Sloog, you may remember, is a HUD that lets you tag places and people and search for them both inworld and via the web. MERLOT is a tool for indexing, and a database of, online learning and educational materials. SaLamander is a system to tie them together, led by Wainbrave Bernal, aka Jonathon Richter of the University of Oregon, in partnership with Sloog.org and yours truly.
What does it all mean? Well, anyone is welcome to go and pick up a Salamander HUD from the Centre for Advanced Technology in Education and when you find somewhere educational in SL, click the button, follow the instructions and register the site. The UOregon people will sift feeds and transfer them over to the wiki, and we will gradually acquire a register of folksonomy tags for education in SL.
I got some responses to my call for Halloween-themed builds, so I'm going to give them some love as promised. First, we have a lovely graveyard dancefloor, which can be yours courtesy of Csteph Submariner and SLexchange. I've tested it, as you can see in the Gallery; it's definitely danceable! And don't weep for me, dancing all alone; as a werewolf, I'm obliged now and again to do the odd Monster Mash.
Cube3, creators of the CubePODz, have updated their recreational vehicle line with the new Sunfish, a 2-seater, and the Albatross, a 10-seater. I loved the Syd Mead-esque design of the CubePOD, and these new additions have some of that going on, as well as a sleek retro feel to them. From the press release:
"We should take this opportunity to make the virtual worlds we'll live in optimistic and suggestive of a new frontier. Many of the tired cyberpunk visions that made good fiction 20 years ago are horrible places to really spend our time in. To me that's maybe fun for an RPG, but not for a world we're spending hours in daily now" says designer Larry Rosenthal.
The three vehicles sell within SL for base prices of 600L, 1200L, and 2000L based on the model and style. To see some screens of the new vessels, check out this gallery; for more of a look, go in-world to Theta.
If I had to decide which Second Life feature was the most profoundly useful to me, it wouldn't be the group tools, or streaming movies on a prim. Sculpted prims would certainly be in the running, but the "lumpy" nature of sculpties makes them less revolutionary than I had hoped (they aren't very good for, say, a car fender.) I would have to say, the coolest, most useful, "thank god I have them" feature, summed up in one word is:
But I'm a little worried right now. Linden Lab appears to be fishing around for what the reaction would be to the removal of megaprims in a recent blog post by Michael Linden. Some cynics may say this is nothing more than an obligatory symbolic gesture before they go ahead and remove megaprims anyways. But I'm not cynical! I'm all sunshine, baby! So go ahead and read what Michael's has to say over at the Official Linden Lab blog. I'll take a shot at addressing his concerns here.
Digital Urban is a blog I wouldn't have normal come across, but it showed up on my radar today, with an article, at least in part, about branding issues and the likelihood of prosecutions for breaking them. There is a nice link out to the original piece in Retail Bulletin too, which covers some of the potential issues of bringing a suit - finding the name of the avatar doing it, jurisdictional issues and the cost of bringing the case against the probable returns.
Digital Urban is worth a look as well. It's the blog of a UCL project to map urban environments in digital media. That might be somewhat tangential to us you think, but have you visited Manchester, Liverpool, the Sistine Chapel, Amsterdam, etc? That's the kind of thing the blog looks at. Oh, and if you map places in the UK, you're breaking the Ordinance Survey's copyright guys, so be careful! Now, to the best of my knowledge, a UK government sponsored part of Manchester Council built the Manchester sims. Surely they've got to be easy enough to find and sue, if the OS are so inclined?
While perusing the Modeling Certification wiki page I noticed an interesting requirement being proposed ... "over-sized prims," specifically, megaprims. The fact that these essential building tools would be mentioned as a must-know for all professional content creators comes as no surprise to me. I use them constantly as do most of my peers. But would Linden Lab actually make them a requirement for certification? That would really surprise me because of the somewhat uncomfortable history the lab has with megaprims.
Folks have requested larger sized prims for as long as I can remember. I personally made a request almost two years ago on the official Second Life forum, but to no avail. Then along came a guy named Plastic Duck.
Cel Edman brings us SculptyPaint. Currently at version 0.9, it already rocks so hard that strong men faint. You want a fast, free way of making sculpties without all that tedious mucking about with applications and exporters? This is it. This is totally it.
That said, you won't be going crazy with it in the first few minutes. Look at the tutorials, and fiddle with the tools a bit before you try to do much with it. The tutorials are simple, but will show you what you need to know to get going.
Grab it (for Windows, Linux, or MacOSX). You'll need Java 1.6 before you do anything, so get that too. If you like it, by all means go and feed Edman's tip jar - he doesn't have to just give this away, you know.
I caught up with resident LUCA Rosmer as he was polishing the last details of his new sim - Motorcity - dedicated to the best of car manufacturers and car-related stores. Created by the EM Cars team (Zak Beltran, Fire914 Flaman, LUCA Rosmer) and frageurs Hock of MH Motors, the island features top notch content and car designs, all in a low lag environment.
The sim isn't fully launched yet, although it is public. Those interested in owning a piece of the Vegas-looking city can obtain a rental space here by paying the rental fee to boxes on the sims or by contacting LUCA directly. There is also an opportunity to sign up for residential space in their swanky hotel, the only one on the island.
Relay for Life has been in Second Life for years now, and for those of you that don't know, this weekend marks the celebration that the fundraising is done for the 2007 fiscal year! After this next week, the sims will disappear and fundraising will begin for 2008. As of 6pm SL time, they've raised L$26,885,975, which is a few hundred dollars short of $100,000 USD!
In the next couple of days, I'll be posting information and schedules for events revolving around SLRFL. A lot of work went into this from many teams. There will be auctions, pageants, and themed laps around the track, which takes over an hour to walk!
The official event starts tomorrow, Saturday, July 28th, at 2pm SL time (PDT), but don't let that stop you from checking it out now! To start your walk through all 32 sims or donate money to the American Cancer Society, head on over to RelayForLife Start.
I guess after a well deserved vacation in Maine, it's time to drag my sand-covered ass back to the Insider and resume my relentless, steadfast, unwavering pursuit of ... oh god I wish I was still on vacation! I can still smell the surf on my unwashed bikini (available soon on eBay.)
Michael Bay's summer blockbuster, Transformers, was successful, in part, because it conjures up fond childhood memories for a generation of grown-ups.
The official site of Transformers, the movie, is developed by Liam Kanno, the same talented content creator who designed a replica of the movie set of 300 ("This is Sparta!") and Live Free or Die Hard . The build is impressive in its artistic features although it's fully enclosed and a bit confusing to navigate its labyrinth of tunnels and corridors. You can also find two official Transformers movie avatars, distributed for free, under the statue of frozen Megatron.
For those who grew up loving the transformers, the charm of these legendary characters is their awesome ability to change appearances between robots and ordinary cars/vehicles/mechanical things. In fact, I'd dare say that the essence of transformers is that they ... transform! And this is where Liam's avatars fall short.
There was great anticipation in the air as we awaited the arrival of our instructor. At last last, we too would be possessors of knowledge of the recent art of 'nano' and 'tortured' prims, our hands as eagerly at the ready over CTRL-3 as a mistress' over her whip and chains.
RoseLinUK London, the instructor, arrived at the top of the hour, and class commenced directly, with introductions and the distribution of class materials.
Here's a nicely written piece on some of the more architecturally advanced structures and homes in SL. While it's a good overview, what it sorely lacks are photos of the covered areas. I've visited a few of the places mentioned in the article, but couldn't get a shot of the Bartlett House. If and when I'm able to get photos, I'll write up a new post. Until then, enjoy these images and do go to the actual locations and see everything in glorious 3D!
While this article is all about a plan to create a modern update of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, its final paragraph mentions that the original tower has been recreated in SL, though without a link. This makes me think again: why aren't we creating more physics-defying builds?
Are we so tethered to reality that we can't bear the leaving of it even in our virtual lives? Are we trying to live out our dreams of owning palatial mansions that we can't afford in RL? Are we *gulp* just too adult to be whimsical?
Send me some landmarks or photos of your Impossible Build and prove to me imagination isn't limited to avatars!
These exhibitions are due to open on 1st July and are well worth a visit if you're interested in art and/or art in Second Life. There are three exhibitions in total - more pictures and some description below the fold...
Sloog, you may remember, is a HUD that lets you tag places and people and search for them both inworld and via the web. MERLOT is a tool for indexing, and a database of, online learning and educational materials. SaLamander is a system to tie them together, led by Wainbrave Bernal, aka Jonathon Richter of the University of Oregon, in partnership with Sloog.org and yours truly.
Digital Urban is a blog I wouldn't have normal come across, but it showed up on my radar today, with an 
