New World Notes

New World Tableau: The Nubian Steampunk Self-Portrait of the Artist Ahmad Hosho

"Yes," Ahmad Hosho writes of this image from his Koinup profile, as if already anticipating disbelief from viewers (including me), "it is a Second Life-based photo."  Of course much was done after-image, a complex process Ahmad explains in great detail here.  He describes this screenshot of an avatar as a self-portrait, and as it turns out, that's true on many levels-- in real life, Ahmad tells me, he lives in Egypt.

"May be first Egyptian/North African in Second Life," he muses.  He became a Resident two years ago, but, he says, "I had hard times in 2006 to make people believe I am from Egypt."  Instead, they insisted thinking he was European.

"My avatar is Nubian, by the way," he tells me later. "I think Nubian culture is one of most interesting ones out of Egypt."  I tell him that I admire how he merged Nubian imagery to steampunk elements in his work.

"Well," Ahmad Hosho corrects me, smiling,  "I combine:  Nubian, steampunk, cyberpunk, 70s retro stuff with some hip hop." 

"Awesome," I say, for how else could one reply.

See more of Ahmad's equally spectacular work on his Koinup profile, view the entire Tableau album here, and read on for guidelines to submitting one of your own.

New World Newsfeed: UK PM Gordon Brown Gives Second Life's Wheelies Founder "Revolutionary" Award

Recent dispatches from the outside world..

BBC NEWS | Technology | Community network sites honoured

This is awesome news on several fronts:  Last week one of the British government's Catalyst (for Community Awards for Social Technology) Awards went to Simon Stevens (known as Simon Walsh in SL), naming him a "Revolutionary" for founding Wheelies, a major disability-themed nightclub in Second Life.  (Walsh himself has cerebal palsy.)

"The winners of the awards," reports the Beeb, "were presented with their trophies by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown."  This is almost certainly the most prominent public recognition by a top world leader to a Second Life Resident thus far-- and an eminently deserved one.  Read more on Simon's blog, or perhaps better yet, offer congrats in SL-- direct SLURL teleport to Wheelies at this link.

Image credit: www.simonstevens.com

Lanna's List for July 31-August 6: Jamm for Genes, Solar Eclipse, Tron, and more...

Charlanna Beresford’s weekly round-up of upcoming SL events…

Some of the most talented musicians in Second Life will be performing at Jamm for Genes in Second Life. This event begins at 5 PM on August 1 and wraps up at 5 PM on August 2 after twenty-four hours of live musical performances to support the Australian fundraiser, Jeans for Genes. Jeans for Genes aims to change the world for children affected by genetic disorders; funds raised in this event support the ongoing research and operations at the internationally renowned genetic research facility, the Children's Medical Research Institute.   Come wear your jeans in support of the event. In Sailors Cove (click here to teleport). 

(All times in SLT, "Second Life Time"-- i.e., Pacific Standard)

***
Thursday, July 31

2 PM – Scripting From Scratch: Detecting Avatars
Come learn scripting in a class designed for both beginning and experienced scripters. This  class focuses on detecting avatars using scripts; participants will make a welcome mat which gives visitors a present.  Class materials and slides provided. In Woolybear (click here to teleport).

3 PM - Sci-Fi Reading by Author Huckleberry Hax 
Huckleberry Hax reads from his SL novel The Day is Full of Birds. In Scotland Plarmigan (click here to teleport). 

5 PM – Harper Messmer at Nantucket Theater
Come enjoy the Harper Messmer Experience! He blends rock/jazz in his own songs as well as covers by artists such as John Mayer, Snow Patrol, Matchbox 20, Coldplay, Jack Johnson, and the Dave Matthews Band. In Nantucket (click here to teleport).

7 PM – Cylindrian Rutabaga Mixed Reality Event
Cyindrian Rutabaga (Grace Buford in RL) plays a wonderful blend of folk music and will be appearing live at Smith’s Old Bar in Atlanta, GA which will also be streamed live into SL. In Artopolis (click here to teleport).

Also this week:  Medieval Fair, the First Lady of Computer Programming, and OpenSim.  All that and more after the jump...

Linden Scripting For Noobs: MIT Media Lab Makes Intuitive LSL Script Builder

Created by folks with the legendary MIT Media Lab, Scratch4SL is an elegant and powerful offline tool for adding interactivity to Second Life objects, without having to first learn Linden Script Language's intimidating, C+-like code.  Dusan Writer mentioned it recently, but I was skeptical it was as easy as depicted, and decided to give it a first-hand try.  (Years ago I gave up learning LSL after a few hours, so I'm a good test case in utter noobosity.) 

The Scratch client runs on your desktop, so you just have to leave it open in another window while running Second Life, as depicted above.  Creating a script is astoundingly easy, because you just add interactivity variables (movement, chat dialog, etc.) which literally interlock like puzzle pieces.  Once you're finished, you hit Copy Linden Script, and Scratch4SL converts your plain English instructions into LSL; you then copy/paste the resultant block of code as a new script into a given object. 

In about 10 minutes, I was able to program a cowboy hat to yelp "Dude!", honk, move 12 meters, and spin in a circle when touched.  (I actually tried to add that script to my cowfish, but for some reason, it would only honk.)

Everything you need to use Scratch4SL, including a tutorial and demo video, is free at the MIT site here.  There's a version for Windows and Mac.  But frankly, if I was Linden Lab, I'd buy it from the creators and make it part of the official client.  As I wrote for GigaOM last week, we're starting to see a host of intuitive, user-created game platforms come online, and the high learning curve for LSL is yet more competitive weakness.  (Doubtful the upgrade to Mono will help much on that front, either.)

Adz Childs Counts Second Life Name Lengths

Greetings, my 339 SL brothers and sisters!  Ever since the Lindens made "Au" a selectable Second Life surname in 2006, I've wondered just how many other Residents chose it.  (Especially since I happen to have it in both worlds.)

Thanks to Adz Childs, now I do. 

Ophelia's Gaze: Fashion and the Full-Figured Female Avatar

Exclusive to NWN, Iris Ophelia's ongoing showcase of all things stylish in SL

It’s been a couple months since a pro-anorexia Thinspo group on Flickr based around snapshots of Second Life avatars surfaced. There was a very strong community reaction, especially among the fashionistas.

Questioning the way the female body manifests in avatar form is not new, either. For as long as there have been games there have been criticisms about the female characters in them. Women constantly face unhealthy and unnatural images of femininity. Second Life is one of the few game-like environments where you can control every element of your avatar, including size.

So Thinspo SL raised a question that had been in the back of our heads for awhile. With the freedom to choose any shape, why do women Residents still overwhelmingly choose these thinner images for ourselves?  And while I’ve made versions of my shape in several different ethnicities (and genders), it took a little bit of anti-Thinspo feeling for me to make a more fleshed-out version, as depicted on the left.

Interested in filling out your own shape in style?  Four tips after the cut.

Open Forum: What Upcoming SL Events Should NWN Cover?

Update, 2:15pm:  Charlanna Beresford is back from vacation and is compiling this week's Lanna List.  If you want an event featured there, post the details in comments by 8pm SLT today!

Got the advance word on cool/interesting/innovative Second Life happenings going on in the next several days?  Post a description with day, time, and place (ideally with a SLURL) in Comments, and we'll feature as many as we can in the New World Notes event calendar.

Fenix Eldritch's Videogame Avatar Circus! (Updated)

Since Lainy Voom and I put out a casting call for videogame-inspired Second Life avatars for a machinima project we're creating, she's received at least eight submissions.  Thing is, eight of the avatars are creations of one Resident, Fenix Eldritch, and they're so marvelously realized, I had to share them here.  If you've played any of the games they're associated with, you'll probably recognize them even in this thumbnail-- click the pic, to get a full view. 

In case you don't, they are, clockwise from top right:

- The Prince from Katamari Damacy

- A Zerg Hydralisk from Starcraft

- Mr. Saturn from Earthbound

- NiGHTS from Nights into Dreams

- Skull kid from Zelda: Majora's Mask

- Vile from Megaman X

- Nightmare from Soul Calibur

- Samus Aran from Metroid

Great as these avatars from Fenix are, we're still looking for more.  Got an avatar based on a classic videogame you want to feature in Lainy Voom's upcoming machinima?  Read submission details here.  Bonus if they're extra iconic, strongly associated with a console or massively selling franchise-- say, I dunno, Mario or Master Chief.

Update, 10:25pm:  What inspired this videogame beastiary, which characters were the most difficult to create, and why doesn't he sell them?  Fenix explains after the break.

New World Newsfeed: Babbage's Carbon Tagging Goggles

Recent dispatches from the outside world...

Virtual Goggles Track Real Carbon Emissions « Earth2Tech

At a recent mash-up challenge in London, Babbage Linden built a tagging system that enables Residents to help create a 3D database of carbon-emitting devices (cars, planes, etc.) that have been recreated in Second Life, and associate them with the footprint of their real world analog.  But what’s the point of associating real-world emissions with virtual objects?  Babbage explains that to me at Earth2Tech, Katie Fehrenbacher's green technology blog I occasionally write for.  Read more about it Babbage's Carbon Goggles at PopTech, and even better, at his own blog, The Creation Engine.

Losing Zero Point: How Permanent Can Metaverse Art Be? (Updated)

As of last Thursday, this is all that remains of Zero Point-- a long bench and a broad white sign.  In previous years, however, it was a spectacular space of moving light and color, the work of Sabine Stonebender, ranked on this blog as among the Top 10 Art Installations in Second Life. 

Metaverse art maven Amalthea Blanc, who wrote that post for NWN last year, has a more in-depth review on Second Life Art News, including machinima, and an extensive Flickr stream.

It is a good thing Ms. Blanc documented Zero Point so well then, because it's gone from Second Life, and it's very unlikely to ever return, at least in its original form. I read about this last week in SLART magazine, which reported that a billing error caused the entirety of Zero Point to get returned to her inventory. Lindens have struggled to restore Ms. Stonebender's work, but, she told me then, that process is difficult at best: