30 April 2007

Rebuilt Second Life

I read the last part of Rebuilt all at the same time, so I admit I can't exactly differentiate the second part of the reading from the first. So instead, I'm going to comment on parts that I thought taught me something or that stuck in my mind. In the book it talks about deaf people not being exactly "deaf". That the ear makes up sounds that aren't there that the person hears, maybe due to the absence of sound. This i never knew and am extremely interested in the fact that it does happen.

I mean if I had one line from a poem was repeating in my head over and over again for more than 30 minutes(like it did with the author of the book), I most likely would go crazy. Yet, I guess the body adjusts and most just learn to tune it out, like we do a clicking clock, only hearing it when we really pay attention or when it becomes all of a sudden quiet.

On Wednesday, we also tried logging on to Second Life and playing it. though it took forever to log on, and when it did there were major glitches in the system. It was good to see how social systems are constantly being upgraded, changed and made better, like everything that we deal with in life now. Even when there was a major glitch in the system and i couldn't modify my character's appearance, nor see my character, I was helped by another newbie who had the same problem. We talked to each other until i was unexpectedly logged off the system, and amazingly only took 3 minutes to log back on again. And just like technology today, sometimes you just need to restart the system to make it start working again, as we could see since this is Windows solution to almost all problems imaginable (otherwise known as The Blue Screen of Doom/Death).

Second Life

3 comments:

kellyt said...

I was interested by the versions of "deaf" too. I work for Domino's, and we deliver to the school for the deaf, and I have to admit, I never quite know whether to talk to them or not. I don't know who can hear some, or not at all, or who can speak, or not at all. It's such a tough thing to deal with, because I don't want to mess up, but then I know I'm already offending them by assuming one way or another. Chorost talks about this in the reactions he gets from other people, when they don't know whether to yell or talk really close to his ear. I wish there was a "good" way to deal with this.

Ross H said...

I didn't even succeed in logging into Second Life at all. I think the ideas and the business plan for the developer is awesome, but my lack of experience with it is a bummer. I applaud a person that can create an infinitely renewable resource that is free but has value (land in Second Life). How audacious is that? Outrageously audacious, thats how much. I wish it had been my idea, and I would be getting RICH. I hope to participate in Second Life in some time in the near future, but I can't really see myself paying for anything. Hopefully there is a way to earn money in the game that doesn't involve spending my own real money. I can only imagine the connections that people are forging over this thing. Especially when people got married on LamdaMoo.

Ronnie R said...

“I guess the body adjusts and most just learn to tune it out”, I think this is true with all surrounding happenings. In today’s world of technology, we would go insane if we couldn’t drown out such noises or things happening. There is so much communication all around us, whether it be advertisements coming from billboards or televisions, or a conversation coming from someone on a cell phone right next to you. With all these noises, if we hadn’t learned to drown them out, we would not be able to concentrate. Of course it is a lot more difficult to ignore a noise that is right in your ear, but our bodies are smart and will adjust or evolve. This is an interesting fact, I also didn’t know that deaf people can still hear sounds that their ears make for them. Is this the same as mute people being able to make squeaks or other small noises with their mouth, or a blind person being able to “see” lights or darkness? Not sure if those happen, just wondering.