Experience Dublin: Second Life Style

After all this time, it's hard to believe I've never tried Second Life. Second Life (SL) is a virtual world where you can take on a 3D avatar and wander a totally virtual world... but it's even harder to believe that even some techy people still ask what Second Life is. I bit the bullet last week, and have now logged in about 40 minutes of time, and its my current favourite thing. After my honeymoon in Dublin this summer, I've found and connected to a virtual Dublin, and I'm loving it.

(Click here to view the larger image)

I work at a post-secondary institution and I'm interested in Linden Labs' work on the Second Life Grid and how it can be used in academia. I'll be attending a workshop on SL on Dec 2 and I'm interested in seeing how its being used here in Canada, and I want to see if there is any potential for me to be involved in an SL project here in the future. I was trying to find some information on the speaker, but due to an mis-spelled Google Search, I ended up at a blog entry by Dan Power. Dan writes about his experiences setting a virtual Iowa and has even included a PowerPoint presentation he's put together. As a warning, the online slides he's using won't view very well unless you're using Internet Explorer.

A virtual world like Second Life has a wide variety of uses, and many universities are taking part in areas ranging from course delivery to recruitment. The question is how it can be adapted for my specific needs. And that is a question I would *love* to investigate.

3D collection of proteins and other molecules

A friend just directed me to this link discussing the usefulness of Proteopedia, a Wiki that collects interactive, 3D models of molecules, proteins.

This picture, by the way, is taken from the JMOL site, which is the interactive, 3D molecular visualizer used on Proteopedia... and OpenSource! Ooo... I'm getting ideas... yay!

We got on this discussion because we were discussing the creation of our own 3D viewing system (possibly using shutter glasses, that sort of thing).

Hmm, I'll have to get a picture of me in my VR helmet and post it on here. Garage VR was a favourite topic of mine back in the 90's and maybe I can dust of some old ideas and post them here. What was old is new again as they say!