“…and goodnight, Mr. Rosedale, wherever you are!”

SciEye, SPNNews, Spindrift, Second Life

“…And goodnight, Mr. Rosedale, wherever you are!” is the famous tagline that ends each of the first one hundred episodes of Pooky Amsterdam’s Second Life weekly science-themed panel show, the  First Question!  Produced and broadcast from her PookyMedia Studios high above Spindrift sim/region in SL’s science continent, the SciLands, the fast-paced comedy game show has run for 2 1/2 years so far.  With a live viewership of 40 to 80 avatars on Spindrift, a treet.tv broadcast audience of hundreds to thousands, and over 30,000 views on most episodes in the treet.tv archives, 1st Q! has found a loyal and growing audience.

When 1st Q!, then known as 2nd Q! before they realized they were even better than that*,  started on April 10th, 2008, Philip Rosedale, known as Philip Linden in SL, was still CEO of the company he co-founded, Linden Lab [often misspelled as Linden Labs].  He left not long afterwards, and has recently returned to that position, giving a third level of poignancy to that closing signoff phrase, which riffs off of Jimmy Durante’s “…and goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are!” show signoff tagline.

At the last SLCC conference, held August 2010 in Boston, US, Pooky actually found out where Mr. Rosedale was that night!

2010 SLCC Creators Pooky Amsterdam & Philip Linden

 

 Photo credit by Arminasx Saimen.

*Actually, the lawyers told everyone inSL that they could no longer use ‘Second’ in a business name inSL, but instead could use the logo ‘inSL.’

[Update Oct 21st – Philip Rosedale stepped down as interim CEO 2 days ago.]

Linden Lab price increases

Linden Lab has just made another abrupt and large future price increase for regions. The announcement and reactions to it are here.

I responded:

I applaud Gentle Heron’s summary of some of the consequences, intended and unintended, of this abrupt pricing decision.

(And to academics/educators and the NASA and NOAA staffers inworld working with annual budgets set in August or September, three months notice *is* abrupt, disruptive, and not helpful to their credibility with their home financial offices or departments.)

Disclaimer: I am speaking as Paradox Olber of Spindrift isle in the SciLands, and not as a representative of the SciLands, NASA, NOAA, the International Spaceflight Museum, SpinSpace Gallery, the International Association of Astronomical Artists, the University of Texas State System, the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics, the MiLands, PookyMedia, or the Space For Music Museum.

Although I can confirm that, like almost all the commenters’ organizations, each of these organizations is planning to reduce Second Life footprint OR strongly discussing that option now.

– Paradox

SciEye: The SciLands Are Moving! But not Spaceport Bravo

SPNN News, Spindrift isle, the SciLands, Second Life – Your SciEye columnist says the SciLands are moving again, this time next to the adjacent University of Texas [UT] education continent.  Today, Monday, October  12th, is  the scheduled day for the Lin, represented by Dee Linden, to lift and land 62 of our science, technology, engineering, and math isles.

[Update 7pm SLTMonday Oct 12th] 

“We’ve moved!
[18:27]  Dee Linden: (Saved Mon Oct 12 18:30:58 2009) 63 regions moved
today, Paradox

Many many thanks to Dee for saving us from 63-ticket purgatory!-Paradox”

[Update Tues 10am SLT – the Map has updated!]

Your LMs [landmarks] will still be good, but you will have to manually revisit and reenter any of your Profile personal Picks again.

More updates as events unfold …

[Disclaimer: I’m the SciLands POC (Person/Point of Contact) to both UT and LindenLab for this move.]

In a related story, the International Spaceflight Museum [ISM] is leaving Spaceport Bravo behind in the SciLands move, and announced that it is for sale by auction.  “Kirra Ball donated the isle and 2 years rent/tier, but after that wonderful donation ran out in the spring of 2009, visitor and volunteer  staff donations were never   enough to pay for Spaceport Bravo.  It is with the greatest reluctance that the ISM Board of Directors voted this weekend to put the isle up for sale,” is my  comment as ISM Director and President.

Gus Plissken /SL name is handling the transaction, with an ISM BoDirectors  waiver: “Resolved, that Fred Fuchs and/or Firesabre Consulting be authorized to act as agent for the ISM Corporation in marketing and selling the sim, Spaceport Bravo, and should be indemnified against any claims of conflict of interest for the purposes of performing this service for the Board.”

Paradox Olbers

SpinSpace Gallery welcomes Lionel Bret, IAAA artist, Jan 2009

Here’s Lionel’s show in the IAAA Wing.  A picture set is at flickr here.

four illustrations of Humans' Machines in space by Lionel Bret

His website astronomy art page is here. 

IAAA artist Lionel Bret exhibits at SpinSpace, the Spindrift Space Gallery on Spindrift island in the SciLands science continent, Second Life.

Six by Lionel Bret

About SpinSpace Gallery and artists’ show schedules

If you already have a Second Life avatar or want to create one, here is the direct link to the SpinSpace Gallery showroom http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spindrift/45/60/24

How About a Game of Thermonuc-, er, 3D Tic-Tac-Toe!

Spindrift’s latest game addition is Treasure Box’s implementation of 3D Tic-Tac-Toe, or as she calls it, 3D3T, three-dee-three-tee.  :) 

Paradox Olbers staring at all 64 positions in an effort to see the 76 winning lines ...

But be warned!  This isn’t the trivial 3x3x3 first-player-always-wins version; *this* is the non-trivial 4x4x4 grid, with 3 selectable sizes of blocks for better viewing ease, and a sixty-second timer on each player’s moves.

Pondering my new 4x4x4 3d Tic-Tac-Toe set

To start a game, have one of the 2 players click on the overhead “3D Tic-Tac-Toe” sign, then select the sphere or the pyramid for their playing pieces.  Now the one-minute timer starts!  This insures a fast game.

You can get your own copy at the SkyWheels Gallery for the Holiday pricing of L$3500 at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Amberaldus/170/115/696

A 64 position playing field ...

For strategy tips, try this page http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~andyb/NC3D/

Drop by anytime and try out this set! No fees – free to play. It’s been strongly proven that the first player can always win.  Can you?

An additional four pictures are up at my flickr site.