2009.09.12 19:00 - On Goats, Sheep, and Lawnmowers

The Guardian for this meeting was Pema Pera. The comments are by Pema Pera.

Pema Pera: Hi there Pila!
Pila Mulligan: how are you?
Pema Pera: Fine! I can't stay too long, have to leave in half an hour or so
Pila Mulligan: ok
Pema Pera: how about you?
Pila Mulligan: lunchi time in Japan
Pila Mulligan: fine thanks
Pila Mulligan: just spent the afternoon on the tractor, mowing
Pila Mulligan: for me that's fun
Pema Pera: wow, sounds like fun indeed! a big tractor?
Pila Mulligan: medium size, 36 hp
Pema Pera: (I can almost smell the grass)
Pila Mulligan: 5' mower
Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: it was a nice sensory expereince
Pema Pera: are you gowing to may hay :)
Pema Pera: *make
Pila Mulligan: no, but I'd love to gather some of it for compost
Pema Pera: you have no goat??
Pila Mulligan: haven't got that far yet
Pila Mulligan: not yet, I may get sheep
Pila Mulligan: people here prefer sheeps to goats
Pila Mulligan: they are more picky in what they will eat
Pila Mulligan: goats eat anything
Pila Mulligan: they say sheep do a better job lawn mowing than a fancy lawnmower
Pema Pera: how large an area do you need per sheep to sustain them?
Pema Pera: they are certainly quieter!
Pila Mulligan: less aggressive too :)
Pila Mulligan: another thing I'd like to try is bee hives
Pila Mulligan: for fresh honey
Pila Mulligan: and pollination
Pema Pera: how nice!
Pila Mulligan: what is the topic of your astronomy seminar?
Pema Pera: the study of star clusters in connection with the use of virtual worlds
Pema Pera: I organized it together with colleagues from Japan, Holland, and the US
Pila Mulligan: oh, sorry, I missed your earlier sheep question, but the answer is I don't know :)
Pema Pera: http://www.manybody.org/modest/Workshops/modest-9c.html
Pila Mulligan: hmmm, what is the connection?
Pila Mulligan: star clusters in connection with the use of virtual worlds
Pema Pera: have you heard of MICA?
Pila Mulligan: but I see from the website -- an immerision
Pila Mulligan: yes
Pema Pera: http://www.mica-vw.org/
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: The day I started PaB, April 1, 2008, I brought MICA into Second Life
Pila Mulligan: this is cool
Pema Pera: April 2008 was a pretty busy month for me :-)
Pila Mulligan: practical use of SL
Pila Mulligan: sounds like it
Pema Pera: fool's day it was for sure . . .

Pila Mulligan: have you spent time in an Open sim yet?
Pema Pera: a bit
Pila Mulligan: like Osgrid
Pema Pera: we're basically gearing up
Pila Mulligan: there is a ton of potential there
Pema Pera: just located our own server
Pila Mulligan: cool
Pema Pera: yes!
--BELL--
Pila Mulligan: [hi Bert - 90secs]
Pema Pera: but to get the people in there will be the most difficult part (in OpenSim that is)
Pema Pera: hi Bert!
Bertrum Quan: hi Pila, Pema
Pila Mulligan: I have na idea there, Pema
Pila Mulligan: the first step seems to be a simple integration of the OS with web browsers
Pila Mulligan: someone said that is already beind done
Pila Mulligan: the next step is to draw people in
Pila Mulligan: and there are lots of ways to do that
Pema Pera: yes, and yes
Pila Mulligan: such as ....
Pila Mulligan: a model Globe Theater and avis perfromong Hamlet
Pema Pera: I indeed know people working on that, web browser integration -- it is essential; too bad Google goofed with lively
Pema Pera: sure
Pila Mulligan: ther would be a learning curve, but it will catch on some day and then it will be pretty signigifcant
Pila Mulligan: Bert this is about the OSgrid
Pema Pera: yes, and it would be less centralized than SL -- let a hundred flowers bloom . . . or a million
Pila Mulligan: the open source virtual world OpenSIm that is
Bertrum Quan: Thanks.
Pila Mulligan: Bert and I were visting Nyfs sims there a week ago
Pila Mulligan: yes, it really has vast potential
Pila Mulligan: Mynfs*
Pila Mulligan: whatevers :)
Pema Pera: Nymf
Pila Mulligan: thank you
Pila Mulligan: that's it
Pema Pera: it helps to know Dutch :-)

Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: you and she sure illustrate the Dutch propensity for ingenuity
Pema Pera: :-)
Pema Pera: trading country
Pila Mulligan: last night came upon a website about futuristic naval vessels
Pila Mulligan: having been n the US Navy I looked at it for a while
Pila Mulligan: there were all these super cartoon designs and prototypes
Pila Mulligan: then I saw the Dutch model -- it was 100% practical in design
Pila Mulligan: nothing superfluous
Pila Mulligan: shows some history with shipping experience
Pema Pera: yes, the seventeenth century was a golden time for Dutch sea faring
Pila Mulligan: I'm sure you realize the role the Dutch threat played with the Spanish Armada
Pila Mulligan: history is interesting, even if it is often a reminder of the barbarism in human potential
Pema Pera: both, a mix of good and bad, like everything :)
Pema Pera: yes, the Dutch had an eighty-year war with the Spanish
Pema Pera: such a concept, an eighty year war -- longer than the life time of the Soviet Union!
Pema Pera: at the end only the very very oldest people might remember the start
Pema Pera: it was the war of independence for Holland, it just took a bit longer for us than for the US
Pila Mulligan: fortunately there is not lingerin animosity it seems
Pila Mulligan: unlike the Balkans
Pema Pera: sometimes Gilles makes a snide remark :-)
Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: Nymf's husband is Spansih so it cannot be too bad :)
Pema Pera: well, yes, the Balkans are different -- but we have France and Belgium as buffer zones :-)
Pema Pera: Ah, I didn't know that
Pila Mulligan: or is she being diplomatic :)
Pema Pera: :)
Pema Pera: Well, I have to get going -- sorry I can't stay the whole hour, but I did claim the log.
Pila Mulligan: have anice afternoon Pema-=san
Pema Pera: It's a quiet night tonight . . . Saturday night fever must happen somewhere else :)
Bertrum Quan: Good to see you, Pema.
Pema Pera: thanks, Pila!
Pila Mulligan: see you next time
Pema Pera: it's a pleasant Sunday afternoon here
Pila Mulligan: aloha `oe
Pema Pera: see you both!
Pema Pera: jaa mata

--BELL--
Pila Mulligan: have yo been back to osgrid recently Bert
Bertrum Quan: Osgrid did not agree with my computer
Pila Mulligan: hmm -- it is still buggy there
Pila Mulligan: like SL was a few years ago
Fox Monacular: Hi Pila, hi Bertrum
Pila Mulligan: hi Fox
Pila Mulligan: welcome, how are you?
Bertrum Quan: hi Fox
Fox Monacular: it's been a while since I attended a session...:)
Pila Mulligan: nice to see you
Pila Mulligan: Pema just left (he is iun Japan)
Fox Monacular: too much rl work... nice to be here again
Pila Mulligan: we chatted briefly about the open source version of SL
Fox Monacular: yes, I read in the google group
Fox Monacular: oh, cool
Pila Mulligan: run-your-own-virtual-world kind of thiing
Fox Monacular: you'd have to know how to program VR then?
Pila Mulligan: not so much -- it is a package, you install iton a server
Pila Mulligan: you would need to understand server fundamentals
Pila Mulligan: it is the same operatinb system essentials as SEcond Life -- they released it
Fox Monacular: oh, so it already exists
Pila Mulligan: yes
Pila Mulligan: lots of people playing with it already
Pila Mulligan: it is still getting smoothed out, but it works
Fox Monacular: that;s great!
Pila Mulligan: and all free
Fox Monacular: what is it called?
Pila Mulligan: there are several grids like Second Life running, the one I visit is called osgrid
Fox Monacular: free is good
Pila Mulligan: http://www.osgrid.org/elgg/
Pila Mulligan: you can probbaly register your SL avi name there
Fox Monacular: thanks, I was just reading it too:)
Pila Mulligan: and if you want, you can claims free sims (but you need to have a server actually run them to keep them)
Fox Monacular: so are people thinking of relocating there?
Pila Mulligan: lots of people are alreay doing it
Pila Mulligan: plus universities and businesses and organizations running their own grids
Pila Mulligan: mini-Secnd Lifes
Pila Mulligan: but it is still buggy - not unlike SL was at first
Fox Monacular: this is really cool, I don't know much about virtual comminuties
Pila Mulligan: it is still a new idea
Pila Mulligan: that is part of why Pema is in Japan
Fox Monacular: yes, and technoloy is getting more and more realistic
Fox Monacular: oh, ok
Pila Mulligan: they are using virtual world techology to teach astronomy
Fox Monacular: so cool
Pila Mulligan: immersing students in star clusters, for example
Pila Mulligan: so you can fly arounbd and sense the proportions of a galaxy :)
Pila Mulligan: i guess
Fox Monacular: you can surely build a nice immersive course on dreaming too :)
Pila Mulligan: I bet you could
Pila Mulligan: what a fun idea
Fox Monacular: definitely
Fox Monacular: or history
Pila Mulligan: or Shapkepsear
Pila Mulligan: a Gobe Theater and avis playing parts
Fox Monacular: :)
Pila Mulligan: Globe*
Fox Monacular: gladiators
Pila Mulligan: :)
Fox Monacular: I would definitely learn more about great battles than from the old fashioned maps with arrows
Pila Mulligan: yes
Pila Mulligan: military history would find it valuable
Fox Monacular: geography would be so much more fun...!
Fox Monacular: if they integrate it with google earth or something
Pila Mulligan: the similar stratgies of Genghis Kahn and Robert E Lee for example
Pila Mulligan: yep, geography in real time
Fox Monacular: :)
Fox Monacular: a few weeks ago we were driving behind a car with a really weird thing on the roof - turned our it was google street view
--BELL--
Pila Mulligan: wow
Fox Monacular: i'm sure soon they'll find a way to make it all 3d..
Pila Mulligan: taking the pictures
Fox Monacular: yes
Pila Mulligan: that has upset some people -- the privacy angle
Fox Monacular: in 4 directions
Fox Monacular: yes the privacy aspect is touchy... but they are being quite careful now - erasing car license plates, blurring faces etx
Pila Mulligan: :0
Pila Mulligan: (lag is quite bad for me tonite)
Fox Monacular: :(
Bertrum Quan: Yes, I've noticed that as well.
Fox Monacular: my grandpa used to be a geologist, and he's just discovering The Internet... I showed him google earth recently, and now he spends almost all his waking time there
Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: I bet he is happy
Fox Monacular: he can hardly believe it
Pila Mulligan: well, I'm going to log off -- the lag meter is showing all red and it is not getting better -- bye for now Fox and Bert
Fox Monacular: bye Pila, take care
Bertrum Quan: I ought to go too. Take care everyone.
Fox Monacular: take care Bertrum
Bertrum Quan: Good to meet you Fox
Fox Monacular: good to meet you too!