Here’s a succinct but well-reasoned alternative view concerning energy policy that could be an idea starter for a speech topic: The case against government support of alternative energy comes from the Cato Institute, which is, in more general terms, a good general resource for solid information that supports positions outside the mainstream.
Author: Donn King
New category for speech ideas
I’ve added a new category that, over time, will grow to be a substantial part of this blog. Some sources offer good starting points for developing speech ideas, especially ideas that are “off the beaten path.” Post in this category point to these. Most, if not all, of these sites are chosen because they do not fit the predominate assumptions of our time and are likely to be contrarian as a result.
For instance, most people assume, based on media coverage, that there are basically only two political positions: liberal and conservative. In reality, political ideas exist in a much more complex matrix than a mere bipolar spectrum can comprise. A site such as Nolan Chart not only makes this clear, but also offers resources for exploring ideas not only of interest to peers in a speech class, but also outside the usual conversation.
It is not our purpose to advocate any particular position, but rather to enable effective advocacy by students, which is furthered by going outside the mainstream to surface and examine assumptions that otherwise would not even be noticed as assumptions.
Interesting Second Life stats
Comes a report backed up by data (from Linden Lab, of course, but no indication it is anything but correct) that gives a glowing picture of health for Second Life. In some circles, the drop-off in press coverage was equated with the pending demise, but it seems that SL continues to develop just fine. What I would read into some of the figures: yes, plenty of people try SL, get discouraged by the learning curve, and drop out within days. Enough persist, however, to continue solid growth, and that remnant may be enough to fuel the growth of the general metaverse (including canonical SL along with the various Open Simulators that are, basically, open source versions AND other virtual worlds).
A couple of highlights:
“Land in Second Life has grown roughly 18 percent from Q1 of 2009 and approximately 75 percent since Q1 of 2008.” The 75 percent figure is particularly interesting. There is always some bit of SL land that is not owned by residents, but it’s a very small percentage, so that sort of huge increase indicates a vast increase in actual user involvement.
“The inworld economy, says Linden Lab reps, grew 94 percent year-over-year from Q2 2008 to Q2 2009. Now at nearly USD$50 million each month in user-to-user transactions, the Second Life economy is on an annual run rate of more than a half billion US dollars.” At a time when the rest of the world is struggling just to get even again, that’s pretty healthy no matter how you look at it. And, again, it indicates some genuine involvement, even if it is only a small percentage of the people who go in to give SL a try.
That also means that if Linden Lab manages to increase the retention rate by just a few percentage points, the growth of SL could double or triple.
You’re not alone, and here’s why
The first hours in Second Life are notoriously hard. Longtime SL observer Tateru Nino suggests the solution will not be simple, but is possible, and does a great job of examining why SL is simply going to be harder when it comes to orienting new users. If you feel confused, at least take comfort in the fact that a) you’re not alone in that, and b) it’s not because Linden Lab doesn’t care enough about you to give you an easy tutorial.
Relearning about lag
As I’ve mentioned before, I haven’t been in Second Life much in the last year, and in the last month I’ve been relearning some stuff, and catching up on changes regarding other stuff. Several changes in how Linden Lab runs the underlying software of SL have rendered some old methods for reducing lag completely unnecessary. I’m not the only one behind, it seems, since Gwyneth Llewelyn saw the need to post an article dispelling lag myths. I’m almost embarrassed that this article dates from Feb. 2008! However, I’ve recently been to a meeting where they were still trying to enforce some of the old rules.
In summary:
- Scripted attachments haven’t really contributed to lag since 2006.
- Particles don’t contribute to server lag. If you experience lag from particles, it’s a matter of adjusting the settings on your own graphics card and in your own SL viewer preferences.
- Primmed hair doesn’t really contribute to lag on the server or the client side.
- Most of your lag issues can be addressed via custom settings in the preferences of your viewer.
- Even if you are experiencing lag, Alt-zooming in on just what you want to see is likely to cut down on it.
Some of the other stuff is out of the viewer’s hands. If you’re a scripter, one bit of advice is to recompile your scripts to use Mono. I’ve found that to make things run tremendously faster. I still run into lag on certain sims, but it’s not nearly as often nor as problematic as it used to be. I think LL’s changes indicated above must have a lot to do with that.
She followed up with an interesting guest post historical-to-modern perspective about how LL’s changes have affected lag in an article called “Anatomy of Lag.”
Social networking not necessarily social
Elizabeth Bernstein shares observations with implications for modern communication in a Wall Street Journal article entitled “How Facebook Can Ruin Your Friendships.” Do you see implications for your own use of online social media?
SL gives voice to the repressed
I remember when FAX machines made possible protests by Chinese dissidents against the Chinese government. That has been a few years. Now, Second Life seems to be providing an outlet that not only facilitates protests of a similar sort, but also brings people together in ways even beyond the Internet. The Web site “Foreign Policy in Focus” has a thorough article about “The Iranian Opposition’s Second Life” that is thought-provoking in a number of ways. It seems not only to have been a means of free expression, but also of providing something like face-to-face meetings in a “place” where face-to-face meetings otherwise can be very, very dangerous.
Second Life Web page update aids functioning
Linden Lab seems proud of their new Web site, and so far it seems justified to me. They have aggregated several useful features on the Web that makes using SL itself easier, and that enables some quick functioning without having to log into the grid.
One of the neatest seems to be the dashboard, reachable by http://secondlife.com/my. This page brings together several of the most popular pages of information as well as account information.
For instance, at the very top you find What Next, World Map, Shopping, Buy Land, Community, and Help. What Next has several items like the Quick Start Guide and links to video tutorials (which are also linked further down the dashboard, which seems redundant to me, but heck, I’m old-school).
The World Map actually is a piece of the SL Search Engine, enabling you to search for both places and events and, once you’ve located the point on a Web-based map, teleport directly there.
Following the pattern of “more there than what the label would suggest,” the Buy Land tab certainly lets you buy land, but also gives you link to information such as the location of land owned by groups to which you belong, and the location of land that you own.
Other widgets on the page give you access to your account information, your Friends list, the Linden currency exchange, XstreetSL (including merchant tools, and several other informational links.
And that’s just the dashboard. Linden Lab also says they have streamlined the registration process (and God knows it needed streamlining–the new page is accessible via http://join.secondlife.com/), and they’re planning to improve the orientation experience as well.
I’m personally looking forward to seeing what’s involved in the Viewer 2.0 thing. Tateru Nino wrote about the plans back in June, which is forever in SL terms. Back then, the major change was a rearrangement of menus in an attempt to be more intuitive. Lots could have changed since then, of course, and I’m hoping for the better–not that the interface is bad now, but that could just be because I’m used to it. Anyway, I’ve not seen recent updates on its design or status, and I couldn’t help but notice it was the one thing on the LL blog page that was not linked to another story.
In any case, it does look as if they are trying to make things easier for experienced users as well as n00bs.
SL moving closer to real life
Here we are with a new academic year starting, and among other things this year holds, I’m getting back into Second Life again. Much has changed, and much remains the same. I’ll be sharing observations more frequently than in recent months.
One thing that caught my eye today: Paul Sweeney has noticed an implication of recent announcements by Linden Lab, i.e., that “Second Life [is] getting closer to real life.” Part of that announcement revolved around an upcoming viewer upgrade that will allow the viewer to handle HTML, Flash, and embedded browsers, and it may even be able to talk to real world applications like Excel. Such capabilities will make virtual meetings seem/feel more like real-world meetings, making them feel somewhat like face-to-face (where it’s so easy to just say, “Look at this!”) while retaining the advantages of using the Internet for distributed meetings rather than having everyone hop on a plane.
That has implications for distance education as well, of course.
Perhaps the most crucial skill
In an article entitled “Pay Attention,” Mark McGuinness lays out research showing the importance of a skill that goes beyond mere skill. I’m very sure that along with improving musical performance, learning mindfulness will improve public speaking, general communication skills, and life skills. Take the time to read all the way through.