A new Second Life resident recently caught my attention by breaking into private spaces in Abbotts Aerodrome and sending me pictures of it. Well, everyone has a hobby, I suppose.

Most places in Abbotts are relatively easy to get to, and don't contain anything particularly interesting. There is one room, however, that is completely off limits to the public. It's where we keep important data, have private meetings, and develop projects of a confidential nature. The room measures only about 40mx30m and has glowing green walls. Among the racks of servers, our servant monkeys wander in and out, busy at their work. We call it the "Green Monkey Room", for obvious reasons.



The location of this room? We keep that a well-guarded secret, but were you to stumble upon it, the monkeys will defend it well.

...Vend! TerraVend 3.0 is now live. For those of you who used TerraVend 2.x, the first thing you'll notice is how fast the setup is. No long delays while data emails wend their way through internet tubes to the server. Version 3 is not only faster but 736.2% more reliable. OK, I made that number up, but I think you will be pleased with it.



Also new: I have created a new group "TerraVend Merchants". Please join the group (it's open enrollment, so no invitation is needed) to get TerraVend announcements and product updates.

To those who aren't familiar with TerraVend, it is a vendor system in Second Life that lets you sell Terra Aeronautics products on commission. I provide the vendors, products, and displays, and you run your own shop and earn Linden dollars that you can spend in Second Life or sell on LindeX for real money. The vendors are free and you get paid your L$ commission immediately at the time of sale.

Get a TerraVend 3 package at the top floor of Abbotts Aerodrome or on SL Exchange.

This week I took a short breather from Second Life while my beta testers put TerraVend through its paces. Immediately I had this feeling like I had emerged from the Matrix. For the months I spent immersed in the metaverse, I had neglected the meat-verse. I turned from my computer and saw the truth of my existence: I had dirty floors. It was horrible. I shudder to think of it even now.

So naturally, being the geek I am, I threw technology at the problem. Enter my new worker robot: Roomba from iRobot. No, I'm not satisfied with just the vacuum cleaner and broom. I have to get a robot to do it for me.

The idea of having a household robot is straight out of science fiction. Didn't we all expect that by the twenty first century we would all have hovercars and household robotic servants? We don't have actual robot servants yet (or the hovercars), but I think the Roomba is a step in the right direction.

The compactness of the Roomba is impressive. It's a small, disc-shaped vacuum cleaner about 35cm across and about 10cm high. It has a large bumper on the front and an infrared sensor mounted on top. Underneath it has light and sound sensors, as well as the brushes for cleaning.

After charging it up, I let it loose in my home. It drives in almost random patterns across the floor and under furniture, bumping into and avoiding obstacles. By determing the size and shape of the room, it adjusts how long it needs to clean, and -- this is the coolest part -- when it's done, it drives itself onto to its charger and turns itself off.

For a little thing, it cleans surprisingly well. It takes, I'm guessing, about 5 times as long as a human to accomplish the same task (about 30 minutes for my living room), but it has the advantage of being completely autonomous. I can push the Clean button on the way out the door, and when I come back, the floors are clean.

So what kind of impact does a household cleaning robot have on my life? Already, I can see my habits changing. First of all, I've never taken so much interest in my floors, but I think the novelty of it will fade in time. Second, I don't try quite so hard to avoid making messes, which is a terrible, slovenly habit to develop. If there's dirt on the carpet from my potted tree, why bother cleaning it up when the robot can get it? Toast crumbs on the table? Sweep them onto the floor for the robot. Toenails? OK, well that's just gross and I won't go there, but I can appreciate the apathy that sets in when one relies on robotic help. If I had a robot to fetch food and beverages from the kitchen, I'd never leave the couch.

Imagine a future, then, where everyone has a household robot that cooks, cleans, and brings food. We would all grow corpulent and lazy, unwilling to think or act for ourselves. And I for one welcome that future, if it means we get cool robots. Corpulence here I come!

Until I get an actual robotic servant, I'll have to make do with this bumbling little vacuum cleaner robot. With a little duct-tape and a tray, I bet I could make it bring me drinks.

Owners and operators of TerraVend vendors should be happy to know that the TerraVend 3 vendors are almost done and so far they're working quite well. You will notice a very fast setup time -- no more long delays or hanging while the vendor waits for updates from the server. The new vendors should be available in about a week. Keep an eye on this blog.

To those who aren't familiar with TerraVend, it is a vendor system in Second Life that lets you sell Terra Aeronautics products on commission. I provide the vendors, products, and displays, and you run your own shop and earn Linden dollars that you can spend in Second Life or sell on LindeX for real money. The vendors are free and you get paid your L$ commission immediately at the time of sale.

When TerraVend 3 is available, I will post a link here.

This is a notice for all members of the Terra Authorized Dealers group, who own and operate TerraVend vendors.

As most have noticed, there have been serious technical issues with the vendors. Email communication breakdowns between sims have made running the system almost impossible -- a significant percentage of the total number of vendors are not able to properly communicate with the servers. For that reason, I have decided to shut down TerraVend until I can design a system that does not rely on email -- email in SL has proven just too unreliable. By tomorrow, TerraVend vendors will no longer be able to register with the server, and after that I will completely remove the servers. The vendors will automatically go into an "offline" mode, in which they accept no payments.

It could be anywhere between two weeks to two months before I can redeploy TerraVend. When I have a reliable replacement, I will announce it at www.cubeyterra.com. I apologize for any inconvenience this long downtime may cause. I hope all of you will want to try the new system when it's complete.

For those of you who wish to continue selling skydiving gear, one proven method of reselling is to buy a small stock of equipment and sell them from boxes. You may wish to try that until the new TerraVend is up and running.

Thank you all very much for taking part in TerraVend!

I'm happy to announce the release of the first collaborative effort of me and aircraft designer Reitsuki Kojima. Like real-world ultralight aircraft, the Starling is light and has forgiving flight characteristics. Gentle turns and slow cruise speed makes this plane very approachable for novice virtual pilots. The Starling follows the classic ultralight designs of the 80s -- its open metal frame is topped with a hang-glider style wing, and the HUD panel features retro-style LED readouts and flip switches.



Features...

• Two seats.
  

• Pilot can give control to the passenger in flight.
  

• Paintable! Choose from several preset colors and textures, or use your own.
  

• Includes a HUD attachment with:
  - LED-style readouts for throttle, speed, and altitude
  - Dial readouts for engine temperature and fuel
  - Engine on/off switch
  - Acrobatic smoke on/off switch
  - Buttons for options menu and control-swap
  

• Includes a "painter" HUD attachment for customizing the plane's colors and texture.
  

• Advanced flight model -- easy to fly with a realistic feel.

The Starling is available now at the Abbotts Aerodrome hangar and on SL Exchange.

I had been waiting with bated breath for this machine. My new kick-ass computer arrived the other day by Purolator. So far, it's absolutely true what they say about Windows Vista -- it's an absolute joy to use. You can't imagine the pleasure I feel when I see error messages from applications that ran perfectly well under Windows XP.