Do you like sausages? How about pancakes? Sure you do, they’re awesome — especially when you have them together. And through the magic of modern food processing machinery, these two brillant foods come together and are made better when they’re attached to a stick, like Jimmy Dean Sausage-Pancakes on a stick. In fact, all kinds of things are made better by putting them on a stick: pizza on a stick; fries and bacon on a stick; spaghetti and meatballs on a stick; scorpion, seahorse, and silkworm larvae on sticks; and more! As chef and author, Anthony Bourdain, is fond of saying, everything tastes better on a stick.
That things are improved by putting them on a stick holds true in other industries too, including software. Since former Linden, John “Pathfinder” Lester blogged about it back in October, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of putting an OpenSim server on a USB stick. It seems Second Lifer, Ener Hax, has been experimenting with the “sim-on-a-stick” idea for several months now and has gotten to the point where she is now sharing the fruits (on a stick) of her labour with the world at simonastick.com. (Who is Simon Astick? It’s a mystery.)
Today, having a bit of time on my hands, I decided to give Ener’s Sim-on-a-Stick a try, so I downloaded the zip file from simonastick.com. The setup was amazingly simple: you just copy the files to a USB stick (or to a folder on your hard drive, as I did) and run the various components. Within a few minutes of unzipping it, I had a single-region grid running locally, and had logged in and rezzed this cube:
The possibilities for applied use are intriguing. If I can find a way to export my content from Second Life and import it into OpenSim, then there’s a chance that I can take Abbotts Aerodrome and all of my creations with me should Second Life or its economy falter. Because it’s hosted locally, and therefore private, I could use OpenSim for simulations, demonstrations, and presentations for work-related projects.
Sim-on-a-Stick makes OpenSim approachable to an average user. It requires little in the way of technical skills to set up, and it’s completely self-contained so that it can be easily carried with you on your keychain. Everything really is better on a stick.
wow! excellent and hold on – Abbotts Aerodrome? has that been inSL for years? do you have goods for sale? of so (and if memory serves me) then i know of our place!
i’ve not been inSL for a year now, only doing a private OpenSim grid for http://enclaveharbour.com and loving it – having our own dedicated server with an OpenSim hosting is just wonderful (and cheaper than we could lease our own server!)
now for your builds inSL, you’ll be able to export them – i exported several sizable structures (ah ha, tonite’s post! – thanks!) =)
you may need to break them into smaller groups, i did for one but that was alos on an OpenSim version a few back
good luck!! =)
I, uh…I don’t have anything sim-related to say. Just that every couple of years I went looking for Cubicle Dweller, and about a year ago emailed someone with your name–perhaps even you–inquiring as to its status. What I recall receiving in kind response sounded like, “I don’t do that anymore.” Yet here, tonight, I check one more time.
And find you’re out here. I think of CD everytime I think of MindStorms, and that’s more frequently lately since I’m finally going to get my hands on some. Sort of. The low-end stuff (called “Basal Ganglia Breeze” or such?), but stuff anyway.
Which is just my way of awkwardly saying “Hi.”
Cheers,
Daniel
Hi Daniel. Nice to see that you dropped by. I stopped actively writing Cubicle Dweller entries years ago and switched over to writing about Second Life. Mindstorms was a lot of fun. Maybe the brain cloud might be a good place to start. :)