Caledon Oxbridge Q&A for 2013-12-08

15:03 Tali Rosca And so we're at it again. Welcome to this week's QA with the Deans, where we will do our best to answer questions about Oxbridge, Caledon and SL issues in general.
15:03 Tali Rosca We're a bit shorthanded tonight, but I think we can probably manage.
15:04 Tali Rosca You can see our usual areas of expertise here: http://www.caledonoxbridge.org/qna_index.php , but you're not a Dean of Oxbridge without having an opinion on anything, so we can probably handle questions :-)
15:05 Tali Rosca Any questions to open the session?
15:06 Wordsmith Jarvinen Wonders if questions are proportional to the temperature.
15:06 Tali Rosca Or the amount of deans.
15:06 Wordsmith Jarvinen If we made Damian as King Kong a dean, we would have a lot of "amount".
15:07 Marion Questi I can leave if I'm an inhibiting factor...:)
15:07 Tali Rosca A deanhibitor?
15:08 Tali Rosca Save us. We were not prepared to do stand-up. (As you probably noticed)
15:08 Sauce Sorrowman I am spamming people with notecards and was just looking for somewhere to sit. no questions here. :P
15:09 Tali Rosca Is the topic of the notecard public yet?
15:09 Wordsmith Jarvinen Or were you merely taking advantage of our protective shields against retaliation?
15:09 Sauce Sorrowman I guess we can chat about it. I won't steal thunder - you can explain while i'm dropping cards.
15:10 Tali Rosca We have been working on arranging a build contest under the umbrella of Oxbridge.
15:10 Tali Rosca The primary idea is to get people together around building and creating, sharing ideas, technique and inspiration.
15:11 Tali Rosca So we thought a contest, where things were on display while they were being built, would be a good idea.
15:11 Marion Questi Sounds like fun!
15:12 Tali Rosca We're planning to run the first iteration in January, and make it a recurring event if it is successful.
15:12 Cyrellys yes
15:12 Sauce Sorrowman the contest is over the space of a month, so there's plenty of time for building, discussion and socialising around the builds
15:12 Gronk Seriman Where will this happen? In the sandbox?
15:13 Tali Rosca And I happen to know that Sauce is currently spamming notecards to merchants, asking for sponsored prizes.
15:13 Sauce Sorrowman we haven't really sussed out a location yet, but we're thinking that possibly in Oxbridge Village next to the stone circle there.
15:13 Tali Rosca We *think* it will be at the chat circle in the village.
15:13 Tali Rosca The advantage is that that will share prims with the sandbox.
15:13 Sauce Sorrowman (I thought the sandbox was at the other side of the sim)
15:14 Marion Questi It's all commonwealth land.
15:14 Tali Rosca Areas owned by the same person/group shares prim allocation in a sim.
15:14 Sauce Sorrowman ah okay
15:14 Wordsmith Jarvinen And thus the prim count is shared between parcels.
15:15 Tali Rosca There will be a theme for the builds, but I don't think that should be public yet, so people don't start early :-)
15:15 Sauce Sorrowman heh
15:15 Sauce Sorrowman agreed
15:15 Meora (menchor) buildings or "things"?
15:15 Sauce Sorrowman both, most likely. the theme will change with each contest
15:16 Tali Rosca We could possibly take a page from the Babbage Oiling festival, and have one contest be for "Caledonian items", to be used across the lands.
15:16 Sauce Sorrowman the building phase will likely be 2-3 weeks, with voting over the final week.
15:18 Sauce Sorrowman (it will be a public vote that decides the winner)
15:18 Tali Rosca Winner will be decided by public vote, though we hope to have a system which is *slightly* less prone to being flashmobbed.
15:19 Meora (menchor) the builder 2 friends and each of their 12 alts
15:19 Sauce Sorrowman anyone frequenting the sandbox over the last month will likely have seen me there with a lot of big cuboids working out the voting system
15:19 Meora (menchor) Ha ha ha hahahaaa
15:19 brenda Blackrain bach (s2brenda) OiiY ???
15:20 Sauce Sorrowman it should be reasonably safe against being "gamed", but we'll have some additional safeguards in place to ensure the fairness of the vote anyway
15:20 James MacCloude (mac6572) now that's a neat gesture
15:20 Tali Rosca That said, the contest is primarily thought as a way to gather the Oxbridge community (or Caledon at large), so I hope people will participate in a friendly, sportsman-like fasion.
15:20 Meora (menchor) wanting to win that badly is pathetic
15:21 Larkylouz "It's all just a game!"
15:22 Sauce Sorrowman it's mostly bragging rights people will be competing for, but there will be prizes too. tokens of achievement rather than big bucks
15:23 Gronk Seriman Ooo! Maybe a hat!
15:23 Tali Rosca So, count down to January.
15:23 Larkylouz LOL, Gronk
15:23 Tali Rosca I am *sure* somebody will be willing to donate a top hat :-)
15:24 Tali Rosca ...with gears, even!
15:24 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) In great abundance
15:24 Phrynne thinks about hats
15:24 Tali Rosca Anyway, that was a semi-official announcement.
15:24 Tali Rosca Any questions?
15:26 Tali Rosca Other announcements?
15:27 Wordsmith Jarvinen Expect a delay in seeing today's transcript up on the web.
15:28 Tali Rosca To dig into the *somewhat* obscure details, I noticed that Oculus Rift support is now official for SL, and the viewer supporting it is "feature complete", and going to test.
15:28 Sauce Sorrowman nausea for all!
15:28 Wordsmith Jarvinen From what I can gather, a node in NJ on my route from my ISP to the website was blacklisted. Which seems to mean I can't get past that node.
15:30 Tali Rosca Sauce, you have actually tried the Rift, right? Though not in SL?
15:31 Sauce Sorrowman yup, I've tried it.
15:31 Sauce Sorrowman It's impressive, there's no denying that.
15:31 Tali Rosca -And to anybody who may be going, "huh?", the Oculus Rift is the much-hyped VR headset which shows stereoscopic 3D vision and tracks your head movement.
15:31 Meora (menchor) what's different?
15:32 James MacCloude (mac6572) well since I haven't heard of the rift until a couple of days ago I still don't know what it is
15:32 Tali Rosca You literally turn your head to look at things.
15:32 Sauce Sorrowman There's also no denying that I had to stick my head out the window for about five minutes sucking in fresh air to fight the nausea after using it for 2 minutes.
15:32 Meora (menchor) but that means you need to sit in a swivel chair
15:32 Larkylouz LOL
15:32 James MacCloude (mac6572) oh yah that right
15:33 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) For people with working two eyes.
15:33 Phrynne the nausea does not sound fun.
15:33 Tali Rosca The problem with such VR is that there is a disconnect between being able to fully track the *head rotations*, but not the *body movement*, so it may lead to something akin to seasickness for some.
15:33 Sauce Sorrowman apparently the motion sickness is linked to a slight delay in the response to head movements which can be rectified through optimisation of the software
15:34 Sauce Sorrowman and tali's "disconnect"
15:34 James MacCloude (mac6572) well that leavs me out one eye is 20 the other is something else
15:34 Tali Rosca And, as Sauce says, sheer lag between *doing* the movement and *seeing* the movement.
15:34 Tali Rosca It can be used over glasses.
15:34 Larkylouz Gives a whole new meaning to 'lag'
15:34 Meora (menchor) does graphic card power help
15:35 Tali Rosca The client has to render two images; one for each eye, so yes, it does tax the graphics extra.
15:35 Sauce Sorrowman that said, the resolution of the screen is quite low, so that reduces the strain a bit.
15:36 Meora (menchor) but arent they smaller than the 1920 by 1018 I currently have?
15:36 Tali Rosca I am personally a little skeptical about the mainstream use, but I definitely think it's a good match for virtual worlds, so LL should certainly be there and explore the possibilities.
15:37 Sauce Sorrowman I have to drop out of the discussion, unfortunately, since I have to get up for work in about 6.5 hours.
15:37 Sauce Sorrowman goodnight all.
15:37 Gronk Seriman Ooo! Duke Nukem 3D...IN 3D!!!
15:38 Tali Rosca You'll have to wait another 15 years for that, Gronk.
15:38 Wordsmith Jarvinen tc Mr. Sorrowman.
15:38 James MacCloude (mac6572) that was fun
15:38 Gronk Seriman Good night, Sauce!
15:38 Marion Questi VR goggles have always been very tiring. The eye must maintain a very short focal length for long periods.
15:38 James MacCloude (mac6572) see you
15:40 James MacCloude (mac6572) and eyes in general are not used to that
15:41 Tali Rosca Other than that, it has been a quiet week, I think, as everybody are gearing up for holidays rather than SL.
15:41 James MacCloude (mac6572) I'm still waiting for the halodeck to come along then you could really get into SL
15:43 Tali Rosca It seems we're not inundated with questions tonight...
15:43 Tali Rosca Should we call it an early night and go dance on the tables?
15:44 jade (jaded63) giggles
15:44 Elfbiter Skysmith (elfbiter) *sees no mice around*
15:44 Meora (menchor) lots of things in the LL pipeline
15:44 Wordsmith Jarvinen Dancing on the tables is always an option, as long as we grab the wine off of them first.
15:44 Marion Questi No questions at all for us?
15:44 Phrynne raises a hand
15:45 Tali Rosca Yes?
15:45 James MacCloude (mac6572) trying to think of one
15:45 Phrynne about half the time now, when I try to say something in ISC chat, I get an erro r message that I am not allowed to do it.
15:45 Phrynne which makes little sense.
15:46 Tali Rosca Not *allowed*, or just the "Could not connect" message?
15:46 Phrynne Not allowed.
15:46 Marion Questi I have never seen such a message.
15:46 Phrynne I'll try to capture the wording next time.
15:46 Meora (menchor) [15:24:46] Phrynne: .
[15:24:48] Phrynne: .
15:46 jade (jaded63) I was disappointed that the teacher for the class previous to this one did not show
15:46 Phrynne it was such that I changed groups in order to be in ISC.
15:47 Tali Rosca The previous? That was Martini's?
15:47 Phrynne yes, those two short messages went through, when sentences did not.
15:47 Meora (menchor) ok
15:47 Marion Questi I'm sorry if you were inconvenienced Miss Jade.
15:47 Wordsmith Jarvinen We've had a number of cancelations this last week, simultaneous with my being unable to update the schedule.
15:47 Tali Rosca It should have been officially canceled.
15:47 Tali Rosca I know there was noticed on the board earlier, but I don't see any currently.
15:47 James MacCloude (mac6572) on one of my groups I have a simular problem
15:47 Marion Questi Sometimes RL events force an instructor to miss a class.
15:48 Larkylouz How difficult is it to update the website and calendar? Is it something someone else could take on temporarily?
15:48 Wordsmith Jarvinen Dear Martini did say she was going to put a cancel prim on the schedule outside, but at the moment, that's the best we can do.
15:48 Shouten Haller It was marked as canceled on the schedule in front but not the others
15:48 Tali Rosca I fear autoreturn may have gotten the cancelation notice on the board :-S
15:48 Wordsmith Jarvinen It is not difficult to update the website. What I can't do is see it or download the image.
15:49 Meora (menchor) ah the punishment of a sinner who has earned the wrath of the internet Gods
15:49 Wordsmith Jarvinen Which is needed to upload the image and notecard to update the schedule in SL.
15:50 Larkylouz Could you and I cooperate over email? It's been a very long time since I had to do FTP and so forth, but. . .
15:50 Wordsmith Jarvinen If the problem persists, I can port the coding to do it locally. I've also notified the node owner that they are blacklisted etc.
15:50 Wordsmith Jarvinen Oh, getting the updated image doesn't require FTP.
15:51 Larkylouz See how long it has been? LOL
15:51 Tali Rosca That said, sorry for the glitch here. Martini's absence was known in advance, and was announced, but as I said, I fear that noticed was accidentally deleted.
15:51 Wordsmith Jarvinen Just the right URL and saving the image or text file.
15:51 Larkylouz Heavens, I can send you a screen capture.
15:52 Wordsmith Jarvinen We can work that out, yes.
15:52 Larkylouz I'll talk to you after the Q&A
15:53 Larkylouz I have an unrelated question.
15:53 Wordsmith Jarvinen Generally blacklisting a major communication company's node is a temporary matter.
15:54 Tali Rosca Yes?
15:54 Larkylouz I understand that Oxbridge is a hubbed region. Is it at all possible to get LMs to buildings on campus for staff? I would bake chocolate cheesecakes for anyone who could get me a way to TP to the Hof C.
15:55 Shouten Haller The walk is good exercise
15:55 Larkylouz doesn't cook in RL and wants to clarify that it is the thought that counts - those are prim cheesecakes. . ..
15:55 Marion Questi You can TP to the Hall of Caledon...:)
15:55 Marion Questi It's a separate parcel.
15:55 Tali Rosca To be perfectly honest, I've never quite sussed out how SL *actually* handles teleport routing spots and group members/owners.
15:55 Meora (menchor) I regularly land here instead of the hub
15:56 Tali Rosca Personally, I tend to just "double jump"; a direct landmark works for me once I am in the sim.
15:56 Wordsmith Jarvinen You can tp directly to the lecture hall and the hall of Caledon.
15:56 Marion Questi We allow TP into the HoC to accomodate people who come here just for the Quest.
15:56 Larkylouz I can? Duh. I once tryied to set LMs after TPing back and forth from the gateway off the village.
15:56 Larkylouz Okay, thanks. That was easy.
15:57 Marion Questi My pleasure...:)
15:57 Larkylouz There have been constant folks lurking back there lately. David said he noticed it too.
15:58 Tali Rosca Yeah. Their names were in capital letters.
15:58 Wordsmith Jarvinen Ahh. ;)
15:58 Larkylouz No, lots of different folks. They seem to often be Portuguese speakers, but that's the main commonality. That and that I don't htink they're there for the quest.
15:59 Larkylouz *think
15:59 Larkylouz gets the joke a little late and giggles.
15:59 Tali Rosca I think that's it for tonight. We managed a full hour anyway.
16:00 Wordsmith Jarvinen Thanks you all for coming and participating.
16:00 Marion Questi Thank you all for coming.
16:00 Gronk Seriman Thank you, Deans!
16:00 James MacCloude (mac6572) *:-.,_,.-:*'``'*You're Welcome!!!!*:-.,_,.-:*'``'*
16:00 Larkylouz Thank you, Deans.
16:00 Tali Rosca Thank you for coming. Next week, same cat-time, same cat-channel.
16:00 Phrynne thank you, Deans