NSA, Google, and Games

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Within the SL Blogospher several people are writing about the NSA listening to players in Second Life™ and other games like World of Warcraft™. Well, they are listening to our phones, reading our emails, tracking our Internet use (notice how often Google comes up in the results) and tracking our GPS locations. It should be no surprise that they are inside our games and listening to  us.

I’ll paint you the really dark picture of what is most likely happening.

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The security teams are looking for any way that terrorists and bad guys can communicate. If that was all the information was used for, it would not be a problem. But, they are limited by law in the USA and they are breaking it. If they are willing to break one law for a supposed good reason, they will have little if any resistance to breaking others for what they consider good reasons. But, they are still breaking the law, something politically active citizens shape. 

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Second Life News 2013-50

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Tuesday the main grid will get the roll out expected. This is a small maintenance package has a fix for llGetAgentInfo() so it now detects AGENT_CROUCHING. RC Channels All three channels will get the same package. The Maestro Linden in the SL forum describes the new packages as: “ This project contains a single bug fix, related … Read more

Second Life News 2014-49 #4

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From the Third Party Viewer meeting we learn that the viewer install code has been changed to make use of RC and Project installs easier for the Lab and TPV Dev’s. Earlier I mentioned Name RC Viewer as having the program code changes that allow viewers to be more easily named. Being able to better control channel names cleans up some install problems as well as data tracking.

Third Party Viewer Meeting 2013-49
Third Party Viewer Meeting 2013-49

I am taking what I hear Oz Linden saying about not wanting to get into the details of this change to mean it is complex with Linden preferences driving some of the changes. As long as things work better, none of the detail matters to me.

The Maintenance RC Viewer had a really bad crash rate. It has been withdrawn and users pushed to other viewer versions. If you installed it and disabled automatic updates, you need to replace it. 

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Drax Files Radio

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Drax Files Radio
Drax Files Radio

A new Internet type radio show is coming. Inara Pey is involved and promoting the show on her blog. I gather from her articles she has been instrumental in getting Drax and Jo to go ahead with this project. See the latest here: The Drax Files Radio Hour blog launched. The original, I think, announcement is here: Drax Files Radio Hour launches in January.

From Inara we learn Draxtor Despres, of Flufee and World Makers fame, and Jo Yardley, creator of 1920’s Berlin in Second Life™, will be hosting the show. Both Drax and Jo are pretty much pro Second Life™. So, I see the coming of this show as a balance to the negative energy of the Metareality’s podcasts.

I think people have always needed multiple sources of information. Humans tend to be biased, prejudiced, and often have an agenda. That is not necessarily a bad thing. But, it does make it hard for us to see things without our particular colored glasses. Between Metareality and Drax Radio we can probably get a more accurate picture of Second Life. I am looking forward to how this goes.

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Taxes Closing Regions?

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I saw a discussion on SLUniverse about a number of regions closing without notice. The discussion centers on the closing of Beach Front. See: Beach Front Realty Closed?

It seems the land owners collected the month’s tier from tenants and then closed the regions. Correspondence with Linden Lab revealed the closing was ‘deliberate’. I suppose that means the region owner contacted the Lab and scheduled the closing. Not having seen the actual correspondence I cannot tell if the phrasing is nuanced spin that might indicate the Lab closed the owners regions for some reason.

The tenants may be able to get their money back via PayPal. The Lab generally considers these things a resident-to-resident matter and stays out of them. 

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