Torley Lives

Some have observed the Release Notes in the SL Forums are behind the times—that's my doing, or rather, undoing. Apologies! I'm looking forward to 1.9.1 rolling out on Grid Agni so I can post the 1.9.0 in a single batch. Forums aren't very conductive to this type of thing.

Also, Oz informed me of Dyne Talamasca's contributions to the SL History Wiki. She even has a bio page, outlining her work. What a kickass team they've got. Read about Eggy Lippmann's proprosed plans for the future too!

Not longer than half an hour ago, I started repeating "the personal power of progress" to myself. Then, I googled for it, and came up with no existing matches (!). And it's caught on within me, but it's too good to keep contained. So, now's the time to spread the personal power of progress—I'd like to please share some of how I get things done:

• If you're on the market for a new monitor, I highly recommend the Samsung SyncMaster 204B, a flat panel. No, it's not widescreen—"just" 1600×1200. But it's at a good price point for what it gives, and I believe: the colors are gorgeous, the text is crisp yet not harsh, and apart from being useless to me pivoted 90° because of unacceptable color shifts, it's excellent. My ex-monitor (also a Samsung, but a SyncMaster 955DF) is weary, blurry crap compared to this. The 204B has increased my productivity and reduced eyestrain a lot. It was well worth shelling out a few hundred $ to alleviate the strain on my health!
   
  
• In conjunction, I put my Windows taskbar on the left of the screen. You right-click it and uncheck "Lock the Taskbar", then drag to move. I did this because the large viewing area of the 204B made it more difficult to see some things at the very bottom. It's good, because I can have a lot more "tabs" viewable. I'm not a massive multitasker, but I do have a lot of things going on.
   
• I've followed this model in Firefox, my chosen browser. I love elegance. I used to use IE, and then Avant Browser and Maxthon as shells for it, but they felt unresponsive, impeding my workflow. (The security holes are another issue.)
   
• I use the Charamel theme, which seems to be "under the radar" after all this time, perhaps in part because of the bizarre way the site gets redesigned with each subsequent version, but it deserves much better.
   
• I don't have many extensions, but since I work heavily with tabs, I'll also recommend: Tab Mix Plus and Vertigo, which add many configurable options to control tabs better, and Vertigo does the vertical tab magic. Make sure to read Johnathon Weare's article on how to get the two playing well together; I ran into some incompatibilities before setting them straight.
   
• YUGE convenience for me: I've set up Tab Mix Plus to select a tab when I've hovered over it for a few milliseconds. What's it save? A mouse click! Repeat by hundreds per day.
   
• To read aggregated ("collected all in one place") newsfeeds, I use Sage. It's simple and integrated. I don't check feeds compulsively, as that'd suck too much time. I usually check the list once a day, twice at most, and if I notice a blog hasn't been updated in awhile, I'll move it to an archive folder in my bookmarks. I use the Bloody Mary style because it draws attention, and mouseover on an entry highlights it—shame there isn't a watermelon one yet.
   
• My browser window resolution is currently 1242×1200. This takes advantage of my monitor's entire height, and the rest—beyond standard 1024-pixel width—is for the vertical tabs and scrollbar. A comfortable berth. Even with this, tho, I've abbreviated names in the bookmarks toolbar and have them divided up into sections. Commonly-used web tools like Zoho Writer, Photobucket, ImageShack (not as much) are up there, as are quicklinks to a new blog entry, new SL Forums posts and the search form (of which I've done thousands by now), and my Snapzilla, so I can copy-and-paste image thumbnails into here! I also have a couple toolbar folders for keeping track of work projects and frequently-accessed links, e.g. the Community Standards. Things get rotated on an as-used basis. Wish there was a way to count how many times I personally visited a page. Is there?
   
• I'm into a lot of Google things. I've been using Google Desktop for a little while now. I use the Scratch Pad more than anything else: I wanted to use Photos to keep streaming Snapzilla piccies to me, but I noticed it got stuck on old stale loops for some reason. My usage will evolve. I use Gmail for most of my email correspondence, and am starting to learn Google Calendar, altho the fact it doesn't integrate with Desktop to popup notifications even if my browser window is closed is a bummer.
   
• Gmail labels are a major timesaver. They're worth the extra effort to set up, because once you can start filtering, you can root down to what's important. I separate bugs from Radio Linden submissions from hot forum posts. I use the star feature a lot, and I've adopted this trick which Pathfinder Linden recommends: make a new draft for each email you intend to reply to later, especially the ones which'll require research.
   
• I don't check my email at regular intervals. This can be a major timekiller because it becomes so habitual and incessant. I will check frequently, but I've disabled Gmail Notifier (except for using its mailto: feature with Firefox) and am happier for it. I'd rather give someone the reply they deserve than a mechanical jam-and-cram. But where terseness is valued, I do this too. Over the years, I've been into authors with varied writing styles. Some of my passages emulate Stephen King, others Donald Trump, etc.
   
• When writing emails, I used to ramble on a lot more. Sometimes I still do this, but I'll usually go with what comes to mind at first, without proofreading, and hit Send. Stick to the main points, elaborate some, and mail it off. Think Reader's Digest's Little Sister, not War and Peace II: An Even More Epic Sequel. I don't regret this after having done it a lot, altho afterwards I may spot a typo, and wince over it—but in the grand scheme of things, it's not important. The ideas have been communicated, action has been taken. This also has the additional benefit of keeping me naive and honest about first impressions, both sharp edges and snuggly curves, without gilding the lily and making them placidly gray. Consider: "The things everyone knows, but noone says." SAY those things!
   
• I archive simply, based on a "YES/MAYBE/NO" reasoning that time shouldn't be squandered on deciding how to tuck something away. While I haven't used Google Desktop search to scour my computer, I have a big archive folder, with several categories within—nothing fancy, just things like "Pictures" and "Movies", or if I have a project with a lot of associated files that's just been completed, I'll put them all in the same folder. The same principle carries over to my Second Life inventory. For things I'm not sure I'd want to keep, I make a Temp folder. It's sort of the purgatory between the desktop and trash. I've backed up to DVD-R discs before, which have become incredibly cheap, altho I haven't done it on my current computer yet.
   
• I add keywords in filenames between brackets to make them more useable, almost a crude way of tagging. I do this to my SL objects too. For example, "Dog" can become "Dog (big friendly fluffy collar)". This way, I don't have to make a mess with lots of adjectives in front and commas to boot, and the brackets include the info but keep it visually separated.
   
• I believe it's alright to leave a few messes around for the next day. Up to just several months ago, I wanted to tidy up everything, and I mean EVERYTHING before the dawn broke, but that just kept me up too long, resulting in morning blues. I am now of the healthier mindset that, yes, the personal power of progress includes a process. "I can leave that slop of files lying around, I'll live."
   
   
  
  
  PICTURE BREAK: TORLEY STARING AT A BEE'S ASS

   
   

• Back to Firefox bookmarks for a sec: I like to go on browsing sprees where I'll rush through a whole jungle of pages, and quickly temp-bookmark whatever stands out so I can appreciate it in greater depth later. This leaves some clutter under the main Bookmarks menu, but it's all the better for motivating me to sort it out soon. If a link's remained there for some days and I can't figure out what to do with it (e.g. someone made an intriguing blog post they said they were going to update, but never did), I'll archive that. And if I didn't ultimately enjoy something, I'll delete. My "YES/MAYBE/NO" archival methodology is consistent across whatever environment I'm working in. When I was very young, I used to subcategorize extremely, coming up with fancy names for everything at the outset, but I now focus on basic blocks, and refine further if needed later.
   
• I look for little annoyances that are repeated many times in a day, and see if I can find ways to efficiencize these. Previously, I wanted a utility to resize a window to exact dimensions, and found Sizer. I also wanted an easy countdown timer to keep track of tasks I shouldn't overdo, and came across AleJenJes Timer. Now, I'm on the lookout for something which can close all my Windows folders in one fell swoop. I would think it'd be easier!
   
• I often read positive sites like Lifehacker (and whatever it links to) for incredibly informative tidbits in bite-sized pieces. Doing so regularly is a real pick-me-up when I feel on the low end of the cheeriness scale.
   
• Now, reading is one way, but conversationally, I also often touch base with my coworkers, my fellow Lindens, for moral support and advice on how to deal with difficult situations. Sometimes, they don't even need to be dealt with, as things resolve if you just let them be. Robin Linden (Harper) holds the fabric of the Community Team @ Linden Lab together, and she's a warm listening ear for feedback. I look up to her immensely as an "Oracle of Order", and have a lot to learn from her, with myself being a creature of chaos. When things are tense, like the grid going down, it helps to know we're in this together—and this includes our Residents too, absolutely!
   
• I keep abreast of historical records. I look for patterns. It can sure make someone's day if you dispel the notion of them feeling like they're the only one affected by a problem which infact is troubling many others too. In the SL Forums, I often look for past posts to cite and connect things together. Here's a perfect example. A lot of what comes up are just variations (and not all that different) from previous events, which makes it easier to understand once you get a "big picture view". It helps put perspective into the puddle of puzzlement and clears your mind of messes.
   
• I realize that for just about every point, there's a counterpoint, and after that, a countercounterpoint, and so on and soforth. One of my forum posts made about this is right here. Which leaves me free to relax and realize there is no argument to be won. Honestly, a lot of the time, I can't even take a "side" because I see the merits in many things, but fence-sitting would make me a stale Watermelinden, so I don't do it. I term myself as "moderately extreme" and say things not intentionally to suprise, but my statements do have this effect.
   
  What I do appreciate is bringing up something that's already been done before, but not in a way which the community at large is aware of—yet. Like my observations on foot shadows, gray loading textures (which became popularized later), the black teleport screen, mapping mouse buttons to shortcuts, a group teleport feature (which we'll hopefully have someday), etc. Certain generic, negatively redundant targets are easy ones, and I avoid them because I want an optimistic challenge. I also love contradictions.
   
• During breaks, I move my arms up and down as if I'm flying, opening palms wide and then balling them into fists. This is in part because I've been experiencing hand cramps, and it helps relieve tension. If it ever gets too achy during a day, I'll do something quieter, like simply walk around inworld and sightsee. And if you don't get a reply to your IM, you can email me.
   
• I deliberately filter out a lot of the oncoming information overload in my daily existence. If I think I wouldn't benefit much, I'll skim, or just outright throw it off to the side and not look back. There's plenty more info where that came from, after all: no scarcity insofar as "Things you can learn while on Planet Earth"! For example, wherever I go on Internet, I see all these links to check out the latest in Web 2.0 tools, SOCIAL-this, TAGGING-that, laLaLA… I can't possibly use all of them, or even some of them, so I look for aesthetics and functionality which appeal particularly deeply to me, then read some reviews, and if the vibrations go beyond good, I download or signup, and give it a spin! A question I often ask myself is: "Will this save, or drown time?" (I use the visual imagery of a clock wearing water wings, as time cannot actually be "killed", but usage of it can be diluted—hence "drown"—in myriad unproductive ways.)
   
  I also ask myself whether I want to use a tool because I really want to, or if it's just because other people are pressuring me to, even if they don't really get much enjoyment out of it, but are frittering away cycles because it's psychologically perceived as "the next big thing".
   
  The cliche holds true: "Necessity is the mother of invention." But for crying out loud, I can't figure out what some of these techno-tools do past the swarm of buzzwords, so I don't use 'em. Related humor.
   
  Finally, I like to find connections: I put off using Flickr for a long time because I just wasn't intuitively compelled. Recently, I began browsing more under the secondlife tag after receiving links from Resis who'd taken interesting photos and posted them onsite, and felt moved to join in. I may not like the interface as much as certain other places, but I think I'll get used to it. This isn't a process that can be forced either. Induce a pregnancy too early, and you end up with the polar opposite of a bouncing baby.
  

I wonder if there's a market for motivational speakers in Second Life?

The other day, I blogged about having immersive interior environments with a higher local FPS because of occlusion culling. In other words, make a complex art gallery and surround it with walls, and it'll run faster because what's beyond those walls doesn't get drawn. Basically.

This is effectively what will happen, hopefully not too long from now, in Nebulosus Severine's art gallery in Kress, which has a title of its own: Intermundia. You see, it's like this varied ice fortress with crystal stalactites, chairs to match the decor, and even a spa. No exotic animal rug, altho I did suggest it. And all around are stars—walls of constellations. They're not so tall as to disturb the neighbors, and they're invisible on the outer sides so you can look in.

The art is not just what's on the walls, but the whole complex. Great angles make for easy photography, and I started snapzing away—with the artist present and having given permission, of course.

Often, I hear: "I wish there was more of this in SL!" or some variant thereof. I think great creations lead the way to more greatness. Say someone sees a photo of something kewl, they sign up for SL and meet the maker—and that is something which doesn't get stated enough, the fact you can be with an inventor of your fave thing inworld—and you start creating yourself. It's not instant, but it's a process. And then, when you put it out for show, sometime later, a new Resi—newer than you, as you've lived a Second Life for a couple months or so by now—comes along, and is in turn inspired.

I know I've been influenced and've influenced in turn. This is P^3, the personal power of progress: not some airy-fairy, wishy-washy thing which makes you feel good for a second and then drops you into a downer, no. This is something if you hold dear and keep on travelling—you don't even have to try hard, but make small, achievable goals come true for yourself—you will consciously, subconsciously, and maybe even unconsciously things happen; not just for you, but those around you.

In traditional Dungeons & Dragons gameplay, according to Wikipedia:

Paladins have auras they extend to party members, short-duration "blessings" they can cast on allies, the ability to heal allies, a unique system of "seals" and "judgements" for combat, and a few special anti-undead/demon spells.

What about your aura? What are you beaming on your loved ones and friends both offline and in Second Life? Please let me relate a few personal, specific examples. Some of them have been mentioned in passing before, pardon the redundancy, but I thot it'd be a worthwhile exercise to sum them up:

• When I first started my Second Life, this blog was simply named "Torley's techno music blog". From early entries, I was reticient to change the title right away. After all, I was in the midst of a great depression. As Wagner James Au, who became known to me as Hamlet Linden, wrote:

Meanwhile, somewhere on the West Coast, a talented electronica musician named Torley was browsing the Web in search of an online world. A bad case of hyperacusis had just ruined his composing career, and he wanted a place to express himself. Up Googled the guns and hugs of Francis Chung, and a door opened. But that’s another story.

It was very much a "What do you want to do with your life now?" And after going through several sources, including those articles in New World Notes, I signed up for a Basic account in Second Life—ten bucks at the time, free now!—and I met Hamlet at his then-office on the Shipley shores. He encouraged me to write more about SL, and said I could be listed on his blogroll if I had a certain percentage of SL content. I don't remember the number, but in hindsight, it didn't make a difference: when I truely believe in something, I give it my fullest. This, however, took awhile.
 
Leafing through my back entries, you'll see what happened. At the time, there wasn't a lot to draw on: I saw many SL blogs come and go; they still do. Some started with a bang, then petered out quickly. Others were updated far too infrequently, and yet others had a strong, sustained start—then suddenly stopped being posted to.
 
I'd occasionally go for stretches without writing new things too. But in the back of my mind, it always speaks: "If you can't find at least one highlight in a day to write about, something worth sharing, maybe your life isn't worth living!" It sounds harsh, and it is, and it keeps me driven.

I just realized how long that bullet point is, and how I've diverged and converged at the same time again. So I'll unindent for a moment, and continue this in a future blog entry…