*Gasp*
Oh, I've thought about this a lot without much hope, but now Qarl has given permission for his alignment tool to be integrated into the official viewer. Please, LL, jump on this quickly.
Qarl continues to rock.
Labels: Second Life
- 26 October 2011
I was startled earlier this evening to hear that Will Wright is now on the LL board. I suppose it shouldn't be a total shocker except it is, but not in a bad way,. There can be no doubt that he is a maestro of virtual reality and his addition seems to be a hopeful sign. He's pragmatic it seems to me, so it's unlikely he'd waste his time, and also likely that he'll have opinions about redirecting SL to position it for greater popularity; I think he can see its value.
Old users, contrary to LL's frequent complaint, would welcome changes that would improve the experience without limiting or reducing abilities. A few old, old bugs are being addressed at the moment, which says much about Rod Humble; he seems to have a workplace more conducive to the accomplishment of actual work. The bvh compiler problems are getting attention, which is amazing. On the other hand bugs get fixed then reintroduced with the next round of code, so we shall see.
The code must be a monster of tangled roots; I've never forgotten how, years ago, a programmer friend who'd looked at the client code referreded to its programmers in unflattering terms. We used to dream of SL2, a fantasy project of a totally rewritten SL we hoped for, especially since years went by when nothing happened and we thought something had to be going on somewhere. But it wasn't; anyway, I digress.
It seems possibly very good that a savvy person like Will Wright sees value in SL and unlikely we'll be forced to eat and go to the toilet as The Sims were required to. It makes me think of my only time using any of the Sim franchise products; it was just when it was first released and all I remember is laying out a city and putting in elevators or something on a very unlovely and crude schematic diagram. How far we've come!
Labels: Second Life
07 January 2011
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
24 October 2008
I was looking for something else and found this old screenshot of the Logathon in '05.Labels: Second Life
16 April 2008
LSL <--> MONO Side-by-Side
Case closed.
As seen on New World Notes.
Labels: Second Life, yootoob
22 March 2008
Nova Albion's 4th Anniversary Parade
Orchestrated by Salazar Jack (thank you!)
Lined up for a second go-round.
Chugging along.
From a helicopter.
ZOMG hit by the tram AGAIN ;D
Labels: Second Life
22 February 2008
The creative director at Sony Home summed things up for me in a way he probably hadn't intended regarding the difference between SL and Home
"Personally, looking at other models, a lot of them are too hardcore, a lot of them are garish in the way they look. I think what we've done with Home is have the best-looking multiplayer world - and actually the most user-friendly that I've seen as well."
...it's not to criticise them, it's just that as a PlayStation 3 online space it was very important that there is a quality bar that we want to hit."
In other words, Second Life is a place where artists can create their own visions, with all the many forms, messiness, experiments, unpredictable things which that may encompass. And Home is built by a company. Not a hard choice in my book.
Labels: Second Life
01 February 2008
I just found this - I had answered some questions posed to me in late December asking what I saw for in the future for Second Life. I didn't returned the notecard with sufficient alacrity so it was not used and was forgotten by me until just now. I didn't answer quite as idiotically as I thought so here is part of it:
I'm not really time-based, so I'm busy enjoying what we have now and just being part of something that is in the process of becoming. That's what is exciting to me - SL is changing in unsynchronised steps that are reminiscent of a human adolescent. The feet grow huge, the knees haven't changed in years, things aren't balanced - because they are changing at different times and integration isn't possible yet. Even the uncomfortable parts are fascinating as it's all part of a maturing process.
It seems to me SL has come an incredible distance in a very, very short time.
As user hardware catches up to the SL requirements things will become easier for ordinary people to join successfully.
There's nothing else even close to SL at this time. I hope they maintain that difference and I trust that they will. We, the residents, are messy and unpredictable. No other company would allow us the freedoms we enjoy here - freedoms that allow abilities which have negative/positive effects so intertwined there's no way to curb one without curbing the other. They have stepped very lightly and carefully - and I appreciate that.
Worlds with fewer freedoms and user abilites bore, and quickly.
I hope some other VR company has the guts that Linden Lab has. I'm not holding my breath, though.
Is there anything in particular that you wish Linden Lab was doing differently?
There are things a long way off that are barely visible on the horizon which will come along in their time. What I feel in the aether is a rumbling and changing that is happening bit by bit and causing upsets. A huge project like Second Life, with its complexity and the almost infinite variety of user hardware has got to be a monster to guide. Every little change affects everything else. Things are ready to be added at different times, or can't be integrated without something else that's not ready. I can see LL responding to user concerns, but not always enough to placate some users. I think a bomb-proof and set-in-stone, unchanging SL would suit some people, and that may happen in the future, but for now it's not that way, obviously. I'd like people to enjoy things as they are - this amazing transformational, creative period - and not mix up the fast-running feeling of time in SL with the passage of real time. I trust LL to know what it's doing.
WAIT! I'd love to see Mount G'al and the Moth Temple lanterns fixed ;D That's what I wish they'd do differently.
Addendum: Obviously the answer or the future lies not with one virtual world but with many. People are always looking for the next big thing, yet, in virtual reality as in life I believe there must be every sort of environment to suit every type of user. If a user enjoys a particular world but grows older and seeks new stimuli, that "old" world isn't then worthy of being destroyed. Its userbase will fall within a certain group and it may fail with people outside that group. That seems normal to me, as too does moving on when your taste changes. This is all very obvious, and I feel silly pointing it out, in a way. As I said years ago the simpler VRs are training wheels for SL. The more complex worlds are places to visit or which might more closely conform to the particular user's desires. People can, after all, be in more than one world. Granted, there's probably always a main one, but exploration and experimentation is good. Right now there's a lot to explore; no one knows what the future will bring and some worlds don't last. Make hay while the sun shines. The "next big thing" is multiplicity.
Labels: Second Life
23 January 2008
Things That Would Make Premium Accounts Worthwhile
1. Inworld Transaction History for Premiums
2. No Inventory limits, but limits for non-premiums
3. Additional group slots for Premiums
4. --still thinking--
Labels: Second Life
11 December 2007
Excerpted from
Collapsing Geography
Second Life, Innovation, and the Future
of National Power
by Cory Ondrejka
"Second Life has become a platform for collaboration and business that bypasses traditional geographic constraints, propelling several key shifts. First, Second Life demonstrates the power of using place within a communications medium, allowing distant participants to leverage real-world metaphors and habits to improve collaboration. Thus, participation no longer depends on a person being co-located with a project or other team members...of National Power
by Cory Ondrejka
Second, virtual worlds lower the cost of learning, a critical driver of innovation. Both amateur-to-amateur and professional training have flourished in Second Life. The emergence of virtual worlds as places to acquire, share, and build knowledge dramatically impact the rate of innovation for all who use them...
A third shift involves the range of impact. Virtual worlds can change innovation everywhere. By creating a culture of experimentation, exploration, and collaboration, Second Life makes radically decentralized approaches, reduced costs, and collaboration across great geographic distance available to those with access. Instances of these powerfully transformative activities exist in both education and large corporations. As the Internet revolution has demonstrated, changing the substrate for innovation has the potential for greater impact than any localized
change.
Finally, virtual worlds will change the alignment of labor markets and the shapes of large organizations, including nation-states."
...and goes on to explain how, etc.
All true, and why Second Life is far beyond any similarly regarded programs.
Labels: Second Life
22 November 2007
What if there were a little private orientation part of the program on everyone's computer - a disconnected SL -where you could learn to walk around, etc., but, of course, not be connected to anything until you desired? That way one could launch the program, become a bit oriented, then connect to the grid. Does that make any sense at all? Like an antechamber or a dressing-room.
Labels: Cogitation, Second Life
17 November 2007
Sanctuary Rock
Midnight ReflectionsLabels: Second Life
Suntory Islands and the rest of the islands in its environs, which shall be unnamed as i forget what they are called.
This building is dwarfed by the rest of the islands.
Big graphic
I'm standing on its fang, not that I'm visible, I suppose.
Classic noob still life #2.Labels: Second Life
14 November 2007
Labels: Second Life
13 November 2007
There used to be a little graveyard in, I think, Sistiana, that I'd visit periodically in my early SL days perhaps because I was in the middle of what seemed an endless die-off of family and friends. There was one in Taber, too, I recall. Yesterday I read in a post about Ginny Talamasca someone's suggestion that a graveyard or memorial park for avatars would be a good thing, even if small, and I agree.
Meltsinyourmouth Steed, Savi Sieyes, Jesse Malthus, Feliciaa Feaver, Ginny Talamasca - and how many more? Many, many, I'm sure.
Labels: Second Life
12 November 2007
Mean Girls
Enj: /me stamps on Os's toeOs: /me stabs Enj... OH SORRY stabslock
Labels: Second Life
11 November 2007
Remembrance Day
The Cenotaph
Labels: Second Life
09 November 2007
Bug
From Higbee by way of Salazar: "When you take in a group of priced objects to inventory and set them back out. It's resetting them all to the price of the last gathered object."
FS: http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-930
FS: Just a warning to everyone. I found out the hard way. The new client has a bug. If you take copies of vendors to drop them later, the new client resets all sale prices to the last seletced prim
I tried it with 1.18.3(5) and it was consistent :( I can't vote on the JIRA as I can't log in anymore, but I certainly would if I could.
Labels: Second Life
06 November 2007
VPRS Featured Location - Dragon Moon
Scuba diver is Enjah :D
Labels: Second Life, VPRS
02 November 2007
Kewl
I tried logging into Europa as there's a Cali network problem, but Europa (which I heard was in Tx now) is all funny and borked - maybe it's not in Tx after all :D I think it looks very cool, though - reminds me* of the Islands of Oceania. I like a reminder sometimes that I'm living inside a machine. As I was camming around two dots appeared near me then all the surrounding sims winked out (Ganymede et al).
The dark spot in this picture is one of Michalius's trees. My gates are there too, and open/shut when touched.
*very, very slightly
Labels: Second Life