The main channel is being updated today (Aug 7) with version #18.07.20.518082. This is the Animesh version we had hopped to see roll out last month. We now have Animesh grid wide. However, we only have a project viewer for Animesh.
This version ran on Le Tigre and Magnum last week.
Down to earth from a special place
Blue Steel, Le Tiger, and Magnum RC channels are being updated to version #18.07.20.518086. This version is about Internal Fixes. It has Animesh too. It isn’t clear at this point if it is the same animesh as is on the main channel.
This version ran on Blue Steal last week. I am guessing the fixes in it are being tested with the Animesh changes this week.
Several people have noticed multiple restarts this morning. My home region restarted 3 times. About 45 minutes between restarts. Times are GMT 11:21, 12:30, and 13:14 (6:14 AM SLT).
This week I think the war on free speech is escalating. I read Drudge Report each morning. It tells me what mainstream media will be talking about tomorrow or the next day. Today it leads with 7 articles about attacks on free speech.
For those unfamiliar with the Drudge Report, it is a ‘news aggregator’. Very seldom does Mr. Drudge actually include any of his writing in the Report. So, it is like Feedly, Newsify, gReader, and other aggregators.
Image – Drudge Report is popular. The stats are approaching 1 billion page views per month.
Today it points to articles from; CNN, NYT, WaPo, The Sun (UK), Mirror (UK), Whimn (AU), The Hill, CBS Sacramento, Rolling Stone, Reuters, Yahoo News, Bloomberg, NBC, Daily Star (UK), Space.com, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Zero Hedge (considered a conspiracy site), AP News, Axios, Politico, FNC, SF Gate, and that is just a partial list from today.
Drudge Page Hits – 8/7/2018
A number of sources proclaim Drudge Report as extreme right-wing. If you read the list above, you’ll wonder how that is possible. Blue is Left and Red is Right. Uncolored text is center or unknown. My list is taken from today’s Report and I took them as I found them. I skipped some like The Smoking Gun because I don’t recall ever seeing them in the Report and didn’t consider them representative. Those I listed I see almost every day.
The Report’s stories are pointed to without comment. Other than a modified headline which leaves little, if any, room for spin. So, Drudge Report bias, if it exists, can only come from their selection of articles. The significant majority of articles are from Left and Center-Left sources. So, it is the Left claiming one pointing to their words is extreme right-wing? Really!?!
If you listen to the news media you may be planning a purchase of lake front property on Mars. However, NASA and others involved in the search for water on Mars are WAY more reserved in what they are saying.
Mars
Long wave radar has found what may be… moisture… a mile or two below the surface. Whether it is a body of water or mud or something else has yet to be determined. The problem with knowing is from our testing on Earth. The radar returns on Mars look similar to those we find when looking at salty water deep in the Earth. But, we also know other materials return similar signals. More study will sort out what is down there. Study has narrowed the possibilities of what may be there with the probability high it is water in some amount and form.
Much of the NASA press release information is targeted at keeping Americans enthusiastic about space exploration. It is a funding thing. I think we should be funding NASA and space exploration. But, I also acknowledge the spin NASA puts in their press releases and what the media does with the news.
No one will be buying Martian lake front property, water skies, or lawn sprinklers in the foreseeable future.
Short meeting. Linden engineers were in meetings and not moving a lot of code the last couple of weeks. There has only been 4 working days since the last Dev meeting 2 weeks ago.
The Bugspat Viewer is out in RC. The Lindens are testing a new crash reporting system.
The maintenance Viewer got a couple of more fixes.
The push is to get an Animesh Viewer out in RC form is on.
Estate Management Changes – Still getting a couple of parts completed.
No problems associated with the Firestorm 5.1.7 update. Yay!
BUG-225157 – [RC Blue Steel 18.07.17.517953] Adjusting specular horizontal offset also adjusts specular vertical offset on Blue Steel regions only – The fix is in QA.
EEP is in progress. However, it is held up, as is BoM, by an inventory update. Those inventory fixes move slowly. Once those changes are done the EPP and BoM changes can be made.
The Group Notices for offline catching is updating and still being worked on. The next server-side update is in QA.
This version released after my Second Life News was written. I had been expecting a release for weeks and decided they were waiting on Animesh to promote from Project to Release Candidate. But, with a couple of problems being found in Animesh on the server side, that release is delayed. So… surprise we have Firestorm.
The previous update was in late January 2018.
Firestorm Viewer Testing July 2018
The new release announcement is here. Detailed coverage by Inara is here. She works with the FS Team and uses their testing versions. So, she sees the viewer for a considerable time before I do. So, the detailed review I’ll leave up to her.
I’ll get into what interests me. I am coming from version 5.0.11, the previous release. This morning I retested the viewer performance of 5.0.11. Doing my usual tests;
The Firestorm website recommends a basic install for this version. If you have problems then do a clean install. This version, 64-bit SL, is 111MB download, the largest FS viewer I’ve seen. An OpenSim version and 32-bit versions are also available.
