Fun Mermaid Ride at BURN2

Maya Paris built a fun ride at BURN2 called SkellyMer. She provides a free skeleton costume to visitors then you just click and ride. The cool music stream is provided by March Macbain. Lots of fun stuff at BURN2 2011 - thanks Maya!

I made a video of me riding the mermaid:

Become A Second Life Video DJ - My Video Playlists

Recently I've laboriously gone through all 26 video playlists I maintain and updated them - revising links that no longer play in Second Life, adding new videos & playlists, and removing videos that are no longer available. There are nearly 500 videos linked in these playlists so the process was tedious but enjoyable since I get to watch a lot of great videos while I revise the lists.

The playlists are formatted for various media devices in Second Life - the NHC Media Center, Damani MediaViewer, and Icarus V2000. These Second Life televisions allow an SL resident to watch YouTube videos, play movies, view streaming video content and web TV shows, etc. I maintain the playlists inworld for my own use, on the Second Life Wiki Media playlists article, and available for purchase on the Second Life Marketplace.

There are playlists for Cake, Evanescence, Green Day, Pink Floyd, Slow Dances, Muse, lots of female artists (e.g. Kat Deluna, Beyonce, Priscilla Ahn, A Fine Frenzy), Lady Gaga, Machinima, Trance, Fractals, Second Life music videos, Tech N9ne, Infected Mushroom, Weezer, U2, AC/DC, Guns N Roses, and much more.

Each playlist is a notecard written in that media device manufacturer's  playlist format. Simply drag the playlists you want to use from your inventory into the Contents tab of your media device. The playlists should then show up on the TV's menu.

What this allows me to do inworld is easily plan and create an audio/video set either for personal use or as a Video DJ. No need for expensive difficult to setup Shoutcast stream server plus you get to watch the video :) Some SL media players allow you to simply click "Play List" and sit back or dance for hours while the TV streams dozens of videos inworld. Others you have to step through the list manually. Some players allow guests at your event to sync their viewers with yours, others only support asynchronous play. I use the NHC Media Center as it is cheap, plays lists, and guests can sync plus it comes with a Media Dome replete with dance floor visuals and a VJ booth.

Let me know if you find any links that need updating, have any requests or suggestions, would like to contribute playlists or links to the wiki, or have any questions about how to set yourself up as a Video DJ.

Here's a video treat from my "Wow Volume 1" playlist:

Five of My Favorite Second Life Blogs

Recently Hamlet Au at New World Notes posted five of his favorite SL blogs. Hey, I can do that too :) I follow dozens of Second Life blogs so these are just 5 I follow. It's a little surprising to me how few people seemingly follow SL blogs since the number and quality is high. I guess Second Life is still primarily an inworld experience but I find a lot of products, clothing, events, and pretty interesting socio-political-wtf drama in the SLogosphere.

Here are 5 blogs I find extremely informative:

1. New World Notes - Hamlet Au was formerly an embedded journalist for Linden Lab and now runs what is arguably the best Second Life news blog or anyway, the one I plurk/tweet most often.

2. Daniel Voyager's Blog - Ok, well, maybe Hamlet's isn't the best SL news blog since Daniel's is arguably better. Daniel is also a contributor to the History of Second Life wiki article. Both of these guys seem to have excellent insider LL connections or anyway they are right on top of official announcements, events, and trends.

3. Living in the Modem World: Thoughts on Virtual Living - Inara Pey maintains one of my favorite technically oriented Second Life blogs. Inara's is not strictly a technical blog - she also posts on fashion, design, devices, events, and more. However, her tech savvy is excellent and she provides detailed easy-to-understand explanations of breaking technical news.

4. StrawberrySingh.com - Berry is another eclectic SL blogger, posting on fashion, tech issues, lifestyle, travel, and providing excellent tutorials. One of SL's best photographers, Berry's posts almost always include stunning pics. I copy her fashion advice often.

5. Shopping Cart Disco - this collaborative fashion and gossip blog is the home of SL Secret and the What I Like series, two of my favorites. SCD is a full service blog with posts on all topics written by a group of bloggers and contributors.

If you find it too time consuming or tedious to visit a bunch of blogs then you might prefer to use an RSS reader. I use Google Reader so that all the blogs I follow are aggregated into a single view inside my reader. It makes clicking through blog posts from all over much easier.