Saturday, October 24, 2009
Blue Mars: Average User Experience (rev 5664)
Blue Mars revision 5664, as rendered on a Dell Inspiron 530, Dual Core, E6550 @ 2.33 GHz, 3.0 GB of Memory, NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS.
A vast improvement over the previous revision.
Well done, and keep those improvements coming!
Music provided by Magnatune.
The track is Hagagatan by the Eternal Jazz Project
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Blue Mars: The Average User Experience
Blue Mars as rendered on a Dell Inspiron 530, Dual Core, E6550 @ 2.33 GHz, 3.0 GB of Memory, NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS. Will Blue Mars be accessible and enjoyable for the average user, or will it require gaming computers that only a few can afford in the current economy?
Monday, August 10, 2009
The League of Arizona Steampunks
Eureka!
Success!
This economic refugee did it!
I moved!
Since recently relocating from Michigan to Arizona, I've been looking for interesting RL activities.
Over the weekend I did a search for Arizona Steampunk Clubs and found next to nil.
Screw that!
I'll create my own!
The League of Arizona Steampunks - Celebrating the Retro-Future of the Victorian Wild Wild West
The longer description is "The League celebrates a re-imagined 19th Century timeline. A Retro-Future of the Victorian Wild Wild West in the Great Territory of Arizona."
So feel free to join if you live in Arizona and love Steampunk, like Arizona and love steampunk, or otherwise y'know - figure you're not involved in enough NING Networks.
Success!
This economic refugee did it!
I moved!
Since recently relocating from Michigan to Arizona, I've been looking for interesting RL activities.
Over the weekend I did a search for Arizona Steampunk Clubs and found next to nil.
Screw that!
I'll create my own!
The League of Arizona Steampunks - Celebrating the Retro-Future of the Victorian Wild Wild West
The longer description is "The League celebrates a re-imagined 19th Century timeline. A Retro-Future of the Victorian Wild Wild West in the Great Territory of Arizona."
So feel free to join if you live in Arizona and love Steampunk, like Arizona and love steampunk, or otherwise y'know - figure you're not involved in enough NING Networks.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Plywood Skies!
The mega-plywood covered 4 Caledon sims (Mayfair, Cafall, Penzance, and Morgaine) at a height of 62 meters. No one else saw this anomaly.
To my eye it lasted about 30 minutes with both the standard SL and the Gemini viewers. Then the sky cleared and all was good with the world (after I crashed and cleared viewer cache).
To my eye it lasted about 30 minutes with both the standard SL and the Gemini viewers. Then the sky cleared and all was good with the world (after I crashed and cleared viewer cache).
Friday, May 22, 2009
Entertainment on a budget
Linden Labs overlooks an expanding market.
They should cater part of their marketing costs toward appealing to the dollar conscious unemployed.
If you already enjoy online games and need to save money, Second Life is a great means to do a variety of things free-of-charge or on a shoestring budget. Even when I was gainfully employed, SL is cost-effective for things like sailing or flying. Imagine the cost of Real Life flying. G'ah! Just ground school alone is costly!
Unless you MUST go to a Real Life concert for the "experience" - it beats spending on a RL music event. Personally I find crowds and parking a pain in the arse, especially at my curmudgeonly age. I save on the cost of fuel and time. And if I cared about being "green" as is the fashion these days - I'd use that as a good selling point, too. Second Life reduces your carbon-whatever.
Yes you can fly an airplane, sail a ship, go to a club, listen to live independent music, meet and chat with science-fiction authors at a book discussion group, build things you can sell to others, role-play historic sims like the Roman Empire - or even destroy a Nazi V2 Rocket base. Some people dogfight in epic air combat, others engage in large-scale naval battles. Then you can create inworld videos and blog about your grand adventures.
There's much to see and do in a virtual world. Have you ever wanted to see a Jules Verne-like Victorian setting? Ever wanted to see a world as imagined in the movie Bladerunner? Ever wanted to be a DJ? Ever wanted to play live music to an international audience? You can do ALL this in a few hours (DISCLAIMER: assuming everything is working when you're online. Heh!)
This is the non-sexual Second Life the mainstream media usually ignores. It's a virtual sandbox and playground.
Oh wait! I know what LL will say: There's no BIG MONEY in the unemployed. But there ARE big numbers. Unfortunately.
They should cater part of their marketing costs toward appealing to the dollar conscious unemployed.
If you already enjoy online games and need to save money, Second Life is a great means to do a variety of things free-of-charge or on a shoestring budget. Even when I was gainfully employed, SL is cost-effective for things like sailing or flying. Imagine the cost of Real Life flying. G'ah! Just ground school alone is costly!
Unless you MUST go to a Real Life concert for the "experience" - it beats spending on a RL music event. Personally I find crowds and parking a pain in the arse, especially at my curmudgeonly age. I save on the cost of fuel and time. And if I cared about being "green" as is the fashion these days - I'd use that as a good selling point, too. Second Life reduces your carbon-whatever.
Yes you can fly an airplane, sail a ship, go to a club, listen to live independent music, meet and chat with science-fiction authors at a book discussion group, build things you can sell to others, role-play historic sims like the Roman Empire - or even destroy a Nazi V2 Rocket base. Some people dogfight in epic air combat, others engage in large-scale naval battles. Then you can create inworld videos and blog about your grand adventures.
There's much to see and do in a virtual world. Have you ever wanted to see a Jules Verne-like Victorian setting? Ever wanted to see a world as imagined in the movie Bladerunner? Ever wanted to be a DJ? Ever wanted to play live music to an international audience? You can do ALL this in a few hours (DISCLAIMER: assuming everything is working when you're online. Heh!)
This is the non-sexual Second Life the mainstream media usually ignores. It's a virtual sandbox and playground.
Oh wait! I know what LL will say: There's no BIG MONEY in the unemployed. But there ARE big numbers. Unfortunately.
Accomplishments
Today is an accomplishment of sorts.
I completed two weeks of unemployment.
Or as our government overlords would like to call it... "Involuntary Vacation"
We're all into hope and change now, yes?
2009 Change "I went from employment to unemployment."
2009 Hope "I hope I get all my property out of the car before it's repossessed."
I completed two weeks of unemployment.
Or as our government overlords would like to call it... "Involuntary Vacation"
We're all into hope and change now, yes?
2009 Change "I went from employment to unemployment."
2009 Hope "I hope I get all my property out of the car before it's repossessed."
Monday, May 18, 2009
A bittersweet day
This was a bittersweet day for me. My Real Life Layoff here in the fabled land known as "Michigan" is taking a toll on my Second Life. Sadly, the virtual life property losses are only the beginning. Real Life property losses are yet to come.
Today I sold the land-rights to my Caledon Morgaine lot at far below market value. I was about to lose it later this evening anyway, but a last minute buyer found my price irresistible. Good for her!
It was great fun having it, and one day when my Real Life financial situation improves, I shall expand again. Meanwhile, I'm down to 2 parcels for now and may need to let go of my Mayfair lot in another month.
We shall see.
Today I sold the land-rights to my Caledon Morgaine lot at far below market value. I was about to lose it later this evening anyway, but a last minute buyer found my price irresistible. Good for her!
It was great fun having it, and one day when my Real Life financial situation improves, I shall expand again. Meanwhile, I'm down to 2 parcels for now and may need to let go of my Mayfair lot in another month.
We shall see.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
The Return of RCAF Air Combat
Greetings everyone,
Our First Scheduled RCAF Dogfight of 2009 will take place at Aeronautica on Saturday 07 February at 9:00 AM SL Time.
Restrictions are as follows:
WW2 Era Aircraft / VICE Combat System
If you do not own a VICE Combat System aircraft, others can provide one for you in 'guest' mode.
Observers and Photographers are always welcome.
Our First Scheduled RCAF Dogfight of 2009 will take place at Aeronautica on Saturday 07 February at 9:00 AM SL Time.
Restrictions are as follows:
WW2 Era Aircraft / VICE Combat System
If you do not own a VICE Combat System aircraft, others can provide one for you in 'guest' mode.
Observers and Photographers are always welcome.
Monday, February 2, 2009
From the desk of the new RCAF Marshal
It is with great honor that I accept the promotion to Marshal of the Royal Caledon Air Force from the former Marshal Zoe Connolly (now Air Chief Marshal).
Since Zoe Connolly created this fine group in late October 2007, RCAF is muchmore than a one woman show. It's an active and creative community of aviation enthusiasts working, playing and flying together.
I pledge to continue her vision of opensource creativity throughout my time as Marshal. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
Phineas Messmer
Marshal of the RCAF
Since Zoe Connolly created this fine group in late October 2007, RCAF is muchmore than a one woman show. It's an active and creative community of aviation enthusiasts working, playing and flying together.
I pledge to continue her vision of opensource creativity throughout my time as Marshal. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
Phineas Messmer
Marshal of the RCAF
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