Textures won’t load?

If, like me, you have experienced a wobble in the Force recently with the basic functions of SL not functioning properly then you would be feeling exactly like Juanita in her recent post.... confused and frustrated.

Now... I got this message for 3 days...

“.......The server is experiencing difficulties... uploading texture...xxxxxxxxx...please try again later.”.. well, something similar.

The implication in this message is “ the server has a life as hard as a wing-mirror spider and you are just overloading a poor unfortunate creature through your unceasing demands, please show some restraint.”

Anthropomorphism is a great word, however, we know that the server experiences nothing. It doesn’t know a difficulty from a fish cake. It only “experiences” either a 1 or an 0.

So, the truth is..one of two things...

“We have sacked so many people we can no longer provide basic services”

or

“Our machinery is so old and borked we can’t coax them into working properly anymore.”

Were I permitted to reply to the person who sends out this message, I would say...

“I am totally disinterested in your feeble excuses, do your job or I will take my custom elsewhere.”

The Lindens have, however, issued two pieces of “good news” to take your minds off this collapse of basic facilities, namely the news about Display Names and the news about Mesh.

So...don’t worry about the present, just think how good The Future is gonna be.

...and bear a thought for those poor noobs who have had their first experience of SL over the last 3 or 4 days.

Grey.

:(((

Bloggishness...

...no...not the name of a new viewer, I just thought it had been a while since I had written some tosh. Not wanting my poor reader to suffer withdrawal symptoms, I thought to rectify the deficit with the further ramblings of a demented soul....

Well, firstly, to catch up on my own press... I have to mention some very kind words by Lalo, Chestnut and thanks to Brinda for the links and the many friends who twittered.

I need also to mention Loquacia Loon and Chimera Lemon among many others who have taken some great shots of Tree of Trees.

Moving on..... I could rant a little about LL's Destination Guide and how once again we are required to do their work for them because they are too demented to do it themselves, but, I won't even mention it.

Instead I'd like to point you at Tateru Nino who writes a very good blog, and this one in response to the ongoing nauseous Fast Easy Fun mantra of the esteemed leader of this weird sect of ours who suggests that SL should be like the iPhone... very funny and true...

..".Safety-scissors and glitter are all very well for some people and will do everything that they ever want to do (so long as it’s sparkly and gets all over the carpet). Give me some power-tools, and lock up your grandkids, because I want to do more, even if I have to read a bunch of books, experiment for weeks, cuss at the screen and feel like I’m not making any progress. Because that’s what usually happens when we’re trying to learn something completely new, yes?".... exactly, I could not have put it half as clearly.

Now this particular idea, that it has to be easy so more people will stay, is such patent crap. In 2 years FarmVille will have been forgotten, like Friends Reunited and Avatars United, fax machines and punch-card operators, what we need is an INCREASE in technology. I can get a new graphics card if its worth it, and if I don't know how to fit one, I will learn.

There is no point in SL reverting to a handwritten letter exchange penned with quill and ink just because it is easy. "Safety sissors and glitter" says it all.

The degree to which the Boys are "listening" to us "residents" (god , I cringe every time I write that word... I don't live in SL, I don't own anything in SL, I simply rent server services.... I'm a client.)...anyway... if they are "listening" they will notice how many people are now getting worried about Display Names, and they will drop the whole idea. The "community" (cringe factor 9) is not prepared to take the risk, period. Alex has written three posts on the subject, starting here.

....and the Viewer saga rambles on, everyone asking everyone which viewer to use and the elephant in the room, the unasked question is..."why, oh why, oh why did the Boys release a viewer which needs at least another 6 months development before it is even remotely usable" ... it has done more to depress the new-user experience than any griefer freenis attack could ever do.

Anyway, to move on to more pleasant subjects... Botgirl, and Nightflower (and possibly Nightfire) are working on a great new video/machinima ...teasing taster here. That is yet another blog I will be following...(47th...it's a busy thing this blogosphere)...

Miso kinda got forgotten in my annoyance over Crap Speaking (not an avi) at the Pop Art lab opening. In fact there is a wealth of stuff there and Miso's particular build is layer upon layer of meaning and symbolism relating to our 'place' in the scheme of things, digitally and genetically. She has taken time to explain her thoughts in her blog, and, its a guide, really, to her build..... here.




In InWorldz news...well.. on the positive side, BoHo HoBo Fashions, courtesy of Trill have arrived, her new shop is at West Artlandia 62/237/22. So you don't have to look like a hooker or your mother anymore... it's all good.

...anyway, I'm bored writing this now, I want to get inworld and you are probably bored reading it...so...til the next thrilling instalment of the great soap opera we call .... hmmmm


:))))

soror Nishi's Tree of Trees

soror Nishi's Tree of Trees, originally uploaded by misssorornishi.

Well, for those of you who haven't flown through the particles, mushrooms and clouds....here's a little taster...


:))

Enjoy... a nice Sunday experience. ....here

:))

Opening night at IBM

Tasty Hax was the first to take the decks and spin a really great set. Laid back, sweet and tuneful there were people dancing all over the sim.




...and the actually DJ desk she rezzed looked like it had been made to fit in...cool..





DoubleDown Tandino took over and played some stunning good music...and a 100 people came and went in the course of the first 2 hours...





Luckily ColeMarie Soleil came and played the first tracks from her new album which was great as the Born Again Pagans couldn't show... maybe RL probs..

The great thing was the people there...we had a good laugh and there was some witty chat...all cool.

Cole kept us all on our toes with some magic...it was excellent...

Got to bed late, over 120 visitors later.. one of the best parties I've been to for ages....well, I would say that wouldn't I..

:))

Magoo Soror dreaming

Magoo Soror dreaming, originally uploaded by kumi kuhr.

Wow, I have only just discovered this piece of history. It's from Magoo and the Temple of the Prim which I did last year. Kumi Kuhr is the photographer and I love the opening photos particularly...

Thanks Kumi...

This is the link to Kumi's sets on Flickr

Brill

:)))

IBM, homology and Goethe.

There’s a thing about nature that I have been trying to express these last three years that is intrinsic to the way nature works.

Nature is economical. It takes matter and sculpts it in the most efficient manner to suit its ends.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote a book in 1790 called The Metamorphosis of Plants, in it he points out how a stem is basically a transformed leaf, as is a petal, as is a root. The basic unit of the plant is simply metamorphosed into different ‘organs’ by, as we now know, a fairly mathematical process of the changing shape and nature of the unit cell.

This process is almost identical to the one I use in Blender. I can only do one thing in Blender, namely change the distance between vertices.

In plants this is called homology and has a lot to do with why my plants in SL look as they do. All my plants have evolved in this manner from a single group of vertices in a Blender file: this is Virtual Homology.

The prim as Increatum was very much the basis of my build at Magoo last year and this subject of homology has been in my mind a lot as I have been building IBM.

....altho...my press release is less philosophical...

"Tree of Trees

This build is an attempt to condense my last three years work in Second Life into an experience which demonstrates my vision of landscaping in virtual worlds.

All 11k prims are sculpties I have made in Blender and coloured with textures which started life as paintings.

I think of myself more as a landscape artist but had to first make the plants and other pieces as there were no satisfactory elements in SL for me to use.

I am very grateful to IBM for their generosity and particularly to Tezcatlipoca Bisiani for making this such an easy thing to arrange."


Avatar Architexture..

..at around 300 meters I have rezzed a little home. It is a sample of the type of building I would imagine avatars inhabiting rather than poor copies of RL houses. My reasons for the general dislike I have of current SL architecture I have given voice to previously.


Look forward to seeing you there...

:))

Tree of Trees

Well...just wanted to clarify....

...about Saturday 11th... and Tree of Trees at IBM..

Tasty Hax will be the first DJ to open at noon SLT
...thanks to her for filling a gap while DoubleDown Tandino has a chance to get some lunch before ...

DD Tandino will play from 1pm til 2pm...and then time for me to get some supper before....

The Born Again Pagans will play live at 3 pm SLT.

OK...let's hope that's the final line-up..:)))

In other me, me, me news... a very nice article by Thirza Ember..
Arbor virtualis: trees of soror Nishi.
Thirza also did a great post about Aliz.

Other gossip is that Eshi Otawara has been banned "it's all my own fault"... no more details as yet...

...and Philip says very little in a recent interview ..We're really regarding the situation as serious," Rosedale said. "We've got a lot more work to do." bla bla bla...

...and the Hair Fair gets a lot of criticism, not by me this time...tho it sounds horrible....here.

...and as emerald becomes illegal... a new Viewer....god...I think a post is brewing... this one is a tuna-based one called Dolphin, still, not as badly named as Phoenix (cringe)... I think its by the Cool Viewer guy, but really I have no idea, I just can't keep up.....and I'm not the only one.

Amazingly 25% of people that read NWN use the Infuriating Viewer (2.0) .....

oh well, no accounting for taste.

:)))