It Was Fun But...
We needed to visit somewhere so why not Arts and Letters. The sim is one of many in a still, very large NMC Archipelago. Don't I love that word. It earned its strange name (Most other sims in the archipelago begin their names wtih "Teaching") because it once belonged to Eastern Carolina University before they set up their own sims. Like all the former ECU sims on the NMC Archipelago, Arts and Letters would have an abandoned feel, but there was at least something good there.
Of course that something good was a sandbox built by the University of Hong Kong. There is also an empty exhibit hall where students can but
don't display their projects. Yes, I realize that academic calendars vary in different parts of the world, but I've never seen this place with anything old or
new in it.
But the real attraction on Arts and Letters is the Dangerous Office.
Of course this is not an original idea. The scuzzy home/laboratory/office is a classic, immersive, learning environment.
There are great examples such as Dr. Scuzzy's Lab on UTMB Alpha and
Scuzzy Town! on CIST Nebraska, but the Dangerous Office definitely deserves to
be a member of the club in good standing due to its subtlety and grit. It takes more than one look to find this out of date fire extinguisher.
And might employees actually have to use the
fire exctinguisher that has seen better days? The answer is unfortunately yes. Temperatures in the server room according to this thermometer are a toasty
thirty plus degrees Celsisu and about eight-six degrees fahrenheit. I'm not sure a malfunctioning server could catch fire, but I wouldn't want to know.
Certainly an overheated lab with badly functioning servers does positive wonders for
employee morale. The employees search Second Life Market Place, bring in flash drives from home (Not sure this is against company policy, but there are wonderful things a tech savvy user can
do with a flash drive.), play games, have computers tainted with malware, and they don't even bother to hide their passwords in their desk drawers.
Poor hot blooded employees in a warm office. I think we need to ship them to Central New York and have a few menopausal, female colleagues constantly opening the door every time
the sun shines in February. The unhappy employees will be grateful for the heat upon their return. Short of that, I think fixing the air conditioning systemm and reminding a few employees to be
more discrete will work wonders for the Dangerous Office. Wouldn't it be nice if
all of life had such simple solutions.
I wish the rest of the problem of maintaining good ecucational builds in Second Life was as simple as fixing the Dangerous Office.
Actually, even the Dangerous Office has its problems. Someone built it in 2009 and it's been there ever since, catering, I believe mainly to the passer-by such as myself.
Meanwhil, I do not have the heart to remove Brasil Tourismo et Cultura
from the Explore SL Spread Sheet. This was once an
innovative project where students could read sample articles and talk to bots about assignments to learn and write about Portuguese and Brazilian customs from
avatarim who spoke the language. Second Life has a huge Brazilian population. Alas, these days the bots are silent and the links to sample assignments on
the bulletin board in the building lead to nowhere. This facility is degrading to death. It would be better if the parent institution just got rid of it.
And I'm not sure what is happening with the Cappella University parcels.
They are built. They have not changed much. Sometimes parcels don't have to change. The sandbox is not for the general public, but
it's their rental property and their right.
Most of the build is decorative. It is comfortable enough for an avie to sit in. It is great for taking photographs. It, however, gives nothing back, no sandbox, no museums, no link givers, no library. Of course they don't have to give anything back, but giving something back is one very good reason for Linden Lab to offer educational and nonprofit institutions discounts.
And that is it for Arts and Letters. The rest of the island consists of
the sterile core which usually has an amphitheater and freebies, and plenty of plots for sale, about half the island. This does not bode well
for Arts and Letters. NMC, which owns the archipelago has a business model that can handle a less-than-fully rented
island and remain stable
in the short to medium term. Assuming they have lost their educational discount (a safe bet though not necessarily correct and even if it is correct, it only bolsters my argument), they
pay, $295/month. For a 4096 square meter plot (1/16 of an island) NMC charges $400 year. That breaks down to
$33.00 a month. With ten 4096's rented, NMC breaks even. Under the old system where they paid $150/month, they only needed to rent out
five of these. Of course, NMC's rents are close to 33% above market rent ($20/month for a 4096), and there is nothing to stop
a savvy educator from renting estate land on the Secondary Market or mainland for that matter. NMC trades on its good name, but it still needs to fill a requisite
number of sims to survive. Iyoba and I await the contraction with mixed emotions.
Eileen H. Kramer and Iyoba BatOni -- April 28, 2014
An Unexpected Adventure
First I want to thank my One Who Thinks She Knows for letting me write this blog again. She could have just hogged it. She became a happy One for a short time yesterday, and that made me a happy avie. You know how that goes. It all started when we set out to visit the Virtual Movie Theater on UTEP Miners 3, one of the many islands in the University of Texas Archipelago. My One and I have been watching these islands for years, and neither of us expected anything special.
Of course you know when you expect to be bored, you can be utterly bushwhacked with something new. First we found the Smithsonian Placita on UTEP Miners 1, which wasn't even finished and that still had a lot to offer, and then we saw a new movie at the Virtual Movie theater on UTEP Miners Three, and that got my One telling stories. She said she recognized downtown El Paso, Texas, a place she had visited in 1996. She said she had to cut her visit short to get Sting, a three week old kitten. It must have been strange to become a mommy to an infant kitten in "real life" Anyway, my One thinks she may have seen the "real life" plaza, but she doesn't really remember.
My One did remember that there was a partly built construction management site on the other side of the island. We had to check it out. Well, it wasn't partially built any more. Work was in full swing and a burly construction worker bot, told me where the site was and where to go to visit Belinda in the office. I figured Belinda was a lonely bot and could use a visit, but first I needed my health meter.
In Belinda's office there were hard hats and vests on the shelf. They were in big dusty boxes way on the tops of the shelves. There were no gas meters or harnesses. There were also no boots. I was glad I could keep my skirt and strappy, green, flats, though I must say, the vest didn't fit, and I made quite a fashion statement. Everything about me screamed bumbling student.
My first job was to find someone named John who was digging a ditch. I was going to help him lay some pipe. This isn't John. John was down in the ditch. This worker just stood there with his arms folded. He was nice and safe at the top of the ladder.
John asked what took me so long and I told him I was "just a student." Students don't know anything. My One didn't know anything either, but we were quick to learn, but not quick enough. We received a question asking if our ditch was safe. I said it was safe because John told me it was far from electrical cables and had ladders. I believed him. The ditch collapsed and I lost half my health, but got it back. You can really get hurt on a construction site!
The collapsing tunnel was the first indication that the construction workers at the site knew less than I did. They shored up poor John's ditch and he sent me to find Melissa who was laying bricks. Nobody had any name tags which meant I had to wander all over the yard. Melissa was way up on a wobbly scaffold. I saw piles of bricks under the scaffold. They didn't look steady. This time I took nobody's word about climbing ladders or being careful.
Next, I had to climb precarious and narrow stairs to the fourth floor of a half-built highrise to give Jorge some rivets. He was standing on a piece of florring balanced on an I-beam fifteen feet above the next floor. He said he could just move carefully and keep both feet on the beam. I told him "No way! Go get a harness." A harness magically appeared. I felt good.
Then I had to find Jessica who was welding inside the brick building. She said her tanks were not in good shape. She told me to wait a minute. I did not even get a chance to advise the welders on how to be safe. I answered the question right, but the partner bot was badly burned and I lost eighty percent of my health. I was told to wait and recoup. This one wasn't my fault.
My last job was with Alex and Luis in the sewers. I don't know what made me check the meter, but I managed to ventilate the place and cam down. I don't think I had all the equipment to make the teleporter work. My One thinks that the gas meter I should have found and been wearing was a token, but a camera works just as well. I managed to fix three pipes with remote touch. Luis did not thank me for saving his life. The worker sawing metal was much nicer. I got to help him and apparently we both were safe.
After I saved Luis' life in the sewers, my last assignment was for my One or me to write to Professor Marshall and tell him how to make the construction site safer. My One has a few ideas, but the site could definitely use another commode. Here I am waiting on the roof because the present one is occupied. There are both male and female workers on the site so we need at least two toilets. This is most annoying.
My One Who Thinks She knows says that the Construction Site on UTEP Miners Three is challenge based learning or gamification at its finest. It allows for lots of mistakes. It handles interruption very well. It forces students to listen and to look around and think as they would in the real world, and doing what you're told is not enough. It also taught both of us about a subject about which we knew next to nothing and made it exciting because I had to risk being sent home if my health went to zero. Risk and danger make students pay attention. Thank you Madeline McMinnar and Professor Austin! My One Who Thinks She Knows is going to list your site as One of the Best.
Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- April 23, 2013
A Real Challenge
I know there are times when those of you out there reading this blog think that it is nothing but an endless flow of snark. Well, that simply is not true. There is simply a lot that is truly snark-worthy, but the Scavenger Hunt on WV Education is not one of those places.
The hunt bears a striking resemblance to Grandma's Birthday Blizzard on Bailey and the Challenge Based Learning Expedition to Mars on Huffman Prairie Sigma. All three leave me with more questions than answers, but whereas the "serious games" on Bailey and Huffman Prairie Sigma have unintended lessons and consequences, the WV Education Scavenger Hunt seems to have fewer of these. Some of this is due to the subject matter. Teaching middle and high school and deciding how to do it best is a matter of debate. Saving neglected family members is a fraught issue. Spending public to send explorers to risk their lives in the cold void of space when there are precious few funds for domestic issues is also a fraught issue.
In addition, the WV Education Scavenger Hunt has directions but does not place an undue premium on "doing what you're told." You do not have to press the exact button, run breathless to another place, and then sit and wait. Like Grandma's Birthday Bash, the Scavenger Hunt uses a token system. Find, the key. Say the magic password that is hidden in the clues in the room, and go on to the next level. You do not have to sit through videos. You can find the note cards in any order. The nice lady in a somewhat messy preparation office said to touch everything early and often. This makes for a fun kind of chaos. It also rewards hard work, independent thinking, and curiosity.
The items on the notecards and web sites (Yes, you have a link to primary source material so what you find is valid even if those writing it have proverbial skin in the game. There are very few unbiased primary sources in this world.) comes from the West Virginia Department of Education and their Teach 21/Global 21 Initiative. A lot of this is written in educator-ese, so it's a bit of a slog. And yes, if you are with a group of outsiders (not taking the tutorial to learn the standards or see them cleverly illustrated), there is a lot of room for argument. You'll notice that the student working on chemistry is sitting at a table in the back of a partial model classroom. There are neither lab benches nor fume hoods nor decent safety equipment necessary for lab science in this classroom. Likewise, there is a student learning a language by sitting by himself at a computer and wearing headphones. No one is making him go to the board or answer a teacher's questions in his newly acquired tongue. Sometimes physical facilities are more important than technology or maybe they are a different kind of technology.
Of course Twenty-first Century students in Virginia require hands on learning, which is maybe why this classroom is empty. Iyoba and I could not get beyond level three. The key to the next level was impossible to find even though we had the clue solved. This empty classroom may be intentional to show that education needs to break out of four walls.
Here are student bots gathering samples at a creek. This exhibit does not seem connected to the main Scavenger Hunt, and Iyoba and I found it by accident. The bots talk to one another and there are some signs to explain what is happening at Tucker Creek. Yes, the creek even has a name. This is a lovely and creative use of bots, but I wonder what happens if the samples come back to a school without an adequate lab or without adequate safety precautions. There are times when you need to gather students into rows and lecture to them. Discussing safety may be one of those times. Water in some rural places contains giiardia, a nasty bacteria. Water in West Virginia streams may contain harmful chemicals from abandoned mines. I really want safe students doing science.
Then there are unwanted intrusions in classroom and curriculum. This poster is an interesting take on the bio-geo-chemical cycle that gives coal, a major industry in West Virginia, a big stake in the process, as if mining coal were natural. Creating coal is, but the rest of the process..... The science on this is probably accurate even if the poster is a lovely bit of spin.
Again with real life education students or students of communication all of these features would be great points of discussion. There is nothing like a little not quite intended critical thinking, and I mean that in a good way for a change.
Finally, the West Virginia Education Scavenger Hunt even includes a bit of humor. In the "second best" classroom, this printer spewed paper when touched. In other places flower pots shattered. Touching things needs some fun reinforcement sometimes, but the picture has a sad side. The student in turquoise sits oblivious in her big ear phones at her solitary screen. This is not collaboration, and part of me, the part that went to college thinks maybe the time for independent work is at home. Maybe in the classroom this student should be hearing the teacher or talking to other students or doing some kind of hand project such as heating lab samples or drawing a diagram or writing on a board. Again, all of this is food for thought, but the student/bot did not move a muscle when Iyoba and I made the printer overflow four or five times.
I guess that says something right there.
The West Virginia Education Scavenger Hunt definitely made the Explore SL Spread Sheet. It's worth a visit even if you don't agree with everything you see. It's better if you have a group with you or a group with whom you can discuss it afterwards. For this exhibit, intended and unintended lessons work together. Thank you West Virginia Department of Education and Aura Lily exhibit creator.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Iyoba BatOni -- April 19, 2013
A Happy and Talkative One for a Change
Getting my One Who Thinks She Knows off of the military sims and back to straight academia did wonders for her spirits. She even had kind and gentle things to say about Cibola, a foreign language sim run by the University of Arizona. True, we can't use the sandbox there, but the sim is growing. We had to add new sites to the Explore SL Spread Sheet. My One Who Thinks She Knows explained that sims either grow or die, and that Cibola was growing!
All that said, what I found behind this door and a few other doors was a disappointment! Most of the class boards that were supposed to have posters that were supposed to teach languages were empty! My One reassured me that the University of Arizona was probably on the quarter system, but this is not true! Even my One admits that now.
One of the new editions to Cibola is a Portuguese language learnning area. The poster slots are empty, but there is a small and impressive museum of Portuguese culture including this picture of a tall ships. Back in the days of sailing ships, the Portuguese ruled the world. Even today, Brazil, a Portuguese speaking country in South America is a brick to be reckoned with.
Of course you can still view the wonderful exhibits at the Palacio de Bel Artes which include this mariachi band. Click the thumbnail for a larger image.
And thent here is this lady with no skin or muscles who sings at the Palacio. I'm not sure what a singing skeleton means. Maybe she performs for Day of the Dead. We clicked her clef to hear music, and she has a voice that would be lovely even if she had flesh all over her.
And Cibola has wonderful cafes. They don't serve much food and drink there, but they are replicas of the places where famous writers once met. This blue cafe even has an exhibit about itself in the next room. My One Who Thinks She Knows liked that a lot.
The University of Arizona funds Cibola in the usual way. The University finds money in its budget, rents the land, and lets the students, professors, and sometimes the general public use it for free. Book Island, on the other hand, finances itself as do most commercial ventures in Second Life. It is both a residential neighborhood for those who fancy a literary lifestyle for their avies, and a mall, that sells or advertises books sold elsewhere. Neither my One Who Thinks She Knows nor I know if this model of business works, but it might. A mall like this DOES NOT compete with Second Life Marketplace. That's a start in the right direction.
And of course we met a kitty on Book Island. She did not tell us her name. She did not open her eyes. She laughed at my One Who Thinks She Knows, but my One has a good heart and took the laughter in stride. She even said it was a sweet meow.
The it was on to Greece. My One Who Thinks She Knows had a lot of misgivings about the place. She said she would NOT put a role play venue in the Explore SL Spread Sheet. Greece, however, was not a role playing site. It included museums, monuments, archaeological sites, and more.
My One said that this sim and its two companion sims, which we will visit some day, use the same kind of funding base as Cape Able and Cape Serenity. There are public galleries and then a themed neighborhood and maybe even retail space that tenants can rent. The tenants pay extra for a themed environment which is not one bit builder friendly, but which gets you in with the right people. The rent goes to finance the artistic and learning endeavors. This is actually sometimes a very successful model.
My One Who Thinks she Knows and my own favorite part of Greece was the village that stretches from the Tomb of the Unknown to the sea on the far side of the island. It includes a small art museum, shops, and a cafe.
I liked the cafe best. There are Greek dances your avie can do, and free wine. Some of the tables have food on them. Yes, that food does look delicious. There are advantages to being an avie!
My One's favorite photograph were these irises in an emerald, green vase. She made me take this picture even though the tavern owner was a surly idiot. Sorry, he just was. He kept his backdoor locked so we had to take the long way around and just couldn't cut through his shop.
And yes, we were the only ones on Cibola, Book Island, and Greece. My One Who Thinks She Knows did not have to tell me that that was a very bad sign. Without customers businesses fail, and the owners stop paying rent. I'm not sure what happens to the people who live behind the ban lines on Greece. Maybe they get tired of putting up ban lines, and move away from the public attraction. Iyoba has never liked avatarim and their Ones who put up ban lines. She says "good riddance," but she is not a landlord. As for Cibola, if there are no students or professors using the island, sooner or later the university stops paying rent. It's just one tenant this time and that makes things a lot simpler, though for some reason they go a lot slower. My One Who Thinks She Knows says she has given up trying to figure out which islands will survive and won't. She hopes that Cibola, Book Island, and Greece are around for a long time.
Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- April 15, 2013
My Tax Dollars Doing Something Interesting
My tax dollars (and yours too if you work in the United States) fund a fist full of beautiful sims called Huffman Prairie and to a lesser extent MyBase. The US Air Force builds these, and their stated aim is to educate and to show the world how one can use virtual worlds in education. The less stated aim and one I don't really mind because it's one that nearly every university and college does is advertise and promote. The propaganda posters and model aircraft on display particularly on MyBase and Huffman Prairie are a great counterpoint to the exhibit of these posters at Hotgates. It's fun to compare the same subject in different contexts. It really is. The posters on the two Airforce islands at Hotgates are all classic giving something back.
This is not of course what the Airforce intended when it put together these and several other amazing builds, but learning is both intended and unintended. Hotgates left me asking: "Do people still make propaganda posters today?" MyBase, Huffman Prairie, and Coalition Island all answer loud and clear, "HELL YES!" The Expendition Challenge Based Learning trip to Mars on Huffman Prairie Sigma is full of both intended and probably unintended lessons.
I liked all the scripting that went into the excercise, and its immersive quality made me "lose time." I liked that Iyoba could wear her own clothes. No, she did not go to Mars in a schmattah. She wore a lovely chocolate, brown number decorated with bachelor buttons that I made with her last fall. It was quite the fashion for a trip to the red planet.
All of that said, the tutorial started giving the kinds of problems that advanced and fancy builds sometimes give. This is the Launch Training Facility. There is a lot to see and do here. Iyoba sat down at one of the computers to get the tutorial instructions, and the trouble began right away. The slides for the tutorial which have a fair amount to read, flashed by too quickly for either of us to understand. This was frustrating.
We then found the video and notecard giver, with a huge screen, a slow-loading video, and tiny switches. The video just read what was on the note card. This was fine. We read the note card and headed outside to get on the space ship. We got all the way to the capsule, and the thing refused to launch -- all because we had not pressed the launch button. It was hard to get back in the center. Bridges that led from the launch pad to the ship would not come down. Iyoba had to fly. Thank God avatarot can fly!
Now, doors that lock and unlock have a great place in Second Life pedagogy. The Interpersonal Communications Learning Modules on UT PanAmerican Three use "quiz doors&qut; that will not open until a user gives an answer that shows he/she had read a PowerPoint. Having to press a button in another room so a rocket a hundred meters away will launch when an avie sits down, just teaches you to follow orders. There is a big difference between "quiz door" and this arrangement. The quiz door is right in front of you and works immediately. The launch button is a long way from the target. It also works differently than amusement park rides, chair lifts, and the buttons that run other, passive-motion vehicles. My avie and I fell into an unintended trap.
Worse still, once Iyoba pressed the launch button we had five minutes (300 seconds which is harder for many users to understand. Is there really a need to be this obtuse?) to reach the rocket and sit down. That doesn't sound like much, until you think of the way people play Second Life. I immediately thought: "Suppose I have to use the bathroom, answer the phone or the door etc..." I could easily have to start the whole sequence over again because my avie did not make it to the launch pad.
Now in a classroom situation yes, I would not have the door to answer and I would delay my trip to the restroom, but I was flying to Mars from home. Now this trip is also meant to be a group project. The lesson description talks about discussing policy decisions with others. Now imagine this tutorial playing on two to four home computers. What are the odds that someone will have to let in the cat, talk to a child, use the toilet etc...? If the Estate Stewardship Committee wants to institute a complex and atypical launch system for the rocket ride, then a launch button that grants a token is a much better idea. The token opens the gate to the rocket. This way the group members or individual could pick up the token and the rocket would wait for them. This would keep interruptions from ending the tutorial and allow a remote sequence.
By the time Iyoba and I finished our mad dash to the space capsule (Our second attempt) we began to realize that the Challenge Based Expedition had a second set of issues: hurry up and wait. Everything carried a built in delay that I'm not sure was lag. It didn't look like lag. Clearly the times stated in the manual for the tutorial were significantly off. This is one incredibly immersive tutorial. The Orion Capsule flies for a long time, needs shock absorbers, and left me mildly air sick. Iyoba doesn't look so good either in this photograph.
Hurry up and wait continued when we met the Deep Space Explorer ship Red Lion and Iyoba began a series of video and notecard sessions at various stations. This was where we learned that our job was to do what we were told. We had no ability to fly or crash the ship. The videos took forever to load. They were often still loading after we read the notecards. The computers often said we hadn't finished a survey or watched a video when we had. The videos repeated what was on the notecards. Yes, Iyoba got bored and started doing handstands at this point.
I had my own issues with the notecards (and the videos for that matter). The notecards did make me "aware" that there was a program to build a nonreusable space capsule and disposible launching rocket for manned space flight. The rocket is called Ares or Aries and the space capsule is called Orion. Considering that neither of these are household words, this is no small accomplishment. The notecards, however, were not dated (I could look at their object properties I suppose) and there was neither attribution nor suggestions for further readings. I verified the information later, but at the time, I was very skeptical. I also realized how little I knew both before and after reading the notecards.
Finally, the survey and notecards to some degree manufacture consent. The player receives a choice between three kinds of manned mission to the solar system starting off with Mars. I realize as I write this that one crucial choice is missing. At the time I just thought: "What about the sequester?" Well, now I realize that scrubbing the manned mission was NOT an option, but if you are going to discuss policy.... you do more than discuss tactics. And again, at least the Challenge Based Expedition Learning did raise the issue in a way that made it serious and made me want to learn more, so kudos for that.
After five note card and video sessions aboard the Red Lion Deep Space Explorer, Iyoba was finally able to descend to the Red Planet. She worried a bout my getting space sick during the descent. Sad to say, we had been promised a futuristic Airforce base on mars, but got only a cubicle with a computer in it. Iyoba who brought high fashion to Mars did another hand stand and then we got down to business.
Alas we never finished the tutorial. We were interrupted. I figured we could resume the game hours later, but instead we found ourselves on the ground. Rather than spend nearly an hour repeating everything and having me get airsick (Yes, the tutorial is that well made and immersive!), we headed to Huffman Prairie where we eventually found the the Henry "Hap" Arnold Administration and Conference Center. The Airforce likes to name many of its buildings after important people and preserve a sense of history. As I mentioned above, the posters were a great lesson and I could explore at my leisure with Iyoba. I even could take a bathroom break or "play my own game" in several sessions. And yes, I still have many questions about manned space flight to Mars. Thank you, Estate Stewardship Concil and Huffman Prairie Sigma.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Iyoba BatOni -- April 11, 2013
The Gold Plated Toilet Seat
I'm trying an experiment so that you can easily tell my writing apart from that of my avie. I'm not sure this will work, but this blog has to stay somewhat readable or there is no point, right? My favorite avie, Iyoba, asked me why I was so absolutely, critical about what I saw on Huffman Prairie Omega yesterday. The Planetarium on the Ayn Rand Spae Station did make the Explore Second Life Spread Sheet, but most of the island was sterile. And yes, I am bitter, but I've got a right to be very bitter about this sim. I pay for it, and when you pay for something, you have a very, big right to complain.
Let's start with the scene of the crime. There is no question that Huffman Prairie Omega looks fantastic from the outside. This build that goes into the mountain is innovative...and empty. It is also a big build, which meant Iyoba and I spent hours exploring. We rode endless monorails and elevators. The elevators did not always work, and camming to the buttons on the outside to get the doors open was a challenge, but a somewhat enjoyable one.
After exploring Prospect Mountain on Huffman Prairie Omega we headed up to the Ayn Rand Space Station. Yes, that's a real sign. It also added a touch of humor to the experience. I used to be a big Atlas Shrugged fan as a teenager. I'm not one as an adult, but that's another story and a sad one. The fact is, I don't think Ayn Rand would like a government funded space station named after her. Astronauts like a lot of the peace time military (Huffman Prairie Omega is a product of the United States Air Force. My tax dollars could be working harder etc...) are TAKERS!
And here is Iyoba in the engineering area of the space station. This building now reminds me of the sheds used to store road salt along the New York State Throughway. Yes, it is a big, empty, garage. Most of the space station is just an empty build, a big one with plenty to explore, but still woefully empty.
But the space station does come fitted for self defense with a variety of flying craft and this handy robot with pistols for arms and a huge mouth. I don't think there are aliens in earth orbit, so maybe the robot fights the Chinese or the Russians. Hmmm, the cold war ended about a generation ago. Yes, it's been that long.
I'm not sure the robot is here to fight. There really isn't that much to defend. Though the builders did not intend it, the robot reminds me of the Harmonizer or Project X which destroys the inland United States near the end of Atlas Shrugged.
Meanwhile the space station is advanced enough to have artificial gravity. In a "real life" space station you are weightless, but beyond this, nobody has bothered to paint the walls. The brutalist cement and metal is very 1970's, but imagine living in a place like this every day under dim lights, dull carpeting, etc... The atmosphere would be great in a movie, but in Second Life, I could smell the mould lurking in corners and the overflowed toilets.
Seriously though, one of the biggest challenge of maintaining a permanent space station in real life (or in a simulation) would be keeping the crew alive, healthy, and happy (Think good morale and mental clarity to do the work at hand. Happy is important.). That means adequate light, pleasant surroundings, and animals and plants.
Animals and plants serve a variety of purposes: Plants return oxygen to the air and metabolize carbon dioxide. Compost turns human waste into harmless and beneficial substances. Crops and animals provide fresh, nutritious food. Animals and decorative plants help the crew relax and maintain morale long term. Animals can also work: A seventy pound or smaller dog can smiff for bombs and provide other security functions. A cat can kill mice, rats, and roaches. A canary can act as an advance indicator for harmful gases. Animals are often smaller than humans (Need less energy and use less oxygen!) and they can't sue if something goes wrong.
Worse yet, the space station is full of anachronisms. And no, I did not find this "floppy" in the space station. I found this "5.25" floppy" on the floor inside Prospect Mountain where there is a partially completed, low-cost texture store in the "Holgraphic Educational Object Repository." A lot of the ground-level builds on Huffman Prairie Omega are not completely finished.
But the space station is ready to go complete with state of the art, desktop, computers. Even in 2013, people on the bleeding edge of technology who are not in offices are connected by Wi-Fi, tablets, laptops, and mobile phones. Clearly a space station set in the fairly, near future would not have desktop machines or even a bridge. Clearly the Estate Stewardsheip Committee (I think the link requires a Second Life Password) who built all the Huffman Prairie Islands, was thinking 1960's-1980's secience fiction rather than the future that is just over the horizon from 2013.
As I've said before on this blog, an educational build needs to give something back. I think that goes double and triple when my tax dollars fund it. If you want to make public sims that promote the Air Force' role in space exploration and its future thinking, I have nothing against that, but a huge build full of mostly enpty structures, a space station that is probably not good or realistic science (It's superb, recognizeable, science fiction), and a government boondoggle (Think of that robot that defends against nothing!) named after Ayn Rand who believed that private sector should fund this kind of thing, does not give much of anything back except a small planetarium. Quite frankly, if I'm paying for this build, I want my military to do better. Shame on the United States Air Force and the US Department of Defense! Oh and while you are at it, fix the monorail.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Iyoba BatOni -- April 9, 2013
Seeing Through One Talk
Friday we went to visit a very pretty place called Weber Field on the
NAWCSTI3D sim. The sim is run by the US Navy which uses its own lanague. I think there are at least two acronyms in the name. One is
Naval Aerial War which makes sense since the Navy is part of the military, and the other is 3D as in three dimensional, which is Second Life.
The rest is a mystery.
The way Ones Who Think They Know talk is not a mystery to me. I have been listening to my own One Who Thinks She Knows for almost five
years. When Ones, even Ones with good hearts like my One, want to do something ruthless, hurtful, or destructive they
speak in euphemisms, as if using a pretty word or different word distances them from the deed, but I did not know
abbreviations could be euphemisms.
My One though knew right away. She said that UAV which stood for unmanned aerial vehicle was a euphemism for drone. Drones are unmanned planes that the Air Force and Navy uses to spy on and kill enemies. The Pakistanis and Afghans hate US drone attacks, my One informed me. Thanks One Who Thinks She Knows.
Now it's my job to try out all the interactive exhibits when we go bushwhacking.
I usually try them and don't complain, but as I went through the training to operate the control panel for the
UAV or drone, I began to get suspicious. It was the langauge that tipped me off. Click the thumbnail to see the
"Rules of Engagement" at full size. It was pretty clear that the UAV (drone) killed people because it
shot down other planes or blew up boats, but there's no word of bombing or killing. It's all Onespeak at its finest.
Pure euphemisms.
And Commander Hawk did not put me at my ease either. Here is a picture of him. He let me know in no uncertain terms
that the sim was under attack. He said it was an enemy. He did not say who it was. That was odd. When I make enemies I usually
know who they are. This enemy had no name. Also, he said they were attacking the sim. The sky over the sim looked clear.
The radar on the roof the building did not work, but the world map showed that I was the only avie on the sim most of the time, so
I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth.
Finally, we made it up to the fourth floor where I supposed to operate the infernal machine. If Ones can call
drones UAV's and talk about killing people as splash. I can call the drone machine infernal. I can have my own
euphemisms only they don't make bad things pretty. They make them worse! That is because I think for myself and at heart I am
a very, moral avie.
"It's a game played at the expense of bots," I answered. "They are innocent bots that belong to this sim, just like our breedables belong to us, only you don't offer our turtles, frogs, and zwickies for somebody's target practice the way the Navy does. Do you understand?"
"OK, Iyoba you don't have to shoot anybody. Just see if the machine works."
"I can't do it," I told my One. "It's a killing machine. That's why the Ones in the Navy use
that pretty One Talk to tell us about it. You know that One Talk. It's your talk when you talk about boxing up
the turtles so they can die in my inventory. You know how Ones can be. Youre one of them."
Needless to say, I sat down and refused to kill anybody. I did turn the machine on, but we couldn't get it past the clearance to fly. It just took too long. I don't know if it really worked. My One did list the sim on the Explore SL Spreadsheet. She tried to comfort me by saying that if she found an anti-war sim (That was what she called it! My One is quick to see through and explain euphemisms.) she would gladly list it too. She said that intellectual freedom in Second Life belongs to those who have the money to rent sims or pieces of land. The US Military is very rich and can afford to rent sims for its own propaganda. Note: the UAV demonstration on NAWCSTI3D doesn't really fit the definition of propaganda, but it was what my One called it. She said it was also spin which means lies. Euphemisms and alphabet soup are after all a way that Ones can lie to themselves so they can act ruthlessly. My One knows this, and I've seen her do it a few times. Thankfully, it was only a few times. My One has a good heart most of the time. I am grateful for that.
Iyoba Bat Oni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- April 7, 2013
Setting a Story Straight
Before Iyoba tells the tale of our travails with our turtles, I need to set the record straight. First, Texplex Engineer responded to an inquiry that Iyoba made to him concerning his relationship to the University of Maine.
He is a student there. That makes him far more than a "hired gun." In fact, it makes him a small part of the solution (He can't bring in students with him as faculty can, and more students mean more users.) of keeping Black Bear Island relevant and alive as an ogoing, academic project.
And although I would desperately like to see the build put into use as soon as possible, and I would also like to see a temperate tree replace that palm tree in the sky and the jungle walls come down, and even though I DID NOT lie when I speculated about TexPlex' activities on Black Bear Island (I clearly stated I was speculating), I still defamed a professional builder and developer's reputation. I apologize for this. I know it hurts when people accuse you of having less than pure motives. I'm sorry for any pain I caused you TexPlex. Please forgive me.
Almost Losing the Turtles...Again
Yesterday evening, my One Who Thinks She Knows and I went to feed the turtles and remove their eggs. We thought we had two days' worth of eggs all over the land on Stinky Stinky, our 2048 square meter land, when we discovered that our Petable Hud did not work. This meant we could neither rename nor box up our eggs. My One tested to see if she could effect other objects when she touched them. Our zwickies gave us stats. One of them was even due to give birth.
But we couldn't feed the turtles. Even when the Petable Hud (which tracks the eggs and lets us put them away without killing them) doesn't work, turtles still eat, and when they run out of food they starve. The Hud also controls the food database. The food database is on the server. Without the server, the turtles starve.
Of course the turtles don't starve right away. First they run out of food. My One has extra food bowls in my inventory, and she put down one early this morning so the turtles could continue to eat a while longer. We have more bowls out at all times than the turtles need as well. My One estimated that it would take four to five days to kill our turltes.
Meanwhile, there was the problem of eggs. Our property holds 468 prims, and without the Hud we could not pick up eggs without killing them, yet if the turtles continued to lay them, we would reach full capacity on our sim. Fortunately, our turtles weren't repoducing. There were fourteen eggs on the land which indicated that the servers at Petable went down in the afternoon and some turtles just didn't lay eggs they normally would have deposited. My One was grateful for this. She suggested we leave the eggs alone.
We all ready had a "Plan B" in place from when the the turtles almost died back in November of 2011, and again a year later. We would feed the turtles with any extra food I had in inventory. When the food ran out, we would wait two to three days and then take the turtles back into inventory to die and clear up the eggs. It was better to do it that way then be stuck with reminders of what was all over the property. My One told me not to worry or mourn until we got close to having to "make decisions." My One like most Ones talks in cool, ephemistic language about doing awful and cruel things, but she has a good heart.
And about that turtle, Yatif refused to come out of her shell while all the other turtles walked around. My One found this greatly puzzling and I did too.
My One did contact Grim Hathor several times to tell him that the server was down and our turtles were doomed. I think she was as upset as I was. As I say, my One has a good heart. She suggested that I photograph the turtles and eggs so we would have memories of them to share.
That's probably why I let her take me bushwhacking late Monday night. She said something did not look right with Virtual MontMartre and with Virtual Harlem on the map. We needed to check those.
As you can see from the pictures, the sims were both stripped bare. My One Who Thinks She Knows never cared for Virtual Montmartre due to its high lag. She joked that the lag was completely gone. I did not appreciate the humor. I wanted to cry our eyes out for our turtles.
Then early this evening, when I put on my Petable Hud, it showed a new egg, and it gave the usual message that "Turtles are no longer being supported." We were able to feed our turtles! Grim had heard our cries! We now had twenty-five eggs to clear, but that was OK. They are safely in inventory. We gave this, the first egg we gathered, a variant spelling of Grim's name and gave him a picture of it out of gratitude. You can see it is a very beautiful egg. Click the image to see all its statistics in full size.
And do not ask me whether there is something about almost losing your turtles that makes your eggs especially beautiful, or maybe the turtles lay especially beautiful eggs after they are tramautized. These are three eggs mothered by Yatif and fathered by Shais. They are green shelled, blue hens or excellent breeders if you like warm tones.
And My One said this egg was rarer than any glow. She has had some dark brown or purple shelled eggs, but never an egg with a green shell that was close to black. This was an amazing find. The mother is Yael and the father is Boaz. My One named this egg Kimberly. Click on the image to see it in full size.
And in the middle of the day's chaos a zwicky was born. My One thought she was pretty. She is luminous though my One can't see that with her video card. She thought the Zwicky had the colors of spring and even found a name for her with the help of a page found through Dmoz.org. She is Queta which means lady of the house. I guess if a zwicky can look like a lady, this would would be it. Queta is now safely in inventory. She's in stasis, and maybe some day my One will bring her to life. There is always hope even if we have no room.
Iyoba BatOni and Eileen H. Kramer -- April 2, 2013
You Could Give Something Back
One result of keeping the Explore SL Spread Sheet is that I get to visit a lot of "bad," educational sims. Black Bear Island is not one of these. It is a troubled sim. I think it still could overcome its troubles.
When I first started to put this article togehter, Iyoba, my favorite avie asked me: "How do you show people something that is gone, and make them understand what is missing?" I said that we can begin with what is still there. Black Bear Island is an educational sim that has always given back. Here is Iyoba at the top of an incredibly huge and walkable light house.
Here Iyoba swims through an underwater tunnel. Nearby is a lovely coral reef. There are also sculptures like the one below.
And there is a library with links to
the University of Maine's library with all its licensed and publicly available electronic materials.
And then there are the kettel bells! This is far and away my favorite small exhibit in Second Life. I recommend it as one of the best museums. It shows an interesting topic (It teaches!). It is reasonably well built. It is low lag, and it has a lot of atmosphere (Yes, it's immersive thanks to the presence of a simple object!).
There is only one problem with the Kettel Bells. The exhibit was created by a graduate student some three to four years ago. No one has ever cleared it out to make way for newer offerings because while there are a few, there is no pressing need.
In addition, other semsters' work has fallen into disrepair like the art gallery pictured above. I don't think it was ever completed, but there's not much left of it now. Click on the thumbnail to see the full size version.
Now, a lot of academic sims deteriorate. What is happening on Black Bear Island is nothing new, but I love this sim, and I wanted to know as much as possible. Also there is some rebuilding and repurposing happening, but the new build is to say the least very different from what has previously graced the sim. Here is a picture of a photo that adorns the wall of a building that is part of the new build. Click the image to see it at full size. Where was the new build coming from, and why was it so different? Iyoba and I spent a lot of time doing as much research as possible.
Our first clue more or less dropped out of the sky. We were in a large, mostly empty office, that had a website on prim of a blog entry from 2009. That is not a good sign. There was also a link to the sim manager's profile. His name was Singularity Mandelbrodt in Second Life and Tim Hart in "real life." His profile offered a link to his blog. It's been unused for six months, and before that is a two year gap. While the sim manager is still nominally listed as in charge, it is more or less clear that he has more or less moved on to other things.
That brings us to the new build. Part of me figured it was about time when Iyoba and I explored the offices of TexPlex Labs and More. We figured this was probably a creation by the business department for a role play, or maybe someone in computer science or physics had an imagination. Interesting names beat places with no names. It was a large building with nice photos and realistic textures and no fake book shelves or computers. It was as nice as an empty barn could be.
We wouldn't have looked at it twice normally, except for those lovely photos, had we not investigated Tim Hart first. It only seemed fair to give TexPlex Engineer the same treatment. Fortunately, he supplied URL's to his store page on Second Life Marketplace, his business page, and a bit of useful information on his profile.
Clearly Texplex is a hired gun. That is good work if you can get it. A lot of educational sims hire "consultants." I think it is an awful practice, and I don't think Texplex is much of a builder. The picture above, which is a thumbnail, explains why. Jungle walls! There is no need for jungle walls on Black Bear Island. The sim is not an eyesore and neither are Texplex's builds. Also, Texplex fails to obey the same rules and conventions as those building on estate land. His sky platform start at about a hundred meters. Most landlords ask tenants to put their skyboxes above the cloudline at five hundred or more meters.
Second, Techplex' build sits unfinished after months. Sorry, this is not the way small timers who pay their own way operate. I am a tennant with a 2048 (the world famous Stinky Stinky!) and I've been a "secreatary" managing tenants on several islands. I've seen tenants move in and I've moved in myself. Almost nobody rents land without a build in inventory ready to go. Only folks building on someone else' dime leave projects half finished and sterile. Actually, the buildings at Texplex Labs and More are finished. It's just the display boards that sit all over the island doing nothing, not even running a dummy presentation. This last is as much the fault of the customers as the builder. Maine's tax payers' money is hard at work!
Perhaps Texplex' worst offense is being totally oblivious to Black Bear Island's ecology. Yes, sims have ecology, and Black Bear Island has always been a temperate sim. Back when it was created someone (probably Tim Hart), terra formed it to have the same shape as the state of Maine. Trees, what few there are on the sim have always been deciduous or evergreen. The buildings have usually been clap board, red brick, or brown brick. The beaches have been grass not white sand. I don't think any rules from the top maintained this ecology. I think the Mainer students preferred a temperate build. Texplex may or may not be a Down Easter, but he should understand the sim's history or those who pay him should have told him: "That palm tree needs to be in a greenhouse" if it is on the sim at all.
Then several hundred meters in the sky Iyoba and I found what you see in the picture. At first I was sure it was a freebie shop, but none of the boxes of purloined and free textures were for sale. There was strange writing above them that stated how many of how many were somewhere, for example "12 of 12 textures" Other boxes had script above them that read: "No useable name."
When I found my way to Texplex Engineer's pet project, I solved part of the mystery behind what I was seeing. These boxes of textures are destined for a huge, cloud based texture sorter called PlexTex. For some reason, TexPlex Engineer is constructing a lot of his texture sorter inworld on Black Bear Island.
And that is as much as I know. It could well be true, that the University of Maine gives Texplex a grant and is going to get a cut of the project. It could also be true that TexPlex is receiving use of the real estate as a quid pro quo for a bunch of serviceable but sterile academic buildings with lovely photos. This is pretty creative financing when you think about it. It could also be true, that TexPlex is playing with prims. Note: I am deliberately leaving out some information here to protect a sim I care about.
Now, ask me after I've ranted for endless paragraphs what I would do differently? You have a right to do this. Well, first I would deal with the root problem. The University of Maine is currently overextended in Second Life. The sim is underutilized. If I could not get enough faculty interested in using Second Life for anything, I'd get rid of the sim. I might not stop renting land in Second Life, but I'd downsize to a small enough area to fit my needs.
If I decided to keep the whole sim or if I decided to downsize to a fairly large plot of land (above 9182 square meters), I would ask all who are interested in Second Life to sign up and give them fifty dollars on the condition they learn to build and build well enough to avoid bone-headed beginner builder mistakes. The textures won't put your eye out because prims overlap. Buildings will be to appropriate scale (They don't have to be buildings. Kiosks and platforms will do.) etc... This is not a lot of skill, but you don't need a lot of skill. At this level you probably can rig up one of those free picture changer/presentation panels and show students how to do it as well. I would give my interested team a few months to get good at building. Then they would develop the sim or the smaller piece of land. I would then have not only a place to meet, I would have a cadre of addicts/evangelists.
Third, I would instill in my cadre of builders that a good academic build in Second Life gives something back. This ought to go first, but it doesn't matter until you are ready to make a decision about what to build. A ducking tank, a trampoline, a water slide, or an exhibition of drawings and/or PowerPoints or academic posters, all do the job. Connections to web pages also are a great way to add content/give back.
Finally, if I dumped the sim completely and decided to start from scratch, I would gather five or six (or a few more if they existed, but I'd like at least five for starters) faculty who wanted to become core builders and buy them all premium memberships. I'd turn them loose in the sandboxes for several months and then let them form a group and each purchase 1024 square meters of land, all of which they would deed to group. This would create a space that was the right size with the right talent to build it. Of course I would also instill in this group that an academic space (not a whole sim this time) gives back. The cost for this second plan would be $60/year per builder, plus a one time fee of $15 per builder for the land. And yes, I am thinking mainland. And by the way, that five or six is a very large number. And yes, this economy plan would work with two or three builders and less land.
And yes, everybody has to get used to the idea that Second Life is not a turnkey system. It just doesn't work that way, but a hired gun will not solve the problem of an overextended sim. Using that sim, even with sloppy buildings and platforms, or alternatively dumping it, will. I really do love Black Bear Island which is probably why I gave it so much time an blog space, and if it vanished I would hate to see it go, but part of me would understand.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Iyoba BatOni -- April 1, 2013