Eggy Lippmann showed me my entry in the SL History Wiki today, and reminded me that yes, I do have a blog!  Good thing he did too, because my head is near bursting with topical thoughts, and blogging is almost as good as trepanning when it comes to relieving mental pressure.

First up: 1.10!   I'm excited about this, not just for the flexable objects and hardware lighting, but because it is the first version that includes "real" code that I wrote!  So if anything goes wrong, it could be my fault, but it's unlikely.  Mostly I've been learning by making minor UI tweaks that will hopefully make life easier for people.  So while your new tentacle isn't my fault, the classified ads look nicer, and don't show so much information that you don't need and can't change.  I'm having fun with it, and hopefully my loyal readers will have some ideas of those really dumb, but easy to fix UI problems.  That is, I'm not at the point where I can change functionality, but I can make certain functionality easier or more understandable.

You should also add Vernor Vinge's new book "Rainbows End" to your reading list.  Vinge wrote a novella back in the day that beat Willy Gibson to virtual worlds called "True Names" which is required reading for any kind of heads in the clouds thinking about these spaces.  Rainbows End is better, and I think it will be as good at predicting the future 30 years from now.  Vinge, who seems to be a SL fanboi, sees the virtual and real worlds meshing to the point that they are the same place.  Not a mirrorworld, but a million universes built by users, presented by augmenting reality.  Very neat stuff.

And I as I just read a comment directed to me that blew whatever else I was going to write in this post out of my head, but it looks like I will be writing more soon, so until then!

Comments

[Torley Linden]

Yup, like Ben sez:

"...hopefully my loyal readers will have some ideas of those really dumb, but easy to fix UI problems."

You got suggestions, add 'em! BEN REALLY CARES. :D

Let's just say there are no coincidences, connections are everywhere, and things are linking together... ;)

And to this day, I have not read True Names. I was hoping a comic book version would come out.

[Tinker LaFollette]

You're right, Vernor Vinge rocks. I'm reading "A Fire Upon The Deep" right now. Ever read his "Across Realtime" stories ("The Peace War", "The Ungoverned", and "Marooned in Realtime")? And Torley, Vinge has a "Collected Stories" anthology out that includes "True Names", as well as a lot of other good stuff.

Now on the subject of UI annoyances: How often do you create a folder in inventory, and *not* rename it right away? Never, right? Create-and-rename, create-and-rename, always, right? Why not combine those two steps into one: when we create a folder, either prompt us for a name, or automatically send us into rename mode on the new folder.

Annoyance number two, also about inventory: when you have your inv sorted by name, it can get out of order when you create and rename items. To put it back in order, you have to switch to "sort by date", then back to "sort by name": again, a two-step process that should be just one step. Allow the user to re-select the current sort order and re-sort the inventory.

[Frans Charming]

Oh new books for my list, thanks, am on a reading kick rightnow and almost through my stash, and need to order some new books.

I will come back to with UI improvements. :)

[Oz Spade]

*punches Ben in the ribs*, you know why.

I really enjoyed True Names so I'll check out the other Vernor book. :D

Rather simple UI annoyance... If you go to a land parcel with huge ammounts of prims available, such as Morris, the "Prims Available" in the About Land thingy will be cut off. I bug reported this too.

And the Find stuff does look better, so good job. :)

[Preved]

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