Climate and Science

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This article is not really Second Life oriented. I chose to include this topic because the collection of information I link to is extensive and Climategate2 has been vetted. I’ve closed off comments because I don’t want to deal with ideologues’ rants from either side. Read the information, decide, and use it as you choose.

So…

Poor Bear

The release of the second round of exposed private communications as Climategate2 is revealing. Those at the heart of manmade global warming science are revealed. The context of how they are promoting bogus theories, deliberately hiding and destroying data and information to avoid FOIA requests, pressuring scientific journals not to publish articles they oppose (censorship), and personal attacks on those disagreeing with them. All the drama one would expect in SL is there. Hiding scientific information and doctoring data is one of the most despicable intellectual acts possible in a university setting. None of those involved should be allowed to remain at a university. But, the same can be said about Sandusky

For those that like numbers, math, good scientific debate, and facts; check out this article on Anthony Watts’ blog: Climate FAIL from A to Z presented at Durban.

Warmist* and Denier** ideologues will have their predictable reactions to the information I am presenting. But, for the undecided, the doubters, and the skeptics the article is essential reading and an excellent reference source. The latest information on climate and its effects are in the article, or at least the links to the information are.

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Kirsten Viewer Update

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Kirsten Contribution Panel

As of December 7 there will be 9 days left to raise the funds to keep the Kirsten Viewer alive. Today 25% of the needed funds have been raised. Unless a white knight shows up or people get a move on, it looks like the Kirsten Viewer is a goner.

See: http://www.kirstensviewer.com/

Visit CrowdFunder to donate. Please pass this link around. Post signs in SL. You can pick up a copy of the sign at my place in SL.

Only 129 people have donated. When the 21(9) version came out it was the only TPV that could upload mesh. Hamlet thought all 8,000+ down loaders were dedicated users. I was sure it was more like 1,500 from previous months’ download numbers. Still I assumed there were more users that liked the viewer enough to donate. So far that is not the case. Seems we both over estimated.

One does get some benefit for donating toward the viewer. See my Previous Kirsten Update.

My image is an old one… the current image at Crowdfunder shows the current actual contributions.

Please do what you can to help.

 

#SL Mesh Update Week 49

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Several interesting things are going on this week. One is the coming change in the Content Creation/Mesh Import User Group. The number of questions and problems with mesh is decreasing. Mesh is working pretty well. So, the Lindens plan to widen the focus of the group to include more general content creation. Expect to see a blog post at some point announcing the change in focus.

New Meeting Location in Borrowdale - A Return

Meeting Location

The location of the User Group (UG) moved from the ADITI grid to the main AGNI grid. The UG meeting agenda and location can be found in the Wiki on Second Life Content Creation/Mesh Import User Group.

The meeting time is Tuesdays’ at 12:00 noon. That can change so check the wiki for the latest information.

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Second Life Prim Twisting Tutorial

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Ener Hax at “i live in science land” posted about a tutorial on prim twisting. The tutorial was made by Ayumi Cassini and posted in 2009 on Ayumi’s blog as: The ultimate guide to prim twisting. It and the in-world Ivory Tower Library of Primitive are the best sources of information for building with prims.

A Single Twisted Prim - Amazing

In our early entry into Second Life’s age of enthusiasm for mesh building, prims are still the primary material for most building. Understanding what can be done with prims gives one insight into which is a better choice for any build.

Check out the tutorial. I’m impressed.

#SL Server Update Week 47 & 48

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This week has been a bad one for region restarts. There was a problem with the update rolled out to the main grid. The update had to be rolled back later in the day. This means most of the upgrades running in the release channels didn’t upgrade. So, what happened?

Roll Fail

Since this release has been through QA and came from a release channel, how did it get past the testing and yet be so bad it had to be rolled back?

Oskar and Steven Linden explained at the recent Beta Server User Group and Maestro in the Deploys thread in the forum what happened. It seems a region would crash and begin its restart, which is what it is supposed to do… well… not the crash part. The new problem triggered the simulator to restart all the regions in the host. In the logs this looked like an estate manager restart of the non-crashed regions. Since no one reported problems during the test week on the release channel and the restarts didn’t register as a warning in the grid monitoring reports, no one noticed the problem. It was too small to see in the release channel.

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Linden Realm Tools

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I suspect most of you know Linden Realms opened to the general public in Second Life. If you have been to a Realm you may have noticed new features. Teleporting has changes in that you walk into a Portal and it will teleport you into the game. This is a teleport on collision feature. It is a feature we have in OpenSim scripting. It is coming to Second Life. Exactly when or how it will work is unclear. The Lindens are considering how the feature can be used by griefers and how they may limit its abuse.

Linden Realm Game Portal

There is all so the HUD that attaches automatically. Many of us are pretty sure we do not want mall owners attaching shopping HUD’s to us when we visit a mall. So, the auto-attach HUD feature is also being considered in terms of griefing.

There are also auto-run animations. Obviously those can be used by griefers to be annoying. So, those have to be considered in terms of griefing.

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