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  • avatar gör vad?

    Ener Hax 11:58 den 11 mars, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Svara
    Tags:

    Vi kopplade subQuark privata Reaktion Grid nätet till största Reaction Grid rutnät (här ett rutnät, där ett rutnät, överallt galler) och allt som allt gick mycket bra. några skript ebbade ut och jag trodde att alla mina flytta lådor var tomma! de bara tog en stund att ladda (jag gissa examensplugg i hundratals texturer kommer att göra det)

    men. . . ugh. . . suck. . . gnälla. . . Att göra om min avatar hugg, jag vet att det inte är en stor sak, men just ugh. Jag kan inte hitta min högra hud delar, jag förlorade min vänstra strumpa. . . = D

    Det tvingar mig att tänka på hur min "look" skapas och att minska min avatar rendering kostnad (ARC). Jag hade aldrig använt denna info innan men hade en aning om att det kan vara för optimistisk. Jag har inga bling och säkert jag inte använder onda ansikte strålar! ansikte strålar är tunga prestanda Hitters eftersom de tvingar fler skuggor att göras (plus det bara konstigt att ha en ficklampa pekat på ditt ansikte)

    Jag talade med Nickola och Micheil om ARC och jämfört mina värden till sina. nu Micheil finns en hård kärna byggmästare, visste han av skulle behöva göras om när vi flyttade så han bara stannade ett Ruth. Jag tror att hans ARC var 1! Nickola var som en 1 också

    Yours truly med Flexi prim hår med öppenhet, en 63 prim kjol (alla prims är flexibel), och en öppen parasoll har en båge på 2.638! o_O

    Usch! Plötsligt kände jag vilja ha några sl pol dansare med blingie och bullriga skor! (inte att jag döma sl pole dansare, faktiskt, jag känner en viss lång och gothie expert scripter som gjorde det ett tag för att tjäna pengar!) = p

    så ut med transparenta texturer hår (men inte på något sätt förlora Flexi hår) och inte säker på kjolen - icke-flexi-versionen är 600 mindre på ARC, så jag antar att det går för. vem visste att jag var så fåfäng? * inte märker att alla höjer sin hand * = D

    så det är allt bra och även om vi inte är officiellt öppna (lol på Nickola och hålla den på downlow, bloggade hon redan om det som 12 timmar sedan - hon var den första av oss om det flyttade nätet kontroll för att se om allt var okej, Tack Nickola - inte ändra din passion för virtuella världar, är du en fantastisk builder). Du kan kom och besök oss medan vi avsluta alla våra halvfärdigt projekt (och som vi lär oss nya påhitt här). terrängen texturer inte överföra och även subQuark är godsägare, kan han inte ändra dem! lol, har han till mig att göra det som fastighetsmäklare chef (hur konstigt är det?)

    Det har varit roligt att lära sig om så många saker som vi tog för givet i Second Life. och det är verkligen inte Second Life, men jag personligen inte skulle vilja att det är andra liv. Jag har lärt mig många nya saker och min uppskattning för virtuella världar har vuxit med våra äventyr i reaktion grid =)

    reaktionen Grid laget har varit otroligt att få detta att gå så smidigt och jag vill rikta ett tack för att Felix, en praktikant till RG, som var mycket hjälpsam i att göra klart att vad vi behövde setup gjordes till vår belåtenhet

    så in på viktiga saker. . . Hårfärg bör Crayola smultron med en hex av FF3399 och RGB 255, 51, 153. . .

    see ya i-världen och ha kul! =)

    prioriteringar! = D

    • FireFox Bancroft 4:17 den 12 mars 2010 länk

      Ener hon betyder ARC inte en sak, det är befängt felaktigt och innebär inte din avatar mattas din viewer ner.

      http://www.modularsystems.sl/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=EmArc
      Emerald är ARC är lite mer användbar men fortfarande inte korrekt.

      Också hög ARC betyder inte din avatar tar längre tid att göra på någon annans skärm. Jag har sett människor med AC i hög 500.000: s som gör precis lika snabbt som en ARC 5 avatar. Då igen jag har en ganska high-end-system.

    • FireFox Bancroft 4:22 den 12 mars 2010 länk

      Vad LL verkligen behöver genomföra?: ARC för Prim och Scuplty bygger, skulle jag vilja veta hur mycket Rendering en komplex skulpterat grotta bygga är verkligen använder. Hint hint.

    • Zauber Exonar 7:18 den 12 mars 2010 länk

      Det enda syftet att ARC tjänar är ännu ett fall av Linden Lab skylla användare för att avleda uppmärksamheten från sina egna misstag. I detta fall fruktansvärt ineffektiva renderingsmotor i betraktaren.

    • Ener Hax 9:17 den 12 Mars 2010 Permalink

      oh very cool på idén om båge bygger! Jag har sagt människor om hur strukturer har en stor inverkan och detta skulle vara ett bra sätt att se det! hur stor skulle det vara att kunna välja objekt och se en båge typ av värde

      great idea!

  • Pathfinder - en av de bättre killar

    Ener Hax 12:20 den 11 mars, 2010 | 3 Permalink | Svara
    Tags:

    Jag ville inte att någon tro att jag verkligen tänkte Pathfinder är en hemsk person. Det är en sak att kanske vara snobbig (tittar på mig själv - jag är en stor snobb på vissa saker, som gourmetmat och viner, eller är det gnäller?) =)

    det finns en skillnad mellan att vara kall och att vara en tönt. Jag vet inte Pathfinder alls och jag vet att subQuark mailade honom med trevlig artig e-postmeddelanden som en peer och granne (subbie är en fulländad utbildare - han älskar att undervisa, har lärt college i år, var en geochronologist för cirka 10 år -- så han är en verklig vetenskap nörd sorts kille - Hej, är hans hemsida kallas subquark - den kvantmekaniska partiklar som ansågs en gång vara virtuella partiklar av fysiker) = D

    anyway, så SubQ är säkert en inbördes till Pathfinder och har förmodligen talat så många konferenser (även John, Pathfinder har en grundton flera gånger). vem vet, kanske Johan aldrig fick e-post skickas till gmail-konto han listor överallt. men säker John skulle ha sett några av subbie video som presenterade honom förra våren på en Texas konferens? så jag bedömde honom hårt på den, främst cuz subbie är mycket, mycket speciell för mig IRL och jag vet subbie arbetar hårt (som vi alla gör) och det är trevligt att få ett "hej" då och då (jag kan också vara hård cuz Jag är en groda, och vi grodor är elaka människor några gånger)

    så Pathfinder rankas fortfarande som en kall person i mina böcker, men han är också en person som bidragit mycket till SL erfarenhet. och även om jag aldrig träffat honom, hans bidrag till vad som Second Life så speciell. han var i den första gruppen av Lindens som gjorde det verka som om allt var möjligt ISL och att vi var alla i det tillsammans. Jag är ledsen att höra om hur han kan ha fått veta att han slapp gå. om han verkligen fått reda på ett möte, är väl hans chef ett sätt större d1 * # än jag någonsin trodde var Pathfinder (Gee, det är ett konstigt sätt att säga att han är mindre d1 * #) = p

    MEN. . . är det logiskt att Pathfinder är borta, Second Life's vibe har förändrats stor tid sedan Philip blev frånvarande (kanske det är den sorgliga sanningen - Philip inte har passionen stanna ISL - han hade en passion för att få den att fungera, men inte att stanna med den). Det är klart att förra året var den utbildning tryck och att Linden Lab är klar med det, så de är utförda med peeps som Pathfinder

    för oss, finanser tvingade oss att omvärdera hur vi var därinne. subQuark har alltid övat eLearning han gör med den, som använder det som en realtid 3D-programmet (jämfört med Blender 3D eller StudioMax 3D) för att göra video för eLearning scenarier. och jag var där eftersom jag älskar att bygga och Terraform. men med stagnerande tillväxt, det fanns inga fler möjligheter att Terraform eller bygga

    Ungefär som att uttryck om skomakarns barnen har inga skor

    kanske vi plockade upp den här förändringen på Linden Lab too (ener <- bär durkslag och Foliehatt ställa in den Mothership) och det var som spelar in i vårt beslut om att dra ut?

    Allt jag vet är att höra om människor som Pathfinder att släppa talar till den riktning LL går. oavsett hur jag känner Pathfinder, som inte avtar hans bidrag till SL. det enda som stoppar det är LL att bli av med honom. är Torley också gå? Jag hoppas inte, men vem vet? det förmodligen inte vettigt att tänka på Pathfinder någonsin släppa taget

    Jag vill John de allra bästa och tider som dessa leder till bättre saker, även om det verkar som i slutet av världens ATM (åtminstone den virtuella världen)

    Lycka till John och tack för era bidrag till andra lif e

    en gång, gjorde sl erbjuda så mycket lovande och så många möjligheter. detta löfte var tärt lite mer med förlust av Pathfinder = (

    • Nickola Martynov 7:03 den 11 mars 2010 länk

      Jag har länge hävdat (bara be Micheil är öm och böjde öra) att Philip inte avgå så mycket som tvingades ut av en grupp investerare som förlorat tålamodet med storslagna experiment och ville börja mjölka kassako. Du kunde känna att ändra minuten M kom ombord - boende plötsligt blev mindre viktiga än stora INBRINGANDE idéer. Nu är de snabbt vrider SL i en matchmaking site. Söta, men vilket slöseri.

    • Dorie Bernstein 8:10 den 11 mars 2010 länk

      Jag var med om Pathfinder på grund av mitt arbete med drömmar, som grundades av Sojourner. Pathfinder fick SOJ inblandade i Second Life och stött henne i början av Dreams gemenskap, som stöder Stötsäker och Brigadoon Explorers. Han var inte alltid lätt att få tag på, är så upptagen. Men när man fick komma i kontakt? Varm och där i konversationen, utlämning hans råd och expertis i saker. I'ma fråga lite om LL: s ledning nu att de har sagt upp honom. Och wow, gjorde de slut det snabbt! Anmälda och sista dagen allt på mindre än en vecka. Det skulle kunna vara mer än lite mind-bedövande.
      Men, oavsett. Jag är mycket ledsen över hans avresa från LL. Förhoppningsvis kommer han använda sina icke-LL konto för att logga in och besök Dreams nu och då!

    • FireFox Bancroft 11:17 den 11 mars 2010 länk

      @ Nickola, håller jag tala om för folk att M Linden är en Money Man och inte en kundtjänst specialist.

      Först nu har de lyssna när det är för sent.

      Köpa upp och sälja företag verkar vara Mark (M. Linden) Kingdons MO.

  • Pathfinder Linden få bort

    Ener Hax 12:59 den 10 mars, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Svara
    Tags:

    bra, fick skar man ned sin position. även om jag tycker Pathfinder är en total dick (ener håller tillbaka) Det är synd att Linden Lab dumpade sitt jobb. don't get me wrong, även om jag tycker peachfinder är en dusch, han är en smart kille och var nog väldigt bra i sin roll med LL

    från SLED:

    Hälsningar,

    Grund av den senaste omorganisationer på Linden Lab, min nuvarande position
    (Evangelist, Market Development) har upphört att existera. Det finns inga
    alternativ tillgängliga positioner för mig, så om 12 mars kommer jag att lämna
    företaget.

    Jag är inte säker på vad framtiden har för mig, men det kommer förmodligen innebära
    något vid korsningen av online communities, virtuella världar och
    neurovetenskap. Jag kommer att förbli öppen för nya möjligheter.

    Jag kommer att fortsätta att följa denna sändlista, eftersom innovation inom utbildning och
    vård förblir nära och varmt om hjärtat.

    Ni alla gör fantastiska arbete, och jag kommer att hålla sig omkring för att se vad du
    komma på nästa!

    Ta hand om dig,
    -John (tidigare Pathfinder Linden)

    ----------
    John E. Lester
    ####### At gmail.com | twitter.com / Pathfinder

    wow, kanske det är en stor sak att Pathfinder dissed vår egen subQuark. subbie talade vid konferenser vid den tiden och hade skickat ett e presenterade sig som en peer och önskar Pathfinder bäst. och då han skickade en annan när han fick veta att de talade vid samma konferens (en video subbie som användes för att intro Path) men aldrig så mycket som en "Hey" = (

    lol, kanske subbie och jag måste bada mer eller nåt? no LL peeps ( 'cept Torley) någonsin har sagt ett pip (eller en pincett när det gäller asshat M Linden)

    = D woohoo, jag skall avvecklas! (bara excited about my silly båt, har det slags symbol för att inte kunna bara göra något 100% för min egen njutning) =)

    nu att en blåste min Pathfinder packning, jag antar att jag kan släppa den inre raseri (ener <- skyddande av SubQ) och vara tacksam att universum gjorde exakt vad det var avsett för (trots någons lilla rosa vingar tänjer)

    Pathfinder hade svarat tillbaka, skulle subbie ha spazzed (där tror du jag få min spazziness från?) och har en ännu större evangelist för LL. så i det avseendet måste jag erkänna att i Pathfinder, vara tacksam, och säga ett uppriktigt namaste honom - namaste John =)

    Eviile_SB_2000_009 ener plaskar i badkaret - har stor fantasi

    • DreamWalker McCallister 4:45 den 10 mars 2010 länk

      Hmmm, kanske Pathfinder kunde få en spelning som en virtuell Grim Reaper. Jag har en lista med namn han kunde börja med .... * flina *

    • Nickola Martynov 7:40 den 10 mars 2010 länk

      Jag är ledsen att han snubbed SubQuark, men jag tror Pathfinder Linden var ett av de goda. Jag har aldrig träffat honom, men tills din blogg jag hade hört mycket om honom men aldrig något negativt.

      Anne O'Toole rapporterar att han fick reda på att han avskedades då, vid ett möte om ett företag omorganisation på tisdagen, märkte han hans namn inte bredvid någon av jobb och hans chef skulle inte känna igen honom när den tas upp handen. Detta får inte ske till någon.

  • Eville Speedboat closeup

    Ener Hax 1:49 den 9 mars, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Svara
    Tags:

    Eville_Speedboat

    clickie för Flickr som

    evilleSpeedboatV2_001

    Nej sculpties, massor av Tori (???)

    evilleSpeedboatV2_011

    inte skript ännu. . .

  • kärnreaktorer och motorbåtar

    iliveisl 9:54 den 8 mars 2010 | 4 Permalink | Svara
    Tags:

    Här är en bra helg - gör ett kärnkraftverk och någon form av läckra motorbåt =)

    kärnkraftverket är en "mini"-en som subQuark kan använda för sitt miljöprogram (stuff like "se röken från kyltorn, är att förorening?" - nej, inte normalt, är vit rök ånga, bara vattenånga, men det kan vara termisk förorening, blah, blah, blah) = p

    Jag kastade omkring 55 gallon trummor flyter i vattnet och några som är nedsänkt. kanske lite kliché men hey, kommer det att fungera =)

    men båten - nu som vore kul att göra

    Jag älskar reaktion rutnät eftersom du inte har 10 meter gränsen, så jag kunde använda en 20 meter lång torus för den övre halvan av pseudo-modern-retro-fantasy båt Dealio. Det är ganska coolt att skala prims ungefär vilken storlek du behöver och att kunna koppla ihop dem som 256 meter från varandra (inte säker på sträckan men det är så långt) =)

    boatAndNukes_004

    evilleSpeedboat_032

    evilleSpeedboat_027

    • Lalo Teling 10:13 den 8 mars 2010 Permalink

      Sweet linjer på båten! Är det skript?

      Fordon manus skrivna för SL fungerar inte i OSGrid, som använder en annan "fysikmotor" (se, Scotty var fel - du * kan * ändra fysikens lagar!). Vad är läget i Reaction Grid?

      btw, din reaktor ganska cool också.

    • iliveisl 1:56 den 9 mars, 2010 Permalink

      ännu inte på scripting! lol, ska det ta mig en timme bara för att få sitta skript i! Derr på min scripting Skillz = D

      att skript i reaktion nätet, jag bättre låta de som har en aning chime in - Nickola tycks ha ett grepp om den och Micheil har rört till det. DreamWalker är jävlas med andra skriptspråk som en radar HUD / följa-bot och arbetar också på en kamera dolly för machinima

      Tack för de vänliga orden för reaktorn - eftersom jag gjorde det, skulle jag säga ifrån det, jag tror att jag glömde att koppla upp en cool vattenintag att hålla reaktorn sval (hmm, radioaktiva mutationer kan förklara varför människor fötter Bend alla weird) =)

      Jag tror att vi kommer att ansluta till stamnätet denna vecka, trots bara är halvvägs ner på ett dussin saker (jag inser långsamt att vi aldrig kunna göra det med grejer som vi bygger - Vi kanske borde göra en tid förflutit och titta på det i ett år!)

      När vi ansluter, får du gärna komma röra runt, kommer det att finnas flera sandlådor öppen för alla =)

    • Micheil Merlin 6:20 den 9 mars 2010 Permalink

      Jag har jobbat på några allmänna rörelse verktyg för att göra både fysisk och icke-fysisk förflyttning. Förmodligen kommer nu att se om vi kan göra utan fysisk förflyttning acceptabelt. Fysisk rörelse ser i allmänhet mer verkliga men icke-fysisk rörelse är förmodligen mer tillförlitlig. Har lite problem med beräknad rotationer fungerar inte riktigt, eller åtminstone annorlunda än de gör i SL.

      De saker som jag tittar på just nu är för att saker och ting längs en bestämd väg i stället för att köra som en bil ändå.

    • DreamWalker McCallister 4:43 den 10 mars 2010 länk

      Hej Micheil,

      Jag har stött på liknande frågor i RG (min trogna Följ Bot skulle inte följa ... .... Först).

      En tråd jag läst säger att RG fysisk + phantom objekt inte kommer att svara på llMoveToTarget eftersom en viss kod sektion är vanligtvis avstängd som standard i de flesta OpenSim världar (jag har glömt detaljerna, men Google vet). Kanske Kyle och TPTB (The Powers That Be) veta mer om varför det är så.

      För nu kan jag använda llMoveToTarget på fysisk + icke-phantom objekt fin, och jag använder llSetPos att flytta fysisk + phantom objekt. (Jag tror jag sa det rätt).

      Anyways, leka med kombinationer av fysiska (on / off) och Phantom (on / off) vanligtvis gör mig något som fungerar farily bra. (Jag använder phantom ibland att mitt bot från fastna bakom murar, garage, osv ... han går fantom och återgår till mig på efterfrågan, eller när han fastnar).

      Jag är säker på att vi kommer att räkna ut bättre trick genom att gå framåt, eller kanske tillbaka koden kommer någon gång aktiveras för att få saker att reagera mer som i SL? Hittills har jag klistrat SL skript fungerar (oftast) okej som är i RG, med undantag för det här problemet.

      Anyways, you've prolly redan räknat ut! Jag väntar på att flytta (L2V till RG) innan jag toooo galen med min scripties, though. Om jag sa alla ovannämnda bakåt, det är på grund av brist på sömn, p

  • Adventures in OpenSim: The Submarine

    Micheil Merlin 1:16 den 7 mars 2010 | 2 Permalink | Svara
    Tags:

    Så ... Jag har alltid velat bygga en ubåt. Inte riktigt en komplicerad sak säker. Jag trodde jag aldrig tog sig tid.

    Jag stod på en brygga en dag på en av Ener reaktion Grid Sims och bestämde att jag äntligen skulle ta några minuter och piska en sub. Det finns massor av öppet vatten där och jag hade för avsikt att så småningom göra sub puttern runt bukten.

    Så sitter här sub innan du försöker få den att flytta.

    Submarine
    Ubåt vid Alta Sea Peninsula

    För Burning Life 09, hade jag skrivit en väg följande skript att använda för att göra Nickola's clown bil röra sig och även att flyta sin luftballong runt utställningen. Jag hade tänkt använda Loke Ball's Slynergy Commercial Patheditor men behövde lite mer kontroll än Patheditor anges. jag hade använt Patheditor att bygga vägen men skapade min egen väg efterföljare så att jag lättare skulle kunna göra animerade objekt utlösa annat i utställningen.

    Om du är intresserad av Lokes väg redaktör, söka upp honom i SL och kontrollera hans val för var hans butik.

    Så, nu till Reaction Grid sim. Där stod jag med några verktyg ... lol. Jag kan manuellt skapa sökvägen för uppföljaren manus att följa, men vad ont det är. Särskilt om du vill ändra det eller göra mer saker i framtiden. Så, jag skapade ett verktyg väg byggentreprenör att kunna ge min väg efterföljare med. Stigen Builder återstår fortfarande mycket arbete men är tillräckligt långt längs att faktiskt spela in en stig.

    Därefter laddade jag Skriptsökväg efterföljare från SL. Och sammanställt det utan fel. At runtime Men jag stötte på något fel med llRotLootAt och llStopLookAt inte genomförs. Så jag ersatte dem med llSetRot bara för att få saker och ting och se hur sub skulle se ut. Jag har sett några OpenSim blogg anteckningar och det ser ut llRotLookAt har nu genomförts i koden så jag antar att det kommer att dyka upp så småningom som nätoperatörerna anta framtida OpenSim versioner och releaser.

    Jag verkar ha evigt rotationsformade utmanas och allmänhet måste bråka med saker lite för att få objekt att möta den riktning jag tänkte när jag försöker flytta dem runt en bana. Men ändå, skapade jag en liten stig och flyttade ett litet föremål (efter att hitta rätt rotationer) framgångsrikt runt sökvägen. Gått mycket smidigt. Inga uppenbara problem alls. Jag trodde ...

    detta går det riktigt bra:)

    Nästa steg var att försöka göra sub flytta runt viken. Jag simmade ut i viken och placerade min lilla väg markörer för att bygga en enkel bana för underleverantörer att följa. Inspelade vägen, stoppade den i en notecard med några andra direktiv, allt sätts under en kopia av sub, höll andan och sa det till start.

    Ubåt efter första draget testet
    Efter jungfruresa!

    Jag är bara glad att jag hade kopior. :)

    • Ener Hax 1:27 den 7 Mars, 2010 Permalink

      excellent! this is so awesome! Jag menar experimenterande och kreativitet!

      kreativitet är säkerligen en av de bästa uttrycken för vad det innebär att vara människa!

    • Nickola Martynov 6:05 den 7 mars 2010 Permalink

      Man svävar min luftballong, baby. Jag ska hålla ett öga över på min slutet av egendom för de två följ fortfarande försvunna.

  • Sunnygirl besök oss i Reaction Grid

    Ener Hax 7:00 den 6 mars 2010 | 0 Permalink | Svara
    Tags: gjorde sol mode,

    det är så bra att ha sunnygirl Whitfield med oss Reaction Grid. Hon är så begåvad och passionerade när det gäller tillverkning av kläder. Låt inte dessa bilder lura dig, eftersom vår rutnät är privat det inte vettigt att ta tid att anpassa din avatar för när vi går med i resten av reaktion Grid, kommer våra avatarer får spolas

    Sunny kom in för att rådgöra med Ener om hennes butik utrymme och vi gav henne en rundtur i några av de byggen. Det verkar verkligen vilja allting är halvvägs gjort och kommer aldrig alla att få gjort! (Jag håller bäst denna bloggpost kort och komma tillbaka till byggnaden!)

    Sunny rykte i SL är fast och hon har redan blivit ombedd av personer som reaktion Grid om när de kan handla i hennes butik! Hon är också den officiella klädeshandlaren av Ener Hax (oooh, det är som att vara en olympisk sponsor utom utan ringarna, medaljer, ära, etc!) = p

    en av de "signatur" ener saker är parasollet! Jag älskar att parasoll och Sunny gick och gjorde en, komplett med mina initialer! eller är de initialer Enclave Harbour? kanske hon gör narr av hur vi kanadensarna är alltid säger "va?" hmm. . . = D hon också gjort stövlarna signatur motocross för den totala ener bilden! (snap, behöver lite rosa vingar!)

    anyway, it was fun to show her around and we ended up goofing around in the rocket graveyard and she suggested a treehouse! what a great addition (and another project!). the rocket graveyard is a place to play hide and seek and DreamWalker came up with the brilliant idea to add a scripted bot to it that will look for you! that's what it's all about, putting your heads together and pushing the builds

    at Enclave Harbour we are very fortunate to have such talented and passionate people with us. that is true wealth (plus just a lot of fun!)

    sunny_066

    Sunny also joins us as a blog author!

    sunny_028

    nice Ruth pants for the kiddie pool

  • improved SL experience

    Ener Hax 11:12 pm on March 5, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,

    brinda Allen (she has a nice blog btw) commented on the iliveisl blog post about what a membership is worth and brought up an interesting perspective. it's probably obvious to many, but it was a different thought to me. basically (i think) what brinda was saying is that you can't gauge what Linden Lab is working on as far as performance goes. oh sure, viewer releases do address specific bugs and introduce new features, like the internet on a prim thing, but what about other areas?

    as i said before, i don't see a big diff in performance today compared to three years ago

    sim crossings still suck hard

    i much prefer the way they work in Reaction Grid . you hit the sim border and bump against it till you can cross over. so you don't end up way far away and i have yet to ever fail at a sim crossing (now it's hard to judge because subQuark has 16 private sims and there are only 5 of us working on it and it's not loaded with scripts)

    i did see some nice changes in SL  like being able to link further prims together, but i have not seen any performance gains in three years that made me go “wow” . or even any significant changes that made me notice much. i am sure that zillions of little bugs have been fixed, but those were bugs

    i know that it's all still pretty new and all you have to do is look at OpenSim which is still in Beta

    BUT . . . Linden Lab has like 300 paid employees to work on the overall experience (i know it's not all developers, but still, 300 is a lot!). when i think of that and then that there are only 3 people running Reaction Grid, suddenly it seems that SL is severely lacking in being that much better

    now Second Life is better in many ways over OpenSim, but when you take into account 300 versus 3 employees and $295 versus $25 for a sim, well the diff in performance and features is not directly proportional. second life is good, but it's not 100 times or even 10 times better. and remember that OpenSim is mainly worked on by volunteers and that anything OpenSim does can be used by Linden Lab (personally, i think the performance in reaction grid is better and i don't care about no in-world money and i like that it can be used by little kids in school) =)

    the internet on a prim has been in the works in both for a while now and OpenSim already has some of the things working that LL has talked about, like facebook login into a grid. and Kyle at Reaction Grid should have a very nice mobile client out this year

    so back to what brinda was saying – you can't really tell what LL is doing as far as behind-the-scenes hardware and so on (thus the phrase behind-the-scenes!). when LL was ramping up to launch Second Life, the cash expenditure must have been huge! buying hundreds of servers, setting up all the logistical parts, hiring new employees, and so on (is that called burn rate? the spending rate of the $$$)

    since LL is private, they don't need to disclose this info

    nonAdultEner

    non-adult Ener

    so are they still investing at a similar rate into the things that will improve performance? or are they doing things that are highly visible, like the website redesign, which has no impact on existing residents and in-world performance? (and evidently, they think only white women are the worthwhile demographic!)

    during this past year, it's easy to justify trying to survive and LL has been expending money on the website redesign and in buying XStreetSOL
    (i am so sophomoric! SOL!!!)  =p

    doing the Linden Homes seems like a lateral type thing. it doesn't help in-world performance and since i can't seem to ever hit my home sim, i am kind of assuming that the overall experience may be pretty sketchy (read: FAIL)

    oh, and it cost LL some serious paper when they put the Adult policy in place. what a support nightmare that must have been in moving all those people!

    • Cristopher Lefavre 3:50 am on March 6, 2010 Permalink

      Hi,

      I so agree on your long-term observations. It also reminded me of a draft blog post I never got around to finish, so if you are interested, its on my blog now.

      btw, that pic was just a sim crossing from being adult:-)

      Cris

    • Micheil Merlin 12:54 pm on March 6, 2010 Permalink

      The last really good thing that LL did in my opinion, was Windlight. It did slow down textures some, but the graphics were so much better that it was a worthwhile trade off.

      They also deserve credit for cleaning up the ad farms on the mainland. Now if they could only do something about those ridiculous ban lines. Ban lines. Now there's a subject I could go off on. But ban lines are not really LL's fault.

      Within a few months after Windlight, texture performance began to dramatically drop. Things began to worsen from there. Both in terms of LL policy and in SL expierence.

      The overall lag is astounding. And it has been getting worse over recent months at an accelerating rate.

      There are many, many half empty sims. You'd think a half empty sim should not be able to consume all of its frame time but far too many of them do. Most frame time goes to scripts although some sims have a physics component that takes a good share. But the scripts….loaded sims used to have many more active scripts and more script events per second. What I'm seeing is that sims now have much more script time with fewer active scripts and fewer script events per second. What's up with that?

      Ovanpå allt detta får du Viewer 2.0. Och vad kan jag säga om det? Gå läsa bloggar. Du ser om en positiv kommentar till oräkneliga negativa kommentarer och att ganska mycket sammanfattar det hela.

    • FireFox Bancroft 11:57 den 9 mars 2010 länk

      SL 2.0 är inte så illa, tog mig hela 15 minuter att räkna ut var allting är och jag har ett SL-användare sedan 2004. Och dessutom är det fortfarande i beta, vilket innebär LL inte är helt klar med den än så ja den kommer att ha massor av buggar. Människor måste sluta använda beta-tittarna som sin enda tittaren och lita på mer etablerade tittare som den nuvarande 1.23.5 ett eller Emerald. SL 2,0 var inte menat att användas uteslutande ännu. Även om jag gillar att surfa på webben med en prim och Avatar alfa och tatuering tillägg skikt Jag är mycket mer kär i Smaragder funktioner ännu så jag inte helt kan åta sig att använda SL 2,0 hela tiden, men jag hörde på Modularsystems de nyligen plockade upp Snowglobe 2,0 källa (läs: SL 2,0 Källa) Så jag tvivlar inte på några av 2.0 's funktioner kommer att komma till Emerald snart.

    • Micheil Merlin 8:01 den 10 mars 2010 länk

      Jag tycker inte Viewer 2.0. Kan inte hjälpa det. Jag känner trångt och begränsat med det. Det är alternativen tar upp alltför mycket skärmyta, det är mörkt, IM och meddelanden grupp kan nästan gå osynlig.

      Och jag vet en del av min motvilja för det är att det bara ser för cartoony eller något.

      Jag förstår om buggar. Min motvilja mot att det går mycket djupare. Jag hoppas bara att Emeraldized versionen gör den uthärdlig.

      Och jag tänker tillbaka på min barndom och hur detta betraktare är tänkt att vara lättare. Jag hade inga problem med tittaren i början. De saker om SL att du måste lära dig var hur man bygger, hur du skapar skript där alla de bästa freebies var på, att camping för dollar var inte värt det, att du inte bör undersöka folks hus för att folk tycker om dem precis som RL deras hus och du behövs för att bli inbjuden (jag dumt nog trodde allt var där för att utforska), gjorde du inte behöver vän alla du såg, om du försökte skjuta upp något tidigare 512M (eller något liknande) det skulle bara flyta ner (glad att ändrades), du behövde Mystitool eller något annat så att du kan flyga över 300M, etc. etc.

  • vad är ett premium medlemskap värt

    Ener Hax 10:14 den 4 mars, 2010 | 10 Permalink | Svara
    Tags:

    Jag vet vad du får som premie andra liv medlem - en Linden Home (mitt hem sim verkar vara borta? har inte haft möjlighet att träffa de 3 senaste gångerna jag loggat in), rätten att sätta in en nummerlapp (lol eh? rätt att påpeka ett fel!), och rätten till "egen" mark (oops, glömde - och en $ 300L vecka bidrag)

    MEN. . . vad är en premie medlem värt att Linden Lab?

    du vet min åsikt, jag tror inte Linden verkligen ger en råtta's butt om någon utom företag. Jag menar jag aldrig kunde få M Linden bara tweet ett hej. Twitter är gjord för avslappnad convo, så inte få ett konto om du inte tänker prata med peeps! Derr

    och Linden Lab inte bry sig om människor som är stöddig abonnenter och sprida goda ord. när vi startade först, och fram till openspace debaclet, allt vi gjorde var att tala om hur andra liv var det bästa sedan skivat bröd. och det betydde massor av Flickr-bilder (ca 5000 endast sl, alla taggade med andra livet). och med så många som 19 sims, vi var större än 2,4 av den genomsnittliga gården. men även med en nära $ 3k månatlig prenumeration, varken jag eller subbie fick så mycket som en "Hey there"

    Och vad sägs om peeps som Jokay? 4 sims och massor av resurser på nätet för lärare och hon har förmodligen infört andra liv till några tusen människor! någon i utbildning och andra liv känner Jokay. och Linden Lab behandlade henne som smuts cuz hon hade otroligt SLeducation wiki! LL hade till och med berömde hennes arbete tidigare (hon är såå mycket mer älskvärd än jag - omg, skulle jag gå så iväg på dem - men jag är oftast mer franska än Kanada, så är alla gnällig och Pia är bara min natur - don't hate me cuz I'm cranky!) = D

    bra ändå, har det gamla nyheter och jag misshandlad den stackars döda häst till stoft med mina rants (sorry - I kinda få raseri över Jokay något fler än under vår Dealio)

    Så vad är ett medlemskap värt att Linden Lab?

    mycket prat om den första timmen erfarenhet, men att avskaffa Mentorer och göra orientering ö lättare verkligen hjälp med det? Jag föreställer mig att förenkla orientering ö minskat antalet stöd samtal och dumpning av mentorer tillåtet för Linden anställda få i uppdrag att andra arbetsuppgifter snarare än hjälper vägleda oss

    Prokofy gjorde en bra punkt om viewer 2.0 i att det håller trycka grafiska krav sl. Nu förstår jag mycket väl att SL kommer att fortsätta att vara en kraft hungrig app, det är real-time 3D-rendering. Jag vet från mitt Blender 3D arbete som rendering är alltid tungt för alla cpu och vid kort. och Linden måste hålla amping upp vad SL erbjuder för att förbli konkurrenskraftiga

    men jag enkelt inte se en stor skillnad i mitt grafik från när jag började för 3 år sedan (min uber topphemliga alt för företagens arbete är av januari rez datum, men hon blir inte kaka - "Shut Up! tillbaka i ditt hål, slav "- woof, kan jag få allvarliga problem när min avatar har en avatar!) = D

    så för allt arbete Linden Lab säger att de gör för att första timmen erfarenhet, ser du en diff?

    är det något bättre än när man var tvungen att slakta råttor på inriktningen ön med en Segway?

    Kanske är jag missar uppenbar här. . . Vad är du värd att LL?

    från att betala LL $ 100 USD per dag i 2 år till detta. . .

    • David Miller 10:39 den 4 mars, 2010 Permalink

      Okej nu, låt oss ta ett djupt andetag. . . ahhhh. =)

      Ditt konto visar det verkliga värdet på Linden Lab. Många avatarer med pengar som flyter i deras räkenskaper. Föreställa sig vad summan av detta är?

      De medverkar till att vardagen och gör en fin belopp.

      Lägg till din rant att Linden Lab verkar bli hårdare med möjlighet att backa upp och exportera objekt och du har en äkta "inringad trädgård".

      Skydda upphovsrätten är helt klart viktig och fungerar också som en trevlig ursäkt för att slå ner på kreatörer få det sanna värdet av Second Life i andra världar.

      PS - Nice Twitter jab om att få enclaveharbour.com site up! Det säker vore trevligt att ta en ögonblicksbild av gondol! = p

    • Lalo Teling 10:51 den 4 mars 2010 länk

      Jag använder en uppskattning faktor L $ 250 = U $ 1,00 (gör matten lättare, L $ 1000 = $ 4)

      U $ 72 = L $ 18,000
      L $ 300/wk stipendium x 52 veckor = L $ 15,600

      Skillnad = L $ 2,400 = U $ 9,60

      Värdet på ett Premium medlemskap till LL är i L $ vi köper från dem att köpa saker.

    • Mitzy Shino 10:53 den 4 mars 2010 länk

      Faktiskt värt att LL är svårt att beräkna. Inte nog med att du behöver ta i saker som grupp och stipendium, men det finns andra åtgärder också. Premium medlemmar är mer benägna att stanna kvar till exempel, åtminstone tills du verkligen axel dem: P

    • iliveisl 11:15 den 4 mars, 2010 Permalink

      great points! Ja, gör LL mycket av på bara valutaväxling samt provision!

    • Peter Stindberg 4:03 den 5 mars, 2010 Permalink

      ... Som - jag är fortfarande övertygad om - var det huvudsakliga skälet för dem att köpa Xstreet och döda OnRez. OnRez var tekniskt MYCKET avancerat system. De ville Xstreet för valutahandel, men har endast köpte Xstreet OnRez skulle ha blivit mycket populär. Så de var tvungna att stänga ner OnRez att bevara tillgången Xstreet.

    • iliveisl 8:16 den 5 mars 2010 Permalink

      bra punkt på OnRez! och jag glömde att nämna ögonblicksbild / konsistens uppladdningar. de kommer ut till ca $ 90-100K per månad för LL! wow!

    • brinda Allen 11:09 den 5 mars 2010 Permalink

      Ha alts på Hans kan jag berätta att den gamla OIS (råtta sqwishing och allt) var en bättre första timmen erfarenhet. Blue L. tycks tro att det krävs nya invånare för att kunna gå, chatt, befinner sig på en karta, och bära det magiska elden var helt enkelt för detaljer orienterad.
      Jag håller verkligen med alla ovanstående kommentarer ... de tjänar pengar hand över knytnäve. Vad vi inte vet är skillnaden mellan brutto och netto inkomster ... hur tung är den ursprungliga muttern? Hur djupt är SL skuldsatt ... det är alltför lätt att dölja den verkliga siffrorna i ett icke börsnoterat företag.

    • iliveisl 10:07 den 5 mars 2010 Permalink

      utmärkta detaljer brinda! som är lysande att titta på inledande driftskostnader och löpande kostnader (Jag tror det är vad du menar, är det här över mig)

      so they could be investing equally high amounts as in the beginning where i presume costs would be very high or they could be in a maintenance mode. certainly with the past year's economy, they could have been focusing on the “low hanging fruit” in order to make it seem that they are moving foreard aggressively. but a redesign of the website did nothing for existing residents (frankly, it's a bit insulting pandering so obviously to only the white female demographic, imo)

      while the original OI was frustrating to me, i did not realize you were supposed to run over those rats, i was avoiding them and thought i had pretty good segway skills =D

      it (the original OI) did get me some base skills and it's easy to forget how new it all was in that first time you ever rezzed

    • Tinsel Silvera 1:22 am on March 6, 2010 Permalink

      Looking strictly at the numbers, Tyche's last count shows there were 24,436 privately owned sims. You had 19. That's like .00078 percent. No offense but I doubt LL has noticed you are gone. Now if Anshe were to leave, I'm guessing they might notice since she contributes 6% of their monthly income. It's a numbers game. Pure and simple. Don't feel bad though. I have only a sims worth of land. I'm way further down on the decimal scale! {:o)

      Loved the old OI's best. Perhaps because I spent so much time there as a Mentor. They worked fine until that screen tutorial was added. It didn't work half the time. That was the beginning of the end for those OI's.

    • iliveisl 12:00 am on March 8, 2010 Permalink

      i agree Tinsel, indeed, our estate was small on the whole. however, my Scion was financed through Toyota and with $200 a month payments for a company worth billions, they still were able to treat me like i was a customer

      i belong to Ning groups but have never paid Ning anything. on a question, they answered me back in less than a day. so i think LL is lacking in just basic things

      now Jokay, with only 4 sims, was a bigger force than we ever were – she was gold to them, but they pooped on her and there was no reason too. she did not pass herself off as LL and she even had their praise for her resources. yet legal did her wrong, and M even said it was poorly handled

      but that is okay, Jokay has shown us an alternative that fits subQuark much better for a fraction of the cost

  • take a seat, almost anywhere

    Ener Hax 1:02 am on March 4, 2010 | 5 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , enerville ferry,

    for some reason, i am obsessed with places for people to sit and chat. maybe i secretly wish i were Plato, he sat around and talked all day long to his students (how do you write “blah, blah, blah” in greek?) =D

    since Reaction Grid sims are monster in that they can have 256 metre prims and as many as 45,000; it's great to finally add seating to the original Enerville ferry. it was one of the first things i made isl after getting our first sim. even though it is almost Tonka toy looking, i love it very much (i am sappy sentimental like that)  =)

    so it has tons of seating and who knows, maybe some teacher will sit there with a bunch of second graders talking about why sunsets are red or talking about boats – that would be so great to me  =)

    evilleFerry_004

    maybe Micheil can script the ferry to putt around?

    • Peter Stindberg 11:56 am on March 4, 2010 Permalink

      Is it an actualy “vehicle”? How are vehicle scripts in opensim? They are a major pain in SL, and have a lot of limitations.

    • iliveisl 8:34 pm on March 4, 2010 Permalink

      nope, not a working boat =( although our Micheil Merlin is a whiz at scripting, let's see if he has some info *will ask him*

      now Nickola on our sim has a sweet zip line complete with flailing legs. i think that might be considered a vehicle script, it runs very smoothly

    • Micheil Merlin 8:55 pm on March 4, 2010 Permalink

      I'm currently writing some tools to help build paths for things to follow. I have a script to do actual movement that I wrote for Burning Life 09 that can take output from these tools. I haven't looked much at physics in opensim but I know the physics engine is a good bit different. So don't know yet if physics movement is going to work or not. The movement script that I wrote for Burning Life 09 uses physics but I created it to easily adapt to non-physical movement. Non-physical movement just generally doesn't look as smooth as physical movement.

      Vehicles are sort of a mess in SL. I never did much with vehicle scripts in SL other than play with free ones that someone else wrote. Generally the things I did in SL just needed to move something from one point to another or through several points and didn't actually have to be 'driven'.

    • iliveisl 9:44 pm on March 4, 2010 Permalink

      wow! that is fast! thank you for the answer! i trust you a zillion percent on all this stuff (well, actually, i trust you fully on pretty much anything i can think of)

      a following thing! sval! would it be able to handle sim crossings? i would love the Enerville ferry to be brought to life =)

      and i want to build a gondola (just fixed start and stop times). btw, i saw on the RG support site (which you can also use and place tickets on) that things like timers should be set to like 10 seconds. the sims in reaction grid dont have the same power as isl. and our 16 sims are really like 4 sims spread out resource wise. but you are the master at monitoring performance =)

      thank you Micheil! =)

    • Micheil Merlin 10:28 pm on March 4, 2010 Permalink

      lol. sim crossings. They aren't reliable in SL. Sometimes objects just go away forever.

      Anyway, as written, the path follower wouldn't make a sim crossing. But that should be possible.

      Just discovered that llRotLookAt and llStopLookAt aren't implemented. They compile but you get a runtime error. Have to think about that one also.

  • Teaching Environmental Science in Virtual Worlds

    subQuark 9:49 pm on March 3, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , environmental science, ,

    As Enclave Harbour comes closer to completion, it is time to start sharing some of its objectives. Enclave Harbour has several goals and part of its mission statement includes raising environmental awareness.

    This is done by including obvious “green” practices, such as a solar array farm and wind turbines, and subtle practices such as pitchered water and glasses versus bottled water for meetings. Ener is doing a wonderful job of building with a “green” attitude (and a thank you to DreamWalker for scripting those).

    Including such elements in a virtual world setting does help keep environmental awareness in the forefront. However, we also go beyond simply incorporating such things to developing formal programmes to explore environmental science.

    As a former middle and high school science teacher, then later a professor of college Geology and Environmental Science, coupled with a Bachelors in Physical Science (major Geology, minor Chemistry), I am enjoying developing virtual world facilitated educational activities.

    While early in it's development, several learning “tracks” are in the works. One geared toward middle school Earth Science, another to high school as a possible mentor programme, and perhaps a corporate track.

    Let's take a look at a quick example: a fantasy jet.

    For middle school use, you can illustrate that hot exhaust gases cool in the atmosphere and create “contrails”, or condensation trails. You can refer to these as artificial clouds and tie into the water cycle as an example of condensation. You can also introduce the concept of carbon footprints, as well as aerodynamics, lift, and more. As a supplementary exercise, the sky is the limit (pardon the pun). =)

    At the high school level, you can discuss adiabatic change, when a compressed gas expands and loses heat. This can lead to discussions on entropy, jet propulsion, environmental costs both in the air and on the ground (as in avian migratory patterns – interesting species such as the snowy owl of Boston's Logan airport – and the real cost to airport administrators and travelers). Details such as adiabatic change, while not strictly tied to air pollution, are important in environmental science literacy. Apart from keeping air pollutants suspended, condensation trails have long been considered as climate factors.

    The thought being that additional and perpetual “cloud” coverage from daily jet traffic both holds in some of Earth's emissivity (the release of infrared energy from Earth's surface – that energy having been imparted by the sun shining on our planet) and increases the reflection of the sun's solar energy (albedo). This was thought to have been proven when data was collected in the three days that air traffic was suspended in the US after the attacks of 9/11. A difference in daily temperature fluctuation of 1 degree Celsius during those three days was attributed to contrails.

    However, subsequent studies tend to point to natural factors affecting that change. This type of exploration is key to students learning to look at the world differently and understand that science is not separate from our lives, but rather a part of it. And to question science. After all, part of the scientific method is to be open minded - something science is actually somewhat poor at doing. It often takes years for science to make changes (Alfred Wegener proposed continental drift in 1912 yet it was not regarded as possible until the 1970s – I have a National Geographic atlas from 1968 touting the expanding Earth theory for the continental and oceanic plates).

    You get the idea, this one “build” can be used in many ways and serves as a catalyst to expand beyond itself. From simple observations “why do planes leave white trails in the sky?” to term papers discussing any number of details.

    Stay tuned for more information about Enclave Harbour in Reaction Grid !

    L2Vrunway_009

    pretty fly, for an avatar =)

    this post also carried on the subQuark blog

  • a greener world, virtually

    Ener Hax 12:50 am on March 2, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: gre-ener,

    in discussing with subQuark about the direction of his Enclave Harbour (note, i had him get the proper spelling, he has been in the States too long!) he has finally (i hope) found the ultimate direction for his Reaction Grid dealio

    shouldn't that affect all your building and what the other 4 peeps are doing in there?

    well, yes and no. there need to be lots of places to check out (i guess i could throttle back on the self-asserted goal of thinking it needs to be 100% done)

    and i know subQuark well enough to make builds that are flexible (after all, a building can be used for almost anything, imo). subbie wants a place for people to come hang out and experiment without being judged. that's easy to build towards. and make places people can build (sandboxes), meet, explore, chill, and maybe even dance!

    sandboxes – check, uber easy
    meeting spots – yep, chairs, tables, an auditorium, outdoor stage
    explore – Nickola making kick butt learning path & my obsession with fallout shelters & even Enerville resurrected! oh and the Enaxia Art Gallery!
    chill – little intimate spots to sit alone or with a good friend, that's easy
    dance – oh yeah, the Haxor Lunar Lounge lives!!! (just need to make a dance machine!) =)

    so those spots are just like what we had in second life. just spots made for fun and to be easy to use for n00bs and anyone. in second life, two of our spots were regularly used by two diff fortune 500s that held monthly virtual world orientations for n00bs. keeping that on the down-low helped them use quiet places free of distractions

    the same holds true in Reaction Grid. people like these same elements. but, having clearer direction helps fine tune things and with 16 sims, it's easy to add special places to meet these new requirements

    the new thing is creating some environmental programmes (lol, you'll handle the proper spelling or i'll remind you of the hockey win yesterday!) =p

    these programmes will be aimed at middle and high school kids, both mainstream and home schooling and will involve subbie writing workbooks that will be published! he had been approached by the big “O” (not Oprah!) to author a textbook/workbook but the ding dongs at Linden Lab made attribution nearly impossible. just as well, i'd rather see publicity for Reaction Grid than for LL (read: you suck M Linden and i hope Wallace Linden has a google alert to pick up this mention of you – lol, a little pent up rage? maybe, or just a lack of poutine and martinis)  =D

    i don't want to steal subQ's thunder but suffice it to say that i built a lovely little camp fire setting for some teaching modules (hmm, maybe depicting wood being burned isn't such a green thing to do?). oh well, maybe it can be an example of what not to do!

    well the heck with that! i'll just redefine what greener means! gre-Ener?!? yep, it's a gre-Ener build! doh!

    outdoorTeaching_010

    it's a gre-Ener world =p

  • Zen of Ener - Zener

    Ener Hax 12:08 am on March 1, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , zener

    we are so excited to have Micheil over with us. he and Nickola have done a few sl builds together (sl6b & burning life) and he will add richness to subQuark's Enclave Harbour in Reaction Grid. we are grateful to have him join us (being grateful is zen-like)

    Micheil was our sim tester over in second life and evidently he can stretch an OpenSim to its max having crashed one on Reaction Grid last week. but not on purpose ! there are subtle differences between LSL scripts in second life and in reaction grid. and learning those differences can have some extreme consequences at times (thankfully, my mastery of omega and sit scripts don't tear up sims! self-effacing humor – more zen type stuff). he was also one of our first iliveisl residents and that made it even harder to give up the second life estate

    while the iliveisl estate is no longer ours in SL, a little drama still plays out. even though the Ener beaner has no land isl, some peeps still look to the wisdom of the weiner to settle small disputes (that sounds a bit naughty). the secret to that was listening, helping peeps walk in the shoes of the other, and time. most people solve their own issues rather well without intervention, they just need a shoulder to express themselves and often just chatting it out helps them reach balance and compromise (lol, the Zen of Ener – Zener!)  =D

    the only other issue was the last sim transfer that i already blogged about last week. what those peeps need to realize is that reopening a ticket means me paying $295 to Linden (fat chance of that and the heck with any zen towards LL atm). and i already covered the last month of their sim. if they took that $295 plus the $100 transfer fee, it would cost more than just buying a homestead ($395 vs. $375). while it would be great to be given a $1000 credit for $395 by me, i no longer am a part of sl (ahh, zen detachment from the physical world – hmm, that may be a bit of a stretch). i imagine they will think me wrong for this rather than seeing it from my point of view, but i can not change their perception and i know i did very well by them (hello, they got their last month tier free plus bought a sim for the transfer fee!) =)

    i do log in to SL to grab something i forgot, but that chapter is done and yes, i realize it would be nice for me to give even more away than i already have but this pony is tired of being ridden and you can give away free stuff to people all day long (that is not good zen, you should do right by yourself, not at the expense of yourself or of your zen pony) =p

    zen . . . ohm . . . and a smile  =) *ener listens to a lot of Eckhardt*

    that's the zen of the ener – do what is right in your heart, assume the very best of others, and know that you can't control what others think or feel

    if that fails, go to plan B – toss out the zen, toss in the olives and have a nice martini! namaste =)

    micheilJoinsEnclaveHarbour (23)edit

    who's the wooden dude?

  • LL running 8 regions to a sim?

    Ener Hax 7:16 pm on February 28, 2010 | 4 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:

    maybe someone can explain this to me and other blog readers what this means: Mainland Simulators now running 8 full regions

    it seems as if LL is doubling up regions? i always thought one full region ran on one core of the server? so 4 regions to a chip?

    but that post seems to say there are double that amount? i am not techy at all but would love to learn more about this. like in Reaction Grid, they balance out load somehow so that machines are never sitting idle. for LL that is prob not easy to do because of their investment in hardware (i imagine any hardware changes are really expensive decisions)

    • lufpleh 7:23 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      I think LL have a batch of new servers with the equivalent of 8 cores per server.
      I believe its actually only 7 sims on these new mainland servers, the eighth core is spare, used to handle other load/overhead.

    • Nink 7:24 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      The ideal solution would be to run thousands of servers across hundreds of servers. This is the greenest solution and also provides the best performance. To do this you need to introduce technology like hypervisor (ESX) or Hyper-v like reaction grid.

      OH NO did I say Linden needs to look at reaction grids model and reduce the 8000 low end energy chewing servers they run today to a small number of high end servers.

    • iliveisl 8:19 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      hey! great answer! well, we can't all be as progressive! the energy aspect is an important one imo and thank you for pointing that out! =)

    • iliveisl 8:20 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      oh that would make sense. to suddenly drop performance by half would pretty much shut down most of the grid i would think

  • is full perm really full perm

    Ener Hax 2:33 pm on February 28, 2010 | 12 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,

    i read this interesting post and even went off a little about its topic – saving stuff to your hard drive

    there are a lot of misinformed ideas about what copyright and fair use is. so much so that it's hard for even big companies to interpret it properly. for example, ever see how so many people still use “All Rights Reserved.” as part of their copyright notice? well those people are dopes! that has not been part of copyright since like 1930! it means absolutely nothing anymore, but people still place it on their work

    and “fair use”, that's really tough to determine and you are seeing more and more people dropping that notion in order to be a bit safer from legal issues. ever notice on some TV shows how the pixelate out art on the walls?

    basically, if something someone made adds value to what you are selling, you need their permission to use it

    the Empire State building in NYC is it's own copyright. you are not allowed to use it as part of anything commercial. even though it is a part of the NYC skyline. it's like the happy birthday song, you can't use it in commercial places

    or like music, you can't play any radio station you like in a restaurant or bar or hair salon unless you are a member of ASCAP. lol, if you are a professional wedding videographer, you can't film a wedding and record the audio as you film without paying royalties for the music they are playing. since you are selling the video to the wedding peeps, you are doing so for commercial gain, that music adds value (unless it was Michael Bolton)

    it doesn't matter that everyone does this, it is still breaking copyright law

    same happens in Second Life, Reaction Grid, or any online platform. if you were to come to our sims and film with the water tower in the backdrop and then that film helps your portfolio, which helps you secure more prestige, well that is basically for commercial gain. so now if anyone hired you cuz they liked your portfolio, ta dah! it can be argued that your fame is partly based on my incredible (it made George Lucas who he is today) water tower!!! =p

    see my use of George Lucas' name could be argued as copyright violation of sorts. he is a celebrity and as such, special rights go along with his name. if this blog turned me into a millionaire, he could come after me (but as soon as he mentioned Ener Hax in any paperwork, look out, he is going down!) =D

    three years back, i used the term Realtor for an in-world group – iliveisl certified realtor, i think. and guess what?!?! the National Association of Realtors sent me a Cease and Desist order! for real! i felt kind of important for a minute!

    well dumb me, i had not even thought that realtor was a registered trademark, derr – but my ignorance of that fact had nothing to do with the law

    anyway, Ann points to some vague language in the SL TOS that seems to button up this language a bit tighter. to be fair to Linden Lab, there is a diff with what full perm can mean. full perm in SL is not necessarily granting full copyright free use of something but maybe only full use in SL and not outside of it. copyright-free licensing is something peeps in graphic design know well but most peeps never run into needing to know this isl. but with SL, many peeps are creating things and selling them. that's where the real issue comes into play

    as for my water tower, i grant you full rights to use it in anything (lol, this is subject to change – the real way to legally word something, not that stupid “we reserve the right to change this” which is incredibly difficult language to argue in court – court likes straightforward language, if it is subject to change, just say it, what the hell does we reserve the right mean anyway?)

    copyright_001

    hey, what does that mean? Canadian? =)

    • Zauber Exonar 2:39 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      Are you basing this on Canadian or United States copyright laws?

    • Wayfinder 2:41 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      SL third party viewer policies and IP rights security:
      http://elfclan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/elf-clan-daily-blip

    • Zauber Exonar 2:42 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      Quite often, copyright holders overestimate how far their rights extend.

    • Maria Korolov 2:46 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      There needs to be another permission status — one that will allow people to save backups, or move the object to a private grid, or a region on a public OpenSim grid, as long as they don't re-distribute it further.

      If I buy a chair, for example, I would like to be able to use in my office in Second Life, or on my company grid, or a company-owned region on OSGrid. I would like to be able to give copies to my employees, for us on company land, with company-owned avatars. I will pay extra for the right to do this. Hey, it's company money. And we're not in the furniture-selling business, so we wouldn't distribute it further. (If someone at my company did distribute it further — in real world terms, that would be like an employee running an office supply business out of their cubicle, or reselling company-owned software — that would be a violation of their employment contract and we would deal with it immediately. The last thing we would want is a copyright infringement lawsuit on our hands!)

      Today, there is no permissions class that supports this.

      We also need a way to change the creator status. I make an object on company time, while working for my company under a work-for-hire contract, I need to be able to set the creator rights to the company. Otherwise, once I leave, the company won't be able to download it to make backups or move it to other grids.

      In OpenSim, you hack hack the database — but that's not something a normal human being has any interest in doing. In Second Life, you're out of luck. I don't know what companies do who hire designers — do the designers retain “creator” status forever on these objects?

    • AnnOtooleInSL 3:20 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      LL clearly needs to either reword the TOS or give the requested licensing metadata capabilities. http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-701

      The tin foil crown side of me suspects LL wants to eliminate any possibility of an exodus to a better managed venue. But by taking a hatchet to their customers all LL does is increase the odds of that happening. Were people to be unable to take their works with them the one fact of creation life is the next time you build it from scratch you do a better job. And if LL goes too far they might see global content removal orders start flowing in to remove all content ever created by artists that take LL's advice to stop using their service.

    • iliveisl 6:56 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      indeed Ann, i think you are spot on with your perspective. it is a shame, i honestly (and likely wrongly) believe if LL was more open it would benefit them

      but my point of view is from the one of the little guy. i kept thinking that my estate must be enough to be worth a little attention, but evidently, LL plans are more toward corporate use and not the individual resident

      when people like you Ann, take the time to write up a post (and be a well respected sl voice), you would think that LL would value that feedback. can you imagine if you ran a business and had people passionate enough to offer their insight? i'd jump on that and creat some kind of advisory panel

      people like you, jokay, and maybe myself, clearly love sl and want to see it succeed. i am not saying that we have all the answers, but we are also willing to put our money where our mouth is by committing time, money, and passion to SL. it's a shame taht it is not valued, and in the case of Jokay, even punished

      shame on LL for pooping on those that love them the most

    • iliveisl 7:02 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      very good approach Maria! yes, additional permissions and licenses are needed. as you know, we are so frustrated with this that we decided just to make everything we need. now that is in many ways a poor use of our time. our one tree so far is pretty sorry looking! there are far more talented people out there making plants!

      i guess LL just never envisioned a time when people would like to use what they made and bought in other OS worlds. that is certainly changing now and their reaction and ploicies will help determine their success or failure

      so many valuable services are free online and open, it is hard to imagine that becoming more closed would be a good strategy

      i don't pretend to know much about much of this and maybe we are naive in our approach, but we like to share, we love to let the world know the joy we have found in virtual worlds, especially the creative outlet

      btw, if you need office chairs, i have some decent looking ones you can have for free! heck, you can even turn around and resell them if you like. going into it like that, we won't get upset if anyone pirates our stuff =)

    • iliveisl 7:03 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      ahh, that is very true also – it's a complicated issue – as are many things that involve money =)

    • iliveisl 7:03 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      hey thanks Wayfinder! i like resources like this, i'm heading over to read it now =)

      lol wayfinder! no copyright info on your link, but i did like your post discussing how many regions LL may be running on a box!

      http://elfclan.ning.com/profiles/blogs/is-lnden-lab-running-8-sims-to

    • iliveisl 7:05 pm on February 28, 2010 Permalink

      international copyright laws – there are indeed provisions for many diff countries. like the all rights reserved thing. it was language placed into copyright law in 1908 to specifically address Bolivia and 2 other countries

      when it gets to specifics per country, it gets really convoluted and far too complex for me to pretend to understand

    • DreamWalker McCallister 10:11 pm on March 1, 2010 Permalink

      Eeeek, my head hurts now. I think I'll just hire Hax & Hax, Esq. to write me a copyright statement for stuff I make/script. Hmmm, do scripters need to consider stuff that non-scripters don't? Just send me a Bi$LL ;)

      I kinda like Nickola's copyright statement on her blog: http://livingvirtually.wordpress.com/

    • iliveisl 12:17 am on March 2, 2010 Permalink

      Nicki's statement rox! okay, i'll post a lighter topic, maybe you can sit with me some time by the fire =)

  • computer maintenance

    Ener Hax 11:20 am on February 27, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,

    i get asked what i do to run Second Life, and now OpenSim hosted by Reaction Grid , as best as possible. i have a decent pc (nothing crazy gamer-like-gonna-become-a-level-67-merlin with a purple divinity helmet and nekodestructo wand) that i “made” on one of those build-your-own pc sites. it has a two year old NVidia 9600 GT vid card and an AMD dual core 6000+ chip, 3.5 GB RAM, and dual hard drives (7200 rpm)

    i use 2 hard drives with two OSs, both XP. one HD is only the SL, Hippo, and Meerkat viewer and quicktime. it's barebones to only build in virtual worlds

    the other HD has all my crapola on it for doing flash, photoshop, blender, blah blah blah, needed to run my “real” business (which needs external storage drives for tons of pics and video files) * wink DreamWalker* =D

    so the pc is on the old side as far as uber performance but i try to keep it clean and so far it works great! in reaction grid, i get really high frame rates with all the graphic sliders maxed out and 4-8X antialias turned on. frame rates like 30-60! in SL, i get less but it's cuz sl is laggier. with sliders maxed, but no antialias turned on, i get 15-25 fps and it can be less depending on what is going on

    so apart from two hard drives, i try to keep as few programs on as i need (so no loading of games, or stuff i don't use regularly) and i keep all the drivers up to date. NVidia continuous to put out new drivers like once a month . . .

    and i do some simple “cleaning” on a regular basis. on the full HD, i use the anti-virus Avira premium one that you pay for, the paid version of Malwarebytes , and then CCleaner (to clean cache and the registry) and Defraggler (several options for defrag including defragging freespace)

    i can hit Defraggler from the little 80 GB VW-only HD with a shortcut but have to install CCleaner on it to use it. there is no anti-virus on the little HD (i don't use the web from it)

    sometimes i use the free Ad-Aware on the big HD. both Malwarebytes and Avira scan both HDs

    i do full scans about once every three weeks and then do crap cleaner and defraggler once a week. neither one has ever caused any problems. that's about it!

    keep drivers updated, scan malware, clean the registry, and defrag  =)

    any other handy (and easy things) that you do?

    rocket_001

    wow, that is 2 years old!

    • DreamWalker McCallister 2:01 pm on February 27, 2010 Permalink

      Sounds a lot like my SL machine! And I like it when Ener speaks geek girl ♥ (swoon)

      Me = Norton + Malaware Bytes (free) + Super AntiSpyware (free) + CCleaner + Defraggler + SpeeDefrag on quad core Vista machine with NVIDIA 9800GT and 4GB RAM. (yes, i had to dig thru my pc manual to find the spec thingies!) SL framerate is usually 50-65 unless I'm clubbing with blingtargds.

      SL and other games on a dedicated drive, Windows on Drive C, other programs on partitioned drive D. I try to run Vista on a limited account unless I need to install or tweak something as an Administrator (Limited means slightly more protection from the nasties).

      And… online backup from Idrive ( http://snipr.com/ujsdj ) for my important stuff.

      Firefox for 99% of web browsing, with the awesome addons of AdBlock Plus, NoScript, and KeyScramber (the latter 2 have saved me many times).

      I also use OpenDNS instead of my ISP's default lookup settings, since OpenDNS is faster and helps block known malicious sites. And iliveisl RSS feed is the first feed on my toolbar, I check it every day!

      When I tire of the constant cycle of scans, driver updates, defrag, etc… I use my MacBook, where I have Snow Leopard (and XP, just in case) installed. ;p

      whew. sometimes i miss the good ol' days when only stoopid humans caught viruses. is there a Commodore 64 version of SL yet?

    • iliveisl 8:42 pm on February 27, 2010 Permalink

      awesome comment! you should post some g33kgrrrl posts, you know this stuff really well

      btw, every time is see your blog avatar i smile really big! =) it is sooo you! and just really cute =)

      i was talking up Enerbot tonite (micheil and Nicko both in reaction grid)

  • it's fully official

    Ener Hax 1:09 am on February 26, 2010 | 5 Permalink | Reply
    Taggar:

    tonite Ener Hax no longer has a private estate in Second Life. the last sim is gone

    out of the 12 sims of the last year, 9 were full sims, 2 were homesteads, and one was a rare openspace

    the residents stepped up and bought sims and kept it going as a community

    a testament to what sl is really all about – its residents

    and LL really isn't out all that much. of the 9 full sims, 6 stayed in the hands of iliveisl residents and one was bought by a very lovely estate owner who also bought the two homesteads

    the openspace park was a clear goner, it just is not worth $75 a month for 750 prims and a 10 avatar limit

    LL still collects $2,315 a month versus the $2,980 a month – so it's not a huge deal to them (heck, the $2,980 wasn't enough of a deal to ever have M Linden tweet us a measly hello!) =p

    looking back, i am glad that i was able to sell sims to the residents, even though we made very little money on them. the only bummer was the last sim

    a transfer ticket was put in at the same time as all the others. all other tickets went through much faster than the 10 days LL suggests. so i am unsure what the issue was with this one

    i Live Chatted with linden twice about this, once last night and again this afternoon and they had no info on the buyer's ticket for me

    those buyers already got a heck of a deal on their one sim with me paying their last month's tier for them (that was poor planning by me since they lived their the entire time! derr math). but that's how i roll, worried more about the other person (but i still will whine, it's what i do!)  =D

    with the tier being due today on the sim-in-limbo and LL not being able to tell me if the buyer's still had a ticket on there, i had no choice but cancel the sim. i guess i could have paid the tier and then sold the sim for a few hundred, but i simply don't have that in the budget anymore (a sim can easily sell for $500-600, so on paper it would have been $100-200 gain – don't forget the $100 LL takes out as a fee). so it just was not worth the pain in the butt for $100 (or less as i imagine the original buyer's would not have wanted to go from $110 to $500 for the transfer!)

    i feel badly cuz it's a shame to just let a sim lapse, but those peeps now own a sim and can buy a homestead (just like we did when we had 12 homesteads!), it's not my job to bankroll anyone and that is in effect what i did with all the sims we sold to residents. those peeps did not have to fork out USD $1000, only the transfer fee. so i am still very pleased with how it all worked out  for everyone =)

    i wish all sl residents, and especially former iliveisl residents, the very best and much happiness =)

    it's a new chapter for the Ener Weiner and i learned a ton from second life and loved the experience for the most part

    i am in a happier place (albeit maybe a little scarred) and able to build, build, build. that's my true joy isl (in sim lands) and one i share with a small handful of really passionate people that are working on Enclave Harbour with me. i think of them as pioneers with me on Reaction Grid . sure, there are little bugs, but there are bugs in SL too

    thanks Linden Lab, Philip, Torley, my former Mentor colleagues, and especially all the wonderful people that i have had the honour to know as friends in SL

    i am far richer from that than any sim sales =)

    namaste

    SerenityPoint (1)

    some of the fastest & most talented sl builders

    • Cristopher Lefavre 2:50 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      Ener,

      I discovered your estate and great blog just the day prior to your message of closing down your estate. That felt really sad, as it is when great talents leave SL. But, the virtual universe is expanding; and reaction grid looks very tempting. I would love to have a look at your builds there; are they publicly available? I had no luck searching them on the map….

      Anyway, best of luck, and thanks for the really nice blog you (hopefully) will still keep!

    • KrissyMcK 8:01 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      Cristopher,
      Her Sim there is private for the time being while she is setting it up. I hear it might not be long though lets keep our fingers crossed! I am excited to see it too!

    • Ener Hax 9:40 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      hi Cristopher =) thank you for the very kind words! i am not sure it is talent as much as it is just persistence and lots of time

      i would love to say reaction grid is on par with sl, but it is not. not to the casual user. it was so overwhelming for me at first because i was 100% expecting it to be like sl

      but what i have learned,, after weeks of being in it, is that in some ways it is far better than sl. you can't find as much awesome created content, not even close to it. and that is to be expected since there is no easy way to sell and buy stuff

      but if you are into creating everything yours4elf, well it shines like nuts for that! but it took me a while to get to that point

      i guess i fancied myself as a pretty self-sufficient builder in SL, but quickly learned at how much i rely on what i thought of as small details in SL. things like furniture

      i was used to making grand buildings and loved terraforming but now see it was all the little details that really made those things “pop”

      like sofas, plants, laptops, that sort of thing – those things made by others that i would simply buy for a few hundred Linden

      but now that i have come to a place where i understand that if i want a sofa that i will simply build it – i have found greater joy and reward than i experienced in SL

      but it has taken me a while to get there and i am very lucky to have the full run of subQuark's grid to build these things

      yep, soon, very soon – we will connect to the main grid and have sandboxes for anyone to play in. hopefully you will be able to connect with people like DreamWalker who really love to help people explore the possibilities

      i like working with people too but also like to give people plenty of space to discover on their own – if we can achieve a place where people feel comfortable exploring and learning without fear of being judged, then we have done good =)

    • KrissyMcK 2:16 am on February 27, 2010 Permalink

      HAHAHA! You couldn't NOT do good if you wanted too!

      <3

    • iliveisl 9:13 am on February 27, 2010 Permalink

      lol, i am eville! muahaha, i just look nice and sweet on the outside, it's all smoke and mirrors! so tell me more about your saloon? i think it would fit on subbie's grid quite nicely!

  • sl viewer 2.0 thoughts

    iliveisl 5:51 pm on February 25, 2010 | 9 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,

    Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf invented TCP in 1973. if any two people “invented the Internet” it was them

    the term web 2.0 is associated with Tim O'Reilly from a 2004 conference

    Philip Rosedale started Linden Lab in 1999 and Second Life launched in June of 2003

    this week, the LL blogs announced the rich media sharing internet-on-a prim-addition to viewer 2.0

    for sure it's a HUGE addition. accessing flash content (since i am a flash developer irl) opens up tons of uses. wait! rewind!

    it does not open any additional anything actually, just another layer to access it from. it does not add more, just different way to reach it. that does have big value, but it's not innovation

    realtime working on google docs in SL during a meeting is great (just like realtime working on google docs on the web is great). and yep, it will save upload money by allowing google presentations

    i like that the first comment on the LL blog is about a web-based colour picker for a sofa (actually cool that they scripted that so fast)

    is that really more efficient than a menu driven one in-world? yes, you can pick more colours visually from a colour wheel dealio, but maybe that points to a lack of in-world controls and programming limitations currently within SL

    what makes SL great, imo, is the immersive aspect. the shared immersive aspect is great too and that's what viewer 2.0 offers

    imo, the overall experience in SL is not much richer than 3 years ago. yes, i crash less (that in itself is not an indication of a better experience is it?) but sim crossings are still the same, i get stuck in that downward drifting thing. and visually? i honestly can't see anything better except water reflections and maybe the sky. objects still have the same poly count as before, so they are not better looking and don't have more detail

    however, hats off to the developers for creating this mashup but . . .

    38 year old internet + 6 year old terminology mashed into a 7 year old product is not innovation, it is a great addition that i am sure was incredibly complicated to do

    too bad that was not available during second life's hype cycle and media hey day

    this will help with the perception of adult stuff isl

    • Zauber Exonar 10:36 pm on February 25, 2010 Permalink

      Ah, you're a chrome user :-)

    • iliveisl 10:55 pm on February 25, 2010 Permalink

      LOL!!! you are good!!! i tried chrome last year and hated it, but now have been using it for a month and love it! it does seem to freeze some time (makes me feel like i am in-world!) =D

    • Stefan Andersson 7:07 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      Thank you for being a voice of reason in a cacaphony of hype.

    • Peter Stindberg 8:15 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      And people have not even really realized what Pandora's box of privacy concerns was opened with shared media.

    • Zonja Capalini 8:30 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      What Stefan said :-)

    • Ener Hax 9:17 am on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      well it is a big deal for us in virtual worlds but not an advance per se. an example that i like to use somewhat related is Best Buy in SL. importing textures of radios and electronics to create products in the virtual best buy store just did not compare to actually seeing the products in a store or even online

      dell has an in-world factory where you can spec out and order a laptop, but it is not as good an experience as on their website

      now some things will benefit greatly such as education. people that are using VWs for meetings and teaching will enjoy the benefits of this development. atm, many groups where just trying to approximate an online experience with the added depth of the immersive aspect of Second Life

      now rather than trying to convert existing online materials, they will simply be able to access them directly

      a simple example is our own subQuark. he creates video tutorials in Flash because he is adament on including the written text in the video. but when he converts it for use in-world, it's a huge hassle and he loses the text ability when it becomes a quicktime video (yes, new QT does captions, but it's crazy to have to create all the diff formats)

      now his website and resources will be availeble in-world just as they are on the web

      i have started doing some simple video tutorials and it would be great to offer them in-world and not worry about a dedicated parcel and stream for each individual one

      but innovative in itself? Nope. but people will find innovative uses for it and also craptacular uses as well

    • FireFox Bancroft 4:18 pm on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      Quite frankly I like the shared media thing I was able to use xfire to broadcast and stream video of SL from within SL and it was awesome seeing myself playing SL in SL.

    • Micheil Merlin 7:43 pm on February 26, 2010 Permalink

      I find the new viewer sort of constraining. It's prettier and maybe that will keep 1 out of 100 noobs on SL just for another few days. And maybe because so much function is now hidden a layer or more down, the simpler look might be less intimidating to some. Although I think that's unlikely to make any significant number of people hang around SL more.

      One thing that is missing that really bugs me, is the 'spare time' metric. It is no longer on the statistics display. I found spare time to be the single most useful metric related to actual sim activity in that entire display.

      I hope they've addressed the horrible effectiveness of texture caching that we've been inflicted with for the last year or so. I haven't been able to tell yet though. I've spent most of the time trying to find things on the menus.

      It sort of reminds me of going from Office 2003 to Office 2007. 2007 looked nicer. But ways you accessed common functions drastically changed which means at least some initial loss of productivity. And now, 2 years later, I'm pretty sure that I'm not really any more productive with 2007 compared to 2003. And shouldn't that have been the point?

      A couple of the new functions, shared media and avatar transparency, do present new options to people. Those could certainly have been accomplished without throwing the entire user interface in a blender.

      Or hey, how about this. Expert mode and noob mode. Not exactly an innovative idea but one that certainly works well.

    • iliveisl 9:14 am on February 27, 2010 Permalink

      wow, i read more on it since reading your reply and it seems many peeps have similar issues

      great analogy with Word. that stoopid ribbon thing seems to add extra steps and takes up more real estate

  • OpenSim is like the open sea

    Ener Hax 2:33 am on February 25, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags:

    update – this blog theme does not support strikethrough, so red text has been corrected to [] bracketed text . . .

    it's been a good solid 2 weeks of straight out building in Reaction Grid (seems like longer, but all the transfer tickets for the iliveisl estate where put in 14-16 days ago) and here is how i feel about it now

    you may have read a month or so back that when i first started dabbling in it, i found it overwhelming. no textures and none of my “stuff”. and no ability to just go out and buy this or that

    however, now that i have been able to focus solely on this (almost solely, i had to Live Chat last nite and tonite with LL cuz two peeps couldn't get their act together on one of the sim transfers [LL was unable to tell me if their ticket was in order, it now seems it may have been] and the tier is due now, so thanks to those two yahoos [LL giving no info], a sim was just totally lost, great, teaches me to be nice [to trust LL is concerned about others]. anyway, with being just into building and no worries about trying to pull in $100 USD a day, every day – i have to say i love reaction grid!

    but then, i really love building . i can see that if you were into only socializing, you'd get bored. unless you are a teacher or an educator, then i imagine there is lot of opportunity to share ideas

    it's also been liberating to build exactly what i want (or what subQuark thinks he wants!) =p

    rather than looking for say, a bouy, and ending up with one “pretty close” to what i want, i just made my own. and it matches my lighthouse perfectly

    it's a bit like using the same person to create your TV commercials. everyone has their own style and signature approaches. i guess the same is true here. similar textures are used on the wind turbines as in the solar arrays and that helps pull it all together tightly

    don't get me wrong, i absolutely love the variety in Second Life, but there is a lot of just crappy crap crap too (lol, wow, i sound so conceited) =D

    maybe, to me, Reaction Grid and OpenSim are “your world. your imagination.” funny that it's not the SL slogan anymore . . .

    bouy_016

    ding ding ding =)

  • Green Awareness in Virtual Worlds

    subQuark 10:52 pm on February 24, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
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    Ener has been going full speed building up Enclave Harbor in Reaction Grid and doing a wonderful job of it. Not only building, but also project management.

    While humble to perhaps a fault, Ener has been in charge of a few big projects in Second Life for corporations and universities. Running real projects of large scope is something the big Ener wiener does well without getting a big ego (irl too, dealing with sizable budgets).

    Sixteen sims is a lot to build up and with the help of Ener's very good friends and incredibly talented people, it is coming along very well. Nickola is building out two sims to be used as skill building areas (perhaps a “ learning path” will be located there, but her build is so impressive, I am not sure a learning path would offer additional value on her two sims).

    DreamWalker has been working hard learning the subtle differences of scripting in Reaction Grid and brings big value not only to Enclave Harbor but to all of Reaction Grid (and OpenSim for that matter!). One really great example is a script for solar collectors that will sit in a solar farm.

    These follow the virtual sun and will be used as part of our formal environmental awareness programme. “Green” work programmes are popular at the moment and rightly so. However, there is a need for what I think of as a mini environmental course. I taught college environmental science for seven years and always tied it to real world examples. It's funny that in K-12 (I taught 7-12 for 3 years also) and in college, we make it a point to show real world examples.

    So why don't we often do that in the real world? Show the science behind it?

    For example, many corporations do teach some “green” practices with specifics to their work place. And that is wonderful and at my work, we just learned how to set a screensaver for our desk phones. It may seem like a small deal, but imagine the cumulative energy cost of hundreds of thousands of modern phones that have backlit LCD screens on 24/7!

    Our Green Committee was founded by, and is headed up by, Matt Courtland of The Natural Strategy who also consults with us in Reaction Grid for best environmental practices for the hospitality industry. We will highlight these best practices in our Reaction Grid Ener-Gy Hotel & Conference Centre.

    This is actionable information but we often stop there and do not include a little of the science behind it (think of that as a reversal of how we teach in school). If we just add a touch of the science behind these actions we stand a greater chance of creating knowledge that is more widely applicable in our lives.

    Here is an example of what can be a rote task from our school days: the electromagnetic spectrum . That's a mouthful!

    Did you have to memorize the length of radiowaves and microwaves. Maybe even the wavelength of visible colours? If you did, you probably don't remember them and why would you anyway?

    But, if a professor had explained that microwaves are just a little bit longer than the width of those small holes in the microwave door (so that they can't escape and cook your face as you stare in) or that car radio antennas are a numerical multiple of the length of radio waves or that sunsets are red because the wider slice of the atmosphere the sun's rays have to travel to reach you filter out the shorter blue waves, well then you would likely have a frame of reference for the electromagnetic spectrum and see that it is a part of daily life! (Bees see deeper into the blue, or ultraviolet, spectrum than we do and what look like white clovers to us are very deep blues to them!)

    That's what we are striving for as a part of Reaction Grid's Enclave Harbor. Just adding a touch of information to help that new knowledge add richness (dare I say – colour) to your life.

    Here is a simple example referring back to DreamWalker's solar panel script. We have a solar array “farm” where the panels follow the motion of the sun but are also in the shadow of a tall mountain as the sun sets in the west. Community services tend to be located on cheaper land and a solar farm could be located in an area that has challenges like this because of the reality of budgets.

    A classic example of this that I taught in Geology class are the numerous schools, fire and police departments, and hospitals that are built near, or on, the San Andreas fault! The very facilities most needed during an earthquake! Land is cheaper on the fault line.

    see more pics with a click here

    this post also appears on the subQuark blog

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