One of the things that I dislike though after finally getting a limited edition DSi, is that you have to punch in your password all the time. I’m unsure why it can’t save the password somewhere. It would also be nice to actually be able to label the photos and select multiple photos to upload. I think the interface is a little bit lacking, but you can’t complain about a free application I suppose.

Still, one has to say that there is a lot of improvement that can be done with that little bit. So far, I noticed that my DSi is somewhat larger than my original DS. Guess I have to buy some new accessories, eh? Outside of that, fairly pleased with the thing. Strange how it’s always lacking software features with hardware manufacturers, isn’t it?

I’ll be getting back to my Mini Marios now.

Kaneva today at 12:01 PM ET announced the Grid would be brought down for some “quick maintenance.  No estimated time for the grid to be brought back online.

Being as I have a little space in this post I thought I would post a few more pictures from the new Kaneva Catalog.

Yesterday was the day new avatars came to Kaneva!

They can actually be made to look somewhat better than these examples, by working with a few clickable arrows and a slider or two, but much diversity is still allowing user created content.

I logged into the Kaneva’s world upon completion of the download and nearly had a heart attack when I reached my apartment and found every texture I had placed had been replaced with the texture of a new Kaneva T-shirt. Thank goodness I lost server connection and had to log back in again…. and my L.S.U. Textures were back in place.

I decided to go to the mall and spend some of my reward credits on all the new men’s clothes, as I do not particularly enjoying wearing the same thing everybody around me is wearing. I teleported to the mall, which only had 58 people in it when I arrived, only to move about three steps then freeze up and after a few moments lost access to the server again.

At this point I figured I may as well check on the Kaneva web page to see if they were mentioning anything going on with the servers. Couldn’t find out anything about the wold servers, but found this shopping catalog page, where there were listed samples of the new women’s clothing.

They also have pictured in the shopping catalog pictures of the empty apartments so you might get a very limited idea on what you are wanting to buy for an apartment…. hardly anyone would want the closet they start you off in.

I wanted to go back to the mall and buy some clothes, and I tried again.  I was heading for a clothing store when I noticed there was a Kaneva Bank over in one of the corners of the center of the mall.  I went to see how much Kaneva Credits were going to cost, but found it was a depository for items you didn’t want to carry around with you, rather than a place to exchange dollars for credits and visa-versa.

I turned and headed for the clothing store  and again loss the server.  When I tried to get back into Kaneva I received an error message…. basically showing me the servers were down.

I can only assume that the good folks at Kaneva are pulling their hair out about now… trying to work out their “bugs”.  I will make an attempt here in a little while to go back into Kaneva and see what has changed, and try to buy some clothes with these worthless reward credits I have.

They state that prosecuting authorities confiscated the material from the computer of a Second Life user, but there was no indication that the material had ever entered into Second Life. Rather only that:

In the course of a search of his home last week officers had also searched a computer belonging to the suspect, the spokesman declared. The man had earlier tried to delete the files with child pornography content on his hard disk, the spokesman added. Specialists of the criminal investigation department had, however, been able to restore the files, he said.

I am unable to say this is a coincidence, nor can I say this person was not placing this type of porn in Second Life. All I can say is that German Press is playing these events for as much value as this type of headlines can draw!

Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depiction of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors; real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual violence including rape, real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content are never allowed or tolerated within Second Life.

This of course opens the debate over “other depictions of extreme or graphic violence, and other broadly offensive content.” Who and by what right do they have to decide what is or isn’t? (please see my previous post “Court Ruling & Should We?“

Took some time out for some Second Life exploration this afternoon. At NOAA Virtual Island (SLurl), I rode a weather balloon and plummeted to the ground, survived a tsunami and went on an underwater submarine adventure all in the span of 30 minutes and without costing any Linden dollars. How’s that for break time?

Jeff Barr visited back in January and took some bigger pictures and covers a few more of the attractions. Jeff has done some presentations inside Second Life for Amazon Web Services.

Yesterday I went to McDunnough’s Speakeasy (opens SL) to listen to one of my favorite country performers, and a new performer I had never heard. While there I also discovered the owner of the Speakeasy, Fayandria Foley, is having a gadget trade show. There is space for sixteen companies to display up to 100 prims of their merchandise, but there were only three spaces still available to rent while I was there. All the vendors had not put out their displays yet, but I saw some interesting gadgets displayed by those who had.

I like the idea of a trade show. The gathering of merchandise in a single area makes finding and looking over items much faster and easier. The layout was nicely done and an enjoyable stroll from cubical to cubical led to more and more gadgets. During my stroll I found several gadgets I had no idea existed and a couple I had to purchase.

As I was walking around viewing gadgets I ran across several displays I didn’t consider gadgets, so I looked up the General Manager of McDunnough, Daiseze Dahlstrom, and asked her about them. She reminded me that McDunnough has full time renters and also some of the vendors from the Jewelry Show (which was held last month) kept their spots, but most of the cubicals were for gadgets this month. She also told me they try to have a different Trade show each month, so I should remember to check back often to see what was going on.

The rules are pretty simple, film a machinima anywere in Second Life, using at least one of the Fox Atomic free avatars and submit it to the Fox Atomic website video site. You can submit photographs to this section of the website (I am sure there is a registration process involved.) for a chance at a 25,000 linden dollar Grand Prize., 10,000 linden dollar First Prize, or 5,000 linden dollar Second Prize.

If you do not know how to shoot a machinima film in Second Life, Fox Atomic has machinima classes you can take. A schedule of classe is posted on Fox Atomic Island.

[via Millions of Us]

Chris Shigas aka Shiger (she-ger) Seattle in Second Life, a Vice President for a public relations agency in Raleigh, North Carolina, performs an acoustic rock with a mix of alternative and blues. Chris certainly has a different sound than the majority of performers I have heard in Second Life.

Chris began listening to Elvis recording as a young child, but at about eight he discovered Kiss and became a card carrying member of the Kiss army. By age nine Chris managed to attend a concert of the Kiss Dynasty album tour, which had all the original Kiss members intact. One could say Chris was doing some serious Rockin and a Rollin from an early age.

In the early 90’s, while a student at the University of Georgia in Athens, Chris played bass guitar for a hard rock band called Squalor Motel. With the success of the homegrown bands like REM and the B-52, the southern venue showed a lot of promise, and Squalor Motel had a lot of fun touring the south from Atlanta to Virginia. Unlike many who peek into the music world, Chris had made an early decision to get a “real job” once he graduated.

Chris played a lot of cover song sets at local clubs and sports bars, but wanting to spend more time at home began gravitating toward the acoustic guitar after the birth of his child.

I rediscovered my love for music when the grunge scene grew in
Seattle. The early 90’s are still my favorite years for music and
that’s why the last name of my Second Life avatar is Seattle. The
grunge scene influenced my songwriting and you won’t hear a lot of
songs about partying, like the songs from the big hair bands in the 80’s.
I write about meaningful events in my life, both the bad and the good.

I also love the theatrics of bands like Kiss, Ozzy and Pink Floyd. I
try to incorporate some of that into my Second Life stage show. I even
have a Shiger Seattle blimp in-world because it is so cool that Pink
Floyd toured with a blimp.

Second Life has given me the opportunity to really focus on my
original music. I don’t want to go back to playing cover songs anymore.

Chris came into Second Life because he read

You could make money playing a video game and it
intrigued me. I arrived in the game and opened a string of rock concert
t-shirt shops called Seattle Shirt Company. A little later, I stumbled
upon a JueL Resistance show at the Living Room and was floored. Her
music seemed so real and vulnerable that it added a human dimension to
this cold virtual world. She inspired me to begin streaming concerts
in Second Life.

Chris owns the Seattle Shirt Company t-shirt shops, and performs every weekend at various clubs and concert halls in Second Life. He is also opening a virtual office for his real life public relations firm, focusing on bringing corporate clients into Second Life, where Live Music will be a large part of the marketing strategy. The first client his firm is bringing in world is a non-profit called the Global Water Foundation. Second Life keeps Chris pretty busy.

Chris enjoys performing in Second Life because:

It is family friendly since I don’t have to spend late hours
performing in a smelly, smoky bar. Most RL club performances have
me loading in equipment at 8pm and I don’t get home until 3am. Now
I can perform anytime I want and I never have to leave the house or
load any equipment. You should see how fast I can tear down my SL
stage set up! It’s also great to get all of the positive feedback that I have
been getting from the live music listeners in the game. It is very inspiring.

It is critical that the live music performers interact with the audience. It’s
part of the experience that breathes life into the SL world. I think most
of us agree that this is the first generation platform of some future way to
communicate and interact with people around the world.

Chris, what do you think is a fair way to tip performers in Second Life?

I think people should tip whatever they want when they like what they
hear. For indie (independent) artists, it’s about the music and not the money.
I was thrilled when a newbie gave me $5L. I knew she must not of had
much and it made her tip even more meaningful.

There is no doubt Chris is playing a different beat than most of the Second Life Live musicians I have heard, but his entertainment value is worth hearing. Having been compared to an unplugged Nirvana and Neil Young, I would say he is in great company. If your tendencies are a little more rock than folk or country, take the time to give Chris a listen. You will enjoy the time you spend with him.

You can check out a taste of Chris’s music at his MySpace site.

Other Live Performer Reviews

Performing as James Holland, aka in Second Life as SinginCountry Commander; James is on active duty in the U.S. Navy as an electronics specialist. Maintaining a Navy career has not stopped James’s drive to perform his country, with classic rock influences. One might say James serves his country in more ways than one.

James’s biggest influences on his music were his Grandpa, old style country, and his Mom, classic rock; along with an uncle who was into harder rock. Growing up, James’s friends all liked 80’s pop and rock, but a lot of his influences came from the rise of country in the late 80’s and early 90’s. James states, “I grew up with music, its part of me.”

Growing up in Texas, James sang for choirs and churches, but loved country and southern rock music. Upon completing college James entered the United States Navy, but his love of music never slowed down. At twenty six, James’s wife bought him a guitar and almost immediately he began writing his own music. Six years later, which brings us close to this date, those songs and some of the best musicians from northwest California have came together into a CD called “Guitar’s, Good Friends, and a Fifth of Tequila”(can be added to your collection at CD Baby); providing James a chance to play in Virginia, Florida, Texas, California, and Canada. Not to mention playing to the rest of the world through Second Life performances.

I asked James what events he has played in real life, and he responded, “I have played many coffee shops and bars, heck even a few street corners. My biggest events were county fairs, those are a blast.”

A small local paper called James’s attention to Second Life, and logging in he started looking for music. Along the path to live performing James ran across Starberrylande Escape who took him under her wing and helped him to get up to speed in Second Life. The Tropics Casino and The Old Salts Pub were the first places to give James a chance to perform, and his performances have grown from there.

Asking James about his participation in Second Life, he says:

Music, music, mixed with a little music, and outside of music, I have made some really cool friends. Interaction with the fans is critical in Second Life. In a real life show the crowd feeds off your energy and body language, and I feed off theirs. In Second Life, I work twice as hard to be sure to try to individually connect with everyone because they only have the energy I push through the microphone.

Finally I asked James, What is a fair way to tip you at your Second Life performances? His response:

Ah, this subject is a hotly debated one. Let me start with this: I appreciate all tips; it shows you liked what I am doing. Now that being said, some seem of the opinion that musicians should play for the love, and if they get paid or tipped that’s a bonus. I have to admit, I work hard for what I do, yes I love the music, but this is a business too. Second Life is such a fantastic new way to spread the word about my music and form a fan base. Their support is what allows me to keep doing what I love to do. So, guess the short answer is people should tip (a) what they can afford and (b) what they feel the performance was worth. With the exchange rate, heck a tip of 200 lindens is like putting 70 cents in the tip hat, not bad for an hour worth of entertainment.

If you like country, I can highly recommend SinginCountry Commander’s performances to you. Just don’t expect pure country, as James mixes a special blend of classic rock in with his country to provide a special treat for your enjoyment.

Other Live Performer Reviews