You: Hi Ruth
Ruth Zabelin: hi Cat, what are we doing now?
You: well, we can get started with the discussion & if folks come by later they can join in, or catch me another time
You: we have 48 people signed up (!!) but of course it's self-paced and not everyone will be albe to make this meeting
Jessica Holyoke: well, I'll let you to this. Thanks Cat
Jessica Holyoke: bye everyone

Graphics settings to improve computer performance
You: first thing I wanted to set up, but didn't have time, is this set of instructions on adjusting graphics
You: nice to see you Jessica, take care
Montserrat Biedermann: Bye Jessica!
Montserrat Biedermann: The first screen or the second one right next to you?
You: this screen (the tall one) is where to find the graphics options-- under "preferences"

You: once you click preferences there is a graphics tab where you can slide a bar to adjust graphics
You: if SL runs slowly or jerkily for you, try sliding the bar down to 'faster"
You: it can help a lot



You: ok
You: I wanted to talk about that first, because if SL is running poorly, everything else is hard
You: are you 3 all using PCs?
Ruth Zabelin: yes
You: I know Montserrat is
Polly Lehrner: yes
You: ok
You: you can use mac but the instructions are a little different... i'll just stic k to pc for now , good
You: Navigation
You: well, first
You: any questions up front?
Ruth Zabelin: one thing I haven't figured out yet is how to make landmarks for myself
Ruth Zabelin: but if I keep going through the tutorials I'm sure I'll get it
Polly Lehrner: i have a question - - i found the menu of purple buttons in this location, for navigation. Do things like this exist elsewhere in SL?
You: the purple buttons are something that I set up
You: I didn't make them, i bought them pre-made
You: you will see variants of them everywhere, may look like virtually anything
Polly Lehrner: so is there a scheme for moving about other than just walking or flying or teleporting?
You: to make a landmark for the spot you're in, go to the World- Menu and choose "Create Landmark Here" It should automatically be in your inventory after that
Ruth Zabelin: thanks
You: You can also ride vehicles (which people sell or give away as freebies)
You: they are mostly just for fun, tho they can move faster than flying/walking
You: for long distances most people use TP (teleport)
You: that's about it for transportation devices
You: i think

Geography and navigation
You: I wanted to point out a copule things about geography and navigation
You: first of all
You: SL is divided up in to regions
You: also known as "sims"
Polly Lehrner: i guess i was wishing for something like a "back button" so I could find a place I'd been in before, but I'll get the hang of it. Ruth's question and answer helped.
You: you can purchase a device that gives you a "back" button, sort of, but it's not built in
You: Islands are sims
You: not all sims are islands
You: if you look at the top of your screen you will see "EduIsland4 39, 136, 24
You: your three numbers will be slightly different than mine
You: Edu Island 4 is the "sim" we are on
You: as the name implies it's mostly libraries and educational groups
You: and there are 4 of them (well, I think it's up to 6 now)
You: the three numbers 39, 136, 24 are the x, y, z coordinates
You: in other words they give a precise vertical, north-south, and east-west location
You: each sim has its own coordinates
You: they are like unique addresses -- the analogy might be that a sim is a web home page, and the coordinates are individual sub pages, or that a sim is a city and coordinates are street addresses
You: these precise coordinates are what the system uses to teleport you around
You: An added use is that you can create a "SLURL" (Second Life URL) and give it to people via email or in a web page
You: when they click it, if they have second life installed, the program will open and offer to TP them to wherever the SLURL indicates
You: so it's a direct TP from outside SL to inside
You: so that's what I have to say about navigation
You: questions?
You: Hi Wendy, here for the class?

Communications - Chat out loud, instant message, group chat. Voice vs. text
You: ok Next I wanted to go over some communication details
Wendy Donner: Yes.. . finally!
You: welcome!
Montserrat Biedermann: I had to go help a patron with a reference question. Is there an archive of the chat?
You: yes, i will post one
Montserrat Biedermann: Thanks!
You: You can chat "out loud" so to speak, as we all are, by typing into the "Local chat" bar
You: everyone nearby can see your chat
You: you can also send Instant Messages directly to one other avatar
You: if you are near them you can right-click them and one of the options you will get is Instant Message
You: "Send IM"
You: will be on the "pie menu" that pops up
You: if you are not near them you can open their profile and send an IM from there
You: that's private (however, either party can log it, and SL has logs for a few weeks too)
You: You can also set up ad hoc conversation groups - more on that later
You: and you can chat to a group you are a member of, analogous to chat rooms
You: for some reason it's not common to do this, people discourage the "spam"
You: Recently Voice capability was introduced
You: if you have a microphone you can use voice chat
You: same options, basically -- can talk out loud or set up private "calls"
You: many people don't use voice, and some sims or parcels (subdivisions of sims) disallow it
You: can be nice for meetings, but there's always someone who's not set up for it :) so I stick with typing usually Montserrat Biedermann: Hi Cat - can I interrupt tiwh a question re
You: yes, plaese do
Montserrat Biedermann: When I'm orientation island, folks are voice chatting - it seems cool, but i don't see how to attch a microphone?
Montserrat Biedermann: to my office machine
You: you can buy USB powered microphones
You: usually that is the easiest with recent computers
Montserrat Biedermann: Ah, thanks!
You: they usually take a minimum amount of set up
You: I have a headset so I can listen and talk without driving my spouse crazy
You: :)
You: ok so that's Navigation and Communication

Avatar appearance - fyi, you can buy ready-made avatars or customize your own; and some items you can wear are also customizable
You: very quickly, avatar appearance
You: this is something you will probably need to just mess with :) but two basic things
You: your avatar can be customized by right-clicking yourself and hitting "appearance"
You: lots of choices for customization
You: BUT, you can also buy avatars ready-made (sometimes find them for free)
You: so if you want something specific or aren't happy with how your own efforts turned out (I never am) you can get alternatives to try on
You: and you can change as often as you like
You: you basic ally wear an avatar like you would clothing
You: by clicking it in your inventory to "wear" it
You: second thing
You: prims are the basic building block of Second Life
You: that's the ur-prim, then you can modify them
You: clothes are usually NOT prims, they just change the texture of your avatar
You: but SOME attachments are prims, notably hair and shoes
You: those act differently -- you can adjust where they are positioned, and they may have special behaviors like glittering or changing the way you walk
You: "prim hair" and "prim shoes" are nice to get because they look a bit more realistic
You: but not necessary
You: questions? that will make a bit more sense later
Montserrat Biedermann: For the intro session, all three instructors had personalized avatars that looked like their real photos. How do I do that?
You: generally
You: that kind of detail is custom made by someone who's learned a lot about creating avatars
You: I am not that person
You: so I can't really answer the question :)
You: I would hae to hire it done
You: but it is something that can be learned
Montserrat Biedermann: :-) Okay, we were wondering here (two of us here took the intro session). We were hoping it was a quick avatar change...
You: you can find someone who will do it for you at a price, but it's a custom job
Ruth Zabelin: nothing about changing your appearance seems quick to me :)
Montserrat Biedermann: Even in the virtual world...:-)
You: if you open your Inventory
Ruth Zabelin: haha - I wasn't thinking about that
Ruth Zabelin: I guess it's easier than in the real world :)
You: you can pick some basic avatars that SL gives you at first
You: you can click those to pop in and out of them
You: but they are pretty generic
You: they will be called "Shapes"
Ruth Zabelin: I probably spent an hour yesterday afternoon and an hour this morning playing with just appearance and trying to figure it out
Montserrat Biedermann: Yeah, my Monserrat avatar is a generic one - I want one with more muscles like I saw on Orientation Island. Or one with better clothes!
You: ;-)
You: so-- more questions about avatars?

Building objects -- "Prims"
You: will move on to very quick intro to building objects
You: then I can give you some sites to go shopping for freebie clothes, and items and things
You: if you want to pop over to them we can do that as a group, since its just a few of us
You: Building
You: everything in SL except the ground , and your avatar and most clothes, is made up of prims
You: prim stands for primative
You: the basic shapes of SL
You: if you right click on the ground here, you should get a pie-menu
You: at about 2 oclock is the option Create
You: if you click that you will get a "magic wand"
You: click that on the ground, you should create a box
You: when you have the magic wand selected, you will see some options for different shapes
You: you can create a sphere, a tube, triangle, etc
You: by default,
You: you are the only person who can move or change an item you make
You: you can change that if you choose, but that's the default
You: right click on your object
You: and pick "edit"
You: you will see arrows in blue, red, green
You: drag them and you can move your object around
You: when you have an object selected like this, you can choose from several operations to do to your object
You: in addition to moving it you can Rotate it, stretch it, and "select texture" change color and pattern
Wendy Donner: Cat: I am told I don't have permission to create, have I missed something?
You: oh
You: let me invite you to group
Ruth Zabelin: I don't have it either
You: ruth, you h ave joined two groups
You: right now NMC Guest is your "active group:
You: right click on yourself, select "groups" from menu
You: now you should be able to create
You: to control objects here, I have set the land so that only group members can create
Montserrat Biedermann: afk
You: using these basic tools (creating prims, moving them, reshaping them), you can build most any object -- of course some people spend a lot of time perfecting the craft, and others like me just do the basics
You: if yo would like a self-paced lesson in prim building, I would encourage you to visit the Ivory Tower of Prims, wonderful resource
You: the object I just created , if you click it, will offer you a landmark to that location


You: as a group member you are also welcome to play around on this land and create whatever you like
You: in addition anywhere you see a "sandbox" advertised you can use that area too
You: for instance San Jose State Univeristy library school has built a nice campus here and it has a nice large sandbox

Prim limits on our parcel; tidying up
You: one last important thing about prims
You: there is a prim limit on land
You: prims take up server resources
You: right now our land has a prim limit of 468, i think, I've requested more
You: bottom line, when you are done playing with an object, pick it up :)
You: right-click and on the pie menu select "take"
You: at 9 oclock
You: if you don't need to keep it, you can click "more" on the pie menu, and get a second menu. One of the options there is "delete"
You: ok
You: questions?

Teleporting up to our office space (500 meters above ground level)
You: we will need to move for the last bit
You: did everyone see the purple balls over toward the front of the parcel?
You: click on the ball labeled "office level" and you will pop up 500 meters to where I have built some offices
You: great
You: my thinking is that each person, if they want to, can have a cubicle
You: to furnish and decorate
You: if you don't care for one that's fine too
You: but i was going to use th is to show a very basic idea of scripting as well

Scripting (programming)
You: Scripting
You: Scripts are little programs
You: scripts need to be inside a prim to work
Polly Lehrner: I'd like one. I'll take the one at the end. Can I put a window in it?
You: we can make that kind of change yes
You: I was going to put windows along the back in all of them , haven't had time yet
Montserrat Biedermann: P.S. When will the archive for this Unit be available? And where did my object go? And I'd take a cubicle, but I have to go work the reference desk now. To be continued...
You: ok Mont
You: I will post this on the wiki as soon as we're done here
Wendy Donner: I would like one too, it doesn't matter which one. Are you going to assign them now?
You: sure
You: my thinking is taht each of us can make a sign
You: using a basic script
You: and place it in whichever you like
You: first make a shape of your choice
You: once you have your shape we are going to place a basic script inside it
You: and it will turn out looking like this
You: with hovering text



Ruth Zabelin: neato!
You: everyone have an object?
You: ok

Creating a "new script"
You: select your object (if it isn't still) and
You: make sure the full edit screen is showing (it should be very rectangular)
You: if not, click the <<More button
You: at the bottom right
You: select the last tab, laveled "Content"
You: *labeled


You: if you want a script to work you have to put it in a prim, in this "content" area
You: click on "New Script"
sign: Hello, Avatar!
Wendy Donner's Office: Hello, Avatar!
Object: Hello, Avatar!
sign: Hello, Avatar!
Object: Hello, Avatar!
You: there should be a script called "New Script" in the contents now
You: by default it says hello avatar
You: double click on the script to see it's contants
You: contents
You: we're going to cut and paste a new line
You: copy this info:
You: llSetText("Office of Cat Galileo", <0.1,0.1,0.0>, 2);
Object: Hello, Avatar!
Object: Hello, Avatar!
You: paste it into the script after state_entry() {
You: so that it replaces llSay (0, "Hellow Avatar");
You: and hit save
You: after that, as ruth noticed you can edit the text to your heart's content
You: can also change the color by adjusting the numbers at the end
You: if you want to change to white for instance instead of <0.1,0.1,0.0>, you would use <1, 1, 1>
Object: Touched.
Wendy Donner: I have a 'syntax error'. . any advice?
You: ok
You: that means somewhere there's an extra space, or a missing symbol
Object: Hello, Avatar!
You: the llSetText("Office of Cat Galileo", <0.1,0.1,0.0>, 2); portion needs to go between a { and a }
You: that is usually where my syntax errors come from
You: my script looks like this
You: default
You: {
You: state_entry()
You: {
You: llSetText("Office of Cat Galileo", <0.1,0.1,0.0>, 2);
You: }
Object: Touched.
You: }
Object: Touched.
You: (I took out the touched line)
Object: Touched.
Ellie Brewster is Offline
Wendy Donner: Is there a way I could see a copy of your script on a screen?


[at this point discussion became individualized as participants made their signs and chose their office cubicles]