How to Stay Online While AFK In Second Life

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While a good number of Second Life’s users spend a large amount of time in the world SL, at times real life presents interruptions which can take attention away from the keys (AFK). By default if one is idle for more than 15 minutes in SL the system will log out an account due to inactivity. While this is beneficial for keeping the asset servers and other key operation handling machines from getting too overloaded, it’s not the most favorable of an occurrence when the users is planning to return shortly. Not to mention the hassle of reconfiguring certain options that fail to save between sessions such as disabling of lesser used render types each time after logging in.

Disabling the logout due to inactivity can be disabled or worked around by various ways. Some of the more common are covered below…

I. Changing the value of the client AFKTimeout variable.

1. Enable the Debug Menu, if it isn’t already viewing (you do not see the Client and Server menus in your client). Press Ctrl+Alt+D.
2. From the Client Menu, located at the top middle of your client’s menu bar, go Client > Debug Settings.
3. Using the Debug Settings menu, pick the AFKTimeout variable from the drop down list.
4. Set the value to 9999999, which should change to -2147483.750 after entering.
5. (optional) You can disable the AFK gesture by choosing AllowIdleAFK from the Debug Settings Window. Then change the default value from TRUE to FALSE.

II. Use a third party macro program to keep from going idle.

While you may be AFK or too preoccupied with something else, to set focus directly on the SL client every so often, a continually running macro that performs such an action is not.

A number of pre-written macro scripts for various applications and freestanding are available. Or you can write your own if so inclined as it’s a simple enough program. Here are a couple scripts for common macro application.

Anti-AFK Macro using AutoHotKey with Multi-Client Support
(get a copy of the script below or download the compiled executable here)

SetTitleMatchMode, 3MsgBox, SL Anti-Idle for Multiple Clients is now running.StartingLabel:GroupAdd, clients, Second LifeWinGetActiveTitle, Title
MouseGetPos, xpos, ypos; MsgBox, The active window is "%active_pid%".
 
If WinExist("Second Life")     ;
{
GroupActivate, clients

;WinActivateMouseMove, 20, 30, 50, RMouseMove, -20, -30, 50, R
GroupActivate, clients;WinActivate
MouseMove, 20, 30, 50, R
MouseMove, -20, -30, 50, R
 
GroupActivate, clients
;WinActivate
MouseMove, 20, 30, 50, R
MouseMove, -20, -30, 50, R
 
GroupActivate, clients
;WinActivate
MouseMove, 20, 30, 50, R
MouseMove, -20, -30, 50, R
 
}
 
else
{
MsgBox, Unable to find any SL clients.
ExitApp
}
 
IfWinExist, %Title%
{
WinActivate
}
 
else
{
MsgBox, Unable to find the previous program.
}
 
MouseMove, %xpos%, %ypos%
Sleep 900000 ; 15 minutes
Goto, StartingLabel

Ultra-simple Script using Macro Scheduler
note: The focus (above all other windows and selected) must remain on the Second Life Viewer (client) for this script to work.
(get a copy of the script below)

Label>StartPress EscWait>600
Press Enter
Wait>10
Goto>Start

III. Wearing a special attachment on your avatar.

This option to longer exists. It used to defeat the anti-idle by triggering the return from AFK gesture, to be acted by your avatar, fooling the system into thinking you have returned. Update to the SL client about half a year ago made this action no longer recognized as actual live user input.

IV. Continually Keep a Keyboard Key Pressed Using a Penny

This is not a highly recommended option but does work in a pinch for most types of keyboards.

1. Open up the local chat bar in the SL client by pressing the Enter key.
2. Press and hold a alpha-character key.
3. While continuing to press the key down, take a penny and wedge it between the top of the key your holding down and key above.

While a good number of people use a “stay alive” macro to camp for long periods of time or give their actual land artificially high traffic counts, such an ability can be used for good as well. For me, I always have the idle logout disabled, using the first option listed above, as I find myself using SL but working in PhotoShop and other applications making SL content a good amount of time. Has saved me a good number of headaches. So considered disabling this option by using any of the ways shown above and save yourself some time and hassles.

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How to Reduce Client Side Lag in Second Life

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No one likes lag, whether it be local, server side or some hardware’s fault in the middle. Have to admit I’ve many a time found myself explaining the details and walking people through changing/disabling certain settings. Rather than continuing to do that here’s a guide that I can now point them to. It also makes an interesting and information filled blog entry worth sharing.

The following are ideas and suggestions to aide you when in the battle against Lagnor.

For the most part, lower end hardware will see a greater percentage of increased performance than a high end machine. For those who just meet the bare minimum requirements here are the client settings I recommend using for greatest efficiency…

1. Open the Preferences Window (CTRL-P)
2. Under Graphics Detail (tab on the left hand side of the preferences window) change as follows…

* Avatar Rendering to “Normal”
* Terrain Detail to “Low”
* Move the Tree Mesh & Flexible sliders all the way to the left
* Use the sun and moon option rather than Nearby Local Lights.
* Uncheck all Shader options

Preferences > Network

* Texture Cache Size should be set to small if you have 512MB of memory or less, or large if you have more.

Preferences > Adv. Graphics

* Enable OpenGL Vertex Buffer Objects should be enabled
* Set your video card memory size as low as possible
* Max Particle Count to 256
* Outfit Composite Limit to 5

Preferences > Graphics

* Set Draw Distance to 64
* Uncheck Run in a window

That does it for the changes which can be made using the preferences settings.

The next step is to enable the debug menus and turn off rendering of the less used material types.

1) To enable the client’s debug pull-down menus from the top of your client, press CTRL+ALT+D.

2) From the Client pull-down go Client > Rendering > Types > *

3) The least useful material with best return in overhead return are below in that order.

- Grass (ctrl+alt+shift+0)
- Clouds (ctrl+alt+shift+-)
- Water (ctrl+alt+shift+7)
- Tree (ctrl+alt+shift+3)
- Particles (ctrl+alt+shift+=)

4) Configuration from the debug menus are not saved so you will need to disable showing of certain material types each time you login, that’s why knowing the hot-keys is a valuable time saver.

5) It’s worth turning off fog as well, which is now located in the debug menu at Client > Rendering > Features > Fog

-

That does it for the options and settings which account for the largest changes in increasing efficiency of the viewer. If this was your first time using the Client/Server “debug” menus, take some time to check out all the neat options they provide. If you botch something bad enough were you can’t turn it off or don’t know how, just re-log to clear, as nothing is saved with those types of settings.

While Second Life is memory a hog… taking advantage from some of the suggestions above should greatly reduce the size of this digital pig to a near manageable size. :)

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How To Stream Audio in Second Life

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Introduction

This article is presented as an introduction to playing your own and audio streams within Second Life for all to hear. The concepts and details of running your own audio stream number a great deal, due to such this guide just provides the basics to getting your own station online.

What is Streaming Audio?

Music is played on your land in SL using an URL which you set in your About Land options. You can hook up to an existing stream from the web, or create your own if you have the resources.

Where can I get audio streams to play?

There are are lots of free sources on the web. Here are a couple of sites to start you off:

http://www.shoutcast.com/
http://www.icecast.org/
http://www.live365.com/index.live

Hard rock: http://64.236.34.97:80/stream/1039
Classical: http://64.236.34.196:80/stream/1006
Digital/Trance: http://radio.digitalgunfire.com:8000/
Smooth Beats: http://64.236.34.196:80/stream/1018
Space Lab: http://83.226.131.250:8000
Soft Space: http://64.236.34.196:80/stream/1018

How do I setup music for my land?

1. From the pull-down menu from the top of your SL client go World > About Land.
2. Click on the Media tab.
3. Enter the URL to the music stream.
4. Click the Music control off and on to refresh the settings. The control is located at the bottom center of your screen.

Can I play a stream on my friend’s land?

No, you must have land permission to edit land settings. You’ll have to give them the stream to enter it. If you are an officer of a group, and the group owns the land, then you have the ability to change it. Otherwise, you must own the land.

How to I play my own music?

This is can be a bit complex. Anyone can stream music via a broadcaster program like WINAMP or SAM2, however, you need a server to do so. Options include rent one off-site from a hosting company online or use your own if it’s set up to play a shoutcast stream.

Note: SAM2 Broadcaster is suggested because it requires no plugins, they come with the program, and it’s much easier to understand than WINAMP.

www.winamp.com (WINAMP)

www.spacialaudio.com (SAM2)

Can I use a microphone and talk over the music?

Yes! SAM2 provides easy buttons to maneuver quickly back and forth between music and DJing. WINAMP I’m sure has the capability, however it would require a plug-in to do so, the program does not come with it by default.

I can’t hear any sound, is my music broken?

1. Make sure there is a Music control panel at the bottom, center of your screen. If not, go to Edit/Preferences, select the Audio tab, and make sure Play Streaming Music when Available is checked.

2. On the Music control panel, click Stop and then Play to refresh the settings.

3. If you still don’t get music, double-check the URL you entered in the About Land box. Be sure the address does not have a small space in front of it. This keeps it from playing and has been a common problem. If there is a space, remove it.

4. If you still don’t get music, the stream may not be valid. Try testing the stream in WinAmp to be sure that it does work.

5. Check your speakers. Are they plugged in, turned on, volume turned up?

6. If music and speakers test out, leave the parcel and come back.

7. Still no music? Try relogging.

8. If relogging didn’t help, it could be a bandwidth issue, or a local problem on your computer. Time to file a bug report.

Conclusion

That does it for a basic overview and guide to getting started with streaming audio within the world of Second Life. Ability to run your own audio stream is useful for a diverse number of reasons. Even playing public “stations” provides a great deal of additional value. Best of luck finding the uses for this feature that best benefit your needs. Rock!

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Old School ANSI Like Art In Second Life

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Sometimes what is old and lame can be new and cool again. For those that remember the works of ANSI Art put out by underground BBS based groups with names such as ACiD and iCE these works are looked upon with fond memories. Using “high” Ascii Charcters, 16 colors, programs such as THEDRAW and a whole lot of time and skill, artworks (and animations) to rival the Mona Lisa were created. No seriously, if you missed this scene download some of the packs and get ready to be amazed.

Now let’s fast-forward to the present of home connections measured in Mbps, social media filled buzz words and every other grandma being wired. Chunky EGA graphics being a thing of the past but retro having a following, G4’s Code Monkey television show a good example of how strong and large the fan base still is, but what good is such an art for in today’s interactive digital media? Something so dated it derives attention from it’s ability to standout from the smooth anti-aliased images our eyes are now accustomed to. How about within the over-hyped realm of Second Life and other 3pointD worlds.

Second Life offers the ability to browse the world by a two-dimensional map. Because SL is made up of interconnected servers that can be seamless seen and (usually) crossed between on the main land continents and groups of private estate sims, the illusion of one cohesive environment is maintained. As with most maps, it’s of little use unless the map features landmarks or other representations that mirror what is located on the actual (digital in this case) land. Second Life’s mapping system accomplishes this by taking a simulated photograph of each simulator (server) taken from thousands of feet in the air with each sim (simulator) placed next to each other as they are geographically located in the digital world. What some artists, entrepreneurs and attention driven hackers have done is make their own structures that can only really be appreciated when seen from a great distance above. It’s not possible to get too detailed with this process so some of the most recognizable landmarks do best by mirroring the look of classic chunky bit ANSI art.

Following I present some of the more well know and recognized artworks and commercial attractions as seen from the actual maps of Second Life…

<unnamed> - Palomarian (96,140,58)

Gluphisia (125,125,70)

Linden Owned “Void Sim” - Omidyar (116,132,70)

TMA - A Jewish Neighborhood in Second Life - Nessus (90,108,62)

Hugsy Penguin’s Freebies - Suisun (249,47,57)

FreeArcade.com - Akea (234,152,33)

As common with the ability to make visual messages some will option for the simple power of the written word, stylized or not, this can be a very powerful means of conveyance with just a few choice words…

Rambler General Store - Yongnam (133,123,62)

Big O! Mall - Baekje (153,106,74)

Sokri Plaza - Sokri (71,164,71)

Costa del Sol Resorts - Montserrat (39,130,23)

At times, order within the majority of what’s able to be seen, made up of chaos, can greater help to focus on the strangely straight lines and right angles or recognizable repeating patterns as these full sims show…

Pando Square Mall - Pando (127,127,100)

Coldwell Banker Rental Sims - Ranchero (209,229,32)

Mount G’al - Mahulu (118,111,69)

As shown from the above examples, even in a 3.D World, 2.D has it’s place and at times can make a greater impression than the most deep and intricate designed three-dimensional structures. I’m always on the lookout for new artwork and amusing map messages as the grid is always expanding and new map updates becomes available, so please feel free to email me or comment on any of your favorite map (ab)uses.

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How to Make More Money in Second Life For Content Creators on SLExchange

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For those who create content, on the Second Life 3.D platform, with and for direct sale to consumers or businesses in mind, listing such products for sale on the more popular web shops should be a familiar and common practice. Besides selling in-world at your own vendor locations and rental shops in malls, clubs and other similar venues, income derived from web based listing and resulting sales, for the time it requires, is just smart business. Approximately 35% of my profit on content sales over the past two months is derived from items sold on SL Exchange, the largest (listing wise) and most popular (by shopper count) web based marketplace.

While creating an account and listing all of your available items for sale is essential for tapping into this source of sales, much can be done to greatly increase the return. In this article I will provide tips and examples, based on my own experience and experiments, that should greatly increase your sales on Second Life Exchange (SLX).

Things to consider when listing content for sale:

1) Use a high-quality image or images that clearly and accurately present the item being sold.

- If this involves content that can be actually seen inside the world of SL be sure that lighting conditions are bright enough to easily see what you’re taking a “snapshot” of. You can adjust the sun’s position, locally, from the SL viewer client from the pull-down of World > Force Sun > (options). For most things I feel Noon is the best option, but for somethings and depending upon your avatar’s point of reference, Sunrise or Sunset may present a better image.

- Another trick that for certain prim heavy content, which will greatly help to enhance the preview image is the addition a few local light sources. Best not to get too fancy with the number and positions of lights, a standard three point lighting setup works well for most smaller items, or a modification on that setup with additional floods for larger items such as houses and vehicles. You can set the objects providing light to full transparent so they do not get in the way or show up in the images. I don’t suggest using any other colored light options but the default true white. Changing light colors from the emitters will make the appearance of your item inaccurate.

- Before taking any photographs of your item, be sure what’s seen behind the item is a plain black, white or light non-clashing color. This will help to keep your sale images from looking too busy while keeping all of the focus on the item. You don’t need a fancy photography studio, a single 10×10m prim modified as follows will give just as good results…
How to Make a Simple Product Photography Environment
1. First create a default cube prim
2. Increase the size to 10×10x10m
3. Hollow the object by 95%
4. Path Cut the prim at beginning (B) to .500
5. Rotate the object on the X-axis to 270.00 (Y and Z should remain at 0 degrees)
6. Set the object’s texture to blank by double-clicking the texture sample, shown when editing the object, under the texture tab.
7. Make the object “Full Bright” (This is important as it makes the object absolute white no matter what time of the time of day or night it may be). This will also work for black or any other color you may be using
8. Done! Now you have a backdrop to use when taking pictures of your products.

- If you are getting resulting images that show your content as having jagged edges. A simple resizing to half of the snapshot’s original, in your favorite image editing program, should help to fix this.

- Taking multiple screen-shots for posting additional images on the item’s listing is usually a good idea. Though, content such as textures, animations and scripts rarely need this treatment.

- If needed, don’t forget to crop your image(s). Product should take up the majority of image.

- After editing, be sure to save in a compressed but not overly so image format such as standard white book JPEG. You can upload BMP and TGA to SL Exchange. But the service does not re-encode the uploaded graphic to a smaller compressed package type.

2) Enhancing the actual listing of your products on SL Exchange (SLX).

- SLX allows the use of BBCode for including images and links in your object’s listing. Take advantage of this by adding an image or two of your product inside the actual listing.

- When writing listings for the item’s sale page consider structuring in the order as follows…
1. Hook and short (2 to 4 sentence) summary of item being sold
2. Featured highlights of the item. What makes it unique, quality and worth purchasing.
3. List of features.
4. Additional information that is of note to the buyer.
5. If the content comes with documentation I like to paste all of that text, preceded by a few blank lines to signify the remaining listing is bulk details and instructions.
6. Additional keywords and phrases. Since SLX’s search, by default, looks at an item’s complete listing it is worth adding additional keywords to the end of your item’s listing. Also, OnRez (the second largest web shop for Second Life content) includes fields for this type of data. If you’re listing items on OnRez you might as well write keywords since you’re going to be using them anyways.

- Rather than just list the object’s name in the title, for certain non-descriptive by name alone items, I like to add two to four additional words that better describe the item or mention by name who would be interested (”scripters”, “builders”, club owners, etc.) SLExchange does have a character limit that is smaller than the allowed field, so be sure to preview your item’s listing when you finish listing for the first time to make sure it is not cut short.

3) Getting more viewers/traffic to your item’s listings

- Using BBCode for linking, I’ve found a great way to increase views of my items is to add a simple one liner under after the object’s short description along with another copy of the line/link after additional listings of the item’s features. Something to the effect of “Browse my other <related topic> items, Click Here” using the link here where <MERCHANT ID> is the number of your account listings on SLX. This can be found by searching for your SL resident name on the search and right-click properties on the link which matches your name.

- If desired you can take the above link example one step further by using an image rather than a text link. I’ve found in many instances this returns a greater click-through resulting in great item views by a single consumer. The [IMG] BBCode inbetween the [URL] code will allow this to be done.

- If you haven’t already, consider making some freebies for listing on SLX and other web shops. These can be lower end items you already sell but sell few of, lower (less feature filled) versions of items you currently sell or content you have made explicitly for giving away as freebies. This is a great way to get your name out, spread content beyond your own distribution points and gain customer loyalty from consumers that will return to browse your commercial items.

- When listing an item be sure to make a post on SLExchange’s Products Forum. Replies to new posts aren’t possible so at worst this will fail to garner you any additional sales, but I’ve found this will help initially to get the first couple items sold on the day of listing with most low cost (less than 500L$) priced items. Be sure to include a BBCode link to the item’s listing and at least one preview image of the item being sold using the [IMG] tag.

4) Paying for “Listing Enhancements”

- I’ve had nearly all positive results with the “Homepage Featured Item Listing” enhancement on items priced above 500L$. This will cost you 2899L$ for 30 days of listing and result in your item being displayed on the front page of the marketplace section on SLX well as move the listing to the top of the page in the category and page it normally shows on.

- When first placing a “Homepage Featured Item Listing” enhancement, be sure to make note of when it was placed. After the 30 days go back and see if you should more than the listing cost you. This is easily calculated by review past sales for that item by name. If it made you more and received positive votes and reviews make a note of that product being worth the enhanced feature cost.

- As for the other enhancements… Featured Item Listing, Highlighted, Bordered and Bold, I can only speak on my personal experiences with using Featured Item Listing. I’ve found this to be beneficial when one’s item, by price, shows on the first page of the sub-category as this will move it above competitors who are not paying the 999L$ per month for this enhancement, which at times can make the difference between a view and resulting sale.

5) Additional practices that can result in a greater number of sales

- If you post to the SLX forum in any other sections but the for products/services for sale category you would be wise to make yourself a signature that includes a SLurl to your main in-world shop location along with a link to your complete product listing on SLExchange. Beyond becoming active in the SLX forums for recognition, this is a great information resource with breaking stories posted by merchants and consumers before they even reach the most active SL news source and blogs.

- Consider the image of your avatar being using on the forum as this also is shown on under the main listing index for all your products. It is best to present as a warm, friendly image. A look and presentation of someone you would feel comfortable purchasing from in real life.

- While this falls under images used for selling a product, it is also something to consider when naming a product. While you do want to keep name and avatar recognition tied in with the product it is best to keep yourself from becoming to much of a part of the sale. I’ve seen the mistake made a good number of times where a product’s image include the maker’s avatar besides the product. In many cases this isn’t the greatest of ideas. I’m not sure why but more often than not this is a practice common with “furries”. Unless your item is something only to be purchased and bought by a matching niche society (such as furries or Goreans) you are costing yourself sales. Even with items such as clothing, it’s best to mix up the avatar showing off the items. With items that require wearing to really show it’s best to hire a few models to mix up ethnicity and look to greater increase the chances of making a sale when someone does identify with the character modeling what is being sold. If it does not require wearing, including attachments as these usually are best sold stand alone, just present the product standalone with a plain white or black background.

- If you have a main in-world shop location, consider including a SLurl in the item’s description to the vendor which offers the product for purchase. Not everyone has an account or buy over the web, some just window shop or prefer (the few seconds less of) instant gratification.

That does it for the big tips and tricks I’ve personally found greatly help to increase sales and resulting profits. If you currently do not practice many of the suggestions above give them a try as you should see a significant increase in the number of listing views and content sold. Best of luck to all creating content in Second Life, as it is the heart blood of what makes SL so great. Happy building!

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Views From an OpenSim Open Source Grid

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Took a break today from the hustle and bussel of the Second Life MG (main grid) to visit the start of what could very well be the future of the platform. The OSGrid is one of a few ,currently available, home-brewed, set of simulators based on OpenSim. Rather than wait for Linden Lab to open source the server side code that runs their (currently) closed in grid an ingenious group of hackers have taken it upon themselves to reverse engineer a copycat set of programs using the open sourced client and a whole lot of time.

While the ability to run and access these services is currently available, don’t get ready to host your own private gambling den just yet. As of OpenSim 0.4 stuff that works is as follows…

• standalone mode with one or more regions
• basic physics (no object collisions)
• persistence of users, prims, assets, and inventory via sqlite
• basic building, custom texture uploads
• avatar editing

…everything else, you’ve got to wait for. Though if you’ve got the skills and time, by all means contribute to what very well could be the start of something big or at least a place to play king of the world.

Here’s some snapshots from my expedition to the frontier…

For more information about this project and to login yourself:

OSGrid http://www.osgrid.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25&Itemid=40

Main Page - OpenSim
http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page

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Tips and Tricks For Getting Started in Second Life

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There can be a lot of debate about if Second Life (SL) is really a game. There are no mandated goals, we can do as much or as little as we like. Having no goals is a bit hard to get used too, but you will soon see the freedom it allows us. I see SL more a “place” to play, rather than a game.

I have put together a list of tips that I find myself teaching new players all the time. I hope these tips get you off to a good start.

Please spend the time to read the notes, as a few minutes now will save you loads of head scratching later on :)

First and foremost, EXPLORE. It is a big world and there is plenty to see. Keep in mind that most everything you see has been created by the residents. The Lindens give us the servers as a canvas. About 95 - 98% of what you see is made by us, the residents. Exploring the world, meeting people and seeing what they are working on, will help you with ideas on what you may like to attempt to do.

As you explore, ask questions of people you meet. Many are happy to help out and show off their work. Feel free to explore someones build if they are not around. Most are proud of their work and happy your interested in seeing it. But, if the door is locked or the land is restricted, respect the owners decision on this and just move along and see what else their is to see.

While exploring, you may encounter people that may be too busy to give you their full attention. Respect the fact that they are busy and move along if your not welcomed warmly. Don’t take it personally, building and scripting can take a lot of concentration at times.

Some SL exclusive terms you’ll see…
AV, avatar. Your body, who you are, the appearance of your AV can be changed almost infinitely.

IM, instant message. IM button is at bottom left of the screen, use this to send a private message to someone, online or offline. If your IM button is flashing, someone is sending you a message.

SIM, simulator, or server. a SIM is a region of the world.

PRIM, primitive. A PRIM is a basic building block.

REZ, to create something. If you take something out of your inventory, you have “rezzed” it.

TP, teleport. People will often ask you to offer them a TP to your location so they can join you. Find this option in the persons profile. You can ask someone to TP you to them.

LM, landmark. A LM is a place located in a sim.

L$ and US$, Linden Dollars (in world money) and US Dollars.

RL and FL, real life and first life. Places that interfere with SL :-)

Now for a few tips…

*Chat History. In big groups, when chat is scrolling pretty fast, chat history can help you get caught up. The command to open chat history is, (CTRL + h).

*Hold your mouse cursor on anything and everything to see what it is. If you hold your cursor on something, a tool tip will appear and show you a short description of it. You can right click on it to see even more details of it.

*Right click on other AV to see their profile, you can often learn some basic information about the AV without asking. Fill out your profile, let others know a little something about you. Right click your AV to see what you can do.

*Saving your AV look. You can have many different AV looks, simply save them as outfits. Right click yourself and go to appearance mode. At the bottom left, you can “make outfit”. To save a whole AV, be sure to include the body parts, your shape, skin, hair, and eyes. Include the clothes and attachments. Then, name the “outfit” and save. This folder will be saved to your clothing folder. You can simply drag the folder from your inventory to your AV to change in an instant.

*Removing contents from boxes. Things you buy or aquire often come packed in boxes. To remove the contents, drag the box from your inventory to the ground in front of you. EDIT the box and select MORE to see the details and click on CONTENTS. Then simply drag the contents from the box to your inventory. Once in your inventory, you can use the objects. It is okay to delete the box the contents came in once you have transferred the contents to your inventory.

*Setting LM’s. If you find a place you like, you can set a LM so you can find it again. Select WORLD button at top and “Create Landmark Here”. You might need to rename it, once in your inventory, to remind yourself why you made the LM.

*Force Daylight. While night is often very nice, it can be hard to work in the dark. You must have your DEBUG menu (located at top next to HELP menu) enabled to force daylight. To toggle DEBUG on and off, press these keys, (alt + ctrl + shift + d). ALT + N is the command to make night day. Explore your debug options, lots of things you can do to change how you see the world.

*Snapshot to Disk. Snapshots in game cost L$10. But, you can send high resolution pic to your hard drive for free. The ( ` ) key (above TAB) is default key for this. You can then later review your pics and decide which ones you would like to upload into world.

*View options for seeing land. If you are looking for land, use VIEW to show PROPERTY LINES and LAND OWNERS. This makes the actual plots more easy to identify.

*Want to know more about building in SL? Why not the Ivory Tower of Primitives in Noyo -
or attend a Basic Building class/event (these are held almost every day, so check the Events listing)

*If you are struggling with scripting and finding the Linden manual not too helpful why not try: http://www.lslwiki.net for a scripting resource

*If you need an injection of money to buy land or whatever else you can buy and sell Linden dollars for US dollars via the LindeX or other exchanges.

*If you have upgraded your basic account to a premium account and don’t have any land yet, you qualify for the Land of Landless program. To get a new plot of land, simply use Find -> Land Sales and change the drop down from all to First Land then do a search for a new plot!

*Don’t forget to pick up a copy of the inworld SL magazine, available at the information stand on the main campus here and many other locations around SL.

And finally, EXPLORE and have fun!

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Evian Water Heats Up Second Life with Full Frontal Nudity

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While entrance into Second Life by a major real life brand is hardly news these days, it is worth noting when that entrance involves something out of the ordinary in the way it is accomplished. Evian Water is now available in Second Life or at least a virtual equivalent to the premium bottled water is available. Located in the sim of Pogon, inside the main store of RealSKIN a drink vendor can now be found. Clicking on the machine gives a free bottle of Evian water, 6 free high quality skins (3 male, 3 female, of different ethnicities) along with the offer to visit Evian.com.

While it’s good to see Millions of Us continuing to use the skill of well respected SL developers such as Stephen Lightworker, the designer behind the RealSKIN product line, it’s the first time I have noticed static nudity, as part of a build, alongside a general appeal real world product being marketed in Second Life. Given, these are _skins_ being given away and for sale. A type of content where the look of the naughty parts can matter more than than any of other areas, but at this time this is the only location one can visit to pickup the free promo skins and animated bottle of water attachment as a search, under all, for ” evian ” (use the spaces, yes SL’s search still sucks) fails to return any other locations and zero results at all under the Places tab.

(view when first teleporting in from a search for ” evian “)

Now I far from consider myself a prude with adult material online or off but it was still a surprise to see the view, as it were, when first teleporting in, a good 30 meters away from the actual water vendor located in another room.

Perhaps this is just an attempt to justify to Second Life Residents why they should register with the coming required third party verification for mature areas. The free skins offered are excellent quality, but I would personally prefer to pick them up in a more less graphic location or at least have that choice.

Overall, nice freebie content, but an overly simply entrance, just a single quickly made vendor adorned with a few screen shots of a downy-looking avatar enjoying a cool digital drink, makes me wonder how much, if any, was paid for this presentation.

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My Metaverse Can Beat Up Your Metaverse… Can’t We All Just Multiverse Along?

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For those keeping score, Google is gearing up to pwn the Virtual World market, while the Japanese are building their own private garden and China is getting ready to enter the third dimension even if it does require them to practice self-censorship to get there. Listening to the buzz surrounding these events, one would think we’re looking at a death match. But rather than a victor arising from the rumble, why can’t they all just get along?

A place for everything and everything in it’s place. Not just an antiquated phrase uttered by aging relatives but a tried and true method of artificial evolution continually effecting online services and related technologies. As today we don’t all use the same single social media service, there exists to reason why we’ll all be using the same 3.D platform. While the currently available offerings are very similar (Second Life, Kaneva, There, ActiveWorlds, etc.) in their overall fantasy, user created, settings and content, many users, groups and companies have expressed great interest in more grid wide “theming” brought about by the worlds base design.

Example. Many times when talking with a resident in Second Life, one on a level of decision making for a company or organization, the issue of too much surreality being near everywhere in the platform is a deciding factor for them to make the leap from web front to 3.d front. To say nothing of the still rampant porn in the platform, that being a factor that should soon, if not be fully controlled, at least locked down to select areas with limited access. Even with taking advantage of all the environmental lock-downs LL can provide, limited access accounts tied to a single or group of private island estates, select last names, etc. the worlds currently most popular virtual world fails to feel very professional. Enter a place for Google’s newly announced virtual environment. Looking at the big G’s past track-record serious business from the ground up is what to expect. Good for those users and more so groups on the outside, waiting around, and looking in. Bad for project and those with strong creativity drives and needs.

As for the recently announced initiative from Japan to make a cleaner, better, virtual world that more fits along the lines of what the common Japanese user wants, so be it. But to think worlds with walls are an answer more than an option is wrong. While not many outside of Japan hit up a co-dot-jp URL very often, not very many users from the country of the first level stick solely within the dot-jp. Even if they do, much of the content that reaches their browsers originates outside of that level.

Rather than a single, all controlling, massively connected, METAVERSE, why shouldn’t we expect to see niches filled by the virtual world that best fits demand and use? Even more than that, from seeing what the web has become, worlds within worlds, all accessible inside and between each other is to be expected. Virtual iframes as crystal balls and tears in reality that allow viewing, interaction and reinterpretation of data flowing between as needed and desired is to be much more expected. Mash-up the ideal environment as it suits your desires and needs (even at the current time). Sounds good to me, much rather have that and the distributed chaos than a single place that houses all the chaos in one big bloated place trying to be all things to all people. Go, go, Virtual Multiverse.

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Making Money in Second Life

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Second Life presents you with an endless variety of ways to spend your Linden Dollars, but supporting your lavish lifestyle will eventually mean deciding on a way to earn a bit more walking around money.

If you decide to host an event, you can list it on the Event Calendar via the Second Life website. You can also attend an event and try to win some money. You’ll notice that many of the trivia contests, treasure hunts, show & tell, etc. events give out Linden Dollar rewards to winners.

You’ll also find a healthy economy within the community, where players trade both goods and services. With a little work and ingenuity, you can be Second Life’s next big fashion designer, jet pack inventor, or real estate developer. For example, you can create pets, vehicles, houses, furniture, games, clothing, shoes, decorations, jewelry, plants, guns, timepieces, signs, fountains, animals, or even a new body! It’s all about your creativity.

To sell an item, just select it, choose edit, and check off the “for sale” box and name your price. If you own land, you can place your creations there to display, or you can make a deal with another resident to help you sell your item in their store. Please keep in mind, a good policy to keep is to only sell items you have created from scratch, or that another resident has given you permission to sell in writing.

It’s not just about making the big dollars, you can spend them too. Most things in Second Life will cost you some money to buy (such as objects in resident stores, or to claim land), but you can sometimes find things that are “Free to Copy”. If something is for sale, or free to copy, you can see this information when you briefly hover your mouse pointer over the object. It will either say “Free to Copy” or “For Sale” with a Linden Dollar price.

Do you really need money to enjoy Second Life? No. Your avatar does not need to eat, sleep, or even need shelter. You also have an unlimited amount of building supplies, provided free; you’ll never run out of cloth, lumber, or stone! It costs nothing to build your creations in a sandbox sim.

If you’re interested in shopping, other Second Life residents have created a ton of stuff for you. From elaborate costumes and fearsome guns, to fancy furniture and slick hoverboards, there’s always something new to check out. Resident-run stores are located all over the world. You can browse a small sample of what the Second Life residents have to offer by visiting web based shops such as SL Exchange.

Last but not least, if you want a quick infusion of money and are willing to pay in real-life money, there a few 3rd party sites you can purchase Linden dollars from.. Currently, a 1 US dollar is about 270 Linden dollars, but it can and will fluctuate based on market conditions.

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