(Because of the limited time to get to see this, I am cross-posting here from my other place: http://slreview.wordpress.com/ )

If you have never been to a Rezzable sim, you just don’t know what you’re missing. If you don’t move real fast, you’ll miss their Dinosaur sim permanently as it’s being destroyed at noon SLT today.

Unfortunately, Real Life pulls me away and I can’t be there. You see, in true Rezzable fashion, something’s amiss… the process is supposed to be somewhat of an event… of some sort. I really hope Naoki (definitely my better-half) can make it there in time to see what it is they plan and get lots of pictures

Rezzable is currently best known for their “Home of the Greenies” sim. A fascinating location that brings back fond memories of the wonderful Disney movie “Honey, I shrunk the kids” - and you’re one of the kids.

I don’t know how long the Dinosaur sim has been around.
I visited there a month or so ago and found it very interesting, but rather static, and persistently dark (as in night time.)

Either I didn’t hang around long enough then, or the fine folks at Rezzable have added something new. I don’t know which it is.

As I had remembered (almost too late) early this morning that the sim was being taken down, I zapped over there to get as many decent photos as possible. I hovered in the center, knowing the darkness and distance from my camera position would keep me relatively hidden in my photos (yes, I say photos, not screen captures, James Au.) ;-)

Suddenly, a bright, bright ‘orb’ or sphere surrounded me and weird green globs (particles) started emitting from it… and strange rays of light, all ruining my photography! I was being griefed! Then I noticed… I was the only one on the sim.

It took a bit, but I then realized, this effect was part of the build!
Holy leaping lizards, Batman! This is awesome!

It’s apparently the meteor that killed-off the dinos so long ago, coming in for a crash landing… or something. It was beautiful and stunning. That’s when I pulled my camera out for wider shots after trying to get at least one good shot of each dinosaur carcass… er… remains… whatever.

If you get the chance and you are reading this before 12:00 PM Second Life Time (SLT) - search places for Rezzable, scan the list for Dinosaur and get over there before it’s too late and the place is gone forever. Sorry, I had to hit RL before I even thought about grabbing a SLURL to post here. See all my photos in larger versions here.

Erepublik offers a real second life
Explain your business to my Mum.
'Erepublik.com is a massive online multiplayer social strategy game a mix between a social network and a strategy game set in virtual version of the real world. Yes, I know - my Mum doesn't get it either but my little brothers totally do.'"

The Drifting Thoughts vendor works perfectly, and the concept of left-clicking is not a complicated one. However, I've had one girl whose friend gave her a gift card telling me for two days that she was gypped because she paid the vendor out of pocket for a L$249 stocking set.

I passed her gift card to my alt and it worked perfectly. However, she got both her friend and boyfriend to say that they received no blue menu pop-ups when they left click, even though they can get blue pop-ups from other sources (such as the help coin to the right of the vendor).

Exasperated and sick of telling them that it wasn't possible for it to work for my alt and not for them, because my alt has tested the vendor again and again and has no special powers, I got fed up and gave the friend a refund for the card and paid the stupid bitch for the stockings. So she got them for free and will continue to be an idiot.

I just don't know what to do about these people... had I been able to show her what she did wrong and chalked it up to poor instruction on my part, it would have been no big deal, but she CLEARLY had to have been lying. Stupid just doesn't go that far.

I just don't get it. :/ What can you do in such a situation but shrug and give them their money back? Sigh. I'm pretty sure it was a case of buyer's remorse and she would rather lie about my vendor (causing me much stress) than tell me "I didn't like them and I want my money back". I'm sorry but I'm much more likely to give you a refund because you absolutely hated my product than I am if you try to swindle me.

• Supply the graphics--provide the quality and type of graphics you want the licensee to have.
• Exclusivity--exclusivity is always dependent on the negotiations.
• Jurisdiction--It is important that your licensee has some ties to the U.S. so you'll have an effective method to enforce rights.
• Tarnished brand--consider the environment in which the products are sold.
• Enforcement--the licensee should have a responsibility to the property owner to make the licensor aware of any infringement.
• Marking product--additional marking of the object's Second Life profile may be worthwhile.
• Royalty rates--a detailed conversation with your future licensee can establish an appropriate royalty rate.
• Payment reports--detailed reports should be provided and include information about any purchase, the name of the purchasing resident, the date and time of the purchase, and pricing."

Second Life Brings Infringement Risks and Licensing Opportunities, Top Trademark Expert Says: "-- Know your licensee.

There need to be more "games" like this in SL. I'm tempted to start dragging Ari into playing things like SLopoly or one of the others that's gotten so popular. :D Sure beats forcing him to get on Yahoo! games and stomp my ass at Literati or something. Still, when you're all alone, having a game-ish activity to keep yourself busy is great. So I am definitely pleased with the fishing rods in the Land of Hope Community Island.

I also put up a little extra something for those lovesick residents.

First off, a public apology to any and all on the Linden Lab SL blog who misunderstand or worse, misconstrue the intended meaning of my posts there. Yes I am in the communications business, but not in this context 0r the way you are reading right now, for example. rather, I do sound design, professional photography and video and I create advertising.

If the toilet in the restroom of a favorite restaurant is malfunctioning, do you go and loudly, publicly chew out the assistant cook? You know, rip him or her a whole new one, because of the problem and demand they stop creating new recipes and fix the damned toilet?

Like practically all small to large companies, restaurants require several people, each with different skill sets and job tasks. You wouldn't expect the bus person to cook up your t-bone steak, would you?

I was doing my weekly sort-through of my snapshot folder, in which I convert most of the images to optimized JPGs for the purpose of filing them into my Flickr account, and found the image I took of myself standing on the lot of that sim Ari posted about before. I was so in love with the parcel that I titled the snapshot "new home".

What a cretin.

Don't get me wrong... I think the way things are going to work out is much to the better, much more suitable. But it doesn't stop me from hating that guy for being a total fucking tool to us for no reason.

I think I'm still mad over it for the same reasons that it's hard not to argue with people online. You know better, but... ARGH!

So I downloaded the "Dazzle" version of the SL first look client today.

Trust me, do not bother with the 70+ MB install. I half-expected to try it and like it, but it's an eyesore. It's too flashy, everything is way too square, and it's too damn bright. Torley is a smart guy; I'm not sure if the exciting prospect of a new thing just blinded him to the obvious flaws in this design -- in essence the same thing that happens to me when I've worked on a drawing for hours and have lost my ability to see the mistakes until I flip it over -- but there are a lot of problems with this idea.

And yeah, though I know there are a ton of SL employees with different specialties, and that the introduction of this viewer skin doesn't automatically mean that Linden Lab is collectively huddled around for this Dazzle-movement while shirking more important duties. But they must know by now that this can only make it look as if LL isn't as concerned with fixing what is broken.

And as a side note, I am still not getting notices when someone buys something in my shop. That function dropped off about a week ago and now the transactions show up in my history, but I get no pop-ups. Simon told me the same thing is happening to him. What gives, and why has no one mentioned it in LL? It sounds like an easy break, easy fix. I have tried searching in the JIRA but either I'm using all the wrong keywords or everyone really hasn't noticed (surely not possible).

Binker and I are off to do my stupid homework.

Residential Land on Private Estates Suck.

So many - no almost all are so incredibly under-creative, overpriced and full of horrible builds. The mainland land-barons have shifted gears and are ruining the estate business, costing the regular Janes and Johns to spend more money and become increasingly more frustrated. Sometimes SL just totally sucks.

As for the land-barons: boneheads all, I say.

it used to be that if you wanted to buy a sim, search for someone selling one before buying a shiny new one from Linden Lab. The problem is all the amateurs trying to start or run (sloppy) estate empires are buying them all up and sucking the pool dry for those of us that just want a little sim we can call our own.

Now, obviously, (on the mainland) a few give the majority a bad name. However, with regard to private estates, it's the other way a round. The majority give the few a bad name. There are some reputable land-barons and land dealers. They do it for the enjoyment of flipping land and playing the real estate game, more for fun than profit. Awesome customer service and very personable. I salute you, you know who you are.

Unfortunately, the greedy land-barons, (estate-barons?) always trying to make a quick buck, have decided to follow suit with the Anshe Chung recipe. Buy a private estate, develop it, then rent or sell the land on it and a higher tier than what Linden Lab charges for mainland, covering their own tier costs and reaping profits in the process. Some of those profits might be a bit over the top, if you ask me. But, I digress.

Now, when I say land-barons, I'm not necessarily referring the the ones we've heard so much heartache about. But rather the amateurs looking to make that fast buck through the private estate (private island or region) business. In other words, the sim owners who buy a sim for the sole purpose to this end.

But before the cause, let me go over the result very quickly.
Here's how I reached my epiphany...

I am sim-hopping left and right and up and down for private estate land to buy or rent. Holy crappola!

I can't believe how many boring, uncreative, downright ugly private sims there are! Wow! Let's start with the fact that most are just big, flat, ugly squares in the middle of the ocean. Then, some will add 'canals' to separate the parcels. Can you say 'sand-waste' or 'sand-bar'?

Now let's add the fact that most are totally overpriced in weekly and monthly tiers. Then, let's add the fact that many that are already populated somewhat are loaded with horrible, laggy, unsightly builds. It's as though there isn't any management. Might as well just go get land on the mainland.

Anyway - this is what I discovered in my private estate land search... which is more of a scavenger hunt. if you own or know of a sim where a little loving care was put into its design, and reasonable tiers, please let me know. I am still in the market. For a time further anyway.

I've now decided screw it, I might as well buy a new sim and make it the way I want it to be.

Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let me turn to what started this search to begin with...

I own my own sim. it's a mixed residential/commercial sim. It's about 80% commercial and managing it goes well. Most days it is almost no, or very little lag, except when someone has an event. But that's tolerable and fair. In all a very pleasant place to be.

Well, there's really no need to have a 'home' in SL, so I didn't bother saving any space for myself there. I also bought the sim from someone else, and it was already established with residents, so redeveloping and designing the terraform the way I'd really like is out of the question. I simply can't do that to the residents that are already here.

I try to be honorable that way.

Besides, the sim supports itself in tier and I'm not out to make a profit. So I'm happy enough with it.

My better-half does have a place she rents through another 'Estate Management Company' - but we have decided it's much larger (in prims) than we really need and we'd like to cut down tier costs and reinvest the money elsewhere.

So I go land-shopping; sim-hopping.

I do manage to find a wonderful sim designed in a tropical style. The terraforming is very nicely done and the tier rates are reasonable. On top of that, it's a straight rental. L$1 to buy the land and pay the first week's tier fee - done. I'm thinking it's a great find.

This land requires membership in a group to use the 'public facilities', so I contact the sim owner, ask him to add me to the group along with my sweetheart. Later, he comes online and does so (we play offline ping-pong over a half-day, overnight).

He welcomes us and, later my better-half comes to see the place and falls in love with it. In my openness, I happen to mention to the sim owner what a wonderful place this is and I'm happy to be there because there isn't any room left on my own sim. He's offline again.

A few hours later... a sudden IM comes through: "You have been ejected from [insert name] group" - whoa! huh? What? No IM from the sim owner, no email, no contact whatsoever. Must be a mistake. I send an IM to the sim owner. No answer - but he's online.

Hmm, let me TP over there so I can find out what's going on... "You are banned from the region" WHAT?

I tell him "Why am I ejected from group and banned? I paid tier"
He finally responds after a long delay with "You have to ask?"
I told him of course I have to ask, I totally don't understand.

He claims that he will not "allow griefers and poachers to squat" on his sim.
I told him I wasn't either. I paid tier and I'm on the up and up. I'm not even sure he got that message at all because it wasn't long before I realized I was muted. (It sure would be nice if the IM system would at least let you know when you're muted.)

First, this guy is a complete idiot and amateur.
If you own a sim - I'd love to have you rent land from me. As long as you pay your tier, what difference does it make to me? I don't care. Besides, what's to keep you from creating an alt and renting from me anyway, round-abouting such a policy?

Second, this guy is not only an idiot, he's an idiot asshole. Refused to refund my money. I paid only a week in tier, so I wasn't too worried about it. What burned me more was the whole scenario. The sudden rudeness, ejecting and banning without so much as allowing me to at least explain why I wanted to rent the land from him. Eventually, he did refund the tier I paid, but only after I reported the incident and sent logs to a well known blogger about the issue, who loves to blog about these scenarios.

I thought 'cool - I get to be a subject on this lady's blog!' ...and I have to admit, I did chuckle about it.

Not only is this sim owner an amateur idiot asshole, but he's a totally childish amateur idiot asshole. Had he simply spent five minutes to allow me to explain why I wanted to rent his land even though I already have a sim, not only would he have a new tenant, but a positive vocal voice for referrals.

You see, I don't own a sim to make money and turn it into a business. I'm content with one (I keep my own store there - that's the whole reason for it) - so I'm not in competition with these knuckle-heads ( and respectable non-knuckle-heads alike) - so I would have gladly referred friends to his estates and really talked him up good.

But now, not only will he not get that good word-of-mouth (I'm sure he's sold the plot by now) - but now he'll get a bad wrap every time I even speak about a sim owner - any sim owner - under any context. His name and sim name and group name (yes the names) will be spat out like sour milk. (I won't mention any names here, because as it turns out, even though he's a complete amateur and childish asshole at the same time - he did eventually return my money - after arbitration with a third party. And, I'm really not a griefer. So it wouldn't really be justified to do so.)

Now I also have decided to compete. Directly against him. It's become a vendetta now. Buying sims left and right is not beyond my means. And running the one I have now, I have really good experience managing them and turning them to supporting themselves. And my current tenants will surely provide wonderful references and testimonials as to my management style. oh, and since I'm in the communication, promotional, entertainment business in Real Life, I know every dirty little secret in the book when it comes to direct competition.

So I will now begin my own estate company. Can't mention my intended name here, not yet... need to establish it first. And I'll model my sims in terraform design similarly to his, intentionally. As long as I do the RAW image files myself, there can be no complaints about Intellectual Property rights or copyright, because you can't reserve a concept.

So, look out, bonehead.
I'm coming, and you're in my sights.

As for my readers... I'll let you know when the first residential sim is ready. Come on over and take look. Since I'm happy if the sim simply supports itself in tier, I can guarantee I'll have among the lowest weekly and monthly tiers in SL.

hmmm... still contemplating on posting the IM log here. It's not against LL TOS to post that stuff outside Second Life. Or, maybe I'll just update later and plaster this idiot's name all over the place.

Nah... he's not worth the effort. And I'm not really like that. But, if you are shopping for estate residential land to buy or rent - and you want to know who this is so you can avoid him (or run to him, whatever) - IM me in world. I'll be happy to spit his name out like sour milk.

So, have you had any sucky landlord experiences in Second Life?
Tell me.
I'm curious as hell.

Phil, 48, hasn't had sex with his real-life wife, Sara, in more than a year. Their marriage has deteriorated into daily squabbles over raising their 9-year-old hyperactive son or whether to have Sara's recently widowed mother move in. Instead of trying to work this out with Sara, Phil has escaped to his computer. He spends hours online living his imaginary existence. Phil's avatar, Frank, is everything he's not -- young, muscular and great in bed. Frank never has a problem with his erection, and his lover never turns him down. He's become obsessed with his avatar love, Diane, a cocktail waitress with beautiful red hair and amazing legs. When he's not 'in the world,' he's thinking about it. . . . He's worried that this 'game' has gotten out of hand."

The Pitfalls Of Online Role-Playing Games -- Courant.com: "As graphic technology advances, virtual social interactions are blurring the lines between fantasy and reality. More people are so transfixed by the imaginary, they prefer it to their mundane existences.

From Tech Digest:

No, your eyes aren't kidding you. That really is the processor-shredding Second Life virtual world running on an iPhone. But how? And why is it so slow? Well, the answer is that it's a concept demo produced by mobile technology firm Comverse.

In a layman's nutshell, all the processing is being done NOT on the iPhone, on a central server. All that's being streamed to the iPhone is the visuals - essentially, a video feed of the Second Life environment. Then, when you tap the on-screen buttons to move, or type in a message, that's sent back up to the server for processing.

So, it's not a Second Life client on the iPhone - it's just streaming Safari-friendly video of your SL session, with you able to send your commands back in the other direction. That's why it's this sluggish at the moment, because you're one step removed.

There are a lot of reasons people choose not to use voice. But, there are those who tend to just start assuming things and they are likely miles off-target in most cases. What's worse is when they become insulting and rude about it. They can be really damaging emotionally to some people for no good reason.

They are part of that third camp. The one almost all griefers and newbies are part of.

It would explain why newbies tend to just mow-down others in crowded places without thinking about it, or have no qualms about asking the girls if they 'wanna play?' and just being overly obnoxious. It also explains the whole griefer mentality.

The common understanding is that there are two camps in places like Second Life: the immersionist and the augmentationist. (Controversial full essay about the concept here.)

But what about the third camp? What I would call the 'puppeteer'. Upon first entry into Second Life, I believe this is the 'persona' everyone will naturally assume at first blush, until they learn otherwise.

You see, the immersionist may be the serious role-player. Deeply entrenched into the fantasy world they choose to be a part of. And the augmentationist might simply see SL as an extension of themselves. And there also are those who actually mash-up the two in varying degrees. But what about that group who are almost, if not totally, emotionally disconnected from the 'fictional cartoon character' they drive and control on the screen?

Well, these are the people who simply cannot grasp the idea of attaching any emotion to their avatar (and that's all it is on screen: just an 'avatar' - not even a representation of a RL human) and consequently cannot understand any emotion tied to any other avatar. These are the ones who insult others without even really trying to. But they don't understand, there are times they could be really hurting someone in a far more profound way than they could possibly imagine.

Now, take the first two groups - immersionists and augmentationists and throw them into a room together. Mix in a few technologies. Oh! Let's start with voice...

Watch the sparks fly!
The immersionists would rather not use such a technology because it can ruin the immersion aspect of their experience. The augmentationist immediately assumes the immersionist (and possibly not realizing the immersionist is an immersionist to begin with) is hiding something.

If the person in question is female in SL, it is immediately assumed the Real Life half of this person is really a male or (on rarer occasions) vice-versa. All because she refuses to use a microphone and allow herself to be heard.

This is the most common accusation in this kind of scenario. However, I believe most augmentationists either really don't care or simply don't think much about it. The ones who seem to worry about most are the ones who tend to have at least one foot still in the puppeteer camp.

Now, let's throw the puppeteer into the mix.
The puppeteer also will usually fall into one of the other two camps by default. The difference is the world they see on screen is 100% synthetic and so are all its inhabitants. They tend to speak or do without thinking how it might affect other people. Why worry about what you say and to whom? These are only synthetic fictional characters, right? How can computer cartoons have any emotion or feelings?

And if the cartoon is a female, why would the person controlling that 'puppet' refuse to use voice? Unless... they want me to think they're female. Ahah! So that's it! You're really a DUDE! A dude playing a chick! EEEWWW GROSS! HAHAHA lulz.

Now... these puppeteers, who simply can't or won't choose to grasp the idea that the majority of people in SL actually do view their 'characters' on screen as some form of themselves, don't stop to think about the myriad of reasons why this character's 'operator' would choose not to use voice. Or a webcam. Or skype. or any other technology that could or would reveal their real life anything.

It simply does not occur to them that the immersionist who may be a faerie elf simply does not sound or look too much like such a fantasy creature in real life and would probably like to maintain the illusion represented on screen.

Or that the augmentationist has had a harrowing experience in real life in the past that turned scary for real reasons... identity theft, stalking by a stranger/estranged relative or spouse/or other reason and so on.

No, they automatically assume that because it is a known practice, (though far less often than people think, I believe,) everyone who refuses to use the microphone, (whether they have the voice feature turned on or off,) simply must be a "guy in girls skin" trying to pull the wool over everyone else's eyes.

To those people, I say there are likely real reasons. Legitimate ones beyond the immersionist frame of mind. Even beyond the basic security reasons. There really are people in SL who are legally deaf and probably feel the voice feature is pretty useless to them at this point. And yes, sure - anyone can claim to be deaf and there probably are more than a few. So what? More power to them.

Yes, there are guys in girl skin. So what? More power to them. I mean, is it your intention to reach through the internet and actually mesh lips in a real life passionate tongue-swapping blissful french-kiss with them? Sheesh, get over it. Unless you are actually intending to take any kind of relationship out of SL into RL, it doesn't matter. Just focus on what you see on your screen and go with the flow.

It's likely you've noticed SL is in the news a lot over the past couple years. In 2006 through the first part of 2007, it was over-hyped 'ZOMG SL IS AWESOME!' - then through most of 2007 it was completely the opposite. But, if you've been paying attention, there are a couple of human interest stories that flew-in low, under the radar.

They featured how Second Life is proving to be a huge benefit and rehabilitative boon for those with practically any handicap. I've known this long before any of the news agencies even thought of reporting it. And I've known it works. First-hand.

There is a girl I want to tell you about. I know this girl in person, an acquaintance in RL. She's been in SL almost as long as I have. I won't bother giving her name here because she doesn't know I'm using her as my example to get a point across.

She's more or less an augmentationist, with a little immersionism thrown in. She refuses to talk about RL to strangers, and even to those she knows well, she gives nothing of identifying content. She absolutely refuses to use her microphone and if you earn enough of her trust to get her to send you a picture, the best you'll likely get is one that is two or more years old. Never, ever anything current. Her most recent self-portrait that she keeps in her profile is even almost two years old.

In RL she doesn't have a lot of friends. Unfortunately, because she refuses to use the microphone, she tends to be somewhat of a loner in SL, too. You see, she is shy. She is shy because she is self-concious over what you cannot see or hear or feel about her. And if you ask, she likely will not say or explain.

In fact, it is stated in her profile: "In SL we all are beautiful and glamorous. In RL, I was beautiful just like you, once." Okay, it's pretty sad she feels this way. She's young, only in her 20's.

You see, she was involved in an auto accident a while ago. A terrible one and almost lost her life only hours after that profile picture was taken. Many reconstructive surgeries and hospital visits later, she still struggles with her loss (her father, my friend), what happened and the emotional trauma of it all.

I introduced her to SL while she was laid-up in the hospital, stuck in bed undergoing all the long and painful treatment back then. SL turned out then and to this day to be her escape from her "RL Hell" and has provided a way for she and I to stay loosely in touch with each other since then.

I recently chatted with her after a few months of not seeing her around. It turns out she had temporarily left SL. Her always flying so low under the radar, I noticed... but didn't really notice... and I know her in real life!

Among our other catching-up chit-chat, I asked her why she had left SL and for so long. It turns out that ever since voice has become so prevalent, she is constantly questioned why she isn't willing to use it when she has it active (typing instead of speaking with the microphone.) She chooses not to say.

Then, of course, she is immediately snickered-at, eyes-rolled-to and basically accused by insinuation that she is just another guy in girl's skin. She got tired of the insult accusations about why she refuses to use voice. I also asked her why she returned, even though I already knew the answer.

"Because in SL I am beautiful again. I am normal and people can see the real me inside without all the distraction," she said.

You see, my friend's daughter had massive injuries. Broken collar bone and shoulder, broken neck, her skull was badly fractured. She's been undergoing facial reconstructive surgery off and on since then. A long, painful process. This is why she simply refuses any picture be taken of her over the last couple years. She sees her entire life as being ruined... her real life, that is.

In the accident, her throat was crushed. Speaking is difficult and painful. And when she does speak, beside the slurring, the synthetic reconstructive elements surgeons inserted into her neck make her voice sound "like a monster" (her own words.) She refuses to take a current picture or to speak on the microphone "because they are distractions that keep people from seeing and getting to know the real me."

So, my whole point is this: Second Life is so much more to other people than it might be to you and for completely different reasons you may never have even fathomed. In this girl's case, it makes her "whole and beautiful and normal" again. Literally a second life. And I suspect this is true for a lot more people than you or I might think.

If you run into her, and decide not to learn more about her and quickly cast her off as a guy-in-girl-skin all because your litmus test is whether she is willing to use voice or not... it will be your loss. You're the one who will be missing out on the friendship of a wonderful, funny, beautiful person. And you, in your own shallowness, will simply become just another one who decided to judge a book by its cover and turn away from someone you'd really enjoy getting to know.

So, augmentationist, immersionist or even puppeteer: remember that everyone in SL is here for their own reasons. Some for simple fun, others for social reasons, others to simply experiment, explore, learn and so on. And though there are sometimes 'suspicious' reasons why so many choose to mention in their profiles that "SL and RL are and will always be separate" - and many reasons why someone might refuse to speak into a microphone, even if they have voice turned on, some of those reasons really are legitimate.

Such as immersionism. Being legally deaf. Or because it's simply easier to be mute, rather than dealing with the pain of hearing yourself.

Sometimes, they just want to be "beautiful and normal again."

The next time you see someone who isn't using voice, or perhaps has that little white dot over their head but always tends to use the keyboard and refuses to use the microphone... think outside the box for a change and remember... there are real reasons why this may be so. And you may not even be close as to guessing why.

Just don't even get me started on this nonsense.

I fear we're quickly on the path to getting the shit taxed out of us.

Remember that survey Linden Lab offered on voice-enabled features where they asked you about voice mail, a phone number where RL can dial into SL...to YOU. Or even the possibility of converting voice to text and vice-versa?

Looks like it's the Vodafone people. Now, I don't know this for sure, and it's just a snippet in a larger story. As soon as I get the chance, I'll head over to the Vodafone site and see if I can confirm this.

This is all that was mentioned in the article:

"Vodafone recently announced the beta launch of Vodafone Inside Out, a mobile platform created in conjunction with virtual environment Second Life, enabling subscribers to contact others Second Life avatars via real-world handsets."

So... Linden Lab releases a new Release Candidate (RC) viewer and shortly after, release a new WindLight updated viewer.

My creative side (and love is SL photography) has kept me in the WindLight viewer consistently since it's been available. The new WindLight viewer incorporates "most of the fixes" included in the most recent RC viewer.

Wow, at first I was a bit worried. I have a pretty hardcore machine, including cutting edge video board and so on. The new WindLight viewer at first blush just crawled. I went in world and everything was grey. Okay, I don't just mean grey - I mean ZERO textures in world. Nothing. Zip, zilch, nada. Wow. On top of that, my view of the world, usually an average of 25 to 25 frames per second dropped to 1 frame per second. Really. I'm serious. I timed it. Holy shitola.

Okay - so I went and downloaded the latest drivers for my graphic card (highly recommended for ATI boards, but I went and grabbed the latest nVidia just for kicks.) Installed updated drivers and everything was right as rain (in Seattle).

Umm... except for a couple of quirks: Voice is just 'on' by default.

The next quirk - and this one can be a doosey for accidental clicks: the "Release Keys" button (which is always on screen if you are wearing any scripted attachment that does or can animate you among other things) appears at the far left... where your Instant Message (IM) notification button appears. it seems these buttons are now dynamically left-aligned and shift as needed, based on priorities.

The big complaint here has to do with people being in the habit of just clicking the button that appears here, subconsciously thinking it's an IM. And, when doing so, the Animation Overrider (AO), submission collar, cuffs, rip-away clothing - whatever - comes popping off.

Wow. Totally uncool. Now, I don't blame the problem on Linden Lab. But I do blame the idea and act of making what turns out to be a radical change in the User Interface (UI) of the viewer. What the hell is that damned button needed for anymore anyway? A couple years ago - yes. But now?

Then a lesser annoyance is that active tabs in your communication window, such as IM, no longer continuously blink. Okay, that's an annoyance.

Except for the dumb move by Linden Lab to set-up the toolbar buttons that way they have (the "release keys" button ending up left-justified where it will get accidentally clicked-on more often than not) - I believe the others are simply unintended bug introduced with this update and i also have faith Linden Engineers will fix them.

But, understanding of all this aside, my gripe is with all the whiners on the SL Blog. Whiny crybabies that really need to get a clue and learn to deal with it or move on. The funny thing is that 80% of them are always the same ones!

Okay, a sampling of posting on the new WindLight announcement on te SL blog:

"skills Says: too bad latest nicholaz builds finally stopped working"

"Ponk Bing Says: I would like to be able to TP without relogging please."

"Jayme Llewellyn Says: This is just typical of Linden Labs pathetic customer performance. The constantly update all of the extras and details, yet completely overlook the key issues. Linden, if you are reading this, the issue is not with the windlight or any other extras - the problems are with the main grid and the central gaming/drive engine for SL!!! For crying out loud …. listen to your customers!!! And telling us that we need to update our video cards is just you guys saying that you’re too damn lazy to fix the problem. Essentially, you’re saying its our fault. I’m telling you, Lindens, if you carried on with the pathetic level of customer service in the real world …. you’d be shut down quick smart. Get your act together, fix the main grid/central gaming-drive engine and give us the sort of internet game we deserve. Not this crap we currently have."

"Selkit Diller Says:Good god. I downloaded and installed this debacle. Lindens– I have applauded you in past, and I have criticized you. This is one occasion where I will be doing the latter quite singularly..."
~ SNIP THE USELESS ~
"Entirely glad I still have 1.18.3 to fall back on. I am discontinuing the use of Windlight in the face of these current and continuing issues. Give us an off-switch for VWR-3101’s alpha culling behavior. I didn’t ask to be saddled with that, I don’t remember anyone asking specifically for it, and now we machinimatographers are stuck with it, without recourse."

"Broccoli Curry Says: Good so far, only a couple of things."
~ SNIP USELESS BULLSHIT ~
"2) Voice on by default - please no, no a thousand times NO. We all know voice was a huge failure that nobody uses, do you really need to try and make it look like we use it by the hundreds of people who won’t realise what the white dot is and how to turn it off?

"I’d love to see the stats for how many people have voice enabled, on any given day. My guess is about 6."

It's published every month. But that's right, you don't need to go and check, because you are a genius and know everything, even more than what Linden Lab knows, right? For the record, not only is voice not a failure, it's gaining in popularity since it's introduction. BUT, remember everyone like you were predicting the demise of SL because voice was being introduced. Are you scared of voice because you're a MESBIAN? Oh, and I guess music downloads on cell phones have been a failure, too. Everyone knows that, right?

Yes, Linden Lab shutdown all the virtual banks (well, the ones offering a return on investment, anyway,) unless there were licensed and registered and all that hogwash.

And, as the banks closed down or realigned themselves, the next big question had to do with all the virtual stock exchanges.

Personally, I don't see a need for a 'bank' inside SL. Neither do I see the need for a virtual stock exchange. But, a real-world back... that would handle the exchange of Lindens (L$) and real-world dollars... even manage a real world portfolio from within SL?

Food for thought?
The things that make you go 'hmmmm'

Take a peek here:
Virtual money: the next big thing in the payments market?: "... according to a report by Finextra, Danish online investment bank Saxo is establishing an office in Second Life and plans to offer residents the chance to manage real-life portfolios from within the virtual world. The bank says that it may also eventually create a market to trade the virtual Linden dollar against real-world currencies."

heheheh.
Woot!
(...still won't likely touch it, though) ;)

If you've been in SL for more than a couple weeks, you already know the nightmare they call "inventory". Whew! it adds-up real quick.

Unfortunately, the interface isn't the greatest in the world. It's okay if you (try to) keep things organized. But a nightmare when you go to clean things up or look for something that isn't where you thought it should be.

For example, wouldn't it be great to be able to simply search for "landmark" and have all your landmarks listed - so you can chuck them all away (especially the bazillions of duplicates that come from your favorite store every time you buy something)?

Over at "Living in the Metaverse is a great little post that gives some tips on cleaning out your inventory. Now, the premise of the post is to help 'stabilize' or 'better' the grid. I'm not all too sure how much it would help. But I do know it will help with your experience.

The first tip is as soon as you log-in - hit the recent items tab in your inventory window. This will force your viewer to index ("search") your inventory and speed things up when you need to do a quick browse.

Another thing to do that isn't mentioned in the article is you obtain an item storage box. There are many available (I even sell a simple one here) - but for the really nice, higher-end versions, look to "PixelTrix" in-world. Sorry, no SLURL as I'm in RL right now.

This is where you put your highly-valued items that you just don't use very much. Or copyable items you already have rezzed in-world, but would unlikely rezz more copies, such as a photo studio.

Take a look at the post. Take notes. Clean-up.

Let's Make The Grid Performing A Bit Better, Please - Living in the Metaverse: "Living in the Metaverse"

As reported by Reuters, (Eric Reuters in-world,) There was a Zogby poll about internet use by everyday, ordinary folks... like all of us.

The interesting part was the following question about virtual worlds. So, any mesbians (male les

Reuters/Second Life � Poll: Most adults don’t want fantasy avatars:

"Some people are now participating in virtual worlds such as Second Life. Let’s say you’re creating a virtual you in a virtual world. Would you dramatically alter the avatar’s physical appearance from your own?

Answer
Question: Respondents: Percent
I would dramatically alter my physical appearance: 527: 14.7%
Keep me similar but enhance my more masculine or more feminine appearances: 650: 18.1%
Keep me just about the same as I am: 1586: 44.2%
Not sure: 822: 22.9%
— — —
Total: 3585: 100.0%

The poll was taken between Jan. 21 and Jan. 23 and contains a statistical margin of error of /- 1.7 percent."