I would like to eat HTML-on-a-prime-rib-roast. (SORRY I DONT HAVE A PICTURE K.) We're a consumer culture: it's only logical that the zeitgeist of the everweb meets not-so-lean cuisine. A hearty burp and we're onto our next meal,

which happens to be this site called… Like (site slow for me rite now; how much did that domain cost?). Even with the Webby 2.0 graphx, one eyebrow squint and you can tell it's from the makers of Riya, "visual search". In concept, you take a picture of someone, if they're already in the database, it can tell you who they are — and as I telegraphed months ago, I can't wait to see this applied to avatars… you may have a twin on the other side of the grid and not even know it (yet — provided you've got your customization down pat).

Extending it to objects is important because, who knows, maybe some knack will make a database of Second Life creations. If you're wondering where an item came from in a piccie but it's not labelled (you're not alone, happens all too often), send it through Riya-Like and have it analyzed for the original creator. Or at least, a copycat. (Controversy's sure to flare up over that one, people sending in their cloney pink polkadot couches… *le sigh*)

Robin and Cory Linden today both sent word 'bout this 3B site, which is like a 3D space with… web pages on the walls. (Spectre VR flashback!) It has avatars too. I haven't given it a go yet, anyone wanna comment?

Okay and it looks like Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D is on the rise. As I noted in the comments there, what'd really whet my appetite is… a 3D train simulator through real cities. I'm really, really hoping for one of those. I like it when nice people send me train videos. I watch them. (In a past life, I musta been a conductor.)

There's a nice ebook 4 free from 37signals called Getting Real. You tell me what it's about; I don't currently use their products altho I've tried them out in the past, but I like their aesthetic sense. Just couldn't find a place in my daily routine — web to-do programs like Backpack tend to be too unresponsive for me when firing off microtasks, which is why I continue to use Google Desktop's.

And if you're more interested in the not-real (and not the "unreal"), I've read halfway down this trippy essay by Philip K. Dick (my fave sci-fi author who I've hardly ever read), "How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later". I've had hyperreal experiences like him, I really have — if only I documented them better. I hope the essay has a good ending; it starts on such a gripping note and then will shake you loose like fireants under the coarse furore of a sweeping broom.

Thanx to all who've been leaving comments, I hope to reply [in the respective posts] soonesque!