Little big dream

My SL dream has just come true. The one I thought I would have to wait years to happen. It is coming true as I write this sentence. I'm talking about realtime full body motion capture in Second Life. Just think about it, oh, the new horizons! Communicating with people the natural way, actually dancing in clubs, using body movement to do basically anything in SL.

You know, I was always hoping we - the people of XXI century - would strive towards more movement in front of our computers, since they are taking a huge part in nowadays life. It really makes me happy to know about this initiative. Let me show you the movie (found via Hamlet's site):



Impressive, no? Anton Bogdanovych, your work is absolutely fantastic in so many ways! I hope this project gets more attention, and by the time the software is ready to use, there will be a few companies ready to provide cheaper equipment for consumer market / personal use. This is going to be big!

Fast, easy and fun!

Philip's relaxed speech at SLCC makes me feel much more confident about Second Life's future.

Welcome to Melt!

It's been so hard to keep shhhh about this, expecially after posting the teaser, so I am very excited to finally announce that I am taking part in Melt - an installation on thin ice!



Let me show you a note from the originator of this project, Radio Signals:

"If the world were clear, art would not exist."
-Jorge Luis Borges

Artists absorb the world around them. Their environments, that which they can feel and touch and see - and that which they can't. Sometimes that which they can only dream of. They absorb it and translate it into a language that affects us all in some way.

This project is a study of translations. I presented 25 artists within Second Life with a concept of creating art with these words in mind: Drowning. Melting. Polar bears. Arctic. Culpability. Corporate greed. Inevitability. Extinction.

What they have done is breathtaking and beyond any realm of my expectations.

Welcome to Melt - Please explore and involve yourself in this temporary world created here. Interact with it, wear it, enjoy it and immerse yourself in it.

Melt is only open March 6 - March 21. Please feel free to share your experience by adding your snapshots to the Mirror Installations Flickr group.

Thank you
Radio Signals

Melt opens tomorrow 6PM SLT at Mirror region, and I really hope to see you there! I am thrilled to take part in this project and I hope it will be an inspiring experience for you as well!

Here are the items I created for Melt:













See you tomorrow at Mirror region!

Melt

Look into my Blender!

I'm redesigning my chocolate box, been sculpting a lot and finally it's ready for texturing! I thought I will give you a little sneak peak into my Blender ^^



Better than the current version, isn't it? :) It's always amazing how the quality requirements in SL change over time - a product that once was top notch, nowadays needs changes to get its popularity back... I don't mean just sculpties - look at the way skins have changed, or clothes. Crazy!

Anyway, I hope I finish the chocolates before Valentine's Day! I'm planning to re-write the scripts as well, so now it is a good time to give me suggestions for additional functionality of this item, if you have any!

PS. Show me your Blender (or any other program you use for sculpties)! I would love to see your work in progress - so treat it as a challenge! I'm hoping for some links ;)

Avatars United

Something interesting has happened :) Linden Lab has acquired a Swedish company - Enemy Unknown AB - and their social networking site - Avatars United. And... everyone is happy about it! Residents are showing a lot of enthusiasm. Moreover, it seems the site has already become a hip place, within just a few days. So popular, that the '503 Service Unavailable' message shows up every once in a while because the server is overloaded. And it seems all up-to-the-minute avatars have a profile there.

I find it quite interesting, cause you know what happens usually :) Basically any move by Linden Lab is highly criticized by SL residends, whether it's fair or not. I think the upbeat reaction to this acquisition is quite remarkable and tell us a little about residents' needs. I'm curious how things will play out but this made me think about something else as well. This acquisition might be just one of many significant business decisions coming from Linden Lab in the near future. I'm not necessarily talking about other acquisitions but about decisions that will change Second Life as we know it - and I'm guessing it will be most harsh for long term residents. Something has changed - and that is the way Linden Lab look at Second Life. It's not 'our virtual world, our baby, our dear project' anymore - it's a product now. And a product should bring profit. This attitude is not bad, though - it will help Second Life stay on the market. The 'dear attitude' is good for beginnings, when the project is small... but if you don't change it fast enough, your project might fail, despite your best intentions. So I guess Linden Lab actions and residents' needs will finally meet, one day in the future.

In the meanwhile, feel free to unite with me ;)

Merry Christmas

Dear readers, I wish you a very happy Christmas, lots of warm atmosphere and cheerful moments with your family and friends, awesome gifts from Santa Claus, a fantastic New Year's Eve party and a happy, healthy, prosperous, joyful and successful new year! I hope however you spend your holidays, you have great time! Eat delicious food, laugh a lot and share love and happiness with people around you.

The Corn Field

Aaaaah, finally! I've been to THE CORN FIELD! I wanted to do that ever since I learned about its existence. Quick info for those of you who never heard of it:

The Corn Field is a region of mythological status where once naughty avatars were sent to think about what they had done. "The corn field" is a vast star-lit field of corn and was cut off from communication with the rest of the world (a reference to the classic Twilight Zone episode, "It's a Good Life").

Source: Second Life Wiki

Since bad avatars are not sent to The Corn Field anymore and it stayed closed to the public, noone could actually visit it. People only knew about its existence from a single post of an avatar that was once sent there. However, it was opened for October 28-30 this year, yay! It's decorated for Halloween, but I don't mind - my curiosity is sooo satisfied :)

The Corn Field is fun to explore.





But once it gets dark, it can be quite spooky ^^



I won't spoil the fun for you, you have to go and explore yourself, but be aware that almost all the Lindens you'll meet there are zombies. Also, Mia Linden is the most scaaaarrryyyyyy. And if you have a feeling that Lexie Linden is watching and following you, but when you turn around she's not there... SHE IS FOLLOWING YOU! Have fun :)

Fresh logo for Snowglobe

About a month ago Linden Lab launched a contest on 99designs with the intention of finding a fresh new logo for the Snowglobe viewer. I must say I was very curious about the winning design. Reaching to the community for a product logo instead of hiring a professional may bring unexpected results - either in a positive or a negative way. 99designs is a group focused around design, but it's still risky to use online service like this, since a logo is not merely a graphic element but a part of company and product identity. It does give you an idea on how much Linden Lab appreciate the power behind a community nonetheless.

The winner was chosen and I definitely want the new logo on my desktop :) Just look at the old logo and the new one.



I like how the new one refers to Linden Lab logo, the Snowglobe itself and the primitive cube. I'm not very fond of the bold contour but I still like this design and definitely prefer the new colours. It's fresh, vivid and 'juicy', it's simple, and what's more important - it's memorable and versatile.

You can see the rest of the entries on the contest page. There were some interesting designs worth seeing. Also, take a look at the cute ones with hippos: here, here and here :) Awww... ^^ They're too complex to become logos, but they're so adorable.

So what do you think about the new logo? Which entry would you call your personal favourite?

I found THE egg :)

I found the 5000L$ egg in the BunnyJam hunt ^^ We've been flying with Sql all over Second Life, trying to figure out one of the clues, when suddenly I realised something. Mia had been working so hard on this event, so at least one of the eggs have had to be in her SL office. And so it was, lying innocently on a shelf among Linden bears. I didn't expect it would be the 5000L$ one though ;) Funny thing, as Twitter notice appeared, I was flooded with messages from fellow residents, asking about the egg. If you messaged me at that time and I didn't reply, I'm sorry, it was just too many to handle ;) Congratulations to all residents who found the eggs!


Me and Sql awaiting the results at the BunnyJam party

Happy Easter! [UPDATE]

[UPDATE: April 14, 2009] I added the correct SLURL to the egg.

[UPDATE: April 19, 2009] Send me an IM in-world, if you want this egg, I'll send it to you for free!

Together with Sql we made an egg for the Egg Decorating Contest (yay!). I just had to show it to you!



It's an Easter Chicken Egg House :) We added some little Second Life finishing touches: the basket is full of prims instead of eggs, and the picture on the wall is the chicken with children/eggs at the trip to Natoma to see 'The Man' statue :P It was really fun to make! Later we went to EggsActly islands to see the other eggs and there are thousands of them, all beautiful! Go there, it's worth it. In case you'll be looking for our egg, it's on the EggsActly Right island EggsActly island (click for SLURL) :)

I wish you all happy Easter! Smile a lot, eat some yummy food and have a wonderful Easter with your loved ones.

Linden Lab, Xstreet SL and OnRez: designing the future economy

Linden Lab announced their acquisition of Xstreet SL and OnRez (and plans of consolidating them under Xstreet SL brand), and immediately a wave of criticism swept through the SL blogosphere. I've read a few positive opinions about this move but they vanished in the sea of accusations, gloomy predictions and conspiration theories. The announcement came a bit sudden, which may explain the negative response, but I'm sure many residents will change their tune over time. People, especially when surprised with something, tend to look at things from one perspective, and that is from their own perception of the situation. I think you should look at things from three perspectives: your own perception (what effect the situation has on you), the opposite side of the argument (why they have a different opinion and what effect the situation has on them) and the perspective of a person who is not involved in the situation at all (a passive observer). Only then you have a full picture of the situation and your judgement is more fair and balanced. So, if you look at this acquisition objectively, it perfectly makes sense. It brings good to each company involved and to the residents of Second Life as well. How is that?



First: OnRez would be shutdown anyway. It's not a big secret that the Electric Sheep Company (who ran OnRez) is slowly pulling out of SL. This was a perfect opportunity to say 'bye' gracefully and to make some extra money on it. Second: It seems Jay Geeseman (more known by his avatar name, Apotheus Silverman), the founder of Xstreet SL, was looking for some capital to expand the company. So Xstreet SL gets the needed capital, and since Apotheus and key members of his team will continue to work on Xstreet SL at Linden Lab, and will be integrating the platfrom into SL, I don't think the quality of service will change, except for better. Third: Linden Lab is a company, and a company should make profit off their business activity. Remember that proft for Linden Lab is your assurance that tomorrow you'll be able to log in to SL - perhaps with faster and more reliable asset servers or improved graphics. But you need money to invest, non? It's only natural they wanted to involve into web-based Second Life e-commerce. They could have decided to create a new web solution for SL merchants, but instead they chose a better way - not uncommon in business world - acquire a trusted and successful company in the field they want to expand to. It's better, because a company that already operates in certain field has got experience and know-how, which otherwise would need to be gained in more difficult and much more time-consuming way.

But what are the benefits for the residents?

• Less work to do
  Once things are integrated, there will be no need to do the same work three times when releasing a product (set up in-world, set up on OnRez, set up on Xstreet SL). Doing the listings is boring and time consuming. I'm sure many of you would agree it's the most tedious task of a designer. In fact, I know people who don't list their products on SL e-commerce websites because they find it too tiresome. They just prefer to have smaller sales than dedicate their time and energy to putting up merchandise on these platforms. I own three brands in-world and I still don't have all my products listed - it's just too much to do. I don't know how deep and broad the integration will be, but I'd love to see deliveries straight from avatars' inventories and listings done by right-clicking the product and choosing 'Send to marketplace' option, or perhaps by moving the product to a special inventory folder. I'm so tired of Dropboxes and Magic Boxes. But even if they stay, there will be just one! Until a new marketplace opens, that is ;)
  
  
• More customers
  Currently a lot of people are not aware they can shop for SL items through web (T Linden says this number is around 80% for residents who are economically active, and around 97-99% for other residents). As the integration process advances, more people will use the service, which means better visibility of products to SL community and higher sales.
  
  
• More fair and equitable competition environment
  Thanks to web-based shopping little businesses (especially those who don't have an in-world store at all) will be able to compete with big brands on same level. It's true they can list their products on e-commerce sites now, but only after the integration these products will get similar exposure as big brand products in-world. It won't matter that much whether you own a full region or a small store - if your products are of same quality, you'll compete on equal terms. I think competition in general will become more intense but I consider this positive, since it can drive development and lead further into more vibrant SL economy.
  
  
• Bigger choice of products
  At the moment there are a lot of brands who operate in-world only. If the web shopping service gains popularity, and perhaps have some kind of impact on in-world search results, these businesses will most probably enter shopping sites to compete more effectively and to gain a new stream of profit. Also, when people become more aware of web-based shopping and realize they can sell their creations without the need of finding money to open an in-world store, a lot of talented residents might decide to try their hand at running a business. This might also mean a flood of 'beginner products', but hey, we all had to learn at one time, and you can always sort your search results by popularity or rating.
  
  
• Better shopping experience
  Believe it or not, there are still a lot of residents who don't have new fast computers. Possibility to browse items on a website let them avoid lag and enhances their shopping experience. People with slow computers will naturally choose to shop on a website (as Gwyneth Llewelyn nicely puts it, lagfree shopping), which means less people in a sim and less lag for those who like to buy items in-world. Take Armidi for example. Their sim was always extremely laggy due to a high number of avatars shopping. It took an awful lot of time to load and moving from one place to another was really slow, even on fast computers. As a solution they introduced ShopArmidi.com, an online shop for their creations. Now residents can conveniently shop online or go to a lag free sim (still full of avatars but not packed with them to the extreme). And all of them get a nice experience. I think something similar is going to happen after integrating Xstreet into SL, but this time it will be a grid-wide process.
  
  
• Easier gifting
  Currently you can't send gifts to people who are not registered with Xstreet SL and OnRez. With web shopping integrated into SL you'll be able to send gifts to any avatar you want. And with easy gifting process, I guess more people are going to buy gifts on impulse, which means higher revenue for merchants.
  
  
• Linked Linden balance
  Hopefully the in-world Linden balance will be integrated with web shopping platform and there will be no need anymore for additional money operations. This means no more depositing money, no more withdrawing, no more searching for terminals or wallets. Just sell and buy.
  
  
• Easier searching within Second Life
  I'd say the majority of people who shop at SL's online marketplaces use them because of powerful search engines. It's much easier and faster to look up something you need on the web, and then, if needed, follow the SLURL to the shop (to see the item in person) than to try to find that item through in-world search engine. Acquired websites, especially Xstreet SL, allow for more convenient browsing and comparison of products (sorting by price, by rating, by popularity etc.), not to mention descriptions, presented in more readable form than a notecard. If this search engine was integrated into Second Life, I'm sure in-world search experience would significantly improve.
  
  
• Other
  Sharable wish lists, gifting to non-residents, scheduled deliveries - these few were mentioned by T Linden.

It all doesn't look all that negative now, does it? Personally I'm hoping Linden Lab will do their best to integrate all the top features of each acquired site into one comprehensive, effective, user-friendly platform. We'll see over time how all the integration goes, but I'm guessing in the long term it will have a positive effect on SL economy and on SL in general.

Meet the MISTER

My favourite avatar in SL and a talented scripter, Sql Miles, has created the coolest SL transportation system ever. It's a recreation of MISTER - Metropolitan Individual System of Transportation on an Elevated Rail. In real life the system consists of electrically powered gondolas gliding on a rail track suspended overhead. In SL it looks similar, except the gondolas are powered by LSL scripts :)

Sql created this system for COP14 conference island in SL (The 14th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change). The track goes around the island and there are four stations where you can get on/off (the main areas of the island). Once you're there, just sit in a gondola and choose where you want to go. Fun! :)





The COP14 island, where MISTER operates, was developed by Bodeha Zapedzki. It is worth to explore it and learn how to be eco-friendly in everyday life. Let me give you a bit more information about the conference:

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is one of the most important environmental agreements to lay down a framework for international actions to address global climate warming. On the basis of the agreement adopted in the course of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992), the objectives and principles were set for the cooperation among the States to prevent climate change and to mitigate its adverse effects, e.g. by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As a result of negotiations, political decisions and legal instruments emerge to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the Convention, such as e.g. the Kyoto Protocol, which set out the States’ commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

There's lots to see on the island, including constant weather changes every few minutes and an art installation 'The Last Fir Tree' by SL artist Poid Mahovlich. Oh, and if you come across Bodeha on the island, ask him to show you the tornado ;)

Mistletoe and wine

I know it's not the time for Christmas yet but I just couldn't wait with these news :) My friend, Cytryna Matova, together with her artistic group Mechaniczna Cytryna, has recorded a cover of Cliff Richard's Christmas song - 'Mistletoe and wine'. She decided to make a videoclip to the song in Second Life with a plan to air it in Polish national TV during Christmas time. The idea of the video was to show Polish SL community, things we do, things we like, all in Christmas spirit. The project involved a lot of Polish avatars, and several days of recording and post production. My avatar appears in a few scenes, and that is the wedding scene (as the maid of honour - in teal dress), the carousel scene (in red jacket and yellow scarf) and together with Sql in a scene where we go up the mountain on a skilift and then slide down on sled. I think the video turned out very nice, so here it is for you to enjoy:

Paris, Paris

Some time ago I was asked to recreate the lamps from Place de la Concorde - one of the major squares in Paris. I was going to blog them once they're set up in-world, but actually I totally forgot about them. A few days ago though I came across them while cleaning my inventory and thought 'oh well, why not blog them now'. Thus, here they are.

This is how the RL lamp looks like:



And here's its SL equivalent:



You can see the lamps in-world at Concorde sim.

SL'ang Life no more [UPDATE]

[UPDATE: March 29, 2010] I removed all SL'ang Life links - they don't lead to SL'ang Life website anymore (since it doesn't exist), but to one you wouldn't want to go to ;)

I can't believe I'm writing this, yet it did happen: our beloved magazine is closed now. We've been struggling to save it for the last few weeks, but there's no way to keep it operating unless we find a new investor.

Working at SL'ang Life was an amazing experience. I love all the people I met and worked with, and I have some great memories to treasure. I was very proud each time I said I worked for SL'ang Life magazine - was it RL or SL. And I did shed a tear (not only one tear, actually) when I realised we have to put the project on hold.



Now I feel as if someone has taken away a part of my identity - I'm no longer SL'ang Life journalist. I need to find a new way in my life which I'm sure will be great, but I'm sad for the things I need to leave behind. The most scary thing of all is the possibility of splitting with SL'ang Life team - we come from different cities and some of these people have never been in Second Life - but I do hope we will manage to keep in touch. I really got to like them a lot.

We did a lot of fun stuff together. I'm going to miss those crazy nights at our island - fooling around, laughing and chatting on voice with our readers. I'm going to miss even more the meetings in RL, which were full of laughter as well (and silly silly activities at the hotel). I feel connected to these people and I want to keep that connection. If you guys are reading this, I love ya.

If you love SL'ang Life as much as I do, come to SL'ang Life island on 10 July 2008 at 10 AM (SLT) - we're planning a little goodbye party for our readers. I hope to see you there. Let's have fun and remember SL'ang Life the happy way.

Trademarks, oh my!

This is a post I've been wanting to write ever since Linden Lab announced their new trademark policy but somehow I took on my other activities and the topic has been waiting till now. The end of 90-days period to adjust to the new guidelines is approaching (23rd June) so I think it's a good time to post some after-comments and a good moment to share what I think about Linden Lab's move.

The restrictions are out for quite a while now and there's been a lot of talking on the SL blogosphere about them, mostly negative. I remember in the beginning, when I saw the official blog post, I thought it was a good move. I was happy that Linden Lab decided to protect their trademarks and I considered the inSL™ logo useful. Then I kept reading people's posts complaining about the new trademark policy and got myself into thinking the same way they did. It was very easy to fall for that, it was like reverse groupthink and it took me a bit of time to realize that and get back to my own opinion.

Probably one of the most silly remarks was the one stating that Second Life tagline Your World. Your imagination.™ is not true anymore and that SL world isn't ours any longer. Well, when I say my country it doesn't mean I actually own it, does it? It's a place where I live, which I'm part of, I decide about what surrounds me to some extent, I meet people, I have family and friends, it's where I work, etc. I influence it. But it's managed by the government. So yes, the SL world is ours, it's where avatars meet, interact, have fun, create and learn, but the assets belong to Linden Lab. They created this world from the scratch, so don't expect they'll just give it to you. It's their right to decide about company's future and I'm sure their decisions are discussed thoroughly before being announced, not just thrown in the wind because someone said it would be fun or interesting to see what happens.

Another silly reaction (but I must say a bit funny) was people adding ® or ™ to every mention of any of Linden Lab's trademarks or registered names, or renaming them to phrases like virtual world, you know where or something similar, on the whole blog, in every entry they ever posted there (some of these were ironic, I know). I haven't had much legal education except some obligatory classes I took in high school, but the first thing they taught me (or maybe just the one I remember the most cause it's really useful) is lex retro non agit (law isn't retroactive), which means that blog entries dated before the creation of Second Life Brand Center don't have to be corrected. On the other hand, if all those trademarks and logos were registered earlier (and I think some of them were), people shouldn't have been violating usage rules in the first place, even if they didn't know about them. Ignorantia legis neminem excusat (ignorance of the law does not excuse) is another rule I was taught. But I don't think Linden Lab would chase bloggers for leaving past entries as they were. And finally, befofe the creation of the Brand Center, Linden Lab stated that fan sites (and I think that includes SL blogs) should put the following note in a visible place (you can see it on my blog's sidebar):

Second Life® and Linden Lab® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. All rights reserved. No infringement is intended.

If you had placed this text on your blog and you're outside the United States, you're OK, according to Proper Reference to Linden Lab's Brand Names in Text article:

Outside the United States, do not use trademark notice symbols like ® and ™, but do use the statement of trademark notice provided in Paragraph 2 below.

And the Paragraph 2 says:

In the United States and elsewhere, always use a legible and reasonably prominent trademark attribution notice in the following format: "__________ and __________ are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc."

As to residents located in the United States, it's not as complicated as it may seem. LauraP Linden said in her blog post:

The first or most prominent reference should be followed with the correct trademark symbol (® or ™) and an appropriate noun to indicate what you’re talking about (...) Now just to be clear – we’re only talking about the first or most prominent use. We’ve seen some blog posts using ® after every mention of "Second Life." After the initial reference to the trademark at issue, there’s no need to use the symbol again.

So basically, you need to place ® once, in a visible manner, and then you can continue as you used to. I'm based in Europe, so I don't really have to do that, but I might add ® to Second Life words in my blog's header, and I won't be using ® when I mention Second Life in my blog entries, unless Linden Lab employee will contact me and say that I should. Which I'm pretty sure won't happen.

Finally, there were people who said that new trademark policy will make them type more and waste their time. Seriously... Typing ® or ™ is not even one second, and as I said earlier, in most cases you won't even have to type this in every blog entry. And if that's not enough, look, Linden Lab does the same on their website. It's just law and it's there for a reason. I agree law can be silly sometimes, interpreted in as many ways, as many lawyers there are - so even if there's something people don't get, I think Linden Lab will explain (which they proved posting the explanation twice already). Linden Lab cares about their community, and the step they took is in fact to protect both - the company and the community. They're making sure their company's reputation is not at risk, and making sure their community won't be scammed, for example by sites pretending to be their affiliates. But community will always complain. There will always be someone who doesn't like changes, especially if the changes require them to adjust.

While I understand annoyance of those residents who had to change their blog address or name of SL group, I think we really had enough names like SL This And That. The changes encouraged people's creativity to come up with something unique. Take Second Life Ballet for example. Yup, it must have been hard to think of a new name, and probably it took a significant amount of work to prompt all the fans to switch groups and update web address, but isn't Ballet Pixelle so much more creative and individual? This type of name is much better than the boring Second Life Something and I think it is much better to actually identify with for people involved with the project.

All in all protecting your brand is a very important aspect in business and it's a good thing Linden Lab took care of that. What's nice is that they provided the clarification twice to demanding community, even though they didn't really have to. It's your responsibility to comply with law, and no company is obliged to provide you with instructions and detailed how-to. Isn't that a sign they care? I agree sometimes LL is in the wrong - probably everyone was at least once. They do make mistakes, and they do take actions I don't agree with. But in this particular matter, I think they're doing the right thing. Even if it was a difficult move, it was a needed one. The longer they waited with this, the more difficult it would be.

As I said earlier, I'm not a lawyer and this is just my point of view as a resident of Second Life. If you know I'm wrong somewhere in this post because you're a lawyer and understand law better than I do, feel free to let me know in the comments, but please also explain why. Also, the point of this post is not to stand against residents who disagree with Linden Lab's move, but rather to show the other side of this issue, so people can read and have their own opinion.

I kissed a Linden

There's an old Second Life proverb saying: If you can kiss a Linden, you will have good luck all year. Nah, I'm joking, but it's a nice one, don't you think? :) If you choose to believe it though (who said you can't?) rush to the Isle Of View and kiss one (or more Lindens!) and celebrate Valentine's Day 2008. I've been there, I've kissed them and I'm telling you: it's fun :D



I got to kiss Jeremy Linden who works on Knowledge Base and I kissed Socrates Linden who is a liaison and a member of the gov team. I even got to meet Cupid Linden - a cute little love Linden :) He was sweet, gave me some Valentine goodies and we took a picture together.





The Lindens will be back at the island at 5PM, so you still got a chance to kiss one and win some luck :)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

PS. To those who doesn't know why the island name is Isle Of View. Read it aloud :) Hey, did I hear I love you?

I did it!

I defended my thesis today! The thesis, as some of you probably remember, was about Second Life and it really brought lots of good things to me. The title in English would be: Using the virtual world of Second Life in companies and institutions' activities. I'm quite proud of how it turned out, I proved my points and also learned a lot about the business aspect of Second Life (even though I thought I knew it all before ;))). I'm very happy and hopefully will have more time for everything now, including blogging. As I know I'll be receiving my MSc diploma very soon, it's quite scary I'm not a student anymore. On the other hand, I've got so many goals set, and so many projects going on, that I don't think my life could get boring anyway. I'll miss the classes (but not the essays, the exams and all that jazz) but I feel I can really focus on what I want to do now. Yay!

SL'ang Life No. 1 - a sneak peak! [UPDATE]

[UPDATE: March 29, 2010] I removed all SL'ang Life links - they don't lead to SL'ang Life website anymore (since it doesn't exist), but to one you wouldn't want to go to ;)

My copy of SL'ang Life magazine arrived yesterday, so I thought I'd post a sneak-peak photo for those of you who are still waiting for the delivery. Since you already know the cover, I'm posting a picture from the inside. It's actually one of my articles (surprise surprise ;)).

I'm very happy with the magazine and I hope you all will be too. Expect your copy soon, and those who haven't subscribed yet, you know what to do, it's free!

If you have comments on the articles or would like to ask some questions, just recently we opened a forum where you can do that or simply just come to chat.

And don't forget to let us know what you like about the magazine!