That night, at 1 am, when I entered the pavilion, I found Doug there. He refered to an email I had just sent him, inviting him to become a Play as Being guardian.
Pema Pera: Hi Doug!
doug Sosa: hi!
doug Sosa: Thanks for the emails.
Pema Pera: Oh, sure, thank you!
doug Sosa: Have you built a space here in SL?
Pema Pera: I have my own little hut, right nearby
Pema Pera: In fact you are looking at it right now :-)
doug Sosa: that sounds terrific. I want one in RL.
Pema Pera: straight in front of you
Pema Pera: hahaha, well, you can start here
doug Sosa: Over the arch bridge and past the trees on the left?
doug Sosa: this way?
Pema Pera: no
Pema Pera: to your right now
doug Sosa: this way?
Pema Pera: in front of you yes
Pema Pera: over the bridge
Pema Pera: toward the West
doug Sosa: ah, little light in the window?
Pema Pera: yes
doug Sosa: setting sun.
Pema Pera: ah, perhaps that is what you meant?
Pema Pera: I saw you walking to what seemed the North
doug Sosa: what you meant, guide to the west, astronomical knowledge.
Pema Pera: you can walk over if you like, or simply move your camera position over
Pema Pera: the latter much faster and more flexible
doug Sosa: yes, i was walking north first, toward that other house/hut.
When I saw Doug walking around, I realized that he probably didn’t know about camera control, making it so much easier to take in the world around you in SL.
Pema Pera: do you know that you can inspect anything in quite gory detail without moving your avatar, at least up to a few hundred meters?
Pema Pera: and often further away?
doug Sosa: no, how?
Pema Pera: use camera controls
Pema Pera: several options
Pema Pera: the blue arrows, do you have those out?
doug Sosa: ok, dumb question, where are camera controls?
doug Sosa: no.
Pema Pera: top bar: view -> camera controls
doug Sosa: got ‘em.
Pema Pera: toggle that to on (with an x) and a blue small dashboard appears
Pema Pera: clicking on the eight arrows in the two circles moves your camer position
Pema Pera: without affecting your avatar
Pema Pera: the plus and minus is for zooming in and out
Pema Pera: like in google maps
doug Sosa: seems to work, now to zoom in?
Pema Pera: plus
doug Sosa: hm, since my view is behind me, it just showws me the back of my shirt.
Pema Pera: first pan around, using the right circle
Pema Pera: the four arrows of the right circle
doug Sosa: ah, i elevated camera, now i can move it forward.
Pema Pera: then the arrows of left circle help to rotate
Pema Pera: the combination, after some practice, lets you go anywhere from any angle
Pema Pera: That is the first method
After explaining about using the blue arrows, I also mentioned the more direct way of using the alt key and so on.
Pema Pera: The second method is what most oldtimers use more
doug Sosa: ablout like learning to ride a bicycle.
Pema Pera: that is to use the alt key
doug Sosa: the + only takes me a little way, like power of 2.
Pema Pera: in combination with the left mouse button and movement of the mouse
Pema Pera: so pick a spot in your field that you want to zoom into
Pema Pera: hold both the alt key down and the left mouse button
doug Sosa: sort of get it. still can’t zoom into the hut. Just got the pun! and only took me fifteen minutes!
Pema Pera: and move the moused forward (or move up on a trackpad)
Pema Pera: and you will zoom in
Pema Pera: does that work?
doug Sosa: this is fun, sure moves FAST.
Pema Pera: Then there are other key combinations
doug Sosa: but not yet zooming. I’ll play with it anothe time. enough for now.
Pema Pera: like holding down both control and alt, or control + alt + shift
Pema Pera: if you try those, you will see which degrees of freedom are exercised
Pema Pera: Now then there is a third way, mouse look, but perhaps these two are good enough to play with for now :)
And for good measure I mentioned the mous look option, though I rarely use that myself.
Pema Pera: To get into mouse look, just type “m”
Pema Pera: and you can get out by hitting “escape”
doug Sosa: ok. i did get over to one hut, nit the right one. more later.
doug Sosa: yes. I’m back.
Pema Pera: while in mouse look any mouse motion will do (seemingly) wild things (until you get the hang of it)
Pema Pera: Escape is the generic way to hook you camera up again with you avatar
doug Sosa: interesting how much in RL i use touch.
doug Sosa: I am the kind that doesn’t like plaster board rooms because i can feel the vibration, unlike real plaster.
doug Sosa: Which is much more rigid.
Pema Pera: it will be only a matter of time for touch to be introduced here
Pema Pera: Allready the wii uses touch . . . in some beginning way
Pema Pera: Hi Doug, welcome back!
doug Sosa: second life crached!
doug Sosa: “crashed…
doug Sosa: first second life crash in a long time.
doug Sosa: I had interesting conversations yesterday..
doug Sosa: with naotech, biotech amd financial data aggregator, all at the top of their field, each unknwn to the others, and all on the edge between
doug Sosa: wnting to make a lot of money and doing social good. money is easier, the default.
doug Sosa: “wanting”
doug Sosa: make money OR social good.
doug Sosa: hi yogi steve.
Pema Pera: Hi Steve!
stevenaia Michinaga: hello Doug
stevenaia Michinaga: Pema
stevenaia Michinaga: anyone else here?
doug Sosa: i must go, dinner served… esxcuse please.
stevenaia Michinaga: bye doug
stevenaia Michinaga: serve?
Just after Steve entered Doug left while leaving Steve wondering about Doug’s life style, of having dinner served to him :-).
Pema Pera: too quick to say goodbye . . .
Pema Pera: yes, lucky Doug!
Pema Pera: :-)
Pema Pera: quiet evening!
Pema Pera: First Doug and I for half an hour, now you and me.
stevenaia Michinaga: I see that, friday night
stevenaia Michinaga: interesting even in town, Dali Lama is giving a 6 day seminar here
stevenaia Michinaga: tickets went faster than Britney Spires
stevenaia Michinaga: how are you?
Pema Pera: :)
Pema Pera: fine, still hanging in there after a very busy week
Pema Pera: and one more such crazy week coming up, before my Japan visit will end
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, same here, all good thing though
Pema Pera: then off to Berkeley for three weeks, working with Stim in person
Pema Pera: here too :)
stevenaia Michinaga: wow, sounds nice, I love the SF bay area, I have relatives in Mountainview that I am doing work with
stevenaia Michinaga: I insist on regular site visits :)
Pema Pera: well, if you come to the Bay area before August 9, we could all meet!
Pema Pera: Gen and Stim and me
Pema Pera: and Sky
stevenaia Michinaga: no it won’t be that soon
Pema Pera: all Berkeleyites
Pema Pera: Berkeleyans?
stevenaia Michinaga: you going to be there all month?
Pema Pera: three weeks
Pema Pera: July 20 to August 9
stevenaia Michinaga: lovely, right, I see that now
I then got briefly puzzled about squids . . .
stevenaia Michinaga: I got this strange survey when I signed on , wondering if it’s me or everyone: Squid Design Group
stevenaia Michinaga: opps wrong paste
stevenaia Michinaga: from Univerity of Innsbrook
stevenaia Michinaga: Avitar- Based Inovation Research project
stevenaia Michinaga: some survey, did you get it when you signed on?
Pema Pera: I get so many requests :) I only remember what seems relevant at the time of reading, the rest flushes straight into /dev/null
Pema Pera: ah! signed onto what?
Pema Pera: sorry, I thought random email
stevenaia Michinaga: I haven’t looked at it was wondering where I should file it
stevenaia Michinaga: no problem
Pema Pera: now squid design DOES sound interesting :)
stevenaia Michinaga: lol, that an architectural rendering and drafting service in Argentina, I think
Pema Pera: physics SQUID detector or biological Squids as in the animals?
stevenaia Michinaga: I get those emails from all over mostly from China and India, you can get alot done with $15/hr professional help in my profession
stevenaia Michinaga: Can’t say I’ve used any yet, but makes you think if a global workforce is a good or bad thing… depending on who you ask
Pema Pera: are they really delivering work that is as useful as if you were to farm it out locally?
Pema Pera: I mean, how must startup time is there involved in explaining to them what you need done?
stevenaia Michinaga: I have been heavilly marketed by some, hard to say, I have used people I have never met across the country to assist me in some work, but it must be affective for some
stevenaia Michinaga: to work internationally, some of the presentation.rendering sites appear to do work and don't need to be that in tune with anything but pretty pictures
Pema Pera: I see, yes, if the task is sufficiently well defined
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, it is a concern of mine when things get more technical
Pema Pera: btw, I should get going before too long . . . the end of the hour is approaching . . .
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, don't mean to keep you, the night just started for me
stevenaia Michinaga: be well
Pema Pera: You too, Steve!
Pema Pera: see you next time, if not in the Bay Area then here :-)
stevenaia Michinaga: :
stevenaia Michinaga: 0
stevenaia Michinaga: :)
stevenaia Michinaga: enjoy lunch
