Rockit a success
August 13, 2007
Veteran Aussie SL resident Wolfie Rankin held his first instalment of ‘Rockit’ this evening on Eragon island. A cross between and RocKwiz, close to thirty people turned up to watch. The two teams of four were selected from the audience after an initial round of questions. Then, a number of rounds followed including audio and video questions.
Team 1 consisted of Profit Enoch, Good2 Go, Angsty Rossini and some nerd from an Aussie SL news blog. Team 2 contained Roget Qinan, Diag Anzac, Noah Millgrove and Kalliee Tomsen. After 90 minutes of battling it out, Team 1 took out the night on 195 points to Team 2’s 170 points.
All-in-all it was one of those community events that everyone enjoyed. Hopefully there’ll be a follow-up as the general consensus was it was an enjoyable, interactive event. You can never have enough of them in SL.
(Disclosure: Yours truly was said nerd who ended up on winning team)
Popularity: 5% [?]
Ongoing grid issues - how geography bites
August 12, 2007
The explanation by Linden Lab of ongoing grid stability this week is fairly technical but it once again illustrates the significant technical hurdles Second Life has to jump over just to function normally. Add to that the geographical distance and sub-par broadband in Australia and it’s not hard to see why we’re a frustrated bunch at times.
At a forum in May this year, we were told international servers would occur “real soon now” by expatriate Linden, Chris Collins. Here’s hoping “soon” involves the year 2007 - as voice in SL increases in popularity, the issues are only likely to exacerbate.
How have you found stability over recent weeks - worse or about the same?
Popularity: 4% [?]
The Pond gets brief mention in Telstra financial results
August 11, 2007
I noticed that Telstra’s Second Life presence, The Pond, got a brief mention in the end of financial year profit announcement from Telstra head, Sol Trujillo:
“For the fourth successive half we have increased our retail broadband market share and absolute broadband
revenue growth outweighed the fixed line decline for the first time. Innovations such as our Web 2.0 I-Pond
user interface, BigPond TV and a Second Life presence not only enhance BigPond’s formidable customer
value proposition but also represent further steps in our integration strategy and our evolution into a media-
comms company”.
As we mentioned a couple of weeks back, The Pond are offering land rentals, which I’d imagine will make the presence more profitable. When I dropped by during the week there was already a fair amount of activity:
If you’ve decided to rent from Telstra, we’d love to hear from you about what specifically attracted you to the proposition?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Weekend Whimsy
August 10, 2007
Each Friday we provide a sampling of content generated by SL users and posted on services like YouTube:
1. THE DOGS graphic novel promo
2. Magic Mushrooms Episode Part I
3. Greyfox in Second Life (Fox On The Run)
Popularity: 4% [?]
The Neil Young Archives
August 8, 2007
Zak Claxton’s Neil Young Archives is a compact but effective tour of the artist’s work. You can listen to some of Young’s work whilst browsing the visual discography or replicas of Young’s favorite instruments.
Zak Claxton’s take on it all:
“Neil Young is a personal favorite musician and songwriter of mine, as well as someone who has embraced change and technological advancement throughout his long career. After about eight months as an SL resident, acquiring some building skills and so on, I decided that building a tribute of sorts to an artist for whom I have the utmost respect would be a good use of my time in SL. Plus, I felt that other residents of SL who happen to be fans of Neil Young would really enjoy visiting and learning more about him.
BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE.
I’ve named the area “Zak Claxton’s SL Neil Young Archives” for a rather tongue-in-cheek reason. In case you’re unaware, Neil and his team have been working on a massive project called the Neil Young Archives for many years, beginning back in 1991 I believe. The latest incarnation of the Archvies is a 2-DVD, 8-CD set of music and media collected over Neil’s career, with over 40 years worth of rare and unreleased material included. Unfortunately, the project has been delayed for over a decade while Neil tinkers with it. It was actually just daleyed yet again, with the most recent date being early 2008 on Reprise Records.
In any case, my SL Neil Young Archives was built as a true labor of love. I don’t intend on selling anything there through which I could profit, even on the microscopic scale of Second Life. It’s my goal to merely give SL residents a place to enjoy Neil, his music, and explore the mystique around one of music’s most enigmatic icons. It was built with the highest level of respect.
Lastly, while I’ve just begun announcing the SL Archives’ existence, I don’t feel it’s anywhere near complete. It’s a slow process for me (I have things like a job and a family to take care of while I’m not playing around in world), but I will be continuing to add to and build on the SL Neil Young Archives for quite some time. I hope people really dig it. If I do it right, even those who aren’t fans of Neil should find the environment a nice spot to hang out in SL”.
There’s also a machinima tour of the exhibit:
(Disclosure: Zak Claxton is part of SL Coyote that advertises at times on SLOz)
Popularity: 100% [?]
Lake View Waters Fishing World
August 7, 2007
If fishing’s your thing, you can get a small taste of the virtual version at Lake View Waters Fishing World. It’s owned by Australian SL resident Stephen Carpenter.
To fish you just need to pay L$1 to buy a fishing rod and then L$2 for each fishing attempt. Each ‘fish’ you catch is an object or money prize. I had two attempts and got a gun on one of them. It’s more a lucky dip than fishing simulator and would work better over a larger area, but it’s a different activity all the same.
Popularity: 2% [?]
The Great Barrier Reef and Whitsundays
August 6, 2007
The Great Barrier Reef in Second Life is part of a wider group of islands including the Whitsundays. Australian SL resident Sebastian Oxide summarises his aims with the islands:
“I hope to offer fair land deals for Aussies but also for all SL residents who seek a nice, “no-drama” regions. I am also working on an Environmental Project where I hope to raise awareness on the issues facing the Great Barrier Reef and to educate people about this important spot on our globe. By simulating the effects of global warming, pollution and fishing on the reef you will be able to visit the reef in Second Life and see the effects that might take 50 years in the real world under a week. In a way, this is why I joined Second Life”.
There’s a website devoted to the environmental project and it’s follows another worthy environmental project we’ve covered previously.
Popularity: 8% [?]
