Jump to content

Madelaine McMasters

Resident
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    22,941

  • Joined

  • Days Won

    19

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Madelaine McMasters

  1. Madelaine McMasters
    Hi Helen, 1) My avatars (I have several) are representations of my thinking more than my RL appearance. When I started here 14 years ago, I picked, from the small selection of starter avatars, the one that most closely resembled me. It did not resemble me much. After years of fine tuning, it still doesn't. It's difficult to create and dress a female avatar with my RL proportions. I think I'm able to fairly fully represent myself across all my avatars, but not with any single one. To be fair, my RL body doesn't fully represent me, either. I am large, I contain multitudes. 2) Yes, I think my human SL avatar is more attractive than my RL self. I imagine that's true for many SL residents who have human avatars. Beauty is easy to achieve here. In RL it takes effort I'd rather spend doing other things. I clean up in RL when it's appropriate, but in SL there's no need, as getting dirty takes time and money. 3) I am an introvert in both SL and RL, though nobody would know from my behavior. SL allows me to live the absurdities I can only imagine in RL, though I do share my imaginings in both worlds. Anyone meeting me in either world would recognize my behavior in the other. 4) I like to make people laugh, so disapproval isn't an issue in either world. SL embraces substantial variety in physical representation and behavior, so I'd actually have to expend some effort to earn disapproval. I spend most of my time as a little devil, which more accurately represents my nature than my human avi. 5) "Maddy" is my RL nickname, so I chose compatible first name. My last name is a hint at my intimate side. "McMistress" wasn't available. Good luck on your thesis!
  2. Madelaine McMasters
    Dress as a cricket.
  3. Madelaine McMasters
    FMEA* (failure modes and effects analysis) was part of my hardware design responsibility. My FMEA* analyses were typically larger than all the other documentation (specs, design reviews, theories of operation, etc) combined. One reached 600 pages and consumed a month of my time at the end of a project. There was a parallel system for software/system QA, involving running through expected operation of the system. That was, however, insufficient. One of our engineering managers, George, had a truly remarkable ability to break out software by doing stuff no conscientious person would try, like sitting on a machine's keyboard or plugging/unplugging a machine as fast as possible, for one minute straight. We eventually tried to codify George into our test procedures. There is a limit to how far you can go in testing. Still, these QA measures do not include failure to understand the user. The president of the wonderful little company I worked for told me that, to understand the people who would use the things I designed, I needed to get out into the field and observe them. Asking questions was necessary, but not sufficient. Asking questions presumes you know which questions to ask. You don't. You can't. This was demonstrated vividly during a visit to a customer. I was designing roll around medical instrument cart at the time, with a large information display. The company's existing product mounted the display on a two axis gimbal, so users could best position it. The gimbal was more expensive than the display, so I wondered if I could eliminate it. I went to our largest user of the existing system and asked how important the gimbal was... "We couldn't live without it. We adjust it several times a day." For the next three days, I lived with that customer, observing dozens of procedures. When in the patient's room, the display was always positioned front and center, projecting at operator eye height. When in the procedure room, the display was similarly situated. The path between the patient and procedure rooms contained at least three raised door thresholds, over which the cart had to roll. At each threshold, the jostling would cause the display to shift position. Once at the destination, the operator would re-align the display, returning it to within a few degrees of "default". I removed the gimbal from my design, locating the display at approximately female eye height (staff were predominantly female). The new system was enthusiastically received, with users claiming it felt more solid. We received no complaints about the fixed position display. In previous products, I'd instrumented the UI with simple tracking code that reported menu traversals and such, to give my team an idea what features were most used. This allowed us to tune future versions and products to minimize "travel' though the UI. We were often surprised by the metrics we received. Getting into the field and observing people using our systems usually explained away our surprise. I have wondered if LL has such instrumentation in SL, to attempt to measure friction in the experience. SL is far more complicated than anything I've ever designed, and I imagine this would be a daunting task with questionable value. Still, there is value in observing your dog food being eaten by actual dogs, who might someday replace you.
  4. Madelaine McMasters
    Another irreversible process, leading to "You can't get there from here."
  5. Madelaine McMasters
    I routinely wear BoM shirts I purchased 14 years ago. Creators of SL women's fashion seem to think that I want to show cleavage, even when wearing my mechanic's jumpsuit. I don't. Since many mesh outfits clip the body, it's not possible to wear anything but BoM underneath. So, I do.
  6. Madelaine McMasters
    I don't think you meant "not", as indicated by the rest of your post. I'll also add some nuance to your contention. Helpful experts (like Rolig, who's helpfulness is beyond reproach) are aware that "the rest of us" don't have a fraction of their knowledge, and they do a good job of leading people through the thickets. Even the least empathetic of experts know that their expertise is not universal. That's why they think they're experts. Even so, it's actually pretty difficult for an expert to fully grasp what a noob doesn't know. I think Rolig would agree that she came to SL with a background that helped her climb SL's learning curve faster than the average noob. This is a workable problem for experts who directly engage noobs having difficulties. It's a serious problem for those who don't, like LL staff developers. There's an old phrase, "eating your own dog food" that's supposed to suggest that the best way to ensure the quality of your product is to consume it. When I first heard that phrase, I scratched my head. I still do. How do I, as a human, learn anything about the quality of dog food by eating it? For a complex thing like SL, the gap between an expert and a noob is like the gap between a human and a dog, with one exception... A noob can become an expert. But, that's an irreversible process (entropy+irony). An expert, try as she might (and I did throughout my career), can't regain noobity. Telling a LL staffer to create a new avatar and walk through Welcome Island won't reveal all the problems. She knows so much more than she knows she knows that it's unreasonable to expect recreating the noob experience to solve the noob problem. Worse yet, a real noob doesn't know what she doesn't know. She might ask a question that makes no sense to the expert because she doesn't have the vocabulary to express it. The gap between the noob and the expert might have nothing to do with SL. Rolig has the advantage of dealing directly with the people who're having problems. She will recognize when her help isn't helping and adjust accordingly. I've seen her do it. A developer, who writes to a specification and gets checked by other experts, doesn't get that immediate feedback. This, I think, has bearing on the new user retention problem.
  7. Madelaine McMasters
    You might be thinking of Prometheus, who was chained to a rock. An eagle would feast on his liver every day, which would heal overnight. If you'd rather push rocks than eat liver (ick!), your eagle would be Sisyphus.
  8. Madelaine McMasters
    That's creative. I don't seem to have a choice ;-).
  9. Madelaine McMasters
    I never push the rock the same way twice.
  10. Madelaine McMasters
    I wonder if the court of public opinion worries LL more than actual courts. Taking much of the forums out of the public eye while simultaneously opening an adult wing suggests that to me.
  11. Madelaine McMasters
    When I was a kid, and watching old cartoons of cave men dragging women around by their hair (and the women generally getting the last laugh), I was taught that these stories were modern, and being painted on ancient people we knew almost nothing about. Well, we know more now... https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/11/16/dont-blame-gender-inequity-on-our-ancestors-ancient-women-were-big-game-hunters-too/?sh=710f4f956b4e Raised in a gender indifferent household, I've been fairly unable to discern much difference between men and women that can't be chalked up to their particular environment/situation. Given equal landscapes to conquer, I can see only physical size as a potential discriminator, and that's not much of a factor in mechanized societies. That men are seen as the conquerors is essential to patriarchy. Patriarchy is not essential to conquest.
  12. Madelaine McMasters
    Yep, it's around here somewhere. I got mine used, for less than some of the pizzas it carried. Difficult to operate? Not at all. Difficult to master? Yeah. Difficult to play well enough to be welcomed into a gig? Depends on the pizza.
  13. Madelaine McMasters
    I played the Bodhran at jam sessions at Milwaukee's Irishfest. Mine was just the right size to carry pizza, so I was allowed to stay.
  14. Madelaine McMasters
    Have a look in your inventory. Tell me it's not full of hair.
  15. Madelaine McMasters
    Ooooh, wasn't Margaret a cutie? She was such a cuddler, but cleaning up after her was hard work, even with the front end loader. Mom's marigold's got so much fertilizer they ended up shading the house. You'd swear Marge was half cat, bringing home part of the night's kill to lay on the porch in the morning. I'll never forget finding Brian Torbeck's fedora and one of his sneakers on the welcome mat. I still wear the fedora and I named one of the marigolds after him. Marge wouldn't eat anything with lots of hair, which is why Scylla is still around.
  16. Madelaine McMasters
  17. Madelaine McMasters
    Absent mindedness is in the McMasters genes. I live in my childhood home, which is filled with tape measures, reading glasses, utility knives, tape dispensers, scissors, Sharpies and other items. Rather than trying to remember where we put those things, we just bought dozens of them when they were on sale (or freebate) and dispersed them around the house.
  18. Madelaine McMasters
    The RendeZvous thing I purchased was a vehicle. Though it was fun, it was a far cry from what I wanted. Virtually all SL animations are. Having one organic object ride another requires collision modeling well beyond what SL can do. RendeZvous became a complete nuisance if I did anything but walk over flat ground. It's a faint fuzzy memory, but the Ferris wheel fella was very specific about the feeling he wanted to get from being one. The vehicle approach was a non-starter for him.
  19. Madelaine McMasters
    I recall seeing the late Ever Dreamscape hanging around Bay City as a fire. I think she set her hoverheight full-left so her name tag would be underground. If you got close enough, she'd jump out and engulf you. I think Ever will always be the quintessential SL fire starter. Though I came by my schtick on my own, I can't hold a candle to Ever's lasting legacy in Bay City. I think, every year on Ever's SL birthday, Bay City residents set fires all around the area. It's an impressive and moving thing to see.
  20. Madelaine McMasters
    Shortly after arriving in SL, I had a lovely chat with someone who wanted to be a Ferris wheel. I thought that must be something that could be scripted, so looked into it. I was disappointed to see that LSL doesn't allow people to "sit" on other people. It wasn't long after that I discovered I wanted that ability for myself, to allow giving piggyback rides. I ended purchasing "RendeZvous" (or something like it) and had great fun with it, carrying my partner at the time either on my shoulders, or in a fireman's carry. I had several discussions with the couple who'd designed the thing. They mentioned that quite a few people had expressed interest in becoming ride-able objects. It's a shame that LL hasn't made this possible. I imagine there's some griefing aspect I haven't considered, but even LL's marketing imagery shows this scenario... "Lift and carry" is a fetish, but there's a lot of non-sexual pleasure to be had from sharing a ride on someone. Who of us hasn't had a ride on a parent's shoulder? I'd love to have a "1-2-3-Go!" animation for three people, in which the one is the middle is swung back by the outside two. Or a centrifugal animation where one spins the other 'round until their feet leave the ground.
  21. Madelaine McMasters
    Ooooh, I should try to find one of these people and have them sit in a corner of my 35 LI skybox, wearing all the holiday/seasonal decorations that would throw me over the limit.
  22. Madelaine McMasters
    Fixed that for you. Maddy will be along shortly. ...ponders which of you is closer and, being too sleepy for certainty, sets you both on fire.
  23. Madelaine McMasters
    Well, I AM doing it wrong! And, as you know, your telling me that will be largely counterproductive.
  24. Madelaine McMasters
    US = Tempest in a teapot.
  25. Madelaine McMasters
    Well, in the 70s I was bursting into tears at being left at playschool by my mum, so . . . yeah, probably not. And yes . . .*sighs* . . . alumnae, not alumna. Apparently U of T doesn't teach Latin (which I took as an undergrad) very good. Joe McCarthy and Chris Farley roamed the halls of my alma mater. Chris was a contemporary. In the 1970s, my mum leaving me at playschool made everyone else burst into tears.
×
×
  • Create New...