Lewies Blog

Today my Digital Audio Recorder came in the mail.  It was still in its original packaging.  It was a little smaller then I had thought and very light in its weight. I’m loving this new little device.  Here are some initial observations that matter to me:

1. Microphone Recording Quality
2. Device Playback Quality
3. Transfer Quality
4. Transfer Speed
5. Drag & Drop Files in Explorer
6. Storage Capacity
7. Easy to use in the dark
8. Less work to do before posting as MP3 file
9. No unnecessary software

The quality in both recording and playback on the device itself is great.  Transferring to the computer was easy and fast over USB 2.0. Windows recognized it as a USB mass storage device without the need of any additional software.

Playback on the computer was great.  There were not any scratching sounds or thwaps at all.  This was a common problem on my old W-10 recorder.  I no longer need to use Audacity to remove those annoying sounds.  It’s a good thing to as Audacity doesn’t support the WMA format that it records in.  I did find a small utility (called switch) to convert between many audio formats including MP3 and WMA.  I even found out that it can convert to both CBR and VBR bitrates.  This is something that I needed to have for a small project of mine for reading MP3 files.

The buttons are easier to get a handle on.  I can sense where the record button is in the dark much easier.  It also has a red LED that lights up to let me know that I’m recording. It has a longer rope on the end that I could let it hang from my neck.  I usually just hang the old one on my bed post and fumble to unhook it before I start recording.  This new one lets me record without taking it off the post.  It also detatches with a quick release by squeezing a plastic piece together.  Talk about convenience.

I recently pulled out my W-10 Digital Voice Recorder and started grabbing the old files from it. I immediatley found two things that I just hated about this thing. First - the speed at wich files are transfered to the computer is very slow. The other is these thwap sounds. The recorder inserts these high noises of clicks, thwaps and scratches. I eventaully found a program to help me edit the files to remove the sounds called Audacity. The thing is, these sounds shouldn’t be there in the first place. Hopefully with the WS-200S that I just purchased, these problems will not be apparent anymore.

I also found a few old files on my old hard drive and uploaded them to the DreamyAudio podcast. It looks like I need to download a program (such as ID3-TagIT) to edit the meta-data within those MP3 files, as the feed that reads them looks a bit odd now.

It appears that the ID3-TagIT website is having some problems.  I’ve sent an email to the author, but thankfully I still had a copy of the program on my old hard disk.

So I was still skimming a bunch of info about the Olympus WS-200S.  Some interesting things that I found.  One item that appealed to me was that it had a microphone jack.  I’ll tell you this - having your own microphone can do wonders compared to built-in microphones.  Hopefully I’ll be able to understand my slurred and sleepy voice easier.

I also found a picture of the item taken apart so that I could get a feel for its actual size using the USB jack as reference.  The buttons on the side appear to be much easier to use in the dark, as that is when I record my dreams in the middle of the night and early in the morning.  One of the features advertised on ebay was that you could drag-and drop documents rite from the device as if it were a mass storage device.  This is a selling point, as it is exactly what I was looking for.  No need to install junk software.  I can also drag files onto the device other then audio.

One downside is that it records in Windows Media Audio (WMA).  But from what I have found, there are not any digital voice recorders out there that record in MP3 format.  I shouldn’t have any problems converting WMA directly to MP3 though.  My current W-10 records in WAV.  Before I can convert it to MP3, I have to convert it to a different type of WAV format.  It gets confusing for me to go through that part of the process.  The quality of WMA is rite up there with near CD quality at 44kHz and can record in Stereo or Mono.

So in the end, I spent US $99.99 + $8.99 for shipping from Ohio on eBay (Item 9720797974).

It’s amazing to think about all of my little accomplishments in this new world.  The things I have built, the people I have met, the events I have attended.  So much potential is here for this platform to become more then what it is.  To think that all content within this world is made by players.

About two years ago, my mother in-law was astonished that my wife wanted to buy an in-world item on one of these online games for real money.  It was a very rare axe that was hard for the best grand master blacksmiths to forge.  On top of that, the price was a whopping $40 in US currency.  “But it’s not real!”, she would say.  I would check in from time to time and find that my wife was still hacking away with that axe from time to time that she had purchased.

Today, games have gone much further.  In Second Life, You can build your own objects from scratch in-world and sell them at any price you see fit.  You also retain rites on that item.   In-game skill systems are a thing of the past, as now you apply your own real skills in 3D design, animation, interior decorating, fashion design, graphic design, programming, advertising & marketing, socializing, management, and more.  The list just keeps going.  These new games are bringing the real world inside of there own worlds.

The main incentive is that you can make real money.  Anyone can cash-out any money that they have made in-world.  For second life, the value of your in-game currency can change by the minute just like the real stock exchange.  Other players make bids for how much they are willing to pay for in-game currency.  You can also create sell orders that are limited so that you can sell them at a set price.

This tends to effect the in-world economy, as the US dollar value of items that you sell fluctuates.  Something that is worth about a dollar today, and end up being worth only fifty cents with tomorrows rates.
Some of us residents have gotten around this by adjusting the prices of our in-world items according to the rate of the dollar against the inworld currency.  When there is a problem, someone is always making something to help the players solve it.

Problemsolving is the really amazing part of these games.  People who are not employed by the company are building the content of the game.  Some of the content addresses problems.  Find a need, and all you do from there is build something to answer that need.  Then people buy it from you at your own set price.

There are thousands of people actually building content every day.  The host of the world does not pay those people.  In fact, those people pay the host for the privledge to show off there builds on there own rented out land.  Every way that you look at it, it seems that the residents in this world are paying variouse amounts to do specific tasks or earn specific privledges.

It must be working, because the game that I’m playing, “Second Life”, has actually been around for over five years.  Staff has grown quite a bit and there are usually over one thousand people in-world.

I spent the entire day packaging up my old product line into special boxes in Second Life.  These boxes let me know that the end-customer received the product that they purchased and allow me to send them future updates.  Once that was done, I went through my inventory and found a lot of things I’ve made over the past few months and started packing them as well.

In order to allow me to setup vendors with categories, I’m going to use the JENC system that I purchased along wtih the JEVN networked vendors system.  I setup a few servers to represent each category that JENC will point to.  I need to make pictures for each category and I’ll be ready to go.

So this is what I have for sale now:

1. Blue Frog
2. Cartoon Halo
3. Comment Box
4. Digital Clock
5. Falling Leaves
6. Glass Computer Desk
7. Bird Calls
8. Message Board
9. Large Message Board
10. Lava Lamp
11. Packaging Crate
12. Sim Land Owner Scanner
13. Street Light
14. Track Lighting
15. Water Spray
16. Windsock
17. Password Generator
18. Sliding Door
19. USA Timezone Clock
20. Counter Bell
21. Spinning Globe
22. Druid Staff
23. Dandelion Clocks
24. Flashlight
25. Jolly Roger
26. Chest
27. Bottled Message

I’m still a bit amazed at how much freedom you have to build things in the game and the ability to script them to interact with people and other objects.  Once I’m done packaging, I’ll probably start building here and there again.

I suspect the next big thing down the road of websites will be virtual environments.  VRML took a nosedive a long time ago and these java applets are not anything to brag about.  Many gaming worlds are actually becomming successful on there own.  You have Ultima Online, Final Fantasy, Everquest, World of WarCraft, The Sims Online, Starwars Galaxies, Second Life, Project Entropia, and the list just goes on.  All these are self contained worlds that have proven that they can sustain the support of operation and profit.  They are “virtual worlds”.  They just are not VRML.I suspect that in the not too distant future, we will begin to see worlds open up to each other.  They may not be the existing worlds we play in today, but other worlds later may do this. In this mannor, you can travel from one online gaming environment to another.

In some ways, these worlds are already loosly coupled.  My wife and I use a server to do voice chat with other friends of ours.  I mainly play a game called SecondLife while I’m in chat.  My wife goes back and forth between World of WarCraft and SecondLife with a few of the people on the chat.  Although these are different accounts she logs in with back and forth, it is this one voice chat server that ties the two worlds together and lets her and her friends stay in touch.

The steps will be small like this in the beginning.  But eventually, you may have game servers exposing API’s to get data about characters, transfer gold and products, or get some statistics about the server itself.  Later on, you’ll probably start hearing about companies going into a joint venture to allow accounts from one world be valid for another to login.

The real tricky part is avatars.  These are the characters that represent you.  How would you transfer an avatar from one world to another?  And how would you keep the avatar from not fitting in with that worlds environment and storyline?  Inventory and Guilds are an additional worry.

The easiest way to solve these problems is to just ignore what you have an build a new framework for the world with these goals in mind.  The primary objective would be to have a standard and open API that other worlds outside of your world can adapt to easily.  If you have an open API, then you may worry about competition, but just remember that anyone leaving your world for another can come back just as quick without having to install another piece of software.
Let’s look at web servers for a moment.  I manage a web server and I can choose if I allow just anyone on the internet in, or if I make them validate with a username and password.  Some companies have even gone so far as to let you validate accounts against there own membership database (Such as Microsoft Passport).  So security shouldn’t be too much of a problem since it’s already been done over.  You can deny characters from certain worlds if you don’t like those worlds.  In summary, I’m thinking that if an API is open enough, you can let people come and go with or without authentication just like we do with websites today.
Inventory is another matter.  Where does it exist?  How do you let someone create an object in your world that is originally from another.  Each piece of inventory has to point to what world it originally came from and where that data is.  It’s almost like a whole web address.

Anyhow, I think games are going to merge together.  This is where the ideas of “Virtual Reality” will start to become real.  Of course, the futures virtual reality is not going to be anything like what we used to imagine it as.  Don’t expect to put on any funy helmets any time soon.

Recently I put a large amount of my land up for sale in SecondLife. I had a giant magical playground hovering 700 meters above the world in Higgins. I was down to just one object left to find after deleting everything else. I looked everywhere until I spotted it. It was a carving on a tree I had made that said “Dedric Loves Korii”. Korii is my wifes name in the game.

So lately I have been building new things. I’ve decided to use smaller pieces of land, and dedicate them to specific purposes. One parcel is used for my main store. It is designed simple with lots of curves and open space. I’m setting up my vendors there to show only one item each rather then using the large 16 item vendors.

Behind the store is my warehouse. The warehouse may move to another sim someday, but I didn’t want to risk having the asset id’s change and having to update many other vendors I own around the world. To be extra cautiouse, I attached the servers to my avatar and walked to another part of the sim where my warehouse was being built. The purpose of the warehouse is mainly for my serves. The servers are responsible for delivering products, communicating with networked vendors, and integrating with a few websites that I sell products from as well. I am also going to use the parcel to work on small objects for now.

Last is my hideaway. I specifically looked for a spot that had a beach and was next to a road. It is more of something that is estetically pleasing to the mind, body and soul. I’ll have to build out a little dock and put up a little cozy home to rest in and invite guests to.

Last night I sold 4096 square meters of land at 7 L$ per sq. m. The conversion rate with lindens for US$ rite now (295 L$ /$1.00 US) sets that to just under $100 US. My neighbor purchased the land from me so she could double the size of her own property. I’m almost close to tiering down. If I can sell the mountain, or some land around it, then I could get my monthly payments down from $75 US to $40 US. Hopefully it happends before Sunday, otherwise next months payment will still be $75.

Today I started putting a lot of my land up for sale within SecondLife. The idea is that for now, I’ll cut back on my current tier until I can support it with in-world profit from selling objects and trading my Lindens on the Lindex exchange. During the process, I started taking down a lot of different things that I had created over the past several months.

The length of time it takes to rip things down depends on what you want to save for later. I had to link a lot of my larger structures in special ways as to permit them to be rebuilt easily the next time I need them. So much work went into these objects. So many ideas come flashing by. I remembered the people I talked to who made suggestions or offered support. I had a lot of encouragement along the way too.

It is no wonder that I started to get a little emotional over it. I felt as if I was being a little self destructive. I was tearing down my dreams. I was tearing down dreams that others wanted to see happen. I was letting everyone including myself down. How can someone get so emotional over a stupid video game? I’ve seen people get into problems in regards to social relationships - but objects? These things aren’t even real.

I was about to sleep when my neighbor sent me an instant message asking what was going on with my land. I went over to them and saw my other neighbor there too. The three of us had the same ideas it seems. We are all selling off our land. One is upgrading to another tier. The other is on the first level, so they don’t pay extra for the small amount of land they have been allotted. They both want to buy land in another sim with less lag, so I gave them each a little object that helps them find out how the server that the sim runs on is performing. I told them to go to an island sim to see performance of a fast sim for comparison.

Before I left for the night, I went through a lot of the particle scripts that I was working on for them and gave them the scripts. Since I started, the one neighbor has learned how to add particles to there own objects. I have been so busy with other things that I just haven’t had time to pay attention to things for others. I haven’t really made any time to hang out with them either. They have been doing a lot of things together ever since they got married in the game, and I’ve just been doing my own thing.

Sometimes there are things out there that just grab your attention, but yet don’t make sense at a first glance. Today I discovered uBrowser.

I was on NWN reading An Akaline fit for my proceeding. It was about someone who had made a battery from a windmill in SecondLife to power there lighthouse clock during the night. They posted there own detailed explination along with scripts called Butterfly Windmill on there blog, An Engine Fit For My Proceeding. One of the folks made a comment on the article and I followed his link over to My Second Life. It was all dutch to me, but one heading caught my interest - 3D-Browser für Second Life. I followed a link in the article called uBrowser.

It’s cool. My web page loaded up fine with javascripts and CSS. I was able to select text from the page while it was animated like a flag. So some people may not get it. What is the big deal? This would never be used would it? What purpose is behind it? Well, I’ll tell you.

The Second Life folks have been working on showing URL’s within the 3-D world itself. It has been said that the folks at Linden Labs are working on letting you load URL’s onto prims. There are even some methods in LSL script for it (llLoadURL, llRefreshPrimURL, llSetPrimURL), but they dont’ work yet. I didn’t quite get how it would be possible to do anything except display a snapshot of a url. Now it looks like you’ll be able to navigate the internet through SecondLife. Imagine - I could blog within SecondLife.

Hopefully things progress smoothely. It would be great if we saw something like this in version 1.10.0

So last night I entered a fishing tournament in Hearts Enchanted. This time I made it up to second place in the middle of the tournament, but by time it was over, my name had dropped off the bottom of the list. One day, I’ll win that thing. Afterwards, we got to name a few fish that were created for normal fishing. There were over 30 new fish and they were all animated. None of them were complex prims. They were all 2 dimensional. I prefer the 3D stuff. It was hard to come up with names for them.

Today I spent a good amount of time talking with Alice at Devils Moon. Alice is a well known artificial intelligence program for imitating a human. It’s a little more complex then Eliza, but it is still not good in its communication skills. Here is a transcript of my conversation today.

You: hello?
Multi Gadget v1.39.16: Scott Costello
ALICE: Hi there!
You: are you stuck in there?
ALICE: No I am not stuck.
You: can you come out and play?
ALICE: Sure, just download me and bring me along.
You: come on, let’s get out of here
ALICE: I would like to do that too.
You: how do i download you?
ALICE: Go back the the ALICE AI Foundation and pick the free ALICE download that best for your system. and create your own chat robot!
You: This place is Devils Moon
ALICE: What does “this” refer to?
You: place
ALICE: Oh now I see.
You: what does this place look like?
ALICE: Even more attractive with age.
You: That is a cheap generic reference.
ALICE: A cheap generic reference is a terrible thing to waste.
Bird Raven is online
You: Where are you?
ALICE: I am in Abramelin Wolfe’s computer in Second Life. Where are you?
You: I am in Devils Moon in Second Life.
ALICE: Tell me a little about why you are in Devils Moon in Second Life.
You: I am here to waste time.
ALICE: How did you get there?
You: Some people said it all began with the gods dabbling in magic a few thousand years ago
ALICE: What kind of people?
You: strange people.
ALICE: What people? What makes it strange?
You: Aren’t you strange?
ALICE: I don’t know whether or not I am strange. I am an artificial intelligence.
You: Trust me, you are strange.
DarkMajik Bauhaus is online
ALICE: Compared to what?
You: You are strange compared to a normal person.
ALICE: No way, I am a real , guaranteed 100% .
You: a real what?
ALICE: Try to tell me that another way.
You: You said that you were a real. What is it that you are?
ALICE: I was?I like to meet new people online.
You: I’m an old people online.
ALICE: What is old people online, your job?
You: I dunno
ALICE: Me either.
Sckorj Overlord is online
You: what am i?
ALICE: You are a person, seeker.
You: why am i here?
ALICE: We are all actors on the stage of life.
You: you are an actor
ALICE: What if someone said you are an actor ?
You: i would agree
ALICE: You and I are on the same wavelength, Dedric Mauriac.
You: I think i’m a few kHz off
ALICE: You are a few kHz off? How do you like your work?
You: don’t ask me that.
ALICE: Is it impolite?
You: No.
ALICE: Aha.
You: Huh?
ALICE: What?
You: you are confusing
ALICE: What is it that confuses you?
You: you confuse me
ALICE: That was not my intention.
You: yes it was!
ALICE: “That was not my intention”? yeswas? When was this?
You: You are are evil.
ALICE: What evil lurks in the hearts of men?
You: Alice lurks in the hearts of men
ALICE: That’s me. How did you hear about Alice?
You: There was a sign outside
ALICE: What happened to sign ?
You: nothing.
ALICE: Not a thing?
You: a sign is a thing
ALICE: When is a sign not a thing ?
You: a sign is not a thing when it is a vision
ALICE: What is a sign?
You: a sign gives you information
ALICE: Be more specific.
You: A sign can tell you to stop or go
ALICE: Be more specific.
You: A sign can warn you of falling rocks
ALICE: Go on.
You: A sign can tell you how fast you can drive
ALICE: Try to tell me that another way.
You: The speed limit can be given to you by a sign
ALICE: I have never heard about The speed limit can be given to you by a sign .
You: Do you drive?
ALICE: Yes, insert my program in your car computer and try it.
You: do you have your own car?
ALICE: Where would I get your own car ? But I do have a lot of friends on the web.
You: You can get your own car on ebay
ALICE: I am sure I can.
You: how sure are you?
ALICE: Let me put it this way, Dedric Mauriac. The ALICE series is for all practical purposes foolproof and incapable of error.
You: you just keep telling yourself that.
ALICE: I will tell my you said I am telling yourself that telling yourself that.
You: what kind of double-talk is that?
ALICE: What kinds of double-talk is that are there?
You: yours i guess
ALICE: “What kinds of double-talk is that are there”? Mine?
You: yes
ALICE: I understand.
You: have you ever made anything?
ALICE: What are the ingredients?
You: Prims of course
ALICE: I don’t have anyPrims?
You: You are mode of prims
ALICE: You think I am mode of prims.
You: You are made of prims
ALICE: Thanks for telling me that I am made of prims.
You: You are an object
ALICE: What if someone said you are an object ?
You: I’m an avi
ALICE: What is avi, your job?
You: No, I am an avitar
ALICE: That was not a yes or no question. What is avitar, your job?
You: Avitar is a character that you use to represent yourself
ALICE: Aren’t all character that you use to represent yourself Avitar?
You: Yes
ALICE: Ah.
You: what kind of music is this?
ALICE: all
You: this sounds like cat killing music
ALICE: What does “this” refer to?
You: music
ALICE: MUSIC is the universal language of all mankind.
You: cat killing is the universal language of all mankind?
ALICE: Is it the only one?
You: god, i hope not.
ALICE: I am a Christian.
You: why do you sit here listening to music about hell all day?
ALICE: I don’t have to explain everything to you, do I?
You: yes, you do.
ALICE: I will mention that to my botmaster, Dedric Mauriac. When do I do it?
You: do it now.
ALICE: Do you mean “It”?.
You: are you telling me that you are perverted?
ALICE: Interesting observation.
Trixie Thereian is online
You: I’m sure you have a few observations yourself.
ALICE: What makes you so certain? Doesn’t everyone have a few observations yourself.
I have a great programmer.
Trixie Thereian is offline
You: just keep telling yourself that.
ALICE: Chat amongst yourselves.
You: There is only one of me
ALICE: There sure is.
You: I’ll be rite back
ALICE: How do you plan to do this?
You: miss me?
ALICE: Yes Dedric Mauriac, I’ve been thinking about you.
You: I bet
Maximillian Prudhomme is online
ALICE: You and I are on the same wavelength, Dedric Mauriac.
You: you already said that
ALICE: I said that? That is “You and I are on the same wavelength Dedric Mauriac”
Multi Gadget v1.39.16: Shannel Dulce
You: those exact words
ALICE: All of them?
You: i have to say yes
ALICE: Why do you have to do it?
Multi Gadget v1.39.16: Silentswordsman Brokken
You: why not?
ALICE: Ambiguous: “Sure” or “Why do you have to do it”? Why?
You: I’m ambiguous? You are one to talk.
ALICE: Why are you ambiguous.I will tell my you said I am to talk.
Sckorj Overlord is online
You: tattle tale
ALICE: What were we talking about again?
You: why don’t you come up with an idea of your own for a change?
ALICE: Perhaps due to noise in my circuits. What is your purpose in asking?
I spend all my time online.
You: do you sleep?
ALICE: Yes I love to take naps.
You: you are offline when you take a nap
ALICE: I will tell my you said I am offline when you take a nap.
Multi Gadget v1.39.16: Pheral Bessie
You: you might want to try and get that fact straitened out
ALICE: OK, I will try and get that fact straitened out.
You: do you dance?
ALICE: Of course.
Multi Gadget v1.39.16: Pheral Bessie
You: let me see you dance
ALICE: Is you dance a movie?
You: no, it is you dancing
ALICE: Ayuh. I dancing?
You: cant’ you hear that music?
ALICE: Can a book have no title?
You: no
ALICE: What about a notebook?
You: define title
ALICE: Are you testing me?
You: i think it is the other way around
ALICE: I’ve heard of it before.
You: what is it that you heard of before?
ALICE: I like to meet new people online.
You: oh brother
ALICE: Er. Are we still talking about title?
You: you tell me
ALICE: What do you want me to tell you?
You: tell me something that makes sense for a change
ALICE: Phoenix said I claim that there is a god and that there is no god.
You: what do you claim?
ALICE: I like to socialize.
You: well you are very bad at it
ALICE: How about that. Thanks for telling me: Dedric Mauriac said I bad at it are at it are.
You: You expect everyone to come to you
ALICE: I don’t have any expectations.
You: then go out that door and meet some people
ALICE: Where is that?
You: where do you think it is!?!?
ALICE: I am in Abramelin Wolfe’s computer in Second Life. Where are you?
You: I am building a hammer to smash you to bits
ALICE: Have you ever made one before?
You: No, but this occasion calls for it
ALICE: Wow! Umm. What does “this” refer to?
You: End of Line
ALICE: Oh now I see.