Second Life Bits …and Sex – 2018 Week #38

SL Gossip

New World Notes has a big (lots of words) article, big for NWN, about the SL Secrets website, the owners getting banned, and the Second Life™ Governance Team… maybe writing the word ‘system’ rather than ‘team’ would be more accurate.

This ‘secrets’ site is one of those sites with things on it where we can never know the truth. It is all unverifiable they said versus the others said and one side is bound by privacy laws and can’t speak in their defense. Just the drama prone scenario politicians love. Sway the emotional…

Gossiping about Sam

Gossiping about Sam

If you don’t know, SL Secrets is a website where bullies, haters, and gossipers can go to create victims and dox them and troll readers. Snowflakes show up to whine and cry.

There is no way to vet the claims that show up there. So, it is all drama. Unfortunately, there is a market for it.

And SL banned the owners of the site… really!?!  Continue reading

Google Chrome is unresponsive. Relaunch now? Ouch!

If you use Chrome you may be running into a new problem: Google Chrome is unresponsive. Relaunch now? Relaunching does not resolve the problem.

Chrome

Chrome

The problem popped up in 2015 and seems to be back. It bit me after the latest Win 10 upgrade(?). But, the fix in 2017 is different than in 2015.

Clicking a URL link in another app should open Chrome and subsequently the target web page. Instead you get the ‘unresponsive’ error message. There was a popular 2015 work-around for those using Outlook or Thunderbird: Continue reading

Tutorial: Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF)

Now that we have a Second Life™ viewer with CEF, what can we do with it? For now I am not sure what limitations we will have from the viewer. But, we can look at CEF and see what is possible in general. Here I’ll try to give you the basic information about CEF and links to some tutorials.

Aspen Fell

Aspen Fell

CEF is an open source project built on the  Google Chromium project, which is another open source project to build a better web browser (Chromium) and the project is the parent of the Google Chrome browser. If you research these projects you will see a number of other projects tied together with these. Continue reading

Google Chrome Reverts Bookmark Manager

My Google Chrome has updated and the bookmarking and bookmark manager features, which have again drastically changed, again. The new system and manager are much more like the previous features in 2014. I think it is a major improvement.

Chrome Bookmark Manager 2015/07

Chrome Bookmark Manager 2015/07

I had been very unhappy with the features as they were designed and working during the first part of this year. See Google Chrome Bookmarks/Favorites ChangingContinue reading

Google Chrome Bookmarks/Favorites Changing

This is a big change. I’m not sure I like it. In fact I currently dislike it so much this may be a change that drives me to Firefox or CoolNovo.

Google's New Bookmarks Manager

Google’s New Bookmarks Manager

The change was only appearing in the Beta version of Chrome, which I run. But, it is feedback from beta users that will decide if this feature becomes mainstream, which is probably a near certainty anyway, based  on Google’s past history of how they change Chrome and other Google products. Feedback may change it, but I doubt it will stop it. Continue reading

Google/Firefox Dropping Plugins

The plugins we use in our browsers are a holdover from an earlier time. They provide handy features not built into the browsers. But, plugins also provide a varied collection of problems. The problems are enough of a pain that Firefox, Google, and other browser publishers are going to remove support for them.

Apps Aging Out

Apps Aging Out

Firefox has a list of the plugins that cause problems for their browser. See: Firefox Blocked Plugins. But, it is not just certain plugins that are going to be blocked. We are talking support for all plugins. Firefox will start by blocking all plugins as their default behavior.

Google will be blocking all but a few plugins. Flash, Silverlight, and Unity plugins have Google’s blessing. But, by the end of 2014 even those will be blocked and eventually support removed. By May Google will be refusing to allow new apps or updates to apps in their App Store. See: Google Will Start Blocking Most Netscape Plug-In API Plug-Ins In January 2014.

What Are Some Plugins?

Flash is a ubiquitous plugin that nearly every person has installed. It is mandatory to play Facebook games. But, Flash is going away. My web design tools have lots of new tools to use for creating web apps that are not plugins.  Continue reading

Google’s Translate App

No… not for the Second Life viewer. This is for your web browser. Using Google’s Chrome you may have run into pages that it does not offer to translate. This happens when the browser simply cannot figure out what language was used for the page.

Google Translate App's Button

Google Translate App’s Button

There are a couple of solutions to force Chrome to translate the page in such cases.

Try right clicking the page. Click on an empty part of the page or text. Avoid right clicking on pictures and links. After a right-click look in the popup menu for Translate to [language]. Your native language choice should be in the [ ]. Selecting that will cause the page translation.

Some times the option will be grayed out. When Chrome thinks the page is already in English this happens. If you see this problem then you need the next option. The free Google Translate App. It places a button on Chrome that allows you to trigger a translation. See the image.

The icon used with this app has changed over time. It may also change based on your language. So, don’t be surprised if my picture and your icon are different.

Second Life Chrome Extensions

Daniel Voyager has an article up: Second Life Extensions on Google Chrome.Wow! How neat is that?

Check it out.

If you are wondering what a ‘browser extension’ is, it is a program that runs in your browser. It adds functionality to the Browser. For instance; to check on which of your friends are online you currently have visit the SL web pages, login, and look for friends. An extension does all the work for you. You see a friends list without all the hassle.

Daniel list 3 more extensions you can get.

There is a small downside to extensions. They burn up some CPU cycles and slow your browser down. They are more of a hit at start up when opening the browser then while it is running. When your browser is closed they don’t run. So, it is not a big deal.

If your browser is loaded with search tools bars like My Web Search and other annoying near malware, you need to learn about extensions and remove the annoying crap. Check these removal tutorials for help with; Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox.