Second Life Mesh Announcement II

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OK… it’s not their first announcement of mesh. But Thursday’s late afternoon post gives us more information about Linden Lab’s plans and timing.

What is Mesh?

I’ll say the majority of residents are asking, what is mesh? I’ve seen questions asking, how does mesh differ from sculpties? The Lindens have an answer in their announcement: Mesh Update: Part Deux.

It is All Mesh

If their definition-explanation works for you, great. It is definitely a non-techy answer. If you want to see MESH in Second Life, press Ctrl-Shift-R. It is a toggle, so press again to turn off Wireframe. If you are wondering how people figure out or remember all the keyboard shortcuts, see: All Second Life keyboard shortcut keys. Remember. There are different shortcuts in Third Party Viewers (TPV).

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Second Life Server Update Week 30a

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I couldn’t make the Beta Server Group meeting Thursday. But I lucked out and Oskar got the minutes posted on the wiki. So, here is the interesting stuff.

Homestead Performance

A couple of weeks ago a problem caused the script timing in homesteads to go haywire and slow things down. This week the fix for that problem made it to the main grid. So, performance should be much better now.

Release Channels

The Wednesday roll of new code to the release channels was delayed until Thursday. Even then only the Magnum release channel got new code. This is the code that improves the HTTP service. In its first few hours Coyot Linden says it has performed well. If that is the case for the rest of the week it could roll to main grid next Tuesday.

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#SL 2.8 Inventory Delay

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Since I installed some version of the 2.8 series viewers I have had inventory lag. There is about a 2 or 3  second delay for every click I try to make in the inventory panel. Even the scroll-bar has a delay. It is very annoying. Today in the Mesh Volunteer group someone said, ‘Clear your settings and that … Read more

2ndhub Review

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2ndhub is another social network. The network is geared toward Second Life users. How much RL information one uses with 2ndhub is up to you. So, if you are into keeping you RL and SL separate, 2ndhub is catering to you.

I am unhappy with Facebook. I have an account for my avatar and wonder how long it will last.

2ndhub Social Site for Second Life

I still like a couple of games on Facebook, but those are wearing thin now. I play only once per day now and have given up on Frontierville (too many ads in my face) and mostly given up on My Vineyard (same reason). Backyard Monsters is becoming more and more of a grind. Backyard does have a constant flow of new stuff to play with. But, it is a laggy game and doesn’t always work. I think it depends on the time of day…

Google+ is very nice and I love the state-of-the-art interface. But, because of their confused stance on pseudonyms and my use of Google Web Master Tools I canceled my Google+ account.

User Interface

2ndhub has a Facebook style interface. There are no new user interface features. So, use of the service via smart phone is likely tedious. Use via a desktop or laptop is clunky. The interface is cluttered. Everything is a drop down list or simple hyper link. Menus are standard link with a drop down.

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Facial Recognition

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By: jez atkinson @ Flickr

If you live in the USA you are likely seeing news reports of the new Facial Recognition tools the police are getting. For about US$3,000 per unit they get a smart phone thing that will take a picture and compare it to the a law enforcement database and provide an ID for the person in question. It is nearly instant ID.

What is not being covered is the fact that this technology is being made available to smart phone developers via an API. That means we are going to see the same ability appearing in apps.

ReadWriteWeb is reporting that the Apple is making facial recognition part of the iOS 5 operating system. No surprise as RWW was predicting this would happen back in January. The new facial detection tools were recently found on Apple’s Developer website.

Get more information here: Facial Recognition Comes to iOS 5 via New Developer Tools

This means that within 6 months to a year there will be a flood of these apps. Privacy advocates are going nuts. They are all worried about what law enforcement will do with the technology. One reported plan use is to post the face of a belligerent drunk police have been called to remove to all establishments that serve alcohol in the area. However, with this new tech I can see bar and restaurant owners doing this on their own.

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