Category Archives: General Computer Stuff

Mobile Second Life

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Everyone wants to use Second Life™ on a mobile device. I can see at times it would be handy. But, for an experience, we are staying on the desktop. I am pretty sure Oculus VR is not going to work well with a mobile device. On a mobile device it would walk you into walls… literally.

Pixysticks

Pixysticks

But, pixysticks has posted an interesting account and pictures of her experience with a Microsoft Surface Pro. See: Truly Mobile Second Life -> The Geekgasm. She is running SL on her unit with 25 FPS in a reasonably dense area of SL.

She says she is getting good results with Neverwinter, Guild Wars 2, and even the new SimCity. That is the advantage of a mobile device with an Intel processor.

Check out the post. Do note that she does not have Advanced Lighting enabled.

While this is not going to replace the desktop units for a quality immersive experience, it is the best mobile experience I’ve seen to date.

Thanks pixysticks, for posting.

Oculus Rift – VR Update

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There is an update on KickStarter.com about the status of the Oculus Rift, which is adopting the name Oculus VR. See the update here: Shipping Update, E3 2013 Recap and Oculus 0.2.3 SDK Release – Update #38 – July 4th, 2013.

This update is about the release of the 1080p developer’s headset.

Scroll down the page to the comments about EVE-VR. This is a tech demo of the EVE Online space adventure game. It blew people away and won awards. The reviewers are raving about the immersive quality of the experience.

Digg Reader Review & Update

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I got my invitation to join Digg Reader. This is a review of the Digg Reader from my perspective of a first time user. This is definitely a beta version of software. It works. But, I think the reader is incomplete. That is sort of the point with beta software.

The Digg Reader Welcome page. Elegant...

The Digg Reader Welcome page. Elegant…

I originally went to the site and put in an email address which lets Digg know I wanted to participate in the beta. The next day I got an email. It had my unique link to Digg Reader. Yay! Excitedly I click and got a page elegant in a simplistic design style. Basically the only information was: Digg Reader – Click to import Google Reader. See the image above. I did that and got an error. After that it got confusing.

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Digg Reader Beta Released

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Tech Crunch has an article about the Digg Reader. Google Reader shuts down next week. So, there will likely be a bunch of people surprised that their reader doesn’t work. They will be searching for a replacement. Digg is a candidate.

[youtube 1dMxuPfd49w]

See the article here: Digg Reader Is Now Open.

Digg Reader targets power users. It supposedly takes a bit of work to set up feed, or so I read. I have yet to try it.

Digg Reader rollout information. Seems it is by invite only at this point.

In the information they are promising SEARCH. I’ve been using Feedly and I really miss the search that was in Google Reader. So, I will be trying the Digg Reader.

Not all is rosy. Read: Promising, But Still Incomplete. This article gets into the changes coming to Digg since Betaworks bought them. It also gets into the actual working of the reader. Check it out.

Upgrading for Second Life

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With the coming of Server Side Appearance (SSA – baking) those using older viewers are going to have to update or suffer never seeing an avatar render again. For many the challenge will be their computer not being able to run recent viewers. The hardware is just too old. But, there are inexpensive ways to upgrade to a computer so it will handle the newest viewers.

ASUS Z87

ASUS Z87 Motherboard

Minimum Hardware

Minimum is this case is a very nebulous term. If you read  Gwyneth Llewelyn’s blog you’ll know she gets by with some really minimal hardware. I think that would drive me nuts. But, I also use the computer for graphics intense work. So, in most ways it is a matter of personal choice and priorities.

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Adobe Creative Cloud 2013-25

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Some news is coming in on Adobe’s change to a monthly release plan. It seems it is being well accepted. Adobe’s published earning is beating the street’s estimates. See Tech Crunch for details: Adobe’s Q2 Earnings Beat Street With $1.011B In Revenue, $0.36 EPS, 700K Paying Creative Cloud Subscribers or 92% of their users.

New features are rolling out in the CC version of the software. Below is a Photoshop change in how it works with 3D painting.

[youtube nKGiSQZh7JE]

A longer and more detailed Q&A about the new CC is here: Adobe MAX: What’s New in Photoshop CC. This is mostly and audio with slides. And while it uses Photoshop in the title, this is more about how CC works.

I plan to sign up this month.

Oculus Rift Update 2013-25

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Jo Yardley has written up her firs hands on experience with the Oculus Rift (Rift). This is an excellent article that puts the state of the art in perspective. The current Rift’s are low resolution, but still impressive. See: Oculus Rift and Second Life.

[youtube lcAaFAIZwH0]

The day she saw the Rift the company was releasing a high resolution version, still beta. There is an even higher resolution version coming for retail sales.

Jo portrays the possibilities for this technology very well. The article is worth the read.

Hamlet recently published: Oculus VR Gets $15M in VC Funding – Virtual Reality Much More Likely to Go Mass Market.

Every indication is this tech will create sweeping changes to computer games and virtual worlds. Jo is portraying ways VR headsets could change RL activities. It will certainly change how we experience and build in Second Life.