Elsie Broek

I think there's a good chance it might, but new venues would be needed. As proof that ABC Island was popular, just a while ago I accidentally selected the wrong TP link and ended back in ABC Island by mistake. EVERYTHING was gone except a message cube to say that it was shut. But there in the middle ankle high water was a (mostly Korean Sim) party of avatars, having a great time all by themselves. They were surprised that ABC Island had ended, and when I asked if the place had been fun, they OVERWHELMINGLY agreed. There's only 17 minutes left until it turns midnight in SL, and then probably even that will be gone. Entropy always wins in the end, but at least we can have a good time while we wait.

ABC Island is closing after tomorrow (22nd of September +10:00 GMT). It's been open since 2007, but the Australian Broadcasting Commission has decided to channel its resources into other virtual avenues.A big party is planned tomorrow and you're welcome to come. For more details see either Vale: ABC Island in Second Life or check out the ABC Friends group in-world.

From The Metaverse Journal: by Lowell Cremorne It’s not surprising but sad all the same: the wonderful community-driven project that is ABC Island in Second Life, is to close on the 22nd of September. The island has been a staple of the Australian Second Life scene since March 2007, and it’s undergone a number of iterations since then (check out a lot of them here). Given the relatively small number of Australian visitors the sim gets compared to its heyday, it’s not a shock that the ABC are redirecting the funds. That doesn’t make it any easier for the small and dedicated bunch of volunteer admins of the sim. We’ll have more details on farewell arrangements / spontaneous wakes etc as we find out ourselves. I find this rather upsetting. ABC Island has always been a second home for me, both as an SL person and as an Australian. I made friends there and had good times and went to events like Rockit and lectures as well. I hadn't been there much this year due to post-grad study commitments in Real Life, but I will miss it. The refit was done right and the Island was a good place to meet and build.

Have no idea how hard or easier these would be, but how about... Redefinable keyboard shorts The user would be able to redefine the binding of commands to keys. Almost anything (maybe ^P would always be "Preferences") on the viewer menus could be bound to a a combination of Control/Shift/Alt (or option) and other key. Maybe this could be done on the fly within the viewer, but if not, perhaps a separate application would be run to do so, changing a set of files that the main program reads every time it's run. Predefined shortcuts would be able to be deleted or reassigned to other commands (e.g. Reset View goes from Esc to Shift-Esc). Users could configure the shortcuts to maximise their use of the viewer. Are you a builder that uploads a lot of textures? Then maybe add a shortcut to load images. Or maybe you want to add a shortcut for setting the Sun position to Midday (or Midnight), or top Stop animations. In short it would save time going through menus, and add access to uses who may not have access to full use of their hands (there are such users, just check out Virtual Ability). The ability to save and restore (some or all) viewer preferences One of the first things done after installing a new or different version of the viewer is to set the preferences they way you like them. This can be a tedious and annoying process, especially if you forget some options and have to go back into Preferences to change them (or maybe you installed the update and get all the "noob help" popups. But what if you could save those preferences and later reload them in one go? That would save a lot of fussing around and side benefit would be being able to load the preferences on different computers where you might also have the viewer installed. (e.g. your laptop as well as your desktop). I think this would work by creating and readiong an XML file. Anything that could be set or changed in Preferences could be saved and restored from from that file. Each field or setting would have its own field in the XML file, and if such a file were loaded with fields that didn't apply (perhaps to an earlier version of teh viewer or 3rd part viewer using the same system) it'd just be ignored. Likewise any setting not saved to the XML file would not be altered when it was restored.Both these suggestions would only affect the quality of use to the end user, being a convenience for saving keystrokes and alterations. Both could be done using external applications, which altered or interrogated the data within the viewer, so they need not complicate the viewer much more, or impose on users who don't want or care about such abilities (like say, the side bar did).

I've tried using Blender a while ago for other purposes and didn't realise it also did that. I don't think I can afford Poser. I'm trying to get the animations and poses created quickly, so I might checkout both Blender and DAZ later. In any case I guess I've give up on trying to import other BVH files for now, and just create the things from scratch.

I've just started using this application and downloaded the user playable animation BVHs. Qavimator loads these fine, but any other other BVH file crashes it! Does anyone have any deas why?

I've been shopping for a build I'm making in SL for scenes in a graphic novel I'm making. This has involved find all sorts of props and ephemera. Yesterday I bought over 60-70 items and although paid for most have not been delivered , even after 24 hours. What can I do about this? will I have to contact the individual merchants for each of the 70 odd items?!