Rebecca Zook of Mashable penned a curious article, “Why Computer Engineer Barbie is Good for Women in Tech.” Curious, because she proceeds to explain why she feels Engineer Barbies are good for us. How they somehow open our eyes and minds to being more tolerant of women in Engineering. And while her claim makes a compelling sound byte, her view is rather… anachronistic.
Mar
10
Wednesday
Newsflash:
- The term, "ageplay" has become synonymous with a form of BDSM role play where one individual (usually a sub) dons all aspects of a child (i.e., dress, demeanor, behavior) and the other (usually a dom) dons all aspects of an adult. This, however was not always the case. To better understand why there is such [...]
- Sadly, people can be so gullible sometimes. Then again, as long as mankind has existed, we have looked for god, the fountain of youth, and riches. Though not necessarily in that order. A silicon god that promises life everlasting is nothing more than a rose by any other name. The age-old addage, caveat emptor, comes to mind here. Or otherwise put, be careful what you wish for, or you too, can be inducted into the Church of Singularity.
- By May 2008, other real life concerns began to make themselves apparent. Specifically in the form of U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, who created his own avie to hunt for the “rape rooms” described in the UK investigative video, and then, upon finding them, authored a proposed bill to restrict access to Second Life (and other social networking sites) from public schools and libraries.
- I had planned to play code warrior today. Alas, said plans were quickly derailed. And instead, I ended up installing WordPress and setting up what will probably be a mostly empty blog. Because…. interestingly (or perhaps, not so), a rather curious title appeared in my SL feeds: Linden Giving Away MOTD Space?
Little Barbie Girls
Resident Roundtable with M Linden
On January 3, Linden Lab CEO, M Linden (Mark Kingdon), posted the blog post, “Happy New Year! Looking Back…Looking Ahead” outlining his vision for Second Life’s future over the next decade, with a follow up question, “What do you envision for SL in 2010 and over the next decade?.” In response to reader comments, he posted another blog post, “Responding to Your Feedback…,” promising to meet with residents in an “Office Hour” like setting in the weeks to come. This is but the first of those meetings which was close to an hour long. Unfortunately, the file is too big for youtube, so we’ve decided to publish this in podcast format. The text chat transcript can be found below the cut.
NB: For those still waiting for your invite, be sure to have voice enabled so that you can hear what M Linden has to say.
Winds of Change
A little over a week ago, Linden Lab’s new “Communications Manager,” Wallace Linden, penned a blog post titled, “Will the real you please stand up.” The resulting firestorm that followed was not particularly surprising. After all, the title and the first paragraph told people all they needed to know: that the lab planned to move toward compulsory RL identities.
One possible future
As with all new year traditions, there are plenty of predictions regarding the upcoming year. Whether or not they come to fruition, the job market is actually looking up. So that will definitely play a role in how the year unfolds. And this will be especially so in virtual worlds.
