Category Archives: Philosophy

Second Life 9th Birthday – Perception

by

3

Linden Lab® has announced Second Life’s coming ninth birthday in June. It is a small announcement, 158 words. See: Help Us Celebrate Second Life’s 9th Birthday! If one had no history with Second Life® the announcement would just be an announcement, neither good nor bad. But, those having history with Second Life are having various reactions to the announcement based on their history, expectations, and perceptions of Second Life and Linden Lab.

Tateru in an article on Dwell On It, Anniversary time. Everything new is old again, recalls what, to her, is probably the best SL Birthday in all time: SL3B. Tateru see this announcement as possibly opening the best opportunity for a great celebration in years. She goes on to speculate on why the Lindens are proceeding this way, but that is speculation.

D'ni Refugees at Second Life 5th Birthday

Innara Pey at Living in a Modem World sees it as a shame. For her the collection of regions devoted to the celebration and the large number of builds for the Second Life 8th Birthday (SL8B) made for a great party.

I was somewhat disappointed with SL8B. I like to see great builds. I like to see creative ideas well expressed. I love things like Kerryth’s lacy, fairy like buildings. I like the interactive art. I like finding a bunch of friends parting and having fun. There were 3 or 4 builds in all the dozens that fascinated me. I want to be endlessly fascinated. But, such builds take a huge amount of effort. Building just for a few days and then seeing the build disappear has to take its toll.

Continue reading →

Second Life Interesting

by

5

Strawberry Singh with her fun nature does a fashion blog and a hilarious Plurk line (example she Plurked about: Brown Vag) I check both each day. She finds awesome skins and lingerie. Great photography. But today she surprised me and posted about doing a promotional piece for Linden Lab. See the image. I think it is one of the best promotional pieces for Second Life that I’ve seen.

Strawberry's Blog and Art

To see it on the Second Life site, you need to log out of the SL web sites. Then visit SecondLife.com. You may not see it as the first image. However there is a pager button in the images so you can look through the images. I have all the ones that came up for me, 5, after the fold.
Continue reading →

Rebuttal to Second Life Failing

by

8

I like clear thinking. I especially like it when it recognizes information limits, meaning it deals with the unknown as unknown. The incorporation of known facts for the foundation is always good.

Such an article just appeared on the Sand Castle Studio blog: The Virtual False Dilemma. It is a very well written article, short and succinct.

Unfortunately, when speculating on the future we always deal with the unknown. The recent article by Botgirl, My Take on Why Linden Lab is Investing in New Products Instead of Second Life, uses an ‘employee review’ found on Glassdoor: Linden Lab – “A once great place to work with an exciting product now on the decline.” From there she builds her viewpoint of Second Life and what Linden Lab is doing. Sand Castle’s article disagrees.

The decision we all have to make regards the accuracy of the entry on Glassdoor. It is filed by Anonymous. Depending on how we decide to evaluate its accuracy and believability affects how we see the articles on Botgirl and Sand Castle’s blogs.

There are other points in the articles. But, the review is a primary foundation point for Botgirl’s article.

Continue reading →

#SL Linden’s Blogging Offer

by

5

This is probably of more interest to bloggers than blog readers. But, opinion on the Lab’s request for guest bloggers has been the topic in many blogs. Some are outraged that Linden Lab would dare to insult them by offering to allow guest articles without offering to pay the writer. They see it as the height of arrogance and insensitivity. Others of us see it differently.

One person taking a minority stance is Gwyneth Llewelyn in her blog article: Working for free for Linden Lab’s blog. Its long 4,838 words. You won’t be left asking, ‘Wonder why she thinks that?’ You will know.

She points out the aspect several others are over looking or discounting. Having an article on the Lab’s blog has value. The systems that analyze the value of advertising and links on a site give a high value to the Lab’s blog. CWire.org gives Text Link Advertising on the Lab’s site a value of approximately $929/Link/Month. So, the link they allow in the bio is worth almost a grand. On my blog a link is worth $2… whoop! whoop!

The comments after the article are as interesting or possibly more so than the article. The comments do show that the Lab’s offer is not unique. Online blogs often have the same arrangement with writers or make a standing offer for guest posters.

Whether one thinks a link is worth as much as CWire is what the free market is about. We are all free to decide for ourselves and participate or not. But, one has to wonder why people are outraged, upset, or otherwise annoyed at the Lab’s offer.

#SL Response

by

3

I hear lots of people bitch about something they know next to nothing about. Unfortunately they are not limited to Second Life. Oskar recently gave a good reply to one such… (put your own adjective and noun or pronoun here). I think it is worth reading Oskar’s response to understand what it takes to get server fixes rolled out. There is also some interesting information on timelines and drop dead dates for fixes rolling out.

WolfB——- Bears—- wrote:

So you have fixed the ghosting issue. Great.

But you’re not deploying the fix for another 30+ hours. Not Great.

If you do have an explanation for continuing to run server code which you know is broken, I would like to hear it.

The best answer would be that you are running the fix through QA processes. That still doesn’t explain why, when some regions are inaccessible because of the number of ghosted AVs, you have not reverted them to an earlier, known-safe, version of the code. 

Continue reading →

SOPA, PIPA, OPENA, and ACTA

by

1

A new article appearing on ReadWriteWeb is about the international Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The writer is part of the group that thinks SOPA, PIPA, and OPENA have been stopped. They have not. See: SOPA, PIPA, OPENA articles.

Now we have word about an international attack on our rights from another quarter: ACTA. Read the article: What You Should Know About ACTA and Your Rights.

This is important for our SL community because other counties will be adopting, or not, this treaty. Many countries still have opportunities to stop their countries from signing onto the treaty.

This law comes to us in the forum of a treaty. Pres. Obama has signed this treaty. Few people are aware of the attacks on our freedom in the US mounted by this admiration. A treaty must be approved by the US Senate. The House of Representatives has no say in treaties. So, in many ways the Senate is more important than the House.

Continue reading →

Climate and Science

by

1

This article is not really Second Life oriented. I chose to include this topic because the collection of information I link to is extensive and Climategate2 has been vetted. I’ve closed off comments because I don’t want to deal with ideologues’ rants from either side. Read the information, decide, and use it as you choose.

So…

Poor Bear

The release of the second round of exposed private communications as Climategate2 is revealing. Those at the heart of manmade global warming science are revealed. The context of how they are promoting bogus theories, deliberately hiding and destroying data and information to avoid FOIA requests, pressuring scientific journals not to publish articles they oppose (censorship), and personal attacks on those disagreeing with them. All the drama one would expect in SL is there. Hiding scientific information and doctoring data is one of the most despicable intellectual acts possible in a university setting. None of those involved should be allowed to remain at a university. But, the same can be said about Sandusky

For those that like numbers, math, good scientific debate, and facts; check out this article on Anthony Watts’ blog: Climate FAIL from A to Z presented at Durban.

Warmist* and Denier** ideologues will have their predictable reactions to the information I am presenting. But, for the undecided, the doubters, and the skeptics the article is essential reading and an excellent reference source. The latest information on climate and its effects are in the article, or at least the links to the information are.

Continue reading →

Great Insights

by

1

On Loki and the Goonies, Loki has posted an insightful article on Second Life gaming. You may have seen and even played his Evil Giant Worm Massacre. In true entrepreneurial style Loki is looking to provide a service and have it support his effort. The money to pay tier has to come from somewhere.

Evil Worm Massacre

Destination Guide

The Destination Guide is helping Second Life users in many ways. For merchants it attracts shoppers. For clubs it helps bring patrons. For game developers like Loki it brings new players. For the typical resident it provides a way to find interesting places.

Loki points out what is needed to make the Destination Guide a tool for all levels and types of users.

One of Second Life’s biggest problems is revealing the extent of Second Life and its massive content.

Loki has what I think are great ideas for improving the Destination Guide and Second Life.