerce for Charlotte Russe. “IMVU’s largely female audience and fun environment matches perfectly with our target customer and we think of this partnership as a win-win for both brands.”

Charlotte Russe largely targets young women in their teens and twenties. Currently, 70% of IMVU customers are female and 75% of those women fit into the brand’s target age demographic. IMVU customers will be able to purchase and wear this season’s hottest skinny jeans, a glamorous sequined wallet, or one of a dozen other items from Charlotte Russe’s current catalog.

“As we continue to grow our audience base, IMVU is working to expand its catalog of digital goods with many of the leading brands in the fashion and entertainment worlds,” said Kevin Dasch, IMVU’s Vice President of Finance and Business Development. “Charlotte Russe is a terrific partner for IMVU.”

Feb 12, 2010

Bliss Couture proudly presents its Lovers Hunt beginning February 8th! This will be the first Bliss Couture couples hunt that will feature items for males as well as female hunters. During this Valentine month what better way to spend time with your loved one than by participating in a couples hunt? Amutey Decuir, Owner of Bliss Couture, will not only have this fabulous hunt from February 8th through the 21st, she will also have a gorgeous Valentine gift for members only. The members only February Valentine’s dress is a dazzling short dress and definitely a gift that your significant other would love to see you in. In order to receive this very generous group gift you must join the in-world Bliss Couture group, so what are you waiting for, go ahead and join now!

Bliss Couture Lover's Hunt and Falling Into Bliss Fashion Show! Valentine Gift

February may be the shortest month but it will also be a very busy month at the Bliss Couture sim. February 13th at 11AM SLT Bliss Couture will have a Valentine’s Themed Fashion Show, “Fallin’ Into Bliss,” that will feature Bliss Couture’s most romantic gowns. This will also be the first fashion show in which Miss Bliss 2010 winner Melanie Sautereau will be representing as the Face of the Bliss Couture brand. Jewelry featured during the fashion show will all be from Virtual Impressions, created by Chrissy Ambrose. Amutey Decuir has a keen sense of style and she keeps giving us a glimpse of what is inside that creative mind of hers with each new fashion piece she brings our way. Each design is uniquely crafted with immaculate detailing, luxurious fabrics, and beautiful bold colors that are sleek and stylish enough to make every woman feel sexy. The bold use of color leaves a footprint in your mind of the outfit you have just seen and really makes the detailed design work stand out. So go ahead, embrace your inner Goddess and reward her with a beautiful Bliss gown. Be gorgeous, gracious, feel like a Goddess…in Bliss

*We ask that those of you who will attend the fashion show try to arrive thirty minutes early in order to be sure to secure a seat. Please help our models to have as much of a lag free show as possible by turning off your ao’s and being seated upon your arrival.

For more information regarding Bliss Couture, please contact Caymon Zhora-Manager. Media wanting to interview or setup appointment with Amutey please contact Annette Wilder-Wilder Public Relations Firm Inc™ Owner.

Date: February 8, 2010
Venue: Gown
Slurl: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gown/147/163/295

Bliss Couture blog:
http://bliss-couture.blogspot.com

Feb 12, 2010

This week Wilder Public Relations prepares to bid farewell to our client Potnia Theas, and residents grid-wide prepare to see the end of one of the most innovative and creative brands in Second Life. Ora Trei Designs will close its doors Wednesday, February 17, 2010. Until then, Potnia has placed everything in the main store at a price of $L100 or less as a thank you to her customers. We hope you’ll visit her fabulous sim one last time to show her your support and to say goodbye.

Ora Trei Designs Going out of Business Sale!

Potnia Theas has accomplished much during her time in Second Life. She was introduced to this virtual world via a real-life friend and almost immediately set out to make something of herself. After acquainting herself with the platform and learning about the many different facets that make it so versatile, Potnia made her first foray into fashion with the clothing line “Urban Funeral”. With its unique urban gothic and Harajuku styled designs, Urban Funeral brought Potnia her first taste of success. During this time, Potnia also completed her associate’s degree in real life. Riding high on successes in both lives, Potnia decided to challenge herself to creating a more couture SL label.

Potnia Theas has accomplished much during her time in Second Life

Thus, in February of 2009, Ora Trei Designs was born. Since then, Potnia has worked tirelessly to provide residents of Second Life with stunning, cutting edge designs in a wide array of styles and themes. There is something for everyone at Ora Trei, and Potnia, along with her executive director Kat Msarko, have made the service and satisfaction of their customers top priority. With a special VIP section with discounted fashions, weekly gifts for group members, and sales and hunts, Ora Trei’s loyal consumer base has been well tended. Potnia acknowledges that it is her supporters that make her a success, and that the consideration she gives them serves to enrich her designs. Ora Trei is Romanian for 3 O’clock, and Potnia has described this as a reference to time and trinity and relates it to the traits of perseverance, practice, and patience, which she rates highly.Her work is the embodiment of these traits and her attention to them has clearly paid off, as evidenced by the many awards and honors Potnia has received in her short career.

Ever wondered how you would select objects in second life, lampshades, drinks and other items.

Here is an invaluable tutorial giving you the low down on selecting things in second life.

How to select objects from Torley on Vimeo.