Lawmakers hold first hearing in Second Life

Why would Congress hold a hearing in real life when it could do so in Second Life?

Read the story.

--DD-

Palomar West Hospital build

A new publicly financed hospital is due to open in San Diego in 2011. What's a good way to let the public see what they're getting for the money? Build it in Second Life and open it visitors. Palomar Pomerado Health and its technology partner Cisco Systems have done just that with the simulated version of the real-life Palomar West Medical Campus.

Read the story at http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206801783&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News and then go visit the hspotial at http://slurl.com/secondlife/PalomarWest%20Hospital/36/125/34/

--DD-

Living areas

Not happy with the living areas yet. Not even sure I wanted a living area, but seems if you're building in Second Life you should have a place to call Home.

I wanted something "warmer" and less funky than the ClubHouse and art gellery. So the wood floors are a nice touch. But kind of unhappy about putting the living area at the bottom of the building since the top floors arguably have better views. At the time that seemed agood idea because (a) I didn't need much living space and the lower floors were smaller and (b) the lower floors gave more natural access to walk around outside and to the water.

Maybe still good and just need to work it a bit

--DD-

The art gallery

The art gallery was my favorite interior are to work on. It's right above the ClubHouse and has wide open interior balcony looking down over the clubhouse.

The interior balcony gives it one of the best views from inside the building.

And if you're going to have art, you've got to have good lighting, right? I had a fun time making the ceiling spotlight. Went trhough several and ended on these. Simple, elegant, and only one prim!

I love the effect of the light on the brick wall and the art...

...and on the building at night.

--DD-

The building stands

And something that looks like a building is finally up. I added big balconies which made a big difference for views out

--DD-

And now building starts for real

So now to the brass tacks of building it. I relaced the blocks with slabs and windows. I found I had even more space than I anticiapted so removed the top layer of blocks. I like the lower look.



Here's the interior of the clubhouse for meetings.






--DD-

Terraforming a bit

So now I got to play with the land a bit. It had been "flattened" by the previous owner, an euphimism for a process that tends not to produce really flat land but manages to destroy a lot of natural beauty. So my first task was to revert the land back to its original state.

After that I thought it would be fun to build a little inlet and a pier.

This was the original land after adding the pier and a couple of tall rocks. Notice how straight the shoreline is



Now bending the land a bit to encase the pier.





Then a little tidal pool and path





And here's the finished shoreline




--DD-