Month: September 2014

2014 Home and Garden Expo opens

Posted on by Inara Pey
One of HGE's Platinium Sponsor Cain Maven's superb houses
One of HGE’s Platinum Sponsor Cain Maven’s superb houses – click any image for full size

Having been put back from its usual May time slot due to unavoidable circumstances, the 7th  Home and Garden Expo (HGE) in support of Relay for Life of Second Life and the American Cancer Society, opened its doors to the public on Tuesday September 16th, and promises to be another hugely popular event.

Running through until Sunday September 28th, 2014, HGE comprises nine regions adjacent to the American Cancer Society region, and offers some of the finest in home, garden, and furnishing designs available across the grid. With around 90 exhibitors taking part, the event offers something for anyone who is looking for a new home, ideas for furnishing and decor, wishing to improve their building (or other) skills, or who just wishes to keep abreast of the latest building / home trends in Second Life.

The Prim Perfect Castle, and grounds, designed by Aisling Sinclair using elements from a numebr of SL designers, provides a magnificent venue for the magazine's talks and presentations
The Prim Perfect Castle and grounds, designed by Aisling Sinclair using elements from a number of SL designers, provides a magnificent venue for the magazine’s talks and presentations

As well as providing the opportunity to discover the best in housing designs ans itself, there will be a wide range of events going on through the two weeks of HGE, including talks, classes, hunts and more taking place around the Expo spaces, as well as a special gacha, a raffle, the silent auction … detail of which will all be made available through the HGE website’s programme pages.

The theme for this year’s event is Story Time, and many of the exhibit areas reflect this, often in quite imaginative ways, so it’s worth taking your time when exploring, as there are some gems of exhibit pieces to be found.

Communities and groups have also had the opportunity to represent themselves at the Expo by means of info boards which have been available for lease throughout the Expo regions. Roleplay groups, bloggers, music venues, galleries, and so on, have been able to advertise themselves through these boards and extend their reach, with all proceeds from the leasing of the boards  going directly to RFL of SL.

As well as offering full-size display homes and furnishing / decor displays, several exhibitors are also showing beautiful miniatures of their works, like this detailed model from Meshworx
As well as offering full-size display homes and furnishing / decor displays, several exhibitors are also showing beautiful miniatures of their works, like this detailed model from HGE Gold Sponsor, Meshworx

Visitors to the Expo areas can also participate in Letters From Expo. The HGE blog describes this as:

Working to give the folks battling this deadly disease reason to hope.  To give their caregivers and loved ones hope and encouragement. Because the battle is lonely, and so is the caregiving.  Both can leave a person with feelings of isolation and hopelessness.

This year, we want to spread the hope as far and as wide as we can.  We want to show our love, offer our courage, give our thanks, and remember those who are no longer with us in a new and immediate way. Moreover, in a way that can be seen across the globe, even by non-SLers.

Plato Novo's exhibit for %Percent Furniture & Lighting imaginatively builds on the HGE's Story Time theme
Plato Novo’s exhibit for %Percent Furniture & Lighting imaginatively builds on the HGE’s Story Time theme

To this end, visitors are invited to write a letter of hope to cancer sufferers and caregivers on one of five subjects (Love, Hope, Thanks, Courage. Remembrance), and for a suggested donation of L$50, post them in the corresponding mailbox at the Expo’s Post Office, where they will be sorted and later appear on the HGE blog. Visitors may of course submit letters on more than one of the themes, but all letters should meet the requirements set-out in the Letters From Expo page linked-to above.

With some L$415,000 raised during the core RFL of SL season, the Home and Garden Expo offers an opportunity to further build on this year’s total for RFL, while offering SL users a lot to see and do. Be sure, as well, not to miss the event interviews featured on the HGE website.

?? offers a fabulous exhibit which perfectly captures the Story Time theme to this year's event
A Disastrous Beauty offers a fabulous exhibit which perfectly captures the Story Time theme to this year’s event

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OpenSimulator Community Conference registrations open

Posted on by Inara Pey

2014 banner

Registrations have opened for the 2014 OpenSimulator Community Conference. Attendance is free, but for those wishing to donate to the supporting this and future conferences, there are a number of options to do so, ranging from $10.00 USD through to $200.00 USD, all of which offer various benefits to purchasers.

For the full range of ticket options and their repsective benefits, and to book your place at the conference, please visit the conference ticket page.

Note that tickets will be available strictly on a first come, first served basis, and that the conference will be streamed via UStream for those unable to secure a ticket.

The current keynote speakers for the conference are:

  • Dr. Steve LaValle, a professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois, is the principal scientist for Oculus VR, who will be addressing attempts to bring the Oculus Rift headset to the mass consumer market
  • Philip Rosedale, CEO of High Fidelity Inc., who will address the question, “What is the Metaverse?” and discuss the opportunity to develop an open platform for virtual reality over the internet, including new hardware devices that catalyze entirely new kinds of interactions between avatars.
OSSC keynote speakers Steve Lavalle (l) and Philip Rosedale (r)
OSSC keynote speakers Steve Lavalle (l) and Philip Rosedale (r)

About the OpenSimulator Conference

The OpenSimulator Community Conference is an annual evnet that focuses on the developer and user community creating the OpenSimulator software.  Organised as a joint production by the Overte Foundation and AvaCon, Inc., the conference features two days of presentations, workshops, keynote sessions, and social events across diverse sectors of the OpenSimulator user base.

The 2014 OpenSimulator Conference will take place on the OpenSimulator Conference Centre grid on November 8th and 9th, 2014, with registrations opening on September 15th, 2014, and interested parties can sign up to receive an email reminder to register.

The conference will include four themed tracks and a Learning Lab for hands on hackerspaces, speedbuilds, and more:

About the Organisers

The Overte Foundation is a non-profit organization that manages contribution agreements for the OpenSimulator project.  In the future, it will also act to promote and support both OpenSimulator and the wider open-source 3D virtual environment ecosystem.

AvaCon, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces. We hold conventions and meetings to promote educational and scientific inquiry into these spaces, and to support organized fan activities, including performances, lectures, art, music, machinima, and much more. Our primary goal is to connect and support the diverse communities and practitioners involved in co-creating and using virtual worlds, and to educate the public and our constituents about the emerging ecosystem of technologies broadly known as the metaverse.

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Paradise Lost: your last chance to see live

Posted on by Inara Pey
image via Canary Beck
image via Canary Beck

During 2014, I’ve waxed lyrical over the Basilique Performing Arts Company’s production of Paradise Lost: The story of Adam and Eve’s original sin – and with good reason.

It really is that good.

The production, which presents John Milton’s epic blank verse poem Paradise Lost to dance and the music of the Süssmayr completion of Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor, is a masterpiece of Second Life performance art and theatre which really should not be missed.

Nor am I alone in this summation – there have been over 80 reviews of the production written during its two season run.

Satan and followers, post fall, amidst the fires of hell, Paradise Lost Premiere, April 2014
Satan and followers, post fall, amidst the fires of hell, Paradise Lost Premiere, April 2014

However, all good things must draw to a close, and this coming Sunday, September 21st, 2014, marks the final planned public performance of the production, which originally been set to run through until the end of October; however, the last four dates for the second season run will now take place behind closed doors while the entire production is filmed for posterity.

So if you’ve not taken the opportunity to see this magnificent production first-hand – and if you in any way love theatre, art, Milton’s works, Mozart’s Requiem, performing arts in SL or any  / all of the previous, then believe me, you will want to – there is still time to grab a ticket for this final performance from the SL Marketplace.

To get a feel for the complexity of this production, you can read my candid chat with the creative team behind Paradise Lost, Canary Beck and Harvey Crabsticks. There’s also the very excellent Drax Files World Makers segment, which focused on the production, and which I’ll finish with here to whet your appetites further!

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Viewer release summaries: week 37

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: Sunday September 14th, 2014

This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information

Official LL Viewers

  • Current Release:  3.7.15.293376 (formerly the Snowstorm contributions viewer incl the unified snapshot floater  and support for ‘older than’ when inventory filtering ) (download page, release notes)
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Maintenance RC viewer updated to 3.7.16.294015 on September 12th – core updates: fixes for inventory and outfit management; appearance editing; group & group ban management; camera controls; multi-grid support for favourites; notifications management; stability, bug and crash fixes (download and release notes)
  • Project viewers:
    • Experience Keys project viewer updated to version 3.7.16.293901 on September 10th – adds support for viewing and managing Experiences and for contributing content for Experiences (download and release notes).

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • No updates

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer updated on September 13th – Stable release to version 1.26.12.17 and Legacy version 1.26.8.75 – core updates: please refer to the release notes

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

For the few

Posted on by Inara Pey
Words: Lord Balfour of Inchrye (1947)
Words: Lord Balfour of Inchrye (1947) – click for full size

Testing the water and pretty in pink at Holtwaye

Posted on by Inara Pey
Hows the Water? Holtwaye ArtSpace
Hows the Water? Holtwaye ArtSpace

Eupalinos Ugajin fired over an invite for my to join a group of friends trying out How’s the Water? This is a giant catapult Eupalinos has been able to install over the Holtwaye ArtSpace.

I last visited the gallery, which is co-managed by WayneNZ and Holter Rez, back in June, not long after it had opened. So as well as visiting How’s the Water? I took the opportunity to see what was going on down in the gallery itself.

How’s the Water? is a wonderfully huge piece of interactive art / fun involving – as noted – a giant catapult. But this isan’t any catapult; at one end, where the “missiles” sit, is a huge wash basin with hot & cold taps, and a large counterweight at the other. Across a void sits a tall tower. The aim – literally – of the game is to add one or more objects to the basin using the cold water tap, and then fire them at the tower using the hot water tap.

Hows the Water? Holtwaye ArtSpace
Hows the Water? – Missile away! Holtwaye ArtSpace

The objects which are “fired” can be selected from a menu, and feature pieces from a number of artists, some of which can be sat upon, if you wish to take a ride yourself! When the hot water tap is touched, a giant strawberry (what else? 🙂 ) descends from the sky to add its mass and velocity to the counterweight, swinging the catapult into action.

Hitting the target tower – despite its size – isn’t easy. But should you do so, there’s a bit of an explosion, and rather than collapsing, the tower is bent back from the force of the impact, juddering and weaving with the imparted energy before righting itself for the next onslaught.

A small red canon and lawnmower at the base of the tower may also be worth investigating…!

If you’re looking for art that is a little … calmer … in nature, then down on the ground and inside the Gallery is a new exhibition entitled Be Our Art: Pink Edition, featuring pieces by Tomais Ashdene, Bryndarkly Cazalet, Awesome Fallen, Hottie Biscuit Lockjaw, Ziki Questi and Bianca Xavorin, all of which have, as the name suggests, a pink theme to them. Fuschia Nightfire also presents a piece for the exhibit in the media room, entitled Faerie Grotto. You’ll need to stand just inside the room and have media enabled to play this.

Be Our Art: Pink Edition
Be Our Art: Pink Edition, Holtwaye ArtSpace

Also still on display in the various gallery areas of the building are works by Chuckmatrix Clip, Fordis Flores, JJ Goodman and Waynenz, which I reviewed last time around, and Olio, a series of images by my friend and fellow SL aviator, Tomais Ashdene; while sculptures by Bryn Oh, Nessuno Myoo and others can be found in the gallery and its surrounding grounds.

If you’ve not had the chance to visit Holtwaye ArtSpace before now, I do recommend to add it to your list; not only are the exihibitions there worth seeing, as I noted in my original piece, the building itself – designed by Waynenz, who also designed the beautiful Toru, the Enchanted Forest.

Olio - Tomais Ashdene, Holtwaye ArtSpace
Olio – Tomais Ashdene, Holtwaye ArtSpace

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