Hate and the Virtual Person

The definition of a Hate Crime from the UK Home office

Hatred is a strong term that goes beyond simply causing offence or hostility. Hate crime is any criminal offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by an offender's hatred of someone because of their:-

race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality or national origins
religion
gender or gender identity
sexual orientation
disability

In Second Life and other Virtual worlds people can choose their race, colour, height, even not to be human.

In the last few weeks there have been some remarkably bigoted opinions aired on some blogs, about other people who make the choices to be a difference race or gender. Threats have been made to "out" them. I personally think this is covered under gender identity.

Sharing/publishing information about the RL another SL citizen is also forbidden under the TOS, and can get your account cancelled.

Sophrosyne Stenvaag was so disturbed by these occurrences that she has decided to make October 25 "Gender Freedom day", and this will be celebrated in Extropia.

What is even more disturbing is the fact Sophrosyne and I are seeing different occurrences of the same problems. So it's even worse than we both thought.

The Metaverse Journal has also reported on the day, and a google for "Gender Freedom day" brings up a few results, but not nearly enough for it to be widly known.

Class, race, sexuality, gender and all other categories by which we categorize and dismiss each other need to be excavated from the inside. :- Dorothy Allison

Freedom to Read

This week is Banned Book Week in the USA.

September 27 - October 4, 2008

I quote from the Website:-

"It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982."


According to the American Library Association, more than 400 books were challenged in 2007. The 10 most challenged titles were:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
2. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
3. Olive’s Ocean by Kevin Henkes
4. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
7. TTYL by Lauren Myracle
8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
9. It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Why is this so important? Because it means the suppression of ideas, the ideas that can show other long held ideas to be fake.

Who has hit the headlines for wanting to ban books? OMG it's Sara Palin, but is it true?

It might have been possible a year ago to find out for sure, but now, I suspect every disinformation trick will have been pulled, and getting the real story via the internet is impossible.

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all."

— Jacqueline Kennedy

New threat to Internet privacy

Seems the ITU and the UN want to know who everyone is on the Internet. Unsurprisingly China also want to know that your not really a dog.


http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10040152-38.html?tag=nl.e703



When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else. - David Brin

Petition to Linden Lab on the Policy of Trademark Enforcement

Totally Taken from Gwyneth Llewelyn, no change has been made to the text or content.

LL has gone way to far with this Trademark issue.

Petition to Linden Lab on the Policy of Trademark Enforcement

By: Gwyneth Llewelyn

Introduction

Linden Research Inc., a company incorporated in Delaware, United States of America (”Linden”), doing business as Linden Lab®, developers of the Second Life® virtual world platform, owners of not only the Second Life® registered trademark (in the US, Europe, and other countries), and the eye-on-hand logo, but also of several recently registered trademarks (including, but not exclusive, to the words “SL”, “SL Grid”, “Second Life Grid”, “2nd Life”, etc.), has launched, in May 2004, the “Second Life® Fansite Toolkit”, which was later reinforced with referral programmes like “Viva La Evolution”, to positively encourage the widespread use of Linden’s trademarks, so long as it was quite clearly displayed that no infringement was intended, and a disclaimer to non-affiliation to Linden.
A direct quotation of the previous accepted use includes the following paragraph:

USE OF SECOND LIFE MARKS

While you are in full compliance with the usage guidelines described here, you may use the “Second Life” name on your website, as well as the related logos and graphics available at Toolkit, solely in the form described there. Additionally, you may use screenshots from Second Life to the extent that Linden Lab has the right to authorize use of the content within such screenshot, including screenshots of Linden in-world objects and Linden avatars, subject to these usage guidelines.

The full text of the acceptable use of Linden’s trademarks is published here. Three versions of the Fansite Toolkit were distributed by Linden, which included banners, logos, and a set of images, as well as a PDF encouraging their dissemination (the link is not available any more).

Under these gentle terms, users of the Second Life® platform have set up dozens of thousands of websites, blogs, forums, 3rd party services (both inside the Second Life® environment or on the World-Wide Web). The intended purpose of the “Fansite Toolkit” was not only accomplished, but overwhelmingly effective. From about 10,000 registered users in May 2004, the number of registrations climbed to over 13 million users in March 2008, and the growth continues — as well as the growth in the number of fansites related to the Second Life® environment. A quick search on Google comparing the number of times “Second Life” is referred on Linden’s own sites (9000+ results) compared to what the non-Linden sites (24 million results) shows quite clearly that the promotion and marketing of “Second Life” as a Linden product is, by far, being done outside Linden’s own feeble efforts — as it was intended.

The terms of the “Fansite Toolkit” enabled furthermore a small startup company in San Francisco, without any advertising, promotion, or little public relations in 2004, to create one of the most effectively known technologies on the Internet, enjoying raving press reviews in late 2006, and, since then, a product and an environment that cannot be further ignored by the mainstream. Like it or hate it, the Second Life® virtual world is now part of the Internet’s history. All this was achieved thanks to the huge community of very enthusiastic users of Linden’s platform, who have promoted its use way beyond Linden’s own ability to market their own product.

“Genericide”

The secret of Second Life®’s success was, however, accompanied by an adaptation of the word to describe not only Linden’s product, but a new concept that did not exist before: a community of users that generate content in a shared environment, using Linden’s tools and Linden-managed computer servers to provide an interconnected grid where this content can exist. The usage of “Second Life” was never strictly associated with the client software (the 3D viewer installed on users’ computers), the server software (running on Linden’s servers), or the communication protocol (which, until recently, was even unnamed). Rather, “Second Life” was employed, for the past four years, to describe all the above together as a technology empowering user-created content in a virtual world environment using Linden’s technology. The subtle difference has, however, huge implications. “Second Life”, as employed on the 24 million links stored by Google,^(ref) describes not patented software (the Second Life® client is, indeed, free and open source) nor a “technology”, but an “environment”, a “virtual world”.

The situation is very analogous to the usage of the terms “World-Wide Web” or “Internet” (the latter having at some point been trademarked by Microsoft around 1995, with little success), both describing a certain use of several technologies, hardware, software, and telecommunications, but where no definite claim can be made on the resulting environment created by a community of users. Derivative words like “Internet Service Provider” or “Web consultant” are popularly used. The difference between those two terms is that no organisation currently managed to secure a claim to those names.

But further examples are also common, where registered trademarks have been adopted by a community of users generating content for their platforms. Thousands of sites and technologies have used the term “Mac” in their names, or even “Windows” (clear cases where the respective owners, Apple and Microsoft, have indeed solidly claimed their registered trademarks). “Mac” and “Windows” fansites abound and help the promotion of these technologies and platforms. The difference, in those two cases, is that the popularity of those technologies was heavily promoted by their owners through massive advertising and public relations. And still both companies “allow” the widespread use of their trademarked names in 3rd party websites, fansites, service providers, or even products!

Second Life®, by contrast, never enjoyed the same level of promotion by Linden. It relied on the “Fansite Toolkit” as the primary — and most successful! — way of “viral marketing”, effectively crowdsourcing the co-promotion of the Second Life® virtual world by its users. And these, obviously, were very eager to do so — since all participants in the virtual world, Linden and their users, benefit tremendously from this cooperative promotion. “Your World, Your Imagination”, Linden’s motto for their Second Life® virtual world platform, was taken to an extreme, and perhaps unprecedented, level in the history of technology dissemination.

Linden, however, now fears (probably very correctly) that the usage of Second Life® might fall under “genericide“.

Recent developments

Possibly advised by their legal advisers, Linden announced here and here that they would start as of now to aggressively discourage the usage of all Linden-related registered trademarks, thus effectively reverting its four-year old policy of co-promotion through marketing crowdsourcing. The major issue with the current population of Second Life® users is that dozens of thousands of products and services were created within compliance with the old guidelines, and there is no provision made by Linden to “grandfather” existing services now currently in existence. Almost all have no legal protection that will allow them to contest any of Linden’s claims in court to shut their services down if they receive Linden’s Cease & Desist letters. Linden’s claim to their trademarks is, naturally, factually correct, unambiguous, and entirely within Linden’s rights.

There is, however, one aspect of Linden’s claims where we feel the Guidelines are overshooting the legitimate intent of Linden Research in preserving their trademarked brands and preventing their dilution. We refer to the section “Proper Reference to Linden Lab’s Brand Names in Text“, which basically outlines how any mention of terms trademarked by Linden has to be written any text published. Among other things, it claims to make sure the brand names are only ever used with an “appropriate generic noun” of which Linden provides a list, and that “as often as possible”, down to capitalisation, spelling, elisions and contractions. In effect, this precludes any usage of trademarked terms in text in most of the forms current nowadays, and dictates to commentators, bloggers and critics how and what to write when referring to trademarked terms.

The issue, however, is even more serious. Although Linden’s prevention of the use of trademarks under the new guidelines could be contested in court, either in the US or elsewhere, possibly appealing to estoppel, as a matter of fact, Linden can — through its new Terms of Service, that all users required to sign to access their content on Linden’s virtual world — simply ban any user that Linden considers to be in violation of their trademark claims. By virtue of the same principle, Linden can simply ban any user that exerts his or her rights to free speech, nominative use of trademarked terms as laid down by US law, or equivalent rights under local legislation.

This is “doing justice with your own hands” — without laws, without trial, without a jury, without recourse. The Linden Terms of Service allow Linden to ban any user from using their services, without any reason whatsoever. Linden can, at whim, delete accounts and content (even copyrighted content) from any user without a complaint.

Granted, complaints can be filed against Linden — but in a court of law. In at least one case (Bragg vs. Linden), a user of the Second Life® world managed, through a lawsuit, and with a settlement agreement, to get access to his content back. But this requires effectively users to sue Linden in order to get their access back, no matter if they are or not violating Linden’s trademarks. Linden does not require any impartial judgment to validate a user’s claims on the lack of violation. Linden can safely ignore their four-year-old policy and revert their decision at whim — because they can ban accounts that refuse to comply with their new Terms of Service.

In effect, Linden is able to enforce their own interpretation of the usage of their trademarks by banning all content they view as “threatening” to their claims on registered trademarks, no matter if it is displayed inside Linden’s virtual world or anywhere else on the world. Linden’s decision to ban avatars and remove content is unilateral and not appealable unless a user is willing to sue Linden in a court under the jurisdiction of the State of California.

This total reversal of Linden’s policy threatens to shut down most (fortunately not all) of the sites providing 24 million links to Linden’s products and services; it threatens to deprive Second Life of hundreds or thousands of 3rd party services, websites, fan sites, blogs, Second Life®-specific media, artistic and cultural developments, educational and research efforts — not to mention thousands or dozens of thousands of the most energic “evangelisers” that have co-promoted Linden’s products and technologies in the past which might, in less than three months, see their accounts banned and their content deleted with little or no hope of appeal.

Open petition to Linden Research, Inc.

The community of users of the Second Life® world always recognised, beyond a shadow of doubt, Linden’s full right to its registered trademarks, which were almost always duly credited, and clearly stated their non-affiliation with Linden and that they had no intention of infringing in any of Linden’s rights or claims to the trademarks. Some of those trademarks were never disputed, for several years since their registration and use by Linden, and Linden’s claim to them is solid and universally accepted world-wide. Linden, in return, gently condescended to a limited usage of their registered trademarks for specific purposes, well stated in a clear document (the “Fansite Guidelines”). The very few exceptions where abuse occurred could be effectively dealt with by Linden’s own legal advisers and were very reduced in number.

It is our belief that the extreme switch to the complete opposite of what has been actively promoted in the past four years is not a good marketing strategy — effectively, fighting off, one by one, all the most energetic promoters of Linden and their products, shutting down their right to talk and co-promote Linden’s technology and environment, ban their accounts, and remove their content. A four-year policy grants (at least under estoppel) the large community of enthusiastic supporters the moral right to request from Linden a better model of co-promotion, one that is fair and balanced, protective of Linden’s legal rights as valid owners of their registered trademarks, but also that allows “fansites” to continue to spread and promote Linden’s products without fear of litigation.

We thus propose the following:

1. Accept that, by introducing the “Fansite Guidelines” four years ago, Linden effectively allowed co-branding and co-promotion of their registered trademarks, so long as these were displayed on “website[s] created and maintained by residents or other devotees of Second Life®, with content primarily focused on some aspect of Second Life.” and had no other purpose. These “Fansite Guidelines” lead to fair expectations (under estoppel) of goodwill of Linden towards a fair use of their trademarks without intention to infringe on any of Linden’s rights.
   
2. Rewrite, but not eliminate, the “Fansite Guidelines” to be more strict, but still allow the usage of Linden’s trademarked words as part of the co-promotional effects, accepting that their existence in no way invalidates Linden’s claims on their registered trademarks, but only serve as a vehicle for promotion and marketing.
3. Require that all such websites register with Linden and formally accept the Guidelines (very similar to the request for the display of the “inSL” logo). Remember your international audience, too, and provide translations as well.
   
4. Reinforce the duty of all websites under the “Fansite Guidelines” to be strictly compliant with these, or face a Cease & Desist letter/Takedown notice.
   
5. Request to all owners of such websites a clear display of their non-affiliation with Linden or its subsidiaries, stated clearly and unambiguously.
6. Reword the statements of the Brand Center, which currently states that no requests for the usage of any of the trademarks (with few exceptions) will be taken, and that most emails will never be answered (or even read). Instead, work on a case-by-case basis, grandfather existing products and services, and work with organisations, groups, and companies owning those websites to make sure they clearly comply with the Guidelines.
   
7. Request assistance from the users to locate, identify, and report websites where your Fansite Guidelines are not in compliance, or their non-affiliation with Linden is not being clearly and unambiguously stated, or where your registered trademarks are illegally used. Deal with each case separately and encourage first the non-compliant websites to voluntarily display conforming information, and threaten with a Cease & Desist or takedown letter if they refuse.
8. Remove the threat to ban avatars from users that have inadvertently ignored (or misunderstood) the Guidelines. Instead, warn them and give due notice of their lack of compliance with the Guidelines, encourage them to sign on and register their sites, and validate their compliance after the warning.
   
9. Continue to invest in the world-wide co-promotion of the “Second Life®” brand by launching different levels of “affiliation programmes”; “inSL” is a good start but a very weak one with limited value (no aggressive promotion by Linden of the logo and word).

We would also request Linden to further clarify the potentially censurous policy towards residents implied in the guidelines in conjunction with the Terms of Service:

1. Clarify that the rules and policies outlined in the brand guidelines under the heading of Proper Reference to Linden Lab’s Brand Names in Text do not apply to cases covered by rights of free speech, including but not limited to nominative use of trademarked terms under US law and equivalent rights conferred upon users of the Second Life® service by local legislation.
2. Clarify that Linden Research does not intend to ban or threaten to ban users exerting the rights delineated above, independently of the contractual relationship created by their usage of the Second Life® service.

We feel that the above proposal, if correctly implemented, and duly promoted, will not only reinforce Linden’s claim to their registered trademarks, but positively encourage their further widespread in all media, without hurting the millions of hours spent in the past year by dozens of thousand of users to promote and disseminate Linden’s products and services world-wide.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following residents, who helped fleshing out the above document, provided insight, comments, and rewriting of several sections, as well as some minor legal advice.

Cat Magellan and Ana Lutetia, for their encouragement in writing the petition
Rheta Shan, for the extensive revision and adding several sections and changes
SignpostMarv Martin for comments and more external links
Jamie Palisades, for comments on estoppel and genericide
iAlja Writer, Tateru Nino, and several others for taking a look at the document and making some private comments
PalUP Ling, for the T-shirt (and his promotion)
Jacek Antonelli, for her uncannily good Mouth in Foot logo!
The unofficial community of Second Life® residents on Twitter, for a lot of comments, input, and ideas
An even larger group of bloggers that wrote about the issue, providing lots to think about, and including, but definitely not limited, to the following articles:
http://www.vintfalken.com/insl-your-world-your-imagination-our-trademark/
http://sl.governormarley.com/slpress/?p=27
http://codebastardredgrave.com/2008/03/26/so-they-owe-us-a-sl/
http://dedricmauriac.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/a-generic-post-to-avoid-copyright-infringement/
http://www.technovia.co.uk/2008/03/the-huge-kerfuffle-over-second-life-trademarks.html
http://harperganesvoort.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/sl-brand-center-followup/
http://laetizia.wordpress.com/2008/04/02/clarity-there-is-movement-there-is-not/
http://www.massively.com/2008/04/02/making-your-mark/
http://getasecondlife.net/2008/03/second-life-geral/a-comunidade-portuguesa/ (even more links here)

Robin Linden, for some early clarifications before Catherine Linden posted her article on Linden’s Official Blog
and Everett Linden for reading this document before it was publicly posted.

Permission to copy the above text, modify it, or translate it into other languages, is granted by the author.

“Second Life®”, “SL®”, “SL Grid®”, and “Linden Lab®” are registered trademarks by Linden Research, Inc. (Delaware, USA)

Jacek Antonelli’s Mouth in Foot logo is used under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

SL predictions for 2008

I'll dig around for last years predictions, I think I got the number of residents correct as per June. The rest...well they were rubbish anyway.

For 2008 :-

The rate of Linden churn increases.

Concurrency hits 100,000.

An exploit is found in the LindenX, and all transactions are shutdown for two days.

Smaller Grids are installed in Europe and possibly Japan. Residents are routed via IP addresses, which cause a problem for European AOL users.

Googles Virtual world is lauded for it's User Interface, and ease of use. It becomes the standard for the VW that SL enjoys today. LL suddenly hurries up it's UI development to maintain some growth.

Virtual Worlds don't become mainstream this year. Much like the term "multimedia" was bandied around for about 3 years, and then that just meant a sound card and CD player and speakers..like errrr..yeh.. wow.

An SL Machinema is shown on prime time BBC.

A lawsuit from some religious groups who want to ban all sexual content and products is launched, and then thrown out of court.

A Land Baron goes bust, and the fall out causes property prices to fall 30%.


"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances." -- Dr. Lee De Forest, inventor of the Audion tube and a father of radio, 25 February, 1967.

Vint Falken

Shockwave Plasma
Originally uploaded by VintFalken

I've never looked so good. :-)

Thank you so very much Vint.

I posted the 2000th comment on her blog, and this was my present.


“It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it.”

Epictetus

When enough is enough

I've known Dani Ferguson ever since I landed on her head, on her first day in SL. Teleports will do that ya know
..
It was a long time ago, at least it feel that way. Sometimes you meet someone and you get a gut feeling, for some reason I felt it for her. I gave her some $L and said the place for new peopel is "The Shelter" and she turned up, met Erbo and the rest is history as they say.

She has done some great stuff, built a business, had an SL marridge ( or two ). We don't chat much, my friends list is very small, with about 12-15 people on it. When I was thinking to delete SP and start again, I would have added her first to my new friends list. We probably still would hardly ever talk, but again it's nice to have her there.

Oddly enough in SL people can really show their true face. Sound strange? Your anonymous, you can delete your account and then come back as someone else, you can be a never ending cycle of being a total bastard.

On the otherhand your kindness, drive and generosity also can come through, and you can do what you can do to make things better.

Dani is one of the second, but it seems has met too many of the first, she is thinking of leaving , if so I would miss her.


“True friends are like diamonds, precious and rare. False friends are like leaves, found everywhere.” -anon

Blog postings

Back again,
I had one of those times when things just went to hell for a bit. So what does a blogger do to be self destructive? Starts to delete bits of the blog, and info sources.

That's where the links sidebar went. I'll put it back soon.

I was about to give it up, and just press "Delete" on SL, and everything involved, and just walk away. But I have to much time and effort in Shockwave Plasma to do that.

I have noticed a lot of my older friends have dropped off the "League of Bloggers", but it's just as well there are always more :-)


“It matters if you just don’t give up.” - Steven Hawking

Another update

I think I have said a few times the stress of lots of things has been getting to me. It seems most of the friends/family I am close to are either ill, sick or very sick, physically or mentally. I know it can't do much about it for anyone.

There are some I'm trying to help, and will keep doing so, until they tell not to. I just have to figure out how to do it best.

But the angst is burning into me.

I love all of them, and would feel diminished without them.

I'm not really a social person, never have been, but I am learning how to be better at it.

Living in one's own head has it's benefits, but you can only go so far before you get wondering where else you can go.

Sleep has been a problem as well, insomnia either getting to sleep, or going back to sleep after a few hours. Strange dreams as well, Freudian, not my usual Jungian stuff. It's not stuff I would share with just anyone, it's rather personal.

I have been examining my mental states all my life, and my subconscious has been doing something odd...it's like it's detaching or moving from my friends as if it's getting ready for something. So that's a worry for me as well.

I work on the NLP theory, were we are made of small self contained mental processess, sometimes in harmony, mostly in conflict.

It's strange, I can really feel activity in different parts of my head, and that when I wonder whats going on. Then these strange ideas or obsessions start.

Occasionally some brilliant idea comes out if it. But it's not that common :-)

Thinking is getting harder, my imagination and creativity seems to have suffered, it's been like thinking through mush...it started after I went head first into a car a few years ago.

Time to do a few more mental exercises...I have been going to the gym, at least that is getting me somewhere. Weight is coming off, and feeling a much fitter.

I've much more to work on, so much to do. Time to clear out the mush.

I'm not dead

Just an update.

Personally its been a bit stressful recently, quite a few things going on, I seem to have lost about 2-3 in off my waist. A bit of mental fatigue as well. Work, family, friends, study, etc all seem to be a part of it.

I have been writing to my sister, and telling her...well everything...who, what, where, how many times and where the bodies are buried, I'm finding it's quite cathartic.

I have been doing a lots of reflection and thinking.

During this time I have emailed people I knew in the past, and had both positive and negative replies, but on the whole, it's good to be in contact with old friends.

A lot of people I have met in SL have been a positive influence on me without them realizing it, and I wish to say thanks. I makes my days more bearable knowing your there.

Also the LL new, (but not new) policies are totally pissing me off. Has the Moral Majority (an oxymoron if I ever heard it) take over Linden Labs, or have they put the squeeze on the place. Maybe someone has got religion...(ok..we interrupt this rant)

Your world, Your Imagination is the slogan, but are some peoples imaginations just to wild? I guess so.

So what could be happening really?

Legal issues would be the obvious thing. But finer minds than I have been discussing it in the many fine SL basedforums.

Action seems to be centred here at United Protest , but let your voice be heard.


What is morality in any given time or place? It is what the majority then and there happen to like, and immorality is what they dislike. ~Alfred North Whitehead

Break time

I've decided to take a break from SL to concentrate on my studies. Please feel free to contact me anytime.

I've had another set of syncronistic events..here we go again.

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature. cicero

Headstone

I put this on Jaceks Blog, but thought to share it with you here as well.

I’ve asked for this to be on my headstone, should I need it soon. Actually might go on the Footstone.

Here lies buried Shockwave Plasma
Two minds are gone to be phantasma
Her polygons did stir your eyes
With boots going up past her thighs
His Noodlyness did raise her high
As a model for the stripper factory, he did her espy.

“The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead.” Albert Einstien

Late Introduction

Natalia has one of the best blogs I have seen. It's updated everyday, and has great locations, and great pictures. I have found her tutorials to be clearly written, and very helpful.

It should be mandatory ready for new people.

Great work Natalia.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. -Henry Ford

Not a Meme number 13

Thanks to Vint for this one.
What have I done in SL and never told anyone.

I got my first rental in a beach hut on the edge of the sand. I was only about 6 weeks old. When it was night time and there was not many people around the Sim, I would strip off and fly around naked.

That was until I discovered "force sun". Oh...dear. Then I stopped.

RL secret, I'm 5 foot 7 or about 155cm tall, not 6 foot 3.

New SL books

A new SL book is coming out The Unofficial Tourists' Guide to Second Life

Tim guest has Second Lifes coming out soon.

Aimee Weber has a book coming out on advanced building.

Hamlet Linden is working on his own book to come out soon.

Now all we need is the Phinn Boffin/Vint Falkin coffee table picture book.

A room without books is like a body without a soul - Cicero

IBM article on Linux

Linux Sl client for beginners

"Linux was made by foreign terrorists to take money from true US companies
like Microsoft." - Some AOL'er.

Not a Meme Challenge Number 9

Coles Not a Meme Challenge What has SL brought to your RL?

I would say, More friends.

But I will go further and say this is what it was brought to other peoples RL, a decent article in The Times about disabled people and their experience in SL. This is a two page spread in the Body and Soul section of The Times, so will be read by a large number of people.

It also has quotes from Torley and Bacarra Rhodes.


For me, the wheelchair symbolizes disability in a way a cane does not.
Annette Funicello

The Green Hand of Phillip

Have a look at the Handmark Logo

And remember these Zip Drives ?

Could that be a Eye in the Hand logo as well ?

Yes, I am a bit bored...







Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it's not going to get the business. Warren Buffett

Not-a-meme Challenge Number 8

Dolmere has started the Not a Meme Challenge
and having been asked to contribute to Number 8.

Here it is:-

Now that you have been outed as an SLer.

What would you show your Grandmother in SL?

( As she has read about all that sex stuff, and now thinks ( or has proof ) your a dangerous pervert)


I would take her to Svarga and show her all the right-ups about it in the press.

New world Notes and the New York Times for example.


So, what would you show "your " Grandmother ?

Dolomeres Not-a-Meme

Dolomeres Not-a-Meme challenge


I only have one useful hint.
Ever bought a lot of stuff and then wonder what it was called a few days later?

I did, and what were those clothes called again??
Bummer, it's lost in my inventory, never to be seen again.

So I just now right click on myself and write myself a note.


































Sometimes I even understand my notes a few weeks later.


Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them. - Dalai Lama

A confession

I have a confession to make...I've become a Stripper..hard to believe I know.

I'm taking it all off, all of it, I'm not even wearing my gloves or my boots, and you know I almost always have them on.

Why am I doing this, you ask, simple, it's for the money. I'm not going to pretend that I like it, but it's something that needs to be done.

But I think I am doing rather well, I have the hip and and the hand motions down well.

Sometimes I take it off bit by bit, one piece at a time, other times I just just grab handfuls and just wrench it off.

Some have asked to see me with no clothes on as well, I won't name anyone. So here's a picture for you.




Stripping this horrible 1970's woodchip wallpaper from the walls of my flat is taking ages.

Antarctica, the cursed, is the continent that is the Pastafarian equivalent to Christianity’s Hell. The beer volcano froze over millennia ago, the strippers wear big bulky parkas and snow pants, and the place is covered in ice and snow. - Rev. St. Tobias Leonard

Hello to Vint Falken

Second Life Sex profile
Originally uploaded by VintFalken.

It's good to see some new talent and humor.

I'm surprised no one thought of this one before. :-)

Vint does some great shots, and her tutorials are well worth reading.

( To any non-sl ppl, its a joke )


When authorities warn you of the sinfulness of sex, there is an important lesson to be learned. Do not have sex with the authorities. - Matt Groening

University of Southern Queensland

slusq
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.

The slow but sure creep of education in to SL is happening.

This in not my Uni, but it was one of my options.

Part of a Queensland Govt grant to a Phd student, it's an OK build, not great or flashy. I don't recall a Unicorn on the Uni shield.

Nice horn :-)

Update 25-2007:- Decka has left a comment, that updates my factual errors (ooops, sorry Decka.) I visited again last night, and realized it does sort of remind me of going to the beach, and is quite relaxing. I only had very short chat to Decka, as it was very late here.

I think I read on sloz.com that it was the official USQ island, and that is why I was expecting something different.

( As usual any errors are my own, and I take responsibility for them )

To live in Australia permanently is rather like going to a party and dancing all night with one's mother.
Barry Humphries

Shockwaves handy tips for Geeks

Tip 1

Today I have been tiding up my flat, it's very small, really really small. If you are like me and you have cables left right and centre, you need a place to put them away, but then to be able to find them when you need them.

I also have a bunch of those neckstraps that you seem to get at every convention or meeting.

So now I have my ethernet cables hanging from itsafeonline neckstrap, power cables from netintelligence.

Naturally the only cable I want now is the one I can't find :-(


Tip 2

Keep one of those really cheap LED lights on the floor, at the back of your PC so you can see what you are plugging in to.

Tip 3

Always make private backups of your RADIUS logs and your Squid proxy server logs.
Both are time stamped, RADIUS records the IP address of your customers/users and Squid records what websites they have looked at.
This information is invaluable for when you belive you should have a "pay-rise", or your users decide to be ...... "difficult".


If you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix user to show you how it's done. ~Scott Adams

Truth, Lies , Deception and Second Life

From The BBC site last year

A survey found 43% of online networkers from the US felt "as strongly" about their web community as they did about their real-world friends.

---

It also revealed net-users had made an average of 4.6 virtual pals this year.

---

The survey, from the US-based Center for the Digital Future, of 2,000 individuals forms part of a six-year study into attitudes to the web.

When I first started n the Internet, It was really just Usenet eg, Newsgroups. I never used my real name, and most people where the same. It was "Hello Space Ghost" or "Hello Pooka". I never felt the need to meet anyone I met online.

But just to contradict myself, most of the people I knew in the few years I was in NZ, I met via BBS or flatmates friends who coincidentally were also on the same BBS.

Second Life is sort of like the new Internet, but it's not the place to be yourself, it's the place to be what you want to be.

For many of the older residents, what happened in SL stayed in SL, and RL was separate. But it seems to be that the newer residents are just being themselves.

Some people just lie totally, and this can be really heartbreaking.

What do you do when old and new meet? Is one person being more honest than the other? Being of the old school, I've given this a lot of thought.

My personal belief is that any sort of cyber-based emotional involvement, without having a way to check who the other person behind the keyboard is, would be a major mistake.

But then I'm a boring person and like to play safe.

I've met some great people, and I count some of them as my friends, but I'm not planning on going to any SL meet ups. My SL has spilled over to RL a bit, and I'm a bit concerned that they might want to know more than I'm preparded to give.

I would really hate to think that I have been deceiving anyone, but it's only in SL that I could be a 6 foot tall, blond, pirate, buxom Barbie. ( and it's a fun thing to be, and remindes me of a cousin )

So I talk very vagely about myself, but I never lie to anyone, because if I care enough to communicate with you, I care enough not to want to hurt you.



Real friendship is shown in times of trouble; prosperity is full of friends- Euripedes

Move the Grid to Europe!!

Seems it's time to move the Grid to Europe.

Although I have to wonder why LL is opening an office in Bristol. Why not London, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City or St Albans.

http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/02/09/europe-takes-lead-in-second-life-users/

Europe takes lead in Second Life users
Fri Feb 9, 2007 10:02am PST

By Adam Reuters

SECOND LIFE, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Europeans make up the largest block of Second Life residents with more than 54 percent of active users in January ahead of North America’s 34.5 percent, according to new Linden Lab data.


Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham. - Winston Churchill

No more open skies

I'm sure many people know what can happen when you cross a sim boundary at speed. If you don't, then the word fragmentation, neatly explains it. Coals pictures and blog post will give you an idea.

Cubey Terra one of the Grids major aircraft makers, has grounded his fleet of self guided planes, and blimps from Qarl have been gone for quite a while.

Now that landowners have the ability to block almost anything coming on their parcels, air travel is somewhat more, lets say, adventurous.

I admit I got a little tired of my plane ( and sometimes my clothes ), disappearing in midflight, and have not flown it for some time.

The Lindens are aware of the problem, and will I hope find a solution.

EDIT:- To spread around some credit, Apotheus Silverman scripted some of the planes. The Terrachute as well, that saved me from the embarrassment of going splat a few times


Pilots will not wear spurs in the cockpit - 1920s RAF Cadet Flying manual

Spam

Could whoever is on IP 82.82.237.159 in Germany run a virus check please? I don't need the Viagra.

Thank you very much

[ Normal blogging will be resumed shortly :-) ]

EDIT:-
I have just noticed that I get the one spam email a day twice, a minute apart. It's been every day for the last 11 days.

Two days ago I got the book Scamorama by Eve Edelson, it's about those emails from Nigeria that promise you money in exchange for your bank details. The day I started reading I got two of them, the first for nearly a year.

Rule #1: Spammers lie.
Rule #2: If a spammer seems to be telling the truth, see Rule #1.

commitments

Due to RL commitments, I will only be in-world a maximum of 45mins. I will be spending this time doing classes, building and scripting.

Probably about 20.00 GMT





The circle is now complete - Darth Vader

Balloon Griefing

balloongreifer1
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.

I went for a short Balloon ride with Barbara here, she was not very talkative, I did find that a bit odd, but though she might be IMing.

A few minutes ater I took this shot, she derezzed the balloon.

So I thought to have a bit of fun, and attached my Terrachute, and I opened as it should, just as I was about to hit the ground the bitch flamed me, and I was not impressed.

Serves me right for letting my FP HUD down.



I welcome the griefers, they're easier to sexually harass - Soleil Mirabeau:

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day to everyone! It's also my first Rezday.


Australians don't have a preconceived notion of what things have to be... we can go on a fantastic journey - Yahoo Serious

Pastafarian Poetry

The creator who holds us dear
did not look as what we hear.
he was not a man, or human at all
he was made of spaghetti and two meat balls.
he made us all
originally short
and it wasn’t even his last resort
Pirates are his people,
holy are they
who end every sentence with “Arrgh” as they pray.
Some might not believe,
but it is a fact,
our God was pasta
no, this isn’t an act
So lets all give
a hip hip horray
the FSM is here to stay

Taken without any authority from http://www.venganza.org/

Let us all eat bling together - Tateru Nino

Closed due to overpopulation?

I logged in last night for about an hour or so. It would have been nice to go somewhere, every teleport came back "parcel is full".

I also (tried to ) direct some new people from Germany to the German speaking welcome area. It was also full. Seems that SL is BIG news over there.

Twittermania has got me as well at www.twitter.com

I'm also contemplating an SL web comic. "Adventures of Pirate Plasma" or something like that.



We have been God-like in our planned breeding of our domesticated plants and animals, but we have been rabbit-like in our unplanned breeding of ourselves. - Joseph Toynbee

No eyes tonite

I just logged in tonight to see who was on, and then had a look at myself, something was wrong, but I couldn't spot it right away.

I had no eyes...creepy, and I couldn't put any on, even more creepy.


You never know how you look through other peoples eyes

Third Life

A very long time ago, I read a book called Lucid Dreams by Celia Green , at the time I thought what and amazing concept. Your body is asleep, your mind is awake but still in a dream. At that time was was really interested in the workings of the mind, and I was also a bit of a New Age nut.

( I know someone who is going to say " Not another Hippy" )

But like the contents of many books, it rattled around inside my head for a while, and didn't really leave.

In about 1988 I bought Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge

Later I bought Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen Laberge and Howard Reingold, and it still sits on my bedside table. Finally a tape with hypnotic suggestions, and they are on my MP3 Player.

Synchronicity is back, as I write iTunes has found a MP3 of an hour long interview Stephen did on a radio program.

So what is it all about?

So imagine you are in a dream, and something really odd happens like the purple 6 legged giraffe that is driving the flying bus runs a blue light, then you realize traffic lights are not blue! Then the train of thought says you would only see that if you were dreaming.

BANG! realization happens that you are dreaming. Usually the dream starts to become more colourful and dynamic. In all these years I've had one LD, and it's really annoying, as I have spoken to friends who have never heard about it, and then they have one that night. ( I hate my subconscious )

So what is it good for I hear you say!

In the books SlB gives examples of people who were learning Ice Skating, Judo and skiing and where able to use LD to rapidly improve their skills.
One lady recounts she was able to debug her programs much faster.

Not forgetting you really can have sex with whoever you dream of.

Ok so now you want to learn how to improve your Judo.

A simple collection of the main methods are at Wikipedia

But a few extra things that will help is to actually remember your dreams in the first place.
A book and a pen beside the bed to write them down is very helpful. I just bought a pen with an led in it, so I can write with out turning on the lights. That has helped a lot.

Vitamin B12, also helps dream recall, and often makes them more vivid. If your an Australian who likes Vegemite, double your dose, it's full of B12. Everyone else, you will have to use Marmite. If you don't like the taste, it doubles as a 100PF sunscreen.

The Lucidity Institute sell the NovaDreamer a device that blinks light in your eyes, when you are dreaming, it's very expensive

I just found this DIY Facemark

and this one as well.

Do not lose hold of your dreams or asprirations. For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live. - Henry David Thoreau

SL Userguide and Gor forever linked ?

Yesterday I ordered my copy of the SL official guide from Amazon.co.uk.

In the "Other buyers of this book bought " section, the number two book was Tarnsmen of Gor, it just happens to be book one of the Gor series.

So I wonder why none of the other Gor books, then appear.

"I will now water you," said Borin, the cactus's Gorean master.

The cactus did not resist being watered. Perhaps it was realizing that such watering was its master's to control. Too, perhaps it knew that this master was far superior to those of Earth, who would not water it if it did not wish to be watered. - Houseplants of Gor

Wwwhhhooo are you ? Who? who? Tell me who are you!

Tateru has been interviewed a few times, ( probably more than a few now,... Oh to be a celebrity ) in which at the end they usually ask for her RL identity.

She always declines. Quite rightly too.

It looks like even Geoffery Chaucer has this problem.

IVthe thinge: My biggest compleynt: Whan wil ffolk stop saying ich nam nat real? Whan wil thei stop asking for my “real name”? What part of G-E-O-F-F-R-E-Y C-H-A-U-C-E-R do thei nat vndirstonden? An editor from WIRED magazine did contact me to aske if that fyne publicacioun mighte printe a part of my poost concerninge internette abbreviacions. Thys was gentil and did plese and honor me gretli, and ich consentid. And yet thei wantid to yive credit to “Geoffrey Chaucer (aka your real name)” and thei wanted to knowe what ich do in “in real lyf.” Whan ich toolde hem that my trewe cristen name was Geoffrey Chaucer (Galfridus in latina) and that ich am a justice of the pees in Kente and a member of parliament, thei seyd thei coud nat print it. For thei seyde thei coud nat printe writinge “without attribution to a real person.” What am ich, liver y-chopped? Reality ys harder to com by than a duchy thes dayes, mesemeth.


A miracle is nothing more or less than this. Anyone who has come into a knowledge of his true identity, of his oneness with the all-pervading wisdom and power, this makes it possible for laws higher than the ordinary mind knows of to be revealed to him. - Ralph Waldo Trine

Pirate Outfit

pirateoutfit
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.

Shirt, Skirt, Thigh high boots..... Perfect for Piracy

Now I just need some weapons!

( Ummm and a Ship, and a Crew )


Pirate: I'm gonna teach you the meaning of pain.
Elizabeth: You like pain? Try wearing a corset.
-Curse of the Black Pearl

watermelindonland

watermelon1
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.

After some fruitless searching in the Linden Village for Torleys build, I finally found the Surl from her blog.

I did ask if there was some place the Lindens have for themselves, and I guess this is it.

I thought this chair was an enticing place to sit.

Just after I sat in it, I had this weird fantasy that this looks like a Venus fly trap. I closes on you and then sucks out your colours, and spits you out just leaving the black and white bits.

The colours drained from you keep the build alive.
( I must have read to much bad fantasy as a child )



Watermelon -- it's a good fruit. You eat, you drink, you wash your face. -
Enrico Caruso

Roll on

I have added a few bloggers whos sites I read sometimes....ohh..ok I mostly stole them from Erbo. :-)

I'm not in world as much as I used to, as I need to spend time studying for certifications to get better jobs. ( bummer ).



Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead.
- Chinese Proverb

Real life goals for 2007

Learn To type
Exercise more
Learn to Juggle
Learn to use a Whip ( Hey, it's an Australian thing )
More Money ( e.g Better Job)
Finish the IT certs I should have.
Finish the House DIY
Get a Windows Mobile PDA
Learn PhotoShop
Find a Krav-Maga class
Keep with the French Language class

If one does not know to which port is sailing, no wind is favorable. -Seneca

Pirates in the News

It looks like the Secondlife Herald, has been doing some recruiting for the Pirates of Sl, we now have 280 members, yesterday it was 270.

I don't have any decent Pics, as last time I was there the water was so clear, you would think there wasn't any.


Most importantly, I am getting my Pirate wardrobe together, and I might buy a ship, and assemble an all female crew. But what to call the ship?
The Blondbeard?...No Piratespulse...possible The Lash...probably not

Any suggestions will be accepted, as will suggestions for a flag. Skulls yes, but I might make the flag Purple, and have crossed garter belts rather than crossbones.

EDIT:- Pirate Ship names suggestions, please don't suggest Boobyprize ( it's just too obvious )

Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates- Mark Twain

Anshe Chung in the News

So the BIG News Item of the moment, is the husband of Anshe Chung trying to suppress the video
of the falling penii at her CNET interview.

In my humble view, claiming a copyright violation has taken place is just rubbish. In that regard all photos taken in SL would be copyrighted. It seems the crushing of "fair use" is taking another step forward.

This could be a extremely clever move to get more publicity for Anshe Chung Studios. If you have any idea of how the Internet works, then you know that the more you try to suppress something, the more known it becomes, and the more people want to know what it is.


Don't believe your own publicity. You can't, you'll start thinking that you're better than you are.-
Leif Garrett

The Shockwave Travel Writer -- Fini

Well Rome was great, I will admit that it really didn't wasn't to go at first, as most Italians I have met were...well...slightly undesirable ( ok, bastards of both sexes) . Then I turned it around, and thought of Italians coming to Australia. We can be total bastards as well, I have met some here who make we want to say "Sorry, I meant I'm Austrian".

Observations and musings.

Positives :-

1 euro for a 75 minute Subway/bus/tram ride.
( I can't see this taking off in the UK, and half the time I didn't pay anyway)

Rome is cleaner than London.
People are thinner and better dressed
Clothes are mostly made in Italy and cheaper and better quality, than the Made in China
stuff we get in the UK
It's warmer
Apartments all have balconies
More Police
Lots of Roman Stuff
Pizza places everywhere.

Minus :-

High density living
More beggars -
More street crime ( But I didn't encounter any )
Street hawkers
Traffic Jams


The last few days in Rome where great, we didn't get to go to Pompeii, so we went to Ostia, the old port town.
It's really what I have wanted to see for a long time, it's the complete layout of a Roman town, and it mostly excavated. The mosaics are still in place, and you can still walk on them ( I didn't really want to )

New Years started with the people upstairs having a party, and then throwing up in to the courtyard. Charming. Rockets and fireworks started as soon as it was dark, and kept going until 2am.

Spent the last day walking around and looking at the bridges and some of the temples we missed before, buying a few more clothes, material, and souvenirs.

I still remember my first sight of St Stephens Tower ( Big Ben ) from across the Thames, The first time I saw Stonehenge, and now I have to add the first time I saw The Colosseum

"All bastards are bastards, but some bastards is bastards."-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

Happy New Year 2007!

Here in Rome the fireworks have been going since dark. It's probably like being under
fire, or Saturday night in Iraq.

Here is hoping for a better year for the Earth and all it inhabitants.



Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin

Resolutions

Learn LSL
Learn Building
Go Premium
Get job? ( already had 2 offers )
Get own house
Slip ***** an exploding poseball instead of one of her sex poseballs.
Become a muse.
More Piracy
Shoot down some planes.
Get a slave.

Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self-assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle. - Eric Zorn

The Shockwave Travel Writer Part 5

I don't remember how many days it's been now, I can just see the end of my time in Rome coming to a close in a few days. The Lemonchello in the evenings does sort of make my memory of the number of days disappear.

So I have actually been in the Colesseo now, and walked all around Old Rome, and the Palatine.

Surprisingly in one shop they were selling Italian made XXXX beer from home.

Walked around the Castle, and it was full of frescos.

I installed SL on the PC in the apartment here, the CPU is a 2500 but the video card is 512M. It has less lag than the 300064 and the 128m video card. Of course it might be the network it's on as well.

vincit qui se vincit (S/he conquers who conquers her/himself.) - Roman Proverb

The Shockwave Travel Writer Part 4

Xmas eve
Saw Trevi fountain, (and others ) the Presidents Palace, went to the Portaportese Flea Market and found that the trendy boots were anywhere from 10 Euro to 20 euro, that's about 5 UK Pounds!

Walked though a main shopping area, and compared prices. It's almost worth getting on Easyjet and flying here and back to the UK, when I have a few hundred pound to spend on clothes.

Xmas Day
The the stroke of midnight on Xmas eve all the church bells in town were ringing.
Opened Presents.
That day I went for a long walk to the Tiber River, and crossed at Tiber island and then back again a bit downstream.
I went past a few old temples, and you can see marble rubble just lying in courtyards of buildings, and churches that have Roman columns built in to the walls.
Travel on train/bus is really cheap, 1 Euro for 75 minutes, thats if you put your ticket in the machine. The last two days, the busses have been so full we have not been able to put the tickes inthe machines to validate them.

Boxing day
We took the Archeobus to see the Appian Way, San Callisto Catacombs , There are about 1 km of aqueducts just outside Rome.

Police forces
There are about 6 police forces in italy, andthey are mostly armed

1)Polizia di Stato (Civil Police)

2)Carabinieri (Military Police)

3)Guardia di finanza (Financial or Tax Police)

4)Corpo Forestale dello Stato ( Foresters)

5)Polizia Municipale ( Municipal Police mostly for Traffic)

6)Polizia Penitenziaria ( Jail officers )

There are armed guards on the subway, and at some stations.

Street Traders
There are a LOT of guys, selling Sun Glasses, Tripods, Wooden Trains in the shape of letters, scarves, etc.

I think they are mostly Bangladeshis.

The Natural enemyof the Street Trader is Number 3 above.


As in Rome there is, apart from the Romans, a population of statues, so apart from this real world there is a world of illusion, almost more potent, in which most men live. - Goethe

Pirates

I'm very happy to say the PiratesofSL group is back and having battles. Woot!

So please join in, get your best pirate gear, jump on a ship and start shooting some cannon.

"The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate.” - Bern Williams

The Shockwave Travel Writer Part 3

Rome. Day one
Train from Milan was four hours.
We arrived in the afternoon, it took ages to find our apartment, but it was not yet dark, so as the coliseum was so close, we decided to have a quick look. It's one of those things I have always wanted to see, it was just like seeing Stonehenge for the first time.

Day Two

We took a few buses around the city, and arrived at the Vatican. St Peters is much bigger than I had imagined and much more ornate. I had to do the tourist thing and send a postcard from the Vatican Post office. In general Italy is much cheaper than the UK, Food and drink is almost half the price as the UK.

Dealing with crossing the road against the endless traffic is easy, if a little nerve racking, just walk, and the cars will stop.

They like to get as close as they can before they stop, but they will stop. Don't run, or hurry, then they will know that your a tourist. I think I have blended in, but my features show that I'm not a local.

Day Three.

Highlights of today, back to the market, walked around Old Rome,Trajan's Column, went to the Spanish Steps, and shopping, birthday for a friend.

"Methinks I will not die quite happy without having seen something of that Rome of which I have read so much -Sir Walter Scott

The Shockwave Travel writer Part 2

Milan,
Took the train from Geneva.
Two main sights of Milan is the cathedral, and the castle. The Cathedral is huge, and is a survivor of WW2, most of the rest of the town was flattened. You can also go up and walk around the roof, there aren't any warning signs that would be plastered everywhere in the UK.

The castle is brick built and contains the city museums.

The woman are well dressed in skinny jeans and boots, a fashion I adore. The men have not got the skinhead look that is so popular in the UK.
Lots more men with long hair, and there are more people wearing hats.
The shopping is excellent.

People in Europe seem to be thinner. I didn't see any fat people walking the street.
Aha!! I have just realized the cause of obesity!
It's speaking English!
Looks like another boost for Esperanto.

The main train station would look perfect in Gondor due to all the statues, and fountains. I suspect it's one of Mussolini's gifts to architecture.


Everyone loves justice in the affairs of another. - Italian Proverb

Xmas Card

card sl final
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.

Here is a XMAS card I gave to some SL friends.

Sorry I missed a few of you out, but it was the last thing I was doing before I left for my holiday. And I stopped dropping it in to Inventories at 2.30 am


I couldnt help but put an FSM in the graphic.


"The whole mob has let itself go in pleasures" - Seneca on the Saturnalia

Where's Shockwave?

The Shockwave Travel Writer

Geneva

Well for those that ever want to go to Geneva, dont go on a Sunday, the whole city closes down. Only the corner shops and the ppl who run the roasted nut stands were open.

But I was able to go underneath the Cathedral to see the extensive work, done by the archeologists. It's a great display, but not really one I would do a 3 hr flight to see.

The Swiss franc notes are very colourful and they start from 10F, from 5F and below are coins, all the way to .5F. Thats equal to half an australian cent. Oddly the city is full of banks, no kidding, banks, banks swiss army knifes, watches ,swiss army knifes and clothes. Not just ordinary clothes, but the stuff Princess Di would wear ( if she still alive ). And Fur! Lots of fur.
Needless to say everything was expensive, even the golden arches was expensive.

The hotel was right in the middle of the red light district, so the working girls would gather at the rear of the hotel. One was wearing a short black leather skirt, with a black leather halter neck top and black thigh boots, I thought that looked really sexy, and strangley so familiar...oh yeah....*cough cough*

So rather than go to Geneva, unless you have a thing for bankers, do something exciting, defrag your harddrive!

I would post some pictures, but the Camera came up with the error message "Insufficent Input", and shutdown.


Switzerland is simply a large, lumpy, solid rock with a thin skin of grass stretched over it.
- Mark Twain

PixelPulse is out

ppulse2
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.

When I say it's Hot, I mean it, and I've just started reading the contents!
A Journalist is a machine that converts coffee into copy.-- Michael Ryan Elgan

Why SL is hard to write and fix

( Totally unrelated picture )

One of my favorite thinkers ( and Terry Prattchet fan ) Gwyneth Llewelyn has written a post on why SL is more than just an application, and basically how silly comments from the great unwashed masses are.

I think I left a note on Erbos blog some months ago , about the same thing, and how I used to work for an ISP, and the stupid comments in the forums from the customers. The tech guys would tell me the callers who are windows networking people have the oddest ideas.

Caller: My email is down, do you have a problem with your exchange server?
Techie: We don't have any exchange servers, what error messages are you getting?
Caller:NO Exchange, no wonder the emails are not working.
Techie falls off chair laughing.....

The CEO was called a port swilling, suited fatcat, in reality, he's never more happy than when he's putting Cisco gear together, and has the largest collection of black t-shirts, excepting Death Metal fans.

EDIT:
I suspect I was still out of my mind from lack of sleep, I wrote this originally


I would rather be the lead role in a zombiegoatbukkake movie than touch that "thing" of yours
-Shockwave Plasma

work

Due to an unseen amount of work, like four, twelve hour days in a row, I've not been doing much in SL :-(

Not even any old pics to load. Sorry

EDIT:- 28 Hrs awake at the office is not fun, but I came home before the hallucinations started.

While Matrix like bulges in the fabric of spacetime are a tolerable visual hallucination, it's when the hands start coming out of the bulges and start talking like a sock puppet, you know it's time to get some sleep.


Personally, I have nothing against work, particularly when performed, quietly and unobtrusively, by someone else. I just don't happen to think it's an appropriate subject for an "ethic."
Barbara Ehrenreich

The Princess of Purple and The Pixellated Paperdoll

I would like to say Hello to Reina Quine and Patience Xie, newly added to list of "Random Mad People".

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it." --Alice Walker

Numbers and money

Last night I had people asking me, "How do I make money"?

While this is not unusual, it was odd that the new people who where asking didn't even seem to know what SL was about.

The same people were asking "What do I do now?" and "How do I play this game"?

It was only when I looked at Saturdays Times, ( on Monday morning ) that I saw this cover.
The article inside also covers Moopf and his skates.

I can only conclude that this was the reason for the very high number of people in world last night.

The Times has a daily circulation of about 650,000.

A link to the online article
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,28053-2479694.html


( Blogger formatting is back...yay )

“Newspapers are unable, seemingly to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization” - George Bernard Shaw

Number

Well I saw 17982 as the highest inworld at about 23.00 GMT

17340

17340
Originally uploaded by shockwaveplasma.

I'm sure I saw it hit 17,650, I wonder if we will hit 18,000 ?

Book Review

I have seen a few mentions of the book "The Victorian Internet" by Tom Standage, from Ordinal and Erbo.

So on my last visit to the Library, I ordered a copy. It was not as big as I thought it would be, but quite a good read. It's about 200 pages long.

It's full of lurid tales of vice and naked ambition and seedy hotels with record company executives ripping off young talented..hang on, sorry wrong book.

Victorian Internet is mostly about Samuel Morse and how the telegraph system he invented changed the times it takes to communicate news from months to minutes.

It gives a backgroud to people and ideas leading up to his invention, and the incredible amount of trouble it took to get some backing to get it recognized as something worthwhile.

But I suspect most people who read this blog will recognize the misunderstandings that people had then, as now.

An ISP where I used to work, was once asked to send a caller the Internet on CD. There was also the ever popular, "Do I have to be connected to the Internet to get my Email"?


BTW: Blogger has taken all my formatting away! ( Stupid Blogger )



If only we'd stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.
~Edith Wharton