Flickr 2014 Review

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I joined Flickr in 2009. I made use of Flickr up until March 2010. By that time I had nearly 200 images and that was the limit for a free account. That is almost 4 years ago. A lot has changed. More is changing. Yahoo is changing Flickr faster than people make tutorials for it.

I was way behind on Flickr. I didn’t know how it had changed. Many of you probably already know. For those that don’t here is some news.

Flickr 2014 - Image by: Alexander Kaiser, Flickr
Flickr 2014 – Image by: Alexander Kaiser, Flickr

With Jo Yardley adding a new group named Second Life is Looking Good I wanted to add it to my collection of contacts and groups. Wile I haven’t been adding photos I have been looking at what others post and I use it as a source of Creative Commons images I can use in my blog. I think I have some interesting images to add and wondered what it was going to cost me to with a Pro account. They don’t have ‘Pro’ accounts any more.

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Drax Files Radio Show #11: The Road to VR

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Drax Files Radio Show #11: The Road to VR. This audio is interesting in that 40+/- minutes are an interview with Ben Lang, who is doing the Road To VR blog, link the article near 20 minute index marker. I found it insightful and Ben

As always this synopsis is what I heard. Before reacting to anything written here, take the time to listen to the original audio of the show.

Time marks are approximate, but they should get you into the audio before the subject’s starting point.

Virtualizer
Virtualizer

Jo Yardley has her Oculus Rift. Yay! We should get some interesting reports from her. I suspect there will be some stuff that is NDA by the Linden Oculus Rift project, but hopefully she’ll still be able to tell us some of what the Lab is doing.

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Adobe And Second Life

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Ciaran Laval has an article up: A Massive Cross Promotion Opportunity Stares Linden Lab And Adobe In The Face.

He makes some really good points for combining Second Life™ Premium accounts and an Adobe product subscription. I think the trigger for his thinking is the current Adobe off to provide Photoshop and Lightroom for US$9.99/month on a yearly basis. This is a deal.

Photoshop sold as a standalone package for about US$600. I’ve forgotten what Lightroom sold for. I think it was another $200 or $300.

I never paid much attention to it. I didn’t think I would use it. But, with the big CC package that has everything Lightroom is thrown in. I love it. Anyone that deals with large numbers of images, needs Lightroom.

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OpenSim News: Hypergrid Market 2014-12

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You probably know that in the Open source world of OpenSim they have a thing called Hypergrid. The basic idea is one can live in a grid and visit other OpenSim grids. The really neat thing is your avatar and it’s stuff go with you. So, if I put on my red dress in OSGrid and go to Kitely I look the same in both grids. My dress, skin, etc. came with me to the other grid.

OpenSim - OSGrid - By: Linux-Screenshots, Flickr
OpenSim – OSGrid – By: Linux-Screenshots, Flickr

IBM and Linden Lab were cooperating on building the Hypergrid. The problem was they could not find a way to protect Intellectual Property Rights. So, they gave up. As much as novices think: there must be a way, there isn’t. After 25+ years the movie and music industry have not been able to find a way to protect digital content from theft. They have spen millions trying to figure out a protection scheme. They have failed. 

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Second Life News 2014-12 #2

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So far I only have bits and pieces of Second Life™ news.

On the technical side Oz Linden announced the closing of the codereview.secondlife.com instance of ‘reviewboard’. The same code review work is done using the JIRA and the bitbucket.org repositories. This only matters to those building viewers and/or submitting viewer code.

VR Glossary Explained

Hypergrid Business has an article explaining the Virtual World (VR) terms being thrown around by bloggers. See: Virtual reality: 5 terms you need to know.

Maria Korolov says you can order a Rift (the developer kit). But, I hear they are out of stock.

Whatever, Maria does a good job of explaining the terms.

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Pondering Skin Fair 2014

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The fair is a big deal. For over a year I have looked for a new skin. I didn’t want to change my look, I just wanted a skin that photographed better. Also, I wanted a skin without makeup. This year it was easier to find skins that have natural, nude, or bare versions of the skin. I think vendors like Slink and others that use appliers creates an environment that encourages the use of skins without makeup.

Evolution of Nalates
Evolution of Nalates

Also, skins now come with some standard appliers, feet, hands, breasts, and now heads. I am also seeing more skins that include freckles.

I think each year skins get better. My Nomine skin was made for Windlight and was designed for the newest rendering features of the time. But, that was also an era of face lights. Times have changed. 

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