Second Life News HUNKS 2018 w46

Scam – There is a new viewer scam out. No one is quite sure what the scam viewer does. I doubt it is anything you want to find out by experimenting. There are a couple of people taking the viewer apart and looking at the questionable code.

You’ll see the first of the scam in an Instant Message (IM). It is a great promo for a new version of the Firestorm PRO Viewer. It promises ‘No Lag’ even on slow connections, instant loading inventory, faster teleports, instant avatar rez, and faster login. Who wouldn’t want this version of Firestorm?

The Egg Thief

The Egg Thief

But, it is a scam. There is no PRO version of Firestorm. You are sent to a fake Firestorm site FirestormViewer.pro. The real address is FirestormViewer.org. The fake site provides a download with an embedded virus. Most of the big name anti-virus products detect the problem.

Inara provides information on how to report this IM if you receive one. See her Fake Firestorm.

Stan Lee – The RL Marvel Comics hero has passed at age 95. He was the brain behind the characters in Marvel Comics. Bummer. 

Avatar Problems – There has been a rash of avatar render failures. This is an SL system problem. There was some unscheduled maintenance going on that caused the problems. Just before that there were DDoS attacks that caused problems, login and render.

Seems the new engine for Bakes on Mesh overloaded… really.

Heat from XXX – This is an event for those looking for some hawt clothes. This iteration of the event runs to 12/3. Find out more here: XXX Event (Oops site is down). You’ll have to get the details from Seraphim.

Townhall Meeting – Thursday 11/15 @ 10:00 AM SLT in Town Hall Island1, Town Hall Island2, and Town Hall Island3 Grumpity Linden, Oz Linden, and Patch Linden were answering questions. Abbreviated version of the Q&A follow.

SL Land Auctions – You may have heard the land auction system in SL is being revamped to allow residents to auction off land they own. This saves transferring land to the Lindens then they auction it. However, things are not going as smoothly as hoped and the project is unlikely to complete until sometime early in 2019.

You may have noticed that land costs are down. Lowest in some time.

Last Names – Something residents have wanted since they were turned off. Seems getting them working won’t happen until 2019. Maybe Q2. It looks like a name change may cost US$30… but no one knows for sure. They will require a Premium Membership too.

There is some question about reverting to a name you previously used. For now, they think we will be able to do that. BUT… it may change.

Town Hall Meeting – 11/15/2018 – It happened. I was elsewhere RL and didn’t make it. SL Newser published a link to a video of the meeting, November 2018 Townhall Meeting with Linden Lab.

SL Marketplace – Lots of changes and new features. Being able to add a marketplace manager is being looked at. Current thinking is that it will be doable pretty quickly (Linden quickly).

Marketplace cleanup is currently in progress. Those that have not logged into SL or Marketplace in 5 years and the items haven’t sold in 3 years, they were removed. No screams. So, most have not noticed the cleanup.

Marketplace Filters – The Lindens are looking at adding new categories for better filtering. They have a new support page to show how to use the filters via Boolean controls.

Linden Realms – Bunch of new updates.

Grid Wide Experiences – As it is now Experiences must be enabled on land. The difference with ‘Grid Wide’ is the Experience will be enabled grid wide unless the landowner disables it. Nothing else changes. The server and viewer sides are pretty much working now. The hold up is in how one signs up for a Grid Wide Experience. The accounting stuff is incomplete and in progress.

ETA for this is sort of about the time other Premium stuff is planned to release in 2019. Probably first half of the year.

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