04 May, 2009

she said, there's one thing you gotta learn, is not to be afraid of it

Cyberlandia arrives.

I love these people--and it's giving me grand ideas for in-world fashions...

Australia is very scary, where even simulated cartoon child pornography is concerned. Do keep in mind, I don't agree with the rising tide of Simpsons cartoon porn--not the least of which is, all the participants are a) underage or b) BRIGHT YELLOW or c) BOTH...but with ageplay already off the menu on the grid, does this mean litigious Australians will now be looking for short avs? Or, say, dolls?

This from Lady Serra, though it's been heard around the grid this morning:

There are some rumors of some nasty gift scam going around right now... as you all know these rumors could be true or might not be, the good thing about these rumors is that they remind us that accepting inventory from unknown sources isn't a good idea. Right now the item in question is called "Life Shop AO" Have a great night!!

The key part of that is, don't accept random inventory items from people you don't know. Period. If they're not in IMs with you, speaking rationally, and telling you they're going to be sending you something, don't accept. It's that simple, whether or not the "Life Shop AO" exists or not.

And my world's staggering a tad bit: I'm agreeing with Prokovy Neva. I may need to lay down with a cool compress until the feeling goes away...

On that similar note of potential sanity loss...you don't need your sanity anyway.

Yet another puzzle piece in the larger picture of why the Lindens are picking now to "clean up" their image: The U.S. Air Force is now in a partnership with Second Life for MyBase, which will expand later this year into actual operational lockdown (currently MyBase is open to the public). Later, the Navy and the National Guard are also planning jaunts inside SL, and are setting up initial spaces for virtual training.

Alas, what forsaken shame the proud name of Hax has earned recently. Prior to now, the very name Hax invoked islands spewing lava, entire civilizations destroyed, maddened bees and rampaging turkeys, slaying all in their path.

Now? It's also known for ripping creators off. And not even well-done hackwork, at that--poor, shoddy, forgot-to-remove-the-prim-creator's-name, hackwork.

All I have to say is, tinker Hax, you should be ashamed of yourself. Apologize forthwith to Miss Marat, and perhaps also to Mr. Denver Hax (for tainting the name of the Destroyer of Worlds). Or change your last name. It's up to you.

"Too dark?" the login screen asked. "Want to override the night and make the sun come out?" I think I still have a higher-than-average level of cynicism in my system; I rather took that as a direct slap in the face over the formation of Ursula. I'm sure it's just me...

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We finally finished up the s.i.c. sim hunt tonight. It's over three of the sims this time, similar to the other ones--grab the HUD from the stall just off the main strip, track down ten small black boxes, about the size of...well, I was going to say a human head, but you'd have to flatten the head, then spray-paint it black, and at that point...really, you're better off just finding the ones there.

But as usual, quirky new details have been added whilst we were away. This sign for instance. (Click for the larger size, with the full set of signs haphazardly nailed to that signpost.)

The prize at the end of the hunt? A gun.

A BIG gun.

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That sets things ON FIRE.

I'm sorry I don't have many images of the gun itself--I admit, I was rather more distracted than I expected by things exploding around me.

To wit: Miss Allen on the hoverbike outside of the Lunitarium grotto, cocking the gun...

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...and the gun going off, and the grotto afire:

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(We're behind that large patch of white glow, which is the plasma burst the gun first launches before the incendiaries fire. Also, in the first picture, Miss Allen is actually under the hoverbike, with the barrel of the gun aimed straight up.)

Lastly, Miss Allen showed us all a new innovation of Miss Pandora Wrigglesworth, her "Happy Missile":

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I suppose it does look happy at that. Check in at Curio Obscura, see if she's still offering it for sale.

Also, Miss Allen:

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looks really, really good on fire. (Though I wouldn't suggest just blindly whipping out flamethrowers as an alternative to a polite greeting, just so you know.)

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It still remains a very well-done, amazingly detailed sim, start to finish. Or set of sims--s.i.c. spans five sims now! All through donations. It's just phenomenal. I've said this before, but if you've never considered a visit--do drop by, at least once. It's quite the experience just wandering around.

6 comments:

Sphynx Soleil said...

Don't forget the Fallen Gods hunt - that one will be simple in comparison to S.I.C. :)

And he did finally FIND the errant #6....

Emilly Orr said...

We heard--we have an oblique hint for when/if we run into trouble, so yay for that!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I know Tinker Hax. I am very surprised at this. One of the commenters on Artilleri's post about this hinted it may not be as it seems, but then another claims she discovered other stolen items.

*sighs deeply and unhappily*

A bad business.

Emilly Orr said...

I don't know Tinker; I know of her, and I have some of her avatars. Which would tell me she's been around enough not to pull something like this.

Save for that one screen capture--can that be faked? If it can, I'm more than happy to post a retraction.

I know they look dissimilar--similar ideas, different execution--save for that one screen shot of who made each prim, which anyone can pull up and inspect, depending.

Maybe it's just jumping at shadows; gods know, the grid is nervy as a whole right now.

Anonymous said...

The other store with stolen items, Kari, wrote that Tinker removed the items in question - http://karistore.blogspot.com/2009/05/ripped-in-piece.html

It does appear that she did it :(

Well, Kari considers the matter closed, so I will too.

Emilly Orr said...

In her defense (I'm not sure how this is a defense), but in speaking with others on the grid yesterday, she was--at least then--asserting that a friend of hers had logged into SL, using her computer, and had built things "for fun".

This fails to answer three important questions:

1. Why were other designers' prims used in the build?
2. Why were other makers' designs reproduced?
3. Why was the end result of the build packaged up and marketed?

As she's withdrawn the items, I see no need to persist, either--but it also saddens me that it happened in the first place.

hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...