[Second Life Product / Business Ideas for Generation Alpha]

Not for the Alpha generation, but for all of us

Voxel based building in SL, as well as converting the ground to voxel so that we can create tunnels, mountains, volcanoes to toss noobies in, etc.

Analog controls for driving, flying, boating.  

Better combat scripting (They are working on this)

Improvement to the UI,  including a wardrobe, as well as a 3d rendering of of your avatar and what they will look like with certain outfits, integrated into the web.  Maintain the old file directory system for those that prefer it.

and most importantly, a pony.  

 

[Oh hell yes! -- Pet Delights!]

I almost have enough money to buy my CPU 🙃 An AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.5 GHz 6-Core Processor, now I just have to save up for a motherboard, ram, SSD, a case, power supply, keyboard, monitor, Windows, and a graphics card.  One thing at a time, the CPU is one of the most expensive parts though, so it makes me happy to be that much closer to a new computer.

The most expensive part will be the Nvidia 3060 with 12gb vram.  I could have gone cheaper by going through AMD, and have read multiple times how you get more for your buck with them, but I want something that can use LLMs and run stable diffusion, which from my understanding is best done with Nvidia.  

Anyway, it has me feeling pretty happy.  I look forward to playing a few games on it, generating images, running VMs, playing around with LLMs, and cruising in SL without as much of a stutter in FPS (I hope).  I'm also looking forward to streaming games from it so I am not just stuck in one place in the house, I like to go out on my patio every now and then and enjoy the weather.

When all is said and done, I should have a much faster computer for less than $1,000 USD, which I can upgrade through the years.  This old laptop of mine has done exceeding well for a budget gaming laptop I purchased for under a grand as well, over five years ago.  Being that it is budget though, it is falling apart, the plastics have seeped their oil, and become brittle, and the screen causes pretty severe eye strain, so it is time to replace it.  I should be able to get a lot more life out of a computer tower.

 

Also some strange derpy chicken like thing that has adopted us.. yeah, no kidding.. there is a Guinea fowl that has taken over my back yard, she is hilarious.  I guess they can fly, and she must have made a nest somewhere near my home and comes in my back yard eating bugs.  She was looking through my sliding glass door the other day 🤣

 

It makes the cutest noise

[How Does Your SL Look Today?]

I was flying around again on my hoverbike, then I did a region crossing and mah hoverbike kept going without me!  How rude!  Anyway, I started wandering around mainland looking for a rez spot when I stumbled into a minigolf place and started playing some.

Shhhhh!  I require intense concentration!

Oooh!

The wind blew it off course, plus someone said something!  I told you guyz to stay quiet!

 

And we finish it off with a happy dance! 

 

Now to find a rez spot

[Selling 'art' from Midjourney in SL and intellectual honesty]

If people are willing to spend the money,  then all the power to them.  Our own ethics, should not take precedence in such trivial ordeals such as transactions of machine generated art, the more we push our own morality on others, the less free we all become.  I mean, unless we all want to have our lives dictated to us, just don't expect that your own set of ethics will always be at the helm.

 

 

[Second Life Product / Business Ideas for Generation Alpha]

10 minutes ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

SL has a turnover of over $500,000,000 a YEAR.

🤯 I'm not disputing you, but I always thought it was much less than this.  If I might inquire, where did you get this figure from?

[Lets talk about Chat GPT and AI, is it possible for AI to take our avatars and turn them into real people?]

2 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

That second attempt looks like Jordan Peterson minus the glasses

I can't unsee it now!  

That explains the beach, he is studying the social behavior of lobsters 🤣

[What's the buzz, tell me what's a-happening?]

Oh damn.. Lion vs Vampire Frankenstein, this is not going to end well.

 

/me runs off 

[Lets talk about Chat GPT and AI, is it possible for AI to take our avatars and turn them into real people?]

1 hour ago, Quartz Mole said:

I'm not sure I would describe either of these as photorealistic but these are Chat-GPT's attempts at making a photorealistic image of me.   Good enough for a picture of a scholar from one of the older English universities  visiting Innsmouth while on sabattical at Miskatonic University.

Here's the second attempt.

 

I was bored, and wanted to put my chores on hold, so in finding ways to procrastinate, I asked Bing's copilot to write a poem about your picture

At sunset's glow, the figure stands, quite debonair,
With a coat so chic, and a cane that's just flair.
No face to be seen, just a block so brown,
Perhaps it's a smile, or maybe a frown?

The sky's ablaze with a painter's delight,
A mishmash of hues, oh what a sight!
The waves play tag with the sandy shore,
"Gotcha now!" they shout, "You're it, once more!"

Our mystery guest, so stately and grand,
Might just be lost, cane in hand.
"Is this the beach party, or have I erred?
I dressed all up, but nobody's here!"

So here they stand, in solitude's embrace,
A comical sight, in such an elegant place.
The ocean's applause, the sky's standing ovation,
For the figure who's become the sunset's sensation.

 

I think both of the pictures look great, I don't have access to GPT-4 outside of Bing's copilot and trying to generate an image using one I upload to build upon has resulted in failure

[Second Life Product / Business Ideas for Generation Alpha]

17 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   The only games mobile phones are good for are Sudoku, Snake, and that bouncy ball game my first phone had. The only games consoles are good for are platformers and driving games. People who want the ability to place accurate clicks and type coherently use a computer with a mouse and keyboard. People who play first-person shooters and real-time strategy games on console shouldn't be allowed to vote.

They are also good to use for hockey.

I'm not so sure about baseball, perhaps they would do well as a Frisbee though

[How Does Your SL Look Today?]

I'm still getting a lot of use out of this hoverbike.

I think it has been a couple of hours now, or more just riding around and exploring while passively watching TV.  I even came across a staff member of Chelsea, but they were a cloud and I think AFK

 

I liked their truck though 🙃

 

 

I plan on making my way back to my Bellisseria home, I think this may take another hour or two, especially if I keep popping out of SL to check on the forums 🤣

 

😕 This is gonna take a while... Hey, I have some cheese, crackers, and a bit of spiced rum to help me along my way! 😛🥂

[What's the buzz, tell me what's a-happening?]

5 hours ago, AmeliaJ08 said:

Reading this with interest and hadn't really considered the potential implications of an engine switch to Unity. I think that genuinely would kill off the third party viewers.

The opensourceyness of SL's viewer is probably one of the big reasons it's still around. I know we could probably cope with the official viewer, it's perfectly capable but... clearly there is a strong demand for more advanced features.

To this end maybe it isn't so obvious that the desktop viewer will follow along with an engine switch. SL kinda needs to be its own independent thing running on its own technology as much as possible on the desktop, if growth in mobile is strong though maybe that will become less important? I hope not.

 

 

I don't know, it all depends on if it would cost money for the TPV viewers, and who would be paying for it.  It may all still come down to LL, footing the bill even if it is Unity.  Modifying the Unity viewer might actually be easier for the developers of TPVs, adding in their own bit of code here and there.  They may still contribute to the main viewer too, with suggestions, and who knows, I mean, it might mean more people climb on board participating with development considering Unity would probably be easier to work with for a lot of people.

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

44 minutes ago, Rowan Amore said:

The people walking down our street with their phones glued to their ears who I can hear almost a block away. 

These sorts of people confuse me, it makes me wonder if they want everyone to hear their conversation.  The ones that put it on speaker phone and talk into their phone as though it were a slice of pizza usually get a laugh from me as well.  I think some are doing it because they believe the phone will give them cancer, but then they will slide it in their pocket.  Then I wonder if they realize radio waves are all around them regardless if they are using a phone or not.  

But yeah, people really seem to be oblivious that the rest of us can hear their conversations or they might actually want us to hear them.  The last one I heard was some guy in a dollar tree and his ex telling one another they are going to hell, like, literal hell, and it was kind of funny because they both were sincere, exposing one another's faults, and acting like they were the mouth piece for whatever God they were worshipping with the exclusive rights of who gets to pass through the pearly gates and who goes to the other place.  🤣

A little while ago, some lady was in a place called old town that had moderate crowds of people was screaming at the top of her lungs, in anger, on and off for about an hour.  We walked by her, watching her stamp her feet, yelling into the phone, and making a huge spectacle, eventually getting away far enough so her voice blended in with everything else.. later we walked back and she was still stamping around making a huge scene.

 

[What's the buzz, tell me what's a-happening?]

I wonder if it would cost TPVs anything to modify viewers in Unity, considering they are not making any money at all that I am aware of.  That just goes way above anything I know, how these things work is beyond me especially when it comes to LL, if someone were to make a viewer using it if they are charged or not.   I do know that there is one person that is out there, building a Unity viewer for SL desktop

Crystal Frost, which I have not been keeping up with.  They probably would have more of an idea of the finances involved.  The last update to the video posted on youtube was about three weeks ago, so they are still chugging along.  I don't think TPVs would vanish, unless they were charged per each user using the viewer.  

[Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Linden Realm Portals :)]

Happy Halloween!

 

[What's the buzz, tell me what's a-happening?]

The pricing goes above my head(as do most things), but I did find something that may be of use

https://unity.com/pricing

https://unity.com/runtime-fee-estimator

For the enterprise I got something like $51,500 USD per month with the setting put to max

That's a one spicy meat-a-ball!

 

That is assuming we have millions of users a month 🤣 For those interested and more knowledgeable than me, play around with it and see how much you estimate it would cost, assuming this link would give us an accurate estimate.  It then comes down to costs, would it require more developers to maintain two different engines, and if so, would it be cheaper to just go with Unity?

[What's the buzz, tell me what's a-happening?]

Just now, Ceka Cianci said:

*Runs in the thread really quick*  Just wanted to run in to at least say I was in here. * Runs back out really fast, before the lock*

* Goo clings on to @Ceka Cianci

/me looks horrified

 

It won't let us leave Ceka!

[What's the buzz, tell me what's a-happening?]

Perhaps shuffling around people due to Unity now being used, I suspect the viewer on the desktop will be moving to Unity as well.  If it is, development on the desktop engine currently in use will probably slow down to a near halt as the resources will be shifted to Unity and the manpower required to maintain two different engines would no longer be necessary.  Then there might be the ordeal with having to deal with Apple and Google, and trying to cater to a mobile audience.  Who knows though?  I do know, that I was looking forward to hearing the next Lab Gab, and that may have giving us a few more hints as to their plans for the future, unfortunately, did not happen on the 29th.

I don't know though, I haven't a clue as to what the roles are in Linden, who the developers are, what their specialties involve, or even the direction SL is going to take.

 

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

17 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

And I'm back. For reasons.

I clearly need to get better at this flouncing thing.

Yay!

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

28 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Ok, I'm outta here.

Catch you all laters. Maybe.

😢 I hope you come back.  If not, thank you for everything you provided on the forums, the great artwork, the great discussions, the humor, and kindness.  

[How to be Your Own Best Friend in SL]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

Some of us aren't doing our jobs!!!

I LOVE your imaginative pictures!

 

I know, I have failed our younger generation, they need that sense of their grumpy elders putting them in their place!  I got a kick out of that episode, poor  Squidward

 

 

[How to be Your Own Best Friend in SL]

Imagination

 

I just get soaked into my own imagination, then I come on the forums and share some of it.  I don't get irritated very often, and find as time goes I grow less irritated at things, I think I am doing this aging thing all wrong or something..  I should have started to yell at people to get off my lawn, and complain about that new fangled technology, and how them zoomers ruin everything.

For sure though, I never lost my touch of imagination.  Second Life is the perfect place for me to go wandering around, and create all sorts of stories, and scenarios, plus it is always changing, and I am always finding things - and when I don't find things, I just build them and make new stories.  

[Why I Don't Like PBR]

14 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

OMG! Are Belli homes also "dark at night" now?

It really is not that bad.

Edited environment - not to be taken seriously.

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Yes! We make a "mess" and clean it up for the um.."straights" (meaning the upstanding types, not meaning "straight / non-LGBTQ+") before morning comes.

Kind of like "Adult Swim" on Cartoon Network.

Peeve: We gotta pay those janitors more.

 

 

Don't forget the cheese 🤣

[Oh my Gawd! - Totally unOfficial Pet Peeve Thread.]

@Love Zhaoying The difference I usually have noticed on social media vs forums, are that the algorithms on social media tend to be more manipulative.  At least that was my experience, the suggested posts I would see would be intrusive, while on the forum it usually is just sorted by date (for me).  I don't like feeling as though I am being manipulated, it just gets to me - and the way a lot of sites keep you glued to the screen is usually through topics that will induce a feeling of fear or anger, which bothers me to no end because I feel, it is counter productive to society.

Buuuuuuuut!  I am sure not all social media platforms are the same, and I hardly am an expert when it comes to social media.  I just noticed that when I did use facebook, I would be given all sorts of posts that frustrated me, worse yet, I saw former coworkers, friends, even family change slowly by what I would consider programming.  Youtube is more or less the same.

 

In short, social media makes me feel like I don't want to live on this planet anymore

After seeing what it did to people, I really grew frustrated with it.

[How Does Your SL Look Today?]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Now that I see it from another angle, it kind of reminds me of that thing Anakin Skywalker rode in whatever terrible Star Wars movie that was, with the races.

 

Yeah, it is kind of cool 😊 I like the cyberpunk look of my other hoverbike more, as well as the sitting animation, but this one looks really good too and it handles much better.