Second Life and Virtual Worlds
If you use Gmail as I do, you soon find out that it lacks many of the tools in advanced email applications like Outlook. What you may not know is Gmail has an amazing search feature. This search feature allows one to perform many of the tasks you may think are not possible.
I discovered the hidden features of Gmail Search when I decided to clean out some of 7,000+ emails sitting in my Nalates mailbox. Deleting the 50 or 100 emails displayed per page was looking to be rather tedious.
The Daily Mail (UK) has run the article: Rise of the SUPER SOLDIER: Liquid armour, indestructible exoskeletons and weapons that never miss revealed as the future of warfare. The interesting thing for those of interested in Virtual Reality is the prominent picture and discussion of various nation’s military using VR for training.
My Google Chrome has updated and the bookmarking and bookmark manager features, which have again drastically changed, again. The new system and manager are much more like the previous features in 2014. I think it is a major improvement.
I had been very unhappy with the features as they were designed and working during the first part of this year. See Google Chrome Bookmarks/Favorites Changing.
The initial word on the coming Windows 10 was that it would be free. It is. But, I am seeing more and more articles talking about the cost of this FREE software. Forbes is the latest. See: ‘Free’ Windows 10 Has High Cost To Windows 7 And Windows 8 Users.
We know there are some exceptions to the ‘FREE’ offer. Servers, Enterprise versions, and RT version are excluded. Those folks pay. What we are finding out is Microsoft is evolving Windows into a new product, one we WILL have to pay for. Are you asking, WTF!?!
Massively OverPowered has an article by Editor-in-Chief Bree Royce titled: Why MMORPG’s Still Need Traditional Chat. The article is about the problems of jerks annoying people in global chat. We have our share of those people in Second Life.
I find the article interesting because I think it reflects what is going on in RL. Chat in virtual worlds is different. But, it is still humans conversing. Humans may feel they can get away with more in anonymous chat. But, their basic behavior and thinking does not change at login.
Nor do our solutions for these problems in virtual worlds differ from what we propose and experiment with in RL. People in games seem to be learning that the final step in the progression of language restrictions and attempts to control abuse is removal of the ‘global’ chat system. In RL we are imposing restrictions on Hate Speech just as we try to restrict it in game worlds. It doesn’t work in either place. In both places all forms of conversation are injured.
In RL it gives governments and bureaucrats control of what is said. In games it is moderators that have the last say. Bree’s take is that life is better with messy annoying chat than without it.
This morning I found a tiny icon on my Windows 7 Tool Bar. The official release date is July 29. Now I am wondering how well it will or won’t work with Second Life.
This icon is a link to a Microsoft promotional about Windows 10. According to it, you can reserve a copy of Windows 10. I supposed if you haven’t been following Win 10 development you may think this is some great free offer you need to jump on. I have no doubt a large number of people will.
Windows 10 is a free upgrade. Microsoft is no longer charging for operating system upgrades. They are following Apple and Google. Both have been giving away their upgrades. The idea is the original purchase and install of an operating system is made by the hardware manufacturer. After that all upgrades are free.