What’s cooler than robots?

Giant robots, of course.

For today’s meeting, we visited FrancoGrid to explore a junkyard complete with a derelict giant robot, a toxic lake, and a submarine.

For more information about the Hypergrid Adventurers Club and how you can join us, please see our homepage.  You can also join our HGAC Google Group Mailing List if you’d like to read more about what we’re doing.

Meeting #35
1/26/2011 : 2pm GMT
7 Hypernauts in attendance:

Nyx Ivory
Vanish Seriath
Jeff Kelley
Pete McConachie
SarVana Cherry
Jokay Wollongong
Pathfinder Lester

We begin on the region Pathlandia on jokaydiaGRID.

Pathfinder Lester: hello!
Vanish Seriath: Hi everyone.
Jeff Kelley: Hi all, just crashed and back
Vanish Seriath: Test.
Pathfinder Lester: oh, Jokay figured out what was causing all the freezing weirdness on Pathlandia during Sunday’s meetings
Vanish Seriath: Aw, what was it?
Pathfinder Lester: it had to do with bad scripts on another sim
Pathfinder Lester: and Pathlandia is on the same console as that other sim 😛
Vanish Seriath: Oh, okay.
Vanish Seriath: I was worried it was me, as it seemed to crash every time I just got in.
Pathfinder Lester: nope!
Vanish Seriath: Phew.
Pathfinder Lester: fortunately there are ways to isolate regions so crazy scripts on one region don’t cause another region to go nuts
Pathfinder Lester: Jokay’s going to do that
Nyx Ivory: good to know
Pathfinder Lester: so all’s well that ends well
Vanish Seriath: Great.
Pathfinder Lester: it’s amazing how much interest i’ve seen in the blog report I posted of Romenna
Vanish Seriath: Oh yes.
Pathfinder Lester: lots of folks are apparently reading it and then visiting Rowenna on their own
Vanish Seriath: Well, it is a great build!
Pathfinder Lester: V, exactly!
Pathfinder Lester: hi SarVana
Vanish Seriath: El said it was such a shame it was running so laggy there.
Jeff Kelley: True, I met an hypergridder this night on NWG on her way to Romenna
Vanish Seriath: She thought it needed much more exposure.
SarVana Cherry: Hello… I finally made it
Pathfinder Lester: for those of you who missed the tour of Romenna, here’s the blog post about it: https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/2011/01/24/hypergrid-adventurers-club-meet-3334-visiting-romenna-a-tolkien-themed-16-sim-cityscape/
Nyx Ivory: flattered that you linked to our sewer picture, Pathfinder 🙂
Vanish Seriath: Hi SarVana
Pathfinder Lester: haha! i loved that pic. my pleasure!

Nyx Ivory: it was spooky alone!
SarVana Cherry: Pathfinder, did you get my note? I visited Romenna, your directions were great. Got some nice pics
Pathfinder Lester: SarVana, yep!
Pete McConachie: I fell into the sewers too – it seems to be one of the hazards there
SarVana Cherry: I landed in a sewer… lol, lol
Nyx Ivory: 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: I think that’s a very important part of our club here. giving people guides so they can explore on their own at their own time.
Nyx Ivory: nods
Pathfinder Lester: oh, let me make the standard intro remarks. forgot to do that. 😛
SarVana Cherry: now that I got the right time, I am good… the EST notation was a big help.
Pathfinder Lester: Welcome to the Hypergrid Adventurers Club! Thank you all for joining us today.
Pathfinder Lester: The first 30 min of each meeting is spent on introductions and an open discussion.
Pathfinder Lester: And for the second 30 min of each meeting, we will make some Hypergrid jumps to visit and explore an interesting location on the Hypergrid.
Pathfinder Lester: To start, if you wish, feel free to jump in and say a few words about yourself and your projects/interests in open chat. This is always a good opportunity for networking. 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: I post a full report and transcript of each meeting’s open chat on my blog, so this is also a chance for you to share information with everyone who reads the blog.
Pathfinder Lester: And if you say anything in open chat that you would NOT like to be posted on my blog, please just say so in chat and I will redact your comments.
Pathfinder Lester: I’m Pathfinder Lester, John Lester in real life. I used to work at Linden Lab from 2005-2010. Now I work at ReactionGrid Inc. as Director of Community Development. I started the Hypergrid Adventurers Club back in October of 2010. My blog is at http://becunningandfulloftricks.com
Pathfinder Lester: heya Jokay!
Vanish Seriath: I’m V of http://tgib.co.uk, hello everyone.
Jokay Wollongong: *Waves*…. im just peeking in to make sure things are ok in here 😉
Vanish Seriath: Hi Jokay.
Jokay Wollongong: Hey Vanish 😉
Pathfinder Lester: so far so good, Jokay. ty
Jokay Wollongong: woot 😉
Nyx Ivory: looks like Scooter had a lovely Aus Day, Jokay
Jokay Wollongong: Lolz.. yes Rob and AnneMaree had fun over there.. lolz
Nyx Ivory: 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: oh, so i have an announcement about a future HGAC tour for us
Pathfinder Lester: Anges Menges from FrancoGrid told me about this very special project happening on FrancoGrid
Pathfinder Lester: http://fenetresurchambre.blogspot.com/p/presentation.html
Pathfinder Lester: it’s basically using virtual worlds with kids who are in a hospital
Pathfinder Lester: “a window on the bedroom”
Nyx Ivory: wow!
Pathfinder Lester: they project the virtual world on the wall of the hospital rooms of the kids
Pathfinder Lester: so they can virtually visit with people in Francogrid
Pathfinder Lester: just….amazing
SarVana Cherry: I’m SarVana Cherry, Sally Cherry in real life. I am a social media consultant and former HIV/AIDS project manager. I integrating my HIV/AIDS prevention capacity building and training project, CHARE Project here (Community HIV/AIDS Resource Exchange Project) My webpage for program is at http://CHAREproject.com
Jokay Wollongong: super cool
Pathfinder Lester: and Ange is going to work out a scheduled time for us to do a tour to FrancoGrid and meet these kids in the hospital
Pete McConachie: Neat
Vanish Seriath: Aw, nice.
SarVana Cherry: nice
Pathfinder Lester: i’m really blown away by it
Pathfinder Lester: and the metaphor of having a virtual window in a hospital room is just beautiful
Jokay Wollongong: agreed
Vanish Seriath: Does that mean I need to learn french?
Pathfinder Lester: V, lol
Pete McConachie: Mais oui
Pathfinder Lester: brush up on it!
Vanish Seriath: hehe.
Jeff Kelley: Jsuete un peu
Pathfinder Lester: or…well…use your Babbler
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Vanish Seriath: Mmmh, I think I can do that.
SarVana Cherry: oh, no… I am done for… lol, lol
Jokay Wollongong: oh dear my year 9 french is so baaad.. lolz
Pathfinder Lester: so once we find a date for that, i’ll send a tweet about it and send something to the HGAC google group with more info.
Jokay Wollongong: awesome
Pete McConachie: Great
Pathfinder Lester: that’s all I have for announcements. anyone else have anything to share?
Pete McConachie: I am Pete McConachie/MacKichan – learning technologist / language teacher and a very bad typist, based in Greece. I have been teaching in SL for some time and now exploring the hypergrid. I recently started a blog http://blog.e-lang.co.uk
Vanish Seriath: For those who don’t know yet: I’ve started making a free tutorial region, and would like to have some more input in what to include there: http://tgib.co.uk/2011/01/22/learning-to-fly/
Jokay Wollongong: hehe.. nice one pete.. im not panicking 😉
Pathfinder Lester: oh yes!
Pathfinder Lester: V, that’s a great project
Vanish Seriath: Well, I just started.
Nyx Ivory: i’m nobody important – left free smiles here and in dome on Scooter (hope that’s ok) – more about us at http://icarusstudios.co.uk
Pathfinder Lester: we can take a tour of your tutorial region when you’re ready, too!
Vanish Seriath: Sure.
Jokay Wollongong: of course that’s ok Nyx.. thankyou! 😉
Vanish Seriath: It’s up in its current state, for anyone who wants to visit, at tgib.co.uk:9069:the path
Pathfinder Lester: i haven’t commented about it on your blog yet, but i will soon.
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll pass out todays notecard now

— Notecard of Itinerary —
Before doing any Hypergrid jumps, be sure you have set your Home location and have relogged since you set it.  If you don’t, Hypergrid jumps will not work.  This appears to be a bug.

Many people find the Imprudence viewer to be very good for using with both SL and other grids.  You can find it here: http://imprudenceviewer.org/

*** How to make Hypergrid Jumps in 4 easy steps ***
1) Open your World Map.
2) In the text box next to the Search button, enter  the Hypergrid Address.
3) Click the Search button and wait for the map to move to the jump region.
4) Click the Teleport button.

*** Our Starting Location ***
Hypergrid Address: 66.240.233.81:9001:pathlandia
Region Name: “Pathlandia”
Grid Location: jokaydiaGRID (Lower)
************************

Hypergrid Jump #1
Hypergrid Address: hypergrid.reactiongrid.com:9009
Region Name: “HG Gateway 1”
Grid Location: ReactionGrid (Middle)
Grid Website: http://reactiongrid.com

We’ll be making this jump using one of the instant Hypergates on Pathlandia.  It’s the stone archway near the Tardis.   Just walk up to the archway and walk through it.  You will automatically make a Hypergrid jump to “HG Gateway 1.”

For more information on how these instant Hypergates work, see: https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/2010/10/29/the-metaphor-of-portals/

“HG Gateway 1” is a handy jump point in the “middle” of the Hypergrid.

Hypergrid Jump #2
Hypergrid Address: 88.191.79.199:9001:Eiffel
Region Name: “Eiffel”
Grid Location: FrancoGrid (Upper)
Grid Website: http://francogrid.org

We’ll make this jump the manual way (see above “How to make Hypergrid Jumps in 4 easy steps.”)

This location features an accurately scaled reconstruction of the Eiffel Tower based on real life architectural plans, as well recreations of other classic French buildings.

Once we arrive, we’ll make a local teleport to the region “Ganges.”  Just open your world map and search for it.

On Ganges we’ll find a deserted junkyard with a giant robot.  Just beware of the toxic waste.

***
jokaydiaGRID has a Newbie Dome for folks to pick up freebies that can help them get started.  If you find any good freebies in your Hypergrid travels that you’d like to share, you can put them in the Newbie Dome.   There’s currently a lack of many good outfits and items for male avatars, so it would be great if we could find more items like that to share.
— End of Notecard —

Pathfinder Lester: we’ll be checking out a neat giant robot on Francogrid today
Pete McConachie: Yay
Pete McConachie: I like robots
Pathfinder Lester: this one is kind of busted and rusty
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Pete McConachie: Especially Giant Robots
Vanish Seriath: Aw, nice.
SarVana Cherry: cool
Pete McConachie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owe16VVdwys
Pathfinder Lester: Pete, lol
Pathfinder Lester: oh wow, i remember watching that movie when i was a kid
Pathfinder Lester: i would always cry when Giant Robot would get hurt
Vanish Seriath: laughs
Vanish Seriath: I never heard of it.
SarVana Cherry: are you going to make us cry with the busted Robots? lol
Pathfinder Lester: old japanese flick
Pathfinder Lester: SarVana, lol
Pete McConachie: Where is Johnny Sokko now?
Pathfinder Lester: i hope not!
Pathfinder Lester: speaking of giant robots….i’ve never seen anyone with a giant avatar in opensim. have any of you?
Vanish Seriath: No.
Vanish Seriath: Neb has some alien avi, but it’s not too big.
SarVana Cherry: nope
Pathfinder Lester: given how easy it is to make giant-sized prims in opensim, it’s kind of odd in my opinion
Vanish Seriath: There aren’t many non-human avatars in OpenSim at all.
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, very true
Vanish Seriath: Well, you would need to make the animations along with it, just like with tinies.
Pathfinder Lester: i’ve seen some alien avs on FrancoGrid, but nowhere else
Vanish Seriath: So it requires some skill.
Pathfinder Lester: V, ah, good point
Pathfinder Lester: i didn’t think about that
Pathfinder Lester: animations in opensim are definitely not that prevalent
Vanish Seriath: That’s true.
Vanish Seriath: Need to work on that.
Jeff Kelley: I have a question about the “Experimental Stargate”. What is its license, may we re-distribute it?
Jokay Wollongong: Reyane one of the kids here at jgrid has made a robot avvie for himself.. i’ll ask him if he’ll share it next time i see him inworld
Pete McConachie: I would prefer a non human AV – this is the first time I’ve really had a human one
Pathfinder Lester: Jeff, well, I found that stargate on FrancoGrid, and it was full-perm. so I’m assuming that would be fine.

Jeff Kelley: k
Pathfinder Lester: and there’s nothing I can see in the source code of the scripts that says it’s a closed thing
Pathfinder Lester: it seems to be designed for people to rework and modify and extend upon
Pathfinder Lester: of course, the only issue with it is that the actual model of the stargate is exactly the same as in the movies/TV show
Pathfinder Lester: so there’s a bit of an IP issue there. 😛
Pathfinder Lester: i definitely wouldn’t recommend reselling it
SarVana Cherry: Pathfinder, is it ok to take a copy of your stone gate for my quick shopping trips from my own place?
Pathfinder Lester: SarVana, oh yes plesae do
SarVana Cherry: thanks
Vanish Seriath: I tried the blamgate scripts yesterday, but couldn’t get it to work yet.
Pathfinder Lester: my blamgates are all open source and free for anyone to take/modify/break/extend
Vanish Seriath: Somehow, I failed at enabling osfunctions.
Pathfinder Lester: V, aha
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, that’s the key thing
Vanish Seriath: I set threat level to high, but still I get an error that it’s medium.
Pathfinder Lester: the scripts use a specific opensim function
Vanish Seriath: Well, need to look into it again when I have more time.
Pathfinder Lester: did you try this? “Blamgates use a command called “OSTeleport.” For this command to work, the region that the Blamgate is located on must have the “OSTeleport” function explicitly enabled. To enable the “osTeleportAgent” function on your own grid, go to OpenSim.ini and look for the [XEngine] section. At the bottom of that section, add (without the quotes) “Allow_osTeleportAgent = true” then reboot your regions for it to take effect. ”
Vanish Seriath: Oh.
Vanish Seriath: No, I didn’t.
Pathfinder Lester: 🙂
Vanish Seriath: Somehow I didn’t see that.
Vanish Seriath: Thanks a lot.
Pathfinder Lester: I learned about that trick from Chris at ReactionGrid
Vanish Seriath: I’ll give it another try later.
Pathfinder Lester: also, in the blamgates that are currently rezzed on Pathlandia, i have a help notecard in them
Pathfinder Lester: called “Blamgate Information”
Vanish Seriath: Aw, great.
Pathfinder Lester: it explains a bit about how to set them up
Pathfinder Lester: if anyone comes up with neat modifications to the blamgates, please let me know.
Jeff Kelley: http://opensimulator.org/wiki/OSSL_Enabling_Functions
Pathfinder Lester: i’m not really a scripter, so I’ve just cobbled things together. I suspect real coders could much more elegantly extend on how they work.
Pathfinder Lester: thanks Jeff!
Pathfinder Lester: well, speaking of blamgates, looks like we should start our trip for today!
Pathfinder Lester: the donkey is our new mascot, by the way
Jokay Wollongong: he’s very cute
Pathfinder Lester: i found him on Romenna, actually!

Pathfinder Lester: freebie!
Pathfinder Lester: grab a copy of him if you wish
SarVana Cherry: good companion for my horses…lol
Nyx Ivory: great mascot – rugged and a bit stubborn
Pathfinder Lester: ok, whenever you’re ready, just walk thru this gate
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll meet you all on the other side

We enter an instant hypergate (aka “Blamgate) on the region Pathlandia on jokaydiaGRID.

And we arrive on the region HG Gateway 1 on ReactionGrid.

Pathfinder Lester: made it 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: ok, from here, we make a manual jump to: 88.191.79.199:9001:Eiffel

We all make a manual hypergrid jump and arrive on the region Eiffel on FrancoGrid.

And from there, we make a local teleport to the region Ganges.

Pathfinder Lester: hello mathijs!
mathijs hamers: hello
Pete McConachie: Hi
mathijs hamers: elde college is my school
mathijs hamers: we’re doing a project over here

Pathfinder Lester: oh cool
Pathfinder Lester: what is your project?
Pathfinder Lester: school project?
mathijs hamers: we’re building a “green school”
Pete McConachie: Looking for things to recycle…

Pathfinder Lester: lol
mathijs hamers: haha we mainly focused on using as little energy as possible for things as lighting and heating
mathijs hamers: our school is in “balzac” come visit it som time
Pathfinder Lester: neat
mathijs hamers: thanks
Pete McConachie: That would be great
mathijs hamers: 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: we could visit balzac on a future tour. ty for the invitation!
mathijs hamers: your welcome 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: we are part of a club called the Hypergrid Adventurers Club
Pathfinder Lester: we visit different grids as a group every week
mathijs hamers: I read about it on twitter 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/hypergrid-adventurers-club/
Pete McConachie: Well, we start off as a group…
Pathfinder Lester: oh cool 🙂
mathijs hamers: even though my french isn’t too good
Pathfinder Lester: Pete, lol
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, sometimes we get scattered a bit
mathijs hamers: haha
Pathfinder Lester: like leaves in the wind
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll make a note to schedule a future tour of Balzac
Pete McConachie: Yes, that would be interesting
mathijs hamers: balzac is still a mess at the moment but the school is quite neat, we’ll clean it up a bit 😉
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Pathfinder Lester: not as messy as THIS region, i bet
Pathfinder Lester: look at all this green toxic water…
mathijs hamers: haha messy in a different way 😛
mathijs hamers: but this world is pretty awesome
mathijs hamers: i like it
Pathfinder Lester: FrancoGrid is great, yes
Pathfinder Lester: hey Sarvana!

Pete McConachie: So polluted you can stand on it – makes the dead sea quite disappointing
Pathfinder Lester: lol
SarVana Cherry: I made it
mathijs hamers: haha
Pathfinder Lester: yay!
mathijs hamers: it’s nice
SarVana Cherry: cool
Pete McConachie: Hi
Pathfinder Lester: mathijs was just telling us about his school project here on FrancoGrid
mathijs hamers: getting quite busy here
SarVana Cherry: over here Jokay
Pathfinder Lester: it’s on the region Balzac
Jokay Wollongong: hehe.. i see you… just grabbing some pics 😉
SarVana Cherry: this is so cool
Pathfinder Lester: mathijs, is there a website with more info about your school’s project here on FrancoGrid?
Pathfinder Lester: i’m so glad you made it SarVana. 🙂
mathijs hamers: mm have to check i’ll be right back
Pathfinder Lester: k
Pathfinder Lester: ty
SarVana Cherry: I usually explore alone… more fun with a group
Pathfinder Lester: i love this giant broken robot

Jokay Wollongong: indeed.. great stuff here.. .love the scale 😉
Pathfinder Lester: i agree SarVana
SarVana Cherry: Thanks Jokay an dPathfinder for your help and waiting for me
Pathfinder Lester: no worries
mathijs hamers: there is some information and some basic design ideas on http://eduvator.wikispaces.com
Pathfinder Lester: we all run into bumps now and then
Pathfinder Lester: mathijs, oh great. thank you for the link
Pete McConachie: I’m going to have to go and play tennis in RL. See you all next week I hope. Thanks Path.
Pathfinder Lester: take care Pete
Pathfinder Lester: i actually have to run too
Pete McConachie: Bye
mathijs hamers: bye
Pathfinder Lester: it was great to meet you mathijs
SarVana Cherry: this is so worth the soothsayers’ comments
SarVana Cherry: bye Pete
mathijs hamers: great meeting you too
Jokay Wollongong: Seeya Pete
Pathfinder Lester: thanks for helping us Jokay
Jokay Wollongong: oh no probs pathfinder.. im glad the grid was more well behaved today
mathijs hamers: anyways i’m of to balzac hope to see you there some time
Pathfinder Lester: take care folks
Pathfinder Lester: have a good day

And so ends another meeting of the Hypergrid Adventurers Club.  Until next time.

-John “Pathfinder” Lester