Where the Hell…..

…..has Lillani been?

She’s been….. not here.

Would any wonderful, rich, benefactor like to donate an island to me? Or dropping 550,000 L into my purse? Or, 110 people donate 5 K each…… maybe……

Okay! I’m kidding…. I wouldn’t let anyone give me an island, it’s been tried already….. but honestly, I’m getting really tired of living in and doing business on the mainland. It’s just not a place to run a thriving business. But, I do have to give it to the Dictatorshop, despite being mainland established, it is growing, and has solid, strong roots which transcends much of the mainland adversities which have killed many, many other businesses. Originally, given its name by a (un)fortunate typo, the Dictatorshop has earned its name in spades by conquering obstacles and establishing itself as a D/s household brandname. If I didn’t need the money I earn in SL to pay RL bills, I’d have bought an island awhile ago. Sadly, I can’t do both, however. But, once the Dictatorshop does get its roots to its own island…… The Dictatorshop will flourish within Second Life like a delicious fungus!

LaserTech! My long, lost, almost forgotten LaserTech…. how I do neglect thee! I have nothing else to say about poor ol’LaserTech. See how I neglect it? Go, go and buy a LaserTech item today! Encourage me to bring this brand to the forefront once again!

Contracting! I’ve been working on a private sim build lately, I can’t really tell you who its for or what it is, but it was an exciting opportunity to do something new….. so, I jumped onto that wagon and that’s where I’ve been hiding lately. I’ll tell you what it is when I’m given the a-okay to tell you what it is…. and that’s probably not going to be for awhile. I’m having a good time doing what I’m doing anyway!

And….. since Second Life is still down, I’m going to go take a nap or something.

Scripting IS My Sex

Someone asked….. how I became interested in scripting, or how I learned.

So, here goes! Queue the ego!
Nah, okay, I’m no genius scripter like Fox Diller, who to me is nothing short of a scripting demi-god whose coding skill is sought after like ambrosia by us mortals, but I like to think I have a pretty good grip on LSL.

My interest in scripting existed long before I ever came to Second Life….. rather, my interest in programming existed long before. I have about 10-15 years of on and off experience with C/C++….. from writing my own little games from time to time (including a complete conquer-the-universe strategy game done with ANSI graphics in the early 90s) to coding a completely custom MUD (Multi User Dungeon). I even did a short stint where I created the basic framework for an online, 2D graphical game. I wrote a game server, map builder, created the graphics, and built a DirectX-based client which allowed you to create a character, connect to the world, and walk around to explore the 2D world. Of course… this was back before 3D was “all the rage”….. now, when it comes to graphics, I’m out of the loop, I know nothing of 3D vectors, and anything beyond DirectX 7…. I really can’t tell you how it works.

Outside of the C/C++ programming lanaguge….. I’ve played with Turbo Pascal and Delphi, Visual Basic, and several other variants of BASIC.

Now, can you tell Lillani is a geeky woman with no social life to speak of? Or maybe it’s the 12-16 hours per day I spend in-world…..

Learning LSL….. well, LSL really isn’t a difficult language. It’s like most programming languages. You just need to slow down, grasp the syntax, which is identical to a half dozen other programming languages (like JavaScript, C, etc) and from there it’s just a matter of needing to know which functions does what and how to apply them to achieve what you’re setting out to do. My experience with C helped zoom me along in LSL…. from first look, I already knew the syntax, I just needed to learn the functions for which the LSL Wiki is a wonderful source of knowledge.

I do have my weaknesses when it comes to scripting. For one, I have a very difficult time reading another person’s scripts…. and viewing even a simple script written by someone else is a pain and causes my brain to malfunction. I need to have a script written in the exact format I would write it in to understand it…. or I just won’t “get it”. For instance…. while there’s a lot of free particle scripts out there, I had to build and script my own particle generator in order to grasp how particles works. Mind you, it only took me several hours to build a fully functional particle generator which can write particle script for you. I should sell that……

Tips for learning LSL.

1. Don’t read other people’s scripts. Forget it. You’ll just end up overwhelming yourself trying to understand what’s going on. Reading other people’s scripts is good…. after you understand the syntax of the language.

2. Do follow the examples ONE by ONE in the LSL Wiki. Seriously, you don’t build a house all at once….. you build it one piece at a time, brick by brick. And like #1, looking at houses other people built won’t tell you how they’re built unless you’re already somewhat of a carpenter.

3. Don’t set your goals impossibly high. When you’re learning to script…. forget about “what you want to make”. Until you *know* how to script at least the basics, you shouldn’t even think about what you want to make.

4. Do learn the functions one by one. One or two events at a time, learning the basic functions. Trying to do too much won’t tell you how that one event or function works alone. Play with it, love it, kiss it, have sex with it… get involved with one function at a time to understand what it does. You don’t need to learn ALL the functions, but when you are learning a new one…. get it alone and molest it a little.

5. Don’t look at a whole page explanation for a function on the Wiki and say I can’t learn that! Read it ONE sentence at a time, then stop, reread, and see if you understand that sentence before moving onto te next. You won’t learn if you don’t slow down, stop, and try to understand. Forget the whole page! One step a time!

And well, I guess that’s it for the time being.

Stay tuned for more pointless ranting!

New Computer - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

So, finally, after two or so weeks, I was able to go out and replace my last computer which decided to commit digital suicide just after Christmas. Of course…. this comes with the good, bad, and ugly.

The good…. my new computer is much faster. My old one was an AMD Athlon running at 2.0 Ghz. This new one, is a AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core…. running at 2.2 Ghz. This, of course, is really good. The speed of this new computer can’t be denied…. it was able to install Windows XP and service packs in well under 30 minutes. Of course, now the bad. I had to format….. well, actually, I had to format on a secondary hard drive because I don’t have enough room to back up my primary hard drive until my new hard drive arrives. I have a 320 gb external driving coming my way….. so, I’ll be able to temporarily put all my important files on there so I can format my main hard drive’s O/S partition. Phew…. now, the ugly….. my old motherboard had an AGP video card, a GeForce 6600 with 256 mb of memory. Of course, the new motherboard has PCI Express….. so, of course, my AGP card won’t work and I’m stuck with an on-board integrated card. Now, luckily, it’s not an entirely “bad” integrated card…. an integrated GeForce 6100 with whatever system memory I want to give it. However, it’s still a big step down, and I can feel the difference. Anyway, luckily the shop said I can return my old AGP GeForce and get the PCI Express equivalent for just the re-stocking fee….. that’s not a bad deal. I may pick up an extra GB of memory while I’m at it…. 1 GB is nice, but 2 would be even better. The really ugly. My CD drive has decided it wants to stop functioning as well, luckily…. it’s only the door mechanism which is being stubborn, not the read/write functions, so it takes a bit of cohersion to get the door open. That’s not a bad thing anyway…. since there’s a DVD/CR-Rewriter with my name on it already half way here.

Computers are expensive. By the time this month is over, I’ll be up to $1,000….. not something I can really afford, but not something I can’t afford not to invest in. My Second Life depends on it.

Things To Do

Well, yes….. I’ve been rather quiet this past little while, haven’t I? Between catching up on spending time with my close friends and trying to make up for lost product time while in Big Brother, I just haven’t had time to update my blog. And no, that’s not my excuse. That’s just the facts and….. wait, why do I need to explain where I’ve been? I’ll update when I want!

Emma. The lovely girl I met in Big Brother, and collared thereafter, is spectacular. From personal to business, this girl knows how to fill in any pieces of a puzzle I leave blank through my design, desire, or dumbness. She is much more than many will ever have the priviledge of knowing. I do love you, Emma.

Products. I’ve been doing updates of older products, and releasing a few new products. I’ve updated the Dragon’s Tail whip to 1.5, and released three basic whip models for those who don’t believe they need the pleasure of owning Second Life’s finest whip. Outside of that, a few gags have been released. My Breath Play Chamber has been reduced in price, and from that I split it into two seperate chambers as well….. a gas chamber and a water chamber.

Scripting. I’ve been catching up on some of my own pet projects, and at the same time…. I had to let go of all my pending custom scripting projects. I was in Big Brother for quite some time, and while Big Brother helped sales due to exposure, my productivity was being hurt by the lack of new product releases. When Big Brother ended, the sales started decling, so I need to spend more time working on product infusion which allows for a consistant cash flow rather than lump sum scripting projects. So, I’ve terminated any and all scripting services I used to offer, including requests for product modification. While, the loss of lump sums of cash is a major short term setback, the long term benefits of a consistant cash flow will more than offset present losses.

e-Motion. I’m in the process of turning my FREE Sex Play Area into something a little more attractive and appealing to the masses. It’s being renamed to e-Motion, has been given an black/purple neon make-over, and will be establishing itself as an official Free Sex and Swinger Club. I never put too much thought into the original name (as you can tell), and the build, albeit warm and cozy, was more or less a basic brick and wood room with no style or flare. e-Motion on the other hand, has attitude. While its purpose is still to act as a transparant traffic generator for the Dictatorshop, it will be doing it with a little flare.

Open Sourced

The door has been opened!

Linden Labs officially open sourced the Second Life client last night so that anyone with the knowledge can download, inspect, modify, and compile their own version of the Second Life client. This, of course, has positive and negative implications. The positive is, there will be many, many, many more people investigating the source code, fixing problems, and reporting bugs to Linden Lab…. thereby making a more efficient, more stable client. The negative is, CopyBot will have nothing on what a custom client can and will do. Of course, on the flip side of this, maybe people will smarten up and get rid of those incredibly annoying anti-CopyBot spam bots which do absolutely nothing to begin with.

I do expect much of the designer community to get into the same sort of uproar as they did with CopyBot….. however, then again, maybe they learned a lesson from CopyBot…. and that it’s not going to be *that* bad, and will far from be the “End of the World”.

The Art of Business I

Yesterday, I was finally able to catch up on a little business (despite my personal hiatus) and re-establish myself in vendor locations which have changed while I was in Big Brother. I’ve put new vendors up in Black Rose, Brandy’s Playpen, and a new vendor was placed in a Ponygirl Store belonging to the Mares of Broceliande. It can be said that I’m very picky about vendor locations….. extremely picky, in fact. I have even removed vendors from places that don’t charge rent when they haven’t made any sales or made any traffic referrals from that location. There’s also a few tricks to choosing a good vendor location.

Vendor Tips:

Avoid any mall or vendor market which relies on camping or gambling in order to draw traffic. No matter how much traffic they have, avoid them. The only real traffic they gain are from the people who camp and gamble, and people who camp are not people who buy your products. Also, your primary shoppers and big spenders avoid setups like this due to the lag caused by the number of people in the sim. So, while a vendor market may very well have 10 - 30 K in traffic, you won’t be getting any genuine sales from these locations. You *will* get more sales from a vendor market which has genuine 1-5 K traffic than you will from any location with artificially inflated traffic numbers.

Avoid vendors which rely on clubs for their main market draw. Again, people who go to clubs are more than likely attending the events to win the money or prizes offered at the events, not to shop at that location. And again, while the traffic may be high because of the club events….. most shoppers will avoid them because of the amount of lag caused by the club. However, vendor markets built around social groups and group interests can be very successful.

Just because you don’t make any sales at a vendor doesn’t mean it’s an unsuccessful vendor. One important thing you should do is always have a landmark from a vendor which points to your main locations….. and if you don’t have a main location, set one up, because a lot of people just will not shop from a vendor. So, at every vendor you have you should also provide a landmark giver. With that, you should also be able to keep track of how many people visit from that location or how many landmark requests it is asked for from there. Referrals translate into sales. I have many vendors which rarely makes sales, but on the flip side, they generate a lot of referrals to my shops.

Give a vendor at least three weeks to prove itself. If it doesn’t provide enough sales to cover its per week rent by the final week, or it doesn’t refer at least 1 person per 100 L rental fees to your main location, remove the vendor from the location. Keeping it there is just draining resources. If you are confident about your product, 1 sale per week is reason enough to keep a vendor at a location even if it doesn’t cover the rental fees. More about this just below.

Market locations which rely on sex for traffic….. they *do* work. Unlike camping locations, they have an appeal to both established players as well as new players who will become established players. So, not only do you have a potential shopping base…. you also have exposure to future shoppers.

1 sale rule. If you are confident in your products then 1 sale could very well justify you staying in a market location where your sales or referrals don’t support the rental fees. In Second Life, the biggest form of advertising is word of mouth. One sale can literally translate into dozens of sales just by one person by showing their friends what they’ve bought. This is where the quality of your product comes into play….. and you stand the chance of gaining or losing the most. If your product is good, that 1 sale will multiply upon itself as that 1 friend shows his/her friends, and they buy, and so on and so forth. The amount of social networking in Second Life is not to be underestimated….. as this is what will make or break your business.

Next…. only setup vendors in places which are cleanly laid out and have no horrible distractions such as lights, clashing colors, disorganized scenery. It’s a fact, people are creatures of habit, and no matter who you are in Second Life….. you are human and you have habits! The more the format of the vendor market is based off of real life design, the more chance it has of being successful. People like open spaces, plenty of room to move, and a design which flows naturally. Open space good, cramped space bad. Natural flowing design/colors good, hard angles and clashing colors bad.

One last tip I had almost forgotten…. networked vendors. If you are using networked vendors there are a few things to remember. The first thing, don’t use high resolution images in your vendor itself. The quality of image for its size doesn’t justify the lag, and people hate browsing a laggy vendor. Also, by having huge texture displays in your vendors you are contributing to the lag of the entire vendor market….. which means, in effect, you’re killing your own sales. So, don’t. Also, if you have a lot of vendors, spread yourself thin with your servers. Don’t keep all your network servers in one place. If you do, when the sim with your network server goes down so do ALL of your vendors. Instead, keep multiple network servers containing the same products in different sims and alternate your vendors between them. That way, if the sim goes down, only a number of your vendors go down and you will lose less sales. Finally, *do not* keep your servers in the same location as your main shop….. that is a big no no. When the sim goes does, so does your entire business. And that, my friend, is not something you really want.

Well, I suppose that’s it for the Art of Business I.

Insomnia+More

So, it’s been a couple days….. and I have *the* worst case of insomnia ever. This is no surprise, I’ve always had bouts of insomnia which were incredibly persistant, not even Sleep Ez D can drug me into anything more than a light catnap when I have bouts of insomnia, and there are times when it hits I will go a week with no more than several hours of sleep throughout. But, blah….. I’m tired of being tired, I just want a good night sleep.

I’ve had at least a dozen IMs last night, primarily from vendors/shopkeepers, but I really didn’t want to be doing anything either. I’m trying not to do anything work-related in Second Life….. I just want to enjoy a vacation from anything which could be construed as “work”.

Of course, I’ve also had a few friends send me invites to parties or teleport requests to just hang out. Not meaning to be rude….. but, I really don’t want to be around a lot of people at this point. After spending a month being surrounded by nothing but people….. it’s kind of not somewhere I want to be right now. It’s kind of hard to say, “Sorry, I don’t want to hang out right now” to friends, especially when they’ve been supporting you and missing you for over a month. But at the same time, very few can understand how much I need time to be alone, have a little space, and just to do my own thing in-world for awhile.

Much of my time has been spent talking to Emma….. about Second Life and what not. I’ve also been lavishing her just a little bit, she might say a little too much, but I do like spoiling the girl. Many people have expressed surprised, some have expressed jealously, but all seem to be happy after several months of me being “alone” in Second Life I’ve found someone to share some personal time with.

Final Thoughts on Big Brother

Big Brother, the last days.

Well, it’s all over….. and I’m FREE…. finally.

Firstly, Madlen Flint won Big Brother…. and the island, so I congradulate her on the win. A lot of people are questioning the results, but I don’t really have any reason to do so. However, I will admit that I am *very* disappointed that Golda did not win. Between Madlen and Golda, sorry, Golda was the better player and had done and endured far more than Madlen had. Of course, Big Brother was not a contest about who did what….. but I do stand by the statement of idealism. While Madlen is nice enough and a builder, most of Madlen’s time in Big Brother consisted of being away from the keyboard and using an anti-idle HUD to clock her time with very little active time in the house, while Golda on the otherhand, spent as much time as I did (often up to 12-16 hours per day) without using any away time at all.

Secondly, I had said from the beginning I had no illusion of winning Big Brother….. and I achieved what I had set out to do in Big Brother. In fact, with all the wonderful friends I’ve made, I achieved a lot more than I had set out to do. The most interesting thing is, once I was out and travelling around…. more than one person had commented, “Hey, you’re Lillani from Big Brother!”

Thirdly, to all my friends and supporters…. I can’t thank you enough for all the support, encouragement, and condolences I’ve gotten. And yes, I’m sticking to the promise I made. Win or lose, I would have a party to celebrate my friendships! I certainly will, but first I want to take a week or so and just enjoy a little bit of seclusion and personal time to myself and my closest friends. After being 35 days in the eye of the public….. I just need a little vacation.

To summarize, the last couple days of Big Brother itself were rather interesting, or undirected, I should say. Our final task was to create a “victory party” for the winner. However, with only a few days to do it, only three housemates, and our very differing timeschedules we had very little organization or ability to do anything. This, of course, was topped off by the fact every time we asked the Big Brother crew for some sort of format for the ending we were given no answers. That, however, had been typical of Big Brother from Day 1, so it was really no surprise that things ended the way they started….. chaotic and with disorganization.

Now…. I’ve been saving the best for last.

After several months of avoiding any sort of relationships in Second Life I have collared a lovely young woman by the name of Emmalyn Wei. She is absolutely adorable….. I met her in the second week or so of Big Brother and I’ve spent many a hour talking with her through the glass of my Big Brother prison. Face to face, but always apart. As soon as I was released (and adjusting to the non-blueness of the world), I took Emmalyn about Second Life, and together we started our journey in Second Life. I, as her Mistress. She, as my submissive. She is quite special to me.

My Shop. It was *so* good to see the Dictatorshop again. As soon as they announced the winner I was out of Big Brother like a bolt and lightning and inside my Shop swooning over every brick which I dearly missed for the past 35 days. Officially, however, I’m on vacation! I’m not even going around to check on my vendors for a few days until I get settled back into the surreal world. And ideas for new products, I have them…. and plenty of them! Once my little personal hiatus is over, I’m going back into production at full steam.

And right now….. that’s all I have to say!

Network Outage

A few hours ago I was in the Big Brother sim chatting away with a few visitors when all of a sudden the sim crashed….. when the sim came back online, nothing was working. I could log into the sim, objects and attachments wouldn’t rez, textures wouldn’t display, people could teleport into the sim but not teleport out, communication was cut off from the outside world….. even Live Help. There were about 30 of us, in gray avatar form trapped inside the Big Brother sim. People could come in, nobody could leave. We couldn’t even IM people outside the sim. Two Lindens came into the sim, and both also became trapped inside the virtual blackhole. Shortly after, the sim was restarted…. and the sim went offline. Then a hour later, all of Second Life was offline.

It was “The End of Days”.

The End of Days

We are in the final stretch of Big Brother….. the last three days of the competition, and who will win is anybody’s guess, but I do have a very good idea who I think will.

We were given a notice today that in about 15 hours we be moved from this island and transported to the island which will be handed over to the winner at the end of the contest. What we will be doing on this island is anyone’s guess…. we’re not being told anything else outside of the notice that we are being transported. Maybe they’ll take us to the island, away from everyone, and then shoot us. I fulyl expect people to sneak into the room using invisiprim cloaks, slipping black hoods over our heads, throwing us in a trunk, and then transporting off onto a desert island somewhere out of teleport range, and eitherkill us or leave us stranded.

At any rate, myself and Golda have started an odd sort of band where I play the accordian with roosters on my head and she rat-a-tat-tats on the drums….. and a dozen midgets form a line outside of our box and begin doing a jig. But then, this is what happens after 31 days of being cooped up in a blue box. In three days, we will have our freedom.

Personally, I can’t wait to get back to my secluded little sandbox.