Monday, December 11, 2006

Catching up with my Second Life

(I have a lot of Second Life sightings I have yet to post about. Here's my attempt to catch up...)

Virtual Aquarium

If it's been over two weeks since you've visited Info Island in Second Life, you need to go back and check it out. The set of two islands has exploded to at least five islands clustered together -- Info Island, Info Island II, EduIsland, Cybrary, Commonwealth. (I believe there's a Health Island currently in development within the cluster.)

I've posted sightings before from Info Island (and that region) in my SL flickr set -- Mayan temples, Science museums, virtual libraries (oh my!). Well, let's add a virtual aquarium to the list. Tucked in the corner of Commonwealth Island is a very cool underwater adventure. Learn about marine life as you swim through an underwater treasure trove of coral, jellyfish, and anemones, to name a few. Oh, but watch out for the shark!







UTD's ATEC Island

Interesting story. My group is working on a demo, hoping to eventually get funding for an island for our university. We found out several weeks (months) after we'd been working on this ... and just a few days before the grand opening event was to be announced ... that our school already had an island.

The Arts & Technology department has their own island dedicated to developing and displaying virtual artwork. Last month, their grand opening of their gallery was a big success, with several hundred visitors. My coworker and I were invited to the event -- she showed up at the ATech building, while I attended virtually. Below are some snapshots of the festivities.











More Religion in a Virtual World

I stumbled across an absolutely beautiful cathedral someone build inworld that is definitely worth a mention.







Dell Island

Ever since I found Nissan Island's auto-vending machine, I decided I was going to try to find other major businesses that are moving into this new world.

Dell's island had a couple of very nice features. I particularly liked the huge computer that you could walk through and see the different parts. Also impressive was the build-your-computer area where you sat at a desk and basically picked out the specs for your computer. Once finished, it passed your input to a browser to purchase. Very nice.











Sun Microsystem's Island

Although not quite as snazzy as Dell's island, Sun has an impressive presence in SL. Very nice landscaping, buildings, and auditoriums.





Cisco Island

Cisco's island was very nicely laid out -- tech support, training center, networking academy, etc. Nice buildings, professional meeting rooms, and you can even stroll through a room full of cubicles. A very techy/geeky feel.











Big Brother ... but more boring

The tv show Big Brother, the reality show that is a hit in every country in the world except the US, has decided to make it's move into the virtual world. I don't have many pictures of it because ... well, it wasn't really that interesting. Apparently, a group of people were picked to have their avatars be a part of this ... event. Each person/avatar is required to be online at least eight hours a day. The participants are all required to stay in this glassed-in area and socialize with each other and complete challenges. Viewers ... mind you, only in-world viewers - this is not being streamed out anywhere ... gradually vote people off, etc. *yawn* Ok, enough. Let me post the one picture I have of it.



Have A Very Merry (Virtual) Christmas

So far, I've come across a lot of holiday decorating and events. Snowmen, elves, candy canes, christmas trees, presents, and formal holiday balls. Below are some of my snapshots.









Speaking of which, we did a little decorating of our office ... both in real life (RL) and in SL. I'll have to get some snapshots and post those. Anyway, I'm all caught up. This is some of what I've been up to in my Second Life.

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