The latest joys of technology

Last month I scheduled a text that I needed sent earlier than I was gonna wake up. I uploaded a comic book onto "the cloud" so that I could read it on my mobile on the bus. Sent an online album with pictures of the summer to the family (pics that I had been automatically uploaded from my phone minutes after I took them). And I created a series of formulas on a spreadsheet that now allow my brother and me to manage our work on Calachurras more efficiently. Also, as usual, my texts were regularly backed up onto the internet automatically.

Almost as amazingly, I was able to find the below drawing -picturing a donkey showing surprise quite convincingly- in nearly no time.

Oh, and through an interesting phone app, I can now know where the ISS is at any time. Probably not as useful as to know where that damn satellite is going to fall, but still good to me :)

It's exciting to be living this age of technology.

Google+: First impressions

So after a few days, here's my perception of Google+.

Great stuff that's already here:

- Circles!: G+'s way of classifying your contacts. Makes a lot of sense, it's a pleasure to use. Means that you only share updates, easily, with the people you want. And it's pretty! :)

- "Hangouts": Basically, a videoconference service for up to 10 people! I like that the image changes automatically to show whoever person is talking at a particular time too. Can't wait to use it for face-to-face, yet remote filmaking meetings, or just family ones.

- Instant upload: The pictures of your phone get uploaded to a private album onto your Google+ that is instantly viewable and shareable. How many of us never download the pics to our computer? Never again!

Other stuff I still want! :)

- Circles within circles: A hierarchical structure would be very good to effectively organise your folks (you can vote for the inclusion of this feature here in Google moderator, I just did myself :)

- Integration with other Google services: Like scheduling an event that will go straight into your Gcalendar or being able to use your Gmail groups of contacts as Circles. Not even need to vote for this, it's obvious that it will be rolled out as soon as it's ready. But it can't happen overnight!

- Permission to be tagged: Always! Either giving permission over pics/albums, or to a list of people/circles. This type of thing is where Google can easily be ahead of Facebook.
- Way of limiting the amount of posts per person on a particular feed: Some people share too much, and /or too often, and they tend to take over the feed for the circles they are in (unless they have their own circle, but this defies the concept of circles itself). I rather see older posts of several people than today's 450 posts from the same person! 

And the experience continues :)

Google+: The opportunity

Google+, for those who haven't had the chance to give it a try yet, is Google's alternative to Facebook.

Yes, it does look like Facebook, which on the internet seems to have become ammunition to criticize G+.

Personally, doesn't bother me. People are familiar with that visual way of receiving and creating information. Also, the changes that social media needs are fundamentally conceptual, not visual. And most importantly, it's Google, so as with everything else they create, there will soon be a way of personalize it to your liking.

And that's the key to what Google+ means. Its power is not in what it is now, but in what it can become.

Part of the privacy issue on social networks, only us ourselves can solve it. Whether we like it or not, communications happen increasingly online, and we are still trying to keep up with the system! To build a new platform to do that on, I for one think there's no one better than Google.

Unlike Facebook creators, Google listens to users. They actually have an ongoing list of pending changes on their official feedback platform Google moderator. Where, incidentally, you too can go and draw attention to something that you think is not working particularly well on any Google product. Here is the one for Google+.

Also unlike Facebook, Google cares about privacy. And already has in place some basic tools towards this end that I'm sure won't be the only ones.

So live it, contribute to the moderator. Let's create the social experience as WE want it. As it should have always been, with control over what we do.

Go Google! - Contact importing now

You should already have a Gmail (Google) account.

Really. It is the best thing you can do if you don't have your own domain and want to look professional. Also, Google accounts are easier to manage. hotmail, yahoo, etc.. they can all be a bit of a nightmare to spam-filter or sometimes even to find your Inbox! Plus they look kind of dodgy from a professional-ish point of view.

Also, you look cooler when giving out a gmail address. AND sexier.

Yes, you guessed it:

they ALL use gmail.

And since they have now made made available a feature by which you can import your contacts from your previous account (and most providers are supported) you can now change email address in 4 easy steps:

1. - Create yourself a gmail account
2. - Import your contacts from your old terrible soon-to-be-forgotten account
3. - Email all your contacts to let them know about it
4. - Be happier! :)

Voilá. Your old msn/yahoo/whatever is now an empty useless shell.

I know what you are going to say. People may still email you at your old account. When you move houses, you can always take steps to receive correspondence from the old address, but at the end of the day people may not listen and keep visiting at your old place. Which is just silly.

No, they won't be visiting you.

Or emailing you, for that matter.

Of course, if feeling nostalgic you can still visit your old account now and then. That way you can also tell any confused/slow friends AGAIN you already changed your email address. Obviously, if they keep persisting on emailing you there, you'll just have to stop being friends with them.

Love Google.

The Sleeper Effect

TSE is a sci-fi web series based on a daring concept with its own visual style. It takes place in Manchester in a worryingly close future.

It is not often one gets to get involved in a project that one genuinely loves and that exudes so much passion. Hope that shows in the 4 teasers below (corresponding to the 4 main characters) and hope you love it too.

We will be done filming the pilot in about 1 month time. Then off to editing it together put it out there and look for funding for completing the series. You can follow the progress on the Facebook page, including regular video blogs full of energy and enthusiasm :) There isn't a website yet, but there will be soon.

Beth

Ryhs

Glenn

Mac

The Entity!! - Teaser trailer (-ish)

Well, the long-awaited video is finally up on the site, as you may now. Or not, if you haven't seen it yet. Which you should, really.

When confonted with the shocking, horrid images, remember that there's still hope for humankind. The Entity!! is on its way, and will make everything okay.

I can't believe you still haven't watched it.

Love.

Welcome to Future III: An OS for the future

I though I'd shut up for a minute about The Entity!! and post a quick entry on what might have been the most significant technology-related event last week.

Google announced that they are developing an operating system called Chrome OS. It was bound to happen (in fact the first OS created by Google is already running on some mobile phones), but it is great to actually SEE it happen.

There are quite a few reasons why this Chrome OS should be very good news:

• A system that endangers Microsoft. Market competition is good. Microsoft and its products control the market because there's no other choice. Other systems are not yet as user-friendly, cheap or popular, and so are not considered but a great many of the buyers. Google's logo, however, may be the most recogniseable ever. Google's popularity allows them to compete for Microsoft 's market share.

• An inexpensive system: Most of Google products are simply free. Others are not, but even these are available at affordable prices. We can only expect a good deal on their OS too.

• A system easier to use: One of the main characteristics of Google's products is that they are simple to use. Even if you don't yet know how to work out complex functionalities, you will find yourself using the product in a couple of minutes. And with no problems.

• A system for the current times: Windows has essentially been the same OS all along. A few things change, new pretty unnecessary features are added for the sake of additional versions to sell, but nothing major changes. Microsoft is old, and by extension reluctant to change and adaptation. Google was nearly born with the Internet. They are designing the system of the future. An efficient platform with no accumulated clutter, designed for cloud computing (files and software on the web, rather than in your hard drive).

• A system that works: I'd be very surprised if the guys who created order out of chaos on the Internet did a poor job on their new endeavour. When you use Google spreadsheets, you don't need to save changes. And even if the computer we are working on blows up, our file will still be safe. And this is no fantasy. It's already there, testimony of their ways. How many times have we lost our work in Windows?

• Google wants to do it well. Not very often do we find a company who doesn't need to do anything to make money. From the times in which they really struggled to move ahead to the current times when no share is more valuable than Google's, their drive has always been progress. Most companies worry about the profit at the end of the year. Google will just be making a great operating system.

I can't wait! You? :-)

THE ENTITY!! is coming (and needs YOU :-)

A half-absurd comedy for both the proud geek and the average human being, The Entity!! is the first film daring to face the long-avoided controversial issue that secretly worries us all: will humankind be, one day, enslaved and ruled by transgenic mutant vegetables?

The Entity!!, the short film I'm working on at the moment, has it all. Action and drama, humans and vegetables, comedy and showy, unnecessary visual effects. And of course a clearly evil onion, key figure in this ongoing conspiracy. All except one little thing: its eager, large audience.

Here is where YOU can help! (sure, if you want)

Who, ME??
Yes, YOU!

I want to help, but what could I possibly do? WHAT !?
Good question!

• Option 1, Moral support: Wish that it's a success. Your positive thinking, unlimited supply of hope and various daily prayers will surely help a great deal. If feeling extreme, leave your everyday life, lock yourself up in a faraway monastery and initiate a new existence of meditation and meager meals.

• Option 2, Word of mouth: You know how much of a technology geek I am: the Internet IS brilliant, but combined with YOUR support and help is even more powerful. So if you like the idea, PLEASE JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP (costs nothing, but it'll help a lot! :-) and/or a fan of the Facebook page. Tell someone. Tell everyone! Your family, friends, neighbours... Your dog! Put up copies of the poster at your workplace. Name your firstborn "The Entity!!". Slip the name of the film into random conversations until it gets more famous than "Indiana Jones 5" (yep, they are making it).

• Option 3, Help with your valuable skills: Can you spare some time? Want to make a movie? Are you into graphic design and a million ideas came up just as you saw the (in your opinion terrible-looking) Internet poster? Do you do 3D? Or 4D? Does your sister has a friend whose father-in law knows someone who heard of someone who has a magazine? Are you an actor? Are you Steven Spielberg? Do you love Facebook, twitter or myspace and would like to do something more creative with it? Do you speak Klingon, Elvish or even some actual language other than English and would love to translate for a film project? All help is welcome, and of course will be credited accordingly once the film is finished.

This is all for now. For the moment, the project is avalable to follow through its Facebook group and an IndieGogo page. Website is also on the making. True, there isn't much information for now. But hey, I was writing this outrageously long post. Give me a break.

Now go, carry on with your life. But remember the importance of what you learnt here today. Humankind might simply perish if you overlook this survival possibility. Yes, you may decide to turn your back on it, and even NOT to watch The Entity!! but you would be foolishly making it easier for THEM to conquer the world.

Thanks in advance for your support! ;-)

Welcome to the Future I: Virtual travelling

Because it's being a while now, I thought I'd post something clever-sounding today, so that I can justify why I'm still wearing those horrible glasses of mine.

Companies like Google push us through the future, causing or facilitating changes that could not have happened otherwise and changing our lives at the same time. The change is sometimes minor. And sometimes we cannot even begin to imagine the implications. When months ago I used Google Street View to show a colleague our company's offices in the USA, her reaction was "Wow, this is scary". It is scary, I guess, but isn't it also beautiful the fact that we can walk around the world from our office/home? (and that this was unthinkable 1 year ago?).

Current coverage of Google street view

And this is hardly the limit of the adventure. As virtual travelling keeps evolving, and more features are incorporated to the experience, may we one day see a situation in which we have to decide whether it's really worth it to physically travel?

Let's just imagine for a second and go one step further. Combine Street view (or Google Earth, for the 3D version) with the concept of virtual worlds (like Second life), where we also have a virtual 3D avatar who "plays us" in the virtual environment. Now, let's meet in Paris. Today, why wait? Let's have a nice chat there before contemplating the Eiffel tower in all the possible lights (morning, dusk, illuminated in the dark) in a matter of seconds. And since we are not subject to physical limitations, let's fly (yep, fly, just like we would in a video game) or teleport to the Grand Canyon and spend the evening there.

Of course it's not that simple. Attempts have been made at making this possible, but no clear success as emerged of them. Graphics are not yet that realistic. Screens are still 2D. Computers are not yet as fast, and it is annoying to wait for Google Earth to load all the buildings and textures in Manhattan. This is NOW though. Computers evolve quickly.

Also, we see and hear, but we cannot touch. We all who live away from our loved ones love applications like skype. We love talking to our family or friends without barriers, or even have a conversation face to face. But it's not quite as good as being there, right? You may just need a hug that day, and all the available technology won't be able to help you. But talking about scary, I don't see why that too won't evolve. Tom Cruise's Minority report dream gloves for computer interaction have already been made. And virtual reality interaction devices are by now an old friend.

Ok, these are not the gloves I was talking about, but isn't it as cool? :-)

I believe one day, we will actually be able to kiss someone from the other side of the world. Or simply shake hands and actually feel it. That day distances will have disappeared, and everything will have changed .


Also, I'm one of those naive dreamers who really believed we'd have flying DeLoreans by now after watching Back to the Future II. It feels very good to be able to look towards the ever-mysterious tomorrow with documented hopes that we might get there after all. It's exciting to be living this age of technological change.

Welcome to the future.

Blogger loves Facebook

There's an easy way of automatically creating Facebook notes with each entry of our blog. It took me a while to figure it out myself. Now that I know how to do it though, I can't help but wanting to scream it to the world.


On Facebook, go to Notes (Click on Applications, bottom left of the screen, then find Notes among all the rubbish that we add there). Good luck, this is the most complicated step!. Now find a Section named Notes Settings (right of the screen) and click on Edit Import Settings.

If you can't get this done, don't call this guy.
He'd probably just make things worse.

Now you'll see a big blank space after Web URL. It's sad to see it like this, so go paste your blog's feed in there (the minimum expression of your posts, without format or anything). If you use blogger, your feed line is:

http://ENTERTHENAMEOFYOURBLOGHERE.blogspot.com/
feeds/posts/default

Just be lazy, copy the lines above, change the capitals to your blog's title and paste it in the Facebook box. If you use any other blog system, all you have to do is find the feed line (it will depend on your blog system) and paste it here.

Now tick the box and merrily click on Start Importing. (NOTE: If you are nicking somebody else's blog, you don't need to tick the box. Instead, go and bang your head against the nearest wall until you come up with something to write about yourself).

And that's it. Facebook will now import your blog (unless you messed up :-S). Next time you add an entry to your blog, it will cleverly transfer it to Facebook as a note too. It may take a few hours sometimes.


The method is not brilliant in the sense that it doesn't really drives traffic to your blog. Well, unless people click on the "View Original Post" link. But who does, huh? Anyway, you don't HAVE to do it, but I personally think it's a way to make blog-reading easier for those who spend time in Facebook and maybe don't find the time to chase up blog posts (more on doing this more easily soon though, having options is always good :-)

Happy blogging.

Current projects

Although still outrageous, I do find that having quite a few projects going on at the moment makes up for my lack of posts for the last 3 weeks. Some of you already know about them, since these days I seem to indefatigably tell every living soul about them, hungry for feedback. Well, it's either that OR more general talk about films and (Saint) Google as usual. Thanks everyone for enduring it, and for the good ideas.

Coming back to the projects, for those still in the dark and wanting to know, here is a quick list:

• A DVD of Eso que pasó ("It did happen"): My latest shortfilm (filmed in 2004, right after the dinosaurs where wiped out from the face of the Earth). Finally subtitled in English, it also includes a "Making of" feature and even some never-ever-seen before secret material. It's pretty much ready by now. After some finishing touches I will only need to alleviate (or somehow mask) my current lack of knowledge on platforms such as ebay and amazon. As soon as I can solve this thorny issue, I will make it available for everyone who can't wait to have it. My mom assures me she'll get two copies, for instance (don't let me down, mom!).

• 3 shortfilm scripts: That is NOT to say that, after 5 long years of non-producing I've embarked myself in a triple project. Rather, I've been writing in an uncontrolled manner and now find myself with all this material that, I think, I'd really should do something with. I'll pick one to start with and off we go. More on this soon.

• A film script: Selling a script for a feature film is an idea that I have been recently entertaining (as opposed to producing it myself, which certainly isn't happening any time soon). Sadly, I literally have dozens of half-finished scripts (and of course mountains of notes). So actually finishing one looks like the logical next step now, process that I'm enjoying enormously, necessary pain aside. It's a sci-fiction story, more on this soon too.

• A website: After making a few in the past, none of them for me, it's about bloody time I had mine. The kind of thing you never get around too, isn't it? Well, it's happening now. I'm putting it together with my brother, it will cover both individual and common projects and it will be pretty pretty pretty.

• An online comic-book: Inspired by the sketch below, will be drawn by (again) my brother. After we get over the initial research-and-preparations stage, we'll start producing pages (or its online equivalent) on a regular basis. I'll keep you posted.

Well, there are some more projects on, but nothing in the realistic pipeline for the next few months. If you are even a little bit excited about any of this, I am already delighted. If not, well... (not even a little??) you obviously have no heart...

Tragic.

In any case, I'm terribly ashamed by the length of this post.

The guys who organised ALL the information in the world and then kept going

I confess to be quite a fan of Google. Very frequently, I get on my friends', family members' and work colleagues' nerves while I engage in long conversations with myself about their many products and advantages until someone, usually very politely -bless you all for putting up with this sick side of me-, help me snap out of it and come back to reality.

I thought it was only fair to start doing it here too.

That is NOT to say that I unconditionally worship their work or co-founders Brin and Page (often called "googlers" in some kind of elaborate and mysteriously disapproving way). I simply recognise that Google does better what others do, or what others have tried to do unsuccessfully before. And I am glad, and very grateful that so much of what they have done so far have benefited everyone with an Internet connection, and not just a wealthy elite.



Still, I will try and balance up Google's good deeds with all those increasingly popular comments that say that Google is failing to live up to its very own philosophy ("Don't be evil"). In fact, to help me illustrate this side of my beloved Google (and again, I guess, to help me snap out of it), my brother recently got me a book that -despite being, sadly, one of the most disastrous cases of translation into Spanish I've ever read- does explore some of the questionable aspects of the company and raises a few interesting questions.

And when I say Google, by the way, I don't mean the popular search engine, which recently celebrated its 10-year birthday, but to the most remarkable technology company of our days. Google is pushing the boundaries of this technology and changing our world in the process.

And whether or not you like their ways, whether you decide to love them or hate them, you must know what they are doing.

More on this soon.

La sopa (The soup)

I finally managed to add showy (well...) English subtitles to one of my old Spanish short films filmed in 2002 (oh, my god, I just realised, that is 6 years ago!). To be honest, the experience was rather painful (the subtitling, not the filming itself), as there seems to be no software capable of handling all the different steps in one go. This was little more than a test ("La sopa" can be understood without subtitles, I like to think), to see if I could subtitle the yeap-still-in-Spanish-only Eso que Pasó, a longer short film that I made in 2004 and that does need translation. I will do so at some point during the next few months, depending on other projects.

In any case, here is the link to the youtube video. I hope those of you who didn't know about this 7-minute oldie will enjoy it!

Thanks for watching.

The "open souce" wonder

“If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” - Isaac Newton

The idea of isolated creation is vanishing. In its place, a collaborative Internet-linked world takes shape. This is good news. The more people are allowed to participate, the better humankind's creations will become, and the greater and more numerous our resources will be.

The so-called Web 2.0 played an important role on collaboration. Open source software, however, is to me one of the most interesting creations that this new world has come up with. Program packages created, bug-fixed and maintained by people, for people. Free, and very often more efficient that their commercial counterparts. Here is a brief list with some of my favorites, all of which I use or have used in the past.

• OPEN OFFICE: Yes, it is like Microsoft Office. Spreadsheets, its own version of the popular Word, databases, ... Some options may be in a different place, but everything is there. And if it is not, it probably will be in the next release. You would have to wait longer (and certainly pay) for Microsoft to update their package.
• GIMP: For all your image manipulation and digital retouching needs. Much like the popular Photoshop.
  
• INKSCAPE: For those more into vector graphics, here is the alternative to Freehand, Illustrator or CorelDraw.
  
• BLENDER: Excellent 3D package, just as 3D max, Softimage, Maya, etc.
• CLAMWIN: Scans your computer for viruses, just as Norton or Panda would. Only, more discreetly and without Panda's spooky voices talking to you all the time.
  
• AUDACITY: A great simple-looking yet powerful sound editor.

I even, not long ago, found a way of finally writing a script without having to worry about the format at all, celtx. Of course, I use it now.

All I can say is that if any of these fall within your area of interest, you HAVE to try them. If not, well, why don't you try to run a search for “open source” for whatever your interest are? Why not? You might be surprised. Have a taste of open-source software, at least. In most cases, it's a most rewarding experience of discovery. In the unlikely case that you don't enjoy it, well, you can always go back to the old conception of “paying for your software must mean that it is better software”.

I am so happy to be living this technological revolution.

By the way, if you want to understand better how open source software develops, or if the consequences really are the fall of empires like Microsoft's, I would recommend a fascinating book called Wikinomics (of which, not surprisingly, a wiki, editable version of is available on-line too).

Stories in general -and films in particular- in a rapidly changing world

I haven't written any film reviews for a couple of years -damn it, time does fly-. I used to, for an independent student site. I had this crazy idea that it would help me both with my language learning (I had just arrived in the UK from Spain back then) and with my writing skills.

Surprisingly, it was a rich experience that did help me in both these aspects (yey!), and even beyond. It got me thinking about films' flaws and strong points in what I thought it was sharp and incisive way. Well, it wasn't that sharp, actually, but it did force me to understand a little better how stories are structured (that and several script books, god bless Robert McKee), which in turn helped me -and still does- write my own stories, not for modest less in need of a good old-fashion structure.

When that review-writing period ended (mainly due to my editor and myself not getting on very famously), I was sorry to stop writing altogether. But since I was also busy with a new study program that lied ahead at the time and it wouldn't have been easy to keep doing it anyway, I just let it go.

In this time, I have continued going to the cinema. Sure. My films-per-week average doesn't go below two unless something VERY serious happens. I love stories. All sorts. And I believe that films still are one of the most powerful ways of telling them. I also believe that, as long as we don't forget that entertainment has rules, and that they need to be respected (“please don't bore me”), or at least understood before we can break them, films still have at least a little life longer before being taken over completely by the new media platforms. But only if they don't forget. Ironically enough, these new platforms are also giving everyone the chance of speaking up, of saying “I really hated that” or “I couldn't believe how good this other one was!”. Every day, millions of people make the global wisdom grow by modifying a wikipedia page, adding an entry to their blog, or posting their new vision on youtube. And those views affects other people's, and help them making up their minds. And I believe it also affects the way that stories, and films as one type of them, evolve.

Today, with no frill but with quite a lot of excitement, I start using this site again, powered by my renewed resolution of publicly writing again and contributing to this wonder. Like all those other people before me, I take the chance to speak about what I love, and to share my views and material with all of you who regularly lean regularly into this fascinating universe which the web is becoming. Let this be my humble contribution to this new and increasingly complex world of opinions, stories, and entertainment.

Limited limitlessness: the invisible barrier

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It all starts. It may take a couple of hours to find your way around. Eventually, though, you find yourself talking to someone, or touching that whatever-it-is object over there.

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- SIM OWNER: Hey! You can´t be here without wearing a combat HUD!
- POOR NOOB: Sorry, a what?
- SO: Did you not read the notecard?
- PN: I don't know what you are talking about, dancing is the most complicated thing I've learnt so far...
(Noob dances)
- SO: Are you laughing in my face??
(Noob is ejected form the parcel and permanently banned)
- PN: Hey, wait, wait! What is going oooooon!?

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Have you ever experienced something like this? If you are new to SL, you probably have, in some way or another.

Ever since I started wandering around Second Life, I had mixed feelings about the world and their inhabitants. On the one hand there were all the good (amazing!) things that SL provides us with: a plataform for global communication, a magical place where to turn dreams into (virtual) reality... On the other, I noticed an awkward “something”, silently inherent to the residents and their particular spots: the smell of private property, human liking for possession and prohibitions.

At this stage of development, I don't think there are many people left thinking that the economic dimension of SL has not contributed greatly to its success. This economic dimension entails, of course, private property, boundaries and numerous constraints to the potential of a virtual existence. And this is also why we should not forget that the world itself belongs to every single resident when lifting barriers to seal our properties off. After all, what is the point of being able to fly if you keep running into invisible walls which destroy the illusion of freedom?

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Also, if you are a sim owner and would like visitors to act according to your rules, remember to make them logical, practical and actually possible to obey. Find the way of making it easy for people to "walk" around your place, don't just overuse your power over your own sim for the sake of it. Above all, don't make your guests (sure they are!) remember an awful experience they won't like to repeat.

Let us control our (real life) impulses for (real life) needs that are not necessary in SL and keep it open and magic. As anything new, learning SL may be hard. Let us try to make it enjoyable for everyone, including the newcomers, and not more complicated.

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Enjoy and let enjoy.

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¿Second Life? ¿¿¿Y eso qué es???

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Para aquellos que pueden no saberlo, Second Life (SL) es un mundo virtual. Aunque no sea primero ni el único, es, hoy en día, el más popular. SL es un "lugar" al que cualquiera puede acceder a través de la web, y donde se puede establecer una presencia permanente. Una vez allí, se puede no sólo interactuar con los elementos a nuestro alrededor, sino también crear otros nuevos. Se puede encontrar gente de todas partes del mundo, comunicarse con ellos y compartir todo tipo de experiencias.



En este blog exploraré el emocionante desarrollo de este nuevo mundo desde mis intereses personales (rodaje de películas, educación, idiomas, tecnología,...) y quiero hacerlo de forma comprensible, esperando que todo el mundo pueda sacar algo de estas líneas que pueda serle útil en el ambiente -a veces muy complicado- de SL. Intenta de crear dos copias de todos los escritos y escribirlos tanto en inglés (el idioma que utilizo a diario) común español (mi lengua nativa).

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Lo que es más importante, creo que SL -al igual que cualquier otro futuro mundo virtual- debe pertenecer a todos, como Internet. Debe convertirse en una extensión de nosotros mismos, en una forma de hacer la comunicación más fácil y agradable a escala global. Y, si bien se trata de una poderosa herramienta para nosotros, también es cierto que todos debemos responsabilizarnos de ella y hacer de esta plataforma la mejor de las posibles. Este es el tema principal desde que regirá estos artículos.

Hasta pronto.

Second Life? What is that???

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For those of you who may not know, Second Life (SL) is a virtual world. Although it is neither the first nor the only one, it is, nowadays, the most popular one. SL is a "place" that anyone can access through the web, and where you can establish a permanent presence. Once there, you are allowed not only to interact with the elements around you, but to create new ones. You can find people from all around the globe, communicate with them and share all kind of experiences.



In this blog, I will be exploring the exciting development of this new world from my personal interests (i.e. filmmaking, education, languages, technology,...) and I want to do it in an understandable way, so that hopefully everyone will be able to get something from these lines which may be helpful in the sometimes very complex SL environment. I will try to create two copies of all pieces of writing, and I will be writing both in English (the language that I use on a daily basis) and in Spanish (my mother tongue).

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Most importantly, I believe SL, as well as any upcoming virtual world must belong to everybody, like the Internet itself. It must become an extension of ourselves, a way of making communication easier and more enjoyable at a global scale. And, in the same way that it is a very powerful tool for us, we all must take responsibility for it and make of this platform the best possible one. This is the one main point I'll be conducting these articles from.

See you soon.