2006 May | Torley Lives - Part 2

Torley Lives

I amplify your awesome.

2006-05-29
Something Good

I always like to get things done better. I was playing around with some more blog editor software today. I tried ecto for Windows, and found it to be an awful disappointment. I really wanted to like it after all the raves I heard, but those were from Mac OS X users—and apparently they have something a lot more elegant + efficient = excellent. ecto for Windows crashed and burned on me, wouldn't let set up an account properly, had a persistent trial splash screen that took ages to go away, etc. My day's anti-gratifying experience! :(

I used to be a big Mac advocate back in the mid-90s. But shortfall of wallet caught up to me. So it's been primarily PCs ever since. (I sometimes fantasize about making a glorious return.) It's refreshing, but frustrating, to realize in a sea of software, there are superior programs which are ONLY for Mac. Consider DEVONthink for information management and OmniOutliner for, well, outlining! What chafes me even more is that both of them have Universal Binary versions that run on Intel Macs… but no Windows versions. Well, it's an incentive. ;)

Zoho Writer's down for maintenance right now. Hope it'll be alright, I was doing some doc editing and found intolerable slowdowns upon doing commands. Writely's still up, and I've been using it more, getting more used to the way it works. It's not as web-friendly as Zoho is, in the sense of preparing blog entries with embedded images and hypertext etc., but I greatly prefer Writely's document view because it feeds my familiarities with Gmail. Being able to star and archive documents is nice. However, I still can't find where to file a bug report, and the forums seem underused. Ah, I'll take a stab anyway.

The title of this entry is a reference to Utah Saints's early-nineties "stadium techno" hit. Especially, the heavenly piano arps that float in at 5:08 min.

Many Hands Make Light Work!

Before Second Life 1.10 was released, I heard from some who made exquisitely detailed structures but looked a little flat, because they didn't resort to texture-baking to add simulated shadows and depth. Intrigued, I inquired why this was, and they were hoping that 1.10 would simply make it a lot easier for them, thanks to the new lighting system.

Already, I'm seeing the trueness of this begin to emerge. A single light can add such a gradiated blend of shading—easily!—making for campfire coziness that isn't so ON/OFF as was previously prevalent. The hardware performance of the new lights means that you don't have to worry about being bogged down.

But, words may just be theory… I had to see it for myself. I headed to Cheshire, made by Satch Flan, to authenticate the results firsthand. These were done off-the-cuff by moi, merely dropping a ball of light somewhere within the scene, and are not a metrical scientific measurement, but just having fun!

On the left is no lights, on the right is yes lights. Click through to see the bigger pictures:




Always a joy to see new features adopted so quickly: already, I've been to several familiar haunts where seats have been click action-enabled, stiff flags have been converted into flexiprims, and of course—let there be lights!

Exploring Cheshire (mischievously, like its namesake) also gave me the rewarding opportunity to drop lights—wherever!—and reap the benefits.

http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/snap.aspx?p=72464.jpg&w=512
Snapzilla adds Live Panels

Once upon a time, I blogged:

I wish I could have a photostream with Snapzilla, have the newest piccies automatically delivered into the sidebar on my left.

Just yesterday, this dream came true. Cristiano Midnight, inventor of Snapzilla, has been helping me to set up and customize my own Snapzilla Live Panel: my most recent snapz from within Second Life! Ano even made it so the header blends in better with the background—it's really well-integrated:


This is terrific. If you want one a Live Panel of your own, go to the Live Panel Wizard!
2006-05-28
A Myst-ical Encounter

aDen Ennui sent me an IM about his Myst replicas in Second Life being noted on Robyn Miller's blog! Beautiful. Now that I have a few moments, I might as well get some words in about hero worship—orthogonally! *scribbles in the comments*

aDen's own page, with YUGE images, is right here.

And to lend some context to the background, I came across aDen one day in the sandbox constructing what I recognized to be… THAT ROCKETSHIP FROM MYST! WITH THAT DAMN MUSICAL PUZZLE THAT WAS UNFAIR TO NON-MUSICIANS (I solved it in a cinch). Needless to say, aDen soon sent me on my way with a copy of a linking tome, and it warmed me so; I did ask him if he was gonna make that puzzle, but some weeks after, he informed me he wanted to get approval.

Robyn Miller is now aware of aDen's recreations. And yet another miracle in the world happens, babies are born et al! BTW, Robyn blogs about creating community in SL. I've just jotted down my angular view—keeping in mind I have been more of a nomad than a homesteader during my SL tenure.

Oy.