Remember the mainland?

I logged into the virtual world only to find that my land was flooded with obscene pictures from a particle attack in the sim next door. (Both my sim and the other are in a PG area). I consider myself a friend with the person whose land was being attacked, but no one is available for me to contact to help clean up the mess. In this case, all I can do is file an abuse report and “hope” that the lindens don’t have a large queue of reports before they get to mine. Even at that, they may not even decide to come. As far as improving the quality of mainland, there needs to be a faster reaction time to particle attacks and a few other forms of abuse.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Bolinas using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Touch my planet

I like to use my GPS device to play games such as GeoCaching. I thought about bringing the fun of finding GPS coordinates into the virtual world. With the new detected touch methods in the scripting language, I can now tell what area of a sphere someone had touched. I then convert the UV coordinates to Coordinates. This is great for sending ICBM gifts to fellow neighbors and friends! I then was able to convert directly to degrees, minutes and seconds for both longitude and latitude. Future ideas are to make a themed map of the earth, identify locations by name, and display push-pins on the globe.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Hooper using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Mind in Overdrive

Have you ever been burnt out so much, but that your head keeps you going? I mean, I’m actively pursuing new stuff, but my eyes ache, head feels a bit numb, not getting much sleep (couple hours a night), body aches, and i can feel my psyche getting ready to collapse into depression any day now. Problem is, brain is engaged in overdrive to very interesting stuff, as well as things that absolutely need to get done (move fast). I keep putting off sleep thinking I’ll finish in a few minutes. I try to sleep, but i lay there for hours just thinking too much. Zzzz… zzz.. zzz.. …. Oh! What? What am I doing sleeping? I got to get things done. *Yawn* Let’s Go!
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Hooper using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

The Answer of Land Cutting

Today, Linden Labs has announced on their official blog that they are attempting to clean up the mainland by creating new policies on small parcels (See The Question of Land Cutting). This primarily focuses on the process of purchasing a parcel and dividing it up (land cutting) into many 16 sq. m. pieces (checker boarding) and reselling it at a higher price. The after affects of this is often that one of the parcels are not sold and becomes fragmented becoming a donut in the middle of larger parcels or a corner stone over time.

Not many people want to purchase these parcels except for adjoining parcel owners. In this case, the price of the 16 sq. m. parcel is then raised to an unreasonable rate (equivalent to tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, and even billions of US$). In other cases, the parcel owner of the 16 sq. m. parcel practically abandons it without a sale price and will not agree to swap it with owners who surround the parcel.

I personally own land on the mainland that surrounds a 16 sq. m. parcel. The owner will not swap land with me to remove the hole. I cannot build over top of the parcel without risking an abuse report for building over someone elses land. There are actually many fragmented parcels in my region that are 64 sq. m. in size or smaller.

After reading through the information posted by Linden Labs, I have formed many ideas and suggestions regarding the formation of the policies that are still being drafted. Hopefully, my suggestions may provide some insight with problems regarding small parcels, or solutions that are easy to implement. Keep in mind, these are not all to be implimented together. Some of them contradict each other.

Only permit residents to have a maximum of 4 parcels that are 64 sq. m. or less on the main land.

• Prevent subdivision if the number of small parcels will be exceed
• Prevent purchase if the number of small parcels will be exceeded
• Prevent deeding to group if the groups small parcel count will be exceeded

Only permit 1 small parcel per main-land region.

• If I own one small parcel in a region, prevent purchase in same region.
• If any of my groups owns one small parcel in the same region, prevent purchase in same region.

Only permit small parcels to be sold at a standard rate or less per sq. m.

• This rate does not need to change each day
• This rate does not need to be tied directly to average rates
• This rate can be altered manually by Linden Lab daily/weekly/monthly.
• Any changes should be announced ahead of time with adequate communications.
• The rate could be forced to 0 L$ per sq. m.
• In addition, only permit any other parcel on the mainland (regardless of size) to be sold at a separate price capper sq. m. or less. As it stands, some 512 sq. m. parcels are for sale at 2,147,483,647 L$ (almost 8 million US$ or over 15,000 US$ per sq. m.)
• Prevent small parcels from being sold to anyone else except for parcel owners on the same region.
• If I dont have existing land in the same region, then I cant buy a small parcel.
• If I own land in the same region, then I can buy the parcel.

Allow parcel swap to allow orphaned parcels that are small to be moved to edge of surrounding owners land. This may also be known as a Swiss cheese effect, doughnut holes, or loops.

• Create utility that will allow someone to request a land swap.
  • Provide region/x/y of 16 sq. m. area
  • Provide x/y of second 16 sq. m. area
  • Notify owner of other property. If both owners agree, swap land between owners.
  • If no response is heard after 10 days, perform swap automatically.

Allow parcel owner of orphaned parcels to have first dibs on acquiring small parcels.

• Set parcel to sell only to surrounding parcels owner.
• Send message to surrounding owner 2 days ahead of time indicating that parcel will be available in 2 days if violations continue.
• Send message to surrounding owner the day parcel becomes available stating they have first dibsto purchase parcel.
• After 1 week of non-sale, set small parcel to be sold to anyone.

Announce in group chat or instant message (depending on type of owner), that a parcel is not in compliance along with the slurl.

• Announce immediately when problem occurs.
• Announce weekly when problem continues.
• Report abuse after 4 weeks on non-compliance.
• Transfer parcel to Governor Linden after 8 weeks of non-compliance.
• Do not allow adjacent parcels to be small.
• If I subdivide a parcel to be small, and a small parcel is located at its border (regardless of the owner), cancel the division.
• Force a set of properties on the parcel
• Force Edit Terrain to allow other parcel owners to address problems with terrain abuse on small parcels.
• Force object entry for all residents
• Force Fly
• Force Safe (no damage)
• Disable Show Place in Search
• Remove/Disable Snapshot
• Force Public Access
• Disable Selling Passes
• Do not block access
• Disable banned residents
• Traffic should not be counted
• Classifieds should be removed/disabled
• Limit sales to other neighbors in same region

Allow adjacent parcel owners in the same region to bid to take-over small parcels. If the owner of the small parcel cannot win the bid, then transfer the parcel to the highest bidder and pay the amount to the person who just lost the parcel.

Add tier tax

• For each additional parcel that is small, add an extra tax to the monthly land tier.
• If I own 4 small parcels at start/end of month, charge 1 US$ for each one.
• If less than X sq. m. is owned on a region, it will still be reported as X sq. m. when calculating tier.

Abandoned Small Land

• If owner has not logged into SL for 30 days, send them email warning
• If owner has not logged into SL for 60 days, send another warning
• If owner has not logged into SL for 90 days, reclaim land put up for sale

Present monthly statistics to public to show how bad the problem is

• Number of people with 100 or more small parcels
• Number of people with 10 or more small parcels
• Number of people with 1 or more small parcels
• Number of small parcels
• Number of regions with small parcels
• Number of regions with 5 or more small parcels
• Number of regions with 10 or more small parcels
• Average number of small parcels on regions (that have at least 1 small parcel)
• Average price per sq. m. for small parcels
• Percent of small parcels that are marked for sale.
• Percent of small parcels that are orphans within another parcel
• Percent of small parcels that are next to another small parcel
• Maximum number of parcels owned by a single person

Auto Join Parcel in same region

• When purchasing a small plot of land, present ability to join with existing parcel, even if not directly adjacent.

Reclaim/Move existing small parcels.

• If a small parcel exists in a mainland region, move all of its contents/settings to a special region set aside for small parcels. Keep objects, media stream, etc.
• Reclaim existing mainland parcel
  • Set owner to Governor Linden
  • Mark for sale only to existing neighbors for reasonable price.
  • Notify original owner that their parcel has moved to a new region with people that share the same interests and hobbies.
  • Let small parcel owners fight among themselves to buy up each others small parcels.
  • If original owner has multiple small parcels, set them next to each other when they are moved to special region(to allow easier joining)

Allow search to provide links to items listed on a parcel, rather than just the parcels landing point.

When owners of parcels opt to Abandon Land, prevent the land from being divided into 16 sq. m. pieces.

Using OpenSIM to demonstrate SL

Previously I’ve shot small movies of myself walking around regions to help demonstrate the capabilities of second life in a few meetings. The problem is, Second Life can’t operate behidn a firewall, so I make due with what I’ve got. I’ve tried out OpenSIM a few times in the past, but it was often unstable or didn’t have enough features for a good presentation. Lately, that has all changed. I’ve got a sim up and running on a laptop, ready to go – even without interenet access. I even setup a local website to demonstrate the capabilities of sending data back and forth. Ah, this is feeling great. I can’t wait for my next demonstration.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Nigorigawa using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

A return to OpenSIM

I just went through a few hours setting up an OpenSIM server to run locally on my laptop. I have had problems in the past getting this software to work, or have crashing issues. Tonight, everything was practically perfect. I was able to log in, change my appearance, modify the land and make a building with a court yard. I even made a few scripted objects. Not once did the software crash on me. I do have problems with trying to enable physics (or determining if it is available yet). For now, I’ve risen the land to be just below the floor of my building.

Qwaq CEO and future of virtual worlds

Listening to the founder of Qwaq walk through methodologies behind Qwaq. Almost time for the Q&A. Watch live on uStream.tv – http://www.ustream.tv/channel/virtual-world-sig
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Acedia using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

CEO of Qwaq in SL talks about the future of VW

Join us as we begin a new year at the Virtual World SIG – this time with remote collaboration platform Qwaq. We’ll have the CEO, Greg Nuyens and experienced users on hand for demos, Q&A, and as always, discussion of the future of virtual worlds. Be there and download a demo at http://www.qwaq.com in case we can meetup there! – MRO
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Acedia using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Residents in SL

Learning about companies in SL is pretty simple here. You click on a picture and you get a notecard about who’s who with the company, and what they do.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Vio using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Vio Seminar Series by Xander Newman

Xander Newman invited me to attend a presentation entitled; “Positioning yourself to attact RL companies as an in-world soltuions provider”. I invited my friend, Fleche Xeno to get in on the action. We started off introucing ourselves and our skillsets, or the companies that some of the clients came from.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Vio using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Free CSC Bike and Cycle Outfit

I was looking around and found a free CSC bicycle as well as a cycling outfit to wear. The outfit comes with a bike, helmet, shoes, shirt and spandex. CSC stands for Computer Sciences Corporation. They had sponsored a team of cyclists that run in many races including the Tour de France, often leading in winning positions.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Wonderful Denmark using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

What ever happened to MYSLShop?

About three years ago, I was introduced to MySLShop. It was simply another web-based storefront similar to Second Server, Apez.biz, Xstreet SL, and OnRez. Like so many others, the shop never really got a chance to take off. Oddley enough, it’s termals are still in-world accepting registrations and spitting back script warnings. The website for MySLShop is defunct as well. Gone are the pretty graphics. Now we just see a standard login dialog.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Drum using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

myslshop.com HotBox servers

A few boxes are still present, silently waiting to deliver the goods.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Drum using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Your brain on fish

This is what happens when your brain is on fish. You make … fish. Ok, so the single-prim model of a fish didn’t work out so great. The tokoroten tool was an interesting take on it. The problem is, I only have 32 points to work with. It also tried to make the full volume of the fish as a ball rather then rounding off all the edges. Pehaps I’ll take a look at Plopp again to have a crack at the fish idea. At least I’ll be able to paint it from the start.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Woodbridge using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Fishing Contest

After an hour of fishing, I’ve come into 23rd place. My guess is that there are only 23 people fishing. Interesting fun. I caught a few extra things like an inflatable fish and a waste basket. Rumor from other folks is that you can assemble them with other parts to create a hot-air fish balloon to ride around the island. The blueprints to build it are hard to acquire though.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Pala using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Linden Lab’s to UnRez OnRez

OnRez (a.k.a. SL Boutique) was the second web-based store that I had joined forces with on February 12, 2006. It is a little sad to see it go the day before I would start my fourth year with them. I found out today that it was purchased by Linden Lab and will be taken down perminately. It’s main competitor, XStreet SL (a.k.a. SL Exchange) was also purchased by Linden Lab, but will live on and be integrated into the in-world browser-based search engine. Although I didn’t get too many sales compared to XstreetSL, They were the more classy store with a great presentation. Time to unrez my onrez drop boxes. Funny how “u” is the next vowel after “o”.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Hooper using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

New Neighbors

Just checking out Jack’s developments on his garden.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Woodbridge using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

#1 Winnar!

I noticed that the 7Seas Headquarters had a bounty hunt sign posted on the far end of the docks. Above it listed the specific fish that was wanted – a Black Clownfish. I assembled an oceanography database from some salvage I had fished out over the past. I used a solar powered flashlight, a captains log, a glowing sea crystal, and a hydroelectric thingamagic with some blueprints. After loading up the fishes, I set it up to target the wanted fish. From there on out, it was just me an my sack of dynamite. After a while, I got the fish and a Shiny Medal of Victory with the words: #1 WINNAR! BOUNTY HUNT BETA TEST.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Flotsam Beach using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Sack of Dynamite

I caught a SuperUltraRare Fishing Rod today – a big sack of dynamite! Super Ultra Rare items are hard to get. This one was really worth the wait. When equipped, I am able to throw a stick of dynamite into the water (complete with throw/splash sound and throwing animation). After a short amount of time, BOOM! Fishies! Too bad I can’t see them all floating up on the water afterwards.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Woodbridge using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Twitter Box

Behold the awesomeness of the Twitter Box. Enlarged for demonstration, this product sits in the corner of screen as a HUD. It allows you to post messages to your twitter account from in-world. It also has the option to report your location automatically along with a link so that others may join you. Have a friend who needs help setting things up? You can pre- configure the twitter box before you hand it out to your friends. I still have a few things that I want to do to it. Maybe give the thing a different name and look. I also hope that the llTextBox commands become available soon to make configuration much simpler.
posted by Dedric Mauriac on Woodbridge using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]