Category Archives: Virtual World News

Google+ Enters Griefer-Hacker Wars

by

0

Pixeleen Mistral, a Second Life avatar, was recently suspended by Google+. She posted an article in Alphaville Herald, Google+ Suspends Pixeleen Mistral – Nerfs Data Liberation Front. This article should give all Google users pause. Pixeleen was blocked from Google+ and Gmail.

Another Suspension and Gmail Block

I think we all know Facebook and Google are in business and a prime source of their income is marketing data with an emphasis on your personal data. What many have not thought of is their personal data, i.e., contact lists and other information you personally create. Pixeleen is pointing out that being blocked in Google+ can cut you off from your data. You won’t be able to access it or download it. I don’t mean ONLY your Google+ data. I mean all of it in any of the Google Services.

Continue reading →

New Second Life Web Profiles on Demo

by

2

UPDATE: These profiles have now gone live in Second Life. Just open your profile to see it.

In the Phoenix Hour Jessica provided a link to the new Twitter like web profile. Fredrik Linden is leading the way on this project. Live feed in your profile is an interesting concept. It also reveals the direction the Lab is heading. I think it also gives a keen insight into what much of the BIG announcement at SLCC may be.

Demo Second Life Twitter-like Feed in Profile - Click to Enlarge

Shug Maitland asked about what the impacts of this new move toward Social Networking would mean for SL residents that want to avoid mixing real life and Second Life. At this point I don’t know. This is the first of the new Web Profiles 2 that I’m seeing. So, more coming soon.

The image above is from the Firestorm Beta 2 Viewer. It is NOT part of the current Firestorm Profile panel. The team will add a button to Firestorm to allow one to access the shown profile in the next release.

To see the profile in all its glory open Fredrik’s profile in a web browser. Also, see the image below.
Continue reading →

Second Life General News

by

0

There are lots of little things happening in Second Life that don’t fit into the updates I normally do. But, they are interesting and some affect what residents do in SL. So, here are a few that interested me.

Search

In April Linden Lab changed their search engine. See: Test Out New Search, Delivering More Relevant, Faster Results. The title is a hype. But, the new search engine is in place. With that release my sales went down the tube. With earlier releases others sales due to search placement went down and mine went up.

If you want good placement in Second Life Search, you can read Darrius Gothly’s blog DGP4SL. Darrius has released his new search tool. It is designed to help you figure out how your store will rank in the SL Search engine.

Igor Ballyhoo "Metamorphosis"

Rod Humble Interview

Daniel Voyager has an article pointing to and interview with Rod Humble (you do know he is now the CEO of Linden Lab?). The Mark News has the full interview titled The “real world” can learn a lot from the creativity and imagination unleashed in virtual realities. (7/11/11) Rod puts forth some interesting information and opinions in the interview. Did you know SL’s demographic is people in their 40’s?

Continue reading →

Google+ Suspends Avatar Accounts

by

5

Well, Google may be hung up on having real names and addresses so they can send advertising. Opensource Obscure’s account was just suspended. I understand he has appealed.

Tateru Nino has written a good article on what is happening. See: Google seemingly split on pseudonymous Google+ accounts and Google Profiles – It’s okay until it isn’t. She makes many good points in the article.

Opensource's Flickr Page

 What Next?

There are social networks forming for gaming communities. So, we may have avatars registering with those. This would mean a movement away from Facebook and Google+.

Continue reading →

New Avatars and Cars

by

0

Linden Lab has just added a new flock of non-human avatars to SL. See: July Update

New Second Life Robot Avatars

New Second Life Vehicles

New Second Life Animal Avatars

These avatars and vehicles are in your Library folder in your inventory, now. They will soon appear in the Basic Mode viewer.

Chat Lag

They Lindens are saying chat lag has been greatly reduced. I haven’t heard of any new technical details since my last update on the subject. So, I’m assuming it is just old news making it to the forum.

Continue reading →

Blender 2.58 Released Review

by

2

A new Blender version is out. Like any upgrade this one is loaded with bug fixes. It also has new features added from the To Do List. You can find the well written Release Log here: Blender 2.58 update log. I’m not going to write about all the fixes and additions, there are too many and I have no idea what a number of them actually do. I’ll touch on a few of the things that are interesting to me as a person interested in Second Life.

Blender 2.58

New Blender 2.58 Release

Collada

Collada is the file format used by Second Life to import 3D models. Those of us working on rigged mesh, used for replacement avatars and clothes, have been using Blender 2.49b to export them. The Collada export in 2.57b has problems with rigged mesh.

Continue reading →

Second Life Translators Dying

by

8

Many if not most Second Live Viewers have automatic language translation features. Those translators depend on Google’s translation services. The viewers use a Google API (Application Programming Interface – basically a protocol for asking a question and getting an answer). Google has announced that as of December 2011 the service will be turned off. (Reference) Google’s translation page will remain. But, the door to the service which SL viewers use will close.

Effective immediately, the service is being ‘throttled’. A limit is set on the number of requests an application can make per day.

Why?

Google sited their reason for closing the API part of their translation service as abuse. It seems it was too popular. As it was a free service the ‘abusive’ load on Google servers was a financial drain.

Continue reading →

The SL World is About to Change

by

19

Yesterday we got word that by the end of the month we will have the time table for mesh release. Along with mesh we have other features that will arrive too. Some we know about. Others we have only had hints of. But, there are significant changes coming to Second Life.

Changing Second Life

Changing Worlds - By Paul J Everett @ Flickr

I’ve told you about the coming changes I’ve discovered over the past weeks. I doubt I’ve discovered them all. The Linden’s in the various teams hint at other coming changes and new features. We obviously are only being told about the changes the Lab feels will directly affect merchants or the economy.

The Big Change

Continue reading →