Bits and Pieces 2013-34

Reflecting back I find this year to be a year when I know more about what the Lindens are doing and have in the pipeline than at any time previously. Yet, we still know almost nothing about what the Lindens plan to put in the pipeline next. That is typical in the free world’s competitive business market place. But, it is certainly annoying.

Really nice lighting and decor. Designed Chaos

Really nice lighting and decor. Designed Chaos

Many of the things the Lindens are doing now are large projects. When Rod started with Linden Lab the plan was to start fixing and changing problems to make SL more enjoyable and useable. First the easily fixed things were fixed. In these years managed by Rod large projects are more the order of daily business. Bake fail was a problem long before Rod arrived. In 2011 the Lab started working to figure out the causes and now in August 2013 a change to reduce bake fail has just rolled out. 

Over the next week we’ll see how well it does.

Advanced Experience Tools are still in process. Group Bans are in process. Viewer changes are starting to pour through the new viewer release system. We may see a new viewer every week for a while. The Lindens may slow that down if they get too many complaints.

Lindens have said more performance improvements are on the way. So, they are busy, we just don’t know on what.

New Controllers

With the Oculus Rift coming many are interested in the controllers that will be needed to avoid having to use the mouse and keyboard. The word from inside the Lab is they are figuring out what to do with the UI.

MYO is a new controller from ThalmicLabs that looks like a good match for the Oculus Rift.

The advantage of the MYO over the LEAP Motion controller is being able to relax your arms. It is more costly (US$149) than LEAP Motion ($89).

Linden Succeeds

Hamlet at New World Notes writes about Blocksworld Becoming one of the Top 3 iPad Apps. Now that is an achievement. See: Blocksworld.

Hamlet just wrote about it making the Lab some serious coin. See: Blocksworld Making Pretty Good Money. That will be a good thing for the Lab. Hamlet suggests the financial cushion takes some of holiness of the SL cash cow. The Lab may be a bit more daring with SL develop if it is not their only source of income. I suspect there is some truth in that. 

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