Links

Nifty building site.
Marketing metrics on the grid -learn who's visiting.

A little script to tell which prim in a link set has been touched.

default
{
    touch_start(integer num_detected)
    {
        integer link = llDetectedLinkNumber(0);
        llOwnerSay("This is link #" + (string)link);
    }
}

Word is that the new llSetLinkPrimitiveParams() has the 0.2 second time delay and will only allow work on prims using the standard constants (all, one, all-but-root, etc.) So, sadly, there'll still be a script in every prim in a lot of projects.

Monthly vendor todo list

Rainbow Tiger: Since moving their mall to a sim next door, my sales there are terrible. Do I want to try readjusting my site there or leave? I should talk to people on their vendor group and see if others have the same thing.

FurNations: I know they were planning on moving the mall to another sim, I need to find out what's happening there.

And of course, TP around paying rent.

Toolbox now on SLX

The toolbox is finally on SLExchange.

Scripting

The good news: Scripts are working again.
The bad news: llSetTextureAnimation() is buggy. I'm seeing problems with offsets, with the order of animation when using PING_PONG, and with the texture being animated when the animation call is made.

Building, Boxing, and Barriers.

Took a screenshot of the pegleg, but decided later that I didn't like the pic. I'll try again next time.

Updated the Avatar Toolbox freebies with the pegleg and a transparent texture. Hopefully sometime today I'll link it up to SLExchange. I did get a hovertext script to run in it - I had to alter the script in my inventory, save it, then drag it into the toolbox. It ran long enough to change the text, then turned itself off. :P

Teleported several times and found my attachments in inappropriate places.

Bundled up the other versions of the Invisible Avatars, but some inventory issues cropped up so I still have more to do there. Took pics of the Invisibles, and discovered that some of Torley's textures are fun backgrounds for vendor pics.

I've been having bouts of vendor envy. I've been admiring these cool soda-machine-like vendors, you see a lot of them used to vend avatars, especially in the furry communities. They typically have a "screen" to show the current offering, a "buy this" button, and a bunch of buttons to let you navigate thru all the offerings without having to do it sequencially. So even though scripting right now is an issue, I messed around with design ideas for a machine for the various avatar products I've got. I think I'm happy with what I came up with - it is distinctive and easy to navigate.

Been running into a lot of people who don't speak or read english lately. I know there's more than one language version of the client. You can change the text on the SIT and TOUCH options using LSL, but not different text depending on language. Same with hovertext. Configuring using notecards just isn't the same. The client may be translated, but most of the grid is not. Some things are easy to communicate; cost is in numbers, and arrows, common icons, and pictures say a lot. I've tried to put a lot of stuff on the web where one can run a translation tool over the text. Same with notecards, although there's a copy-paste step. And there's a couple scripted babblefish tools for chat. If any of you have language-free communication tips you want to share, I'm interested.

Yarrrr!

I finally got around to making that piratical pegleg for the Toolbox last night - someone I know wanted one for a friend. I'll try to get pics tonight and package it up as a freebie. It didn't take very long - I think I spent more time looking at pictures of them trying to figure out what to do for the "foot" of the leg than messing with prims.

Scripts are still sour.

NO SCRIPTING FOR YOU

CANNOT SET A SCRIPT TO RUN.

*goes off and sobs*

Fame

I think I've found the path to instant fame on the internet. Make people angry. No, wait, I'm serious here. The frisky pirate shoots a flame over comments about income from virtual worlds and gets Richard Bartle commenting. I'm reading his Designing Virtual Worlds right now. I am so jealous! And pretty much everybody who touches the SL blogosphere recognizes Prokofy Neva. Then there's that whole thing with Clay Shirkey.

The letter l - the fine line between fame and flame.

In other news, I think this allergy medicine is making me high.

The WarpPos script is broken.

The WarpPos script is broken. If you've got scripts that use llSetPrimitiveParams() with multiple PRIM_POSITION rules, you'll be affected. Joshua Linden said it should be fixed in the next day or so. Bug report here.

Freebies and access.

The first version of the free avatar toolbox is inworld at my shop. Pose stand, AOs, invisiprims, some scripts and samples... I need to throw a totally transparent texture in there. And a grid skin.

Avatar Toolbox has been getting lots of attention. Thanks for spreading the word! If you come across links or people who'd add to it, or spot things there that need correction, let me know!

Realized yesterday that there's a barrier for SL creators. If they don't have some sort of payment info registered with LL they can't access the official forums. I'm comfortable with the decision to not allow unregistered people to comment, but I'd be happier if they could read the forums. LL has officially said several times that allowing unverified free accounts is an important part of their free access for everyone policy. I like how basic creation tools are either included in the client or have freely available versions; it fits well with their access policy. Their choice to make the forums unreadable for so many people conflicts with that ideal.

Avatar effects

From Nick Yee's site, an interesting study about how the appearance of your avatar affects your own behavior regardless of the behavior of the people around you. Here.

More HUDliness

I redid the HUD tonight so it teleports a little more directly. Code here.

The basic one is available at SLExchange.

Mine also links to my SLExchange page; I included that code above. I stuck the webpage link code into a transparent prim on top of that part of the graphic. You can see mine here.

more landmarks

I must explore llMapDestination()

Up-to-date landmarks

I've gotten far too many landmarks that were out of date. When you move, any landmarks you've given someone to your old location don't magically update themselves to your new place. I've wanted a way to have updatable landmarks, preferably without dragging the user out of the SL client. Working SLURLs in chat were added a couple patches ago. *bangs head* I wish I'd connected the dots earlier.

A HUD, worn on the center slot. Why a HUD? They're very visible, don't bother the people around you, and you don't need create permissions to wear an attachment. It gets the current SLURL from the web. Dumps that into the wearer's chat history using llOwnerSay(). Teleport time! It is brandable, customizable, and an easy interface for the user. However many may exist, they can all be updated with one action. I'd be happier if LSL would let me teleport a user without going thru the chat history but *shrug*

The web part's easy, just a static page hosted anywhere. It is a single line saying "Click on http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seomna/214/238/71/ to visit!" I uploaded the text file to googlepages since my SL web profile and Avatar Toolbox are hosted there.





The hovertext is hard to see in the pictures. It says to use [CTRL]-H to open the chat history.

I'm tired of getting stale landmarks, so it'll be a freebie with open scripts. I've got a prototype working, and when I'm happy with it I'll throw it on SLExchange and publicize it a bit.

EDIT: Current code is freely available on SLExchange in my collection of freebies.

If the main texture was specified with a UUID, you could put the current texture UUID string in the web file and change them all at once. Same with hovertext or text in chat. Want to let people know about current sales or advertise for your latest event?

These could be linked to messages, a handful of SLURLs, web sites opening on touch with llLoadURL(), they could talk to a "server" object and hand out freebies... It'd have to have enough value to the user that they'd put bother to wear it every now and again. Up to date landmarks, event schedules, giving away freebies, maybe a joke of the day. They'd see your images, which currently you can't be sure of with group messages.

Avatars: Where First Life and Second Life Meet

"Personally, do you consider your avatar an extension of yourself, or a character you control?...First, I mean your avatar, not avatars in general; I’m asking about the personal association between your First Life self and your Second Life avatar. Second, I don’t mean to present this as an either-or scenario..."

Both. Storm's a facet, an aspect; you can know someone for decades and there'll still be truths about them that you've never seen or imagined.

Storm's a creature of fluid appearance and gender, keeps an active blog, owns and runs a business, has friends and acquaintances, an email address...

Storm lives publicly while I'm a private person. When you look on Google for Storm Thunders, you'll find what you're looking for on the first page, many weeks the first listing; I'm close to invisible. Storm's an inventor and enterpreneur; I've never run a business. Storm is blunter than I tend to be, quicker to compliment or criticize, more willing to share opinions publicly. It has surprised me to discover that Storm's a bit of an educator, teaching inpromptu sandbox classes, offering freebies laced with learning opportunities, and answering questions on scripting groups.

I like to keep my "lives" fairly separate; it allows me to explore each of them without concern for how they rub up against one another. People respond differently to someone when they think they're of a particular gender, age, nationality, etc... I enjoy being able to explore those reactions and expectations.

Watching Storm's life and interactions has highlighted habits and reactions of mine that I was unaware of. People have far more power to affect their lives and situations than most of us ever acknowledge. I've learned a lot about how my choices of boundaries, socializing patterns and risk-assessment behaviors affect my life.

I find I'm more willing to get my hands dirty with unfamiliar technologies, more willing to tinker. I've become more confident interacting with strangers and discovered I enjoy teaching. I've grown less averse to some kinds of risk. I've been exposed to new music and artists, learned a lot about things like quaternions, using 2D and 3D graphical tools, and even learned a little basic marketing.

A little of this, a little of that

February's profits were the best yet. My SL experience has been funding itself, and doing well enough to afford a little expansion! Last night I found another vendor area for my avatars, and will be watching sales this month to see if I stay. My long term plan is to roll the profits into a larger parcel of land, but I'm waiting to see what happens to land prices with the addition of the new mainland continent before buying. So far mainland prices have stayed put, but afaik the new land hasn't been sold yet. I want a nice boxy 4096m2 plot for a home for AvTx - enough room for demos, an avatar shop, and a private sandbox.

Had a good conversation with a newbie who has the content-creator itch.

I was experiencing a little insomnia last night, so I worked on Avatar Toolbox. Added a bunch of pictures, wrote up the HUD page, and made a page linking to prim hair/shoes/clothes tutorials.

Prim goodies

I'm happy to see that I'm not the only person who's interested in weird prim shapes.

Working up a "making an avatar" example for Avatar Toolbox. I need to spend a couple hours grabbing screenshots and making samples. I'm still figuring out how far I want to go with skins - there's already a lot of material out there that I might just link to instead. Natalia's blog is a wonderful resource for making prim hair, shoes, and skirts.

Happy Scripting News

http://www.lslwiki.net The old lsl wiki is back online!

Client release 1.13.4 is to include llSetLinkTexture() and llSetLinkPrimitiveParams().