Cheyenne, Meet Dakota

Chey and Dakota

Left to Right: Dakota, Cheyenne, Veronica

Written 21 August, 20007

Cheyenne, Meet Dakota

I’m certain I wrote about running two Second Life viewers some months ago, but it’s worth, I think, revisiting.

What do you think, Dakota?

Huh? What did you say, Cheyenne? I was wondering if I needed more black polish on my nails.

Yep, I’d say you do. Looks like you’ve been biting them.

If you had only $38 L in your account, you’d be biting your nails, too.

I told you, I moved the money to my account so you could test that free vendor system.

So you say. When do I get it back?

When you test that vendor system.

Oh, I don’t WANT to test it!

But I want you to!

Well, who died and left you in charge? You’re not the boss of me!

Am too!

Am not!

Am—I’m not going to argue with you, Dakota.

But you ARE arguing with me!

I guess I am. Tell you what—I’ll give you a thousand lindens if you test the vendors for me. Then you can buy all the banded stockings and blue hair and lip piercings you want.

I keep telling you, I have no piercings and no tattoos. My body is a temple.

Well, you look like you should have piercings. And your ears are pierced, I know.

Well, yeah, but not my navel or nipples or labia—can I say labia in this blog?

You just did.

Not them either. And this skin HAS them. I know. I’ve looked. I’m really good with camera control.

Yeah, I know. And I taught you everything you know.

So you did. Thanks, Mom.

Don’t call me Mom! I’m not your mother!

Hehehehe.

Dakota, I brought you here for a reason.

You brought me here? YOU brought me here? I thought I came here on my own.

Yeah, you did. But I asked our human to rez you.

Jeez, look at her on the webcam, Chey!

Yeah, scary, isn’t it? Hey, you! Get up and take a break! Walk around or take a nap! You clearly need time away from the monitor! We can get by just fine here without you!

Yeah, we don’t need her. Did she go?

Yeah. I think so, Dakota.

Good. Gives us some privacy.

It bugs me she can look in my inventory.

Yeah. Me too. I have some confidential stuff in there.

Me too. You—what, Dakota? Confidential stuff?

Yeah, things she doesn’t even know about.

Oh, my!

Yeah, like my diary. I write down my innermost thoughts and dreams.

You do? Can I see?

Nope. Not until you put the money back in my account.

Awww? Puh-leaze?

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I found out a while back that it’s possible to run multiple instances of the Second Life client on one computer. It’s resource-intensive, but it can be done.

This means you can have your primary avatar and an alt on screen in the same space at the same time.

It’s a bit of a mind-f--

Better not say it.

IM: Dakota Burn: Awww!

I’ve even had three avs on screen at the same time—Cheyenne, Dakota, and a super-secret in-case-I-want-to-run-away-from-my-second-life avatar only a couple of people know about. I made her during a rough patch following the death of my mother. I got her set up with good skin and hair and a basic wardrobe and a Mystitool and then left her hanging. Maybe I’ll give her as a gift to someone, or sell her on eBay:

For sale, one drop-dead gorgeous female Second Life avatar with Polynesian and Sound of Music Nordic skins. Basic hair and wardrobe, gadgets, Mystitool, animation override, emoter. Empty Friends and Groups folder and ready to go. Turn her into a supermodel or a high-class hooker or a sex slave on Gor or marry her to a rich man or woman. Only $99 US.

I’m sure it’s against the Terms of Service, so please don’t tell the Lindens I even brought it up.

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It can be amusing to have more than one av on the screen at the same time. Dakota is openly me, but a lot of alts play it close to the chest. We don’t really know who the alts are, do we? Maybe that cute couple next door and their five-year-old adopted avatar girl are all one person. Yeah, I know you’ve seen Mommy and Daddy on Devotion and Resolution 3. Think about it! One person!

So, how do you run more than one copy of SL?

Yeah, I know you’re just dying to take yourself on a date. Maybe even marry. Hell, you might even work up to meeting yourself in Real Life! The possibilities are limitless!

Okay, so, in Windows XP, make a shortcut for Second Life. (Just make a copy of the shortcut you use to open the SL viewer).

Now, on the properties line, type –multiple.

Run that shortcut when you might want to rez your alt(s).

There you go!

Nowadays I place one copy of the viewer on my main screen and the other on my second monitor. When I had only one monitor, I found it easiest to split my screen so one viewer covered the top portion of my screen and the other viewer the bottom portion. You can also keep both windows full screen and toggle between them from the task bar.

Go wild!

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Having said all this, I must confess to not having rezzed my alt lately. That’s because after I put in the new video card the second viewer was laggy beyond belief. But now I’ve put the second viewer on Core 2 and Dakota and Chey can, as you saw above, co-exist.