Report 7
Tuesday
July 7, 2009: 6:17 PM
Exercise 6:
I am skipping exercise six because it requires downloading Jing and submitting two pictures to Prof. James. However, all of my pictures in previous reports are taken with Jing so therefore I am already very familiar with taking and submitting pictures.
Exercise: Changing picture formats
1. Task: I am going to test and see which picture format is the smallest. I am opening up a picture which I have taken in SL and it is currently in PNG format and is 429 KB. Using the paint program I will save this picture as a GIF file and I immediately notice that it looks very pixilated. I do not like how this makes my image look. The next format I will try is the TIF. Once saved, I notice that the TIF format is 583 KB! This is larger than a PNG so I will definitely not use TIF. The last format I will try is the JPG. By saving the same picture as a JPG the size is now 33.4 KB which is a fraction of the size of a PNG. Therefore Prof. James is correct and saving all pictures in JPG format will create smaller files to email.
2. Specific problem: Finding the best format to save pictures as. However, the solution is to save every picture as a JPG format. However, this is tedious and time consuming if there are many pictures. The other option would be to group pictures together and somehow change their formats at the same time. However I tried doing this and am unsuccessful.
3. Type: Persistent
4. Emotions:
Excited 3:
changing picture formats isn’t as thrilling as skydiving. It’s a passive activity for me.
Social 1:
the only person I’m interacting with is myself.
Fun 1:
this is just a technical issue I need to address. There is very little creativity in this task.
Useful 9:
this is very useful because I’ll use this for every picture I take.
Frustrated 7:
this is frustrating just because it’s tedious and time-consuming.
5. How long it took to solve the problem:
Five minutes to solve which format was the smallest and I am unsuccessful at changing the formats of multiple pictures at once.
47 minutes to solve the problem by changing all previous picture formats in previous reports.
6. Emotions when the problem was solved:
Relief 7:
I’m glad to be finished with this.
Can be used in the future 10:
I’ll be using this for every picture I take in the future.
This picture is a snapshot of my desktop.
Wednesday July 8, 2009: 7:49 PM
Exercise: Finding decorations for the LILT party
1.Task: Today I am in search of items for the LILT party. I have been informed by Melanie Twine that the items should match a UH color theme or luau theme. First I’m logging into http://www.xstreetsl.com. Then I continue by clicking on marketplace and then do an advanced search. My first search is for ‘luau decorations’ and this turns up Hula Lights. I add this to my favorites to be bought later. This appears pretty basic to me. I want to find more so I am doing a search for ‘green decorations’. This turns up some interesting furniture. So I grab that. Then I find a free jetski, neon green ribbon stockings (because those can always be useful … haha, just kidding. I included them anyway). I just found a twelve pack hovercar bundle that has full perms. This costs L$1 and I’m excited to see if I can set this up to be given away. My final purchases include a Vesba (motor scooter) and an evergreen rezzer HUD.
Now that I have all the items in my favorites, I’m going to my list and one by one downloading everything to SL. In SL I have a folder called UHM and a subfolder in that where I just created a ‘Party Decoration’ folder. I did this so that when I meet with Melanie I’ll know exactly where I put everything.
2. Specific problem: Finding items that will be suitable for the LILT party that are also theme oriented. Also being able to successfully buy and transfer purchases in-world.
3. Type: Temporary and long-term
4. Emotions:
Excited 8:
Shopping always get me excited. I enjoy the idea of finding objects and figuring out what they do and then playing with them.
Social 3:
I assume there will be some socializing just because there are other avatars around.
Fun 8:
Shopping is almost always fun. I also get to find things that I find interesting.
Useful 9:
This is useful because we may use some of the items I find for our LILT party.
Frustrated 5:
I just hope I find things that we can use.
5. How long it took to solve the problem:
Well it took me about an hour to find items that I wanted to use and then I need to transfer them into SL. I had L$1000 from the last time I tried to buy something on xstreet so I didn’t have to wait for money to be converted. I was relieved at this because sometimes this takes a day or so.
6. Emotions when the problem was solved:
Relief 7:
I think I found some fun things.
Can be used in the future 10:
There’s probably at least one thing I found that we can use at the party.
Frustrated 1:
I succeeded with the task. I found things to use at the party.
Excited 6:
I can’t wait to open these items and play with them.
This is a picture of my desktop while on http://www.xstreetsl.com
I had the flu and was completely useless from
Friday July 10, 2009 – Monday July 13, 2009.
Therefore, no research was conducted during that time.
Tuesday July 14, 2009: 12:15 PM
Exercise: Opening up previously bought items and trying them out to see which items may be useful for decorations. All pictures are taken at Help Island Public.
1.Task: The first item I am testing is the motor scooter. I have two types. The first type is just the scooter without the side car and the second type is a scooter with a side car. I wanted to see how it worked with the side car and was able to persuade someone watching to have a seat in the side car. What a guy. Although the sidecar didn’t properly seat an additional avatar so it may be more for show. This was a lot of fun.
Fun 7:
Trying out new objects is always fun. I love to see how the creator chose to make their object and what functions were added.
Frustrated 3:
I’m only a little frustrated because I don’t want to find a junk item.
Exciting 7:
Fun and excitement go hand-in-hand for me. My favorite types of items to buy are clothes and vehicles, haha.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public2/175/103/29
The next item I am trying is a hovercraft I found. The one thing I don’t enjoy about this is that when I sit down in it, it looks as if I’m lying down. This flies very similarly to the magic carpet where you have to type in /start to make it work.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public2/175/103/29
Below is a picture of some luau decorations I found. I bet Yoko found similar ones. I like them because it is simple. However, they are a little boring.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public2/175/103/29
The jet ski below worked well. Too bad it wasn’t more racey or cool looking because the driving ability isn’t too bad. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll be using this at the party because there’s no water area.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public2/175/103/29
I love the big chair I’m sitting in and the lamp and table match. The green and black colors match UH. Maybe we can use one or two items at the party.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public2/175/103/29
The green stockings I found didn’t work out that well. They don’t really looking like stockings and just look weird.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20Hawaii/121/57/345
2. Specific problem: I need to open up the items I found on http://www.xstreetsl.com and decide what I will show to Melanie Twine for the party at LILT.
3. Type: Temporary
4. Emotions:
Excited 6:
I found a couple great things and some not-so-great things. But that’s the joy of SL; you never know what you’re really buying until you try it out in-world.
Social 1:
There weren’t very many people around to interact with.
Fun 6:
Overall I enjoyed trying out the items I bought.
Frustrated 5:
Not that frustrated but I still want to find more items.
5. How long it took to solve the problem:
Approximately a couple of hours. I took my time opening things up and trying out everything. I would also chat with whoever asked about what I was doing.
6. Emotions when the problem was solved:
Relief 7:
I feel good that I was able to find at least a few items for the party.
Can be used in the future 10:
Some of these items will make it to the party so that means this was useful.
Wednesday July 15, 2009: 8 PM
Exercise: Find a couple more decorations for the party
1. Task: I still want to find a car, some streamers, and maybe a party hat. I am able find some free drifting cars and basic lights. I’m also looking at a party hat that shoots out confetti and think that would be fun. However, it costs L$10 per hat and is not copyable. So that would quickly add up and I decide not to buy it.
I added the car and lights to my favorites and now am transferring them in-world. At help island I unpack my lights and they work. They even blink! Even though they are simple, they may work well if Melanie or Yoko haven’t found anything better.
As I’m opening my car package I’m excited to see that I have about six cars! I rezz one in front of me and get it … then I notice that I cannot drive it! I’m so frustrated that it won’t go anywhere that I spend ten minutes fussing with it. I can hear the engine rev and can sit inside, but it just doesn’t go anywhere. Then someone named “Perfect Inventor” shows up and says he has a better car. So he rezzes his Ferrari and when I ask him how much it cost … he just gave me one! As I’m checking the permissions I realize that I can copy and transfer the car.
So after thanking him for the car, I go to LILT and test out the new car. It’s very fast and I think it’ll be a great activity for the party if people want to try driving.
2. Specific problem: I want to find more fun things for people to be able to interact with at the party. Such as a car.
3. Type: temporary
4. Emotions:
Excited 8:
I love the Ferrari but I need to find or build an adequate place to drive it.
Social 7:
By rezzing the items in a public area, I was able to talk with a couple people because they were interested in what I am doing.
Fun 8:
Again, I love the Ferrari. It’s free, has full perms (permissions), pretty, and fun.
Useful 9:
This will definitely be used in the party.
Frustrated 6:
I was initially very frustrated by not being able to figure out how to operate the original set of cars I found on http://www.xstreetsl.com.
5. How long it took to solve the problem:
Between an hour and two hours. Again I talked with people who wandered by me while I was rezzing items. Also, I never did figure out how to drive the free cars I got from xstreet. That’s ok with me because I have a better car.
6. Emotions when the problem was solved:
Relief 9:
I’m glad I found an awesome item (the Ferrari).
Can be used in the future 10:
I’m sure someone will want a car at the party.
This is a picture of my desktop while at http://www.xstreetsl.com
The picture below is of the blinking lights.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Help%20Island%20Public2/175/103/29
This is the picture of the free car which “Perfect Inventor” gave to me when he saw how much trouble I was having with the other car I had. People can be nice so it’s good to try things out in high traffic areas.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20of%20Hawaii/121/57/345