Second Life: State of Video

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With the release of the VLC viewer (4.1.1.320331) we will see the video market in Second Life start changing. It as of today, it hasn’t changed much. As it has in most of the rest of the RL world. So, with 4.1.1 we will have a better experience with YouTube and other services.

VLC Viewer and Streaming Media - TV's
VLC Viewer and Streaming Media – TV’s

NOTE: On starting the 4.1.1 viewer I started crashing. I changed regions and all seemed OK. Before I logged off I got a notice that a newer version was available: 4.1.2.320461. I’ve installed it and it seems to be OK. 

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Second Life: News 2016 w41

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There are no rolls to the main channel today.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, a new package will roll to the RC channels, all three get the same package.

Arwen
Arwen

This new package has more minor internal changes, supposedly security and crash fixes along with changes to data logging. More interesting is the addition of the new scripting function for forced sit. I find the deploys notice and the release notes in disagreement. But, recent Server Beta UG meetings have been discussing the forced sit function. So, I expect it to be in the package.

For more details, see: Second Life: New Forced Sit Coming

Viewers

The former main viewer was version 4.0.8.319463 with the Visual Outfits Browser. Today we got version 4.1.1.320331, the VLC RC version of the viewer. This is the one that switches how streaming media (video) is handled in the viewer.

I am looking forward to checking out how it works. I haven’t used this RC. I also removed QT for security reasons, I’m on Windows 10.

Now it is up to builders and content providers in Second Life™ to change their content over to more modern streaming formats.

RC Second Life Bento Viewer version 5.0.0.320160 – This RC version also updated this week from version 5.0.0.319893. Changes are bug fixes. The Bento feature is unchanged.

RC Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 4.0.9.320231 – This is a new version to, updating from 4.0.9.320038. I have details of this version in last week’s news. Second Life News 2016 w40.

WikiLeaks Email Dumps

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As the American election nears, less than a month away, WikiLeaks has been releasing hacked emails. There is a lot of interest in and about the emails. Not a lot of media coverage of the actual emails. WikiLeaks say they vet the emails. But, are they true, fake, hype? I posit that if the emails were false, fake, or hype they could be denied. If they were one person’s statements, they could be denied.

We know commonly some emails go to out dozens of people. Government officials and politicians are often communicating with hundreds of people and those people are often forwarding the emails to even more people.

So, to deny an email that one sent and expected to be received by unknowable hundreds, if not thousands, directly or via a forward, risks being caught in a blatant lie. Blatant to all those that received it and from personal experience know it was sent directly to them by the stated author and many others that have reason to believe the forwarded copy they received is authentic. 

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Second Life: Do you see SL in comfort?

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Updated: Nov 8, 2016

Kate Amdahl has posted an article titled: A Better Way to See in Second Life. It is inspired by Penny Patton’s articles on Scale and camera positions: The Improved SL Camera.

Default Camera Position Controls
Default Camera Position Controls

These tips came out in 2011. They inspired me to write my version: Second Life Camera Position Tips. I never run a viewer using the default camera position these days. I change them first thing. 

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