Very short update

Just finished porting all scripts into the new version of 2nDisability. From now on it will be quite some testing and debugging before we can start a beta-phase of the tool. I will be out (in RL) for the next few days, so it will be around a week till then. But nevertheless I hope we can start beta in about 10-15 days!

I hope you have a nice time!
FEZ

PS: I nearly forgot: I got a first applicant today for the beta ;-) Yeah! So application is open, just contact me inGame (IM if I'm not online!)

A short snapshot of my place

Snapshot_001
Originally uploaded by FEZ Rutherford.

This more a technical test than a real entry to the blog. I just startet an account at flickr and it allows me to blog on pictures directly via the flickr page.
And now I want to test this.

Enjoy!

PS: If you want to support 2nDisability by building a nicer meeting place than the one you can see here, feel free to contact me ;-)

Tech Talk [written inGame by FEZ Rutherford]

Here is one more tech-info. I spent the last few hours with rewriting the 2nDisability HUD to make it more understandable.
The most obvious change is the fact that now the HUD only has two prims (Main plus Blinder). The Main Prim now contains several scripts (instead of only one). Each of these scripts handles a certain task. Some of them do the background and managemet functions, some of them are
the disabilities themselves.

Not all functions have been ported by now but it's getting late over here plus they shut down scripts at Tan at the moment...

So nomore scripting for now, have a nice night,
See you all tomorrow!

My 2nd Thoughts[written inGame by FEZ Rutherford]

Object-Name: blogHelper
Region: Bethselamin (240384, 238336)
Local-Position: (208, 91, 24)

Just got kicked out and banned from a place called Studio Takashi for no certain reason.
I just went in there. The ower was in too. After looking at the place I first had an Tourret attack
and shortly after one of Epilepsie.
Then I got kicked/banned by the owner without any warning or attempt to contact me.

Sad

Literature research

Today I started to do some literature research. I will try to keep this list up to date and maybe comment a little on it.

• National Center for Health Statistics
  "International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)"
  Web Page
  
• Philip Sampson
  "Prosthetics And The Virtual Body"
  Heise, 1996
  
• Jana Schwarz, Hiltrud Walter, Katrin Weiner
  "Communication and identity in the cyberspace of poeple with disabilities".
  HU Berlin, 2000
  
• Uni Lübeck
  "Disease and Procedure Classification I"
  Webpage
• Klaus-Peter Wegge
  Barrierefreies Internet
  FIff-Kommunikation
  

If you do have some more Papers, Pages or information feel free to share it here in the comments.

Update on the code [written inGame by FEZ Rutherford]

Object-Name: blogHelper
Region: Ambleside (262912, 257536)
Local-Position: (175, 154, 104)

While sitting in a Balloon and enjoying a ride over Ambleside (it's nice although I happen to get blinded every now and then) I have some spare time to keep you updated on how the development process of the tool is getting along.

New:
- As I reported earlier today I implemented Hay Fever behaviour into 2nDisability. It is implemented in a extra box which enables me to give out only this part of the code to the developers and fans of the EcoSystem.
- I also added one more behaviour which I call Stuttering. It repeats (every now and then) some of the last word you have said.

Fixes:
- Sending eMails now works very easily

ToDo:
-[BlogHelper] Add username to objectname
-[BlogHelper] Add "subject:" finder
-[BlogHelper] Make it more efficient on the memory by moving the notecard line by line
-[*] Comment and clean up code

That's it for today,
have a nice evening

A picture of mine...

As the last picture of mine was quite dark (it was taken at night time) here is a new, brighter and shortly better one...

EcoSystem integration [written inGame by FEZ Rutherford]

Object-Name: blogHelper
Region: Tan (256000, 257024)
Local-Position: (160, 77, 101)

Some days ago I've reported about a project called [off-topic] EcoSystem in SL which tries to build a whole EcoSystem on its own sim.
I got in contact with the developers lately and added hay fever into 2nDisability. This means that if you are 2ndisabled and get in touch with too many of their plants you will start sneezing.
There will we an entry about it on their wiki as soon as possible.

Building at home... [written inGame by FEZ Rutherford]

Object-Name: blogHelper
Region: Tan (256000, 257024)
Local-Position: (154, 81, 26)

I have a little place on my land which I use as my workshop and studio. It i high up in the sky. Since I am disabled I keep falling down from that platform every now and so often. Today I started to make the platform handicapped accessible by adding some fences aroud that place.

I'm getting more and more the feeling of really being disabled.

My 2nd Thoughts [written inGame by FEZ Rutherford]

Object-Name: blogHelper
Region: Sandbox Island (254464, 255488)
Local-Position: (173, 117, 26)

After reading on the CyberOne homepage that they hold their classes also in SL, I went to their place (Berkman Island 82/81/25) to maybe meet someoen of the team. Unfortunately I was not lucky with that but I must say they do have a VERY nice place over there.

On the tool: I just changed the blog-interaction to single-action. This means that now a message can be sent to the blog by simpley dragging a notecard onto the hub-symbol and it then is directly sent. Much easier to use than the last system which needed several clicks. One drawback I still see is, that a single paragraph (or line) in the notecard may be 255 characters maximum. This is due to the possibilities of the SL-Script-engine. I still hope that 2nDisability-reporters will understand.

On my disability: While moving over SL and to different places, I realized a interesting form of places beeing not made for handicapped persons like I am. When you think about such buildings in real-life you may think about people in wheelchairs and stairs (at least this is a quite common example). What i realized here in SL are places where scripts are not allowed by the land owner. In such places I can not be a disabled person anymore (as my disability depends on scripts). Well, this is a little different to the RL pendant, but still they are not friendly places for disabled persons...

Okay. It's getting late. I'm off for bed.
More to come....

Short update [written inGame by FEZ Rutherford]

Object-Name: blogHelper
Region: Tan (256000, 257024)
Local-Position: (171, 73, 67)

Online again. At the moment I'm only scripting my tool to make an easier interface for the report-to-blog-from-ingame stuff.
But while checking the logfiles of my (now 2 days old) blog, I realized that I already had some referrers. Some of them from the SL-Homepage. But one from blogs.law.harvard.edu! There Gene Koo reports that he/she had some idea of a virtual disability too!
I'll keep you up to date and hope you will have a nice day!

Interesting contact

Just found an interesting event in SL which is about ethics and is held on a 3-times a week basis. Unfortunately I had to leave quite early beacause of a real-life meeting ;-(
I talked to the host Selaras Partridge if we could meet again and talk about the experiment. I'll try to catch up with her. Maybe we can discuss my experiment in one of the meetings. If so, I will for sure post it here.

Pitifulness or understanding

While talking about 2nDisability with a real-life friend today we came up with a quite interesting question. We asked ourselves which might be the feelings other SL residents will have concerning my disability.
Our first thought was, that it could be (as in real-life) pitifulness. But we doubt that as still the tool is worn voluntarily and as such I think that no real pitifulness might or will come up.
This led as to the thought that some people might not understand the purpose of the experiment and such might get angry because of my behavior (such as the DJ in this post).
Following this thoughts I hope that most people will show understanding for my disability.

[off-topic] EcoSystem in SL

Just found another great experiment run in SL (SL EcoWiki) which tries to create virtual species etc in their own simulator.

Update: Find the Location here!

New development... [written inGame by FEZ Rutherford]

Object-Name: blogHelper
Region: Tan (256000, 257024)
Local-Position: (160, 79, 67)

Right now I'm working on a additional function of my tool.
This function will allow me (and later on all others who will join the experiment) to easily write blog-entries from inseide the game.
up to now it's very basic, but it will grow while I keep working on the tool!

Being around

Beeing around a little more today I got a first feeling how it feels in some situations to be disabled. Esp. while building some stuff on my own land the blindness-attacks where very hard to cope with.
Luckily my Tourret got a little better which really made it much easier for me in crowded places.

That's me

Well, not much to say ;-)

First experiences in public

Today I joined a party over at Wheelies when a Tourett attack hit me... Luckily people over there took it quite nicely

One example...
...Tourret attack...
Iago Zabibha: ok fez?
You: yep
Iago Zabibha: k
You: sorry about that
Iago Zabibha: lol
Iago Zabibha: tourettes?
You: yep
You: actually
Iago Zabibha: ok np

Others (like the DJ for example) did not take it so good. This is mostly to the strength of the attacks I have. Guess they are really a little strong up to now....

Funny thing about some stuff one starts is that it sometimes gets its own life faster than one thinks. In this case my handicap-script really handycaps my development. In this case I just cannot create stuff online as soon as I switch on the tool. Which really keeps me from developing it further.
This is why I have to give me a rule:
I will only switch the tool off, if I am "at home". Which means if I am on my homespot in "Second Life"

Today I started the 2nd-handicap project. It is a social project which tries to cope with different aspects of beeing handicaped.
Therefore I'm developing a tool in "Second Life" which tries to transport the feeling of beeing handicaped into a virtual environment