Now I can land as opposed to crash when I stop flying. If that doesn’t show progress in Second Life, I don’t know what does. I also got a date. Those are the highlights of my time spent in Second Life.

Initially I was overwhelmed by Second Life. There was so much going on at once, it took me a long time to realize that people were instant messaging me as well as chatting. Trying to fly, chat, and take in my surroundings took a while to get accustomed to.  Switching between the many dialogue boxes proved tricky at first, as did manipulation of various camera angles. Managing my inventory took a while to understand, but I’m getting it now. The freedom in the game is very cool.

With more time spent in the SL world, I would like to explore the design capabilities. Just for fun, without knowing what I was doing, I clicked “create object” and proceeded to click randomly and move my mouse a lot, and I ended up creating a shape which was neat, except for the fact that it didn’t do anything. It appears that mastery of design takes a lot of time and patience. I found this clip of the creation of a guitar in Second Life

Some cool places I came across while exploring Second Life are:

• Freebie Warehouse [Burns 72, 166, 96]
• Parrot Island (water park) [Parrot Head Island 160, 151, 49]
• The Matrix [Shinda [72, 19, 39]

At the Freebie Warehouse you can get almost anything for free. Cars, textures, guns, food, drink; the list goes on and on. The only downside I’ve found is that your inventory gets pretty overcrowded.

 [me and a plane that I got from freebie warehouse]

Parrot Island has a big swimming pool with interactive options. You can go down the water slides (which are fun) sunbathe, mud wrestle,  or just swim around. One of the animations I got from Freebie Warehouse allowed me to do various swim strokes.

The Matrix has movie theatres that show streaming videos. I watched part of Hitchcock’s Psycho, and some music videos.

 [me chillen in the matrix about to watch a movie]

I had fun exploring SL and it seems that I’ve only scratched the surface. I could see how people spend a large part of their lives in the virtual world. 

-till next time

Wikipedia provides the following definition of military-industrial complex (MIC). “The term MIC refers to a close and symbiotic relationship between a nation's armed forces, its arms industry, and associated political and commercial interests.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military-industrial_complex)

It seems that the term military-industrial complex was coined by former president Eisenhower in his farewell address to the nation in January of 1961. The origin of the phrase came in the form of a warning to the American people.

The idea of interaction between military and industry was certainly not a new concept when Eisenhower first coined the term in 1961. Such correlations were present in Britain and France in the late 1800’s and soon spread to Germany, Japan, and the U.S.

            Especially in today’s world with a myriad of new technology, and volatile atmosphere, MIC will be a major concern. The concept of MIC has changed over the past 40 years, and is modified as warfare evolves. In recent conflicts, many argue that a new military-industrial complex has arisen. The power that such complexes receive should be closely monitored. Eisenhower may have been on to something back in 61...

Here is an interesting article from the Wolrd Policy Journal on the Military-Industrial Complex

            Continuing on with my personal interest in extreme sports, one thing I’ve always wanted to do was go kite boarding. For those of you who don’t know, kite boarding (also known as kite surfing) is kind of like snow boarding except that you are on ocean waves and are being towed by a giant kite, at the mercy of the wind. It’s a fairly new extreme sport, but it’s becoming quite popular. 

            Ever since my friends and I tried to build a kite suitable for kite boarding out of pvc and plastic our junior year of high school, I’ve always wanted to know a) how to build a kite and kite board b) how to properly use them. [On a side note, after having little success getting our kite airborne, we resorted to vehicular power, and took turns getting towed behind a truck on our roller board in a field across my house.]

            So… of course I turned to the World Wide Web to quench my thirst of kite board knowledge. After a little “surfing” (through Google of course) I found an in-depth site dedicated to kite boarding and kite surfing. http://kitesurfingschool.org  This site runs through “the basic how to,” “design techniques”, and “advanced stunts.” Under “kite design essentials” were links to NASA websites on lift, and drag and other concepts of physics that I probably once learned but forgot. Now all I need to do is find some money and get to the ocean.

            By the way I’m pretty sure you can find <emphasis> anything </emphasis> on the web.

           I haven’t finalized my decision for my final web design project as of yet. I still can't seem to get the whole monkey-controls-robotic-arm concept out of my head. I think robotics is a very important field that will have long lasting effects on society in the years to come. A web project dedicated to an in-depth look at robotic technology with a focus on brain chip implant for remote control is one option I’m considering. Tying in the ethics side of this controversial issue would be an interesting addition to the site as well.

            Given my background in sports, I began thinking what affects the Singularity, the Flattening world, and other “new communication” topics might have on athletics. Issues such as gene therapy and artificial enhancement could have profound effects on the wide world of sports we have grown to know and love.  If the steroid panic in baseball was bad, we could be in for much greater issues with some technologies currently being developed (or at least being thought of). Nanotechnology ties right in to this area of technological debate, therefore it seems obvious that a discussion of sports and nanotechnology would be somewhere in the web site.  

            A final idea I had was to create a webpage dedicated to metadata. As we learned from Jeremy, Metadata is used across multiple fields ranging from libraries to Google. I think a site covering the topic of metadata would prove practical because a) many people are unaware of the term itself and its potential, and b) proper use of metadata and “tagging” could in reality make day to day life much easier. (Recall the “metacrap” article we looked at in class) If only there were cyber tag police or something...Granted metadata isn’t nearly as cool as a robotic arm controlled by an ape (sorry Jeremy) but a web page devoted to metadata could be interesting. 
         So I've got some options. What'll it be? I'll get back to you on that one.

           Quite frankly this chapter from Friedman’s new book took me by surprise. I’ve heard of outsourcing before, and even dropped words like globalization and global economy in everyday conversations, but I had never really stopped to think much of it. Reading the chapter from The World is Flat made me think twice about the future and what outsourcing may do to it.

            I don’t think that there is a way to escape outsourcing as it were. Many jobs are prone, if not destined to outsourcing. The capitalistic machine marches on, and the cheaper, faster method will prevail. As Friedman points out, that method is often achieved via outsourcing.

            But at the same time, outsourcing isn’t a destructive black hole that we are all being inescapably drawn to. Outsourcing can be a good thing (Jet Blue reservations). Some things can't be outsourced; their very nature prevents it. (As I mentioned, guiding someone down a white water rafting adventure is one thing that is not likely to be outsourced anytime soon). Outsourcing may redefine certain jobs in the near future, but for many other jobs there is some face to face interaction that is integral to the service of good being provided.

            Focus may then shift to the value of the job performed. That is to say, “what can you do that someone in India cannot?” As Friedman suggests, in the realm of accounting, customer interaction is one such thing. Numbers may be crunched in Bangladesh but customer comfort and satisfaction can still be delivered in the United States. A shift in focus to the value of the job performed combined with the perspective of whom it is directed can help combat the scary O-word.