Momentum

I almost didn't go to Oculus Connect.  It was a busy time for me and I was undecided right up until just about the last minute. Leading up to the show I was having some low level worries about VR's current implementation that had me in a bit of a crisis. Part of these worries concerned Oculus as a company.  They've grown so big, so fast.  How could a group as small as the original core Oculus team possibly survive the ministrations...

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Running Oculus and possibly losing your mind in the process.

I imagine that those who find themselves at the top of the chain at Oculus have their good days and their bad days. On a good day, it is easy to think that they must live a pretty thrilling existence.  They are leading a team and running a company that is currently in a dazzling spotlight, working on technology that hold the promise to change a great deal in the way we interact with computers and the world itself.  Sitting down...

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Lunch at the bottom of the sea.

"If your simulation is trying to deal with an unrestrained, tracked humanoid you are going to lose, each and every time." When I was very young, I read a story by Willard Price that featured a scene in which the main characters try to eat lunch while sitting at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.  They learn how difficult even simple tasks are to perform when your operating in an alien environment: "Hal and Skink followed his example,...

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DK2 CONFIGURATION DEMO: Now with a splash of color.

[ Note:  Had an issue with the original texture file being altered by Blogger (should have seen that coming!)  New link to full file available below.) https://mega.co.nz/#!a5QnATYS!CR1J-2MYeYmQdnzwaruaIwRtW5I0V5vC17iBcdlSLjA Great week so far.  DK2 is better than anticipated in many ways.  I would expect that the average VR immersion time per session will be going sharply up over the next short while.  The device works...

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VR is a concept that exists independently of the efforts or controls of any one company.

It is the first decade of the 20th century.  Orville and Wilbur head out to Kitty Hawk and fly over one hundred feet.  The flight is filmed that day and the footage is widely distributed.  Shortly after, Orville and Wilbur are tragically struck down and die from the flu.  Newspapers run the story:  "First men to fly, die of flu." and are terrifically proud of their cleverness. Now, let me ask you:  Given...

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One of the greatest gifts of VR will be in the value of the space it creates around things.

Does anyone remember the concept of web rings?  Before Google was a thing and search was still a disorganized child, web sites that shared common interests would form rings with other like sites.  If you found yourself on a website about medieval armor engraved with fractal patterns and wanted to go to OTHER websites on the same topic, you might use a webring at the bottom of the page to travel to the next site in a "ring" of sites...

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Oculus Rift, a Steam Engine for the modern age.

I walk around these days and feel like I have a secret to share with the people I pass on the street.  At my workstation at home an Oculus Rift dev kit sits, and increasingly, I feel a bit odd about the owning the device.  I imagine myself as a man born at the turn of the 17th century who just happens to have a working steam engine in his home.  Something few people have heard about, far less have seen and none yet fully appreciate...

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Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com

Here's something for the speculators out there to ponder a bit.  If you are interested in reserving the the domain name "google.com" and decide that you'll settle for adding extra o's to the name for your site.  As of today, this means you'll need to reserve: "goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle.com" That's a Google with 58 o's in it.  58. This means that a Google with 57 o's is worth the the 5-10...

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I "know" how big a pig is - Oculus Rift / Minecrift

I now know how big a pig is in Minecraft.  Minecrift allows you to experience Minecraft via the Oculus Rift, and delivers an experience that is currently riding high on the list of things you can try that present a high level of immersion, or the feeling of "being there". So far, I'm glad that my trials with the Oculus Rift have been private.  Anyone watching me would get very bored, very quickly.  I find myself spending long,...

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