Live Streaming Video of Second Life

I have mentioned Second Life before, and now you can see for yourselves with live streaming video of the world. I had seen someone called Video Linden in world at the welcome area (where all the new people first appear) and assumed it was the office peeking into the world for some collaborative reason. Turns out it's for ANYONE to take a look, well go on, I DARE you.



Second Life... but do you have a first one?

Reading Books in Second Life

I finally got to Plum in Second Life, so I could see for myself, the book reading machines. There were a few strange ones, but mostly they all centered around getting your avatar into a position where it kept out of the way, while the camera could see the text on the pages. There were a few multi-million prim machines there (prims being Second Life's basic building block and most valuable currency). However, the one I finally went for was the straight forward book shaped book, which you clicked on to turn the pages. Stop somewhere, drop the book, perform some camera-fu to see the pages clearly, and get reading.

The book in question is apparently free. You can download it here... my goodness, someone actually giving back to the world.. what ever next.... OWNING your own DVD's?!?!?

Oh and while I think of it, a message to people the builders in Second Life. Hey, remember some of us don't actually have 8 thousand prims sitting around doing nothing... textures, textures, textures, luvvies... they help you know...



Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
Only 5 prims

NOoooOOooo

I know it's been about a bit now, but I picked my favorites from the YTMND (You're the Man Now Dog) clones. This entire thing is taken from Vaders (rather terrible) exclamation after learning that it was HIM that messed up, during Revenge of the Sith. Imagine the dark overlord, remembering he left his briefcase on the train, and being REALLY upset about it. Well for my money, in the movie it sounded like he was practising in the bathroom for a really show-offy argument at work that day, and was a little embaressed once he started the whole, "Howl of imperial pain" thing.

The idea is to find something that when repeated is just a little strange, hopefully amusing. Remember folks I didn't make these, I just brought them to you.
Monkey Vader
Teenage angstyfied Vader
Not at all Vadery but still great, Laser Rave.



Hold on, I'm not ready you know

Jackson to go free

Looks like he got off... this time.. Seems the jury believed Mr Jackson.
10 counts and not one of them stuck. I wouldn't have fancied his chances in the big house. The Jackson household might sleep a little bit better tonight.

New News Reader at Krysss.Com towers

I used to use RSS Owl for my news reading, but discovered the Sage extension for Firefox. RSS Owl was nice, and it did everything I thought it should but Sage has a lot of features I didn't know about, and works so well.

The main one is that it is built into Firefox. RSS Owl, was a stand alone version which for some annoying reason insisted on using Internet Explorer as the page viewer, so no tabbed browsing there! Which as most people know, once you use it, it's hard to go back.

The part about Sage I like is that it integrates with the live bookmark feature of Firefox, so you can instantly add any available RSS feed into it. Sage has a bookmark folder of it's own and the addition is instant, meaning that you do not have to refresh, restart, or generally navigate away from the page you were at when you added it, to see it in the list. So if you go to Firefox's bookmarks you will see a folder called Sage, where they all are.

Viewing each entry was simple. Everything appears in a side bar. Different feeds at the top, and individual stories underneath. Clicking a feed, will bring all the latest articles in the main window, in smaller versions of the sites actual layout. So you can see all the articles as they would be present on the site itself, in neat columns next to each other. Or click a seperate article to get just the one large version of that story. Nice!




If you don't understand it, give it a try, you might like it

Podcast - Podcasting - Pod what?

I have been really getting into the whole Podcast thing of late. It really was after I saw an announcement that the now dead Screen Savers original lineup, were getting together to do a show online. This would be a Podcast of them chatting. No interruptions just some people who know their tech, telling it like it is.

Podcasts are similar to radio broadcasts (there are some are video ones too), but anyone can do them. They are simple audio files which you can listen to, nothing more than that. Anyone that uses a news reader to get headlines from websites would be right at home here. Put in the URL of the Podcast 'feed' and your program goes off and gets only the latest one. Then when ever the program checks, it can get the next show. You can trawl around your sites downloading the files directly, but thats if they offer them this way, and in some cases if they even have a website at all!

Software to help collect the shows.

A directory of Podcasts. I am sure there are a lot more, but this one can get you started. Plus look out for the Podcasts that may already be on your regular sites.

Stick these on your MP3 player, and you can take them with you and listen to the shows you like, when you like.

I had heard of Podcasting a lot, but never bothered with it. Now I have, its quite enjoyable. Although with everything else there is a lot of crap out there, some are nice. I will post some of my faves when I have really found something worth telling anyone about.

So basically, it's just a fancy name for a way of collecting a sound file.



You will need these, otherwise people around you will kill you for the crap that comes out of your speakers.. er, only sometimes

Quick post

I am trying to get a load of items down here before they become completely useless and/or out of date.

Star Wars III - Revenge of the Sith
Wonderful stuff, I can't wait to see it again. Amazingly arty scenes.

Ear Worm Number 1 (Rating HIGH)
Listen to this just twice to activate an entire week long humming and whistling, and with this particular song, even SINGING! Once you hear it, you will know what I mean, although are you brave enough to listen to it a second time?

Ear Worm Number 2 (Rating LOW)
You have to be into this sort of music to get it stuck in your ear, so perhaps about 10 listens before you get it stuck in there. Be warned, adult content, may not be work safe. Now who ISN'T going to click it to see that?

Wipeout Pure opening movie.
Just sit back and admire one of the best games series out there.
Browse the web with your PSP. It is much better than you would think. Works very well indeed. You move the directional pad to scroll around, and instead of a mouse, each link highlights as you get to it. Sort of like pressing the Tab key in Windows to move around buttons on screen, only easier to control. Getting to the web requires a copy of Wipeout Pure (heavenly choir included) and a wireless interenet connection somewhere. The only configoration is to give the PSP a specific DNS number (one of the many portals out there will specify this), which then redirects the Wipeout Pure online component, to a custom built page. Ultimately releasing you onto the web, and yes you can check your email with it. The PSP works great for these things, as you just switch on and go. Perhaps the first piece of equipment to deliver on all its claims, and even some they didn't actually make!

Open Source versus...
If you have been wondering what the Linux fuss is all about, but just don't want to leave the cosy Windows that you know and love so well, you may want to check out Open Source versus. It gives you a straight side by side comparison of what all these things look like. No trying to convey a probably genuine useful feature, with no frame of reference. Screen shots of what you know, and then screen shots of what you thought you didn't. I am still learning the basics, but on occasion when I am using it, I find I can stay in it all day with no real need for Windows at all. Something I never thought could really happen. Did I mention all this Linux stuff is free?

Star Wars Fan movie download.
Supposed to be good, although every time I think to get it, their servers seem hammered.

Microsoft Security Videos.
Watch these if you even think about switching on your computer, and yes if you are on a dial up internet connection, you too have to be concerned with nasties.

City Wide Wi-Fi concerns.
At last someone has said what I always wondered. There has got to be a ton of issues with giving free net access across a huge area. Wimax anyone?

Xiao Xiao
More wastes of time with great action.



Don't read this image explanation, click the links above and enjoy