Monday, August 16, 2010

Rail Jam 2010

By Lord Lisle


Once a year, many railway buffs of the SLRR Rail groups come together for their annual Rail Jam, a fun rail event. Usually held in mid-August, they show their latest engine (or other rolling contraptions..) on the public Main Line of SLRR starting at Bagha Station and eventually ending at Caletta Hobo Station. Passing numerous sims, this journey takes normally (under the best conditions and depending the speed of the engine) 45 minutes to over an hour. Obviously, with so many engines and avis taking part, during this event the speed was at times much reduced.

About 90 minutes from the start Moundsa Mayo of the Virtual Railway Consortium had counted 30 engines on the line, including 6 without a driver. The following snapshots are giving a good impression of the activity during the event, as spotted from different stations



Behind the steam engine, Stryker Jenkins, secretary of the VRC is driving his tri-wheel rail motorcycle


The first five pictures were taken at VRC Station Athetis, at that time the lag was rather mild and most of the engines were rather close together

VRC Trainspotting Station Achemon. Moundsa Mayo has found a splendid viewing point on top of the observation tower, waving at the passing engines

Close-up view of a brilliantly made steam engine, note the many detailed controls in the driver cabine!

This Roll-Royce was fitted with auxilary wheels to make it suitable for the SLRR track

Caletta Hobo Station: the end of the ride....

Saturday, July 17, 2010

ENVIRONMENTAL FLUIDITY COLLABORATION PROJECT

By Lord Lisle

The Caerleon Art and Education Sims in conjunction with the Virtual Art Inititiave invite you to experience a unique, entertaining and fascinating fun filled adventure at the Enviornmental Fluidity Collaboration Project.
Featuring original art and installations by Alizarin Goldflake, Artistide Despres, Banrion Constantine, Lollito Larkham, PattiAnne Daviau, Pixels Sideways and Wotthe Dickins, the widely diverse exhibits illustrate through numerous techniques the many facets of Environmental Fluidty.

As described by VAI director Georg Janick/Gary Zabel, "Envrionmental Fluidity is one of six aesthetic-technological dimensions that collectively distinguish the art of virtual worlds from earlier forms of art."

Janick/Zabel continues to further define Environmental Fluidity in his Theses on the Art of Virtual Worlds as such: " Envrionmental Fluidty is to the external virtual world what the protean character of identity is to the internal sphere. In Second Life, for example, the environment is constructed from graphical primitives and scripts that can be altered very rapidly. Constancy of environment is the exception rather than the norm. It is in the virtual world that Marx's famous observation about capitalist modernity first reaches fruition: All that is solid melts into air."

The artists of the Environmental Fluidity Collaboration Project set out to incorporate this idea and their own interpretations of Environmental Fluidity with art and installations that take visitors on a journey through environments such as AURALTOPIA that use only sounds as the artists medium to EVOTROPOLIS in which cities and towns change before your eyes to the EXQUISITE CORPSE featuring the PRIMOLATOR -- an interactive collaborative building project in which visitors are invited to participate and determine the outcome that will continue to change throughout the run of the show.

As you explore and enjoy discovering the diverse array of interactive, reactive, kinetic and fluid art throughout the exhibit, you'll find surprises around every corner and opportunities to become a collaborator as well.

Welcome to the Environmental Fluidity Collaboration Project. From this main landing, you begin a journey thru several unique art exhibitions -- many interactive -- that illustrate various aspects of Environmental Fluity. Explore, experience & enjoy! Caerleon Isle/149/150/28/ The EF artists gathered round in a circle, a cube at the center. Additional info and free stuff awaits. Touch the sculpted artists to receive info and witty remarks. :-) Touch the cube in the center to receive a folder of free stuff. Check out the additional information around the pyramid including other Second Life artists' work that incorporates envrionmental fluidity.

As it would take too much space to cover all the exhibits, I just would like to show some items of the RED CUBE: Professor Dickins Amazing Shrinking Machine by Wotthe Dickins

Professor Dickins Amazing Shrinking Machine by Wotthe Dickins: '.. sit on the green ball at the desk...'
.. my avi is shrinking to the size of the artists on the desk...

Assignment: clean LCD. ....at the wrong side of the monitor glass..how to get out?

..to be a sexy pinup, click on the cork board...but this is NOT what I had in mind...

A ride on the mouse is jolly nice at moderate speed..

THIS is what happened later when the mouse went to turbo speed...help!

Eventually I managed to climb on the mouse again and to type the CPU that I want to go down!

The instructions are clear enough: eat cookie to de-shrink....

JUST a final snapshot taken at another exhibit

The ENVIRONMENTAL FLUIDITY COLLABORATION PROJECT opens July 4, 2010 - 12:00PM/noon SLT and runs through July 2010. For maximum enjoyment, we suggest you detatch any worn scripted objects and turn off AO's prior to arrival. CaerleonIsle/150/150/27

Sunday, July 4, 2010

SL7B: An impression

By Lord Lisle

Another Second Life Birthday party is over. I enjoyed myself whilst visiting most of the entries: some were plain shameless advertising for SL and RL services, others hastily put together, but the majority were a pleasure to spend some time and enjoy the wonderful creations. I am certainly looking forward to SL8B :-)

Attending the opening speech by Philip Linden

Philip Linden does not seem to have changed over the years :-)

An impressive sculpture of a Route 66 scene (just look at me standing just beside the biker's boot)

This entry to SL7B was a fascinating creation by Lorin Tone and Madcow Cosmos entitled 'The Sound Garden'. Lorin is standing in the centre of the photo wearing a huge black hat


Another creation by Madcow Cosmos in 'The Sound Garden' at SL7B




A demo of SL 7th Birthday Expo build for 2010, 'The Sound Garden'. Lorin Tone play the garden in an avatar made by Frofidor Niekirk, and it dances pretty well! Just a few of the thousands of musical combinations that are possible.

The 'Bodied Words' entry


'Mermaid Temple', a beautiful display of mermaid sculpties in a large fountain. Note the shoal of coloured fish


On the last day of the opening of SL7B I had the pleasure in attending a classical concert by the Yokohama Marching Band



Courtney Linden admiring a Chinese lantern in one of the many gardens in SL7B

Monday, June 21, 2010

Second Life 7th Birthday June 2010 SL7B

by Lord Lisle
This week the celebrations for the 7th birthday of Second Life will be held. Spanning 21 sims with over 700 contributors, over 300 exhibits, over 300 live performers and speakers with special speeches from Philip and M Linden, SL7B is a showcase for the accomplishments and content of all SL residents, celebrating the “life” of Second Life.

Sponsored by Linden Lab, this year's theme is “Unexpected Collaborations,” a celebration of the unique character of our special world. With an emphasis on the social networks created through Second Life and the chances for creative and productive collaboration, the celebration will go on from June 21 through June 27

It started the first year as a parade through mainland sims, with Philip Linden giving a speech over their newly connected media stream. Each subsequent year it has become more elaborate, more spacious, more compelling as the technology of Second Life has increased and the creativity of the residents has bloomed. Enjoy with us this year live musicians and DJs, exhibits, media-on-prim, and machinima.

This is the world we've made: let's celebrate!

In a sneak preview I tried to capture a bit of the atmosphere: enjoy your visit, being one of the major events, its almost compulsory.



You may start your visit HERE: SLB7 Welcome Area, SL7B Unique (6, 59, 23)


June 21—10:00 a.m. SLT: Gates open to the public for the opening ceremonies. Scripts and build disabled throughout estates for the duration of opening ceremonies to discourage instances of lag and disruption. They will be turned back on after the opening speech.

11:00 am. Philip Linden speaks, opening the celebrations.

June 23—The Birthday!
9:00 am slt. M Linden speaks.

June 26—Official Closing Ceremony.

June 27—Last day of entertainment.

July 3--Gates close. Sims will be locked.

Useful links:

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Trains...a follow up

by Lord Lisle

Driving on the SLRR track last night I spotted a demo train rezzer near Athetis station on the premises of Rescue Japan at Spini (162, 218, 81) , a build by Myuki Mills, presented by eflora Kidd.
This demo turned out to be a very nice engine with a stable script and more important: once the speed is set there is no need to hold your finger on the keyboard to keep it running. Although it can only be rezzed on the SLRR, it is certainly worth a try!


Still further up the line you can fetch another free steam engine (presented by Myuki Mills) at M's R&D, Neumoegen (124, 208, 66). The effect of steam and smoke whilst at full speed is a nice feature. This is again an engine with a stable script , although you may loose your engine rapidly (no copy, so grab a spare one..)



Friday, March 26, 2010

Trains and boats and planes or The SLRR Railroad Track at Heterocera Atoll

By Lord Lisle



It was this song performed by Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas (and later by many others including Cilla Black) in about 1963/64 when the Mersey Beat was at its top, which sprung into mind when I made a tour on Second Life Railroad (SLRR) track on the Northern Continent.

During every clearing of inventory (we should do this far more often don’t you think?) I came across that nifty little freebie ChibiTrain steamloc which I really could not throw away, so each time I made a mental note to make a test ride with it.
Whilst making a casual visit to HoboLand and district I spotted a map of the large railroad tracks in SL and in particular the Main Line of Heterocera Atoll and its Branch Lines build by the Virtual Railway Consortium (VRC)

At last having found a good way to make a start, I did not waste more time and rezzed my freebie steamloc at Bhaga Station (Station No. 16 on the map above) and chug-chugged along the whole Main Line which went particularly well through most of the sims (except one place where I crashed and at another place where the funnel of my engine appeared to high for the passengers rail crossing bridge).
Arriving at Tuliptree Station (Station No. 1) I took Jer Straaf's ferry back to Bhaga Station. The latter appeared to be a most relaxing and pleasant SL sea trip.
Although my preference of SL transport is by airplane or helicopter, I am inclined to say that driving a SL steam engine is exciting and very relaxed. Eventually I purchased a new engine (at a reasonable sum which I just could afford) having a different script than the freebie engine which made quite a bit of difference in its stability.

There is of course much, much more to tell about SL railways and its huge community maintaining the tracks. Therefore I only can suggest to obtain a free ChibiTrain personal locomotive at ‘Around The Atoll’ Lunalis (14, 83, 94) at Station 9 (see a picture of the station above) and discover the SLRR track yourself. Whilst at Lunalis, take a free SL Railroad Landmarks notecard, this provides up to date information and LMs of all the SLRR stations, SL railway tracks and other tips and tricks.

You may want to rezz your newly acquired train at Station 16 at Bhaga Terminal, Bhaga (103, 39, 28) or Station 1 Tuliptree (151, 156, 31) but of course any other station can be choosen (I found out that rezzing a train is not possible at some stations)

At the SL Railway Consortium (SLRC), Tuliptree (137, 167, 29) you can fetch an engineers cap from a free SLRC recources kit. Very close to this place at Tuliptree (76, 135, 30) you will find very useful maps on railways (here I found the map depicted above)


This is the freebie ChibiTrain on its way somewhere along the SLRR track

The steam engine I eventually purchased seen high on the cliffs on the SLRR track

This ferry brings you from Station 1 to Station 16. Embarking point is Tuliptree (175,203,22) just click on the sign Boat ride to Bhaga Station. Arriving at Busiris Terminal at Urban Ghetto, follow the signpost Bhaga Station 150M North showing the way to the station.

Have fun and wear a suitable outfit......

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Impression of the 6th Anniversary Parade in Nova Albion

By Lord Lisle

The 6th anniversary of the Nova Albion sim has been celebrated on the 20th of March 2010 with a parade which was visited by numerous avis. Nova Albion was Second Life’s first official city regions to be created on 9th March 2004.
Due to RL commitments I was not able to watch the full show, so here is just an impression of part of the parade and some of the spectators/organisers
The start and finish of the parade


This wonderful creation of Madcow Cosmos, driven by Lorin Tone was tmho one of the highlights of the parade


Pituca FairChang was amoung the spectators

Here I had to leave due to RL and the lag