Donations

This is a kind of continuation post from my last blog post entitled The Greenies Problem. This entry is going to be about Donations.

If you ask me, it is entirely reasonable for any place in Second Life that offers an event to the public to have a donation / tip jar area for offering events or resources. When we look at something like the Greenies, they would likely make a lot more money from donations than charging an admission fee.

One example of an area in Second Life that offers free entertainment but gets donations is the Music scene. Every musician makes a good sum of money for doing the music and also the venues make money from it as well. The venues could easily say “You can’t get in without paying L$1000″ and in some cases they do when it is a big musician like Louis Volare.

Another place in Second Life that offers a service to residents is the Destination Station. Itazura recently added a tipjar for people to donate to. Again entirely acceptable because they make no money for promoting these places free of charge and is a hell of a lot better than any standard telehub.

Soon enough SLPN will be getting a donation jar as well and we have some cool stuff coming down the pipeline.

Harper Berseford made an interesting comment on my last blog post on the Greenies that I completely understand the point of view of.

“They have to insure the survival of their business so they can provide MORE content and pay the electric bill to keep the server running.”

Again, my argument has always been, If they people like it, they will be more than happy to donate. If I ever see a donation jar at a sim that is fun, helpful, informative, entertaining etc. then people will donate. Combine that with Merchandise (Greenies sells merchandise already!) then THEY will surely make money.

The Greenies Problem

I know this is old news but I feel like I had to write about this. A while ago on Podmafia we explored the Greenies sim which is an amazing build that all newbies and oldies should see. However they are now charging for entry into the sim, which in my opinion sucks.

OK L$99 doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but to a newbie that’s like L$1,000,000. When a newbie joins Second Life it can be a daunting experience and I think it is important to let them know about the good stuff quick so they can understand what is cool and possible about the virtual world.

What I’m trying to say is that Second Life builds when its a public place that you want people to visit should not be blocked off at all. The only times something should really be blocked off is a residential area or if someone has been banned.

When you think about the Internet  you get websites that need to be paid to gain entries to certain areas, most of which never really work out well. Second Life is entirely the same, people expect to visit somewhere and be able to explore it for free. Sure there’s a cost attached to it for the service provider but they can make money other ways like Donation kiosks that can help facilitate the venue or merchandise.

I’m sure that Rezzable is making some money from the Greenies but to be honest I think they are already successful enough to not need to offer a charge for admission. I’m sure events like the Hair Fair make them money and the Greenies has always seemed to me like a good promotion of what Rezzable does.

Basically, charging for admission in my mind is a stupid idea and if people start copying the idea then it will negatively impact Second Life.

I am sure most of what I said has been said before but I don’t care because this is my opinion that has been badly written. Also thanks to Dakota Blackmountain for pointing out a typo

Getting Somewhere…

For over a year I have been using an open-source piece of software called OpenSim which is a reverse engineered Second Life simulator. (If you don’t know what a simulator is, it is the thing that gives you land and prims and all that happy stuff). Ever since it was released I have always felt that those servers would one day interact with the Agni grid.

Another thing that I love about the OpenSim project is the ability to run your own simulator locally. This is great for a variety of reasons. Testing scripts outside of Second Life, Building Practice, Tutorials etc. I basically love OpenSim. There are a few problems with it i’ll admit. It is still unfinished in terms of physics, inventory and usability but this will all be ironed out in the future.

So, recently the main grid was able to connect to an OpenSim server, which of course excited the hell out of me. Then this happened to appear in my feed reader. Open Grid may still be in it’s early days but it is something that makes me excited for the virtual worlds. This obviously opens up so many possibilities such as independantly run servers.

I will continue to keep watching the space and finding out what happens with OpenSim because whatever it will bring. It will be a good thing for all.

Microsoft + OpenSim?

OK, so I heard something about Microsoft and OpenSim over the weekend but I didn’t really look into it. Then I saw Radar blogged something about it and since he’s a Mac user and it mentions Microsoft I decided to take a look at it and learn about this whole Microsoft thing.

Apparently Microsoft (And I quote from Mixed Realities) say:

Zain Naboulsi, a “developer/evangelist” at Microsoft looking closely at OpenSim, told the Reuters bureau in Second Life that the company seeks to integrate at least three of its free services into the evolving open source package:

• coding tool C Sharp Express;
• SQL server express, Microsoft’s database platform to handle OpenSim’s inventory calls;
• Windows Live ID, a identity-management tool.

OK, So C Sharp Express coding for Open Sim…good I guess
SQL Server Express for Open Sim Inventory calls…good I guess
Windows Live ID management….nope not good.

Why do I think Windows Live ID for Open Sim isn’t the greatest idea for Identity Management? Because it isn’t something I would want. I would much rather prefer something like Open ID. Maybe I am wrong on this opinion but because Open Sim is open, I’d rather it use something like Open ID for the interoperability between servers.

Am I wrong in thinking this? Is Windows Live ID all that bad?

If I am wrong then it may go back to the days when I used to use the .net passport system which I hated but had to use and it drove me nuts.

How do you solve a problem like Podmafia 50?

Hey Guys

I am currently in the process of uploading Podmafia Podcast Episode 49 and I have just started to think…

WHAT THE HELL ARE WE ACTUALLY GONNA DO FOR EPISODE 50?

So… I decided to throw something up on the blog and see if anything comes of it…

Here are a couple of ideas for shows we could do…

1. Top 5 Moments of Podmafia 1-50
2. A show where we reminisce on the past
3. Same old show

I am quite drawn to the whole Top 5 moments…but what exactly are the top 5 moments of the podcast.

More on the Dazzle

OK, so a previous post of mine about Dazzle got some traffic and I was informed that the idea of Dazzle is that it can indeed be skinned. Thats great. Infact Itazura Radio even linked me to some skins that are already being shown on the Second Life wiki.

After some prodding around on what it can do I’ve come to some conclusions and formed an opinion.

The current methodology of skinning is far too complicated for newbies and people who aren’t fans of editing code. I personally don’t mind getting around the code and copying & pasting stuff but some people just may not want to touch it.

Secondly, there appears to be no menu in the preferences that allows the changing of skins on the fly.

Also, there are no tools currently that could help people create and customise their own skins.

So here is my proposal on what I think needs to happen. Firstly, the Linden’s need to get their act together and bring in an easier system of importing GUI skins. They should do this by adding a new tab on the preferences called “Interface” or “Skins” (or anything else that describes it. Calling it just a Skin could confuse some people because of the avatar skins).

Next they need to implement a new structure on how skins can be stored. IE. SecondLife\Skins\* (* being the name of the interface)

Then the lindens should make a program that makes it easy for people to create GUI’s as easily as possible. If the lindens don’t do this then it should be fairly easy for someone to make a GUI application in something like Visual Basic .NET or whatever the tools are for the Macintosh. Preferably an open source tool since then its free for all and people can contribute and improve the code and stuff.

Thats my opinions for the designing. I personally don’t mind editing code but I would trade it any day for a simple little tool that can help me easily make a GUI for the new Dazzle interface.

Who needs to login anyway?

OK, We all know it. The logins were broked for an extensive period of time and yes it did indeed suck. However it wasn’t a problem too much for me (personally). A lot of my friends will know that I am indeed a Dr Who fanatic. Infact my avatar is not of Human based origin BUT a Time Lord (but that doesn’t really matter).

The point is that last night, Dr Who returned and with other things like YouTube the grid downtime did not affect me. However I shall now write some of my top tips for downtime.

1. Download Podcasts!
You don’t need an iPod to listen to any podcasts. All you need is something that plays .mp3 files and IF you don’t have one of those then you don’t have a computer that can run Second Life’s client. A lot of great audio podcasts can be found at http://slpodcast.net and no that is not just a plug. I’ve had people come up to me and say they listen to the shows at work/in-world/car etc. The point is there is some great discussions there for everyone. However if you like the idea of TV there is all those great video shows over at SLCN such as Tonight Live (which i am watching streamed live right now as I right this).

2. Read…
Another thing I was meaning to do was get through all my RSS feeds and stuff. If you like to read internet content but don’t like the hassle of entering in all those URLs there is a better way. Use a webapp called Google Reader. I use it personally and love it. What I do is tag all the blogs into certain categories like say “Second Life” or “Tech News” and as soon as a new entry is up it displays on my window to read. This helps me get up to date on all the news so I can find all the good content about things. That’s one of the things I do with podcasts. Go through all the junk and podcast it in a entertaining way if possible.

3. Get Away from that computer…seriously
Sure you need your SL fix but just step away from that monitor and get some of that good ol’ fresh air. I personally try to do a hell of a lot more these days because even though I am young…I really need to start getting out more. A lot of the time when nothings happening in the feeds or in SL for me, I just sit around. One thing I have been trying to commit more to is walking around. The area I live in is a village so theres some good scenery. What I do is A) Get my podcasts synced… B) Grab my dogs leash C) Go Walking…

I read somewhere that we as humans are naturally lazy and being the climate today we just become victims to it…

Theres a few things for some avatars to do while the grid is down and being broken. Also I mentioned in section 1 that I was watching Paisley Beebe. Well as i still write this the show hasn’t really started yet because of all those SL problems. If Linden Lab™ is wanting to make sure that it’s product is to succeed in the future they need to tackle the problems now. I predicted earlier this year (i’m sure I said this on The Podmafia Podcast) that this year was going to be the year when the Linden Lab™ was going to try and sort out all of the problems with lag such by rolling out things like Havok4 and Mono. Right now they are at the deployment phase. The next task is refining those tools in the real enviroment of the grid and getting to all work. At least thats what I think they are doing

Ebuyer Woes

It is very rare for me to do a blog entry on the Real Life, however recent times have prompted me to talk about the technology store Ebuyer and how it sucks for first time users looking to make a quick delivery!

Now earlier in the week one of my uncles came to my house (he only lives down the road) and was looking to get an iPod for my aunt’s birthday (the birthday has not happened yet, but they don’t have an internet connection so posting this blog entry is a safe bet…). The iPod he was looking for was a pink one. Luckily Apple introduced a pink version a couple of weeks back so it was all good.

We decided to try out ebuyer. I had heard about this site before and I thought it was a trusted source for a quick order. The delivery was set to arrive on Thursday and I thought, cool we can get the iPod stuffed with songs for a week and everything will be fine.

On wednesday we get a phone call asking about added Identity Verification. So I sent over ID proving who I was over email and it took about 17 hours for a reply saying UTILITY BILL UNVERIFIED. So I send another one straight away and after 24 hours there was no reply. I cancelled the order over the phone and thought to myself that this is not a good way to do delivery. It is not really user friendly for a first time user who wants to get something Quick and Easy.

Maybe I was just an unlucky one. But today I got the nano from a store and that was no hassle at all. The only problem I had (this is just stuff that bugs me…) was them saying that you need to charge the iPod up when you get home blah blah blah… in my personal experience of using 4 iPods… NEVER has one had no battery life. It was not different this time.

Anyway heres some photos of the pink iPod nano 8GB

Podcasting History

When I joined Second Life in May 2006, a large factor of my life revolved around the podcasting community. Along my journey in Second Life, I have had the pleasure of doing many podcasts. Alot of them went podfade (that means the podcast just shut down and died). Others continue to live on….for now. This page will document every podcast I have done with a brief description of those shows.

Current Podcasts

The Podmafia Podcast
The Podmafia Podcast is a weekly audio adventure with myself, Gomem Desoto and Yxes Delacroix. With varying topics such at the latest stuff coming to Second Life, shopping and many many other topics. Each week I record a show with these awesome co-hosts is amazing and makes me feel all happy and stuff.

Link to the Podcast

Building with Warf
This is the first ever video podcast that I have ever done! Building with Warf takes a unusual change to the way I do podcasts. I am for once teaching people something. In this podcast I teach people how to build in Second Life so that hopefully they can avoid the mishaps that many builds can be produced in Second Life and maybe, one day, people can start making a living in Second Life from skills they have learnt from me.

Link to the Podcast

Podfaded Podcast History

The Weekly Warf Show
A short lived attempt at a podcast about my virtual life. I quickly figured out that The Weekly Warf show would not work because who wants to know about some guy’s life. One thing that I have learnt about Second Life podcasts is that most of them are hard to do without a gang to do the show like Podmafia or Going Broke with Daphne and Tamara.

Psichonico’s Daily Podcast
This podcast was supposedly daily but it was more of a twice a week thing. A lot of it was a sort of secret parody of Daily Source Code (and eventually The Gomem Show). Most music-casters listen to the music and choose something good. I mostly would choose something randomly and very rarely would stop the madness. It was a bit like The Weekly Warf show where I quickly lost the will to do it but Gomem and his “podfade” comments somehow spurred me to do about 30 more episodes than I wanted to.

It had a very stubborn death…

Inside the Boxes
This is the first ever podcast that I ever decided to do. It started up in March 2006 when I first got a microphone and wanted to do a podcast. The show was based on the TV game show Deal or no Deal. Sadly the community I was creating it to had no clue about what podcasting is or was. So such a podcast was bound to tank.

The Ten Cast
The Ten Cast was a weekly technology news podcast in which I discuss the latest techology news in the world. Since I am a big geek I love technology and all the stuff that it creates. You can still listen to the show at PodcasterNews.com if you want to listen to the show.

No Longer Contributing To

MetaNews Weekly
In it’s short history MetaNews Weekly is a podcast revolved around the news of the metaverse. Originally hosted by myself and Gomem Desoto. After 3 episodes we decided to hand over the keys to Mal Burns and Tara Yeats. The show is currently on Hiatus until my machine returns and will then return in a Live Streaming format

Link to the Podcast

Appearances

Night Guy Episode 45
Guy David, host of the Night Guy podcast, invited me on to his show for the first of three episodes called “The Podmafia Chronicles”. We talked about some of the stuff that I was doing and also was the final podcast that I used a headset on since it pretty much died in the recording.

Link to the Episode

SL Under the Radar Episode 24
In this episode of SL Under the Radar, Radar invited me to talk about SLPN. I decided to do reverse psychology on the listeners to trick them in to thinking why the network was bad and make them visit in order to wonder why it was so bad…

I think it worked…

Link to the Episode

SL Under the Radar Episode 33
It was a week of change for me, I was working on moving SLPN to a new server and moving SLPN’s HQ from Nowhereville to Podcast Island and stuff. In the week I was asked by Radar if I wanted to be in a short interview and I accepted. I gave views on the SL podcasting scene but mostly the story of my Second Life.

Link to the Episode

The Black Tie Martini Club - A Cleveland Yankee in King Razzaps Court Over The Rainbow
In this episode of The Black Tie Martini Club Oddcast Caleb invited me to play a few roles. OK so i butchered it all up and could have done better but…I tried to make myself sound clear…and I think I was ill at the time…It was December after all…

Link to the Episode

Crap Mariner’s marathon of many many chats…
For some reason, Crap Mariner/Laurence Simon invited many people to chill and have a chat with him in the time limit of 15 minutes. I was first up in the episode and pretty much everyone was better than me but ah well. I advise you go listen to it if you want to have 5 hours of torture. It has an important message at the end i thought…

Link to the Episode

iPodjacker Episode Seven - Stuart Warf
Crap Mariner launched a new podcast called iPodjacker. It was launched when SL5B came around and he wanted a chance to talk to podcasters who have been involved with Second Life. I was glad to participate in this podcast. The series also features interviews with people like Wiz Nordberg, Rich Desoto and other great SL talents.

Link to the Episode

Metaverse Security Seminar

Last Saturday I attended a Metaverse Security Seminar that was held by the Justice League in Second Life. I was alerted of this event by an email from a fan of The Podmafia Podcast (and the email specifically asked me not to grief the event lol). The first 40 minutes was spent on introducing themselves and it then seperated in to three parts. A newbie course, A estate management security course and something else (remind me to blog after the events…not days).

I think this is the newbie course…

With all these superhero’s hanging around, it makes you wonder if SuperWarf will come on in flying to save the day! (SuperWarf has not been since the Edlantis incident)

The Introduction

I think we’ll be speaking more in depth about this event when we record the next episode of The Podmafia Podcast on Sunday.