it's all in the game, baby--it's acceptable losses

I spend occasional time here pointing out foibles in avatar design; I think it's only fair to point out one that works.



(NOTE: In a stunning display of ineptitude, the mini-pic got censored, the main did not. So thankfully, I was able to grab the main pic, edit them both, and throw them back up. I am really, really, REALLY starting to loathe Photobucket. If I find ANYONE else that does what they do, I am SO DAMNED GONE.)

Meet Hot Cyberstar. What a name. And what an outfit. She was pointy all over, practically. You should have seen her boots.

Not only that, but she's the first to really completely own the Warrior Empress look from all the Luis Royo/Chris Achilleos schools of fantasy art. And sure, she's hippy, but a lot of the Frank Frazetta/Richard Corben babes were.

More power to you, oh pointy-nippled one. Long may you spike.

Now, then, let's talk about the latest infestation on the grid: Sion chickens.

I had been part of the contingent seeing the chickens as causing great lag, until today. Even articles like this didn't help my opinion on the chickens. But my opinion changed drastically this morning.

It's not the chickens that are the problem. If they are properly packaged and re-rezzed out, so they update to the correct (or so the maker claims) "lagless" chicken version, they drop their physical collision rates to single digits, from three digits.

But this is not the problem, as I've learned.

It's the floor of the chicken house, which, as far as I've been able to verify, has not been updated. And that single scripted (megaprim, collision-storing) floor is the whole of the problem.

Bit on the top scripts reader in the estate manager tools, if you don't know: a script reading of 1.0 is high. To be excruciatingly honest, a script reading of 0.25 is high. Fix those numbers firmly in mind.

The floor of the Sion chicken house, as it is currently deployed, was just read off by an estate manager in a private estate sim as having a top scripts reading of 147.0.

Yeah. Let that sink in.

The chickens may have been upgraded to the nifty new "lagless" versions (though I have doubts); but as long as the house remains that highly scripted collision-storing megaprim monstrosity, the chicken set-up will still cause lag.



Fantasy Faire opens today, and it is going to be insaaaaane.

Nine sims. NINE. Gods, and we thought Hair Fair was bad!

But pretty much, it sounds like a full third of the grid is going to have vendors there. Impressive, at the least. And most of those sims are organized around a more-or-less central theme; so if you just want neko stuph, you're just going to wander sim #1, for instance; if you just want mermaid gear, sim #8.

Plus, a fun new addition at the port-in points for each sim--sets of low-lag clothing available so you don't have to worry if you're not sure that you have any. Kind of cool.

Now, more on the hair controversy that surfaced yesterday. This is just wild.

First, Adora Shapes & Skin is owned by Emaleigh Guyot. Intrigingly enough, she's a member of the Merchant Theft Protection Group. Part of their charter states:

We are supporters of Intellectual Property rights in SecondLife.

This group is help to assist victims of IP theft via advocacy and advice in regards to legal options and answer questions about the DMCA process.

Fascinating. So let's go through the hair. From their position on the wall at Adora:

Desiree hair: built by Ella Ireton, for CKDGIT.

Katie hair: built by Sinnocent Mirabeau for Sinsation.

Tori hair: built by Diane Storaro for DS Design.

Audrina hair: built by Ella Ireton, for CKDGIT.

Daphne hair: built by Ella Ireton, for CKDGIT.

Gillian hair: built by Redd Columbia, for -RC- Cluster.

Jewel hair: built by RastaGirl Dyden, but the pic on Miss Dyden's profile matches Miss Ireton's, so I'm concluding likely an alt? In which case, it was built for CKDGIT.

Ella hair: built by Ella Ireton, for CKDGIT.

Dulci hair: built by xsc Ella, for XSC Digital Reallife.

Alexa hair: built by xsc Ella, for XSC Digital Reallife.

Mya hair: built by RastaGirl Dyden, for CKDGIT.

Taylor hair: built by RastaGirl Dyden, for CKDGIT.

Soleil hair: built by Diane Storaro for DS Design.

Diana hair: built by Ella Ireton, for CKDGIT.

And the six over on the other wall:

Devin hair: built by Ella Ireton, for CKDGIT.

Laine hair: built by Diane Storaro for DS Design.

Adora hair: built by Ella Ireton, for CKDGIT.

Diva hair: built by RastaGirl Dyden, for CKDGIT.

Mia hair: built by RastaGirl Dyden, for CKDGIT.

Demi hair: built by Diane Storaro for DS Design.

Okay, fine, Miss Guyot made none of these hairs. That's damning in itself, but it gets odder from here.

CKDGIT, apparently--in looking up both Miss Ireton and Miss Dyden--makes shoes now. Only, or at least, as far as I could tell.

Sinnocent Mirabeau of Sinsation can no longer be looked up via profile. If you search for the store, though, it comes up. There's no free hair at the main store anymore.

Diane Storaro of DS Design does seem to still make hair. None of her styles exactly match though; and again, no for-free options beyond the demos for hair.

Redd Columbia may well have hair visible, somewhere in -RC- Cluster. It's a huge warehouse space, with oddity scattered far and wide. She does seem to be having a sale on other things, though.

And xsc Ella also cannot be found in search, and also, both links given on her profile don't trace to any business she owns.

So what's really going on here? Are Mlles. Ella, Storaro, Columbia, Mirabeau, Dyden and Guyot driven by the same typist? Is it just that Miss Guyot gathered a lot of freebie hairs at one point, and decided to release them as a lark? Did she deliberately lift free hairs at some point, and retexture/repermission them for sale in her store?

Are any of the products that Adora sells made by her, or is it all a scam start to finish?

I'm still digging, I'll let you know. In the meantime, this remains extremely interesting.