Twice the Size of Hong Kong...

Now, as a caveat, I would just like to say I am not mad, or bitter. I just like to do a bit of straight talking when the BS gets stacked too high... that's all....

~...........................o0o...........................~


We've all watched enough adverts and seen enough politicians on TV to have developed a special gland for picking up the faint whiff of bullshit.

So, when, in the Q4 report someone tells me that SL is twice the size of Hong Kong, I wonder why...I'm like that. I have lived in Hong Kong for many years before the hand-over and even I have no real concept of what a land mass twice the size of HK with it's countless islands, would look like, and, seeing as how most of the readers of the report would be Americans, I wonder why one of the US States wasn't used as a comparison.

Obviously, clarity isn't really the ultimate goal in presenting a report like this and it is down to us to sift through the spin (as I believe it has been called since around 1991, before which it was called lies) to try a ascertain if any information of any relevance can be, or is worth being disseminated.

Basically SL has gone nowhere this last year.

That's not news, I guess, and the slide in concurrency, profitable businesses, and land rentals has been covered up quite simply by not providing the figures.

It makes no difference to me, I think. I would, however, be very glad if the Hong Kong model of hiding the truths was not applied to the reasons for the slide.

The reason is not exploding volcanoes in Iceland, Economic Downturns, oil spills or The Price of Pork Bellies... it is the cost of tier.... AND the Viewer From Hell.

Just as long as those facts aren't glossed over too quickly I am a happy bunny... well, not happy exactly, I think the Boys have blown a hole in the side of the company big enough to float an iceberg through. This has been done through inefficiency and thoughtlessness.

Good Luck in the New Year with the repairs.


:||

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.

:))

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 .....

:))

An Email Leak..

I had these meeting notes leaked to me by an employee and have no reason to doubt their veracity.....

LordOf Linden.. Welcome to this Monday’s Monetizing Meeting. Now I want some blue-sky out-of-the-box run-it-up-the-flagpole suck-the-suckers-dry thinking. Where can we get some more cash?

Yes Linden.. Yes Lord.

Cockup Linden.. Well, sir, it strikes me that the not-for-profits and educational discounts are a potential source of increased monetization.

LordOf Linden.. Excellent, bloody whining little Scroungers. We give them this huge discount, and what have the Scroungers ever done for us?

Sane Linden.. Well, they have provided us with more Credibility than any other user group.

LordOf Linden. Apart from Credibility what have the Scroungers ever done for us though?

Sane Linden.. They have introduced new users to SL who would not have come on the grid without them.

LordOf Linden.. Well, apart from Credibility and New Users, what have the Scroungers ever done for us?

Sane Linden.. They have sponsored the arts and some different Events.

LordOf Linden.. OK, so...apart from Credibility, New Users and Sponsorship... what have the Whining Scroungers ever done for us?

Sane Linden.. They are already paying about 1000% more than OpenSim would cost them.

LordOf Linden.. So.. apart from Credibility, New Users, Sponsorship, and Overpaying... (glares at Sane) what have the Whining Little Scroungers ever done for us?

Sane Linden.. They have provided unusual content that we wouldn’t have had otherwise... and they have provided entry level education, along with positive RL press.

CockUp Linden, Yeh, but apart from Credibility, New Users, Sponsorship, Overpaying, Content, Education and PR, what have they done for us...NOTHING.

Yes Linden.. Well, Lord, speaking for all the others....We agree.

LordOf Linden. Of course you do. So, that’s agreed then.

Sane Linden.. We might get some negative response to this move, Sir.

LordOf Linden.. Hmm...You are the PR vet, Fkem, what do you say?

FKem Linden. Lord, we could get FriendlyGreetings Linden to do a video.

LordOf Linden.. Excellent.
Oh, and Sane.. you’re fired. We don’t want that sort of Communistic, Revolutionistic, Gay, Liberalistic nonsense here at the Lab.

Time for lunch I think... good work.

The meeting was adjourned.

:))

Philip's List...

Things to do on Monday 28/06/2010.


1) Sack the PR team.

2) Repair Chat.

3) Repair Search.

4) Dump Viewer 2.0

5) Get scalable megas rolled out.

6) Fix voice.

7) Go for long, expensive lunch....

8) Participate in group Ear-Wax Removal Event..

9) Have tea.

10) Hire new PR team.

11) Make list for tomorrow...


...

Nipplegate and Barbiegate

The above work is the one that got banned by the fools at SL7B...

It has now found a home at the UWA....here ...love those Australians to bits...

In a very thorough post NWN has printed out the whole letter from Peter Greenaway which is well worded, and the response from Blondin Linden which is very weak.

Peter Greenaway says...amongst other things.....

"I suspect you are responding to pressure, to some form of mind-police, certainly to some form of political correctness that is related to money and the slow swing to the political right that is happening all over the world related to civilisation's fear of financial insecurity. Don't go that way. You are endangering a tool that is greater than you.

If you really insist in so-called protection of innocence (and I really wonder what that really is - is it a synonym in fact for ignorance and intolerance?) then do so on a careful case by case basis with intelligence and foresight."

Now...that sentence "You are endangering a tool that is greater than you." Is probably the most astute thing I have heard said recently....and it is exactly the problem. the Boys have no idea of what SL is, because they don't use it.

The weak reply was....

"As with past Second Life birthdays, we have implemented guidelines for the SL7B event to create a celebration that can be enjoyed by as wide an audience as possible. One of these guidelines notes that the event has a General (aka PG) maturity rating, as have previous Second Life birthday celebrations. As described on the wiki, the General maturity rating includes a prohibition on nudity. All exhibitors and builders agree to adhere to the policies for the event as a condition of participation, and these guidelines are available publicly on the wiki."

..pathetic. Nudity of dolls included? what next? nudity of trees...(all trees to wear bras)?

LL has made a rod for its own back in trying to divide the world into PG, Mature, Adult, and the definitions (as predicted at the time) are impossible to define and enforce. Its a complete nightmare. Well, it was their idea.

It is this situation that causes me to doubt the ability of the LEA to change the Boys attitudes to the Arts. I do not doubt the sincerity of those on the committee, just their empowerment....

It has always been the way of power structures to use emotive causes to justify their domination and control.

Yesterday Linden Lab used SHAWN as henchman, and paedophiles as the cause....If SL had existed under McCarthy you can be 100% positive that LL would have banned the use of the colour RED in the builds. Wikipedia says... "McCarthyism is the political action of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence."...hmmm...sounds familiar..

Now, as the boys have no balls regarding nipples, it fell to Misprint to make a statement. She did so in an artistic way which, like all good art, exposed the hypocrisy of a fascist approach to censorship ..... and I am sure she deserves an apology as does Rose. None will be forthcoming although I know the Lindens have read both this post and NWN's.

The inability to admit you are wrong is a sign of weakness, and rushing out the mesh launch to take the edge off this sorry affair is gonna help as much as the feeble voice morphing does to cure the woes of Viewer 2.0...

Boys, this is a "a tool that is greater than you" and, if you piss it up against the wall chasing some Holy Grail of Mass Membership.... you will lose it.

We, the creators, are portable, you aren't.

:))

"SL is a breeding ground for pedifiles"

Misprint Thursday has been ejected from SL7B.

SHAWN Masters, a volunteer policeman at SL7B, seeking to enforce the No Nipple Policy at SL7B, explained to Misprint Thursday, as Blondin Linden and Doctor Gascoigne stood by..... "SL is a breeding ground for pedifiles [sic]" and Blondin Linden demanded she remove the particle emitter which was churning out pictures of nude Barbie Dolls.

Misprint refused to do so and was ejected from the sim.

Botgirl has great piece on this here.

Now, it seems like there is one important fact I seem to have missed out on...and that is that paedophiles (english spelling) breed in SL. Now, I have been around a while and never caught them at it yet. I would have thought, not that I have a great deal of paedophile experience, that Google or some porn site might provide more interesting and immediate gratification than downloading the SL viewer, making an avatar and going to SL7B to look at nakkid Barbies...but, hey.....what do I know??

Now, these sick major corporations that have been responsible for the sale of, apparently, 1 billion Barbies, would probably disagree with LL on the degree of immorality connected to Barbie.... would they sue?...probably not.

Now, if this company, LL, were run by sexually repressed bigots from some sick religious cult, which it obviously is not.... I could understand their sexual obsession more...but as things stand, I am a bit at a loss.

So...a few questions....

Do they think major corporations will refuse to join SL if the Barbie scandal should be exposed?

...and how can Blondin Linden stand by while SHAWN tells Misprint that SL is a breeding ground for 'pedofiles'...

oh...and another question.....how many pedofiles are there in SL...is there a survey...how do they know??

...and...the most important question of them all.... HAVE YOU ALL COMPLETELY LOST ANY SENSE OF HOW RIDICULOUS YOU LOOK?

Again I am minded to be so grateful for the Linden Endowment for the Arts, it is so wonderful to know how committed LL is in fostering the Arts in our 'community'...or, in the words of the Linden blog...

"Provide a starting point for artists in Second Life and for those interested in art to make connections and display their work

Encourage and cultivate art and artists within Second Life

Foster community, creativity, and innovation among artists and all residents interested in art.

Provide a way for artists to not only sell and promote their art but also to choose to donate it for linden preservation (optional)

Collaborate with existing art regions, galleries, exhibits and performance spaces to help nuture their valuable participation in SL arts"

So that's in safe hands then, the future of the Arts in our 'community'...good.


:((((

New Tombstone needed....

Well, it's so interesting how very real this virtual world is, in spite of some peoples continued ignorance of that fact.

It was, it seems, just a short while ago that the Government in this sceptred isle made sure, through all public communication means available, that the ignorant public who didn't understand the economy be told, clearly, that the Royal Bank of Scotland was a good, solid, financially sound institution. People queued around the block for hours to get their money out.....

The ignorant unsophisticated financially-naive public didn't believe the Big Boys and, as it happens, they were right because the bank went under, and the public got robbed later by the Government to bail out the bank.

Now, as Lalo points out...here... M Linden, or rather his totally inept PR dept. (who are, honestly, the imbeciles in this whole saga) have, every day for the last week, reassured us that SL is in a financially wonderful state and all is well and blooming in the economic garden.

110,000,000 L$ got sold yesterday at a very low price. There was a run on the Linden.

The similarities are pretty obvious, though the scale may differ and the economics behind the two events may be different. The thing that is striking is the psychology behind the two events.

Credibility dies.

In the UK it was because the government lies to us so often that no-one with any brain cells believes anything they are told..... how has it come to this with the CEO of Linden Lab, M Linden??

This is where I lay the blame 100% on the shoulders of the PR dept of LL, or.....(they could be innocent...) the person who instructs the PR dept...(they could have just been doing what they were told.)

(This is why the boys need a Client Representative or two on the Board.....and a better, client-orientated PR dept.)

So...the newest tombstone.... Credibility Linden, RIP wasted by bullshit scripts and continued repetition.....


:))

The shit hits the fan.....

Ok...so now it is happening....


DON'T PANIC, the Hitchhikers Guide said, but there will be a massive boost for all those small grids.. Inworldz, Reaction, Open Sim will all benefit from the 30% layoff just announced by the Boys. 100 Boys will lose their jobs and SL will turn into a web based social networking site.


"We've emerged from a two-year investment period during which, among other things, we've spent a considerable amount of time improving reliability and the overall user experience. Today's announcement about our reorganization will help us make Second Life® even simpler, more enjoyable, relevant and engaging for consumers starting with their first experience. It will also enable us to invest in bringing 3D to the web and will strengthen our profitability," said Mark Kingdon, chief executive officer of Linden Lab. "Ultimately, we want to make Second Life more accessible and relevant to a wider population," he said.


Well, the bean-counters have won....sad, but hey, that's life.


Many people will, like me, will wait and see, there won't be an immediate exodus, but the life rafts are being prepared....

Read more here...

:(((

mega prims

Well, I was, as usual 'listening in' to the chat on Builder's Brewery and the subject of mega prims came up. Not for the first time I heard a number of Old-Wives-Tales about how megas cause lag etc, etc.

So, I thought I would try and get to the bottom of it having lived and built with megas for over two years now and, with a 128 graphix card, I, more than many others, should be a fair judge of the lagging effect of megas.

I went to the LL webpage, (sorry, silly me, they are all Wiki now, not webpages), here... and, under the subject title ...

Prim density and lag

The following was written
"Using a mega prim instead of multiple regular prims (for a wall, a floor, etc), decreases the number of faces which need to be drawn by the viewer (or, depending on how "smart" is your graphic driver, the number of occlusions to calculate so to avoid drawing hidden faces) can be reduced dramatically. "..
.. OK, so rather dodgy grammar, but the point is, as I suspected, that there is no known relationship between lag and megas, they can possibly reduce lag.

but.... there may be downsides....

1. "Very large mega prims will not be rendered at all sometimes by the Viewer. The only approach to fix this would be to increase draw distance, therefore increasing lag. " ... sorry, Boys, that is complete BS. The draw distance I use is never dependent on the presence or absence of megas. That is only ever going to be a building issue, never a day-to-day one.

2. "Some problems with mega prims are obviously related to their huge size. They can reach far beyond parcel borders and disturb neighbors with their presence. Residents might not even recognize that it is a mega prim which is hindering them, since they might be inside the mega prim and therefor won't be able to see it." ....sorry...I'm not buying that excuse either. That point relates solely to very mega megas, not to anything under 50 meters in size.

In fact, the objections and excuses are ALL related to huge megas, there is, as far as I can see no good reason why LL has dragged their feet on resolving this issue.

Other grids have scalable prims.

So...the history is such.....

"In a Town Hall discussion at December 20th 2006, Linden Lab announced that they were going to allow the use of mega prims on private estates."

It was further discussed in 2007, 2008 and, even last year 2009 there was talk about owners of 'private estates' being allowed to use them, again...boringly enough, the huge megas were used as an excuse...

"While Linden Lab is still not supporting or endorsing the use of mega prims, developer Andrew Linden talked about future plans on what he called the "liberation" of mega prims. He is planning to
Allow parcel owners/managers to move (or maybe just return) objects that overlap their parcels.
Provide UI feedback to the Resident when moving their objects, indicating whether they overlap neighboring parcels.
Maybe provide real-time enforcement of parcel permissions. That is, allow parcel owners to set a paranoid bit “I don’t want anyone, or these specific people, from putting stuff on my parcel”
He noted that "once that is done then perhaps we will allow you to make prims/objects as large as you want as long as they fit on your parcel."

Now, that is just not good enough.

There is nothing to stop LL from increasing the scalable size of megas bit by bit. The next viewer could easily allow a 12x12 meter prim....the following viewer a 15x15 meter prim...etc...etc.

Bettina Tizzy has been campaigning for years on the NPIRL blog for scalable prims with no success. I will not be starting a crusade, I have better things to do with my time..... but, I do have to say that I think it is totally negligent of LL to dismiss, ignore, and sweep this topic under the carpet.

There is no excuse.

Shame on you, Boys.

:))

Mass Stupidity

There has been lots of talk this week after the release of the new viewer about mass uptake of SL and other virtual worlds, like this is the great goal for us all.

SL has been compared to StupidFarm and FoolVille on Facebook and generally come off worst because more people play stupid games than will ever enjoy SL, apparently.

"Virtual World Expert".... hmm.....now there's a claim to make about yourself, or, actually, anyone...... Ralph Koster has a view, taken up by NWN, that SL is dying because it's not stupid enough for mass uptake. What a shame..

Now, the most popular TV programmes are things I wouldn't watch if you paid me (well,......not quite true, but you would have to pay me to watch...), and the most popular of our newspapers are complete crap from front page to last.

When has popularity ever spawned quality?

Do the majority of people visit the Tate Gallery?? oh...so that means the Tate is dying too, I guess.... more people go to MacDonalds.

I am at a total loss. Why, when and how did mass-uptake of a cultural or social product become the Holy Grail?

If, as an artist I wanted to sell paintings, I would paint fluffy kitties...... authors would write crappy soppy love stories.... and sculptors would do horses and dogs in bronze.

Anyone who thinks that the public knows best is a fool, and pandering to "everyone" simply reduces everything to the lowest common denominator..... mass stupidity.



:))