Second Life and Virtual Worlds
Things about SL
Ciaran Laval has an interview with Xiola Linden that is well worth the time to read. See: The Mystery Of The Secret Interview With Xiola Linden
Loki has tried a new style of machinima. You can see it in his blog. This machinima is made in the anima style, something rare for SL. He did a good job. I’m impressed. It is short and, I think, corny. But, I think both were intended. Whatever the intent, it is cute.
Opening March 13, Skin Fair 2015. Visit here: Skin Fair 1 & Skin Fair 2. There is no staging area so you have no choice but to teleport into one of the regions. The population limit is 45 per region. I haven’t yet been able to get in.
There is a strictly enforced script limit. 50 scripts max. That seems like a lot. I normally keep mine under 20.
Ebbe Linden (Altberg) gave the opening speech at Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) earlier this year. (Reference) They have videos available.
On March 21, 2015 Time: 9:00 – 10:50 a.m. in the Second Life Main Auditorium (SLURL) a panel of people from Second Life will be discussing and answering questions in Second Life about “…how NonProfit Commons has contributed to significant dialogue around the uses of virtual worlds like Second Life. The panelists will discuss how they have changed and grown, as well as the different opportunities and moments that have distinguished the group and the manner in which they promote and spotlight best practices.” (quoted from the VWBPE site)
An idea for having clothes have parameters that are persistent was put forward. The person suggesting the idea was having problems with setting up feet and shoes for an outfit then changing the feet and shoes for another outfit and messing up the first.
I doubt that feature request is going anywhere because of the system changes that would be needed. But, it would be kind of nice.
There is an easy work-around, which is why I don’t see this feature being implemented. I think the problem solution I have is best illustrated with an example:
In inventory I have my shoes and within this pair of N-core shoes folder I have Scripted and Wear folders. In the Wear folder I have my skins. YS&YS is my newer skin. I’ve adjusted the foot to match my skin in each of the shoe color folders to that skin and set the shoe color. I have one Stocking folder in Mocha Skin. I had to adjust the skin color to match the stocking I liked, which was not in the shoe’s included stockings. Kind of a pain.
By doing this the outfit that wears a shoe/foot combination always has the same skin/shoe color. When I need new colors or I change skins, I make a new foot-shoe combination from the shoes/feet in the Scripted folder. Then I don’t mess up my outfits.
I haven’t started buying mesh shoes for the Slink feet I have. But, I will. It looks to be much simpler and require fewer foot-show combinations because I can reuse the feet. And stockings… with mesh feet it looks to be so much easier to wear stockings, especially with patterns.
Someone in the forum is thinking now is the time to cash out their dollars for Euros. It might be. But, it is not a simple decision. Both market and personal factors set when is best.
Today the exchange rate is US$1.00=€0.95. (That changes by the minute) January 1, 2015 it was €0.826. So, if you cashed out US$1,000.00 in January you got €826. If you cash out today, you will get €951. Is that a good deal? It depends.
According to the graph the trend is a strengthening dollar and a weakening Euro. So, the longer you wait the more Euros you are likely to get for your dollar. Said another way, euros are getting cheaper, losing value. The problems with Greece and the European banks is portending big problems. People are abandoning the euro in anticipation.
Jo Yardley has written: Music videos shot in Second Life and why we need more of them. She is on about promoting the nicer side of Second Life. I agree with her. Drax is into such promotion too. His radio show (DraxFiles.com) and World Builders videos are evidence of his passion for the subject.
Jo thinks music videos have the possibility of going viral and thus are a good way to get a positive impression of Second Life out to the world. That is certainly a possibility. But the chances of any video going viral is slim.
There is a lot of amazing stuff out showing Second Life in positive ways. But, few people see it. The problem is getting the positive example into people’s faces. Think about that. What do I need to do to get my “information” in front of you and have you look at it? Remember. I don’t know you, your phone number, address, or email.
A music video that goes viral reaches a few million people. Most music videos do well to break 100,000 views.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf7Ie6PMZJk
The above video has just under 76,000 and was uploaded in 2009.