There's a new SL client out... it teases Linux users by dangling voice configuration before them, but Vivox still hasn't written the required code to support it. (One would hope this gives LL a hint about the advisability of counting on proprietary software, but... we'll see, I guess.)
One thing it does support for Linux is video... and ironically, after all the times I've found myself unable to watch the video that everyone else is watching and presumably enjoying, I was having a hard time finding something to test it on! (Well, I probably could have gone to all the places advertising X-rated video, but decided against it.) Cheyenne came to the rescue, and I was able to successfully watch a very educational video Torley Linden created showing photography tips and tricks for SL in world! Whee!
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
A Roseanne Roseannadanna Moment
Sigh. It looked like things were back to normal. I could see the map. I could teleport. I could see people's profiles. I could see my L$ balance.
But just now, I logged on, and decided that I'd had my fill of Victorian clothing for a while. Gee, the room looks bigger than usual... Oh, no--I was partially Ruthed! "OK...at least I can change clothes," I thought...no, I couldn't. I was stuck in the "loading appearance" limbo. Rebaking makes no difference. Relogging makes no difference.
It just goes to show, it's always something.
But just now, I logged on, and decided that I'd had my fill of Victorian clothing for a while. Gee, the room looks bigger than usual... Oh, no--I was partially Ruthed! "OK...at least I can change clothes," I thought...no, I couldn't. I was stuck in the "loading appearance" limbo. Rebaking makes no difference. Relogging makes no difference.
It just goes to show, it's always something.
Nature red in stamen and pistil...
I was wandering through Apollo at midnight, taking portraits illuminated by the flowers that light up the Apollo night. I was standing by some huge blue flowers and enjoying the peaceful scene, with an insect flying about...
....and then something darted out from that huge flower's pistil, snatched the insect from the air, and returned so that huge peaceful flower could eat the insect.
I shuddered and headed on my way.
....and then something darted out from that huge flower's pistil, snatched the insect from the air, and returned so that huge peaceful flower could eat the insect.
I shuddered and headed on my way.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The Future
(We aren't interested in the Ugly...)
Prim breasts, like other non-standard avatars, are tributes to the ingenuity of SL builders, but they force you to choose between being well-dressed and being well-endowed.
(And then there are the IP issues. Adapting prim breast tops to a standard top, or prim breasts to a skin, will almost always involve replicating a texture or pattern, either by hand, by snapshot, or with a tool that captures textures on the way to the graphics card. Sometime around or before I first entered Second Life, there was a huge brouhaha over a skin which was bought, and then modified purely for the purchaser's personal use. I sincerely believe that falls under fair use, but I expect that any such fair use is something you will have to do yourself rather than commissioning.)
So, we have various factors that combine to make life with prim breasts a pain:
So, what lies in the future?
First, we're starting to see prim breasts made from sculpted prims. This makes it easier to paint them with top-as-texture as standard avatar tops are done. Prim breast makers are also looking into better user interfaces, which is nice.
Major advances, though, will have to come from, or as a side effect of, a change that improves the avatar in general; the "no new features" frenzy exemplified by the "Open Letter" will make it hard to get even a universally beneficial improvement. (For example, sculpted prims make many things possible in SL, not just improved prim breasts. Had LL been petitioned to add some specific new prim shape just of interest to breast makers, nothing would have happened.) I'm not sure what that will be; VWR-1258 comes closest of the proposed changes.
Several times, I've been asked a question that strikes me as the silliest possible question to ask in a virtual environment: "Are those real?" Come on... SL is Strawberry Fields, right? "Nothing is real." (Though come to think of it, there seems to be plenty that people get hung about... ) On the other hand, I've seen prim breasts called "implants," and in fact one prim breast maker calls his establishment "Implant Nation." They have the same connotations--and those connotations aren't good.
Perhaps "real" for SL body image is defined as "achievable with the sliders"... but I've never heard anyone in SL call prim hair a "wig" or "toupee." I think that's because nobody wants to think of herself as wearing a wig, or himself as wearing a toupee. Being revealed as wearing a wig or toupee is a standard comic turn in movies and TV, belittling the person exposed, so in SL you never hear the W-word.
[UPDATE: Looking at the Wikipedia page for "toupee", the discussion page indicates that the page once had a list of toupee-wearing famous people. The list was removed, and some of the discussion concerned possible libel suits over such a list, which indicates just how little people wish to be known as toupee wearers.]
I hope that prim breasts will become unnecessary, that we'll be able to make our figures as we wish and then go shopping, secure in the knowledge that we can buy and wear what we will. That day is not here yet, alas.
Prim breasts, like other non-standard avatars, are tributes to the ingenuity of SL builders, but they force you to choose between being well-dressed and being well-endowed.
(And then there are the IP issues. Adapting prim breast tops to a standard top, or prim breasts to a skin, will almost always involve replicating a texture or pattern, either by hand, by snapshot, or with a tool that captures textures on the way to the graphics card. Sometime around or before I first entered Second Life, there was a huge brouhaha over a skin which was bought, and then modified purely for the purchaser's personal use. I sincerely believe that falls under fair use, but I expect that any such fair use is something you will have to do yourself rather than commissioning.)
So, we have various factors that combine to make life with prim breasts a pain:
- They preclude access to much of the SL fashion world.
- Their custom nature makes it difficult to (financially) justify going into the business of making tops that work with them.
- Prim breast makers necessarily can't devote their efforts to really good clothing.
- To use them effectively, you have to do a lot of your own editing.
So, what lies in the future?
First, we're starting to see prim breasts made from sculpted prims. This makes it easier to paint them with top-as-texture as standard avatar tops are done. Prim breast makers are also looking into better user interfaces, which is nice.
Major advances, though, will have to come from, or as a side effect of, a change that improves the avatar in general; the "no new features" frenzy exemplified by the "Open Letter" will make it hard to get even a universally beneficial improvement. (For example, sculpted prims make many things possible in SL, not just improved prim breasts. Had LL been petitioned to add some specific new prim shape just of interest to breast makers, nothing would have happened.) I'm not sure what that will be; VWR-1258 comes closest of the proposed changes.
Several times, I've been asked a question that strikes me as the silliest possible question to ask in a virtual environment: "Are those real?" Come on... SL is Strawberry Fields, right? "Nothing is real." (Though come to think of it, there seems to be plenty that people get hung about... ) On the other hand, I've seen prim breasts called "implants," and in fact one prim breast maker calls his establishment "Implant Nation." They have the same connotations--and those connotations aren't good.
Perhaps "real" for SL body image is defined as "achievable with the sliders"... but I've never heard anyone in SL call prim hair a "wig" or "toupee." I think that's because nobody wants to think of herself as wearing a wig, or himself as wearing a toupee. Being revealed as wearing a wig or toupee is a standard comic turn in movies and TV, belittling the person exposed, so in SL you never hear the W-word.
[UPDATE: Looking at the Wikipedia page for "toupee", the discussion page indicates that the page once had a list of toupee-wearing famous people. The list was removed, and some of the discussion concerned possible libel suits over such a list, which indicates just how little people wish to be known as toupee wearers.]
I hope that prim breasts will become unnecessary, that we'll be able to make our figures as we wish and then go shopping, secure in the knowledge that we can buy and wear what we will. That day is not here yet, alas.
Monday, July 30, 2007
The Bad
OK... having covered the advantages, now for the disadvantages.
The big disadvantage: clothing. Or to give it its proper emphasis, CLOTHING.
After all the drawbacks of clothing-as-texture I cited, why is this a disadvantage?
Prim breasts are attachments, and SL assumes that all attachments are meant to go on top of clothing. That's fine for jewelry, but not so good for body parts. So far, prim breast makers haven't used textures for clothing; instead they build them from prims. Such clothing and breasts have to be built together in one attachment, because there can be at most one attachment at an attachment point. Thus if you want to be clothed sometimes and not clothed other times, you have three choices:
The mainstream clothing designers need "only" create one texture for a top, and it will work, more or less, on any standard avatar, no matter how the sliders are set. (Only in quotes because doing it well is not an easy task!) They understandably don't consider it worth their while to create over a dozen different versions for a relatively small market.
You should be sure of exactly what you're buying. If your prim breasts don't come with a specially-made top, you have three choices:
All this means prim breast wearers are cut off from the vast majority of the cornucopia of mainstream SL fashion, because many tops won't match up with the specially-made tops. Tops typically require adaptation or editing to match up reasonably with those standard tops they can be made to work with. Sometimes you can't tell whether the standard top will work without putting it on--but by then, you've already bought it.
Other things you should keep in mind:
The big disadvantage: clothing. Or to give it its proper emphasis, CLOTHING.
After all the drawbacks of clothing-as-texture I cited, why is this a disadvantage?
Prim breasts are attachments, and SL assumes that all attachments are meant to go on top of clothing. That's fine for jewelry, but not so good for body parts. So far, prim breast makers haven't used textures for clothing; instead they build them from prims. Such clothing and breasts have to be built together in one attachment, because there can be at most one attachment at an attachment point. Thus if you want to be clothed sometimes and not clothed other times, you have three choices:
- Do without them when undressed.
- Have two versions of the breasts, one clothed and one not.
- Script the breasts so that with a command the clothes can be made transparent. At least one breast maker does this.
- SL has a way of throwing away details as you move away from things. For tops built from prims, this has the startling effect of making holes appear in them when viewed from afar.
- Tops and breasts made in the pre-sculpted prim days have to be pieced together to get the desired shape. The places where the pieces join are just about impossible to make smooth, i.e. there's a slight corner where they meet. SL lighting makes this corner stand out. I would love to see Foxbean Laboratories' "Marie" model with laced top remade with sculpted prims to avoid this problem.
The mainstream clothing designers need "only" create one texture for a top, and it will work, more or less, on any standard avatar, no matter how the sliders are set. (Only in quotes because doing it well is not an easy task!) They understandably don't consider it worth their while to create over a dozen different versions for a relatively small market.
You should be sure of exactly what you're buying. If your prim breasts don't come with a specially-made top, you have three choices:
- Go topless.
- Commission a top.
- Build one yourself.
All this means prim breast wearers are cut off from the vast majority of the cornucopia of mainstream SL fashion, because many tops won't match up with the specially-made tops. Tops typically require adaptation or editing to match up reasonably with those standard tops they can be made to work with. Sometimes you can't tell whether the standard top will work without putting it on--but by then, you've already bought it.
Other things you should keep in mind:
- SL treats all attachments the same way. If, as most residents do, you wear prim hair, you've had the experience of arriving bald and waiting for your hair to rez. Prim breasts and their tops are the same, so you'd bettter have on a standard top to avoid major embarrassment.
- You've also probably had the experience of attachments appearing between your legs when you arrive... yes, it happens for prim breasts, too.
- Adapting prim breast tops to standard tops requires modify permission--and as a practical matter, copy permission unless you like doing the same customizations over and over again and are perfect, never making mistakes you can't undo. Be sure to check the permissions on what you buy.
- Poses and animations assume particular body proportions, and prim breasts are pretty sure to violate those assumptions.
- Clothing isn't all you have to adapt prim breasts to; there's also your skin color.
The Good
About a month ago I wrote an overview of prim breasts intended to be put on a notecard to give out to people. That may yet happen, but in any case I shall post first a list of the advantages of prim breasts, and then a list of disadvantages, along with JIRA entries that might shift the balance. Here, the advantages:
- Prim breasts bypass the limits on breast size in the standard female avatar, which don't come close to accommodating the natural variation that occurs in real life. (JIRA entry VWR-1258 requests that SL extend the size limits on body part sizes in the standard avatar, and I hope you'll all go vote for it, but one has to admit it's probably low on LL's priority list.)
- The standard avatar shapes use relatively few polygons compared with other computer representations of the human figure, so that at the limits, breasts on the standard female avatar look blocky. Prim breasts are built of prims with curved shapes (or more recently, sculpted prims with curved shapes), avoiding that problem. (JIRA entry VWR-1258 also speaks to this issue.)
- The standard avatar has no nipples; they are at best painted on with the skin one wears. Prim breasts have nipples.
- The standard avatar cannot lactate. Prim breasts can include particle generators that allow lactation and scripts to control it.
- Humans usually have two breasts, but there are mammals with more. Prim breasts can be found in sets of four and six for furry avatars.
- Standard clothing, being a painted-on texture, shows its non-realism most severely with breasts. T-shirts look vacuum-sealed to your body, distorting art and text beyond recognition. Straps don't look like they're supporting anything. Clothing for prim breasts, on the other hand, is built from prims, and can act more like real clothing in those respects. (OTOH, JIRA entry VWR-1080 proposes a control to allow standard tops to span cleavage, and again, I hope you'll all go vote for it.)
Plummeting
Perhaps people are taking the advice of the Bee Report and going out into First Life to enjoy the summer (or winter, depending on your hemisphere). Goodness knows with the problems that the Grid has been suffering, sheer frustration may be keeping people elsewhere.
Or perhaps it's just me.
For whatever reason, Google Analytics says that nobody at all looked at this blog yesterday. [Imagine chirping cricket sound effects...] I hope this is just a temporary state of affairs.
UPDATE: It's not just me; Google Analytics seems to be showing no traffic yesterday for many web sites. (Thanks to Jay Harper for the info.) I hope the problem is corrected soon.
STILL MORE NEWS: Google Analytics now shows that there were visitors yesterday. Whew!
Or perhaps it's just me.
For whatever reason, Google Analytics says that nobody at all looked at this blog yesterday. [Imagine chirping cricket sound effects...] I hope this is just a temporary state of affairs.
UPDATE: It's not just me; Google Analytics seems to be showing no traffic yesterday for many web sites. (Thanks to Jay Harper for the info.) I hope the problem is corrected soon.
STILL MORE NEWS: Google Analytics now shows that there were visitors yesterday. Whew!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Random Thoughts
I saw an announcement of a new SL-related podcast the other day, and was immediately reminded of Neal Boortz's explanation of the relative failure of leftist talk radio: that their hosts' assertions can't survive the feedback and questioning that comes from having callers, so they are reduced to either verbal abuse or filtering out callers who disagree--and hence they only succeed in one-way communications media. (I can't quite agree with Mr. Boortz, because that failing is not exclusive to the left.)
Speaking of podcasts... I have falled way behind on podcast listening, and was saddened to see that The Goddess and Banana Show is on hiatus. I hope all goes well with them in First and Second Life, and will be happy indeed should they return to the virtual air.
Speaking of podcasts... I have falled way behind on podcast listening, and was saddened to see that The Goddess and Banana Show is on hiatus. I hope all goes well with them in First and Second Life, and will be happy indeed should they return to the virtual air.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Dancing in Yedo
Lillie Yifu, author of the 2nd Sex blog, is a multi-talented lady. Today I went to see a ballroom she recently created and opened in 22nd Century Yedo.
It's an enormous, breathtaking place... not what you might expect from the name (that of the town that first became Edo as Japanese ditched the ye syllable, and later was renamed Tokyo), but more like a cathedral or the rotunda of a state or national capital.
The picture gives you some indication of the scale; I am dancing there with Susan Usher, who works at 22nd Century Yedo. (I arrived a bit early.) Her elegant hair and dress deserve to be seen, so...
Also deserving your view is the dome, which you only got a taste of in the first picture:
I had a lovely time... enough so that I went back later to dance some more; I was fortunate that my dear friend Foxbean Liebknecht was on the grid, and I got to dance with her.
I will return when I have time... at the very least I want to explore the dome, but I'm sure I will again meet delightful people and have a wonderful time.
It's an enormous, breathtaking place... not what you might expect from the name (that of the town that first became Edo as Japanese ditched the ye syllable, and later was renamed Tokyo), but more like a cathedral or the rotunda of a state or national capital.
The picture gives you some indication of the scale; I am dancing there with Susan Usher, who works at 22nd Century Yedo. (I arrived a bit early.) Her elegant hair and dress deserve to be seen, so...
Also deserving your view is the dome, which you only got a taste of in the first picture:
I had a lovely time... enough so that I went back later to dance some more; I was fortunate that my dear friend Foxbean Liebknecht was on the grid, and I got to dance with her.
I will return when I have time... at the very least I want to explore the dome, but I'm sure I will again meet delightful people and have a wonderful time.
Monday, July 23, 2007
"...and the click of high-heeled shoes...."
A week or so ago, I stumbled across a blog entry that mentioned some nice accessories, one being a click of high heels to replace the standard clump-clump of walking in SL. I left the page up, promising myself I'd return later, grab the location, and get the sound... but things happened, and I couldn't find that web page again!
So... once again I learn to bookmark things right away, and--if someone could point me at that sound, I'd be in your debt.
UPDATE: Many thanks to bcwhittle for his comment! The place to go is Jezebel's, Nyokoland at Baker (138, 148, 39), and it's in a free box that I guess was once labeled "slutty stuff" but is now labeled "sexy stuff". You attach one sound to each leg; beware of other things you might have attached there--I had to move a walk animation override....
...and that done, I proudly took my first walk with clicking heels--on sand, to visit a nearby friend, and clicking all the way... sigh. My friend suggests that Pele does something to the sand near her temple. :)
P.S. I was going to title this entry "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys," but decided on what I thought a more apt quote.
So... once again I learn to bookmark things right away, and--if someone could point me at that sound, I'd be in your debt.
UPDATE: Many thanks to bcwhittle for his comment! The place to go is Jezebel's, Nyokoland at Baker (138, 148, 39), and it's in a free box that I guess was once labeled "slutty stuff" but is now labeled "sexy stuff". You attach one sound to each leg; beware of other things you might have attached there--I had to move a walk animation override....
...and that done, I proudly took my first walk with clicking heels--on sand, to visit a nearby friend, and clicking all the way... sigh. My friend suggests that Pele does something to the sand near her temple. :)
P.S. I was going to title this entry "The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys," but decided on what I thought a more apt quote.
Idling?
I have a little system monitor applet running on the panel, and when the SL client is running, the CPU meter is always maxed out. I understand that the SL client is necessarily CPU-intensive, but OTOH, have you noticed this? When the client first starts up and is waiting for you to decide to either sign on, change where you will first appear, or quit, in theory, the SL client should be sitting there, doing nothing, queued up for either a mouse click or typed input--but at that moment, the CPU meter is still maxed out! What on earth is it doing to chew up all those CPU cycles while waiting on you?
Well, this morning, once logged on, I had to go away for a bit, so I clicked on the "show away"... and my avatar went limp. The CPU usage didn't budge... but then I minimized the SL window. Then CPU usage dropped to near zero.
So... that's what it takes. Minimize your SL client window to really idle the SL client.
Well, this morning, once logged on, I had to go away for a bit, so I clicked on the "show away"... and my avatar went limp. The CPU usage didn't budge... but then I minimized the SL window. Then CPU usage dropped to near zero.
So... that's what it takes. Minimize your SL client window to really idle the SL client.
"Starry, starry night..."
In a recent Linden blog entry, Torley Linden mentions and links to an amazing machinima by Robbie Dingo, Watch the World. Mr. Dingo's blog entry has several versions at different resolutions; the highest quality version is 97.6 MB, and worth every single byte.
Every once in a while, it's important to rise above the kvetching and remind yourself of what (second) life can be. I urge you to watch Mr. Dingo's work.
Every once in a while, it's important to rise above the kvetching and remind yourself of what (second) life can be. I urge you to watch Mr. Dingo's work.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
"You spin me right round, baby, right round..."
I tend to think of alt-mouse as being used to pan... but it's more than that. What it really does is fix your POV on an object, so that you track it if it moves. (You can't directly alt-mouse into the sky--there's nothing there to fix your gaze on, SL thinks.) Every once in a while I happen to fix my gaze on someone rather than something, and then I am startled when that person heads out the door. :)
I think I've learned better, and what finally drove the lesson home was a contest I went to a while back, for best masked costume. (I had to go get a mask, and I thought I looked pretty good in it with the luna moth wings and pale green Empire dress. I didn't win--pout--but I did come out ahead after a couple of fortunate iterations of the low-stakes sploder.)
The contest took place at a club with dancing... and with dancers. They were kind of off to one corner, so I didn't notice them until someone mentioned them. I was curious, so... alt-mouse to the rescue. "Ah, there they are," I thought, and admired their lovely costumes...until I noticed the room slowly churning in the background, and my RL dinner gently called for my attention from its location in my RL stomach. They were dancing on a rotating dance floor, and from my position off that dance floor, I got to see the room move at a varying rate of speed.
Since then, I'm a bit more careful with alt-mouse...
I think I've learned better, and what finally drove the lesson home was a contest I went to a while back, for best masked costume. (I had to go get a mask, and I thought I looked pretty good in it with the luna moth wings and pale green Empire dress. I didn't win--pout--but I did come out ahead after a couple of fortunate iterations of the low-stakes sploder.)
The contest took place at a club with dancing... and with dancers. They were kind of off to one corner, so I didn't notice them until someone mentioned them. I was curious, so... alt-mouse to the rescue. "Ah, there they are," I thought, and admired their lovely costumes...until I noticed the room slowly churning in the background, and my RL dinner gently called for my attention from its location in my RL stomach. They were dancing on a rotating dance floor, and from my position off that dance floor, I got to see the room move at a varying rate of speed.
Since then, I'm a bit more careful with alt-mouse...
Sunday, July 15, 2007
ECCE POTENTIA CASEI
One of the things Google Analytics tells you is how people get to your web site... if you're serious about such things, it can let you know perhaps what people who visit are interested in. In particular, Google Analytics can tell you what people who went to your site as a result of a search (on Google, presumably...) were looking for.
So... I can tell you how most people got here via Google, and the results are pretty consistent over time. You might think you know, given what I tend to go on about, but in fact, the big search phrase to get to my blog is this:
Yes... I have the #2 and #3 Google hits for "cheesy phrases". (That's because I changed the blog title to use a real "curly quote" for "Livin'" rather than being lazy and leaving it as good old U+0027 APOSTROPHE, and Google thinks the old and new versions are different.)
I haven't returned to that subject... but with these results, maybe I should. We could cast our net farther afield: I am not among those who are perpetually griping about bugs in SL and what I see as LL's misguided priorities (OK, with one exception), so some might think me a Pollyanna; I could post something about "La deuxième vie en rose" (forgive me, Edith!).
Actually, the distribution at least starts out pretty flat, so it's not like you all just love me for my cheese *sob*, but I was still very surprised... and I had to take the following picture at the wonderful food and wine shop CAS:
UPDATE: Both "potentia" and "potestas" translate as "power" in online dictionaries I've seen; both, of course, come from potere (hence Spanish poder), only the abstract noun suffixes are changed to protect the innocent. Would love to hear from anyone more schooled in the classics which one Latin speakers would really use.
So... I can tell you how most people got here via Google, and the results are pretty consistent over time. You might think you know, given what I tend to go on about, but in fact, the big search phrase to get to my blog is this:
CHEESY PHRASES
Yes... I have the #2 and #3 Google hits for "cheesy phrases". (That's because I changed the blog title to use a real "curly quote" for "Livin'" rather than being lazy and leaving it as good old U+0027 APOSTROPHE, and Google thinks the old and new versions are different.)
I haven't returned to that subject... but with these results, maybe I should. We could cast our net farther afield: I am not among those who are perpetually griping about bugs in SL and what I see as LL's misguided priorities (OK, with one exception), so some might think me a Pollyanna; I could post something about "La deuxième vie en rose" (forgive me, Edith!).
Actually, the distribution at least starts out pretty flat, so it's not like you all just love me for my cheese *sob*, but I was still very surprised... and I had to take the following picture at the wonderful food and wine shop CAS:
UPDATE: Both "potentia" and "potestas" translate as "power" in online dictionaries I've seen; both, of course, come from potere (hence Spanish poder), only the abstract noun suffixes are changed to protect the innocent. Would love to hear from anyone more schooled in the classics which one Latin speakers would really use.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Close to the Edge
Things are grim for Internet radio. The courts have turned down an emergency stay of the July 15th imposition of crushing royalty rates that will destroy Internet radio.
If you are a US citizen, go to savenetradio.org and do what you can. If you aren't, pester all your friends who are to do so.
If you are a US citizen, go to savenetradio.org and do what you can. If you aren't, pester all your friends who are to do so.
Sculptypaint
Thanks to Vint Falken and her blog for mentioning this, and above all thanks to Cel Edman for creating it: Sculptypaint, a Java-based package specifically for creating sculpted prims. I will try it out and report on my results--with luck, the specificity of the package will mean it's easier to use than more general 3D graphics programs like Wings 3D and Blender.
"Professional 3D modelers," indeed!
"Professional 3D modelers," indeed!
The Melissa Yeuxdoux Chair of Second Life
Sigh... would that I could fund a professorship to do something neat with virtual worlds.
What really is the case is this: I am once again seated on a real chair before my computer. Thank goodness! (Or, if you think I am normally too prolix, oh, no! :) But even so, recall the famous line of Blaise Pascal: "I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short", and take hope.)
What really is the case is this: I am once again seated on a real chair before my computer. Thank goodness! (Or, if you think I am normally too prolix, oh, no! :) But even so, recall the famous line of Blaise Pascal: "I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short", and take hope.)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Cyberspace's True Predictor
Much will probably be made of William Gibson's visiting Second Life next month. New World Notes calls Mr. Gibson "the man who gave 'cyberspace' its name and its imaginative texture" and says SL probably wouldn't exist without him (though ironically, those even more forgetful of history typically refer to Snowcrash as an inspiration for SL).
I must respectfully disagree. The real creator of cyberspace, though not of the word, is Vernor Vinge, with his novella True Names, which predates Neuromancer by at least three years. The vagaries of SF publication were such that the first two publications of it sank quickly into oblivion--at least it seemed that way to me when I set out to replace copies that I would lend and never get back. The Wikipedia article points to an online transcription of the 1984 edition with illustrations. Go read it, and see if I'm not telling the truth. You'll be glad you did.
Some of the details show the realities of computing in 1981, but the ideas are there: what we call avatars existing in a created world in the Internet, and user-created content is all there is. At one point, the two main characters even assume canine form--gee, did Vinge predict furries? :)
In some ways we haven't made it to the world of True Names yet. I'd love to have displays of the sort that the inhabitants of the Other Plane scorn, and we're stuck with LSL for now rather than programming more directly in Other Plane terms. Go read True Names. Even now, it will change your life.
My being an aging programmer who isn't really a redhead does not influence my opinion in this matter at all.
I must respectfully disagree. The real creator of cyberspace, though not of the word, is Vernor Vinge, with his novella True Names, which predates Neuromancer by at least three years. The vagaries of SF publication were such that the first two publications of it sank quickly into oblivion--at least it seemed that way to me when I set out to replace copies that I would lend and never get back. The Wikipedia article points to an online transcription of the 1984 edition with illustrations. Go read it, and see if I'm not telling the truth. You'll be glad you did.
Some of the details show the realities of computing in 1981, but the ideas are there: what we call avatars existing in a created world in the Internet, and user-created content is all there is. At one point, the two main characters even assume canine form--gee, did Vinge predict furries? :)
In some ways we haven't made it to the world of True Names yet. I'd love to have displays of the sort that the inhabitants of the Other Plane scorn, and we're stuck with LSL for now rather than programming more directly in Other Plane terms. Go read True Names. Even now, it will change your life.
My being an aging programmer who isn't really a redhead does not influence my opinion in this matter at all.
Monday, July 09, 2007
Life Imitates Life
Over time in SL I've acquired a couple of pairs of glasses that I wear from time to time. I like to think they give me that "cute librarian" look, silly as that may seem.
In RL, I now have new glasses, too... and the other day it occurred to me that they (there was a deal for two pairs) look rather like my SL glasses. I suppose it's not surprising--in both cases, I'm the one selecting them--but I did get a smile out of it... and it's liable to be one of the few times RL imitates SL for me.
In RL, I now have new glasses, too... and the other day it occurred to me that they (there was a deal for two pairs) look rather like my SL glasses. I suppose it's not surprising--in both cases, I'm the one selecting them--but I did get a smile out of it... and it's liable to be one of the few times RL imitates SL for me.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
All the news, and background music, too...
I'm not sure whether it's what Second Life news would be if Bobby Short had decided to become a commentator, or whether it's the lounge lizard version of SL news, but... I really, really like The Bee Report.
It's news and commentary on SL, delivered with a seemingly endless improvised piano and organ background. Great fun; give it a listen.
It's news and commentary on SL, delivered with a seemingly endless improvised piano and organ background. Great fun; give it a listen.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
RL wins in the end
One of the things that always amazes me about SL is the way one is immersed in the virtual environment. I once had an uncomfortable chair, but lying in a bed in SL, I'd forget about it.
Alas, there's a limit to that. My more comfortable chair gave up the ghost, and I sit at my computer now on a makeshift stool pending finding better seating... and, as the title says, RL wins in the end... so to speak.
I've not been in SL for too long at a time for a couple of days, and that's a big part of it.
Alas, there's a limit to that. My more comfortable chair gave up the ghost, and I sit at my computer now on a makeshift stool pending finding better seating... and, as the title says, RL wins in the end... so to speak.
I've not been in SL for too long at a time for a couple of days, and that's a big part of it.
Monday, July 02, 2007
Live Music
A while back I felt incredibly stupid when I confused the band "U2 in SL" with the band U2. So, when I saw the announcement that Tony Moore, once keyboardist for Cutting Crew, was performing live as part of the SL 4th birthday, I was a bit skeptical...
...but TPed to the site anyway, and was (and still am) very glad I did, wishing only that I'd been there for the entire performance. His solo acoustic performance was amazing, the crowd both in RL (whose reactions we could hear on the audio stream) and SL very enthusiastic. He acknowledged some people in SL... and if I wasn't the one whose name he wasn't sure how to pronounce, please don't tell me. I'd like to keep the illusion, thank you!
If you have the chance to hear him, do not pass it up.
...but TPed to the site anyway, and was (and still am) very glad I did, wishing only that I'd been there for the entire performance. His solo acoustic performance was amazing, the crowd both in RL (whose reactions we could hear on the audio stream) and SL very enthusiastic. He acknowledged some people in SL... and if I wasn't the one whose name he wasn't sure how to pronounce, please don't tell me. I'd like to keep the illusion, thank you!
If you have the chance to hear him, do not pass it up.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
How to change the UI?
Second Life Insider is just asking, how would you fix the SL client UI? One of the answers I very much agree with is: fix the inventory.
One thing I wish for may have to do with my cluttered inventory: I'd like to have two windows, perhaps like the old two-window file managers. It's a huge pain to have to scroll huge distances from where you've picked some items to the folder you want them in.
Another thing, though, would be great even for the well-organized. Inventory needs to get away from having each item in exactly one place. In Linux/Unix terms, it needs "symbolic links."
Huh?
It means that inventory isn't a tree; things can appear in more than one place.
Why do you want that? Because a major use of folders is for outfits, and if you mix and match, some items are part of more than one outfit. As inventory is now, you either copy them, or you don't copy them, in which case you have to track them down all the time.
With symbolic links, you're not copying the object--you're just providing more than one way to get to it.
UPDATE: Thanks to bcwhittle for pointing out that you can open two inventory windows! (See the comment.)
One thing I wish for may have to do with my cluttered inventory: I'd like to have two windows, perhaps like the old two-window file managers. It's a huge pain to have to scroll huge distances from where you've picked some items to the folder you want them in.
Another thing, though, would be great even for the well-organized. Inventory needs to get away from having each item in exactly one place. In Linux/Unix terms, it needs "symbolic links."
Huh?
It means that inventory isn't a tree; things can appear in more than one place.
Why do you want that? Because a major use of folders is for outfits, and if you mix and match, some items are part of more than one outfit. As inventory is now, you either copy them, or you don't copy them, in which case you have to track them down all the time.
With symbolic links, you're not copying the object--you're just providing more than one way to get to it.
UPDATE: Thanks to bcwhittle for pointing out that you can open two inventory windows! (See the comment.)
Friday, June 29, 2007
2nd Sex
You might have noticed that I recently added Lillie Yifu's blog 2nd Sex to the list of links. I seriously recommend that you give it a look. Ms. Yifu's prose is lyrical, her observations insightful. While the immediate topic is sex in SL, the observations go well beyond that.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
A Day of Silence
Many, many sites in Second Life are augmented by audio streams; "Internet radio stations," as they're called.
If you're on the grid as I write this, you may have found some such streams inaudible. That's because most Internet radio sites have cut off their feeds today, in protest of an outrageous ruling that imposes royalties paid for each time anyone listens to a song... and imposes them retroactively to the beginning of 2006. They are due to take effect in mid-July 2007, unless something is done.
If you are a US citizen, I urge you to immediately call your Senators and Representative to urge their support and co-sponsoring of S. 1353 (for the Senate) and H.R. 2060 (for the House of Representatives), the "Internet Radio Equality Act." For more details, visit www.savenetradio.org.
Unless something is done, in not quite three weeks much of the Internet and much of SL will fall silent; nobody can afford the royalties that will go into effect. Act now.
If you're on the grid as I write this, you may have found some such streams inaudible. That's because most Internet radio sites have cut off their feeds today, in protest of an outrageous ruling that imposes royalties paid for each time anyone listens to a song... and imposes them retroactively to the beginning of 2006. They are due to take effect in mid-July 2007, unless something is done.
If you are a US citizen, I urge you to immediately call your Senators and Representative to urge their support and co-sponsoring of S. 1353 (for the Senate) and H.R. 2060 (for the House of Representatives), the "Internet Radio Equality Act." For more details, visit www.savenetradio.org.
Unless something is done, in not quite three weeks much of the Internet and much of SL will fall silent; nobody can afford the royalties that will go into effect. Act now.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Wings 3D
Wings 3D is one of the free (as in speech and beer) 3D graphics programs that has an exporter allowing the creation of sculpted prims. It runs on a wide variety of platforms, thanks to being written in Erlang, a functional programming language developed by Ericsson (so thank you to Sweden!).
Natalia Zelmanov has two parts (one, two) of a tutorial on using Wings 3D to create sculpted prims up on her excellent blog. I would amend her instructions slightly.
First, if you are using Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, then you have access to Wings 3D version 0.98.35, and the exporter, as far as I can tell, works with it quite nicely.
Second, just copying the files for the exporter into what appears to be the correct directory does not make sculpted prims visible in the Wings 3D menu as an export option, so I would do the following:
Sculpted prims, version one, only come in one flavor, namely those that are topologically equivalent (homeomorphic, to be official) to a sphere. So, as Natalia says, the way to start is to create a sphere, or rather an approximation of a sphere that has vertices that correspond directly to the entries in the "texture" that defines the sculpted prim's shape. Those textures are 2n by 2n, so make your sphere have 2n "sections" (think longitude, or citrus fruit) and 2n - 1 "slices" (think latitude) for values of n that the exporter supports. According to Natalia, n can run from three to six, i.e. 8, 16, 32, or 64 sections. (SL supports 128 x 128, and I'm hoping the exporter will eventually allow that; I may need that resolution someday.)
(Why the different number of slices? Because they don't wrap around like the sections. If there were just one slice, there would be two rows (or columns, depending on how LL lays it out) in the texture, one at each pole, and adding a slice adds one row (or column) where you split one slice into two, so to get 2n rows (or columns) you only need 2n - 1 slices.)
(WARNING! There's a bug open related to this. Textures undergo JPEG compression, and JPEG compression is lossy; it throws away information. This isn't a big deal for textures used as textures were initially intended, i.e. for painting objects, but for defining sculpted prim shapes, it is disastrous. Please head over to the JIRA and vote for VWR-866, and until the bug is dealt with, go with at least 64 x 64 for serious sculpted prim work.)
Now... you have your sphere, what are you going to do with it? Of course, you have to wrangle it into the shape you want. Because of the way sculpted prims work, you can only use operations that don't change the number of vertices. This is the point I'm at now; I need to go through the Wings 3D docs, and determine which operations those are, and how to use them to get the shape I want. (Then comes texturing them, i.e. creating a texture that is really used to paint the sculpted prim. I have no idea how to do that, so I'm hoping for more installments of Natalia's tutorial!)
Natalia Zelmanov has two parts (one, two) of a tutorial on using Wings 3D to create sculpted prims up on her excellent blog. I would amend her instructions slightly.
First, if you are using Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, then you have access to Wings 3D version 0.98.35, and the exporter, as far as I can tell, works with it quite nicely.
Second, just copying the files for the exporter into what appears to be the correct directory does not make sculpted prims visible in the Wings 3D menu as an export option, so I would do the following:
- Install Wings 3D using your favorite method, be it Synaptic, whatever the KDE program is for managing packages (sorry, I don't use KDE that much), or just "sudo apt-get install wings3d".
- Head over to the SL forum thread where Omei Turnbull announces his creation of the exporter (thank you Omei!) and download it.
- At least in the version of Wings 3D in the Feisty Fawn repositories, the "install plugin" command only knows about gzipped tar files, so convert it from a .zip into a gzipped tar file using the archive twiddler of your choice.
- Run Wings 3D, click File > Install Plugin, and point it at the gzipped tar version of the exporter.
Sculpted prims, version one, only come in one flavor, namely those that are topologically equivalent (homeomorphic, to be official) to a sphere. So, as Natalia says, the way to start is to create a sphere, or rather an approximation of a sphere that has vertices that correspond directly to the entries in the "texture" that defines the sculpted prim's shape. Those textures are 2n by 2n, so make your sphere have 2n "sections" (think longitude, or citrus fruit) and 2n - 1 "slices" (think latitude) for values of n that the exporter supports. According to Natalia, n can run from three to six, i.e. 8, 16, 32, or 64 sections. (SL supports 128 x 128, and I'm hoping the exporter will eventually allow that; I may need that resolution someday.)
(Why the different number of slices? Because they don't wrap around like the sections. If there were just one slice, there would be two rows (or columns, depending on how LL lays it out) in the texture, one at each pole, and adding a slice adds one row (or column) where you split one slice into two, so to get 2n rows (or columns) you only need 2n - 1 slices.)
(WARNING! There's a bug open related to this. Textures undergo JPEG compression, and JPEG compression is lossy; it throws away information. This isn't a big deal for textures used as textures were initially intended, i.e. for painting objects, but for defining sculpted prim shapes, it is disastrous. Please head over to the JIRA and vote for VWR-866, and until the bug is dealt with, go with at least 64 x 64 for serious sculpted prim work.)
Now... you have your sphere, what are you going to do with it? Of course, you have to wrangle it into the shape you want. Because of the way sculpted prims work, you can only use operations that don't change the number of vertices. This is the point I'm at now; I need to go through the Wings 3D docs, and determine which operations those are, and how to use them to get the shape I want. (Then comes texturing them, i.e. creating a texture that is really used to paint the sculpted prim. I have no idea how to do that, so I'm hoping for more installments of Natalia's tutorial!)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Ooh, heaven is a room in SL...
Yesterday I was invited to a lovely wooded place to dance. There were dance animations scattered all about, and rose particles floating through the air. I glanced at the location in the SL client window title bar, and found it was called "Heaven in SL."
The dancing was wonderful, as was the company, but Murphy struck; my dancing partner went *poof* and disappeared from the grid. I sighed and started exploring... and found, when I zoomed back, that I was in a very large building! It had a second floor of sorts, similarly set up to tromper one's oeil.
I have to admire the skill with which the illusion is set up, but kind of had higher hopes for heaven. :) It is well worth a visit in any case.
Here I am relaxing in "Heaven in SL." If you look really closely, you can see the doorway about two thirds of the way across (towards the right) at the top.
P.S. There are steps to the second floor, so in SL, there is at least a stairway from heaven...
The dancing was wonderful, as was the company, but Murphy struck; my dancing partner went *poof* and disappeared from the grid. I sighed and started exploring... and found, when I zoomed back, that I was in a very large building! It had a second floor of sorts, similarly set up to tromper one's oeil.
I have to admire the skill with which the illusion is set up, but kind of had higher hopes for heaven. :) It is well worth a visit in any case.
Here I am relaxing in "Heaven in SL." If you look really closely, you can see the doorway about two thirds of the way across (towards the right) at the top.
P.S. There are steps to the second floor, so in SL, there is at least a stairway from heaven...
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Bunny-shaped Island
With all the brouhaha, I succumbed to curiosity, and headed for the new island set up in SL by Playboy.
From above you can see that it's in the shape of the well-known bunny head; I guess they had to do it.
Once there, what I initially saw was very nicely done, but felt kind of like a convention center. LOTS of ads for Playboy stuff for sale and Playboy services on their web site.
Further afield, out in the ears was a lot of sand, and palm and coconut trees. I had to stop and assume the kneeling position of what was labeled a "cybergirl photopose" and take a picture in the sand beside huge (mutant?) coconut halves. (cybergirl photopose? Are they serious?)
(Look at me! I'm a cybergirl!)
I looked again at the map, found the greatest concentration of people on the island, and teleported there. It turned out to be a gathering spot for residents applying for work with Playboy, a thatched bar (/cafe?) at the bunny's nose. I sat silently and unobtrusively (though I "overheard" a woman presiding over the interviews who typed "/me sprays her coffee"...) in a chair near the water's edge and watched the last bit of what I presume were preliminary interviews.
Oh, how I wish Hunter S. Thompson were still with us; only he could do justice to the twisted experience I had... even without any "heinous drugs."
OK, look: Playboy is a victim of its own success. The mainstream has moved past it, so that now Playboy bunnies are quaint. Not too far away in RL is the site, in a hotel in a western Des Moines suburb, where one of the last Playboy Clubs in the USA was until it closed in May 1988, two months before the very last one in Lansing, Michigan. A friend passed one of the bunnies one day as he headed through the hotel. Back in the 1950s, the encounter would have had a frisson of wickedness; in mid-1980s Iowa, the bunny was a pretty, wholesome girl next door in a cute costume, as if she were dressed up for trick or treat.
One can't argue with their taste in music; I saw a listing, and they've lined up some of the best folks performing in SL... but Playboy in SL is slick and sterile. I headed back this morning to make sure I had some details right. When I arrived, I was the only person in the whole sim. I checked Apollo on the map... 31 people there.
From above you can see that it's in the shape of the well-known bunny head; I guess they had to do it.
Once there, what I initially saw was very nicely done, but felt kind of like a convention center. LOTS of ads for Playboy stuff for sale and Playboy services on their web site.
Further afield, out in the ears was a lot of sand, and palm and coconut trees. I had to stop and assume the kneeling position of what was labeled a "cybergirl photopose" and take a picture in the sand beside huge (mutant?) coconut halves. (cybergirl photopose? Are they serious?)
(Look at me! I'm a cybergirl!)
I looked again at the map, found the greatest concentration of people on the island, and teleported there. It turned out to be a gathering spot for residents applying for work with Playboy, a thatched bar (/cafe?) at the bunny's nose. I sat silently and unobtrusively (though I "overheard" a woman presiding over the interviews who typed "/me sprays her coffee"...) in a chair near the water's edge and watched the last bit of what I presume were preliminary interviews.
Oh, how I wish Hunter S. Thompson were still with us; only he could do justice to the twisted experience I had... even without any "heinous drugs."
OK, look: Playboy is a victim of its own success. The mainstream has moved past it, so that now Playboy bunnies are quaint. Not too far away in RL is the site, in a hotel in a western Des Moines suburb, where one of the last Playboy Clubs in the USA was until it closed in May 1988, two months before the very last one in Lansing, Michigan. A friend passed one of the bunnies one day as he headed through the hotel. Back in the 1950s, the encounter would have had a frisson of wickedness; in mid-1980s Iowa, the bunny was a pretty, wholesome girl next door in a cute costume, as if she were dressed up for trick or treat.
One can't argue with their taste in music; I saw a listing, and they've lined up some of the best folks performing in SL... but Playboy in SL is slick and sterile. I headed back this morning to make sure I had some details right. When I arrived, I was the only person in the whole sim. I checked Apollo on the map... 31 people there.
The Intruder Despite Herself
I was minding my own business, chatting with friends and acquaintances, when the world grayed out and I saw the dreaded popup saying that the sim is going down and I was being forcibly logged off.
I grumbled to myself, fired up the client once again, and without thinking left the "last location" choice enabled. I have no idea how long it takes Linden Labs to reset a server for a sim, and no doubt it varies, but I am sure I did not wait anywhere near long enough, and sure enough, I was told my last location was unavailable, so it was putting me somewhere else...
...and I rezzed in darkness. What ambient light there was showed an expanse of tiles in a checkered black and white pattern that I recalled seeing once. I zoomed out and found that I was inside the Rakehell, a truly impressive dirigible with glass windows essentially over its entire skin. That modification to the original dirigible construction, as well as the lovely interior decoration, were done by Mordecai Scaggs and his talented and lovely lady, Kacy Despres, and if you haven't had the pleasure of reading about it,. I hope you will do so now, at least to read the story of the making of its elegant nameplate and see a photograph thereof.
Zooming back, I saw my erstwhile conversational companions standing beside me, wondering what on earth (or perhaps I should say on the grid) had happened. Under these extraordinary (I hope!) conditions, put here by who knows what logic of the SL server, I felt extremely embarrassed, so I departed as quickly as I could gather my wits, and offered my fellow unwilling intruders a teleport following me to the first scenic location that came to my mind.
I have no idea what put it into SL's head to put me high into the air, much less why it should do so for the folks I'd been chatting with. I am just glad we did not pop into the middle of a gathering, and hope that such a thing never happens to me again.
I grumbled to myself, fired up the client once again, and without thinking left the "last location" choice enabled. I have no idea how long it takes Linden Labs to reset a server for a sim, and no doubt it varies, but I am sure I did not wait anywhere near long enough, and sure enough, I was told my last location was unavailable, so it was putting me somewhere else...
...and I rezzed in darkness. What ambient light there was showed an expanse of tiles in a checkered black and white pattern that I recalled seeing once. I zoomed out and found that I was inside the Rakehell, a truly impressive dirigible with glass windows essentially over its entire skin. That modification to the original dirigible construction, as well as the lovely interior decoration, were done by Mordecai Scaggs and his talented and lovely lady, Kacy Despres, and if you haven't had the pleasure of reading about it,. I hope you will do so now, at least to read the story of the making of its elegant nameplate and see a photograph thereof.
Zooming back, I saw my erstwhile conversational companions standing beside me, wondering what on earth (or perhaps I should say on the grid) had happened. Under these extraordinary (I hope!) conditions, put here by who knows what logic of the SL server, I felt extremely embarrassed, so I departed as quickly as I could gather my wits, and offered my fellow unwilling intruders a teleport following me to the first scenic location that came to my mind.
I have no idea what put it into SL's head to put me high into the air, much less why it should do so for the folks I'd been chatting with. I am just glad we did not pop into the middle of a gathering, and hope that such a thing never happens to me again.
Friday, June 15, 2007
JIRA, Part Two
I've created VWR-1258 as a JIRA entry with the same request as the old Proposition 125. I cannot vote for it myself, since I created it. If you are interested in extending the variety of avatars in SL (this isn't just about breasts!), I hope you will follow the link and consider voting for it.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Hair and G
I love watching commercials for Pantene shampoo. The long-haired models all let their hair fall, and it's always in slow motion. You sort of expect the announcer to say "Pantene, the shampoo that lowers the gravitational constant in a neighborhood of your head."
In SL, I'd just bought some lovely long hair, put it on, and turned... and it took a very long time indeed to settle down. I guess flexible prims must have a twistable knob for that... and wonder whether the designer watches Pantene commercials.
In SL, I'd just bought some lovely long hair, put it on, and turned... and it took a very long time indeed to settle down. I guess flexible prims must have a twistable knob for that... and wonder whether the designer watches Pantene commercials.
Natalia enters the history books--er, wiki
I was happy to see today that Natalia Zelmanov, mermaid, designer, explorer, and writer of many wonderful tutorials in her fine blog, has an entry in the SL History Wiki.
Yay, Natalia!
Yay, Natalia!
A new, and more important IMHO, Open Letter
United Protest has set up a web page to let people sign an Open Letter asking that Linden Labs remain consistent with their stated community standards and become a "common carrier." (Criminals use phones, email, and snail mail... why doesn't anyone sue the phone company or the USPS? Because they're common carriers; they don't get into the business of filtering messages based on content.)
I hope you'll consider signing it. (Yes, I've nudged them about the grammatical errors; with any luck they'll be corrected by the time you read the letter. :))
I hope you'll consider signing it. (Yes, I've nudged them about the grammatical errors; with any luck they'll be corrected by the time you read the letter. :))
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
JIRA
LL has moved away from the old user proposal method to a Bugzilla-like system that subsumes both feature requests and bug reports.
A lot of people have grumbled about this, claiming it's too hard to use. I hope that you, Gentle Reader, will not let such kvetching keep you from using the SL JIRA.
The SL Wiki has a page that describes JIRA and how to use it. Even if you don't add items, you can look through those that others have submitted--a good thing to do even if you want to add an item, to see whether anyone's already done so--and vote for those you think particularly deserve attention.
Torley Linden has, if I understand rightly, made entries that correspond to those under the old proposal system. Once I find the item that corresponds to--you guessed it--Prop 125, I will give a link here. In the meantime, I hope you'll consider voting for these:
UPDATE: I misremembered; Torley's moved some of the proposals with a goodly number of votes in their favor. I will make a JIRA entry corresponding to Prop 125 and give a link ASAP.
A lot of people have grumbled about this, claiming it's too hard to use. I hope that you, Gentle Reader, will not let such kvetching keep you from using the SL JIRA.
The SL Wiki has a page that describes JIRA and how to use it. Even if you don't add items, you can look through those that others have submitted--a good thing to do even if you want to add an item, to see whether anyone's already done so--and vote for those you think particularly deserve attention.
Torley Linden has, if I understand rightly, made entries that correspond to those under the old proposal system. Once I find the item that corresponds to--you guessed it--Prop 125, I will give a link here. In the meantime, I hope you'll consider voting for these:
- VWR-1080, concerning the problems of tops (and pants) versus concavities
- VWR-1064, concerning allowing some attachments to go under clothing
UPDATE: I misremembered; Torley's moved some of the proposals with a goodly number of votes in their favor. I will make a JIRA entry corresponding to Prop 125 and give a link ASAP.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Favorite music
I was at one of the weekly performances of Jaynine Scarborough at Bliss Basin this past Sunday and got in an IM conversation, during which I was asked what my favorite songs of the Renaissance and Middle Ages are.
That's about like asking my to list my favorite songs period... how can I cut it down? I will try, though, to keep this entry from growing insanely long. No particular order; I don't think I can rank them, and given the context of the discussion, just songs with lyrics.
That's about like asking my to list my favorite songs period... how can I cut it down? I will try, though, to keep this entry from growing insanely long. No particular order; I don't think I can rank them, and given the context of the discussion, just songs with lyrics.
- Adriaan Willaert, "O Dolce Vita Mia." By all means get the Early Music Consort of London album for which it is the title cut. It's worth it for this track alone, but they're all gorgeous. (Do also consider the King's Singers collaboration with Tragicomedia, La Dolce Vita, which also includes this song.)
- Adam de la Halle, "Tant Con Je Vivrai." (Francophones: honest, I looked it up, and that's the title.) A simple and beautiful trouvere song.
- Guillaume de Machaut, "Rose, liz, printemps." Take your pick of Gothic Voices' The Mirror of Narcissus (which is all-Machaut and all vocal) or the Waverly Consort's Douce Dame album (which is not all Machaut, and mixes voice and instruments); either is gorgeous.
- Martin Codax, "Quantas Sabedes." Owain Phyfe and the New World Renaissance Band make no claims of authenticity, but they touch modern audiences deeply with music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance using folk music performance practice. This song is the last track on their Odyssey album, and it will lull you into a relaxed (and as Phyfe says when introducing the song in performance, gently erotic) mood.
- Thomas Morley, "Nolo mortem peccatoris." This isn't a flighty madrigal or canzonet of the sort Morley is best known for, but a beautiful and heart-rending choral work.
- John Bennet, "Weep, O Mine Eyes." OK, I'm showing my tendency toward melancholy music here.
- John Dowland, "Lachrymae." OK, I'm really showing my tendency toward melancholy music now! Let's fix that...
- Thomas Weelkes, "Come, Sirrah Jack, Ho." This, along with Tobias Hume's "Tobacco," are sort of the druggie music of the English Renaissance, as the lyrics will show. (Nowadays people think the Ars Nova "fumeurs" weren't necessarily on anything.) If you ever saw Reefer Madness, you'll think of the "Faster, louder!" scene when you hear "Fill the pipe once more; my brains dance Trenchmore" ("Trenchmore" was a lively dance of the time).
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Duh
Sigh... I noticed a friend online and decided to IM her. Click...click... "Hi!"
Just then I noticed the name on the new IM tab... one off from the one I thought I'd clicked. *blush*
A short and very apologetic conversation later, I looked again... and the friend whose name I meant to click on wasn't there. Was I careless, or did she sign off just as I moved to click, moving the next name up?
My money's on careless. Sigh. One more item to put on the IM checklist.
Just then I noticed the name on the new IM tab... one off from the one I thought I'd clicked. *blush*
A short and very apologetic conversation later, I looked again... and the friend whose name I meant to click on wasn't there. Was I careless, or did she sign off just as I moved to click, moving the next name up?
My money's on careless. Sigh. One more item to put on the IM checklist.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Hi, Chicago!
Looking at Google Analytics results... the new data display is nice, but the one thing that really stands out is how many people are reading in the Chicago area.
An amazing city, Chicago. I can't think of it without hearing Carl Sandburg's great poem in my head...
The whole point of the poem is the speaker's clear-eyed love of Chicago. He sees its flaws... dare I say the ways in which it is "broadly offensive"?... and that it is great despite that.
Kind of like Second Life.
An amazing city, Chicago. I can't think of it without hearing Carl Sandburg's great poem in my head...
CHICAGO
HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I
have seen your painted women under the gas lamps
luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it
is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the
faces of women and children I have seen the marks
of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with
white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young
man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has
never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse.
and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of
Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with
Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
The whole point of the poem is the speaker's clear-eyed love of Chicago. He sees its flaws... dare I say the ways in which it is "broadly offensive"?... and that it is great despite that.
Kind of like Second Life.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Protest Update
Search is now working on the grid, and "I am for a FREE Second Life", the group to join if you object to the new policy described in the LL blog entry "Keeping SL Safe, Together" exists.
ERRATUM: There is more than one group protesting the change in LL policy. (In a bizarre turn of events, there is even one such advocated by Prokofy Neva.)
ERRATUM: There is more than one group protesting the change in LL policy. (In a bizarre turn of events, there is even one such advocated by Prokofy Neva.)
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
The broad offensive against "broadly offensive"
Today I saw a poster outside a business, reading "Keeping SL Free, Together". Clearly it's inspired by the Orwellian "Keeping SL Safe, Together" entry on the Linden blog. Clicking on the poster gives you a notecard describing why the policies described in that entry are evil, and proposes a peaceful protest. (Alas, the group described in the notecard doesn't exist; I'll update when I can find it.)
[UPDATE: Aha! The poster and notecard are the work of Jazhara Keon. October Hush's blog has an entry with more info and the text of the notecard. According to the comments, it will take a bit longer to get the group going.]
As Tateru Nino points out, LL is incorrect in claiming that the new policies described there are consistent with the previous rules; before, "broadly offensive" content simply had to be kept to mature areas; now all it takes is a complaint, and "broadly offensive" content can get you banished from SL, your land lost and your content removed... and Earth to Lindens: "the community" doesn't say diddly. Individuals and organized groups do, and the new policy is just begging for sanctimonious vigilantes to start campaigns against their favorite "offensive" bugaboo, be it dancing, virtual alcoholic beverages, whatever they consider indecent clothing (anything not a burqa?), homosexuality, furries, religions they don't like... the list is endless.
I urge you to join this peaceful protest. At stake is Second Life as we know it.
[UPDATE: Do read Vint Falken's blog entry pointing out the hypocrisy of the SL promotion of Live Free or Die Hard, a movie featuring, as Daniel Linden might put it, "real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence".]
[UPDATE: D'Oh! I forgot. United Protest's blog is now up and going.]
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
L3375P34K worldwide...
Abbreviations go back quite some way (SPQR, anyone?), but the current crop, I think, have their origin in hams using Morse code: BCNU (be seeing you), CUL (see you later), etc. Some have stayed with hams, e.g. YL (young lady) and XYL (ex-young lady, often someone's wife).
That made its way into hackish usage and thence into IRC and to text messages everywhere.
(OK.. maybe Prince had a hand in it.)
The international nature of SL means that one can see similar shortening in other languages. The one I have seen to date: Spanish speakers typing "k" (which isn't used in Spanish save for borrowings from other languages and foreign proper names, or things like radio station call letters) in place of "qu". Do they type ADM (ay, dios mío) where in English we'd type OMG? IDK. :)
I'll keep my eyes open for other instances.
That made its way into hackish usage and thence into IRC and to text messages everywhere.
(OK.. maybe Prince had a hand in it.)
The international nature of SL means that one can see similar shortening in other languages. The one I have seen to date: Spanish speakers typing "k" (which isn't used in Spanish save for borrowings from other languages and foreign proper names, or things like radio station call letters) in place of "qu". Do they type ADM (ay, dios mío) where in English we'd type OMG? IDK. :)
I'll keep my eyes open for other instances.
Friday, June 01, 2007
SL or Pleasantville?
SL has taken a turn in a very scary direction.
Check out the cheerily-titled entry "Keeping Second Life Safe, Together" from the Linden blog. Here's the text in its entirety:
I hope I won't be having to keep burqas in my inventory.
Check out the cheerily-titled entry "Keeping Second Life Safe, Together" from the Linden blog. Here's the text in its entirety:
Just what is "broadly offensive"? And to whom? Potentially illegal where--in any country that has access to Second Life? That swift and brutal sanction is begging for abuse.The diversity of things to see and do within Second Life is almost unimaginable, but our community has made it clear to us that certain types of content and activity are simply not acceptable in any form. Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors; real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual violence including rape, real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content are never allowed or tolerated within Second Life.
Please help us to keep Second Life a safe and welcoming space by continuing to notify Linden Lab about locations in-world that are violating our Community Standards regarding broadly offensive and potentially illegal content. Our team monitors such notification 24-hours a day, seven-days a week. Individuals and groups promoting or providing such content and activities will be swiftly met with a variety of sanctions, including termination of accounts, closure of groups, removal of content, and loss of land. It’s up to all of us to make sure Second Life remains a safe and welcoming haven of creativity and social vision.
I hope I won't be having to keep burqas in my inventory.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Is it all that easy the old way?
Today Cheyenne told me about a two-prim dolphin made with a sculpted prim. (Why isn't it one prim? One prim determines the path the dolphin takes; I presume it's a disk with the dolphin attached to the edge.)
She has dolphins made the old-fashioned way; they're twenty prims each.
Any shape can be built up out of a bunch of tiny basic shapes... but that would be an even more insane use of prims, which are a precious resource in SL.There are some stock tricks, like building trees and bushes with intersecting planes that are transparent save for having the side view of the plant painted on them, but in general the task is figuring out how to get a good enough approximation to the shape with the fewest possible prims. That's not easy... and to be honest, it often isn't quite good enough. If, for example, you're approximating a curve by overlapping two prims, the place where the boundaries intersect is hard to get just right; lighting will show up a corner, however slight, in a cross section at right angles to said intersection.
It's easy to create some prims and glue them together... but it's not easy to get a good enough approximation of a shape while minimizing prim count.
So... old style prims are easy at first; the difficulty comes when you try to make something more complicated. Sculpted prims, on the other hand, are hard at first, because you have to learn to use blender or Wings 3D or whatever... but once you've done that, you can make just about anything topologically equivalent to a sphere (for now; later we'll get other sorts of sculpted prims).
So... is the making of quality objects in SL all that much more arcane a skill now than it was before sculpted prims? I think not.
She has dolphins made the old-fashioned way; they're twenty prims each.
Any shape can be built up out of a bunch of tiny basic shapes... but that would be an even more insane use of prims, which are a precious resource in SL.There are some stock tricks, like building trees and bushes with intersecting planes that are transparent save for having the side view of the plant painted on them, but in general the task is figuring out how to get a good enough approximation to the shape with the fewest possible prims. That's not easy... and to be honest, it often isn't quite good enough. If, for example, you're approximating a curve by overlapping two prims, the place where the boundaries intersect is hard to get just right; lighting will show up a corner, however slight, in a cross section at right angles to said intersection.
It's easy to create some prims and glue them together... but it's not easy to get a good enough approximation of a shape while minimizing prim count.
So... old style prims are easy at first; the difficulty comes when you try to make something more complicated. Sculpted prims, on the other hand, are hard at first, because you have to learn to use blender or Wings 3D or whatever... but once you've done that, you can make just about anything topologically equivalent to a sphere (for now; later we'll get other sorts of sculpted prims).
So... is the making of quality objects in SL all that much more arcane a skill now than it was before sculpted prims? I think not.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
"Sunrise, Sunset..."
There's now a First Look viewer that has the WindLight sky/weather display code!
I had to try it, of course. Cheyenne's land on Forsaken has a gorgeous view of sunrise and sunset. I headed for the coast, set the world to sunset, chose "Coastal Sunset" for the WindLight settings, and...
...saw a fuzzy cyan disk above the horizon.
Now, I've never actually watched the sunset from an island shore, but I'm pretty sure the sun remains a class G star, no matter where you watch it from. Time to ask about this one. Maybe I fiddled with the cloud cover?
One thing that definitely seems weird is that when I tried sunrise, the light seemed to still come from the west. It is a puzzlement.
I can say that the lighting on objects around me was great, and (aside from that direction question...) was much as I'd expect in real life.
I don't have a picture of sunrise or sunset. Yet. I do have a picture I took of myself in the light of sunrise, though. There was a contest (that I'll probably miss) for retro clothing, and I had to try for a hippie look, having missed the chance to really be a hippie by something over a decade. (That may be fortunate.) It's more faux hippie, to be honest; I should have gone for a long dress rather than tie-dyed T-shirt and jeans with a peace symbol. I still think it came out well, though... especially because I saw mention of the fact that the Linux client startup script by default turns off a bunch of OpenGL rendering features, and hence remembered to undo it.
UPDATE: Duh. The First Look client runs in its own directory, with its own shell script. I haven't run it with the OpenGL options enabled yet. More news as it happens.
I had to try it, of course. Cheyenne's land on Forsaken has a gorgeous view of sunrise and sunset. I headed for the coast, set the world to sunset, chose "Coastal Sunset" for the WindLight settings, and...
...saw a fuzzy cyan disk above the horizon.
Now, I've never actually watched the sunset from an island shore, but I'm pretty sure the sun remains a class G star, no matter where you watch it from. Time to ask about this one. Maybe I fiddled with the cloud cover?
One thing that definitely seems weird is that when I tried sunrise, the light seemed to still come from the west. It is a puzzlement.
I can say that the lighting on objects around me was great, and (aside from that direction question...) was much as I'd expect in real life.
I don't have a picture of sunrise or sunset. Yet. I do have a picture I took of myself in the light of sunrise, though. There was a contest (that I'll probably miss) for retro clothing, and I had to try for a hippie look, having missed the chance to really be a hippie by something over a decade. (That may be fortunate.) It's more faux hippie, to be honest; I should have gone for a long dress rather than tie-dyed T-shirt and jeans with a peace symbol. I still think it came out well, though... especially because I saw mention of the fact that the Linux client startup script by default turns off a bunch of OpenGL rendering features, and hence remembered to undo it.
UPDATE: Duh. The First Look client runs in its own directory, with its own shell script. I haven't run it with the OpenGL options enabled yet. More news as it happens.
Monday, May 28, 2007
"The beautiful, shiny button? The jolly, candy-like button? Will she hold out, folks? Can she hold out?"
NO, I CAN'T!
So, I read about Cheyenne's experiences at the "space station thingie" and of course, I had to try it out.
I got similar results. (The button's legend promised chaos... but repeated pressing didn't change very much.)
I saved my shape post-button push for later study, and headed back home. Once there, I noticed some things:
P.S. The effect goes away if you log off and log back in. It would also be interesting to know whether other people see the same thing you see after pushing the button.
UPDATE: Thanks to help from a friend, I can say that other people do see the change in your shape after you push the button; also, whatever it is that does the distortion is not saved as part of saving the shape. Whatever is happening, it doesn't affect the slider settings.
So, I read about Cheyenne's experiences at the "space station thingie" and of course, I had to try it out.
I got similar results. (The button's legend promised chaos... but repeated pressing didn't change very much.)
I saved my shape post-button push for later study, and headed back home. Once there, I noticed some things:
- My torso appeared about as tall as my whole body used to be
- Lag was awfully bad
P.S. The effect goes away if you log off and log back in. It would also be interesting to know whether other people see the same thing you see after pushing the button.
UPDATE: Thanks to help from a friend, I can say that other people do see the change in your shape after you push the button; also, whatever it is that does the distortion is not saved as part of saving the shape. Whatever is happening, it doesn't affect the slider settings.
The Mysterious Peak
There was a very gratifying peak in blog visits when the interview in the SL Newspaper was published. That I understood.
Now, Google Analytics is making me wonder. On May 23rd there was a peak that exceeded even the post-interview peak... and I have no idea why!
Don't get me wrong; I am happy that so many people visited. I just don't know why it happened! :)
I worry too much, I guess.
Now, Google Analytics is making me wonder. On May 23rd there was a peak that exceeded even the post-interview peak... and I have no idea why!
Don't get me wrong; I am happy that so many people visited. I just don't know why it happened! :)
I worry too much, I guess.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Outside, nose (and breasts) pressed against the window of fashion...
Right now, there are two worlds of fashion in SL.
In one, vast numbers of people slave over textures and prims to reproduce the subtle details of the way light plays on the textures, folds, and wrinkles in different kinds of cloth to create amazing fashions. (OK... to the extent that's possible in a world where skirts are made up of a bunch of rectangular strips tied together at the top...)
Even the high end products are not all that expensive, because the makers can take full advantage of economy of scale and a huge market for their products, which all are made for the standard issue avatar form. Anyone using those avatars can wear any of that clothing... and there's so much of it! The list of SL fashion blogs, both those from designers announcing their own products and from reviewers who cover that portion of the cornucopia they can manage to keep track of and find worthy, is endless.
In the other, individuals piece together prims to cover avatars or body parts themselves built from prims. The need to do that makes it very difficult to do anything other than solid colors; very few patterns or textures here. No economies of scale here, either; these people are making clothing to cover the avatars or body parts they themselves have made, thus splitting the time and resources they have to devote to each, and they will at most sell as many copies of the clothes as they sell of the corresponding avatars or body parts they are designed to fit.... and the market for those is diminished by the nagging thought at the back of the shoppers' heads: Look at all I'd be giving up! All the dresses, uniforms, swimsuits...
Do I have a solution? Not really... but the makers of specialized avatars and body parts not supported by the stock avatar model really should try to come up with some way around it. Coming together as a group to work on the problem sounds like a good first step to me.
In one, vast numbers of people slave over textures and prims to reproduce the subtle details of the way light plays on the textures, folds, and wrinkles in different kinds of cloth to create amazing fashions. (OK... to the extent that's possible in a world where skirts are made up of a bunch of rectangular strips tied together at the top...)
Even the high end products are not all that expensive, because the makers can take full advantage of economy of scale and a huge market for their products, which all are made for the standard issue avatar form. Anyone using those avatars can wear any of that clothing... and there's so much of it! The list of SL fashion blogs, both those from designers announcing their own products and from reviewers who cover that portion of the cornucopia they can manage to keep track of and find worthy, is endless.
In the other, individuals piece together prims to cover avatars or body parts themselves built from prims. The need to do that makes it very difficult to do anything other than solid colors; very few patterns or textures here. No economies of scale here, either; these people are making clothing to cover the avatars or body parts they themselves have made, thus splitting the time and resources they have to devote to each, and they will at most sell as many copies of the clothes as they sell of the corresponding avatars or body parts they are designed to fit.... and the market for those is diminished by the nagging thought at the back of the shoppers' heads: Look at all I'd be giving up! All the dresses, uniforms, swimsuits...
Do I have a solution? Not really... but the makers of specialized avatars and body parts not supported by the stock avatar model really should try to come up with some way around it. Coming together as a group to work on the problem sounds like a good first step to me.
Couldn't say it better myself...
Caliburn Susanto, in his LiveJournal, describes the hell that is SL with voice enabled.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
I don't think procrastination counts as a super power...
The other day in SL, I saw a friend in an amazingly detailed latex suit. She said she'd gotten it for only L$100, and took me shopping. I bought one.
That's something I'd never do in real life; at the very least, it would be horribly uncomfortable, and not particularly appealing to me. In SL, though, it's just a form-fitting suit, and in SL, one can always have a form worth fitting.
Suit on, in Calico Creation's Ember hair (in "fire" color) to match, I feel like I should be in a comic book. Where to take a picture of it? In a city, obviously. No superhero lives in a rural area...OK, Smallville maybe, but Superman headed for Metropolis when it was time to get serious about superheroing.
Where in SL to get that urban feel? Has to be Midnight City, at midnight. It worked for Sexy Tuxedo, it would work for this, and sure enough, it did:
That's something I'd never do in real life; at the very least, it would be horribly uncomfortable, and not particularly appealing to me. In SL, though, it's just a form-fitting suit, and in SL, one can always have a form worth fitting.
Suit on, in Calico Creation's Ember hair (in "fire" color) to match, I feel like I should be in a comic book. Where to take a picture of it? In a city, obviously. No superhero lives in a rural area...OK, Smallville maybe, but Superman headed for Metropolis when it was time to get serious about superheroing.
Where in SL to get that urban feel? Has to be Midnight City, at midnight. It worked for Sexy Tuxedo, it would work for this, and sure enough, it did:
Friday, May 25, 2007
Pele will remain where it/she is
Pele will be staying on Forsaken (and hence my abode will as well). I can understand the decision... I couldn't take apart the product of so much work... of so much of oneself put into a place.
Lo siento mucho...
Looking at Google Analytics, I see that a number of the views from countries where Spanish is spoken show a very short time spent reading.
I fear that it may be because the Spanish words in the title fake out searches done by Spanish speakers, who may feel cheated to find that they've only turned up the random ramblings of a Second Life resident that aren't even in Spanish!
That makes me feel bad, but OTOH, the title is kind of set now.
What can I say but... lo siento muchísimo; que Uds. me hagan el favor de perdonarme para haber gastado su tiempo.
I fear that it may be because the Spanish words in the title fake out searches done by Spanish speakers, who may feel cheated to find that they've only turned up the random ramblings of a Second Life resident that aren't even in Spanish!
That makes me feel bad, but OTOH, the title is kind of set now.
What can I say but... lo siento muchísimo; que Uds. me hagan el favor de perdonarme para haber gastado su tiempo.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Sooner than I thought...
The 1.16.0.4 beta, when it arrived, seems to work nicely, though I've not exercised it more than flying and walking around and examining various sculpted prims from various angles and distances...
...but I guess it's working well enough that LL is bringing sculpted prims to the main grid today after the day's downtime, with the 1.16.0 client.
I'm very happy about this; it means that a lot of shapes that are insane to try to assemble from the simple geometric shapes of traditional prims will become possible. Want an example? Check out the SL Wiki entry for "Sculpted Prims" and scroll on down to the head made by Chip Midnight. Note how many sculpted prims it took to make: ONE.
Actually, let's save you the trouble of following the link. Here's a closeup from a photo I took of an attempt at a human giantess avatar. It's rather doll-like; being at the very beginning of building myself, I can't say that it's the best one can do with old-style prims, but I bet it's not at all easy to create a realistic looking human head out of prims.
Compare that with Chip Midnight's head, made with exactly one prim:
(Sigh... blogger doesn't like .PNG files, so I had to convert it and upload it.)
Second Life is going to get a lot prettier and more realistic, just from this. Furry avatars are going to be revolutionized (and I hope I can finally get the giantess avatar I've been wanting...), and I'm sure the folks making prim genitalia are hard at work. :)
I think LL did a clever thing with this. SL doesn't have to get involved with how you create a sculpted prim; it need only generate the results based on the pseudo-texture that describes its shape. (Oh, yeah... I understand that one can use Wings 3D, another Open Source program, to create sculpted prims now, as well as Blender. At the time of this writing, the SL Wiki lists three free programs that can do the job, thus kicking the props out from underneath the argument that sculpted prims will be the province of what some would call the FI3DC.)
[UPDATE: Oops... make that four. I didn't notice POVRay the first time I looked.]
So... I'm doing a happy dance, and setting to the task of learning to use Wings 3D. (Second) life is good.
...but I guess it's working well enough that LL is bringing sculpted prims to the main grid today after the day's downtime, with the 1.16.0 client.
I'm very happy about this; it means that a lot of shapes that are insane to try to assemble from the simple geometric shapes of traditional prims will become possible. Want an example? Check out the SL Wiki entry for "Sculpted Prims" and scroll on down to the head made by Chip Midnight. Note how many sculpted prims it took to make: ONE.
Actually, let's save you the trouble of following the link. Here's a closeup from a photo I took of an attempt at a human giantess avatar. It's rather doll-like; being at the very beginning of building myself, I can't say that it's the best one can do with old-style prims, but I bet it's not at all easy to create a realistic looking human head out of prims.
Compare that with Chip Midnight's head, made with exactly one prim:
(Sigh... blogger doesn't like .PNG files, so I had to convert it and upload it.)
Second Life is going to get a lot prettier and more realistic, just from this. Furry avatars are going to be revolutionized (and I hope I can finally get the giantess avatar I've been wanting...), and I'm sure the folks making prim genitalia are hard at work. :)
I think LL did a clever thing with this. SL doesn't have to get involved with how you create a sculpted prim; it need only generate the results based on the pseudo-texture that describes its shape. (Oh, yeah... I understand that one can use Wings 3D, another Open Source program, to create sculpted prims now, as well as Blender. At the time of this writing, the SL Wiki lists three free programs that can do the job, thus kicking the props out from underneath the argument that sculpted prims will be the province of what some would call the FI3DC.)
[UPDATE: Oops... make that four. I didn't notice POVRay the first time I looked.]
So... I'm doing a happy dance, and setting to the task of learning to use Wings 3D. (Second) life is good.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Back to normal
I'm happy to say that as I type this, I'm downloading version 1.16.0.4 of the beta client for Linux. Thanks to whoever at LL caused this to happen; I hope that the Linux client doesn't fall behind again in the future.
UPDATE: I appeared in an area covered with scattered objects, many made from sculpted prims. My flexi prim hair was just fine. Now to start creating sculpted prims...
UPDATE: I appeared in an area covered with scattered objects, many made from sculpted prims. My flexi prim hair was just fine. Now to start creating sculpted prims...
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Paradise for Sale
Second Life time is like dog years, only more so. So it seems to me as if Pele, the place my dear friend Cheyenne Palisades calls home in SL, has been around a long time... but it hasn't, really.
It's not been that long since she was learning about terraforming and building and positioning things... often the hard way. You can read about it in her blog.
Now Pele stands, a delightful and beautiful example of the designing skills (and whimsy) of Ms. Palisades, and of Exuberance LaFleur. (Did I mention that you can put Cheyenne's talents to work for you on the grid? She does have a design business in SL. As she says, life is too short for ugly design.) And now it's for sale.
I hope that the eventual buyer (or buyers) realizes and appreciates what he or she (or they) has (or have) acquired.
Friday, May 18, 2007
But seriously, folks...
If you live in the United States and you enjoy webcasters and the audio streams you listen to in SL, you need to get in touch with your Senators immediately.
The Copyright Royalty Board has decided to charge Internet webcasters and noncommercial broadcasters such as NPR per song streamed... and backdate the new chargesfor years to the beginning of 2006. This change will effectively kill Internet webcasting.
Ask your senators to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act, which overturns the decision so that the current percentage of revenue model is maintained, and the percentage set to the same level as that charged satellite radio broadcasters, 7.5%.
Go here to find out how to get in touch with your Senators. Call them and express your opinion. If you don't, you can kiss your audio streams goodbye.
The Copyright Royalty Board has decided to charge Internet webcasters and noncommercial broadcasters such as NPR per song streamed... and backdate the new charges
Ask your senators to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act, which overturns the decision so that the current percentage of revenue model is maintained, and the percentage set to the same level as that charged satellite radio broadcasters, 7.5%.
Go here to find out how to get in touch with your Senators. Call them and express your opinion. If you don't, you can kiss your audio streams goodbye.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Back of the bus...
The grid's down for maintenance. Gee, it would be a great time to try out the beta client and check out those spiffy sculpted prims!
Well... the beta client I was able to download before immediately barfs when it tries to display my surroundings. "Take off your flexi prims," people said... but if you die immediately, how do you have the time to do that?
Good news! There's a new beta out, and it may solve that problem... but if you go looking for the Linux version, you can't find it.
What's going on here?
UPDATE: there is a beta version for download for Linux now. Alas, it's a version behind that available for Windows or Macintosh.
UPDATE: 1.16.0.2 is now available for Windows and Macintosh. The beta avaiable for Linux is still 1.16.0.0, three days after we were promised 1.16.0.1.
There's a thread about 1.16.0.2 saying that voice for Linux will have to wait until Vivox writes a client for Linux. I hope that the beta for Linux isn't being held up by the issue of voice; there are a LOT of other changes worth testing.
Well... the beta client I was able to download before immediately barfs when it tries to display my surroundings. "Take off your flexi prims," people said... but if you die immediately, how do you have the time to do that?
Good news! There's a new beta out, and it may solve that problem... but if you go looking for the Linux version, you can't find it.
What's going on here?
UPDATE: there is a beta version for download for Linux now. Alas, it's a version behind that available for Windows or Macintosh.
UPDATE: 1.16.0.2 is now available for Windows and Macintosh. The beta avaiable for Linux is still 1.16.0.0, three days after we were promised 1.16.0.1.
There's a thread about 1.16.0.2 saying that voice for Linux will have to wait until Vivox writes a client for Linux. I hope that the beta for Linux isn't being held up by the issue of voice; there are a LOT of other changes worth testing.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Ramblings about SL
Various people are commenting on Gwyneth Llewellyn's "Hotspots: Second Life's New Controversies." So, I figure I might as well join in. :)
The "Luddites"
She may have picked an unfortunate label, "Luddites," but she nailed the "Open Letter" issue. All enhancements, however far along they may be, are met with a chorus of short-sighted flamage. It's short-sighted, or perhaps I should say based in ignorance, for several reasons:
First, the law of diminishing returns, combined with Brooks' Law ("adding people to a late software project makes it later"), means that it's useless or perhaps even counterproductive to put many more people on bug fixes.
Second, big improvements in speed don't come from fiddling with code. Say you have a deck of cards, and you want it sorted. Here's one way to do it:
Major improvements in speed come from improvements to algorithms, not doing what you should be leaving to the compiler's optimizer. There's no point in wasting time on the old, slow version... but of course, people will continue to complain because LL isn't doing just that while work on the new version is underway.
Third, LL can't afford to not work at least part of the time on improvements. Other similar (but far more restricted--perhaps leaving creation to those 3D specialists Gwyneth goes on about--and hence easier to precalculate and optimize) systems are or will be breathing down its neck, and then we'll hear the cries that SL needs more features.
Professional 3D modelers
Ms. Llewellyn says sculpted prims have many advantages, and here again she is absolutely correct. They will allow a wide variety of shapes to be created that would otherwise require many of the current prims to even crudely approximate them, if they can be practically made from current prims at all. Eventually everyone will want items made from sculpted prims, for that improved appearance and performance improvement over what one can build from the simple geometric shapes of today's prims.
The part I disagree with is the claim that sculpted prims will create an enormous barrier to entry for building things. Only a very few "professional 3D modelers," the argument goes, have the skill and arcane knowledge required to create sculpted prims.
"popular products like Poser, for instance, sell about 150 thousand copies..." but Blender is estimated to have 250,000 users. Blender is GPL software, open source (guess those open source "tekkie" [sic] types took a break from looting and pillaging... don't they read Prokofy?), and steadily being improved in features, user interface, and documentation.
LL initially only wrote an exporter for Maya, a very expensive (Maya Unlimited 8.5 is a "mere" $7K) and proprietary package... but a few days ago a method to create sculpted prims with Blender was posted to the Web.
It's true... making sculpted prims is more involved than gluing together balls and boxes in SL. Sorry. But it's not that hard, and people are working diligently to make it easier, or at least easier to learn how to do it.
The "Luddites"
She may have picked an unfortunate label, "Luddites," but she nailed the "Open Letter" issue. All enhancements, however far along they may be, are met with a chorus of short-sighted flamage. It's short-sighted, or perhaps I should say based in ignorance, for several reasons:
First, the law of diminishing returns, combined with Brooks' Law ("adding people to a late software project makes it later"), means that it's useless or perhaps even counterproductive to put many more people on bug fixes.
Second, big improvements in speed don't come from fiddling with code. Say you have a deck of cards, and you want it sorted. Here's one way to do it:
- Shuffle the deck.
- If it's not in order, start over again at step 1.
- If it is in order, whee! You're done!
Major improvements in speed come from improvements to algorithms, not doing what you should be leaving to the compiler's optimizer. There's no point in wasting time on the old, slow version... but of course, people will continue to complain because LL isn't doing just that while work on the new version is underway.
Third, LL can't afford to not work at least part of the time on improvements. Other similar (but far more restricted--perhaps leaving creation to those 3D specialists Gwyneth goes on about--and hence easier to precalculate and optimize) systems are or will be breathing down its neck, and then we'll hear the cries that SL needs more features.
Professional 3D modelers
Ms. Llewellyn says sculpted prims have many advantages, and here again she is absolutely correct. They will allow a wide variety of shapes to be created that would otherwise require many of the current prims to even crudely approximate them, if they can be practically made from current prims at all. Eventually everyone will want items made from sculpted prims, for that improved appearance and performance improvement over what one can build from the simple geometric shapes of today's prims.
The part I disagree with is the claim that sculpted prims will create an enormous barrier to entry for building things. Only a very few "professional 3D modelers," the argument goes, have the skill and arcane knowledge required to create sculpted prims.
"popular products like Poser, for instance, sell about 150 thousand copies..." but Blender is estimated to have 250,000 users. Blender is GPL software, open source (guess those open source "tekkie" [sic] types took a break from looting and pillaging... don't they read Prokofy?), and steadily being improved in features, user interface, and documentation.
LL initially only wrote an exporter for Maya, a very expensive (Maya Unlimited 8.5 is a "mere" $7K) and proprietary package... but a few days ago a method to create sculpted prims with Blender was posted to the Web.
It's true... making sculpted prims is more involved than gluing together balls and boxes in SL. Sorry. But it's not that hard, and people are working diligently to make it easier, or at least easier to learn how to do it.
Conflicting Arguments
The reporter from the SL Newspaper did make a good point. I point out that the SL avatars don't support even that variability in people that exists--if Robert Wadlow were alive, he couldn't make his SL avatar look like him--but what I personally want goes well beyond what exists in RL. ("What? Only 8'10"?!" :))
I just hope that whatever they do to impement the "acknowledged" Proposition 125 (or the JIRA entry that corresponds to it) will support both the existing variation in humans and what I'd like to do. :)
I just hope that whatever they do to impement the "acknowledged" Proposition 125 (or the JIRA entry that corresponds to it) will support both the existing variation in humans and what I'd like to do. :)
Entrepreneurship
Since a kind lady took me shopping one day early in my Second Life, I have made periodic efforts to pay it forward.
Sometimes I've taken others shopping... at least once I didn't have time to actually go shopping, and it proved to be a good thing. I recently heard from Annica Lisle, a lovely and kind young woman; she didn't shop, but instead turned her talents, efforts, and L$ to building and becoming an entrepreneur. She now has two stores that sell a wide variety of clothing and accessories at very reasonable prices. One is in the Clarksville Shopping Mall at Meari (203, 226, 138), and the other is in the Violet Club at Inare (27, 118, 421).
Here I have on my favorite of the things I've bought there so far. I hope you'll check her stores out.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Sculpted Prims via Blender
Yippee! Amanda Levitsky has posted a tutorial on creating sculpted prims using Blender. We don't have to buy an expensive proprietary package to take advantage of them.
Monday, May 07, 2007
I am interviewed!
I got an IM yesterday from Voodoo Buwan. He'd seen my flickr page and read my blog; would I like to be interviewed for the SL Newspaper?
Would I? You bet!
So... today he came by my humble (but charming; Cheyenne does wonderful work) abode and interviewed me. Based on what he told me, I hope the result will appear in the next day or so. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
UPDATE: Things move quickly in SL and on the Internet; the interview is up in the "Daily News" section of the SL Newspaper. I'm tempted not to give a direct link, to heavily encourage you to read the whole paper, but for posterity's sake, in case it should scroll off that section, the interview can be made to appear on a page by itself, along with comments, which so far have been positive (or have teased Mr. Buwan about the joys of interviewing large-breasted women).
UPDATE #2: Welcome, SL Newspaper readers! Google Analytics showed a gratifying rise in readership yesterday. I hope that you enjoy my meanderings.
Would I? You bet!
So... today he came by my humble (but charming; Cheyenne does wonderful work) abode and interviewed me. Based on what he told me, I hope the result will appear in the next day or so. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
UPDATE: Things move quickly in SL and on the Internet; the interview is up in the "Daily News" section of the SL Newspaper. I'm tempted not to give a direct link, to heavily encourage you to read the whole paper, but for posterity's sake, in case it should scroll off that section, the interview can be made to appear on a page by itself, along with comments, which so far have been positive (or have teased Mr. Buwan about the joys of interviewing large-breasted women).
UPDATE #2: Welcome, SL Newspaper readers! Google Analytics showed a gratifying rise in readership yesterday. I hope that you enjoy my meanderings.
"I see you shiver with antici......pation!"
Maybe I shouldn't have been quite so optimistic in my notion of when sculpted prims will be ready for prime time.
The 1.16.0 beta client, which supports said prims, is out. I've downloaded it, set up a launcher for it, run it... and watched it crash immediately when it started to actually display where I was.
There was an update, and I have grabbed it. It gets far enough that I can see the fade from the "where were you last time" image into wherever I am on the beta grid... and then it crashes.
I'm hoping such a blatant bug will be an obvious goof-up, and things will improve quickly.
The 1.16.0 beta client, which supports said prims, is out. I've downloaded it, set up a launcher for it, run it... and watched it crash immediately when it started to actually display where I was.
There was an update, and I have grabbed it. It gets far enough that I can see the fade from the "where were you last time" image into wherever I am on the beta grid... and then it crashes.
I'm hoping such a blatant bug will be an obvious goof-up, and things will improve quickly.
World Tour
If you haven't set up your blog with Google Analytics or some other service that lets you keep track of who reads your blog like MyBlogLog, you should. Even if you aren't looking to maximize your sales or ad revenue, it's fun just to look at things like the Google Analytics "geo map overlay."
Sometimes I look at it and wish I had the time and money to visit all the places from which people read my blog. It would be quite a tour, even if I stuck only with the places that have looked at it more than once.
Then again, the thought makes me worry a little bit. People in Saudi Arabia have read this blog, and I can't help recalling the 2002 girls' school fire where the "mutaween" religious police made sure the schoolgirls who didn't take the time to put on their scarves and abayas couldn't get to safety. That differs from my notion of ethical behavior at such a fundamental level that I don't think there's much point to discussing it. I wonder what the beliefs of those readers in Saudi Arabia are, and what they think of my meanderings here...
...and then I wonder whether I'm getting a representative sample of what people there think. If others judge America by the religious nutcases that constitute the main shortwave broadcasters in the US other than the Voice of America, heaven help us.
Sometimes I look at it and wish I had the time and money to visit all the places from which people read my blog. It would be quite a tour, even if I stuck only with the places that have looked at it more than once.
Then again, the thought makes me worry a little bit. People in Saudi Arabia have read this blog, and I can't help recalling the 2002 girls' school fire where the "mutaween" religious police made sure the schoolgirls who didn't take the time to put on their scarves and abayas couldn't get to safety. That differs from my notion of ethical behavior at such a fundamental level that I don't think there's much point to discussing it. I wonder what the beliefs of those readers in Saudi Arabia are, and what they think of my meanderings here...
...and then I wonder whether I'm getting a representative sample of what people there think. If others judge America by the religious nutcases that constitute the main shortwave broadcasters in the US other than the Voice of America, heaven help us.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Bugs
SL residents have been understandably frustrated by bugs in SL. The friends listings are flaky, people report losing things from inventory, teleporting is an iffy thing.
One result has been the notorious "Open Letter" that requests that certain of these problems be fixed in preference to the addition of new features. Unfortunately, despite LL's having devoted over two thirds of its development staff to bug fixes, there appear to be vocal people who object to any development of new features.
News flash: no large program is bug-free. If you insist that all SL bugs be fixed before any new development occurs, then no new development will ever occur. Such a demand is short-sighted. Those interested, and those complaining that 69% isn't enough people to dedicate to bug fixing, might also wish to learn about Brooks' law.
P.S. There's a certain irony in the fact that the majority of SL users, and hence probably the majority of the complainers, are running Microsoft Windows.
One result has been the notorious "Open Letter" that requests that certain of these problems be fixed in preference to the addition of new features. Unfortunately, despite LL's having devoted over two thirds of its development staff to bug fixes, there appear to be vocal people who object to any development of new features.
News flash: no large program is bug-free. If you insist that all SL bugs be fixed before any new development occurs, then no new development will ever occur. Such a demand is short-sighted. Those interested, and those complaining that 69% isn't enough people to dedicate to bug fixing, might also wish to learn about Brooks' law.
P.S. There's a certain irony in the fact that the majority of SL users, and hence probably the majority of the complainers, are running Microsoft Windows.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Woodshed
I got an announcement yesterday from RH Designs about their new Woodshed build, and had to go there.
It's a beautiful place, all rich, saturated colors, dark wood, potted plants, and ornate comfy furniture, with exquisite detail. You expect to see a group of dignified Caledonian gentlemen with brandy snifters and cigars, talking about their expeditions or military exploits.
The area outside is even more beautiful, with waterfalls, lush greenery, and wonderful bridges.
It straddles the boundary between Woodshed and Mobius. (I was amazed that I could cross that boundary without sinking into the ground as I'd always seen before; perhaps that's been fixed.) There are some pleasant and romantic poseballs for the furniture inside and out.
Like Creative Fantasy's builds in Shadow Brook and Serenity Falls, even if you don't intend to buy anything at the moment, it's so gorgeous you will want to go there.
It's a beautiful place, all rich, saturated colors, dark wood, potted plants, and ornate comfy furniture, with exquisite detail. You expect to see a group of dignified Caledonian gentlemen with brandy snifters and cigars, talking about their expeditions or military exploits.
The area outside is even more beautiful, with waterfalls, lush greenery, and wonderful bridges.
It straddles the boundary between Woodshed and Mobius. (I was amazed that I could cross that boundary without sinking into the ground as I'd always seen before; perhaps that's been fixed.) There are some pleasant and romantic poseballs for the furniture inside and out.
Like Creative Fantasy's builds in Shadow Brook and Serenity Falls, even if you don't intend to buy anything at the moment, it's so gorgeous you will want to go there.
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