Jul
05
2008

Blog/Podcast Spot on Jokaydia

Jokay asked me to freshen up an old spot on Jokaydia I so – we present to everyone…

The Resident Blog/Podcast Spot!
Loading URLs into the blog images

After Brainstorming a bit and knowing what was needed, I decided to make a communication tower as the focus/landmark. Not quite as dramatic as I had originally wanted…I at first wanted an easy landmark to spot if you were somewhere else on the islands…like the lighthouse, or the Edublog Awards building. You can still pick it out while looking over the landscape since it does sit higher than the rest of the items on the Sim. I made the tower on my Sim in Rust Spot. It looked tall, it is over 30 meters high, but when I got it back to Jokaydia, it wasnt visible at all. Plan B! Stick it on the roof of a building!

Top of the Tower

Time to build! I started by removing all the old wood of the existing deck, and removing the ponds and plumbing, I recreated the same basic layout Jokay originally had in place. It has the same pathing as before with the layers a little different. I knew I wanted the build to be about 15 x 15 so I created an area to fit that size while not blocking anyone’s access. Jokay has a style she usually follows with all her builds…I tend to not have a defined style, but I usually go techy, metal, rust, neon, and I like to have open air spaces. The modern techy style wasn’t going to go well here 🙂 It turned out what I hope is a mix of Jokay’s and my style mixed…letting it fit easily into the island setting without being so different that it becomes an eyesore!

So this spot will be used to showcase any of the residents blogs, podcasts, or websites. An added value of making Jokaydia your home in Second Life!

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Posted in Real Life, Virtual Worlds | 3 Comments »

Jul
02
2008

Blizzard Authenticator – Become Hackproof

So this past weekend Blizzard released the new Blizzard Authenticator. It is a little keychain size device that generates a random 6 digit number. This number is needed to log into your WoW account. With all the account hacking and key loggers out there, people have been getting their accounts stolen and all their items sold off for gold, presumably for the resale of the gold for RL money.

What you will do with this device is log into your WoW account in the normal fashion, but then you will have to push the button on the authenticator, and then enter the code it generates in order to get all the way logged in. This makes it impossible for anyone to ever log into your account unless they have the item…including YOU! So don’t lose it!

The cost is just $6.50. Should it be free? Probably. I can see it taking a blizzard a few man hours to investigate an account hack, and then figuring out what was stolen and then having to restore that account back to how it was. More than $6.50 for sure. But not all 10 million accounts are going to get hacked. I myself have ordered one. I would have liked to have seen blizzard give these away to loyal paying customers. Ones that have stuck with WoW for 1 or 2 years. But then again – $6.50 to protect your account that you have invested literally months of time developing isn’t too bad.

So now, how many online games, online worlds, and bank accounts will follow suit? Are we going to be stuck with 10 different number generators we need to use each day? I’m thinking we need a standard! But then, as we approach that, will that just make it easier for the hacking world to clone our device and break into all our accounts. 10 years from now, will we be needing to do a biometric scan of our finger, then a retinal scan, then a random generated code, then a password just to log into SL? Woot! fun fun.

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Posted in Gaming | No Comments »

Jul
02
2008

So Azzura….Whats this blog about?

So far, from what I have blogged about already, you can tell I mess around in Second Life, and I always seem to be playing at least one MMO short for MMORPG which is…Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. I love gadgets, games, computers, science, Sci-fi, some art… I’ll talk about the few odd things that happen in my RL world now and then also.

I’m basically at a computer 2/3 of the day working or playing. Easy to reach if you have questions or problems. Maybe some things I talk about will interest you…they might not be something your into, but maybe you can find a hidden meaning in my rants and pull something useful out of it. Who Knows?!!

Ill leave off with a thank you for taking a peek and a bigger thank you if you keep reading…and a huge thank you if you link to me 😛

On with the blogging

Posted in Gaming, Real Life | No Comments »

Jun
25
2008

Blow by Blow….

6:15 PM EST: Arrived home to find a box on my front porch. Assumed it wasn’t dangerous and held the door open with one foot and grabbed the box with my right hand while holding keys, Ipod, and my cell in the other.

6:17 PM EST: Air conditioning turned on, kicked off shoes. Proceeded to open the box which contained a new power supply for my dead computer along with a brain upgrade.

6:19 PM EST: Prepped the operating table by putting two mouse pads down and then placed the patient on said mouse pads in a way to reveal the supposed infected power supply. No need to remove the outer side shell as I never can get it to stay on, so I leave it off.

6:21 PM EST: Removed the new power supply from the box that was inside the box that was on my porch. It looks very similar to the infected one…only difference being that all the wires of the new one are all in separate bags! I must build the maze of wires! But first….I will individually label every wire on the existing power supply explaining where I disconnected it from.

6:49 PM EST: Patients main power supply has been removed – while removing all its workings, I noticed more and more how dissimilar it is the the new heart of the system. Lets hope the “Customizable” power supply has the proper wire configurations in the sealed bags which I have not looked at yet. So much for read instructions first…but, there were none…were there?
I have no one to wipe my brow 🙁

7:20 PM EST: Turn on test fails – but at least it beeped. When I tried to trouble shoot it before – I bypassed the power button in case that was broken. Im going to fix that again….TAPE!

7:30 PM EST: Ok – now all fans turn on – But I get a long single beep over and over – nothing shows up on the monitor. Looking up BEEPS on the web to see which beep I have!

8:29 PM EST: Wiggled, took stuff out, put it back in, switched wires….fans run, memory is all lit up…no monitor though…just the long single beep which my user guide says there is a table below about Bios beeps on page 40, but there is no table about beeps in the book at all.

FAILURE

Guess it goes to a stranger now, to make it unsick.

8:10 PM EST the next day: I came home and switched the places of my memory….nothing…then put them back and shoved them in hard! TADA! it runs! Still don’t know if it is 100% unsick – but it is 98% unsick! WOOT!

Posted in Real Life, Tech | 2 Comments »

Jun
24
2008

Hopes for a live computer & Time to clean up!

Ordered a new power supply for my computer that stopped working. I’m HOPING it is the power supply. Its a big bundle of power wires inside my case, but I’m hoping I can figure it all out. While I was at New Egg, I ordered 2 more gigs of ram, cause when I was cleaning out my case, there were two sad lonely empty slots in there crying for me to feed them. I ordered it next day air so I can have my computer back! I dont have photoshop on this one!

Now for Clean Up! Safety Girl has a new item….A Shop Vac!

Shop Vac

Posted in Real Life | No Comments »

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