Sun Holds News Conference In Second Life 134
mikesd81 writes, "Internet News is reporting that Sun held an in-world news conference in the online game Second Life. From the article: 'Tuesday, Sun became the first Fortune 500 company to hold an "in-world" press conference to show off its new pavilion in Second Life, the popular 3D online world. Sun said it plans to invest in the Sun Pavilion as a place for developers to try out code, share ideas, and receive training.' Sun hopes to reach millions of Java developers, as opposed to the 22,000 that show up at its JavaOne conference each year." Good luck with that goal of "millions" — the total population of SL is under 800,000. And, who knew that Sun has a Chief Gaming Officer? Good quote from him in the article. He said Second Life isn't a game, "It's an amazing platform for global communications."
Too bad... (Score:5, Informative)
Some more info on SL and mono (Score:3, Informative)
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#1 Isn't he supposed to hype about T1 cpus and ultrasparcs (these don't run this app)
#2 Isn't he supposed to promote another programming platform (java) ?
#3 Isn't he supposed to sweettalk about solaris which doesnt "do the app" ?
#4 Is he trying to get clients that have to give up the environment where they are convinced ?
#5 Is this posted on a website where neither windows nor macosx are very popular amongst users ?
This looks li
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amazing platform for global communications...? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:amazing platform for global communications...? (Score:5, Funny)
Danger! (Score:1)
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Re:amazing platform for global communications...? (Score:5, Informative)
However there are some not-so-hidden cost barriers to entry. You need a good cable or DSL connection, and the SL client is able to bring even the most modern gaming machine to its knees at high settings and certain locations. If your setup is already able to play Counterstrike:Source nicely, then Second Life should work OK.
Re:amazing platform for global communications...? (Score:4, Informative)
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New free accounts no longer get a weekly stipend of Linden Dollars.
SL Hyperinflation (Score:3, Interesting)
If they're giving everyone a constant supply of money in their weekly stipend, isn't that just like a country's central bank printing money? How does the price of goods not spiral out of control?
Is it just because they're constantly pulling money out of the economy through land rent, that they can do it?
Re:SL Hyperinflation (Score:5, Informative)
There are other "sinks" in the economy as well. Uploading a texture or sound file costs L$10 and that money basically "disappears." Ditto with the fee for creating new user groups (L$100).
Linden Labs has actually found that, to help stabilize the exchange rate, they have to sell L$ on their currency market themselves. The exchange rate, after peaking at around L$330/US$1, now seems to have stabilized at L$275-280/US$1 for the present.
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I'm sure that was purely accidental.
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years, just fine, and now you want me
to switch to broadband just so that
I can attend some Java conference?
Lynx: The way it's meant to be surfed.
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Yeah, agreed, I'm a big fan of First Life myself... the graphics are mindblowing, the resolution retinal and the only lag is a deliberate feature to simulate 'drunkeness'.... wish they'd implement a quicksave and quickload though...
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Well, those features are lacking in all MMORPGs, aren't they? It's the need for farming/grinding that really puts me off First Life.
Almost as serious is all the rampant PKing. We really need PvP combat to be optional, so that players cannot become involved without opting in.
Finally, while there is a lot of speculation on what happens to the character after death (respawning on another server? respawning as another character?
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Unfortunatly it's only way you can load a state, every person who loads a save state immediatly forgets how to
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And yet my First Life is still better... (Score:2)
Second Life users scare the shit out of me but so do Myspace, Okrut, and Friendster users. Hell, I won't even go on IRC anymore
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Just don't look for me to be a continually on-line participant. At this point I consider it only as a tool to reach someone else's services, more like a specia
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And yet you hang out and post on
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Global communications, old news. (Score:3, Insightful)
The Year 2000 Called (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously though, I think this is another sign that Sun isn't focused. Yes they have product and technology, but I don't see them turning it into sales. Company hasn't kept up with market changes in this way.
Warm and fuzzy this may be, but show me the money!
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Re:The Year 2000 Called (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Year 2000 Called (Score:4, Funny)
Cost a factor? (Score:4, Interesting)
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"PowerPoint" in SL (Score:2)
Yeah sure (Score:5, Funny)
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The number of WoW players that take it too far and let their real lives slide, if it's not a game it's the machines tricking the populace into hooking up permanently to power the matrix. For some it's WoW, for others it's
C-level titles are overdone. Especially "CIO"... (Score:2, Insightful)
Think of it another way: When's the last time you saw your "CJO" (J="Janitorial")?
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Re:C-level titles are overdone. Especially "CIO".. (Score:2)
Metaverse Messenger covered this. (Score:2)
Made the front page, but below the fold.
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> Made the front page, but below the fold.
>
>I tried folding it. You owe me a new flatscreen monitor.
Worked just fine for me. Of course, I had to pay some dude shaped like a big red "A" L$30 Linden Dollars for something called "Acrobat 8.SL" before the newspaper rendered as anything other than a blank piece of newsprint.
Now that I've got Acrobat 8.SL running, of course, my newspaper renders PDF, but it also comes with about 30 plugins that drag ar
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New communications media? (Score:2, Insightful)
Think of all the time that people are sinking to keep email- a stressed and some would say broken- tenable into the future... now divert some of that energy into making Second Life (or a Second Life-like system) into something useful for communication. The result would be newer, richer and arguably better suited for human communication than text based email ever will be.
Coo. Just plain co
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WoW is next... (Score:1)
'Tis true, about the global platform (Score:1, Interesting)
Unfortunately for educators (Score:2)
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Then again, maybe in Second Life Sun's a successful company.
If I had to guess... (Score:1)
What value does SL bring to reaching developers? (Score:5, Interesting)
Come on, Sun, tell us how it does things that can't be more efficiently served with a website and forums?
Re:What value does SL bring to reaching developers (Score:1)
Yeah, virtual conferences are definately the wave of the future....
Similar to a conference. (Score:2)
And I think you'll have a harder time convincing your boss to pay you to attend a "Programming Conference" in Second Life even if it is less expensive than a Las Vegas junket
Re:What value does SL bring to reaching developers (Score:4, Interesting)
So you see no advantage to going to conferences or classrooms as learning experiences? Let's just shut down all the colleges then. Pheonix U online should be just as good as Harvard or MIT.
Oh, wait, now maybe there is some advantage to the classroom/conference format. OK, now if you want more people to show up, you have to get a bigger meeting space, arrange dates for when it's not in use by some other organization, arrange for people to travel to the location, arrange for places for them to stay, and figure out a way to pay for all of that.
But if we can get all of the advantages to a real-time, interpersonal learning environmet with top notch presentations and leading experts, but with none of the travel, hosting, or cost issues, isn't this exactly the kind of value added service we (that being technology advocates) have touted the web as providing for so many years? Yes, it comes wrapped in all the other silliness and baggage that is Second Life, but had Sun released this as a stand alone client/learning environment, and Second Life didn't exist, everyone would be hailing this as proof that tech can provide most of the benefits of a real life meeting, while avoiding the static and overly artificial interaction of webpages and forums. In fact, once VoIP is fully integrated, and dynamic expressions become easier and clearer (a frown while someone is listening to you, or the tone/type of clapping after your presentation provides a world of useful information back to a speaker) this could replace 80% of the gain I get from attending conferences. That loss would be more than offset by using this to allow me to attend far more learning and idea sharing forums.
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Just like Powerpoint (Score:2)
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Lets hold a press conference on an unsupported OS? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why didn't they just hold it in Microsoft Netmeeting?
Re:Lets hold a press conference on an unsupported (Score:5, Insightful)
They're basically saying, rather than roll our own online "environment" for this project, we'll just use a pre-existing one, and save our company some money by not doing a lot of extra work. That seems to make sense to me.
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Apple doesn't make vehicles. And you can bet if they did, Steve would drive one everywhere.
And sometimes when the CEO of McDonalds goes to lunches with business clients, sometimes he goes to restaurants that don't serve Big Macs!
That's because if you eat Big Macs all the time, it'll practically kill you [supersizeme.com]. The McDonalds corporation is all about feeding cheap crap to people who don't know better, not about making quality prod
The only minor hiccup was when... (Score:3, Funny)
Linden Labs is embarassed by crashing (Score:2)
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Second Life is nothing... (Score:2)
...wait,did I just type that in a public forum?
Millions.....Not yet. (Score:1)
Second Life, Second Attempt (Score:3, Funny)
Sun Microsystems first attempt was to do a massive, universal campaign in another popular online game, EVE-ONLINE. Reports are scarce, but from credible witnesses flying around in Polaris ships to monitor the event, the endeavour quickly became a fiasco.
Sun thought Querious, which permitted word play for 'query' and provided them to boast their server and sql database presentation, would be a good idea to rally tons of people to the event.
Unfortunately, a large in-game Alliance known as Band of Brothers [BoB], setup a trap to permit tons of people into pouring into their soverign territory. While Sun Microsystems (working with Quaff Marketing Agents) to launch the event, BoB came in with Interceptors, Heavy Assault Cruisers, Battleships, Carriers and Motherships and podded everyone except for the GMs. Many petitions were filed that day, even Sun Microsystems employees filed petitions. As usual, all those petitions fell on deaf ears. Across the street from CCP in Iceland, police received complaints from residents nearby for excessive laughter.
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I see Sun is Catering to the important markets... (Score:1)
Is Sun than dropping JXTA its P2p platform? (Score:1)
Sun Holds News Conference In Second Life (Score:3, Funny)
That Would Explain It (Score:2)
Well, now I know why I haven't noticed SL being especially fun.
Does anyone who plays SL have a first life? (Score:1)
How'd they hold the grid together? (Score:1)
Giving a press conference naked (Score:1)
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Serously Fucked Up (Score:2)
I still do a lot of SUN engagements. A lot of SUN code. Even Java.
I don't really do Windows (I have one copy of XP running in a VMware container). I can't do "Second Life" -- went to their website, and discovered that it's Windows or Mac only. No Solaris, no Java, not even "Mono". No Sparc. Not even Linux.
Sure, they may get people into the conference; but they have lost the platform COMPLETELY. I guess that buying a computer, OS, and Second Life is probably cheaper than th
Re: Serously Fucked Up (Score:1, Insightful)
Personally I'm glad Sun has gained some focus here on server-side technology (they said their tech could make SL's servers work better, both hardware uberboxen and the software project they mentioned), and that they've stopped wasting time trying to do the impossible (be a consumer OS platform like Windows or Mac OS X). Their shareholders should (continue to) be pleased.
Sorry for the ad hominem, but perhaps these things are r
Windows, Mac, and yes even Linux (Score:1)
Obviously, You Can't Read (Score:2)
Now, I went to "secondlife.com". From there, I went to "system requirements". I wish to quote:
"PC Minimum System Requirements:
* Internet Connection*: Cable or DSL
* Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
o OR Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
* Computer Processor: 800MHz Pent
What about Croquet? (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.opencroquet.org/ [opencroquet.org]
Open Crouquet is shaping up pretty well and dosn't come with half the hassles, you don't have to worry about users gate crashing your conerence ( Conference is closed... coz of AIDS! ), you can run Croquet on your own hardware, and it can be customized to suit your needs..
Maybe someone should mention this thi
The Man in the Red Braces is on the line! (Score:1)
SL is a toy (Score:2)
SL is only a marketing gimmick. You only do something in it so you can do a press release that says how futuristic you are.
Somebody needs to tell Linden Labs, then. (Score:2)
However, the biggest "you've gotta be kidding" aspect is how poorly Linden Labs tests, QAs, and deploys upgrades. Two weeks ago, the entire grid was down for close to 24 hours, and was flaky for days after a failed update. While I haven't been on SL very long, I'm lead to believe that this is not uncommon.
Sun is right, however, that it has the potential to be a stunning platform for communications. On the flip side, Linden Labs is the single b
this world, that world (Score:2)
Farting in the breeze... (Score:2)
MY EYES!!11!!11! (Score:2)
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I've been lurking around SL lately just to figure out what all the buzz is about and would say it's a platform in which you can create and manipulate objects, avatars, and buildings. Interaction via "game physics" occurs and keeps the environment manageable.
It's immature right now -- and maybe it always will be -- but I can see the potential. It's not a bad way to meet up with others to collaborate or teach/learn.
Sun isn't the only company seeing v
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Lots of companies are in there now... true, mostly it's just promotional fluff, but some of it is actually pretty relevant.
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Hey, thanks for the kind words Rob
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999,950 people read about it on web sites
Total 1,000,000!
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Did they hold the conference in The Black Sun
No, it was in a biege commodity Opteron.
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Second Life is a huge shithole of malls, 'sex clubs' and batshit crazy, self-important, no-reason morons. The only fun I ever had was hanging out with friends mentioned above, who als
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And seriously, what is this bullshit about 'abusing free services'? I've been with Something Awful for a few years (late '03), and I've ne
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http://secondlife.com/community/linux-alpha.php [secondlife.com]
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