Dana in Geeksville

Carrying On Blogs to DanaNourie.com

2009-01-12T09:53:01-08:00

I will no longer be writing in this space about Second Life, but instead am creating those blogs under my own domain in my blog called Virtual Living: The Second Life.

I'll write about photography topics in my own blog at my site.

See you there!

Dana

From DSLR Cameras to Point and Shoot

2009-01-09T11:09:33-08:00

Many photographers and camera dealers would try to convince you that a DSLR is the only way to go, that you'd never go back to a point and shoot, but that's not necessarily true. I really like and have made good use of my Nikon DSLR cameras. No doubt about it. What I don't care for is having to change lenses, the weight of the cameras that makes using a tripod necessary, and they're just overkill for the informal indoor, family/pet shots I want to take. Yet, there I am, trucking through the trails with a heavy backpack and my tripod, and family and pet just rarely get photographed. Until recently.

Several years ago I was on a digital photography forum on the internet, and had the pleasure of seeing insect photos from a photographer who used a small point and click camera. I was amazed at the macro shots she took, the detail of each insect, her beautiful composition. Her photography reshaped my view and aversion towards insects, and she proved to me it wasn't the camera, but the photographer who created fine photos.

From time to time, she would express her desire for a more professional camera, a better camera, but we couldn't help noticing that the camera seemed not to make one bit of difference where her actual photography was concerned.

So, recently, when I was fretting about having to use a tripod in the forest, and grumbling over having to switch lenses, I decided to reconsider getting a point and shoot camera. I ended up buying a Panasonic Lumix FZ5. I didn't feel I needed a 10+ megapixel camera, as I tend to print nothing larger than 8 X 12 anyway, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money in case I didn't like the camera. I got a great deal on this camera.

The features I was excited about with this camera was the amazing zoom, the many shooting modes, including macro, and the ability to use it in manual. I've also noticed over the years that new digital point and shoot cameras tend to have terrible shutter lag, which renders a camera useless for moving children and dogs. This camera claimed to be fast.

When the camera arrived via mail, I was surprised by how small and light it was. But it's not too light, nor is it too small for my little hands. It feels wonderful. Better yet, I can't hardly feel it when I'm wearing it around my neck, and it's small enough to sit on any table in my house for a quick grab and shot of the dog or grandchild.

With water bottle on my hip, and the new point and shoot around my neck, I headed out onto the trails of Big Basin sans the backpack, feeling light and gear-free. I used the camera in program mode, but found it wanted to overexpose everything. Even so, this was an improvement over the DSLR, in which I'd have to set up a tripod and use long exposure times. So, I adjusted with exposure compensation and was really impressed!

I was on the lookout for mushrooms, and soon came across little clusters. I put the camera in macro, and was excited to discover I could get the lens within 2 cm. The focus worked great in macro, and the exposure was wonderful. I didn't have to use the flash at all, which I was really excited about.

These mushrooms on the left were less than an inch tall, and I like the way the detail came out on the inside of the bells. For a first time working in macro with this camera, I was very pleased.

I did find that the LCD was small, and it was hard for me to tell from peering through the viewfinder if the shot was completely in focus. Often I thought it was in sharp focus, but later when opening the files on the computer, I discovered that many of my photos has considerable blur. So, while I didn't need a tripod or flash to get the right exposure, I do need to hold more steady. This camera does have vibration reduction, which I had turned on, but I will also try without just to see the difference.

I wouldn't call this next photo specifically macro, or close up, but I did shoot it in macro mode, and it did quite nicely. In fact, I forgot to switch modes from time to time, shooting a normal shot in macro, and it did quite nicely. This particular photo I shot for the composition and was very pleased with the exposure, the amount of texture, and the color variations. That the green leaves in the background are slightly blurred works well, in my opinion, because the real subjects are in focus, though one of the mushrooms blurred a bit. This can be resolved, I suspect, but putting it in aperture mode. I'd like to go back and find out.

Shooting in the forest is always a challenge because of the intense contrast between the shaded areas and the breaks of bright light between the trees. This camera took that challenge fairly well, but of course, it had some of the same issues, of underexposing areas because of the intense light in the background.

In this next photo, I found it handled the situation quite nicely, though there is some blur on the moss growing on the tree. I think this could be improved with a tripod, though maybe not. One of these days, when I'm in the mood to carry my tripod, I'll investigate that possibility as a way to improve these types of shots.

Overall, I was pleased with the performance of this camera. The exposure compensation was easy to use, and I could see the change of what the compensation was doing in the LCD even before taking the picture! This I felt was a special feature my Nikon DSLRs don't have.

The zoom worked really well, though focusing while zoomed in I found a little challenging. After awhile I started to get the hang of it. For macro I found it much better to not use zoom at all and instead get closer to the subject and leave the lens on wide angle. With the mushrooms, this was easy and possible, but I know that's not always the case.

I didn't take many landscape types of shots yet, nor have I tried the camera out much indoors, but will do that soon.

On the negative, I found the photos a little flat compared to those of my DSLRs, and I'm not sure if this is because of an unsteady hand or a setting I have in the camera. I'm definitely going to take it out more this winter and put it through it's passes, and will do the same indoors.

I'm not ready to completely give up the DSLRs, but this little camera is a solid competitor!

Virtual Relationships Versus In-Person Ones

2009-01-06T12:18:37-08:00

For a couple of months I joined in on a regularly scheduled talk in Second Life (SL) called SL Relationships. I found it interesting, and quite frankly really odd, that people were having relationships in SL. In fact, I discovered later in talking with folks that there are many chapels and churches were couples could go to get married. I had to check this out!

I attended these talks for several months, and what I discovered was the discussion soon spilled over into situations regarding in person relationships, and that the problems with relationships in SL were pretty much the same as in-person. SL relationships have some other issues that in-person ones don't have, but by and large, relationships are relationships, no matter whether they are virtual or in person.

All of this got me to thinking about my own relationships in-world and in the real world. I have many friends who I have met only online either via email, discussion forums, or in SL. These folks are every bit as special and as important to me as some of my flesh and blood friends. In addition, some of my friends who are fairly local to me, I talk with more online than in-person, so our relationship is mostly virtual even though we do see each other on occasion in person. Most of the people I work with, I only interact with online, yet they all are all important to me, all very human, and communication is good and healthy, or not.

This leads me to some of the problematic relationships I've had. From time to time, my relationships get strained, difficult, and sometimes completely severed. But it doesn't seem to matter whether this is a relationship with someone I've only known only online or someone I know in-person. Because what it really boils down to is that human relationships are human relationships. They can either thrive or go sour, and that the relationship is virtual doesn't necessarily complicate matters. This loops me back to the issue of couple relationships in SL . . .

I have not experienced this personally, but I have recently met several couples who either live together or are married in-world. Some are also couples in-person, and some are not. What I have noticed is that their relationships appear to have the same pleasures or difficulties as flesh and blood relationships. Yes, in SL you can get a divorce just like in the real world.

Naturally, the first thing that pops into people's minds and the question they ask is, "What about sex?" Well, in SL they can have sex too, but of course virtual sex is not going to be the same as being together in-person. That doesn't mean they don't enjoy it, however. I personally enjoy dancing more in SL than in person. Additionally, SL couples have some unique problems in communication from being virtual, such as when one's power goes out, a computer freezes, or they can't get online for some reason for days on end. Over the course of time, though, people develop an awareness of these kinds of problems, and those wrinkles get ironed out.

While at first I thought the idea of being a couple in SL was silly and dopey, my view has changed. Honestly, virtual and in person relationships can be equally as rewarding or difficult. It really depends on the people involved.

Somewhat related to this topic is a blog I wrote over the holiday: Who We Are In Real Life Versus SL.

Multitasking Fun in Second Life

2009-01-04T09:32:07-08:00

It's pretty hard to dance while playing a game, and reading and writing email. In fact, it would just be a bad idea. But in Second Life all of that is possible and more.

This year kicked off with a fun night going from club to club, dancing the night away in various virtual settings. I met lots of nice people, saw wonderful holiday costumes from the typical Santa hat, to snowmen, to walking sparklers. My focus that night was mostly just on dancing and enjoying the music.

But as I moved into the New Year, I made some other entertainment discoveries in Second Life.

Fishing turned out to be great fun. I don't fish in real life, but in SL I found myself reeling in all kinds of cute sea critters that swim around me as I choose. They are colorful and entertaining. But fish aren't all you reel in. You can also catch various items of clothing, parts to build vehicles, and aquariums to put your fish in if you don't want to wear them. Additionally, you can catch jewelry, or hair and new skin for your avatar. In other words, lots of free stuff! Well, not entirely free. You do have to buy the pole and bait, but those costs are minimal.

Standing there fishing all day can get about as boring as really fishing, however. A friend introduced to me to this wonderful game called Tiny Empires. Tiny Empires is a medieval-themed multiuser online game within the virtual world of Second Life. The goal of the game is to cultivate a cadre of loyal followers (subjects), and ascend ranks by amassing gold and land. You play it via the use of a HUD (Heads Up Display). When you click Wear, the game appears in the corner of your screen in a small area you can also minimize as you see in the picture on the right.

This game is easy to play while you're fishing, dancing, or doing anything else in SL. When offers come in that you need to make decisions on, you are alerted by the sound of a gong. This makes multitasking your fun incredibly easy. So, while you are reeling in fish, jewelry and other goodies, you can also acquire land, buy work equipment, or sell land. Not to mention, checking and responding to email now and then.

Once I got the hang of fishing and playing Tiny Empires, I didn't hesitate to go dancing at Arthur's Tavern, which is near my new house. The community where I live is a fun one. Several nights during the week, and on weekends, the Tavern has dances and contests. The first night I won 105 Linden dollars in a word game, and tonight I got about 40L more from stomping balls that came out of an exploder at the ceiling. The theme for tonight was Best in Red with DJ Kuroda, so we came decked out in our funnest or finest red garb to dance for several hours. Arthur, however, is in his usual black leathers, lol. The owners promise more such events, including possibly having a Slumber Party! I'm looking forward to PJ shopping for that!

Be sure to stop by Arthurn's Tavern one night and join the fun. Make sure you have your Tiny Empires HUD on so you can play the game while dancing and socializing!

Who We Are In Real Life Versus SL

2009-01-02T11:13:54-08:00

I had an interesting conversation with a tarot reader in Second Life (SL). I had asked him if he found it harder to do readings in SL because there is an avatar between him and is client. He disagreed heartily that there was anything between them. "On the contrary," he said, "avatars tend to be better representations of people than their genetic bodies, as flesh bodies often don't fit
the person or portray them well. Avatars, on the other hand, are usually expressions of what a person feels represents her or himself well in real life (RL)." Interesting.

A friend of mine felt that this man was confusing role playing with identity. I disagree with both of them.

Our identities, no matter whether in RL or SL, are nothing but ideas and concepts anyway. Problems arise when we identify with and cling to ideas about who and what we are. Whether people realize it or not, our identity is not hard coded, by any means. As human beings, our personalities and tendencies are fluid, changing throughout the day, changing vastly by month, and by heaps through the years.

Avatars in SL can represent what a person would like to be, physically or in behavior, or it may be a role they are playing, or it may be some kind of extension of the ego they are creating at that time. Reasons for choosing a particular avatar vary from person to person. What can we say about someone who chooses an avatar that is a cupcake or a Christmas Ham? What about someone who chooses an avatar this is grossly overweight, or one who is in a wheel chair?

I don't agree that avatars are better representations of who a person is or what they wish they were, nor do I believe all are simply role playing, though both are possibilities in some cases. I have found SL to be a delightfully artistic, creative environment in which people can express themselves in countless numbers of ways, with countless numbers of looks and shapes. It really is a wonderland for the artistic programmer, the artist, and those who enjoy something different that can mirror the real world, or not.

Identity is a problem in RL and in SL. If we identify with a certain image, we cling to that notion, then we are going to create misery for ourselves because everything changes, nothing is consistent. I heard a man recently in SL say, "If I could uninstall my real life, I would. And then I'd spend the rest of my days in SL full-time." Obviously, this man has a lot of sadness in the real world and SL has become a form of escape. Escape gets us into trouble no matter what form it takes because we don't deal with our problem head on. And of course, problems ignored can snowball into truly difficult situations.

So, the bottom line is we need to examine where we get our ideas about our self, what those ideas are, and how many of them are limited or self defeating. In Buddhism we search out the not self, or emptiness, in Hindusim it's the branch of Vadaita that uncovers the delusion of self, and nondualism addresses this topic in a big way.

What is real about ourselves anyway? Am is less real in SL than RL? Most SL citizens would say they are every bit as real as in SL.

If you really look, you'll see that any identity you create for yourself is nothing but an idea. Any self idea is going to be limiting. We need to remain fluid and open, recreating ourselves on a moment by moment basis, and not worrying about how we appear to others, what kind of persona we project. And in SL, we have to be careful that we don't start wanting to become the avatar!

Change Kicks Off the New Year in SL

2009-01-01T16:14:40-08:00

Happy New Year from my new crib in SL!

Last year was a big year of learning in Second Life, as I discovered how to find my way around, searched out places to buy hair and outfits, located Buddhist temples for meditations and discussions, and continued to interact with the developer community. It was a fun year, to be sure.

I'm kicking off the New Year with changes. I had my own little piece of property in SL and a lovely home, but the economy is hitting hard, so I decided to give up that land. It was a hard decision to make, as I had become a bit attached to that pretty island, and the chunk of it where I had set up my home and landscaped parts of the grounds. Jusifying the expense, though, became difficult over time, especially by the end of the year. So, on the 30th of December I picked up all of my prims from the property and released my rental agreement. Fortunately, those are easy to drop. You just click Abandon Property!

But I was not done living in SL. I still wanted a place I could call my own. So the search for a perfect home to rent was on. I knew renting a house was far less expensive than renting land, and the hunt was on.

After looking at over 50 houses or so, I found the perfect place. In fact, it came decorated and I liked it even better than what I had previously. My new home is called China house (from the way it's been decorated), and it's a lovely three story, beautifully decorated home. That's me in my new living room in the first photo above, and the one at the right is of the meditation room I set up on my top floor.

To get from floor to floor, I use a teleport button instead of stairs, which I like much better.

It took a little while to set up some of my personal things, but in truth I really like the way the owners have decorated and am keeping the majority of what they have there. And can't beat the price. I'm paying only a fraction of what I was before, and I get a lot more house!

Having to let go of my property saddened me, but not for long. I was thrilled with the house I had found, and more fun was on the horizon. I discovered on the island where my house sat all kinds of great stuff. I can go horseback riding, ice skating, and boating. There is also a cool Observatory, a Volcano, and a place called Mushroom Land, which you can see in the photo on the left. Yes, that is a bear serenading me! Behind us a cute deer is foraging.

Additionally, there is a local tavern where my neighbors go to hang out, dance, and chat. I ended up dancing last night to welcome the New Year with my landlords and a few of my neighbors.

So, the New Year has come with a new house, new neighbors, more things to do, and a new hobby: fishing. Yes, fishing!

In the photo to the left, I am fishing with a cupcake and a friend. I'm the one in the orange dress.

My friend showed me that there are many places in SL where you can fish and not only catch pet fish and critters, but you sometimes catch various items of clothings, skins for your avatar, holiday costumes, and all kinds of other stuff.

See the outside of my house in the photo below. My house is on a wonderful Island, or SIM, called Terington. There are other houses available for rental, for very good prices, so be sure to check them out if you're looking for a house in SL. Their Info Office has listings on the third floor, and on the second floor there are excellent descriptions of the many places you can visit on the island. I'm really happy with my decision, and in fact, like it better than the island where I had my property. Come for a visit if you get a chance!

Celebrating Samhain in Second Life

2008-11-03T10:00:44-08:00

I don't know about where you were on Halloween, but here in sunny California it rained all of Halloween day and night. No trick-or-treaters came a knockin'. But that's ok. I had a blast celebrating this Hallow's Eve in Second Life from morning till past midnight!

The day begin with a fun Sun Microsystems hosted bash in Second life. We had a great time seeing all the creative costumes, dancing, and chatting. The rubix cube won the costume contest, and it was well deserved as she had made it herself! But I also got a kick out one of our Sun employee who arrived holding her head under her arm. You can read her blog to see a picture of her great costume.

After that I headed over to Stonehenge, where one of the mystics was leading a witches' circle to celebrate the day, explain the history of Halloween, and to welcome us into the new year.

This day we celebrate with crazy costumes and candy used to be a very important festival to the Celtic peoples, which was called Samhain. They celebrated the end of harvest, the coming of the new year, and felt on this day the division between the material world and the non-material was thin, allowing them to honor their ancestors directly. The Celts built bon fires and created protective circles to keep out evil and welcome passed loved ones. In addition, they cast protection for themselves from the long, dark, cold days to come. Later, this festival was driven down by the Christians, who tried to turn it into a day to honor martyers and saints, and the orignal festival was misunderstood and portrayed as one of spooks and evil, the name changed to All Hallow's Day, which got shortened to Halloween.

I attended a few dancing parties, which were great fun, then ended the day with what else but a fun and wonderful seance!

In spite of the rain in the real world, no one was discouraged in Second Life from celebrating this fun festivity, and it was great and eye full to see the avatars decked out, attending parties, dances, and metaphysical activities. Can't wait till next year!

A New Great Way to Learn About Solaris

2008-10-20T10:07:23-07:00

We hear now and then that some of our Sun sites are difficult to navigate, or overloaded with information. That's a problem we are constantly improving. As of October 10th, Sun introduced a new way to learn about the Solaris Operating System that is interactive, fun, and easy to navigate. Check out the Solaris Campus in Second Life!

I have to admit, I'm not a Solaris OS expert by any means and actually know little about it. But I learned a lot by walking through the Solaris Camp, clicking signs for notes with information and urls, clicking presentations I could save to my desktop, and best of all, there is a live Sun employee there who was willing and able to answer all of my questions.

The Solaris Camp is built in such a way that it is visual pleasing, easy to navigate, and not too cluttered. You can get information from what Solaris is to getting certified. Unlike having to sift through complex navigation of some web sites, this region of Sun's makes finding information about Solaris, including Sun Solve, super easy. There is no getting lost here, and the information is useful and interesting. You can even get tips on installation, and where to go for more in depth details.

No matter whether you are a newbie to the Solaris platform, or have a lot of experience, the Solaris Campus should prove valuable to you and help you get the information you need.

As a writer in the Java Programming Language Land (java.sun.com), I am hoping for a future Java Campus. We'll see!

Visit the Sun Solaris Campus today . . .

Experimenting with World Creation (Project Wonderland)

2008-10-17T09:55:26-07:00

As you know from many of my previous posts, I've been having a lot of fun bebopping around in Second Life, a ready-made virtual universe. To create a world of your own in Second Life, you have to pay for the use of a SIM and then build everything you need, or have it built. For those who don't want an entire SIM, you can buy or rent land, or even just a house on someone else's land. Now, I am also beginning to experiment with Sun's Project Wonderland, a toolkit for building virtual worlds.

Project Wonderland isn't a product, not a place you go like Second Life that is an established platform. Instead, Project Wonderland is an open source toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds, and is a 100% Java. Within those created worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, share live desktop applications and documents and conduct real business. Wonderland is completely extensible; developers and graphic artists can extend its functionality to create entire new worlds and new features in existing worlds.

Though Wonderland is in it's early stages and there are some clunky, undeveloped areas yet, there are some real advantages to creating worlds for yourself, your organization, or your institution. The ability to connect people via phone within the world to people without can be immensely useful. That way you can have a part of your staff inworld, while others can simply call in if they can't make it to a computer. Additionally, the sharing of files and applications while inworld is something that is difficult still in Second Life.

And, of course, the benefit of this being open source and written in Java means you can add to it as needed. Additionally, where Second Life allows you to only use the Linden scripting language, Project Wonderland makes it possible to use up to twenty different scripting languages.

Like Second Life, you can import creations from Blender, Gimp, or other applications, but in Wonderland you aren't charged per upload.

One of the really neat things about Wonderland is the fact that you can dynamically create worlds from existing Java applications. For instance, a science group did this recently. They had a 3D molecule modeling program already written in the Java programming language, and from that they dynamically created a world based on this application. I want to find out a lot more about this, exactly how it's done, and write about it for java.sun.com.

Universities are using Wonderland in a big way for immersive learning, where real world classrooms are connected to inworld classrooms, and materials can be shared. This connects people around the globe in invaluable ways and adds an extra element of fun to learning. It also stretching the reach instructors have with students.

I've downloaded Project Wonderland and am going to begin the process of world creation. It's a bit of a learning curve, and I'm used to Second Life, so it should be interesting to see how I do with this project. That said, I know of some really excellent already made examples, and I hope to get some code samples and information to write about in articles as I work my way through this learning curve.

For more information about Project Wonderland:

Project Wonderland Home Page

Wonderland Projects:

1. Virtual Northstar Project
2. MiRTLE project, UK
3. The Education Grid
4. United Nations TVET Project
5. Commonneed
6. Harding High School
7. University of Oregon
8. University of Zurich
9. Wondertown

Sun Immersive Special Interest Group

Go Hang Yourself!

2008-10-15T10:43:43-07:00

Where else can you can hang yourself without harm except in a place like Second Life? The SIMs are gearing up for the upcoming Halloween event. Shopping in SL couldn't be more fun at this time. Most of the malls have treasure hunts, where you can locate pumpkins set throughout the SIM. The pumpkins contain a free gift from the store where they sit, and some of them contain Halloween decorations you can put on your own property. I have 10 new outfits now, and four more decorations for my property!

In addition, the malls are decked out in spooky decor with witch cackles, drifting ghosts, spider webs, flying bats, and often a haunted house. But the haunted houses are not just fun walk-throughs. Within, you can bob for apples to win new hair, sit in a chair for 10 minutes to get a free skin set, or sit in the unlucky chair and get electrocuted or your head chopped off!

The avatars, too, are gearing up for this fun day as they move around within the SIMs in crazy costumes, or ghoulish masks. Many places, including Sun, are setting up for the big night where bashes will be held, and prizes given away for the best costumes.

I'm still shopping for my costume, and have not made up my mind yet. It sure is fun exploring, collecting free clothes for my inventory, and interacting with the Halloween decorations, including hanging myself as shown above.

Dana Oceanlane

Making Myself at Home in Second Life

2008-09-26T12:44:18-07:00

As you know from my previous post, Becoming a Land and Home Owner in Second Life, I have been busy on my property in Second Life, making myself at home. Like the real world, this involved a lot of shopping, buying prims to decorate, animations to make it interactive, and my favorite, a TV so visitors can watch a selection of videos of my choosing.

The movie screen was the first prim I made, and it worked. I was really excited. But upon new visits, I discovered my video no longer working. As it turned out, YouTube has a short expiration date on it's MP4 movies. Argh. So, I resolved the problem by shopping again, and buying a TV that has scripts to by pass this issue.

You really can buy everything you need from pets that hang out with you to stationary trees and benches. The Object Editor is super easy and cool to use. I'm very impressed with the Linden Labs tools and documentation.

Next, I want to learn the Linden scripting language, as I learn to create prims and animate them. The editor is easy to use, the language is not entirely unlike Java, and it's easy to attach the script to the object.

The third party open source tools that can be used for creating 3D objects also look like a lot of fun to learn. And importing is easy, but does cost you 10L each time. It can add up if you are doing a lot of building from outside, or creating outside textures then importing.

My property is to a point where I feel like I can leave it as is for a little while, and dig into the programming aspects and just experiment now. It's neat to have a place I can call home in SL. And, of course, all of you are invited to come check it out!

When you visit, you can:

Watch cool videos in my house, sit in front of the fire, prostrate to the Dalai Lama
Sit outside by the seal pond
Relax in front of the ocean
Meditate at the Buddha fountain, or in the the butterfly chair
Mediate underwater in the kelp garden!

Go to:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Isle%20of%20Narraghmore/172/212/21

I don't have to be there, and my front door is unlocked. Just click the door. To choose a video to play, right-click the screen and select Touch. You'll get a selection to choose from.

Have fun! Dana

Becoming a Land and Home Owner in Second Life

2008-09-22T09:33:45-07:00

If only buying land and a home in the real world were so easy!

This weekend I became the owner of a parcel of beautiful land in Second Life. Like the real world, land in SL can come empty or come terraformed with hills, grass, sand, or some other kind of terrain. For now I didn't want to start completely from scratch, so I bought a little over 4,000 square meters of terraformed property. This ocean front property came with a few trees and bushes, some flowers, and a lovely waterfall and creek. Hills separate me from one neighbor, and bushes and land slopes separates me from the other.

As in the real world, I paid an upfront fee, but in Linden dollars, and a small amount at that. But also like the real world, that is not the end of the fees. Each month I also pay a monthly tier to the SIM, or region owner, kind of like paying property taxes. Region owners have to pay monthly fees to Linden for use of the region itself within Second Life.

While it may seem crazy to some to buy virtual land in a virtual world, there is real money being made by business in Second Life, and there are people who buy many regions, parcel the land, and rent or sell those parcels, very similarly to how it's done in the real world. But here in Second Life you don't have to sign 6,200 hundred pages of contract, and you can be a whole lot more creative.

But what good is property without stuff on it. I'm eager to learn to build, and I am going through the Linden Scripting Language (LSL), which is used in Second Life to breathe life into objects, such as animating an animal, creating different poses for an avatar, or simply making a boat sail over the water. It's interesting to see that the Linden Scripting Language looks a lot like the Java programming language.

For now though, while I'm learning LSL, I decided to buy some things for my land to make it feel more like home. The first priority was to purchase meditation cushions so my avatar could meditate by the waterfall and ocean, and a Buddha statue. The Buddha I found is neat because it comes with a meditation seat already.

I discovered that when you unpack objects from their boxes, they don't know where you want to sit or how they should be positioned. But I soon discovered that SL comes with some really great tools for positioning, rotating, and editing objects. Within a few minutes, I was working with the edit tool without any problem, and I set the my Buddha fountain exactly where and how I wanted it. The meditation cushions worked the same way. After I unpacked them, I position them and rotated them so I would be sitting in the right direction.

Next, naturally, I decided my home in SL needed a house. House shopping was interesting and fun. Eventually I want to build a home of my own from scratch, but I spent several hours house shopping. One of the interesting thing right away was that houses are made up of more than one primitive, using as many as hundreds of prims. Since every property is allowed only so many prims on it, this is number to watch.

Once I had my house bought, unpacked, and in place, I felt some landscaping was in order. So, off I went to shop for garden flowers, some bushes, and a few trees. And the fun is only just beginning. I have plenty of land still to get creative with, and I have yet to furnish the inside of my house. But I have a nice start on it so far.

Now my dog and avatar have a plce they can call home.

Visiting Virtual Pet Shops and Museums

2008-09-16T14:30:33-07:00

This week I took some time to explore Second Life some more. I had seen animals running around in SL, as I mentioned in an early post In Case You Thought SL Is Just for People. So, I set out and did a search on pets.

I found quite a few pet shops, both indoors and out, and many had exotic pets as well as the usual home pets. It was fun to check these out, and there was a big difference in the quality of the pets as well as the prices.

My initial interest was to get a dog, but before I found the dog I wanted I came across this adorable tiger cub that sits on my shoulder, blinks, and purrs. I'm not much of a cat person, but tigers are awesome, and this little guy was irresistible.

While I was at one of the shops, I was given a free butterfly that sits on my right shoulder, flapping it's pretty yellow wings. These two pets go where I go and never misbehave.

Search for Pets when you go into SL, and you'll discover many great pet shops there. The programming for each pet differs widely, so be sure to read the information about a pet before you purchase it. I ended up buying a cool dog at Zoobly's. The adorable tiger cub came from Bridget's.

Next, I checked out Showcases in SL, and discovered that the Tech Museum of Innovation (TheTech) has a Second Life version! In addition, you can learn about this virtual museum at their site TheTech Virtual Museum Workshop.

I couldn't resist checking that place out in SL, and discovered an identical copy to the real world one I'm used to. They did a great job on recreating the architecture and colors of this unusual building we have here in San Jose, CA. The only difference was that the area was surrounded by ocean. Here, in San Jose, we are at least 58 miles from ocean. Never the less . . .

I had to see how they handled the inside exhibits, which change frequently in the land museum. Unlike the real museum, here I got in for free. As with most areas in Second Life, clicking on an object will often produce a note that provides more information for you. Here, in TheTech, you can learn about each of the exhibits by clicking on them. In addition, true to the real museum, you can interact with many of the exhibits by viewing video, touching objects, or sitting and having something happen.


Playing Guitar by Sitting on It	Learning About the Mars Opportunity Rover

The information you get from the Opportunity Rover is updated as new information comes in from Mars. The museum itself is large, and there is a lot to see. I found it fun and informative, just like the real museum. And you can't beat the price!

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to doing a lot more exploring in Second Life . . . .

Meditation and Buddhist Practice in Second Life

2008-09-09T16:17:04-07:00

I've had a lot of requests recently about my meditation and Buddhist practices in Second Life (SL). Of course, you don't have to be Buddhist for the meditation aspect. But my interactions in SL with meditation and the places I go have piqued the curiosity of more than a few, so I thought I would blog about it.

Second Life has a thriving community of Buddhists, and ongoing group meditations. There are a lot of great places one can go in SL to learn how to meditate, and to learn about full-fledged Buddhist practices from all the various sects and non-sectarian Buddhist schools. I'm sure there are many I have not yet discovered, and the places I cover here are but a small sampling of my favorites. Don't hesitate to email me or comment on some of your favorite meditation centers or Buddhist temples in SL.

The picture above was taken at the Zen Retreat in SL. You can find the center by using the links I've provided here, or by doing a Search on Places, and typing in Zen Retreat. In this place, like most of the centers and temples I've been to, there are meditation instructions posted somewhere within the vicinity of the sitting cushions. In this place, you can get detailed Zen sitting instructions by touching the small white can sitting in front of me. At the Zen Retreat, there are also tai chi mats, and information placards placed throughout the property. You can attend daily Zen meditations for twenty minutes each day at 6 PM PST.

One of my favorite places is the Skeptical Buddhist Temple. Here you can be a part of group discussions that cover the various aspects of Buddhism, Buddhist culture, and practices. Buddha was big on being skeptical and questioning everything, so in the same vein these group discussions ask us to be open minded yet never just accept information as it is dealt to us. For the past few months, we have been getting together weekly to discuss the book Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Bachelor.

In addition, you can read the slides on the board in the main discussion room that currently have quotes from the book. These slides change with each discussion. After each discussion, we sit in silent meditation for twenty minutes, and instruction is given to those who need it.

This brings me to a common question people frequently ask: "How do you meditate with people in Second Life?" Obviously, our avatars sit quietly on the cushions provided. In real life, people often need chairs, but here everyone is comfortable cross-legged. The person running the meditation tells everyone when the meditation is beginning. In real life, you sit in front of your computer, close your eyes and meditate until you hear the gong. The leader of the group rings the gong at the designated time. So, it's no different from meditations in real life, except the occasional coughs and sneezes you hear in real life are absent. Also, meditations tend to be a bit shorter than you might expect at a land sangha.

At Osho Island, you can also watch videos in various places on the island that are of past recorded Osho talks. In addition, various types of Osho meditation classes are held.

Osho would not have labeled himself as Buddhist or any other religion. But he was very big on Buddhist teachings as well as Taoism, Confucianism, many different Indian philosophies.

If you've not read any of Osho's books, I highly recommend them.

Osho Island is beautiful and has many different areas to explore, and information you can read and save.

Whenever you find a place in SL that you really like be sure to check if there is a Group you can join. That way whenever there are events, discussions, or courses going on, you will be notified inworld when they are occurring. Some will also send out daily sayings or quotes if you want them.

In addition to attending talks, group discussions, and meditations, I also had the pleasure of conducting a talk and meditation at Itsari Buddhist Temple. This is one of my favorite places, as it was one of the first Buddhist places I found, but it has also grown a great deal over time. The owner is very friendly, approachable, and also attends our Sun talks in Second Life. When he asked me if I'd like to conduct a meditation at Itsari I couldn't resist. I hope to do more in the future.

The pix on the right shows but a very small area of Itsari Temple. This is one meditation area, and it has improved greatly, including the kneeling benches! Also, on this island are other land owners who also conduct various types of meditations and talks.

I hope this explains just how rich and full the meditation and Buddhist experience can be in a virtual world like Second Life. Like anywhere else, you can make friends with people on similar spiritual paths, and have insightful and rewarding conversations about how much our practice can enrich our lives. Second Life Buddhist temples bring people together from all over the world who would not otherwise be able to practice together, and we can enjoy the beauty and sounds of these temples just as we would in the real world. Most places provide beautiful trees, ponds, chirping birds, the breeze rustling chimes, and the sound of the surf rolling onto a beach. It's soothing just to visit these places.

Hope to see you at the next sangha get together!

In Case You Thought SL Is Just for People

2008-09-08T14:59:02-07:00

In case you thought that Second Life is just for people, here is proof that it's not. Although, you probably didn't really care either. Even so, I've been quite impressed with the non-people avatars and SL citizens I've come across. Today when I discovered this new meditation center I had not seen before, I found this sleeping kitty on the floor. His belly rises and falls with his breathing, and now and then he'd lets out a little purring.

I'm not normally a cat person, but this cat I like. He's not making my eyes itch or my nose run, and he's not climbing into my lap unwelcome and doing that weird clawing into the leg thing that cats often do. Instead, he is lying there, looking like an adorable kitty, peacefully sleeping. He is a Second Life citizen and I suspect never leaves this zendo. But there are non-human avatars running around in Second Life too.

One of my favorite avatar sightings of all time was a Christmas Ham. We were having a developer chat, I think on Solaris, and in drifts this Christmas Ham avatar. My coworker Heidi had to pull up an extra stool for him to sit on because he wouldn't fit on the benches that the audience was sitting on. It was really funny and creative during the holiday season.

I also get a kick out of seeing the many Transformers walking about inworld. Now I can understand the appeal to this avatar, especially given the popularity of the movie. I've also seen comic heroes like Batman and Superman flying about, a lot of wolves, and some unidentifiable creatures and aliens. There are quite a few fairies, elves, and demons of various kinds as well.

In Second Life we can't use the typical judgments we tend to use in RL with people. And maybe that is a good thing.

Learning in Second Life

2008-09-04T10:16:09-07:00

Second Life (SL) is easy to misunderstand, and many people have the wrong idea that it is some kind of game environment, or a place where people just chat and act silly. On the contrary, Second Life has many places of learning from Science Friday, to Buddhist meditations, to technical seminars. Many corporations are set up in SL now to teach consumers about their business, do business online, and to have a virtual space where employees can have meetings.

I'm very excited to announce that Sun is opening Sun Solaris Campus this month for developers. Don't think traditional campus - think a fun, unique and community-oriented virtual campus. At this inworld campus, you'll be able to talk with experts, listen to informative chats about Solaris, and network with other developers like yourself.

Of course, we are brainstorming for other similar campuses for Sun's various technologies, and other ways we can interact with you, the developer. One area I am looking at is our Club Java. This is a social place where people can met to chat business, or they can throw off their shoes and make use of the dance floor.

If you're not familiar with Sun's SIMs in SL, then do a Search on Places, and type in Sun Microsystems. Soon I will have more information for you on upcoming events, and I will blog about them as they occur in case you can't come for some reason.

Do say hello to me inworld. Just search for Dana Oceanlane.

Shooting Northern California

2008-09-02T13:20:59-07:00

To say that Northern California is beautiful is putting it mildly. It's a long drive up there from San Jose, but such an enjoyable drive. The terrain is diverse from vineyards, to mountains, to acreage of corn, to towering redwoods.

It's hard not to set expectations when going to places like that for photography. Yet, even with all the beauty, shooting Northern California has a lot of challenges.

One of my main challenges this weekend was all the people. I expected this, as it was the last holiday weekend of the summer, and the crowds were out. But I'm not used to seeing so many bodies in the forests. The main problem with this in the Avenue of the Giants, was that the trails are right off the main road. If these people had to hike five miles, as we do in Big Basin, we'd see fewer people milling about. As it was, people were coming and going all the time, asking me endless questions about my gear, cracking jokes about their wallet-size cameras, and offering to take my pix so I'm not always behind the camera. Well, I have a timer and do take my own photo on occasion.

The other challenge was one I struggle with continuously -- laziness. I hate switching lenses, but it's an absolutely necessity to get the right shot. And closely related to this is being fooled by the LCD into thinking I had a great shot, when in reality it wasn't so great. I would have benefited by changing lenses and taking the same shots. Don't trust that LCD even for composition. Keep changing positions, changing lenses, and keep shooting!

Forest and beaches have opposing problems, but they are both related to light. Beaches have too much light, an forest don't have enough. In addition, in the forest it is darn hard to get that depth of field with the millions of shades of greenery. I tried, oh, I tried, but to reproduce that wonderful feeling of huge trees and delightful ground greenery is hard to capture.

The driftwood beach there was truly amazing. I wanted to capture the feel of the beach grasses waving in the wind, and framing the driftwood. It was absolutely beautiful. But my shots fall flat. In the one on the right, I lost focus at the end of the driftwood. I am determined to go back and shoot with a different lens, a different f-stop, try different angles, and most of all shoot at a different time of day. Unfortunately, I was at this beach just after noontime, the worst time to be taking pictures. But where this beach is located makes getting to it long and difficult, so I wanted to be out there before sunset. While the bright light blows out the colors in driftwood and sand, it also adds difficult contrasts within the forest. Lighting, lighting is everything.

In spite of the challenges of it being the end of summer and dry, shooting at some of the brightest times of day, and trying to capture the essence of what I was seeing, it was a fun, worthwhile weekend. Out of some 400 shots, I got a few I liked, a few I may print, and I learned a lot from the experience. I'm going to return to those places after the rains, when everything is green, when weather is more inclement, producing exciting skies, and just as the flowers are starting to bloom.

In the meantime, my friend Don is going to teach me HDR to see if I can pull out some details from the images I have while I wait out the rest of summer, and I'm starting a class called Successful Publication Photography. Naturally, I hope all of this will help me improve my photography skills and prepare me for selling my photos to go from amateur to professional. It's a long learning curve, but an exciting and fun one.

Developers in Second Life, a Virtual Community

2008-08-27T10:25:00-07:00

I've written a little about virtual worlds in some of my previous blogs, and this morning I'm excited to announce I'll be working more with the developer community in Second Life for Sun.

In the past, I have given chats to developers on various topics of Java programming, especially to beginners. These are always fun events for me because the developer community in Second Life is so enthusiastic about learning the Java platform, and they are so appreciative of the time Sun employees spend talking to them in SL.

This brings me to why I found environments like SL so valuable to our company and the community at large: communication. Most of my interaction with developers is in the form of email: responses I get directly from articles and blogs, and comments we get in the feedback form on the site. Occasionally, I speak with developers at conferences, like JavaOne. But the atmosphere of a virtual world is quite different, and in my experience, encourages dialog in a wonderful way.

While it's true we are not person to person in the material sense, we are avatar to avatar, which brings in new dynamics. Some might argue that this is so artificial as to be considered ridiculous, but I have to argue that it brings comfortable anonymity to those who might otherwise be shy, uncomfortable speaking in large groups, sneaking in Java technology on the sly outside of their current jobs, or just otherwise not social. In addition, those who are more social and comfortable are not held back in anyway. Lastly, virtual worlds are just darned convenient and bring people together who otherwise would never meet because of geographical distance, time constraints, etc.

Sun's space in Second Life provides us the opportunity to share our technologies and programs with a wider audience of developers, but even more importantly it allows us to talk to you directly, or at least avatar to avatar, to get your feedback and thoughts on what we're doing, how to use our technologies, and how we can help you grow your business and careers. I personally have found it exciting and enlightening to talk to developers in this way and get your feedback, hear your questions and concerns, and have the opportunity to respond in kind. These interactions in Second Life are two-way with synergy. I believe we all benefit from the interaction.

As a new representative of the developer community in Second Life, I want to hear from you about what kind of interactions you hope to get from Sun in the future, what types of chats and events you'd like to see us have, and how we can improve your inworld experience. My name is Dana Oceanlane in Second Life, and that is my avatar in the pix here in the blog.

I'll look forward to seeing your avatars inworld!

Dana Nourie aka Dana Oceanlane

Have Gadgets, Will Travel

2008-08-25T16:34:06-07:00

It's only Monday, yet I am scheming and looking forward to the upcoming long weekend. I have reservations in Fortuna, CA, a town just above the Avenue of the Giants, a forest I've been wanting to explore for years. I love forests, and this old growth one is extra special as it has some of the tallest, widest, and oldest Redwoods in California. Some of these trees are thousands of years old! But photographing the forest has special challenges.

I've taken hundreds of pictures in Big Basin, a wonderful redwood forest about an hour away from me, in the Santa Cruz mountains. For awhile I was hiking there about once a month over the course of the year. I learned to the best times to hike and take pictures there, but always there is the challenge of lighting. The forest to the naked eye is a wonder to behold . . . Lush greens everywhere, broken only by the towering brown barks of trees, or burned out stumps, and the curving lines of the trail itself. Our eyes see the many details of the different shapes of leaves or pine needles, the arrangement of the forest all around, and the incredible depth of greenery.

Unfortunately, the camera doesn't shoot in 3D, doesn't bring out the depth of field the way the eye does, and the light spilling in from overhead, dappling the well-shaded forest is a blinding contrast in the photo. To prevent the high contrast and avoid blown out spots in the photo, and squeeze out as much depth as possible, it's better to shoot in even shade, where spikes of sun are not piercing the image. In order to shoot in low light, however, you need long exposure times, and a few gadgets to do the job right.

I have my gadgets about ready to go. As much as I hate having to lug around a tripod and set the darn thing up, continually adjusting it from one spot to the next, it is indispensable in long exposure shooting. Also, one must have the right lenses. For the forest, many types of lenses may be needed, so my back pack will have the following:

Tamron 17-200mm zoom -- I have found this to be a great lens in the forest. But in the shady, low light conditions, the tripod is often a must. I like this lens a lot for closeups of banana slugs and fungis, like mushrooms, and sometimes it's neat for shooting tree tops if the background is blue or has dramatic clouds.
Nikon 17-70mm -- I avoided using this lens for a long time. It seemed so ordinary, but I have found it to be a wonderful lens for many situations, and the forest is one of them. This lens is great for shooting trails, fallen logs, interesting scenery, and hikers.
Sigma 10-20mm -- This is one of my favorite lenses, but it calls for specially situations and sceneries. The depth of field this lens gets is wonderful, and the special viewpoint is really awesome. It's actually my favorite beach shooting lens, and that is where I will use it most on this trip. But it's also great for strange trees, for getting big objects like some of these redwood giants, and I have no doubt I will have fun exploring the woods with this lens as well.
Nikkor 50mm fixed -- This is my newest addition. In fact, it arrives tomorrow. My understanding is that this lens is great for darker, shady conditions, and it has excellent depth of field. I plan on playing with this one a lot.

Naturally, the camera and lenses are not enough. My other gadgets are a laptop and card reader, and a good Osho book. I'll shoot all day and just past sunset, then at night, peruse my shoot for the day and end with a little meditation and reading.

I'll shoot during the day in the forests, take pictures of the beaches and town at dusk and sunset. Then the big work comes when I return home, and sift through all my handy work! That's just as fun, too, though.

Virtual Classrooms in Geeksville

2008-08-21T14:04:46-07:00

Over the last few years I've been spending a lot of time online learning a whole lot of stuff. There is no better tool to teach us about computing, programming languages, and software than the computer itself. Of course, I realize it's not the computer but the site or the program, but virtual learning is hugely successful and for good reasons. And it's not limited to computer topics, thank goodness.

My experience in land schools was that having 30-50 bodies in a classroom with one teacher at the front of the room is ineffective and impersonal. There is just no way to cater to the individual needs of each student. Everyone must be taught the same concepts at the same time in the same manner, and that is going to work for a scant few. In addition, the assumption is made that everyone learns in the same way. So wrong!

I hope over the coming years we see a huge drop in physical schools and a big shift into virtual ones. I realize there are times when having a teacher right there is helpful, but so is having one at your fingertips.

The big advantage in virtual learning I see over land schools is that we can learn at our own pace, and in interesting, fun ways. Most online learning is divided into modules where a student can start at the beginning and go to the end, or skip around if that makes more sense to the individual. Lessons also tend to be more dynamic rather than the static information you get in the classroom. Online learning tends to be very hands on.

Off and on over the last two years I've been following tutorials in Lynda.com for Photoshop for photographers and the web, as well as JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, and Dreamweaver. All the tutorials are in the format of screencasts, where an instructor narrates the usefulness and purpose of an application, the tools being used, or the language being taught. Screencasts are a wonderful technology in of themselves, allowing us to see the exact steps of what needs to be done in certain applications, or how specific languages need to be written.

Screencasts are appearing in many places on the internet as teaching tools, including tutorials for learning how to use the NetBeans IDE. These tutorials are well done, and not only allow you to see what a certain tool is for and how to use it, but you fully understand the context of the tool as well.

Moodle, an open source course management system, is great for online learning. I've taken several courses that used this software from Buddhist courses, programming courses, and

other classes. This software allows an instructor to post lessons. Built within this software is a forum for the students to ask the teacher questions and have discussions about the lessons. In addition, lessons are sometimes given through the chat tool, and lists of resources are easily posted anywhere within the tool.

One of my favorite online classroom tools is Second Life. This method has the similar structure as land schools in that there is generally one teacher to a classroom of students, but teachers can easily share resource links, notes, etc while they are talking, and there is just something way more fun about sitting in a virtual classroom over a land classroom. Colleges now teach in Second Life and other virtual worlds, and there is no limit to the topics that can be taught.

Second Life also provides free courses on prim building, so if you don't want to be only a participant, you can begin creating your own worlds, towns, or university. Soon, I'll be attending some of these building classes as I'm starting to get curious how this process works.

The least dynamic, yet very effective way to learn online is through email. I've taken many photography courses through BetterPhoto.com. The instructors are professional photographers, and each of the courses are specialized to different areas of photography. For each course the student receives a lesson via email, and then they can log onto the site to participate in the classroom forum, and to post their photo homework, where the instructor provides feedback for each photo. I found this method of learning photography extremely helpful, convenient, and affordable. The main website also provides many other features to students, such as contests, forums, and newsletters.

The internet has opened learning to many people who might not otherwise be able to attend land schools, and for those who find learning online much easier and more enjoyable than old style methods.

Traditional schooling was never my thing. I avoided school like the plague. But online learning . . . that's a whole 'nuther thing. I'm constantly in learning mode, and enjoying courses throughout the year.

So, now I'm going to log into Lynda.com and continue my lessons in PHP & MySQL!

The Learning Curve Starts with Inspiration

2008-08-20T10:02:29-07:00

In the last eight years that I've been involved in photography and programming, technology has shortened the learning curve in both areas by heaps and bounds. While software like Photoshop and Lightroom make it possible to crop, adjust white balance and exposure, bring out certain colors while down playing others, IDEs like NetBeans have made programming in Java and for web sites easier through the dragging and dropping of ready made components such as buttons, menus, HTML forms, and Ajax functionality. But these technologies still can not, and never will, create a fantastic photo or a wonderfully helpful application, because at the core there must be inspiration.

A dictionary definition of inspiration says, "Stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level of feeling or activity," but for those who experience inspiration know there is more involved here, no matter whether it arises from a beautiful scene in nature to an idea for a software project. Behind inspiration is the creation of "seeing" of "knowing" that you have hit on something special, something that moves, something that stands out above and beyond the norm.

In software development, inspiration and creativity are downplayed in favor of the technical parts, the design, or the functionality. Yet, behind all the software projects that have made it big there was the momentum of inspiration from the developers, a creative wave that carried them through till the end.

I have always considered programming every bit as creative and inspiring as photography. I understand there is much logic in the development of software, a lot of left brained thinking and planning, but I'd like to see developers get more credit for all of the creative punch they've put into the programs we use, the inspiration that carried them through from the idea to the finished project. Game programmers often get some credit for their wonderful creative vision, but there is just as much creativity that goes into a financial application or an IDE that makes development easier.

Photography is generally considered a creative outlet, and software has helped us enhance the images we capture. But the software we use will never provide the photographer with that original moment of inspiration, the ability to see what holds magnetic potential. Software can not help us aim the camera in the right place, in the right lighting, or attach the right lens. By the same token, the software developer has to start with a similar inspiration of an idea, or vision, that carries them from the inception of a project to delivering it into the hands of those who can make use of it.

The learning curve of both photography and software development starts with inspiration and works through perspiration. But that is what makes both so satisfying and worthwhile.

Painting Exposure to Get the Lighting Right

2008-08-17T22:27:08-07:00

To say I like the new Lightroom 2 (LR) by Adobe is putting in mildly. I absolutely, positively love the upgrade from 1.4 to 2. Not only did they improve the tools we already had in LR, but they've added this cool adjustment tool that allows you to paint in exposure, clarity, sharpness, and a number of other things. This means you don't have to go to Photoshop and do layer masks. It means you can simply adjust an area of the photo, no matter how big or small, quickly, easily and simply through a few moves of the mouse. I love it!

This photo was taken at a beach in Washington state. While I had successfully captured the coloring of the sky, composed nicely, etc, some of the foreground, especially the rocks and details were overexposed. If I had exposed for the land, then my sky would have been blown out. Of course, in Photoshop CS3 I could combine an underexposed with an overexposed version, and using masking to bring the photo to life. But that would take some time and effort. As it turned out, the problem was easily corrected in LR in a just a few minutes.

This week I can focus on getting a nice print of it for hanging in my house.

Of course, LR can't do anything about a bad composition, or uninteresting scenery, but I am impressed what this program does for photographers from organizing photos to adjusting exposure, white balance, and a number of others things, specific to certain areas in a photograph.

In this next photo, I really liked the play of light on the rocks and the brighter area in the background. But because of the slow shutter speed to get the soft water effect, I had blown out the light on the rocks in the foreground. Again, I painted in some variation of exposure just on the rocks. This took away this blinding glare that had been captured, and left in it's place the normal reflection of light you'd expect on wet rocks. If I had used Photoshop to do the same thing, and I could have, it would have taken a few layers, some masking, and a whole lot of time. Instead, I changed the rocks in just a minute.

When Lightroom first came out, I liked it a lot for the easy of use of it's tools and the ability to add key words, create catalogs, and organize the photos easily. But I never imagined such a wonderful improvement to the next version. If you are a serious photographer, get Lightroom. You won't regret it.

You can see the rest of these photos that I took in Washington on my photo website Dana Nourie's Digital Imagery.

Buying Fake Money for a Virtual Life

2008-08-12T15:27:47-07:00

You'd think telling people that you've purchased fake money for real hard cash might raise an eyebrow or two. It certainly would have in my mother's day. But not any longer. My mentioning that I just bought 3,000 Linden dollars doesn't get a response of surprise from anyone, only the question of, how much do 3,000 L cost? The answer: a little over ten US bucks. Not bad.

So why buy fake money? Well, for fake worlds, of course, virtual worlds. Over the last year, I've been spending quite a bit of time in Second Life (SL). I headed inworld to do some chats with developers at Sun's SIM, but as I got to poking around, I discovered that Second Life is a really fabulous place.

My initial response to entering SL had been one of confusion. I entered into an area with a lot of weird avatars milling about aimlessly, or so it seemed, and it took me some time to learn to walk, sit, fly, and operate my camera controls, etc. As I learned, I became more and more impressed with what I saw.

My kids, on the other hand, had trouble understanding my fascination with this place, or my learning curve. Having grown up on video games, to them the graphics and world scenes were just run of the mill. The controls were average, and the ability to chat was totally old school. Overall, though, they deemed it a decent piece of software. For those used to fighting and ducking for cover inworld, SL is riduculously slow paced. For those like myself who have no desire to dodge bullets or crazed aliens, and would much rather take advantage of the social aspects, SL is a very cool place to be.

I was impressed by Sun's SIM in SL. The engineers did a great job building and creating, so much so that I had to see what other worlds were like in SL. I searched my interests and lo and behold found many places worthy of exploring. I was fascinated by the creativity of these places where oceans are filled with dolphins and whales, land covered with forest and water fountains, castles or huts, and many, many cities with shopping malls. It doesn't take long before you realize your avatar is plain and boring, your clothing generic, and your moves robotic. To change any of that, though, you need to spend cold hard cash. A bit too much like the real world! You can get just as lost and addicted to material goods in SL as the real world, so be careful.

Of couse, SL is not just about shopping. There are worlds and groups to suit most interests. I've joined photography, Buddhist, and developer groups, found regular online meetings for all, and wonderful places to explore that are themed to those topics. Every Sunday I go to group meditation with the Skeptical Buddhists. On other days other Buddhist groups also have meditations and talks, complete with a gong to sound the end of the meditation. The pix in this blog is me at one of the Zen retreats.

The social aspects are interesting. I attended several talks on Relationships in SL. The talks were intriguing, addressing the usual issues in relationships with the special problems that avatars face in the virtual world. All kinds of relationship types were addressed from casual to business to love affairs, each of which had challenges inworld.

Virtual worlds are incredibly wonderful places for developers, and I'm starting to itch to learn how to build stuff in SL. SL allows for a lot of drag and drop, and of course you can import graphics and textures from your favorite graphics programs. Naturally, you can take building and programming classes in SL to learn how to create worlds.

I've looked at a few other virtual environments, and so far I'm most impressed with Second Life, which is free . . . until you want your own land to build on. Then you buy and rent, and I'm guessing that is how Linden Labs makes their money. I'm researching this now. I don't know if I'll become a land owner, but I'll blog about it for sure if I do.

In the meantime, my avatar has a little shopping to do . . .

See a video about what Sun is doing in Second Life.

Engaging the Interest of Digital Natives

2008-08-11T16:14:36-07:00

Last night I stood behind my 15 year old son, watching as he dragged and dropped blocks of textures and colors, shapes and patterns from Photoshop into an online game called Counterstrike. From there, he created walls for a building, wallpaper for the rooms, secret doorways, and an assortment of other stuff. Later, he built roads, and within three hours, other gamers traversed in his newly created world, battling it out.

I realized as I watched how easily he created a community shared world that gaming and programming in general have taken a huge shift. Long gone are the days of providing simple scenes or fixed worlds for the background in games. These days, digital natives, like my son, expect to change the virtual gaming worlds they step into, add to it, or customize it. These games are also well equipped with chat tools for easy communication between team members or friends. Games are social networks, not entirely unlike places like Second Life.

I realized that engaging these young people in programming is getting increasing difficult in spite of their ease of use with computers.

Convincing the future generation that writing lines of code is fun just isn't going to cut it. Digital natives are used to elaborate drag and drop utilities that allow them to create entire virtual worlds. They just aren't going to settle for working on a command-line, or sifting through lines and lines of code.

Now, not only are game developers having to put a lot of work into making these games totally interactive and realistic looking, but they have to invest a lot of time in making it so the gamer can take over the creation of that world through simple drag and drop, and file sharing features.

It's been interesting to watch gaming over the last 26 years. The games my first son played are nothing compared to the games my youngest son plays and creates. Children now are typing away as they learn the alphabet. In fact, for many that's how they learn the alphabet!

These digital natives are smart and fast. Just try to keep up, just try to keep them engaged. They're movin' at lightning speed!

Recently I've been creating a series of articles aimed at anyone over the age of 10 to learn the Java programming language through a fun tool called Greenfoot. Tools like this allow kids to dig into programming visually, get a basic understanding of the code, and see instant results by objects already created within the tool itself. As the programming behind the scenes gets more complex, so can the game.

Yet, I'm realizing that perhaps these tutorials may not pack the punch they need to, especially for teens used to creating virtual worlds through drag and drop. It would also be interesting to know how many of these teens who are used to action packed video games shift into the slower gear necessary to write code. Perhaps the teens who want to program are not necessarily the same ones who are building virtual worlds and universes through drag and drop. Or maybe they are. It's worth looking into more, and I plan on revisiting this topic in the future.

Digital Voices Worldwide

2008-08-11T13:33:45-07:00

A friend of mine once exclaimed, "I hate email. It's too impersonal, too static, too dry. Computers are ruining our society, not helping. There is nothing like in-person communication." True there is nothing like in-person communication, but she's missing the point entirely.

I have had in-person communications with many people who are dry and static in person. Being body to body does not guarantee lively, helpful communication. It's not the medium we use to communicate, but how we communicate with one another.

Emails can be rich with emotion, details, and color, as can a text message, a blog page, or a podcast. They can also be dry and hideously boring. The quality of communication always depends directly on the communicator. Speech, email, dead wood letters, blogs, and voice mails are simply tools for conveying information and communication. Don't bash the method!

The great advantage I see in digital communications such as email, blogs, and podcasts are that they reach worldwide. This can, of course, raise global noise to extremes, but we are also now communicating with people we never would have touched in any way previously. I have friends all over the world. That's something my grandmother could not say. Her friends were limited to her city.

We can broadcast issues and news, share interests, commiserate, and work collaboratively without ever leaving our homes. Again this increases a lot of digital garbage, but it's like anything else . . . pick and choose wisely.

I hear the same thing said in reference to TVs. TV, many claim, is all crap and bad for the mind. "People should be reading more!" says another friend. I have to pipe in here that I have read many crappy books and magazines in my day. Just because something is in print does not mean it's valuable. And I watch what I consider quality viewing on TV, such as great science and nature shows, histories and biography, etc.

And while I'm at it, can we quit knocking entertainment in general. Entertainment, whatever your favorite format is, has it's place and its value. Of course, like anything else, it's is best enjoyed in moderation. Like anything else, you need to be mindful of what you are stuffing in your head no matter whether it's something from the internet, a book, watching live performances, or a movie.

Spreading our digital voices worldwide also has it's place and value. It's an excellent opportunity for us to befriend people globally, to be mindful of our speech and sensitive to others, and it enables people to be heard who might otherwise be forced into silence due to geography.

Like it or not, digital voices is the present and will continue to play powerful roles in the future. Thankfully!

Beginner's Mind in Geeksville

2008-08-08T11:01:22-07:00

Suzuki Roshi, a Zen master, coined the phrase Beginner's Mind. A Beginner's Mind is a mind free of preconceptions, free of judgments. It is a mind of innocence and openness, a mind ready to awaken. With a Beginner's Mind we see what is that rather than what we expect to see.

For the last 7 years or so I've been fortunate enough to be in communication with people who want to learn Java programming. They come to our sites with the Beginner's Mind and full of eagerness. As we learn a programming language, or anything else for that matter, it's important to retain that Beginner's Mind, that mind free of ideas that block what is really there.

I'm one of those people who enjoys being in a constant state of learning, so on the side (meaning outside of my job) I am learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript for building dynamic web sites from a database. I dabbled in PHP before I came to Sun and liked it, mostly because it was one of the first programming languages I had been exposed to.

Yet, I'm finding that even with that short bit of time I had worked with it, I had formed some ideas and opinions about PHP that currently created a startled reaction in me when a co-worker pointed out that PHP is known to have some security issues. What????

I felt a knee-jerk reaction. Silly really. I mean, for Heaven's sake, we are talking a programming language here and such issues need to be researched and addressed! But it was interesting to me how just that little bit of fondness for PHP created a view that had me less open, feeling defensive. That's is not a Beginner's Mind.

So, with much concerted effort I am slipping back into Beginner's Mind and researching the topic with interest and without prejudice. Perhaps at some point I will write about security here and what I learn. I'm also interested in learning from all of you about which languages you feel are the most secure, which ones you like but are less secure.

In Geeksville, the land of so much technology, we have to be careful not to get carried away with our views, with our ideas, because technology, like everything else, is in rapid movement, changing daily, sometimes improving, sometimes deteriorating. But it's a wonderful place to be, always learning, always coming back to the Beginner's Mind with fresh awareness and learning.