Did you notice it is Pie Day? 3/14/15 — 3.1415 π
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.
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)
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.
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.
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:
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.
Second Life: Euro-Dollar Exchange Rate
Someone in the forum is thinking now is the time to cash out their dollars for Euros. It might be. But, it is not a simple decision. Both market and personal factors set when is best.
Today the exchange rate is US$1.00=€0.95. (That changes by the minute) January 1, 2015 it was €0.826. So, if you cashed out US$1,000.00 in January you got €826. If you cash out today, you will get €951. Is that a good deal? It depends.
According to the graph the trend is a strengthening dollar and a weakening Euro. So, the longer you wait the more Euros you are likely to get for your dollar. Said another way, euros are getting cheaper, losing value. The problems with Greece and the European banks is portending big problems. People are abandoning the euro in anticipation.