Oh Dear LL

I've just read the latest offering from the Boys, their monthly update, and they really can't blog to save their lives...

There are a few things that Inara Pey has already touched on in her excellent post... here. Like the fact that we heard about the new Library Avis a week ago and that monthly news is always gonna be old news, and let's face it, old news is an oxymoron.

The new avis...well, what can I say? It would seem a bit hypocritical for me to criticise them really and I do welcome a wider range of non-human forms ... so I could just stay silent on the matter. ...but that's unlikely to happen.

The animal range I thought were probably gonna be fairly popular, after all some of my best friends are feline at times and I know great builders who are foxes.... (no dragons there I see) .... and well, we've all met a few robots in our lives tho the ones I've met have been very good builds... but.. cars?? In my 4 years in these worlds I have yet to meet a car. Maybe thats just my limited circle of friends, no balloons either.... oh well we are assured that they are:

" a heck of a lot of fun. " ... hmmmm

Anyway, all this is only a minor issue compared to the most cringe-making part of the whole embarrassing post, the report that chat lag is a thing of the past.

I am used to people making false claims, just last night I saw a shampoo advert on TV claiming that the shampoo would respect my individuality, so that doesn't worry me, after all advertising=lies, for the most part. Just sign on to any medium or large Group and you will find the truth out for yourself.

No, what really worried me was the Tone. The Tone is the sort of manner and style of writing you use in a blog or advert, the Copy, and the way it is delivered..... for example:

"Here’s a little something about that right royal pain, Group Chat Lag. You know how it is: you’re inworld, having a ball chatting with a group of friends, but the chat shows up with words missing or in the wrong order. It’s like a bad roommate, always hanging around and making a mess, interrupting your conversations and ruining your jokes! Some of your friends won’t even try talking while that loser’s around, knowing that their impeccable comic timing will come out looking like free-form poetry."

gulp

"We’d say that we’ll miss the old Group Chat Lag, but that would be a total lie. Instead, as the saying used to go: “door Don’t let the hit you in the butt on the way out.”

double gulp...

I have been lead to believe that the majority of users of Second Life are in the 30 to 70 age group, now, if that is the case, then the belief that offering them the ability to dress up like a car and then talk down to them like a 10 year old is going to endear you to your user group is so far wide of the mark that it is an embarrassment.

Cringe Factor 10.

I am certain that the person who wrote this, the Most Dreadful Copy of the Year, has never experienced chat lag....

....and finally... the increasing attempt by LL to pull people OUT of SL via FB, Marketplace... and now Twitter....

"And, don’t forget to hit Twitter — follow us @Secondlife and tweet using the hashtag #secondlife."

.... as Inara Pey so rightly says..."f you really want feedback and comments on what is happening, then give us the means to do so in as quick and convenient manner as possible.

By that I mean letting us us comment on your blog posts directly. It’s the way almost every other blog in the world operates when comments and feedback are allowed – so why not you? You used to at one time, but then you moved away from this approach, almost as if you were either afraid of what we might say, or didn’t want to hear what we were saying.

But the fact is, if you really want our feedback, you really should consider making it as easy as possible for us to do so, even if it does mean opening up your blog entries for comment once more."

Well, I guess it's just another labour saving device, i.e. laziness ... but it does seem that they don't believe in VW's as much as we do ..

.. oh....any bets on how long it will take LL to discover Google+ ??

:))

The Internet belongs to America

I am extremely annoyed.... following the recent report of a British student who is being extradited to the US for providing links to unauthorised TV sites even though he wasn't using a US server.

The fact that he was using a .com address makes him a target for US prosecutors.

The full details are here...

Now, while the UK signed the stupid extradition treaty in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, it has been increasingly misused by both US and EU prosecutors for crimes which are in some cases extremely minor... (Guardian article .. here.)

I personally think that currently no country has the balls to stand up to the US Government and tell them to get lost, so this belief that the rest of the world should behave as the US sees fit will continue. The UK Government is the most submissive, pathetic, snivelling bunch of cowards in this context deluded into believing it has a "Special Relationship" like a pig in a sty that believes its Master does it's bidding, denying the existence of bacon... (not that I think any American is gonna smoke or eat me...might not be a good analogy).

The UK was big on world domination for many years, plundering and pillaging as we saw fit, and now it seems it is Americas turn to do so. That doesn't make it right of course.... but we wanna be in on the kill chewing the bones that get left behind.... political hyenas.

What disturbs me in this article is that the providing of links to a website that the US government doesn't like makes me liable for extradition..... because I use a .com site (Blogger). Now, I am under no illusion that the stuff I do here is of absolutely no interest to the US Government ... but... it is extremely easy to commit an illegal act by providing a dodgy (as defined by the US) link. That might be enough to cause an application for a visa to be refused, for example..... and it'll be on file forever.

The idiot involved in explaining this very dubious reasoning regarding links said that its like drug dealers...
"Barnett defended the decision to also go after linking sites: "I'll give you an analogy. A lot of drug dealing is done by proxy – you rarely give the money to the same person that you get the dope from. I think the question is, are any of these people less culpable?"... full article here.

Providing a link to a site that doesn't pay royalties to a US company is hardly the same as a drug dealer... one stops some super rich bunch of idiots getting richer, the other wrecks lives and kills people... not really a good analogy unless, of course, you want that emotive discussion. So...the deaths of thousands of innocent people in the worst terrorist attack the US has seen lead to an agreement between the US and the UK as an aid to The War On Terror... it's now paying off in $$$ .... I think that is disgusting....( I can do emotive).

How hard you can squeeze your Colonies?
Surely the Taxes which England imposed on the New World lead to a revolution, and one bunch of terrorists that the whole of the US celebrated a few days ago. If you continue to disempower and rob enough people for long enough... it back fires. The disempowered and hopeless are a dangerous bunch because they have nothing to lose.

I believe in karma, for nations too, and this continual greed which, after all, the global system is built on, will come back in some unforeseen way to haunt those that squeeze the hardest.

Every day is for the thief but one day is for the victim.

I am extremely annoyed....

:((

Google+ ... the new Big Brother?

Well, just when I thought I would take a break from (not very) Social Media, Google+ hits the streets running... Wizzy, intrepid pioneer that she is has already signed up and, apparently sent me an invitation... rarer than hen's teeth...

...but... the whole invitation thing has been closed down temporarily due to "insane demand" ... hmmm ... mental people like me? soo...I'll have to wait a while before reporting fully back to you, dear reader....

I did ask Wizzy if I should have a social holiday, and her reply "this crap is hard work" had me splurting coffee over the keyboard... good one!

When Google tested this out a while back with their employees they found that exactly the same happened, namely that a much higher proportion of people wanted "in" than they had guestimated. Seems like it is a lot better than FB and we may well see the eventual decline and death of FB according to some... here .... after all FB is apparently "tolerated" in the same way as the IRS according to some survey somewhere.

For those that missed it a few days ago, I posted the link to Wired's very thorough post on Google + ...here..... all you need to know....right here...:)))



It has been simplified from it's earliest incarnation, but it will still take a while to find your way around, apparently. The ability to organise friends into various groupings would seem to be a great step forward, and the personalised "stream' of news called Sparks (above) could be as addictive as Twitter.... and there is video chat, too....Hangout (and hang up???)..

While it is great to stay in touch with people, you actually don't really want to stay in touch with the whole of the world 24/7, and having limited "Circles" of friends is decidedly a marked improvement over the constant babble.

....and, so far, it's a StoopidVille-free area...

Now, there have been a lot of contrary opinions about it all, and forums are bursting with Any Bigots views both for and against....

The Antis seem to think FB will simply steal the best ideas for FB and that Google will never grow fast enough, large enough to compete....

The Pros say that FB is crap and the Antis are stupid.... isn't discussion a wonderful thing.

Me, well...I'll wander over when they open the doors...but...Real Name? I should coco.... I read too much Miso to get sucked in to that....

....."improved Privacy" does not mean Privacy, it just means "better than FB" which is like saying Really Crap Food is better than Crap Food.... not much of a recommendation.

Big Brother has many names.


...and, really, I don't need an App to know who my friends are....


:)))

New Products for InWorldz

This is my new Foxglove Orchid which I am more or less finished making. The flower prim is based on the shape of a foxglove (digitalis) hence the name... though I doubt we'll ever see a foxglove in RL with these colours.

It should go on sale soon on my sim soror Nishi Island.




Nyx Breen is doing a show of various elf-inspired floating islands on his sim, details to follow, and this group of floating islands (in Tree of Trees colours) I thought could be something someone might want on their own sim, so I have it/them for sale on my sim ... contact me for details....

Now, I'm not sure if I have mentioned in these pages that Nazz Lane has done a very competent interview with me on his excellent blog Lane's List....

...and I am sure I haven't mentioned Neph's post on the ecological advantages brought to her bog by the planting of the Telepathic Bog Lilly which is a more recent post... here. Dark Moon sim is in SL, and mentioned previously here.

...and....


.... have a good sunday..


:))

Future trends??

It's becoming obvious to me recently that it is not LL that is going to make the biggest contribution to future steps in Virtual Reality.

I am very pleased at the fact that there is basically no news coming out of the Lab, no new shining toys, no stupid 'enhancements', as it seems like Rod has got the staff (those not involved in Mesh) scrubbing out the metaphorical toilets where years of clogged crud and limescale were allowed to accumulate by the previous twat while he sought Big Business as customers and deemed our criticisms to be 'whining'.

I recently linked to the new chip Intel is producing and hardware improvements are necessary it would seem before major new steps can be taken (good policy then for the Boys to get their house in order in the meantime).

The research and development going on which will allow 1000 or more avatars on a sim is also, eventually, going to be a game-changing factor.





...but will we ever sit like this in front of the screen?? ...not sure if I would enjoy that....(photo pinched from GadgetsGeekly ...here) which links to a much more comfortable concept below...





...also a pinched photo under the heading "sony is predicting a come-back for virtual reality"... here.

There is no doubt whatsoever in research and trials done in universities that this type of head mounted glasses or screen increases the feeling of Immersion (as we call it) or Presence (as the rest of the world calls it) by a huge degree.

Now while "3D" television and cinema are headache-inducing fads that come and go on a regular basis, a fuller or richer feeling of 'being there' induced by a screen you wear on your face has a great number of potential customers in Gamer cultures. We, a small band of Virtual Worlders, would benefit greatly from developments aimed at the gamer market.

So, hardware improvements are pretty core to the future of VW's along with broadband improvements, of course. While 1Gig services are currently only available in limited areas (and the whole of South Korea) ...it may not be too many years before this type of service is rolled out across the USA and Europe at an affordable price.

The increased broadband, new chips and headset could have us all in VWs while sat on the bus to work or doing the washing up.... tho I know many of you do this already via your phones, the experience would be vastly improved.

The only downside in this new utopian vision is the stranglehold the Big Boys (google, FB, etc) will have on the internet ... it'll be like living under an international dictator using terrorists and paedophiles as the reasons for restricting your access to ...well... basically, anything they don't like or doesn't pay.

Whether or not Holland, Sweden, Iceland and other enlightened countries will actually have the balls to stand up to The Patriot Act BS (as an example) and maintain net neutrality has yet to be seen. We may have to boycott US (possibly UK too) companies which would be very difficult as 'thats where the action is'.... interesting times....


:)))

Allure, July...

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

This months Steampunk Edition....

Some photos by me.

:))

soror Nishi leaves FaceBook, again....

Yep, after my first attempt failing (to leave that is) I just let the whole thing ramble on and then today, looking back on my last 6 months in Facebook I figured I had spent at least 80% of my Facebook time in disabling stuff. I never find anything interesting on Facebook and I don't find anything social about having hundreds of people call themselves friends either. I think I knew about 5% of my 'friends' and the rest were total strangers.

I really only need a handful of real friends, there's no status element for me in stacking up hundreds of people on my list. It has elements of when I was a teenager, I hated going to bed in case I 'missed something' and FB is a bit the same...get an account so that I am not missing out. Well, to be quite honest I don't think there was anything much to miss out on.

The secret with disabling your account at FB, and something I didn't know last time is...that you have to make sure you don't go to FB, or "like" on YouTube for 14 days after you leave... details here.

Now, Twitter, which I slagged off a lot in the beginning is quite enjoyable, its like inworld Chat, except, it mostly works, unlike Chat.

Netlog I joined because some French friends are allergic to the English language which, I thought, was fair enough...but... since I joined Netlog I have been contacted by a LOT of men who have, listed under interests only "women".... hmmm ...if your only interest in life is "women" AKA sex ... then you are a boring person and don't get any of my time. So, I've not been impressed with Netlog.... and my french isn't quite good enough to find out how to disable it....so I've just unclicked everything...

Posterous I have joined a while back and basically never used...well maybe once or twice, and LinkedIn has an RL fetish so I am not very impressed with that either.

News, and it's quite a long article, here, about how Google + is going to change social media and become the leader, overtaking FB as THE place to be. Very 'in depth' article and worth a read.

...and so... that is one less time-waste-nonsense I have to deal with.

...back to the tennis...

:))