Firefox Tip for SL Emerald Viewer

Here’s a tip, if your copy of Firefox does this.  Remember that I’ve had to reinstall everything over the past few days, and that included Firefox, my preferred browser, and Emerald Viewer, my current preferred SL client.  I clicked on my first SLurl today, expecting that Emerald would be opened as it usually is, but Firefox told me that it didn’t recognize the protocol!

I think I’ve seen this before, and it’s because Emerald doesn’t patch the browsers to make them open it when you click on the SLurl link or button.  The solution can be found at this page from Firefox’s Knowledge Base; it shows you how to quickly add the recognition to the browser.  Use the third choice, “For other protocols.”  You’ll need to change “protocolName” to “secondlife” and “programName” to “Emerald”.  After that, follow the instructions the rest of the way, and you’ll be home free!

The one caveat is that it seemed to start Emerald fresh and clean, at least the first time, which meant that it started with all the tutorial bubbles popping up on me.  I haven’t tried it further than this, so use at your discretion.

Back from the Grave…Again

My computer’s been spending more time in the shop than on my desk lately.  This time, the E: drive was fried.

No great thing, you say?  Just one thing:  I had Net Nanny installed on that drive.  And when that drive fried, that meant that I couldn’t connect to the Internet.  At all.

It took a full reformat and reinstall of Windows XP to clear the problem.  Now I’m reinstalling programs…most of my programs.  I can’t say “all of my programs,” since I had a lot of stuff on C:.  Some of it probably useless, I’ll admin, but…!

I believe the appropriate phrase from the Litany of the Saints is “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us….”

Hopefully, though, I’ll be able to get back in world tonight…and actually with a leaner machine than I had before.  That may be one good thing from this fiasco.

Is Second Life’s Current Client Windows 7-Compatible?

I’ve been quite satisfied to date with Windows XP — yes, I know, your mileage may vary — and have not yet had a reason to go out and buy a copy of Windows 7.  (Thank all benign powers, I have never experienced Vista!)  It’s been a temptation, though, just for the sake of being up to date.  (I think the current box has enough marbles to handle it.)  Three things hold me back:

1. It’s incredibly early days yet in the life of this latest version of the Microsoft flag program (no pun intended on the Windows logo).  I’d rather let someone else be the gamma testbed, and wait until the first few rounds of bug fixes are out of the way.
2. I don’t have the money (the leading reason!).
3. I’ve heard Dreadful Rumors, verging on Unconfirmed Reports, that Second Life won’t run decently, if at all, on the new system.

From what I’ve seen in a quick Google search, this last is again a case of Your Mileage May Vary.  Some people may have the proper drivers to do the job; one report I’ve seen says that the native Windows graphic drivers (from Intel) can’t hack it, and you need an Nvidia card and drivers to carry the load.  Others report things just fine if they install XP drivers.  Others tell tales of woe and no success (or login), no matter what they do.

One thing is probable; you’ll need an up-to-date box to run Windows 7, and that means a relatively current graphics card.  Desktops, of course, will be in the lead on this, as their owners can buy new graphics cards (“Please, Santa, bring me a new Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 as a stocking stuffer!”); laptop users are pretty much shafted by the nature of their beasts.

Assuming that the card is compatible with Windows 7, then the ball is in the court of the client writers.  I’ve been checking the Big Blog, but Linden Lab is silent to date on whether either the official client, any of the Release Candidates, or Snowglobe will cope with the new system.  The independents are probably working faster on the question; their progress will be controlled by whether they’ve obtained Windows 7 themselves.  I’ve already heard of one workaround for Emerald, probably the most popular independent client.

Do you, gentle readers, have any information to relate?  Any workarounds that can assist the lunatic fringe, uh, the early release users of Win 7?  If you know of something, drop a comment here.

SL Hallowe’en — Enter freely and of your own will….

“‘Welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring!… I am Dracula; and I bid you welcome….’”

“I was not alone. The room was the same, unchanged in any way since I came into it; I could see along the floor, in the brilliant moonlight, my own footsteps marked where I had disturbed the long accumulation of dust. In the moonlight opposite me were three young women, ladies by their dress and manner. I thought at the time that I must be dreaming when I saw them, for, though the moonlight was behind them, they threw no shadow on the floor.”

Bram Stoker
Dracula

Feeling a little…undead lately?  Want to dress appropriately?  Why not try this combination?  My good friend Nanceee Sinatra, co-owner of Frank’s Place (which I’ve written about several times here) also does the occasional dress under the Sinatra label.  She kindly gifted me with two colors of her Resurrection gown — appropriately named, don’t you think, for a vampire?  Especially one as sexy as this!  The skirt goes down to there on the right, and is cut up to here on the left, while the bodice plunges almost to places unknown in front, and sure does so in back.

If you’re now one of the walking dead, you have to look the part, don’t you?  No glittery skins, like those poseurs in Forks, Wash.  No, ice-pale is the way to go; and Adam n Eve had a nice super-pale geisha skin I chose here, called Mei Li 2 (the particular skin is the Geisha 1 makeup).  To go with that, a friend in the Fashion Emergency gifted me with a set of thick, black lashes you have to try on to believe!  They’re Artemis from the oBscene, and they’re excellent for the dramatic look I was aiming for here.

If you want a look like this, your shoes need to ascent to the stratosphere.  I’m not in ballet heels here, but Adam n Eve’s Babii pumps — in black, of course — fit the bill nicely.  Topping it all off, the jewelry is almost all in black pearls — Primalot’s Luna black enamel bracelet with inset pearls; Muse’s Catherine cocktail ring in gold; and Dahlinks’ Chloe back-knotted pearl strand make up most of the bling here.  I wanted a bit more color, though; a rich vampiress should have her share of diamonds, too.  So I threw into the mix a pair of platinum earrings with diamonds by RH Engel, and a favorite cocktail ring from a season or so ago by Paper Couture.

The crowning touch:  the hair is Sirena Makayla (in jet black, of course).  This is another of Sirena’s recent new releases, and is animated like so many of her ‘dos.  I’m wearing it down for this shot, but the updo is excellent as well.  (One note on the updo — when I tried it out, the hair didn’t go all the way immediately.  I had to do a teleport to get the down strands to derezz properly.  Your mileage may vary.)

Anybody know where I can find Jonathan Harker, now…?

The Joys of Writing by Hand

Did I ever say this blog was going to be exclusively about Second Life (grin)?  Since I’m knocked out of Second Life until I get my main computer fixed, and Linden Lab hasn’t made any policy moves lately that have the Grid in an uproar, why not do a little more personal writing, as the spirit moves me?  (At least if I can get used to this laptop’s keyboard [mumble mumble growl....].)  This won’t necessarily be about Second Life or any other aspect of the digital world, though this can be a way for me to reconnect with some of the many blogs I’ve kept in my sidebar for a long, long time. 

For today, though, a piece of writing…about writing.

How many people remember the book (not the movie) The Postman, by David Brin?  The main point of the book, stripping away the apocalyptic setting and the battle between supermen at the end, was how people could connect, and reconnect, and reunite, by the simple act of communication with each other.  And, when our modern forms of technology finally fail us, there is still one that could get through:  the written word.  The lead character is a drifter who’s simply trying to stay alive in a post-apocalyptic world, when he stumbles across an old mail Jeep, with the body of a dead postman inside.  He takes the fellow’s jacket to stay warm, and also some of the letters, planning to use them to acquire food and shelter along the way.  But as he goes on, and delivers the letters to people still alive, what starts as a survival ploy becomes more, resulting in a re-integration of community in the region he is walking through.  The simple act of communication draws people together, in a way that even the worst disaster can’t overcome.  And it isn’t by E-mail, or fax, or telephone, for those forms of communication have disappeared; but by words written with a pen or pencil on a piece of paper.  What served our ancestors, and even our parents or grandparents, helps to bring people together, and perhaps to start rebuilding a nation and a world.

My generation is probably one of the last to regard longhand cursive handwriting  as a valid method of expressing thoughts, unless some sort of smash or philosophical change comes along.  I used to write this blog in longhand before transcribing it into the software, and I still write fiction that way.  Most professional authors, such as David Gerrold, would despair of me; others, such as Dickens or Shelby Foote, would have applauded me for my dedication to the ancient tools of the profession.  And I still write fiction with a pen to this day, scribbling at loose points such as lunch and break time in ecosystem or Moleskine notebooks, or whatever I have at hand at the moment.  I don’t need to do it this way; I can write by typing, as I’m doing at this moment.  But my writing seems so much better, and more productive, when I’m doing it in longhand.  (It’s also kept my handwriting skills in trim; unless I’m in a hurry, or writing my signature, my cursive is still quite legible.)

But it doesn’t have to be “important” writing to justify breaking out your pen or pencil.  You don’t even have to write quantities in order to justify the act; why not just write a simple note to a friend or loved one?  Use a Bic pen and a piece of loose-leaf paper, and send them a little letter, and send it by post instead of by E-mail.  And take your time about it; slow down a little, instead of being locked in the world of fast-moving electrons or hustle-and-bustle.  Think about your words, and what you’re really trying to say.  When you’re doing something like this, you’re not on a deadline; the only deadline is expressing what you want to say, clearly and accurately.  You may find, especially as you get older, that you enjoy it quite a bit.

My 2nd Rezz Day was Yesterday!

Whew!  Between RL work, family, trying to get that photo spread on “Olympian Oracle” done, and then discovering my computer may have a fresh virus, I forgot that yesterday was my 2nd rezz day in Second Life.

Technically, I’m not really an old stager yet.  There are folks around who have been on the grid since the days of Linden World, and who remember when Ruths covered the land — at least until they rezzed up fully.  I’m starting to feel like an old hand, though, as my knowledge of the Grid and what I can do in it gradually grows.

In about a month, it’ll also be the 2nd anniversary of this blog.  I’ll do some actual navel-gazing at that time, assuming my home machine makes it out of the shop.  Until then, have a piece of (virtual) birthday cake on me.

Something’s Chewing on My Computer Again

Writing from Hoover, Ala.:

When I woke up this morning and booted my computer, it refused to boot.  It seems to be acting like it did earlier this year, which suggests something’s chewing on it again.  It’ll be off to the shop for several days, hoping nothing vital’s been compromised.  Wish me luck, and I’ll try to get in with comments on things from library hookups periodically.  Getting on to the Grid is probably out of the question.

SL Hallowe’en — Olympian Oracle

Far-seeing Sybil, forever hidden,
Come out of your cave at last
And speak to us in the poet’s voice
the voice of the fourth person singular
the voice of the inscrutable future
the voice of the people mixed
with a wild soft laughter–
And give us new dreams to dream,
Give us new myths to live by!

From “To the Oracle at Delphi”
Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I Am Imix, Primal Mother.
Still, dark womb of the patterned potential of becoming,
sacred, interstellar genesis, I Am.
Nourishing, fertile abyss, I birth you.
Benevolent, my mighty cauldron of primal waters,
enveloping the living seed.
Eternal is my embrace.

From “Imix”
Ariel Spilsbury and Michael Bryner

=====

The details:

Standard shape/skin combo Type 5, except: SG Fashion Yarosh skin, coffee tone, Melon Jam makeup (Kauri Darkstone)

• Nails: Skin Within (Gilded) (Ayesha Bisiani)
• Gown: Aeclectic Goddess Sun Goddess costume (something that’s been sitting in the depths of my Inventory, unpacked, for maybe a year; I’m glad I found this!) (Elisandra Ree)
• Shoes: House of Nyla Golden Empress mules (not available separately; purchase as part of the package with Nyla Cheeky’s Red Dragon corset gown)
• Hair, jewelry, staff: Tekeli-li Inanna (all scripted; and be prepared for max lag if you dare to wear all of these!  You can mod the pieces, though, so you can shut off the scripts once you have the colors set as you wish.)  (Tekelili Tantalus)

Dark shots were made with Euphoria realm WindLight setting; this may be available standard on the current release of Emerald Viewer.  Face lit with FaceFX face light.

I photographed this spread at the Temple of Zeus in Virtual Olympia, a remarkable sim which is part of a complex of Periclean Greece sims set up for combat systems.  The temple, including its recreation of the famous statue of Zeus from the temple at RL Olympia, a work of art now lost to the world, was built by Qeux Serge over two months of work, according to Socrates Dionysus, my contact.  Be sure to stop by and look at the region; but remember to observe the rules of the sim, and keep in mind that these regions are combat enabled.  That may be forbidden in Olympia, but be aware of the possibility.

Call for Pictures of SL and Veterans or Veterans Day

The American Veterans Day is coming up in a little under a month.  As I believe I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I have a special appreciation for this day because of my late father, who served in World War II and was wounded in Europe.

Last year, I founded a Flickr group dedicated to photos of veterans’ and similar service memorials in Second Life.  Please consider this an invitation to add your own photos to the group if you’re a Flickr member.  Pictures can be your personal tribute to their service as a whole, or for an individual in your own RL, or simply a shot of some memorial area on the Grid.  My only criteria are that they be on the Grid, appropriate to the theme, and no nudity or advertising.  Submissions don’t need to be restricted to American servicemen; there’s one shot of a recreation of the British Cenotaph from World War I — now apparently gone, as I understand.

New Flickr Group: Wizards and Sorceresses

It seemed like a sad lack of Flickr groups to fit the bill for my photos in my previous article — so I created my own group.

If anyone has a picture of a Second Life mage of any kind or either sex, preferably going about an interesting (but clean) activity, you’re welcome to join the group and add it to our pool.  I’ll start hunting through other groups to issue invitations, as well.

I know there’s tons of creativity out there; I publish some of it periodically here, after all, and I’m not talking about my own.  Let’s see what you’ve got!!

Supplemental: I’ve started a similar group on Koinup, as I promised.