Time to fade away....

Well, thank you Linden Labs. Looks like I will be downtiering and leaving SL as soon as my land tier is due again. Just all of a sudden, ALL my ingame items sales stopped.... I had no idea why, my search and classified ranking LOOKED good....until I upgraded to LL's newest program...the one with the new search. Prokofy Neva was right, its pure EVIL. :( So I go back and check my sales, lo and behold, the sales dieoff coincides with the RELEASE of 18.5.3 and the new search!

Old search....I search for steampunk. My two stores were in the 51-100 or 75-100 range of the top 100....ALWAYS....NEVER have been off the keyword search since I opened them. Under the new search...I don't even make the top 100 anymore.

Why? All these frigging clubs and RP sims with NO relation to steampunk 'keyword loading'. And since they have a billion people with them in pics, and a billion landmarks, adding this keyword pushes them to the top of a list they have nothing to do with! The top 20...two actually carry steampunk items (1 or 2, nothing like my inventory)....the rest, clubs, futuristic RP sims, Dark future RP sims, medieval sims, even a frigging TATOO PARLOR for christ sakes! Somehow, these utterly irrelevant places outrank me just because they are already big and added an irrelevant keyword.

What can I do about it? Jack and shit... SLExchange does not move enough goods to pay tier....and I cannot afford to pay tier on huge tracts of multiple sims to have multiple stores selling identical goods (with tons out on display set for sale) as it appears Ambient does...he still shows on the new search. Nor can I afford the exhorbitant prices on the rare occasion land opens in high traffic VictoriaCity sim. So thanks to LL, I am screwed and the already huge businesses in SL get another free handout from the lab. Thanks guys!

Flickr group for Caledon

I created a group, Independent State of Caledon (SL) for those persons interested in posting their pictures taken within our great nation. Feel free to sign up and add to the group!

New items

Finished the Expedition Base Camp sets and have them up on the vendor. They come in three flavors (and pricing).

Lite
Standard
Deluxe

I also added in a surveyor's set (part of the deluxe camp) consisting of a brass transit, leveling rod and sextant. Also, the lanterns that come in the standard and deluxe camps may be purcahsed separately (2 lanterns and a kerosene cannister).

Lastly, the Geothermal Steam Engine went up on the vendor today. All items also available under the Deckard & Quinn Co. brand on SLExchange.

Much updating goodness today!

Caledon forums redux

What a complete and utter joke. Apparently, someone mentioned to Excalibur that the boards were considered a clique' (Excalibur, feel free to mention me if you were indeed referring to me...I don't HIDE things I say behind locked forums. I stand by what I say, right or wrong.) since you must sign up to read. So, the forum admin puts up a poll. And of course the clique' members rush to post NO! They cite the wonderfully bogus reason of the privacy of their conversations from search engines. So far, I have not seen a single conversation that anyone would give a damn about there, let alone one needing privacy from search engines.

Caledon FIC....the only term I can think of....best describes this group of fanatics hiding their little mutual admiration society behind locked doors. What have they got to hide? What is so bad if someone using a search engine seess that 'FIC Caledonian' is holding the 1x10^23rd ball of the year? Or holding a book reading? Or has new items at their store? It is not like anyone is going to be able to connect the basement-dwelling paranoid 'John/Jane Doe' with their character of 'FIC Caledonian', so why all the paranoia?

My disgust level with my fellow Caledonians increases yet again. :(


You know, I have a domain name....I *ORIGINALLY* created a Caledon website and forums LONG before the caledonforums existed (I took it down when Desmond told me he would rather have control over that himself and had someone working on a website for him), I may revise it, put it back up and have the 'FREE Caledon Forums' where those willing to stand behind their words can post AND where (like the New Babbage forums) ANYONE can read it. I am not big on FIC and FIC sites....and I know I am not the only one that feels that way.

Venting: Theme, people, theme!

This is a rant. If it offends anyone, I am sorry. But I am very blunt and I don't smile and sugar words...politician I am not. Disclaimer done.


---------If easily offended, do not read below this line -------------

Caledon is SUPPOSED to be victorian / steampunk. MANY of the residents wouldn't know this if it bit them dead-square on the ass! Did a fly around the various sims. And was really disgusted.

THEME AND ERA! Two players built airfields. Now, I would expect steampunk here....zeppelins, ornithopters, weird steam or electrical flyers of various kinds. What do I find? WWI fighters (Cubey Terra in one case). For god's sake folks, be creative! A WWI fighter (or even a wright brothers replica) is out of period/theme for BOTH steampunk and victorian! If you want WWI planes, find a WWI airfield!

And over in port Caledon, right next to my store...a little apartment complex / shops for rent that looks like 'the projects' in most cities. Entire lot paved over, houses that do NOT look victorian in the least (nice boxes to maximize land use for rental. Yep, really in theme / era...NOT!.

There were many more examples, one or two in each sim. Folks, look around...if its out of place compared to the neighbors, its outta place!


LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION! Another wonderful thing...folks cannot even follow the SIM THEME! For example, Caledon and C2 are supposed to be rural/small villages. Someone builds a seriies of 3 and FOUR story row houses along the main road. WTF? Perfect for Caledon VictoriaCity or Penzance.....WAY TO HELL OUT OF PLACE IN CALEDON 2! *sigh* this eyesore replaced a NICE estate home and beautiful garden which were perfectly themed for Caledon 2.

Same thing in Caledon (prime) A four-story, not even vaguely victorian 'store'....people, glass was expensive back then, one whole wall of this eyesore is glass! And I won't even touch the gigantic pile of books blight nearby...other than to say this is NOT the kind of sculpture victorians would do...nor is it steampunk. Want books? Build a library that fits theme!

When I first came to caledon, I was told other than City areas (port cal, VC, etc) NOT TO FILL THE ENTIRE PLOT. make the house fit in. Think people....if all the other houses are 1-2 stories, don't put up a frigging 4-5 story building...it doesn't fit in! If everyone else has greenspace on their lot, don't build something that takes every square meter of the plot! It doesn't fit in with the rest of the sim!

I've wanted to build a small factory for quite a while. Considered taking down my Lodge in Caledon Prime and building there....but it doesn't fit the area and would be an eyesore to the Dog Trainers and the residence to either side of me, so I leave it a lodge building. Sometimes, you just HAVE to put others ahead of yourself and NOT build what you want. The mentality of 'I paid for it, its mine to do as I want' is the REASON the mainland looks as it does.

TRASH AND DEBRIS: Yesterday, I even heard Desmond having to remove signage that blocked a players's access to his lot. BLOCKED HIS LOT! What the hell were you thinking? People, for christ sakes, your pisssant ball or poetry reading is NOT THAT IMPORTANT! I'd LOVE to stick up store advertisements and such, but guess what? I value the look of CALEDON over my own profits or sense of importance! Stop trashing up the place and then getting militant when Desmond cleans up. He publically stated sign complaints (and this isn't me, I gave up after the in-crowd savaged me on the Caledon forums) are eating up HOURS each week. It is also unfar to Desmond to waste his time to clean up messes YOU should not have made in the first place!

OTHER SIMILAR SIMS: Some of you, I have heard, wonder about future growth....compared to New Babbage and Antiquity sim groupings. Guess what? THOSE sims have ENFORCED ZONING and players that put theme, era and general appearance ahead of their own little wants. My god, how hard is it to look around and go 'hrm, my building doesn't REALLY fit the area....it is [to tall /too full a plot / architecture does not fit the era or area / etc.]. How hard is it to think of CALEDON first...before 'my ball, which happens to be the 2x10^21st ball of the year, and it must be advertized EVERYWHERE' and blocking lot access with signs?

Want to see a good use of theme and keeping similar appearances? Go to New Babbage. While I dislike the Victorian grunge look of the place (far too dirty and squalid for my tastes, I prefer an idealized and CLEANER steampunk/victorian)...the buildings work well with their neighbors (similar height, styles) and are either victorian themed or steampunk....no modernistic 'apartment complexes' or 'tree houses in a city', no 'medieval castles in town' type of thing. Steelhead also does a very good job of staying in the proper time period and styles. Go there, look, learn. And rebuild. :)

CONCLUSION: We have something great in Caledon....but some of the residents seem hell-bent on turning it into 'mainland lite' by totally ignoring theme and general appearance of the place. Desmond is a nice person, he gave us guidelines and (in the absence of hard rules) some of you tossed them to the wind and did what you want. C'mon people, I KNOW you can do better than what I saw tonight while out flying.....try to LIVE UP to the theme, try to follow the guidelines for Caledon, and let us all make Caledon the BEST it can be....not 'mainland lite'.

Expedition in a box..

Currently working on a new project, the 'Expedition in a Box'. Think of this as a child's playset, but for adult players. It will allow players to quickly set up a 'base camp' in places such as the darkest mainland. It will ship with the following items.....

2 large tents.
4 folding cots, w/poses.
4 folding chairs, w/poses.
Folding map table with maps.
Assorted sizes of supply crates & Barrels.
Firepit, /sculpted rocks & light effects.
Flagpole and user-modifiable flexi flag.
4 lanterns, scripted to light at night.
Spyglass, unscripted.
Sextant, unscripted.
Animal hide on stretching rack.

Everything was built last night except the tents, lanters, sextant and hide rack. Going to work on that tonight and try to roll it out either tonight or Thanksgiving day/evening. No idea on pricing at this point. Will have to think about that.

New days, new devices

The last major projects have been completed. I updated my steam combat armor with no flag and Union Jack to have user-selectable rank insignia on the shoulder, as well as created an enlisted / NCO set (silver, no pictures).

For the special 'Caledon Resident' armor, I added a flexi flash just below the officer rank insignia AND a flexi 'sash' hanging from the left hip of the unit. As a complement to this, I built two variants and colorized the enlisted version to create a 'color sergeant' armor.

Peactime Color Sergeant - http://www.flickr.com/photos/maklin/2036948728/
Combat Color Sergeant - http://www.flickr.com/photos/maklin/2036947482/


In addition I have created an Ornithopter, based roughly in shape off a dragonfly. Two variants have been completed, the unarmed Dragonfly Ornithopter Scout, and the armed 'bomber' version ... which can drop 1 bomb every 5 seconds. Both have flapping wings, moving pistons and smoke effects. The later comes with a HUD for releasing bombs.

Ornithopter in flight - http://www.flickr.com/photos/maklin/1822267546/

Salute to the Troops, Steelhead

Ah, I have not had this much fun in ages. I visited Steelhead, strictly to see if Old Glory Sutlery had come out with the new Confederate officer's uniform. Walked right into the setup for the 'Salute to the Troops' event. 7th Cavalry out of steelhead had a camp, as did the confederates farther on down. There was even a moving reading of a WWI soldier's letter home.

Later that afternoon, there was an infantry parade. While not officially in any unit (except the rather tiny one I made for my steam armor), I marched with Col. Pearse as part of the Caledon Highlands Regiment. Later, they held a mounted parade. The Caledon Lancers put on a BEAUTIFUL showing, with 8 units in attendance! Col. Pearse again made a showing with the Caledon Carntaigh Curassiers, and I once again suited up!

Old Glory ended up releasing their Confederate officer uniform, which I was apparently the first to purchase. Quite nice an outfit. Ended up fitting Mr. Fizz's (Fizzworks) LeMat pistol to it for a more complete look.

Pictures from the event are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/maklin

Dismal forums

After joining the Caledon forums (www.caledonforums.com) I am MOST HEARTILY regretting the decision. I held off due to the asinine policy of 'can't read without joining to prevent spam' (when a policy of 'can't post without signing up, but anyone can read' would be better, I detest the appearance of secret cabals), but relented and joined.

I saw a lot of familiar names, and a few familiar names that are 'important' in Caledon and FAR, FAR more of the new population than the old. Initially, I stayed on the edge of things, then as I got comfortable made a comment on policy.

WOW! Apparently, relaying through what OUTSIDERS have said about Caledon after seeing the sign litter at the telehubs -- and mentioning that that it wasn't always this way gets one accused of starting an 'old Caledon vs new Caledon debate' and, by one odious individual, labeled 'disingenuous'. No wonder they hide behind 'must sign up to read' rules and claim it avoids spam...they have much to hide, as much of the civility you see ingame is gone the second you disagree with the herd mentality of the newer caledonian citizens.

I, for my own part, heartily miss the 'old' Caledon and its civility. The 'new' Caledon and its proponents can have the Caledon forums and their trashy, rummage-sale look to the hubs (terms used by various non-Caledon visitors). I guess putting the look of the sims as a whole and avoiding signs at the hubs has been replaced in the 'new' Caledon with the ego-stroking of hosting a big event. I may be out of date, but give me the old Caledon any day....

(OOC / IC) Caledon Wellsian project

(OOC) I was contacted early Sunday by Desmond, seems he had a project for me. I port over to the new Wellsian sim (still being terraformed / tweaked) and see a HUGE gap / inlet. Turns out, we needed a railroad bridge. Per Desmond, something big, solid, and eye catching....and in 25 prims or less. I did it in 29...and Des squeezed out 4 more prims for the overage.

(IC) Hrm, a telegram from the administrator of Caledon Rail. A project for Caledon National Rail? In the rugged Wellsian mountains? Interesting.... With vastly limited resources? How unsurprising.... However, I take this as a challenge and I am not one to turn down a challenge of this nature.

Travelling to the newly surveyed Wellsian Province, I assessed the ruggedly mountainous nature of the site and determine that special materials (megaprims) will be required for the building. After acquiring the required specialized oversized steel beams, I conducted a second survey to determine the exact location of the railway roadbed. Completing this preliminary work, I began the task at hand. The rail administrator wanted something rather stylistic, so I designed bridge for appearance as well as utility.

In design, the bridge is a custom hybrid suspension-support design. The steel superstructure is composed of a series arcs and circles (in fact, I am told part of the upper part resembles a stylized and rounded 'W' for Wellsian. I daresay, this was NOT intentional on my part, perhaps it was a subconscious thought? Perhaps it was just manner in which the arcs intersected?). The reinforced steel deck is supported by suspension rods from the superstructure in addition to an upward curving steel substructure for it to rest on. Both ends are anchored into solid stone piers, built deeply into the solid rock of the Wellsian Mountains.

In the end, the bridge presents an appearance both solid (the decking, substructure and anchor piers), yet airy with the great arcs of steel above. I am quite satisfied with the final outcome of the project, based on feedback from the CR administrator and local residents who have visited the build site.

(OOC) A submarine that works!

Thanks to a wonderful fellow Caledonian (thank you again, Kandace Commons!), I now have a working submarine! Turns out, I cannot use a modified air flight script, even with hover ability, as it negates some of the flags like HOVER_HEIGHT_GLOBAL, which means I cannot cap altitude at the water level (with llWater() )...it just ignored it completely.

She took about ten minutes out of her schedule on Sunday to look at my code and quickly gave me a working script! The camera even follows behind with some flexibility, it doesn't RIGIDLY stay behind the sub which gives it more the illusion of free motion as the vehicle moves. I really like how it looks, especially with the first submarine being roughly shaped like a manta ray.

(OOC) Its a Submarine, sort of

OK, finally got it to where it works...for the most part. Having a LOT of dificulty capping the unit at surface level. If I try to prevent it from applying impulses via the linear.z props (setting it to 0 or -n when Altitude > water) results it in it slamming straight to the bottom... No idea why changing linear.z +=12; to +=0; causes it to slam to the bottom.


So I decided to use llMoveToTarget. Like most of LL functions, its nearly useless except for one or two SPECIFIC and LIMITED applications (like things that follow set courses)...you can't move it to ONE specified axis, oh no...have to do the whole XYZ. AND add in the joy it doesn't just move it to the coords and stop, it moves it to the coords AND KEEPS IT THERE until you issue the llStopMoveToCoordinates command. LL has a knack for making commands useless.



So on the surface it stutters....for some reason, even with a buoyancy that causes it to sink when stationary, it CLIMBS when moving forward or backward, making it hit the limit and stutter as its pushed back down. Underwater, it runs fine...just suface level motion is not good.

(OOC) Reason #9,284,124 to hate Linden Labs - Documentation

Trying to program something. Of course, error. So look it up in the help file...great, no examples, pure reference and utterly useless (vector offset ... what in the nine hells does that mean, exactly, it doesn't work in the program?). Sooo, against my better judgement, I go to the LSL wiki....guess what? Their supposedly working sample code doesn't do a thing! Well, it does generate 'syntax error'.

And of course, no one at LL heard of a USEFUL error message or debugging tool.

typo the command = syntax error
forget a closing ; = syntax error
leave out a paramter = syntax error
use the wrong type on a paramenter = syntax error

You know, when the program doesn't work, I KNOW I have an error somewhere...it would be kinda nice if the error message was a tiny bit more descriptive. Hells, even MICROSOFT has more descriptive messages for errors than LL does! The tinkertoy programming language on the old text-based MUCK's (MUF, multi-user forth) has better error messages than LSL! Kinda sad, when EVERYTHING available as a reference to LSL is based on the assumption you are already a master programmer and don't NEED it. Not all of us are Ordinal's or Cubey's or professional programmers RL...

But then again, like everything to come out of the Linden Love machine of late, its uselessness to the average player is to be expected.

(OOC) Tentatively resuming activity.

I spoke with Desmond the other night. I can see his point to why he is leaving voice activated. Linden labs is screwing the admins harder than the players on this one.

For the players, they merely crippled text interface with the new communications center in order to try to force us to voice, so they can claim it to be a 'success'.

For admins, they defaulted voice to ON until December even on private sims....after saying it would only be on the mainland. Basically they are handing out free voice-crack on private sims to the short-attention-span illiterates attracted by the opening of registration (thanks again, King Philip!), hoping THEY pressure the admins into paying for voice on private sims, which most seem not to want to do. Rumor also has it this is a way to force admins to from the grandfathered class 4 machines to the pricer class 5 machines. Really, really shitty behavior, LL...you've never been good with truth and decency, but even YOU should be ashamed. And Zee Linden needs to be beaten severely and run out of town like the beancounting scum he is.

I sympathize with Desmond and I consider him a friend...he has turnover, so in a year, there may be less than 1/4 original inhabitants, the rest being new and having no experience with pre-voice. He sort of has to do it, or risk having issues filling plots and meeting tier.

So, since this is not really what I thought it was, Desmond making a good position statement and backing out, but rather the future stability of Caledon after he gets screwed by LL, I decided not to add insult to injury by pulling out and sticking him with potentially unrented land. it takes a lot for me to back down, but this time I am going to do so, in the interest of not harming others. Now granted, I have lost a TON of interest in SL, due to being second-class as a text user, so I will not be around as often or as active...I've actually started slowly returning to my roots, taking up the Wizard position I had abandoned on one of the old-text-based MU*'s. Its rather exhilirating, all text, being a master programmer once again (instead of an LSL hack).

Anyway, the stores are up and opened once again. Myhouse is back in place....still not sure if I am going to replace the Masonic Lodge build in Caledon I, build a factory to show off my machine shop and steam engines, or sell the plot outright (I have an interested party eyeing the prims). Not sure at this time, going to leave it blank until the weekend, then decide.

(OOC) Goodbye Caledon! (and possibly SL)

This has been a rough last two days. With the advent of voice, the usual ration of verbal grief I catch when outside of Caledon and not in a fur sim (due to my Avatar's appearance) has NOW grown to include people verbally assaulting me for not being voice enabled. I knew this was coming, having been thrown out of one EQ2 and 2 WoW guilds when the voice users, aka illiterate AOL chat-roomers, grew to outnumbered those who could type, it was expected. I even had a plan!

I HAD planned to retreat to good old Caledon. Being a semi-RP and themed area and having spoken to the sim owner when voice was first announced by LL and told it would not be enabled there, I thought it would be possible to continue in SL, albeit with a drastically reduced area of access. I was DEAD wrong.

I find out that voice is ON in Caledon, and according to one of the stewards to which I spoke, will remain on. Then I found posts by the sim admin over on the septic tank forums (Second Citizen) saying how if its not too expensive when LL starts to charge, he'll pay for it himself. Nice 180 from a few months ago. :( I went home and immediately tore down all my builds in Caledon...they are just empty plots now...and, as soon as I learn what the going rate is in the four sims I own land, will be selling my holdings.

If you know the going rate for land in Caledon, Caledon Highlands, Port Caledon and SteamSkyCity, please let me know so that I can efficiently liquidate. I do not really want to leave, having been a founding resident of the third sim (Highlands) and heavily invested in the area/theme, but I see no other choice...I cannot and will not PAY Desmond to be a second-class citizen in Caledon. :(

I hear New Babbage did the right thing. They voted, it was NEARLY unanimous to turn voice off and that is what Mayor Sprocket did. Perhaps THEY can use another inventor who is fleeing the coarsening of community due to voice? I don't know....if I can't find a place to live without voice, looks like I will be leaving SL.

Anyway, to those Caledonians sticking it out, good luck and godspeed...and better get those damned microphones ordered now! :(

(OOC) Updated Vendors - Humidors

Got the vendors updated with the 2 models of humidor (Counter-top and upright, each in oak and walnut). Also added the humidors to SLExchange, since I seem to do quite well there.

Finally finished off a portable steam-powered electrical generator...a very small steam engine, generator, transformer and switching console placed on a cart wtih small wheels. With the jacob's ladder style arcing rods, and animated piston, its really nice looking...but VERY prim heavy...over 100.... Prims, the primary turn-off to building....I love detail and there is only SO much you can do with texturing...at times, you have to prim it!

Other than the above, lots of ideas, little motivation. :( After last night's debacle with the LSL-powered anchor, I have sort of lost heart / interest for the moment. Nothing just springs out and says 'You must build me NOW!' Couple lines out of a Pink Floyd song (Time) seem to sum up my mood at the moment, especially the last.

'Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time. Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines.'

This weekend, I might put up a Deckard & Quinn Co., website....I have a server sitting here unused with plenty of free space, ODBC and .ASP, so I can dust off Dreamweaver UltraDev and work up a 'catalog' of things I have made.

(OOC) Submarines in SL, or how to build an LSL-powered anchor

I spent part of the evening banging away at making a submarine...which is a complete waste of time at my programming skill level. I have made a couple hulls, but for the life of me cannot figure out how to code the miserable things to A) Not fly and B) not sink like a rock when rezzed.

I did find a few posts with ideas on the old forums, tried them, modifying a basic boat script that I have used in the past....I make the most excellent anchors. These things sink faster than the CSS Hunley (nicknamed 'the floating coffin'). There are all sorts of car, boat and plane freebie scripts, and even full-permission for-pay scripts (like the Drifting Thoughs car scripts) but people treat a submarine script like its gold plated! I haven't found one anywhere....at this point, I'd buy a working one that was full permission (to allow for resale of the finished product) and be done with it!

If by some miracle someone reads this, and knows where I can buy a submarine script that actually works, PLEASE let me know here or ingame!

(OOC) Start of a journal / tonight's project

(Enjoying a drink and cigar in the library)

Tonight, I have decided to start a journal, outlining the life and times of an inventor and shopkeeper in the Independent State of Caledon.

I spent the early evening building Humidors (for the uncivilized, humidity controlled cases for storing fine cigars). Built a counter-top humidor with doors that open, then added a base to it to make a true free-standing piece of furniture. The humidors will be on my vendor in the next few days...and go well with the opening cigar boxes with changeable labels that I have already put on them.

(Added 7/31 - Oak Counter-Top Humidor)

These are not really an invention, per-se, but I noticed that Caledon was SORELY lacking in some of the finer things in life, like a good cigar. We Caledonians, and especially those with MY upbringing, enjoy the finer things life has to offer.