Sun's Darkstar Project

This morning I found a very interesting open source project by Sun called Darkstar.

"Project Darkstar is the game industry’s first open source, enterprise grade, highly scalable, online game server, " defined on Darkstar's site http://projectdarkstar.com.

I went ahead a created a user account and then trolled the forums for info nuggets. From the the read of it, DS is in the early stages and is still in single-mode operation. The hop to multi-mode looks like will happen when 1.0 is released sometime soon, hopefully.

In sum, I see great potential for niche virtual world projects besides just gaming platforms. As Sir Gordon Sumner onced yodeled, "I'll be watching you!"

Phishing Domain Renewal Letters

Today I received a letter in the mail which looks like an invoice, but read closely is a new service letter for a listing service by a company called Web Listings Inc.  To the geek novice, the invoice is professional looking and looks important.  But to those who read the small print, it's just another attempt to switch domain registrars or increase search engine optimization.

I've run into the these type of letters many o'times.  At my last place of employment, the executive assistant would receive these letters and then forward them to the accounting department to be paid without reading the small print, yikes!

Today's lesson is to be certain to read the fine print on domain renewal or SEO letters received via mail.  If you're uncertain what it is, have someone with technical experience verify that it's a credible service and billing source.

New Crowdsourcing Technical Support Network Launched

Hey everyone!

Well today I created and launched a new type of Technical Support Service, Crowdsourcing Network. This new endeavour offers friends, colleagues, and clients to join my social network, http://coreyleong.ning.com and then post computer issues they may have or questions regarding software, hardware, etc.

The real strength of this network is the 1:many ratio or crowdsourcing scenario which allows anyone to offer answers or suggestions to the poster who is having the issues. At first, I am offering support, but I foresee the future where others will chip in with suggestions and tips to help others. That's Crowdsourcing my friends!

You heard it first, remember. CS will be a hot topic in 2008!

Thanks as always for reading,

Corey :^)

PS. If you're interested in trying out this new concept, email me and I'll send a socnet invite for you to join!  My email is cleong@remeta.org .

Rethinking "Virtual Tours" in Real Estate

For years, real estate pros have offered a service called Virtual Tours.  These tours were created using a camera which took snapshots of a house, inside or outside, and then "seemed" them together to make a panoramic view.  One of the notable virtual tour companies is a company called ipix.

Technically speaking, these panoramic images pieced together represent a photo, but in a continuous view and in two dimensional however not three dimensional.  In addition, the viewer can only rotate or spin the view in a two dimensional state.

With the birth of Virtual Worlds like Second Life and Kaneva, we need to rethink using the term Virtual Tours. Users are represented as avatars and are able to walk, run, or fly in 3D.

One possibility of rethinking is to categorize or label the type of virtual tour it is, real world or virtual world. Another possibility is to label as photo tour for 2D and  virtual world tour for 3D.

With this rethinking in place, a whole new market would open up for machinima vendors to come on board and offer news services to sellers in virtual worlds.   Also, current photo tour companies could move into this market and add to their current services.

Point2 Technologies Names Saul Klein As Chief Executive Officer

As expected, Point2 made an organizational move following up their "downsizing" and mass exodus a couple of weeks ago. It's quite interesting of a move imo for I sat on the same "Future of MLS" panel this past summer at the Inman Connect SF conference. Besides yours truly, Saul and Brennan were also on the panel.

As the Merivigian said, "Let's see where this goes." Yes let's.


Point2 Technologies Names Saul Klein As Chief Executive Officer

Hello world!

Greetings Everyone!

Well I finally decided to use wordpress, after trying blogger, as my blog rolling app, kewl!

I'll daily blog my thoughts on social networks, new technologies, and virtual worlds. I'll also blog tech tips and hacks to hopefully help those in a tech pickle. :)

Feel free to email me at cleong@remeta.org.

Thanks for reading!

Corey