Linden Lab’s New ToS, the Bank Secrecy Act, and You – This is an interesting article that may explain why the Linden’s ToS has changed. It mostly has to do with the recent enactment of new rules for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Category Archives: Changes
Second Life New ToS
Today I hit the new Terms of Server agreement. You can read the thing, if you can stay awake or get the highlights here: Updated Second Life Terms of Service. They tossed in a 2 minute video:
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The primary change is the Lab is limiting the purchase of Linden$. You will only be allowed to purchase from the Lab.
I gather that third party exchanges will continue to exist. Since it is possible to transfer Linden$ from avatar to avatar, some other types of markets will continue. But, if you get ripped-off by a third party Linden$ vendor, you are most definitely on your own.
Second Life Viewer Release Changing
You probably know that the server updates come through 3 releases channels; Blue Steel, Le Tigre, and Magnum. This is sort of having 3 Beta versions running at the same time. It allows 3 different sets of code be tested at the same time. The best performing of the three gets promoted to the main channel.
New Viewer Channels
The result is the server code update at a pretty fast pace. In fact so fast that several server updated features are waiting on the viewer to update.
Oculus Rift in Second Life
I am hearing lots about the Oculus Rift VR Headset. Some think interfacing it to SL would be a great addition to Second Life™. If you have seen the granny video, you have an idea of how impressive Ocular Rift can be.
Granny Video – 03:40 minutes.
There is no doubt she is impressed.
SL Server Side Appearance
The feature formerly known as: Server Side Avatar Baking is moving forward. Nyx Linden tells us today that the Sunshine code is now in the Beta Viewer branch. That means we have a working viewer with the near final features. So, far the server side is only running on the Preview Grid, ADITI. Look for the region SunshineTest.
If you find a bug, report it ASAP. Otherwise the bug will likely make it into the main release viewer.
Nyx was asked how quickly this feature would roll out to the main grid. Nyx and Oz have both said it is a bit of an awkward rollout and may take some time.
Server Side Avatar Baking
In the Open Source User Group meeting Oz Linden provided an explanation of how the new avatar baking system will work and some of the ideas they have for implementing it. I’ve added in the description of how things work now to provide contrast. I’ve covered this topic before. But, there is new information here.
Baking… Image by: Edsel L @ Flickr
Oz Linden pointed out that a large part of the viewer side avatar baking process is done in the local computer’s video card. Since there are so many different cards, driver, and driver versions the result is inconsistent. By moving the process to the server side the results will be consistent.
As it is now, users with the exact same input (think clothes) can get difference results (look different in the same clothes). Once this moves to the server side, the same inputs will produce the same result.
#SL News Week 38
Main Channel Roll
Simon Linden tells us there were problems with the Tuesday roll out. The problems were cosmetic. Things just did not rez correctly on a number of regions on the first start after the update. They are not sure what the problem was. Restarts seem to fix it.
In the Server-Scripting Group meeting at 12:21 the ‘second’ restart was 90% complete. So, while the roll out was behind, it was not too bad.
Release Candidate Roll
As I reported in: Group Edit Update Week 37, Group Edit is moving ahead. While I was thinking we were weeks away from seeing it on an RC channel it seems it will make it out Wednesday.
The Deploys thread in the forum has not updated so it is unclear what exactly is going to roll out tomorrow. Simon says a bunch of new localized notifications are included.
As long as Large Group Editing is part of it, a number of people will be happy. I think Baker is going to publish a blog post in the SL Blog. We will see how that goes.
Linden Projects
You probably saw the announcement by now: #SL New Linden Lab Projects.
Simon announced it in the Server-Scripting Group. He made clear that those working the SL side of things have almost no idea what is going on in those projects.
Havok
Another Havok release is coming. Andrew and Falcom are going to be figuring out how to make that roll through the RC channels. As you may remember, different Havok versions are a big problem for objects crossing regions. Continue reading
Oh CRAP! JIRA Change
I’ve known a JIRA update was coming. I did not expect what I saw this morning. It was also the main topic of discussion at Oz Linden’s Open Source user group and Andrews Server-Scripting UG. Alexa Linden was at OZ’s meeting to help answer questions. See the announcement: JIRA Update: Changes to The Bug Reporting Process.
If you are not a JIRA user you may think this is not going to have an effect on you. I think you will be wrong. I am not at all sure how the changes are going to work… or if they will work. But, it is a huge change in how bug reporting is handled throughout Second Life™. It also has a large number of effects on how we do things within Second Life, the forums and blogs. I am afraid this is not going to be a good thing. What I am sure of is; we are going to have to deal with it for some time.
Bug Reports
Reporting bugs is not easy. One does have to read the instructions and learn how to report problems so the information is useful. An effort has been made to make that easier. The problem is we can no longer browse bug reports to see if there is a duplicate. Now… that doesn’t sound like much of a problem. But, think about it.