New World Numbers 2

New World Numbers 2 is online at New World Notes.

Maybe a million

According to the numbers, SL hit a million signups between 2006-10-18T16:00UTC and 2006-10-18T23:07UTC.

Umm. That's 38,402 signups in seven hours (or 5,486 signups per hour, up from the last two week's 400 signups per hour). Something's feeling a little implausible there.

Either we have the largest rush of new residents ever (which could be explained by the psychology of the magic million) or something's cockeyed with the numbers, or maybe there's some media event that's caught everyone's attention. If it's the former, we can hardly expect this rate of growth to slow down any time soon.

UPDATE:
Okay, there was coverage on the front page of Yahoo. So, a 24 hour period gave us an unprecedented 46,344 new signups.

Not unnaturally, this has rather biased the inworld balance of population. Several residents I spoke to said that I was the first person they'd seen who had not signed up fresh today.

EXTRA UPDATE:
That's more signups yesterday than we had total population at approximately this time last year. There were 42,000 when I joined SL 14 months ago.

Maybe a million

According to the numbers, SL hit a million signups between 2006-10-18T16:00UTC and 2006-10-18T23:07UTC.

Umm. That's 38,402 signups in seven hours (or 5,486 signups per hour). Something's feeling a little implausible there.

Adventures in RL - day eight

14 or 15 hours driving. An early start from Moree, then through Narrabri, Coonabarabran, Gilgandra, Dubbo, Tomingley, Parkes (home of the world's "most beautiful radio telescope"), Forbes, West Wyalong, Ardlethan ("Poisoned Waterholes creek"?), Grong Grong, Narrandera ("Turn Back Jimmy Creek"?), Jerilderie, Finley, Tocumwal, Cobrum, Numurkah, Shepparton, Arcadia South, Nagambie, and back to Melbourne at last. Numerous minor towns also.

Exhausted, but home. Not much else to say. Looking forward to getting back to work and SL.

Adventures in RL - day seven

A day of travel. Breakfast, and tears about my father. Then on the road. Beenleigh, Tamborine, Nerang, Tugun, Byron Bay, Ballina, then Grafton. Then west on the Gwydir highway through Jackadgery, over the Gibraltar Range, and on through Glen Innes. Then on to Inverell, Warialda, and – just as the sun goes down, into Moree and a small hotel.

Behold! There's an open wireless access point in range! I'm posting from there. Also, I feel like a fool. I apparently left my best walking stick behind, during the misery-laden trudge with the bags this-morning. Fortunately, I have a spare in the car.

Update: I am here.

Adventures in RL - day six

Went across town and glommed (or snarfed, for you newer folks) some computer time in SL, so that I could be at Hyasynth's benefit, as promised. I think things went really well, although the sim crashed partway through, and I didn't quite notice immediately.

The remainder of the day was largely reserved for a bit of driving around, and a lot of resting. We're heading out in the morning, and want to make an early start of it.

Went for dinner with my parents. It's highly unlikely I will see my father again. Things are not good. We said what we needed to say, a lot of which was 'goodbye' in various forms, and 'thankyou'.

Lucy and I have organised a final get-together. Ali Maltz will be there too. At the end of SLCC last year (2005), Linden Lab encouraged international liaisons to host get-togethers for Residents. Some of those have happened in various parts of the world. I've been looking forward to one in Australia, even if it's just four of us. We're just waiting for them to arrive, as I write this. More after the break.

A good time was had by all, I think. Lucy's passion for SL is undeniable, and we tossed around ideas and speculation for the future until late into the night.

Adventures in RL - day five

Phoned up Ali Maltz for a planned get-together later today.

Much driving and sightseeing. We went around Capalaba, Cleveland, and Wellington Point. The tide was out, and when it is there's a sandbar stretches out to a small mangrove island that's usually just a few inches underwater. A few folks were strolling backwards and forwards. We collected a few stones and coral, investigated the pools and played with a million hermit crabs and whelks. The soldier crabs were all snoozing under the sand for the noon hours.

We got about halfway out, slowly strolling and investigating everything. Then while we were out on one of the shallow stretches (barely above the water) we spotted the tide coming in. All things considered it came in very quickly, though we got back to the shore in plenty of time. I'm not so certain about some of the others who were a couple hundred metres out and well on their way to the island.

Pause for food and shopping. Carindale shopping centre was beyond packed.

MicroOz-SL-get-together. Alas, we didn't hear back from Ali, but got together with Lucy Linden for a huge discussion of things SL - community, volunteers, resident-experience, and all that. All in all a huge time with one of the great folks in SL – and drinks late in the evening. Great company to get drunk with.

Got back really late. Tomorrow I've got to get online, post this and get myself to Hyasynth's benefit.

Adventures in RL - day four

We drove around some of the suburbs where I grew up. My old schools, and so, numerous tracks and haunts and stomping grounds. Basically bucking up courage before seeing my parents.

Then we did that.

...

Spent a bit of time resting up, then we went into town, into the city. Traffic was held up some by a breakdown in one lane of the freeway, but we got in, found parking with considerable ease, and proceeded to do a walking tour of the Queen Street Mall, Myer Center, King George Square, and environs, taking in the sights. Also some dinner along the way.

Then to visit a good friend, way on the other side of town. Good conversation, and good company. Then home at last, to sleep.

Adventures in RL - day three

The last of the pizza, cold – a few minutes with the big, lovely dog there, and we're on our way again, at about a quarter past seven. We stopped in Grafton briefly for a bonus nibble, and then pretty much pressed on to Brisbane.

We diverted through the Gold Coast, getting off the new highway, and getting off onto what used to be the old Pacific Highway through Tweed Heads. We slowly drove through the Gold Coast, and I pointed out the various sights. In some areas, a lot of things have changed. In others, relatively few. I'd forgotten what a beautiful colour the water is. I'd forgotten that water could be that colour.

The Pacific Highway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane is pretty much unrecognisable now. All the landmarks that had persisted for decades, now gone, hidden or changed beyond recognition.

We arrived in Brisbane at about 4pm, got coffee at Garden City, and got a room at the Travelodge there. All very convenient. A spot of shopping, and some driving around the city at night. Brisbane from the Mount Cootha lookout is quite impressive. It stretches to the horizons, and that's not nearly all of it.

Adventures in RL - day two

A relaxed start, check out, pay, and start moving on. Sydney next. Hives. I've got bloody hives. A bunch of them at the top of the back of my neck, and running horizontally around to the back of my jaw. It aches and burns, and I had to jam my pony-tail up out of the way to stop the hair and sweat irritating it further. I think I fell asleep with some damp shampoo suds in my hair from the spa. An allergy wouldn't surprise me. First thing in the morning, I go out in the sun, it's hot, and that part of my skin gets some UV light around the hat and starts sweating under the hair. We'll see.

We're not intending to stop in Sydney, but dodging a couple toll-roads, and then the desire for a bit of a late breakfast and more fuel leads us to a place I've been before, but that we stumble on by accident: The Westfield shopping centre in Liverpool.

Bathroom, curry chicken, and a gigantic baked potato...thing. Sladen declares it to be an unconquerable chicken potato mountain (with cheese! And yet more cheese!)

Getting out of Sydney took longer than is reasonably possible for it to have taken. It took two and a half hours to get clear of the town and moving along the Pacific Highway, headed north. Past Newcastle, and finally through Port Macquarie into Kempsey around 6pm. Staying at the Fairway lodge. Small, but nice and serviceable, with a beautiful, beautiful dog in residence.

The plan is a little ad-hoc, but comes together quickly. A scotch and coke at the local pub; A coffee at the nearby cafe; A bottle of malibu and a bottle of coke from the bottle-shop; A roast-beef, garlic and mushroom pizza, and a short walk around the main-street while we're waiting for it. Back to the car, and back to the room. Bugger opulence, we're opting for a little dignified and elegant decadence. A few Malibu and cokes and the pizza and here we are. Stately decay, and a little wobbly writing.

I've been nowhere I can send any of this, yet. Soon, I hope. Tomorrow the plan is to hit Brisbane (probably about seven hours not pushing hard, and allowing for roadworks and other impedimentae).

Cruise control is excellent, by the way. This is the first car I've had with it, and it's made a hell of a difference. It's precise and fuel-efficient. We get about 750kms to a full tank, and don't have to worry about all the speed cameras we passed. A lot of folks were obviously pretty unhappy with our slavish adherance to the mandated regulations of speed, particularly at the regular stretches of roadworks (Umm. I understand you're upgrading and repairing sections of the roads. Long sections. If this process is as continuous as it appears to be....then doesn't that negate the overall throughput/speed benefits that you're trying to achieve, by introducing these long, slow sections – but I digress).

Most of those shot through multiple operational speed cameras at speeds that policemen find interesting. If they're going all the way to Brisbane, most of those will have suspension notices and gigantic fines waiting for them when they get there.

Speed cameras – the second most fun you can have with a newspaper, coffee and a doughnut.

Adventures in RL - day one

Well, we left Melbourne at 1pm armed with a bag of snack-foods, a couple bottles of soda, some clothing and no particular plan.

Getting to the border of New South Wales went smoothly. At Yass (a town that had to be larger than it looked, considering we couldn't really see any of it) we decided to divert down to the ACT – our nation's capital – which neither of us had been to before. No biggie, right? Swan into Canberra about 8:30pm, rustle up a motel room.

Not so easily. 2 hours of driving and walking up and down Canberra's streets finally yielded a hotel with no 'NO' in front of their 'Vacancy'. Success!

Or not. A quick enquiry and...some daft bugger had stolen the 'NO' from their sign. At this point, I was about ready to get a couple pillows and blankets from the car, and start offering money for space on the couch in a reception office.

Bladders and the hunt for a bathroom won out, and we managed to locate somewhere to take care of that – Even fully booked out, Canberra was awfully quiet. Night life apparently consisted of one Club X and five teenagers on teeny tiny bikes. Either those were what passes for entertainment, or parliament house really pulls in the punters.

Goodbye, nation's capital. Next stop, the town of 'Collector', whose signage promised...beds! Collector, at 10:30pm is... Well, after pub-closing time, there wasn't a light on in the whole town. Driving really slowly through it on the relatively poor and unlit road took... around 8 seconds or so. Goodbye, Collector. Oddly cool name, but nothing for us.

Next stop Goldburn.

No vacancy, no vacancy, no vacancy, no vacancy.

Finally a win (slightly after 11pm). The last motel before we're on the road to Sydney has one or more vacancies. How many? I don't know, didn't care, and didn't ask. The Goldburn Heritage Lodge had one for us and that was what we needed. The young man on the night shift made us welcome, gave us a key, some milk, and let us get to our suite, without any pesky paperwork.

Coffee! A spa! A bed!

Not actually heaven, but you can see it from there.

AFK

I'll be AFK for...Oh, a week or 10 days. I'm off to see my father.

I'm going to try to exchange favours with another SLer in order to be at Hyasynth's benefit on the 14th, so I should still be able to make it there. I hope lots of people will come along and help out.

Nobody sell the grid, and try not to hit a million signups without me.

Generations...

Me, Mera, and Reina who is hosting Building Shelter at The Shelter. I feel like a proud grandma.

I want this

I want this. I so totally want this...

(click for a larger image)

Torley? This is what I was talking about.

Hyasynth Tiramisu

I can't do anything about Ginny's death. I'm powerless to influence my father's condition.

However, there is someone I can help. Hyasynth Tiramisu. Her and her partner Jessica Ornitz are among my oldest and dearest friends in SL. Hyasynth is the genius who makes all the dresses I wear. I'm rarely seen in anything other than her work.

Hyasynth needs some medical tests. Tests that cost money, even after insurance.

Mercurious Monde has gotten together with a bunch of people to organise a fund-raiser for Hyasynth on October 14 at the Stardust Sim.

MagicJustSue Kojima will be DJ'ing and there'll be about all the music and dancing you can stand. There will be prizes, with special prize donations by Fallingwater Cellardor, Baccara Rhodes & Mash Mandala, Chrystin Hathor, Jessica Ornitz, and more. Contact Mercurious Monde if you would like to donate more prizes to the effort. Hyasynth's created a limited edition outfit for the event - not to be missed.

Hyasynth and Jessica are two wonderful people. I'm not asking anyone to do anything or give anything, but I believe this is totally worth it. This is something I can do, and I'll do whatever I can to help her.

Comic - I am not making this up II

Our long-suffering helper there, is the one and only Darlene Ginsburg. Say hi to her if you meet her in-world and treat her nicely.

11k

Well, peak concurrency has not only tipped over 11k, but we've spend a reasonable part of the day around that mark today.

The actual peak concurrency is interesting, but not quite as interesting as the mean and median, both of which have been above 8,000 (lowest 8,276 mean) for the last couple days.

What does that mean? That means more people, spending more hours. If people aren't spending a lot of time inworld, that means a lot more people. We're talking about a smaller increase, if they're spending more hours per day - but either case is interesting. More people spending time in SL, or people having more reasons to spend time. Either of those equates to a win for the residents.

Comic - A quiet evening

Many thanks to Damien Paster for posing for this, without really knowing what he was getting into. The pub itself is the Blarney Stone in sim Dublin. Worth the visit, and plenty of nice folks.