You know what we don't see enough of in Second Life? Submarines. With all the water available across the grid, I'm surprised that there are so many boats, and so few subs. In a world where there are deep oceans and hidden grottos, underwater travel is an amazing way to explore.

To boost production of submarines and to promote the submarine as a pleasure craft, I'm re-releasing my Herring mini-sub with a new open-source script licensed under the Creative Commons. What this means is that you can get a Herring 2.0 free, rip out it's script, and use it in your own creation.

There are terms of use, of course, outlined by the non-legalese version of the license:

You are free:

* to Share ? to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
* to Remix ? to make derivative works

Under the following conditions:

* Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
* Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license.
* For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.
* Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
* Apart from the remix rights granted under this license, nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights. (link)

It's my hope that vehicle builders will use the Herring as a starting point for new submarines, either collaboratively or competitively. It's not a perfect script by far -- I know there are flaws in it -- so it's up to you to innovate and improve on it.

You can pick up a Herring 2 at The GNUbie Store, at Stillman Bazaar, and in the underground submarine dock at Abbotts Aerodrome.

According to CNN.com, the US Coast Guard is searching for balloonist Michio Kanda after he failed to check in by satellite phone. Kanda was attempting a solo crossing of the Pacific by hot air balloon, and went missing off the coast of Alaska.

Read said two Coast Guard C130 Hercules planes conducted searches Thursday 435 miles south of Adak, Alaska, the balloonist's last known position. The searches continued Friday and are ongoing, Read said.

(CNN.com)

He carried supplies and survival gear, but it certainly sounds bad. Hopefully, it's just a problem with the radio.

Update (Feb. 4): On the assumption that Kanda would have ditched in the ocean, Coast Guard continues to search for his capsule.

They are using computer-aided drift simulation to estimate the current position of the capsule. Based on these computer simulations and weather observations, they are explanding tomorrow to the Northeast to encompass a larger area.

A 378 foot Coast Guard cutter is on its way - estimated arrival 7 or 8 February. They have a helicopter on board, which they will use if weather allows.

(Link: kandaupdate.wordpress.com: "Report from US Coastguard in Juneau")

Each day, hundreds of visitors teleport to Abbotts Aerodrome to experience the thrill of being a virtual pilot. And while Second Life is not a proper flight simulator, like Microsoft FSX, Linden Lab has given us the tools to create aircraft that are both entertaining and capable of reasonably realistic flight. Part of the appeal of Second Life over FSX is that SL is a social environment: unlike FSX, you can sit your friend in the passenger seat and take them on a tour.

Flight in Second Life also has serious shortcomings -- in particular, there's the annoying absence of joystick support. This single failing has frustrated and confused many novice pilots who aren't familiar with standard keyboard controls. I hear the question, "I'm pressing 'up'... why isn't the plane going up?" surprisingly often. It might seem counter-intuitive, but there is a good reason why the keyboard controls work the way they do. Even as long ago as the early '80s, with subLOGIC's popular flight simulator for the Apple II and TRS-80 , the basic controls for keyboard flight were clearly established. These controls are still the standard a quarter century later, in FSX.

Imagine your numeric keypad as an airplane's control stick, with the stick planted in the centre on the "5" key. Left and right arrows control the aircraft's ailerons, which make the plane roll left and right. Up and down keys control the elevators, and making the plane pitch down and up. This is actually the part that many people find confusing: You push the stick forward (up arrow) to make the elevators go down, which makes the plane's nose go down; you pull the stick back (down arrow) to make the elevators go up, which makes the plane's nose go up.



So that's why pressing "up" definitely won't make your plane go up, and hence your passenger's screams of "PULL UP! PULL UP!" as you hurtle towards the end of the runway at take-off speed.

Part of the fun of flight in SL challenge of becoming a virtual pilot. Sure, it takes a little while to get used to the controls, but once you do, you'll be surprised at the precision of control achievable, even without a joystick.