Second Life

As you know, we were talking about Second Life yesterday.  I was watching Sky News this morning and they did quite a big segment on it… A comedian created a fat ugly character and will attempt to do a show in a virtual standup comedy club.

Dunno if anyone caught it, maybe it will be repeated throughout the day, I just thought the timing was weird how it came on the news the day after the lecture.

Nike +

I recently joined the ranks of the ‘i’ generation by puchasing an ipod nano, primarily because i like to listen to music on the go. As an MP3 player it connects perfectly with my mac, and as the saying goes ‘it just works’. The reason for this boastful outtake is that along with my recent purchase i also decided to go a little further and buy the ‘Nike +’ kit. I have to say, this is one of the most impressive innovations i have seen in a long time;

To those of you who aren’t familiar, the video above describes how the system works. Pretty clever in itself, however the technology goes one step further in taking the collated data and uploading to nike.com, to give full graphical representations and debriefings from a run. It then enables the information to be used to set goals for pace and distance over a time duration of the users choice. The information will keep the user updated on overall progress, as well as enabling other users within the Nike community to view your achievements. If you so wish Nike will then pair athletes with similar fitness levels and fitness routines to compete against each other to achieve specified goals. So i myself could train against a foreign counterpart whom i may never meet, but be in essence a training buddy.

This technology although recently creating a stir with its ’security issues’ really has come a long way in innovating not only the way we listen to music, but also the way people can integrate technology and indeed networks into everyday life.