Eat, Pray, Love my Ubuntu Netbook

Amazon has made a kind of a silent success with the Kindle reading tablet.  Apple has got a lot of publicity for its music distribution system, but the Kindle is a bit more anonymous.  

What I did not know until a coworker told me the other day was that Amazon also distribute the Kindle reader as an application for iPod/Pad, Mac, Android and Windows.  In effect, what Apple did for music distribution, Amazon has done for books.

The service is really fascinating.  Amazon.com has, at the time of writing, 580,208 titles in the Kindle eBooks store.  There are 6,091 titles published the last 30 days alone, of all kinds: "How to write a sentence: And how to read one", "The Day After the Dollar Crashes: A survival guide for the New World Order" and "Two to love [nights in bliss]" all listed in sequence if you wish.  It's like a kind of treasure hunt in an old book store, the only difference being these are new titles!

When you find a book that seems interesting, you can download a sample (the first few chapters) and read a bit, just like in a real bookstore.  The only difference is that you can be anywhere; on the train, bus, airport or the beach.  Never again a day with no book to read!

Sadly, both Apple and Amazon have chosen to ignore users of Linux.  But there is a difference:  Using Wine it is possible to run a lot of windows applications on Linux, and while iTunes runs badly in Wine (if at all), the Kindle reader flows like a breeze on even a slow netbook.  And when we talk about books, a netbook is really the second best thing after a real kindle tablet....

After getting a preview or buying a book, it is synchronized to your home folder in the Kindle reader.  

Lyra, my MSI Wind Notebook, is running Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Edition.  It's a tiny 10" 1 kg thing, not very fast, but each time I try to put it away on the shelf to use a more powerful computer I find myself returning to it in within a week.  Its just so functional when it comes to surf, email and write on that I can't seem to live without it.  And I am sure that Kindle will make it even more indispensable.

Amazon has made a very functional GUI.  When you are reading, you can put the book up on full screen, so that nothing else disturbs the mind.  Instead of scrolling you turn the pages one after another, and that really makes for easy reading.

There is one major difference between iTunes and the Kindle book store:  While Apple has abandoned their copy-protection scheme, Kindle books are only usable on readers connected to your Amazon account.  There seems to be ways to break this scheme, but I guess it's not really worth it.  With books selling for less than US10, it's less than half the price of buying the same soft-cover book in Norway.

I am now starting on chapter 5 of "Eat, Pray, Love", the first eBook I have purchased on Amazon.  (Btw, the literal Norwegian translation of the title is "Eat, Love, Live"; I suppose Pray is not really as catchy here in Europe as it is in the US.)  Anyway, Lyra and me will hit the sack really soon now; I think I want at least one chapter before I close my eyes:-)

Celebrating Nelson Mandela

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

20 years ago today, February 11th, 1990, Nelson Mandela walked out of the prison doors after 27 years of imprisonment. His life-long fight against apartheid in South Africa had succeeded, to the point where the regime chose to give in to the international pressure.

No doubt, Mandela is a strong man, and while he has advocated non-violence in his early struggles, he was no stranger to the use of force to make his beliefs come true. What truly sets him apart is his lack of bitterness after all the years of personal imprisonment and inhumane treatment under an oppressive regime.

During this last 20 years he has advocated strongly for a policy of forgiving and reconciliation. In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel Peace price together with the apartheid leader that was responsible for the release, and was elected President of South Africa in the first free election in the country.

If only the world had more leaders like him :-(

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.

A kinky ending!

Spending most of my time in RL this XMas, I want to give you a short peek into how to be a real Norwegian: You have to watch the short move "Dinner for one" on TV the night before Christmas Eve. And do try to get the rather kinky point at the end:-)



To understand the cult-like status this piece have in Norway, you have to know that prior to 1992 (when we got TV2), we only had 1 - one - national TV channel. Some lucky few could get the two Swedish channels, and there where those with huge satellite receiver discs in the garden, but for most Norwegians, watching television at night meant watching the one government-supported channel available.

Of course, this meant that the probability of hitting a show you really liked was often slim. The upside, however, was that everybody else was forced into the same TV evening, so you had some common ground to criticize the channel during lunch the next day. It's kind of telling that when Norwegian TV started to show "SOAP", we had a hard time following the sarcasms because there had been no soaps aired in Norway before:-)

Anyway, since here in Norway we celebrate Christmas Eve (that's when the kids gets their presents), December 23rd is a kind of "last evening" to get everything done, so often enough one ends up wrapping parcels and decorating the tree while the TV churns out expert advices on how to best prepare the classical Norwegian Christmas dinners.

During the 80's, these shows was particularly dull, mostly consisting of elderly retired people listening to old artists doing sing-a-longs of old songs. So dull, actually, that the one bright spot the entire evening was Dinner for One, or "The Countess and the Butler" (my translation) as the film is named here. So, around 9:15 in the evening, most Norwegians would gather their families in front of the TV to enjoy a 1o minute break in the Christmas preparations.

While the talk shows the night before Christmas has gotten better, national television still has "The same procedure as every year, James".

I will do my very best:-)

Or is SL the ultimate romantic comedy?

I always gets all sentimental at Christmas time, so what can be better than sliding Love Actually into the DVD player while wrapping presents and enjoy the most well made, top actor, silly but oh so charming combination of sticky sweet romance and holidays celebration.

But I do wonder: In the end, is SL an even more ultimate but a bit darker love comedy? More of the Romeo and Julie type where where everybody ends up dead instead of coming back from the US with 3 hot avatars LOL sorry, girls:-)

3 of 52 - Exploring Linden Homes

I spent my first 2 weeks in SL on Orientation Island - somehow I had read in a blog an advice of not going to the mainland too soon, because there was a lot to learn and pick up first, and once gone you could never return.

I did soon tire of rezzing at the landing point on top of some ones head, so I found a spot in the woods where I would normally go to before logging of, so I could come online again a bit by myselves. That was actually my first home in SL:-)

Once I did the crossing I was shocked at how empty mainland was. Compared to the buzz of OI, with lots of fun talk and old residents showing off their blings and fancy costumes, it was actually a real downturn.

Later I rented a house to get my first place, and that place really meant the world to me. There, I could learn to move prims around, and had a place to invite friends to. I guess the real attraction of SL did not start until then.

Looking back on my first hours experience, I can certainly understand why lots of new people just drop out. I do wonder how SL would have seemed to me if I had been placed directly into a house of my own, with lots of other people living close by? I can't help but think that this would help a lot more people trying out SL to actually become residents.

And that leads us to the Beta continent of Nascara. The Linden Homes. What they will offer those signing up for premium subscriptions. I have done some exploring:-)

These modern "park" is not exactly my style; and there don't seem to be a frigging single real city around! How come they ALLWAYS use that dull green kind of grassy texture on the ground? Where is the concrete and the asphalt? Those square houses would have fitted much more nicely besides square stone-paved walls. But they do promise more themes:-)


The Moles have created several themed villages in Nascara. As they previously showed when making Nautilus, the Lindens are not afraid of putting in a lot of empty public spaces when they make flagship continents. If you walk away from the rather cold modernistic style you find yourselves crossing a stone wall, and suddenly the all-green trees gives way to more colourful plants:


Moving forward for a while I find my selves in the outskirts of a Japanese village:

Actually, this is my favourite spot so far; unusual trees, stone pavements, peaceful houses, back alleys:

One really interesting question is how residents with different cultural background will populate these areas: Will all the Japanese gather in these kinds of village? Will there be US or European "subcultures" in eastern style areas? Are there fairies in Japan?


I really could imagine having a good time in here! And that's good, because they don't even allow skyboxes in this continent LOL.

Then there is Hobbiton, also quite a cozy place:



My fairy alt would love this place, maybe she should have a premium subscription for Christmas?

Root and branches, where is Radagast the brown when you need him? The lindens have cut down Fangorn forest, and the Ents are mighty angry!

One of the coolest things about these "homes" is that they are all mostly autorezzed. LL claimes the whole continent of 64 sims was rezzed in 13 minutes; they will certainly need that kind of capability to scale if tens of thousands residents wants a place here:-) I do hope they will keep up this "small village" kind of setup, mixing different themes like they do now.

All in all, I think the Linden Home offer will be a great enhancement of the premium subscription. The Lab and their moles have done some nice work; its mostly aesthetically nice and will give new people a taste of what SL can be. Really looking forward to see how it will work out!

2 of 52 - Christmas, graphic cards, Linux, Obama and the first ladies

Jayn has been working on some Christmas decorations at the Thistle estate. The picture does not do the place enough justice; the mere feeling of being immersed on the frozen water surrounded by crystal white trees is more than I was able to put into the photo.

I visited the place yesterday too, but then I was using a PC with integrated graphics. Now, an nVidia 220 GPU is breaking the silence with its rather noisy fan, but what a difference a mere $80 card can make for the SL experience. Even on full graphics I get a livable 15-25 FPS, and things do look great!

Ever visited Misty Acres? If not, you owe it to yourselves to see this place. It's an amusement park with some very nice rides, including a roller coaster completely out of touch with reality LOL. Again, this graphics made all the difference, sitting in the cart in mouselook mode I almost felt the tingling in the stomach before the dives:-) Hagrid (my big ugly laptop), go to bed:-)

OK, that was fun, but so far I was running on Windows Vista 32 bit (sigh).... How would it work with a decent OS? Ubuntu 9.10 64 bit went into the CD tray, reboot, resize the Vista partition, some upgrades, and installed the proprietary nVidia driver. WOW! Framerate is up by 5-10, and the roller coaster ride is even more realistic! Whoever said you needed Windows for games? (Ok, SL is not a game, yakk, yakk, yakk.. :-) )

Just remember: Whenever buying a computer that is supposed to run SL, go for an Intel CPU and nVidia GeForce graphics card. The shop sales people may tell you that ATI Radeon cards are as fast or faster, and that may be true for most Windows games, but SL is a cross-plattform, OpenGL based application, and that is an area where nVidia excels. And the difference is even greater when running Linux on the PC. The ATI Linux drivers sucks big time.

When reading reviews before purchasing this card it was quite clear that to the hard-core gaming community, this was an entry-level card, not really suitable for gaming at all:-) So, since it seems to run SL rather smoothly (LOL sure, I would have loved 60fps, but is it really needed?), it occurs to me that virtual environments will soon become feasible on almost every computer. I guess that might do the same for the Grid as Windows did for the Web. Hmm.... how many Linden Homes will the moles be able to raise, /me wonders?

In short, it seems there is no longer any real reason to nag Linden Lab about how they make a viewer too resource hungry for mere mortals. Even if you are not a vice president in an advertising agency and can afford a snazzy MacBook Pro to view SL (Em, this is just some good-natured mocking, you deserved that job, really happy for you, hope you are happy too!) you too can see for less than the price of a normal pair of spectacles.

And for those of you stuck with some Intel integrated graphics: The feeling one gets after a long chat with a good friend is more valuable than any entertaining ride, and its completely free! So I give you all a challenge: If you stumble over a lone SL'er, especially a new resident, say hi! You may end up with a friend for life:-)

Speaking of friends: The US President is in Norway even as I write, to accept the Nobel Peace Price award and make some new friends perhaps? I have been (and still are) sceptical to the choice, but today that's not an issue. Peace is in the focus, and we can only hope for it.




Do any of you notice how much more fun the ladies seems to have? For the record, it's the Norwegian Prime Minister showing Obama some dull view from his office, while his wife are telling the First Lady something funny (could she be showing her a pic of her SL avatar? LOL, really don't know if she has any, but one can always imagine:-)

1 1/2 / 52 - Where do I hang my hat?

Is the Nascera SIMs the new Linden Home Beta continent?

One really should be careful what to wish for.... in my previous post I hoped that the next big mainland thing should be high-density city sims - and what do we get? Bag End in The Shire, ROFL:-)

Oh well, the Lindens want to offer premium account holders the option of having a double-prim 512 with a non removable house INSTEAD OF the "free" 512 tier that is part of the deal now. The parcels will be on a new separate continent, with several different themes available in addition to hobbiton, LOL. Can we at least hope for something a bit like a small city with streets and a harbor?

Someone discovered a new small continent on the map, a 8x8 sim grid all named Nascara 1200 910 and counting (column/row), and speculations are growing. You can't TP there and see though; whatever they do is just visible on the map. But that certainly looks like the Shire for now:-)

Prok and the other mainland landlords targeting newbs are of course outraged, but I don't think they need to be. There will still be lots of people who wants to put up the house of their own choice. With a bit bigger parcel. And without committing to the USD payments.

It also seems that these parcels, unlike the other mainland, will be given away for free, no need to actually buy them.

I think this is great for new residents. From other games and virtual environments, like Sony's PS Home, The Sims and Little Big Adventure, people are used to being dropped into a space of their own. A home. Even Prok have experienced lots of new residents on his public infohubs that thinks they are really home when they rez, and not just "home" at a street corner:

"o there was a girl who kept saying "Get out! get away!" In my experience, this is usually somebody young and unschooled in worlds who thinks she has landed on a space that is her own personal starting pad with a house there waiting for her, and she is mad that other people have invaded it -- you'd be surprised how often that happens LOL."

But unlike any other environment that I know of, in SL one can actually walk outside of ones home and visit the neighbors. And since these parcels will not be subject to property speculations, they will not be vacant.

And that is my biggest hope for these parcels: They may provide the first large-scale, densely populated residential area in SL. With lots of new people moving in and out. Each sim will have 32 parcels; since estates normally have much larger parcels they offer fewer neighbors in the sim.

So, I for one will definitely want one, not as home, but as a kind of vacation spot for when I need to get away from my quiet solitude in the sky.

But my hat will not move I think:-)

My Invisible Love

When driving to work today, I decided to ditch the usual commercial radio and instead I put my favourite CD into the slot: Anne-Sophie Mutter and NY Philarmonic playing Beethovens Violin Concerto.

Beethovens music is beauty incarnated, and when performed with almost delusional perfection by this talented German artist it never fails to move me. Starting with a tender theme it grows to an almost unbearable race between the lead violin and the orchestra, and when the drums hits the end of the third movement I feel almost shaken, and needs silence for the 10 minutes left of the drive.

Small drifts of fog blows above the green fields in the sunrise, and apart from the asphalt the world is beauty too!

Gleman Jun has an exhibition here called .:Italian Art:. Convey depth through lightness that gives me some of the same feelings as Beethovens music. Out of square building blocks he have made a "gallery" like I have never seen before: Simplicity raised to its own form of beauty. And filled with art that I think I will spend a long time looking at this weekend.

Its not a large build, but there are surprises around every corner. Walking over seas of frozen blue liquied you encounter living prims grouping to pictures or just floating around, like colorful fog in the morning.

Oops: Someone has broken Philip's image of the world. /me wonder who pushed this frame over the edge:

Why all this talk about beauty? Honour's rant yesterday made me think a lot.

There is much I don't know. Invisible friends are hard to grasp. But if the world is made on purpose by such a one, at least I know she loves beauty. Why else would she have given us ears and eyes that not only convey us information about what's going on around us, but gives us pure joy from music and art?

In fact, if she exist, she is not just a friend. She is the love of my life.

And I need no one to tell me about the love of my life. I will know her deep in my heart. And if you come to my place and try to tell me you know her better, I will laugh in your face. And if you tell me I must behave so and so for her to love me, I will bury your sorry ass under a 256 Megaprim cube.

So instead of preaching to everyone: Put on some Beethoven, take a ride around the art schene of SL, and try to find the love of your live. She may be weeping because you have actually forgotten her.

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!

More dolls and a concert

Had a late start in SL yesterday, and when I came on, Honour had finished the DollCozy floor of the shop. Looked very nice! In the shop I ran into Emerald Wynn and a friend of her, whose name I have forgotten, I'm so sorry to say - but nice to meet fellow bloggers; and even more so when they buy dolls:-)


These guys are just too cute:-) Or are they gals? I have though of them as males since Honour first gave me one to script, but they do have this kind of unisex appearance.

Tried to script a little something for the doll exhibit, but SL misbehaved tonight and would not even open the editor.... aw, rather tired of it anyway:-) I have heard about writers block, can it apply to scripting as well?


So I looked for some live music and found a performance by Carmen Roeth at the Cute's Club (LOL they even have this "I'm cute" group tag... somehow I quickly replaced it with the Dramatic tag).


Anyway, Carmen has a great voice, a hot avatar, and is a real performer keeping contact with the audience (even when the lag in the SIM with 57 avatars made her glide off the stage into some strange never-never land). Writing this, I just love the voice, now soft, now a bit rasping, gliding through classic Jazz and some real rock&roll.

Technology moves forward; it was really amazing to be able to follow a live event with sound on a laptop with a cellular phone connection, in a sim with more than 50 people. OK, so my framerate was between 2 and 4 on low graphics setting, but I did not crash once! Just a year ago, that would have been impossible!

As for cellular connections: I have noticed that the latest version of the linden viewer, including Snowglobe, is much less demanding on network bandwidth when "idle". Earlier versions where using 100kb/s even when nothing was moving on the screen. When you run on a line with download limitations (I have 5Gb/month on my cellular), that is really annoying. The imprudence viewer used to be the answer to those situations, but now I find the LL viewer performing at least as good.

I plan some experiments with different types of viewers on different kinds of computers and connections - I have this vague feeling that alternate viewers does not really give the performance gain a lot of people claim. But that needs to be verified, and I may not have time to spare the next few weeks. Well, there will not be fewer viewers to test even if I wait a few weeks.

/me hoping the script editor will work today

Drama Dolls Dramatic Opening

Warning: Nekos on the beach!

The cat - or should I say the Dolls - are out of the closet. Those of us who have been involved in this project have looked forward to this day for a long time. Indeed, there are some who could not wait and did not refrain from breaking and entry to be the first to report the news:-)

Warning: Drama from the future!

I can hardly blame them. As I said in my previous post, I fell in love the moment I saw them, and looking back at what I got then the Art of Honour has only improved with time.

What are Drama Dolls? To quote Honour herselves:

Have you been dissed in SecondLife? Had a lover cheat on you? Or maybe a perfect stranger held you up to public ridicule by posting your photo on a blog and making fun of your hair/skin/shape or clothes?

Well now you have an alternative to stalking behaviour or public scenes. You can have your pain acknowledged by the perpetrator and, most importantly, get a heartfelt apology.

Words are our basic form of communication. And while our emotions often define how we are, our words tend to define how we want to be.

And they are our means to get there.

The dolls actually respond to your words. OK, you know it’s just a simple computer program, but you can accept that attention of any form helps you feel better when formulating your sentences.

They help you identify the doll with the person hurting you by both taking his/her name and character (we have a large variety of dolls, you should be able to find one that reminds you of the actual person).

You get an apology to acknowledge your hurt.

Lastly, you will watch the doll meet its end. It’s a bit dramaticJ

This is not about revenge, although I am sure some will get a certain satisfaction watching it happen. No, just like the punishments that you may get in a court of law in the outside word, the important thing is getting an acknowledgement. In RL, the society acknowledges your hurt by judging the one responsible. When using Drama Dolls, you get to witness justice be done.

Warning: Elves about to make out on your lawn!

But SL is luckily not all about drama. There is love and friendship in abundance. So of course we have the DollCozies!

I'm here to hug you!

A bit simpler but oh so cute creations you can trust with your message to someone you care about. When clicked they will say your message while it plays some animations to let the recipient know how you feel.

When animating these dolls I first had a vision of making them really look alive, something akin to an AO that makes you shift your weight from leg to leg, turn your head and do other things that may or may not be natural in the situation*. But after some experiments, it really did not feel right, because they are dolls, not avatars. And it would distract from their purpose: To make you attentive to your own emotions, inspire you to formulate them into words, and have an ocean of time to listen attentively to you. So, apart from when they are responding to you, there are only tiny movements


When the dolls are done delivering their apology, they "disappear - quite dramatically! :)" (to quote Honor's specs to me). Actually, they go through quite an ordeal:-) These sequences was fun to make, I am rather excited slash nervous to hear how you like them!

I was very conscious not to animate the dolls as though they where going through agony and pain. You want to use them to move on, not to nurture feelings of revenge. Its more in line with comics: Cat chases mouse, mouse drops a grand piano on the cat, cat shakes it's head and they both start running again.

Because SL, even with all its drama, should be a fun place to be! So take the cab to Drama Dolls and find your favorite!


* Update 08.07.2009: This posting contained a link to the most touching and revealing blog about the joys and perils of living in SL that I know of. Nightflower left SL almost 6 months ago, and now her blog is gone too. I delete it from my blogroll with great sorrow. Take care, Night!

Empty workbench

Honour has been too kind in her story of our project work together, but the facts are about right so I won't recap. Suffice to say I loved it at first sight, perhaps not first and foremost the idea, but the actual products she showed me. Don't get me wrong, the ideas are breathtaking, but for me the visual was the first love.

Anyone acquainted with Honours products (trees, flowers and the like, not to mention SIM design!) knows about her sense of beauty and her obsession with detail. This is carried forward at a full level, making me really want to put in my best effort to at least try to match the vivid colors, the incredibly detailed textures and the varied builds of these products.

What you may not know is that her attention is not limited to prims and textures, but extends well into the realm of avatars and humans. She is a joy to work with because she is open to ideas, she is enthusiastic, and eager to praise what she likes. And at the same time being honest about what she wants to change, so that efforts are driven to unimaginarily heights.

I have enjoyed this project immensely, learned a lot and had the great satisfaction to laugh at the results of my scripting as they have played out in graphic details on my screen. A HUGE thanks to Honour for having faith in me all the way.

If I look at this as a pure project, the most amazing thing we have done is to launch the whole product line with 10 languages from the start. It has meant that all texts and interfaces had to be prepared before the scripting was done, to get them all translated and sorted out. Lots of thinking went into that bit, and it forced us to specify the product in rather great detail. I believe this is fairly unique in SL, and I hope it will make it more fun for non-english natives to use the product.

So, my workbench in my small hideaway skybox is mostly empty, it's almost as SL feels a bit empty as well. To my friends that feel I have been rather distant these last weeks: I will soon be back:-). Thanks for supporting me in this endeavor.

Hope to see a lot of you in Tailor Bay at July 1st. Bring your friends, spread the news, and I hope you will enjoy these creations as much as I have enjoyed working with them.

Day of Constitution

I normally don't do much out of my FL country of residency in SL, but since today is our day of Constitution, I had to raise the flag!

The Norwegian Constitution was signed May 17th, 1814, but we did not get our real independence until 1905. However, May 17th is the day we celebrate with child parades, brass orchestras and outdoor gatherings of all sorts.

How I do wish for a virtual world where we actually would have the rights our constitution gives us: Freedom to select our leaders and form our society as we want it, like a true democracy. Not as it is today, when our world really is governed by the whims of a commercial company. OK, OSGris is today the closest we get, but since its still sort of an alpha world its a bit too limited to count. But it might get there!

In Norway, we waited almost 100 years before we got our freedom. In SL, we don't even have a constitution for a virtual world. Lots of steps are still ahead of us!

Have a happy day all of you!

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!