Second Life

Things about SL

Second Life News Week #22

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We have not had a Deploys post since 5/6, 3-weeks no post. Some have speculated that since viewers have a new release notes system the server’s release notes will be updating. But… rumor is no. Also, the wiki release notes have not been updated.

Centaur Photoshoot & Parade
Centaur Photoshoot & Parade

Monday was a holiday in the USA, Memorial Day – remembrance of those Americans that died in WWII.

So, the Lab was closed Monday. Things may be a bit rushed and behind today. I didn’t really expect a main channel roll today, but we got one. Also, I suspect the server update sequence is likely out of pattern from the TP-Crossing Disconnects problems.

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What is Happening with Linden Lab’s New Continent: Bellisseria?

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Bellisseria is the new continent south of Sansara. It is the location of new houseboats and box homes. A very middle-class neighborhood and surprisingly popular. Homes and houseboats can be owned… leased… by Premium Members. They are selling out in minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWDZTfvC_8E

I can’t account for the popularity. It just is.

The popularity is leading to a number of blogs focusing on Bellisseria and the going-ons there. Daniel Voyager points to some of them.

The Bellisserian opens with a first issue carrying an interview with Patch Linden. It is here we hear the first reasons for the popularity of Bellisseria. Seems previous homes were designed as ‘starter homes.’ Bellisserian homes are designed to be “homes.” I suppose that makes a difference. Well… apparently…

While there are currently only a couple of styles of homes in Bellisseria more are planned.

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Second Life News 2019 w21

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I am behind this week. Too many fun things to do and work keeps interfering with my life. However, there is some interesting stuff happening.

Servers

Well… no Deploys post this week. However, the main channel and I think RC channels got updates.

Flickr Down – Sad… no pretty picture today.

Second Life Server 19.05.10.527185 – Main channel – Internal Fixes – Fixed EEP Regressions. I think the regressions are the things that broke when the other thing got fixed… Whatever, they are sorting it out.

The RC’s as of Thursday looked like this:

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Politics: Surveillance

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Why is it even important… and why should I care? I’ll get to the why…

Spy vs Spy
Spy vs Spy

Recently the Dems and GOP have been fussing about what is or isn’t spying. It doesn’t take exceptional intelligence to figure which side has staked their position in the debate in the Land of Dumb… Is it spying or surveillance? That seems to be the crux of the debate.

SPY ∙ verb

  • work for a government or other organization by secretly collecting information about enemies or competitors.
  • observe (someone) furtively.
  • discern or make out, especially by careful observation.

SURVEILLANCE ∙ noun

  • close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal.

Is there really a difference? Is any difference enough to matter? If not, then what is at play?

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What took Second Life down?

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Last Monday early the Second Life™ grid went dark. I have heard the total number of concurrent users was 2.

The details of what happened were published Friday, The Road to Downtime Was Paved with Good Intentions.

The TL:DR is a complex plan had been devised to allow replacement of the routers that connect the SL system to the Internet without taking SL down. The complexity came from figuring out how to make the switch over without taking SL down. At home, you would just concede that replacing a router would interrupt your Internet service and deal with it.

The Art of Rain
The Art of Rain

The SL system has a boatload of routers and considerable redundancy. Meaning some number of those routers should be able to fail with the system falling back to the remaining operational ones without users ever noticing. Something the equipment manufacturer, network consultant, and Lindens had not imagined went sideways and cut the system off from users when it shouldn’t have. While they are not giving out exact details, the newly discovered way for the system to fail has now been built into the Linden planning to hopefully never cause a problem again.

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