07 05 2008 Building

07 05 2008

Building sandbox greeter etiquette graphics card driver error I am reluctant to do this. This building thing. I'm not sure if I'm afraid that I wont be able to (which makes very little sense) or if I'm unsure of committing to buying land. I don't know what the reluctance stems from. But I'm doing it anyway.

I'm in my lab. A PC is logged on. My av is sitting on a deckchair in 'cork' (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Cork/169/189/41) waiting for me to start. Chapter 7 Second Life Official Guide starts with "If you have used other 3D modeling software in the past..." There is so much out there that I am unfamiliar with. They mention maya and lightwave. I'm looking up Safari books. I think I need to find a public sandbox. Fnding one is another thing. so I search for a popular place. most are flea markets, free lindens places, skin, shape and clothes shops. I listen to some Jazz (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jades%20Jazz%20Island/16/201/32). I search All for public sandbox. I go to the first one on the list (the second is a mature content sandbox). I miss the jazz. I liked the jazz. It would be cool to bring someone to the jazz, I think to myself.

So now I'm at a public sandbox (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Solang/173/13/34). A Public sandbox greeter tells me:
[3:29] Public Sandbox Greeter: Please Clean Up after yourself before leaving. Your mother does not work here!
[3:30] Public Sandbox Greeter: The Public Sandbox is fairly large. Please don't build in this greeting area.
[3:30] Public Sandbox Greeter: Use of Cagers and Orbiters are PROHIBITED! Report Violations to PSG members.
[3:31] Public Sandbox Greeter: Welcome to the Public Sandbox!
[3:32] Public Sandbox Greeter: No Selling! The Public Sandbox is NOT a Mall. Please do NOT set up shop here!
[3:32] Public Sandbox Greeter: The Public Sandbox is fairly large. Please don't build in this greeting area.
[3:33] Public Sandbox Greeter: Please Clean Up after yourself before leaving. Your mother does not work here!
[3:34] Public Sandbox Greeter: Use of Cagers and Orbiters are PROHIBITED! Report Violations to PSG members.
[3:34] Public Sandbox Greeter: This is a PG area. Please NO Nudity, Indecency, Violence and/or Profanity.
[3:35] Public Sandbox Greeter: Sound effects can be fun, too much can get annoying. Sound-spamming is unwelcome.
[3:36] Public Sandbox Greeter: No Selling! The Public Sandbox is NOT a Mall. Please do NOT set up shop here!
[3:36] Public Sandbox Greeter: Combat is NOT allowed here! Please find other PvP or Combat Places for that!
I need to get permission to use chat logs...

While this is happening, I'm looking up F1 help which very quickly tells me how to create a Landmark for the sandbox (basically a bookmark). It's just World | Create landmark here.

Shite, the screen on the PC has just gone blank. The resolution is ruined. A message says "The ialmrnt 5 driver has stopped working normally. Save your work and reboot the system to restore full display functionality. The next time you reboot the machine a dialog will be displayed giving you a chance to upload data about this failure to Microsoft". Some web searching reveals that I should update graphics card drivers. I can probably do this myself. But I prefer to ask tech support to do this for me. Not much point continuing until I sort this out. One hour spent on nothing. There is no point continuing until I sort this out. And anyway, I'm meeting a student at 12.

Ooh, blogger just crashed. Again. SO glad I'm working in notepad too!!

2pm
I had to look up a way to identify the graphics card (Intel 82945G Express Chipset). I typed dxdiag into Run. I now have to double check the operating system (XP Professional). I'm not sure if I should be updating with a generic Intel driver or a Dell driver. This is not fun. The labs are probably different again. And I still need to talk to Bob about testing in the labs. All this before I even create my first prim!

5.40pm
I've contacted Bob at Phil's request. He says support for SL in the labs is unlike. he points me to a useful 30 minute video. Very cautionary clip. Legal issues. IP issues. Copyright issues. The word litigation comes up a lot. Now I happen to be one the few people I know who still concerns herself with copyright infringement but it hadn't occured to me that by forcing students to use SL, I was forcing them to accept user agreements and terms of service that have implications for their own IP and I also hadn't considered that even by using this blogging tool, my information can be used by Blogger. That's a scary thought.