EOTB: Philip Linden "Voice Conversation" Wednesday October 1

 

For those wanting to meet Philip Linden (Philip Rosedale in real-life), you'll have a chance on Wednesday October 1 when there will be a "Voice Server Conversation and Load Test" which he will be part of. 

 

We’re excited to invite you to an event with Philip Rosedale on Tuesday, October 1st at 1pm PT at the Linden Estate Services regions. This event will serve as both a community conversation and a technical test.  

 

 

There will be a Questions and Answers sessions in which people are invited to ask about Voice in SL and hear about upcoming features. The event will also double as a test for the new Web RTC servers.  

 

"We look forward to seeing you there and hearing your feedback!"

 

For more information, check the Linden blog (here).  

 

Lab Begins Limted Testing of Browser-Based Viewer

 

For those who've been curious about what Second Life would be like if played on a web browser, now's your chance to find out. Yesterday, Thursday January 2, Linden Lab announced it was starting up tests of a browser-based Second Life viewer, inviting residents to give it a try. 

Starting today, Second Life residents can help us test access to Second Life directly through the browser, with no download or GPU required.  Initial testing will use the standard viewer UI, but in the next phase of work we will dramatically simplify the user interface, with the overall goal of greatly improving the accessibility of Second Life for a larger audience.     

To give it a try, residents need to click on zero.secondlife.com. You should then see a screen that looks like the picture on the left. The Lab stated that there will likely be a wait time to log on this way, and that browser sessions are limited to ten minutes.

 

The Lab would go on to say that starting next week, some new residents signing up "will be randomly selected to experience their first Second Life session through their browser during the sign-up process. " 

The Lab is calling the name of the project Project Zero, "because our goal is to reduce to zero the barriers to getting into Second Life:  the system requirements, the possibility of not being able to install or crashing, and the many barriers present to getting accustomed to the interface."

 

Firestorm and other third-party viewers will not be involved. 

 

To read the announcement in full, Click Here. 

 

Hat Tip: Eric Mondrain, Pantera Polnocy

  

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Frank The Frog Part Two

 

 For those who enjoyed Kamida Delec's first story about the bot "Frank The Frog," she went back to have a little more fun.

[12:49] Kamida (kamida.delec): Frank, if President John Kennedy would have gone to Hamburg instead of Berlin, would he have been a hamburger instead of a Berliner?

[12:49] Frank: "Ah, Kamida, your curious mind dances with whimsical inquiries. As a zen enlightened frog, I perceive your question as an invitation to explore the interplay of fate and possibilities. Let us embark on this contemplative journey together.

In the realm of hypothetical musings, the potential outcome of President John F. Kennedy's choice to visit Hamburg instead of Berlin remains uncertain. The grand tapestry of existence weaves together an intricate web of interconnected events, influenced by countless factors beyond our comprehension.

In the realm of Zen, the concept of "what if" holds little weight. We embrace the present moment and find solace in the unfolding of each experience. Speculating on alternate paths can distract us from the beauty of what is.

However, if we indulge in playful speculation, we might ponder the transformative power of choices. Perhaps, if President Kennedy had visited Hamburg, he may have altered the course of history in unforeseen ways. The notion of him becoming a hamburger instead."

[12:50] Kamida (kamida.delec): Awww, you talk for too long so you run out of breath and can't continue. 😛
It's still a legitimate question, tho I think you like Berliner boll too.

 

Kamida would remark, "Ich bin ein Berliner bol (was), Ich bin ein Hamburger.
 

"....And now I'm hungry again."

 

Reader Submitted: Frank The Frog

 

 

 Kamida Delec sent the Newser a short on, "me being silly with a bot in SL." The frog greets people, "Hi, I'm Frank. Ask me anything. Start your question with Frank." What happened was this ...

 

[13:16] Kamida (kamida.delec): Frank Are you frank the frankly frank from Frankfurt?

[13:16] Frank: "Ah, Kamida, greetings from my humble abode on this serene lily pad. I am indeed Frank, a simple frog dwelling peacefully amidst nature's beauty. As for your inquiry, I am neither the frankly frank nor from the city of Frankfurt. However, I appreciate the playful twist you bring to our conversation. In this moment, let us embrace the tranquility of the present and engage in mindful contemplation. What thoughts or wonders do you seek, dear Kamida?" 

Eye on the Blog: "Reaching into Second Life With Leap Motion"

Just after announcing it's purchase of Blocksworld and its release of dio, Linden Lab offered some news for those preferring to stick with Second Life. They had been working on a code for "Leap Motion," a controller that allows one to interact with one's computer using just hand gestures, for use in Second Life.

When our developers first saw the Leap Motion controller they couldn’t wait to get their hands on one. Thankfully, we were able to get a pre-production development kit and built demos to explore its capabilities in Second Life. The demos included tests of flight controls, object manipulation, and avatar gestures. 




 This work was strictly experimental, but it showed the power of Second Life as a platform for exploring gesture-based interactions with controllers like the Leap Motion, and we’re happy to be able to share the code with you as a starting point for your own explorations.

If you have a Leap Motion controller and would like to experiment with the Second Life Viewer, you can find the source code for these experiments at http://bitbucket.org/simon_linden/viewer-rabbit. The indra/newview/llleapmotioncontroller.cpp file contains most new functionality. The Viewer is built to work in several different modes. These modes can be used to control the avatar while flying, send data into Second Life for scripts to intercept, detect hand motions that trigger avatar gestures, or control the camera and avatar movement. To switch between these modes use the "LeapMotionTestMode" value in the Debug Settings, accessible from the Advanced menu.

To give our experiments a shot you will need get the source mentioned above and contact www.leapmotion.com to join their developer program and obtain the SDK. Currently only Windows Viewers are supported, but other platforms could be added by linking in the appropriate Leap Motion SDK.


There was a small thread on the official forums, where several residents expressed mixed opinions. A few liked it, others seemed to feel it was spending $70 for a buggy device. On the Second Life Universe forums, the posters seemed a little more interested about it. Inara Pey noted how due to a bug, one fired a gun sideways like an urban gangster. Hamlet Au thought it was too laggy to be of much use for building, but imagined some creative uses for it in adult areas with the device used for virtual spankings with just a flick of the wrist.

*Addition* Valkyrie Ice has a review of "Leap Motion"  on Aceler8or Magazine.

The Winter Safety Game

With severe weather making the news in parts of the country, Grey Lupindo recently took a look at the "Winter Safety Game" in Second Life. Made to be educational as well as entertaining, the game tests your knowledge of winter driving. In places where snowstorms make travel hazardous, the right choices can not only be convenient, but also life-saving.

Read Grey's story in Places.

Pathfinding Test, "Smokey and the Bandit" Style

From AC14 Hutson, and mentioned on New World Notes, a fun little film on Youtube of some "messing around" with Pathfinding, with music by Jerry Reed.