Oh CRAP! JIRA Change

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I’ve known a JIRA update was coming. I did not expect what I saw this morning. It was also the main topic of discussion at Oz Linden’s Open Source user group and Andrews Server-Scripting UG. Alexa Linden was at OZ’s meeting to help answer questions. See the announcement: JIRA Update: Changes to The Bug Reporting Process.

If you are not a JIRA user you may think this is not going to have an effect on you. I think you will be wrong. I am not at all sure how the changes are going to work… or if they will work. But, it is a huge change in how bug reporting is handled throughout Second Life™. It also has a large number of effects on how we do things within Second Life, the forums and blogs. I am afraid this is not going to be a good thing. What I am sure of is; we are going to have to deal with it for some time.

Bug Reports

Reporting bugs is not easy. One does have to read the instructions and learn how to report problems so the information is useful. An effort has been made to make that easier. The problem is we can no longer browse bug reports to see if there is a duplicate. Now… that doesn’t sound like much of a problem. But, think about it.

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#SL Advanced Modeling Tips

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3D modeling is sort of a new think in Second Life™. Now that 3DS, Blender, Maya, and SketchUp models can be imported we have a whole new realm of knowledge and learning to deal with. One of the tough areas is finding ways to handle the Level of Detail (LoD) aspects of modeling. LoD has a huge impact on Land Impact (LI) costs. So, we have lots of incentive to understand the concept.

3D Modeling Tips: Level of Detail

I watch for ideas and tutorials that will help me with that challenge. Indigo Mertel Plurked about a modeling expert giving out tips on 3D modeling LoD. So, I’m down with that. Her article and link to the tips is here: Expert games tips: Generate more effective level of detail models.

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Interesting Things Week 36

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I’m not much on writing about places in Second Life™. I leave that to Honour McMillan as she does it so well. There is the place I find ever so often that I want to say something about and then I write something. It is the same with fashion.

From ICON Magazine – September Issue

For them writing about technical stuff is obviously not the joy of their day. They do mention techy things, like Honour mentioning the tiling bug, which I’ve never seen. But, I seldom capture hi-rez images. I suppose that is why. I can’t find a JIRA for it either. Oh well, something else to watch for.

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#SL News 2 Week 36

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The news and server cycles are off this week because of the US holiday on Monday. We are getting information in small bits. Today via Grid Status we are advised that the Magnum release channel is getting a roll out and will be restarted.

Cube Project – LEA20

It looks like Magnum is getting the code from Blue Steel plus the fix for SVC-8208 – L$ received notification not appearing when on an RC region. Some Lindens were absent from the typical user group meetings they attend. I surmise they were working on a fix for SVC-8208. Oskar Linden was not sure yesterday the fix would be ready for a Wednesday roll out. It seems they made it.

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#SL News 1 Week 36

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First news out this week is that there will be no roll out to the main channel this week. One was planned, but problems over the weekend changed that plan.

SVC-8208 – L$ received notification not appearing when on an RC region. A problem related to this JIRA disrupted plans for today’s roll out. Because of the holiday another RC could not be selected. Also because of the holiday there is not enough time to develop fixes and load them into the release channels on Wednesday. This means we may not see a Wednesday roll. It may get pushed back to Thursday. But, these RC things depend on how things go today.

This means the high bandwidth use problem is going to remain on the main channel.

 

Windows 8 vs Games

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There is starting to be some considerable controversy around Windows 8. What I’ve seen of Win8 so far, I don’t like. I suppose if you are using a tablet or smart phone it is great. But, if you are a gamer, it probably is NOT going to work for you.

Take a quick read of an article appearing in BBC’s New Technology: Valve boss Gabe Newell calls Windows 8 a ‘catastrophe’.  Microsoft is including Windows Store in the Win8 operating system. It will be the only way to download apps to your Win8 device. Sound like fun?

I am not sure the Win-Store is really going to be the only way to get software into Win8 devices. But, a number of people are saying the same thing. So, it may be that is what Microsoft is planning.

Microsoft will take a 30% cut of every sale made through their store. The massively successful Steam online game store that Valve runs gives a commission on every title sold through their online market. But the Win8 users will not be able to use Steam’s store. So, if true, we are seeing Microsoft once again trying to lock out competition.

Some think that Win8 will be like Vista, a flop. Win9 will then be built to work and deal with market place realities and be what Win8 SHOULD have been.

The majority of Second Life users may well be holding on to Win7.