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What’s happening on Level 3?

Visitors to Abbotts Aerodrome will notice some dramatic changes to the tower’s Level 3. Since the tower’s construction, that level has been for offices (in other words, completely useless). Starting today, we are tearing out walls, installing crash barriers, and constructing a shiny new indoor air-race course.

What?? Air races… indoors?? That’s right! Tiny airplanes, each carrying a pilot, will tear around the mini track to beat the clock. Picture indoor mini go-karts that fly. By scaling down the size and speed of the planes, the indoor space feels to the pilots like a full-size race course.

Of course, visitors to the 2008 Relay for Life event will probably remember our tiny racetrack at the Relay’s Flying Aces team build, where we had a little racing oval with tiny biplanes. That worked with great success, and was roughly half the size of Level 3.

Soon I hope to hold weekly races. If those prove popular, we can maybe look at holding a trophy series.

But that’s all blue-sky right now. In the meantime, drop by Abbotts and check out our progress on the Level 3 track.

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I want a frackin’ steampunk airship NOW

So this morning, somebody asked me an interesting question. They said, “Cubey,” and then I waited while their hands did that Second Life air-typing animation, and several seconds later they continued, “where the heck is this steampunk airship you keep talking about?” And then they walked right up to me and said, point-blank, “I want a frackin’ steampunk airship NOW!” Then, pulling out the largest hand-cannon I’d ever seen, they blasted me across the sim, shouting “PWNED! LOL!!!1” (Alright, none of this actually happened. I just thought a little narrative would liven up an otherwise dull blog entry.)

Functionally, the airship — or the Merlin* as it will be known — is almost complete. All of the features are now installed, so now we pause and review what we have and break out the spit and polish. Hopefully more polish than spit. Spit-encrusted vehicles are upopular for some reason.

Also, designer Reitsuki is currently refining the model, smoothing the sculpted prims, and adding new features like flags and (this part is pretty awesome) an exterior rack of torpedoes. Yes, you will be able to launch actual torpedoes and send enemy ships to Micky Dolenz’ locker. I mean Davy Jones. His locker.

So keep your eye on this page for news (did you know I have an RSS feed?). I expect we’ll launch Merlin possibly on the second weekend in September, or thereabouts.

*Nope, it’s not named after the wizard. It’s named after the bird.

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Scriptless aircraft, free!

Do you own an airport in Second Life? A helipad? A waterfront in need of a float plane?

As of today, I’m giving away free, scriptless display versions of my line of Terra aircraft. These display models are exactly like my actual aircraft… except that they don’t fly, of course. For that, you still have to buy the real thing.

Included as an extra with my TerraVend package, they were initially intended for aircraft sellers to spruce up their sales displays as they used the vendors to earn a little extra L$. (If you set up a TerraVend vendor next to the display model, you earn a portion of each vehicle sale.)

Inside the TerraVend box, you get to choose either:

  • permanent models, each averaging about 30 prims, or
  • “auto-rezzers” that rez temporary aircraft models.

Since temp rezzers can adversely affect your sim performance, I suggest that you try one or the other depending on which is better for wherever you’re putting them.

Permissions on the models are “No-Modify/Copy/No-Transfer”. So you can make as many copies as you like, but you can’t modify them, resell them, or give them away.

So grab a copy from XstreetSL.com, unpack it, and choose one of my shiny planes, helicopters, or floaty type aircraft. And if you like, set up a TerraVend and earn a few L$.

Get the latest TerraVend package at these locations:

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Steaming towards the sunrise

The Merlin airship is getting close to completion. It has room for four crew (including the pilot), has swiveling cannon, and a torpedo launcher. Ironclad steamship owners, tremble in fear when you see this overhead!

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A little too helpful maybe?

In a note totally unrelated to Second Life for a change, I’d just like to relate how awesomely irritating the “Search” box is in Windows Vista’s file explorer. It just won’t wait until you finish typing your search text before running off and looking. Really, just because I type one letter, it doesn’t mean that I want it to show me everything with that letter.

If Vista search were a person, and I wanted to look for my “resume” file, the conversation might go a bit like this:

(Cubey clicks the Search box.)

Vista: Oh boy, oh boy, we get to do a search! What are you looking for?

(Cubey types the letter R.)

Vista: OK! All things starting with R! You got it! I’ll be right back in five to ten seconds!

Cubey: No no! I’m not done yet.

Vista: Wow, there are over 5,000 things that start with R! That’s way too much. Why did you want me to do that?

Cubey: I didn’t! Here’s the rest of the word…

(Cubey types the letter E.)

Vista: OK! All things starting with RE! That’s a tough one, but I simply love searching! Here I go!

Cubey: No, wait! Stop that!

Vista: (several seconds later) Well that took a long time! And there are still too many.

Cubey: Well if you’d just wait for me to finish typing!

(Cubey thinks a moment, then quickly types “re-install Windows XP”.)

Vista: No items match your search.