I could watch this for hours.

http://i.imgur.com/9XCX8.gif 

A very moving article.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/bluecollaratheist/2011/09/25/thank-you-mr-darwin-again/

WOOOOO PARTY. <3 Turing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing_Year

I could spend a lot on this shop.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Justonescarf

This is truly amazing. I wish I could give them enough to get over their funding limit, but alas. I hope they can get funded.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/primerist/code-hero-a-game-that-teaches-you-to-make-games-he

Hack the planet!

http://yoisthisracist.com/

I laughed and learned.

http://superpunch.blogspot.com/2012/01/illustration-roundup_16.html

The Mythbusters / Dexter’s Lab crossover is just brilliant.

http://madartlab.com/2011/12/14/fantasy-armor-and-lady-bits/

Really interesting, but yeah obvious.

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-incredible-sunken-ships?image=5

This image seriously activates my underwater phobia.

http://rosalarian.tumblr.com/post/2325861377/dressed-to-kill

Wondermark’s amusing all purpose greeting card:

http://wondermark.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/x9v-big.jpg

The awesome new design for XO-3.0 (WANT):

http://design-milk.com/one-laptop-per-child-unveils xo-3-0-tablet-designed-by-yves-behar/

So I’ve been playing in Second Life a bit lately again, and I’ve decided to revisit my Munje project. Below is a stream of consciousness unedited, so it’s a bit rambly.

Munje is basically a thin virtual world server which you can run on any device, and a relatively thin agregator system, with a viewer which connects to the agregator and allows you to interact with the world. It’s sort of like a 3d MOO, sort of like Second Life, sort of like a gibsonian cyberspace environment. The key bit, though, is that it is thin enough to run on any computer, server or device to provide an interactive environment that is not much more heavy than a shell session.

I’m much older since the last time I dug this stuff up, and so my view has radically changed as to how this must work. I realize now that the platform is the important bit, the API. I realize that while Second Life is really amazing, and a pretty cool platform, it’s also extremely limited because it implements the world as a sort of self contained game world, not as an environment. All apps are contained within the world, and integration with ‘outside’ is very spare. 

Munje must be a defined platform, with an API. Not a heavy system like a sort of X windows for 3d, but an environment for interaction, light on the browser side, light on the server side, with the power coming from the apps written below them. Providing a local API so that the practicality of things like server management, data visualization and every day usage is very high, with no emphasis on game, world-like realism, or any of that. This is truly the Metaverse, a cyberspace environment.

How this should work 

Multi-layering. A viewer/browser which contains a local virtual world server in it. Applications can expose interfaces to the server as a stream of bidirectional commands. The viewer provides an API for local applications to expose VR interfaces. Applications like terminal programs, browser surfaces, etc could be provided. Could act as an X window manager to also seamlessly integrate X apps. A protocol stack exists to ‘stitch’ remote VR servers into the local one. They may also be stitched multiple remote resources. This provides a continuous bidirectional environment. Remote viewers could enter the local computer through the stitchings if allowed. The browser can handle rendering any way it wants. Generally it would recieve a geometry list with meshes, textures, CSG/parametric objects and cache them in a local file, letting the user interact with them. Each object would be composed of a set of such items, and would have a home address so that updates and interactions would be subscribed to. For example, if an application has a cube which changes color based on server load, the browser could subscribe to the updates at which point any time an active connection exists to the object, it would transmit updates to any subscribed clients. Intermediate VR servers/reflectors could aggregate this to reduce origin load.

I suppose that servers could provide static geometry / internally scripted objects as easily as API-based objects. Should probably have some sort of pull method of grabbing large files like complex non-parametric geometry and textures (HTTP) so that browser-caching etc. would work exactly like web browsing. 

The viewer protocol would need to support a sort of game-like connection to a server. The servers would handle interserver comms, caching, etc. Similar to how an IRC channel exists on multiple servers simultaneously, the virtual environment would be stitched from many confederated servers, all passing events around. We could support non-confederated operation as easily, simply point your viewer at the server and it works. Confederation vs. nonconfederation just a matter of stitching.

Mind buffers only moments thoughts buffet concept buffet all you can eat what a treat to sidle up and snack but it’s pretty whack what flows through like blood in a flood of points bright and shining like stars above my head warm sweet bread organ meat squishy home of my I the only Eye with which I see.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of my own mama chao, rusnov.net is now a superkeen cyberpunk crazytown, awesome! The classic rusnov.net posts will return eventually but for now it’s all my tumblr posts because I moved to tumblr. Coming soon, project pages and cool animated widgets.