Just add this to my current list of problems with the new viewer. :P

Over at Second Life Insider, Akela Talamasca noted another SL book out, Scripting Recipes for Second Life by Jeff Heaton.

Since it’s only about $13 with my employee discount I’ll probably end up picking this one up and do a write-up when I’ve read through it.

The other day at work, I decided to check out what Second Life related books we might have in the store. I received a bit of a shock when I found that we had not only had, Second Life: The Official Guide and The Unofficial Tourists’ Guide to Second Life, but four other SL books!

• Second Life Travel Guide
• Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid That Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse by Peter Ludlow and Mike Wallace.
• Second Life for Dummies by Sarah Robbins and Mark Bell
• Second Life: A Guide to Success for the Serious Resident by Brian White

Most of them have not been published ye, but I’m rather interested in checking a few out.

The big surprise for me though was the Herald book. That may be due to the fact that I’ve not subscribed to the Herald’s RSS feed for close to a year now, Still, considering their somewhat “notable(?)” position in the SL blogging community, one would think that someone would have mentioned it.

Here’s to these books being better than the other two that I’ve done write-ups on so far, though I may give The Official Guide a second chance since a 2nd edition of it will be coming out this early in 2008.

Last night, the wonderful Akela Talamasca made a post at Second Life Insider about a new SL client for Windows called SLeek created by DeltaPHC.

SLeek basically is a halfway point between the full SL client and Ajaxlife. Functions such as local chat, IM, and teleporting are all available, but it also gives access to an inventory, friends list, and a people search.

Screencaps after the break.

The login page with grid status opened:
 

Main chat (similar to IRC):

Friends list with an opened profile:

Inventory:
 

Search with a Teleporting window open:
 

IM:
 

One of the largest drawbacks of SLeek is the lack of a places search and/or the ability to select a certain point in a sim without having to know the exact coordinates. Also, I did notice that the client showed a health meter in non-damage areas, but that’s minor nitpinking.

Definitely a good choice if you want to run SL along with multiple other programs and are not worried about seeing the graphical world (or sitting down), but at least give it a run through before passing judgement on it.

If you have looked at the SL blogosphere within the past 4 hours the name Katherine Berry should be quite familiar by now.

Ms. Berry’s AJAX SL client has now opened a multitude of possibilities for SL residents every where. No longer is a beefy graphics card required just to log into SL. Plus, the long requested ability to IM without logging into the client has now been partially realized.

Yet, what I find to be even more amazing than the web-client, itself, is Ms. Berry’s amazement that the popularity that her build has received.

From New World Notes:

The load currently being experienced was completely unplanned; it was planned as just a “I’m bored and want to talk to m(y) friends in SL from school.”

My mind boggles at the idea that one could build something like this, but not consider how much of an effect it would have on the community.

However, as with every piece of software, there are flaws, some unavoidable considering that there is no ability to “see” into SL. The inability to move your avatar is the most major, as it means that if you are with a group of people 1) they must stay within range of you since group IM don’t work yet or 2) one of them must constantly send you Teleport requests to keep you in range.

Flaws aside, though, I still think it is extremely wonderful to have this and I cannot thank Ms. Berry enough. Here’s to smooth sailing with the continuing development of the client!

Gwyneth Llewelyn recently linked to an amazing AJAX based SL client that runs in a web browser built by Katharine Berry!

The client lets you listen in to local chat and start IMs with Residents that you are friends with as long as they are online. You can also teleport across the main grid, but, obviously, all you can see is the chat going on nearby.

Give it a run through at Katharine’s blog.

Meeting an awesome co-worker. Going to see the Lion King musical. Getting to see Pati again.

Today was a good day.

Well, after an unfortunate inventory error, the results are in and, in a landslide victory, Philip Linden was re-elected by the Second Life community!

Congrats to Philip on his win and, hopefully, he will celebrate with a new hair-do.

Here’s to a landslide!

Shivering, I listened to the wind blow past me as I sat on my perch. There had been others earlier, but they, as always, disseminated.

I waited. Waited for the time when another would come. Another chance to feel the rush. To conceive ideas from the flow of the waves that came through me. Having the idea was the first step. From there, if it wanted to risk life, the idea would have to go through endless analyses, full of poking and prodding, from the unfeeling, uncaring, non-creative entity that we all fell before. I had gone through that process before. It took only one attempt before I had my fill. Now, I simply sold the ideas to the others. The ones without the gift. They would be the ones who would bring it to fruition. And when they did, the Gifted would not be mentioned.

We would only be remembered as a forlorn smudge on the path. Slowly selling our minds to live another day.

To conceive just one more time.