SunOS man pages: A womanwriter's Perspective

What people are saying

The feedback has been incredible. There have been phone calls, personal emails, and more than a few Sun employees have showed up in my office to inquire about my Second Life. The hits on my blog have skyrocketed.

While folks are fascinated with my involvement in Second Life and want to know more, the common thread is that no one can quite believe that I'm involved with it. I remind them that life is full of surprises.

Maybe I don't fit the profile. After all, in real life, I'm a long term writer in the SunOS man page group - and as much as I love the man pages, even I will agree that there is nothing sexy or leading edge about the documentation that I write. It's the most traditional of all Unix documentation, steeped in a format that hasn't changed much since the late 70s. Some complain that man pages haven't kept up with the times. Personally, I believe that the purpose of the man pages, which really can be likened to a dictionary or glossary of the Unix operating system, is to provide our users accurate and comprehensive information in a predictable and consistent format. That's what man pages are about and it would be a disservice to our users and their history to change them. Besides, if man pages changed much, I fear we'd have a major user revolt on our hands. In a fast-changing world, some things need to remain constant. man pages are one of them.

So anyway, here's this old line Unix man page writer dabbling in the virtual reality of Second Life. It is an odd contrast. And what folks seem most interested in learning from me is not how to use Second Life, but, rather what I think of this virtual world.

Getting started in Second Life

The logistics are daunting.

If you get involved in Second Life in a serious way, you have a whole, well, Second Life to manage.

And, while in real life you spend years developing a life, you have to work fast in Second Life to get your life up and running. Trust me, there isn't enough time in the day for me to apply the same standards in my real life to my Second Life. It's a real dilemma. I'm trying to adjust.

There are classes in Second Life to help you along. After you sign up for Second Life, you can take self-paced instruction on Orientation Island. So far, I've attended two of the four classes on Orientation Island.

Sun employees have access to Sun's Second Life curriculum: SL Basic 101, 102 and 103. So far, I've only taken the SL Basic 101 class, which I found to be particularly engaging and useful. Outside of class, the Sun instructors are generally available for help when and if you need it. This is particularly useful if you get lost or run into problems in Second Life. Earlier this week, I mistakenly removed myself from the Sun Microsystems group. Go figure. I did this while trying to detach my Sun Microsystems name tag. Removing myself from the group, I was unable to access the Sun islands. I felt lost and displaced. I couldn't teleport to my "home" location. It was awful. A few IMs to some Sun instructors later, and I was back in business. Thank you, Fiona and Kenneth.

Eventually, I plan on returning to Orientation Island to take the remainder of the classes there. In the meantime, I'm trying to find time in my real life to get to my Second Life to take SL Basic 102 and 103. Maybe later this week.

"What's in a name?"

In real life, I agree with Shakespeare.

But in my Second Life, I wondered. Second Life shakes up many of my real life assumptions, causing me to think in new and different ways. I'm usually all about analysis, but, for me, the jury is still out as to whether or not analysis is a good, necessary, or healthy exercise in the virtual world. Then again, I'm not convinced that it's even healthy to be playing in a virtual world ... but here I am ...

In my real life, of course, my parents named me. But here I was in Second Life, obsessing about what name I was going to have. It seemed absurd.

As a Sun employee, you can register in Second Life through the Sun web site. In this case, your first name needs to be a combination of your first and your last name, and your last name becomes "SunMicrosystems." Being the balanced individual that I am, I wasn't interested in existing in Second Life solely for the purpose of my employer, so I chose the option of registering as an individual and becoming part of the Sun Microsystems group.

If you register as an individual through Second Life, you can choose whatever first name you like (there are some rules regarding length, etc) and a last name from a predetermined list of Second Life last names. I struggled in thought for a few moments, but for whatever reason, just couldn't get excited about the creative possibilities. I finally settled on a Second Life name that I could "live with" ... live with in my Second Life, that is.

Already a few Sun Microsystems Second Life-ers have become my Second Life friends. I've also met a few non-Sun Second Life friends while poking around Orientation Island and Second Life in general. I've always been a social person and I have to say I've derived a certain level of comfort from acquiring friends in the virtual world. This part will not surprise any of my real life friends.

About that avatar

After obtaining my Second Life name, the next step was to choose my avatar.

It's now that my real life friends must be laughing. They tell me that this is the part they've been waiting for. It's curious to me that the subject of just what my avatar was going to look like has generated such interest.

In real life, I'm many things, but I'm not a fashion queen. In real life, with regard to clothes, I really am quite simple. My primary fall and winter fashion decisions revolve around jeans or corduroys with the various subcategories of color and in some instances straight leg vs. flare. Sometimes, my choices are furthered narrowed by the important delimiter of "what's clean." Tops are usually equally simple - what color tee shirt to pair with either a sweater or jacket. Shoes - I'm incredibly boring. In a nutshell, my clothes could be described as comfortable, functional, and practical.

I'm discriminating enough to know the value of a good hairstyle, but I have no interest in a style that requires special products or a regular maintenance effort. As if dressing myself in a fantasy world wasn't enough, picking a hair style scared me to death.

For these reasons, I approached the "Choosing an Avatar" task in Second Life, with great trepidation.

I was somewhat relieved to see six discrete choices of basic female avatars: Girl Next Door, City-Chic, Harajuka, Cybergoth, Furry, and Nightclub. At this stage, I just had to choose one of the avatars to be my basic avatar. Virtually every avatar feature is able to be changed, and I was told that I'd have the opportunity to do that later. I can't tell you the sense of relief that came from not being forced to pick out and edit every feature of my avatar.

I ruled out City-Chic, Harajuka, Cybergoth, and Nightclub immediately. They just weren't me. Furry was somewhat intriguing - she stood on two legs, and was a very happy cross between a bunny, chipmunk and raccoon. She looked friendly, fun, and welcoming. All good things. But, as cool as the idea seemed in the moment, I just couldn't see tripping through my Second Life as some kind of perky hybrid animal on two legs.

So I chose the "Girl Next Door" avatar, which some could say I remotely resemble - at least given the fact she wears jeans, a pink tee shirt, and athletic shoes. Her shoulder length hair didn't bother me, though her figure was rail thin and a much more like a Barbie doll than I am or would ever strive to be.

"And, in the end ..."

And, at the end of my Second Life day, I was just glad to have acquired a name that I could live with, an avatar that didn't embarrass me or compromise my basic principles, and a little more experience in the virtual world.

Back to reality, for now.