Bits of Second Life 2014-42

I have lots of interesting bits this time. RL has been keeping me busy and I have SL projects I am trying to complete. So, I’ve been collecting these for a few days. There are several thing here that will affect most Second Life™ users.

Second Life 2014

Second Life 2014

Web Design Second Life

The Lindens have a new job opening posted. Web Design Engineer Wanted.

Second Life HTTP & CDN

I’ve been writing about the subjects for weeks. The Lindens have now made an ‘official’ post in the SL Blog. See: The Sky Over Berlin (and Elsewhere).

I have no idea why they chose the title they did. But, the post has a nice graph that shows the speed up the changes are making.

Fabulously Free Hair

Fabulously Free is pointing us to 100 mostly free hair do’s. Some are pretty awesome, especially for the price range. Love Trill has set herself a goal of rounding up 100 Fabulously Free Hair offers. This is great for those of us with friends new to Second Life. Not so bad for our other friends too.

See: Big Free (ish) Hair Post – Part 1. The part one has the first 29 items, some of which I think I have to have. The fourth installment of the list arrived Wednesday (10/16). See: Big Free (ish) Hair Post – Part 4. This fourth part has links to Parts 1, 2, & 3.

But, why didn’t she say where that cute dress (top?) with the butterflies came from?

I went by Argrace to get the Witches hat. It was free, but the trip was expensive. There was some cute stuff I just had to have. Then there is the Alice Project, my first mesh do came from AP.

Whatever, there seems to be a mistake in the article stating the Alice group is free to join. There is a free to join group. But, the group that gets the good stuff costs L$750 to join. Since the Kimberly hair do I like sells for about L$300 the group deal is not that good for me. Of course if the gift to group members is the fat pack (L$1,350), then it’s not a bad deal. But, I doubt it is the fat pack. Of course if you buy lots of Alice do’s, then it is a good deal.

Virtual Worlds Citizens or Customers?

There is a new study out on the idea of whether we are citizens of Second Life™ or customers of Linden Lab. I thought we could be  both, but what do I know? The study is here: Virtual worlds players – consumers or citizens?

Abstract

This article questions the preconceived notions that participants in virtual worlds are essentially consumers. Building on the existing scholarship around virtual worlds and notwithstanding the current character of virtual worlds, this paper explores aspects of End User Licence Agreements and notes the unfairness of their provisions, particularly the imbalance between user and developer interests governed by such contracts. It argues that the contracts cannot be regulated with consumer protection legislation, as interests such as property or intellectual property are beyond the scope of consumer protection regimes. Finally, recognizing the phenomenon of constitutionalisation of virtual worlds, the article argues for stronger regulatory solutions in this domain, in order to strike a more appropriate balance between competing interests in virtual worlds.

Some interesting ideas.

Digital assets post-mortem

This is a rather depressing subject, but death is a part of life. What do virtual worlds do with ones goods when a customer/citizen dies? This study examines the subject. See: Digital assets post-mortem.

The idea of the virtual world owner taking the position of: “you’re dead, it’s now mine” is questioned.

Cheap Virtual World Regions

Hypergrid Business has an article up on CloudServer offering 45,000 prim regions for US$7.95/month. Sounds great. Now can they offer me customers like Second Life does?

See: Cloud-based OpenSim.

OSGrid

OSGrid had a disk system failure weeks ago. As of today they still have 0 users in world. No word on progress recovering from the crash since 10m/1d/2014.

New Login Screen

I think I understand why this new screen works well for new users. But, I still look to the bottom of the viewer for my login. I think the 3.7.17 viewer is a sluggish viewer. I’ve had a crash or two, one kicked in the Windows Compatibility Assistant, which took some time to back out. and lots of slow rendering regions.

Viewer Issues with Loading Web Pages

This is an issue that has come up due to problems on the Internet. The Lindens announced the problem in the Grid Status notes.

[Posted 12:15 PM PDT, 15 October 2014] Residents may be unable to open certain websites using the viewers internal browser. This is due to a security related change made by many web sites in response to a vulnerability announced today by Google.  This issue will affect Media-on-a-Prim for those sites, and will block initial setup of some SLShare accounts.

You may be able to access those sites by setting your  viewer to use an external browser: go to Me/Preferences/Setup and check “Use my browser (Chrome, Firefox, IE) for all links.

We are aware of the issue and working on a fix.

For more information on the vulnerability announced by Google, please visit: Exploiting the SSL 3.0 fallback. (Published 10/14/2014)

Basically, this is a possible exploit that will allow hackers to intercept your network communications. Via a flaw in SSL3 they can break the encryption and read text flowing through the channel. So, they would be able to read login information.

This has little effect on our use of SL. But, the spin-off from it is some web pages will not open in the viewer’s internal web browser. 

Places for Sex

There is no shortage of places where people can hook up for free. The challenge is finding the paces that have good animations and either lots of people or lots of privacy. It can take some time to find places you like. The PornStars Blog (NSFW) has just published a review of Dirty Rythms [sic](NSFW) and interview with the owner of the region Dirty Rythms, which provides free accommodations for the horny.

This is more than a simple shack-up place. They have provision for parties and large roll plays… large as in lots of people… for instance: doing a burlesque show with an RP dance group.

Many of the animations are by Naku Nishi, who’s animations seem to be showing up in a lot of sex furniture. Many of them have good female hip action. The collection of sex furniture and toys is by a variety of vendors that use different animation scripts; AVSitter, MLP, and nPose. So, it can be challenging figuring out which works what way. Especially if you don’t read the welcome card that advises you must belong to the Dirty Rythms group and have it active for most things to work.

Quoting Richh Devin from the Pornstars interview, “Now it [Adult on SL] is all about enjoying the fantasy. There are some super adult sims with great themes and fantastic role play. Drama is certainly out. People won’t deal with it. Close quarters interaction with roleplay or themed events are in. The porn industry is thriving and naughty is hot on SL.

See: Places to Play. – EVERYTHING is free.

I have found that when visiting such places, using an RLV enabled viewer with tkPBA or other RLV interface, can reveal otherwise unseen features. Set tkPBA to ON/Ask for quick exploration. If you do not use RLV you can really miss out on features often found in adult areas. I have just started to explore in Dirty Rythms, no RLV yet.

Second Life Mesh Bodies in Review

If you are thinking about purchasing a mesh body, take a look at Meghindo Romano Andreea D’s (or just Meghindo) Flickr image and her article on mesh bodies. See: Mesh Body – Make Up YOUR Mind. If you follow Pornstar’s you have seen the article mixed in with the XXX. If your avoiding porn, you have likely missed it. So, here is your chance to see a side by side comparison.

Flickr Image

Flickr Image

The original image is 4,000+ pixels. Flickr makes it awkward to see the full size image. You have to know the trick to see the maximum detail. OR… just click here: Full Size Image View.

Meghindo purchased all the bodies with her own L$. So, I tend to give more credit to an article as being frank and unbiased when an author/reviewer does that. In any case she doesn’t rate them, so…

Meghindo says there are 11 mesh body brands listed in the Second Life Market Place (MP). That is about 6 more than I knew about. Meghindo provides links to each brands MP page or in-world store.

Meghindo points out some of the basic considerations and advantages for choosing a mesh body. Remember. These bodies work very much like the classic avatar body. We can adjust their shape, the body’s shape, using the Shape Sliders. Hands, feet, and head sliders are mostly useless with mesh replacements.

I wrote some time ago that I expect SL2 to have an improved version of mesh bodies, heads, hands, and feet as the base avatar. It may well be possible to take our mesh bodies from SL1 to SL2, but don’t count on it. Just consider it a possibility.

It may well be licensing/permissions that prevent customers moving their SL1 purchases to SL2. That will drive the entitlement crowd up the wall and into a drama frenzy.

I am as certain as I can be that, with some work, designers can take their mesh work to SL2. I am counting on that. You make your own decision.

Google+

Google+ HangOuts is a new or remade app. This is an app for your Android and iOS devices. It also works for Chrome OS and Windows as a browser app. If you have used a FB app then this will be an intuitive app for you.

If you use it to voice call groups, you can rack up some charges. Check the details before using. More details are here.

Google+ Polls

Google+ is adding polls. So, we can start asking people what they think in an easy to evaluate way. See: Polls – The latest feature to grace Google+.

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