29 September, 2008

White

What do you think of this? http://www.ironicsans.com/owmyeyes/
This fellow is trying to say that white text on black is a bad thing, but personally I don't like a blinding white screen with black text, particularly in a fairly dimly lit room where I tend to read peoples webpages. I have seen worse... deep blue text on black, that is almost impossible to read.

Wolfie!

28 September, 2008

Shock the Monkey

Shelly, and the gang were over at Marko's house today, filming a bit more of the doco.
Annoyingly, when I hooked up with them online, I was pretty tired. Maybe I hadn't had as much sleep as I should've, not sure.

Incase you're not up with what's going on, December Films are making a documentary [doco] on people on Secondlife. Furries will be part of that, and that's Marko and I.

Anyway we've been filming for months now.

I think Marko and I have been really open about our feelings and that might upset the general populace, which is great really.

I'm not into shocking people for the sake of it, but to be really open about things is worthwhile... Yet a lot of people still need a good arse kick now and then.

Furries have been this hidden sub-culture of the internet for such a long time, but suddenly secondlife sprung up and forced this mixing in.

What I've been noticing is that there was an initial over-reaction from some segments of the secondlife society, which was mostly due to bad press and tv shows.
but that has mostly blown over now... the griefers have pretty much packed it in and gone home, and many in world have simply accepted furries... well why not, there's no harm.

People who wouldn't have tried furry avatars in the past are giving them a go now, and that's an interesting development.

Anyway, Filming and Editing is happening, Music is being composed.
Shelley feels we'll be filming bits and pieces till Christmas, The doco should air on Aussie TV [SBS] in March 2009 if all goes well, and then the rest of the world will get to see it later.

Wolfie!

Wonderful Spam

A weird thing that happens on Secondlife is where people create a group for people to join, and so, if the group looks ok, people will go and join... I've joined many groups myself... many more than the regulation 25, which is too small a number really.

Anyway, people don't chat on these groups, well... some are worse than others.

"Hello, anyone there?"

"SPAM, IT'S SPAM... GO AWAY, DON'T YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T TALK ON THIS GROUP?

"What do you mean?"

"You can't, so sod off"

It's weird, it's a bit like creating a bus route, having busses on the route, and yet passengers aren't allowed to actually ride on the busses.

I have created my own groups, and I make it a point to yak away on these as much as possible, including the ABC chat channel.

Why not?

Let's all be friends, eh?

Wolfie!

27 September, 2008

Digg it

If you Digg Rockit, Please vote for me here:
http://digg.com/music/Rockit_The_blog_for_the_interactive_music_gameshow

And here's a link for ABC too:
http://digg.com/playable_web_games/ABC_Island_WikiFur_the_furry_encyclopedia

Please vote as it helps keep SL chugging away.

[Don't forget to thumbs up in stumble too!]

Oh, Don't think I'm going to bite your head off for commenting,
I certainly wouldn't do that.

In fact I'd like comments, even if it's just to say you've been here reading or you've met me in Secondlife, or you've played Rockit.

Or if you want to just have a friendly chat via the comments link below, that's completely fine.

I'm more than happy to just chat. :)

Wolfie!

26 September, 2008

The sun always shines on TV

When I were a lad...

Teachers used to say "Don't watch TV, it will ROT your BRAIN, read a BOOK!"
we didn't listen.

When I was home sick, I'd often lay in bed and watch the "For schools"
programs on ABC, which were really random and strange as you'd usually only see them in school (rarely) in conjunction with a lesson.

But once in a while something interesting would come on.
Funny, now I think of it, it was a bit like watching "Eat Carpet" on SBS.
frequently bizzare with the odd gem thrown in.

But the mentality of some people online, Strewth mate!
My old teachers would roll in their graves if they saw how kids spelt now, it's got down to a language formed of misspelt acronyms, "LAWL" for example, spelt in caps, which is apparently looked upon as quite clever by peers.

Youtube feels a lot like a bunch of [add your own insults here] arguing among each other, trying to spell worse than the guy who posted earlier, using as few brain cells as possible.

I've chimed in here and there but it's no use, it's no good arguing with something with less IQ than George Dubya.

I'm almost certain that if they had to undergo an MRI, you wouldn't find much more than an empty peanut shell in there.

They're not smart enough to have the nut included.

I wonder how they manage to operate a computer?

* I did start to read books later and I think that improved the way I think, but these days I just don't seem to have the time.

Wolfie!

25 September, 2008

The Great Escape

As I mentioned, I went to the royal melbourne show today, and I mostly hung around the cattle... because I like cattle, and I dislike sheep. or, putting it another way, I hate the crowds who line up en-masse for showbags.

OK, kids push parents into going for the things, I know I had my fair share as a kid.
There's nothing good in them, you mostly want them because other people have them, and that's something that continues later in most peoples lives. I've been weaning myself off stuff unless I feel I really need to have it, and that's good because I save more money. I spent about $26 in total at the show, but had a taxi ride in an back... heck it's cheaper than owning your own car, and the drivers know where they're going. I'm really bad with directions, and lets face it, where would you park the car anyway?

So I go to see the cows, which are less popular than showbags and rides. it's quieter, although the weekly times pavilion is still far too loud, why do they have those speakers *that loud*? do people think we're half deaf?

While I was there, I heard a man complain about the sound system.
turn the sound down fellas, half way would be lovely.

Anyway, I discovered a new kind of bull called a Pinzgauer, which apparently hasn't been in Oz until 1990. an Austrian breed, unusually marked... sort of white with a brown splodge down it's sides, and the bull had massive testicles.

Oh the bull judges love that "He's got a lovely set of testicles on him" they'll say if the bull is a good one.

I know one thing, He'd never fit into a pair of jeans with a set like that, Jealous? Me? Well just a bit... it's a male thing I suppose.

What's really weird are the amount of people, and I mean adults, who can't tell a bull from a cow. Most people talk about "cows" now, like they're *all cows*, which they're not.

Cows aren't like single celled organisms that somehow split once in a while, there's sex going on at some point, yes, nookietime in the paddock, in front of everyone, even the dog.

I don't understand how people can't tell the difference... didn't they do sex-ed or something?

City people are thick as bricks, honestly, and getting dumber every year.

A breeder of Angus bulls told me something interesting.

When you breed cattle, and your farm, your stud is called... let's say "Kookaburra"
what you do is name your cattle like this... Each year is given a letter... this year the letter is J, so you can only name your cattle something starting with J, Like John, Jerry, Jack etc... but the first name would be Kookaburra, because the stud name always goes first. so... Kookaburra Jack for instance.

However, there is never an "i" year, because it often gets confused with a small "l" and a "1".

Anyway, You know Katie, my very loving and fretting dog, well I locked her inside my house before I left around 10am.

When I came home, I found her in the front yard, and thought for a moment that my neighbour had simply heard her crying so came in to do a bit of babysitting, whcih She's done in the past.

But no, the house was all locked up.

I soon discovered that she had pushed the window open, torn the fly-screen to shreds and leapt out. the window is up a bit over a meter high, and it's higher on the outside... it's a wonder she didn't break a leg or hurt herself badly.

The scary thing is that I had a vision of her hanging out the front window, hurt,
while I was at the show, and felt anxious to come home.

I grabbed a bite and had a shower, as I smelt like cows.
played Rockit at ABC Island and did a bit of DJing.

I reckon I'll sleep well tonight.

Wolfie!

We've got big balls

I'm off to the Royal Melbourne Show today, I normally just go and sit and watch the big moo-moos [as the kids say], I went to see the cows last week and today it's the bulls.

They're lovely, I know some people would think this is weird but I'd really love a charolais bull for a pet, I think it'd be something like having a really really big dog.

I think it's a real shame that the way I come in contact with these animals is mainly via the mince in my pasta sauce. so many times I've been tempted to be a vego.

I bet if I owned a bull I certainly would be.

The fantasy is nice, but I know it's hard work.
Would have been great years back when I still had my family.

My dad used to say that he'd have a bull in the paddock of the home we'd buy in the country if we won lotto, but it never happened, it was a nice dream, but a dream that drank more bucks than it handed out.

After Mum died, I gave the lotto away, needing every dollar I got, probably a wise choice really.

Been giving myspace a shot, but I'm not keen... it's one of those things where I find myself looking for the button to press in order to actually post something.

Blogspot is wonderful, does just what it's supposed to and doesn't fill your page with ads which have no relevance to you at all.

I mean rap stars posing in some pic, doing that weird home-boy thing with their hands, Blonde singers I've never heard of, pouting, with all that curly flowery art in the background which is so incredibly over-used these days [totally sick of that crap passing for art, please someone, come up with something new]. I just look at those things and go "oh please just piss off".

Anyway, off to walk the doggie, who loves me too much and will cry the whole day I'm away... I love her too, she's a dear.

Rockit is on tonight folks, see you at ABC Island at 7:30pm AEST / 2:30am PDT

Wolfie!

23 September, 2008

Little Creatures

It's getting near Christmas, so as usual,
I start getting junk from toys 'r us and others.

I got one today and opened it up for a moment before I put it in the recycling bin.

Now I am a complete internet freak, I find TV very yesterday, and apart from a small handful of shows, I don't watch it at all because it just doesn't have enough kick in it to create the "Wow" one needs to say "Yeah I'm definately going to watch that".

So I miss the advertising, and by "miss" I mean that I don't see it, and I'm not aware of many of the new shows available.

Anyway, back to the catalogue....

I was flicking through it and then I saw it, British Television has done it again, they've created yet another show about weird, psychedelic alien-things for pre-schoolers.

I don't remember the name of the show.

But I was thinking about this, it can't be too hard to create such a show... in five minutes worth of thinking, I came up with this:

The Dipsy Wobbles [Wobble is a nice kid friendly word]

So, You have these brightly coloured creatures living in a village, in a forest, called "Dipsy"and the family is called "The Wobbles" so naturally you have to name them like so. Bibble Wobble, Dobble Wobble, Pobble Wobble and Chuck who's either the freaky alien pet, the dog, the gay or transvestite one.

Now all the Wobbles have headphones, which connect to a main computer which knows everything about everything ever.

So at points during the show, you'd have Bibble bring up something confusing like "existentialism" For example, because you know, these characters are always confused about simple, everyday things.

So Pobble will say "Ohhh I wonder what existentialism is" so they'll tap on their headphones and recite the poem to get in touch with the computer who knows everything about everything, and when they make contact, Pobble will ask the computer, "What's existentialism".

But the computer won't know because he only knows things about apples and jellybeans and unicorns and so he'll cleverly divert the discussion away from "exis..ten..ism" and towards something simple, like... Bananas.

"Ohhh" Wobble will exclaim [which is a really big thing for a pre-school character to do] "I have a banana"

"Where is it?" Pobble will ask.

"Down my trousers" replies Wobble, "Would you like to see it?"

"Oh yes please" [we must use our manners] says Pobble, excitedly.

So Wobble takes it out and shows... er.... Her?....

"Oh it's a huge one" She says, looking amazed and slightly lustful.
[we must have some controversy to incite the parent groups]

At this point Chuck runs in and swallows it whole.

Leading to a lot of frowning, hands on hips, shouting, crying, falling over and all that.

I'll market this to the BBC and have the toys out by next Christmas, by then I'll be a very rich Wolfie indeed.

Wolfie!

22 September, 2008

Call me

People reading this might be amazed, but I rarely have need for the phone, the landline. and it's not because I have a mobile, because I don't... Well I had one which was stolen last year but it was always turned off and the card was usually months out of date.

Most people I know are internet users, and I can reach them and vice-versa by just getting online.

Now what's happening is that the phone rings, and I know almost immediately that it's a phonecall from some Indian call centre, trying to sell me a phone or something that I don't need... and if I did, wouldn't buy it from them.

There's about three people who would phone me if they wanted me, and rarely do, prompting me to have thoughts about having the landline disconnected, as it's more of a bother than a use... and I have to pay a fair bit of money each month just to have it sitting there, ringing away when I'm busy doing something else, only to discover that yes, it's India on the line... again.

There is a practical reason for keeping the phone, and that is if there's an emergency, I can phone "Triple-0" a lot faster than it would take to boot up the PC and google up some help.

"Mr. Burglar, could you just have a seat here while I google the police, thanks, won't be long, My computer is a bit slow, so would you like a coffee? Tea maybe?"

However, there is a way around the call centre problem.

Maybe if enough of us learn this technique, the viability of having these places will drop out of favour.

When you get a phonecall from India, what do you notice?

You say "hello" and hear..... a long pause, nobody says anything, you hear a slight "shhhhhh" in the background, or in some cases, people talking [it sounds like an office environment].

When you hear that, hang up... don't wait for a response, if nobody answers immediately after you say "Hello" just hang up.

I do this roughly four times a day.

Wolfie!

Favourite Shirts

Vermus pointed out to me today the oddity of putting warmer clothing on your avatar when you're cold and stripping off when you're hot.

It's true, I do it myself.

In winter when I'm freezing, I'll rug up with a jacket [even though I have fur]... but you know, I really feel the cold, heck I need that fur lined jacket.

I also rez a fire in the pub fireplace.

But in summer, I'll really strip off, or go naked... no, no, not at ABC... although does anyone honestly care if I go naked at ABC? Afterall, I'm just a huge dog, technically.

A pair of board shorts don't go astray, in summer I'll probably be sitting here in real life wearing them anyway.

Oh, there's this thing called Synathesia, where people see colours when they hear certain sounds for example.

I've noticed if I have a bright light shone in my eyes that I feel warm, and tonight when i was listening to the digeridoo sample [at abc island] does the same... weird.

Wolfie!

19 September, 2008

Wish I could Cry - My Poor Kevin

Rockit Rage

No, No violence here, please!

I have an idea, which could go in three different ways, Don't you love possibilities?

By creating small, one or two minute machinimas, I could be the host of a music video program and walk up to people in Secondlife and Say something like:

Me: Hi Mate, How's it going?

Him: Great thanks.

Me: banter banter banter

Him: banters back.

Me: So, You know it's 80's night on Rockit [Rage?] tonight, what was one of your favourite songs from back then?

Him: Probably 1999 by Prince

Me: Oh yeah, I loved that one too, I reckon we have that in our files... ahh yeah, here it is.
Should we play it then?

Him: Bloody Oath Mate!

Me: Righto, here it is then, prince and 1999, you're watching Rockit!

Ok, That's a bit daggy, but you get the general idea, spare me, it's after bedtime ;)
Yes, "Voxpop" that's it!

Now I did say three formats... If it was for Rage, the way it would be done is I could make a set of short films and send those to ABC on DVD. The video would be in standard def widescreen...
My computer would like that, so much easier for the poor thing than HD for once :).

Or.... I still do the videos, and send them to SBS and try to get an Online music show happening.

Or... I run the whole shebang off youtube and do it here.

I doubt I could get more than one a month together, it would take a lot of personal work, but if it was for Rage it would be a one off. It would promote ABC Island very nicely indeed.

SBS may have trouble with putting videos online, that might be a hassle.

The easiest route may be my own blog.

Anyway, it's up for discussion.

BTW: My e-mail is down right now, because some twit spilt their morning cuppa on the main server, at least that's what I reckon really happened.

So if you want me, make sure to leave a comment here, or on Secondlife or Skype.

Wolfie!

Max H-H-H-Headroom

This is Max, The worlds first Virtual Reality Performer... Oh yes, he was fake, a guy in a mask... Matt Frewer in fact, But he was wonderful and we loved him.

Max was created this way because to get CGI of this quality, in those days, was either impossible or horribly expensive.

However, even with the cracking CGI we have now, it still wouldn't look as real, as human, as Max did back in 1985.

Wolfie!

Shoop Shoop Diddy Wop Cumma Cumma Wang Dang - Monte Vidéo and the Cassettes.

I bought this single when it was first released, but it was on vinyl and I had no turntable... you know the story. So I got on Morpheus, a file sharing program, found the song and downloaded it.
Now Morpheus was unusual in that the uploader could chat to the downloader... so I got a message asking me how I remembered the song. I told him that I liked it since it first came out. The guy on the other end turned out to be one of the guys who co-wrote the song, and he was pleased that the song had been remembered after all this time.

Wolfie!








18 September, 2008

Street café

We have approval from Abi to create a café on ABC Island.

Though I'm not sure where to put it.

There's several places where it could go, in the water near the beach... on a pole... like the Kookaburra which was built two years ago at Eragon.

Ryu's building techniques have improved by leaps and bounds
and he seems keen to build it, I know he'll do a better job than me,
If I were to do it, it would look awful as I'm not a builder.

I should point out that this structure would be a lot smaller than the Kooka, it doesn't need to that big, however I also wanted to take into consideration what the café might be used for... and I'd like to be used for potential "Scribbly gum" talks, or something similar... I'm not thinking about it in terms of a dance venue... but then... if the Isiand is being used, that's still a good thing.

Ok, Location....

If not there, then a skybox [Skycafé] may work,
with a nifty *slow* transporter on the island which would give the "customer" a nice ride up.

The problem with having a café in the sky is that a lot of people may not realise it's there. Which might be fixable by adding transporters to easily spotted locations.

Or there is an area under the sandbox... but that leaves it open to griefers, so... bad idea.

There's "no man's land" which is between the sandbox
and Eco house, which is a dead space,

No Sir, the Ch'i just ain't flowin' around there, the dragons don't like it at all.

It's partly because the mountain is really tight against that side of the Island, and avatars can't easily spot if there's anything there. Think of it like that pesky area around your home where
you don't go... it ends up being little more than a "service lane" a place for plumbers to go and fix things... damn, that reminds me, my shower is all blocked up, damn fur.

A possibility might be that if the Mountain was divided,
then people may explore that side of the Island.

Well, Ryu is working on the build right now, and I suppose the best thing to do, as always, in Secondlife, is to experiment... We'll put it on a stick, and see how that goes... and try it in the sky and ask people where they liked the café, maybe that will help matters.

In a way, I don't want to put the café on the land, because it will eat up space, even if it's on a stick, so a Skycafé might be better.

OK, so what will we do with this?

Firstly: It will be a meeting space, where a people can get together and chat, just like they do in a real café.

Secondly: I want to have clickable promos there which lead to various areas of abc.net.au and other forums, blogs etc. Pretty much the same way that real cafés promote bands, venues, local shops, tourism etc.

Thirdly: As a space for forums, a like we did with Librarians.

Design...

What I'd like to do is try to get the look as natural as possible, so it has a real, "Bush retreat" look about it. Jon has said he'd help with this, and I think he'd do a good job too... If we can pull this off, the place would look great for nature talks [Scribblygum].

Finally, I had a few suggestions where it might be easier to just buy a building from somewhere and throw that up somewhere [sorry, that sounded disgusting... licks it back up].

I mean, but a building and put it up somewhere.
But I think it's best if ABC Island looks as original as possible.

Anyway, look out for the café, it's on it's way... and please comment and suggest away, here or in-world. :)

Wolfie!

Wake up Wolfie!

Most of you know I have a Malamute called Katie.

I had walked up the street and to the local bakery to get some bread,
and was pretty pooped when I came back home.

Well it was pretty warm and windy...
although It was just one of those days where you just feel lacklustre.

When I got home, I sat at the computer and started to do what I do.
Katie was pawing at me, I think She wanted a walk.

I was prepared to take her but needed to just sit for a while.

Anyway, we did go for one about half an hour later.

I got home, had a coffee and something to eat and then went to bed
for a few minutes... or tried to... Katie came in and started pawing
at me and wouldn't stop.

The back door was open if she needed to go out, and it wasn't time
for her tea, so... not sure what was up...

Well, ok I was up.

So I gave the idea of having a nice rest away, and got up.

Katie went under the loungeroom table and is now snoring her head off.

Arrgghh!

Wolfie!

17 September, 2008

Furries

Featuring art by Blotch and other great furry artists.

Wolfie!

Who are you?

Abi asked me to guide her to a webpage which has a kind of glossary on words that we sometimes use in Secondlife, which may or may not be heard in the wider world.

I'm not sure there is such a guide out there, so how about we write our own.

I'm bound to leave out a lot, so feel free to comment and remind me.

Furry: A person who identifies themselves as an animal.

Therianthrope: A more spiritual version of furries.

Scaley [sp?]: Furry variation - Dragon, Dinosaur, Lizard

Fursuiter: A furry who wears an animal costume in real life

Yiff: Sex.... no more, no less.
The nice thing about "Yiff" is that it is never used as a swear word.
Yiffing, Yiffed [Having or had]
Yiffy [Feeling sexy, looking sexy]

Plushie: A person, often a furry, who is aroused by soft, toy animals,
a bit like a shoe fetish... fairly rare though.

Griefer: A person who finds it funny to annoy or upset people in various virtual worlds.

Rez: a word used to describe items in Secondlife appearing or looking right."Her clothes haven't rezzed yet and She looks naked" Taken from the movie "Tron".

I'm really after terms relating to people in secondlife rather than technical terms, but I threw "Rez" in because it's used so often.

Any others?

Oh, These are from:

NCI/New Citizens Incorporated
Second Life Basics - SL Glossary
Revision: 12-12-07

NCI's “The Big Damn SL Glossary”
Version 1.0

Edited by Carl Metropolitan, with Becky Pippen

Definitions contributed by Becky Pippen, Candie Apple, SuezanneC Baskerville, Lindal Kidd, Marianne McCann, Carl Metropolitan, Yumi Murakami and Oryx Tempel. Thanks to the NCI Land Officers and the Resident Answers Forum for fact-checking and assistance.

Agent – n, Geeky term for your logged-in presence on a simulator.

Alt – n, “Alternate Account.” Many Second Life residents have more than one account for a variety of reasons, including: keeping one’s business life separate from social life, role-playing, avoiding harassment, keeping track of L$ (bank alts), and being able to work uninterrupted by Instant Messages.

Avatar – 1. n, The animated being that represents a Second Life resident in the virtual world; the digital representation of your virtual self in Second Life. 2. n, A “costume” or outfit; a full set of avatar body parts, clothing, and/or attachments that provides a specific look.

Bling – n, Jewelry and other attachments scripted to emit particle based shimmering “bling” effects.

Blingtard – n, Pejorative term for a user, often a newbie, who wears too many blinging attachments.

Bot – n, An alt account run by a computer. (see Landbot)

Boxhead – v, The act of wearing an object, usually a package prim, on your head or other location. Package prims are meant to be rezzed on the ground, but newcomers often mistake them for the object(s) they contain, and try to wear them instead. Originally the default attachment point for objects was the head. Later updates of the Second Life client changed that to the right hand.

Camping – v, The practice of earning small amounts of $L by sitting on a chair or engaging in menial activities. Merchants use campers to make their store look more popular on the grid map.

Cyber – v, Short for cyber-sex. The practice of engaging in sexual roleplay using chat and Second Life avatars and animations.

Dance Balls – n, Pairs (or larger sets) of pose balls (q.v.) which synchronise with each other to create animations showing avatars dancing or interacting in various ways. Also called Couples Balls.

Eject – v, To expel an avatar from a property. Ejecting a user will cause them to be quickly hurled off your property. The user can come directly back on your property after being ejected unless you also Ban (q.v.) them. Also called Boot or Kick.

First Life – n, The so-called “real world” away from Second Life. Synonym for Real Life. Possibly an illusion.

Flexi, Flexible, Flexified – adj, Refers to an attribute of prims that allows them to be subject to gravity, wind, avatar movement, and other forces. Commonly used in skirts and hair to simulate realistic movement.

Furry – n, Second Life resident using anthropomorphic animal avatars.

GIRL – n, Guy In Real Life; a sarcastic term for a female avatar controlled by a male player.

Gor – n, Series of BDSM-oriented Science Fantasy novels by John Norman that have given rise to dozens of role-playing sims throughout Second Life.

Gorean – n, Second Life resident who identifies with the culture of one or more of the various Gor sims.

Grey Goo – n, An object which continuously makes copies of itself. Can be produced by accident, but is generally considered a form of Grid Attack, q.v.

Grid Attack – n, A coordinated attempt by griefers to crash Second Life as a whole, or multiple servers within it. Attempting a grid attack is grounds for instant and permanent banning from Second Life.

In-World – 1. adj, The state of being connected to the Second Life servers and present in the Second Life world (also: online). 2. adj, Anything that takes place within the virtual environment of Second Life.

Land Baron – n, A resident who makes profit in-world by buying and selling land, or by developing and selling land on Private Estates, q.v.

Land Griefing – v, The practice of buying land adjacent to a victim, placing deliberately ugly or offensive items (such as Ad Cubes) to blocking the view from (or access to) their land, then attempting to sell the adjacent parcel to the victim at an extortionate price. Land Griefing is not AR'able (as Linden Lab is unwilling to restrict what a resident may place on land they own) unless the items placed on the land violate the Community Standards or Terms of Service in some way.

Landbot – n, An alt account run by a program designed to quickly purchase land sold below a set price. Land that is incorrectly priced too low, or is set to sell for a nominal sum to “anyone”, will almost certainly be snapped up by a landbot.

Liaison – n, A Linden staff member who works as front-line technical support or serves as an in-world representative.

Linden – 1. n, An employee of Linden Lab. Linden employees are referred to as “Lindens” because all of them have that last name when in the game. 2. n, Linden dollar, the currency of Second Life.

Linden Lab – n, The creators of Second Life. “Linden Labs” is a common – but incorrect – usage.

Mentor – n, A resident volunteer working with Linden Lab of Second Life who teaches and guides other citizens.

Neko – n, Mostly human avatars with some cat-like characteristics, such as ears, whiskers and/or tails. Has its origins in Anime.

Newbie – n, A newcomer to Second Life; a resident who has joined for a relatively short period of time and/or is not familiar or comfortable with Second Life's culture, interface, and nuances. The newbie cut-off point is generally considered to be at around 90 days.

Oldbie – 1. n, A resident from the early days of Second Life (pre-2005). 2. n, Anyone who is no longer a newbie. The newbie cut-off point is generally considered to be at around 90 days.

Orbiter – n, A physics-based weapon that attacks a resident by rapidly pushing them upwards into the sky with a force that exceeds the amount of counterforce that normal Second Life flight can exert. Orbiters send their victims so far into the sky that it would take hours for them to fall back down in the normal way and/or their coordinates no longer fit within SL's world model. Normally, teleporting away or – in extreme cases – relogging (q.v.) will fix being orbited.

Partner – n, A resident of Second Life who “partners” up with another resident; partners can be spouses, couples, or just friends. It costs 10L$ to Partner with someone, and 25L$ to dump them.

Pose – n, A static animation that puts your avatar into a specific position.

Pose Ball – n, Balls that contain scripts and animations that can make your avatar sit, dance, as well as do many other things. Used by clicking on the ball and selecting “Sit Here” or “Animate” from the menu. Usually colored blue (for men) and pink (for women).

Profile – n, The window that contains personal information about a avatar. The Profile window can contain a picture of the avatar, a list of the groups they belong to, a description. Additional Profile tabs include space for a website, Picks, Classifieds, a First Life section, and a Notes section.

Push Weapon – n, scripted object capable of applying a force to objects, but especially to other residents. come in numerable styles and implementations. Using Push Weapons on other residents can be considered harassment and is not permitted in Safe zones or non-damage-enabled regions. Landowners have the option to cause Push Weapons not to work on their land.

Resident – n, Term for a person who uses Second Life. This can refer to the user of the account as well as their in-world avatar.

RL – 1. n, Also called Real Life, an imaginary, dream-like world frequently described by avatars shortly after waking up in-world. 2. n, The constant interruptions that interfere with your ability to stay in-world 24 hours a day.

Ruth – 1. n, The default avatar: usually female, short, with red swept back hair. 2. v, Being “ruthed” is Second Life slang for appearing in the shape of the female default SL Avatar (normally due to server lag). To de-ruth yourself, try going into Appearance mode, making a very minor change, and then saving that change. If that fails you can try logging out and then logging back in again.

Scripter – n, A person who writes scripts in LSL, the Linden Scripting Language.

Sex Balls – n, Linked sets of pose balls that animate avatars to show sexual behaviors.

Silks – n, A type of extremely revealing lingerie worn by Gorean (q.v.) slave girls, loosely based on descriptions given in the original Gor novels. Silks have moved out from the Gorean subculture and into the more general SL fashion industry, and are worn at times many non-Gorean female avatars.

Tiny– n, An extremely small Avatar, usually a furry, designed to resemble an animated stuffed animal.

Heaven must be there

Last night I felt very tired and logged out much earlier than usual, in the hope of getting some sleep. annoyingly though, the tummy ache I get started up again last night and kept me awake.

The doc gave me some tablets in case it happened again, but I was also told that peppermint tea may help... The doc was in favour of that too.

About 4:00am I got up and boiled some water and made a cup.

I think it did the job, as the pain slowly vanished, and I fell into a deep sleep.

The dreams I had in those few hours were amazing.

I was at my house, which looked different from in real life, as things normally do in dreams.

Zorro was on the roof, with this glowing white horse.

Zorro charged forward and the horse flew through the sky.

What appeared to be Chinese Monks in flowing robes, stood around.
There was an unreal golden glow around things, a bit like sunset.

Next thing I was in a garden which looked as though it was drawn by an ancient japanese artist, with perfectly rounded hills, a few trees, a twisted lane where Monks stood on a flat hill... and on the sparkling river there were chinese dragons in the distance, one was gold... but I didn't quite see the other... lazily hovering just inches over the water and looking like moored boats, with their heads near the bank. they didn't move at all.

My Dad was there on the bank, with some other people I couldn't identify.
But it seemed to me that this image of him was false, as though I realised he was a part of a dream. a narrow river seperated him and the others from me.

The Monks were there because it was Zorro's funeral.

I can remember one holding something up, like a dark wooden banner with symbols on it.

Then I realised that this was heaven, or at least the place you go to before crossing over.

The action I took then felt rude but... I began yelling for my Mum and Dad across the lake as loudly as I could, it was as though I realised that I was as close to them now as I could be, and there was a chance they might hear me... but of course I was yelling over a very large lake, so it was unlikely anyone would hear or respond. But I felt the yelling came from the frustration I feel inside caused by the seperation, sometimes it's a very heavy burden. The yelling was cathartic.

Then a very tall Chinese Man with a bald head walked up to me, he wasn't angry with me, but he was clearly in control and wore a serious look on his face, though I felt he was friendly just the same.

He asked me to be quiet and said that "If I can create it now, I can just as easily create it again for someone else".

It was then that I realised who this person was and felt embarrassed.

He was God, and he seemed to be suggesting that he would do this for my parents at the right time, and perhaps for me?

I felt a little ashamed of myself.

And then remembering that we were at a funeral, suddenly felt intense sadness for Zorro and cried.

I wondered later about Zorro, could it be that I saw this figure as representing goodness in people?

A child or perhaps he was just small, this fellow, another Monk, gathered me up and held my arm, he wanted to show me something.

There were dark panelled doors in a wall.

When he opened one set, there was another set befind it, and so on and so on, until finally he came to a compartment with lots of small drawers.

He opened one drawer and gave me what appeared to be a photocopy of a photo of an item which was given to me by my Mother, which I had lost and forgotten years ago.

The photocopy had the unusual property of allowing me to turn the item, in this case, what appeared to be something like a childs schoolbag, over and around, and even look inside.

And there, on the inside, written in letters which looked like Artist Eric Elliots handwiting, but somehow I knew it was a message from my Mother.

It said: "Dear Peter, it is no coincidence that sometimes you will just find it where you left it".

I meant something to me in the dream, I was awestruck.

Then I woke and found my body in a perfectly relaxed state, flat on my back, with Vicky, My cat, curled up between my feet.

I felt fine, and got up and wrote down the dream, I'm glad I did, as the messages faded just as I got back into bed.

I have had a wonderful sense of peace all day.


There were some other dreams, one about growing chinese tea for my sister, and ending up with this very odd, hairy plant. and one where I saw a still image... not a photo... where kids were holding hands by the lake, each alternating child was either black or white, but it wasn't easy to tell who was black or white as the colour seemed to shift.

That was certainly some amazing tea I had before bed.

Wolfie!

Easy as ABC

I've been thinking about what ABC Island needs to help it along,
as usual.

As far as I can see, the problems we have are fairly basic and could be fixed quite easily.

Firstly, The island needs more promotion, not so much in-world,
but outside.

There are hundreds of people out there in the wider world who have not heard about Secondlife, let alone that ABC has an island of some kind within it.

A 30second promotion on TV would be wonderful, but we definately need a dedicated ABC webpage which includes Machinima, which users have created on ABC Island [To show it off], and this needs to have a link where people are likely to see it. A button on the front of the current ABC webpage would be lovely.

The second problem is content.

Because the island belongs to ABC, people expect content... maybe not the same content as radio or TV... indeed that isn't possible since Secondlife is a different beastie to either radio or TV.

People may argue that because a total of Seventy users can use the island at once, then what is the point of creating programming? What if Shakespeare had thought the same way? I'm sure he didn't play to thousands each night either.

It's no sin to have a small, intimate audience.
While it's bad news for television, it's perfect for secondlife.

Creating programming in Secondlife is very much like creating programming for a community TV or Radio station, and I think that is how ABC should see it's Island, Secondlife is first and foremost a community project.

My strategy to get programming going on the island, would be to encourage people with a background in community tv or radio to have a good think about what sort of programming could be done, and to get them to host it each week, in the same way I do with Rockit.

Programs could be about Rural issues, The Environment, Science, Arts, Comedy, Gardening [in a talk-back situation perhaps], Entertainment, panel discussion shows and more.

What's in this for ABC is that somebody may come up with a unique idea which ABC could use for a new TV or Radio show, there's a lot of creativity worth watching on Secondlife, a lot of future talent will come from the internet, as we've seen with Youtube for example.

ABC should not have to do much more than give their approval and trial the new programs.

Providers should not be there to ask for cash hand-outs, why should they? We produce content for the internet for free because we feel that it's required... some of us just need to type.

But firstly, the Island needs to be promoted to an audience who aren't as internet savvy as those already in secondlife, do that first, and things should really start cooking.

Wolfie!

15 September, 2008

Is there anybody out there?

When I began going to The Radio Works, A Radio School in South Melbourne in the mid 80s, We'd go to conventions in some of the big hotels in the city.

I remember one of the old radio fellas on the stage telling us plainly "Radio is a wank" and I think he was pretty spot on, the media is like that.

I'm getting that feeling now, writing this blog... Is anybody listening? and does it matter? because It still feels quite good. ;)

Fap fap fap fap fap.

Wolfie!

What if someone threw a party....

I've been thinking about the general reluctance of people to use Secondlife, it's hard for regular users to understand why people don't give it a go.

I was very reluctant to try also, and now of course I wouldn't want to be without it.

My own reason was perhaps because I don't see myself as a videogames player, and that's mostly got to do with the themes of videogames... I don't like the idea of shooting, to me that seems really eight-bit... "there's the alien, shoot it" far too simple.

Or beat someone up... why? what is the point of it? to get some aggression out?
I remember my PE teacher advising that was a good thing to do, dunno why, my pillow was always my friend and I wished I'd had it during all those maths classes.

Yes I'm a number hater, or truthfully speaking, maths bore me.
Yes I realise they have a practical use.

Anyway, I don't think I had any aggression towards anyone, at least not at highschool, I was so laid back that I think that I must have slept through most of my school life.

Anyway, Videogames.... While always enthusiastic about the technology, the sounds and the graphics, I soon discovered that if you have two japanese kicking 10 kinds of shit out of each other on a 16-bit machine, it's going to be the same game on each new generation of machine making me wonder if there was any point in moving beyond the C-64.

So here I was, being asked to go on Secondlife, which I thought was going to be another naff computer game... until I saw it on Beyond Tomorrow, That's when I saw the possibilities that made it much richer than something with a pre-planned format.

I think this is one of the difficulties most new people have with it, the gamers who are so keen to sign up with this free software and get their guns and blast people.

The creators of secondlife, say "Here you go, here it is" the gamer responds "what is it?" and the reply is "Whatever you want it to be!"

When I was at help island, the training ground area on secondlife, I found a lot of people asking "where do I buy guns" and "where can I get a job" lots of WoW refugees with no idea, it's actually quite funny to go there and hear these poor confused buggers wonder what on earth they've struck.

The problem is with these folk is they lack any imagination at all, they want a pre-programmed, linear "something to do", they want to be told what to do, which isn't how secondlife works.

So those people leave pretty quick most of the time [the residents would say "good riddance"]

For people who have heard the right stuff about Secondlife, Help island is murder... it's a rotten laggy place with griefers [idiots who can't think about much else than blasting people and have a sixteen word vocabulary in the form of mutated acronyms]

These people I'd welcome into Secondlife with open arms, They're what we need, people who have a genuine need to chat, to explore ideas, try new things and bring something wonderful with them which we'll benefit from.

But I often wonder if people like this, see help island and disappear, with the impression that that is what secondlife is.

Yes there are technical reasons people don't join too... no broadband access, limited downloads... Oh you'll like this... not everyone understands megabytes and gigabytes, and because of this, I hear people on TV trying to make a molehill into a mountain... I have come up with a very easy way to understand what's impressive and what sucks.

Next time you hear XX Gigabytes per month, Think of a naked man, and in your head, imagine inches rather than Gigabytes... if you're not impressed, it's not worth it.

I get 25Gigabytes per month from internode, it's a much better deal than you'll get from the top players who offer lousy downloads like "A whopping five gigabytes a month!" Woo-Hoo!

There's computer limitations too, you need a good computer to run secondlife, but you can limp along on older ones too.

And finally, not all that many people know what it is, or that it's available, despite it being around since 2001.

What are your thoughts on this?

Wolfie!

Feelings

I don't want this blog to just be about Secondlife, but to also be about how I'm feeling, things I've done and all of that.

You all know that I think Secondlife is great, and I have been especially supportive of ABC island, but sometimes I just can't seem to come up with anything useful and I get very frustrated with Secondlife, ABC Island and Rockit.

Rockit is a tough one, Each week I try very hard to come up with about fifty *interesting and entertaining* questions about music, and I'm running really low, especially on personal knowledge.

Wikipedia has been incredibly helpful, It gets heavy use when I'm writing Rockit.
I've often gone looking for something basic like "who was the drummer in Foreigner" and discovered a delicious bit of trivia on their wiki page which I've used instead.

I would really like to keep the show running, but it means I have to do hours of research and checking, and trying to get my brain to think of songs, names and artists... and often it just won't get into gear.

I wonder if Uni students feel this way before a big exam?

Rockit also needs more promotion, I would like a lot more new people to participate, or simply be in the audience to watch... The more people who watch or play rockit, the more people would be using ABC Island... which is, afterall, the point.

Rockit was made for ABC Island.

It would be nice if there was a method of broadcasting Secondlife out to a website.
SLCN have done this, but they use voice... but I can't... I need text chat so that I can check answers if there's an argument about an answer being right or not.

What I've thought about is to create a way to see the video in one panel, and have text come
up in a panel beside it, that might work.

If ABC have programming at their island, they really need a larger audience... they shouldn't be disheartened with the current limit as someone will eventually crack that problem.

I like Secondlife a lot, it has a lot of potential for a lot of good... but lately I find myself feeling tired and grumpy, feeling like I could do more but just cant make my mind come up with any new ideas.

I'm trying to get people in for either a Rural community get together once a week, or a weekly science chat... afterall, the CSIRO sessions were brilliant, and it's clear that people want more of that.

What I'm saying is that I'm finding secondlife a bit of a burden, and I need others who are on the same wavelength to help me, because I'm drowning.

I've been feeling pretty sad lately, and I'm not sure why, and that's not helping my creativity either. when some people get like that, they write wonderful music, but I feel as though I'm stuck in mud and can't move.

My Mother died on a very prominent date, 31st of October.
If I were around a bunch of other Aussies then the date would be easier to forget, but because I'm online, with British and American friends, I can't forget it.

Stereotypes bother me, but the thing where males can't remember dates is very true with me, Numbers and I simply aren't friends. At times I've been asked how old I am, or for my birthdate, and find for a minute that I've forgotten.

I forgot the date Dad died, and I think I'm better off for it.

There are other factors for my sadness though, not always so easily explained to anyone other than my closest friends... Marko and Joe, If it wasn't for you, I'd be in the nut house by now.
You both know me better than anyone, not just know, but really understand... partly because I think that you both have similar feelings.

I fought hard against the cancer, and I did it mostly because I didn't want my Mother to witness the death of her child. My Mother had experienced too many horrors in her life, Including knowing that her brother was in a Japanese prison camp in WWII. I couldn't die, for Her.

But now She's gone and I'm here, and I'm often left wondering why, and for what reason.

Did you see that show last night, the one where Donna had the black bug on her back which made her turn right instead of left? I think I turned right at some point and ended up here,
what scares me is there's no way to go back and fix it.

I have a malamute who won't let me out of her sight, I saved her life... I'm not sure if she knows, but sometimes I think she does. She gives me more love than I can imagine a person giving me.
I don't really trust people love... people can suddenly change their minds, but a dog simply loves you till they die. I'm glad I have her with me... I love her too, but my love can't possibly be as great as hers.

Wolfie!

Rockit - The Live Interactive Music Gameshow

I created a gameshow for Secondlife over a year ago for ABC Island.

It's based on several television gameshows including Spicks and Specks, Rockwiz and Sale of the Century.

The idea was to give people in Secondlife, the feel that they were at a recording of a gameshow which they also have a chance of playing, if they get an audience question right.

The game is normally run on a Friday evening, and questions are asked about pop and rock music from as early as the 1940s up to the 1990s.

Shelley Matulic, who did an earlier documentary on Secondlife, is creating one with me and a few other regular Secondlife users, and Rockit is covered.

You should see the doco on SBS around March next year, all being well.

Read more about Rockit at Shelley's blog:
http://www.sbs.com.au/blogarticle/108073/meet-wolfie-rankin

Wolfie!

Facebook Vs Secondlife [Social interaction]

I'm not really happy with Facebook, after the hype I decided to try it out, but about all that usually happens is people try to give you odd applications which don't seem to mean much.

A friend told me tonight that it's a bit like stamp collecting... with Facebook, all you're doing is collecting names and faces.

When I get on facebook, I wade through a bunch of apps that people tried to interest me, blocking almost all of them immediately, and I select OK and make a frew friends but it's not like you'd ever hear from them again.

With Secondlife, there's direct and live interaction, I can talk to people, ask them how their day went, what they had for dinner, how's the dog and anything that people would normally talk about.

Secondlife is like poking your head over the fence and chatting to your neighbour, while Facebook is a bit like putting a post it note on your fridge and hoping someone reads it.

I don't think I'll be using Facebook much longer.

14 September, 2008

Keeping in Touch

The general view of the humble computer user goes something like this:

You're a fat, pimply nerd who knows everything about computers, but nothing about women and owns every star trek episode there is on DVD.

I can tell you that I weigh a tonne, I do... I weigh so much that I need a bloody crane to transport me around my house, and this comes about as the typical nerd diet consists of pizza and doughnuts.

Well yeah, it's true, I've put on some weight, I'm now 80kg... which isn't bad I suppose for my height.

I do actually eat well, and I'm not always on the computer, as I'm sure many of you are not.

But I do find the computer a valuable way to keep in touch with people.

My health hasn't been the greatest... I'll discuss that later some time... so I do spend a lot of time at home and... online.

But I try to get out with my big malamute girl at least once a day [sometimes three times]
and I find that keeps our blood flowing very well.

Anyway, the thing is that there's a lot of people like myself who would like to get out and chat with people, but can't always manage it, and sometimes it's because people are in small towns and there isn't really many places to go.

A few years ago I found Secondlife, and I have to say that I wasn't all that sure about it when I got there, but I've taken to it really well, and I've helped a lot of others come to grips with it too.

What is it?

It looks a lot like a videogame, once you're there, you control a character who you use to talk to other users... you can type or use voice, it's completely up to you.

The thing is that it can feel very much like you're with someone, eventhough you're really thousands of miles away.

And this got me thinking.

I know there's plenty of people in remote locations in Australia, or they're in situations where they can't socialise directly... or even in hospital.

I think that if you're in this situation, that secondlife might well be the blues buster you've been looking for.

Now ABC got into secondlife over a year ago, and they've been looking for interesting ways to use their space.... yes, "Our ABC" [I'm an ABC Friends Admin bloke on their Island in Secondlife] and I thought that perhaps we could start a gathering there of our people out in the bush where they could talk about serious issues like drought for instance, it would be live and all over the country at the same time... imagine all the ideas which couls be swapped and friendships created.

It's very very easy to form real friendships in Secondlife, I have made many friends this way myself.

Now before I go any further... there are a few technical things which I need to mention before you get too exited. Secondlife needs broadband, and a pretty solid videocard... but any computer
built within the last four years could probably handle Secondlife reasonably well.

The other thing to keep in mind is that it will drink up your download limits, so if you've got around 10gb per month, you should be ok... unless you're going to go at it like a starving dog at a sausage.

Right, this is how it all works.

You go to http://www.secondlife.com and download the software.

Set it up in the usual way and then sign up for an account, choose a name carefully.

A funny name might be nice at first, but the joke's gunna wear off, and you can't change it later.

You'll notice that you'll also have to choose a fake surname for your character from a list... if you don't like any of the names, do a refresh and you'll get more.

Then once you're in, there's a short course to take in how to get around.

Bare in mind that the first place you come to isn't a reflection on how the rest of secondlife is,
the first area is actually about the worst... persist and you'll be right.

Once you've done the course, give me a bell via an IM.
Do a search for the ABC Admins.... Rails Bailey, Simon Kline, Vermus Dryke or me... Wolfie Rankin, and we'll teleport you to ABC Island where the Aussies hang out, and this is where we'll do our get togethers.

Now I need as many of you as I can to get this working,
ABC Island is very experimental, but it's a bloody good resource to have.

If we don't use it, we could lose it, so by all means come in and give it a look over.

Wolfie!

First Post

Hi Everyone.

Welcome to my brand new blog which can cover a lot of subjects, but mostly Secondlife which as you know is what I do. :)

Contributions and comments are always welcome, I don't bite.

Oh, I'll introduce myself.

A Seven foot Werewolf from Melbourne, Australia... how's that?

Ok... Let's get on with it.