SL Surfing, 0130, 26Nov06

Since every time i try to get something done it takes me downs various rabbit holes, i figured it probably makes sense to begin to document the distractions, and there is some interesting stuff there- if i don't, it'll be lost. If i do, it's here for posterity.

So highlights of the last few hours (BTW, the average time spent on SL is about 3 hrs per session, so i'm right about there...):
- you can make lava waterfalls: chicagon 966, 233, 142 - Goblin industries
- there are folks making photorealistic body skins. Nothing new, but some are even modelled after famous folks. Had a chat with someone with a Vin Diesel torso the other day. Soon someone will do it with photos you provide - more useful for faces I think.
FEELINGS
- a few things that really make me "feel" in second life:
-- falling long distance and slamming my face on the ground, or going up and bumping my head
-- ending up in someone's living room, and they are there or appear- and feeling strangely awkward and embarrassed
-- standing in front of a picture or product of dubious reputation and wondering what would happen if somebody saw me, "the professor." If anyone says this environment is not "sensorily rich" show them some of the more offensive art/photography/animation and tell them not to get offended!! (or titilated).
-- wanting to know more about people I bump into. Why should I care? I do, but I'm not sure why.
-- feeling remotely "proud" when folks compliment my rave stick. I mean, i paid about 20 cents for it, and people complement it. More so than just about any article of clothing i've worn in the real world. I wonder what that says about my real world clothing...?
-- feeling like i'm snooping when i'm wondering around other folks houses, and even more so when i end up in their bedroom/jacuzzi
--

TEACHING: Things we may want going forward:
- many of these vending and pose devices make for useful educational/museum/library devices. For example, there are many vending devices that show a variety of pictures - you click one and it enlarges to the middle. Others show one on each side, which act as a next/previous link, with the current one large in the middle. There are many variants of these - unfortunately it's not easy to just find where to get one- though you can find the creator's name by right-clicking to it. One i just saw: VendNet. Now looking at JEVN/JENC - which you see all over the place. The interesting thing is that the commercial sector has built in all kinds of interesting things, like ability to give commission, pass out notecards, and perhaps even sale leads. So imagine having a slideshow type thing where each item has with it a notecard, perhaps including URL and other things. Check this out at: ironjaw 140, 39, 138. 3000 LD's gets you both.
NOTABLES:
--JEVN: networked vendors system
--JENC: networked catalog system- live updates across all distributed catalogs
--SL Courier: To distribute up to 30 things to a distribution list. Imagine a group of studentss...
These are from esmay Rand...
-- also a "slave tracer" which while not what we have in mind, seems to have the mechanisms for tracking users- which would be really cool for things like treasure hunts, or specific guided activities. Can do things like show if user stops for 3 minutes or more....

- VERY cool building demonstrator- you pick a building from the slideshow, and it builds it on the fly... which, if you could do with everythign, you'd really have solved the space dilema.. GEOJE 163, 201, 129

- there are a number of things at Apollo that seemed applicable, including a teleport HUD, which I bought. See Random Other Stuff for this.

- Found a sauna. As a fan of real sauna's, i'm a bit cynical about this one, but a small enclosed sitting space has an interesting "feel" to it. Would be useful for seminars and such, or small group meetings - it's a different feel to NOT have the table in the middle - feels somehow more connected. Example: Kang Nae 225, 212, 69
-

RANDOM OTHER STUFF:
The lost gardens of apollo are really cool! Visually amazing. Apollo 245 18 56
Could that be done with normal terraforming? - Dane Zander's the owner/creator of the balcony..
There is a nice welcome map, that includes some scripting for showing all locations- probably another technology for good to education transfer.
It also has an interesting teleporter- where you "ride" a jetpowered chair
And i bought an HUD that allows you to have a bunch of TP shortcuts, AND, allows you to display a ball which others can click on to go to a location.