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.

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.

At a cracking pace, we spat out wires, gems, beads and necklace frames to the measured text and instructions of Instructor London. We followed a trail well-worn by previous travellers - tapping in the parameters as they were fed to us, seeing the results for ourselves as prims writhed and wriggled before us. However, there were also many points at which we were exhorted to go forth after the class and test the prims unto their very limits - along with a couple of cautionary tips about what those limits are.

Short version: Not a ground-breaking or revolutionary class from the perspective of teaching theories, but a good, solid class ably using the techniques of teaching by example and by laboratory work, filled to the brim with a wide selection of the basic information required to make jewelry. Recommended!

Place: NCI Beach (Fisherman's Cove)

Time: Wednesdays, at 3AM SLT (US Pacific)

Corporate sites in SL include assorted useful and nifty features. It's nice to see those appearing in native sites and stores as well, rather than just being confined to sites that are rooted in the physical world.

Elika Tiramisu is lauded throughout the SL fashion world for her realistic, ambitious hairstyles, accessories, shoes and clothing; rarely, however, is the quality of her actual establishment remarked upon. I spent too much there today, and Tiramisu's premises made it far, far too easy for me to do.

Too many large stores have no such guide, leaving you to wander around from section to section, as things rez, hoping to stumble on to the class of merchandise that you are looking for, often wandering right past the as-yet-unrezzed panels. Sure they're usually signed, but the individual signs may take some time to rez, and have this awkward tendency (like London street signage) to be positioned just about any place other than where you are hoping to see them.

In addition, all the displays in the store are elegant, clear, and easy to understand, and the fittings show a close attention to detail. Possibly the only way the look of the store is let down slightly is in the gaps left between items, particularly in the clothing area. Perhaps they could be filled with some sort of background image that supports the item fixtures without distracting from them.

If you are about to get started in a business in SL, or you are looking to expand your establishment, you would do well to check out this place first, and get a few building and design ideas before you lay that first prim.

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Way back when, I kicked off classroom teaching at NCI, with a Basic Building class that ran every week for over a year. These days I'm out of the education loop at the NCI, but I really wanted to see how the classes are being handled, and I have an especial affinity for the Basic Building class.

With that in mind, I looked up a class that was on at a convenient time, and quietly slipped in to see how Kerhop Seattle handled his Basic Building class at NCI South yesterday.

When I checked this class in the Community Events list, the first thing I noticed was the class length. Having taught the material myself, I had a pretty good handle on how long it takes to cover, being about 90 minutes. The class was slated that for that length and I felt it boded fairly well. Additionally, a small class size was promised; I'm not sure what the size limit was, but the class remained at about six avatars throughout.

The session started five minutes after the stated time to allow stragglers to come in without disrupting the rest of the students (a bit of a tradition of NCI classes). The teacher, Kerhop Seattle, is a congenial fellow, well-written and well-spoken; he welcomed everyone and attempted to put them at ease as they waited. When things began, Seattle explained that the presentation would be broken up into three parts of thirty minutes each: lecture, lab, and Q&A. I had the feeling then that this was going to be quite a different basic building class to those I had attended previously and taught previously.

Lecture: 30 minutes of demonstration.
Seattle typed his way manually through the material for the entire class - much as I used to do; it may have been a strain on him to do so, rather than having pre-prepared text, but the side-effect was a good pace for the class to proceed at, while allowing students to ask questions. Also, he sounded comfortable typing, and didn't get that awful textbook-y stilted flavor to his lecturing (as I so often did). He utilized both typed explanations and visuals throughout.

Lab: 30 minutes of personalised building instruction.
Having been to classes where absolutely everything is explained in painful detail, as well as to those where things are almost totally skimmed over, I was pleasantly surprised to find that (though I wondered whether I'd have been able to follow all the instructions as a new resident), with a couple of exceptions, the students were able to carry out all the tasks required of them; when those exceptions arose, Seattle led individuals gently through the section concerning them.

Q&A: 30 minutes of discussion.
During this section, Seattle covered some questions raised earlier in the piece, then moved onto more generalised building topics: prim limits, land information, vehicular prim limits for scripting, and general tips and advice.

Overall, I was impressed with the class. Seattle is a knowledgable chap and is sensitive to his student's needs, and this was reflected in yesterday's session. I was interested that Seattle refrained from covering the whole of the "Edit" panel, preferring to discuss only the most essential parts of the building process; some teachers do prefer to cover the whole panel, but I feel this makes for a rushed class - lord knows, I used to cover it in fair detail and it seemed the dreariest part of the lesson. Troublemakers and disruptors during the class were dealt with swiftly, and effectively.

I think an excellent addition to the class would be a summary sheet that also covers some extensions to what is taught: for example, covering the keystrokes that cause stretching and rotation tools to appear, instead of relying only on the "Edit" panel. Essentially, something to bridge the potential gap between basic and intermediate classes, particularly for those people who take classes at different institutions.

As for absorption of the material for new residents, while nobody showed especial difficulties, being a free class there is always the opportunity to return and sit in on the material as many times as required. All in all, highly recommended.

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