SLSA 2.0

As you all know the SLSA Group has been being used for six years now as a communications tool for SL sailors to announce races and sailing events in SL. It has always existed as a communications tool only and has resisted more than one attempt to turn it into an organization that exercised authority over how SL sailing was run, and what was “authorized”.

It is because of resisting this attempt by some to make the SLSA into a governing body that it has avoided the drama that has crept into other SL sailing venues.

Nber and I are dedicated to keeping the SLSA group what it has always been, a communications tool used to announce events of interest to all SL sailors.

While most everyone who uses the SLSA group to announce their events or learn of events would agree that the SLSA has never been used as a tool for spreading highly opinionated rhetoric, there are those who would love to see such drama and rhetoric become part of what SLSA is.

But even while we are pleased with how well the SLSA group fulfills its purpose, we recognize that SLSA can be improved.

For the last two months we have been working quietly in the background to take steps to expand the information provided to SL sailors and to expand the number of SL sailors that have a say in how that is done.

We are proud to announce the launch of a new and improved SLSA. For the sake of this article we will simply call it SLSA 2.0

During the past several weeks we have been looking at SL sailors seeking to identify level headed sailors and sailing leaders that might join in this new SLSA 2.0 as Officers. These officers will be in charge of running the activities of the newly organized SLSA group and its expanding communications roles.

We are very proud to announce that three superior SL leaders and sailors have agree to serve as the Officers of the new SLSA. They are: Chaos Mandelbrot, Charlz Price, and Justin Blade.

We are delighted that these three high quality sailing leaders have agreed to become involve in the continuing vision of providing a drama free and well respected tool to announce events and information to SL sailors.

A quick summary of the NEW features in the new SLSA that these three will be overseeing are:

• Posting rights for Boat Builders. 
• Posting rights for large SL Sailing Land owners who lease and sell to the SL sailing public. 
• Posting rights for those who run large events but are not otherwise race directors from Yacht Clubs (events such as Sail for Life for example). 
• A Featured Image Gallery for SL sailors to submit their best photography to be show on the SLSA home page. 
• A RSS feed that will repost in-world notices on the web site 

So everyone, click here to see the new website

and your introduction to "SLSA 2.0"

Cool Capture Device

Skagway & Yukon train approaching Juneau Airport Station.
Click for larger version

Here's a cool program for quickly capturing images and short GIF animations then sharing with services such as Facebook and Twitter.

The program is called Gyazo. There is a free version and a pro version.

This is a great tool for quickly capturing shots and short action sequences wither it be from sailboat racing/cruising, to landing and take offs from the aiport, to just simple stuff like girl-watching (or boy watching) or old man watching. I bet everyone wishes they had this when I lost the mankini bet recently at the big 50 boat SYC raft-up. GRIN.

This GIF animation and still shot were grabbed as the Skagway & Yukon train pulled into Juneau Airport Station (SLURL here.)

Juneau Airport along with Juneau Marina and the town of Skagway are the heart and soul of the 25 sim development called Blake Passage. For more info click here.

Action at the Juneau Aiport RR terminal. Click for larger version

You Have More Control Than You Think

As some of you have read over in the Virtual World Sailing Forum as well as in the Blake Sea Journal there have been significant events taking place that effect sailing lag in the Blake Sea Area and elsewhere.

I have asked for reports on what the sailing conditions are in the Blake Sea after the changes discussed in the above articles. Nber Medici passed along this rather funny dichotomous exchange about a week ago in the Hollywood Airport Pilots group.

[07:55] Paris Noor (parisnoor): Great just great took off from HA with a dreamy ease
[07:55] Paris Noor (parisnoor): conditions A+
[07:57] Garth (garthandrew): excuse me but flying sucks today .. watch out aviators
[07:57] Bailey MacIntyre: boating is just as bad today as it was last night
[07:57] Paris Noor (parisnoor): So far my flight is perfect not sucks
[07:57] Rich Reynaud: Crossings have been great for me.

Obviously a week ago the question of whether the SNACK snafu had been solved by moving the Blake Sea Sims back to the main SL servers was still very much up in the air (no pun intended). Then over the next several days it became clear that the issues were not only in the Blake Sea and are seeming getting better.

Sounds like a good time to address another aspect of how lag is experienced in SL. To do that I have dusted off an old graphic we used to use for playing Kanker Greenacre's FLOG! golf game. Back when Flog was popular in SL even then avatars had to deal with sometimes poor performance of scripts as experienced by avatars whether golfing, flying, or sailing. In the days of Flog it was standard procedure to takr off torus tortured and flexy hair, AOs, and other scripted object worn on a avatar in order to play golf. The chart is just as valid for Sailing as for golf.

Back years ago when we had parts of six sims dedicated to Kanker FLog golf game it nearly a prerequisite for all players to take off flexy and torus tortured hair, not to mention AO. If you wore those they you could never be much of a competitor in Flog. Showing up on a tee with flexi tortured hair was a sure sign that you were not an experienced golfer.

This Flog chart is old and I am sure has been superseded by many issues not present at the time of the article. But it is amazing how many of the thoughts still run true. Don' look like a noob out there on the water or in the air. Use Best Practices when sailing or flying or any other activity that depends on keeping your viewer operating in Low Lag manners.

The items in red are the easiest to address and should be done before every race. The top two items are things you can control but need the application of time and money. And the first item (non-opitmal graphics card) can these days be expanded to refer to the entire computer.

I know a lot of aviators are aware of these issues as well. That is one of the reasons we have a personal lag meter reader in the southwest corner of Hollywood Airport so that aviators and passengers can quickly check their personal lagginess before getting on an airplane.

I think every yacht club out there should have one of these lag meter readers such as at the SW corner of SLHA. That way every skipper can tell in advance what is the likelihood of rough seas. Neptune knows and and sees all and if you venture off shore with serious flexi-hair and AO, and MistyTools, and all kinds of radars to tell about the sims ahead it will be those TOOLS that sink you more that the CPU in a machine somewhere far from hair and AO and pingers/pongers/and x-ray glasses. Let's not be be our worst enemies on the high seas.

The lovely Maiti Yenni has agreed to pose for us to show just how you can seriously reduce scripts and CPU time by carefully checking your avatar for scripts before you head out on the water. The top image shows Maiti as you might expect her to be seen in a non-sailing outfit. She is wearing 205 scriipts that use 354ns of CPU time.

In the second image you see here as she might be dressed for sailing. But check out the numbers. Scripts are down a bit, 154. CPU is down a to a more acceptable 78ns.

NOW when she pays attention to scripts you can see how much she has reducted her personal scripts and CPU time for the race. With only 4 scripts and 5ns CPU usage she has virtual stripped away all things that add personal lag to whatever else is happening.

Remember, lag is cumulative. He or she who gripes about sailing conditions while loaded up with personal scripts is like the fat lady who complains when the bed springs squeak. 

The references to the discussion about recent lag can be found on the Virtual World Sailing forum here.

Additional references to the issue can be found here.

Juneau Double Grand Opening

Small commercial jet takes off with Juneau Marina
on the right and the Fairweather Mountains ahead

Just minutes after this post goes public Juneau Airport (Juneau South sim) and Juneau Marina (Juneau North sim) will be unlocking the vendors of the Airport and the Luxury Yacht Moorings for a relatively small number of SL residents to get a yacht mooring or a commercial airline location at the new and amazing Blake Passage sims, the Juneau Airport and the Juneau Marina.

A number of both sailing and flying club cruises and flights have passed through the area and more are scheduled. Some of these events have already been covered in the MTW Journal and several more are awaiting reports and images to be uploaded.

Skagway & Yukon RR train pulling out of
Juneau Airport Station headed for the mainland

The Blake Passage 25 sim project will in just a few minutes be totally open to the public. In addition to current features such as the Skagway & Yukon Railroad, kayaking and boat rentals, the area will soon be opening some horseback and bicycle trails through 10 sims of gorgeous scenery. 

Other additional features includes an impressive Columbia River group of sims complete with the tretcherous Columbia Bar, an Alaskan Native Community build where residents will be able to enjoy events designed just for them and their friends.

The two images in the Journal entry come from a promotional video produced by Nber Medici. You can view the video here: http://youtu.be/QDKKjidTL3E