gadgets

One of Second Life's best multi-gadgets, the MystiTool, has just added several cool features to an already overflowing list of functions and tools. The new version, 1.019 includes the ability to identify the owner of objects broadcasting to the public chat frequency, a plant rezzer, for easy deployment of trees and grasses and even a "break reminder", something I could have done with yesterday as I lost 4 or 5hrs to the grid!

If you've not tried MystiTool, I highly recommend it. If you've ever been to one of Metaversed's Geek Meet's then you'll recognize the neat tables that rez chairs according to need. There are simply to many features to possibly list, but I can tell you that I'd no sooner go out without my MystiTool than i would without my pants.

You can find by entering 'mystitool' under the places tab in the inworld search, and picking Mystical Cookie designs.

Something that's heard over and over again in Second Life when talking to companies and businesses about their virtual world operations is a desire for far, far better visitor statistics to be made available. For right now, Linden Lab, makers of the 3D Metaverse, don't provide much in the way of stats, but Mechanized Life, a company working with various web api's to create mashups and integration apps for Second Life, hope to fill that need in the near future.

I was fortunate enough to get a sneek preview of a very early beta for advanced reporting on Mech Life's RSS Sensor app. The new system was able to tell me details about who visited on what days of the week, visits by age, visits by payment status and the top visiting avatars to a region.

Though Alidar Moxie, who runs Mech Life says there is much work to do on the product as of yet, and pricing has yet to be finalized, it looks promising, and I can see a whole stack of companies subscribing to such service. More on this as it develops.

The gap between the 3D and 2D web is huge. Some things are simply better suited to 2D though, and recently I've been collecting and exploring ways that the two can work in tandem to produce something more powerful than trying to translate apps and concepts from one medium to another.

Here are seven ways you can integrate your Second Life into the 2D web. If you have more, please add them!

1. Virtual Presence Apps Using Twitter and Jaiku

A lot of Second Lifers are on Twitter.com (see my page here) It's a very neat way to keep track of friends,and to update those that aren't necessarily logged in. There are several Twitter apps, including SLTweets and Twitterbox. My current favorite is Squawk however, (Metaversed review here) which also supports Jaiku which is arguably a better, but less popular Twitter.

2. Inworld Blogging via BlogHUD

BlogHUD provides a nice looking graphical way (Heads Up Display) on the SL viewer where you can post pics, and blog posts to either the BlogHUD site, or as a pro user (will cost you $L900, about $3-$4) to any supported blog system. I've not used BlogHUD, though I do plan to review it at some point in the future. I do know that a lot of poeple love it though.

3. Bookmark Your Travels

There are two great apps for social bookmarking your travels in Second Life. Sloog, and Gridmarker. I recently reviewed Gridmarker and have to say that for me at least, it beats the pants off of Sloog. Sloog is much more popular though, so is a fair bit more useful as a way of discovering new places at this time. The idea with both apps is to wear a HUD that allows you to "bookmark" where you are, which can provide an RSS feed of your favorite places, or note a journey in Second Life.

4. Second Talk - Integrated Skype

Even though voice n SL may go live this month, the SecondTalk system which integrates Skype into 3D web will stil prove extremely useful. I dont have Skype running on my desktop (SL simply will not run on my Ubuntu laptop) but friends of mine asbsolutely swear by it.

5. Integrate Your Calendars

There are two cool calendar apps im aware of currently, though i suspect im missing some (so please let me know!). The first is from Mechanized Life, who produce some fine SL apps, including the CalendarCogs range which integrate the Google Calendar API into SL. The second is EventCal from Ordinal Malaprop who like Ali from Mech Life, specializes in integration apps. EventCal allows you to subscribe using any iCal compliant calendar app to event listings from the inworld calendar. I've not tried it, having only learnt of it while writing this article, but man, im all over that the minute this is done!

Have Cool Integration Apps to Share?

I know I have missed some, in fact there are probably quite a few, so if you have an app to share, please drop a link, or it's name in the comments below -- I would LOVE to hear about the apps you use, build or have heard about, so do tell...

Answer me this: If you had to choose just one tool from your inventory, just one gadget, HUD or script you just couldn't be without, what would it be? For me, it would be my MystiTool: An all purpose swiss army knife of functions that help me with the things I need to do on a daily basis.

A few of the things I use on MystiTool are:

• Flight control - no more 'drifting'
• AV Scan - See who's within range
• TP History - Need to go back, but can't remember where you've been? This will sort it!
• Table - Create a table with chairs that magically rez themselves as more guests arrive. I find these invaluable for meetings
• URL catch - Picks out urls from chat and IM's and offers to load them for you
• Sky platform - Need to build, and need some space and privacy? This function will rez a huge platform and shoot you and it, up above the clouds!

Im keen to hear what others are using, and why - Perhaps you're a builder and have a key building gadget you'd like to share. Maybe you're a scripter and have some code tools that you find invaluable. Maybe you're a business owner, or employer and have gadgets that help you run your SL operations.

Do tell us what you consider your "must have" SL gadgets.....

Temporal Mitra is a semi retired entrepreneur in his late forties in real life. In Second Life, he's coming close to making enough money to quit his day job entirely. Together with lead coder Bopete Yossarian, he runs Temporal Industries, a SL business making money in adult content, gadgets and tools for ordinary folk, ranging from terraformers to tip jars. With over 40 businesses in operation within Second Life, and a seat on the SL better business bureau, Temporal Mitra is one of SL's business elite -- And he has plans to "change the face of Second Life forever"

Temporal tells me he considers himself only a mediocre coder, his stock and trade is a production line of ideas. He and Bopete met at a scripters group where he was lamenting the lack of reliable programmers in Second Life, and to talk to them both it's clear that they're good friends and that their skill sets compliment each others. Temporal is an virtual entrepreneur with a never ending stream of ideas for new gadgets, toys and businesses in the 3D world. Bopete's job is to turn those ideas into reality. The two joke that they're turning out more gadgets than they have time to properly market, but it seems true. There are dozens of scripts, HUDs and tools just within the stores I visited and, from what they tell me, a whole bunch more in the pipeline.

One of Temporal Inc's current projects is a plan to "compete with the linden classifieds system" by providing residents with a HUD (a graphical piece of software that attaches to your viewer screen) similar to the Meta Mart shopping HUD I wrote about yesterday, but with the added incentive for people to wear the HUD of paying them. Paying people to watch ads is not a new idea, and historically it's one that has failed time and time again (I can't think of a recent example, but can you name a successful one?) but Temporal and Bopete, pictured right, are supremely confident in the new product. There are thousands of people earning small amounts of Linden dollars by "camping" on virtual property to raise the traffic ranking of businesses within Second Life, and Temporal Inc plan to give these residents a new way to earn money: By wearing the advertising HUD. Their ambition is replace the built in Linden classifieds system, and put an end to the practice of camping. I can't say I share their confidence, but it is an interesting concept, and I'm not inclined to write it off just yet.

Sex Sells

So where are Temporal Inc making the most money? Sex of course. Adult content is still the biggest earner in SL and Temporal and Bopete make literally dozens of sex objects (furniture with preprogrammed positions and animations for example), gadgets, HUDs and toys. Their most popular gadget, and the single item responsible for the most income, is the Escort HUD that was developed to help SL escorts ply their trade. Among other things, the HUD allows escorts to scan nearby residents for payment info. They can see at a glance who has set up a credit card with Linden Lab, and thus, better qualify prospective clients. Just reading the list of features in an education in itself.

Sex does indeed sell, and at L$1000 a pop, the escort HUD sells up to 20 units a day. Currently that's around $4 each. I'd thought not to cover the adult industry in SL on the Metaversed blog, but though you shouldn't expect a great deal of it, it does seem an unavoidable aspect of technology within the Metaverse, and as in other mediums, it's driving innovation here as well, with more effort and resources being poured into adult related content and tech than any other area.