Met up with Nick Stone (Novalia), Jim Purbrick (Second Life's Mr Babbage) and Jonanthan Laventhol (Imagination) and others for an evening of belgium beer and dutch pancakes.
Unfortunately Mat Webb ( interconnected) was unable to make it (jet lag - the international lifestyle) and Suw Charman was at the premier of Hot Fuzz (blogpost here) ... oh well.
Anyway, apparently they are running future sessions in Second Life. I've been avoiding Second Life for a year now due to the amazingly wonderful experience it is, and my tendency to get highly addicted to such environments.
Virtual worlds, foo like sessions on future technology ... damn, I can feel the need to dust off my avatar ... damn it Babbage, or in other words "It's life Jim but not as we know it".
On another note, I talked with Nick about the state of the 3D printing industry. It still amazes me how few people realise that you can print physical objects and electronics and what this means for the commoditisation of the manufacturing process. Nick is facing these issues as well as people struggle to get to grips with his ideas.
With current technology, in a research setting, it should be possible to print out a digital watch (batteries included). It wouldn't be much of a time keeper - but then it would get the point across.
Of course as soon as we explain this you get the usual comments of "you mean print out an image of watch, like a photo of a watch"
Nope. I mean print out a watch, which you can put on your wrist and tell the time with.
