Archives for March 2012

Teleport Between Kitely Worlds | Kitely Blog

Teleporting between Kitely worlds finally works! If you try to teleport to a world that is online then you’ll be teleported to it immediately. If you try to teleport to a world that is offline then the world will be started; you’ll remain active in the world you are currently in; and once the destination world is ready you’ll be teleported to it automatically.

Teleports are also connected to the website: if you click “Enter World” in a World Page, and you are already in another Kitely world, then you will be teleported to the new world. This means that you no longer have to close the viewer to switch between worlds.

Via blog.kitely.com

The Lab: the great work continues

In June last year I profiled the superb work being done by Stefan Schutt and Dale Linegar at The Lab.

If you haven’t read that profile then definitely read it now, or even better listen to this interview with Melbourne’s RRR, recorded this week.

If ever there was a program involving virtual environments that deserves major league support, it’s The Lab. Go have a look in detail for yourself.

Eve Online FanFest panel accused of mocking suicidal player

CCP has launched an investigation after an Eve Online panel at its FanFest convention was accused of mocking a suicidal player.

Eve Online player Kestrel wrote to CCP and Eurogamer today to complain about Thursday’s Alliance Panel presentation.
The presentation, delivered by one of the CSM council members and moderated by a CCP employee, featured an in-game communication between two Eve Online players where, according to Kestrel, one of the players clearly indicated suicidal thoughts and showed “obvious” signs of severe depression.

“When this communication was shown to the audience the presenter, along with part of the audience of players and CCP representatives present all had a good laugh,” Kestrel said. “The presenter went on to encourage other players of Eve Online to harass this player in the hope that he would eventually be compelled to act on his suicidal thoughts.
“This player’s in-game contact information was provided. I found this section of the presentation to be in extremely poor taste.”
The panel was broadcast online as part of the streaming of the popular FanFest event, which showcased Eve Online, Dust 514 and World of Darkness.

In response, CCP issued a statement criticising the “abhorrent behaviour” that occurred.

Via www.eurogamer.net

Post-apocalyptic Steampunk Pirates in Second Life

If I could find something about vampires or Alice in Wonderland I think this build would manage to incorporate most of the major themes we love inworld. It might sound a little strange, and it could be that the owners would describe it differently, but I think this combination works and it’s a great place to visit.

My journey began today with this photo↑ by LookatmyBack. I know he likes steampunk so I thought I’d check out the region and see what was there.

Via honourmcmillan.wordpress.com

Why iTunes Match is an absolute dog of a product

If like me, iTunes is the centre of your digital music consumption, then you may have considered using the new iCloud based service called iTunes Match. What it does (for approx $25 US per year) is scan your iTunes library, matches it against the songs Apple has in its inventory, and then uploads any unmatched songs to iCloud. THe end result (theoretically) is that your entire music library is now in the cloud and can be access by any wi-fi iDevice.

Unfortunately for what seems like a significant number of people, the reality is a lot different. For me the deal-breaker is play counts. I’ve always set myself a little challenge each year to play each and every song in my iTunes library each calendar year. Therefore I have a smart list set up that includes any song not played since January 1st this year. Since setting up iTunes Match in late January I’ve seen that playlist constantly increase it’s play count. I have an iPad 2 as the only current device that uses iTunes Match to stream music (I did have my iPhone using at as well but gave up in disgust as you’ll see below)

An example from just yesterday (on my primary device i.e. the one from which all content was uploaded to iTunes):

Number of songs left in playlist prior to updating iTunes Match: 6994
Number of songs left in playlist after updating iTunes Match: 7029
Number of songs left in playlist the next morning after launching iTunes: 7175

There’s no obvious rhyme or reason to it and it drives me insane. Have a look at the scope of issues on Apple’s own discussion forums and you get the gist of a range of other issues with the service. Whether it’s play counts, upload issues, crashes or lost music, there’s a bunch of problems with this paid service. It certainly has promise – if it worked like it should, I’d probably be writing a gushing article on how great it is and awaiting the Apple fanboy accusations.

My advice right now is: avoid iTunes Match like the plague until some much-needed bug fixes are put into place.

Over to you: do you use iTunes Match and if so have you had issues or not?

Great overview of VWBPE 2012 by Daniel Voyager

Early this morning I logged into Second Life to visit VWBPE locations around the grid and started to collect notecards/freebies which was fun. As you can see today I have updated my blog for VWBPE 2012 which I hope all my readers will like. I went over to the first event on the listings called Conference Orientation Meet-and-Greet where the SL community started to catch up and hang out.

Via danielvoyager.wordpress.com

RFID Blocking Wallet


There’s some seriously scary stuff out there in the world — from bird flu and terrorism to depleting our planet of natural resources. There’s not a lot that the average person can do about much of the things that may keep us up at night. Luckily, there’s one scary prospect on the horizon that we can help with — and it doesn’t require lining your pants with aluminum foil! Aren’t you lucky?Imagine if you will, some of these possible real-life scenarios:A shadowy character crouches unseen in the bushes. He doesn’t have a gun or a knife, but he has a laptop. He watches as his prey walks by. Invisible radio waves emitting from the credit-card in his wallet get picked up by the laptop, recorded, and saved onto a cloned card. For all intents and purposes, this man becomes you, and has decided to go shopping.Or maybe he picked up the passkey that lets you into your office building. With ease, he can now walk into your secure office building and steal your company’s equipment. The next morning, security guards are waiting in your cube to have a chat.The nightmare scenario was brought forth recently – a bomb lies waiting in a garbage can. Sensitive electronics read the identification cards and passports of the people who walk by, waiting until somebody of your nationality comes close…It’s a scary world out there. Credit card companies and governments are putting RFID chips in your cards and identification, sometimes without your knowledge. Protect yourself and your money with a wallet that specifically inhibits those radio frequencies from escaping until you pull your card out. Did we mention you don’t need to put foil in your pants? It’s important to us that you know that you do NOT have to put foil in your pants. Very important. No foil. In your pants… none… zip… nada.
Via www.thinkgeek.com

China censors ‘hit social media’


Chinese censors are actively targeting social media to quash discussion of banned topics, suggests research.The US study gives the most in-depth look at the extent of China’s policing of discussions on microblogging sites.Analysis of almost 60 million messages from China’s equivalent of Twitter suggested which topics were banned.It also revealed that China tuned its censoring activity to be more aggressive in places where political unrest was high.
Via www.bbc.co.uk

Linden Lab clams up on metrics

Tateru Nino has a great story on how Linden Lab will no longer be providing SL economy metrics:

Essentially, over the years, the figures have been progressively stripped of the supporting data that gave them meaning, and now hardly anyone can understand what’s left. That kind of makes it a waste of time to extract the data and generate the reports in the first place.

Of course, the other side of the coin is this: When a company stops reporting some key statistic, it is almost always because the figure suddenly has gone South or otherwise looks bad. The Lab has stripped key items out of the reports on a number of occasions, as I mentioned, and it doesn’t take any great stretch of the imagination to figure that they were taken out because those figures were going sour, or that they appeared to be going sour because other data that would have aided in the interpretation of the figures was absent.

The latter tends to have a bit of a snowball effect. You stop publishing a metric that might be misinterpreted as bad, and then eventually its absence makes another metric misinterpretable as bad, until you’re left with a small set of metrics that don’t tell anyone anything terribly useful.

Here’s a post I did in May 2007, showing how far the transparency has declined. Here’s hoping this decision isn’t indicative of a more fundamental decline.

Rules for a Happy Life

-Money cannot buy happiness but it’s more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than on a bicycle.
-Forgive your enemy but remember the bast ard’s name.
– Help someone when they are in trouble and they will remember you when they’re in trouble again.
-Alcohol does not solve any problems, but then again, neither does milk.
-If you’re too open minded, your brains will fall out.
-Age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
-Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you a mechanic.
-Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
-If you must choose between two evils, pick the one you’ve never tried before.
-My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
-Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
-It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
-For every action, there is an equal and opposite government program.
-If you look like your passport picture, you probably need the trip.
-Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
-A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
-No husband has ever been shot while doing the dishes.
-A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.
-Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places.
-Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
-Junk is something you’ve kept for years and throw away three weeks before you need it.
-There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
-Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
-By the time you can make ends meet, they move the ends.
-Someone who thinks logically provides a nice contrast to the real world.
-Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they shall never cease to be amused.
-When you eat a candy bar or have a wonderful dessert, have a diet drink. The calories are cancelled out by the diet drink.
-I love deadlines…especially the ‘whooshing’ sound they make as they fly by.
-When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.
-What was the greatest thing before sliced bread?
-A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.
-The cost of living hasn’t affected its popularity.
-How can there be self-help ‘groups’?
-Is there another word for ‘synonym’?
-The speed of time is one-second per second.
-Is it possible to be totally partial?
-What is another word for ‘thesaurus’?
-If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales?
-It’s not an optical illusion. It just looks like one.
-Is it my imagination, or do buffalo wings taste like chicken?
-Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.
-Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
-Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
-Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors, and miss.
-Cooking lesson #1: don’t fry bacon in the nude.
-Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
-Eat a live toad in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.
-If life gives you lemons, squeeze the juice into a water gun and shoot other people in the eyes.
-If you’re not part of the solution, be part of the problem!
-If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
-If you can’t beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing.
-If you lend someone $20, and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
-If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.
-If you try and don’t succeed, cheat. Repeat until caught. Then lie.
-It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
-Never buy a car you can’t push.
-Never pet a burning dog.
-Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you don’t have a leg to stand on.
-Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig.
-Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
-The early worm gets eaten by the bird, so sleep late.
-There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives.
-There are very few problems that cannot be solved by orders ending with ‘or die’.
-When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
-Everybody is somebody else’s weirdo.
-If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously not understood the danger you are in

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