I think a very useful feature that seems easy to implement is to allow tagging of inventory items. By tagging, I mean assigning one or more keywords to objects. This can be seen in many of Google's services such as Gmail. This feature would make it much easier for a resident to find items in his/her inventory, which can be rather difficult for residents with large inventories.If you think this is a good idea, go and vote for it and then spread the word!
Currently, a resident must either spend a lot of time organizing everything into folders so they can easily find what they or looking for. Otherwise, they need to remember the name of the object they want, which is sometimes hard.
Assigned tags would be transferred along with items, so that people wouldn't have to tag each new item they got, which isn't any better than having to move it into the proper folder. Ideally, the tags would be pre-assigned by the creators and previous owners. This would make it much easier to find specific items. For example, I might have a shirt with "mens", "goth", "shirt", "short-sleeved", "black". If I felt like wearing a goth outfit, I could just look at all the items in my inventory with the "goth" tag. Maybe I want to show off my new tattoo, then I can search for the "short-sleeved" tag. There could also be tags that SL maintains, such as "added to inventory in the last 30 days" or "rezzed/attached/worn in the past 7 days", etc.
Thursday, 13 September 2007
Tagging Inventory Items in SL
My inventory in SL is a nightmare, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has trouble keeping it organized. I just sumbitted a feature request to Jira to add tagging support to objects, as seen in Gmail and many other services.
Monday, 10 September 2007
Google Sets
There is an experimental Google project called Google Sets that is fun to play with. You give it a few words or phrases, and then it comes up with a list of related items. For example, if I give it "red", "green" and "blue", it generates a long list of colors (and "unleashed07", for some reason). As the list goes down, the terms seem to be less and less related. I can see a way this might be useful. Let's say you don't like iTunes, Winamp, or Windows Media Player. Type those into Google Sets, and it will give you a ton of other music playing programs, such as my favorite, Amarok (only for Linux...until Amarok 2 comes out). I was also able to stump it. I gave it "Oda", "Takeda", and "Shimazu", which are three clans from Sengoku era Japan. I expected other clans such as Mori, Uesugi, Hojo or Imagawa, but instead I got nothing.
Sunday, 9 September 2007
Comparing Second Life on Windows and Linux
Here's something I found interesting. I logged into Second Life a couple times when I was still running Ubuntu, and I noticed something about my framerate. (Unfortunately, Blogspot appears to convert any image uploaded to a jpeg, which makes it hard to see the individual red dots in the screenshots.)
You can't see the dots very well, but there are two distinct columns on either side. On my old computer, I used SL in both Windows XP and Ubuntu, but I never saw this. My framerate is oscillating between about 35 and 42 fps, forming those two columns. Usually the distribution is more chaotic. It might have something to do with the dual-core CPU, or could just be that I'm running it on a much newer Ubuntu installation without a lot of other software installed. I thought maybe it had something to do with the window manager, so I ran SL without a window manager to see what it would look like.
Now we see a much more steady framerate. It also looks like this if I switch to fullscreen mode, but am still running a window manager (GNOME).
Now that I'm running Windows, I decided to do the same experiment. There's no point in comparing the actual framerates, as I wasn't always in the same place when I took these screenshots (but I did make sure I wasn't looking at any avatars or anything that was moving and might cause fluctuation).
In windowed mode, there's is a lot of fluctuation, and it tends to be all over the place. What's shown here is perhaps a little more extreme than the norm.
Fullscreen is better, showing slightly less fluctuation than Linux in windowed mode.
On a side note, I have probably used SL about equal amounts in both Ubuntu and Windows XP, so I'm going to write a short comparison for anyone who's interested. For me, it always feels smoother in Ubuntu, although when I actually look at the framerate there doesn't seem to be any significant difference. The Linux viewer also seems more stable. A downside to Ubuntu is that there is no support for video playback in the Linux viewer (which is why it is still tagged as 'alpha'), but I don't need that very often. One thing that always annoyed me in Ubuntu was the sound. I won't go into the technical details, but there are two options. If I just run SL normally, the sound is delayed about 1 second from when I should hear it. This is kind of annoying, and might actually hurt my dueling ability since a lot of my reaction is based on sound. If I edit the script that runs SL by commenting out a certain line, the sound delay is fixed, but there is a side effect that SL doesn't allow anything else to play a sound. There are times when someone will post a youtube link or something like that, and I can't watch it without logging out. It also makes it so I can't listen to music while I'm using SL, which is something I do a lot.
You can't see the dots very well, but there are two distinct columns on either side. On my old computer, I used SL in both Windows XP and Ubuntu, but I never saw this. My framerate is oscillating between about 35 and 42 fps, forming those two columns. Usually the distribution is more chaotic. It might have something to do with the dual-core CPU, or could just be that I'm running it on a much newer Ubuntu installation without a lot of other software installed. I thought maybe it had something to do with the window manager, so I ran SL without a window manager to see what it would look like.
Now we see a much more steady framerate. It also looks like this if I switch to fullscreen mode, but am still running a window manager (GNOME). Now that I'm running Windows, I decided to do the same experiment. There's no point in comparing the actual framerates, as I wasn't always in the same place when I took these screenshots (but I did make sure I wasn't looking at any avatars or anything that was moving and might cause fluctuation).
In windowed mode, there's is a lot of fluctuation, and it tends to be all over the place. What's shown here is perhaps a little more extreme than the norm.
Fullscreen is better, showing slightly less fluctuation than Linux in windowed mode.On a side note, I have probably used SL about equal amounts in both Ubuntu and Windows XP, so I'm going to write a short comparison for anyone who's interested. For me, it always feels smoother in Ubuntu, although when I actually look at the framerate there doesn't seem to be any significant difference. The Linux viewer also seems more stable. A downside to Ubuntu is that there is no support for video playback in the Linux viewer (which is why it is still tagged as 'alpha'), but I don't need that very often. One thing that always annoyed me in Ubuntu was the sound. I won't go into the technical details, but there are two options. If I just run SL normally, the sound is delayed about 1 second from when I should hear it. This is kind of annoying, and might actually hurt my dueling ability since a lot of my reaction is based on sound. If I edit the script that runs SL by commenting out a certain line, the sound delay is fixed, but there is a side effect that SL doesn't allow anything else to play a sound. There are times when someone will post a youtube link or something like that, and I can't watch it without logging out. It also makes it so I can't listen to music while I'm using SL, which is something I do a lot.
Chat with Dell Tech Support
Here are parts of my conversation with Dell tech support. I saved the chat log, but that turned out to be unnecessary as they emailed it to me a few minutes later.
Notice it was a about 2 minutes of silence after I stated my problem before he asked that question. Also notice I have already answered it in my initial statement.
Umm....I'd say I made the biggest possible software change? Also, notice the almost 2 minute delay again.
I like that I was asked what I had already tried, instead of the normal tech support experience where they take you painfully through everything you've already tried in mind-numbing step-by-step instructions.
Now, if you read my previous post, you know that I put a wireless card in the computer. But he didn't know this, so I don't know how he was expecting to be able to connect to my computer. I had already told him one of my problems was with ethernet device. Luckily, I did have the wireless card. The Dell software to do this failed the first time, but it worked on a second attempt. After connecting, there was a delay of a few minutes, followed by him opening Device Manager, then another long delay. A total of 12 minutes after he connected to my computer:
I waited for more, since I had stated above that I was pretty sure this was the problem but that I didn't know which ones to download. I finally asked where to get them and he said he'd give them to me; then navigated to the driver download page and began downloading. It was going to take 40 minutes, so I told him I had a slow connection and that if he just gave me the URLs to the drivers, I could download them and install them on my own. He gave them to me, and even asked me if I wanted him to call me the next day to see if it worked. I told him I'd just contact tech support if it didn't. I guess this was a pretty good tech support experience, compared to others I've had. From beginning to end it was 1 hour and 15 minutes, but during a lot of that I was waiting for a response, and could watch TV.
| 09/07/2007 06:33:15PM | Session Started with Agent (Harshavardhan_77570) |
| 09/07/2007 06:33:27PM | Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "Thank you for contacting Dell XPS Premium Support. My name is Harshavardhan and my rep ID number is 0177570. How may I assist you today?" |
| 09/07/2007 06:34:08PM | Colin Kern: "I have just installed Windows XP on my XPS 410, but ethernet and sound doesn't work." |
| 09/07/2007 06:34:22PM | Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "I will assist you with the issue." |
| 09/07/2007 06:34:40PM | Colin Kern: "Thank you." |
| 09/07/2007 06:36:29PM | Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "When was the first time you had this problem ?" |
Notice it was a about 2 minutes of silence after I stated my problem before he asked that question. Also notice I have already answered it in my initial statement.
| 09/07/2007 06:37:37PM | Colin Kern: "I bought the computer from Dell with Ubuntu Linux installed, and everything worked fine then. But I have just installed Windows XP, and the sound and ethernet don't work." |
| 09/07/2007 06:39:02PM | Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "Have you made any software or hardware changes?" |
Umm....I'd say I made the biggest possible software change? Also, notice the almost 2 minute delay again.
| 09/07/2007 06:40:35PM | Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "Have you tried any steps from your end to resolve the issue?" |
| 09/07/2007 06:41:53PM | Colin Kern: "I looked in the device manager to try to diagnose the devices, and they did not appear in the list, so I believe the problem is that I don't have the drivers." |
| 09/07/2007 06:42:15PM | Colin Kern: "I looked at Dell's support website, but was confused as to which drivers I need to download." |
I like that I was asked what I had already tried, instead of the normal tech support experience where they take you painfully through everything you've already tried in mind-numbing step-by-step instructions.
| 09/07/2007 06:43:13PM | Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "All right." |
| 09/07/2007 06:43:34PM | Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "Can I take the control of your system to check with the issue?" |
Now, if you read my previous post, you know that I put a wireless card in the computer. But he didn't know this, so I don't know how he was expecting to be able to connect to my computer. I had already told him one of my problems was with ethernet device. Luckily, I did have the wireless card. The Dell software to do this failed the first time, but it worked on a second attempt. After connecting, there was a delay of a few minutes, followed by him opening Device Manager, then another long delay. A total of 12 minutes after he connected to my computer:
| 09/07/2007 07:13:59PM | Agent (Harshavardhan_77570): "You need to install the drivers on the computer." |
I waited for more, since I had stated above that I was pretty sure this was the problem but that I didn't know which ones to download. I finally asked where to get them and he said he'd give them to me; then navigated to the driver download page and began downloading. It was going to take 40 minutes, so I told him I had a slow connection and that if he just gave me the URLs to the drivers, I could download them and install them on my own. He gave them to me, and even asked me if I wanted him to call me the next day to see if it worked. I told him I'd just contact tech support if it didn't. I guess this was a pretty good tech support experience, compared to others I've had. From beginning to end it was 1 hour and 15 minutes, but during a lot of that I was waiting for a response, and could watch TV.
Finally!
Ok, here's how I finally got Windows on my computer.
In Ubuntu, I was able to apply the SP2 update to the files I had copied from the CD using Wine. The problem was with burning it back onto another CD. I extracted the Windows boot image, but it wasn't in a normal format, and as much as I searched on the internet, I couldn't find a Linux tool that could do it. I burned a few duds that contained the data but weren't bootable. The next thing to try was running trial versions of Nero or Roxio with Wine. Neither would run with Wine, so it was finally time to install Windows XP on my laptop. I got back to the point I was at before, and then got the trial version of Roxio. But guess what? The trial version doesn't allow the option I needed. I tried Nero and found out the same thing. So it was back to the drawing board. I finally discovered a program called nLite, which does everything for you. I downloaded it and had my slipstreamed CD within fifteen minutes.
So I went to install Windows with my new CD...and I still got the blue screen of death. The error was different, though. I wrote down the important information (some hex numbers) and then started searching around on the internet. I finally found out what the problem is on the Dell support website. My motherboard settings were set to "RAID on", and I needed to switch it to "RAID autodetect/ATA". When I went to change it in my motherboard, I noticed it said that switching could decrease performance, even if I only had one disk (if you don't know, RAID is a method of using multiple disks to either increase performance or backup data). It's interesting that they had this option set for Linux, but it doesn't work with Windows. I wonder if I should try to get a RAID driver and switch back to it. Anyway, once I had changed the setting, I was able to install Windows without a problem. Unfortunately, not everything worked when I booted it up.
The first thing I noticed was that I had no network devices. I noticed later that I also had no sound. The problem was obviously with drivers, but upon getting to Dell's driver download page I couldn't figure out which I needed to get out of the about a hundred that were listed. They were categorized, but there were still something like 5 for networking and 8 for audio. At this point, I was using my laptop to look for the drivers with the intention to transfer them with a USB flash drive. I decided it would be easier if I took my wireless card out of my old computer and put it in this one. I did that and then started running Windows Update. There was an updated driver for my wireless card that I selected to have downloaded, but when got to installing it, there was a flash of BSOD and my computer restarted. Windows booted up, BSOD after a few seconds, computer restarts, repeat. I got into safe mode and uninstalled the wireless card. Rebooted and still had the problem. I tried rolling back the driver, but it said it didn't have any previous versions stored. Instead of spending who knows how long figuring out how to fix this, I just reinstalled Windows. After this, I was very frustrated and just wanted to get things working. I went to Dell's support website and was able to chat online with a technician who eventually gave me the drivers I needed. Look forward to another post containing this chat session. So after getting the drivers, everything works, and I am being careful to not let Windows download that updated driver. I had a similar problem with my old computer, where it always wanted to download an updated driver for my sound chip, but it would always just break sound and I'd have to roll back.
So hopefully this will be the last of these types of posts for a while, as I can now enjoy a working computer. On another note, I have 2 other posts I want to do, and I'm thinking of a 3rd. I'll try to space them out, maybe save some for tomorrow. But expect more posts in the near future.
In Ubuntu, I was able to apply the SP2 update to the files I had copied from the CD using Wine. The problem was with burning it back onto another CD. I extracted the Windows boot image, but it wasn't in a normal format, and as much as I searched on the internet, I couldn't find a Linux tool that could do it. I burned a few duds that contained the data but weren't bootable. The next thing to try was running trial versions of Nero or Roxio with Wine. Neither would run with Wine, so it was finally time to install Windows XP on my laptop. I got back to the point I was at before, and then got the trial version of Roxio. But guess what? The trial version doesn't allow the option I needed. I tried Nero and found out the same thing. So it was back to the drawing board. I finally discovered a program called nLite, which does everything for you. I downloaded it and had my slipstreamed CD within fifteen minutes.
So I went to install Windows with my new CD...and I still got the blue screen of death. The error was different, though. I wrote down the important information (some hex numbers) and then started searching around on the internet. I finally found out what the problem is on the Dell support website. My motherboard settings were set to "RAID on", and I needed to switch it to "RAID autodetect/ATA". When I went to change it in my motherboard, I noticed it said that switching could decrease performance, even if I only had one disk (if you don't know, RAID is a method of using multiple disks to either increase performance or backup data). It's interesting that they had this option set for Linux, but it doesn't work with Windows. I wonder if I should try to get a RAID driver and switch back to it. Anyway, once I had changed the setting, I was able to install Windows without a problem. Unfortunately, not everything worked when I booted it up.
The first thing I noticed was that I had no network devices. I noticed later that I also had no sound. The problem was obviously with drivers, but upon getting to Dell's driver download page I couldn't figure out which I needed to get out of the about a hundred that were listed. They were categorized, but there were still something like 5 for networking and 8 for audio. At this point, I was using my laptop to look for the drivers with the intention to transfer them with a USB flash drive. I decided it would be easier if I took my wireless card out of my old computer and put it in this one. I did that and then started running Windows Update. There was an updated driver for my wireless card that I selected to have downloaded, but when got to installing it, there was a flash of BSOD and my computer restarted. Windows booted up, BSOD after a few seconds, computer restarts, repeat. I got into safe mode and uninstalled the wireless card. Rebooted and still had the problem. I tried rolling back the driver, but it said it didn't have any previous versions stored. Instead of spending who knows how long figuring out how to fix this, I just reinstalled Windows. After this, I was very frustrated and just wanted to get things working. I went to Dell's support website and was able to chat online with a technician who eventually gave me the drivers I needed. Look forward to another post containing this chat session. So after getting the drivers, everything works, and I am being careful to not let Windows download that updated driver. I had a similar problem with my old computer, where it always wanted to download an updated driver for my sound chip, but it would always just break sound and I'd have to roll back.
So hopefully this will be the last of these types of posts for a while, as I can now enjoy a working computer. On another note, I have 2 other posts I want to do, and I'm thinking of a 3rd. I'll try to space them out, maybe save some for tomorrow. But expect more posts in the near future.
The Void
Here I am in the void after sitting on something. I'm sure this has happened to everybody before. This time was strange, though, because I seem to have taken someone else's attachments with me. You can see my Wave on my back...so what's that other sword I'm sitting on? and that necklace thing? I've never seen that before in my life. That green/red glow (mostly red in this shot) is the multitool that most people have. It does that when it gets rezzed and not attached for some reason. All my attachments seem fine, so I can only assume that belongs to someone else as well. When I returned from the void, I looked around for these accessories but didn't see anyone wearing them. Very odd.
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