General Computer Stuff

Second Life: SL Go’s Demise Does Affect You

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Touch Arcade has an article up that gets into the politics and corporate infighting that is affecting us all. See: Onlive is Dead – What does this mean for Game Streaming on iOS? Carter Dotson is the author. I think Carter has made several mistakes in his (?) analysis. But, overall however we get there the result is the same.

Nomnomnom!
Nomnomnom! by Caitlin ‘Caity’ Tobias, on Flickr

My primary take away is Carter is saying that Sony is attempting to break Apple’s choke hold on game streaming for mobile devices. He could be right about that. The idea that if something is not available for iOS via the Apple Store, it loses a huge market share is true. But, I am not sure you can base the hypothesis Apple has a stranglehold on the gaming market. 

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Oculus Rift Update 2015 Week 13

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Quoting from Tech Crunch’s quote of Oculus Chief Scientist Michael Abrash:

While previous versions of the Oculus Rift have required plugging in a separate set of headphones to get the “I’m encapsulated in a virtual space” feeling, the Crescent Bay prototype has its own pair built-in, and the company has said the consumer model will, as well. The Crescent Bay model I played with at CES earlier this year didn’t include features like noise cancellation, so there’s still obvious areas to improve on that aspect of the integrated experience over time.

Read more here: The Biggest Challenges Left In Virtual Reality, According To Oculus.

Samsung Gear VR Heads to More than 100 Best Buys

Seems Samsung is moving their Gear VR out to Best Buy stores for sale (US$199). They, Samsung, are still in beta mode, IMO. This is not the mass market roll out. See the story in Road to VR. But, it is a step to getting to retail release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42tTDVskt54

I’m not sure Samsung has the Next BIG Thing locked up, but I like their stuff.

Flickr Feeds for Second Life

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Hamlet has an article about finding the best of Second Life™ on social media. See: What Are Your Favorite Second Life-Themed Flickr Feeds? Hamlet is ‘besotted’ by the images of Lemon Panda of Second Life home interiors. Add your favorite feed to the comments in the first link.

Simple Elegance Office/Show Studio
Simple Elegance Office/Show Studio by Lemon Panda, on Flickr

Hamlet is interested in feeds people like. He asks for widgets that people use to show off various Flickr  feeds. Feeds… hmmmm. I have various sites feeding into my Feedly reader. But, what feeds can one take directly from Flickr? About a zillion… and that is just those related to Second Life. but Flickr feeds are not intuitive and I don’t see a feed button.

Flickr HELP is out of date, referring to a button at the bottom right of the page. No… I don’t see a RSS or Subscribe button. Some of the pages I would want to subscribe to have no bottom…  

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Computer Safety: Malware @ c|NET

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I used to consider c/NET a safe site for downloading software. There are lots of great free programs that do handy things. The authors are legitimate, well meaning, real people. But, more and more often their software is wrapped in an installer from some download site. That wrapper often contains Adware or Malware.

Say Something. Something Like You Love Me.
Say Something. Something Like You Love Me. by [ HarlowHeslop.com ], on Flickr
Authors of free programs are donating their labor to you. Lots of  downloads of a popular program/app can drive up bandwidth costs. Authors of popular programs can soon find they are paying real money out of their pocket so you can have free stuff. Isn’t it enough they donated their time?

The alternative is to use a mirror, a web site that will allow you to store your files for others to download. Some have developed mirror sites into businesses. Some learned it is more profitable to add to the advertising revenue by putting ads and adware in an install or download program that wraps the file you want.

Now cyberwarzone is reporting that blackhats are getting their malware into c/NET, a major download site. See: Top 10 downloaded software on CNET contains malware. Skipping the bad English, that the top 10 downloads all have malware is frustrating and I hope c/NET finds it embarrassing.

New ransomware encrypts computer games and iTunes

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A new virus/Trojan encrypts your Minecraft, WoW, and iTune files then tries to ransom them to you. Be careful what you click on. Make sure your anti-virus is updating and actually running, do a scan or at least start one. If it runs, you know it is working.

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by Christina, on Flickr

This is a variant of the better known Crypto Locker ransomware.

Once these things encrypt your files, you are pretty much screwed. You can double down by paying them to release your files. All that does is tell them they have found a rube and empty or overcharge your account. They aren’t going to decrypt your files. All that would do for the bad guys is provide more tracking information for law enforcement. It’s not like they are trying to build repeat business with good customer service…

IDOBATA 2.0 Freeware for Second Life

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This is a tool for turning Skype and Second Life Viewer text chat to speech. The idea is that with this running you can multi-task and not miss business IM’s and chats in Second Life. This is apparently a two way chat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skJozy95SDs

Yuzuru’s English is a bit broken. But, way better than my Japanese, which I don’t speak.

This is freeware. You can get it here: IDOBATA 2.