RealityPrime

This series of articles was inspired by my quest to find a functional "Web 3D" solution for several startup ideas I have in development (no details now, other that they could really use "Web 3D"). The need actually goes back to the 1990s, for me personally, when I was involved with several other heavily Networked 3D startups, the most successful of which decided to roll their own custom solutions and make them work.

I’ll describe those in more detail in a minute. But for readers of little patience, the one-sentence summary of this sprawling multi-part article is to ask the question "Where is Web 3D?" and then try to answer it, both in terms of history, the present, and the future we can hopefully look forward to. In the process, I’ve assembled interviews with a number of people working in the field and interspersed the narrative with my own somewhat skeptical real-life experience, having been at this VR thing for close to 15 years now.

[Read more →]

Tags: Articles, Featured by avi
7 Comments »

My 4yr old Dell Inspiron recently fell apart, much like the car in the Blues Brothers movie. Bits and pieces had been falling off for years. But the last straw was when I removed the old Intel Inside sticker on the front. The sticker itself has been worn smooth of any color years ago, polished to a mirror sheen.

But somehow, this was the magic holding the the thing together. The next day, the screen hinges broke, making the screen angle float freely to any position, usually wherever gravity took it, including down on my hands. And then the case broke altogether.

I "fixed" it with my trusty glue gun. But alas, some of the glue migrated to one of the fans and now the thing overheats and runs in slow motion. It’s seen its last days.

So I’ve been looking for a new laptop. Price is certainly a consideration. But subtler issues surround the laptop choice. I tried a MacBook pro back in January. But it also had "screen hinge issues" that I described earlier. Apparently, they only tested using the laptop on a level surface. My wooden frame to hold the screen open when you tilt the laptop more than 20 degrees worked, but proved too much of a pain to use. So I gave the laptop to my brother, who needed a new mac anyway.

And so I’m still looking. One of the more recent considerations I’ve realized, sitting with a pile of laptop parts near my nightstand, is recyclability and greenness. So I found this ranking you might find interesting:

How the companies line up | Greenpeace International

Apple comes out near the bottom of the list, both for toxic parts used and for recycling of junked parts. So I might just stick with Dell, if they return to some sort of competitive pricing. Even with the 20% coupons you can typically find, the deals aren’t so great lately.

Tags: Articles by avi
No Comments »