As well, I must admit, since it's so much like my FL work, I kind of lost enthusiasm for yet more programming.
A short while ago, however, I noticed Patrice's notecard dispenser, which she has outside her terraforming office. Anyone who uses the posted landmark and drops by the office can click on the notecard dispenser and get information on the services Patrice offers. I have noticed that people also teleport to my office when I'm not there. I figured it was long past due to give them something more than a stained glass window to look at. I was missing potential business opportunities.You can buy notecard dispensers, but I figured it couldn't be a very complicated thing to program. Turns out it's dead simple. I even added a feature. When someone touches the ball, not only does the person receive a notecard, but I receive a notice of who took the notecard. Cool and useful. Don't worry, I won't be tracking anyone down to badger them about setting up an appointment! For informational purposes only. I made my alt useful as well, as a tester. Sometimes a script will work for the owner but not for others, so alt-boy verified that he could receive notecards as well.
The other night, I was working at the Activ8 club as a dancer for the evening (yeah, I signed on to model, but there hasn't been any modelling work since the tattoo shoot). Not everything is yet set up at the club, and there are no tip jars for hosts and dancers. Yaeh pulled out her own tip jar. I didn't have one. Whine whine. Illya, sweetheart that she is, gave me one. This shamed me into realizing that I could probably build my own quite easily.
A tip jar isn't quite as simple as a notecard dispenser, but it's not much more difficult. It requires a couple more functions, and again I added some features. If you left click on (touch) the jar, it provides instructions on how to make a payment. Help for newbies, should any of them actually have any money to tip. And if anyone sits on the jar, it boots them off. Can't have someone obscuring my tip jar! I also put in a more effusive thank-you message for particularly large tips. Again, alt-boy did the testing.
My latest project was spurred by reading about Chey's trouble with intruders. It's a script that finds all agents within 96 metres (maximum distance) and asks whether the agent should be ejected from the land. It's designed to give the land owner more time to ban the griefer. I don't know if it's faster than going straight to banning, but I think it probably is. This project is still in development.
These are all tiny projects. It's more difficult to design and implement larger projects, and I haven't figured out one to work on yet. However, this is a start, and I've finally done something more useful than determine the height of an avatar.
I might get distracted from further scripting by something I want to use the tip jar for—DJing. My friend ComradeX showed me the ropes, so now I need to rip a bunch of music onto my computer, where it does not currently live. Then maybe someone will let Véronique's Vault come to life. If that happens, don't expect any between-song patter. :)
3 comments:
Hi Michael. On the matter of royalties, it's kind of up to ASCAP, BMI, and similar organizations to track usage in order to calculate performance royalties. Considering the average audience size at a club in SL, I don't think we're talking any kind of serious royalties yet for spinning tunes. Here's some info from a site called "How stuff works."
LSL has eluded me - much the way building has - primarily because it's far, far too tempting to enjoy the content of others than to spend the time learning how to make my own.
However DJing is one thing I do want to figure out before 'The Man(TM)' gets his grubby hands into SL. I've my big ol' playlist of eclectic wonder that I would love to inflict upon... er... share with the world.
SL DJing would fall under the heading of 'internet radio', and as such would be subject to royalty payments of $0.008 per song, per listener (or roughly 3 lindens for every avatar that's in the room during a song play). So you can expect the royalty bill for a packed to the brim, lag-o-licious sim to be about 2000 Lindens an hour. So not exactly breaking the bank, but it would seriously eat away any tips that were earned.
Thanks, Mischief. I didn't know the actual assessment rate. I did some calculations assuming a two-hour gig at approximately four minutes per song and maybe 30 people in the room. I came up with a figure close to yours. The economy in SL is a bit skewed. :) But I think it's still up to ASCAP et al. to find you.
As for scripting, sometimes my inner geek asserts itself, and as Michael says, I want it my way (my tip jar looks uglier but works better). As for building, I never really enjoyed it that much until I starting doing houses. Again, that was probably similar to scripting -- much more fun to have a real project (my office, my photo studio) than just to play with prims.
And I still enjoy the beautiful, much primmier buildings that others make. But mine leaves prim room on a first land parcel. :)
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