Second Life Taxes

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The Second Life blog now has a post from the Lab regarding tax reporting issues. See: Required Tax Documentation.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires Linden Lab to collect and retain Form W-9 (for U.S. residents) and Form W-8BEN (for non-U.S. residents) at certain transaction volumes. If you reach the transaction threshold and we do not have your completed and signed W-9 or W-8BEN on file, we are required to withhold funds from your account (at the current rate of 28% of your gross amounts received). Additionally, for U.S. residents with 200 or more transactions with a total amount in excess of $20,000 in a calendar year, we are required to file a Form 1099-K with the IRS reporting those transactions for that year.

If you are required to submit a W-9 or W-8BEN form to us, we will email you before the end of the year with instructions on how to do so. Please follow the instructions to complete and submit the required Form W-9 or W-8BEN within thirty (30) days of receipt. You will only need to complete this paperwork once unless your information changes from year-to-year. If you do not receive an email from Linden Lab, we do not need you to complete these forms.

CtrlAltStudio Viewer Alpha 5

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Another update to the CtrlAltStudio Viewer is out. See: Alpha 5: Configurable Walk Speed and Kinect Control.

This is the viewer that offers normal, stereoscopic 3D, and Oculus Rift viewer modes. Now it offers an interface for Kinect. Also added is a walking speed adjustment. All of these are neat additions to the basic Firestorm Viewer that turns it into the CtrlAltStudio Viewer.

This is the viewer for those using shutter glasses and Oculus. Features have been added to make use of the Oculus and Kinect more pleasant.

 

Second Life News 2013-47

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This Tuesday we are getting a rollout to the main channel. This is the package that ran on Blue Steel and Le Tigre last week (46).  It is the Experience Tools package. We know very little about what is changed in this release. It is Experience Tools ‘infrastructure.’

Server Beta Meeting 2013-44
Server Beta Meeting 2013-44

RC Channels

Magnum will run the same package as last week, a maintenance release with bug fixes. My article from last Tuesday covers the details.

This release gets merged with the release going to the main channel. Plus the Lindens are tweaking the Grey Goo fence to remove some of the problems inflicted on large item rezzing tools. The new stricter control now will only apply to tools rezzing physical objects.

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Firestorm to Start Blocking Viewers

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Jessica Lyon, the project manager for the Firestorm Viewer, posted that they will begin blocking older versions of their viewers. Jessica is anticipating the drama this will bring on. By her writing you can tell she is expecting a chorus for complaints one might hear from a 10-year old trying to manipulate their parents.  I suspect she is right.

Firestorm Logo
Firestorm Logo

Jessica points out they have little choice. It is either the Firestorm team blocking or the Lab will take over blocking. I’m not sure that is completely accurate. But, I can see how some will see things that way. In general the Lab does not block viewers. But, if you use the newer viewers you really don’t have a choice about updating your viewer. It automatically updates by default. But, that can be turned off.

There are mandatory updates that the Lab requires from time to time. I expect as some of the current changes being made allow better overall SL performance, which are viewer dependent, more updates are going to be mandatory. So, whether there is a misconception about what is and is not going to be blocked and by who, you are going to be updating your viewer or find yourself unable to login. Otherwise you will be degrading other people’s performance. 

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Metareality: Weak Sauce

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The last podcast from Metareality was in April. In this cast Kim/Gianna is saying they plan to be back doing more regular casts, back to the weekly format. You can listen to the cast here: Weak Sauce.

This is an uncensored audio. No bleeping, so there is some profane language… actually a lot.

I remind you, my usual warning is: I paraphrase what I hear and make no attempt to transcribe the audio. Listen to the audio before you react to anything I’ve written.

[youtube 9hUUsqhetX4]

Index

02:00 TOS Discussion starts. Karl describes the change as the Lab becoming a co-owner in all that you create and upload to Second Life™. Karl rants a bit, not much, and I have to agree with his points. Spot on little rant in my view.

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My Second Life LEAP Motion Experiment

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LEAP Motion Controller is the mouse free controller for your computer. I figured this would be a good device for use with the Oculus Rift. I went on eBay and picked up a near new one for US$50. I tried it out with the default apps and some free games.

It does not come with any app or adaption for Second Life™. One needs a free or retail app to adapt LEAP to SL. Drax made a video showing his experience with LEAP and Second Life.

[youtube mso4D8sOLmY]

The app Drax is suing is Game Wave (US$4). I tried some free apps. I didn’t find anything that would work well. So, I tried the app he is using in the video.

It has a good introductory manual, a tutorial if you will. The best I have seen explaining hand gestures for the LEAP.

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