Janelle Darkstone

You might also try zooming in your camera before taking the picture (ctrl 0); it flattens the shot and makes it much less 3D and more "cartoony".

I'd like to add (personal opinion/OCD) that the pose is very important as well. That particular model pose is very old and just screams "ancient copybotted freebie" that everyone has already.

Some lessons are more expensive than others. *shrug*

I've found the people that complain loudest about having their content stolen are those that did it first.

Madelaine McMasters wrote: I bet you speak to adults in RL, so why not here? Limiting adults to speaking only to other adults hardly seems fair. As a teen, I expect you are naive, silly, full of unnecessary angst and sometimes driven by hormones. As adults, we're prolly not all that interesting, as we think we're no longer naive, silly, full of unnecessary angst or sometimes driven by hormones. Be careful, use common sense, listen to your inner voice and have fun. :-) As a teenager myself, I approve of this message.

From personal experience, I can tell you that if you throw a bunch of humans, orcs, elves, trolls, gnomes, goblins and space goats to fight over a tiny island with a ruined prison complex every two hours, the results will never be pretty.

Okay... okay, I lied. I didn't bring any crayons. But that doesn't mean I can't not contribute to this... wait, that came out wrong. I didn't mean it that way! That's not what I meant! Wait, waitwaitwait can we start over? Hi! I brought crayons!

"Contributing nothing" is my specialty! (Where do I not sign up? I brought crayons!)

I wouldn't mind it as an option in the viewer. But by default? God no.

I've been thinking about getting an autoharp. :smileytongue: And I like the example of musical instruments in general because you know as well as I or anyone does, that having a real instrument in your hands makes all the difference in the world when it comes to playing. Using the mouse or keyboard keys to press keys on a virtual piano comes nowhere close to having a decent, full-sized keyboard with pressure sensitive weighted keys, or feeling the warmth and vibration in your bosom of a good acoustic over pointing and clicking a virtual guitar on the screen. But I was thinking about objects today. I used to play EverQuest a long time ago, and one of the great achievements was undertaking a class-specific "epic" quest to earn one's epic weapon. The memories of investing so much time and effort, asking guildies for help, the feeling of triumph when I had finally succeeded and wielded my new weapon proudly. I don't play my character anymore and the weapon is long gone, so I don't put much value in it as much as the fond memories of the friends that helped me get there. The virtual object itself has no value to me. Memories and addresses, phone numbers and friendships of some of my old guildies, however, does, and that's about as real as anything that can come from a virtual world.

Sarcasm is good. Healthy, even. :smileytongue: I read somewhere that, as a rule of thumb, data doesn't exist until it's stored in at least three separate places (the more durable and backward/forward compatible the better). Home movies are an excellent example, and hopefully we've all converted and saved them from slides or film to VHS to DVD to iPhone whatever the next format will be. But if the chain is broken, then yes, they cease to exist. SL is the Etch-a-Sketch. The image on it is your hard work. LL is the Yugo giving you a ride on a washboarded dirt road.

Bouttime Whybrow wrote: BTW the mona lisa is not real. it is just paint on a canvas. True enough. The thing is, the artist took some time, and skill, and devotion, and applied and rearranged that oil and color with brushes and fingertips to create something new that didn't exist before. The difference is, when you turn the lights off, it's still there. EDIT: and before this suddenly turns into a discussion on the nature of human existence and Schrodinger's cat, I'll excuse myself from this thread and pretend to go do some laundry.

I do understand your point. The problem is SL (and other digital mediums) are about as indestructable as an image scratched onto the screen of an Etch-a-Sketch; one bump and it's all gone. If I'd want to have something to remind me of you, it'd better be something I can place on my shelf twenty years from now, and yes, that includes some tacky lamp you bought from Wal-Mart that the dog accidently chewed on for an afternoon. :smileywink:

I'm beginning to think perversion is universal, Mari. Also universally 'EeeewwWWwwwWww!!"

I'm curious, as to in what culture would an offering of used underwear be an appropriate bequeathal? Maybe Japan?

That's an interesting point of view, but I strongly feel that any digital copy of a real world item will never come close to having the same emotional attachment as the original, no matter how much time is spent on the reproduction; a digital reproduction cheapens it. Like Bouttime's reference to the Mona Lisa being done in Photoshop, I think it comes down to uniqueness, one-of-a-kind as opposed to a digital copy. And no matter how unique it is, it's still not real. Kind of like the argument for online music theft/piracy: you have a car in your driveway. If someone steals your car, it's gone. If someone pirates your car, it's still there in the morning.

Y'know, I think I'm going to leave you in my will, Bouttime. :smileywink: Here in its case I have a 1990 Martin D-18, solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides in relatively good condition. A few dings here and there and some wear from being played. I also have an SL virtual acoustic guitar that, when clicked, plays the first thirty seconds of Evanescence's 'Bring Me To Life'. Sometimes you have to reset the scripts and make sure to turn up your gestures volume or you can't hear it. Which would you prefer?

On the shelf here I have my grandfather's bible. I can open it up and look at the fading letters, in pencil, on the first page; a gift from his father to him on his eighth birthday. The cover is worn from years of handling; the binding is failing on certain groups of pages so you have to be careful with them, the onionskin slightly rough and pleasantly crinkly under your fingertips as you turn the pages, seeing sure and certain typesetting printed in ink on those pages during a different time and place in history, probably close to a hundred years ago now. Then I picked up my Kindle and .... well, it's a Kindle. Might need to charge the battery later.

Not even close. I don't care how good the technology is or becomes, a virtual object will never be as cherished or appreciated as a real object. Of course, if you had a virtual vase, and took a screenshot, and printed it out, and framed it and hung it on the wall? That's a step in the right .

(I'm not sure if this has been discussed before as nothing relevant came up in search or in the knowledge base.) I'm using a version of Phoenix that doesn't see mesh objects or clothing, and I have no desire to upgrade since I won't be buying or using anything that is mesh, not just for the simple reason I would not want to be seen wearing a textured donut on my head to anyone also not using a mesh-compatible viewer. Simple, right? The problem is, I showed a friend some textures in a sandbox today, and I don't recall the maturity rating there -- she was wearing some sort of mesh corset top and it didn't occur to me (until now) that she appeared essentially topless to anyone not using a mesh viewer. It didn't really click since we never venture outside of "adult" areas and situations together, but at the moment I'm aghast for not realizing it. I'll be sure to let her know so it doesn't happen again, but it's something to keep in mind for those of you wearing mesh clothing in PG areas without some modest underwear.

You're not a sucker, you're just very patient with those that don't always deserve it. :smileywink:

Sure, but I was mainly referring to the Answers page. It's confusing... there's no obvious search feature. About all they can do is post a question and wait for the usual unpaid sucke -- err, volunteers to come along and give an answer. I've said this before; the general help pages, Wikis and FAQs are much too technical for the average user. It's kind of amazing anyone manages to hold on.

Y'know what might help things? If LL took a moment and made their 'Answers' forum a little more newbie friendly. Perhaps by adding a link or bulletin right smack on top that says something about the ghosting issue -- instead of making everyone jump through the usual hoops to find the grid status page?

No.

And the masochism thing is kinda neat too. It's like therapy with riding crops.