movers sulk like gravediggers, while you hug at the door

"Is this AI trying to learn?"

This also strikes me as AI work (and there is mild nudity, so potentially NSFW), but the song is moody, and atmospheric, and the animation is at the least fascinating to watch.

(Bit on Kiki Rockwell in general, because I hadn't heard her before--this article was written in January of this year, so she's relatively new, and from New Zealand.)



So! The 'Atropa' Parasite Flower, another iteration of an earlier work. It needed to be covered. [[Insert from the Editrix: I am being *very honest* in dating...sort of...in that the Necropolis Aether Salon occurred on 18 October, I started seriously working on this entry ten days later, on 28 October...but it's getting dated November 5th for final publishing.]]

It's a new library site, as well. No idea why, though it could have something to do with the current absence of the Baron, but--overall, it seems a much more warm, comforting space.



And yes, that is the Chartes Cathedral labyrinth in the library. I don't know if it's always there, or if that was an addition for the Salon on the Necropolis, as understood through a few eras. Either way, it's a lovely thing to see in a library.



And Sir Edward definitely was in his element for this one, comparing various cities of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, how they dealt with body disposal as a whole, as well as side jaunts into places like the Paris Catacombs and the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic.



Basically, I wanted to attend--not only because I wanted to hear the Necropolis Salon, but because I thought it would be a good way to capture some still pics of me wearing the Atropa flower.



So as seen in the first pic for this entry, there are fourteen different options for the metals, fourteen for the petals, and I think seventeen different options for the vines?

If I'm counting correctly.



It was a pretty piece before, without the trailing vines, but there's something...extra...added with that addition.



I like it, though. I can easily see this being an oft-used accessory.



This was an exclusive release for Hallow Manor, which opened October 13th and closed November 1st. Now, it's in the mainstore, and if you want a direct beacon to the accessories wall, then click this. It's L$400, post-event.

Also, apparently it's Second Life Annual Cleanup Week. So, uh...go do that, I guess.

but I trade not in bones or in kidneys

So, this is going to post in August, because July is pretty much COMPLETELY booked with overemotionalism. Bah. But this just happened (July 23rd), and thought it was worth passing on to those who may not know.

So, around 1:10 pm or so, I saw this in one of my groups:

[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: hi
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: can someone IM me?

I thought about it, and thought, sure, I'll bite.

[13:16] Emilly Orr: Err...why?
[13:16] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: my inventory items went missing

Ah. It begins to make sense now.

[13:16] Emilly Orr: Ah. Grid's having issues today. I would suggest, clear your caches, hit a sandbox, relog and reload, but...took me an hour to log in this morning, so....
[13:17] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: how to clear my caches?
[13:18] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I got this message...

"[13:16] Second Life: The message sent to [group name] is still being processed.
If the message does not appear in the next few minutes, it may have been dropped by the server."

[13:18] Emilly Orr: Right. So what's happening is, there's a lot of load on the servers for some reason? We're not sure yet if it's a DDoS attack or a failure in a server bank.

In all honesty--and this is me speaking from the 23rd, remember--I don't think it's either? But they are working theories, because there are serious issues happening today, and happening yesterday, when the bulk of sims were going dark.

[13:18] Emilly Orr: But chat lag, sim lag, sims going offline, and messages being dropped, it's all being seen.
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: okay
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: so, how to clear my cache?
[13:19] Emilly Orr: Pretty sure tomorrow, your inventory will be fine.
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: oh, that's good
[13:19] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx:
[13:20] Emilly Orr: If you're in Firestorm, it's Preferences Network Files Clear Browser Cache button, then, if you REALLY think you have local issues, Network Files Directories Clear Inventory Cache, and Clear Cache, both.
[13:20] Emilly Orr: (But you don't USUALLY need all three? All three nets you impatient time in a sandbox; the first just means you relog and the system reloads things for you.)
[13:21] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Thanks
[13:21] jxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx:
[13:22] Emilly Orr: Sure!

Does every issue need to be fixed by completely emptying all inventory caches and starting from scratch? Of course not. And it's all down to how robust a computer, locally, is in play too--I've noticed I pretty much had to clear cache every couple of hours on the potato, and once a week religiously, dump everything and reload, just to avoid major crashing and inventory issues. The newer comp is functioning much better, but I still occasionally clear cache just to be safe.

The battle of the wills you live

Today's chat is brought to you by...inventory sorting?

[09:46] Kxxxxxxx Pxxxxxxx: So. Does anyone have any "quick and easy" inventory sorting tricks? I'm working on a tutorial, and know I'm probably missing something. (You will, of course, be credited.)
[09:47] Vxxxxx Kxxxx: you never took Rowan's inventory class?
[09:47] oxxxx Rxxxxxxx: delete all
[09:47] Emilly Orr: Effective, but kind of scorched-earth.
[09:48] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I do it in stages myself
[09:48] Ixxxxx Sxxxx: [Kxxxxxxx] i'm afraid it will never be quick and easy :)
[09:48] Rxxxxxxxx Rxxxx: throw away all Thank you notes, all pose pads but one, all double LM, all layers you do not use
[09:48] Jxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Honestly I straight up used the inv filter for a certain date, like more than 4 years old, and literally deleted all of a certain type. Got rid of a ton and haven't missed anything
[09:49] Ixxxxx Sxxxx: Jess me as well, folder per folder when i feel like it (and as [Rxxx] says, no lm's no notecards)
[09:49] Axxxxx Lxxxxxxxx: throw away nearly all LMs. Store locations change and most are no longer valid anyway

This is a tip I keep forgetting about, and I really should start to employ again. Keep landmarks for places I go to often, places I want to remember the business name for, homes of friends, and...ditch EVERYTHING else. Treat landmarks like I treat unpacker scripts--once you have one, ditch all the others.

[09:49] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: unbox everything from my objects folder and received.first
[09:50] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: then move to the general inventory area where I sort them into general folders and unbox any that were sent to that area boxed.
[09:50] Kxxxxxxx Pxxxxxxx:
[09:50] Sxxxxx Fxxxxxxx: Make sure to delete all demos.
[09:50] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I also keep the boxes of things and delete the sizes I do not use.
[09:50] Kxxxxxxx Pxxxxxxx: You all rock, thank you
[09:51] Vxxxxx Kxxxx: what happens to the working demos?
[09:51] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: then when got everything into general folders I sort into subfolders. and sometimes even the subfolders have subfolders.
[09:51] Sxxxxx Fxxxxxxx: Working demos? Either I buy it or I don't like it. It still gets deleted.
[09:52] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I need to get all the lms up into the lm folder and delete the old and duplicate ones.
[09:53] Kxxxxxxx Pxxxxxxx: Oh, it won't ever be "quick and easy." xD I'm also doing the "in depth" tutorial, but having a "quick tricks" to just do a little at a time
[09:54] Hxxxxx Pxxx: But what if you decide to change bodies?
[09:54] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: yeah what I was saying about I might spend 10 minutes here 10 minutes there working on it until it adds up.
[09:55] Vxxxxx Kxxxx: people try to do it hours on hours and get burned out quickly
[09:55] Sxxxxx Fxxxxxxx: Also, I make a habit of every year (or so) I go into inventory under filter: Custom, at the bottom, I put "older than" 730 days. If I can't remember the last time I wore it or can't think of a time I would wear it again, I delete it.
[09:55] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: depends on two factors. do I have a box of the item to unbox for other sizes? if so delete that item and maybe get the other size. if not and it doesn't have the new size throw it in my backup folder.
[09:55] Vxxxxx Kxxxx: just like a school hour take those breaks
[09:56] jxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: indeed breaks are needed.

And then I had to leave, but there are some good tips here, some I may even employ for my eternal quest for an organized inventory.

still, I can't bear the thought of you now

All right. We are where we are. Nothing changes that. But...

What if, when v.2 was announced, as the horrendous reconfiguring that it was, but one that needed to be done to get some form of movement back in the game...what if the user community had responded the way every other game on the planet has responded, and worked out ways that dulled the horror to a very mild eeping?

Think I'm kidding? Curse.com exists to supply mods that gamers in WoW, Rift, Starcraft II, Runes of Magic, Warhammer Online, Aion, Age of Conan, and scattered smaller free-to-plays believe are vitally necessary to continue playing their games of choice.

Minecraft doesn't even hide it; their mods are posted right in the user forums.

Instead, what's happened? (And I'm as guilty of this as anyone else.) Hate. Hate hate hate. Hate loathe despise hate. All heaped onto v.2's frail shoulders.

According to those who've actually done the hard work and gutted out the interior of the game, it's not that hard to mod. So...why hasn't anyone done it?

I'm serious. Why isn't the Second Life community banding together and making mods to let v.2 look like v.1, or look like WoW, or look like Minecraft, or be all-over pink and chartreuse, whatever? Why aren't we doing this?

We can make entire alien worlds, but we can't fix a little pie menu difficulty? We can sculpt robot parts that whir and turn and rotate and light up, but we can't find better ways to deal with the sidebar?

Instead, what are we doing with our time, our energy, our life and our livelihoods? Bitching about it. Instead of doing anything about it.

And I'm as guilty as everyone else. We're all guilty of this, every single avatar who's ever shook her head at v.2 and said Yeah, well, I'M never using that thing...

All those months. All those blog entries. All those forum posts. It's all such a goddamn waste of space!

We need to do this differently. Now I'm tracking down code bits in the .xml wiki pages, seeing what I can do that others have tried, first.

This "morning" (my morning, at least), I found an email from Second Life marked Meet Residents -- Your Connection Recommendations:

(from the bizarre album)

Now, disregarding the fact that I know three of those people (in fact, Ameshin Yossarian was one of the first people I met in SL, when I was a young and unvarnished newb), I'm typically the type to become mildly resentful when I get these messages from other companies.

I will find my own friends, thank you, is generally always my initial reaction. Especially that if it's by matching people via interests alone, at this point, I'm virtually guaranteed to get some set of recommendations for people who dislike me, have actively muted me, or whom I otherwise don't resonate with for various reasons, because we all seem to circle in the same communities!

But maybe--I said maybe--it's a step in the right direction, and could give people who don't know many people on the grid that feeling of common ground. Why look at that, they could think. Those people also like spam and arson! I should friend them right away!

There's a new JIRA on the horizon, and this one's been amusing to sit back and watch. It's all on how much the look of items changed with the application of lighting effects and shadows. Now, that particular JIRA isn't bound to go anywhere, because Dessie Linden determined that it immediately linked to this JIRA, about essentially a similar problem.

There were a couple of really interesting visuals applied to the secondary issue, too. This one in particular:

(from the bizarre album)

This is a neatly graphed progression, split into two sections: shadows ON, and shadows OFF. The upper (grey) orbs are without bumpmapping applied; the lower (gridded) ones have bumpmapping.

If you can't make it out in the smaller size, I heartily encourage viewing the whole thing, or, if Picasa won't give you the full size, try the direct link to that particular image. This one demonstrates, clearly and completely, that is is not a bug or a malfunctioning procedure of any kind; this demonstrates that the workarounds we developed for getting through the initial Windlight issues need to be abandoned. Lighting effects and shadows are exactly like Windlight was, a radical viewer advancement--some computers can't run them, and content is going to break because of the new display stats.

Still unconvinced that this isn't a bug? How about this image:

(from the bizarre album)

This is another perfect example (and again, if you can't see McMahon's image clearly enough, look at it directly): when shadows are off, shine exists; when shadows are on, shine is reduced but depth is added.

Remember, when we first developed the shiny/bumpmapping tricks, while we could--and can--use shine with existing textures, for the most part, we don't. Most of us texture an object we intend to make shiny with a very simple texture, or no texture, so that the metallic concept "shines" through...aheh. My apologies.

In the above image, the pipes and tanks are clearly colored from blank stock, then have shine applied to them. Applying shadows kills this effect, but adds depth and distinction.

Translation: for all the content you think is broken, it's not. You just need to go out and buy (or make) better textures, now, and find the next workaround. (You also need to realize that lighting effects and shadows can't be seen on all systems, so you're going to have to pick your market. Do you make it pretty for those who can't use the new advances, or do you make it pretty for those who can? Or do you start putting out non-shadowed/shadows on versions of everything?) While these are all important questions for creators of content, it's not something the new viewer structure broke.

Back on the inventory keystroke search JIRA that I covered some days back, I was very, very wrong in how I described it. Namely, I was talking about what has now been explained to me as standard search. Which works in all viewers.

Where I had it wrong was in not comprehending exactly what was being described, because in five years on the grid (woo, I'm five, yay, blah), I have never done this. Not once.

If you have used it, imagine how wide my eyes got, never having known that form of inventory existed before! And if you haven't, here's why it's important:

In 1.x viewers, you can go to a specific folder in your inventory, select it, and start typing. This will find you the first item in that folder and bring you right there.

Looking for a piece of the Anais gown? Type it in after selecting the folder it's in, and whoomp--you're there. Want to track down the first stuffed bear you have? Go to Objects, type in 'bear'--and it finds the first one. This is the definition of "Fast, Easy, Fun".

And in 2.x viewers? IT NO LONGER WORKS.

Yeah, that's kind of a big deal.

because there's a story that ought to be heard

There's a new JIRA issue to watch, this one involving inventory searches. Why is this important? Because as it stands--in 2.x generation viewers--we type in something to search for--like "wings" or "tattered" and the word will auto-complete, and pop to the first thing with that name on the list. Whereupon we can either retype the word, if it autocompleted wrong, or go down the list of things with that name.

In 1.x generation viewers, this is what still happens. But not in 2.x ones. In 2.x ones, they've dropped that feature entirely. Now, we have to type out the complete word, it doesn't start searching until the word is finished, and it doesn't pop open everything--we have to poke and search a few times to get it to pop open *each* instance of that word.

That's annoying, but more than that, that drains time and energy that could be better spent creating things, organizing concerts, shopping, paying the Lindens money...It's not a HUGE annoyance, in terms of Second Life annoyances--Zindra, for example, would far overshadow it--but it's up there.

There's a JIRA post given at the end of CrystalShard Foo's post on it; click that link, read through the official description, and then watch it, please? She says Lindens are paying attention to that post, so the more watchers, the likelier it will be fixed in the somewhat near future.

Picasa is now offering virtually unlimited picture storage. Photobucket, not to be discounted, is now offering what they call unlimited storage. Throwing aside the question of which service is better, why are they doing this? I mean, yay for me, I don't have to worry about that metaphoric line, now, that I may be crossing twenty more uploads down the road, but--what's motivating both services to allow this?

Couple things from the Gutters online comic: this for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and this for Firefly fans.

The Firefly tie-in is funny, but obvious. The Ryan Lee comic may take a bit of explanation, though I've linked it before. Essentially--and this is exactly why the CBLDF is fighting this--a man went from the States to Canada. Canada has a lethal border-search mechanism in place that makes the TSA seem somnolent on the job. They searched everything, including the hard drive on his laptop.

And they found manga. With what they deemed 'pornographic' images of underage participants, which--drawn or not--figures in as an automatic charge of possessing child pornography.

(from the Canada album)

These are some of the characters of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

(from the Canada album)

And this is the title page of the second volume of the graphic novel Lost Girls.

Are these pornographic images? Well, I'd be hard pressed to see little girls in swimsuits and think they're meant to arouse and excite adults. But I will grant that fan-made comics frequently go beyond the bounds of decency. And Lost Girls, start to finish, is blatantly erotic, by design.

Okay, that's fine, let's say they were made to be pornography. Are they child pornography? And that's the sticking point.

To Canada, it's easy--if it features a sexualized child, photographically or artistically, it is child pornography. Period. And I'm sure there's some clarity of thought that goes along with being so dogmatic, but for me, the issue isn't that simple. For me, it has to pass several tests:

1. Is the image of a nude or sexualized child?

2. If yes, is the image photographic, or video?

And while there are other questions to ask, for me, that's also a good place to stop, because if the answer to question two is no, then it is, by default, not child pornography. Because arresting people for owning art is not a good road to travel. From there, it's not even a short jump to arresting people for owning whatever is termed violent, or anti-social, or dangerous, or whatever. Canada may be happy starting down that road; I'm not.

But by definition, that is the tack that the CBLDF is taking--they are not 'defending pedophilia', they are not 'fighting for child porn'. They are fighting, pure and simple, for ideas to remain free. They are fighting, pure and simple, for the divorce of image from reality. A drawing of a man getting shot in the head should never be a substitution for video of a man getting shot in the head. Conversely, an image of a child--whether the image can be deemed pornographic or not--should never be a substitution for a real, live child.

Children can be injured. Art can't. There IS a difference, people.

it's time to let go, it's time to carry on with the show

Sphynx has been telling me for a couple days now--quirkily, the length of time the really bad bugs have shown up for me--that it's a bad idea to keep caches for SL on a temporary drive. Or maybe on a small drive is better.

So, after crashing for the second time, and noticing yet again I couldn't drag anything into a prim (and this after not being able to buy things on several of the hunt stops, earlier) I finally started putting two and two together.

Having asked a question of the talented gentles in the Twisted Thorn group about that same time, Miss Barbara Collazo tossed me a way to sledgehammer caches.

She's not kidding. It really works.

And I'll tell you something else--it works whether you kill and relocate one cache, or--as I had to do--kill and relocate four.

All four caches (for SnowGlobe, CoolVL, Emerald and viewer 2.1, if anyone's curious) are now in a subfolder off C drive. It's not ideal--but nothing's pulling off my 2 gB flash drive, now.

Me? I'm just happy things work again.

Don't mistake me--large inventories still cause lag, and I'm, not begrudging the hour of panic that led me to deleting more than nine thousand inventory items. I need to do more work. There's just way too much stuph out there, one avatar cannot own it all. And an avatar who lives, works and builds? It's far too easy to accumulate mass tons of things.

But never put your SL cache on a small, temporary drive. Trust me. Things go sideways at speed.

your mind's in Disturbia, it's like the darkness is the light

I spent the morning crashing--repeatedly--when all I was trying to do was get onto the grid to turn in my time card for the (pitiful amount of) building I've done this week. It is frustrating beyond belief to crash when one is trying to build (or accomplish anything, really); it is beyond all bearing to crash when one is simply trying to stay on the grid.

In a panic, I wondered if part of the problem was me--or rather, my terrifying inventory. I flew to Ahmadi and started throwing things out wholesale. Down one thousand, two thousand, that entire folder can go--at the end I'd thrown out seven thousand things in five minutes. I felt reasonably confident in returning home to change.

I crashed after arriving. When I logged back in, nothing would come in--drop-down after drop-down said "Failure to find {x item} in database." Damn it. I tried to pull my inventory in and crashed doing so.

I gritted my teeth and logged in once more. To find me as a cloud. Well, at least I'm no longer short, bald and nude. I guess there's an up side?

Carefully I tracked down a top (jacket layer) and pants (pants layer) that I could use to cover myself. I didn't crash. I carefully changed to the first bald cap I found (not risking hair). I didn't crash. I changed my shape, and my group; I didn't crash, and moreover, I was finally unclouded. Can't manage to change my skin; everything's causing that "Failure to find {x item} in database" error. Don't particularly care to fight the system right now.

All right, off to a sandbox for more inventory control. Another thousand items cut down, and now I'm poring folder by folder.

My rules, this run, are simple: if I haven't seen it, used it, rezzed it out, in six months it's gone, unless it's been assigned a specific folder. Like Photographic props; I don't always use those, but I want to keep them.

5:31 pm: Two thousand more items down, most of them hair demos. Why was I holding on to hair demos?



5:42 pm: Another thousand items down. Emptied trash. Back to Ahmadi's ocean to finish pulling in inventory.

5:50 pm: Waiting. 61,483 items.

5:57 pm: Waiting. 64,666 items. Becoming despondent: my boast of getting below 60,000 items is looking grim. Back to culling.

6:07 pm: Still trimming down. Final inventory count after load-in: 66,312 items. So 6,313 items to delete before my goal.

6:22 pm: Someone else arrives on Ahmida's little atoll. I crash instantaneously.



6:30 pm: Back in. I fly from the little atoll to an absolutely untenanted patch of Ahmadi--because it's underwater. I load in inventory again.

6:54 pm: Another thousand gone. That still puts me over 65K. Under 65,000 at this point, I'd be happy with.

7:06 pm: Another thousand down, and I have to leave for RL. Still, I think I pulled it off--under 64,000 items in inventory, anyway, down significantly from the 76K+ I logged in with this morning. Not too bad for a panic-ridden few hours.

Logged out at the bottom of the sea; good thing I can sprout gills on command, or this would lead to problems later on. Of course, I can't seem to change my green skin, so I may actually have died already, and just don't know it yet.

More culling to come. Should the asset server decide to stabilize...