Well, I have to say the Hospitality Highway is looking good. I think we managed to make the Highway pretty fun and interactive with a cool butterfly garden, gold rush game, sky diving, and a big tree forest.
Things that we still need to work on are notecards for each place and also a voice recording for each location that will automatically play whenever an avatar enters a certain point. We also need to find some cool cars that people can drive around on the highway.
Other than that, this is all starting to come together. Please enjoy the new and improved HH 400 in Second Life!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
A Provocative Topic
When I think about all the provocative topics in Snow Crash, only one really stands out in my mind. That of course is inevitably the "sex scene." I am not really sure if I think this is a low point in the story, or just a point that should be lieft up to discussion. Regardless, here are my thoughts.
Y.T. is only 15 years old. It is safe to say that she has experienced things that the average girl her age has not and would therefore have an older perspective on life. We learn early in the story that Y.T. does have a sexul history, so she's not just a tupical jaded teen who tries to act older than she really is. However, I still do not agree with her "attitude" in the sex scene. I think it is unbelievable and misleading to the reader. In this scene, she acts more like a thirty year old than a 15 year old, even a sexually experiened 15 year old.
Those are my thoughts about a provocative topic that I wanted to share with the class. Any comments?
Y.T. is only 15 years old. It is safe to say that she has experienced things that the average girl her age has not and would therefore have an older perspective on life. We learn early in the story that Y.T. does have a sexul history, so she's not just a tupical jaded teen who tries to act older than she really is. However, I still do not agree with her "attitude" in the sex scene. I think it is unbelievable and misleading to the reader. In this scene, she acts more like a thirty year old than a 15 year old, even a sexually experiened 15 year old.
Those are my thoughts about a provocative topic that I wanted to share with the class. Any comments?
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Problems With Second Life
As we discussed in class earlier, transporting and searching are common problems most users are finding with Second Life. In my research on the subject, I have come across a letter written to Linden Labs by "Project Open Letter for a Better Second Life." I will briefly give you an overview of some of the main concerns that this letter addresses. But before I get to the letter, I also found how out how every Second Lifer can become a more stylish - Transporting with the script called, Teleport FX, lets you teleport in style because of the glow when you teleport and land. So, if you want, try to get that script so you too can teleport in style
Ok among many things here are the main concerns that fellow Second Lifers want changed before Linden Labs adds new things like voice and sculted prims:
"Problems with Find and Friends List - we continue to see search outages on a far too regular basis. It is bad enough trying to get anywhere without being able to use search, but many users are also paying money for classified ads. Our friends lists just do not work reliably any longer, after years without an issue with them. If America Online/MSN/Yahoo can provide presence information for hundreds of millions of users, surely there is a way to make our friends lists work again."
"Grid stability and performance - teleports fail quite regularly, especially under heavy load. Attachments end up in places they did not start out in, and sim performance varies wildly. None of this makes for a very pleasant experience for users. Long promised improvement to physics and scripting would help dramatically to reduce these problems, but there are a lot of other scalability issues as well. It often feels like the grid is coming apart at the seams. The promised use of limiting logins of non-verified accounts during peak load has been severely lacking. This would be an effective interim solution to load issues, but Linden Lab seems unwilling to use it."
Other problems include: Build Tool problems, Transaction problems, & Inventory Loss.
To read more about this letter to Linden Labs please visit http://www.projectopenletter.com/
Ok among many things here are the main concerns that fellow Second Lifers want changed before Linden Labs adds new things like voice and sculted prims:
"Problems with Find and Friends List - we continue to see search outages on a far too regular basis. It is bad enough trying to get anywhere without being able to use search, but many users are also paying money for classified ads. Our friends lists just do not work reliably any longer, after years without an issue with them. If America Online/MSN/Yahoo can provide presence information for hundreds of millions of users, surely there is a way to make our friends lists work again."
"Grid stability and performance - teleports fail quite regularly, especially under heavy load. Attachments end up in places they did not start out in, and sim performance varies wildly. None of this makes for a very pleasant experience for users. Long promised improvement to physics and scripting would help dramatically to reduce these problems, but there are a lot of other scalability issues as well. It often feels like the grid is coming apart at the seams. The promised use of limiting logins of non-verified accounts during peak load has been severely lacking. This would be an effective interim solution to load issues, but Linden Lab seems unwilling to use it."
Other problems include: Build Tool problems, Transaction problems, & Inventory Loss.
To read more about this letter to Linden Labs please visit http://www.projectopenletter.com/
Class in Second Life
Having the opportunity to attend class in a virtual world is an amazing experience. The fact that I could be sitting in my bedroom and attending class at the same time is quite a strange thing to take in. Despite a few minor setbacks, such as getting lost, or failing to transport, or not being able to hear what everyone says, I would say that class in SL was a success. Unfortunately, I was unable to activate the voice over setting and could not hear Dr. Shamp speaking. However, I could hear the amazing Live Concert that we attended as well as various other noises.
The picture featured above is of our class at a bar setting in SL. This was very cool. As one can see, we were all able to explore new places and actually sit down at tables with one another. At one point, the class even ventured to a live concert where one of my favorite Tom Petty songs was being performed. But soon, the concert turned into a German party and I could no longer understand the lyrics or what anyone else was saying - as it was all in another language.
Overall, I think Second Life has a lot of potential, and hopefully minor technical setbacks won't interfere. Though I do believe, that in order to really evolve, Second Life needs to be a little bit more user friendly.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Turley Tatham
Turley Tatham is my new avatar name, and I am in desperate need of some cool clothing. If anyone has any fun shops or ideas of where to get cool avatar clothes please let me know.
As for my first day, as Turley Tatham, on the island, I am a little wary. I have already been sexually harassed by a very strange person. I assume that this person was a man, but the avatar was a very strange mix of a man without a shirt on and a woman. After I told him in so many words to go away, he continued to follow me around and say strange things to me. Every time I moved, he soon followed. Finally after he told me to get in his belly, I told him that he was weird and I flew away.
Needless to say, I hope Second Life does not simply become a place where perverts roam around waiting to harass, children, women, and men. And I am afraid that it just might, as there is really no way of policing Second Life.
As for my first day, as Turley Tatham, on the island, I am a little wary. I have already been sexually harassed by a very strange person. I assume that this person was a man, but the avatar was a very strange mix of a man without a shirt on and a woman. After I told him in so many words to go away, he continued to follow me around and say strange things to me. Every time I moved, he soon followed. Finally after he told me to get in his belly, I told him that he was weird and I flew away.
Needless to say, I hope Second Life does not simply become a place where perverts roam around waiting to harass, children, women, and men. And I am afraid that it just might, as there is really no way of policing Second Life.
Intro to Second Life
As a new member to second life, my first blog post will be about Second Life from an newcomer. I have to say that I love orientation island. An actual place to practice "social skills" in a virtual world is pretty entertaining. I love that their are already internet cliches in Second life such as asking people where they are from or how old they are.
As far as my avatar goes, I guess I am "green behind the ears" as I do not have any cool clothes, only Newbie clothes. I have not yet mastered flying around, but I have enjoyed exploring this virtual world. I am anxious to see what this alter life has in store for me. But a downfall to this program is that a powerful computer is a must have!
As far as my avatar goes, I guess I am "green behind the ears" as I do not have any cool clothes, only Newbie clothes. I have not yet mastered flying around, but I have enjoyed exploring this virtual world. I am anxious to see what this alter life has in store for me. But a downfall to this program is that a powerful computer is a must have!
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