There is an interesting thread over on SLUniverse. Imagin Illyar started Avatar Evolution and posted images of her avatar from 2008 to 2013. It is an interesting progression.
Others have joined in and are doing the same.
Join in: Avatar Evolution
General News
Real & Second Life Tidbits
Direct Messages
More blogs are noticing that Messages sent from My.SecondLife.com (Direct Messages) are not working. See: Second and Real Life Tidbits 2014. We have no clue from the Lab that the feature will or won’t return at some point.
It should be easy and possible to block non-resident users from using the web site’s message feature. If that is the problem, then I expect to see the feature return. I suspect the problem is how to block and limit residents that are spamming. If that is the problem, we may see the permanent removal of the feature. But, it shouldn’t be all that hard to limit messages sent. So, I have hope the feature will return.
Virus
Honour has a post Protecting My Second Life From the Tricksters with some great images of a Japanese-themed sim: Yokai. Honour is on about the ransom-ware thing called CyrptoLocker. A piece of malware that has been prevalent in Europe for some time and that came to the USA in late 2013. To learn more about it see: Virus Warning. This is a devious bit of malware best protected against by a good backup strategy with the backups being separated from your computer. If the CryptoLocker Trojan can find a file on your system, usb and network drives included, it will encrypt them.
Win L$10k
There is a new contest that Linden Lab is running. The Lab wants to see how your avatar has evolved from 2013 to 2014. Get pictures. They are to chow the change from 2013 to 2014. Then visit Second Life’s Facebook page, like it, and look for the contest button.
The contest rules are here. Other details are there as well.
For the official announcement see: Enter the Second Life – New Year – New You Contest for a Chance to Win L$10,000
You may have a good chance to win this one… seems most of the entries are not following the rules, they do NOT show the progression from ’13 to ’14.
Stroker ‘s Sexpo 2013
Vivienne Daguerre gave me a heads up that Stroker Serpentine is back in Second Life and active. See her article: Sexpo 2013.
There is a whole big dramatic story around Stroker Serpentine and his sex toys and furniture business. He left SL for a time. Now it seems he has decided to come back. In September 2011 I wrote: Shockwaves in Second Life about his giving away his top of the line sex bed animations and leaving.
To mark his return Stroker is promoting Sexpo 2013. It starts December 21 and runs for a month to January 15. It is at: Strokerz Toyz. The region is open now. Many stores are populated. Some are still being moved into. It appears most of the shops are rented. But, there are a few available. It is probably fair to consider the region under construction.
Vivienne Daguerre has a shop at #211. That LM will work to get you there. If they change the landing point, it will at least put a beacon on the shop.
Andrew Linden Leaving
Today in the Sever-Scripting meeting Andrew announced he is leaving the Lab for Philip Rosedale’s High Definition Fidelity. He likes Second Life and has enjoyed working on it. But, he is ready for a change and really likes working with Philip.
If you don’t know, Andrew is the oldest employee at the Lab. He was one of the first, if not the first, hire that Philip made when starting Second Life. His last day is this coming Thursday.
Andrew has been a big contributor to the Server-Scripting group. He will be greatly missed by many of us.
Changing People’s Minds
I am always interested in why people change their minds, have epiphanies and suddenly see things many of us have seen forever. It isn’t just them, we all have such moments. Well, most of us do. Psychologists class any behavior that denies reality as psychotic.
Challenging our beliefs, whether someone does it or we do it to our self, it is no small thing. People have emotional attachment to their thinking, ideas, beliefs, and especially their self-image. So, changing one’s mind on matters of importance is a big deal.
This week Draxtor Dupres published the second article on the Drax Files blog: one month to go but so much news. It is well and creatively written. His talent shows in the writing.