Reading Radar

Sometimes reading other people’s blogs is a good idea. I found out about the IBM Codestation from the SL Trip Tips Blog and hopped over to check it out.

IBM is one of the few companies that really gets how to use SL, in my opinion. They don’t go in there just as shell advertisements of their brand, they actually USE the virtual world to conduct business, do educational stuff, and generally work with what makes SL tick. They grok that the real value lies in things other than putting up an empty shell with your logo on it and hoping an avatar with a billion dollars to spend in RL on your products wanders by.

The interesting people and ideas aren’t the ones focused on selling someone something, they’re the ones focused on DOING something. If only all the companies bailing out of SL could grasp that concept. But they won’t. The whole approach of business is “how can I take whatever this is and turn around and sell it to someone?” rather than, “wow, how can this technology be used in really cool ways?” I feel the same about podcasting, new media.. the whole 9 yards. Quit telling me how great you are and how you can market me, and go DO something. Create something. Show you have some technical ability or a concept of something that’s interesting, not just wondrous ideas of marketing in your head, and maybe I’ll start listening to you.

Wow.. that was a fun little mini-rant! Woohoo! I might have to repeat that on my podcast. Oooh, look, by including my hyperlink, was I doing what I hate so much? I don’t think so. I’m not really trying to sell you on my podcast anymore than I am on the SL Trip Tips Blog. They are there if you want to check them out, and if you don’t.. well… DON’T.

Ok, back to the IBM thing. Basically the build showcases some sample scripts, some objects based on those scripts, and apparently a section of the build for robots programmed by challengers to compete against each other or something. I’m a little fuzzy on that part. I had 3 hours sleep and I’ve had a rotten cold, what do you want from me?

I landed near a blurb about some Sentinel 2.0 thingy. Whatever that was. I think it was the “robot wars.”

Up in the sky, I see IBW… clearly this is mean to reflect IBM in the water below.

The only problem? Only the last two letters were showing up in windlight. Doh!

Oh well. Off to the script library.

For every script in the script library, there’s a matching object in the object library next door that showcases the script.

Some more views of the build:

So if you’ve been putting off learning scripting, get on over there… they aren’t just showing you their code, they’re implementing it and giving you that too, so you can learn, foo! Don’t worry, you can’t format your hard drive or make your sim into a a single 30,000 m tall spike yet from LSL, so have fun!