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.

Biography

Currently…
I am Stuart Warf. An avatar who was born on the 2nd of May 2006 in Second Life. My avatar is an evil timelord who’s TARDIS was left stranded in this world remaining in the current timeline until I can escape this virtual world (In case you don’t know, Heres a Doctor Who Wikipedia Page). My hobbies include Physical Prim tricks, building and podcasting. I currently live at Podcast Island where the SLPN Studios lie.

A Brief History of Stuart Warf
I originally joined Second Life in 2006 when alot of the podcasting community discovered Second Life and thought that it had amazing potential, which they were correct but failed to see it and left when the eighties has-been left. During 2006 I, along with Gomem Desoto, formed a group called The Podmafia (the actual group name is The Pod Mafia), which later in August - September had 5 episodes of a podcast called The Podmafia Podcast, which originally was aimed at going around places in Second Life and teaching the masses about podcasting.

Then came 2007. In the early beginning I was partnered but that soon ended. So became my life of living. For a month I resided in SoHo, but for some reason I just didn’t like renting there. So I left but still hung out to see the crazy and wacky stuff going on there. It was around this time when I temporarily brought back The Podmafia Podcast for 3 episodes. Then came Life, Living in Nowhereville. From around March until August I rented land under Madison Carnot while hosting the Take it or Leave it at Nowhereville. This however stopped for me when Take it or Leave it ended. But that was short lived when Crap Mariner injected new life into Nowhereville shortly after the Second Life Woodstock event that took place in the Five Islands. During August Podmafia Podcast came back after troubled times and stayed strong with Yxes Delacroix as host. I re-rented at Nowhereville under Crap Mariner and continued to live there.

So in comes 2008, When I launched SLPN, a network dedicated to podcasts for the metaverse. During the year I continued to work on SLPN by bringing in new shows and new challenges such as live podcasting in Second Life. Up until July 2008 I had continued to live at Nowhereville. However after some thinking and a polite request I decided to leave Nowhereville and move to Podcast Island…

That’s the story so far…

Last Updated on the 18th of July 2008

Downtime Sucks

OK so Stuart Warf has not been in Second Life a lot recently…

So, in this blog entry I am going to be clearing things up with reasons (or excuses) to my disappearance.

• XBox 360 + GTA 4…
  It is a good game and it is quite addictive…apart from the annoying 12 year olds who use voice and scream down your earhole and grief the games…
• My PC is Broke’d
  Well…this really is the main reason why the disappearance of Warf happened.

  So, on Friday 9th of May 2008 my motherboard (after some other difficulties) practically died. After days of trying to diagnose the problem I pretty much figured out that it was a brick. But just in case, I contacted the MSI technical support via my laptop. It took them 6 days to reply… and the advice was pretty much useless.

  So…where do I stand now?

  Well I am looking for the reciept so the motherboard can be returned and I am hopefully going to be back online with my awesome machine by the end of the week.

So… While I wait for the conclusion to this chapter in my PC’s life, I will probably be doing some blogging and get some SLPN stuff sorted out.

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

Tonight Live on the 25th of November

Like any other Sunday, I finished the day up by watching Tonight Live with Paisley Beeb. There were some technical difficulties in the show with streams going down among other crazy happenings.

Like Crap dancing upside down on the cieling (or is that the right side up?)…

Yxes doesn’t like photos being taken while she is preparing for a show?

Starr Sonic

The KONA’s , Ravishal Bentham and GoSpeed Racer
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Woodstock Day #1 - PA SL Band - Edloe Act #1

Delayed after about 20-25 minutes due to some technical difficulties. PA SL band was the first performer on the Edloe stage in Twilight Gardens. They were playing live from Portugal and so since the UK and Portugal share the same timezone, i had an appreciation for them playing so late. After all it was 3:30 am.

Rich, Gomem and Stu swaying to the tunes…. The music was so good that Rich literally lost his hair

So after a great performance by the band…it was time for our next great performer…

To Be Continued!

Vendors and Vans

I woke up earlier today and decided to log into SL. I saw a lot of changes to the Woodstock stage amongst other things.

Firstly, Dario completed his van for SL Woodstock and looks fantastic in it’s surroundings and blends in very well with the forest. (looks better when set to night)

Then i noticed that a Vendor area had been set up while i was gone. Thank you Crap for putting up The Ten Cast on the wall and getting me some attention .

It must have been late in the US. There were avatars present such as Corey Edo, Torrid Midnight, Miss Sheep (TheDiva) amongst other people.

Another area with Dario’s van. This time it is on Los Arboles. With the Porta-Potty’s around as well. There is also a little area not so far away which…

Has two cool scuptured (not sure if there were sculpties used) people. Nice touch Banana.

Black Tie Martini Club Event

I wasn’t at this event today because i wanted to go get as much sleep as i can get ready for todays beginning of the Woodstock. However while i was there i got to talk some trash to Yxes to prepare for our big katana fight where I will win again…

Digg the pink hair?

The State of Podcasting Sims in Second Life…revisited

Since I last drew up a map of podcasting sims within Second Life there have been changes to the structure…so it is time to revisit the state of the sims. Also, the idea of unification of the podcasting sims as one total pile is bleak i believe there will be two main sectors of this. The Podshow + Pickle / Soho connection and the Podcontient (because of the size right now I dub it the Podcontinent).

Version 2.0 ^^ (click more for the original idea)

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