Archive for the 'Contests' category
Torture for Dummies: Vote VintLabs!
October 24, 2007 11:47 amFrom a contest I’m organising to a contest I’m participating in: Crap Mariner needed a ‘Torture for Dummies’ book to add to his in-world library. Creating a ‘… for Dummies’ style front cover for a book seemed like a fun challenge. Opensource Obscure must have thought the same, and is currently leading the poll. Help! ;)
Why vote for Vint’s Torture© for Dummies book cover?
We at VintLabs think that a book cover should represent the essence of the book it enwraps and cover the book’s content as widely as possible. That’s why we did not add a fancy tagline like ‘Discover sleep depreviation, isolations, exposure to extremes of cold and stress positions, sexual humiliation and more‘. No, we have chosen to let the definition of what Torture© is to the readers of the book. We feel that using Torture© is such a personal experience, that it is not our task to define it. The book VintLabs made the front cover for, merely aims at guiding you through the process of discovering what Torture© is to you and how best to - undergo or use -Torture©.
Intentionally using a vague lead image, VintLabs has chosen to not narrow the minds of the readers to only one way of using Torture© right from the start. There are that many interesting versions of Torture© which all have their own features: the Chinese Torture© 0.00.01 (BC) that is known to be used by people interested in the Arts, the European Torture© 1.8.00 that comes with all kinds of fun religious add-ons, the current USA Torture© 2K with Dead Row inventory system (connection to the electricity net is needed for that one!) or the Domestic Violence version of Torture© which is renowned for it’s low usability threshold and is used all over the world. And then there is the Psychological Abuse Torture©, fit for all ages. As it’s impossible to thoroughly touch all versions of Torture© released throughout the years or even all versions used world wide now, we thought we should leave the final decision about the preferred release of Torture to the readers. We feel obliged to mention that - as far as we know - the Psychological Abuse Torture© seems to cause the fewest critical errors. Another benefit with that version is that it’s very hard for other people to discover you are using the Torture© software, when running that one.
Last but not least, the whole VintLabs staff agreed that we wanted to do the book cover for a publication that would actually be used, and would not solely serve to look pretty on the bookshelf or living room table to make the person who bought it look more interesting. Yes, the book might get dirty and messy a bit whilst you take your first steps with Torture©, but books aren’t made to look pretty, they are made to be read and used.
So could we - the VintLabs staff - please have your vote for our design for the Torture© for Dummies book cover? VintLab’s CEO has promised we will go shopping if we win! ;)
The SL Blogger’s party CodeBastard Regrave and I hosted was fun fun fun. We had a wide selection of shiny, cute, rusted, steampunk, … robots and androids. And two person in pyjama’s. Although they were very cute, I dare to ask: ‘What do pyjama’s have to do with robots?!’
As promised, Codie and I will give - in order - one year of free Flickr Pro for a Flickr account you choose, a machinimacam by CodeBastard and a lifetime supply of VintLabs outfits to the three persons that took the best SL Bloggers party photograph. So let us know* which photography - only one, please, don’t make choosing any harder than it already is - you submit before Wednesday the 31th of October and we’ll make sure you will get the price. Ow, upload it somewhere please, Flickr maybe? ;)
Ow, and yes, I needed more time than I had to finish my android skin, so I borrowed Chip Midnight’s texture mesh and changed it a bit. Still think the monitor with the ‘mean’ vs. ‘nice’ barometer was a nice touch. The huge amount of mesh on the nose did make me look like micky mouse a bit. :/ But.. ain’t I cute when staring at Dolmere like that? :D
A huge ‘thank you’ and some *purrring* for all that attented and made this Second Life Blogger’s party yet another great one! Special thanks to Codie for prepping her club and getting the stream in order, and to the DJ Balp Allen for playing great music and all of our requests for only tips. Although I think we’ve proven that the SL Bloggers are a generous people… ;)
Photographs in the running for winning a year of Flickr Pro:
- GoSpeed Racer: High on Steam
- Ryker Beck: Panoramic RedHawtness
- Timothy Lilliehook: Vint in Space
- Tary Yeats: Her Royal Redness
- Raul Crimson: Dancing with the Sun
- Nadine Nozaki: Vint & Nadine @ CodeRed
- Looker Lumet: Dolmere at the piano
- Elusyve Jewell: Into the ligth
Blogposts about the SL Blogmeet at the CodeRed Lounge:
- Crap Mariner - Robots “Schroeder, do you ever wonder why people keep messing with classic cartoons to modernize them for modernization’s sake?”
- Raul Crimson - SL Bloggers Party October 21th I just can’t believe there still exist Second Life Residents who do not recognize Veyron’s cute pixelated ass when they see it! Aaargh!
- Nadine Nozaki - Blogger Party at the CodeRed I owe Nadine some thanks for correcting the SLurl and finding us a DJ timely. W00t for Nadine!
- Alysha - Cool Moment - SL Blogger Party ‘The theme was robots, so I looked for three days for a costume I liked. Finally found it (purple of course) and joined the party. I saw some familiar names - Codie, Vint, Raul, Ryker - and some that were not familiar. But everyone was having a great time and, in turn, so did I.’
- GoSpeed Rader - Vote For me Héhé. Sorry, no voting here. Must be an unanimous decision of the jury, which means Codie and I. That will takes some nights of discussion. ;)
- Looker Lumet - Blogger Party October 21th Go and visit the Flickr set. =)
* If you post the URL in the comments here, don’t worry if it does not appear instantly, as I have comment moderation enabled for everything that contains an URL. Ow, and for people that did not comment on vintfalken.com before.
Not the logo of the SL Bloggers
September 1, 2007 4:12 pm
I present to you.. this hideous mix of colorful pixels that will NOT - I repeat: not! - become the SL Blogger’s logo. Yes, I’ve created it with the intend to submit it to the ‘which group of pixels will become the next SL Blogger’s representative all over the grid and web 2.0′ contest (updated here) but luckily in time realised it is desastrous.
If you would still be in doubt about the evilness of this logo design, I’ll give you some reasons to hate it:
Colors. And that many! To many, they scream for attention. Who on earth would want to place this on his blogpage. And I challenge you: try to think of 1 colour scheme that actually goes with the logo - and isn’t hideous too. Besides. Even if I would like lots of colors, why these colors? Neither the toxic green or the cloudy blue have something to do with Second Life or blogging.- The content: something that looks a bit like the Japanese flag - but less stylish - (yes, radials were hot, a year ago) and some icky green dots. Was that the way you were trying to depict ‘being linked’ and ’small parts of a whole’, dear Vint? Well, you’ve failed miserable. And where’s the reference to blogs and Second Life, as that’s what the SLbloggers group is about?
- The taglines: ‘Because there’s already already enough said about First Life!‘ C’mon, Miss Falken! We aren’t that patethic are we. We do have things to say and opinions about First Life, we even mention it on our blogs from time to time. It just doesn’t matter that much on our Second Life blogs. That’s not the same. And ‘Follow our trail…‘. Ow, yes, that trail you were trying to show with the blurred white thingies. Hmmm. Maybe if you would have put a cute neko but up there and said ‘follow the tail’, it would have still been funny, in stead of just sad.
So obviously, I did not submit this one. I don’t know what I was thinking and glad I came to my senses in time. And yes, VintLabs fired the person responsible for this toxic green disaster. *grins* The one I did submit (or at least partly, still need to create some stuff, depending on what Zoe orders see below) tries to keep into account self-criticism number 1.) and number 2.). We’re a bit short on the taglines though - read: we have none - so any suggestions? I’ll make sure they will reach Zoe. Some other possible taglines for the SLbloggers group only I find funny: ‘Let’s outrank First Life!’, ‘Grid down? We’re not!‘ and ‘SLex? Nah, I only write about it. Often.‘ So yes, we’re in desperate need of suggestions. *grins*
So Zoe’s looking for:
- SL Bloggers logo submissions (dealine Sunday 9th of August):
- 512×512 texture in-world
- 94×15 button
- favicon
- something people can put on their blog to show they are an SL blogger (thus: not to big!)
Banners and such will be made when the logo and taglines are chosen.
- Taglines.
- Your ‘url givers’ to put up at the Bloggers HQ.
With the latter she means something that will give the url of YOUR blog to the people that are interested. She suggests the following from SLexchange. I suggest just adding this bit of code into a nice textured prim:
default
{
touch_start(integer num_detected)
{
key gAvatarKey = llDetectedKey(0); llLoadURL(gAvatarKey, "View the offical Second Life website.",
"http://www.secondlife.com"); } }
with ‘View the offical Second Life website.’ replaced by your site’s description and ‘http://www.secondlife.com’ by your site’s URL. (Leave the quotes!)
Child Protector Software for Second Life?
August 22, 2007 2:09 amParental Control Software for SL: Contest
The TUV tekit and Beatenetworks announce a special event. As many are aware, there have been issues in the press recently regarding issues with minors access to adult content in Second Life. While Linden Labs has tried to respond to this criticism via ideas such as ID verification, the community itself has largely been opposed to such an approach. As an alternative, we believe that individual responsibility and parental tools are a better answer. So we are forming a contest to build and provide a robust open source tool which will allow individuals to control avatar access to content without having to resort to sending private information to an unknown third party.
At first thought I would say ‘an alternative to the scary looking identity verification? Woot! Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii! Neat! But them come the ’second thoughts’:
- Allowing to control avatar access means the avie is on the grid already. The main grid that is. If you, as a parent know that - well, otherwise you can’t force your teen to install this - then why not send him or her to the teen grid, where at the moment the kid belongs?
- Controlling access to content: does that include scanning each and every IM received on ‘dirty’ words and proposals?
- Is it that simple? PG area => SL runs smoothly (or at least ‘normal’). Mature area => close SL, boot images.google.com?
The only way this tool could come handy, imho, is when the teen grid and main grid would merge. Otherwise it should be at least implemented in an unofficial Second Life client?
Parents concerned about Second Life 101
What parents worried about their children playing looking at and experiencing mature stuff in Second Life should do:
Ask your kid - the one you’re worried about, not the one getting straight A’s - if he or she plays Second Life.
If your kid answers ‘No’, you can either trust it, and feel relieved the kid is not exposed to the dangerous world of Second Life and that you now it just consuming it’s average 4 hours a day of lots of sex and violence through the TV. Or you can distrust your kid and start monitoring it’s monthly data consumption. Of course, sudden peak levels in that doesn’t necessarily mean your kid plays Second Life. It could also mean that he or she downloads p0rn, music with parental advisory lyrics or - even worse - runs a vlog or his or her own porn site. Ow, and don’t forget to look at the all A’s kid, as that is the one that actually knows how to turn on a PC.
If your kid answers ‘Yes’, ask it which grid he plays: teen or main grid. Teen grid? No worries, rules are strict there and your kid learns to build, script and - according to recent studies - some social and communication skills too. You could even consider showing some engagement and ask your kid what it’s actually doing and/or creating on that grid. Main Grid? Hmmm. Tell it to move to the teen grid. If tears and sobbing come, do tell them that the teens are neat and inventive too, and that if he or she really wants pr0n, there is always the rest of the internet. Make up for the loss of this whole new world and having to make new friends by giving the kid some new toys: a better internet connection, the iPhone or some extra daily TV hours watching sex and violence.
(Via SLinsider)
Prize Distribution 1st Belgian Second Life Photography Contest @ Vacature
August 7, 2007 5:44 am
This evening, august 7th Thurdays August 9th, 19h30 belgian time, the virtual prize distribution for the photography contest organised by sim België (sim Belgium) in cooperation with Vacature and the SecondLifeCrew takes place at the auditorium of Vacature. Afterwards there is a party at the Vacature Lounge with DJ Kiyoshi Nishi.
I ended up second, after Looker Lumet and before Angellilah Pile. As most of you know, I did not agree with how the voting went - although I suggested this voting procedure myself - but that’s not the reason why I will not be present. I just can’t attend. (Maybe I’ll show up later, if the party lasts long enough.) Loki Popinjay was as kind as to agree to play ’stand-in-Vint’ and to replace me there.
Despite my frustration about how the voting went - which maybe does come partly because I didn’t win :p - I think the Belgian Second Life Photography Contest was a great initiative, I hope it will be continued and that we get to see more ‘Belgian’ initiatives and cooperation between Belgians in Second Life soon. AnnSophie, thank you for organising this one!
PS. *Points at the sun in the photograph.* Anybody has a clue why that happened? Was it because I was on ‘RenderGlow=True’?
Photography Contest: Second Life Foto.com
July 26, 2007 12:35 amBudweiser looking for Lingerie Legends in SL
July 20, 2007 12:53 amSecond Life web resources for June 20th 2007 through June 24th 2007
June 24, 2007 4:30 pmosMoz, adding a fifth sence to our metaverse
June 9, 2007 6:16 amWe could already see (normal or wireframe), hear (well, in beta), feel (right click, ‘touch’ & Xcite), taste (virtual thirst) and then there was Calvin Klein’s ‘IN2U’. Now, any self respecting avie can not were the same parfume year in year out, now can he? Second Life fashionistas will be happy to hear they can now pick the right fragnance to match their looks.
Not heard about osMoz, the Perfume Island yet? The company behind osMoz, Firmenich, has already designed a wide variety of fragnances including FlowerByKenzo, Acqua di Gio by Giorgio Armani and CK One by Calvin Klein.
As a part of our continuing quest for information and innovation, osMoz.com, Fermenich’s consumer research tool, is setting up an island in Second Life in order to reach a complementary target. The goal is to test new methodological approaches to consumer research, providing a place for consumers to share their passion for fragrance.
At the osMoz island one can find a quiz to determine the fitting fragnance for each avatar, a virtual perfume bar to pick up that fragnance (neat option, you can regulate the frangance’s intensity using the HUD), a beautiful, scented ingredients garden and a meeting place for perfume adepts.
For the little quiz, I ended up with the ‘Oriental’ fragnance family: ‘You are mysterious, mesmerizing, and exciting and like to play the seduction game. Your charm is intoxicating and you are well aware of your power. Proud and unpredictable by nature, you thrive on encounters and provacation. Your perfumes mirros your desires - heady and warm. You have a prediliction for the oriental family. You like the smell of vanilla, amber, insence and sandalwood and dare to wear fragnances with character. You invite people around you to understand you. They will need to be ready to travel far in the trail of your perfume.‘ Euhm. Yeah. Like. Whatever. Although they might have a point on the provocative part. =d
That and there seems to be an ‘osMoz’ last name pick possible for (certain?) avies now? They also have a photocontest wherein the best 5 snapshots of the island will receive a 5000L$ price. (Deadline: the 20th of the month, send to contact@osmoz.com.) The great shots in this post are by Nephie Eerie from Stella Errans.
oSmoz.com about SL
all Nephie Eerie’s pictures tagged ‘osMoz’ on Flickr
Thy vote, pretty please?
June 4, 2007 2:33 am
A while ago I called out for Belgian participants for a Second Life photography contest. The submitted photographs are now on display at the New Mardes Club (SLURL) (take the stairs to go upstairs) and the snapshot contest has now reached ‘voting phase’ at the secondlifecrew.be website. Some of my fellow Belgian avies participating are Bella March, Loki Popinjay, Looker Lumet and Mylena Aquitane. Yet I humbly (euhm… well.. sort of humble) ask for your vote for ‘SL Attitude’ - Vint Falken here. Why?
- The photograph I’ve sumitted ‘SL attitude’ (aka Mona Lisa Vanity) really does kick meta-ass. Vanny & Lisa look awefully great in it (they do always look great, but anyway…) and if you want to have a look at the photograph look beyond what is reasonable possible for display in Second Life, there is still the A4 version showing all of the details (2.6MB warning).
- First price is an iPod Nano (the contest is sponsored by vacature.com) and as Zoe pointed out to me, winning that would mean I could actually listen to podcasts without having to drag the laptop along. And then I can throw out the portable audio casette player too. *grins*
So where do you vote? At secondlifecrew.be. Who do you vote for? Me! (If at the voting page you scroll down a bit, you can see square previews of the participating photographs, and if there’s something you really really like more then ‘SL Attitude’ do vote for that one. I think I’ll forgive you. Eventually. ;))
And for the people saying ‘huh?’ and ‘can SL do such detailed snapshots?’ I’ve explained so before, but a little recap:
- File > Take Snapshot or Ctrl+Shift+S
- Save snapshot to hard drive
- What size image do you need? => custom
- Width: 3600 Height: 2400 (or 2400×3600, duh! 3600×3600 still works for me too)
- Take +- 10 snapshots at that size, then crash. To prevent this from happening earlier, make sure you turn ‘auto-snapshot’ off!
