Conference Call

          There's this 'working relationship' deal you can do with Philip Rosedale that's an effective way to manage your productivity. I've been on to it for quite some time, and really enjoy it. Basically it boils down to this: he wastes absolutely no time at all taking an interest in any of my VW writing, schemes and projects, and in return, I do the same for him.
          This coming weekend is the opensim community conference, being held on a special little grid at this URI cc.opensimulator.org:8002. Fleep Tuque is the organizer, ably assisted by the guys who run - I almost wrote 'used to run' - OSGrid, along with many other opensim stalwarts, the lovely and endlessly entertaining Maria Korolov among them. The conference runs for two days, this coming Saturday and Sunday, and begins at 7am Pacific time both days, with five breakout venues, which means there will be times when there are five different events going on at the same time, listed as Business, Development, Research and Education, Community, and Learning Lab.

          Philip Rosedale is doing the Keynote speech on Saturday, which seems to be sending a lot of conference goers all wobbly and starstruck. When I was about 15 I remember thinking 'wow, Madonna is rich! how cool!' and then suddenly realizing that she was only rich because kids like me had each handed over our hard-earned five or ten dollars to hear her sing or strut her stuff. And it suddenly seemed a whole lot less admirable. Never done the 'fan' thing since then. Anyway, I guess Philip probably wants to sell OpenSim something, and his talk has the not-at-all grandiose title of  'What the Metaverse is'.

C'est Safari

What's the difference between SL and OpenSim? If a guy in SL asks you to touch his trunk, he's probably a pervert. In Open Sim, the trunk is a chest of Pirate Treasure, and it's a nice little freebie souvenir de France. Make a note of that for later.
This week, there was already considerable confusion over the end of Daylight Savings Time, and we ramped it up further by offering two possible start points for the Safari, the classic Outlands on Metropolis, and a new base, on Francogrid, donated by Gill Beaumont. The sim there is easy to find, it's called hgsafari. With Metro straining at the seams, a backup to out backup seemed wise. There are now three HG Safari groups, 4 if you count the unreachable OSGrid, join them all, we don't have group limits in open sim, and this way you can use Group Chat if you're on Francogrid, Metropolis, or Craft. The weekly Landmark notecard is also sent out as an announcement via the groups, so that may help you find us.

We talk a lot, on Safari. It must be really annoying for the grid owners who are eager to make their presentation, but it's so much fun to read Local Chat and get a feel for all the people coming from different grids. The big question of the week was - What is the National Dish of France? - and it seems that choucroute won, mostly because Strannik Zipper was handing out samples, but also because our first destination was the University of Strasbourg, and the fantastic virtual Campus (URIs at the end of the post). Unistra manager Anne Cordonnier welcomed us, and Cheops Forlife translated her introduction into English. Cheops has her own group of virtual researchers, the i3DM, their stamping ground was OSGrid, so when that's back up and running, we plan to go visit her there too. But back to the University of Strasbourg, and the choucroute...

Beach Safari

And if you said, "This life ain't good enough"
I would give my world to lift you up
I could change my life to better suit your mood...
Santana, Smooth

Ahoy mateys, this week Safari went from the sublime beachfront of Strannik Zipper's Pirates Atoll into the apocalypto landscape as The Mayans Knew It, according to Wordfromthe Wise, and finally washed up in the spookiest of Party Islands on Kai and Seya Devin's Insula Aeternum. (URIs at the end of the post.) Ask anyone who was there, this was the most people with the most hair to survive right though to the final hour of Safari so far. And that's not a phrase you hear very often.

Strannik Zipper is a real pirate and his grid is a gem.

There's loads to do, from dancing on the beach to dancing in the Irish pub, to taking a water taxi or taking a dip in the lagoon, or visiting the lovely Pirate Museum on a brigantine. There are some informative pictures outlining the history of pirating, and a chance to walk the plank and meet the mermaid. Jessica Pixel, shown here, wisely chose to stay on board. I'm not sure her springs would react well in salt water.

Safari How-to.

Caution, this post contains some serious information. Look away now if you can't handle the truth.
Here are the bare facts of how Safari works.
We meet on Outlands sim, Metropolis Grid. When there are problems tp'ing to Outlands, our Fallback meeting area is Futurelab sim, also on Metropolis grid. Thanks to Art Blue for the fallback option, and Nara Malone  who donated Outlands, and the people at Zetamex who donate the server space.

          We meet at 12.00pm SLT, that's 9.00pm in Europe. The Safari lasts three hours. We usually have 3 destinations, the first we head for at about 9.15, the second at around 10 and the third an hour or so after that. The times are approximate, but that is when the grid or region owners are expecting us. It can freak them out when Safari people show up much earlier than expected, by the way, especially if they have some sort of presentation planned.

          There is a notecard dispenser on the verandah at Outlands, containing the LMs for our destinations. The notecard is often only placed there just before Safari takeoff time, since our watchword is *chaos*. Make sure you have joined the HG Safari group inworld, so you can see the group chat. We also put the notecard in the Announcements, so you can access it from anywhere on Metropolis.

Do you want to come on Safari but are likely to be late and need assistance with grid jumping? Before the Safari begins - well before time - send Thirza Ember or Wizzy Gynoid a message in Google+ or on Facebook, or an inworld message in Metropolis. We'll organize a limo.  Want to help the Safari? Open an IM with the other people in the group when Safari starts. That way you can tell if someone disappears off radar. Friend everyone. If you or they manage to jump to the destination, you can tp the other party. No creepy behavior with the friending or the IMs please, or Wizzy will stomp on you. Unless you're into that. Also, notecards with suggestions of grids we might visit are always welcome.

          How to grid jump with the Safari
 The sim -any sim - can only handle so many Teleport requests at a time. Please be patient. Here are some strategies (probably snake oil) to get around the problem of freezing or Failed TP issues.
1. Make sure your graphics are set to Low and minimize the number of programs you're running that are using bandwidth.
2. Have the LM ready and jump immediately we announce we're on the move. Drag the LMs off the Notecard into your inventory before trying to use them.
3. Alternatively, wait until most of the people around you are gone before trying to jump. (I'm always last, so don't mind me.) Let us know in Local Chat what strategy you're using, so others can help you if something goes awry.
4. Still can't jump? Make a quick tp hop to another sim on the same grid - the Default sim of the grid is often the best, on Metro that's Startregion - and then try again from there.
5. Use the HG address instead of the landmark. That means opening your Map, pasting the HG Address (also called URI, you'll find one on the Notecard for each Destination) into the Search box, press Search, WAIT till the Map finds the region, then - wait some more! and some more! - and then hit Teleport. If the map says "Region not Found" or "Not Authorized" or any of the other bs messages it often throws up, double check the address you put in Search, or move your avie to another part of the sim, or a different sim, and try again. It sometimes helps to take the sim name off the end of the HG Address (Example: instead of hypergrid.org:8002:Outlands  just put hypergrid.org:8002 and you'll arrive at Startregion. From there, just type Outlands into the Map.)

SLafari

Two firsts this week. We met in Second Life for the Inaugural Ball at the new Safari Embassy (pop by and see it on sim Sistiana any time) and Apmel fell in love.

Not the first time he fell in love probably but the first time he's done so on Safari.
The purpose of our group, and our trips, is to make it easier and more fun for anyone from SL to make the transition to open sim. Confusion yes, drama no. Open sim is not a smooth operation, but it offers such a lot of possibilities that well, frankly you'd be foolish not to at least dip a toe in the water.

Safari Afield

It has been 44 days since OSGrid went down, and today on Facebook [via Ron Brown] came the good news: " The array was not able to be rebuilt from the cloned drives due to logical partition errors so the recovery service has performed a full recovery, restoring everything to a single 6 tb drive that the engineer said should boot and that all the files are intact. The additional costs, less the $2302.56 we have already paid them, comes to $2510. We currently have $3432.88 which would make our budget very tight (we still have hosting costs, etc).
Thank you very much for your patience and support! ~ Dan Banner "
if you would like to help by donating you can follow the link below 
http://www.osgrid.org/index.php/donate
Saying 'No news is good news' has not been great news for OSGrid's image in open sim, but they saved all our stuff, which is wonderful, and going on about the PR disconnect between management and users is pointless and anyway, has already been done.

Last night's Safari went to Metroberfest, but it wasn't all cakes and ale. This is the landing point of the fabulous four sectioned sim, but last night there was water and bare earth where there should have been buildings and free stuff, and I spent a significant amount of time up to my neck (thanks Miso).

Aaackangel

He is Open Sim's Angel of Mesh, a Blender guru, creator, and all round good guy, Aaack Aardvark of Littlefield Grid. Tomorrow, HG Safari has an opportunity to meet this teacher and creator who feels strongly that there is no reason why open sim creations should be any less in quality or detail than anything your find in SL.

A gentle, talented and kindly Argentinian, Aaack cancelled his account in SL about three years ago, after some four or five years of presence on the grid. This elegant store is a design that he first made (but never used) in Sl way back in 2007. Second life was great, but after a few years, he had grown tired of the mentality there. It seemed wrong to him that creators have to pay upload fees.
Aaack Aardvark: We creators are the ones making Second Life Attractive. Why should we be paying to herp the business of SL? In my book that makes no sense.