Well, a new type of SnowStorm is being planned...one with 100% visibility...It goes like this...
1) LL sacks all its developers after spending 500 hours on a viewer that most people despise.
2) Admitting that it's too hard for the few remaining to figure out LL give the problem free, gratis, opensource to guys and gals who want to help them build a brave new world.
3) Everyone can be involved... publicly, meetings are open and etc....generally hunky-dory..new idea being...LL will actually let people test the viewer before it is released.
4) When the task is completed and you have sorted out everything including meshes and search, LL promise not to implement "Third Party Viewer Policy v 2.0"... (Make Sure We Still Have That Advertising Space On The UI Policy)
Oh, sorry, item 4 was not specifically mentioned, but I'm sure they wouldn't do that to you all again, would they...
5) Anyone giving their time to this product will get a reduced tier ...sorry...me bad...that was just pure fantasy...
Now, excuse my cynicism, but it is born of experience, a sort of sensible cynicism, ..... I wonder if it is actually too late in the day to ask people to help them build a brave new world. Isn't there a credibility gap?
Most producers know that if you release a real dog of a product onto the market no amount of advertising hype and forced enthusiasm will resurrect the dead. Bury it, start again.
But, the Mantra of the Dead Viewer goes like this.... "Viewer 2 has great new features".. and lots of people are joining in, it has a sort of mystical optimism about it.. try it.. hmm... nah, its pure crap...
Web on a prim..big deal.
With Qarl now joining Emerald I know who my money would be on if I were a gambler.
In other big news we will soon, "very soon" be able to have more names floating over our heads. Excited?... wow... that will be in the same class as voice morphing I would guess... did manage to sleep last night...
I know this does all sound negative, and I would like to be upbeat, but no mention of scalable prims, builders tools, linking sets, nothing concrete, nothing real, just hype....
So you're gonna fix the viewer...well you busted it in the first place....
...more snake oil, anyone?
:(((
Monday, 16 August 2010
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Riches to Rags?
One of the points arising from the Roadmap yesterday was the (long awaited by some) announcement that the intention is for landowners to get more control over avatars and scripts running on their property to reduce lag.
The problem is that some resizing scripts, and the heavy avatar rendering cost of some outfits causes lag when more than a few avis are collected together on a sim.
Now, no-one is going to object to poor scripts (whatever that means) being overhauled or disabled for the General Good in the ongoing Lag Wars. Avatar rendering costs is a touchier subject...
I had probably been in SL for two years before I had any idea of what ARC (lazy typist) are/is... and, luckily I have always liked simple clothes with the exception of a few outrageous hairstyles and a couple of belts. So, I don't imagine I will be getting thrown off too many sims in the future for overdressing...however...
Some people don't build, don't own land, and their principle creative outlet is their avatar. These people are a real boon for SL, making the most mundane build into a theatrical event, stepping centre-stage and, like glorious peacocks, strutting their stuff, AO's working full out to impress. I love em.
Now, dressing down is not something that will be welcomed by these people, nor will it be easily understood by newbies. It will be difficult enough steering a path through PG, Adult, Mature sims, without then subdividing these again into Low, Medium and High ARC sims. Presumably each landowner having his or her own idea of what is 'reasonable use' of prims.
One persons Prim Hog is another's Fashionista.
I foresee chaos... and baldness.
In almost every walk of digital and RL life I am being encouraged to consume more. More RAM in my computer, more storage on Flickr, more calls on my mobile...etc... but LL will be going against this trend, advocating less prims per person in some cases....
Can't I get MORE server space for my buck over time??
LL will, of course, survive this future flurry of furious fashionistas as it will the justifiable anger of heart-broken teens who will be separated from their friends through an arbitrary age divide when they close the Teen Grid.... but...
...the list of Pissed Off Minorities grows.
It is in the nature of mass provision that the fringe groups get neglected as the Mass becomes a sort of dictator. The fringes are sacrificed so the Mass can grow. That doesn't however make it all right. The end never justifies the means, because it is morally indefensible to treat one person badly, let alone a whole batch of under 16's (for example).
It's a well known saying "be careful who you tread on, on the way up..."
I don't have an immediate solution to a number of these issues that I throw back at the Boys, and it may be that I should stop moaning, but, as there is a lack of any real platform to discuss these Edicts, this is the only way I can try and get these things discussed... to voice a counter thought, to question the accepted 'view'.
It just seems to me that a more 'inclusive' philosophy would be more beneficial in the long run, rather than a growing list of "Thou shalt not..."
"Your World, Your Imagination" is becoming "Our World, Our Rules"...and that is not an encouraging path to walk down....
:))
The problem is that some resizing scripts, and the heavy avatar rendering cost of some outfits causes lag when more than a few avis are collected together on a sim.
Now, no-one is going to object to poor scripts (whatever that means) being overhauled or disabled for the General Good in the ongoing Lag Wars. Avatar rendering costs is a touchier subject...
I had probably been in SL for two years before I had any idea of what ARC (lazy typist) are/is... and, luckily I have always liked simple clothes with the exception of a few outrageous hairstyles and a couple of belts. So, I don't imagine I will be getting thrown off too many sims in the future for overdressing...however...
Some people don't build, don't own land, and their principle creative outlet is their avatar. These people are a real boon for SL, making the most mundane build into a theatrical event, stepping centre-stage and, like glorious peacocks, strutting their stuff, AO's working full out to impress. I love em.
Now, dressing down is not something that will be welcomed by these people, nor will it be easily understood by newbies. It will be difficult enough steering a path through PG, Adult, Mature sims, without then subdividing these again into Low, Medium and High ARC sims. Presumably each landowner having his or her own idea of what is 'reasonable use' of prims.
One persons Prim Hog is another's Fashionista.
I foresee chaos... and baldness.
In almost every walk of digital and RL life I am being encouraged to consume more. More RAM in my computer, more storage on Flickr, more calls on my mobile...etc... but LL will be going against this trend, advocating less prims per person in some cases....
Can't I get MORE server space for my buck over time??
LL will, of course, survive this future flurry of furious fashionistas as it will the justifiable anger of heart-broken teens who will be separated from their friends through an arbitrary age divide when they close the Teen Grid.... but...
...the list of Pissed Off Minorities grows.
It is in the nature of mass provision that the fringe groups get neglected as the Mass becomes a sort of dictator. The fringes are sacrificed so the Mass can grow. That doesn't however make it all right. The end never justifies the means, because it is morally indefensible to treat one person badly, let alone a whole batch of under 16's (for example).
It's a well known saying "be careful who you tread on, on the way up..."
I don't have an immediate solution to a number of these issues that I throw back at the Boys, and it may be that I should stop moaning, but, as there is a lack of any real platform to discuss these Edicts, this is the only way I can try and get these things discussed... to voice a counter thought, to question the accepted 'view'.
It just seems to me that a more 'inclusive' philosophy would be more beneficial in the long run, rather than a growing list of "Thou shalt not..."
"Your World, Your Imagination" is becoming "Our World, Our Rules"...and that is not an encouraging path to walk down....
:))
A good CEO
Now, I said, just the other day, yesterday in fact, that the jury was still out regarding Philip and whether "I would buy a used car from this man,"...and so as not to be completely negative I thought I would include an example of how easy it is, with a few words to set the score straight.
This is an email I received this morning......from the CEO of Posterous..
"Hi
As you’re no doubt aware, Posterous has had a rocky six days.
On Wednesday and Friday, our servers were hit by massive Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. We responded quickly and got back online within an hour, but it didn’t matter; the site went down and our users couldn’t post.
On Friday night, our team worked around the clock to move to new data centers, better capable of handling the onslaught. It wasn’t easy. Throughout the weekend we were fixing issues, optimizing the site, some things going smoothly, others less so.
Just at the moments we thought the worst was behind us, we’d run up against another challenge. It tested not only our technical abilities, but our stamina, patience, and we lost more than a few hairs in the process.
I’m happy to report Posterous is at 100% and better than ever. Switching to a new data center will help us avoid the type of attacks we saw last week, and the new, bigger, beefier servers will speed up the site and increase capacity. We were hit pretty hard, but we’ve come out stronger in the end.
While we were certainly frustrated, we know that no one was more frustrated than you. Your website was down, and I humbly apologize for that. Know that throughout these six days, restoring your site and your trust has been our number one priority.
At the same time, I have never been prouder of the Posterous team. Garry led the team in the server migration, Vince worked like a mad man until he passed out on his desk, and Jackson helped the community understand the impacts of some pretty technical issues. This week has been all hands on deck, and we had some pretty great hands.
We have great plans for the future of Posterous. Our team is stronger than ever, and we are laser focused on developing better ways for you to share your content online. Thank you for believing in us, thank you for trusting us, and thank you for sticking with us through the past six days.
--Sachin Agarwal
Cofounder and CEO, Posterous"
That's how easy it is to regain the confidence of your customers...
.... just a little time and some feedback..
...easy.
:))
This is an email I received this morning......from the CEO of Posterous..
"Hi
As you’re no doubt aware, Posterous has had a rocky six days.
On Wednesday and Friday, our servers were hit by massive Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. We responded quickly and got back online within an hour, but it didn’t matter; the site went down and our users couldn’t post.
On Friday night, our team worked around the clock to move to new data centers, better capable of handling the onslaught. It wasn’t easy. Throughout the weekend we were fixing issues, optimizing the site, some things going smoothly, others less so.
Just at the moments we thought the worst was behind us, we’d run up against another challenge. It tested not only our technical abilities, but our stamina, patience, and we lost more than a few hairs in the process.
I’m happy to report Posterous is at 100% and better than ever. Switching to a new data center will help us avoid the type of attacks we saw last week, and the new, bigger, beefier servers will speed up the site and increase capacity. We were hit pretty hard, but we’ve come out stronger in the end.
While we were certainly frustrated, we know that no one was more frustrated than you. Your website was down, and I humbly apologize for that. Know that throughout these six days, restoring your site and your trust has been our number one priority.
At the same time, I have never been prouder of the Posterous team. Garry led the team in the server migration, Vince worked like a mad man until he passed out on his desk, and Jackson helped the community understand the impacts of some pretty technical issues. This week has been all hands on deck, and we had some pretty great hands.
We have great plans for the future of Posterous. Our team is stronger than ever, and we are laser focused on developing better ways for you to share your content online. Thank you for believing in us, thank you for trusting us, and thank you for sticking with us through the past six days.
--Sachin Agarwal
Cofounder and CEO, Posterous"
That's how easy it is to regain the confidence of your customers...
.... just a little time and some feedback..
...easy.
:))
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Escapee.... copybot strikes...
I said before, it's impossible to protect your IPR (intellectual property rights) and I stand by that, even if we would like to change it.
Well, someone stole a tree from me (and a set of lillies)..... It's not anything I'm likely to get upset about...I see it more like an escapee. Shame I'm not as good at copying my own stuff.....
Plastichansa Bade and Arielsong Allen are the miscreants with good taste, tho I doubt they use those names in SL.
Still theft of my art works has happened before (RL) and it will no doubt happen again..... and it is a form of flattery they say.......hehehehe..
No one can steal my skill tho...thank the gods.
Sod em.
:))
Snake oil, anyone?
Well, just caught some of Philip's casual coffee in hand chat at SLCC....
For those of you that missed it... Philip is gonna get.. (well...I probably missed some stuff)...
Group chat fixed,
region crossings better,
fast startup, low crash rate,
automatic viewer updates,
'more' avatars per region,
more names floating over your head (yeh, that's a vital help...lol...)
meshes are gonna come (esp. for hair, it seems),
teens are gonna join us as they close the teen grid (saves using Mom's credit card said SecondLie)
..and Search is a complete mystery to all concerned (so...no promises there).
No mention of scalable prims or builder's tools...
"We do a very good job" of PR, he claims...and, he does...when he's there. It all sounds great.
I am still unsure tho...would I buy a used car from this man?
Has Yosemite Sam turned Snake Oil salesman...??
:))
For those of you that missed it... Philip is gonna get.. (well...I probably missed some stuff)...
Group chat fixed,
region crossings better,
fast startup, low crash rate,
automatic viewer updates,
'more' avatars per region,
more names floating over your head (yeh, that's a vital help...lol...)
meshes are gonna come (esp. for hair, it seems),
teens are gonna join us as they close the teen grid (saves using Mom's credit card said SecondLie)
..and Search is a complete mystery to all concerned (so...no promises there).
No mention of scalable prims or builder's tools...
"We do a very good job" of PR, he claims...and, he does...when he's there. It all sounds great.
I am still unsure tho...would I buy a used car from this man?
Has Yosemite Sam turned Snake Oil salesman...??
:))
Why not us.....??
Well, it's a rhetorical question, "why not us?"....as this is NOT a video taken from SL where anything from BL (ex) to music events would benefit greatly from being able to have 1000 avatars on a sim. No, SL once again is being left behind, this from ScienceSim...full report and links here.
Then the development of the Hypergrid is gonna be the next big thing, with the possibility to tp from grid to grid being possible already, having a bank account that works in 14 grids already (OMC its called) will turn tourism on it's head. LL could have used the L$ to gain this sort of market reach if they hadn't lost their minds chasing the fictional millions of Microsoft-baseball-capped geeks who think SL is crap...
....and not even a mesh in sight....but hey....big announcements coming up at SLCC where, I predict, LL will throw projects they haven't managed to develop themselves to the Free Workers of Open Source to do the work for them, and meshes might be one...we will see.....certainly Search seems too difficult for Sea Linden and her tiny team..(does she have one, or is she It?)....maybe The Free Workers could tackle that too while they are at it.???
Viewer 2.whatever will be thrown hooklineandsinker to the Freeworkers, but that's not new news. The aim is obviously to remove the stench of rotten code by calling it Kirstens S20...as an example...but rubbish is rubbish however it is named (to paraphrase Shakespere)..and Kirstens S20 is crap.... e.g. you can't have camera controls and movement controls in use at the same time....either look or walk??
Anyway the continued push to make a viewer that supports their future plans for selling advertising space and that we don't totally reject will certainly continue apace... I wonder if anything of any importance will be announced...??
Oh, yes, am I the only person who remembers talk of flexible sculpties...or is that meshes...I mentioned them 13 months ago on these pages ..........
"So...thats the Trouble With Linden Labs.... :))) Scientific Survey Statisics steeped in stupidity are called "listening to the community"... DUH! read a few blogs and comments instead!!
Give us scalable mega prims, give us shadows, give us flexible sculpties ....advertise SL in RL ... lower tier.... stop fannying around.... any one of those would be cool......with the amount of (my) money they have ...all of them are possible."
I am not holding my breath.
":))
Thursday, 12 August 2010
The borked dork and Yosemite Sam
Make no mistake I dislike Microsoft baseball caps not the lifeforms who live in them.
Someone just got far too much attention and his performance was kinda embarrassing. I found myself wondering about his life too much...is dork a purely Brit word?
I personally think LL missed a trick when they clamped down on gambling (apart from the fact that I had shares in Las Vegas which became worthless overnight) because my TV is full of adverts for online gambling which is, a year on from the big clamp down, seen as fairly innocuous and mainstream.
...when it comes to sex, well, the porn guys, if they had been given their head (sorry, would have been criminal not to use that) may have fuelled the engine that drives change to a better graphic experience. Personally I believe in making love not war... that might make me a liberal hippy, but rather that than a repressed bigot.
Now the baseball cap has nothing to say on V 2.0 that hasn't already been said by someone far less annoying. I have it on good authority though that the 1.23 is out!
End of September and we'll all be on Emerald or will have packed our bags and fled along with the other refugees to a saner world, yes, InWorldz.
There was, apparently, a conversation with Jack Linden during his Office Hours (wish I worked such short hours)... during which it became obvious to my reporting colleague that by the end of September, Viewer 1.23 would no longer be supported. There are apparently workarounds for those who know how to refile it as 'old viewer'...far beyond me, and ....... why bother. Most of the builders I know use Emerald and Imprudence has been well spoken of too.
Another shot in the arm for IWz? as if they need one...
...Oh, and while I'm here...re.Yosemite Sam.... well, Dusan feels like he should apologise to Philip because he took so much flak for not attending SLCC in person, then it turns out that The Shining Knight is in fact off to play Yosemite Sam with his family.
so... I thought about this... now I've never been a CEO (except once in a two person Company), so I guess a job is just a job and free time is important etc etc....being self-employed myself, I always make sure my free time doesn't interrupt business.....or I'd starve.
But, as usual with these things, my interest is immediately drawn to a basic question...namely...Why oh why, when he has had several opportunities, didn't he mention this before? It goes like this...more or less...on the blog which is now called a wiki..."Philip will be presenting at SLCC via Virtual Media.."BECAUSE HE WILL BE ON HOLIDAY AT THE TIME"..... So...9 words which, altho pressed for time, someone could have typed...none of them being hard words to spell.
...and why...stood on the platform at his not-very-public-meeting did he not say..."hey, guys (in his easy confident inspiring manner) it's a bummer I can't be at SLCC, I'll be with my family on those days"...
In case you think I am making too much of this, ask a psychiatrist about omissions. They are important.
So, I have to have a view on this, yes? Yes.
Community is us, the Boys like to tell us at every step that we are a community, even tho communities can't be built like a good bit of code. Now, if Philip was part of that community he would have mentioned something about holidays and no-one would have done anything but say .." great, bud, have a good one, shoots some of them pesky ground squirrels for me."
But, they are the Corporation. They "sell" ideas to us, they dictate changes and they are the bosses. They don't need to tell us about their holidays, why would they? They don't need to tell people why they get the sack. They don't tell us why they can't get search to work. They don't need anything from us except the money to pay wages and The Vultures.
Machines say to me "your call is important to us" ...(not important enough to employ enough people to answer the phones).. and the Boys say..."we are listening",....duh!!... so are the FBI...that doesn't make it a community. Conversation is a two way process...tell us stuff, explain, blog....anything....we want feed back. That's why so many go to IWz and they show a 30% growth in 6 weeks... WE LIKE TO BELONG, not as possessions, minions and serfs, but as a part of something exciting.
That is why I will not be apologising to Philip for giving him flak.
Tough love...
:)))
Someone just got far too much attention and his performance was kinda embarrassing. I found myself wondering about his life too much...is dork a purely Brit word?
I personally think LL missed a trick when they clamped down on gambling (apart from the fact that I had shares in Las Vegas which became worthless overnight) because my TV is full of adverts for online gambling which is, a year on from the big clamp down, seen as fairly innocuous and mainstream.
...when it comes to sex, well, the porn guys, if they had been given their head (sorry, would have been criminal not to use that) may have fuelled the engine that drives change to a better graphic experience. Personally I believe in making love not war... that might make me a liberal hippy, but rather that than a repressed bigot.
Now the baseball cap has nothing to say on V 2.0 that hasn't already been said by someone far less annoying. I have it on good authority though that the 1.23 is out!
End of September and we'll all be on Emerald or will have packed our bags and fled along with the other refugees to a saner world, yes, InWorldz.
There was, apparently, a conversation with Jack Linden during his Office Hours (wish I worked such short hours)... during which it became obvious to my reporting colleague that by the end of September, Viewer 1.23 would no longer be supported. There are apparently workarounds for those who know how to refile it as 'old viewer'...far beyond me, and ....... why bother. Most of the builders I know use Emerald and Imprudence has been well spoken of too.
Another shot in the arm for IWz? as if they need one...
...Oh, and while I'm here...re.Yosemite Sam.... well, Dusan feels like he should apologise to Philip because he took so much flak for not attending SLCC in person, then it turns out that The Shining Knight is in fact off to play Yosemite Sam with his family.
so... I thought about this... now I've never been a CEO (except once in a two person Company), so I guess a job is just a job and free time is important etc etc....being self-employed myself, I always make sure my free time doesn't interrupt business.....or I'd starve.
But, as usual with these things, my interest is immediately drawn to a basic question...namely...Why oh why, when he has had several opportunities, didn't he mention this before? It goes like this...more or less...on the blog which is now called a wiki..."Philip will be presenting at SLCC via Virtual Media.."BECAUSE HE WILL BE ON HOLIDAY AT THE TIME"..... So...9 words which, altho pressed for time, someone could have typed...none of them being hard words to spell.
...and why...stood on the platform at his not-very-public-meeting did he not say..."hey, guys (in his easy confident inspiring manner) it's a bummer I can't be at SLCC, I'll be with my family on those days"...
In case you think I am making too much of this, ask a psychiatrist about omissions. They are important.
So, I have to have a view on this, yes? Yes.
Community is us, the Boys like to tell us at every step that we are a community, even tho communities can't be built like a good bit of code. Now, if Philip was part of that community he would have mentioned something about holidays and no-one would have done anything but say .." great, bud, have a good one, shoots some of them pesky ground squirrels for me."
But, they are the Corporation. They "sell" ideas to us, they dictate changes and they are the bosses. They don't need to tell us about their holidays, why would they? They don't need to tell people why they get the sack. They don't tell us why they can't get search to work. They don't need anything from us except the money to pay wages and The Vultures.
Machines say to me "your call is important to us" ...(not important enough to employ enough people to answer the phones).. and the Boys say..."we are listening",....duh!!... so are the FBI...that doesn't make it a community. Conversation is a two way process...tell us stuff, explain, blog....anything....we want feed back. That's why so many go to IWz and they show a 30% growth in 6 weeks... WE LIKE TO BELONG, not as possessions, minions and serfs, but as a part of something exciting.
That is why I will not be apologising to Philip for giving him flak.
Tough love...
:)))
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