Skype opens its platform to the web

I've been waiting for EVER for an open instant messaging platform. So one could create multiplayer games, etc. I wonder if this will be the one.

Moose Crossing -- kids + muds + programming

This project seems related to my "mudcasting" idea I posted a few days ago. Here kids are learning to read and write and create new worlds via a "mud". Looks very interesting.

Pandora's box of music

You think you've heard it all - I mean after all you've been collecting music for quite some time right? Well, while I usually just listen to streaming audio, and this site is amazing. Imagine having a friend with 300,000 songs and knows each of them intimately. You just tell that person a song you like, and they begin to play songs in a similar style. You can even teach it to fine tune your preferences... Basically it's a dynamically created radio station - based on your preferences. And you can create as many different stations as you like.

Needless to say - I like!!

A Scanner Darkly

This movie trailer looks pretty interesting -- imagine matrix meets cell shading animation. Very odd but worth seeing.

What's after podcasting? Mudcasting?

I'm a big fan of games and gaming. I think that sites like Flickr have been successful because they are aware of gaming concepts and how making a site "gamelike" draws people in and keeps them coming back. Social sites are only so "social" in terms of finding and making friends. You have to actually have something to do once you have all those friends and connections. This is why I think that something is coming next -- perhaps not the very "next" thing, but that there will be someone who learns that if you combine social "software" (think social site?) with gaming concepts (like MUDS) you will get something very cool. Imagine if instead of a typical fantasy setting that most MUDs are set in, you had a world where your RSS feeds, podcasts, blogs, images, music, etc etc were not only available for you to share and browse, but you could actually create new things out of these and other basic elements. Imagine if a friend created a simple "golem" which when coming in contact with you could read to you a message/song that someone else assigned it to send you. You might then clone the "golem" and modify it so that it would return the email, but also find along the way some RSS feeds that were relevant.

Imagine if you could combine the aspects of social sites with game concepts like MUDs or Second Life. This would also incorporate my earlier idea of socially constructed interfaces. Someone creates a great UI for a music player. Via the "MUD" you encounter this player and clone it for yourself and place it at your "house". Others come by the public area of your "house" and take notice of the player as well -- perhaps making new copies. You might also have the concept of "subscribing" to an object. Folks may really like your little creations and instead of cloning them, they "subscribe" to your message golem. Every time they go touse it, it's the upgraded, new version that you may have just released.

Mark my words. Crazy as it sounds. MUDS?! Strip away the fantasy / sci fi veneer, add some RSS, XML, Ajax, or whathaveyou. Add the ability to share, create, subscribe to "objects" and you'll have something very very interesting.

I've seen another aspect of this. My 7yr old daughter plays a game called "Virtual Magic Kingdom". A free disney game which allows you to play the role of a kid who's wandering around the Disney themepark. You can create your own "rooms" which have items like chairs, teleporters, gumball machines, etc. What is amazing to me is that she and others in the game are creating "emergent games". Meaning they will take two gumball machines, place them in a room with some ropes to create paths, then run a simple game where two people run down the path to get a gumball, and run back -- as a race. Even in this limited world - the kids are creating things that are "emergent" -- not what they were orginally intended to be (just decorations) but new objects and games not before predicted. Imagine if they had a place where they could create more adaptable things and be able to build on each other's work. Like a virtual Lego set meets avatars meets BASIC/LOGO.

Sure, go ahead and call me goofball. I am seeing this in other places too. I was toying around in Half-Life 2 - with some online worlds that people are creating. They are using the MOD-ing system to create amazing objects - in game.

So... imagine if you went one step further and set up your own little world. Perhaps there will be some easy to learn language, or some drag and drop builder that lets you create internet enabled "things" that have properties like color, or URL access. You combine these together in interesting ways and "publish" them on a site. Folks come in and toy around with your stuff -- further evolving them or offering suggestions. Imagine like a seti@home style system, only peer to peer. It would be incredibly addicting. You log in -- see all of your creation's status - get updates from your smart objects - talk to other people - tweak your subscriptions - read your object creation requests.

Ok, enough ranting for now. If anyone is reading this and is in some way moved to comment, please let me know.

Photofeed: photo podcasting

Simple idea - use rss for images just like podcasting uses it for sound.

Land of Legends has gone gold!

Land of Legends is a great game - similar in a way to a fantasy-themed Advance Wars. This game is great fun and I heartily recommend you give it a try, especially since it's gone gold.

Maelstrom Experiments

It's hard not to be excited about Flash 8. Here's some nifty flash 8 demos.

JSAN - the Javascript Archive Network

If you know about CPAN - which allows you to install packages from a trusted source - for code reuse, you'll understand a bit about what JSAN is all about. From the site:

What do the JavaScript people think of this?

People seem to fall into two camps. The first are people who consider themselves programmers or application developers. They like JSAN because it allows you to develop in an application style. Thinking about modular components is important in software design. The second group of people consider JavaScript a scripting language, something you write small things in. I think both definitions are true, and both types of code can live on JSAN

Orbeon XML to URL converter

Ok, you may have to repeat this to yourself a few times to sorta "get" it.
This is a web service which allows you to send it an xml snippet. This snippet is converted to a "url" which it sends back to you. You can then later visit this URL - and the server will return your original XML data. So basically it serializes and compresses your XML into a string and makes it a url. The neat thing is then you can pass that to a service like tinyurl.com

Real-time 3D models in shockwave

This site has a number of very cool 3D models rendered in shockwave's realtime 3d engine. The spaceships and mechs are quite cool.

It's interesting to think of shockwave as something other than just cheezy bouncing balls or bad banner ads.

Solid to liquid and back, with just a jolt of electricity

Found this on digg -- There's a new kind of fluid that turns has hard as plastic with an electrical current -- and back to fluid when the current is turned off. Reminds one of the T-1000 in the Terminator.

E4X -- xml in javascript

You have your chocolate in my peanut-butter -- er I mean you have your XML in my Javascript! This is a proposal to make xml a first class object in JS. The preso shows off the concepts very well... Cool idea! I thought of doing this YEARS ago, and was laughed at in the js forums... So how about JS - CSS mapping as well?

War World -- new indie game

Just read on the indiegamer boards about a new game called War World. Think Unreal Tournament + Mech-like soldiers. I havent tried the demo yet myself (at work) but it looks way cool!

Engine001 - game creation engine

Game makers are a great way to break into the world of indie gaming. You simply want to take ideas for a game you have and bring it into reality, without worrying about all of the coding aspects like C++ or dlls. While there are many more mature game making applications, this one is pretty new and worth a look. Give it a try and make some comments in the forums.

3d game engine Truevision 3d

For many indie game developers, the choice of a 3d engine is a stressful and difficult one. I've heard from some indie gamer circles that this engine is fast and relatively easy to use. I dont have first hand knowledge of this, but perhaps you could give it a try yourself and make your own decision. For me, it has a cool demo to download and check out --- ooh pretty colors!

Lusternia - sophisticated MUD

Wanna know what the next "big thing" will be? I mean there's been blogs, podcasts, etc. Well I happen to have a good guess. MUDS. Yes, MUDS. Only they will not be the primitive things you played years ago. They are living, evolving environments that suck you in and dont let go :)

Give this one a try, it's newer, but represents the top of the line in next gen mudding.

Dj Doboy rocks!

I'm a big fan of dance, electronica, etc. and one of my favorite artists is Dj Doboy - just for the upbeat mixes, great sense of pacing, etc. Give Doboy a chance yourself and send him (her?) some paypalage if you like what you hear.

Yahoo Audio Search launched

In case you've been wondering why I havent been posting much lately, it's projects like this that I've been burning the midnight oil working on to help get out the door. Audio Search is cool in many ways - not only for "itself" but for the hooks it has into other yahoo projects. Whew! Now that this is out, perhaps I can get some sleep before the next big project kicks into high gear. Congrats to all my fellow co-workers on getting this out and running! Be sure to check out the cool AJAX tool for viewing album covers such as this: Abba