Torley Lives

At Linden Lab, I have an opportunity to work on many projects which are both intriguing and exciting. In hopes of sharing such intrigue + excitement with you, I wanted to let you in…

I'm helping to get the word out about the Dazzle project, which is our codename for the Resident Experience (Rx) Team's visual update of the Second Life user interface — you know, all the windows you move around, buttons you click, and other things you interact with to control your inworld experience.

We hope this will make things friendlier and not so battleship/submarine-looking. Apple has their Aqua and Microsoft has their Aero Glass, and after SL was dunked in gray for a number of years, pleasant change is in order.

The picture above is a casual screenshot of me gettin' Dazzle-y with it; pardon that the aspect ratio is a bit odd, because one of my trusty Samsung 204Bs died today and I gotta get a new monitor. Life (and Second Life) without dual screens feels limiting.

Benjamin hasn't made an announcement yet, but…

IT JUST SO HAPPENS that you can try Dazzle out TODAY, NOW! GO HERE and download the preview, and install it by replacing the appropriate files. If you'd prefer to keep your original viewer around, just make a copy of the SecondLife folder and title it "SecondLife Dazzle", then work with that — it's what I did.

Pay particular attention not just Dazzle's colors, but shapes of controls, and the new icon set. Observe, use it regularly if you'd like, and give it a week to grow on you; just remember the Principle of Design Inertia if you feel adverse at first.

Please keep in mind this is very much a work-in-progress and I've been giving heaps o' feedback… attend Benjamin Linden's Thursday office hour if you've got something to share and help us make it better, I'm sure Ben will be overjoyed. If you can't make it, comment here! You can of course leave a comment on my blog, and I'll forward your feedback to Ben & Rx Team.

OK *enthused* I just had to share!

The first Jennykind drawn in our new happy home! Special thanx to my human Jenny for fuel (AKA yummy sandwiches) to power the creation of this art. = )

LOOK AT IT BIG THERE'S LOTS O' DETAIL!!!!

Ah, popularity! Some or many of you may've heard that there'd be an ep of CSI:NY featuring Second Life, titled "Down the Rabbit Hole". It aired yesterday, and while I wasn't directly involved with the internal machinimations at Linden Lab to make it possible, my respects go to my fellow Lindens and Electric Sheep Company personnel who were — and I got to enjoy watching the episode as a (pretty much) casual bystander, curled up on the couch with my wife JennifeRavenelle.

What follows are some scattershot ruminations of "Down the Rabbit Hole" in no particular order; they are to be taken as my opinion only:

• HOLY CRAP CSI:NY's theme song is "Baba O'Riley", often mistitled as "Teenage Wasteland" due to the lyrics (and presumed memorability). My younger bro earlier pointed this out to me after I showed him a certain Whitest Kids clip, so I wasn't totally surprised, but it's just so go-get-'em! The arps in the song make me smile lots.
   
• The "use the arrow keys to move" bit cracked me up, just because I've said that so many times to newcomers. So did the whole prompting to customize your avatar with a skin and all that, so ya don't come off like a n00b! How many of us can relate to that??
   
• Jen cracked me up when she joked that the motive for the murder was the stealing of a camping chair. And yeah, we saw it coming — the parallel between those mannequins and avatars.
   
• I understand dramatization for the sake of slickly moving the storyline along, but ohhhh gosh I do wish SL's Appearance mode for customizing your avatars worked as fast as it did in the show. /me isn't fond of waiting for texture rebakes.
   
• Gary Sinise looks like a shark when he smiles really wide. I didn't see him do that in this ep, but I've enjoyed a lot of movies he's been in, particularly as Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump.
   
• I wish more of the SL User Interface had been shown. Even displaying bits of the OnRez viewer might've helped psychologically make a transition from the show to inworld, should someone watch CSI:NY then want to try Second Life out (heyyyy I'm all for that!).
   
• NO, virii can't come through Second Life and shut down your whole computer in the manner portrayed. I just about slapped my forehead because I know it's caused a certain degree of support load and Live Help (further back) via questions like, "Can a script contain a virus that erases my hard drive?" Empathically, NO. For the not-so-tech-inclined, please take the show for what it is — entertainment! — and again, certain things were stylized at the sake of realism. (Understandable, I'm not stringent about it.)
   
• I really liked hearing mentions of "Second Life" in the show, instead of trying to pass it off as something else. The word "metaverse" even got put in. I reckon I even heard mention of "Linden dollars" at one point… someone please confirm?
   
• Very amusing to see the CSI crew obtain all manner of personal info without going through Linden Lab first… it's faster than going through the legal system in the space of an hour, that's for sure. But they could've shown some actual Lindens assisting in the investigation. =)
   
• In some earlier inworld scenes, I distinctly saw WindLight (which I am Product Manager for) used. In later ones, I saw the "old skool skies". So it looks like part of it was filmed out of order? I don't know. If you have facts, please fill me in! I'm curious.
   
• SPOILER… that Trophy Hall shown near the end was very, very reminiscent of the venerable schizophrenia simulator by Nash Baldwin & Co. which I first visited in 2004. ESPECIALLY the faces going all dead-like, the moaning sounds, and the blood dripping down. I bet other oldbies caught on to this connection too.
   
• The sculptie rabbit with the glazed-over (stoned?) eyes was a hoot to watch. He isn't looking so happy here…

• Fun superimposition of the voice "radio waves" atop avatar heads. Good timing that we did get audio voice chat in SL, eh?
   
• Even more fun to see all the gadgetry they bandied about, including the "big screen" that SL was played on. I felt a widescreen would've been more effectively epic than the 4:3-ish aspect ratio one they had, however.
   
• When Dt. Mac Taylor (Sinise's character) was asked about staying up all night, I initially thought that was a reference to his newfound Second Life addition. From the look on my Jennifer's face, she may've thought the same. We shared a lot of laughs throughout all this.
   
• The introduction of the blue furry griefer was very hilarious. And I recognized a specific Wynx Whiplash avatar, the "Tiny Wolf", in the midst of all this… colored blue a la Patchouli Woollahra (that must be one of the most difficult last names to spell)!
   
• The quasi-Roman battle arena was a treat to see — I wish we could, for virtually real ;), pack that many avatars into a single region. Very lively usage of animations and particle effects… kudos to who did those! *claps*
   
• The doll of "Johnny" reminded me of something outta Fabjectory. I don't think they had a hand (haw), but I wonder if the similarity was known and intentional.
   
• I think it was a pretty novel idea for someone to have plastic surgery to look more like their avatar. There's gotta already be pressure for some people to undergo procedures because they don't want to disappoint someone they've met online. If you find yourself in this situation, the best advice I can give you before you go too deep is: embrace the wholeness of your First AND Second Lives. It's dangerously isolative and psychologically unhealthy to focus on your avatar at the expense of your RL health and self-esteem. DON'T lie or even exaggerate who you are behind the monitor too, that's almost a sure path to disappointment and even anger for everyone involved. Being in love is about earnesty, and gussying yourself up to be who you really aren't — an image you won't be able to sustain longterm — attracts the wrong kinds of attention and results in lots of hurt.
   
  Remember: Second Life is an enhancement, a layer that sits atop your First Life, not a replacement or substitute. Use your Second Life to bring out new colors, hues, tones, richness, and more that you don't normally get to express "in the flesh". For example, my wife's avatar Ravenelle is a petite China doll (I'm using that term positively), but in real life (that widespread-but-crippled term makes me cringe because it doesn't do anything to advance our perceptions and understanding of "What is real?"), Jen's a voluptuous, tall babe who looks great with my hero, Philip Rosedale. I love all of JennifeRavenelle, and that includes her looking very different from her av. I enjoy having BOTH because I'm an AND person. Or heck, take myself — I have all manner of avatars on a Torley Council and don't look a whit like most of them 'cept Torley Sr. IRL! But I celebrate them as extensions of my personality: artistic creativity on some levels, manifestations of my spirit in the digital realm on others.
   
• The cliffhanger ending stumped and frustrated me because it wasn't made clear that the storyline was to be continued in Second Life, or what?!! It's like, that contract assassin woman escaped down the laundry chute, the detective put his gun in there (which looked like a scene from DOOM for a sec), and then the credits roll? More clarity about getting audience participation to "solve the case" would've greatly been appreciated. But it'll be intriguing to see how many new Residents we get.
   
• Heh, they primarily picked green, red, and black for "Venus"… one color is near, yet so far.

I haven't been inworld much since I'm still moving in to our new home, but blessed be, Ravie took snapshots of the inworld experience! Have a looksee:

This is Torley, feeling AICNish, signing off for now! =^..^=

friendly greetings, my allies in the happiness commonwealth!

i'm still here.

this day finds me blogging via my quasi-trusty laptop while i wait for the rest of my stuff (AKA "personal effects") to arrive. what happened? i'm moving house. *waves*

my lovely wife JennifeRavenelle — the half of Torav which completes me — is upstairs. she's working. it's very cool (literally, temperature-wise) in the basement, and i'm awaiting my gear so i can resume my own professional development.

speaking of, i may not do a Second Life Tip of the Week this week if my stuff's late, so please pardon me in advance, and letting you know… i promise to make more for your enjoyment.

i am amazed at how much can be done across great distances. this, i've learned through my rewarding experiences with such esteemed coworkers @ Linden Lab around the world. i look forward to keep being productive.

(yes, the title of this post is a Photek reference. while F&F 2 wasn't as startingly fresh as the 1st volume, the beats are still goldmines.)

without question, one of the awesomest parts of my life is being able to take a few steps upstairs, embrace, and kiss my beloved. she's my snugglecat. yes, i'm crazy about terms of endearment. if you're reading this Ravie… hello, I love you (not just "hey").

it's often very difficult for me to focus on anything because i'm chock-full of ideas in my head; it's like a reservoir that keeps filling up, and i have to flush it out by writing my ideas down or putting them into action. so right now, i'm itching to be creative and collaborate more with my honey. what's inspiring you today? what gets you moving?

i've decided that while one can fall in love, it sounds more uplifting to rise in love… so there you have it, I've risen in LOVE OMG here she comes