Steam
Every once in a while you come across someone's work and you think, "Oh yes! That's it exactly!" And this is what I thought when I first visited Ordinal Malaprop's store in Caledon. The design of that whole sim is incredible enough, the whole steampunk thing is just cool. I think steam engines have a mystique for the current generation - they have a lot of the power of our current machines, but packaged in a way that's so damn beautiful! In addition to the harmony of the cogs and belts, you have the Victorian (?) ornamentation common with that style. I'm not entirely convinced Victorian is the term I want there, but you get the idea. It's really fascinating to look at. So much of our modern technology is made with the expectation of a short life cycle. Why make it lovely to look at when it will be cast by the wayside in a year? Why take pride in the craftsmanship when crafting something disposable?
The other appeal may be that it is generally easier to understand the principles behind steam-driven devices just by looking. With some study you can divine that force generated there is translated across this way and into this shaft, and crossways to turn that cog... or whatever. Tech, even to some of the geekiest of us, can be mystifying. I mean, sure you may understand in a vague sort of way how the chipset in your computer works, but not many could reproduce it or would dare to tinker with it. This might be a reason for the popularity of Make Magazine: it highlights people doing just that! (And how surprising (except for the part where it's not at all surprising) that the makers of Make should find their way into Second Life!)
But back to Ordinal Malaprop and Caledon. Zenigma Suntzu showed Henrietta and I around a little slice of Caledon a week or two ago. And Ordinal's shop was one of the stops. It's full of fascinating things for sale. It also has a bewildering array of freebies, all radically different from the thousands of others you see on SL. And fun to play with! I like the big rotating eye thing the best, I think, although the radar system that lets you know who's nearby and how fast they're moving is pretty swanky as well.
This stuff is very inspiring, especially when you read Ordinal's blog and see how generously the scripting is shared. There's nothing like peering over someone's shoulder as they work and overhearing their mutters of "so that's how that works!" The more scripting I do, the more I enjoy it - I've taken to browsing the wiki while wiling away the time at my day job. It's funny how stumbling across a particular function sometimes suggests potential uses in things you weren't really looking to make in the first place.
After Zenigma left, Hen and I took a tour of the Caledon sims on Ordinal's dirigible - which is the neatest thing since sliced bread and a great way to tour an area and get an overview of the architecture and layout. So many of us, used to the P2P teleporting, don't really have any conception of where things are in relation to each other on the grid. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it can sometimes preclude interesting new discoveries. The dirigible is automated - you sit in it, click to have it go, and you're off in search of great adventure. Or at least a sedate tour above scenic Caledon. I attempted to take a couple of pictures, but none turned out paricularly well. You'll just have to go see how neat it is yourself!
