hey! who moved the blog!?!

we did!  why? to have a ubercool 3D tag cloud dealio! (see we are pretty shallow)  :p

so go spam, err, i mean post some comments over there!

help us be the number one blog of the interwebz!

its a w00tfest!!!

Stargates & sculpties isl

One of our residents is an active scripter and true community contributor.  He even had an exhibit in Burning Life this year.

Micheil Merlin in Burning Life

Well Micheil is big into Stargates and we love them as a way to explore sl. He also does sculpties, another thing we admire, so we spoke with Micheil:

iliveisl: So tell us about stargates.

Micheil: There are many ways to explore SL, but one of the more interesting ways is to use the random dialing feature of OpenGate, the open Stargate Network. The Network is an open source project created by avatar Doran Zemlja, based on the Stargate movies and TV episodes.

Random locations may be dialed by visiting a gate and saying ‘/d random’ in chat. After the gate connects, a blue wormhole opens in the gate. Click on the wormhole and your SL map will open to the location of the dialed gate. Select teleport.

As long as the teleport location in the selected region has not been set otherwise, you should appear by the destination Stargate.

iliveisl: How many Stargates are isl?

Micheil: The number of active Stargates in this network varies, but is normally around 300. This provides many possible destinations in SL.

iliveisl: Where can we learn more?

Micheil: Information about the network, including source code and documentation, can be found at this link. A complete list of gate locations can be found at this link. Free Stargates may be obtained by teleporting to this link. A gate may also be purchased for $0 from XstreetSL.com.

Over time, the appearance of the gates has changed dramatically. Originally, the textures were fairly flat because the gate function was the primary focus of the development effort.

An important goal has always been to keep the prim count low. Currently the maximum is just 11 prims, which should allow nearly any land owner in SL to have their own Stargate without a large prim commitment.

One change that has been made to provide a more visually appealing gate while keeping the prim count low is the use of sculpty chevrons. Recently, the second iteration of sculpty chevrons have been completed and distributed with the gate.

This version of the sculpty chevron was created with the open source content creation suite, Blender 3D, a free version of which may be obtained from here.

One of Micheil's Stargates in Enerville

iliveisl: Blender 3D is such a great program. We have seen some of your sculptie work and it’s pretty nice, but it looks scary to try. What would you advise?

Micheil: Blender is an extremely powerful program with an unfortunately steep learning curve. Thankfully, there are many tutorials available to assist you in learning how to use the various functions of Blender.

iliveisl: Yay for tutorials, so what would you recommend?

Micheil: In particular, the tutorials of Hussayn Salomon and Gaia Clary are extremely useful and refer specifically to creating sculpties for SL.

Also identified in the tutorials, Blender scripts by Domino Marama  can be used to create SL compatible objects that serve as a starting point for sculpty modeling.

Creating sculpties would be easier if they actually looked in SL the way they do while you are building them. Two things work against you. The first is that things just don’t always look in SL like they do outside of SL. That is one you just have to get used to and learn to work with.

The other difficulty is the way the SL viewer shifts the level of detail (LOD) in relation to object size and distance. You can build a fairly detailed sculpty model outside of SL and then have it pretty much fall apart on you when you stand three meters away from it in SL.

The key here is to not rely on the highest LOD. This version of the OpenGate chevron sculpty was created such that the first two LODs are about the same so the sculpty remains fairly stable as you move away from it.

iliveisl: Yikes! That is pretty techie sounding!

Micheil: Fortunately, Blender can help you with this, using its multires function. Multires (multiple resolution mesh) was developed for blender to allow easier manipulation of complex and detailed meshes by shifting to lower detail. It is useful for scuplties to let you preview what the sculpty will look like as the SL viewer shifts to lower LODs. Generally for sculpties you want to edit at the higher LOD (multires level 3) and just use multires to look at lower LODs. Editing at lower LODs can mess up your sculpty mesh. The scripts available from Domino Marama support the three standard LODs and you can shift between them as you edit your model, gaining a better understanding of how things might look once imported in to SL.

After creating the sculpty you will want to place a surface texture on it. The OpenGate chevron sculpties require a custom surface texture to allow for some styling, in particular the appearance of the chevron lights. This surface texture could be very tricky to create by hand. Again, blender can help and Hussayn’s and Gaia’s tutorials will lead you through the process.

You will likely go through lots of trial and error in creating interesting scuplties. This version of the chevron sculpty started life as a cylinder (created with Domino’s scripts) and went through three major revisions (almost start-over revisions) and several minor ones. As you work with them, you learn better how to place vertices to gain the most detail both in the shape of the sculpty and the sharpness of the surface texture that you eventually may place on top of the sculpty.

iliveisl: Sounds like lot more than just making a nice mesh in Blender.

Micheil: Yes, the shape of the sculpty is one thing. But, if you need detail in the surface texture, you have to keep enough vertices close enough together to give you that detail. Otherwise, you could end up with a nice sculpty shape, but with big blurry splotches on it where you expected a nice detailed texture.

iliveisl: Nice job talking to us about Stargates and sculpties. Any last advice for us?

Micheil: It has taken me a lot of time and effort to learn how to manipulate Blender functionality to create sculpties that work well in SL. I am grateful for the tireless and freely-given work of Doran Zemlja on the OpenGate Network, and the detailed and useful Blender tutorials by people like Hussayn Salomon and Gaia Clary along with the Blender scripts from Domino Marama. People such as these are what make SL the interesting and creative place that it is.

iliveisl: It’s a thrill having you in Enerville (slurl) on the iliveisl estate and thank you for educating us on this.  It’s pretty interesting and a great example of the creativity you have.

w00t, our favourite day of the year is here

=D   \o/  thanks Poledra B. for the message on the forums!

that was wonderful!  *blows out candles*

=D

dancing goats?

moreLunarLounge_009, originally uploaded by iliveisl

wow, sl is many things . . . but dancing goats on the dance floor? what will those deviants think up next? (shhh, don’t tell anyone I am a tiny furry beaver) =D

anyway, the lunar lounge continues to be developed for anyone’s use, a pretty fancy dance floor is part of it now, just need some more obnoxious rotating lights!

give it up (way up) :p

lunarLounge_006, originally uploaded by iliveisl

w00t! as soon as we figure out some dance scripts and public music, we will be set

just another spot to hang out in the iliveisl estate > Energy Hacker Lunar Lounge

and get the KoRn version of Word Up on dizzler

Yo’, pretty ladies around the world
Got a weird thing to show you, so tell all the boys and girls
Tell your brother, your sister and your mamma too
‘Cause we’re about to throw down and you know just what to do

Wave your hands in the air like you don’t care
Glide by the people as they start to look and stare
Do your dance, do your dance, do your dance quick mama
Come on, baby, tell me what’s the word

Word up, everybody say
When you hear the call you’ve got to get it under way
Word up, it’s the code word
No matter where you say it you know that you’ll be heard

Now all you sucker deejays who think you’re fly
There’s got to be a reason and we know the reason why
You try to put on those heirs and you act real cool
But you got to realize that you’re acting like fools

Give us music we can use it, we need to dance
We don’t have the time for psychological romance
No romance, no romance, no romance for me mama
Come on, baby, tell me what’s the word

Word up, everybody say
When you hear the call you’ve got to get it under way, ooh

more virtual meetings

a short interview on a conference is here and it’s a good quick read on the sl blog.  there are challenges to having these inworld, but it’s inevitable that sl will become used more and more for this.  IBM has OpenSim tied into their instant messaging (sametime3D) and once people see it, they will want more like it

OpenSim uses the same viewer, so anyone in it has the same tools that we do isl.  the look is exactly the same, so once you start seeing more people having meetings in it, you’ll start to see more recorded meeting on YouTube.  once it’s out there on the interwebz more, the demand for similar style meetings will start to climb

over at subQuark, they want to partner with us on a new “corporate” venture and use our experience in virtual land to form a corporate offering for land.  many peeps can’t justify $295 a month for an entire sim, so subQ may be on to a niche market (btw, subQ is a partner in iliveisl, but a very silent one!)  =p

making some corporate sims (not part of the iliveisl estate) that guarantee only corporate use might work.  offering a quarter sim for $95 a month and built like we do could be attractive to some corporate users.  still working out details such as having some public land and all that stuff

a sad goodbye from a Mentor that did a lot more than just help n00bs

Lindall was a Mentor that loved SL so much, just Google her name and you will see how much of an evangelist for SL she was.  almost any business knows the value of happy customers and the amount of word-of-mouth they generate.  those kind of customers are absolute gold.  they respect and rejoice in having customers that so love their product.  most companies spend huge amounts to advertise, like Macy’s spends 50% of their budget for advertising.  Linden Lab has troves of people like us and Lindall that create a positive buzz in the interwebs

while we may not agree with all she says, she has a viewpoint that not many are priviledged to have.  she has spent many hours helping n00bs and spreading the word in the bloggosphere on how valuable Second Life is, her  thoughts are just as valid as anyone else’s, and it is always good to understand all sides of as much as we can

Voltaire: I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.

i emailed Lindall to get her permission to share this and she agreed.  so here is her goodbye note to the Mentors, it’s a huge loss

>>>>

I’m leaving the Mentors, and this list.

It’s a very sad day for me.  I have always been so proud of being an SL Mentor, and spent many, many hours helping newcomers both in world and on the SL website forums.

But I’ve lost heart, after I read LL’s announcement on the blog today of upcoming policy changes in regards to adult content.

In my view, adult content is the one entertainment left in SL that has a chance of keeping the virtual economy afloat.  Sex…the preparation for it, anticipation of it, consummation of it…is the driving engine that underpins things like the avatar appearance industry, the housing industry, the club scene (not just strip clubs, but sedate places like ballrooms, too).  By stifling the creation and marketing of adult content, LL is about to deal SL its final blow.

And, in its usual ham-handed fashion, LL has announced a series of lofty, fine-sounding goals, with absolutely no idea of how to actually implement them.  The hints that blog and forum posts have given us so far indicate that their half-formed plans will cause massive disruption to the mainland, untold pain for thousands of individual businesses, and (I predict) a further precipitous decline in land prices.

Frankly, I don’t think SL can survive, this time…and I don’t propose to spend my remaining months in SL cheerfully telling newbies how to open their inventories.  Just the thought of it gives me an empty feeling of futility.

Why bother, when this will all soon be gone?

Besides that, I no longer want to have an official affiliation, even as a volunteer, with a group of people who are so utterly stupid, careless, and shortsighted.

For those who think I’m wrong, consider this:  LL says “many people” have complained of adult content offending them and detracting from their SL experience.  But how many is “many”?  Count the number of PG sims and compare them to the number of Mature sims.  This is a rough indication of what percentage of SL cares enough about avoiding adult content to do something about it.  What’s the figure, Mark?  Blue?  Anyone?  Surely LL knows what portion of the grid is PG.  I’ll bet anything in my inventory that it’s far from a majority.

More likely, some other visiting executive twitted M Linden in the washroom. “How does it feel to be the head of the largest cartoon porn company on the Web?  Har har har.”

And so, farewell.  After I hand in my resignation, I’ll be taking steps to tier down.  When my membership comes due, I’ll downgrade to Basic.  At the very least, we are in for some very rough times ahead.  I’m not investing a dime more in SL than I absolutely have to (a girl has to buy shoes once in a while!) until the dust settles.  I sincerely hope that it’s ONLY rough times.  In my opinion, though, when the dust settles, it will be on SL’s grave.

Sincerely,
Lindal Kidd

sl blog trackback test

so they added trackbacks to be visible on the sl blog so we decided to test it with this post.  we had posted a few weeks back on M’s blog about customer service frustrations.  Linden Lab customer support is awesome and fast, but service is not (M even said that the support ticket was the normal channel, but there are no categories for service and requests in the ticket system).   although we followed his suggestion and submitted a ticket tonite since nothing has ensued since

well, all this to say, we are no further along with responses despite the ensuing brouhaha (most excellent word eh?).  in fairness, one request was for information they may not have, or at least my final contact does not have

lol, i guess apathy has finally settled in, or falling through the cracks has beat me down.  i frankly don’t care so much and my evangelism has lost it’s twinkle (but still there and easily rekindled to a blazing fury – i am pretty easy)  :p

so have fun in Second Life and i love it as ever and believe it will be here as the industry standard for a long time

oh, on another note, it’s pretty cool to be able to pull up profiles online:

http://world.secondlife.com/resident/f8f482f8-b6ae-47c4-b063-d1ec73ed4ead

lol, look at how cute in IMVU!

IMVU! =)

A is for Allison

A_Is_For_Allison_018 , originally uploaded by iliveisl, see the entire set here

this is a mini case study on outstanding “best practices” for creating a Second Life shop

this is an example of a very creative person that truly has mastered second life. there are many clothes makers isl, and some even make a real living from them. A is for Allison is an example that should be a case study for anyone wanting to start a business inworld.

her building style allows her to use what many would consider a very small piece of land isl. it allows for 371 prims. by sl standards, that is a boutique space.

but she is able to maximize her shop with three main factors worth learning. megaprims, scripting, and branding

by using a megaprim as her anchoring shape (a megatorus) she has something unique that is only one prim. this allows her to them reuse this shape as her visual landmark (the pink floating ones). she further “brands” with it by using the same shape as a smaller prim for her display stands. that is shear genious!

how many stores irl have you ever been in that are so effective in using there iconic identity this effectively? i suspect that she has rl experience in design

and scripting allows her to enrich her offerings by using hobver text to further her message

those top three things alone are worth gold in second life marketing. they may seem subtle, but that is because she pulls that off so very well

she is also rich in her product images. take a good look and compare all her t-shirt images. she uses different models that further the message of that item, as well as gestures

finally, her shirts are incredibly clever probably a bit more, in some cases, than the average avatar will get

i’m sure i left out some aspects, but her store would make an awesome white paper on how the details allow you to create strong branding and a positive customer experience

details:
name of store – A is for Allison
description – Scarily eclectic shopping under the big, pink pearl. T-shirts like you’ll find nowhere else in SL. Beautiful Zen Sand Garden. And now featuring Giggling Goat Cheese. Mmmmmmmm!
location – http://slurl.com/secondlife/Enercity%20Harbor/121/80/31

clever use of props and models

easy to find from anywhere in the sim

hover text used to add more to the experience
(nice jab at Laughing Cow cheese & a place for people to sit and chat is excellent sl design)

a very crisp store with great possibilities

tipi_001, originally uploaded by iliveisl

we never have time (it seems) to explore, even our own estate. while hunting down some whacky code making some animal rez and run really fast and disappear, we took a look at what was on an Enercity sim and found this shop

firstly, it’s a great build using megaprims that are precisely placed. secondly, the logo is absolutely fabulous! having worked at a Fortune 1000 creative agency in the past, i can say “it’s a good logo? it really is (just don’t get hung up on anything to do with a teepee, look beyond that for the simplicity and aesthetic balance)

it’s too bad that tipi.com is already taken, this “brand” could be made into a powerful icon within second life. wonder if the blog name is taken?

*hint – tp, if you pushed this out via the web with blogging, forums, xlstreet, etc. you could be one of those people that make decent money from second life. the brand imagery from your store name really is quite powerful*

flash header for iliveisl site?

well, i’m not sold on it yet, but subQ filmed a sim sweep dolly shot that is like 2 minutes long.  i like the idea, but not sure about the angles, seems like maybe a fly over with several breaks would be better to show off the sims?

en tous cas, it’s up on the site and on blip :)

manga makeover

mangaMakeover, originally uploaded by iliveisl

the old avatar used for blogging was pretty depressing, all gray and melancholy.

so after some time in the bookstore and messing in photoshop, here is a pseudo-manga avatar.

part of that branding practice. manic panic pink or what! well when it’s actually on blogging sites it is really tiny like this:

why does this matter? just so that the iliveisl estate can keep attracting people looking for value-based land. not because they think the av is nice, but so they recognize it easily. with 20 comments a week and social media stuff, this avatar gets around.  kinda like Torley’s watermelon eyeball avatar, you instantly recognize it

if you run a business inworld, you should read Maki’s blog DoshDosh.  with a few hours a week you can drive more traffic to your business, but it takes a while to see results

speaking of business, if you ever wanted to try it out, then you might like the boutique spots in Enercity.  the first 8 went pretty fast so now we added another 4.  they are small lots with 371 prims but only run $2900L a month (about $11 USD). so what’s the value? great community, land always borders public spaces on all sides (so for these there are sidewalks and roads between you and your neighbors).  remember, if you are comparing to weekly rates there are 4.3 weeks a month, so $2900L becomes $669 per week.

moi? =)

=)

hav3 j00 533n ht3 n3w bl0gz at 5l?

the new blog layout is a wonderfully simple and clean UI.  it gets the rare, yet official DOUBLE HAX APPROVED badge!  rare cuz we often blog independently.  but the new look is fabulous and really great user-centered design.

Ye Olde Hax & Hax Crest of Approval

so what did we do as a first post over there?  well . . .  a comment about the only downfall we both see about SL.  they frankly have weird customer service if it’s not a support ticket or live chat or the phone.  those three channels are absolutely wonderful and always get rapid 100% right on responses.

those channels, it seems, should be for urgent issues.  the only phone calls were in response to money issues: one a double billing, the other an island that did not rez.  both calls were taken care of in a matter of under 4 minutes.  bravo and brava on that!

live chat has been for serious, non-money matters and have been less than 10 over the last two years  (well there was one when the sim pricing dropped from $1675 to $1000 and Linden Lab was just getting slammed with negativity, so that live chat was purely a “we think you are awesome, love you, and thanks” type thing.  even that resulted in a couple of Lindens giving me bears isl.  i have those bears in a folder called “most special”.  that is incredible customer care

finally, tickets – those are always looked at in a reasonable time and always fully resolved.  thank you Linden Lab and all the support Lindens for INCREDIBLE service

so maybe that is why it is so frustrating to get what seems like “oh it’s not worth the bother to answer your email” treatment.  and those email requests are for information to help further the good name of SL!  thinking about that in contrast to the fabulous other channels i guess makes it seem really out of whack

so the question is: is there a less “urgent” channel for support than tickets? or maybe a ticket is appropriate?  some is just poor follow-up, like the form you fill out to get business information that promises a two business day turn around.  that’s just asking for a disappointing customer experience if that blatant statement is not acted upon

anyway, let’s see if the buck stops with M (especially if Philip is next to him)

EDIT: dang, 15 minutes after posting on M’s blog, guess what?  yep, he stepped up and proved that Linden Lab is not some faceless corporation.  it’s real people (i always knew that) that are incredibly passionate.  thank you M.  wait till subQuark gets logged in to blog, the enthusiasm towards SL is already through the roof (think mini Torley) . . .

btw – hey Philip!  thanks for fixing the slurl.com updating issue, that is excellent!  and thanks for creating that virtual world thing!  it really has the opportunity to become as ubiquitous as the Flash player.  just takes incredible passion, belief, drive, perseverance, resourcefulness, and devotion *hint*

thanks Linden Lab!  =D

note in case anyone ever wondered: no caps is a nod to the original bauhaus movement that felt that capital letters were not needed for the sake of simplicity.  that was later modified to having the first word of a sentence made bold – which contradicted the first reason because it lead to needing two font faces anyway (either a cap set or bold set).

WordPress growing blog of the day

for whatever it is worth, this blog (iliveisl) was listed as 50th in wordpress’s Blog of the Day in the Growing Blog listing in January  o_O

we do get a lot of hits and we did get a lot of hits today too, but come on? really? the 50th top growing blog?

maybe cuz of subQ’s blog post on fascinating things like our masterful coffee cup? he got a pingback from another blog that is pretty big in the e-learning world

maybe people just like Second Life rotating coffee cup ads? =p

maybe everyone needed a little more caffeine today (maybe we should sell the rotating coffee cup and move the iliveisl rl offices to bermuda?)

anyway you slice it (the pie to go with the coffee?), it’s pretty cool to get that kind of traffic out of the zillion blogs out here

*steps into the limelight and grins* =D

thanks subQ for the graphic upload

Enercity Park Street Light Public Works Bid

EcityCoffee_002, originally uploaded by iliveisl

well Enercity Park can get sketchy after dark (apart from the obvious zombie problem) and even mr bunny gets nervous, so we (Enercity Public Works) put out a bid for a street light to illuminate the bus stop.  after much negotiation, one bid looked the best and was very inexpensive

we signed the contract, but obviously missed some fine print

we got our light alright, but it seems we sold out to a

combination light and rotating coffee cup ad

complete with fake steam!  kind of reminiscent of the 50’s it seems

well since it mentions the Eville Atomic Lounge and also acts as a teleport to the Ecity Coffee and Pizza place and keeps the zombies away, it looks like the light is here to stay

=D

hop mr bunny!!!

mrbunny_017, originally uploaded by iliveisl

look out, some meanie with the initials A.W. is after you =D hey if you can’t have fun isl, then why are you here? smiling is nice =)

mr bunny rules enercity park. even the zombies steer clear of mr bunny

update: w00t, while making a home for mr bunny . . .

while we were messing with trying to figure out what to do with a true openspace sim (the park) and its measly 750 prims (there’s a reason only 300 OS sims remain out of the 14,700 from a few months back. . .) other activity was going on in the park. seems like it’s the film studio of our very own mystery avatar Subquark Hax! apart from being generous (read: poor biz sense) in donating land to elearning peeps, subQ has been using the park as a backdrop for video tuts. usually there is no crossover between subQ’s education stuff and the estate, except for the aforementioned land stuff and the eBay/Sun Microsystem dealio this summer, but this is kinda cool.  looks like (from pingbacks – sounds like i know what i am talking about but wordpress makes it easy to research pingbacks on any blog) subQ is ranking big time in his elearning world (i am slightly biased toward the big twonk). anyway, all this to giva ya props subQ, well done!

good luck Robin Linden

Robin worked with age verification (which is pretty neat actually) and when a person who has been with them for 7 years leaves, well it makes us sad but at the same time, we must wish them the very best.  no doubt that anyone who has been there since the days of ators and virtual reality experiments has had a HUGE influence on what we enjoy today

good luck Robin, may your new endeavors be more fulfilling and the sun brighter!  =)

Robin Linden (great hair btw) | pic by Torley

hooray for Philip Linden!

wow, maybe we are kinda psycho – from being so discouraged with the openspace disater (yes, it was a disaster to us and many of our residents – after all, something like 14,700 OpenSpaces are gone now!)

anyway, from being all “bah” to all “yay”  \o/

maybe it’s cuz Philip is back in action (i’m sure he was busy behind the scenes).  it’s nice to see something that he did that affects us and that is the slurl map.  it used to be a big part of our website until it pooped out like 6 months ago.  even had Guy Linden meet with me inworld to look at it (that was pretty awesome support, submit a ticket and then get with a real Linden for support inworld – impressive)

as the chairman of the board, Philip is the highest ranking officer of the company (yah, and the passion behind it all) and it just felt really good to see his hand back in it again, really boosts our confidence in sl.  thanks Philip!  =)

*waves to philip*

Allison from iliveisl is famous

well, maybe not yet, but she will be.  apart from a fantastic creative eye and a wonderful writing style (read it, it’s great), she is a hella cool airship captain!

her skillful piloting can be seen on subDoofus’ site (i did film that part, but was not mentioned in the credits, neither was the death defying pilot who clearly broke all flight rules with that skillful scene that frankly was the most exciting part of the final video, well i liked the zombies too that were on loan from the park . . .)    :(  *takes a breath from that run on sentence*

subQ does elearning stuff with sl and uses the iliveisl estate for tutorials but it’s important to give a shout out with props from time to time *hint*

so thanks Allison for this and all you do (like make sl a prettier place – by your builds!!! not your build)  :0

originally uploaded by Allisons2ndlife