Stainless Steam | A merchant's steampunk blog

Steam: The Hunt #6 – The Coffee Maid

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Villain Baroque

Now you will drink a coffee like you had none before. It is brewed with latest steam technology to capture the full aroma of every single bean in your cup.

Press the lever to the right side of the «Coffee Maid» and watch how the beans are grinded and the hot and steaming coffee pours into your cup.

Don’t keep it to yourself. Send a teleport to your friends and pour them a freshly brewed cup of coffee as well.

This marvel of our steam-powered age is on display at Ye Old Wharf and offers a free cup of coffe to everyone admiring it.

Well, it’s Hunting Season again. We are participating in »Steam: The Hunt« (running throught March 2012), the #1 Steampunk Hunt in Second Life. Our contribution to this hunt is the lovely «Coffee Maid».

I have lots of accessories from this hunt, both in housewares and in clothing and I plan on a wrap up post of some of them tomorrow. But I had to give this very cute little Coffee Maid its own billing.

It is animated, has sounds for its brewing cycles, gives a steamy cup of coffee to the person that has asked for it and talks politely.

( Quote: Chic Aeon at her blog »Chic at Phil’s Place«)

This product will be avialable to the public after the hunt has ended. Participate in the hunt and get it for FREE during March.

Happy Hunting

Villain Baroque

Categories: Hunt, News, Product, Review | Tags: Review | Leave a comment

Congratulation Wikipedia – New donation record

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Villain Baroque

It’s still a few days to go until January 15th when Wikipedia turns 11. Jimmy Wales just published on his blog that Wikipedia raised a new record in donations to continue their excellent work. Reason enough for an early congratulation.

I donated – did you donate as well?
It’s never to late to donate.

Wikipedia has become a constant source of knowledge for all of us and it needs our support to stay the largest collection of human knowledge that ever existed on this planet.

Wishing you a steampunky New Year 2012
Villain Baroque

Categories: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Postapocalyptic hunt for a good cause

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Villain Baroque

Stainless Steam Company and Zeitmesser Inc are participating in another hunt. The »Relay for Life« hunt starts on Dec. 1st and ends Dec. 31st. The hunt is for a good cause. If you don’t know »Relay for Life«, please check their website immediately. It has a postapocalyptic theme and there are two possible paths to follow as a hunter. You can einther choose the »human path«, this is the one where we are participating or the »mutant path«. What is the difference between the two paths? Well, your guess is as good as ours. Visit the hunt’s webpage for more enlightenment.

Here is the story that goes with our gift for the hunt: »The Last Flowers«

As you all know, a horrible event devasted our planet. Almost all the plants got extinguished and we spend our days beneath the earth hidden from the devasting storms that roam our once lovely planet.

Abandom all hope! No, don’t. Hope dies last. A few flowers and seeds survived the cataclysm and while our scientists try to harvest even more seeds from the remaining plants, some of the plants are given into the care of some very special citizens called Curators.

These people care for these last plants and display them to our people to raise hope in everyone. There is hope that someday in the far future the offspring of these plants will once again colorize our planet and make it a place of joy once more.

Kudos to our Curators who sacrifice their time for our all hope.

December of the 7th year after the cataclysm

Villain Baroque

First Scientist

Last Flowers Conservation Curatorium

As long as there are humans there will be hope or »Hope dies last«. A very becomming motto for a hunt that helps funding the fight against cancer.

The »Last flower« is a flower in a self-contained ecos-system behind glass. Located at the base of the apparatus is a counter that displays how many flowers are rezzed in-world. The flower dies if it stays un-rezzed (in your inventory) for more than 36 hours. All living flowers and the names of their curators are listed on the homepage of the Last Flower Conservation Curatorium.

After the hunt ends the flowers will be available to all residents of secondlife for a one-time donation of 148 L$ to »Relay for Life«. Just visit the Dispenser Station at Ye Olde Wharf in Second Life.

Categories: Charity, Hunt, Product | Tags: apocalyptic, charity, dark, hunt | Leave a comment

Steampunk XMAS cards (FREEBIE)

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Villain Baroque

The most wonderful time of the year is almost there. Time to think of some nice christmas cards to send to your friends. Not just any cards, buts some cards the Steampunk way. Based on some vintage Xmas card I prepared four cards for you to use in (almost) any private or commercial way you like. The only restriction being that you are not allowed to sell these textures as they are or offer them for download from any other site. You can use them to create virtual goods and sell those or you can send them as virtual postcards. No credits are required, if you are inclined to do so, link to this blog.

Visit my christmas store in Second Life and get them for FREE in-world. This way you save the money charged by Linden Lab for uploading textures.

Xmas Card: Family with robots in the snow

Xmas Card: Deckt the Hall with Cogs and Gears

Xmas Card: Your first Gear

Xmas Card: Santa lost his goggles

Download: VB Steampunk Xmas postcards (zipped)

Categories: Freebie | Tags: Christmas, Freebie, postcard, Xmas | Leave a comment

Torley dumped by Viewer Three – Lab hides evidence

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Villain Baroque

Where is Torley Linden?

Imagine my surprise when I read about the next generation of Linden Lab’s Viewer and checked the accompanying Video Tutorials. They were done by someone new. A very distant and neutral speaker with a robot avatar. Linden Lab, are you serious? Don’t you know that Torely is a brand on his own? He embodies the Lab for many of us, he brought us many inspiring and helpful tutorials and sometimes made even the hilarious – remember the introduction videos for viewer 2? – almost bearable.

Never will I forget the sounding of the bell at the beginning of his tutorials, a wake-up call for everyone dozing in front of his screen. During the last four years these tutorials gave me a lot of useful and not so useful information about almost everything concerning Second Life and even the not so useful ones where at least enjoying and amusing due to the incomparable performance of Torley.

Lab hides evidence – the usual suspects

Meanwhile the lab changed the links to the videos. Clicking the tutorial links starts the videos directly now while just a few days ago you landed on a separate page where you could comment on the videos. I guess too many of us offered their concern for the absence of Torley in the comments.

My first suspicion was that Torley became victim to Jack “The Ripper” Linden, who ripped us of our Open Sims – lest we forget. But the Virtual Ripper left the lab a few month prior. Hmh, I never found the time to wish him “Good riddance”. So who “dumped” Torley? The ghost in the machine? Viewer 3? The mighty demigods on the board of directors?

(continued after the break)

Categories: FYI, News, Rumblings | Tags: Torley | Leave a comment

Scientific American – Archive free through November

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Villain Baroque

One of the most influential magazines ever opens it’s archive for FREE through November 2011. Don’t miss this chance to browse through some older issues from the 19th and 20th century.

Now through November 30, 2011, you and your patrons will enjoy complimentary access to more than 75,000 articles from classic issues featured in the Scientific American 1845-1909 archive collection. This collection is a treasure trove that includes 65 years of scientific history, breakthroughs, inventions, and triumphs.

Many of those articles are almost pure “Steampunk”. Read such intersting stories as »Steam Ether, Air« (21 Aug 1852), »A New Jet-Propelled Steam Lifeboat« (16 Feb 1895), »The Ezekiel Airship« (12 Oct 1901), »An Acetylene Wireless Telephone Apparatus« (26 April 1902) or the »Improved Steam Printing Press« (10 Oct 1846).

Well, what olde Isaac Newton said is still true: “We are but dwarves standing on the shoulders of giants, but we can see further than they can.”

Have fun browsing through these inspiring issues while they are freely accessible.

Categories: FYI | 1 Comment

Rasputin’s Royal Oracle

Posted on October 23, 2011 by Villain Baroque

When Queen Victoria died in 1901 the evil russian monk Rasputin caught her last breath on the deathbed and fused it to a machine using advanced steamtechnology and occult arts.
The part of Victoria’s soul captured in her last breath was hence forward forced to utter dark prophecies to everyone touching “Rasputin’s Royal Oracle”.

Filled to the brim with dark effects it is a must have for every sinister villain with an affinity to steampunk and the occult. Kneel in front of the oracle and listen to the eerie voice of the dead queen uttering her dark words of wisdom.

As part of the Sinister Steampunk Hunt we offer this Oracle for free to the participating hunters. Hurry up to get your copy before November 30th when this hunt ends. After the hunt it will be on sale for 249 L$.

The Oracle is on display at Crowley’s Cabalistic Cabinet on sim Villain.

Categories: Hunt, Occult, Product | Tags: dark, hunt, occult, Oracle, spooky, Victoria | Leave a comment

Heightomator – Small or tall we measure all

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Villain Baroque

The latest product in our ever growing line of meters is the Heightometer. It measures the height of an avatar in Second Life. It’s beautifully textured and you have a choice between inches and centimeters.

It’s a nice attraction for your business or club as well. At least it attracts many visitors at Ye Olde Wharf who are curious what this piece of vintage technique does.

Place it on your parcel and every visitors who pays 1 L$ gets measured. The money is your’s of course. You may not get filthy rich this way but you can always check via your account how many people used it.

Buy it at Secondlife’s Marketplace

Categories: Product | Tags: automata, meter | Leave a comment

Another hunt: The Sinister Steampunk Hunt

Posted on September 18, 2011 by Villain Baroque

»Steam 5 – The Hunt« is still running and another Steampunk Hunt is soon to begin. »The Sininster Steampunk Hunt« is a new grid-wide hunt that will run from November 1st through November 30th. Seems as if Steampunk is »en vogue« at the moment at least in Second Life.

If you are interested to participate either as a merchant or as a hunter visit their blog and fill out the application. That’s what I did just a few minutes ago. »This is a hunt themed around the darker side of Steampunk, the Villains!« as they state on their blog. Since my name is Villain Baroque and my steampunk sim is named Villain I couldn’t resist this temptation. I will keep you informed about this hunt and some day soon I will tell you what new product I prepare for this hunt.

Categories: Event | Tags: dark, hunt | Leave a comment