Emilin Nakamori’s Physical Machines

I was in Second Life Friday night when I got an IM from someone, an Emilin Nakamori, “Good evening :) I believe I may have a story that your newspaper may be interested in.” She told me she had made a machine in Second Life that moved without the need for scripts, “specifically, a weight-driven pendulum clock escapement (an escapement keeps the pendulum swinging).” Curious, I chatted with her for a few minutes via IM before heading to where she told me she was, in the sandbox in the Whitmyre sim.

What she told me sounded familiar, and it was. I had met her at her exhibit during SL5B at her exhibit just across the path from the newspaper’s (Events June 27). Meeting her again, I came across a dark-haired lady wearing a Victorian dress with a necktie and Steampunk-style glasses on her head. We greeted one another, her having added a laptop with a Victorian look to her typing animation. Bringing up our last encounter, she told me, ”Oh, the gear demonstrator I had at the SL5B was driven by a script; the excapement is entirely mechanical. I had to set up a pendulum and time its movement to find the proper length here. I apparently got it wrong nonetheless; Sidewinder Linden said I probably didn't make allowances for time dilation :P ... It’s performance is unfortunately erratic; Sidewinder Linden could not offer a possible reason, but, as the saying goes, ‘The wonder of a dancing bear is not how gracefully it dances, but that it dances at all.’ ;) “

She then rezzed the pendulum machine, which slowly went in motion, “Theoretically, that pendulum should have a period of 6 seconds; the mechanism pushes it into a faster period, however.” She had been working on it since late June, and still had to have it assisted by a script. She rezzed another machine, “That is the mechanical clock movement I have worked up; I need to find a constant supply of power to mate the escapement to the movement to have a complete mechanical clock.” She had heard of sailboat races driven by simulated wind in the sims, and wondered it that could be a possible power source, “if the SL ‘wind’ can move a sailboat, why not a windmill?”

Emilin went on, “I have been considering a ‘waterwheel’, which uses temporary physical prims as weights on one side of a wheel. I have a proof-of-concept...” She then rezzed a wheel and ball-dropper that dropped metallic balls on the wheel’s cups, spinning it, “As you can see, there is inertia, but it dies out very quickly.”

I asked Emilin, “Has the changing of the Second Life viewer altered the performance of your machines, as it does some AOs?” She told me, “Not that I know of. I believe Havoc 4 was a much greater factor; several people told me at the SL5B that they had tried working with gears, but they were too unstable to hold together long enough to function.”

She then mentioned another physical machine that had been well received by others, and rezzed what she called a Physical Chain Demonstrator Base, “You click on the rotating arm to start or stop its rotation. If you change the orientation of the base, the script malfunctions.” Commenting at one point, “Unfortunately, I am no scriptor; that is why I got into physical machines ... Perhaps I should have gotten fascinated by something that isn't too ephemeral to sell ;) ... Sooner (usually, alas) or later all of these machines break, even if not left running. The important thing, to me, about these machines is that they interact with the SL environment AS AN ENVIRONMENT, not as a computer program, as a script does.”

Going on, “Designing these machines is a constant juggling of a need for precision and having to allow enough space for collision avoidance, with a bit more thrown in to allow for lag. These machines use server physics time; put a few of the chain demonstrators in a sim and start them up all at once and it would probably crash the sim ;) The first version of the clock movement used 10.1ms physics time; I reduced the gear count and it fell to 5.6ms.” The then noticed one of the machines had stopped, “Foo. The clock's already broken :/ “

Emilin then mentioned, “Desmond Shang, founder of Caledon, decided he wanted me to build him a steam engine, so I made him one.” She then rezzed a piston steam engine about 25 - 30 ft high with the name “Desmond’s Folly,” “He liked the name, anyway; he decided it was too small... “ “So he wanted a more massive engine?” I asked. “Yes.” She then brought out a giant of a machine that must’ve been over a hundred feet tall, “He told me to throw it back and bring me its pappy.” “Whoah! Or the Mother of All SLengines.” I commented. Emilin grinned, “Oh, this is probably one of the largest objects ever made in SL that consists of linked parts.” I saw one of it’s two cylinders fly off, taken off my Emilin, “It DOES work better as a single-cylinder, although once it ran for about 45 minutes :)” “Well, the biggest engine like this that I've seen .... yes, I saw the second one coming apart.” “I ran into the limits of how distant parts can be and still be linked.”

At this point a Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia walked up, “Still working on it, Emilin, or just showing it off?” “Showing this one off. Its successor is too large to move; I am going to try Rez-Foo. It has a 55m diameter piston...” “Wow! That's crazy! Where did you put it?” “3km over Saint Kitt Islands ... It's not open to the public as yet.” She then rezzed a picture of another engine, a single piston one. But the one clue to it’s *massive* size was standing on it’s wheel, “See the little black speck on the flywheel? It is I ;) ” She told is it was, “Somewhere around 100m tall; its base is 100m square. It would JUST BARELY fit into this sandbox ... Actually, it would have to be taller than 100m; the trapezoidal supports are 60m tall, on a base that is 8m thick. So it must be over 150m tall. A small skyscraper.”

Bubblesort asked if a train could be made. Emilin answered, “That is what Desmond Shang wants to do, eventually; he has someone working on scripted physical ‘steam molecules’ that would expand and contract at a set rhythm in the cylinders to push against the piston; it would have to be a multicylinder engine, though, as a flywheel is essential to keep a one-cylinder engine going past dead center, and with inertia as damped as it is in SL, a flywheel is really just a decoration.” “Could it be done without making steam like that?” “Oh, certainly; these engines here are spun by a rotation script, with the pistons and tie rods moving strictly by physics.”

Bubblesort soon left, and Emilin turned back to me, “The big engine is still going, as a single cylinder. ;) Half an hour, now.” She then told, “The main reason I would like your paper to feature this is so others can find out about it and hopefully work on it themselves; I started a group, Virtual Mechanics, for interested people. I am hoping there are people out there who will take the idea and hit the ground running with it ;) Well, the really big one is under development (basically, it doesn't work, and may never do so), but the one here has been shown to the public. ;) “

“But really,” she looked back at the first machine, “I think the escapement is the important thing, as it does not use scripts at all, yet functions.”

I thanked her, then noticed she had changed the title over her name to “Madgirl.” Being a reader of online comics, I asked her if she was a reader of “Girl Genius” by Phil Foglio. She smiled, and after talking a little about the comic, she gave me a replica of the Heterodyne trilobite emblem.

It was then that the two of us parted ways, presumably the maker of these physical machines, part science and part work of art, going back to business.

Bixyl Shuftan

*  *  *  *  *

This remains a favorite article of mine of my SL Newspaper days as I hadn't seen anything like Emilin's monster machines before, or since. She was clearly one who sought to see how far she could push the limits.  I never did come across her again, but did hear she was the Winner of the June 2011 UWA 3D Art Challenge. Whereever she is now, no doubt she's staying busy.

SL5B Further Journeys

Going back onto the Second Life Fifth Birthday exhibits, I had heard about the Rezzable Greenies exhibit, so I went over to check it out. Teleporting over, I found myself next to a barbecue area of one of the little green men roasting something over a fire. Nearby is a stand with a robot next to it, where one can pick up a free robot of his or her own. From the campfire some stones lead to a huge birthday cake, which a Greenie UFO crashed it, the same cake featured on the “We’re Turning Five” celebration picture on their website. Not far from that is a large Greenies statue in front of a small public gathering area. According to the rezzable.com website, it’s a “Church of Greenies,” the site of some celebrations during the first week of the two week event.

Just across the road was a Tiny exhibit by Raglan Shire. Inviting visitors to “take a walk on the tiny side,” a few free tiny avatars and items for them were available. Further exhibits showed scenes of Winterfest, the “Tiny Olympics” (July 12 2008), a Tiny Science-Fiction area, and other places. Nearby was also a Tiny airport with free airplanes. The Japanese tinies had their own exhibit next door with some free items.

Not far away to the west was the “Furry Pride” exhibit, presumably from Northstar as when I clicked on a replica of the 50 foot huskygirl macro avie, which sported a short-skirted schoolgirl dress, I got a notecard with some information about them and a landmark to Northstar Islands. Behind the macro is a “Megastompolis City” game in which two players act like movie monsters on a city block, seeing who can smash the most buildings. In front of the macro is a building with a bulletin board one can post pictures on.

I heard about a place called “Down the Rabbit Hole,” so I went over there. It was little more than a hole and a sign. Going down, I was confronted with scenes from out of “Alice in Wonderland.” Clicking on “Drink Me” teleported me to one room, and in there “Eat Me” sent me into a normal looking bar, of which the door led back outside.

I also checked out the Caledon exhibit. The place featured a town in Victorian style architecture, next to a small woodland. Flying overhead was a steampunk zeppelin, pouring out smoke. Going inside the buildings, there were a few humorous pictures, and a free cottage.

These are just a few of the exhibits in SL5B, so go over and see them for yourself.

Bixyl Shuftan

Going through the SL5B Exhibits

It's not every day SL has a birthday celebration, so I thought looking around at the exhibits might be nice. And where to start? My newspaper's own was as good a place as any. Modeled after our red newspaper box, it stood out from the others. Inside, one could see on the media screen what was on the front page, which on Monday was my cartoon for the day. Heh. The following day, it was even taller, with the nameplates of various reporters along up the winding path.

But there was much more than our own. Just across the sidewalk was a series of gears, a "gear train." The lady there, Emilin Nakamoi, explained this was a mechanical engine that turned not by scripts, but by the motion of the gear on one end, "This machine works with the SL environment as an environment, instead of as a computer program as scripts do." The problem was, in places with a number of people and lag, it often had trouble.

Walking along, I found others by various sponsors, Alcoholics Anonymous was here as was another group for autism. I found a Florida exhibit that looked nice, with the various critters around. The Red Mesa exhibit also stood out with it's rocky hills and Native American object designs.

As I was going on, I got in contact with my friend Kanashi, and hearing where I was she asked for a teleport. I wondered what was up when it was taking a while to rez, then I saw her appear, as a fifty foot macro. We walked for a while longer, then she spotted an exhibit that was also a dance area for an elven group, Elf Circle. Walking over, her huge stature made our winged friends look more elven than ever, indirectly adding to the element of the place. Her size made her unable to dance with that low ceiling, so she just sat down as the elvenfolk greeted her, or tickled her outstretched feet. It was clearly a friendly meeting.

"Come back again. We elves are notorious dancers."

Bixyl Shuftan

SL5B opens with speeches from Phillip Linden and M

Philip Linden opened the birthday celebrations with a speech that reflected on his amazement at how much secondlife has grown:

"I feel I have lived a lifetime in that 5 years, it feels almost like 50 years"

He also surprisingly addressed the problems surrounding the celebration itself:
"I know there has been tension, protest and stress around this event and I think its great, its emblematic of what secondlife is all about and why it's special. To attempt to make a celebration of what secondlife is about is bound to fail"

I wonder if those excluded think its 'great'?

He goes on to talk about the progress that has been made on the grid itself and notes that Linden Lab are 'working hard on stability' thats it is a 'big focus' for LL to work towards.

M(ark) Linden also touched on a tender subject that of IP rights:

"One of the fundamental elements is on IP rights. Its really really important that people who create great content are able to enjoy it and protect it, its one of the things philip put in place and which has underpinned the economy today."

But although he did mention the topic and admit that creative content is the backbone of the economy there were no answers as to how this was to be achieved or even if Linden Lab were doing anything about content theft.
There was a lot of corporate bolstering and obviously the speeches were tailored to boost that image but on the whole I felt the speeches were aimed at the residents without actually solving any of the present resident concerns, both speeches taken together did acknowledge those issues exist and let everyone know that Lindenn Lab have been listening and they are aware of the problems facing ordinary residents.
I can't say there was any reassurance that these issues would be fixed, just that the Lab is aware. To me that was a reassurance in itself an acknowledgement of the work they still need to do.
The speeches felt to me like a placification for those that have issues and concentrated on the creative content to be seen over the 20 sim exhibition.
There is some incredible content to be seen over there and I urge everyone to take the time to 'wade through the honey', as the lag has been labled, and have a look at what is now possible in Secondlife.
I hope there are some hair displays around too as M pointed out to Philip 'its been 4 years since his avatar was updated and although his hair is the best in SL it is also the oldest' showing perhaps the human side of the Lab. I wonder if some of the hair creators out there could send him some prim hair based on the newbie style he is wont to use.
M Linden himself has obviously been shopping and looks a good deal better than his newbie CEO pictures :)
Happy Birthday Secondlife

If you want to watch the entire speech see the blog HERE