Living, building, scripting & playing in Second Life

I first discovered the joys of online gaming, in virtual worlds, in 2003. I was watching an episode of the Screensavers on the, then excellent, Tech TV channel- which was announcing a game called There. Alas, the Tech TV network was soon sold & turned into a hideous hodge-podge of nothingness- but I digress...

I joined There as a beta tester in March 2003. There is an online, 3D community- comprised of people from all over the globe. There has it's own economy & is basically what you make of it. If you like to create 3D objects- you have a place to sell them- to the other players in the game. If you just want to slip into another world & out of RL (real life) for a little while- you can. Over time, I played less due to RL pursuits...that, and the fact that many of the people I had first played the game with had moved on. Just as in RL, you get used to doing things with people you have things in common with. I lost interest- though it's still a very easy game for beginners.

Fast-forward to this past month. I had a RL friend ask me if I'd ever played a game called Second Life. By description- it sounds exactly like There- except, it is far from it. Second Life (SL) is like There- on steroids...The entire concept is totally different. SL is a programmer/builder's dream. It also uses a very common programming variant (C++) to build objects & scripts. Scripts are code commands which are then inserted into these objects- giving them abilities to do anything you wish (& can code for).

SL was created & began it's life as a flat, gray plain- nothing more. Over time, it began to populate with homes, buildings, businesses & objects- all created by players in the game! Anyone can create objects- with time & practice, of course. Naturally, those gifted with programming abilites will do better, faster- but there are many walkthroughs & tutorials to get you started.

Now, you might wonder why someone would do this? Well- first of all, you have to "get it". You have to be one of those for whom a concept like this is fascinating & attractive. Next, you must have a need to create. Lastly, though it isn't mandatory, a desire to make money- & I mean real, cold, hard cash. Many people now make their entire living "playing" & creating in SL.

Rather than blather on, I'll simply provide these interesting links, & looks, into Second Life & let you decide?

Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life

The Protagonist: Virtual Entreprenuer

Time For A New Build- My Last 32 Bit Will Be An Intel

I've pretty much stuck with AMD, in all previous builds, because I feel Intel is basically charging you a premium to pay for all of their advertising & commercials. I have yet to ever lose an AMD processor so I think AMD must be doing something right.

However, a few months ago, I had the good fortune to happen across what I think was a stellar deal on a new motherboard. It was a close-out at mwave.com for the Shuttle AB60R. This is a totally loaded board- has everything I wanted & then some...but is an Intel board- thus the need for a Pentium 4 chip.

I really wanted to go close to max & get a 3.0Ghz- but just couldn't justify that price tag. I wanted a retail box- which extends the warranty from 1 yr. to 3 yrs. I ended up settling on the 2.6Ghz which I picked up at a very good price on ewiz.com.

Now, lastly, comes the RAM. This board & CPU runs at 800mhz- so I went with 400mhz DDR from newegg.com. It'll be 2 GB of OCZ's finest. Getting that at a spectacular deal, as well, after rebate, sale, free shipping, & $50 Xmas gift card redemption. Woot!

So, I'm psyched! My "newest" PC is now 4 yrs. old- & showing it's age as I attempt to run ever more processor-intensive apps & games. For business use mainly- this will be perfect for running all of my virtual machines within VMWare. I intend to install Windows 98, ME, W2K, & XP- plus various Linux, as I have time.

I do more in Xandros than the others- but since the player is free & VMWare community provides the images, why not try them all?

Now, just have to find the time & space...My office is a shambles- & I really need to start there, I suppose? However, I'll need to set up the board to verify the RAM is good, in the least. Can't RMA it after I cut the UPC for the rebate. I have an idea what I'm going to do with the office/workbench...just need to get the last of the repairs out so I can re-work it all.

Bugs came early this season...

...which translates into "no hiking"~ unless you feel like emptying a can of Deep Woods Off onto your entire body (including saturating your hair, as well?)- bleh!

We were lucky, last year, to get out & hike earlier in the season. In fact, on one expedition, I even out-hiked the kiddies, for a change:

 

That was a really great day! 

America is losing it's lead in the world through complacency & laziness

I just finished reading this excellent post by David Berlind of ZDNet.

At least I now know that I'm not the only one to feel this way...

Why Americans are technology, political, and educational laggards and how it will doom them by ZDNet's David Berlind -- The other day, via CNET Networks' internal email system, fellow ZDNet blogger and TechRepublic technical director George Ou sounded an alarm about an urgent online banking issue he came across on the Web site for the SANS Institute. It probably didn't get the attention it should have. Ou blogged the item with a headline that [...]

He drops the blame right at our own feet- & he's quite right to do so...What's your take on his view & of the sub-story I consider very alarming, as well- of major banks lacking even the most basic of security practices?

Spring break was a blast!

Ahh~

Had a very nice two weeks with the family. Went to Montreal for a nice, long weekend (7th-10th). Then, went with kids, only, to Syracuse to visit a family friend. Spent the night at a wonderful hotel & ate, shopped, swam ~ good times...

Spring has arrived & snow is gone. I hope to get to the yard (gardening/weeding) pre-blackflies...

Run multiple OS's- inside your current PC! Too cool (& free!)...

I finally had a few minutes to test-drive the free "VMWare player" from the good folks at vmware.com- & it's very cool, very fun!

Unlike "dual-booting" a PC- which involves partitioning the physical hard drive & dealing with bootloader issues & other possible snags...VMWare's player gives you the freedom to test & run however many OS's you'd like without danger of somehow screwing up your "real" PC.

Basically, you download & install the player, download & add an operating system (OS) of your choice, & run it. Your actual PC is known as the "host" for the added OS, known as the "guest". These OS's are considered "virtual appliances" or "virtual machines".

What the player is actually doing is "emulating" a set of virtual hardware for these OS's to run on. It's like having a PC within a PC. The various OS's exist within a folder- whenever you want to ditch them, delete their folder.

You have options, at install, to designate how much memory (RAM) to allocate (the RAM in your real PC is utilized- so leave enough for the host). Depending on how much physical RAM you have, you can have more than one OS running consecutively.

You can set it up to auto-connect to the internet & you'll also have the ability to "drag & drop" files between the host & guest OS's.

In addition to the OS offerings directly from the Vmware Co., there are also community-built OS's available for download from the site. Once you download an OS to your PC's hard drive, just open the player & "import" the downloaded file.

Check it out- it's really phenomenal...

Norton breaks AOL

I only list this fiasco as it happens to relate to me, personally.

The previous week's McAfee incident gave me no grief- as I service mainly home users who have no idea what Excel is. My condolences to the businesses in the US who lost mega-important data as McAfee decided their Excel docs were vermin- & deleted them...

This week I was asked, by a relative, to "look at" their PC- an AOL box that could no longer access the internet. I spent quite a while trying to discern why this happened. A free account to Netzero (which I keep exactly to figure this sort of case out) connected without issue? Then, I happened upon this story:

This gaff, by Norton Antivirus, decided that the mechanism for AOL users to connect to the internet was suspect- & so, unceremoniously booted all AOL users who attempted to connect to the WWW to be "kicked off". Worst still, is the fact that in order to know there's a fix, these AOL users will need to know to disable Norton to receive the "untainted" update. My experience w/home user Norton is horrible- I would rather see the free AVG & Zonealarm in it's place. Much less resources used & very sleek & streamlined, by comparison.

So- if you happen to read this blog- dump Norton & get AVG/Zonealarm free. You'll be so much better off. I am on cable internet, always on, 24/7- & have never had an issue in 8 years...