The usual and common phrase: “Go, get a life” has another meaning these days. With the new fast speed internet connections and large servers with almost limitless capacity for data, games and all sorts of applications have headed towards the online world, seeking a larger audience.
This brings us to a so called “game” in which you can make your own character from head to toe, dress him/her up (from head to toe), and call him/her as you wish. It’s like having your alter-ego showing as a virtual person in a virtual world. This Virtual World is known as Linden which has its own currency known as Linden Dollars. The name of the game, Second Life.
Imagine yourself in a world where you can be who and whatever you want or you feel like inside. Lifestyles range from being a homeless person to a multi-millionaire Linden Aristocrat. The funny thing about it is that L$ can be exchanged for real $, the current rate of exchange is: 240$L = 1$. This simulation of an alternate life is getting a lot bigger and a lot weirder than the day it was created.
Some of the many weird events include:
- Dresden’s Art Museum opened up a “Virtual Museum” that is a copy of it in Linden.
- The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra will be playing a Virtual Live Concert in Linden on the 14th of September which will be played in a “Virtual Hall” which is purchased by the Philharmonic itself.
- Sweden has already opened its “embassy” in Linden on May 3oth and had opening celebrations for all who were interested in joining the party.
- Weather effects (such as rain, fog, lightning, etc…) are not found in Linden, but that will not be the case for long since a new department has been added to the crew just for weather graphics.
The list can go on and it will grow larger as time passes by since Second Life currently houses about 9 million residents and rising. It is a great get-away from all the problems in one’s real life, even if for a while (since you can never run away from real problems in life). This all can start by just doing a free account which lets you do your own avatar and lets you shop and be free in Linden. Land ownership requires paid subscription which can go as low as $6.00/month. And so all tech freaks know, Second Life’s database is based on MySQL and supports up to 34 terabytes.
Second Life’s minimum system requirements to run on your PC/Mac:
PC Minimum System Requirements:
- Internet Connection: Cable or DSL
- Operating System: Windows 2000, XP, or Vista
- Computer Processor: 800MHz Pentium III or Athlon, or better
- Computer Memory: 256MB or better
- Video/Graphics Card:
- nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better
- OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better
Mac Minimum System Requirements:
- Internet Connection: Cable or DSL
- Operating System: Mac OS X 10.3.9 or better
- Computer Processor: 1 GHz G4 or better
- Computer Memory: 512MB or better
- Video/Graphics Card:
- nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better
- OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better
Here are some photos from Linden, hoping you enjoy your Second Life.
You can visit the website: http://www.secondlife.com (please note this is not an affiliated review)
Dresden Art Museum:
Swedish Embassy:
I’ll see you in the Dresden Art Museum hehehe
But it’s not that far away from becoming available in Lebanon… Since we would all like to believe that we are advancing (yeah right :P)
