Archive - 2008
February 9th
Today in Second Life
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 02/09/2008 - 14:04Outside my real life window the snow is falling. Kim has been fighting a cold and wanted to do something simple but fun with Fiona, so they have headed off to the movies. As always, my inbox is full of interesting things to respond to. On the Second Life Educators list, there has been a discussion about Second Inventory. It looks like it could be a great tool, and potentially very useful in moving objects between grids. I’m going to test it out when I get a chance. There has also been an interesting discussion about avatars, which deserves a post of its own, later.
Meanwhile, the SL’ang Life Health Care Day is taking place from 9 am to 5:30 PM SLT. I’m currently attending it, listening to a discussion about Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and support groups in Second Life. At 1 PM SLT, Sanity Inn will perform as part of Health Care Day. At 1 PM SLT, there will also be a Central Grid meeting. I’ll probably miss this, but I am planning on slipping out at 2 PM SLT to attend a friends wedding in Second Life.
This is a friend that I originally met at a journalism conference. We have several overlapping interests, Second Life being one of them, and I look forward to attending her virtual wedding. Kim and I were married in LambdaMOO, a few days before our face to face wedding. It will be interesting to see how virtual weddings have evolved since then.
Later in the day, some friends from the campaign trail, that I’ve also spent time with in Second Life are having a house party. I intend to stop in on that as well. Finally, tomorrow at 1 pm SLT, Walt Ireton will have a photography show at Not Too Hot. I missed his gallery opening, but I really like his work and I hope I can stop in at the Not Too Hot event tomorrow.
More soon…
February 8th
ZopaSL and the MilliAU
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 02/08/2008 - 16:58ZopaSL? MilliAU? No, these are new erectile dysfunction drugs for residents of Second Life frustrated by the Linden Lab banking ban. Oh wait, maybe it could be. Let me explain.
Second Life is a virtual world that some people consider a game, others consider a business opportunity, and still others view as the framework for what people’s experiences of the Internet will be like in the coming years. Whichever opinion you hold, the Linden Dollar, the currency used in Second Life either as a means of score keeping for the game players, or a currency you do some of your business in, is central.
February 7th
A Busy Day
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 02/07/2008 - 22:08It has been a busy day, mostly spent in meetings. It has piled up more and more things I need to write about, but at this point, I’m too tired to put the energy into some of the more serious posts, so I’m going to write about some of the more day to day things.
On one list, I was pointed to Yuwie. If you join this MLMOSN, you’ll get paid to blog, upload pictures, spam your friends, and look at lots of advertisements. Next.
BlogCatalog sent out an email that they are doing some sort of partnership with SezWho. “SezWho is a distributed context, rating and reputation service for blogs, forums, wikis and other social sites.” That is, of course if the blogs, forums, wikis and other social sites use Wordpad or Moveable Type. Next.
Two new Ning sites: Visual Editors and Social News Central. I like Ning. I like the sites that friends have built. I gladly joined both groups. I’ll probably even stumble back to those sites one of these days.
That said, the innovate of the day goes to Lillie Yifu for wikiHUD. It is a heads up display (HUD) in Second Life that allows you to look up Wiki entries. Right now, it is set up to look up entries off of the Second Life Wiki. I haven’t had a chance to start playing with Second Life Wiki, but it is a good site.
Another website that was highlighted to me today was Central Grid Community. I’ve got mixed feelings about this. I am already on SLProfiles, SLUniverse, Bloghud, have a stub on Second Life Wiki, am on rezzed.net and probably several others that I’ve forgotten. Do I need yet another site for my virtual world personae? Not really.
Okay. You got me going. Let me toss out a few other things about the move to multiple grids. Have you played with SLURL with other grids? It kind of works, if you’ve got a region in your grid that maps to a region in the main Second Life grid and so on. Take a look at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Central%20Grid%20HQ/130/135/25. It ends up bringing up a Google map without anything to click on. What would be nice would be if you can have an SLURL that would like something like http://slurl.com/Central%20Grid/Central%20Grid%20HQ/130/135/25, where the name of the grid was part of the SLURL. Not there yet. However, going to secondlife://Central%20Grid%20HQ/130/135/25does seem to work in the Central Grid.
While we’re at it, it would be great to see AjaxLife add Central Grid to its list of sites.
Beyond all of that, I set up a Drupal 6 test site today, noted the beginning of the Year of The Rat, and random other stuff.
February 6th
1983 Journal: Jan 14-16
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 21:19The continued posts of journal entries that I wrote twenty-five years ago.
January 14, 1983: Weary. Resignation official. Wrote about NJ sunset. My eyes dance too much. On PATH trains, at movies. Saw Rocky III and Live On Sunset Strip (last minute substitutes for Paul Schrader.) Learn more about scotch. The light shines through the ‘Two’ of the Church House window.
January 15, 1983: A montage of memories. “You only have to do one thing well to make it in this world. You only have to be a good man to one woman one time and that’ll be the end of your road” As I prepare to talk with Linda about my road, and as I find myself trapped in a different set of sparkling eyes. I pave like an animal in a cage yearning to be free or perhaps trapped in “The age of gold.” Wanting to break through all the societal bullshit built in my psyche which prevents me from saying “I am a human being.” Why is it I tare for hours out of dirty windows?
January 16, 1983: Shades of Metamorphosis. I wake up to find a stranger in my bed; myself. At Clare’s discussing hackers. What about a hacker story? Off to Bunuel festival. Sold out at 6:20.
Clean Laundry and Clean Elections
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 18:12From Project Laundry List, the eco chic activist online group, I have learned about Right to Dry legislation.
Many people in the United States are not allowed to hang out their clothes to dry in the sun. Community covenants, landlord prohibitions, and zoning laws are the three primary means of stopping people from using clotheslines. State and federal legislators are encouraged to introduce "Right to Dry" legislation to stem this growing problem.
The Hartford Courant had an editorial a few days ago supporting right to dry legislation. They note that such legislation would seem to fit nicely with Gov. Rell's OneThing campaign.
The discussion about right to dry promoted me to put up my Wordless Wednesday - Eco Chic picture.
From my wife, came an invitation to join the CT Common Cause Facebook Group. I’ve sent out a bunch of invitations. She also invited me to join the Common Cause group on Change.org. Kim has started as a senior organizer at Common Cause Connecticut. Kim’s key focus is to get people to participate in publicly funded state legislative elections under the new campaign finance laws. Details can be found at CT Citizen’s Elections Program.
Also related to elections is a series of emails and a blog post I put up on MyLeftNutmeg about Voting Problems in Hamden.
