General Computer Stuff

New Second Life Controller Experiment

by

A new post popped up on the Linden Blog today: Reaching into Second Life with Leap Motion.

[youtube -8WkyBBwYTI]

I’m not sure this is something I would be interested in. But, it does show the Lab is experimenting with things, which leaves me wondering if it is just pure research or part of some project. I get the idea it is a promotional thing. But, who knows?

They say:

If you have a Leap Motion controller and would like to experiment with the Second Life Viewer, you can find the source code for these experiments at http://bitbucket.org/simon_linden/viewer-rabbit. The indra/newview/llleapmotioncontroller.cpp file contains most new functionality. The Viewer is built to work in several different modes. These modes can be used to control the avatar while flying, send data into Second Life for scripts to intercept, detect hand motions that trigger avatar gestures, or control the camera and avatar movement. To switch between these modes use the “LeapMotionTestMode” value in the Debug Settings, accessible from the Advanced menu.

Block Specific Addresses with Windows Firewall

by

Recently I’ve had periods where my computer or Internet connection seems to bog down. I started looking to see what was happening and found I had a security problem. So, if you use Remote Desktop or have your Windows Login Service exposed to the Internet for other reasons, you should probably read this.

System Explorer History - click to enlarge
System Explorer History – click to enlarge

I’ve heard the news and seen the articles on the Cyber War. I have my firewall and anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-etc… So, I feel pretty safe. But, I do use Windows Firewall in Vista. It is a decent enough firewall even if many do knock it.

But, I kept having periods where my computer got sluggish. Also, recently my Internet connection speed would shift into s l o o o o w motion. So, I started looking to see what was happening.

Read more

Second Life Crashing SkyDrive Problem

by

Crashing when uploading textures and several other assets is caused by having Microsoft’s SkyDrive and similar software installed. There is a possible fix for SkyDrive. I assume a similar fix for other cloud drives would work.

Windows Registry - Skydrive
Windows Registry – Skydrive

I first saw MartinRJ Fayray describe the fix in the SL Forum. The fix requires editing the Windows Registry. If you are not familiar with editing the registry and the associated problems, avoid these steps until after you have read up on registry edits and have decided you are up to it. 

Read more

Is 3D Safe for Kids

by

I was answering a question in the SL Forum about 3D and Second Life. The involved people seemed short on  info about how 3D works for single screens. So, I was looking for a good explanation of the state of the tech. I came across an article at Tech Crunch.

Title: A Guide to 3D Display Technology: Its Principles, Methods, and Dangers

The word ‘dangers’ caught my attention. How can 3D be dangerous? This is a 2010 article. But, it points out the nature of the human visual system and brain and what fooling it with 3D displays does. Something I had never heard of or thought about.

It seems people coming out of long 3D movies are having problems with depth perception. Oh fun! More incompetent drivers on the road.

The real problem pointed out is for young children. We really have no studies or solid data on the effect. But, the points made in the article seems intuitive, which doesn’t make them right. But, it is a serious consideration for those raising young children and exposing them to 3D TV and games.

Apparently this is enough of a problem that Samsung posted this warning on their site:

READ THE FOLLOWING WARNINGS BEFORE YOU OR YOUR CHILD USE THE 3D FUNCTION.

Update: See VR Matrix Disassociation from Real Life.

 

Google Sign In & Security

by

Working with some new client computers I ran into some VERY annoying problems with the Google Chrome Internet Browser. There is an initial Sign In which seems hard to turn off.

Browser Market Share
Browser Market Share

In my search to find out how to turn off the annoying Sign In I learned several things about Chrome and Chromium. If you don’t know, The Chromium Projects according to Chromium’s home page are:

The Chromium Projects include Chromium and Chromium OS, the open-source projects behind the Google Chrome browser and Google Chrome OS, respectively. This site houses the documentation and code related to the Chromium projects and is intended for developers interested in learning about and contributing to the open-source projects.

While I knew about Chromium being the open source side of Google’s Chrome browser, it had not dawned on me that this was the place to get information about Chrome. Duh! Well… we all have our stupid moments… and I didn’t even have to go blond. It is not the end-all-be-all source and Chrome often does not work as Chrome does, has files in different places, and different or missing registry entries at least they have some information that can help. It is very much like Linden Lab viewers and Third Party viewers… the same but different. 

Read more

Windows 8 Hands On

by

Yesterday I was helping a friend with a new Windows 8 Laptop. Best Buy had an awesome deal for two days, about 70% off. Yay!

The previous laptop died and we recovered the hard disk and put it into an external drive case. All I needed to do was move the files over and get MS Office installed.

Since I had heard the Metro interface could be turned off, I started looking for how to turn it off. Plus there are a number of programs that purport to do it for you. One is supposed to let you switch back and forth. Well… they don’t work and Microsoft has removed the ability to turn off Metro. 

Read more