March 20th, 2008

Hello,

So I have scheduled a meeting at 11.00 with someone who sounds like she very much knows her way around Second Life. I'm nervous and have been trying to figure out voice chat in advance of the meeting so that I don't look like a complete nerd. It's not working and whilst playing with fullscreen and window mode (goaded into it by my shiny new 'Second Life for Dummies' book), I've just crashed Second Life altogether. And now the crash logger has hung.

So I'm editing preferences. It's all about computing resources. How far do you want to see? What kind of resolution do you want? How to deal with lag? It's all very technical. One option is "Show Avatar in Mouselook" (p. 27) and apparently with this you can look down and see yourself. Apparently, a lot of people go for this for the added immersion. It can give you a doppler effect.

I.C. has just joined me for a chat. Very exciting for me and fun. I'm feeling like a bit of an anthropologist. He is a newbie too. Stole his avatar from his son. He's Spanish.

A guy with a clothes shop has offered me friendship and is going to offer me a teleport? I am so in over my head. I got a teleport to Zora. He sells mainly underwear.

I kill some time, then I join Fli. We're learning stuff from her. She's very good. This morning's adventures have come in very handy. I have learned how to IM, how to add friends, how to teleport etc. It's all good.

So sin e for now folks

Newbie Chronicles Part One

So I logged onto SL

And was asked to upgrade
I said ok – then googled security breaches! Paranoid much!

Waited for my dance club to load…
Trees just appear like magic
It seems slow - but I believe that's my laptop's fault

I try to get a screenshot
I have to set my avatar’s position (up/down arrow keys), the camera position (left/right arrow keys) and then ‘zoom in’ (mouse wheel) to get my snapshot, but it’s still not perfect because I can’t ‘crouch’… no idea how.

I just got a script error warning…

I just “sat down” on a line dancing button
And now my avatar is line dancing
I laugh out loud
Then I think “who’s watching?” - As in, "who is watching my crazy avatar?"
Followed by “make it stop!”
Total accident - as great discoveries often are
Great fun

Second Life Survey

Hello all,

I have created a quick survey to try to find out how many educational institutions are actually using Second Life. It's at

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=JenimOChGLIOQj9hw2HifA_3d_3d

and I would love your help!

Thanks,
Niamh