[geeks] Ubuntu partition on Bootcamp Mac?

[Jon Gilbert]

On Jul 31, 2007, at 6:59 AM, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

> Nope.  Like I said, it's my opinion, very-much how it's my opinion  
> (and,
> from the rest of this thead, possibly not mine alone) that something
> that involves so much pretending is a game, or at least an amusement,
> regardless of whether it has the trappings of health meters and such.
>
> When I use a web browser, a newsreader, an email client, an LDAP query
> frontend, or any of the other tools I use on a daily basis that use  
> the
> Internet as a medium, I don't pretend I'm something I'm not.  I don't
> have an "avatar".  I don't pretend that a collection of polygons and
> space on someone's server is a house.  I don't pretend that someone's
> web site is a mall.

There's nothing about Second Life that forces you to pretend  
anything. You are free to use your real name if you like, or put it  
in your profile. You can even have your avatar look exactly like you.  
However, I don't know about you, but a lot of people don't WANT a lot  
of random strangers knowing who they really are, especially in this  
day and age of identity theft and other nastiness. Most people in SL  
use a different name, just like how most people who post on the  
UseNet, in IRC, or on a web forum use a handle.

That said, "pretending" is not limited to Second Life. I would argue  
that all GUIs involve massive amounts of pretending, in the sense  
that you're using the word. When you throw a file in the recycle bin  
on your computer, are you not "pretending" to throw a "document" into  
a "trash can?" Analogies to the real world are everywhere in  
computers. Are you not pretending that you are a little arrow flying  
around a desktop whenever you use your mouse?

Your avatar in Second Life is just a proxy, like the cursor arrow,  
that represents you in the virtual world. It does not mean that you  
are "pretending" you are really that avatar, or something. It just  
facilitates your interaction with the virtual space and the other  
people in it. Likewise, having a virtual "house" does not mean that  
you are "pretending" that you really live there, as in The Sims 2.  
You *can* pretend that, if you want, but for many of us, the land we  
own in SL has a building structure that is purely utilitarian: it  
guides people to the products we sell, gives us a place to work on  
new products, and allows us a space to comfortably and privately talk  
with others in the virtual space without interference from random  
passers-by.

But more to the point, I think that you think it's "pretend" just  
because it is in 3D. I mean, how is a mall in SL anymore a pretend  
mall than Amazon.com is? Just because Amazon.com is in 2D, therefore  
it is not a "pretend" store? I mean, when you review products on  
Amazon.com, it's not like it shows your real name to the rest of the  
world. You DO have a username. So, just because SL is in 3D,  
therefore it is all pretend? I don't understand the logic there.  
Amazon.com's website is like a big mall, in a way. Are people who  
shop on Amazon.com pretending they are really shopping? How is it any  
different from shopping in Second Life?

The only difference I mainly see, at this point, is that most of the  
products for sale in Second Life are virtual products. The technology  
of SL is fully capable of allowing people to buy real items and have  
them shipped to their real houses in real life, however, and it's  
just a matter of time before this technology gets adapted to that use  
(as the web went through the same developments).

> Well, when you find a way to push those polygons around to make
> something that's beneficial to the world outside (the one we actually
> live in and have real problems within), that'll be excellent.
>
> Until then, it's a communications medium at best.  A high-bandwidth,
> synchronous, communications medium.  That is, it does what the  
> Internet
> was designed to do initially, but while losing two of the primary
> properties that made it work so well.

It's already being used in ways that are beneficial to the world  
outside. I could go and list all the companies, people, institutions,  
and governments that are using it in ways that benefit their real- 
life operations, but if you just do some googling or actually log  
into Second Life and see for yourself, that might be more convincing  
to you. Though I'd be happy to provide examples if you like. As well,  
since you seem to be an expert on being an egalitarian and  
humanitarian (and helping the world solve all its problems, etc.),  
then I bet someone like you would actually be able to find some very  
cool ways to use it towards those ends.

I would wonder what are the "two ... primary properties" of the  
internet are that SL loses? I'm definitely not going to sit here and  
try and argue that SL is perfect, or that it could not be improved  
upon... I can think of many ways in which it could be vastly  
improved. Obviously, being corporate-controlled, it lacks the open  
freedom of the UseNet or the web. One can imagine a similar  
technology which is not proprietary, as possibly being better. Though  
of course, being a "closed environment" does also allow Second Life  
to do things which would not be possible otherwise.

-
Jon Gilbert
PGP fingerprint: 7FA9 B168 73CA A698 DD9E  2DF2 EE1A 3E73 3119 741F