Year: 2015

Relay for Life: celebrate 10 years of T1 Radio in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

01 T1Radio Sign - v2011On Sunday, June 14th, T1 Radio will hold a special anniversary party to celebrate ten years of broadcasting in Second Life.

In January 2005 T1 Radio, the official broadcaster for Relay for Life of Second Life, first started broadcasting as Radio dAlliez, operating from the late Alliez Mysterio’s La Vie En Rose club.

The idea for the station came from Alliez and Tony Beckett; they approached Trader Whiplash, at that time new to DJing in Second Life, to take on the role of the station’s DJ. It proved to be a good choice; Trader learned his craft rapidly, offering sets focused on classic rock and roll which both differentiated Radio dAlliez from the more typical pop and electronic music heard in clubs at the time, and proved to be a popular with La Vie En Rose patrons.

By June 2005, with a growing private island residential business with dAlliez Estates, Alliez and Tony were considering closing down the station, but agreed that Trader to take over its running; thus T1 Radio was born, operated by Trader and his best friend, Nuala Maracas. Following the change, T1 Radio continued to operate from Rue dAlliez through until 2011, when it and the Legends Rock Club moved to is own region at Arinultra Cay.

T1 Radio at
T1 Radio at Arinultra Cay

As well as broadcasting a wide range of programmes throughout the week, T1 Radio has, over the years, become synonymous with Relay for Life. The relationship started with the very first RFL of SL season in 2005, when Trader and (himself a leukemia survivor) and Nuala formed the Relay Rockers to assist in fund-raising.

In 2006, a grid-wide issue led to a loss of audio with the scheduled stream, T1 Radio were able to fill the void. the following year, Fayandria Foley invited T1 Radio to be the 2007 RFL of SL broadcaster; the station has continued in that role through until the present day. Such has been the relationship that, in 2014, the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life recognised T1Radio for its dedication and contributions to what has become one of the largest Relay For Life fund-raisers in the world by inducting them in the RFL of SL Hall of Honour.

Legend rock club: home of T1 Radio
Legend Rock club: home of T1 Radio

Other highlights from T1 Radio’s history include:

  • 2006: 1st Relay For Life weekend broadcast
  • 2007: Provides voice to Opening, Closing and Luminaria Ceremonies
  • 2008: 1st Broadcast of Kick Off, Halfway There and Wrap Up
  • 2010: Sponsors 1st Holiday of Hope Ball
  • 2011: Moves To Arinultra Cay
  • 2012: Introduces Relay Rap – the Talk Show For and About the Relay For Life of Second Life
  • 2012: Becomes AviChoice audio producer
  • 2015: Trader and T1Radio are AviChoice finalists and T1Radio and staff garner 5 nominations overall.

Over the years, T1 Radio has involved a number of well-known names in the world of SL entertainment, including Anthony Wesburn, Java Mama,  Sassyblonde Hebert and Rex Tardis, and Radio Riel’s Gabby Riel. Today, Diana ‘Dee’ Wolfe and Madelyn Majestic continue to broadcast weekly shows.

To find out more about T1 Radio, you can tune-in to their shows via Shoutcast or the TuneIn App, and can follow T1 Radio events and activites through the T1 Radio Listeners Group.

T1 Radio's 10th Anniversary celebrations will take place at Relay dAlliez
T1 Radio’s 10th Anniversary celebrations will take place at Relay dAlliez

Join the Party

The party marking T1 Radio’s 10th anniversary will take place at Relay dAlliez, starting at 15:00 SLT and running through until 19:00, it will feature feature T1Radio’s current air-staff, alumni and special surprise guests. Team Relay rockers RFL of Sl kisoks will be available throughout the celebrations, and all donations made will go directly to RFL of SL.

Space Sunday: imaging tiny worlds, flying saucers, and a matter of size

Posted on by Inara Pey
Dawn mission patch (NASA / JPL)
Dawn mission patch (NASA / JPL)

The joint ESA / NASA Dawn mission to study two of the solar system’s three “protoplanets” located in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, continues to intrigue scientists.

Launched in September 2007, and costing US $446 million, Dawn is part of a broader effort to better understand the origins of the solar system and how the planets actually formed; all of which might give us greater understanding of how life arose here on Earth.

The mission has been relatively low-key when compared to the likes of NASA’s MSL rover on Mars or Europe’s Rosetta mission to comet 67P/C-G and NASA’s other mission to tiny world. New Horizons, but the Dawn spacecraft and mission are quite remarkable. The little spacecraft is use ion propulsion to enter orbit around a planetary body and is the first to orbit a dwarf planet and, since its arrival in orbit around Ceres, the first spacecraft from Earth to visit that tiny dwarf planet and the first mission to orbit two separate extraterrestrial bodies.

Dawn arrived at Ceres in March 2015, after a 2.5 year transit flight from Vesta, its first destination, where it spent 14 months in orbit following its arrival there in July 2011. Because of their relative size – Ceres accounts for around one-third of the total mass of the asteroid belt –  both of these airless, rocky bodies are regarded as dwarf planets, rather than “simple” asteroids.  However, they are both very different bodies to one another.

Dawn mission (NASA / JPL) - click for full size
Dawn mission (NASA / JPL) – click for full size

With a diameter of 525 kilometres (326 miles), Vesta is the smaller of these two worldlets, and is technically regarded as water-poor achondritic asteroid comprising a tenth of the mass of the asteroid belt. Its density is lower than the four inner planets of the solar system but higher than most of the moons and asteroids.

A June 6th image of the bright spots within a crater on Ceres, captured by Dawn on June 6th, 2015, from a distance of
A June 6th image of the bright spots within a crater on Ceres, captured by Dawn on June 6th, 2015, from a distance of 4,400 kilometres / 2,700 miles (NASA / JPL) – click for full size

Ceres, with a diameter of 950 kilometres (590 miles), is just 2.5 times smaller than distant Pluto, the target of the New Horizons mission. Its spectral characteristics suggest a composition similar to that of a water-rich carbonaceous chondrite. Like most of the material within the asteroid belt, it formed very early in the history of the Solar System, thereby retaining a record of events and processes from the time of the formation of the terrestrial planets.

Since arriving in orbit around Ceres, Dawn has returned some intriguing images of apparent bright spots within a crater. These were first seen in late 2014, as Dawn made its initial approach to Ceres, and have since been imaged on numerous occasions, and have been tracked as Ceres rotates, eliminating them as being imaging artefacts. Studies of much lower resolution images of Ceres taken by the Hubble Space Telescope also reveal these bright spots – although such is the distance of Ceres from Hubble that where they do appear in HST pictures, they are little more than a single bright blob.

The thinking on the bright areas are that they are water ice  or possibly frozen salt deposits – although they could be something more exotic. Over the last two months, Dawn has been able to image the bright areas, which lie in a crater some 92 kilometres (57 miles) across, situation some 19 degrees above Ceres’ equator. On June 6th, 2015, Dawn returned the best images yet of the bright spots, and these have been added to an animation made up of multiple images of Ceres, showing it rotating about its axis.

At the end of June, Dawn will commence a series of manoeuvres which will gently lower its orbit over the period of 6 weeks, allowing it to get much more detailed images of the surface of Ceres and these strange spots. As the images will also be captured from multiple angles, scientists hope they’ll provide sufficient information for the composition of the bright spots to be understood.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: imaging tiny worlds, flying saucers, and a matter of size” →

Clerks, cats, belles, mermaids and spacemen

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in voice, brought to our virtual lives by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and all events in Second Life are held at the Seanchai Library’s home at Bradley University. Locations for events in InWorldz and Kitely are given within the write-ups for those events.

Sunday, June 14th

13:00 Tea-time at Baker Street

Caledonia Skytower, Kaydon Oconnell and Corwyn Allen continue reading The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, originally published in 1894, and which brings together twelve (or eleven in US editions of the volume) adventures featuring Holmes and Watson, as originally published in The Strand Magazine. This week: The Adventure of the Stockbroker’s Clerk, first published in  March 1893.

“Pycroft shook his clenched hands in the air” – Sidney Paget, 1893

For three months after taking over the practice I was kept very closely at work and saw little of my friend Sherlock Holmes, for I was too busy to visit Baker Street, and he seldom went anywhere himself save upon professional business. I was surprised, therefore, when, one morning in June, as I sat reading the British Medical Journal after breakfast, I heard a ring at the bell, followed by the high, somewhat strident tones of my old companion’s voice.

“Ah, my dear Watson,” said he, striding into the room, “I am very delighted to see you! I trust that Mrs. Watson has entirely recovered from all the little excitements connected with our adventure of the Sign of Four.”

“Thank you, we are both very well,” said I, shaking him warmly by the hand.

Holmes’ visit to the home of Dr and Mrs J. Watson is more than just casual; he wishes his friend to accompany him and one Hall Pycroft, a stockbroker, on a trip to Birmingham. It seems that said company had offered Mr. Pycroft a management position, albeit in France, and had sweetened the offer with a rather handsome £100 advance.

While his suspicions that all was not as it seemed had not prevented Mr. Pycroft from accepting the position, further events had drawn him to the conclusion that something rather odd was indeed going on. Thus, he had sought the assistance of Sherlock Holmes, who had decided a further visit to the firm’s Birmingham offices to be in order. He had also deduced that the case would be sufficiently engaging to warrant the involvement of his chronicler and friend, John Watson.

18:00 Magicland Storytime – Thomasina Part 2

thomasinaJoin Caledonia Skytower at Magicland Park as she continues reading Paul Gallico’s 1957 novel (and later a 1963 Walt Disney film starring none other that Patrick McGoohan, alongside Karen Dotrice – who also appeared in Disney’s Mary Poppins and The Gnome Mobile – and Susan Hampshire).

When Thomasina, young Mary’s cat, suffers injury, Mary’s veterinarian father and widower, is typically unsympathetic , and rather than treating the cat, has it put to sleep – earning himself the enmity of his daughter, who declares him dead to her.

Thomasina, meantime, finds herself in cat heaven, only to be returned to Earth because she has lived only one of her nine lives. Thus begins a series of adventures involving Thomasina, Mary, her father and a local woman regarded as a “witch” by the children, but who has a caring way with animals…

Monday June 15th, 19:00: Science-Fiction Shorts

Gyro Muggins reads Isaac Asimov’s 1955 science-fiction crime story The Singing Bell, which involves murder, Moon rocks and justice. He turn turns to the Zelazny / Sheckley short, Star Light.

Tuesday June 16th, The Great Gatsby, Part 4

Great GatsbyCaledonia Skytower, Corwyn Allen and Kaydan Oconnell continue reading of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s magnificent 1925 novel.

In 1922, Nick Carraway arrives in New York to learn about the bond business. He rents a small cottage in West Egg, home of the newly-rich, only to discover the owner of the huge Gothic mansion next door, the deeply mysterious Jay Gatsby, is prone to throwing lavish parties every weekend, to which in seems everyone comes. Everyone it seems, except Nick’s cousin Daisy, who is married to Tom Buchanan. Together they live across the bay in the more fashion East Egg, where the “old money” resides.

Following a visit with them, Nick is slowly drawn into their world, both discovering Tom Buchanan has a mistress who lives in the Valley of Ashes, an industrial area lying between the Eggs and New York city, and finding himself increasingly attracted to the Buchanan’s friend, the beautiful, if cynically minded, Jordan Baker.

Then, one Saturday, Nick finds himself invited to one of Jay Gatsby’s great parties, and is thus drawn into an increasingly deep well of infatuation, lust, and tragedy, witnessing first hand a darker side of the so-called American Dream.

Wednesday June 17th

06:00: Forever Erma

Erma BombeckErma Bombeck achieved great popularity for her newspaper column that described suburban home life from the mid-1960s until the late 1990s. She also published 15 books, most of which became bestsellers. From 1965 to 1996, Erma Bombeck wrote over 4,000 newspaper columns, using broad and sometimes eloquent humour, chronicling the ordinary life of a mid-western suburban housewife. By the 1970s, her columns were read twice-weekly by 30 million readers of the 900 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada

Join Freda Frostbite and Trolly Trollop as the delve into Erma’s wit and wisdom of everyday life, joined by Caledonia Skytower.

19:00: The Tail of Emily Windsnap Part 2

Faerie Maven-Pralou reads from the first volume in Liz Kesseler’s series about a young girl who, having always lived on a boat but having been kept away from the water by her mother, finally gets to have swimming lessons. With them comes a remarkable discovery that leads her into another world…

Thursday June 18th 19:00: Edgar Allan

Shandon Loring enters the world of the Master of the Macabre.

Saturday June 20th 12:00 noon Seanchai Kitely: The Adventures of Luke Skywalker

So, where were you in 1977?  Do you remember the first time you saw the first film?  The first 25 times you saw the first film?  Maybe you have never seen it at all.  Join Caledonia on Seanchai Library’s Spaceworld to enjoy for the first time (or re-live the joy) of those first adventures from an edition penned by Director George Lucas himself! – grid.kitely.com:8002/Inis Eirc.

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Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule. The featured charity for June / July is the The Xerces Society, at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programmes.

Additional Links

The Drax Files 30: The Secret of success in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

“When you mention Second Life to people,” Maylee Oh, the subject of segment #30 of The Drax Files World Makers says, “they picture the noob avatar from 2007. So what I do is, I show them what creative people can do today.”

There’s probably one pundit out there who may well view this as a “distorted” view of Second Life, as Maylee’s vision of creativity in the platform does not mention a certain three-letter word starting in “s” and ending in “x”. However, for the rest of us, Maylee’s words open the door to another fascinating 5-minute exploration of the creative richness Second Life offers anyone willing to set aside prejudices and simply watch.

Maylee Oh
Maylee Oh

Maylee is, without a doubt one of the more interesting success stories to come out of SL’s 12-year history. Indeed, she’s been a part of the platform’s unfolding story for eight of those 12 years, using the time to build up her brand Secret Store to become one of the leading creative lights in Second Life – and a business fully capable of supporting her in the physical world.

“I quit art school during the third year because I wanted to try something different, Maylee adds a little later in the video. “I still don’t regret [it], because Second Life is still my main income. To me, this is being successful.”

Given Maylee made this decision when just 20 years old, one cannot help but wonder how her parents reacted at the time; the idea that one’s son / daughter is pushing away a good college qualification to spend time making imaginary clothes for a “game” probably isn’t something that would have most parents jumping for joy.

In fairness to Maylee’s mother however, and as illustrated in  wonderful series of hand-drawn images in the video, she is now clearly enthusiastic about her daughter’s choice and acts very much as Maylee’s physical world promoter – even if, again as shown in the drawings, explanations of Maylee’s chosen profession does generate sideways glances from those outside of the platform who are being told her story. Nor does the very important element of physical world support end there: Maylee has also had the firm encouragement of both her best friend and her boyfriend.

Having the support of those around you is important for anyone going into business for themselves; Maylee has been blessed in her endeavours by the support and encouragement of her best friend (l) and byofriend
Having the support of those around you is important for anyone going into business for themselves; Maylee has been blessed in her endeavours by the support and encouragement of her best friend (l) and boyfriend

Another fascinating angle in this piece is the manner in which Maylee demonstrates another way in which the real and virtual can combine to present another fascinating potential – and one which Maylee has perhaps been one of the first to creatively explore. This is through her use of the platform, together with external tools to creating highly effective adverts which stand as much as a demonstration of the sheer versatility offered by Second Life for such work as they do as a vivid visual promotion of Maylee’s secret store.

The sheer creative power presented by Maylee’s ads speaks volumes; one wonders what might have been had those companies who flocked to Second Life had actually recognised the creative potential offered within the platform and leveraged it accordingly, rather than simply trying to translate their brand and goods into digital offerings. Outside of this question, Maylee’s work demonstrates how Second Life can be used to enormous effect within mixed media presentations that go well beyond “simple” advertising.

As is often the case in these segments, the show touches upon the collaborative nature of the platform, and its ability to cross social and geographic divides. In terms of collaboration, Maylee both demonstrates how she contributes to this as well as overcome much of the “secrecy” she encountered when starting-out as a content creator in SL, through the expedient of sharing her workflow on-line as well as more directly collaborating with others in her work,

“Second Life is full of creative minds and talents people,” Maylee also observes of SL’s cultural melting pot, although layer of the platform so often missed by commentators looking in from the sidelines. “Everyone has their own culture and we exchange a lot [of] feedback from all around the world.” This also links into matters of identity, which in turn loop back to people’s reaction to the idea of clothing a virtual character in a virtual world; as she points out, the clothes we choose and wear are as much a statement of our in-world identity as the avatar we use.

Identity is also far more the driving force behind Maylee’s creativity than physical world fashions – which might come as a surprise, given she lives in one of the great fashion centres of the world.

“What I enjoy about Paris is the diversity of people,” she notes. “I love to look at everyone, and everyone’s styles and identity; it keeps getting me inspired. Paris is somehow a bit like Second Life. because it’s a huge mess but it’s also full of amazing things.”

There is no reasons why our phsyical and virtual lives cannot complement one another - a point often missed by those all too eager to point to foibles and perceived failings of Second Life and its users
There is no reasons why our physical and virtual lives cannot complement one another – a point often missed by those all too eager to point to foibles and perceived failings of Second Life and its users

Once again Drax challenges perceptions of Second Life by presenting a story that is – as this continuing series of videos demonstrates – very much the “norm” for those of us engaged in the platform. Maylee is no basement dwelling individual without a “first life” as the media and SL’s critics seem to be ever-willing to believe. She is a young woman who has set-up a successful business which is generating an solid income for her and which is teaching her the fundamentals of good business practice: customer relationships, team management and so on.

Hopefully, in watching her story unfolding in these five short minutes, those from outside the platform will find Maylee’s story challenging their preconceptions on the value of virtual spaces like Second Life, and be more prepared to approach SL with a more open mind, rather than merely looking for the stereotypical memes, or those wishing to peddle them to whoever will listen.

Summertime Premium membership offer in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

‘Tis the time of quarter again – the summer Premium membership discount offer is up and running, and it is back to the “usual” 50% off of the first billing period when subscribing to the quarterly plan.

The announcement of the offer came via a blog post from the Lab, which also points to the (worthwhile) increased limit of 60 groups for Premium account holders, as well as the usual bits and pieces on offer to those upgrading: the L$1,000 bonus after 45 days, the weekly stipend of L$300, the opportunity to have your own Linden Home or piece of mainland, etc.

The summer Premium membership promo offers those interested a beach set
The summer Premium membership promo offers those interested a beach set

For those interested in the opportunity, the offer started at 08:00 PDT on Friday, June 12th, and concludes at 08:00 PDT on Monday, June 29th. As usual, if you are considering the move up from Basic, might I offer some thoughts (as long in the tooth as they might be) as someone who has bounced from Premium to Basic and back again?

This quarter’s offer of course wouldn’t be complete without the Premium gift box. This one has a decidedly summery feel to it, with a package of beach oriented items including wearables such as Elton John style sunglasses, a pic-er-nic basket, Boo-boo and sun hat; there’s also a picnic spread, beach towel and sun shade, sandcastle, beach ball, sun lotion and a colour-changing  surfboard you can ride. As gifts go, they’re pretty much on a par with what we’ve seen in  the past – which is to say a mixed bag. I can see the surf board getting use in those beach regions which allow rezzing; the picnic set could be good for romantics, again in places that allow rezzing. The rest? Well …

And as a final reminder (also in the official blog post), if you didn’t make the Premium meet-up with the Lindens on Thursday, June 11th but would like an advance copy of the SL12B avatar, don’t forget you have until midnight on the 12th June to snag one from the vendor.

Lab offer “obsolete platforms viewer” for unsupported OS

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeThe recent switch by Linden Lab to an updated set of tools for building the viewer (which are also being adopted by active TPVs) has meant that as viewers built using these new tools will no longer install on either Windows XP or versions of OS X below 10.7.

Given that neither Windows XP or version of OS X below 10.7 are regarded as supported products by either Microsoft or Apple, the most preferable thing for users on them to do is to upgrade. However, in some cases, this might be easier said than done. To help users who might, for whatever reason, be unable to upgrade to a later version of their OS in the short term, the Lab has issued an “obsolete platform viewer” into the viewer release channel, which will be provided for as long as is reasonable – but not indefinitely.

Version 3.7.28.300847 of the viewer (dated May 8th although it only appeared in the release channel this past week), is a “static” viewer, meaning:

  • It will not receive new features or bug fixes
  • It will not be promoted to release status
  • It does not change the Lab’s support policy on Windows XP or versions of OS X below 10.7, and is purely – as noted – an interim offering to help people.

The viewer is based on the April 2015 maintenance viewer release (version 3.7.27.300636), and so includes things like the unified snapshot floater.

Given it is offered only for as long as is reasonable, it should not be relied upon for long-term use, but rather as a means for those who prefer the official viewer and who use Windows XP and older versions of OS X to continue to access SL until such time as they are in a position to update their systems (or the viewer has to be withdrawn from use).

As per all the alternate viewers offered by the Lab, the viewer is listed on the Alternate Viewers page of the SL wiki, or you can use the direct link given above to view the official release notes and download options.