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30 April 2008

 

An Airship at the Abandoned camp Site



29 April 2008

 
Awareness
There's an interesting post on collapsing geography about tech awareness. In an informal count of hands, the awareness of a particular technology - heard of or used -among college students in one particular class went from the predictable 100% for cell phones to (surprisingly) 0% for RSS and Spore. One person had heard of Twitter.

I can't quite believe only 10% have heard of WoW - I think it might say more about what college students think they need to disown. However I live online, so my perspective is skewed in that direction.*

I'm sure the marketeers are poised and engaged in some Pavlovian drool behavior at the idea of - somehow, someway - putting a bit of choice new-style advertising on cell phones. Something amusing and watchable as content in itself, while acting to extend marketshare. Free phone or phone functions, or free access to content for allowing advertising - well, it's not something I know anything about or anything I like, but it seems as though it could happen (might've already for all I know).

I think I might be part of the last generation that proceeded through childhood with almost no advertising geared toward us. It would be nice to think the current children will grow up brushing advertising away with a wave of their hands like someone shooing flies, but what I've seen is often A) buying into the advertisers' line (say, anorexia) or b) cynicism that carries over to all facets of life ("everyone cheats," "politicians are all the same - corrupt - so why bother voting?").

0% for Spore - that surprises me. One thing the list probably marks well for that group of people is how important the particular tech utilities are to them. I think if you don't need/use/care about Twitter you don't bother to remember it and may delete its entry from your database. There's a multiplicity of applications social and otherwise and a swarming aspect to their use at that age especially, and no matter how many times you see/hear/watch South Park episodes about one, if your friends don't frequent it then it's deleted or stored in a little-used module. Perhaps it's a modern survival memory tactic. I'm just making this up, as anyone who has read this far can tell :-D

*But I bet they've all seen that South Park WoW episode - even I've seen it and I haven't had television for decades.

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Of course, I believe in everything/nothing, but it seems to me that if one thinks there could be anything at all to the idea of time travel it would make looking at the futuristic ideas of the past clues to the future. I mean, those from the future would be likely to seed the past with ideas, perhaps.

I like the idea of time travel as it is a Phun Idea, but it seems likely all time exists simultaneously and that the limitation is a Meat Puppet barrier only. A body might be like a "take a number" slip that imposes an order upon us where in fact no order exists (taking a number makes a queue abstractly rather than, say, having a tight tube entering the building so that a queue is imposed physically).

That would make time travel more confusing, if possible. We do like thing to be linear I suppose (well, some of us). All through my life I've tried to catch hold of how I think of things - time being one of the things. I think visually so I have to describe it, and words aren't very good for drawing pictures (unless they are, say, Conte crayons shaped into words - that would be much better) but my personal time is like focus, in that near in time (5 minutes ago) is in sharp focus but next Monday is out of focus. But next Monday is no less out of focus than 4000 years ago.

Thinking is strange, truth to tell. If I'm doing something creative there's no thinking involved, really. I slide completely into my right brain and can barely string three words together, and it's more like, say, dancing* than... uh... something involving stopping and starting and backtracking - trying to find a certain type of rock formation by using an inadequate map, maybe. Painting and things like that are like flying freely. Time is different. Time is mutable anyway - I don't know why people think it's relentless and precise and always just the same. For instance, childhood, while being short in years is more like a quarter or fifth of people's lives.

Stopping as I'm tired of typing.

*I first wrote surfing, then remembered I'd never surfed, then wondered, "Why don't we call it Cerfing the internet?"

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28 April 2008

 
ZOMG!

I just found (whilst searching for something else) "Show Color Under Cursor." W00t!!!11!!

I had to close the debug menu, I got overwhelmed.


 
Chronicling Magellan's Saga...


 

Cybin Monde used clues from Magellan's camp site to find a very interesting comic site. I looked at it and found this: L+L and hippos = friends. Coincidence or clue?



27 April 2008

 
What to Do When You Can't Answer a Question

Q.: Do you live on a small lake or a big lake?
Me: Yes.

I never quite know how to answer when someone asks me that. It seems there's, except for extremes, only a comparative description. Before I moved here I lived on Ward Lake, a small lake. This lake is much bigger, and float planes use it, I can't see the entire thing from my windows, and it's easy to see on maps. Is it a big lake? Lake Ontario is a big lake. So is everything between Ward Lake and Lake Ontario a medium-sized lake? What kind of a picture do those words give to the questioner, and with such a vast range is it useful at all as an answer?

Q.: Do you live on a small lake or a big lake?
Me: Piss off, stalker.


 
I ran around Eudoria, in Entropia Universe, for a while. After leaving Fort Ithaca I steered past a lot of monsters but went past another player who shot me (he had to use a lot of ammo - hah, you bastard) :( I was sent back to Fort Ithaca to be revived. I teleported to another place, and struck out for the coast at a run, but was attacked and killed by something very big and lumbering. In part I was killed as I was trying to get a picture and wound up stopping instead of evading.

That sent me back to where I had been, and some dude ran up and healed me, and sent an invitation to his group. I thought a minute and declined, then he resent so I thought, "Well, perhaps I'll go and see," but upon receiving a TP I thought better of it and hit cancel and just logged out. Really, the odds of having someone run up and invite me to do something not dangerous to me are about one in a million in EU.

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26 April 2008

 

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Maybe Ed should have an alligator avatar since he's an investigator.


 
Because I'm a brat I have a 768 meg Nvidia 88oo card, which was rather spendy when I had this computer built last year, but worth it (they are teh cheapness now - half the cost). I don't like old tech as my first line, obviously. Anyway, when I was last at the puter builderers I asked them if they had tried the 9-series cards, and they said, "No," then a hush fell as we thought about 9-series cards in a prayerful way.

Reading up about them today it's obvious they aren't good enough yet, but they will be incredible once a few things are sorted. What I think I REALLY need (as a back-of-beyond dweller) is better internet access - well, that's my current focus. I'm not sure that's possible right now in this place, but I think I'll do a wee bit of investigatering and see what happens at different times/configurations.

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The Eleanor Theatre
I had to think of a way to get people down from the road so I bought one of Siggy's waterslides, which is kind of blue, but works well. It'll up the fun factor.

Also made 2 pass-through-the-walls things as we don't have a stage door.

The slide kept tossing me hither and yon on the "sitting" setting, so I made a sign encouraging people to choose "belly."


 
Twaipsing Around

Twinity mirror

I saw Twinity has got SpeedTree and wanted to see - I wasn't sure WHERE as Twinity has no outdoors really, but I hadn't been there in a while so clicked on the icon. I felt it was stale as it gave a SpeedTree licensing error, so I uninstalled it, downloaded from the website, installed, tried to open it, got the error/crash/dumped to Metaversum. Went on their forum where someone said, "Say 'No" when the error pops up," said "No" and it went to patch-loading. Then tried to enter, same thing. Then I watched the patch numbers and saw they changed, and the SpeedTree error stopped, so I just loaded patch after patch until I got a login screen.

Their forum was full of people (some from SL) relating their experiences. Hah - typical forum.

Anyway, searched for trees - oh, it just occurred to me that I saw some nice houseplants that might've been something related. Went home, finished retexturing my apartment and filled it with animated mobiles. Would've put more but I got tired of doing it one by one.


 

My Apartment in Twinity



25 April 2008

 
It's my belief that the new server code is MUCH better for me than the old. I even went back to the official viewer as I stopped crash/freezing. Last night at Enjah's I crashed - and today went over to Palomarian to check the server edition and indeed it's the old version. I hope it's as I think and that the new one will equal a better experience - the old version just feels like there's a catchy thorn that sticks into me every so often.


 
Philip discusses Mark's appointment in this Reuters video report.


 
Lately, since Motorability opened, people have been asking me if they can buy things I made for it. Today it was sparkplugs. A few days ago it was the Dance Ship. Before that it was the waterfalls. I haven't sold anything although I did give the Dance Ship person a ShapeGen.

I <3 the sparkplugs, too. They are pre-sculpty and could be made with fewer prims now using sculptmaps, but they wouldn't be as good, or rez as crisply.

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22 April 2008

 
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

/me shakes in her boots.

New CEO


 

YadNi has just finished making this lovely sim called Bourbon. Enj and I skated around it and the 2 attached sims.


 
Watched "Marie Antoinette" last night which was very stylised but interesting in its desire to present history in an understandable way for people who can't relate to things outside their own experience.
Enj drives Os around Soap (Missing Mile)

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It's official.

Our new theatre in the northestern part of Phobos on the shore, by the road, near the museum - is called The Eleanor Theatre.

Thank you, Salazar, for giving us a new home.

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21 April 2008

 

TSMGO '08
Originally uploaded by Molly Montale

Molly Montale took some fabulous shots! Here's one of Margaux and Raul!



 
Woo - ordered The Saragossa Manuscript from Netflix - can't wait.

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Why do so many men make their avatars in Second Life have wee, tiny heads?
Why do so many people making female avatars make the legs so long they look deformed?


Last night my hat got dissed:
You: Hello
You: :D
EderNauta Arado: this tricornio
Patty Streeter: hello
You: yes?
EderNauta Arado: the hot are extraño
EderNauta Arado: asta luego
You: hmmm
You: lol
Patty Streeter: okay um bye!
You: :D
You: SL cracks me up
Patty Streeter: ( he flies off to do battle elsewhere...)
Patty Streeter: me too

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20 April 2008

 
I got a desperate IM from Patty during the Combat Cards event, so reassured her that I would come and work on the problem as soon as I could. I said, "Don't worry." That's what I used to say right off the bat to customers who had problems, as it seemed the most important thing was to reassure them that things would be set right and they weren't to worry. It's funny that we do worry, really - especially about things like 75 cent clothing. Worry is what people do, though.

Anyway, so at a bit past 3 I went to Motorability to address the long-overdue autoreturn issue. It should have been set months ago. I had spent days replacing the roads with copied sections in the correct group, and had turned on autoreturn in United Spinal sim (which was turned off again somehow although remnants survived in the separated-out audio and video parcels). I am not in charge of the other 6 sims, but did as much of the roads in them as was possible. No autoreturn happened, though - even after that meeting last week.

The griefing has been bad, according to Patty (no wonder), and when I got there one of the tenants button-holed me and took me to a particle/penis/garbage infested parcel near his shop. I am NOT very secure on land issues at all, since I have had what I consider to be little experience, and I didn't want to make a hasty blunder and get all the tenants' builds returned, so I explained I needed to proceed cautiously. I knew some parts of the roads that had been uncopiable would go, but those were unavoidably in peril. I hope that I don't get reports of any other things gone missing. I turned on autoreturn on the roads, replaced big parts that disappeared, and IMed the tenant to make sure he was feeling all right. The new tenants seem mostly to be real life car dealers which is an interesting thing. I set autoreturn on a nearly empty parcel and replanted trees. By that time it was 9pm. There are more parcels to do, but I was exhausted.

Anyway, I transfered some leftover objects to Patty at the Ask Patty build, and linked the car (w00t H4.6). We will meet Tuesday to transfer the car garden things I had to recreate when I moved that build to a differently-shaped parcel. I have to log on simultaneously as me and the US account and transfer all the US sim builds. It's all very time-consuming and tiring, but there's nothing else to be done (well, nothing else I can do, anyway).


 

I was put inside a box which then closed its several doors, then opened them in rapid succession showing sometimes my feet, sometimes an empty place where my head would be, etc.


 
Remember this?
8 Dec 07
Avatar: are you submissive?
Osprey Therian: no
Avatar: Hmm
Osprey Therian: No one has ever asked me that before.
Osprey Therian: It is decidedly not the case.
Avatar: will you be submissive to me?
Osprey Therian: no
Osprey Therian: Will you be submissive to me?
Avatar: not as your master
Avatar: but just helping me
Osprey Therian: Heh, I think you are looking for someone else.
Avatar: NO
Osprey Therian: :D
Osprey Therian: Good
Avatar: Hhehe
Osprey Therian: heh
Osprey Therian: I need to get back to my work, but good luck :D
Avatar: ok
Avatar: Do you know what i want?
Osprey Therian: I don't actually care., I think.
Avatar: Hmmm
Avatar: I think you could help me
Osprey Therian: I have a lot to do. I think you need to look elsewhere for help.
Avatar: maybe i do
*Unfortunately stabslock doesn't work in IM.

Tonight
I was invited to a magic show he had created - which I went to, being interested in SL theatre. It was all extremely religious of the Christian variety. That surprised me (maybe it shouldn't've).

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19 April 2008

 
It's been snowing for a while, now. Pretty.

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Our first 2008 show - multiple crashings and all kinds of traumas, but we got through it. Worst thing: some people not getting group IMs so I was thinking they could hear me, but no.
Alba was indipensible entertaining between acts when sometimes multiple performers crashed.
Lucy was there with the goods ;D
Enj managed quick changes in between crashes.
Os thought the performers coming toward her were from GF and let the piano loose too early. (That's why we need a stage door).
Alazi performed her act without being able to hear the audio.
Caitlin bravely performed under almost impossible conditions, her set all discombobulated and she almost unable to move.
HBA performed the human act without being able to see anything.
Maxie was locked out.
Jaque was racing around trying to get things in order.

Hint: If you crash immediatel upon returning IM the group and turn on audio.

Salazar deleted the theatre, then Enjah begged him to take her to Magellan's camp site for a look-see.

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Second Life Simulator v1.21.0.85362 Update is on the Beta Preview
with 12 Physics Fixes

Quick Status The Beta Preview has been updated with a new version of the Second Life simulator for public testing.
Changes in this build include (SVC items were submitted on the public jira issue tracker / DEV items are internally discovered issues:

DEV-11061: Vehicles no longer deflect severely when crossing prim seam boundaries
DEV-13720: Rezzing an object from inventory in edit mode now results in all prims selected (rather than just the root prim as before)
DEV-12952 (and numerous pjira items): llTargetOmega item rotation sync restored.
SVC-2200 if you are a region owner who has encountered this problem, will test for it if we copy your region to the beta preview, and have time to actively test before Monday night. This jira will serve as a region copy request list for regions to be tested with this new code on the Beta Preview, before it is deployed.
DEV-13509: Phantom setting can now be toggled with llVolumeDetect enabled, even if the prims no longer have any scripts in them (a case appeared where a house was phantom - it had parts with llVolumeDetect set, but could not be set unphantom since the parts no longer had scripts in them… the related case of “how did they get llVolumeDetect set” is still unknown)
SVC-1987: Camera no longer hunts severely in boxing ring
SVC-1952 and DEV-12030: llSetLinkPrimitiveParams and llSetLinkPrimitiveParams PRIM_POSITION behavior improved
SVC-2113: Top Colliders list no longer missing entries SVC-1951: llGroundRepel is now effective over water (parameter limits adjusted to allow negative limits for use with water)
DEV-11326: After some time, in some cases, physics scripts become inactive. This issue, reported by a handful of people, has now been traced to be linked to the llTargetOmega problem, and is believed resolved by that fix.
DEV-13126: Camera now stays on “your side” of a wall when the avatar is backed up to a wall
SVC-1975: Avatar jump height increased to match the earlier Havok1-based simulator’s behavior
Best regards, Sidewinder Linden
Havok4 Program Manager



 
One of my troupers is having difficulty getting in after installing a new RC viewer. Support chat told her it sounded like she had been banned - oh, that was VERY helpful. It's simply not the case and anyway unimaginable. I advised her to try the Nicholaz viewer (a big thank you to Nicholaz Beresford) and to make sure she had tried logging in to different regions in case it was a sim problem. Also passed along forum fixes clear cache and rest firewall.

Update: She can't get in, still. :(((((((((((

Also - the RC (release candidate) is NOT the official viewer - it's a test version. The official viewer is pretty buggy, though. Troubles with the RC are to be expected as it isn't in general release.


 

View if I look slightly to the right instead of straight ahead.

Yesterday it snowed a fair bit but it had all melted by the time night fell, I think. This morning we have a new world of clean snow - so it might've fallen in the early morning.

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18 April 2008

 
I Don't Know Why Frank Thinks I Am Grouchy

[11:23] Tiger Duesenburg: it mike look better if that line was in the middle
[11:23] Enjah Mysterio: the line is for the audience to see only
[11:24] Tiger Duesenburg: i know
[11:24] Enjah Mysterio: from the front
[11:24] Enjah Mysterio: but you may be right
[11:24] Enjah Mysterio: I took the easy way lol
[11:24] Tiger Duesenburg: it would looks more realistic i should say
[11:24] You: it's not possible to have it work for every camera angle
[11:24] You: anyway
[11:24] Tiger Duesenburg: yeah it is :-P
[11:25] Tiger Duesenburg: sorta
[11:25] You: tiger, you are welcome to come to the show but right ow we are working.
[11:25] Tiger Duesenburg: make that platform full alpha... then add a fake beam down the middle
[11:25] You: And need to concentrate.
[11:25] Enjah Mysterio: I have three complex sets I am working with and now is not the best time to re-tool
[11:26] Enjah Mysterio: but thank you for your comments
[11:26] Enjah Mysterio: I will take them into consideration
[11:26] Enjah Mysterio: for our next show
[11:26] You: Tiger - that doesn't take into account the avatar position.
[11:26] Tiger Duesenburg: im into construction more them watching
[11:26] You: but ty
[11:26] You: Tiger, piss off.
[11:27] You: You are using up our very short amount of time.
[11:27] Tiger Duesenburg: w/e
[11:27] You: jF
[11:28] You: teen grid is that way



17 April 2008

 

My niece, from a photobooth at the Warhol exhibit in Brisbane.

"i think i was reading the instuctions when the picture was taken."

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Nifty S.L. pajamas from The Devil's Backbone.


 


Dreams Fair
19th April at 1pm




16 April 2008

 

Strange orbs - a star map? A build layout? A 3d marble game?


 

Sniveling at the Camp Site.


 
LSL <--> MONO Side-by-Side



Case closed.

As seen on New World Notes.

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Trying to Be Clear; Failing Miserably

Today
Me:
"Some contests end up with everything submitted belonging to the company sponsor. What happens to the video submissions for this contest?"
Them:
"We have no prob with this.....
you are free to upload videos related to sponsor or not....."
Me:
"You misunderstood. My question is whether your company will claim ownership of submitted works."

Wednesday: "sorry for misunderstanding....
we are not owner and we will not be owner of the videos
we don't use them for commercial uses........
you are free to submit them also to other websites.......
we only ask that videos submitted for the contest have to stay on the website after the end of the contest
hope this clear your doubt"

Take this bottle; it's for Mel to hide.
Yesterday:
Someone at Motorability needed a vendor set up. I asked what he had to put in it and he said nothing. Repeatedly I asked him, in different ways, what he had to put in the vendor he said he needed. REPEATEDLY. He kept saying he had nothing, which didn't compute.
Finally he IMed me later in the day:

person X: I was thinkin about getting the vendor stuff outta the way
Osprey Therian: What do you have?
person X: what are you McGuyver
person X: okay
person X: I have a fork
person X: a Simpsons DVD
person X: and a beer
person X: GO
person X: lol
Osprey Therian: Well, what do you have in mind?
person X: justa vendor is all
person X: I hav a few of em
Osprey Therian: Well, I thought you wanted a vendor set up, but you don't sound like you have things to put in it.
person X: oh lol
person X: of course
Osprey Therian: Well I've been asking you! <--over, and over, and over...
person X: I have things to put in it
person X: WELL I'VE BEEN TELLING YOU bsolutely nothing -- what does this mean?
person X: lol person X: absolutely even
Osprey Therian: OK so if we are talking about me making a vendor texture and setting it up with your items in it, can you send me the items so I can photog them for the vendor textures? -- That was purely me trying to rephrase and jiggle some information free.
person X: I have shirts a hat a flag a sign the driver cards -- ZOMG Finally.
person X: ok 1 sec
Osprey Therian: Can you send me 1 of each?
person X: I'll send you what I got so far

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15 April 2008

 
The Devil's Backbone

I was moved to rent this book-end to Pan's Labyrinth, and it's excellent but scary. I have trouble with scary movies (i.e. I get scared). At some point quite early in the movie the object of fear shifts from the dead to the living, which is right.

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Overt Racism
Big surprise, hmm?

“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,” U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis said on Saturday, referring to U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama.



14 April 2008

 

Robots near the Eleanor Theatre


 
Anyone having this?

In the normal viewer IMs no longer keep the "logged" setting, reverting each time to not logging. Annoying for me as I have people IMing me all the time with details and instructions I need to remember (and I only JUST began logging chat a few months ago - before that I copied/pasted everything needed). We didn't have that capacity originally, but I find it very useful. The RC has a working IM logging setting, as well as Avatar Rendering Cost and the Space Navigator settings, and maybe if I change the colors I'll like it better. I first tried it when I was in the snow sims and it was impossible to use there.



13 April 2008

 
This morning I had to change de-bug renderfarclip setting manually.

I was taking a picture and, as I do frequently, set my renderfarclip very high - this time 5000m. Then, trying to change it back didn't work. I tried several times and both typed a value and hit the default button.

I had to go into my settings.xml file and edit it by hand.

Is it just me?


 
A New Continent: Gaeta

It is rising up from the seabed (I suppose).

Gaeta



12 April 2008

 

I logged in to the theatre to see this. Had HBA mugged Cait and stolen her costume? No! But she was standing behind him and it did look that way.


 
I was a bit worried that animation info, which I use, wasn't working in the RC viewer since Avatar Rendering Cost was added, but no, they each work fine, just separately. It's not likely you'd want both at once anyway, but when I had on ARC I couldn't get AI, which is why I wondered.



11 April 2008

 


I'm not sure why I think this is so funny* - I'm glad they are exploring new interface devices, though. Three cheers for my Space Navigator! This vid made me go back and watch the Jonny Lee Wii remote headtracking viddeo, though - now THAT is cool.

* "If I could walk that way I wouldn't need talcum powder."


 
Barely creaking along in G.P., however H.A. is a ten second distraction:

You defended your village when it was attacked by the hanging dogs
.You bared your bottom at Kamaya, but it takes more to shock her!
.You tried kicking Keke's backside, but he blocked your kick!
.You bared your bottom at Hanivan, but it takes more to shock him!

==========:O
Being a warrior is, apparently, not all death and drama. That was in just one expedition (P.E.s = punitive expeditions).



10 April 2008

 
Identity Documents Required
No Admittance Beyond Barrier Without Barcode Tattoo
Songs in the Key of F

Tiff was just here and told me about a meeting she had to go to today. Apparently the United States, in its wisdom (rolls eyes) has decided to collected detailed information on all students. In addition, things like discipline reports will be appended. Included is data tying individuals to specific teachers.

Once that type and quantity of information is collected there is no way to keep it from getting out to insurance companies, prospective employers, and so on, which is why it should be illegal to collect it in the first place.

As I said to Tiff, it locks people into place and makes it difficult to change. In the future a child who was reprimanded at 13, for, say, spray painting a picture of Pol Pot on the gym, who then grows up and wants to run for public office, can look forward to that incident being brought up.

It seems likely to be heading to teacher merit pay, which will leave teachers in difficult and underfunded schools out in the cold while teachers in middle-class-and-up schools will get rewarded. As I've always said, teachers can't be totally responsible for a child's education; the family and society itself play a huge part.


 
My Own Journey to Virtual Reality

I think my own journey begins in the early 1990s when I heard about a (non-computer) device called a Voyager that could alter brainwaves using light and sound. This isn't as cwazee new age as it sounds - I was trying to deal with intense trauma and was trying to get out of a negative feedback loop. OK, so that helped.

Years go by. Then I saw a wee little magazine ad (in 2003?) for something brand new called "Journey to Wild Divine," which utilised biofeedback. So I bought that. It was interesting although like being trapped in a T. Kinkade world, which blew. I never did use it a lot, but the biofeedback aspect is teh kewl.

Then There started and I put mah name down for beta testing. I finally got in for the autumn of 2003. Immediately I read on the forums about something called Second Life, and (oh, dopey me) believed I couldn't sign up as I had dial-up (gasp). I spent a lot of time with my nose pressed against the glass, watching the fireman/schoolmarm video over and over, and wandering around There asking people about Second Life. I remember saying to an English programmer, "In Second Life you can BE A DUCK." That impressed me no end (and rightly so).

I enjoyed exploring in There, but once it had been explored it was boring. Sometimes I'd set up a psychiatrist office near Karuna Plaza and get strangers to tell me their deepest, innermost thoughts (i.e. lie for hilarity purposes). Sometimes a lot of us would get together with our dogs (made by J.J. Ventrella) and play with them, as they had artificial intelligence and responded to commands in their own ways). It was fun to have 25 dogs jumping into the air at one time. I think YadNi told me once he had had 6 dogs or something, in There. There was machinima going on, for which There, with its Voice and synchronised avatar mouth movements (J.J. Ventrella) was well-suited. I didn't make any, as at that time I was making rl video.

Early in 2004 the There company made a chilling announcement that indicated Things Were Not Going Well. I didn't want to suck up the negative atmosphere, plus I was not happy, so I plugged into the net with a fat pipe and hopped over to Second Life. Actually, since SL knew about the There problems, they offered a special deal (SL cost money in those days) for people switching worlds. It was a scandal on the There forums when someone said that in signing up you were expected to give your There password - that accident or mistake was quickly rectified by LL but held up the influx for a few weeks.

In Second Life, after doing the island educational displays (3?) and talking to the parrot, I teleported from the temple and landed at the Welcome Area in the dark. A few people stood about, talking. I walked down looking at the few displays (motorcycle?), then flew off. For the next week I explored everywhere, worked on appearance, experimented. I got a quick education on the forum and by reading all the documentation, which was, unbeknownst to me, outdated. For the next year or so I thought you had to pay to tp or use lighted prims, and so forth, and couldn't quite understand why teleporting never seemed to cost anything although I never used lighted prims so didn't think about that. At that point it was not usual to use lighted prims as we had local lighting, not hardware lighting, and it was a big fps hit. At Gravity Space Station signs said, "Gravity is best viewed with local lighting ON," which we would do once in a while just to see.

I read up all about land and looked at many spots. I put my name in for Land for the Landless, which assigned 1L/m2 512s to new people, and was assigned my plot in Bodega. At that point the land east of me was Anshe Chung for sale signs, south was the marina (same today), west was my neighbour Art, and north, beyond Bodega, was nothing - just a hole. I went through a number of eastside neighbours including an unfinished build, lilone Sandgrain, a big ugly dance club castle (I could hear the constant shouting from my place, so I decided that instead of getting upset I should just go there and dance), a fun mad inventor (I liked him until he built another ugly castle - but then he disappeared and I've always wondered what happened as I truthfully did like him a lot), and the Phyneas Jack Memorial Trust.

I did Burning Life '04, the Winter Festival, always tried to get a spot in Luna ;D, and anything else that came up. After my Burning Life '07 experience I can safely say I'm done with that aspect. The world is too big, now, for such centralised things to be - not just enjoyable but possible. I think it COULD work in this way: focus on events (the events were the best part of BL '07) with an outlying ring of parcels that can be claimed and built on for just one day at a time. Have some kind of automated yer-24-hours-is-up-and here's-yer-build-back flushing action - maybe just retake land after X hours, reset for sale.

I lurked on the SL forum for 6 months before posting. I read EVERYTHING as far as documentation, threads, etc. go. Things have changed an incredible amount. I couldn't begin to come up with a definitive list, but some that mean a lot to me are:

multiple select in inventory
scripted attachments
hardware lighting
floopy prims
better footshadows
inworld media
ripple water
"recent" tab in inventory
tear-off windows
H4.6
expanded group abilities (not working all the time, alas)
additional group slots
the great icon for unlinked objects taken together (helps a lot)
rings
filling in voids
no default friend map-tracking
define default prim action (i.e. "left-click sit")
webtab
sculpties
p-2-p teleporting
SLurls
tp back using chat

...and more but my time is up ;D


 
Uru Live has died again.

I was in There when it died the first time, and I'd never heard of it (I had played Myst a time or two in the late Eighties) but became aware of a mysterious diaspora of Uruites who went around talking about reltos and linking books and were sad, very sad, to've been flung out of their world. I had to research and investigate to find out what it was - then got to know the Uru people including Enjah. I remember one sad person saying how beautiful their world had been, and how she wished I had seen it.

The Uru people spread like dandelion fluff throughout the metaverse, and built, as well as they were able, reproductions of their beloved Uru objects and landscapes. In Second Life an island, Telador I think it was called, was a home for Uru people. But, for joy, after a long time Cyan responded to the pleas of the Uru folk and restored the lost world.

I did try it - sadly I was driven mad by the fly eye aspect (shards) which I had never experienced before and which I hate, and by the dankness. It wasn't for me,* but all those lost Uru people could go home! Except many of them didn't. And now it has closed, again.

*Truthfully, too, I could never quite understand why the people were called D'ni when to me Dineh is Navajo (I spent 16 years in Indian Country). That felt weird to me.

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Of course, I have zero, zippo, nada knowledge of economics, but with the bravery of a fool wearing hindsight goggles* I'd say it might've been a better idea for virtual land to be tied to a once-a-year fee - like, say, $4000 as a yearly fee, then no tier. That way when costs change, as they just did, it would affect everyone the same way.

I'm sure this is a ridiculous idea, so everyone please tell me why, so I can learn a bit about it. Clearly, the pleased-with to angry-with needle swings heavily to the negative as soon as a lot of money is involved. While there are many people making a lot of money, it should come as no surprise that there are many people spending a lot of money, too. "Spending" is not the same as "losing," however when one spends money to create something one is less forgiving of downtime and glitches in your experience.

*They really don't help since I don't know anything about the whole thing.

Yeah, I'm ignoring the whole competitor aspect, too.



09 April 2008

 

Contest 37: MUSIC
Theme: The theme is "MUSIC " in any use or interpretation of the word . Get weird - you know you want to.

Cash prizes.

On the poster: Bitstream Boogie - Real time Internet/SL music jam
Komuso Tokugawa/Japan http://music.sonicviz.com
Hathead Rickenbacker /Canada http://hatheadinc.com/hhi/ (less)


You may make something like an animated texture or other cool thing if you want. You don't have any tight limits. If you make something cool that doesn't seem to fit the "textures" requirement just enter it anyway.

Straight snaps or manipulated - it's all good.

DATES
Enter by: 30 April 2008
Exhibition: 4 May - 24 May 2008 in the Photography Studio upstairs gallery.

++++++++++++++++++++++++
We will have an awards ceremony - time TBA.
++++++++++++++++++++++++

TO ENTER
Enter 3 textures of Second Life screenshots.
Textures can be no bigger than 512x512 - rectangular photos saved as 512x512 regain their proportions once they are put on a prim. Title entries with title + your name <---= so I don't lose it in my inventory Send them to Osprey Therian with MOD permission and COPY permission. Give me an IM so I know to look for them. >>>>>.Don't send them in a notecard - I say this as I look at textures every day but I rarely look at notecards.
If I don't get your heads-up the entry gets buried under the billion spam notecards I get per week.
I hate it when things get lost - the only entries to've been lost thus far were in notecards.



08 April 2008

 
===============:O

From the SL forums:

" I have never seen the mainland, only islands. im still a bit of a newbie, even though I been her since october."


 
Human Age Update

I was sad that Florin stepped down from being the Egg Head chief, but our new one, who is a pickle (Gherkin), is full of beans and rarin' to go. Our finance minister is a Cornish pirate (I can see both good and bad aspects in that), while our social minister is a sinister-looking clown.

Recently we had a spy in our clan - the husband of an Egg Head who is in another clan gained entry to our inner yolk.... er, sanctum. I don't know what happened after they were publicly shamed - perhaps she has left the tribe voluntarily or was expelled (if that is possible).

I have an Age 2 account (Ostherian) and an Age 1 account (Ivka - to keep Enj company). Age 2 is rough and progress is incremental, unlike Age 1 which races ahead.

News: Ostherian just joined the army and is enrolled in an expedition against the Hanging Dogs. Wait.... what's this... "Number of soldiers: 1." ===============:O



07 April 2008

 
I always decide what's going on based upon emanations suffusing the aether, but right now it feels similar to when someone rips a bandage off quickly rather than tugging on it agonisingly slowly in a vain attempt to be kind. Things that are causing upset now will form a strong and stable base once they are all in place, but right now things are in an uproar. Havok is just in its first form, Mono is on its way, and so forth. Second Life has to move or die, and it's a bit of a mish-mash at the moment. Anyway, that's how I see it.


 
This happens all the time - but why?

Yesterday I suddenly thought of Leo Slezak missing the swan boat in Lohengrin during a performance - the thought popped into my head unbidden. Just now I was reading the New Yorker and it referenced that same incident (Leo: "What time is the next swan boat?")

That kind of thing happens all the time to me and doesn't seem to mean anything, but what is it? A demonstration of how close, nay, overlapping, things are? Is it a kind of alpha-sorting issue in real life?


 
I just got home from jin shin. When I left the trizzity men were blocking the drive, but I avoided the no-trizz by being out. Anyway - jin shin. I was lying there and a familiar cd of a Native American flute player played and ended, then something started playing I'd never heard before - a man's voice deep, resonant, and melodic. I wanted to listen to him all day.

After jin shin I asked Frank who it was: the Dalai Lama [This is actually an urban legend - the chanter is Dutch artist Hein Braat]. Not a commercial cd - someone had made an on-the spot recording during a meeting [not true]. Speaking of which, SWMNBMIMB might be meeting the Dalai Lama in Seattle on the 13th.

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06 April 2008

 


Last seen in 2006, Magellan Linden, intrepid explorer and bon vivant, left almost no clues behind when he vanished. Did he choose to leave or has there been foul play? We aim to find out - and restore the legendary Magellan to his position of prominence.

Music license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

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05 April 2008

 
Finally we are getting somewhere.

/me cleans out the garage in preparation for a flying car acquisition.



04 April 2008

 


Bitstream Boogie - Real time Internet/SL music jam
Komuso Tokugawa/Japan http://music.sonicviz.com
Hathead Rickenbacker /Canada http://hatheadinc.com/hhi/

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03 April 2008

 

Virtual Campanology
Originally uploaded by Ze Moo

I think that's me obscured behind someone on the right.




02 April 2008

 
Havok 4.6

Been waiting patiently for years... and today is the day. /me weeps tears of joy.

I immediately went and linked a tent. It's a dream come true. Thank you, Havok Team.



01 April 2008

 
'Nother database crash just now?

A lot of integratin' is going on so a rocky patch is to be expected.
Or it could just be me.

On Sunday I was in Europa, sent a group notice about the CC event, talked with a scantily-clad bondage afficianado, then with Elle, then with a newbie who seems like he wanted to learn to play but crashed. Elle and I hung out and after a while I investigated a weird newbie build hanging about 30m into our parcel yet with the root prim on next door's land. Amazingly the fields were empty, and at some point I thought, "Just what IS concurrency today, anyway," and went to the Blog which talked about a database crash. Elle crashed then exactly at the time LL had estimated the DB would be up it came online and all was well. I IMed next-door and asked him if he might set autoreturn.

At about 2 minutes to 3 I went to Fuzzy's pawn shop in Grignano as I was concerned about how it would affect that area. I didn't see any weirdos buying weapons but the shop is your typical, fly-blown pawn shop with sun-shriveled pin-ups and other accoutrements. Then Mich IMed me and said the grid had been closed to log-ins for an hour - I'd had no idea as I was in already. So then I went offline to rest.


 

Scene from a home movie on youtube - reality transformed into a monotype.

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I want to ask for thoughts about improving the world -- what do people need? How can things be organised?