Isolation

Look at this picture. It has been taken at Zindra, which is the assembly of "adult rated" continents, where Linden Lab themselves is the Estate Manager, another term for Zindra is "Adult Mainland".
The location i am showing, hosted at the moment where i took this picture 25 residents. And they are all not on the picture, obviously.
Because they are in a skybox.
I do not tell where i took the picture  I also do not tell what this place is about. Because instead of this place, i could have also picked out of 50 other locations. The thing i want to show is the same, on all of these: the "Point of interest" moves up high into the sky. And the ground level is deserted.
The land i am showing here, has been filled with residents until 8 months ago. And i am talking about the neighbors. They all had shops or meeting points.
And now, it is dead. Because the magnet that pulled the masses in, is gone into the sky. This is maybe not the only reason, but certainly a main reason.
And again, i do not blame these people for having moved into the sky with a skybox.

However, if everyone sits in a skybox, with high walls up, then soon everyone sits on an empty spot. This is much like the castles in medieval times. Everyone locked up behind thick walls, for their own comfort, and in fact by that being more vulnerable and less connected.

Side effects are, that it is almost impossible for me to find a reason to move to mainland, or to live there. Why? Because all my neighbors are hiding in the sky? What is the bonus there  Then i can get as well a private region, or rent a spot on a private region, and be there alone for myself as well.

What are your thoughts on this?

Shoe in the butt bug is back!

I dont really know how long it is that this bug was fixed... years.. long long ago.
Today, i saw it again! Oh sweet nostalgia...

After a TP, the shoe attachments land up in the butt. Randomly. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Random sidenotes

For a good start into the day, listen :)  The music is from Jamendo, one source for music under various licenses, many pieces there are for example free for use in machinimas.

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

An interesting view on Second Life from a former Linden you can read up here:

Tech Confessional: The Secrets Of Second Life

A former employee of Linden Labs, the creator of the virtual world, talks about walking in on users having (virtual) sex, being a Second Life celebrity, and why it was such an inspiring job. Also, furries! ->> read more

A good laugh i had on these news:

World of Warcraft cities hacked

Hackers have massacred all the virtual characters in some of online adventure game World of Warcraft's major cities. ->> read more

OMG - we will die.. all of us!

yes. sure, we will.. one day. not today tho, i guess. However, following the comments in some tech-blogs about Second Life, then LL has now done the worst thing they ever could do.. they changed the Jira....

Uhm.. wait.. the Jira.. what was that again?

Before the change, the Jira was a tool, where everyone could see any bug reported about Second Life (save the security flaws which could be used for exploits). So, if one ran into a problem, it was always a good step, to check first in the Jira, whether other people also ran into the same problem and if there was also a workaround.

An example how that works, can be found here: Jira Entry

You can see, someone is reporting a bug, and then others give comments to it.

Now, this tool is closed. The old reports are still visible as of yet, but new reports will only be visible to those who reported them and to Linden Lab. Not to the audience anymore. According to a lot of people  this is like the end of the world. Or for sure, at least another malicious move to seal the fate of Second Life. Or, if not malicious, then, it must have been again Rod who did not understand anything about how to talk to their users or clients.

I doubt that any of the above is true. The Lab does not reason out things, so one can only guess. And as many love to guess, or assume, now, my 2c on this matter as guess:

Some say the rude and impolite behavior of some users was too much for the support team to deal with.  And well, yes, customer service can be stress, if the customer thinks they can behave really bad and the response team has to be always polite. If you want to see yourself, what attitude some people use in the Jira, follow this link - and add in the "Query" field some bad words, like shit or fuck. You will be astonished, for sure.
However, i doubt that is a reason. Because, the people at the Lab are professionals. They get paid for doing their job, and they do their job. Much like any other employee too. Going emotional with them is just futile because, for them, working at the Jira, and fixing bugs, is a job like repairing a car. And yes, granted, working for "Linden Lab" and in "Second Life" has some more aura than being the car repair mechanic at Joe's Garage - for some. It highly always depends on what the individual wants. Just because you think the job at the Lab is like paradise does not mean, they have to share that opinion. Maybe they would as well work in Joe's Garage.

Now let us look at those 'reasons' like, they do not understand SL, they just break things, etc.
Not true, simple as that. Again, they do their job. And be honest to yourself, compare SL with other 3D environments. Which one is most stable and has most concurrent users and a working economy?
That is not "just so". That is because they run SL like a company project. If they really would not understand how to run a project, SL would have died already years ago. And just because they do not react to each and every wish we have, does not mean they ignore us.

In my guess, they closed the "Publicity" mainly for one reason: all competitors were able to see the issues with the software, like viewer and server, and compare to their own issues. The Jira was, as side effect, also a resource for those companies who want to compete with SL. Or, in other words, LL was feeding them knowledge for free. And i can understand, if this is not what an investor would like to see.
But, it is a guess, just my 2c. I have no idea about the real cause. To me, this makes more sense as reason tho.

More changes, RLV partly broken, forced attachments by LL

Two days ago i saw a post in the LL blog, which i thought "interesting", but then forgot about it again. Today i read groupnotes about "RLV is going to break in a major part if...". It is about the change of how items that are received, and how RLV can handle them - or not.
Both seem to be related to me, as they can provide similar functionality. So, let us look first into the "broken RLV function". As described in the JIRA entry, the change means, that if a viewer receives an object, this object goes to a new folder "received items". Always. Which catches all existing RLV supporting viewers off guard. And scripts, that make use of these viewers, will then eventually behave as if the item has not been received.
This means, if that change stays in place, that all RLV viewers need to be updated. Which requires the RLV developer teams, who work for no payment, but on their spare time, might throw in an extra shift, just for that. I can see, that they are not smiling.
However, there is also something new in the planning ,which one can see already now in the so called Linden Realms (which you can only enter with a premium account or as sim owner, as far as i know). If you have tried these out, you will have noticed "strange" things happening to your viewer:

• Teleports work 'just so' without having to click on something or to sit on something
• HUD attachments appear on your screen, without any question "do you want blablabla?"
• Nothing of that attachment is in your inventory.

You will find a video made by LL about this here. If you don't want to watch this video, here the key highlights at a glance:

1. Experience Permissions
   Unlike the nowadays usual permission system, that asks for each script its own permission setting, it sounds like there will be an option to set a list of permissions, that will span for a region and time, that the scripter intends. This permission can entail for example Teleport Agent, Attach, Control Camera, Take Controls, Trigger Animation, Track Camera. 
2. Teleport Agent
   This is meant to be a better option than the nowadays normally used teleport pads, which are in fact just moving prims. Today, if one wants to "teleport" from A to B within a sim, one gets a prim, that holds a script. Sitting on the prim, causes it to move, from A, to B. that is the "Teleport" and works only within the sim. Intraregion ports are not possible and require always stuff like "now the map will open and you need to click...". The teleport agent is a change to that.
3. Temporary Attachment
   this allows the scripter, to have items worn by the avatar that visits the region, but that item will not "pollute" the inventory.

These are previews, i have no clue when they are in place, but if you want to see them in action, see to find a Linden Realm today.

Full names are not coming back

The baked plan that was mentioned in the mysecondlife - page of Rodvik Linden turns out to be some slight change in the appearance of the name:
"

As I promised if we couldn’t figure out a way that was a win/win for folks who want complete freedom vs. a list of last names, we wouldn’t do it. We couldn’t, so we wont.


However what we will be doing is adding in at least one and maybe more special characters like a dash when you signup so you can make a more normal looking name. So you can have “horatio-nelson” for example, which is impossible now. Work will begin on this as it slots into the task list.


Secondly we will be taking steps to remove more places where the dreaded "resident" last name appears inworld. If you have any places where you see it often that we might have missed it would be good to hear."

 The whole discussion came up because of a JIRA-entry, and the decision, to not bring them back, caused, "of course" some frustration. Which i do not understand really. Because, what do i miss?

We have usernames. No one cares anymore whether you are JaneDoe12312 or JohnDoe1231 because, you can change your name any time you so wish to for example "Jane Doe" or "Mr. John Doe" or to "Mickey the Mouse" or to whatever you want.

I did not even know that this Jira entry existed. What do i miss? 

Are full names coming back?

As one can read in this link: https://my.secondlife.com/rodvik.linden/posts/4f285951be9e8f0001002204
 maybe lastnames will come back soon? The above link has an update in the middle of it which reads:
"

rodvik.linden 

heh, nope been very engaged on the issue. I will respond tomorrow in full. I have learnt a LOT about the naming issue why things were changed. It is a very polarizing issue and finding a win / win for those who love naming freedom to those who love the bonding nature of pre picked names has proven impossible to do well. However I do have one feature we can commit to and a discussion going forward about another way to skin the cat. Will update tomorrow in more depth."

Policy on Third-Party Viewers changed (TPV policy)

The policy has been changed on February 24, 2012. These points have been added:

2.a.iii : You must not provide any feature that circumvents any privacy protection option made available through a Linden Lab viewer or any Second Life service.

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

2.j : You must not include any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of the user in any messages sent to other viewers, except when explicitly elected by the user of your viewer.

2.k : You must not provide any feature that alters the shared experience of the virtual world in any way not provided by or accessible to users of the latest released Linden Lab viewer.

There is a MP3 with OZ Linden who answers questions about the meaning of the implementations. It runs 1 hour and ~45 minutes. The key points from the interview i wrote down here, but please, for detailed information, listen to the MP3:

In general, the MP3 starts with that it is not touching the existing viewers right now. But all updates to those.

For 2.i:

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

The "true online status" is one of those. There are also scripts using an LSL function which shows the online status of an avatar. This function will be altered and return "False" at all times where the request refers to someone not owning the script. This means: once it is fully in place, Paul can not see with an LSL script anymore, whether Peter is online, if Peter has set so in his privacy settings. Scripts who are allowing this to do at the moment, will always return "False" (Offline?) in the future. Advertising boards who show online status might be affected from this as well delivery systems that check online status before they deliver items.(In the interview at about 7:30)

There is no timeline for that. (at ~13:00)

The next bit discusses two aforementioned changes in one go:

2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user.

2.j : You must not include any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of the user in any messages sent to other viewers, except when explicitly elected by the user of your viewer.

One intend is to get rid of the viewer tags (~21:00) and after some short sidetracked discussion: "the reason is, that it is nobodies business what you are running" and further: the user is allowed still to tell what they are using, but the viewer should not do it for them. (~23:50)

Viewer tags can not be displayed in the future and the function to that is going to be broken by next week anyway.  New users have been harassed about what viewer they are running, which is not acceptable. That is the reason for this change.  (~25:00)

2.k : You must not provide any feature that alters the shared experience of the virtual world in any way not provided by or accessible to users of the latest released Linden Lab viewer.

As example to this change, the moderator referred to the "Emerald Multiple Attachment points" (for new SL residents: a feature that has been around two years ago and no longer exists.). When one has used these, the Avatar appeared correctly only to Emerald users, but not to other users. (~35:00)

This is not about providing different kind of presentation objects. Different render engines for example are fine to use. No change to control objects. Like how to move objects or interface changes. As long as all other users with different viewers see the same that you do, you provide the same shared experience, which is perfectly ok. You can not redefine, how objects in the world behave, without doing with LL. If parcel windlight did not already exist, this would have been a good  example of violating this rule. Viewers that can not interpret this parcel windlight, will see the parcel differently and that would be a violation. Parcel windlight is a great example of something that should be done, and should be done with "us" ((Linden Lab)) . LL made region windlight. You do not have to do anything about your parcel windlight yet. Until we provide a proper implementation of parcel windlight, accessible for all viewers. Once the official parcel windlight implementation is on, one has to change the parcel settings to that. Until then, one has a free pass. (~37:50)

Later on one of the guests says that the TPV have introduced new features to SL, that have been proposed to LL and have been declined. Oz Linden replies here, that the statement is correct, but one needs to consider that this has been past, with an entirely different management. An example of what is in progress that shows that the approach of LL to suggestions is the mesh deformer which is currently under development. (~45:00)

 The reason behind is, that LL observed confusion and fragmentation about the user experience. No one should have a different SL just because they use a different viewer. (~51:00)

If viewers are not actively maintained, they will sooner or later possibly break. But viewers that are now on the grid are not being banned because of these new rules. (~53:00)

Viewer 2.8x - the new features - fasten your seat belt!

I am currently on viewer version Second Life 2.8.1 (236154) , which is downloadable here under the chapter "Beta". Now, i am not sure if i really found all new things, but let me tell you those novelties, that i really liked:

Privacy settings for parcels
When you enter land, you see on the top bar the restrictions that apply, like "no build" or "no scripts". New now is the sign for privacy:

the eye with red circle

 It means, residents outside the parcel can not see any person inside the parcel - and vice versa. Chat on channel 0 (normal chat) is also blocked. This means for example, your private house is really private. Perving by cam  is past. Also listening as 'innocent bystander' outside the parcel is futile now.
To enable it, one needs viewer 2.8, the setting works then for any viewer.
How to enable it as land owner: go to "about land" and disable the checkbox that marks your parcel as "public" - so, the opposite then is "private":

Estate windlight settings
Phoenix user know this feature already, as  parcel description one can set up some keywords, and then all phoenix viewers woud interpret that and set up the light and water accordingly. Lindens took this thought and allow now, for the whole region (sim) to set up similar. The setting can only be done by Estate managers (Sim owners and their proxies) and can be seen by 2.8 Viewers.
How to set this up:
Go to Region/Estate, and there the tab "Environment":

I need to play with this one myself a bit more, as not all effects seem clear yet to me, especially in combination with the build-in windlight editor, but, a nice toy to set an atmosphere, for sure!

The Profile
it changed from its structure quite some, and has a feature, which i find quite interesting. One can leave notes in the profile of the other person, called "Feed".

Here i left a feed on my friends profile... interesting, i think.

These were some of the new features, i am sure there are more. But these wil lhave the most visible effect on the residents, in my opinion.

Body physics (aka bouncing boobs) in Viewer 2 of Second Life

In a beta version of their viewer, Linden Lab has introduced now to  a wider audience the idea of body physics. Phoenix-users know this already as breast physics, Linden Lab takes this idea further. So, todays blog entry will show, what you need to do for seeing it (yes, also men need to follow these steps then, so they can see the bounces) and for using it:

The beta with this option build in can be found here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Snowstorm_Project


once installed, if you are not familiar with the Viewer 2 options ,make sure at first, before you even log in, that your login screen has this:

Mode set to advanced - if it is in "Basic" change it!

After log in, everyone who wants to see bounces, needs to go to "Me -> Preferences -> Graphics"

Set Avatar Physics to "High"

This is what you need to do to see it. Now we proceed for what one has to do for using it:

Open your inventory on the right sidebar (the suitcase) and add a new item, a "clothes -> new physics"

Right click in a folder, new clothes, new physics

Afterwards wear the clothes item.

Right click - Wear

Then edit it:

Right click- edit

And enjoy!

Lots of options

As you can see above, the details of settings go way further than simple bouncing boobs. You can set how softer body parts, like breasts, belly and butt fall and swing, as you move, dance, sit, lie down, etc.

The idea here is, that clothes can now come also with an additional "physics layer", so that for example a bra in SL, now really supports the breasts and gives hold... this is a very nice step and an improvement for viewer 2.

I have seen,but not tried out yet, that Kirstens Viewer in an alpha stage offers the above options as well.. so i think, other Third Party Viewers going for V2, will follow closely and offer the same

Kirsten S21 Viewer

I am trying out since two days the above mentioned viewer...
It's focus seems to be on graphical effects, eyecandy...

It has a gazilion of options to tweak, and the results are often just breathtaking beautiful

Definitely worth a look for everyone who's computer is somewhat up to date...

Here, two screenshots, comparing the current Viewer 2.6 from Linden Labs with the current S21, as both are, out of the box, no tweaking of settings...

LL viewer

Kirsten's Viewer

Both images: click to enlarge

uh oh...

...well.. is this good or bad news?

Rumor: Microsoft wants Linden Labs