School is coming!
School starts in two days for me… That means less SL for a while. I am entering my junior year and I can’t distract myself. Hopefully I will be able to get on for a bit in October for when Fabian Tweak transfers, and maybe later in the year for some other events. I will continue to monitor the forums on the weekends and occasionally on weekdays when I am bored. Hopefully I won’t be forgotten in world. Consider this my ‘Going on Vacation’ post. Anyways, Good luck to all of my readers, (do I even have any readers?). Thanks for the fun. I will continue to post as often as I can, but most of the stuff will probably just be derived from the forums until I can get in world.
Thanks!
Haiku Contest, Win Some L$
Inspired by the TSL offtopic thread of poems, I’ve decided to host my own little contest. I doubt that many people will enter, but its an easy way to win some L$.
Layout:
A valid haiku (Haiku’s have 3 lines, the first line contains 5 syllables, the second line contains 7 syllables, and the third line contains 5 syllables.)
The haiku must relate to Second Life in some way. It also must be original.
Teens and Non-teens can enter, and you will be paid through L$ on the TG and paypal if on the MG.
Prizes:
1st place, L$1,000
2nd place L$500
3rd place L$300
Enjoy, the contest will last 2 weeks, ending on Friday September 7th.
Submit your entries though the comments!
An example haiku:
Errors have occurred.
We won’t tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.
Second Life Population, a Quick Recap
One year ago, to this week, we had a 22% population growth per month. We had about 400,000 residents.
Reuben Steiger, showed us this:
And wrong he was. Actually, wrong everyone was. No-one predicted a population of over 8 Million registered residents in July of 2007. Being off by maybe 250,000 may be what seems to be acceptable for this sort of estimate. Right? I mean, how much could Second Life grow? Well Reuben wasn’t off by 250,000 thousand, in fact, he was off by 6 million when you average his two graphs. To think about the above image,?? with the red line extended over double of what it has for the projected pop. of July is just hard to imagine. But indeed, we are there. So, Next year, July of 2008, where will we be? I will project 45 Million. Yes, it seems like it will be way off, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it is. But in this matter, the matter of population, you need to think abstractly, and quite frankly, obviously at this rate we have no way of projecting the population using any algorithm.
Over 18?
About 4 Days ago, an acquaintance of mine announced his transfer to the main grid that night over a group IM. The next day he sent me an AIM message, telling me how much the MG sucked. He said it took him 5 minutes for his avatar to rez. He also said he was quitting SL for good, just because of the lag issues on the main grid.
This morning, he told me he had made a TG account, with a birthday of ‘93 so he would transfer in a good 4 years or so.
I wasn’t mad, or shocked, but rather stunned that he had told me this. Of course we have all seen older than 18 players on the TG right? on the forums we have even had those threads from angry parents telling Linden Lab that they corrupted their son or daughter, and will be pressing charges. This is a problem I feel LL needs to fix. What is the benefit of having overage residents infesting the grid? not too much. What is the downside? Abuse maybe?
Later today, one of my better TSL friends admitted to me that he was 11. Being underage isn’t nearly as bad, but it sure was weird now knowing that this person, who is a decent builder, was 11 years old.
Why am I not releasing their names? I feel it is a critical issue for Linden Lab to sort out on their own. They need to devise a system that can sort out the overage players, and I don’t mean age verification. If Linden Lab really wants to find out, I have a notecard in my inventory of all of the players I know of which are overage and underage for sure. If they want it, they can go and get it. But if they do, it shows what kind of a company they are. If they don’t thats nice too. How will I know if they look at the notecard? I guess when all of the accounts become banned. Anyways, thats all I have to say. And as usual the above is a mess.
My First Voice Experience…
Today I logged into the Voice grid for the first time. I hadn’t had time before today, and quite frankly, it was pretty cool.
I had been standing in Loki on my Loki Bridge, when I heard two girls talking. I first laughed, and then realized how ridiculous it was, being able to listen in on conversations, being far away. I thought it would be funny if I went up to them and pretended I couldn’t hear them. This is what happened. Their Names were “Hottie” and “Katia”… Hottie wasn’t much of a typer.
[16:04]?? You: hello
1.Ooohh this guy’s cute
2. Yeah, what a babe
1. Should I say hi?
2. go for it
1. Hi!
2. He’s not responding
[16:04]?? Katia: uhhh hi
[16:04]?? You: what are you guys doing?
[16:04]?? mEH pLACE
Can’t enter parcel, not on access list.
1. He’s not allowed in
2. Let’s let him in
1. Can he hear us, he’s got a dot over his head?
2. No
[16:04]?? You: can i come in?
[16:05]?? mEH pLACE
Can’t enter parcel, not on access list.
1. I’m not letting anyone with a tie in
2. Whatever
[16:05]?? You: this is annoying
[16:05]?? You: so can i come in or what?
2. Anyone on that list is banned right?
1. That’s a long list
2. But he’s not on the list
1. Now he want’s to come in
[16:06]?? Katia: NO!
[16:06]?? You: jeese sorry
[16:06]?? You: chill out
2. There goes your boyfriend
1. Screw you
I thought this was hysterical, as they couldn’t hear me, and didn’t think I could here them. Quite devious, but hysterical.
No commentsMy Old Teen Grid Machinima “Slush”
A video I made in August of 2006. Yes Two-Thousand-Six. I took it off Youtube from my main account a while back, in the fall I think. I just re-uploaded it today after being enlightened at Eye4You island about machinima. I will probably make another Machinima today… Tell me what you think.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=-ATE42SJlzU
No commentsSLeek- My Review
AjaxLife was good, But SLeek is amazing.
Using LibSL, Delta has created SLeek. It has been out for a while, but I just started using it about a week ago. It is reminiscent of AjaxLife in a sense, because it has all of the basic features of SL, but only more. SLeek gives you:
- Your L$
- IM/ chatting features
- Search
- Profile Views
- Teleporting
- Friends
- Inventory
- Texture Previewing
Alot of other things I am forgetting about…
anyways, I find it more useful than AjaxLife, but the downside is it is a download?? (which isn’t too bad).
But the biggest problem I have with it is that it is not Mac supported yet, but Delta plans for it to be soon.
Have fun
Open Letter to Allow Teens at the Concierge Party
A Letter of which I give you permission to modify, and then email to any Linden to help allow teens to attend the upcoming Concierge Party. I sent my letter to Ginsu for legality purposes, Harmony and Guy for Land issue purposes, and then Philip for general decision-making purposes. If you Do use this letter, –EDIT OUT THE BOLDED TYPEFACE PARTS–
Dear (Any Linden),
I am Jackson Widget, a Teen Grid resident who hopes to make it to the concierge event on the 21st of this month. The Teens, such as myself, who did submit a support ticket were added to the?? “Concierge Special Events” group, but only later to be kicked out. We feel it is important that we do attend this event as we do pay a significant amount to Linden Lab, but more importantly it is a strong, yet subtle step in the effort to create a more unified grid.
We have since been told that there is a high chance that the numerous teens who wished to attend, will in fact, not be able to. Fabian Tweak, another teen concierge member, and I have started a small coalition to allow teens into the concierge party. We have been told by another Linden that the concierge teens could have a temporary account on the Main Grid which would be restricted to the concierge party simulators. Assuming that the simulator(s) are PG, there would be no legal interferences.
A decision to allow Teens to attend this party would definitely be a positive move, and would further our efforts to create a unified grid of sorts.
Regards,
Jackson Widget
Urban Alcove. Ugly or Impressive?
Alcove recently went under renovation to go from a typical moderate teen private island, to a newer, more urban style. I expected Alcove to be very ugly, as past urban settings have been, well, over urban. Alcove both succeeded, as well as failed, why?
Pics and Review after break.
When you put it into perspective…
My good friend Cyrus Therian just gave me some insight:
??Let’s get one thing straight: the teen grid doesn’t suck. Let me enlighten you as to why.
We’ve got, for the most part, little to no lag (Unless of course your in the middle of a club with five hundred other idiots wearing ten thousand blinged up attachments, derrr.) We’ve got a nice small community, where you know the majority of the people. There aren’t too many greifers, and for the most part, they’re contained in the island sandboxes. More importantly, everything is dirt ass cheap compared to the main grid. Just take a look at an MG shopping website like SLboutique (Then tell me my guitars are expensive. 
) Another huge positive to our grid is the general lack of competition for content creators. You can make easy money by learning to build or script and setting up shop in one of the five billion malls.
So don’t whine about how little there is in the way of content, when there’s so much more to be happy about on our little cluster of sims.
No commentsAccess SecondLife Via Firefox!
Okay, first and foremost, Katharine Berry rocks my world. She is one of the Teen Grid’s best scripters, and her latest project is a simplified SecondLife client you can access using Firefox or Safari, called AjaxLife.
The client obviously isn’t an exact replica, but it gives you the standard features you might expect in a simplified metaverse.
pictures and more after the break
No commentsLearn To Create Skins with MerchantVendor Vega
So I set out to compile a list of tools and tutorials that would help any would-be creator. My search on google has led me to many good and bad sites.
???First I came across chip midnights CMFF templates. These are highly improved compared to the second life clothing templates. They are a must for anyone interested in making skins or clothing.
http://www.slboutique.com/chipmidnight/
???Secondly I found Johan’s Durants 3D previewer. This tool allows you to view your clothing or skin on a avatar outside of SL. This will help if your trying to get minor details, or if your just to lazy like me to open up second life.
http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/10/8/271989/slcp.zip
???Third. When I googled skin I found many websites but I was mostly intrigued by a place called Skindom which is a planetquake/half life 2 website that deals mostly with… thats right your guessed it, Skinning. This is a really good resource that deserves attention.
http://skindom.planetquake.gamespy.com/tutorials/
???Fourth. I came across www.poopinmymouth.com run by Ben Mathis. A freelance 3d/2d artist who worked on GUN, Tony Hawk, and other game titles. His tutorial sections goes in depth with 3d modeling but also includes some interesting techniques that can be applied to second life easily.
Eye texturing
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/process/eyes/eyes.htm
Painting stubbles
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/process/tips/stubble.jpg
creases & edges
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/process/tips/edges.jpg
ear painting
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/process/tips/ears.jp
???Fifth. I got this a while back while still at polycount but its a handy brush for clothing. Its called the fold brushes. These are only for photoshop (sorry to peeps with paintshop and gimp). There are two pages so make sure you find the “next page” button at the bottom. The second page is crucial.
http://community.livejournal.com/solitarytree/6016.html
???Sixth. Unfortunatly this little treasure got stuck on lycos and hasnt been updated since 2002 but still contains some valuable information that relates to wrinkles, folds, painting hair on skins, and a few others.
http://skinmachine.tripod.com/
???Seventh. 3Dtotal, one of the many pioneers in modeling & texturing has supplied a lovely eye tutorial for Photoshop. You may need to scale this down but its worth a look if your interested in eyes.
http://www.3dtotal.com/team/tutorials/antro_eye2/antro_eyetex_01.asp
???Eight. Dave Nagel is a long time brush maker who specializes in photoshop. His brushes range from hair and skin to abstract. Here are his skin brushes.
http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=3085
*As a reminder: Get a wacom if you can afford one and if your interested in making skins. Using the mouse is so passe’. This is the 21st century so get a wacom and start painting. You dont NEED it but its definatly somethign that will speed up your workflow.*
Thats all I have for now but I’ll be sure to post more updates when I find more valuable information just in case anyone is interested.
No comments
Land Auction
The Merch: I am auctioning off my Stewart land- doesn’t sound like much, but you should check it out. The main parcel is a 1,024m isolated ‘island overlook’. There is one other parcel similar to this and it is owned by “Beautiful Machine”. There is a 512 m plot in a nearby corner of the sim which could serve as prim land for be used for a small build.
The Build: I will include the build which was created by MinionTaurus many months back, and added on to the front of the build I created a little walkway which is also included.
The Sim: Stewart isn’t one of the more popular sims, but that is because it is a vehicle sim. It is virtually lag free, and the load times are pretty quick. There are only a few other land owners in this sim, most of them are the best content creators on the grid.
The Pics:
additional info:
The main plot is right in the middle of the sim, you’ll find it easy.
I will keep the auction open for about a week or a little more.
I have a reserve in mind, but I reserve the right to withhold selling if I do not feel that a sufficient amount of L$ has been bid
No comments
Teen Grid Update
okay, lets me honest here… I havent posted in, well lets see.. over a month. I’ll admit, I haven’t been such a good blogger recently. For all of you readers out there, regardless if you check this site once a day, or once every few months, I am hoping to keep you all informed. I would imagine most of my readers are teens, so you dont necessarily need an update on current grid events, but for those non-teens, I would like to keep you updated.
Alex Harbinger (prounounced Harbinjer) has had the motivation to help out the long awaited, much anticipated cause of grid unification. Yes, we all have had those dreams of logging in to a metaverse undivided… but Harbinger takes it to the next step. With his ‘Grid Unification Proposal’, he offers a solution to allow teens and adults to work in a metaverse without segregation by age. To sum up his long proposal, he wants to basically move every teen island onto a new teen only continent by the Main Grid. Teens would be able to access this, but not adults. Then teens would be able to access the PG parts of the MG– Mature regions would be blocked. This seems ideal, as teens would want to work with their families, teens could have a higher degree of education, and of course, commerce. the downside is that many Mature regions neighbor PG regions, thus any adult could simply fly over to the PG region in- well lets say inappropriate attire. This obviously presents Linden difficulties, and well, it may be too much to handle. Before Alex took this initative, Philip and Blue announced at the Global Kids 1 year anniverssary that it would be something to look into, and they both would like to pursue this. Encouraging words, but do they have true meaning?
Others on the Grid have also taken seperate, but similar initiatives. A few have started “Walks for Intergrid Commerce”. This would also be a great temporary solution, allowing both grids to exchange items on a small continent accessable by both parties.
Regardless if any true action is taken, I am proud to see that our small grid can produce so much commotion. Signs like this show our desire to take action, and this should really serve as a life lesson. Just remember, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”
No commentsTSL Profiles balances the removal of removal of Ratings by LL
Recently, Katharine Berry released TSL Profiles, a teen grid rating service. It is free, and already has a good amount of residents on it. I was lucky enough to be one of the pre-beta testers, along with about 4 others. The site has grown tremendously over the past few days, and looks like it will be a big hit. Katharine Berry also created TSL Emporium, an online vendor similar to the Main Grid’s SLExchange and SLBoutique.
No comments