Second Life: Firestorm Viewer Release News

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As of Friday Jessica was planning to put a release out to their current preview group. She was writing an invitation to ask more people into the preview group or maybe she meant she is inviting more people to a larger secondary preview group. It sounds like they will stage testing, so multiple groups may help. So, the viewer will soon go out to the first with the current preview group then, if things go well, a week later with the larger group.

~Big Girls Cry~
~Big Girls Cry~ by Luaflor Moo, on Flickr

You can see the invitation here: WANTED: Brave Early Adopters and Testers… This request makes it clear this will be a second group different than their beta testers.

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Second Life: How to Fix New Login Problems

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In general people having a problem logging in or staying logged in have connection problems. But we have a new problem. It seems AISv3 removed the LIMIT on how many items you can have in a folder. Apparently any limit has not been enforced for some time. So, we are starting to see some inventories accumulate enough items to trigger a problem.

CAMILLA BY POUTE
CAMILLA BY POUTE by ღÐεεღ, on Flickr

As things are now a big flat inventory with thousands of items in a single folder, especially the root folder, is a problem. How fast the computer, network, and region are determines when the problem appears. I don’t know for sure, but logging into an empty region should give one a better chance of getting around the login problem. Hopefully they can stay on long enough to move items into folders.

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Second Life: Viewer Updates Week 15

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This week we got some new viewers and updates to existing ones.

Main Viewer

SL Main/Default Viewer: 3.7.26.299635 – Appeared: 3/06 – Adds the Avatar Hover Height Slider.

Winds of Change
Winds of Change by Emma Deelight, on Flickr

RC & Project Viewers

RC Maintenance Viewer version 3.7.27.300636 – Appeared: 4/8 – Long list of fixes – This viewer got an update from its previous 3.7.27.300323. It has performance fixes that make using it very nice to use. 

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Second Life: Machinimatrix AvaStar 1.4-5 Released

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April 9 – Machinimatrix updated AvaStar. The announcement is here: Avastar 1.4-5.

AvaStar now has the ability to use custom shape keys. This doesn’t mean the shape keys can be loaded into Second Life™. It does mean you can use them to speed your design while working in Blender.

AvaStar 1.4.5 Promo Video
AvaStar 1.4.5 Promo Video

As the video shows, (if you clicked through) you need both AvaStar and Sparkels installed to use the shape keys feature.

Gaia doesn’t really explain the work flow one would use with Shape keys. I expect there will eventually be a video explaining that process. However, training videos from Machinimatrix now tend to be in the form of retail training courses. The basic overall-this-what-this-does-videos are still free. But, the detailed how-to-videos are sold as training courses.

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Second Life: Avatar Render Cost

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This is a subject that comes around every so often. I tend to look beyond the drama and actual issue to see who is arguing and how they are arguing. Tells me a lot about them. Even more when I later learn more about them.

Avatar Render Cost Comparison - 2015
Avatar Render Cost Comparison – 2015

One of the interesting things about Avatar Render Cost (ARC) is the numeric value. Have you thought about that number? What is it? Inches, meters, light-years, weight of electrons used in the render process?

It is a nonsensical number. The Lindens used some equation to calculate an arbitrary value that is useful for comparison only. More is bad, less is better. They color the number is based on a coloring scheme that reflects there idea of good, heavy, and bad… green, yellow, and red. You can find the equation (sort of) here: Second Life Render/Draw Weight. 

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Second Life Bits II Week 15

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Large cyberattack was carried out via Google

This is making the news today as we find out Russian and Chinese hackers have been into and are in the White House computers. This looks to be a finger to Obama by the Russians after the President said he was making a big push for cyber security… yeah, secure this.

Google advertising pushed links to Engage Lab that used exploits in  Java, Adobe Flash Player, and Microsoft Silverlight to infect computers.

The attack lasted about 2 hours before Google detected it and shut it down.

Google Play Spy

The app Webpage Screenshot is apparently a spying program. A Swedish newspaper broke the story. Today Google is taking down the app and killing its ability to report to its master.

See: Google Chrome Extension Spying On You.

Adult SL Photography

Sex is a big part of art. And there is no exception for photographic art in Second Life. If you haven’t heard of Domino Dupre (NSFW) check out her collection of erotic imagery from Second Life on Flickr.

You’ll find her composing a regular collection of erotic imagery that is shown on The Sexiest: PornStars’ blog. (NSFW)

Windows Oculus Desktop

There is an app for that… Ben Lang writing for Road to VR has published: Latest Version of ‘Virtual Desktop’ is Here, The Free App That Makes Your Entire Windows Computer Oculus Rift-capable.

If you have an Oculus or Oculus like HMD, you can download Virtual Desktop and see what the future may look like. Get the links from within the article.

US Sanctions Hit Russian WoW Players

Would you have thought…?

Massively Overpowered is carrying a story about how US sanctions against Russia is hitting players in Crimea. See: Sanctions Force World Of Warcraft, Diablo Iii Ban In Crimea.