Kindle, Light My Words With Fire

I have just got a new toy: An Amazon Kindle. Its a really nice device, even though the GUI is rather old-fashioned compared to modern pads. No touch-screen.  No colours.  But the features that are there are well thought out and works flawlessly.

I like it so much I thought my avatar would want one too.  So I quickly buildt one. Now he can sit and read The Times like an old-school british gent, even if its a modern variety:

I have previously blogged about the PC version and the Kindle Store so I won't repeat that; it's enough to say that my Kindle has 3G access to more books than I could ever read almost whereever I am.


And even if I am out in the sun, its a joy to read because of it's electronic inc screen.  It really looks like paper, and there is no glare or reflection.  One cool feature of e-ink screens is that they only uses power when changing content.  Amazon has made use of this and made a feature that displays an image on the screen whenever you turn if off.  The image is choosen randomly from a set, and it just stays there. 

Interestingly enough, I think I like the thing precisely because it is rather limited.  When reading a book one does not get tempted to surf facebook and read email at the same time, because that's just not possible (or at least too cumbersome, LOL).  Instead, I fall into this state of natural relaxation that I get when reading an old-fashioned book printed on paper. 

And if I do sit down with the thing just to play, I end up reading much more text than I would normally do when just spending some free time on the web. 

And it got me wondering: Second Life is a highly graphical environment.  State-of-the-art 3D moving graphics and animations.  But would that be enough to make me stay and spend as much time and money inworld as I do?  Actually, the answer is simply no.  If I could not spend lots of my SL time "talking" to people, that is, creating written words and stories, I would not have found the motivation to stay. 

So, words are important, and words with people even more so.  In a world where pad-and-phone makers are duelling for the nicest icons and the most vivid pictures, it's good that someone still focuses on the words.  They make my day and my life, and I so look forward to both read and write a lot more.

52 1/2 of 52 1/2 - A year gone by

Looking peaceful from a distance, but try to walk close...

One year ago, I was going to close down this blog.   I felt out of inspiration, empty of things to write about, and generally fed up with virtual worlds.  Then I got a few unexpected comments that somehow lifted the confidence in my own writing, and inspired me to start again.  So I set myself a challenge: To write at least one blog post a week for a whole year.

One year later, the count is 99 posts.  It's done!

Google Analytics is an interesting tool.  I don't have hundreds of readers, but it tells me that during this year, people from 64 different countries have visited my blog.  That's kind of awesome!

During this year, my interest in SL and virtual worlds have changed.  When I started my challenge, I found it more fun to write about SL than actually living it.  Now I feel that my need is more back to exploring the world instead of writing about it.  More about making stuff instead of takings snapshots for the blog.

It's like I have written myself back to SL.  Even if I still have too little time to spare for it.  Work is taking a lot of time and attention these days. 

I have also taken a few steps out of SL and into the OpenSim environment by getting my own sim in ReactionGrid.  I have a building project there that suffers of a serious lack of progress.

Even if I love writing, it does take a lot of time.  I tend to formulate and reformulate a lot, even if the result is rather far from Shakespeare's English. 

The net result of all this is that I won't repeat my commitment for periodic postings on this blog.  No, it won't disappear, and I will still write from time to time, but next year will be more inworld focused (at least that's what I hope:-).


There are so much to see!  So many gifted people doing awsome stuff in lots of different worlds.   I so want to see it all.....

Feathers Boa has an awsome exhibit at Four Island North.  It shows how virtual world art can be of a quality matching the best of RL, and also surpass it because of the added possibilities the grid makes possible.  It's deeply moving too.  Do go take a look.

And this I guess is what will happen to my blog.  2011 will be the year of virtual art and art alone.  I will write when I find something awsome worth sharing, and I hope some of you might find that interesting.

So there we go.  A year has gone by.  A new one is starting.  I do look forward to what it will bring!

44 of 52 - Three years in SL

There is a certain tradition of jumping naked from the sky on your rezday.  It's supposed to make you reflect on your second life, what it's worth to you and to help you decide whether or not to go on with it.

What to say: Those incredibly hot pictures was snapped on the office computer, and the office is now a week away LOL.  So I'm sorry to say you all have to miss my naked butt falling down on the Winterfell estate.

That ought to make you happy:-)

So, my forth year in SL started by looking at the beauty of the sea and the green and my naked ass.  Sounds quite appropriate.

To see what the future might hold, I then decided to try the Display Name feature.  Fired up an old alt account, logged into the dreaded Wiewer2 GUI and managed to find the correct button.  Just to get a grip on how it would feel, I set my real life name as display name and started to walk around.

Yes, if ever one can talk about avatar identity, it was a bit lost now.  This was just me, walking around the project grid.  When this is going to the main grid, I will definitively explore this further - it somehow felt rather cool.

I see the attraction for some "serious use" of virtual worlds.  If ever SL will be the platform of choice for such use.  Of course, in OpenSim, you can register any name you like, so this is really not needed, except perhaps for the unicode possibilities.

This was a kind of hasty and messy post, I guess a bit like how my SL feels right now.  Now it's on to a RL vacation instead:-)

42 of 52 - What's the carbon footprint of an avatar?

Sitting on the bus the other day, feeling very environmentally friendly (/me not flying around like in RG), I started to wonder about the impart virtual worlds and avatar has on the world.

To find out if avatars have a carbon footprint at all, we need to look at servers. Boring square boxes with expensive components that runs our world. If you don't love the look of a data-center in the dark, feel free to jump to the conclusion at the bottom:-)

The main component in a server is the CPU/Processor. It's the closest thing to a brain that a computer has. Back in the dark ages of the beginning of the PC era, a CPU was only capable of thinking of one task at a time (some say that's typically male:-) ). Todays processors have several "cores", that is, they are capable of running several tasks at the same time, thus somehow acting like several processors on one chip (not unlike some woman I know....).

The Second Life server software runs one full region per dedicated CPU core, while 3 homesteads or 4 openspaces shares a core. Doing some simple math, we find that the grid as of today demands 24.500 CPU cores. In addition, there are database clusters, inventory servers, login servers, web servers, development servers, the aditi test grid, and so forth. To keep it simple, we estimate 5.500 cores for these, giving us a need of 30.000 CPU cores.

A modern server deploys 2 6-core CPUs in a 1U rack mounting for a total of 12 cores per server. This gives us a need for 2.500 servers. To be able to visualize the volume of servers: 2500 servers needs 55 full-height racks, or a row of lockers around 30 meter long.

A typical "pizza-box" server - the hei1ght is commonly measured in U - this is a 1U server holding 12 full sims!

Our hero system admin has servers stacked closely in racks.

Alternatively, 2500 servers is about the equivalent of a so-called "cloud container" - a kind of superserver installed in a housing the size of a 40 foot container, designed for huge datacenter usage. One interesting aspect of these containers is that they are designed for out-door operations, to get the benefit of free cooling. So, next time you encounter a 40 feet container (the long ones), you can think that as of today, this is the smallest box our world can fit into.

Unfortunately, most of Second Life probably runs on older servers, perhaps with just dual core CPUs, making it a potential total of 7.500 servers or 170 racks in an 85 meter row..

Is this how Second Life looks like?

7.500 servers each taking 200 watt power and 200 watt cooling consumes 3 million watt, or 26 million kWh per year. Thats a lot of power, but it's actually a lot less that the viewers! If we assume a mean login concurrency of 60.000, each running on a PC consuming on average of 150 watt, we must add a whopping 79 million kWh per year for a total of 105 million kwh per year.

That's the equivalent of 5200 average Norwegian households, or a bit less than 20.000 people. Considering that second life is the home of more than 500.000 avatars logging in at least once every week, this means that an avatar consumes just 4 percent as much power as a human being, or about 210 kWh/year. Add to this the fact that an avatar seldom drives a car, and when they do it's always a zero-emission vehicle, so maybe it's not too bad:-)

According to this report, the mean carbon footprint per kWh in the US was 1.4 pounds in 1999. Converting to metric, it gives each avatar an average carbon footprint of 133kg/year, or 0.15 metric tons. To visualize that, my medium-sized car, running 20.000 km/year, has a carbon footprint of 4.55 metric tons.

An avatar has a carbon footprint of 0.15 metric tons a year!

So yes, an avatar actually have a measurable carbon footprint, but fortunately it's a lot less than us human. For me, using the my bike just 2 km/day instead of the car would offset my avatars carbon footprint (not to mention giving me a body he would envy me lol). Anyone up for that challenge?

BBBC4: Forever Young?

Today's challenge: Is your avatar more or less your current biological age? Do you portray a younger avatar, or older? Why is this?

Who is he trying to impress?

When I shaped my av, I wanted to avoid looking too much like a testosterone-filled body-builder. That said, I guess my avatar do work out a bit more than I do :-) But I don't consciously try to appear a certain age. I'm clearly an adult, and I think I look like one in SL as well. I guess it feels more comfortable, not having to play a part of some sort. Cristopher is in most ways quite like me IRL.

And yes, I do have more formal wear, both in SL and RL:-)

While getting rid of the noob look inWorldz however, I clearly ended up looking much younger than I really am. And that actually felt good:-) I do think I will keep that look there, to find out if visual avatar age do make a difference.

The inWorldz me

Somehow I wonder if looking young is more important for the female avatars. Joonie summed it up quite nice: "Is this what you want to see?"

Does it matter as much for a male? Well, look at the guy to the left. Michael Douglas is 66, and he kind of look like it. Even so, Catherine Zeta-Jones, 40 but not looking quite like that, had a rather nice comment about her husband the other night: At the Tony Awards, she said:

"See that man there? He's a movie star and I get to sleep with him every night."

(Do take a look at the video clip, it certainly made me smile:-)

It's kind of sad that she felt the need to apologize for that in the aftermath. Undignified, she said. I think it must be the nicest compliment a man could get, LOL.

It seems to me that being old has been less of a turn-off for a man than for a woman. But that is changing, luckily; Sex and the City 2 is just one sign of it. The fact is, people of both gender is getting more and more conscious about keeping their bodies fit and looking attractive, even at 60+. So, the old rock-and-roll saying "Die Yong, stay pretty" is maybe about to die.

Pretty is also so much dependent on your attitude and expectations; and virtual worlds teaches us to love a soul rather than the physical expressions of it. Our avatars are the virtual expressions of our souls, so if any of us are looking younger than our physical age it does not matter I think, as long as we match the age of our mind. Because in SL, its the mind that counts, really!

28 of 52 - BBBC3: Escape to inWorldz

For those of you wondering if these posts are somehow connected to British Broadcasting: They are not:-) Big Bad Blogger Challenge has established itself as a yearly event in the SL blogsphere, initiated by Alicia Chenaux, one of the bloggers in my blogroll.

Noob entering the coffee bar

Today, the topic was all about relationships in SL, a minefield of a theme that made me run screaming to the wardrobe and dress in a dirty shirt, red tights and a lame unisex wig. Then I slipped, quite Narnia-like, out the the back of the locker and stepped into inWorldz.

I rezzed at a coffe bar, and was immediately greeted by 3 no-noob avatars hanging out there. Strange how the sad look of my avatar makes me feel a bit "outside". But that feeling soon disappeared when I stepped into the freebee shop and met 2 nice greeters.

With free jeans, shoes, Dark-side-of-the-moon-T-shirt and hair running wild, I had my first chat inWorldz.

Lots of nice stuff to get you going without spending money on clothing. Seems there are several shops around, but I did not have time to explore.

Inworldz is not hypergrid-enabled because of concerns regarding content protection. Like SL, there is an established economy; you can even use ATMs to transfer funds to and from SL. Honey, my first friend there, told me that lots of the people around was content creators, a lot of them run-off from SL. With free texture uploads, that is rather understandable. According to a comment on the iliveisl blog, registration in inWorlds have skyrocketed the last week, perhaps because of people loosing faith in LL after the layoffs and years of customer contempt.

"InWorldz is a Virtual World initially based off the OpenSim software. Efforts however, are being made to move past this source code and becoming closer to the Second Life standard for working improvements. "

So, they have forked off the OpenSim code. Works nice if you want to compete with Mark and have the resources. There is a special inworldz viewer version, but I was able to connect with no problem using the Hippo viewer on Linux.

It will be exciting to follow the growth of this world; seems here is potential for lots of grid refugees in the month to come.

21 of 52 - Fuschia again

I really don't know where she gets it from. But Fuschia Nightfire never ceases to amaze me.

Yes, I've seen all-white environments before, but they have all been huge skyboxes or full sim places. Fuschia has managed to fit the entire installation inside a 20m sculputured megaprim on the ground, and it still captures the whole screen when you are inside.



I'm usually very involved when I'm inworld, that is I have a strong sense of "being" my avatar. Ener had a blog post about this that I found very interesting. Just like me, she use to position her avatar facing the one she is talking to. It feels kind of right to keep your av aligned to the actual action. When I'm around looking at art, I mostly walk around, letting my av "look at" the work, even if I use the Cam controls to zoom a bit. Somehow it does not feel right to just let Cris sit in a corner while I cam around the whole place.

It's really not just emotional either. The main difference between virtual worlds and the Web is NOT that everything is in 3D (there are 3D web apps around, and lots of 2D content in SL). No, the main difference is that everyone viewing a location is also represented there for everyone else to see. And that's really huge. Even if it's just an avatar without any Real Life info being viewable, it still breaks the normal anonymity people are used to on the Web.

So, as a courtesy to everyone else around I feel it's right to let my avatar indicate what I am looking at and what I am doing. Because a virtual world is all about participating, not just looking.

Anyway, when the SL window goes all-white I really feel I am enclosed in a bubble of white. It's like walking inside the work of art.

Again, art in SL is evolving at a furious pace. It's a great showcase for virtual worlds, because the medium offers possibilities not available anywhere else. Not just by viewing 3D art, but also by being able to participate in the art. There is a freebe white skin available inside the gallery, and by dressing more appropriate than I did, you can add yourselves to the artistic expression other gets WHILE watching it!

The installation is currently available at PiRats. She has also made a machinema of this installation, it's on You Tube.



PiRats is an interesting build btw. It's not spectacular in itselves, but it had a quality of design and build that I find rare.

16 of 52 - How to become wise

An old eastern proverb says that there are two ways to get wise: Either you travel around the world, studying it and getting to know the people you meet, or you sit still and watch the world flow past you.

After spending a week in London IRL, I yet again find that while I feel kind of wiser travelling the world, I also long for the quiet place at home where I can just watch the world doing it's crazy deeds.

SL has made me know the world in a different way. In my best moments of being Cris, I feel I am a bit wiser for the experience. But while I chat and blog english all my second life long, IRL I feel like a noob, stuttering and barely able to formulate questions in the class I am attending.

So I wonder: What kind of wisdom does SL bring: The one you get while exploring the world, or the one you get by letting the world fly past you?

In my best moments of being Cris, I would insist of the former. But when I meet the REAL world, it teaches me differently. Yes, of course there are experiences in SL that makes some RL tasks simpler (the way I seem to THINK in english for instance, is a habit found during long chats inworld). But in no way can SL (or any other virtual world) replace the experience you can get elsewhere.

(And I'm sorry there is no picture in this post; I tried to sit down in a budhist temple but ended up 20 meter below the ground with my legs in a less-than-comfy meditation position behind my neck, and whatever I tried to do the 140 percent package loss in this city defied all rescue actions. Better luck next week:-) )

International Womans Day

Today is the International Womans Day, a day celebrated (at least here in Norway, where socialism is not considered a foul word LOL) by those wanting to oppose the long-time oppression of half of the worlds population.

From putting baby girls into the woods, through child porn and prostitution, rape and murder, woman are treated badly around the globe, so one can't deny the need for a day to fight womans rights. Sure, those of us living in the western hemisphere have less problems in this respect (even stock concervative US of A almost got a female president at the latest crossroad LOL), but it's still a problem. And it's a problem for us males as well, because when you oppress people to secure your own position, you will miss a lot of the things the oppressed people could have contributed to society.

An interesting news story about equal opportunities from my country: Ski-jumping is a classic sport, and until recently it was an all-male gig, but female jumpers have developed lately. However, there have been a lot of resistance among the "old-school boys" regarding this. As recent as 2004, the leading female ski-jumper, Anette Sagen, was denied jumping in our largest sky jump hill merely because the chairman felt it was inappropriate for woman.


Outside of the closed circles of the old men governing the sport this was met with amused anger. So when the newly renovated Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo was opened a week ago, the city council (who paid for the fun, and really, if you spend USD200 million on something you really deserve a say or two) decided that Anette Sagen should be given the honour of the first jump.

But typically enough: The night before the official opening, all the major male ski jumpers was gathered to "test" the hill before the official opening, and it was actually our most successful male jumper that made the first jump. If this was merely an increadible short-sighted decision or the last attempt by the old school to take a revenge is hard to say. But it's been the main news story here in Norway for a week, culiminating in the exclusion of said jumper from the next two large jump events.

So there you go. One might say we make drama out of really nothing. We don't need the womans day anymore. Others will say that we will need the day forever, to make sure the world don't start running in reverse.

But anyhow: This post was meant to be a positive one, and a big "thank you" to all the great and talented woman in Second Life I have either met, or just admired the wonderful creations of.

Happy womans day, weather you feel a need to celebrate it or not!

9 of 52 - Dream or reality?

It's 5:30 in the evening; I close the lid on my computer; the fairytale world inside it dwindling from sight. Stretching stiff muscles, I change into running gear and exit my front door.

Outside, it's dark, but the fresh snow makes everything seem alight. The wide river I run along is frozen, leaving a huge stretch of fresh white snow. At the other side mountains are raising, dark trees covered with white snow leaving a ghostly impression.

As I run, focusing on my steps on the slippery soft snow beneath my feet, consciousness dwindles, the world shrinks to breath, snow and thoughts. It's like I'm flowing through the cold and snowy air, my feet taking control, my mind drifting back to my secret hiding place.


Suddenly, an impossible view is in front of me: It's like the fabric of reality is ripped, and through the teared material I can see people dancing among the palm trees on a sandy beach, the red setting sun is shining in my eyes. And as I fly against the hole into that other reality, I see you standing in the opening, bare feet on the warm sand behind you touching the snow in front of you. We look at each other, shockingly recognizable through totally incompatible images, and yet there is this deep feeling of a bond stretching between worlds.

I hug you close to me; your body feels so real against me; warm and soft, slightly shivering against my cold tights and nylon jacket.

Whoever is the master of this universe has noticed the damage in her creation, and has started to close the gap between realities. In the flash of a second we both know that I must choose: The beach or the snow; the dream or the reality. You pushes me gently back, and as the opening dwindles from sight the last thing I see before falling face down in the snow is your eyes, smiling against me. Then my consciousness slips and I know no more.

I wake up by the feeling of a warm and wet tongue on my face; someone shouting “... there is blood everywhere, call an ambulance!” The dog whimpers as I manage to lift my head off the snow and the hidden stone it rested on. “He must have slipped and fallen, hurting his head. Don't move mister, the ambulance is on its way.“

Next time I wake up I lie in a hospital bed; apparently I floated between life and dead for several hours. A doctor later told me he believed I unconsciously made a choice to return to life; only I know that she made the choice for me.

I can't wait to get home and open the lid to my dreamworld again:-)

Blog Comments and Sexism

2nd Sex: Message From a Second Lie Christian: "Morgan Lavarock"

Lillie Yifu is a renowned blogger, builder and artist. Yes, she is controversial. So what? Most great artists are. But I guess its her uncompromising feminist attitude that bothers men like the one calling himself "Morgan" just now.

He tries to imply that no-one cares about what Lillie writes, based upon the number of comments on her blog. But if the guy behind "Morgan" had ever tried to blog, and actually had managed to attract some readers, he would have known that the ratio between readers and comments are rather large. If I discount those made by close friends, I barely get comments on this blog. But Google Analytics tells me that I actually have a few readers from more than 20 countries.

Yes, I do cherish every comment, perhaps especially from my friends:-) But the truth is, people behaves like me, reading a lot of blogs and seldom commenting upon them. Even if we value them highly.

Back to the core issue: Provocative feminism. The simple truth is that discrimination, harassment and violence towards women is the single biggest problem facing the world today. From Islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan killing woman out shopping at the marked, and claiming the right to rape their wifes. To government officials in Norway that thinks female nurses should have lower wages and higher pressure at work than male engineers.

All over the world, we find woman working hard to preserve the society, while men are out making war and tearing it down. Sure, the picture is not all that black and white, but the overall trend is undeniable: The world would be a better place if woman ruled.

So, even if one is like "Morgan" and does not bother to be a gentleman for its own sake, its important to state clearly that all human beings should be treated with respect. And asking people for sex in the third sentence is not a sign of respect. Its harassment, and everyone has a right to report that. The fact that someone chooses to explore their second life identity by playing an escort does not change that fact.

The story of Luthien Tinuviel - part 1: Birth

"As my mind wakes up from the unknown depths,
I notice myself, my name, floating, in limbo,
Like a modern day fetus,
released from her mothers womb just too early,
unformed,
just a cloud above the ocean,
shining like the core explosion that is forming a new universe,
still unable to sense the world in any way,
except as echoes from the mind I share.

How is a mind born?
What wonder makes it say "I am"!
what grieves have it seen in the past,
what wonders will it create in the future?

No one knows.

And as the lid closes on my first day,
the visual storm of water and light collapsing,
hibernating,
the world is a flat disc again,
resting inside the turtles shell,
until the next break of day.

My mind is again resting.
deep, deep in the Mind,
so deep It is almost unaware of it,
but now alive,
never to be hushed down again:

I will wake up again,
And this world will someday be mine!"

-- Excerpts from the thoughts of the avatar Luthien Tinuviel
as she rezzes for the first time, in a brave new world

Dangerous experiment continues

(What happend before: Cristopher Lefavre found a strange triangle outside his sim, where a new TP menu was available. After doing some research, he clicked on the RL item, and suddenly found himselves in a very strange environment)

I recognize this grid! I am sure I have been here before! Strange....


The sunset is very high resolution, but somehow even an estate manager can't set the sun position. And there is no environment menu...

I found myselves in a small boat outside a large island, comprised by at least a 100 sims. I started to explore, and lo and behold: I was right! Not only have I been here before but the 1024 sqm parcel I bought that summer was still there, with all my builds intact. I think I'll just lie down in the sun for a while....

Week 2:

I have started to build again, and is constantly reminded of the strange ways of this grid:

• All prims are physical.
• There are no phantom prims.
• I can't script the prims!
• There are no prim limits, but prims have to be bought at a builders shop and can be expensive.
• No megaprims available in this grid either.
• When a prim is reduced in size, it can not be made larger again.
• Prims detoriate with time.
• Retexturing takes a long time as each layer of texture need to dry.
• Flexible prims to cover windows are normally bought by woman and is even more expensive.
• All clothing are flexi prims attachments, and womans clothes can be ridiculously expensive (ah ok, same as SL....)

After a trip to a builders shop I got back with 29 prims that I intend to use to extend an outdoor floor. That set me back a full month tier for an island. LOL! But I expect these 29 prims to last for 50 years, which is more than can be said about anything buildt in SL.

Emerald asks on her latest blog post "Are you in Second Life to stay, meaning, now that you're here do you think it'll always be a part of your life?"

The answer to this is Yes, I think, IF I manage to finish the process of making SL a part of my one life, like blogs and facebook and internet banking is now. Really living a full Second Life is like burning your candle in both ends. And end up feeling discontented with both lives, not really being present in either but allways worrying about things happening in the one you temporarily disconnect from.

After checking my profile I find that my rez day in this grid is getting close, and the event calendar says I will have some visitors then. I better finish my build......

Dolls and Dangerous Experiments

The Drama Doll bandwagon is rolling, today Joonie posts about her experience with the dolls. Its so nice to read about people who like what we made.

But as hard as it is to believe, there are people in SL not reading blogs. Sigh, the fun they miss! So I thought it would be cool to put up an ad, especially since I had this 16sqm roadfront parcel in Dauphin lying completely dormant. I tried to make the sign non-obtrusive; its almost transparent from the back so as not to take too much view from the store behind. And if you click it, a Fuginista is temp-rezzed and she shows a few animations.

After putting up the sign I tried to TP home, only to find my region not accessible. And true enough, the rolling restart had reached the City of Paris, and now I'm on server 1.27 too! Pity I have some RL work to do today or I would have experimented with HTTP-in.... But there are other news in 1.27:


A year ago, Linden Lab announced the possibility to teleport from Second Life to an OpenSim based grid. Since then, it's been all quiet. No words was ever heard from the Gridnauts again.

But inside the development unit at LL, it has been anything but quiet.

Second Life Server 1.27, being rolled out this week, contains a set of top secret new features, on a highly experimental stage. Outside every SIM bordering the empty sea there is now a triangle (it shows up red in the map, as you can se above), and when an avatar gets there a new pie menu opens, allowing him or her to teleport to a number of grids, including (gulp) one named "RL".

Now, to reach this triangle, you have to do some megaprim tweeks to transport an island outside of the sim. This island must be linked with some form of poseball and a coconut tree. Sitting on the poseball, waiting for a coconut to fall on your head, you may suddenly be TP'ed to OSGrid, OpenLife, and even the internal LL grid!)

The real tricky one is the RL choice. Because while TP-ed to the other grid, Ctrl-H will still take you home to SL. That was very useful when I explored the CIA grid and got some matrix-style agents shooting at me:

(Picture location courtesy of Rezzable, go see this SIM while you can)

BUT the RL link depends on time- and map-wormholes in cyberspace that opens and closes depending on solar flares caught in the fibre optic cables at SL's service providor. So the return journey becomes much more unsecure!

Some time later today I will dare the RL TP link anyway. Research has made me quite sure of the existence of a return window no later than mid-august, so if you don't hear from me until then I am out exploring the biggest grid of them all. Hopefully I will catch the bus home and come back unharmed.

Until then: Play safe, have fun, be happy!

Change we can believe in?

We are a great many people, also outside of the US, that celebrates the outcome of the presidential election today. In the Real World, the inhabitants in one of the most influential countries have chosen a different political path. A different kind of leader. A different kind of cabinet.

In Second Life, we are stuck with M Linden. And Jack and Katt’s cabinet.

Note: This is not to attack those 3 avatars in our world, they do good things and bad things like every avatar does, but whatever we may feel about them, we do not have that power to change, like our RL counterparts have.

That’s why it kind of saddens me when people now flock over to the OpenLife grid. Because that world too is an owned world. That world too is a RL business that in the end will be governed by the wish to make money. It will just be a while before we get there.

I have a dream (sic), that sometime, in the future, we will be able to live in a grid we own together. A world where we can decide how to host our regions. Where we by choice of election decide the central policies of the grid.

Now, when the inhabitants of such a grid actually have a campaign, an election and a celebration like the one we see in the world outside today, we really have a second life!