30 Tuesday Dec 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 99,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 4 days for that many people to see it.
24 Wednesday Dec 2014
Posted in Machinima
Well known artist Ole Etzel, who was the subject of an excellent ‘Drax Files’ episode, moved in to a small dirty damp apartment in our 1920s Berlin sim and created a wonderful machinima in the dark streets and alleyways.
‘A German Tale’ tells us the story of an old man looking back at his childhood in Berlin.
I’m extremely excited with the end result and proud that Ole picked the city I build for this production.
In RL I’ve been to Filmschool, owned a tv/movie production company and have been a writer and director and I’m very impressed with this video, it makes me wish I had the time to start making machinima myself.
I started the 1920s Berlin Project because of my passion for history and saw in Second Life a way to share and even contaminate people from all over the world with this love for the past while at the same time teaching them a few things while learning new things myself as well.
This film does the same and I hope it grips you the way it gripped me.
It brought tears to my eyes, not just because of the story but also because I’m just so happy to see my Berlin used in such a way.
Enjoy this first episode, and of course, on behalf of everyone in 1920s Berlin; frohe Weihnachten!
23 Tuesday Dec 2014
Posted in SL in the media
Linden Lab has just uploaded 2 new promotional videos.
The first one is a basic tutorial on how to start your Second Life, I must confess I’m not too excited about this one;
I have shared my displeasure with the current new user experience and it seems that most SL users don’t like it very much either.
So when I see the Learning Islands mentioned I think of all the confused people standing around there not knowing what to do or where to go.
And to be honest, I had to laugh when step 4 mentions connecting with the community and shows people chatting in one of those arrival spots where, if you’ve been there, you know that in stead of a casual ‘connecting with the community’, it is more likely that there are people screaming abuse trough their microphone, you’re being spammed or freakish avatars are making you want to wash your eyes with bleach.
On the plus side, it shows that SL has a LOT to offer, more than just shopping or chatting.
The second video I liked a lot more;
Here they show off what in my eyes is one of the most important things of Second Life; creativity and the freedom to build whatever you can imagine.
They have stuffed a very wide range of things into this video, something I’ve suggested before.
SL is so many things, show that, not just one side of it.
I’m glad they have now done this with this video and they show that you can biuld whatever you want.
Only thing I miss is perhaps a few more steps of the creation process, I’d like to see someone stick a few prims together, texture them, use them.
Not just the very fancy experienced builders making amazing stuff.
But, as I said, I like it.
It shows off what people can do in SL, that we can be creative, that we can sell our stuff and that there is SO much to do and see.
A much better message than suggesting you may come spend some time with babes in bikini.
22 Monday Dec 2014
Posted in Facebook
Recently I shared a link to a petition that was going to ask Facebook to allow avatars a profile.
Today I read (thank you Ayame Kintsugi for the tip) about a petition that asks Facebook to allow performers to use their stage names on their profile.
And although the cynic in me thinks that Facebook doesn’t care, I also think it can’t hurt to sign and share.
This petition is getting quite a few more signatures, at the moment of writing its close to 40.000.
That is enough to be a signal Facebook may notice.
If we truly want to keep using Facebook (love it and/or hate it, it has quiet a few handy features), we should try and reach out to Zuckerberg and his pals in as many ways as possible.
The more people let them know that they don’t want to use their real name, the more likely they are to listen to us, eventually.
You can read more about this petition and sign it by clicking here.
19 Friday Dec 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Drax Files Radio Hour show about the DMCA;
show #50
our 50th anniversary has tracy redangel and kitty o’toole discussing legal matters with us & fatima mekkaoui tells us her stories imvu. fascinating:
now on to more reading if you will:
– firestorm is on sl go and sl go can enter multiple grids
shaken or stirred?
– congrats to rob [who are you though?] for winning a leap motion!
– nimble vr gets bought by oculus
– tele-presence still a thing?
![iSee [heads floating in a theatre]](https://joyardley.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/isee-heads-floating-in-a-theatre.png)
iSee [heads floating in a theatre] – cory has just left the building…..
cory leaves FB
– neal stephenson joins magic leap & he is blogging
– remember when neal wanted to make a sword fighting game?
– petition to get avatars back on fb
hey zuck come on!
– our guest fatima mekkaoui aka imokon neox
– our guests tracy redangel & kitty o’toole
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18 Thursday Dec 2014
Posted in SL in the media
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A petition has popped up that asks Facebook to allow Second Life avatars to have a page, they however mean to ask Facebook for Second Life avatars to have a Facebook profile, because we’re already allowed to have Facebook pages, as long as they are managed by our RL profiles.
Will this make an impression on the Facebook people?
Probably not, I am not saying that because I am cynical but because Facebook only cares about publicity and numbers.
When cross dressers got upset about being forced to use their RL names, they caused quite a bit of fuss, demonstrated at FB HQ and received a lot of media attention.
Facebook listened to that.
Most people who have a profile on Facebook for their Second Life avatar are not going to demonstrate, we’re not going to get much media attention and to be fair, not that many of us are probably going to bother even signing the petition.
BUT… it can’t hurt to try, right?
After all, this will only work if a LOT of us sign it, if Facebook receives thousands of signatures, they will at least pay attention.
So why not give it a go and sign it.
Follow the link below and leave a signature;
16 Tuesday Dec 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
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For months the people at Onlive have been secretly working together with Jessica Lyon to build a version of Firestorm that works in SL Go!
In a press release Onlive says that an update to SL Go now allows its users to choose between the official Linden Lab viewer or the Firestorm one.
It works for both PC and Mac but not yet on mobile devices, development for that starts in the new year.
When you launch SL Go you will be presented with a choice between the two viewers.
You should have access to the full Firestorm interface, the edit menus, preference settings, etc.
All customizations are saved from session to session, even if you played on a different device.
The best thing about SL Go, for me, is that it allows me to run SL at ultra graphics settings on pretty much any computer.
You get to enjoy SL the way it should be enjoyed without having to use a top of the range device.
Even my 5 year old macbook can now be used to enjoy SL with shadows and more.
However, I don’t just use Firestorm because I just prefer it to the official viewer, I use it because I need all the extra options it offers.
Yes, I really do need them.
When building and managing a busy roleplaying community, I depend on the building tools, the radar, etc.
I’ve written about why I prefer Firestorm to the official viewer in detail here.
So although I really like SL Go and the ability to see SL at ultra settings again (I blew up my graphics card on the Alienware laptop), I didn’t use it very much because once in SL, I wasn’t really able to do very much as I missed all the Firestorm options I needed.
Unfortunately, for this first version, according to Jessica Lyon, some of the featuresI love a lot have been disabled, for now.
For instance, the contact sets you may have been keeping (like I do) won’t be found in SLGO because there is no access to the contact sets you’ve already created as the SLGo server is not connected to wherever your contact sets are stored normally.
You can start from scratch and make new contact sets in SLGo and those will be remembered.
You will probably also have to reset a few of the settings.
Nevertheless for me it is the difference between running around hopelessly not quite knowing how to do things, not having a proper radar and not being able to instantly see who is visiting my sim and if they are wearing proper 1920s clothes or a latex miniskirt with a Viking horned helmet (Vikings didn’t have horns on their helmets!).
This new option will make me use SL Go a lot more, now I no longer have to carry my Macbook (for RL work) and heavy massive Alienware Laptop (for SL and gaming) with me when I leave my home for a few days, I just use the Macbook for both.
If you aren’t using SL Go yet, you can sign up for a free 7-day trial by clicking here.
A monthly subscription costs $9.95 (£6.95) per month for unlimited access.
Yes, SLGo allowed me to explore SL at ultra settings on my 5 year old macbook!
10 Wednesday Dec 2014
Posted in Improving Second Life
Linden Lab is continuing their new improved active way of communicating and being approachable by creating a new “Feedback & Suggestions” page on SecondLife.com
Here Second Life users are encouraged to leave their thoughts on how their virtual life can be improved.
I have a blog full of ideas and plans, so I’ll be spamming that page right after finishing this blog.
If you have some fantastic plans to make Second Life even better, make sure to let them know.
You can share your thoughts by clicking HERE.
And you can read the full official announcement HERE.
My first suggestion?
Show a message that the suggestion has been received in stead of sending you to the sign in page and then a help page.
I’ve send in the same idea 3 times but have no idea if it has been received.
*Update; it works fine in Firefox but it still happens when I try it with Internet Explorer.
Jo Yardley's Second Life 