Second Life Tools and Programs

This post is all about what I have used, am currently using, how it all works or doesn’t work with Second Life.

First, you should know that I have used various ways to connect to Second Life. I started with TextSL

www.textsl.org

and then found Max the Virtual Guide Dog and Max Voice

www.virtualguidedog.org

I found Metabolt

www.metabolt.net

Now, TextSL is buggy. For one thing, if anyone types while I try to type, I get knocked out of the input window. This makes keeping up during Trivia Night at Callahan’s a bit difficult and frustrating. But I can talk in a room to people, and if I am careful I can sit on chairs. I can even, with limited success, IM people or groups, if I know exactly who is talking and if it’s a individual IM or group one. Sadly, I have to figure this out by trial and error. I can teleport to regions–if I know the exact spelling. I can follow people as well, and mute them if I need to.

I can’t go through doors unless they are automatic and open on their own. I can’t touch objects or interact with my inventory. But for a while it worked; that was what there was, and I made it work.

Then I found the virtual guide dog. I prefer to think of it as an assistive device–an Orientation and Mobility device. It uses the standard SL viewer.

You get your object of choice, a dog, cane, or ring. You use a program called MAX Voice to read the chat window in SL so you know what’s going on. I can move around, tell who is in a room and how far away they are from me. If the doors are automatic I can move right through them with no problems.

I also get nice environmental sounds, for instance, a door opening and closing as I enter or leave. I can tell when someone is typing, I can listen to IMs and be fairly certain of what kind of IM it is. I can even listen to media if I get Talvin to help me set it up ahead of time. This is nice. In Callahan’s, for instance, there’s an 80s station that I like to listen to. Of course I could go onto the internet and open the web site and listen, but I like being able to have just the one program open and the ability to listen while I am doing various things–not just in Second Life, either.

I can’t interact with my inventory, touch objects, or teleport to a location unless I have a landmark in my bracelet. A landmark that I have to get Talvin to create and put into the bracelet. I also can’t sit on objects.

I tried Metabolt; it looks promising. If someone can work out JAWS scripts to have it read the chat, tell me where to type, interact with my inventory, interact with objects like chairs and things, I might consider switching to that.

Another advantage of Metabolt or TextSL is that I can use those two on my netbook. I can’t use Max the virtual Guide dog and the standard SL viewer on the netbook–wrong kind of graphics card. One of these days …