May 2007

Much as I dislike the whole process of boxing things up and making advertisements, I would like to announce that the Ordinal Knife-Pistol is now officially for sale at my Caledon shop, and soon to be on SLX and SLB. The previous entry has more pictures, and I suppose that at some point I will make some sort of video as well.

Incidentally, I cannot remember whether I mentioned it before, but I have created a group called “Ordinal Enterprises Customers” for this sort of announcement, as well as the announcement of any other events or special offers or whatnot. If you are interested in my nonsense for any reason I would encourage you to join.

If you wish to see the full release notes, by all means read on (and if you do not, by all means don’t).

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Another one of my rambling jotting type entries I fear. For any of you mad enough to find these interesting, my “Tumblr” thing, Ordinal’s Cabinet of Ephemera, contains these in even more abbreviated form, though it is not quite so trivial as my Twitter stream of consciousness, which contain such fascinating details as when I have to take the washing inside because it has started raining. There is really a strict hierarchy here which I suppose one might graph, with axes of Triviality and Connection-With-The-Grid; this Journal is moderate on the former and highish on the latter, the Cabinet is higher and lower respectively and Twitter at the upper and lower extremes of both.

Alas, I have been looking upon some of the products of the East (or West, or perhaps North or even South depending on your exact location) this evening, deriving from the place known as Samurai Island, and they are extremely impressive in appearance; all particles aside, I felt rather ashamed of the relatively static and staid motions connected to my own products. But then we cannot all work in the same styles - acrobatics and such would really be a little too demonstrative for me in general I feel - and whilst I am improving in my skill with animations I am not by any means a mistress of them as yet.

Still, I plan at some point to pay a visit to said Island, and look utterly ridiculous no doubt bearing blades as tall as I am, as part of my research into weapons of Close Combat upon the Grid. Herein I post a few pictures taken in the bowels of New Babbage of the latest product upon which I have been working, very close to release; a Knife-Pistol, slightly more advanced than the usual flintlocks in that it is a five-shot automatic, but still I am pleased with the design.

In other brief news, I have also been working on a system whereby customers might automatically receive the latest updates to products that they have bought - this is both useful for them, clearly, and also may mean that I am not quite so hampered by the idea of only releasing things when I am utterly sure of their perfection or more likely when I cannot stand the sight of them any longer, which slows one down and is also always doomed to failure in any case.

Given my stated convictions relating to the privacy of one’s data, the thing is entirely “opt-in”, and sends not a peep out to my server without you first activating it; you are also quite able to remove it entirely. It is not, as yet, an entirely generic system for use by anyone, but I think that I will throw the code up here once I have tested it a little more for the perusal of interested parties.

As a further note, as I mentioned I have been doing research into Combat Systems recently, and there are a few simple tips for the designers of weapons for use in “roleplay” sims that use either the “DCS” or “CCS” that I would also like to write up. My notes on this are in a parlous state at the moment and I have been promising to do this forever it seems, but really, truly, I will. Very soon.

Finally, I was recently informed by Mr Deanfred Brandeis that the latest design of the Reuters HUD has been released - one may visit the Reuters Island to obtain one. I have used it myself and I must say, it is a fine piece of work - those readers who have been looking for a device which provides easy access to feeds in the RSS format will be pleased, as one may configure it to read from a number or even ones entirely of one’s own choosing. I spy a slight omission in the list of available bl*gs though.

In recent days I have been observing many fellow artisans upon the Grid - well, I flatter myself that they are my fellows, I am a child playing with plywood and glue compared to most, but nonetheless - writing and speaking on the subject of Sculpted Prims, the new magical lumps of clay sent to us from the heavens that promise to make our fruitbowls that much more interesting. Initially I suspect this will result in little more than an enormous number of bananas, vases, goblets, fancy table-legs and so on, but given time they will likely become common in the primary markets on the Grid, those being furniture, clothes and body parts.

A bold new age of fruit

I, myself, have not been sculpting prims. “Why is this?” I hear you ask in my imagination (in all likelihood you care not a jot but I will tell you anyway). Firstly, the line of products manufactured by Ordinal Industries are pretty much all mechanical and sharp-edged, and sculpted prims really are not terribly good with harsh lines and suchlike, being by their nature rather softer and more organic in appearance. I am sure that a few details (for example, the holster for the Webley mentioned previously) would be better done with sculpted prims but I imagine that the point at which this becomes essential will be the point at which I am actually able to operate the tools.

Which brings me to my second point, which is that I really do not have the time to master that horrible item of torture, Blender, and I have neither time nor resources (or at least I am certainly not willing to spare them) for Maya, the only package for which an official exporting widget exists at the moment. It is certainly not the matter of a few spare hours to learn how these things work. I previously took Blender cautiously out of the drawer and opened it up when I was investigating the creation of animations, as I was told it could be used for this (perhaps mistakenly) and quickly put it back with a puzzled then scared expression on my face. I made a more concerted effort recently but quite frankly, the sheer number of buttons in irrational places, the bizarre and essential keyboard shortcuts, the inconsistency between elements of the User Interface… I was not encouraged.

My previous investigation of animations would have been entirely curtailed had it not been for my discovery of the excellent program Avimator (now developed as qavimator), which is an excellent free tool and extremely quick to master, particularly if your desired animations are limited to small actions, poses and incidental movements. This is the sort of program which is needed in the context of Sculpted Prims to maintain the Grid as a place where anyone might learn any of the basic skills to at least some extent. Clearly if one must learn Blender or Maya before sculpting, it divides us firmly into “does it for a living” and “doesn’t do it at all”, and that division in society is enough of a problem as it is.

At this early stage it appears as if the program “Wings3D” might turn out to be some sort of easily-accessible version, but I am unable to judge this. My stubborn and slightly insane insistence on using an “Apple” as a tool - and a Core 2 Duo Apple at that; two cores, what is the fruit world coming to - means that I am finding it practically impossible to use the plugin developed. The latest version fails consistently when asked to do anything, the last previous version to work does not support the plugin, and compiling from source… well, I am not a newcomer to this sort of endeavour but it has been a complete nightmare and an unsuccessful one at that.

Still, residents of the Grid are a resourceful and innovative bunch, and I have little doubt that someone, somewhere, will come up with something, somehow. I will keep an eye out, but in the meantime, continue to make things with the usual prims.

On that note and to end this piece with a little self-promotion, I have been working on a series of industrial tools - all in the very early stages of design - which I will illustrate….

The Ordinal “Pepperbox” - A Functional Display from Ordinal Malaprop on Vimeo

Currently available from my Caledon shop - and there is also a selection of pictures on Flickr.

It has long been frustrating to me that, when we are upon the Grid, everything that we hear appears in that damnable green or that damnable white. Surely something better could be arranged, so that one might more easily distinguish between speakers, or simply between speakers that one wishes to hear from and those which one does not, without muting the latter? If you are sympathetic to this, I would appreciate it if you would consider voting for this proposal and perhaps even drumming up a little support for it yourself. Thank you.

I have been spending far too much time twittering and tumbling like some sort of circus chicken recently, and also far too much time engaged in Aethernet-Related Projects; thus it is my determination to concentrate myself on at least the semblance of performing Work On The Grid.

Let us begin with a forthcoming product, the Ordinal Pepperbox. This is, oddly enough, not actually a device for dispensing pepper, though one may be included in the package to pacify any disgruntled chefs; it is a firearm of a design some might consider antiquated, but let me reassure the prospective purchaser that modern engineering techniques ensure that it is only a little inaccurate and only misfires, say, once every ten shots, which I’m sure you will agree is an excellent safety record.

The Pepperbox is muzzle-loading and may be charged with ordinary ball ammunition, bullets with a core of Heinkel Phosphorus (a rare element which burns most fiercely and also causes an immense repulsion from the ground) and also my newest Ruby Bullets (patent pending) which, when hitting a ne’er-do-well upon a plot over which the firer has control, remind them most immediately and directly that there is No Place Like Home. Of course, all of these things are only to be used appropriately, as with all of my creations.

In addition to this one might expect the usual nonsense with custom animations, the drawing and hiding of the pistol, particle effects, revolving barrels, all that rubbish. Please note that it is not quite available yet, as I have been recently kept from my efforts by Circumstances beyond my Control, but may be tomorrow.

~*~

Other devices which I have spent considerable lengths of time on and yet failed to actually release at all include the Ordinal Galvanic Swordstick, a concealed weapon brimming with Electrical Power which also includes a convenient lightbulb for occasions when one simply cannot manage to get the dratted key into the door, sundry Air Vehicles such as the as-yet-unnamed elephant-spider-kettle-thing appearing in my Aethernetical Album, and also a drawable and hosterable version of the venerable Webley .455 revolver.

(Addendum: another of my flying devices has appeared in an excellent series of pictures - mine is the bulbous thing with doors, rather than the elegant ornithopter.)

I must admit that it has been my failure to actually make a satisfactory holster for the Webley which has kept me from releasing the drawable version, as it has been ready apart from that for a while now, but being aware that I am vain and picky and altogether pathetic when it comes to these things, I have resolved to make it available simply with the pistol itself appearing at one’s belt, and then after that perhaps I can make one with Sculpted Clay and send it out.

Oh yes, and that reminds me; I have resolved to add a “Registration” function to these new devices, allowing one to opt into having one’s details recorded by myself and, through that, having all further versions of a product (whether created for reasons of Improvement or Repair) sent out automatically.

~*~

And as a final note, I am also working on a small sign to be held up at opportune moments when the arrival of Otherworldly Voices comes about - let us not forget that this is only a week or so away.

I am sure as it happens that I also have a million other things that I should be finishing up and packaging off, but I see that I have finally been able to enter Caledon, and would thus bid you toodle-pip.

~*~

(A further addendum: I failed to make it explicit that I have been adding entries to a “sub-journal”, Ordinal’s Cabinet Of Ephemera, wherein I am storing small things which have caught my eye and brief notes on that upon which I am working. I hope that this will reduce the need for lengthy posts such as these in future.)

It is surprisingly hard to get New Residents to actually do anything at all for money, I find. Despite the fact that they frequently ask one how to obtain cash, when one asks as Welcome Areas for paid short-term employees (say, to test weapons on) one meets with, well, nothing at all. Ignored or unnoticed.

(as an addendum: er, actually I did not mean to place that particular entry here, but hey ho, it is here now and still quite true.)

Whilst those of us who were unable to attend the Town Hall Meeting today will no doubt be thankful for the provision of a transcript of questions and answers on the Official Laboratoire Court Circular - and it is, certainly, an informative document - I thought that it might also be appropriate to publish an unedited version including the interventions of attendees, which I was passed just now by Mr Simon Pulford. (It does not cover the whole thing, I admit.)

~ please see this record of the Town Hall ~
(as I seem to be prevented from posting the whole lot here)

NB: the appearance of this transcript was created using my chat log colourising thing, a free service.