Socially Mundane

It’s a new year. And every new year I rehash this theme I originally wrote on back in 2006. It’s accurate, effective and true. Apparently Linden Lab thinks so as I have discovered they link to the original in the Second Life Support wiki.

Either way, I like to review and refresh the article to bring it up to date and the theme still applies.

Second Life users: if you ever need creator support you’d do very well to read and understand. Second Life creators: you’d do very well to accomplish the same. It’s just good for business.

Oh, and this “best practices” applies in real life, too.

So, without further ado, let’s get started, shall we?

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Six years on the Second Life grid and I can count failed “customer support” from in-world creators on one hand. And in those cases, it always was a case of “AWOL” where no response to my inquiry was ever received. Of course, I’ve dealt with my share of rude, crude creators, just as a creator I’ve dealt with rude, crude customers. However, as a rule of thumb, I’ve always received excellent support from practically any creator when I needed it. I am willing to share my simple recipe for success in the scenario of needing or giving creator support. When I say creator support, I am referring to those times when there is a need to contact the creator of something purchased in-world or through the Second Life Marketplace.

These scenarios include, but obviously are not limited to:

• Failed deliveries on purchases (rare on today’s grid, kudos Linden Lab)
• Wrong permissions from those advertised (more frequent than appears)
• Missing portions of a “package” (rare, but happens)
• Something does not operate as expected (also rare, but more frequent than it should be)
• Something becomes broken (too common - usually due to creator paranoia)
• Something becomes lost (rarely ever Linden Lab’s fault, this is a user issue)

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I have what some might call a serious lack of general confidence in government. I just don’t trust the efficiency, accuracy, or ethical motivation in governmental ‘administrative’ work, especially the more local the government. Perhaps what I’m about to describe vindicates this attitude. Perhaps it doesn’t. Judge for yourself.

• A traffic infraction is caught on camera, but the citation is never received.
• A past-due notice is received, with a threat to be sent to collections.
• Though a rebuttal letter is sent in response to the postcard, a request for written statement is hence received - or choose to appear in person at court.
• However, the notices indicates that if a written statement is made, one waves any right to appeal. (?!)
• Even though a defense of “denial of due process” is reasonable, the case is dismissed because there are two vehicles on the road with the same license plates.

NOTE: because it appears to me the super-majority of world population are gullible idiots, I warn you what is stated here following is my personal experience. You would be the ridiculous idiot if you attempt to use any of what is written here as a legal defense for yourself in any charge made against you.

Government efficiency.

I return home and collect the mail one day to find a simple postcard. On it is a simple statement:

RE: Case BEP xxxxxx
You owe: $159.00

This was actually a bit of a surprise as the original citation was never received. Because the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right of “due process”, which includes clear information on the nature and cause of any charges” - this would be a simple case of “piss-off”. However, this means a ‘no-contact’ would have the due charges sent to a collection agency, then everything gets all mucked-up. It is better to avoid this scenario.

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You want to change the world. Don’t you?

We all do. Or, at least, we all did at one time or another. The whole “delusions of grandeur” thing in our younger days when we were still discovering the world and never realized how big and complicated it really is.

If I could live any dream life at all, it would be a the same life lived by Steve Jobs.

No, this isn’t some gushing tribute or my wish I were a bazillionaire or anything like that at all. Think about it, though: when was the last time in history the world-over felt genuine condolence over the death of a company C.E.O.? Sure, it’s happened before, but not like this in a really, really long time.

This is because Steve Jobs changed your life.

And his was the “perfect” life.

Steve Jobs literally invented the personal computer. They simply did not exist until he twisted Steve Wozniak’s arm into turning his geeky genius into creating one, rather than another one of his electronic “pranakster” gizmos.

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I’ve been playing with a new …er, …hmmm… For now I’ll call it a “blogging” service. Except that it’s a lot more, but not quite as much. It’s kind of like Flickr, but it’s not quite as much, but also a lot more. Sort of kind of like YouTube, but not. Wait! It’s kind of like Tumblr, but not quite as much, but more. Sort of. 

Oxymorons aside, suffice it to say it’s a fun …thing.

I’m referring to a ridiculously fun-to-use newcomer called Jux.

Blogging has gone from long-form “web logs” to smaller “bursts” of multiple genre media sharing over the last few years. People want to write a little less and share a lot more other stuff like pictures and video and links and all sorts of things. Thus, “blogging” platforms and services have cropped up to cater to these desires and hence the popularity of relative  newcomers Posterous and Tumblr over other “heavier” platforms like Blogger and Livetype and such, though WordPress continues to enjoy a continued growth and caters well to long-form blogging.

Among other things (specifically the “dashboard”) that make Tumblr so popular is it’s ease of use and genre-specific post types, which include the requisite text article, but also specific presentation of pictures, video, links, chat logs and such - though it appears most people use it for photo-sharing.

What makes all these services, including Tumblr, basically the same is they are still pretty much “cliche-formatted” blogs - most recent posting at the top of the page with previous posts below in descending order based on the date and time posted. All blogging platforms support and rely on “themes” that create the layout, color-scheme and overall look of the blog web page.

This is where Jux breaks the mold.

The new Jux is not a lot different in terms of another blogging platforms… more or less. What makes Jux different - radically different is in the presentation of your blog posts. They are still displayed most recent first and in descending order, but the visual presentation is dynamic. Rather than rely on “themes” for the look of the blog web page - and hence every single post you contribute - Jux actually eliminates the “look” altogether. Rather you decide on the “look” of each post you make independently of every other post you’ve made. This is the game-changer in terms of “blogging themes” and “looks”.

What Jux does is pull the “interface” away from the presentation of whatever it is you are sharing with others: pictures, video, copy-text, etc. Additionally, you the blog owner, always see the presentation in exactly the same way everyone else does: in a full-screen (inside your browser window) without anything else not specifically related to the content.

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Have you ever peeked at someone’s profile and you see “voice-verified female”? I just can’t help but chuckle at this, my first thought being “why is it so important to you that you feel you must advertise this?”

I’m an old-fart, 100% all-american male who’s voice lay somewhere between a resonant baritone and bass… and I could put that “voice verified female” statement into my profile and be telling the truth.

Sort of, anyway.
Well, at least, convincing vocal gender-bending now exists in Second Life.

However, this post isn’t about that, though you’ll see why I bring it up a little later. Rather, I’m writing about the almost totally forgotten Second Life feature called “Voice-Morphing” and you know what? It is totally kick-ass.

A tutorial for playing with it (and then subscribing to it if you are so inclined) follows below. After I explain why you want this.

Very quick rehash: Linden Lab introduced “voice” (ability to speak with microphone to others in Second Life) a few years ago. There was some really loud, obnoxious, hysterical back-lash (secret gender-benders, anyone?). Linden Lab recognized immediately that there are many reasons people would refuse to use a voice feature in Second Life, not least of which: fantastical-themed role players. Think dragons, faerie, trolls, demons, etc. Hence, along with the announcement that voicing ability was coming, Linden Lab also mentioned that “voice morphing” will be added later-on.

That was a long time ago. Voice is here and so are voice-morphs.

Did you even know that?

When first announced, people dismissed the very idea of voice-morphing because after-all, we know that sound-morphing by computer sounds like sound-morphing by computer, right? The quality isn’t all that great and on top of that, Linden Lab expects us to actually pay for it! ZOMG! How dare they?!

So… the announcement that voice-morphs are now available came and went and no one thought anything more about it, if they even noticed it. Voice morphing became a completely forgotten feature of Second Life.

But here’s the thing: voice-morphing in Second Life really works.

Well, about two-thirds of the morphs work well, the other third is uninteresting to me (I speak only for myself, here. For example: “Arena” only adds an echo to your natural voice, nothing else). Many of these are actually a lot of fun and totally appropriate for many non-human role play characters (“creepy” is actually creepy-sounding). I don’t remember why I decided to investigate voice morphs… I think I spotted the “My Voice” option in the viewer menu and got curious.

Snarky tip for all you members of the Second Life Secret-Society-of-Secret-Gender-Benders: I, as an old-fart, very-very male-sounding man can quite easily convince you I am a “voice-authenticated female” through voice - one or two of the morphs are that good.

yes.
really.

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[UPDATE below]

I received an email from someone I didn’t know. It was an invitation I apparently asked for some time ago, but don’t remember. There was minimal information in the email itself, except to say my invitation came through and I get to be among the very few starters.

So I clicked-through to read more – and I see now why I’d requested the invitation: think “Twitter” with a bit more than 140 characters, but essentially works the same: a micro-blogging service with follow/follower “streams”.

However, the main difference is that you follow subjects, rather than specific people. Granted, you do follow people as a rule, however each “jot” (think: Tweet) must be categorized by a subject. Then, all followers of that subject will see the twee… er, jot. Nifty is the ability for Subjot to cross-post your jots to Twitter and Facebook if you choose to “connect” them to your Subjot account.

I think the concept is absolutely superior to Twitter in every way – with regard to those of use who follow others more for the information discovery rather than the personable “small talk”. Twitter is obviously far superior in this regard. And they make a wonderful compliment to each other, though I fully expect I’ll be spending the majority of my Tweet/Jot time in Subjot rather than Twitter – because I am more subject oriented rather than “person-oriented” in the Twitterverse.

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