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Sofabook, Machinama Music

Starship Sofa Aural Delights has hit its 100th episode, and to celebrate they have released Starship Sofa Stories, Volume 1. Some of the authors include Elizabeth Bear, Michael Bishop, Ken MacLeod, Alastair Reynolds, and Spider Robinson, and all of these tales were featured as a radio play or reading in an Aural Delights episode. You can download it here, or you can use a widget for online access.

When I go hang out in a virtual environment, I often listen to music and go dancing. One of my favorite bands to party with is Australia’s Space Junky, 3 world-class musicians who play a wide range of music. Drop by Space Junky Island the next time you are in Second Life, and meanwhile here are a few tunes to listen to until then.

Glasshouse for VR

Graphing real-world data in real time in a 3D virtual world… that is what Glasshouse is all about, and it is pretty amazing. It works in environments like Second Life, or as a stand-alone using the Sun Java JRE6 or JDK6. You can read a good interview and watch some video demo’s over at Maxping, and if you have Java installed try out the Applet environment. This is an excellent tool for making complex arrays of data visually comprehensible, such as genomic progressions, biochemical reactions, or N-body gravity interactions.

Music and Who

Yesterday I embedded a song by MC Lars; today I got word that it (meaning that very song) is up on the list of this years Hottest 100 Songs of All Time over at TripleJ. You should take a look at all the nominees, and put in a vote for your favorites; there are so many great ones on the list! On the Who front, IO9 has a quality spoiler for the next Dr Who Special, specifically about the guest stars expected. DVD Times has a review of the first special released to disk (basically saying save your money for the box set). And the Gallifreyan Embassy has posted details about their Second Life virtual meetings, including the data you need to find your way there. If you make the meeting, don’t forget to put on your Tardis Hud.

SF Online World Building, Singing

Building and singing… the world does both. Here are two excellent examples.

Scalzi, Hayden, and Bucknell took part in a panel, recorded and now online, called A Study in Online Community Building, all about how to create the future of publishing in an online world. I expect you will enjoy this, but I hope you will learn from it as well. I certainly learned a bit, and thanks to Brenda Cooper for the link. And then the Stand By Me World Cover, courtesy of Zadi and by way of Gizmodo. Thanks, gang!


Playing For Change | Song Around The World “Stand By Me” from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

2ndLife SF, Wolfram Alpha

March is SciFi Month in Second Life this year, and one of the activities is a themed photo contest. I found a list of 7 Locations for your photo shoot over at The Examiner, which included a few favorites and a few new ones. I should probably put together a fresh list of my favorites to post here; there are a ton of them! While the name sounds like the IT department of the evil Lawyers company in Angel, Wolfram Alpha is something else, as Fast Company reports. A computer program that actually answers the question you ask, rather than throwing a bunch of links onto a page. Good to know some people are still inventing the future in interesting ways.