I’ve decided to walk from the Ahern Welcome area to the Waterhead Welcome Area. Walk starts at 10:00am today in Ahern. No running. No flying. No vehicles. No teleporting. No lollygagging.
SL saturates the news media
The week’s big news is that Reuters spilled the beans. Thanks to their new Second Life News Center the entire world knows about Second Life. Orientation Islands are neck-deep in new arrivals, the peak daily usage has jumped to over 12,000, and Infohubs are overrun with newbie avatars.
The other day, I heard a CBC radio interview with Adam Pasick — the new Reuters bureau chief for Second Life. He’s quite articulate, and seems to have a strong understanding of what Second Life is all about — that it is not a game. The CBC interviewer, sadly, completely failed to grasp the concept of a shared virtual online environment, and repeatedly referred to it as “fictional”, and suggested that any news about the Second Life world would be like writing a movie script.
Here’s a tip to anyone in the news media: Second Life lets real people interact as real people in a virtual environment. Events in Second Life are as real as anything on the Web, for example. You might as well claim that Amazon.com isn’t real.
I suppose that, like any new technology, it may take several years for it to gain general acceptance. Until then, it will be a curiosity on the news websites. (But then, maybe news websites aren’t even real either?)
Second Life also hit the Yahoo.com home page with a Yahoo Tech article, which sent another surge of sign-ups our way. Other mentions of SL in the media include Wired.com, as well a host of regional and local newspapers. Sadly, most of the comments on the Yahoo page are things to the effect of “get a real life, you fat losers”. However, most who make those comments don’t know anything about SL beyond the one Yahoo article, and even then they failed to comprehend what they were reading.
Be sure to visit an Infohub to say hello to our new residents. If they want go skydiving, send them to Abbotts. Fat losers are welcome.
New! New! New! ZOMG NEW!
Excited yet? No? I was sure that headline would work. Here’s the part of my blog where I tell everyone about what’s new and upcoming. That used to be a regular part of the blog — once every few weeks I’d post about my latest aircraft or gadget.
Over the last couple of months, however, I’ve been less than productive. If I were to blame something, I suppose I’d blame a combination of my job (I’ll talk about that another day, I guess) and a top secret project in the works.
The top secret project is fabulous, really. I can’t tell you what it is yet, but there’s nothing like it in SL yet. So you’ll have to take my word for it that it’s truly nifty. It also suffers from feature bloat. As Reitsuki and I collaborated on its design, we kept adding to our wish list of cool features, and before too long, it became so complex that — to be totally honest — I don’t know how I’m going to finish it. But finish it, I will. Eventually.
For now it’s on hold so that I can finish up a couple of other ideas. Like the one just released last week — the Terra Wind Rider hot air balloon.
In SL, each region has its own ever-changing simulated wind. It blows in eddies, currents, breezes, and gales. The Wind Rider is designed to drift with that wind, just like a real hot air balloon. You control the burner and air vents to adjust your altitude, and the wind takes you were it will. You can, if you want, override the wind and set your own course.
So that one’s finished. You can find it at my shop or on the web shops, SL Exchange and SL Boutique.
Next up, I’m working on the next generation sport parachute. It should have better animation and effects, as well as some surprise new features. I also plan to create a trimmed-down, less expensive version of it that’s more affordable to new residents. So keep your eye on the Skydiving Center in Abbotts for that one.
After that? Well, maybe I’ll return to work on the top secret project. Or maybe I’ll think of something else. Like an aardvark jet. Or a pancake jet pack. Or something.
Unstick your clogged internet tubes
Here’s a Second Life trick that shouldn’t work, but it does. If a sim loads extremely slowly for you after you teleport, open Preferences (CTRL P), go to Network, and kind of jiggle the Maximum Bandwidth slider.
The result is that it seems to unstick everything. Things load much faster afterwards. It’s as if all those prims and textures were clogging up the internet tubes and jiggling that handle kind of loosens them up enough to make them flow again. (I know that’s not actually what’s happening, but it’s an amusing image.)
I’d guess that this is a bug. Two bugs maybe. First, options in Preferences seem to apply themselves as soon as you click them, instead of waiting for OK or Apply. Second, things should load at top speed anyway, without the need to monkey with bandwidth.
Give it a try. It really works!
I’m not ignoring you!
Logging into Second Life today, I looked at my notecard folder for the first time in months. I was surprised to find a pile of notecarded messages from other SLers. I suppose they dropped a note on my profile while I was offline and expected me to see it when I logged in.
There was a whole pile of them — personal notes, special requests from customers, invitations, general questions about Abbotts — dating back to July.
I don’t understand why someone would try to use a Notecard as a message. If you have something important to say to someone who’s offline, do not send a notecard. The recipient is not notified, and the note is silently saved to the Notecards folder. It’s kind of like the top-secret government warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark — things sent there are never seen again.
If you want to send me a message, please use IM, especially if I’m offline. If you want to send a long message, email me at cubeyterra@cavers.ca. If you absolutely MUST send a notecard, let me know in IM that you sent it. If I don’t see it, I certainly can’t respond to it.
As an aside, another minor gripe I have is people who send me an offline IM saying “HELLO???”, as if I’ve already offended them by not being there. If you have something to say, just say it. My IMs go to email, which I check daily.
Now I wonder how many of these senders I mortally offended that I apparently ignored them.