I Want to Play Second Life at Work

I work a job where all I do is order entry, have been here 3 years and it's always SOOO slow. I was very grateful to find Resident Forums! Is this what everyone does at work when they're bored, or is there a way I can play SL at work?

The computer I'm on doesn't have the right graphics card & I don't think I could get away with playing it on my laptop lol. Is there a cell phone out there that's fast enough to play SL? I have the older iPhone. I know there's an application for the iPhone that plays it, but I heard it's super slow.

LOL I think you kinda answered your own question there

You might try it anyway. My work computer technically doesn't meet the SL specs but it will operate, even if it's a bit laggier and crashes more frequently. What I find helpful is that I can log in while I'm at work, go to my land and organize inventory, unpack new purchases, or some other boring task without any issues whatsoever.

If you'd be content with just being able to chat, you could try AjaxLife.net. It's a non-graphical version of SL. You can see your inventory, you can "hear" the people around you, but you can't see them (although they can see you).

Yes, it can be surprising at times. I ran SL from work a few times when there was nobody else in the office and I was waiting for some terrible rubbish task to finish, and it worked perfectly successfully on a creaky office Dell that was too old even to come with a DVD drive.

Can you say unemployment line.
The network traffic on SL is so high that it always catches the attention of the IT department.

My network manager gave me the necessary permissions to install SL on my work computer, he also put a decent graphics card in it for me.

Plus, I got my line manager to agree in my last staff appraisal that learning LSL scripting should be one of my targets for this year.

Smug? Me! Surely not.

Some one posted my answer and I missed it. (so I deleted my response but not the post)

I got started in SL because my company plans to use it for conferences and training. I have SL loaded on my work computer but I don't use it from work.

"CX"

Thanks, HoneyBear! I tried that website & it kept saying "timed out" & won't let me log in. Either this computer completely sucks, or there are just too many people on right now. I'll keep trying though!

Syan: I tried downloading it a few months ago & it wouldn't work unfortunately. Maybe I'll try it again. I'll always uninstall it before I leave for the day though...don't want the boss to be like......what is Second Life & why is it installed on this computer??

Peach, it does do that sometimes. It's a little quirky.

Although as mentioned above, SL will show to your IT department rapidly due to the network traffic. I'd keep trying Ajaxlife and not run straight SL unless you have permission.

You can also run SL off a flash drive, instead of uninstall/reinstall every day, but again, will show to IT.

Now, if you don't have an IT dept...

/me nods.

Along with "how can I SL at work?" another important question is "how badly do I want to keep my job?"

"Although as mentioned above, SL will show to your IT department rapidly due to the network traffic. I'd keep trying Ajaxlife and not run straight SL unless you have permission."


Ajaxlife looks great! Does it spike network traffic? Will my IT guys be over at my desk later to ask me about what I was doing online at lunch today? I would never consider running SL while at work, but I read the forums often and would love to send IM's in-world when I see friends online during the day.

Lis

Is it really feasible to use SL on a cell phone, on that tiny a screen? I can see the messaging aspect , I guess if you need it, but to actually "Play" the game?

Nope, I don't have an IT Department. I work with one other person at a home office & he is my dad's best friend.

MEADE: I'm not worried about getting fired....my employment status isn't the topic & nobody should care whether I get fired or not.

HoneyBear...AjaxLife worked this time. It's pretty neat!

A couple of years ago when I had a Verizon cell phone I was able to use it as a modem and connect to the internet and run SL via thier high speed connection. I could use this any place where I could get a cell phone signal; on my boat, at work, or in the desert in southern Arizona.

The connection was to slow to explore satisfactorily, but I could build stuff just fine and had no problems interacting with people.

I don't know if this still works today.

Peach: Don't know if this will help you, but my PC at work is a total dinosaur. Windows 2000, unsupported graphics card, very little memory, etc (the whole bag of badness as far as state of the art goes). But what I found will work is to run one of the older viewers (think I use 19.2.1 at office -- not there now to check). If you don't mind some lag and some texture baking issues, it seems to work at least in a very basic function.

Edit: None of the RC's ever ran worth a hoot on my junky work computer so I gave up even trying.

You buncha luckies! I would be so dead like a duck if I tried that. I wouldn't even dare bring my laptop and plug it in while the boss was on vacation cause he'd keel me.

So in answer to the OP's question, yes, this is what I do. Just prowl the forums, and my boss is nice enough to let me get away with that. I'm sure he know's I'm doing it. He hasn't said so much, and I sure haven't offered this naughty little pasttime to him, but I'm pretty positive he's fully aware.

All I can say is that I've had no issues with my IT department over using Ajaxlife.

Now, I do want to emphasize here that I have no financial interest or ownership in Ajaxlife, other than being a user. However, and this is very important to note....Ajaxlife was written by a 16 year old girl in England. She keeps the program updated and hosts it herself....no corporate involvement. IF YOU'RE GOING TO USE AJAXLIFE.NET, PLEASE DONATE TO HER! Here is her blog page, with a Paypal donation button. I have personally donated about $50USD to her because I do use her program.

http://kathar.in/

yeah, IT wants to hog it all for Team Fortress & EVE online

hey..thx for the lead on Ajaxlife! XD lunchtime is not so boring anymore!

NP, don't forget to donate

There is also Sleek, which is another text only client. You can work on your inventory and chat, but not see anything, though others can see you. It's network traffic is not nearly so high as the regular SL client, but still pretty high when you first connect.. I use it sometimes to chat, or to clear my IM's up.

You can send IMs when you are not logged in. Go to www.zonkster.com - it does require a one-time inworld visit to a specific place to get a code for your avatar. I use it often to send messages.


Our IT has set up the firewall such that I cannot even acces the forums from work. I use GoToMyPc from work to get to my computer and read the forums that way. Trying to do SL that way performs way to badly.

oh ya...I tried Ajax and now just sampled SLEEK, with all performance issues aside since I havn't ran either much..SLEEK is more of what I'm looking for, appearance wise. It looks like a regular window and not much graphics. I prefer SLEEK. Thanks Lizz!

SLEEK is good if you can download things to your work computer. We can download, but not execute, so SLEEK didn't work for me.