Kuurian Expedition continues with Text100 Today

Filed under: Educational, News, Events, Odds and Ends

Sorry for the late notice, but if you are available at 1 PM SLT or 4 PM EST you will be able to catch the next Kuurian Expedition meeting in Second Life. The presentation in titled, "Who are the new publics of Second Life?" will be given by Text100's Aaron Uhrmacher and Georg Kolb. The presentation will look at the new populace being created by virtual worlds such as Second Life as citizens are able to communicate both online and offline as their physical selves or as virtual. It will also cover the various groupings that are formed due to virtual worlds and how they relate to each other and the implications of them.

Kuurian Expedition is a project out of the University of Indiana Synthetic Worlds Initiative. The meetings are always interesting and provide a glimpse of what is possible in distance learning in virtual worlds. If you have time swing by the Text100 Island at 1 PM SLT today.

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My junk in a box Second Life style

Filed under: Educational, Odds and Ends

New World Notes was pointing to this video this morning and I practically jumped up out of my chair and started clapping. If you are uninitiated to the pop sensation "My $%&# in a Box" courtesy of Saturday Night Live, it has been the number one download on YouTube and is still building up steam. While juvenile and possibly just plain wrong, it is also hilarious. So, in the spirit of that video I present to you "Prim in a Box" starring Moo Money and an as yet unknown penguin, posted to YouTube by SLHamlet.

Oh yeah, this is not really work safe if you have your audio on. If you mute the audio you should be fine.

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Support the supporters

Filed under: Entertainment, Educational, Exploration, Mixed Reality

Support for Healing is having some financial trouble keeping their wonderfully helpful island going, along with Support for Healing itself. If you have some spare ellz to donate, or some loose change in your Paypal account, please find a little to give to this generous venture.

Support for Healing provides support for the mentally ill, depressed, suicidal, and confused, as well as those with chronic physical illnesses that severely impact the mental health and stability of the sufferer. Their island in Second Life is a calm and relaxing place, perfect for taking a breather from the stresses of Life or Second Life.

Support for Healing needs your support. Support those who are ready to support you.

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Spotlight - Amsterdam

Filed under: Entertainment, Shopping, Exploration

Created by Stroker Serpentine, and his able partner Fyre Raine, sim Amsterdam started out as a single sim, that has since grown into a network of 11 sims, with no apparent end in sight. One of the first things that really stands out about Amsterdam is the attention-to-detail. It feels very much like a real place, with signage, advertising, imperfections and litter.

Benja Soon said it made him miss the real Amsterdam, and lauded the accuracy of the design, "If the map went two more blocks to my right, I could visit my old apartment."

Within a week of it opening the stores were already beginning to fill up with hopeful sellers, and the streets and skies started to fill up with visiting avatars. Throughout 2006 the inhabitants, visitors and vendors of Amsterdam have refit and reinvented themselves again, and again. Amsterdam is always busy. In fact it is one of the busiest places in Second Life. Not just because of the realistic feel, but because of the undeniably mature atmosphere.
(Mature content below the fold)

Second Lifers are all over Amsterdam, walking, shopping, chatting, dancing, clubbing. They're dressed, half-dressed and undressed by turns. Amsterdam is unashamed, yet curiously calm. Armed assault is certainly less common here than (for example) a quick knee-trembler in a side-alley. Sex happens in Second Life. Sex happens everywhere that people gather, like gambling, sex is an activity that humanity brings to every place it inhabits.

Metaverse prostitutes (or am I supposed to call them escorts this decade?) of either gender, no gender, or more than one gender calmly negotiate with potential clientele, the discussion is practical, businesslike, and unhurried. You've walked past this conversation a hundred times in a hundred cities in the real world, there's not much difference here in the online world.

For mature entertainment, Amsterdam and it's adjacent regions seem to have the lot. From luxurious, elegant clothing and jewelry, all the way down to the gritty and seamy. Sex sells, and Second Life's Amsterdam sells it very well indeed, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

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Google TechTalks with Rosedale and Ondrejka

Filed under: Educational, Linden Labs, Odds and Ends

The above video is from the Google TechTalk series recorded on March 1st of this year. It features Philip Rosedale and Cory Ondrejka showing off Second Life explaining the roots of the Second Life software. It is about an hour long and recorded with closed captioning. So, you can burn a quite hour at work reading along with this one.

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Goo Attack - Attack of the fast, hard to see ... cube thing

Filed under: News, Odds and Ends

At 5pm Wednesday Tuesday (what was I thinking?) SLT, sim Luskwood got hit with a self-replicating cube. In various regions around Second Life over the next 3-4 hours, several other regions (eg: Kuula, Fairchang Island, and Epilais to name a few) have reported sightings and contacted Live Help.

While not very widespread or impressive visually, the replicating cubes moved very, very quickly, and were not always visible. They were all owned by an avatar named "The Gymnast", now missing from Second Life's directory -- Linden Lab is notoriously swift with the ban-stick when a goo attack takes place.
Vessus Candour was momentarily taken aback by their high velocity. "These were the fastest ones I'd seen," she said, " I thought someone was shooting things at first."

Hardworking Linden Liaisons promptly attended affected locations, closed off scripts on those regions, and cleaned up. Final cleanup is still in progress with scripts still disabled in at least one region, but hardly any of the 12,000 residents on the Second Life grid at present are even aware that something happened.

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Two millionth signup - Today?

Filed under: News, Accounts, Odds and Ends

Well, we're going to have our two millionth signup very soon. Either shortly before midnight SLT tonight (Wednesday) or in the early hours of Thursday. That's a million signups in ... what? 57 days? Sure, 90% of those people disappear before they've gotten through their first 90 days, but I've met (and still meet) some of the most amazing people.

Everywhere I go, I meet creative, talented, thoughtful, witty, kind or just plain interesting people. People I'd never have had the chance to meet otherwise. People I'd have been too scared to meet otherwise. Sure, these days there's just too many of you for me to ever catch up with, but at least I have the chance.

Sure, resources are stretched, everything's tumultuous, and we've got no idea where we're going...but would you rather be anywhere else? Obviously not - because you're still here.

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