Waiting for Baudot

If you wait for newer and faster hardware, you'll wait forever... but I'm inclined to this time. It's not been very long that netbooks using the nVidia Ion chipset have been out--but now, the claim is that there will be systems using the Ion 2 in Q1 of 2010. The Ion 2 will work with the next-generation Intel Atom chips, the "Pine Trail" version.

But on the other hand, the ARM Cortex A9 netbooks will be coming. What to do, what to do?

Another dream coming true?

Another of my dreams may be coming true.

Cyanide Ember has been working on a product called BIGAVS, and from what I see it's the best giant avatar to date. I will be experimenting with it. (If you wish to look into it, head for the Royal Dragon Club and Mall.)

Many, many thanks to Susyn Stenvaag for the news and the link.

UPDATE: There's yet another project underway that looks like it will be better still. Watch this space!

Photo Contest

Over at Big Booby Girls in Second Life, Tenyene Beaumont has announced a photography contest. Check it out.

UPDATE: It's also on Tenyene's own blog, of course.

P.S. I'm a little bummed at LL; submissions have to be of snapshots uploaded directly, so that skill with Photoshop/GIMP isn't a factor... but the SL client has a bug that keeps snapshots from working with shadows enabled, so I'll have to turn it off. Darn it.

A plea to clothiers--"let me wear your coat"

So there I stood in wintry Whimsy, echoed in RL by the drifts of snow and chill winds outside the window, wearing what? A bare-shouldered ballroom gown, sheer fabric, stockings, and skirt open up to there, minimal protection against the cold.

What to wear? I rummage through inventory and find a cashmere sweater and super high-top jeans. There we go...

...or not. The sweater proves to be one of those midriff-baring numbers that might be nice for Indian summer in Florida, but in this weather?

So, to the growing number of clothiers who cater to prim breast users, I echo Roger Daltrey's plea. Make a coat for us, please. I realize there are issues--you can't just take it off; you have to switch a jacket-appropriate clothing texture on the prim breasts for a blouse-appropriate texture, and conversely for putting it on--but think of us out there in the snow, freezing our, um, extremities off! Please?

UPDATE: Tenyene has shown me an example of her adaptation of a mainstream coat, so I will give it a try. I will follow her landmark and hope that my fingers will stay flexible enough to let me do the job. :)

Back in the Shadows Again...

Now that I can run for a reasonable interval, I can do things like explore and take pictures again... and even turn shadows back on. (Thank you again, Laurana!)

Maggie Bluxome recently posted some photos of a new red latex dress that included some taken in the Unintended Water sim, and the flower-laden meadow was too lovely to pass up. That, along with a really nice Windlight full moon preset that comes with the Emerald SL client, and the beautiful and talented Foxbean Liebknecht (think of a young, blonde Anjelica Huston), made for a nice photo.



UPDATE: For those curious about the setting, and for me, because I'll forget it otherwise, it shows up in the listing under Emerald as "Mighty Moon".

Thank you, Tenyene

Today I had the pleasure of visiting EPIC and chatting with its owner, Tenyene Beaumont. She's doing some wonderful things for prim breast users, though I think the office she's set up for consultations with those who express interest in adjusting their bosom is the most wonderful.

(Simulblogging again... sigh. Got to avoid that in the future.)

UPDATE: She has a blog now!

Apologies to Malaise Maladay

Sigh. I finally noticed that in the list of blog links, I misspelled Malaise Maladay's last name. Oops.

It's fixed now. Sorry about that.

Frustratingly short stays

Aargh. Lately I've been unable to stay in SL for very long. The client dies spontaneously, or it starts to use every available CPU cycle and grind down to maybe 4 fps if I'm lucky.

Today after a crash I saw a process running SLVoice chewing up almost all the cycles, so I turned off voice, but that proved not to be the problem.

Does inventory drag performance down? I really should delete a vast number of notecards from Fashion Consolidated and Fabulously Free.

UPDATE: I've updated to the nVidia 195.30 driver, which appears to help some, but the major improvement, for which I am greatly indebted to Laurana Newell, came when I cranked down the draw distance. (Makes sense, because we're talking O(n**3) here, right?) Silly me.

A poor workman blames his tools

I'm surprised at the number of folks I know who are wonderful creators in Second Life but who have, or had, far from impressive computing facilities. You'll remember Cheyenne writing about how for some time Sweetie saw much of the virtual world in gray. Minka Pearl, a prolific creator of clothing for the well-endowed, says her computer is three years old and barely runs SL, and I have a very dear friend and creator of things in SL who I wish I could afford to send a sweet quad-core system to...

Maybe I should try to run SL on my netbook--nah, that's a logical fallacy. Darn it.

A new blog for prim breast users

Don't miss Big Booby Girls in Second Life, a very new (as I type) blog for prim breast users. Cindy Melgund intends for it to become "a place for all sorts of how-tos, news, pictures, tips, and gossip about our gang".

Thanks to Minka Pearl for posting about it!

(Simulblogged here and on Pectoral Virtual Fashion because I want as many as possible to know about it)

Another spike

Recently someone mentioned and linked to this blog on a site called the "Breast Expansion Archive". A spike in traffic here and to my flickr photos has occurred, I expect because of that mention.

To those of you who are here because of that mention, hello and welcome.

Some hope, perhaps?

I came across something in the Alphaville Herald that surprised me greatly.

Analogous to British tabloids' "Page 3 girls", the Herald has a "Post 6 Grrrl" (that's the right number of "r"s, I think). To be honest, I don't understand why anyone not a masochist would volunteer to be featured there, because the near-universal response to each such feature is a batch of insults of varying levels of viciousness.

The latest (as I type) "Post 6 Grrrl", Alessandra Narayan, is a reporter at the Herald, and her appearance was followed by the usual sort of comments, but... what surprised me was a comment of a sort one doesn't often see in big name blogs:

You want to see a really beautiful big busted avatar? Look up Minka Pearl. She is drop dead pretty. This one is trying hard but, Oh my, she is not a representation of the wonderful looks that have been achieved lately in the big busty girl world. But Aless has every right to look the way she wants.

Admittedly, the commenter is not praising Ms. Narayan, who has a nice figure that I'd say is generously proportioned to match her prim breasts, but--to see someone in as widely-read a blog as the Herald refer to any well-endowed avatar as "really beautiful" and "drop dead pretty" is, I'd say, a significant advance.

I hasten to add that I don't mean to discount the lovely compliments I've received in comments here. It's just that prim breast users are, in the mainstream of SL, typically mocked and derided. One can't make much from a sample size of one, but one can hope.

UPDATE: Shame on me for not including a link to Minka's blog, where she models and advertises her limited edition clothing for the well-endowed.

TMA: A Jewish Neighborhood in Second Life

Many times, many men
Took our homes, took our lives,
Kings they were, gone they are—we're still here
—"When Messiah Comes", Sheldon Harnick

As and where I type we're about halfway through the first day of Hanukkah (or whatever transliteration you prefer), so I headed for search and looked for Hanukkah... and I had the joy of discovering The Jewish Store and TMA: A Jewish Neighborhood in Second Life. Many thanks to Beth Odets, without whom these magical places probably wouldn't be.

So I give you a nosh, a little taste, of what I saw. Just to make doubly sure you go, I will say that there's a hilarious cartoon hanging in the air just off the edge of the photo above.

Thank you!

My sincere thanks to Mr. Adzer Thorne, a very courteous and knowledgeable gentleman I met this morning as he was about to give a father and son a ride on a lovely locomotive. I greatly appreciate your kindness and your honesty.

NixiePixel

If you have considered trying Linux, or even wondered what it is like, I cannot recommend too highly reading NixiePixel's blog entry with the admittedly somewhat suggestive title "Taking My Linux Virginity". Go for the blog entry, stay for the rest of the blog and for her videos.

UPDATE: She's in the running for Sexiest Geek of 2009. (And even if you don't vote for her, please go vote down Olivia Munn, whose sole claim to geek fame is appearing in assorted clothing on the putrid obscenity that is Attack of the Show.)

post in Pectoral Virtual Fashion

I was undecided about where to post "On Modesty", but decided on the sister blog. I hope you'll read it and comment.