General News

News Update 2018 w09

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Earlier I reported (ref) on the DDoS attack and linked to the Linden post on the subject. Things seem to be getting better. Concurrent use was back to the mid 40k users.

In the Server-Scripting UG meeting, Simon Linden told us this has been on-going for about 24 hours. April Linden tells us the same in the SL Blog post.

However, from a credible source, I understand the SL Forum went nuts with fake news. So, be aware there are nuts posting on the forum that enjoy creating havoc.  The sad part is some believe what they are saying and think they know something. Others know they are deliberately making mischief.

How do you tell which is real? If you go into the Answers section of the forum and look at the 3 to 6 posts threads, you will find a small number of people consistently answering questions. Those people are mostly trustworthy. When they don’t know, they have been known to say so…

So, the statement the asset servers went down and all SL content was lost was totally bogus. I’m not sure why anyone would make that statement. There are those always wanting to harm the Lab. Others think it fun to scare people. Others seem to believe whatever pops into their head.

I understand some new people will believe anything about SL and the Lab. But, I have the idea that with all the fake news, propaganda, and spin people would be more skeptical of what they hear. Silly me.

Second Life Bits 2018 w09

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Contest

Mystical Timbers Photo Contest

Pictures have to be taken on the sim, either on the ground or on the platforms, will run until the end of March, when for a limited time a voting board will be placed in the harbor area.

  • 1st prize is $L 2750
  • 2nd prize is $L 1500
  • 3rd prize is $L 750

Please enter your pic in the Flickr group and also please send a full perm pic in-world to SolKing.

Region: Mystic Timberland

Flickr Ad

Lauressa - Sandcasted Love
Lauressa – Sandcasted Love

Save 50% on Monthly SL Membership

The Lindens are offering a deal in Premium Membership. See: Get more out of Second Life – Save 50% on Premium*. Notice the asterisk. It is 50% off the first monthly membership payment.

The monthly membership plan costs US$9.50 per month. So, you save $4.75. The annual payments total $114 without the deal and $109.25 with the discount. However, you get a L$1,000 signing bonus and a weekly stipend of L$300. Or 300×52+1,000 = L$16,600 or about $65.10. This brings the annual monthly cost plan to $44 for this first year.

However… if you go with the annual payment plan the cost is $72. With the bonus and stipend that drops to about $6.90 for the first year and $10.82 per year thereafter.

Oops, goofed the math. Fixed 2/26 @ 3:30 PM SLT

The Newly Revized 360-Snapshot RC Viewer is Out

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Alexa Linden talked about the 360 Snapshot Project Viewer at the Content Creators’ UG Meeting (2/22). We last saw this viewer update in week #27-2017 (July). This is the black sheep or Cinderella viewer. It is the one that gets pushed to the back when a fire breaks out and some big bad bug has to be squished. But, YAY! We have a new version. See Official Alternate Viewers.

[vrview img=”http://blog.nalates.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/sl360_Fishergate_4096x2048_22215455.jpg” pimg=”http://blog.nalates.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/sl360_Fishergate_4096x2048_22215455.jpg” width=”512″ height=”512″ ]

This version handles the stitching… if you have built 360-images manually, you know what stitching is. It is taking a number of pictures in different directions and then piecing them together (stitching) to make a globe-shaped picture. Tedious.

But the new viewer is easy. Take a picture using 360-Snapshot and save it to disk, the picture should be ready to upload to Flickr and other sharing sites as a 360-image without further tweaking.

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Second Life Bits 2018 w06

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I had to correct my article AvaStar – Infected Download about the AvaStar package being infected with malicious software. Seems others thought it had been not The Machinimatrix people, who seriously doubted it. I agree with them now that I think about it. Very unlikely AvaStar was compromised.

 

Tralala’s Diner (URL) is a region in Second Life™ that is getting some deserved coverage in the blogosphere. Hamlet at New World Notes is covering Strawberry’s coverage of Tralala’s Diner.

There is a Tralalas Diner Flickr group where you can see a ton of pictures. I have some there. They don’t stand out that much. (Mine: Cat, The Diner, The Lake, Darts, Sunset, Boom, Power, Urban Renewal, and Arriving. )

PineLake_029
PineLake – Tralala’s Diner

Strawberry is into streaming video. She made a Live Stream (33 min). We can see it here: Strawberry’s Tralala’s Diner. There is a problem with streaming live. One is limited to 720 and a single sound track at whatever volume you had set. You have to get everything right in production. It is much easier to tweak a video in post-production, which is why I like OBS. But, you get live chat and Strawberry is pretty good at tweaking things as she goes.

You may know the place as Pine Lake. If you haven’t been… it is a fun exploration.

 

SL Gacha Things I Didn’t Know

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There is a Gacha Garden event and two regions of Gacha Garden Shops. You peeps probably already know all this. But, it is new to me. I’m not a Gacha fan. But, I am curious about free market innovations. So, I am poking around and learning.

The Designer [ JUSTICE ] has boots I REALLY LIKE. I went looking to buy them and found they were an exclusive offering at the January Gacha Garden (LM) event (group). These are boots I would expect to go for L$300 or so per color or L$800-1200 or more for a fat pack. At the event, you can try your luck for L$75 a try.

Gacha Garden Event – Feb 2018

Of course, the gold color I want is a rare, rare. At L$75 I figure I can make 4 tries at getting the color I want. Or if I want them all, 10 to 16 tries. After the 10th or 16th try gacha-gambling is costing me more than just buying boots would.

I really wanted them. So, I made 4 tries. I got the Silver rare, 2 ok colors, and one duplicate color. The Silver rare is pretty neat and provides a range from white silver to near black silver. Five colors if I remember correctly. I am happy. The 2 colors are ok but not my colors. What do I do with the duplicate? I’ll get to that.

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Second Life News Bits 2018 w06

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Saturday was the annual Mole Day. Inara has an article on Mole Day with all the details.

SL Moles are the guys that build all the SL Governor’s public works things. We hear little about them, but they are a key part of Second Life™.

Mysterious girl.

The Machinimatrix Blog got hacked. It is fixed and all is well again. (Ref) The Machinimatrix people did not recommend changing passwords. But, it is probably a good idea.

NiranV the author of the Black Dragon Viewer has an article up on Projector Lights. Part of the information is about setting up Preferences in the BD Viewer. Then Niran gets into setting up the projector lights.

Projector lights are way neat and greatly improve the appearance of a scene. They make night and club scenes much more dramatic.

Catznip Viewer is releasing a beta, they describe it this way:

Catznip R12.1 (beta1) has been posted for patrons (64bit only). We’re testing dramatically faster texture rezzing (new, Catznip unique OpenJpeg). Prejump & landings animations optionally disabled and a slew of crash fixes.

Texture rendering speed was the obstacle to my use of this viewer.

Kitty Barnett, the author of Catznip, is looking for some financial support. So, this beta is only available to those that contribute through Patreon.

This is the 8th anniversary of Myst Online: Uru Live. Get details on the Myst Online website, Anniversary. Events through to February 7th.

Gacha Garden has a new event in progress. There are dozens of free gifts spread around the garden. There is a shopping guide here.

I’m not much of a gacha fan. I tend to only go when there is an exclusive item from a designer I like only available as a gacha. But, Gacha Garden is fun. Join the group. Lots of trading happens there. If you have an item you want to sell, this is a good place to start.