Virtual Worlds
Second Life Beach Bonanza Contest
by Frans on Aug.03, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
Today is the Last day of the Second Life Beach Bonanza Contest, that Linden Lab has been running on Facebook for a week. The winner is determined by the most ‘like’s on your picture, which I noticed, can be confusing for non native English speakers. Not realising when I ask them to ‘like’ my picture that they have to click on ‘like’.
I entered with a goofy shark attack picture and so far am placed second.
Click on the picture to go to the facebook page for it and click ‘like’ to help me win.
Update: And the contest is closed, I finished second place.
Admire’ 09 31th of July till 2 August’ 09 in Panhoven Zevenaar, Holland
by Frans on Jul.22, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
ADMIRE ’09 – the Real Life gathering of many of the favourite Second Life musicians for a weekend of celebration, fun and music in the Netherlands from Friday 31st July to Sunday 2nd August.
With over 25 musicians to create music all weekend and a large open jam/collaborative session on Saturday 1st August from 9pm-midnight – this promises to be a carnival of music. The weekend theme is “collaboration” between musicians who have never played together and, of course, audience members, too.
Musicans you may hear over the weekend include XanderNichting Writer, Slim Warrior, Al Hoffman, Inchino Melson, Brad “JooZz” Monnett, Mar Biddle, Russell Eponym, Carah Nitely, Aurora Metaluna, Kaycee Drayman and Wannahave Ferraris, Blindboy Gumbo, Bara Jonson, and many more.
Portions of the ADMIRE event will be streamed into SL and there will be video uplinks, too.
The main SL location is the SLiteracy / PrimTings sims kindly provided by Ina Centaur: exact location is on the La Performance Stage in the sky above the center of the 4 connected sims:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Shakespeare/186/28/581
The venue in RL is the Panhoven in Zevenaar, The Netherlands – a camping and hostel-type accomodation. Lots of places for musicians to jam, one big jam in the Conference Hall on the premisses on Saturday August 1, 12pm SLT (9pm local time)
Further info from the notecard givers in second life or from the management team:
Mar Biddle (Venue logistics)
Kaycee Drayman (Music Coordinator)
e-mail: admire@kayceenet.demon.nl; tel. +31 654 616 698
Wannahave Ferris (Local Coordrinator)
EdDereDde Laval (Stream Coordinator)
Inchino Melson (Bookings / PR)
e-mail: inchino@btconnect.com
Slim Warrior (Video Coordinator)
XanderNichting Writer (Sound Coordinator)
Welcome to Franscharming.com
by Frans on May.16, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
It is about time that I have my own blog and own my content, so here it is. 
I have just set things up, without much fine tuning yet, that will happen eventually.
I ported all my own Slog posts over to here, so you can find my past virtual world/second life musings in one place.
How to attach to your points.
by Frans on Mar.12, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
Virtual Neko took this opportunity to at length explain how attachments work, and what you can do to wear all those must have accessories.
“So you bought a cute tail, and when you chose “wear,” it attached (by default) to your stomach. No problem.
Then you bought an amazing accessory belt, but when you chose “wear,” your tail disappeared because the belt also attaches (by default) to your stomach.
Then you tried to wear your skirt prim, and there went the belt… replaced by the skirt, because the skirt also attaches (by default) to your stomach.
With 30 possible attachment points, you’d think getting dressed wouldn’t be so hard…”
Head over to virtual neko if you need help with your attachments, or if you can use a some new tips.
Angrybeth also made a similar diagram for clothing layers.
I expect you all to have perfectly aligned attachments from now on.
The Future of Virtual World Creation.
by Frans on Mar.05, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
Think of Star Trek TNG’s Holodeck, but re-imagined in the present, now add on to that the creation tools of Second Life. Bruce Branit’s World Builder gives you a vision of what that could be like. It is a stunning short movie, well worth a watch.
World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.
Philip and M at steamy party. [Update]
by Frans on Mar.04, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
Photo by Jeska LindenOk ok, it is a Steam Punk party.
I know there are some fans groupies of both gentlemen out there, and for them there is this large version you can print out and hang over your bed. Others might enjoy looking for their favorite linden in this set on flickr.
Update 8 March: Jeska removed the red eyes version, and uploaded a red eye free one. 
Pictures of Lindens.
by Frans on Feb.23, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
Which one is your favourite? I like the Which Linden as Bamboo, or is he the pot?
Save the Hippos! (Update! We made it!)
by Frans on Feb.10, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
Why Hippos? The hippopotamus has long been a kind of unofficial mascot of Second Life. Learn more about it on the wiki. Hippos!
Update: Friday February 13th:
When we posted the original message only 5 days ago, there where only 250 votes. In just those 5 days 750 people rallied in a show of love for the hippopotamus, which made us reach our goal of 1000 votes. Soft linden has answered, and is at work to make sure the Hippos will come back in to our lives.
This effort might seem whimsical and silly. In some ways it might be, but it is also sign that people don’t want to lose the fun that is or was Second Life. The Hippo as a mascot was a creation by early residents of SL together with Linden Lab. For many people it still stands for the fun, creativity and endless possibilities that is Second Life.
Hamlet wrote about it on his blog as well. He and his commentators make some excellent points about why this was rallied behind so quickly. It basically boils down to this, this was a emotional vote for a feature that is extremely easily implemented and most of all we had the promise of Soft Linden to champion this if we reached a 1000 votes. A feature that can’t break anything and we knew we have the influence to make the difference, made the difference, so to say.
As compared to other feature requests or bug fixes, our votes do matter. It is not that our opinions don’t matter on the other issues, it is just that LL wants those other issues just as much fixed as we do. But those issues are complex and take a lot of work, our votes can at most only give a indication of what needs to worked on first. This is radicaly different for our Hippos.
Long live the Hippopatamus!
In honour of this great day.
by Frans on Jan.20, 2009, under Virtual Worlds
Some humour
Physical Virtuality – The Machinima.
by Frans on Nov.10, 2008, under Virtual Worlds
Chantal Harvey produced a short machinima: Physical Virtuality ‘What’s the weight of an avatar?”. It gives a impression of the inworld experience of the mixed reality event of the same name that happened past Nov 1st.
I volunteered on the RL side an commented the following earlier on hamlet’s blogs about it:
“A lot of the public was still uncomfortable with virtual worlds and where surprised that people from around the globe would login and stand on a virtual see-saw with them. We had a lot if fun explaining, playing with them and in and introducing people to SL in this manner.
We have talked about how things could be improved, I think more modes of interactivity/communication would improve the experience. The 20 second video delay makes it disjointed experience.”
