As not all seem to be interested in OpenSim - or all but one, it’s not totally clear - I’ll give you an advance warning if I’ll be writing about OpenSim starting today: *points at the OpenSim picture on the left*. So if you are convinced that ‘open source = closed society”, stop reading after seeing those pictures. ;)

For those that are interested, there’s some news: main channel chat linked to an IRC channel and Reuters finding open OpenSim interesting enough to write about. Hear! Hear! ;)

Main chat ft. IRC on OpenSim

Ruth - one of the OpenSim servers, run by Dalien Talbot - has now added IRC functionality. All you say in main chat is send to #opensim-regions on EFnet. Likewise, all you say on that channel is send to main chat on the sim. Which means you can conversate with the avatars present on the sim without needing to login to the server using the SL client or SLeek. One of the possible uses I see: if for a group meeting in SL, not all can attend, it’s possible to follow and interact using the IRC channel. Also most IRC clients have the option to notify you when something new is said in a channel by a sound or whatever you prefer. So a sim owner could easily be notified of someone talking / communicating to him / in the sim without having to run the SL client the whole time. I quote:

Oh, another side effect - everything that is said in the central parser, now is echoed on IRC in efnet’s channel #opensim-regions… As usual - thanks to Michael for the code… It’s still raw but it works. :)

You can easily connect to #opensim-regions from the web:

1. Go to EFnet Webchat IRC.
2. Choose a nickname.
3. Under ‘Channel’ choose ‘other’ and type ‘#opensim-regions’.
4. Press connect. Voila. =)

I might try setting up a webapp that allows to connect to #opensim-regions here somewhere (which is hopefully faster and more stable then the EFnet Webchat), but I need some help with that. The ‘how to’ contained the word ‘binaries’. *blushes* and *grins*

Reuters on OpenSim

Some other good news is that - opposed to others - Reuters found OpenSim that OpenSim has ‘news value’. Adam Reuters reports on OpenSim, writing that about 300 servers are running OpenSim software at the moment, and at least 20 of those are interconnected.

He also tells that the New Media Consortum - a group of 300 universities and colleges exploring how technology can be used innovatively in education, of which over 75 are active in Second Life -, shortly put the NMC, follows OpenSim’s progress with interest. Indeed, for a lot of school projects, interconnecting the sims would not even be needed. Noting also the development features, as objects can be imported using XML files, I think it’s a great article. Yet I think my instructions on how to connect to - an - OpenSim are a bit more clear. ;)

Custom Appearance in OpenSim

The only thing I do not agree with Adam Reuters is that ‘there is no possibility to customize your avatar in OpenSim’, as I spend some time uploading my skin to Ruth and I now look a bit more ‘Vintish’.

I liked the mohawk for the hair, but when looking at myself through the mirror.. euhm.. snapshot function, I found a strange resemblance with Dandellion.

Maybe that is just wishfull thinking, but it made me decide to go with a more classic hairdo. What do you think?

I’ve written down the shape values I use in Second Life, but probably made a mistake somewhere, so I need to redo those and reenter them in OpenSim. (XML help, please? Is it possible? ;)) Quite shockingly to know there are that many: 75 I counted. So, this is Vint: 85 - 14 - 0 -52 - 33 - 76 - 42 -51 - 50 - …. . LMAO.

Ow, and before I forget: another neat thing about OpenSim is that they have other bugs then the default Second Life ones and change is always nice. Doesn’t my skin look great in the last photograph? ;)

Tags: open sim, SL to web, web to SL

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