I posted this on LambdaMOO. I’ve been on there for 9½ years, and it’s been around for about 16½ years. There was a discussion on a mailing list there that suggested somebody might actually still be interested in researching us. This was my response.

The question of anybody indexing or analyzing us is moot. We are a throwback, and people like new things. The “note to journalists and researchers” on the login screen hasn’t been needed for a while, I would think. Why come on here when Second Life is so much larger, more complex, and more shiny? There aren’t enough people left here for anyone to want to notice or study us. Time and technology have advanced without us.

I know multiple people who have left Lambda behind for There.com and Second Life. The number of people there used to number nearly 3,000 but I think there are fewer than 250 people still active, with about 125 logged in at any given time, and about 50 of those actually active and doing things at any given time. Compare that to the thousands and thousands of people on Second Life - there’s just no contest anymore.

I was corresponding with the creator of the Four Essential Travel Phrases website, and he suggested that I copy the old I Can Eat Glass information onto my site, just in case Archive.org takes it down. I doubt that will happen, but I figured it was a good idea to replicate the content so it can be modified and added to. I needed a method of data management, and I quickly came across PeanutKB. I wasn’t sure it would work out, so I tried TextPattern briefly - but that seemed very complex, so I went back to PeanutKB. I spent a few hours putting all of the old information into my site, so now there’s an I Can Eat Glass directory with all the old information. The only problem is that some characters didn’t render properly, so there are a few errors here and there. But it’s a fun nostalgia kick to remember the old I Can Eat Glass project…I may have to write to the original creator (he’s at MIT now, I think) and let him know what I’ve done with the idea. It would be good if I could do useful things at work, but I can’t really get into anything too intense because I keep having to get up to, like, work.

I found a good place to play free online games - it’s called Excessively.net. They have a bunch of games converted to Flash, so you can play classics like Frogger and Arkanoid (well, a clone) along with some I’ve never heard of - “Boobs, Butt, or Shoulder” and its sequel, “Boobs, Butt, or Shoulder Part 2!” But the real attraction for me is the NES games. They have the first three Super Mario games, and although the emulation is a little slow they do seem to play pretty well. If you can’t install an NES emulator on your computer - like if you’re at work - then this is definitely a good way to pass the time. (But I don’t recommend playing Boobs, Butt, or Shoulder at work.)

One of the great commercial flops of the early 1990’s was Crystal Pepsi. Only seven years after the failure of Coca-Cola’s “New Coke” formulation, PepsiCo got the idea to market a cola drink with no coloring. The product was original: existing clear sodas were usually lemon-lime, like Sprite and 7-Up, rather than cola-flavored. But despite an aggressive marketing campaign, Crystal Pepsi went flat as quickly as - well, soda.
Read the rest of this entry »