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Scylla Rhiadra

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Everything posted by Scylla Rhiadra

  1. Scylla Rhiadra
    I sort of suspect that part of the push for this (beyond Rosedale's apparent obsession with it) is the "Keeping up with the Joneses" (or VRChat) thing. If they have it, and we want to be viewed as serious competition, then we have to have it too. And if that's the case, you may be right: it might actually be counterproductive to do it poorly.
  2. Scylla Rhiadra
    I am attracted to the idea of being able to dance in RL, and have my dancing translated into SL . . . but how often would I do this? Probably not very. And yes, the space and cost would be an issue (not to mention not wanting to look like a TOTAL dork to my bemused and amused RL partner). PS. I AM a better dancer than Elaine Benis. But still . . .
  3. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yep, but I get how this would work, I think. Essentially, it fakes true collision detection by measuring the dimensions of the part of the body, and sort of adding that to the basic calculation of how far away the other part of the body is? I have no idea how complicated this might be, but presumably this is something that High Fidelity had already addressed. The trick, I suppose, would be translating that into SL. (On a side note, it was interesting to see how often her virtual clothing clipped with her body in this video. It made me feel less judgmental about SL!)
  4. Scylla Rhiadra
    This TOTALLY makes sense to me. Other in-world use cases? Not so much. Part of this may be generational: older users such as myself don't focus much on avatar movement because there was seldom any real reason to do so. I suppose a new, younger generation of residents, used to VRChat and other such platforms, might? But . . . an example. I dance with the same guy every Sunday night (and sometimes on Friday nights as well -- you know who). And when we dance, his avatar is invariably staring off somewhere into the middle distance over my shoulder, like he's lost in thought and totally unconnected to me or the dancing. So, I explained to him how to focus his avatar's face and direction of sight on his dance partner -- as I always do when we dance, or even just talk. (I do this when talking to you in-world too.) "Look at my face: you'll see that I'm looking up into yours. Isn't that nicer, and more intimate?" And his answer was, essentially, "I don't look at us or you while we are dancing." And, by god, his avatar makes that clear -- he still doesn't bother "looking" at me while we dance. It DOES make a difference in terms of "connection." But he, and I suspect a majority of older residents, really don't think of SL visually that way.
  5. Scylla Rhiadra
    SL code does not, at the moment, have way of measuring the "outer limit" of mesh, does it? By that I mean we don't have any form of collision detection, do we? At least as regards things outside of the basic avatar bones? If true, how can they prevent an elbow clipping your body? And account for different avatar shapes? If one has a more "curvy" body, for instance, the same animation that works fine on a slender avatar is going to produce clipping, would it not? I am sure there is a great deal here I'm missing, but I don't see how this works without clipping, without rejigging everything with the addition of collision detection.
  6. Scylla Rhiadra
    I don't think there is any question that prices have risen generally in SL over the past couple of years. I used to think of L$250 as a standard price, give or take, for a single colour of a garment or hair style. Now, I expect to see L$300 or even L$350 for new items. Counterbalancing that, of course, is the fact that older items almost never get marked up. I'm assuming that's a reflection of RL inflation, but I don't really know.
  7. Scylla Rhiadra
    Providing "precise" information using numerical measures, when the numbers themselves measure something unknowable, isn't actually being "precise" or informative. The phone might just as well have literally thrown out random numbers in a progression from 1 to 100, and it would have meant as much to me -- and reflected as accurately my actual experience of the update. "How is your day going?" "32" But, ok. We all have preferences, and I can accept that you prefer this over that.
  8. Scylla Rhiadra
    And fortunately for me, I'm not one! Which means there is still hope! /me bats her eyelashes
  9. Scylla Rhiadra
    Well, actually, a message like the one occasional gets -- "This may take some time" -- would be more informative, even if it is sometimes inaccurate.
  10. Scylla Rhiadra
    Had I known you were hankering for this, I'd have IMed you long ago. Sadly for you, though I'm not a commercial photographer.
  11. Scylla Rhiadra
    That is simultaneously interesting information, and utterly useless. Not all information is functional when taken out of its context.
  12. Scylla Rhiadra
    Technology hates humans.
  13. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yes! Additional peeve: when the process being monitored by percent complete is only one of a number of processes, each of which has its own stupid and utterly futile progress meter.
  14. Scylla Rhiadra
    I'm sure that is true. But 99% or more of us have no idea how many assigned tasks there are that need to be completed, nor how long those are likely to take, so the metric is literally meaningless to us. Now, if I had a computer engineer who knew all about Samsung phones watching over my shoulder, nodding sagely . . . I am convinced that the meter is included mostly to mock the rest of us, and cast us into the darkest abyss of despair.
  15. Scylla Rhiadra
    So, twin associated peeves. 1) Last night after dinner I sat down with my coffee on my front porch (as I often do), and took out my phone, which informed that there were IMPORTANT SOFTWARE UPDATES!!! and would I like to update now, or schedule it for later? Well, I was planning to use my phone while I drank my coffee, so I choose "schedule it for later," and when the screen changed to give me times, I chose 5am for the update, and clicked "Ok" or "Schedule" or whatever the "yes" button was. My phone then proceeded to immediately start updating anyway, there and then . . . 2) So, I watch in dismay as my phone shuts itself down, and restarts, with one of those "progress meters" showing. It updated to 30% in about 20 seconds, so I thought . . . oh well, this won't be so bad. And then, 20 seconds later, 31% Another half minute later, 32% Then 33% . . . About 20 minutes later, I was at 75% . . . WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT OF THE PROGRESS METER? 30% of WHAT? Not the time it would take to update, certainly! And it wasn't measuring the download: that had already happened. Grrrrr. I'm sure the progress meter means something to someone somewhere, but to normal humans, it's just a sinister means to momentarily buoy our hopes before crushing them utterly beneath the digital boot of technology.
  16. Scylla Rhiadra
    I'm assuming you mean "abuse" in only the nicest possible way, right? 🙂
  17. Scylla Rhiadra
    Ok, so, basically people who are making videos of themselves talking . . . and DJs. Those are pretty niche, surely? And, maybe I'm not going to the right clubs, but I'm pretty sure that the people at the sets I'm going to are not visually focusing on the DJ. In fact, probably half the time, the DJ is dancing on the floor. There's got to be more to this? I suppose one can argue that VTubers showcasing the technology will help attract new users . . . who then will probably not find themselves in contexts where they themselves are going to use it. Honestly, I'm not "against" this. I don't see any reason to be, except insofar as it diverts resources away from other things that will have a much broader impact. But I'm also not seeing a whole lot of point to it.
  18. Scylla Rhiadra
    Very genuine question, because I honestly don't know the answer. What are the contexts in which this application is likely to be used? How is it used in VRC, for instance? What kinds of situation are SL residents likely to find themselves in, where this will be a useful or worthwhile extension of our current abilities?
  19. Scylla Rhiadra
    We need him flouncing in a glittery cloak.
  20. Scylla Rhiadra
    You can flounce! Or, as @Silent Mistwalker points out, you can far more productively bend and snap. (Reese and I have sooooo much in common!)
  21. Scylla Rhiadra
    That's it!!!
  22. Scylla Rhiadra
    If only I could believe anyone cared enough to stalk me! I'd glam it up a bit! You know, pumps, swirly scarf, skirt and top deigned to show off just "enough" when I "innocently" bend over to pick up my dropped cigarette holder . . .
  23. Scylla Rhiadra
    Yeah. As you probably know, we can thank Jeremy Bentham and the Utilitarians for this idea. There's been a lot written (some of it nonsense) on the subject, most famously and influentially by Michel Foucault. The key mechanism here actually isn't surveillance. It's the emotional and psychological response to the belief that one might be being watched at any given moment. Bentham's idea is that this creates the psychological condition necessary to ensure that we obey the rules, even when we aren't being monitored. We become our own warder.
  24. Scylla Rhiadra
    ok, Ceka. Now you're just confusing me . . . 😏
  25. Scylla Rhiadra
    Wow. That's . . . something.
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