SpotOn3D or PutOff3D??

Well I know I can get things wrong, but...this is my first impressions of Veesome, the grid that has an economy, seemingly.....I would say the only competitor to InWorldz, but it isn't ....a competitor, that is.

I know that there aren't any rules as to how you build, maintain and design a grid, but if there were...this would be my first...

1) Don't make default skin and shapes NO MOD!!

It means that I am trapped as Ruth, or, in this case more like Barbie. Now I can take looking like I have a Bad Hair Day, I can just about put up with a Fake Tan Look, but the breast implants and the Vertically Challenged avi is not for me... she is a Ruth....

Now, IF I upgrade to Premium Membership at 3$ per month then I can maybe check out what skins are for sale on the marketplace, some of which maybe Mod....but searching gave me no results (mature pages), I guess I might be a sexually aroused pre-teen getting their rocks off on the Veesome marketplace, but this is so unlikely as to be laughable when Google will show anyone anything.....

Anyway, if I did chose to pay 3$ per month, then I could pay another 2$ or so to be non-Ruthed...but...

Do I want to??

Why would I??

Seems to me that paying upfront for an empty grid is not really something I'm gonna risk....and may be why they have cut their prices on land.

At 40US$ for 5000 prims that makes it about 500% more expensive per prim that InWorldz, tho still much cheaper than SL...well...everywhere is cheaper than SL.... but really...what are you gonna do with just 5000 prims...the place is gonna look crap. You can buy a sim with 15k prims, which would look better, now reduced to $60, but that's not cheap either....not compared to IWz.

Now, as a sweetener, you can apparently have your sim moved around the place from business district to whatever.... and it seems like you can get a Cloud Coverage deal whereby you can increase your Avi population for events, which sounds good.



I think it is the cloud thingy that has got Thoth interested for he has opened a club here... called Area54... (no gap, or you'll never find it...)

The thing is tho.... the first thing you need on a grid is the content creators, for free..... it's a must. ....and most of em won't wanna look like Barbie/Ruth...it'll annoy the bejesus out of em....

. ..so make the default avis MOD, PLEASE...

Anyway, not wishing to be unfair, I went back for a second time, I guess I hate to be beat....and I try not to be unfair.......anyway...searching thro 30 or so "default" Ruths....I eventually found one Male skin that was mod, and one female shape with huge breasts.....




....a gruesome meesome....



So, as I wasn't on Imprudence I punched in all the numbers and eventually looked more like me....a sort of VeeSome Meesome.. and immediately I felt better about life the universe and everything...


...even VeeSome...

I can be sooo impatient...

:))

Grid hopping...

Well, I often go and sit around in the coffee shop at InWorldz when I get bored with building and just need a chat..



and while I was there the other night I wondered if it is the best arrivals point in the Metaverse,...soo...I went and had a look...




OSGrid was kinda modern machine type styleee...




...and Reaction was a bit sparse and boring...




As I had never been to Jokaydia, but Thoth keeps inviting me, I though I would log on, registering first. Imprudence was a doddle to get to accept Jokaydia under its Grid manager button thingy... so off I zoomed..




I hated the idea of doing all those shape numbers that you have to do ...so I thought I would try the Import Shape thing I had heard about... it has to be a full perms shape, which I exported from Reaction to my hard drive...thus...




Then...back to Jokaydia where I imported...obviously... it was easy-peasy. ... but the default skin there isn't full perms which is a pain... but found one on the noob shelves..




...and hey presto! I started to look like myself on a Bad Hair Day...




Anyway, I found my way to the Hypergate on Pathlandia....after reading about this, the Hypergrid Adventurers Club......because this blog was gonna be about the Hypergrid, but obviously isn't.... which is OK...cos Maria has a very interesting blog about it here... far beyond my coding skills (which are zero), it is possible to turn any object into a Hypergate...... it just makes you realise how close we are to buzzing through Hypergates around the Metaverse....or, until then... Grid Hopping...

Now all I need is a reason to do it.

.....Oh, yes.....The Coffee Shop is by far the nicest arrival point I have seen so far..,

"Triple Expresso, please, I got a whole Metaverse to check out."

:)))

The Ultimate Viewer

It is has become pretty obvious recently that the Perfect Viewer is being developed whether we like it or not. The Display Names thingy is the latest in the line of seemingly pointless developments which, like a complicated cake mix will all bake out fine in the end...

...well, it does depend on your taste of course.

The Ideal Viewer from the current LL management perspective has the following features....

It allows banner adverts...

It promotes the use of Real Names alongside avatar names...

It allows you to Tweet and give Face from within SL...

It permits Marketplace shopping, and buying from sim owners...

It loads on a mobile phone..

Now, this may hack you all off enough to leave SL, but that's OK, because all white mice will be replaced by the Streaming Hoards of Millions. (yes, I was wrong, the Myth Of A 100 Million Users is not dead at all.)

Now, those that actually use Virtual Worlds have a slightly different set of priorities when it comes to developing the Perfect Viewer....but... those priorities are ONLY shared by Third Party Developers, the Lindens have their hearts set on the 100 Million scenario.... and cloud computing, (project "Skylight") for those too stupid to download a viewer.

I will certainly hang around to see what happens when the drunk fool in the pub, for example, stumbles via iPhone cursing and misspelling his or her way onto my chat list in the middle of a conversation I'm having. I declare war, as of now.

I don't really care that LL has this Display Names thing, I NEVER have names displayed, I'm odd like that, I figure I can wave my cursor over someone, use radar, look in chat, that gives me 3 possibilities of identifying who is there without having to read it over their heads in a way which would not be acceptable in a movie... but... I do hate being lied to very blatantly ....subtly is OK...it's called advertising, and I have got used to that over the years.

So...this quote has annoyed me a bit...

"Why is Linden Lab introducing the display name feature now?

Growing the SL Resident-base is a business objective that we're deeply committed to and we hope that you'll also benefit from that growth. We're also exploring ways to attract new Residents by making their registration and first-hour experiences in Second Life more compelling. We have long known that selecting a Second Life name is one of the biggest hurdles in the new Resident registration process; it is a common reason why potential new Residents abandon registration and it has consistently received very low ratings in new Resident surveys. The freedom to choose an avatar name in Second Life is something that many Residents have been wanting for a long time and it took some time to develop a feature that gave you as much flexibility as possible. This feature is an important step on our social media strategy that will ultimately allow you to connect your inworld identity to other social networks, on an opt-in basis. Again, Display names and eventually, the connection to social networks, is all about choice."

Well, excuse me, but that is a whopper of a lie.... and even if people were that stupid it does not account for all the people who manage this extremely difficult trauma of choosing a name, log on and never come back.

The lie is there to make you think that this is not part of their master plan to integrate real names and Facebook into the viewer for advertising income, which is, after all what this whole viewer thingy is about.

I don't think any one change in the viewer has been accompanied by 3 videos from the Smiling One, FAQs and pages of explanation. It makes everything more complicated, another layer of confusion for the noob (and oldbee) and another way for the griefer to escape before I have cut and pasted the name into the appropriate report. It has been developed with Facebook in mind, not the noob who can't decide on a name.

The "opt in" ..."it's all about choice"... is smoke and mirrors. It takes very little for this supposed freedom-to-choose to morph into an 'expected' or "normal" behaviour. This is how Consent is Manufactured. Those who refuse get marginalised and ridiculed over time, and eventually ejected from the group.

So What??

Well, so...nothing... it's their world, they will do what they like with it... if you don't like it, get out. They think they will manage well without you and me. They can buy in outside Content if all the creative people who want a viewer you can build with, leave.

...but... I believe Blue Mars has a basic flaw in allowing only the Elite to build, and that this flaw will passed on to SL if this is they choose to run this world. The flaw has to do with the amateur, and with Content by Committee.

The best content is supplied by the amateur, the worst by Committee.

That, for me is fact.

:))

Wizard Gynoid.

This is just a reminder for those of you who may not have remembered.....tonight is the opening of a retroperspective show....details here...

Turing Gallery | Wizard Gynoid, Four-Point Retroperspective
Oct. 20 - Dec. 1

Reception | October 27th 6pm SLT

Four-Point Retroperspective

"The creations shown here are a retrospective of some of the things I've been working on over the last three and a half years. Precise geometry is the unifying theme. My work has largely been about shifting these objects to an artistic context, so that their inherent beauty can be appreciated.

The lobby has several works by my collaborator Polagirus Paragorn. These works are significant from a "Sacred Geometry" perspective, and are suggestive of the significance of the isometric grid. The "Flower of Life" motif is recurrent.

The next room has objects representative of the Kepler/Poinsot group of geometric solids. The Platonic Solids are represented, as well as various higher-dimensional (than three) objects."

http://core.extropiacore.net/

....for Wizzy and geometry fans... pop along and see...

:))

InWorldz, work in progress...

I thought it would be good to show a little 'taster' of what people are building in InWorldz. 652 regions, all being built, so this can be no more than a glimpse.... one which I hope to repeat as I see stuff I like.

The large number of content creators on the grid will of course mean a fast maturing of the built environment, especially when prims are so plentiful...







These are three snaps of a build by Sasha Bowie, which promises to be a very atmospheric build apparently inspired by The Fifth Element, one of my very favourite films.... so this is ground level...it has a subway too, waiting for nVidia Physx which is programmed for January, I hear.




Mouser is working on the Icefalls here on Terreract and I hope to help with the planting of the crystal islands... will be great fun...




Zauber has made a great start on his Isla Draconia which looks to be up to his usual high quality..




Skaldistaad Viking settlement .... I missed finding out who the creator is...




Juanita Deharo is experimenting with some amazing terrain textures high above soror Nishi Island...




Julianna Holmer, the well-know aeroplane maker is building quality stuff at London Core, also waiting for the PhysX




...and Elfhaven.... lots of elves, and it looks like a commission for me to plant up a shop....details to follow..

In other news..... Eshi Ottawa has popped in to Iwz and I understand that she will bring over some stuff to buy, according to Arabella Steadham. Arabella is also now blogging fashion in IWz.... here.....

.. so Ruth to Diva, no prob....

:))

Avatar Beauty Treatment

Wizzy, celeb Burn artist, flushed with success of her hot recent build, goes for all-over beauty treatment....






....skin therapy...


:)))

Inworldzers

Well, not every party is perfect, thats true....and there was a slight flaw on Sunday at the opening of Rainbow Country in Inworldz, my sim/shop....namely... the floor was soft and my guests fell 254 meters to the sea bed.... on several occasions.

Now, this would normally kill any party stone dead, a pile of submarine corpses...but...no....you can't stop an InWorldzer that easily...

I laid down 7 layers of plywood, and when that didnt work someone got out the Mediation cushions and we stood on those, well, those of us that hadn't devised their own particular plan...

See, most Inworldzers are builders, and the rest have a good sense of humour...so we managed well...







Now, some people had come over especially for my party, never having been on the grid before....and others who have only been in a few times before made a date with me and NOX tooons..... it was very heartening, I hadn't expected to see so many... (these are not all, but most of the party goers...)...one or two were burning temples or had probs getting in, but the place was hopping for a couple of hours.

Now, (and this is surely the point of a house warming) people know the way (LM) and will pop in to see me whenever they feel like it.

I had been visited by some of the Elf clan earlier in the day and they bought some trees to brighten up their elven forests... so business boomed on my first day..

....all in all....v cool...

:)))

Wizard Gynoid, sim breaker extraordinaire.

In the second of three burns Wizzy has given us the best burn ever seen I think... aided and abetted by Nur Ophuls she has just shown how to do it... properly...











Well, Crash and Burn is a great title for anything, like a piece of music, but this one was Burn and Crash...

Now, I've lost count of the number of sims Wizzy has crashed...but that's not her fault, well..it is a bit, but pushing the medium until it creaks and stretches is what artists do... so, clean that dust out of the servers Boys, she'll be at it again at 4pm SLT...

A MUST see.

:))

The Best of my Week.

Selavy Oh, an artist I have written about regularly, has once again taken art in Virtual Worlds to a new level. Her spherical topography at Magoo has her signature white cubes flocking or swarming like organic life forms in a way unseen before inworld. Mab has once again sponsored a great piece of work.

The Best Burn is, without a doubt going to be Wizard Gynoid's Temple at Burn 2.0. With Nur Orphuls doing a massive 3500 scripts to make it all happen... the event will be repeated at.. noon, 8pm and 4 am SLT. I don't have the SLurl...check Miso's map.

The Best Land Idea thanks to Elenia of Inworldz....she has compiled a list of sims which have been abandoned in IWz, these you can take on if you want a sim, and save yourself 50US$ in fees, that is, you pay 25$ for renaming plus 75$ per month...great idea. Swap shop....here.... move fast to take advantage of this deal.

Best Thought for the Day has got to be Tateru's post about knowing when to quit, this for me is advice I would give to the Boys regarding Viewer 2, which I think could well be the undoing of SL ..

Best Future of the Avatar, scientific post, has to be this... from the WSJ.

Best Investigative Journalism... by Nightfire on women and SLex.... here.

The Best Story I have read this week is by Cubey, about Virtual Worlds, that is...

...and last but not least, the Best News for Artists is that UWA is, again, sponsoring with partners, a new art challenge....details here.

So, that should fill up those slow Sunday afternoons if you need something to do, and, of course, the Best Party is gonna be at Rainbow Country in InWorldz at 2pm with Nox rocking my sim, soror Nishi Island.

phew....coffee time....

:))

Inworldz update.

20165 users at the time of writing and 642 regions.

Inworldz..... Number Two Grid..... the figures become meaningless, so fast is the growth.

In April there were 130 regions...August 10,000 users, September 15,000, October 20,000.

....And, with recent changes to the code this level of growth is not stretching anything, it seems that "region restart requests are way down." according to Elenia.

This from TanquilityDexler...

"What the heck is WHIP2?

This is an InWorldz designed and built asset storage system to allow load balancing and scaling. The tag WHIP2 indicates that the revision being pushed out the grid is not only R398, but some later changes to allow simulators access to this new asset network. Our asset cluster will now be able to scale simply by adding new servers with some storage space. This makes future growth easy whereas with many other solutions a "scale up" approach would have to be used causing future downtime and limiting growth potential. To date our residents are using around 1tb of storage. This is really awesome but we know it'll grow much larger. This custom solution gives us excellent control over our future."

...and, I understand that as they now are the largest client, by a long chalk, of the company hosting their servers they are in a position to negotiate a very good maintenance contract.... it's all good.

And, I am very happy that Scotsgraymouser Janus, "Mouser" dragged me into IWz over a years ago now to build some trees for her Alchemy sim.... now, after a month of owning my own sim, I'm ready to open my shop.

It's called Rainbow Country, and this is the logo I'm using....



The thing about trees and landscapes is that selling from a vendor is a bit crap. We have all bought clothes from vendors where the images have been Photoshopped to make stuff look great....just get it home and try it on to find it's rubbish. So... my shop in SL was badly running out of prims to a state where I couldn't show all my latest products without taking older stuff into my invent.
That was fine for a while cos some of my older stuff needed composting anyway, but... I still ran out of prims, and, discovering I was paying 13 times as much for a prim in SL than I would be in IWz, I made the jump.

Now, I realise that I could possibly have created more traffic in SL than in Iwz but... and this is the big But..... people don't buy trees when the grid is looking like it might get sold, or when every bit of news is drama-laden.

Stability is not only a Code Thing, it's about 'the long haul', and tho the grid may be stable, if the company running it is looking flakey that generates an insecurity in the minds of the residents.... and they don't buy sims, and they don't buy trees so much.

So.... the shop, Rainbow Country on soror Nishi Island opens on Sunday, 2 pm, Nox will DJ and you are all welcome, Ruthed or not..... or you can go die in the lag of the Burn....


InWorldz is a very 'hopeful' place and, altho we need some more good quality shops, I find I am not very concerned with how I look there. I am there to DO something rather than look like something, and, like in RL when I'm fired up artistically, my clothes (if they're clean) don't really take up any of my brain space.

So...don't get hung up on your 'look' you are welcome for your personality rather than your Invent....


:)))

Businesses get shafted, again.

Darrius Gothly, in his post Lies, Liars and Corporate Fraud – Linden Lab, has heard that Brodesky Linden, the guy who basically is in charge of getting Marketplace to work (after they broke it) is to be sacked because he lives in the wrong state, rather than because of his big mouth. Full report here on theDGP4SL Blog.

Amazing that such heightened penny-pinching is operational at the Lab, and, if it is, could be the cause of a lot of anger and turmoil.

However, the BIG news, and the reason Darrius is furious, is that the Boys have decided to shoot the small businesses in the head. Well, that might be a bit dramatic, but...here's how it goes...

Search... if you own a sim you stand a chance of a good listing in search...

If you own a smaller parcel... you don't stand a snowball in hell's chance of getting near the top of the list.

In a very typical lack of transparency, Jack Linden refused to say how the maths on the search system worked, but no-one was deceived. I must say his attitude stinks. He comes across as a weasel, well, actually weasels are quite cute, so let's say he comes across as a shit.

The (false) logic is that businesses will all upgrade to a sim...lol. The small businesses are not something LL is gonna worry about.

Now, all I can say to small businesses is....MOVE TO INWORLDZ!! tomorrow.

Sod them.

:))

The Fall

Well, as the Second Coming has turned into the second leaving and Yosemite Sam slopes off to get plugged into the Love, autumn approaches and all the little plants get put to bed for the winter.

The Lab is cocooned in suspended animation while OSgrid makes the shift to Hyperspace and the Life Force is sucked out of the Lab rats, along with every dollar possible....

Will we be deleted like our emails to the Boys? Will a knight on a white horse appear? Will we all end up in that great Digital Inventory at 0,0,0.....

Speculation is rife in the Blogosphere.

Did we fail our Great Leader by hating the Wretched Viewer and sinking the Myth Of 100 Million Users, or did he get the hump in the Boardroom? I guess we will never know.

One thing is for sure, however, is that you don’t start looking for a new job after you left your last one anymore than you start looking for a new CEO after the old one left.

Interim and Temporary are slightly different terms. A bit of foresight is usually the norm in these matters...unless... Mr. Cockup has been visiting.

Now.... Brodesky Linden added a comment on a JIRA: “Why don't you stop wasting time and put in comments in the correct tickets. We filter your emails to trash. Gmails makes that very easy to do....”

...and maybe he was over worked and stressed...but....

I have to believe that a fair proportion of the Lab sees us as sad fools. I cannot explain the attitude that has employees trashing our emails or CEO’s just walking out the door...


History lesson..... once upon a time.....In England there was a jewellery manufacturer and retailer, Ratner... this from Wikipedia...

“Although widely regarded as "tacky", the shops and their wares were nevertheless extremely popular with the public, until Ratner made a speech at the Institute of Directors on April 23, 1991. During the speech, he commented....

“We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?", I say, "because it's total crap".

He compounded this by going on to remark that some of the earrings were "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long".

After the speech, the value of the Ratners' group plummeted by around £500 million, which very nearly resulted in the firm's collapse. Ratner resigned in November 1992 and the group changed its name to Signet Group in September 1993.

Today, Ratner's speech is still famous in the corporate world as an example of the value of branding and image over quality. Such gaffes are now sometimes called "Doing a Ratner", and Ratner himself has acquired the soubriquet "The Sultan of Bling". Ratner has said in his defence that it was a private function which he did not expect to be reported, and that his remarks were not meant to be taken seriously.”

Now, we are all grown-ups and we know companies rip us off to make profits, that’s consumerism... however, treating your customers as fools tends to attack their self-respect, often then it is worth it for the customer to turn their back on the company and never look back.

I could not let slip a comment like Ratner or Brodesky and stay in business..

Watching the Apple launch yesterday I was, of course, relieved to see that I am not completely mad. There are companies that perfect products before they release them. There are companies who know how to do PR and use the feedback they get. There are companies with business aware CEOs.

We must just live in hope that one of the nascent grids out there develops a management team that can shine, that can feel a pride in their product and a respect for user feedback. A group of grown-ups who don’t go off in a huff when things get tough.

Success will follow such a group.

So, Fall, and The Fall.......anyway........a dormant period is now expected as SL is put to bed like all the little plants... awaiting Spring.....and possibly a white knight.

If the Boys could just stop digging .....

:))

Sorry Philip...

I really didn't mean to be so mean, and I'm real sorry if you ran off because of the nasty things I've been saying about your trousers, it's just that they are a bit weird in an old-fashioned sort of a way and I thought, with all those "Yes" men around you someone aught to tell you the Truth, tho I know the truth hurts and it's never easy to take. Well, I guess they'll be nicer to you at the Love Machine and maybe we'll get Microsoft Man to help sweep more shit under the carpet until you return, loved-up and fresh. You know we all love you really, mostly, and, as you were taking that huge salary you ought to have been able to take the criticism as well, there's more to life than trousers, after all, and the Tshirt was OK in a sort of juvenile retro sort of a way..

Have a good trip.

Byeee..

Burn Bits and Pieces, and SLadvertising.

Burn, well.... good post, and the map produced by Miso is a gem...get it here. it should be an official guide, flying around looking for stuff is a no-no.



My goats are carrying on with the good work...




....in the ongoing recycling...




..of fuschia to melon. The flower head is at 250 meters, so don't be afraid of going vertical, I'm not.





...and this is Rainbow Country at InWorldz where I am arranging a little opening party for Sunday at 2pm, Nox is gonna DJ, and you are all heartily welcome, of course. More spam, later.


In other news it looks like the Boys are moving into the advertising business, and, again what may have seemed at the time like a bit of a rant, or a sort of deluded idea that I actually know what I am talking about.... I made several references to the fact that I was sure that the Dreadful Viewer was designed to show banner ads. No one else seemed to share my concerns, but... it looks to me like the Boys are actually all shaping up to be shop keepers.

Again, like with the housing market they are 'moving in' on areas which were purely business arenas for residents before they got a sniff of profits..

If LL can dump the troublesome grid and just keep marketplace, the lindex and the advertising business, their lives would be so much easier..... all they'd need is a good supply of white powder and they'd be laughing. They would rake off a percentage on sales, and the advertising and then the exchange, and they wouldn't have to lift a finger... sounds like a plan to me....

...they have obviously some idea of how big the market for virtual goods will be in a couple of years time whether we all jump ship to other grids or not...

...only time will tell....

I wonder if they'll end up selling underwear? ...mosaic crutch accessories anyone?

:))

P.S. this is my 900th post..

More about Mesh.

Well, as you no doubt have seen or heard mesh has begun trials and I have been trying to find some more informative stuff on what it will actually mean to me, and you.

I have read a lot of pretty “wow this is wonderful” stuff, most of it with little concrete info, so it was great to come across Nalates blogpost where he has taken the time to record the conversations at a ‘mesh office hours’. I would suggest you read the whole post if you have time..... or interest....

...if you don’t... here are a few things that cut through the hype. I’ve picked out a few things that might effect my reader...:))


It seems like new avatars, purpose made to replace the SL avatar will not be great shakes. There will not be the possibility of emoting, i.e. no smiles or grimaces, no lip synch or blinking....

The “skeleton”, called rigging will remain the same, so the way an avatar moves will be similar, that is, animations will have to use the same rigging.
“IDestroyed Tomorrow: I’ve read online in several places that there is work being done on custom rigging that does not rely on the default SL avatar skeleton to work. Is this true, and if so when can we expect to see it in action?”
Nyx Linden: it works already! see our walkthrough for uploading a “rigged” mesh. You just have to provide bone weights for each of the vertices
Nyx Linden: sorry I was wrong on that last one – we don’t support custom skeletons yet, you have to use our rig, just not our mesh.
Nyx Linden: adding support for custom skeletons would be nice, but we don’t have any work started on that yet."
(seems like not everyone knows everything.)


Having personally questioned the supposed Mesh Hair Revolution myself and watching Wizzy being abused in comments... it now turns out we were right and mesh hair will be crap.
It will be non flexi... quote “” tx Oh: another question: the positive effect of meshes should be mesh hairs instead of prim hairs. But meshes are not flexible. Do you go to support flexible meshes or at least flexible sculpts?” — Falcon Linden: No, there are no plans to support this in the future and it is extremely unlikely we will support it. However many votes it might get. Flexies are unreasonably expensive. However, you might have more success pushing for proper cloth simulation (it’s already something we’ve thought about, though with no actual plans and almost certainly not in the next year)

No swishy dresses for a while then, for the same reason...

from Liz Venenbaum “ Since I’m tied to a slow internet connection, meshes won’t rez at all, since the viewer uses like 60 connections at once, which drown my network bandwidth…”, this is something which should be sorted out before they go public ... ( and a personal worry I have with future ‘cloud’ computing as I have control over my computer, but not over my ISP.)

there’s also a long legal disclaimer from the Lab on buying meshes and using them in SL.... basically it ends with...”If you are uncertain about your rights in any situation, we suggest that you consult an attorney for legal advice or err on the side of caution and not upload the meshes to Second Life.’

Yeh.. like I’m gonna ring a lawyer before I buy something from the web.... unlikely, I think.


Now, for the simple How to Do IT... Easy style... you can’t get better than Gwyneth...here.

Personally, I am yet to be convinced that mesh will offer a great alternative to sculpties, it may just be an occasional option.... but I hope to be proven wrong.

...and finally... another great post by Nalates... here. He suggests that Open Sim will see mesh before SL .... and, for real mesh enthusiasts the actual cost of uploading mesh to SL will have them turning to OS as a huge mesh sand box.

The costs are still being calculated and I think the Boys will be missing a trick if they don’t earn a few extra bucks on this uploading lark.

Maximize the moneterization as Miso might say (but better...)

:))

Burn 2 laggy to move...

...BUT.... worth the effort...

While America was asleep I crept into Burn to have a look round... now there's 6 sims as opposed to 30 or so last time, and, it seems like a lot of crap didn't get built this year.

I thought the standard of the builds was higher and this is in no way a comprehensive selection of the best, its just what I got around to seeing before my cucumber sandwiches and Earl Grey tea coincided with USA's waffles with maple syrup and peanut and jello sandwiches.




Madcow, well, not much to say really. I love Madcow's stuff and this is a wonderful build with layers and details and a generally mad overall concept. It fits well on the playa and is well worth finding.




I don't know Kere Delcon but this is an imposing piece, a performance space I think...as you know I'm short on details...




Raven Haalan has based this piece, Bell Tower of Privilege, on a poetic night under the stars and its got a lot going on... check it out.




Ub Yifu, as if you couldn't guess... wonderful...and tho I didn't find a notecard, I didn't feel I needed to look for one either. Surely one of our master builders.




Wizard Gynoid, with help from Artee, Nur and others has put together this amazing temple...now....it will really come good at the end as it houses 3500 scripts to aid in its destruction. Hope Wizzy will make sure we get a video of its demise.




I didn't really get to explore this one much. It's the Stilt Bitches Flying Circus and built, it seems, by Paramparamm Papp.. and is for the circus lovers amongst us.

I got to Bryn's build too, which is a chance to practice your camming skills again... but photos would be a give-away...

...and Miso's House of Cards is a sound installation as much as a visual one which she explains here... full of layers and depth.

I was very happy to bump into Thomtrance and the Happy Clam pose under Jedda's first tree build ...and cut a rug with some fine folk too.

Now, there must be some seriously crappy servers running the show which again is a missed opportunity by LL. They could have tried a bit harder to help these guys, it is all good PR for them. Free content by top builders... duh!!

...all in all...well worth a return visit, again, while the USA sleeps.

:)))

Philip bottles out.

New look....well, not new look, by Mars Absent. In a blog post titled "We have a winner"... I'm thinking we have a Loser too....




I find it deeply depressing.

If someone wants to dress up like a stupid tart with huge tits, body oil, stockings and stilettos, that is totally a personal taste thing and the fact that they chose a common stereotype rather than something which has required some imagination is sad, but not depressing.

What is depressing is when the CEO of the company running the Lab chooses, out of the infinite possibilities available to him to don the male equivalent of the tart look, with Rocky Horror stolen lips and a mosaic crutch. Now, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, was/is a good movie...but not that good. Not good enough to promote year after year on your Tshirt. I would have preferred the LL logo, at least he has the right to wear that.

I'm pretty sure that if I were to wear a logo which I had stolen, I would be called to task eventually by the Lab, or someone for an IPR violation.

As a way of projecting yourself to the world it is a bland stereotype which only a 35 year old male with no-one to tell him how crap he looks would wear. I wouldn't be seen in public with anyone looking like that.... and in my circle of friends he would be ridiculed.

So, all-in-all very disappointing, but, then, most of the stuff produced by the Fashionista Bunch of Morons around SL is enough to make me scream. Why would anyone want to look like they stepped out of Vogue into SL ? ....Beats me.

I guess it's all part of that fear of the unknown and the unwillingness to make a statement in case you get criticised or looked at. What a shame SL hasn't given them enough courage to try something different.

If you can't try something different in Virtual Worlds then you have missed an opportunity, and that's exactly what Philip has done, bottled out.

Shame.

...obviously no balls behind the mosaic pants.

:))

Customer Self-Service.

Well, as I mentioned a few days ago, when I couldn't access the SL blogs, I was interested in finding out how the Boys were gonna improve Customer Services.

I'd seen a link for... Improving Customer Services... and, after ranting about not being able to access the blog, with Wizzy's help I got access, maybe because I'm a celebrated whiner, who knows, and Yoz Linden IMed me to tell me he had sorted it out, so, Wizzy and I are in, just over a million more residents to go if it's gonna be done on a one by one basis......

Anyway....read the blog...

"As we mentioned in our last blog post, the Customer Support team continues to drive a series of changes to the way in which Linden Lab delivers support to our Resident community. We are examining our support offering from top to bottom, using the data from our new support system, your survey data, blog feedback, and industry standard practices to help shape our approach.


As we approach these changes, we have a number of high-level goals in mind:

Leverage industry best practices, and our own hard-earned lessons, to create a comprehensive customer service offering. [ermm....who's hard-earned lessons?]

Respond to high-urgency, business-critical requests more quickly. [look after the rich first?]

Better address product and service issues before they become a support interaction. [sort stuff out?]

Provide all Residents with better self-service tools to help solve issues immediately."

Hmm...yes, PR speak...what are they actually saying??

First item: we are gonna do something.
Second: we are gonna do it quicker.
Third line.. "Better address product and service issues before they become a support interaction.".. is just another way of saying a stitch in time saves nine.

and so we come to the fourth line...namely... "Provide all Residents with better self-service tools to help solve issues immediately."

Now, this self-service tools stuff.. well, I have that at the petrol (gas) station and that is pretty much the norm now.....however... customer services are normally done by the company for the consumer.

So... the Lab is really breaking new ground here by helping us to do customer services ourselves.

I guess if they provide me with my own telephone number I can ring myself when my invent disappears and complain... then, with training, I might be able to calm myself down from an excitable state and reassure myself that I am making steps towards solving the issue.

Then I got to thinking that they already have us doing our own maintenance reports, helping fix the viewer they broke (some of us) and testing their mesh trials too, so D-I-Y on the Customer Services would fit in nicely... maybe we can eventually run the grid ourselves, the one we filled with content and they charge us for.

Anyway... no need to whine any longer soror, Things are Getting Better. The latest post on the Boys blog... here.... the "Back to Basics Technology Improvements" fills a soul with hope for the future.

Reduced Lag.
Faster Texture Loading.
New Chat Service coming soon.
Group limits raised to 40.
Viewer 2 improvements.
Faster bug fixes.
Display names in public beta.

...so...all in all, absolutely nothing to whine about there, is there?

All's well with the world.

...no idea why Inworldz is just about to hit 20,000 users... a mystery..

:))

A Week Unblogged...

Well, as you may have noticed I have been slacking on the blogfront this week, using my PC opportunity to fill my shop in Inworldz which I will tell you more about at a later time...

It was Just a week ago that The UWA had its Grand Finale, the results of the prize giving are well documented here. There is also the transcript from the speech by Lumiere Noir which raised the interesting point that Time is necessary for art to be perceived as 'Great' and VW's are still new borns babes.

We are all, I guess very happy to hear that this is not the end of UWA's involvement in the arts...

"What comes next?
Now, what is there to take over at UWA? Well, I (Jayjay) won't have a notecard to distribute for a few weeks yet, but basically once the curtain comes down today, the UWA 3D Open Art Challenge (L$1,000,000 Prize Pool), which again will run for one year will kick off. This will be a Grand Collaboration among the major art houses of SL, and aside from the top 3 monthly awards, in place of the Honourable Mention Awards, we will have a monthly:
a Pirats Prize (selected by Merlina Rokocoko & Newbab Zsigmond),
an Odyssey Prize (selected by Fau Ferdinand & Lizsolo Mathilde),
an SL Arts Prize (selected by Gleman Jun & Sunset Quinnell),
a Show & Tell Prize (selected by Florenze Kerensky & Barney Boomslang),
a CARP Prize (selected by Josina Burgess & Velazquez Bonetto) and
a BOSL Prize (selected by Frolic Mills & Giela Delpaso).

The rules for this will be simple. The theme is 'Create something that will take our breath away', and the prim limit is 100! As it always has been. So anyway, the receiver for the works is in the same location as before !"

....and Quadrapop (welcome to InWorldz!), who has worked tirelessly alongside Jayjay as curator will pass the reins over to FreeWee Ling who will be the new curator... some lovely words from FreeWee here..... far too modest, FreeWee is a talented artist with a great sense of humour.

The huge theatre there at Winthrop will be curated by Chantal Harvey, the machinimist extraordinaire, so that is in very safe hands too.




Then there was Igor and others at the UTSA build, a huge show with many artists contributing pieces on rafts. Very much worth a visit. Make sure you take time to walk along the walkways as thats where you get the experience...it's here.


Then, the mesh trials started..... and there have been numerous accounts, tho nothing really very definitive. Some crashing, some texturing probs and some old Macs not being able to access the trial grid. It's too early yet to know now it's gonna go, but the eager are experimenting. I have also heard and actually seen a 64x64x64 cube made on the trial grid.
Whether or not the buzz will be enough to encourage people to use the Hated Viewer is questionable, but expect the mesh possibilities to come to Open Sim and TPV very quickly, it's still heralded as the Best Thing Ever.


Educators are meanwhile talking about mass-migration...here... with some setting up their grids already...like New Zealand, pointed out by Pathfinder. It seems most likely tho that the exodus will happen gradually with people getting their alternative worlds in place over the next 6 months before jumping ship.... just like me and some of my friends.

Yesterday saw ColeMarie Soleil putting together a video for the Burn 2 show which opens today..



....but runs for just 8 days...something I have never been able to understand really.

Its not the only short show, but, really, when artists have gone to so much trouble.... surely a week more would't hurt.


..and for those of you that can't stand the lag, and missed his first showing of it, Storm Cells is gonna be here, for a short time...

"Storm Cells "

A sim-wide installation by Oberon Onmura

TEMPORARY INSTALLATION!

Thanks to Mab MacMoragh for letting me install "Storm Cells" for the purposes of documentation. I invite you to visit the installation while it exists. (It won't be for long.)

Each "cell" is reacting with color and position to the density of the SL clouds in the sky at its x,y position. The result is an undulating, color shifting landscape changing with one of the basic SL natural force."

....and....more another time, gotta go get a coffee...

:))

Second Inventory, exporting to InWorldz... and back..

So...these are some of the results of my two evenings work with Second Inventory, working on an old PC, importing from IWz and from Second Life.

The two trees above I removed the textures from as it wasn't working with the textures on them, and I removed the scripts with Phoenix (which has remove scripts as a very neat builders tool) and they came thro fine. The retexturing will be quite an easy process compared to aligning all those prims. These are quite the most complicated trees I moved.




This is the Candy Tree which I built IWz and imported into SL. Two or three of the sculptie maps didn't load, so there's a little work to do there, but not bad...





Like a lot of the simpler things the coconuts got thro to Iwz in perfect shape...




...as did the newly retextured Daphne's demise, which I retextured with my latest textures at Maeve's prodding.




On this one the linking didnt work, but the prims and textures are all there....this will be a pain to fix, but probably still a lot faster than rebuilding from scratch.





Perfect pine trees for IWz just in time for Jeri's Christmas Bazaar






...and, although I have dropped the bark texture the very popular Oak has made it thro to IWz too.






The 67th, here as a bonsai did well, the grass being one prim that screwed up..




At first glance ...fail... but the placement is there...




...and another....

Well, that's not the lot, because a few more trees and flowers were a success, and a few didnt load even, so failed. I did get the repeated message that the asset server hadnt responded in time, so it may well have been SL playing up...who knows. I would say, however that overall its been fairly fast, easy, fun.... but only about 60 to 70% success...which I am happy about anyway....

That's an enormous time saving for about 10 hours work, but not perfect if you are fussy...

:))