21 February 2007

Hello to Vint Falken


Second Life Sex profile
Originally uploaded by VintFalken.
It's good to see some new talent and humor.

I'm surprised no one thought of this one before. :-)

Vint does some great shots, and her tutorials are well worth reading.

( To any non-sl ppl, its a joke )


When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities. - Matt Groening

19 February 2007

University of Southern Queensland


slusq
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.
The slow but sure creep of education in to SL is happening.

This in not my Uni, but it was one of my options.

Part of a Queensland Govt grant to a Phd student, it's an OK build, not great or flashy. I don't recall a Unicorn on the Uni shield.

Nice horn :-)

Update 25-2007:- Decka has left a comment, that updates my factual errors (ooops, sorry Decka.) I visited again last night, and realized it does sort of remind me of going to the beach, and is quite relaxing. I only had very short chat to Decka, as it was very late here.

I think I read on sloz.com that it was the official USQ island, and that is why I was expecting something different.

( As usual any errors are my own, and I take responsibility for them )

To live in Australia permanently is rather like going to a party and dancing all night with one's mother.
Barry Humphries

18 February 2007

Shockwaves handy tips for Geeks

Tip 1

Today I have been tiding up my flat, it's very small, really really small. If you are like me and you have cables left right and centre, you need a place to put them away, but then to be able to find them when you need them.

I also have a bunch of those neckstraps that you seem to get at every convention or meeting.

So now I have my ethernet cables hanging from itsafeonline neckstrap, power cables from netintelligence.

Naturally the only cable I want now is the one I can't find :-(


Tip 2

Keep one of those really cheap LED lights on the floor, at the back of your PC so you can see what you are plugging in to.

Tip 3

Always make private backups of your RADIUS logs and your Squid proxy server logs.
Both are time stamped, RADIUS records the IP address of your customers/users and Squid records what websites they have looked at.
This information is invaluable for when you belive you should have a "pay-rise", or your users decide to be ...... "difficult".


If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done. ~Scott Adams

12 February 2007

Truth, Lies , Deception and Second Life

From The BBC site last year

A survey found 43% of online networkers from the US felt "as strongly" about their web community as they did about their real-world friends.

It also revealed net-users had made an average of 4.6 virtual pals this year.

The survey, from the US-based Center for the Digital Future, of 2,000 individuals forms part of a six-year study into attitudes to the web.

When I first started n the Internet, It was really just Usenet eg, Newsgroups. I never used my real name, and most people where the same. It was "Hello Space Ghost" or "Hello Pooka". I never felt the need to meet anyone I met online.

But just to contradict myself, most of the people I knew in the few years I was in NZ, I met via BBS or flatmates friends who coincidentally were also on the same BBS.

Second Life is sort of like the new Internet, but it's not the place to be yourself, it's the place to be what you want to be.

For many of the older residents, what happened in SL stayed in SL, and RL was separate. But it seems to be that the newer residents are just being themselves.

Some people just lie totally, and this can be really heartbreaking.

What do you do when old and new meet? Is one person being more honest than the other? Being of the old school, I've given this a lot of thought.

My personal belief is that any sort of cyber-based emotional involvement, without having a way to check who the other person behind the keyboard is, would be a major mistake.

But then I'm a boring person and like to play safe.

I've met some great people, and I count some of them as my friends, but I'm not planning on going to any SL meet ups. My SL has spilled over to RL a bit, and I'm a bit concerned that they might want to know more than I'm preparded to give.

I would really hate to think that I have been deceiving anyone, but it's only in SL that I could be a 6 foot tall, blond, pirate, buxom Barbie. ( and it's a fun thing to be, and remindes me of a cousin )

So I talk very vagely about myself, but I never lie to anyone, because if I care enough to communicate with you, I care enough not to want to hurt you.



Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends- Euripedes

Move the Grid to Europe!!

Seems it's time to move the Grid to Europe.

Although I have to wonder why LL is opening an office in Bristol. Why not London, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City or St Albans.

http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/02/09/europe-takes-lead-in-second-life-users/

Europe takes lead in Second Life users
Fri Feb 9, 2007 10:02am PST

By Adam Reuters

SECOND LIFE, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Europeans make up the largest block of Second Life residents with more than 54 percent of active users in January ahead of North America’s 34.5 percent, according to new Linden Lab data.


Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham. - Winston Churchill

10 February 2007

No more open skies

I'm sure many people know what can happen when you cross a sim boundary at speed. If you don't, then the word fragmentation, neatly explains it. Coals pictures and blog post will give you an idea.

Cubey Terra one of the Grids major aircraft makers, has grounded his fleet of self guided planes, and blimps from Qarl have been gone for quite a while.

Now that landowners have the ability to block almost anything coming on their parcels, air travel is somewhat more, lets say, adventurous.

I admit I got a little tired of my plane ( and sometimes my clothes ), disappearing in midflight, and have not flown it for some time.

The Lindens are aware of the problem, and will I hope find a solution.

EDIT:- To spread around some credit, Apotheus Silverman scripted some of the planes. The Terrachute as well, that saved me from the embarrassment of going splat a few times


Pilots will not wear spurs in the cockpit - 1920s RAF Cadet Flying manual

04 February 2007

Spam

Could whoever is on IP 82.82.237.159 in Germany run a virus check please? I don't need the Viagra.

Thank you very much

[ Normal blogging will be resumed shortly :-) ]

EDIT:-
I have just noticed that I get the one spam email a day twice, a minute apart. It's been every day for the last 11 days.

Two days ago I got the book Scamorama by Eve Edelson, it's about those emails from Nigeria that promise you money in exchange for your bank details. The day I started reading I got two of them, the first for nearly a year.

Rule #1: Spammers lie.
Rule #2: If a spammer seems to be telling the truth, see Rule #1.

01 February 2007

commitments

Due to RL commitments, I will only be in-world a maximum of 45mins. I will be spending this time doing classes, building and scripting.

Probably about 20.00 GMT





The circle is now complete - Darth Vader