For a time I had the Linden particle test object sitting on my porch at my Second Life™ home. It is a nine prim object. So, once I got tired of it I took it down. But, you can still get a copy of it. The Old London Docks blog (written in German) has a link to a copy of the test object.

This is the object that lets you see the different blending modes for particles. You need to be using the SL Viewer 3.6.7 to see the new particle effects. AFAIK, none of the third-party viewers can display the new particle effects. Expect to see that in the next releases.

I’m not that creative with particles, but I expect to see some really amazing effects from people that are. It should be fun.