Skin Fair 2015

Opening March 13, Skin Fair 2015. Visit here: Skin Fair 1 & Skin Fair 2. There is no staging area so you have no choice but to teleport into one of the regions. The population limit is 45 per region. I haven’t yet been able to get in.

Mystic Canvass @ Skin Fair 2014 (starts March 14th!)
Mystic Canvass @ Skin Fair 2014 by Christiana Xevion, the slwonder, on Flickr

There is a strictly enforced script limit. 50 scripts max. That seems like a lot. I normally keep mine under 20.

Ebbe Linden & Second Life in Education

Ebbe Linden (Altberg) gave the opening speech at Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education (VWBPE) earlier this year. (Reference) They have videos available.

Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable 12 March 2015
Virtual Worlds Education Roundtable 12 March 2015 by Sheila Yoshikawa, on Flickr

On March 21, 2015 Time: 9:00 – 10:50 a.m. in the Second Life Main Auditorium (SLURL) a panel of people from Second Life will be discussing and answering questions in Second Life about “…how NonProfit Commons has contributed to significant dialogue around the uses of virtual worlds like Second Life. The panelists will discuss how they have changed and grown, as well as the different opportunities and moments that have distinguished the group and the manner in which they promote and spotlight best practices.” (quoted from the VWBPE site) 

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New ransomware encrypts computer games and iTunes

A new virus/Trojan encrypts your Minecraft, WoW, and iTune files then tries to ransom them to you. Be careful what you click on. Make sure your anti-virus is updating and actually running, do a scan or at least start one. If it runs, you know it is working.

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by Christina, on Flickr

This is a variant of the better known Crypto Locker ransomware.

Once these things encrypt your files, you are pretty much screwed. You can double down by paying them to release your files. All that does is tell them they have found a rube and empty or overcharge your account. They aren’t going to decrypt your files. All that would do for the bad guys is provide more tracking information for law enforcement. It’s not like they are trying to build repeat business with good customer service…

Linden Dollars and OpenSim

Hypergrid Business has an article up on Linden Lab restricting use of the Linden dollar in other virtual worlds, OpenSim. See: Linden Labs halts use of Linden Dollars in other virtual worlds.

Money II
Money II by Jozef Purdes, on Flickr

I doubt this is a competitive thing. L$ incurs a legal liability for the Lab. They have to be able to show the government where those dollars are going. This is a measure of the government trying to control currency and thereby control crime.

If your into philosophy and have read the Federalist Papers, then the fallacy of trying to control crime this way is probably apparent. But, it gives the government more control and feeds the bureaucratic and politicians addiction to power.

Whatever the reason, the reality is L$ are now going to be restricted to Second Life. Expect to see their current use in various places disappearing.

Second Life: Clothing Parameters?

An idea for having clothes have parameters that are persistent was put forward. The person suggesting the idea was having problems with setting up feet and shoes for an outfit then changing the feet and shoes for another outfit and messing up the first.

I doubt that feature request is going anywhere because of the system changes that would be needed. But, it would be kind of nice.

There is an easy work-around, which is why I don’t see this feature being implemented. I think the problem solution I have is best illustrated with an example:

My Shoe Inventory Arrangement
My Shoe Inventory Arrangement

In inventory I have my shoes and within this pair of N-core shoes folder I have Scripted and Wear folders. In the Wear folder I have my skins. YS&YS is my newer skin. I’ve adjusted the foot to match my skin in each of the shoe color folders to that skin and set the shoe color. I have one Stocking folder in Mocha Skin. I had to adjust the skin color to match the stocking I liked, which was not in the shoe’s included stockings. Kind of a pain.

By doing this the outfit that wears a shoe/foot combination always has the same skin/shoe color. When I need new colors or I change skins, I make a new foot-shoe combination from the shoes/feet in the Scripted folder. Then I don’t mess up my outfits.

I haven’t started buying mesh shoes for the Slink feet I have. But, I will. It looks to be much simpler and require fewer foot-show combinations because I can reuse the feet. And stockings… with mesh feet it looks to be so much easier to wear stockings, especially with patterns.