Earthbag Houses
- 30 January 2011
The Learning Channel
Labels: ewetoob
Labels: Flight
Saudi Arabian girl's message to Mubarak.
29 January 2011
Richie on SCmkII pointed out Akinator.
I tried with Othello and von Karajan - =======:O And John Cage! Then I stumped him with Eddie Arcaro and had to "introduce him to a new character."
Labels: Robots
Egyptian Women Protesters
Labels: yootoob
28 January 2011
For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Twenty-five Years Ago
27 January 2011
Happy New Year!
'A "Black Widow" suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve but was killed when an unexpected text message set off her bomb too early, according to Russian security sources.
The unnamed woman, who is thought to be part of the same group that struck Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Monday, intended to detonate a suicide belt near Red Square on New Year's Eve in an attack that could have killed hundreds.
Security sources believe a message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her at a safe house.'
Marshall McLuhan Speaks
Pointed out by Cube Inada.
Transformation theory of communication
Oh, oh! This is interesting:
From the visual to the electric age
These are all outstanding; it's been years since I paid any attention to Marshall McLuhan, but that's worked in my favour as the ideas are similtaneously old and new and give me a feeling of peering into either end of a telescope in turn.
Big Oversight
How soon they forget, apparently.
The New Yorker has an article about Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique (1963), and in it wonders why that book had such an effect when Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1953) didn't - AND IT NEVER MENTIONS OR SEEMS TO EVEN CONSIDER BIRTH CONTROL PILLS (on the US market starting in about 1960, in wide use in 1963). WTF?
Labels: Dept. of Mystification, Dept. of Stating the Obvious
I Love These
Yuval Yairi's Memory Suitcases
Labels: Art
Evil right wing fringe group's current trial and its own view on things.
Labels: Trapped
Why I Live HereI was making coffee this morning and the clouds parted, revealing this scene.
Labels: Lake
26 January 2011
The Thomas Beale Cipher from Andrew S Allen on Vimeo.
The Thomas Beale Cipher
Labels: vimeo
Lonesome Jim
Chronically dreary baby-faced Jim has a knack for saying the wrong thing.
Mother: What is it that you do that makes you so unhappy?
Jim: Errr... hmmm... I don't know, I guess some people just shouldn't have children.
Mother: o.O... :/ ... ===:O
Mary Kay Place looks great.
Labels: Netflix
25 January 2011
I went outside to take a picture of these funny dash-like clouds...
...and noticed the sunset was mildly pretty...
...I took a few pictures...
...and one had this weird round thing in it. I dunno what it is but it makes the picture more interesting.Labels: Lake
I'm going to have to change my email signature.
Every time I email someone I don't email a lot s/he thinks I'm sending the links specifically to them for a reason, when in truth I stuck the signature on there ages ago and never think about it.
24 January 2011
SPACE HOPPERS in VENICE from bayougirl on Vimeo.
Space Hoppers FTW
Labels: vimeo
I've been on V2.X since it first came out, not because I like it but because 1) I wanted to be able to help noobs, 2) *someone* had to point out the ways it doesn't work for machinima, and 3) because of my physical problems it takes me longer to get used to things (I reasoned) so I'd better just bite the bullet.
It was plain from the beginning that it was carrot-and-stick social engineering at work, so it felt like it would not be going away. I can't know what the LL plans are - they don't tell us, and interpretations of outward manifestations may or may not be meaningful. I am grateful to've had SL as an artistic tool and social place, but V2.X has certainly made my SL rougher and less enjoyable. It has an odd quality of displaying multiples of data that seems sort of mentally ill - like if I wear an outfit then look in my inventory there are bazillions of lit-up links.
V2.X is (sorry Des) fundamentally different from 1.X. It's awful for machinima (my output has dropped by about 90% I think) because of the suppression difference - the UI is not there, not just unrendered. There are some nice innovations (copy/paste, alpha layers, fave landmarks, TP history, and so on) but just about everything is harder and takes more drilling down through menus. These days I use the Starlight skin as it makes V2.X bearable, but negates my "talk to the noobs" plan.
I just ran into another fail the other day - unless I'm mistaken one can't hide selected then suppress the UI. Also, I wonder about the difficulty never before seen with Fraps. Is that Frapicide to do with Fraps or is it to do with SL?
Do you agree? If not, why?
23 January 2011
This excellent Norwegian film deals with the unforgivable.
It's curiously matchy-matchy though; peacock green for water, perhaps.
Scandinavian actors are becoming familiar to me. This has several I've seen in other films, and everyone's acting is quite fabulous.
Notes: Agnes does look like a Blue Mars avatar; Jon is oddly unkempt like a homeless man or something; why was such an old child in a push chair?
Labels: Netflix
Guitar Army
Labels: ewetoob
22 January 2011
Blazing Speed
This just in: SL's ordinary customers have just discovered projected textures (which debuted two years ago, I think).
Just a quick illustration:
I haven't played around with it much - last time I did it was on KLee's viewer a couple of years ago.
Attn Enjah: That white blob is the sun.*
* Enjah claims she never sees the sun in my pictures; I claim she doesn't recognise it.
Labels: Lake
21 January 2011
Wow, this week has been bad, and today was the worst so far. On the plus side a small boy at Frank's told me my T shirt was cool.
20 January 2011
Rod Humble has officially arrived, and has made a fine first impression.
This enjoyable Almodovar film has more going on in it than the next ten films.
Labels: Netflix
Mercifully, Roger Ebert has a prosthetic chin now.
19 January 2011
Self-Portraits Done Under the Influence of Various Drugs
by BrYaN LEwIs SaUNdERs
Labels: Art
It's almost always sad when a LL employee leaves, and the latest is Essbee Linden. I admit that I have never seen her name without feeling sick as subconsciously I associate her with being force-fed V2 propaganda, but even *I* realise it can't be her fault and likely she did more good than I'll ever know.
Good luck, all Lindens past and present.
18 January 2011
Mildly interesting: the old program Coagula, turns images into sound.
17 January 2011
Hawaii, Oslo
It's Leon's birthday. Honestly, someone should be looking out for him.
(Subtitled on Netflix Play Now.)
Labels: Netflix
I went to Al Raqis to take background pictures and had no sooner arrived than I was embroiled in furious role-play for what seemed like ages. It was fun except I was just making things up on the fly and needed to be getting my snaps. Obviously role players are just starved for action.Labels: Combat Cards
This made me laugh: 5.0
Labels: yootoob
Be a good girl and drink your L.S.D.
16 January 2011
Human Age News
We are at war with the Wolves of Asgard. They attacked our allies, and are trying to steal our holy relics.
Labels: HA
I finally managed to attend an Upstage performance - MassMess from Serbia - thank to periodic reminders by Francesco in Italy. There was an audience at the gallery in Belgrade as well as a small online audience from points around the globe. The piece had to do with corporations, climate, and revolution, and ended with everything being sucked down the plughole - which was roundly applauded as (paraphrased audience comment): Everything is better without humans.
I was involved as I'd helped Francesco by giving him a lot of TSMGO! information for his thesis on cyber theatre.
Labels: Live Performance
15 January 2011
History of Gaming from Florian Smolka on Vimeo.
History of Gaming
14 January 2011
DVDs
I was going to get Leaves of Grass but instead opted for Broken Embraces. Leaves of Grass has incredibly spotty reviews - maybe I'll get it next. I just don't want two bad films in a row.
Labels: nedfligs
The sun rose two days early in Greenland, possibly because of the lowered height of the melted polar icecap.
Blue Mars sounds like it's tanking, which is too bad. Although they have a (devastatingly boring) iPad-avatar video and are going for the mobile market in a very limited way (so are still in business), I'm sorry that another VW is struggling to survive. They are willing to change themselves beyond recognition, it seems, in the hope that they can weather their situation and possibly then expand to become a world again. It might happen, although it seems unlikely, but if so the sojourn into shallowness (and its attendant cooties and blingtard mindset) will be hard to shake off.
I'm sure it's changed a lot since I made this 18 months ago:
I Bad, I not do it enny more.
Well, I've always taken great pains to be a mild-mannered forum poster, but even *I* have been "moderated."
Hello,
You have received this email because the content you posted below has been rejected by our moderators.
I hereby dub thee The Wailing Wall.
posted Feb 9, 2010 4:36 PM/me pokes a paper spill into a crack.
Labels: It Came From the Blogorum
13 January 2011
The raised group number we have been waiting for since it was announced has taken place today, and FJ Linden had lots of other news on a blogpost:
Group Limits Raised to 42 Today
In October, we committed to increase group limits from the current 25 up to 40 in the first quarter of 2011. As of today, group limits have been raised to 42! To add groups beyond the previous limit of 25, you must be using Viewer 2.4 (or a more recent version). And if you’re still using Viewer 1.23, or a third-party viewer based on Viewer 1.23 code, then you can add more groups in Viewer 2.4 and they will still be accessible when you switch back to Viewer 1.23.
That said, if there is an unexpected load, then we may need to lower the group limitation to maintain acceptable performance levels across the grid. If we decide to do that, then any Residents who have up to 42 groups will not lose their memberships. But, other Residents will not be able to exceed the new limit.
Group Chat System Will Launch Gridwide By March 31st
We were set to deploy a prototype of the new group chat system in December, but last minute licensing issues were found with our chosen open source library. Now that a solution is in place, we expect to have the prototype available by the end of this month and an industry standard and high performing group chat system available by the end of this quarter.
Performance Improvements When Teleporting and Crossing Regions
As you teleport, or cross regions, all of your avatar data (often a very large amount of data) needs to be processed by both source and destination regions. In order to streamline this process, we are now compressing avatar information, making your teleports and region crossings faster and more reliable. In fact, we’ve found that teleport failures, due to avatar complexity, have dropped 40%. See the graph below for a more detailed view showing how much we’ve shortened region crossing time.
Viewer 2.5 Beta Releasing Soon
We will soon launch the latest version of the Second Life Viewer -- Viewer 2.5 Beta. In addition to more performance and stability improvements, we’ve added enhanced web-based profiles, accessible both on the web and in the Viewer. And, if you wish, you can even connect your Second Life profile to other social identities including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn! You will also have the option in Preferences to choose your first inworld destination from the saved Landmarks in your Favorites Bar. This is very handy when you need to get to a specific destination quickly.
Also, one of the most important new features added to Viewer 2.4 was the auto-updater capability. If you're using Viewer 2.4 or higher, then you won’t be inconvenienced by the notification and download process when we release a new Viewer.
Planning to Implement Significant Grid Infrastructure Enhancements in 2011
We’re planning significant grid infrastructure enhancements throughout the year including technologies to speed server-side rendering (SSR) and server virtualization (web and simulator services). We are also exploring new storage and asset delivery systems. Some of the benefits will not always be noticeable, but they are foundational platform changes that set the stage for rapid performance and scalability improvements. We will continue to keep you updated as we roll out these systems.
I’m pleased with the progress that we made across the platform last year and I'm looking ahead to newer technologies that we will deploy in 2011 to enhance your Second Life experience. As always, I'll be watching for your feedback and thank you for making Second Life such an amazing place.
Morgaine Alter pointed this out on SCmkII - Infinite Family.
"INFINITE FAMILY connects video mentors in living rooms and offices anywhere
in the world with southern African teens who have few,if any, adult role models.
Share your time, your experience, yourself. THE GIFT IS YOU"
I can't process all the disasters and tragedies.
12 January 2011
Anji wrote: "it's staggering for us too. we are well high and dry, it's almost like a normal day to us if you don't put the tv on...but we can't go far and we can't get food (not that we need any). we went for a walk around the tracks earlier and our area has drained away really well. we have visitors with us and were going away but it's all been cancelled and we are doing home activities...lots of board games etc... steve is on holidays so he is not affected by his work in the city."
Labels: Australia
Advertising
Labels: ewetoob
11 January 2011
Google's Chromium blog says:
"We expect even more rapid innovation in the web media platform in the coming year and are focusing our investments in those technologies that are developed and licensed based on open web principles. To that end, we are changing Chrome’s HTML5 video support to make it consistent with the codecs already supported by the open Chromium project. Specifically, we are supporting the WebM (VP8) and Theora video codecs, and will consider adding support for other high-quality open codecs in the future. Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies.developed and licensed based on open web principles."
On the one hand YIKES ===:O but on the other GOOD ;-D since Apple is demanding I buy QuicktimePro AGAIN if I update this time so FU Apple but Also WOW o.O what about Flash? Ogg Theora is kewl and I've worked with it a little, but maybe I'll poke around some more.
Labels: Freefall
The Power of Food
Labels: Department of Bwuhahahaha
My niece and her family are in Brisbane but somewhat in the hills, so although they are *right there* they are all right. When will the rain stop? There are some wild YouTube videos of people's flash flood experiences, including the one of the cars being washed away outside a building (their owners were not there to move them).
Labels: Floods
10 January 2011
Three Minutes
Labels: ewetoob
Ugh, in the near future the USA will be making everyone have a national internet ID, Wall Street Journal says.
Labels: Lake
A NASA fan gets fed up and makes a video:
"I got frustrated with NASA and made this video. NASA is the most fascinating, adventurous, epic institution ever devised by human beings, and their media sucks. Seriously. None of their brilliant scientists appear to know how to connect with the social media crowd, which is now more important than ever. In fact, NASA is an institution whose funding directly depends on how the public views them.
In all of their brilliance, NASA seems to have forgotten to share their hopes and dreams in a way the public can relate to, leaving one of humanities grandest projects with terrible PR and massive funding cuts. I have a lot of ideas for a NASA marketing campaign, but I doubt they'd pay me even minimum wage to work for them. I literally have an MSWord document entitled NASAideas.doc full of ideas waiting to share. I thought maybe, just maybe someone might be able to work their magic for me on that. But the primary point of this post is to vent my frustration with NASA. Sure, they've fallen victim to budget cuts but I honestly think cutting media will seal NASA's own fate. Unless they can find a way to relate to the general public, support for their projects will always be minimal, and their funding will follow suit. A social media department would easily pay for itself in government grants because it could rekindle the public interest in the space program."
Labels: yootoob
I do agree that if politicians, any politicians or leaders, resort to violent-evoking rhetoric the result is apparent first in the nut jobs and whackos of any/no political stripe who are just... lightning rods for bad ideas, and that it's rather important for all of those politicians and leaders to tone it down and be mindful, however THIS made my eyes widen a bit.
That particular politician's base seems to be a bit over the top, as one would expect. All the more reason for circumspection and if that isn't possible, then GTFO.
Not much, but it's pretty.Labels: snow
09 January 2011
A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight? from NPR on Vimeo.
This is great.
Labels: vimeo
A moment ago...
Labels: Lake
Every so often I have to post an oldified image so I can keep track of the kewl online oldifier HERE.That's Enjah and Osprey last summer. My Fidget painting is behind us. We are wearing moth feelers.
Note: That was in July. It is now January and I'm wearing essentially the same garb (different T shirt, same NBN hoody).
Ugh, supposed to be 18F (-8C) for tomorrow's low.
Snow is forecast for the week. Something is dropping from the sky at this very moment, however I think it's rain - at least until the temperature drops. It's ~36F at the moment.
Labels: snow
This type of thing isn't appropriate.Nor are maps with crosshairs on targeted political rivals.
08 January 2011
Reskinning a Combat Cards series for Splintered RockThese are possibles from pictures taken today. It's a role play area, so to me the important thing is to depict the role players.
Will these make the cut? Dunno.
My electricity went out suddenly as I was working on one - annoying. It was pitch black and I navigated by means of the screen on my video camera :-D I could hear the house denizens - always amazes me that people think they have to ring up the power company and hassle then (if that's what they were doing). It was out for ~ an hour. I have two rules. One is non-negotiable: Don't set the house on fire (requires care when you are me). The other is an aspiration: Don't fall down. The first is sometimes at odds with the second (i.e. blow out the candle then attempt to reach the bed without coming a cropper).
Labels: Combat Cards
07 January 2011
Antiquities
Labels: yootoob
Inception Intervention
Two hours-worth of CG movie trailers end-to-end would be more entertaining and probably have a more cohesive storyline. I didn't care about any of these characters at all. The dialogue blew, and the acting was spotty. The snow was grey. The screenwriters had quite obviously been impressed by World Builder.
I was going to say it's a waste but... a waste of WHAT? I always see Leo DiCaprio in a rose-tinted aura emanating from Gilbert Grape, however his current schtick appears unequal to his early work. He does look like Jimmy Cagney now, which is cool (but he probably can't dance).
I'm not saying no one will like it.* I certainly wanted to be entertained, I just wasn't. I erroneously thought it was scifi, so I obviously was a lamb to the slaughter - not my usual way of finding movies.
* If you like it go away.
Labels: nedfligs
New Havok Being Tested
Havok2k10 is on Aditi for basic functionality testing. W00t!
*Taunts Happy Fun Ball*
Perhaps SL should go "free to play" (i.e. no tier) and gain their profits from the increased selling that would result from the influx.
JJ Ventrella
I've always been full of admiration for Jeffrey Ventrella, whose work in avatar movement and A.I. added so much depth to There (before you say, "Depth!" remember A) There was essentially put on ice six months after it opened publically, and B) a lot of the features that There had from the get-go S.L. added much later).
When he arrived at Linden Lab I rejoiced! And then fell back glumly when he left, his project completed but never added to S.L. despite the desperate need. Every so often I poke around his website to see what's new. He's brilliant and productive.
Virtual Body Language
The History and Future of Avatars:
How Nonverbal Expression is Evolving
on the Internet
Now he has indeed written the book on avatar movement.
Labels: Second Life, there.com
Orange marmalade cats rule.
Labels: ewetoob
06 January 2011
Watching Inception
Does it get better? Because so far it's terrible.
Labels: Netflix
The new people have been getting the mail every day! w00t! I wasn't entirely pleased when Mrs. New Person walked in with it, yet it was kind of her to do that. *locks doors*
Supposedly Inception is due from Netflix today. I just noticed that I have a kind of legacy plan no longer offered: "If you switch from this plan you can never go back." I feel like this blog template is like that. If I switch I can never go back.
Yesterday I got out of the shower and Mr Landlord was on a ladder in front of my windows. Haha!
What else is current...
Labels: nedfligs
OIC
I just noticed I uh... have a bit of a black eye.
Labels: Department of Absentmindedness
Mudpie's streaming video had no sound :(
It was excellent.
Pour bien commencer l’année, une soirée de découverte de ce grand classique incontournable en chant, musique et piano, avec les commentaires d’Alain Surrans. Le spectacle est ouvert dans les deux mondes virtuels Second life(tm) et francogrid en direct de la représentation donnée à l’Opéra de Rennes jeudi 6 janvier à 20h00 heure française, 11 am SL Time.
Labels: Opera
Candide's picks of the day:
05 January 2011
Master of the Universe
It only took me a month or so to retrieve my second pillow from the floor and put a pillowcase on it! w00t! Schmokin'!
Labels: Master of the Universe
Seen on SCmkII posted by Ishina:
Video poster says: "Throwing this video from the Columbus Dispatch out there, hoping we can find this talent a place to call home.
UPDATE-1: Many thanks go out to all of you who have been tossing phone numbers and e-mails my way for Ted's sake. I went up to Hudson/I-71 (Columbus) today, but Ted wasn't there. He is going to be on air tomorrow morning on radio station WNCI. I've left my contact info w/WNCI to call/e-mail me on a way to get your enormous opportunities over to him.
I'm going to give him a Trac phone (w/ample minutes) so that he can return calls to all of you.
Hopefully, in some way I'll get in contact w/him. Peace.
UPDATE-2: To all those who have been writing me (as one of Ted's only means of contact), I have learned that the radio station interviewing him tomorrow (1-5-11) a.m. is going to make him a formal offer. Whether true or not, we'll see.
Hope it works out well for him. That was the whole point of me posting this video. I cannot thank enough everyone who was willing to do their part in offering Ted their helping hand.
Whoever lands him is certainly getting much more than a memorable personality; they're getting a great human being as part of their team.
My best to all.
UPDATE-FINAL: Well everyone. You can give yourselves and Ted a high-five. He's being given offers hand-over-fist over the air. He'll be set for life.
My request to all. Whenever you run across a story such as this, don't assume it'll take a life of its own, on its own. It won't. It can't. There are too many other stories that drown out the one before it.
You need to spend time to get that story and its word out to many. If you care, you'll do it.
Keep the faith, pay forward and always lend a hand; even if you're the one who needs it.
God bless Mr. Williams. I'm sure we'll be seeing more of him for sometime to come."
04 January 2011
Predictions
1967 Predictions
1930 Predictions
Hah
Labels: ewetoob, Ministry of Flying Cars and Silver Spacesuits
Stressful Day
Wouldn't've been stressful not long ago, but I just squeaked by today.
Drank coffee.
Tried to unravel some E problems.
Had a 1pm jin shin appointment, creakily staggered in for that.
Needed to do a bit of grocery shopping - a wee bit - barelyyyy made it.
Came home, accidentally hit my right brow on Sha (my car) when my hand slipped whilst I was dredging groceries out.
Hurt a lot.
Rested :|
Ate some cheese.
Slipped and almost did myself some damage.
Rested :/
Fell asleep and was woken up by my mother moving a chair, which made a loud noise on the hardwood floor. She looked sharply at me then left.
Felt warm and fuzzy then remembered she was dead, felt odd.
Staggered in here to see what reply I had to my morning missive.
8pm!
Ugh!
Frank swears this is a temporary rough patch.
Me: I can't believe a word you say now.
Frank: I'm free! I can say anything!
Me: Bwuhahaha!
03 January 2011
Antleg plant blooming
It does it every so often but not at any particular time of year.1993 Ads
Seen on The Daily What.
Labels: Ministry of Flying Cars and Silver Spacesuits, yootoob
Labels: ewetoob
Detroit in Ruins
Labels: Art
02 January 2011
I have lured Enj back into HA! Somehow! Though I did nothing! Already she's hit the ground running, on her way to becoming an alchemist.
Labels: Department of Bwuhahahaha, HA
01 January 2011
Cold, lately. Low 20sF atm.
Kicking off the World Remix Project: Joburg Jam
Labels: yootoob
Bel 'R Us: What to REALLY Do About the Last Dictatorship in Europe
Activist Fitzpatrick says:
Bel 'R Us. All of us should feel ownership for the situation now in Belarus -- it is our own situation in the world -- divided, weak, cowardly, pragmatic -- beaten.
I don't expect any consensus to develop around these disputed themes, but if each person feels that "Bel R Us" they can take whatever big or little step is within their power to get the opposition leaders out of jail and restore civil society.