Monday, April 16, 2007

Ridin' the virtual wave

Saturday 14th brought us a massive Surferdude party at the epic condition sim (by the Weatherchannel). The virtual surf contest was organised by Namiko Surf Co in cooperation with GR Boarfds, Reaction, Sport2.de and some other sponsors. 22 surfers signed up to start surfing for Lindens and other prices.

Keala Mimistrobell, creator of Namiko told SLNN that one of the main goals of her company is to create events like this.

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Friday, April 13, 2007

Zoetermeer's media bargain

Last month the town of Zoetermeer created a huge media buzz. The centerpoint of the discussion was how a town could spend taxmoney on Second Life. What are we talking about? The news hung in the air for about 3 days... 17.000 Euro's for a full 3-day media campaign, that's a bargain if you ask me.

Aside from the Zoetermeer city hall, there isn't much to see on the sim. On the other side of the island a snowcapped mountain announces the expected arrival of Snow World, an indoor skiing center in Zoetermeer.

The third element on the sim is a large Eco-labyrinth. In 360 degree cubes you can see the effects of mankind on the climate


SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Zoetermeer/128/128/0

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Saturday, March 17, 2007

Virtual Weather

Is there anything more exciting than talking about the weather? Being Dutch, the usual talk about the weatherconditions is kinda boring. I'm tired of all those rainy days, I hate cold and can't wait for summer to kick in (though preferably without tropical temperatures.

Alas, I can't control Real Life weather, but on the Epic Condition sims, extreme weather is a challenge!

So what's it all about? Well, Epic Conditions is a new show from the Weather Channel, that describes itself as "your daily shot of weather adrenaline!" The programme airs on the Weather Channel every Sunday at 9:00pm ET/PT from March 4th to April 1, which, if I'm not mistaken, makes it rather less than a daily shot of weather adrenaline.





The concept of the show is to tie extreme sports to weather information - a laudable aim, though whether it will drag in the punters is another matter. And so to the SL island. In effect,the island is divided into 5 zones - one per sim.The hub is the main Weather sim, with a reception area, a number of video screens and links off to webpages. To the West of this is the Surf zone, where you can sit by a beach bar and watch surfers play among the mighty waves that crash majestically onto the shore. At least, I assume that's the theory. Unfortunately, owing to the limitations of the SL programming environment these look less like waves, and more like giant blue mittens, pawing their way towards you. Somewhere along the line, my adrenaline level dropped off, and I took advantage of the lifeguard's chair to have a Hasselhoff Moment to myself.

Special thanks to Aleister Kronos.

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