3D Weather Data Visualization in Second Life

An anonymous reader noted that the Second Life media blitz continues by saying that "The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) with Aimee Weber Studio just unrolled a sneak preview of their educational project in Second Life (due to open in mid November). This appetizer of things to come features the three dimensional visualization of live weather (now on display at the Science Center)." Don't go there expecting that they have like every doppler radar in the US updating in realtime or anything, but it's actually a practical real use for Second Life.

Re:Why is Second Life getting all this buzz now?

[Anonymous Coward]

The internet was partly a damn waste of time and money in the early 80s. Just like SL there were stupid areas. I distinctly recall running emacs on a machine at MIT but telnetted to a machine in London. Why? Because I could. And better yet, I tried to summon an elevator to the 9th floor but since I was "in" London I couldn't.

Waste of time? Certainly. But the hackers who wrote that bit of code? Not a waste of time at all. Second Life is an infant right now, just trying to figure out what is going on. There are going to be lots and lots of false starts and inefficiences.

And yes, it might just flash and burn. Not everything is a success.

Re:Why is Second Life getting all this buzz now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't set the network bandwidth at maximum, set it slightly less than your upload speed.

I guess you never learned to use the search feature either if all you went to was the places with the highest number of people "Popular Places" Don't go there! Would you judge the usefulness of the internet as a whole based on just visiting porn sites? People like you are why I keep begging the Lindens to add the equivalents to "newbie quest givers" to the welcome areas and help islands. So that the people don't "get" second life as fast as other people have some direction and goals.

Also, don't know what the point is. It's a chat/social/networking thingy that's laggy and unreal.

That is the point. it's a 3D chat/social/networking thingy that's unreal. Meaning you can do anything, be anything. Build a virtuall space museum? Yes. Art gallery? Yes. Build a diablo style game within the "game". Yes. Race snails? Yes. Build a ridable replica of the London Eye? Yes. Build a "haunted house" to explore? Yes.

 

Ok, so basically a instant messenger with badly made 3D avatars that all look like nymphet women wearing very skimpy clothes that still look unreal.

That's because all you went to was the sex areas.

We're talking animations and models that are pre Everquest. I felt like I was in some world that was made 15 years or go or something.

15 years ago was 1991. That was pre DOOM, most everything was 2D. Nothing looked like Second Life. Nothing in EQ matches the avatar customization in Second Life.

I don't know...I just don't get it. Are they trying to be? A chat site? A site that has info for companies? Virtual storefronts? The thing is, the Web and instant message clients already do this...and MUCH better too!

They aren't trying to be any specific thing. They're trying to be whatever you want it to be. So Second Life is different things for different people. You get out of it, what you want to get out of it. And it is one thing standard web clients and IM clients aren't, 3D.

They had a concert there with Suzanne Vega and did anyone see it? It's about as dynamic as watching grass grow. I mean it. There are videos of it out there on the web from Youtube, see for yourself. What I can't understand is how this is better than seeing a live video of Vega singing and playing. Also, what was stopping some idiot from walking up on the stage with a naked avatar? Did they put some invisible wall up between the performer and the "audience"?

They maxed out the capacity of the area hosting the concert IIRC. So yes, people saw it.

It's special because it's live, and the audience could interact right back at her. Not just the audience right near her real world physical performance (which could be displayed in Second LIfe at the same time), but people across the world.
It's primitive now, yes, but I think in the future musical events like this will e something special.

As for stopping griiefers, that's what event security is for. In Second Life you can limit access to locations to persons invited/vetted/cleared if necessary. But Second Life is also a social community so there's social "rules" and serious events get disrupted less than one might think.