General News

Second Life Griefing 2013-24

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Every release of the viewer and server software has more fixes to stop griefing. But it is an escalating problem. Sort of an arms race.

A recent casualty appears to be the Pornstars group. It seems that group is going to close because of griefer infiltration. It will be replaced with a new group:  The Sexiest® : Pornstars click the name to find the group.

You may be unexpectedly ejected from the group. That will be the group closing. There is some hope this may be avoided. But, that depends on whether the Lab helps out.

Many are hoping the coming Group Ban Lists will help with this problem.

Rod Humble Interview 2013-24

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There is a new interview with Rod out. You’ll find it at BOSL in their latest magazine: June 2013

We learn that Welcome areas will be redone. Alpha and Beta testing will start in the next few weeks.

BoSL Photo of Rodvik Linden
BoSL Photo of Rodvik Linden

Rod provides a compelling description of what Second Life is. So, if you’re ever at a loss for when someone asks you what SL is, read the article.

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SSA Context

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The week of May 26 to June 1 Oz Linden checked and reported that 1,665 different viewer versions that logged into Second Life™. That is an approximation of the number of different viewers in use. The SL system records viewer version strings. Each version of a viewer is to have a unique ID string. But, this is open source and people do whatever they do. So, there is a probability some ID strings don’t get changed. Thus I say approximate.

Viewer Production
Viewer Production

Some of these versions are one user only viewers, meaning: someone compiles a viewer for their own amusement and use. They never distribute the version. They may or may not change the version string.

Then there are the griefer viewers. They try to imitate other viewers and may duplicate another viewer’s version string to hide.

The result is going to be more viewer versions than the system recognizes. 

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Second Life News 2013-23

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There no rollout to the main channel this week. None of the release candidates made it through testing.

Release Channels

Blue Steel and Le Tigre will get a new package for testing. This package addresses the disconnection issue many have been experiencing. (BUG-2564) This is the one where numerous avatars in a region would suddenly be disconnected. It also included LSL scripts using HTTP connection being disconnected too.

Plus there is a crash mode fix.

Magnum will continue to run the package from last week: The Interest List improvement for faster rendering of a never be for visited region. The only change to this package is the adding of the disconnect-fix-code also running on Steel and Tigre.

SL10B Contest

The Lindens have announced a contest as part of the celebration of SL10B. The first place prize is a Homestead Region for four months. Second and Third place winners will get a homestead region for 2 months.

The Linden Lab Logo for SL10B
The Linden Lab Logo for SL10B

You’ll find the rules and guidelines here: SL10B Celebration Snapshot Contest. 

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5 Minutes Isn’t Enough

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Drax’s World Maker’s video interview with Rod Humble is great. But, there is much more information than what Drax could fit into five minutes. Also, video is suited more to right-brain thinking, at least as Drax made it, a blend of words, sounds, and images. I find it an emotionally uplifting video that is invigorating.

Jo Yardley's Blog
Jo Yardley’s Blog

But there is more left-brain information that came from the interview. There are things that fit into the “If this… then what about … and mustn’t this mean…” thinking.

The additional information can be found in an article published on Jo Yardley’s blog: The Rod Humble Interview. 

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Message in a Bottle 2

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Prim Perfect has an article about Dizzy Banjo’s project for SL5B: Message in a bottle.

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Dizzy is preparing something similar for SL10B. You can be part of Message in a Bottle 2 with a voice clip, 10 seconds or less. To learn more vitist Dizzy’s blog: Virtually Dizzy. Dizzy provides suggestions on what software you can use and how to submit it.

Dizzy plans to use a new trick for presenting the audio clips. Dizzy says it won’t be messages in a bottle but something fun. I suppose we will have to wait to find out what.