This is where I will be hanging out on Davis Island, Second Life.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Davis/0/102/22
Once we are all added to the UC Davis group, we can gather on the island for a virtual meet-up.
Access to two free full text peer reviewed journals is available from SL and the web:
Marty Leamon MD pointed out that the most recent issue of Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is dedicated to health and health care in Second Life.
www.jvwresearch.org
Vol 2, No 2: 3D Virtual Worlds for Health and Healthcare
Journal of Medical Internet Research
http://www.jmir.org/2009/2/e17/HTML
A Survey of Health-Related Activities on Second Life
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Working at the SW edge of Davis Island
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Second Life® - Create your Avatar, download the viewer & login!
http://www.secondlife.com
A playlist of the videos shown below is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D3FC4145B4052788
Creating your Second Life® Avatar
Also available in HD 720p:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I17Oz7Vaykg&fmt=22
Logging into Second Life (HD 720p)
Also available in HD 720p:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBBnbTCouC8&fmt=22
Second Life Tutorial in 9 easy steps
Also available in HD 720p:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bAK1kQq6Ig&fmt=22
Sunday, July 26, 2009
weird stuff...
a screen from the video playing on my island, Library Studios, is showing up on surfaces/textures on other sims when I teleport...
everywere I look has that same image on it.. but it's from a video.
once the object rezzes, the image from the machinima disappears. So weird!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Improving the retail experience one virtual racetrack at a time...
Library Studios Island sits amidst the popular Alliance Virtual Library and partner sims in the Information Archipelago; American Library Association (ALA) to the north, Stanford Libraries to the west and one of the Cybrary City Islands to the east. The expansive sandy coast with its wild ("out of sim lines") rocky refuges begged for California "real". I don't know a coastal community in California where the deep greens of Somerset actually meet the ocean waves. So, working our little avatar legs off, with the estate/region window open, we attempted raising and decrease the default 'highs and lows' for the texture files... it was one surprise after another. The most daring change in the height levels for the SouthWest quadrant brought a wave of 'virgin sand' rezzing across the English greens, leaving it more like SoCal... Oh, no, this is Sonoma!
Now the roads... Hyacinth and I have been working on piecing together the sculpty pieces. Daunting. I need an escape.
Shopping in Second Life® should set me on a new path of retail therapy or bring me to my Linden Dollar senses and just try to pull together a few coastal slopes and winding roads from the road packages and textures I had previously collected .
So let's buy some roads:
First stop, PR Hollywood's Fusion City (101, 99)
It's at this point that I have rezzed and re-rezzed PR Hollywood's race courses... watching the pieces fly through the air in an urban dance as it darts across the black skies; certainly enough to qualify as a higher level retail experience.
The choices span the screen and the imagination. I find myself contemplating a racetrack running through my formerly calm landscape where I can still hear the waves crashing against the digital shore while laying out streets and arguments atop Fusion City's midnight platform.
Well, still streetless, I'll have to contemplate the options and return tomorrow to scan XstreetSL® and the SL® search before going back to my roadwork jigsaw that is currently sprawled across the sim.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fusion%20City/97/96/1001
Thoughts from Library Studios Island (pick up machinima workflow instructions here) in the very beautiful Second Life®.
SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Library%20Studios/32/45/23
Monday, July 13, 2009
Exploring Twtpoll: do you already have a personal Twitter account?
We had created ten twitter accounts and my colleague and I went through the tedious task of having all accounts follow each other in an attempt to save time since we only had 45 minutes at the end of the meeting that we could dedicate to Twtpoll & Twitter. Some of the suggestions after a brief exploration included traditional ways that the instructor might use any sort of polling application: pre-tests,post-tests, quiz questions, off-topic questions to wake everyone up... not really! Melissa and I created about 10 twitter accounts for colleagues to use, so we could just jump in and begin using twtpoll with the existing twitter accounts.
Here are some of sample test runs of questions that we later used for classes: http://twtpoll.com/lilshields_01
Sample question for upcoming Doctoring 3 class in Veterinary Medicine following a two hour hands-on session where students were a huge class of approx. 100 split into smaller groups to explore which of the ten databases/resources would best answer this question:
These are ony sample responses, not the actual results:
Some Twtpoll samples: http://twtpoll.com/lilshields_01
This the protected twitter account that I use to create the twtpolls: http://twitter.com/vetmedresources
The accompanying web page for the VMD400 class, created by Mary Wood:
Here is our web page: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/CCAB/doctoringtwo.html and the related video that we used for the outset of the class (filled with clues for group the activities that followed): http://www.youtube.com/libraryvideochannel#p/u/3/1Zmp1xtj6rY. We actually had a looped 5 minute version that played while students were entering the room and it included all of the resources they would be using during the hands-on portion of the session.
Brainstorming uses for Twtpoll and Twitter:
Other interesting ideas included having the students work in break-out groups on the same question using different library resources and then create a Twtpoll to share with the other students. I should mention though that a couple of people had trouble using the application... most likely issues with our own connectivity in the Laab.
Using the embed code on the twtpoll site, you are able to edit the size of the chart displaying poll results. The default is 200 as shown. I am assuming this is pixels. You can also use the polls in stand-alone mode on the twtpoll site, rather than embedding or sharing on one of the many liste popular sites, cell phones, email, etc.
The URLs are nice and short! For a small donation, you are able to personalize the pole with your twitter account profile image and short bio.
http://twtpoll.com/btyzzb
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Second Life Sculpties - Blender 3d - Installing Blender and Scripts
Ok... I have to start making my own stuff... hello Blender!
http://www.blender.org for mac, windows, linux...
so cool.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Play Machinima Law Conference Videos 2009

Play Machinima Law Conference Videos: introductions, panels, presentations and demos: Play Machinima Law:
How they Got Game site: http://www.stanford.edu/group/htgg/cgi-bin/drupal/?q=node/981
Preserving Virtual Worlds
http://pvw.illinois.edu/pvw/
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Choose your Facebook username...
coming soon to an account near you... http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130
YouTube adds 'download MP4' button...
Wow, an extra button without an announcement from YouTube...
It's available from the user's "My videos" listing, so you can only download your own user uploaded videos. I did read that if you are part of the Downloadable video program and have enabled downloads of your video, then ...
http://www.stuffwelike.com/stuffwelike/2009/06/09/download-youtube-videos-the-legal-way/
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Animoto's new features: one button publishing to twitter
so it took less than 5 mins to upload the 19 images for the test video and then i walked the doggie while it rendered the movie file.
Here is the completed video using AVL photos:
animoto.com/play/NzDtd18ch1eMS5mIo6fzJw
Animoto has great options in the paid version - 14.95
if you have the paid version of animoto you can download the complete videos to your own computer.. super cool! You can upload to twitter or youtube too..
I uploaded to twitter with one button publishing.. on the end there.. only took 5 mins to make the video.. wish the resolution was better and also wish they didn't crop the images to 4|3 from 16|9 or rectangle..
but super cool alternative to video uploads.. more accessible to a lot of people. Here's the video that took 5 mins to make: http://animoto.com/play/NzDtd18ch1eMS5mIo6fzJw
Monday, June 1, 2009
Feed a family with a virtual wheatfield...
AM Radio's final sunset benefit concert for Heifer International and to bid farewell to The Refuge and Expansion.
Yesterday, Sunday, May 31, 2009, SL turns out to honour one of the great artistic talents on this new world and to bid farewell to the place that took us home to a slower time... to an expansive place with unpredictable turns and falls... to hidden and cloistered places where those before us had left the artifacts from half a century ago. Calling our names.. we sit down a while and think about the HAM radios, the tools, where the work is never done... where we are one with the work, one with the technology.
Above the penetrating music of Kelvinblue Oh, AM Radio shouts explanations into the crowd... how buying a cornfield in SL will feed a family along with the benefits of buying a gaggle of geese.... with all donations going to the AM Radio supported charity, Heifer.org and AM Radio's donation page
AM has inspired the community artistically, intellectually and forever more...
people from around the world stood at the crossroads on the Wales sim amidst The Refuge and Expansion installation. Earlier performances were given by Colemarie Soleil and Joaquin Gustav.
Goodbyes are difficult... but even moreso when there is no point for return, no visits, no artifacts...
Saturday, May 30, 2009
A long time ago in Teen Second Life®: Ramapo's new educational islands in 2007
A very long time ago in the spring... year 2007... Ramapo creatives expanded their three island private world to six isles... this is the morning after the island delivery.
Floating above the islands of Suffern Middle School, Ramapo School District... where I first met Peggy, Fred )FireSabre / Fred Fuchs in world) , Kevin and Lyr Lobo.
La photographie et la petite gallerie de Willow Ahn - le printemps 2007 dans Second Life
Willow, J'ai trouvƩ le film finalement...
hvx
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Oh Happy Rez Days Abbey and Hyacinth in the ever so beautiful Second Life®
Oh, happy Rez Days! Abbey Zenith, Librarian Super Hero, has been logging into Second Life® since the fine spring day of May 18 2006. Ever since, she has been influencing people about the great opportunities awaiting libraries and academics across the physical and virtual worlds. One day plus one year later, in logged Hyacinth Cortes, librarian, exhibit builder and expert chair chaser and shopper. Happy Rez Day, Hyacinth, since the ever so fine 19th day of May, 2007! Filmed on location at Jazz Cat.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Do you own an OLPC... XO?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
So what are you reading? New York Times article: "End of the University as we know it"
Currently screen-reading this & installing software: New York Times' article: End of the University as we know it... need a coffee?
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Camping allowed, browsing encouraged...
Preserving Virtual Worlds Project
The Center for Internet & Society: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/
Play Machinima Law Conference, Stanford Law School: April 24-25, 2009.
The Twitter feed: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23pml
The very cool Hackleman Brothers': Myndflame
An older post from the Virtually Blind blog (no longer updated): Virtual World Screenshots Raise Copyright Questions... scary, scary, scary.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Caleb Booker's great post about ROI in virtual worlds and why they're waaaaay better than webcams!
So then does the shape of the screen matter?
Was LBJ a “close talker”? Where avatars come in... yes, you can maintain some personal space.
http://www.calebbooker.com/blog/2009/01/27/roi-in-virtual-worlds-1-why-webcams-fail/
Will you Play Machinima Law?
Are you breaking the law... or not?
Absolutely can't wait... I'll be on the panel: Machinima in Game Preservation: A Fair Use Activity?
Moderated by Matteo Bittanti, Associate Researcher, Stanford Humanities Lab, Stanford University.
http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/playmachinima
A new debate has already started with the YouTube comments...
Are you a Mindspotter? A Mindkeeper? ... are you Danish?
a glimpse into the future of the library... 2014: the new main library in Aarhus Harbour aptly named 'MediaSpace'
Watch "Mindspot the Movie: The Library as a Universe"
on their YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixsOLvLSARg&fmt=18
Check out the site: http://www.mindspot.dk/
Thank you to Sidsel!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Chris Pirillo installing SDD on 8 core Mac Pro.. yes, please
Chris Pirillo installing SDD on 8 core Mac Pro.. yes, please, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.
So I'm watching my favourite show: Chris Pirillo Live on UStream with 572 watching the very elegant $800 SDD going into the stealth mac pro (16 GB RAM, 8 cores)... I want one!
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chris-pirillo-live
or http://live.pirillo.com
Friday, April 10, 2009
Celebrating Ambrosia's New SnapzProX 2.1.4!
Changes & Enhancements to Snapz Pro X 2.1.4
-Added a "Save Later" button to the movie conversion dialog.
-Rebooting between movie capture and conversion no longer trashes the capture file.
-Display a very rough approximation of the output size of each track.
-Display a warning if the estimated movie size is greater than the available disk space.
-Raw capture are stored in ~/Library/Caches/Snapz Pro X, and can be copied or moved to other computers running the same version of Snapz.
-Long captures no longer fail during audio conversion, but the audio track is limited to 6.6 hours.
-Updates
"AmbrosiaAudioSupport.kext to 2.3.10, which fixes incompatibility with System 10.5.7"
System Requirements:
Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later.
The Ambrosia Software site:
http://www.Ambrosiasw.com
Saturday, April 4, 2009
snapzProX Movie could not be opened (OSStatus error - 1409)
Ian Smith's post "Something I said..." has helped me through this utterly frustrating afternoon. Luckily I did take a few hours break while I thought the video was saving... and caught some sunshine, sushi and a latte while watching passersby wheel their groceries across the parking lot... such a waste of time - killing time while Snapz is not saving my vid and having to wheel groceries across parking lots. Looking at alternatives now and really clearing the disks. I have HDs on the Mac Pro and this should NOT have happened. Alas, it did. So I will keep the main HD really clear in future. I do feel better after reading Ian's post.. yes, it was nothing I said.. just did.
snapzProX Operation could not be completed - error code 1712
snapzProX Operation could not be completed - error code 1712, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.
I was saving the very large HD720p file from the SL Story Project this afternoon and nightmare of nightmares... it was saving to my main hard drive instead of another HD and I got the dreaded message that II was running out of disk space. There was actually 58 GB space remaining on the drive. The file was likely about 3 GB.. so I was really mad... at myself and OSX... and a tiny bit at Snapz.
I am using Snapz Pro X 2.1.3fc2
.... mad, mad, mad.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Second Life Media goes Buckaroo! Stream video with VidMon & display & access web sites with WebMon
Buckaroo Open Source Party, originally uploaded by HVX Silverstar.
Buckaroo Open Source Party
Buckaroo, Eduisland 4 (27, 175, 32) slurl.com/secondlife/Eduisland%204/41/176/25
Excerpt from Bucky Barkley's ( Daniel's) message:
"...interactive objects (WebMon, VidMon, Slider, and much more) have gone Open Source, under a Creative Commons License [1] They are at my store, Buckaroo:
Enjoy, make use of the objects. and send me numerous custom project offers ;)
[1] Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License..."
The Buckaroo T-shirts were made using the Robin (Sojuorner) Wood templates.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Pooky Amsterdam and her quick wit at Alliance Virtual Library Awards Event
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A62EAF659A614A28
(Note: click on the HQ (high quality) or HD (high definition) button on the YouTube player to view better quality or larger videos (1280x720 = HD)
Part 1: Arriving at the Cinesphere: Pooky Amsterdam greeting attendees with the microphone and her quick wit... with everyone fighting lag as they make it along the red carpet to the wacky teleporter.
Attendees who were recorded include: Krull Aeon for design and creation of the Golden Leaf Award and the beautiful building where the awards were held (see the end of part 6 for great shots of the building and interior). DaisyBlue Hefferman for the interior decoration of the building. Daisyblue's voice instructions for using voice/microphones were super too!
Remember HQ.... really.... click on the teeny tiny HQ button at the lower right of the YouTube player, else you'll be thinking you need glasses or I'm a terrible machinimatographer. OH, remember there was mucho lag. .. your life depends on it. hahahahah says HVX Silverstar
Monday, March 2, 2009
Virtual World Conferences: VWLEM 2009 Conference Planning Meeting
The Virtual Worlds Libraries Education & Museums Conference will be held in the virtual world of Second Life and some of the presentations will also available on the web via Adobe Connect, April 24-25, 2009.
For further information on the keynote speakers and presentations: http://www.alliancelibraries.info/virtualworlds
For the YouTube playlist of commercials created by Valibrarian, Pia Klaar and HVX Silverstar (me): http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B4809870F4C04968
The planning team is currently reading through presentation proposals on a variety of topics including:
-Virtual world events and exhibits as the drivers of attendance and engagement
-Immersive learning environments
-Reference service possibilities and practicalities in virtual worlds
-Corporate and special librarianship in virtual worlds
-Educational tools and resources
-Enterprise uses of virtual worlds
-Tours of LEM locations in Second Life
-Gaming and virtual worlds
-VW LEM opportunities for children, tweens, and teens
-Dreams and visions for LEM activities in virtual worlds
-Assessing LEM initiatives in virtual worlds
-Sustainability issues and opportunities for LEM activities in virtual worlds
Stay tuned for updates including registration times, price and orientation for speakers and attendees:
Conference Schedule (tentative):
Friday, April 24, 2009, from noon to 4:00 p.m. Second Life Time (U.S. Pacific Time):
noon to 12:45 p.m.: Keynote Panel (no conflict)
1:00 to 1:45 p.m.: First group of sessions
2:00 to 2:45 p.m.: Second group of sessions
3:00 to 3:45 p.m.: Third group of sessions
4:00 to 4:45 p.m.: Social event
Saturday, April 25, 2009 from 8:00 a.m. to noon Second Life Time (U.S. Pacific Time):
8:00 to 8:45 a.m.: Keynote Panel (no conflict)
9:00 to 9:45 a.m.: First group of sessions
10:00 to 10:45 a.m.: Second group of sessions
11:00 to 11:45 a.m.: Third group of sessions
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Youtube woes: Is the default view 'normal view' for the SD videos better than the HD videos? Absolutely, yes!
Does the YouTube default view 'normal quality' of the HD video looks even worse than the default 'normal quality' of the SD vids? Check out the embedded vids below and decide which of the two LOW res default views is best. Of course forcing the high quality or HD views is the best option:
High Quality: Here is the link to the HIGH QUALITY view on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRbG_GC3GgQ&fmt=18
HD 720p: Here is the link to the actual HD view on YouTube and not the low resolution default view of the HD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-76ESWqUMvw&fmt=22
So here is the DEFAULT 'normal view' embed code from the YouTube Site: this is SD 640x480 video displayed in the LOW RESOLUTION as seen on YouTube:
Of course, we can get around this by adding the following code to the end of the URL in the param name and the src in the YouTube embed code: &ap=%2526fmt%3D18
YouTube should offer us the default and the high quality code... yes, we like it when it's easy!
Using the DEFAULT 'normal view' embed code from the YouTube site: THIS ONE is the HD720p video
Friday, February 27, 2009
Give me the Embed Code Generator for High Quality YouTube Embeds....
http://www.twittervlog.tv/high-quality-youtube-embed-generator.html
See Rupert's site:
http://twittervlog.tv
Of course, I could have just added the code easier than &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 at the end of the URL for the param name and the embed source...
Honestly, this doesn't look like the high quality view... going to check the youtube forums to see if people are having issues with this.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Super Kaleidoscopium with Thoth Jentzen in Second Life:
My absolute favourite place and experience in SL is Thoth's mega-media environment where YouTube vids could take honours for performance... dancing over objects and phantom spaces. "Have you walked through the forest...?" It's a walk through the technocultural wilds of an artist's mind... the forgiving phantom canvas of the forest dance. I think I'll stand a while as part of the hologram that permeates my digital and physical being. I'm still standing... with the 300 meters of media playing above in the phallec theatre of Beau Longement, a media experience that knows no comparison in any world.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
In Second Life® getting ready for the UC Davis Health Informatics 3rd Annual Conference
On Davis Island getting ready for the May 7th conference at UCDMC, Sacramento http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/cme/conferences/pdfs/Lecture_Descriptions.pdf
Registration: https://chtapps.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/servlet/CmeSignIn?ccode=MEDINF9
Choreography & Bovines in a virtual world
Like a fluid roundhouse kick with the mouse moving left across the sky. Hold those smiles and think of Port Reyes Blue...
on location with Think Mapp, HVX Silverstar and the Bovines of UC Davis.... above Machinima Institute trying to make a commercial.
So who is behind the super cool animated sculpty bovines? Jon Haskall is the creator whose work can be found at:
Place: Sculpty Creations Animals
Region: Extrem Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Extrem%20Island/176/52/26Highly textured realistic low prim low cost Sculpted prim Animals from all over the world, African, Australian, American, Asian, European.
Owned by: Sculpty Creatures (group)
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Thoth's 'blow-me-away kaleidoscope' media experience in Second Life ®
Watch the vid in HD: http://youtube.com/v/1SzXjdi2Y54&fmt=22
Thoth Jentzen's pure magical media experience... can't wait to log back in and lay back watching my YouTube playlist... go, Thoth!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Annotations Editor on YouTube: annoy me no more by default
I love the annotations feature but sure wish that it would not be turned ON by default.
Many people have complained and have suggested or begged that it be added as a setting in the account settings. Yes, pleeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassse turn it OFF by default and add, better still, add it to the account settings.
I prefer to use the old access features via the edit button | Annotations tab. This was just fine!
I would like to have a public or group annotations feature allowing people to overlay comments.. hahahah could get messy.
I'd like something like the old Mojiti that was leagues ahead of its time.
Watch video and view annotations by moving cursor over video:
HD 720p version (requires latest Flash plugin and a fast connection): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCZkJqu7Ns&fmt=22
or High quality version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCZkJqu7Ns&fmt=18
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Video in the snow...
Machinima Institute Ice Palace Skating Rink with video displayed across the snow mounds; Daruma Picnic's Force Sun to Midnight interactive art, sound, colour... with North Lamar, Hyacinth Cortes and HVX Silverstar skating, cycling and flying on silver bullets across the skies of the Alliance Virtual Library.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Machinima%20Institute/135/120/35
So, here's my MacBook Air on Second Life ®
I'm taking some screen shots overlooking Info International Island (part of the Alliance Virtual Library) in Second Life®. The preferences screen is open showing my draw distance set at 128 meters. The recommended settings are much lower... and clicking on recommended settings will change the image significantly. I have no trouble moving around... just rather slow compared to a Mac Pro or a high end PC. However, this is equal or better to my first experiences in Second Life which were on an old Mac G4 back in October 2006. See the remaining images showing my preferences set at higher settings... some weird black boxes showing on a couple of the images. I am using Grab to get the screenshots.