Innovation Blog

The latest thing in green warfare are reduced lead bullets and recyclable explosives. Yup! You read this correctly, green warfare. Now if you are going to kill a bunch of people, you can do it in an environmentally friendly way. Click here to read the article.

Oddball that I am, I always chose flying. Assuming that I could fly like superman, I never wished to be invisible. Too creepy. I don't want to know what other people are saying or doing when I'm not around. However, for those of you that always wanted to be invisible, here's your chance... Click here to read the article.

Online gaming is not all violence and destruction. Building on the momentum of alternative worlds such as Myst and Sim City the developers of SecondLife have taken the ideas of virtual worlds to the next level. A world with is own commerce and community where creation and character rule. “Second Life is what MySpace wants to be,” he says. “People are inventing new uses for it all the time. And the e-commerce aspect of it is going to be huge.” Although no major brick-and-mortars are doing business from within SL yet, they are taking note. The banking giant Wells Fargo built its own branded island inside SL, designed to train young people to be financially responsible. Wal-Mart, American Express and Intel are looking at using SL for their corporate training. And why not? With its natural interactivity and open platform for creation, Second Life, or something like it, may very well be the next generation of the Web.

For example, if I was online banking in SL, I wouldn’t have to browse through several static screens of text. I could just walk into a virtual bank, stroll up to a teller, and deposit real-life money the newfangled, old-fashioned way: by talking to a person. Like the Web, all but the basic infrastructure in SL is built by the people who populate it. Want a conference room where you can swap blueprints with a team around the world? Create one, and other avatars can come inside. Want to sell your band’s music? Build a jukebox, fill it with MP3s, and charge SL residents in Linden dollars (SL’s currency) to download them.