Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Running a standalone grid on your home computer is not big thing to do. Finding all the information you need to get it working as you want is a bit of a pain. All the people that are working on OSGrid know where everything is. So, they don’t write it down.
When I reinstalled my OpenSim server (I broke mine upgrading) it did not let me walk on prims. Everything was phantom. Setting things to physical did not help, they were still behaving as if phantom. So, I started looking for how to fix that.
Various groups are working on ways to turn the Internet into a full 3D virtual world. The Guardian (UK based) has just written about one effort. One group, which the Guardian article by Victor Keegan fails to name – cause it has no name, is creating software that uses public information to make a 3D model of the entire planet in which your avatar can walk. (For a better write up than the Guardian see the same Victor Keegan’s blog: Building the planet – on a tight budget) You can see an example of it in action on YouTube video below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tVcAuNpgk8]
We all know about the Windows Operating System (OS) and the Apple Operating System. There are others; Linux and its UNIX ancestors and cousins, VMS, BDS, SunOS and others. The operating system is the foundation software that makes a computer what it is. I often explain an operating system to non-techies as all the mechanical stuff between the steering wheel and the front wheels of a car. We turn the steering wheel and the ‘operating system’ makes the front wheels turn in reponse. So, what is Google doing now?
Update 11/23/09 – See Koinup below
I have not been blogging all that long. But I have learned images are important for a blogger. I suspect Torley mentioned my Emerald Viewer Review because of the images. What I am learning now is the number if images I need to publish. Also, I’m not making any money from this blog… I’m looking at how I might change that but that is another story. So, I need a free sharing plan.
I use Flickr, Photobucket and KOINUP. Each has some nice features. For my blogging use I find that I need albums, a way to group related images. For my gaming life I need Groups, which are a way to allow friends to share related images for social networking. I need an easy way to link to images for use in blogs.
Seems there are now special search engines for Twitter. I look at twitter just to see what’s up. Lots of news breaks there. On fast breaking subjects real time results are wonderful. Search engines are figuring this out. Google and Microsoft are looking at buying Twitter. They have recognized Twitter’s value in getting new information on fast breaking … Read more
Flickr requires one to link to the Flickr site if images are used in any site other than Flickr. Our free accounts are paid for by traffic to the flicker site. So, this is understandable if annoying. This is a way to make placing these images in WordPress pages easier.
From Flickr they have an option to let one blog about a photo. They do up the page code needed to make it work and push the entry to your WordPress blog. My problem is I need an image to support my post, not be about the image. It just does not work for me.
What I do is write my post in Word and upload it as a DRAFT using the lower half of the Publish button. On the blog I move to the dashboard and select the post to edit. Most of us start out in ‘VISUAL’ edit mode. I flip the editing to HTML mode. The modes are two tabs at the top of the edit window. See the upper right of the first image. I read down edit window to find the place where I want to insert the image. I click and place the cursor there.
A trade publication just ran a story on Chrome 2 – Beta being released. If you don’t know, Chrome is a web browser like Firefox or Internet Explorer (IE). Chrome 2 requires Windows XP SP2 or better. (Download)
For months I have been using Chrome and IE 7 & 8 side by side. I had hoped IE8 would be faster. It is not. I have not put a stopwatch on it, but 8 seems even slower. Both are WAY slower than Chrome. After using Chrome for a time IE will drive one nuts.