IBM Codestation - Update

IBM Rational Codestation is now officially open in Second Life, so I thought I'd better nip back and see what's new. I posted an entry a couple of weeks back, when it was still under development. It now seems to be largely finished - with the upper meeting area now finished and 2 halls - the Object Library and the Script Library already kitted out with a number of freebies for the budding LSL developer. To be fair, most of the scripts are also to be found embedded in the objects - but it's a nice facility, of which I have availed myself fully!

After reading the 3PointD entry I also felt I had to stick to the job, and get that damned robot thru the labyrinth. The dialog box is a bit annoying, as each move of the robot requires the box to be re-displayed. However, as Jeremy points out in his comment on this entry: "each button points to some code, so if you are so inclined, you can dig in,... improve the usability, do whatever you want, it is completely open source and free for the hacking. " Maybe here's an opportunity to re-assert my geek credenda, or alternatively accept that my programming days are behind me and continue to bang on about "branding" and other non-techie concerns instead.

Incidentally, I made it through in a "must try harder" 11mins, 19secs.

One man and his robot:


The site is still in Beta, but visitors are welcome to come and play the labyrinth, grab some scripts and objects - and, if kindly disposed, donate a script or 3 too.

It transpires that this is another build by those eclectic Electric Sheep, who seem to have almost cornered the market in innovative sites. But, hey, they can do their own advertising!

Anyway... here's a few snaps for you:


I plan to post yet more about the burgeoning IBM empire in SL at some point - while doing a "Map Search" I found a whole bunch more IBM islands that didn't exist this time last week:

• IBM Collaboration
• IBM Event
• IBM ES Research
• IBM Boeblingen Lab

Most - probably all - are closed to visitors, so I will just have to show a bit of patience. Mind you, I at least got a squint over the wall at IBM PWIN - but it's not yet in a state to pique my interest.

NEWSFLASH: From the Linden blog: "Effective immediately, the supply of cheap First Land parcels by Linden Lab will cease. Premium accounts will still be able to own up to 512m of land as part of their Premium membership package as they do now, the only change is that we will not be supplying the discounted parcels as we have done in the past...You may ask what, without First Land, is the value of a Premium account? Well consider that the L$1200 stipend per month (around USD$4.50) plus 512m free tier per month (around USD$5.00) means that the monthly premium account essentially pays for itself." Remember - you heard it here second!