everything falls out of focus, you walk through the door

So I'm frantically trying to get through as much as possible of the Shop and Hop before I fold up for the time being (and yes, I know, I KNOW, I should have been done by now!) and finally reached Aluveaux Technologies. And their gift--shown below--is a universal door plug-in:



And I got all excited. Granted, Tannhauser Gate Stations has iris doors, but still! Sounded potentially neat!



Okay! They put up a build, showing how the doors work! Though, come to think...this one doesn't seem to have doors in it...



Oh. ...Oh. Well, that's...unfortunate...

So some bugs in the system yet. Pity.

there's an SOS, I'm calling out

I've had a problem for a while with finding a solid, dependable ankle lock. I had one, from Mesh Agency^*, and it worked without fail, but on the last update of Firestorm, it stopped working. So I picked up some others, intending to find one that worked consistently with the burlesque chairs we use at Sakura, which are from Henmations.

^* (Technically, it was sold by [BREATHE] on the MP; I can't find it now, but that's because Mesh Agency specifically says buyers are not to sell it as an independent item, only with shoes, so...that may be why I can't track it down at this point.)

So, last night, friend of mine needed a live body to bed-test. This was over at Newcastle, so off we went, and I noticed that many of the poses really broke my ankles. And the default I'd been running with, from *BoSH*, totally didn't fix it, even after several resets. So in desperation, I started at the top of my folder of ankle locks and as it turned out, the one from Diamond worked like a charm. Yay.

But it got me thinking--why is this happening? It's far from the first time I've noticed; in fact, it's been a couple months, at least. This shouldn't be a big problem because the script for any ankle lock seems pretty simple, doesn't it?

Anyway, had a conversation with someone from Meli Imako's group about the problem. I'm not the only one to notice.

[12:38] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: ty, so i might not be failing it's the script itself. i tested the anim in world by itself and it worked... i'm sitting here thinking damn near ten years building experience and i'm being bested by this thing
[12:38] Emilly Orr: Right.
[12:38] Emilly Orr: there is something IN the script currently, and I don't know enough about scripting to find it.
[12:39] Emilly Orr: But either LL broke a facet of their programming language, or different items are now interacting with other items in non-expected ways. Maybe it's a priority setting?
[12:40] Emilly Orr: Like, last night, testing a bed for sale at Newcastle, I noticed my ankles broke, and I was wearing the BoSH ankle lock. Wouldn't work even after reset.
[12:40] Emilly Orr: Took it off and put on the Diamond ankle lock, which hasn't worked on ANYTHING else, and it worked. So I have no clue.

I didn't think to capture pics at the time, but I went back by myself for a quick before-and-after. This is without the Diamond ankle lock:



This is the before pic, with me wearing the *BoSH* ankle HUD. And this one:



is my ankle after application of the Diamond ankle HUD.

[12:42] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: i just bought his $1 to test and i noticed it was working mostly but faded and my AO started taking it over. so i thought well maybe if it's in the shoe it'll work better so i got the builder edition and then my meli hud didn't work and it wasent working iether
[12:42] Emilly Orr: See? It's a bug, somewhere, but it's elusive.
[12:42] Emilly Orr: If you figure it out, announce it somewhere, it's been a headache for a while!
[12:44] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: i was honestly thinking it was bosh, i have never fully been happy with his scripts. he was the first hud i used years ago but when he went to the 1 script version for mesh something about it i didn't like
[12:45] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: it might be easier to figure out if the scripts wernt no mod... i understand why they are but it means no one can look at them to figure it out
[12:45] Emilly Orr: Hmm.
[12:45] Emilly Orr: That's something.
[12:45] Emilly Orr: A moddable ankle lock script.
[12:46] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: i would think all it has to be is a play anim script to work
[12:48] Emilly Orr: Okay: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/AnkleLock
[12:48] Emilly Orr: They mention it was recently updated.
[12:58] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: you click on the link to the updated project and it comes up as an error. or did i miss something

Nope. It 404s (without actually 404-ing.)

[12:59] Emilly Orr: Damn.
[13:00] Emilly Orr: That may be part of the problem.
[13:00] Emilly Orr: Now it's a puzzle!
[13:03] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: i wonder if boch would be able to help. i have talked to him a few times... he tries to mansplane things though
[13:06] Emilly Orr: Ugh. But maybe, it's worth the ask, at least.
[13:12] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: well, he's online and says he's checking
[13:14] Emilly Orr: Interesting. I wonder if he's noticed anything.
[13:14] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: he says he's checking the script sorce and it'll be a few
[13:19] BBxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: he gave me a new script to try, let you know in a few
[13:19] Emilly Orr: Keen
[13:30] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: took a while for the AO to cycle through to an animation that twists the ankle but.... still no dice
[13:30] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: [sent a picture link, picture below]

[13:33] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: said he has to look in to it deeper and refunded me
[13:44] Emilly Orr: Went afk for coffee
[13:45] Emilly Orr: I'm not going to sweat a Linden, but that he sees a problem, too, that's interesting
[13:45] Emilly Orr: Huh. Standing? I've never had problems standing. That's deeply odd.
[13:48] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: well i'm not even sweating the 99 i spent for the builder edition... i have wasted more than that on things that wont work for me lol
[13:50] Emilly Orr: So true
[13:51] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: oy i need some Tylenol now lol, i posted the result to meli's grp if anyone pays attention lol
[13:52] Emilly Orr: Maybe someone will
[13:52] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: you want me to update once he gets done with the script?
[13:53] Bxxxxxxxxx Sxxxx: he said it should be a few hours but it might be longer
[13:54] Emilly Orr: Sure!

She hasn't gotten back to me yet, I'm probably going to IM her and ask in a day or so. But something else has occurred to me--maybe it's not that the Lindens broke something, but that Firestorm broke something on their update? We're both on Firestorm, so...is that the answer? Who do we ask then?

It's still a puzzle. The mystery abounds.

but just because it burns doesn't mean you're gonna die

At After the Fall, I found a supposedly "Spooky interactive" haunted house. Sure, why not?



And of course it starts off with a haunted TV. On the floor. Just...on the floor.

Sure.



The chair is eating me! Well, to be fair, I should have known, it said it was a Hungry Chair...



And now I am a salad.



"This way"...complete with black-as-pitch corridor, ridiculously bright bloody footprints, and drippy letters written in blood.



"Come if you dare"...because the first set of bloody footprints didn't scare off intruders, so the second one would, of course. Right?



And now it's simply "Beware"...in the dark, more nearly glowing footprints, oooh, scaaaary.



And, of course, there's a basement lab for mad science. Sure.



Because everyone stores barrels of toxic waste in their basements. Happens all the time.

So, here's my question after all of that: where are all the original ideas? At this point, it feels like it's all been done--multi-floor mansion for no apparent reason, unexplained random spooks, the cannibal kitchens, the destroyed nurseries, the mad scientist in the basement or the Thing in the Cage somewhere...Is it just me? I want backstories. I want to know why the haunts are there. I don't want the evil Satanic ritual in the childrens' wing, I don't want carnivorous cooks, I don't want haunted TVs, we've done this. Done it to, you'll pardon the phrasing, to death.

There were a few cute touches, for which I was glad. The wheelchair in the nursery, child-sized: that was a neat touch. The static ball, that was pretty neat, too. While dated, the head-on-the-platter table, that was actually pretty cool. And the grounds were attractive and atmospheric.

But along with that, the sheer randomness of the rest was slightly irritating. Why did the bathroom mirror say "Redrum"? What does it refer to, because there's no other trace of The Shining in the entire place? Why the mad science in the basement? Why the toxic waste? There's no point to any of it.

At least give me haunted spaces with some attempt at a backstory, or failing that, some sense of unity. That's all I ask.

and rub it in so deep, salt in the wound

Tonight, I went to Reanimated Misfits, another land with no Windlight presets. I set it for Rot, as nicely atmospheric, and walked into the main house.



Of the six pictures seen in the main room of the haunted house, in this corner specifically, three feature dead children, two appear to be actual murder victims in or under cars, and one is the Victorian "hidden mother" photograph trick to get children to behave. Hmm.

But it gets worse on the other walls. Those, I will not show, as I'm fairly sure some of them feature actual cadavers, under autopsy. There's an assortment of circus folk, some creepypasta images, some sideshow performers...and others feature early genital surgeries. Some of the pictures are actually quite disturbing, but not for the reasons the haunt designers may have thought.

Be aware if you go to this haunt, you risk seeing things that may be unsettling, that have nothing to do with ghosts or spooky noises. In all honesty, I'm not sure why a haunt would put together the surgical images, especially genital ones. It seems...extreme.



Downstairs, the typical abandoned, bloodied asylum, complete with overturned furniture and a barred gate.



There's nothing especially noteworthy in the asylum section. It's just...the typical. I suppose it fits--the institution administrative offices and main foyer upstairs, the cells below, but...that's really it for the main building.



I went to the next building, and the lag started in. I could barely move going up to the entrance. There's something in the fog, it's severely overscripted. Inside, I got no further images, because I could barely function. I finally managed to get out, and some of the lag eased...until I went to the next building.



This was the last image I took before I had to go, or crash. Maybe it was just too close to the fog machine; I don't know. What I do know is, unless you have a fairly high-end machine, you're not going to make it far in this haunt. There's also a cave entrance across a small creek; I never made it there.

The whole affair left me thinking "Huh" more than "Aaagh!" so...A for effort? But two skulls out of five?

wind me up, turn the key

What is dark energy?

Also, it's picture-heavy, and doesn't include all of the ideas, but have a taste of a hundred ideas that changed architecture.

Also II, remember all those scenes in SF movies where physical objects rose up out of virtual tables, and could be touched and interacted with? Meet the beginnings of that technology in real life.

Also III, Bride of Also, ribbon particles in SL? Yes, ribbon particles in SL.

And it's that time of the year again, where Em decides to muck about with changing her blog template. Yes, she understands it's kind of unreadable now. Bear with her, it (hopefully) will improve.

bleed for a sinner; I just need a few pennies more

Insidious is getting a sequel! Though I'm not sure what that means in terms of the deaths from the original...

(from the haunts album; one of the command stations on the Doomed ship's interior)

Continuing from a couple days ago, we were covering the rules for Doomed...

4. We do ask that visitors at least attempt to look in-theme so as not to detract from the experience of others. There is a free set of uniforms near the entrance teleporter. All Doomed Ship avatars are designed around realistically sized human shapes and will require editing if you prefer to use a larger shape.

(from the haunts album; the main embarkation point for the Doomed ship)

For me, this is the big one, and it's seemingly the biggest one for people missing the point, too. "Realistically sized human" means "human". Or, "alien with a believable explanation as to why they're non-human, while still appearing humanoid/human". Acceptable reasons could include:

• escaped experiment from one of the science labs
• interdimensional entity who means harm
• twining lab plant which has achieved sentience
• reanimated person/animal/mineral/specimen with an agenda

(from the haunts album; alien infestation along a lower corridor)

Choosing your own adventure is the heart of all RP, but make sure that your vision doesn't destroy or diminish the vision inherent in the surroundings. On the Doomed ship, everyone's human; the (very) few who aren't (aliens, travelers, demonic entities) are generally corrupt and evil, through and through. And it's fine to be corrupt and evil, as long as you understand the dividing line. There are no "good" demons, though there can be "bad" humans, but above all else, there are no furs without a reasonable explanation.

Let's play the matching game again.


On the one side, Isaac Clarke from Dead Space 2; on the other, a random anime babe in shiny pink with some sort of unreasonably cute alien pet. See the difference?

Or let's talk about Ulrich K's various sf/fantasy pinups. On the left, his "Alien Hunter". On the right, his "Astronaut Girl". Which one fits the Doomed ship more? Big hint: it's not the lady in the bubble-helmet.

5. Limit scripted attachments where possible. Avoid attachments that cause excessive lag.

In other words, don't wear your resize-scripted, 100% particle-spewing, realistic-movement fur coat with your 217-prim hair, your 98-prim animated tail, and your intricately designed blinged-out beltbuckle that can be seen from Mars to the Doomed ship. You'll make several people--including the owners and anyone who gets near the perfect storm of lag you'll be creating--unhappy.

6. Limit use of over-sized avatars to large, open areas of the ship. Remove if asked.

Note: "large, open areas" does not mean "mess hall" or central gathering area. It means that if you're twelve feet tall, and want to play on Doomed, you'll either have to track down an avatar that's more realistically proportioned, or confine yourself to the docking bay, period. And since there are freebie skins and uniforms available on beaming in to Doomed, there's literally no excuse for tromping around, too tall for the ship.

7. Work and residential areas outside the role-play area are not public.

And not that that one really needs more explanation, but I'll make it simple: if you have to fly up to get there, or cam in from the outside to get there, it's likely not a place you're supposed to be. Don't go there.

Now I'm curious, so I'm going to be hopping about some over the next few weeks, seeing if I can get rules lists for other RP sims, and see if their rules make as much sense as the Doomed ship rules do.

you're an urge that can never be cured

It's that time again: too many tabs open with things I wanted to share. So here goes, in no particular order.

Michael Zoellner spent an evening tracing--by hand--the PSR B1919+21 waveforms from the cover of a Joy Division album, then 3D-printed them. That's all kinds of cool.

Anyone besides me like to go camping? BuzzFeed posted a semi-brilliant list of camping hacks, some of which I'd never heard of before.

(Oh, and there's a real easy dodge that entry didn't think of--one can also buy two one-person sleeping bags, and zip them together for a two-person bag. If both of them are rectangular, and not the 'mummy' style, it works like a dream.)

For other hacks, wander over to LifeHacker for a brief history of mechanical keyboards, and why you want one. I know I want one, because at less than six months in on the new comp, I've already typed off the L, the >, and the ? from the keyboard I'm using.

If you make machinima, or just need background music for a project, do consider Incompetech. Everything Mr. MacLeod releases is royalty-free; he only asks that you credit him back for any project usage. He also recommends AudioMicro.com, as another excellent resource for royalty-free music. (Both sites offer low prices for commercial use, no prices for personal use, and exist solely to help folks out. I do like to encourage this, as it makes everyone happy in the end.

An avatar known as Brilliant Scientist (great name!) refitted Maestro Linden's linkset script, with some assistance from Ann O'Toole, and launched it on the wiki. If you need one of those, try that one--it creates far less lag than its predecessor.

Toska - noun /ˈtō-skə/ - Russian word roughly translated as sadness, melancholia, lugubriousness.

No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.
Vladimir Nabokov, cited in A Field Guide to Melancholy by Jacky Bowring

Some days, everything has tentacles.

There's a bit of controversy raging around the Hawkeye Initiative currently. Blogger Natalie Reed explains it further. I get what everyone's saying, but I also think that several of these women are missing the point of both the Hawkeye Initiative, and the Escher Girls blog in the first place.

(Though I'd also single out this post, because it makes a damned good point.)

Also, at least according to one Jewish paper, women didn't exist during the Holocaust. This is a nigh-perfect case of good motivation leading to bad outcome. We know why they're trying to erase women from these photographs; but many of us are not comfortable with that conclusion. In addition, it's too closely kin to censorship, so it's disturbing on that level as well.

Moving in another direction entirely, go peruse the Rag & Bone blog. Much tasty literary eye candy--and paper-based art--there.

Finally, if you're like me, you have far more anti-skills than you have skills. But even if you're not, it's good to read through, because that article provides an excellent working understanding of the difference between life skills/coping skills and anti-skills. (Just an FYI: anti-skills are the bad ones. Anti-skills are the ones we have that are habitually responsible for holding us back, keeping us trapped, and keeping us wary and fearful. It's not easy to ditch them, either, but accepting that we have them is a great first step.)

do I know your face? does my mind wish to forget?

This is odd, and passing it on for the oddity--I haven't received one, but then, I haven't made a new account since the store girl, lo these many years ago.

Fascinating profile I came across while wandering through Pocket D in City of Heroes:

Zarah Neman
Level 50

Description: ((RP))

It is called Zarah, or Narah. By the way that men reckon time, it's ancient beyond imagining, having witnessed the earliest sunrises and sunsets of existence, though turned its gaze from them, preferring its native lands of Faerie. It wasn't until humanity first dreamed that this attention returned, transfixed by these new beings. And so it became real, forsaking Faerie, a story told to the waking world on rose-red flame, and has lived here ever since. It is to Modern Fae what Cavemen are to modern man - primitive, brutal, and disturbingly clever.

• Scores an 11/10 on the Fae Chart.
• Aura is not hard to read, though it's wise not to observe deeply, lest curiousity work [its] proverbial murder.
• When surrounded by tongues of flame, they are cast by dozens of tiny fae in orbit

Everyone gets one chance. Be polite.

Vaguely demonic in appearance, in a precisely tailored suit. Fun.(I did change his "it's" to "its" in the description; it's a long-standing pet peeve. Otherwise that's exactly the bio I saw.)

In more JIRA news...this one's really, really odd. A comment on the script throttling the Lindens initially enacted pretty much doused the comments in kerosene while on fire:

You are really some cry babies. That's typical, when they do a change which benefits the players, all of you spam sending scum cry around.

They throttle it even more to 100 per hour. I fucking hate it when I get in a sim just to get 10 item accept request. Fuck spammers, rot in hell

In all honesty, when I was going through my emails this morning, I didn't even realize this was a JIRA comment until I'd mentally backed up and looked at the header.

So, I looked her up while I was closing down other research windows. I kind of wish I hadn't now, but...yeah. There she is. Decanted in 2008, no bio, very few groups, so back to being severely puzzled about the whole thing. (Oh, and that pic? NSFW. For just about ANY work.)

There's been one comment so far taking her to task for saying that, but seriously--that particular JIRA was doing fairly well as being more useful for the Lindens than your run of the mill complaint-go-rounds most JIRA posts turn into after a while. In fact, the last comment posted was near the end of March. Then Odessa comes along and explodes for no reason. What the hell?

Plus, again, how exactly is the original drastic script throttling "a change which benefits the players"? It seemed to be hurting more players than it ever helped, and just from my perspective, I've never--in six years of playing SL--gone to a sim which tossed me ten items to accept at the same time.

I'm sure I don't go to the sims Odessa goes to, but the max I've ever been tossed is three--and usually, those are heavy roleplay sims, so it's generally a rules of conduct notecard, the landmark to the sim, and a landmark or notecard for the shopping area. Period.

Say hello to Mild Insanity--it's a customized map for Trials: Evolution, which I believe is an XBox game. This is two of the Achievement Hunter crew discussing the then-new game, that works as a pretty good introduction to the game, and mentions the absolutely insane amount of customization options available in the in-game Map Editor. So why is that so amazing?

Well, because you can make your Trials game look like Portal. Or look like op art (that video gets full cuteness points, too, for Geoff's take-your-daughter-to-work-day episode). How about putting dragons on your map? Or riding your dirtbike through medieval ruins? If you're a fan of the "Wipeout" show, there's a map for that. Or if you really liked Missile Command on the Atari system? There's a map for that. If you really liked Mario Kart? There's a map for that.

Really, if you like inventive games with a mind-boggling amount of diversity and creativity--and, more importantly, you have an XBox 360--checking out Trials: Evolution wouldn't be a bad thing. If you only play it for the custom maps, you're still getting your money's worth.

there will be no sorrow, when you sing tomorrow

I can't believe that no one's flooded the testers with mesh samples yet for Qarl's mesh deformer project. This is something that is vital to continued development on Second Life! Makers! Designers! Get on this!

Seen at Fallen Gods:

[02:39] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: ============================================

[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Your avatar is being scanned... Please wait!

[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: ================= Public page ==================
http://world.secondlife.com/resident/dff7b36a-7f65-4401-88ce-2cd3068d8b87
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Profile pic's UUID: 22db533d-5f70-c76d-7d8b-1f39b835a26e

[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: ================== Avatar info ==================
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Avatar's name: Emilly Orr
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Display name: Emilly Orr
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Key: dff7b36a-7f65-4401-88ce-2cd3068d8b87
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Date of birth: 2006-07-10 (2127 days old)

[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: ================= Physical data =================
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Height: 178cm (5 feet 10 inches) counting your shoes
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: (You are average for a male and average for a female)
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Mass: 1.497388 lindogram (~64 kg)

[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: =============== Script and memory ===============
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Script count: 21
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Running scripts: 21
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: CPU usage: 40 µs
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Memory usage: 480 KB
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Congratulations! Script weight under 3 MB.
[02:41] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: ============================================

Now, I'm amused by this for more than one reason, chiefest being due to my shoes at the time. I have several pairs of "pony" boots from Show Me On the Doll I still wear, but tonight's outfit involved the Fairlight Industries ballet boots (which, sadly, it seems they no longer make), and they easily have eight-inch spiked heels, if not taller.

So, without those, I'd be 5'2", which is a little accurate (and not that far from my RL height, all things considered).

I also had to look up the "weight" conversion (I'm also amused at the concept of the "Lindogram" as a weight measure. Still, their predicted weight of 64 kg makes my current avatar's shape a curvy little 141 pounds. All things considered, that's not so bad.

(Amusingly, I went back and checked it again after taking off the ballet boots. I got this:

[16:38] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: ================= Physical data =================
[16:38] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Height: 163cm (5 feet 4 inches) counting your shoes
[16:38] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: (You are short for a male and average for a female)
[16:38] [OO] Avatar Examiner 1.2: Mass: 1.355744 lindogram (~58 kg)

So apparently, shoe height is counted in total avatar "weight" (presumed, not script load). This is making my brain giggle.) But okay, apparently they're only six inch heels. (Hee. "Only".)

Why am I linking this, however? Simply put, because these things are popping up all over the grid now. While few are this involved, most will evaluate your current script load and active processes, and it's making me very glad I developed a limited AO for hunting and traveling. That AO has two scripts (yes, the other nineteen were in my shoes, and in the flight feather I wear to get around wearing the Mystitool whilst hunting), and two animations--a fairly uncomplicated walk, and one stand. All other animations are deleted from that AO, along with all other lines in the text file the AO uses to read the animations into memory.

But there have been building rumors for over a year now about the possibility of script limitations, and we seem finally to be moving into that era. So, many designers are now taking it upon themselves to police their stores and their sims. (And, to be fair, this is something that's been a long time coming. The more scripts you have running, the more memory you're using, the more lag you're creating. The thinking goes, less scripts = less lag, and they're not wrong.)

Apropos of nothing under discussion, there's a free mushroom umbrella for Petites on the Marketplace, with hold pose.

There's also a set of tops and jeans for "urban petites on the Marketplace for free, and a five-pack of simple dotted tops for petites as well. (Oh, I know there's more, but this was what a casual perusal, whilst searching for non-fantasy mesh Petite clothing, led to.)

[2012/05/05 13:36] Exxx Rxxxxxxx: SL is hating on me today.
[2012/05/05 13:36] Exxx Rxxxxxxx: Hehe so kind
[2012/05/05 13:36] Rxxxxx Axxxxxx: Ahh it hates us all quite equally Dear, never fear
[2012/05/05 13:36] Sxxxx Axxxxx: we will love you enough to make up for SL hating you
[2012/05/05 13:36] Exxx Rxxxxxxx: :)
[2012/05/05 13:36] Cxx Exxxx: (What a great motto for Winterfell!)

It really is.

This leads to a wild little art project that makes me think of Minecraft and Second Life both. It's definitely unusual, but intriguing. What else could be replaced with Legos?

[00:59] TBF Loudspeaker shouts: Attention please. Beware of child avatars. They may in fact be FBI agents.

Good advice, just about anywhere.

There's a vintage toaster radio for L$10 at WarBug that plays...scarily peppy music. I can't decide whether it's going to make me homicidal or overly bouncy. But I had to buy it.

They've also got the Telefunken TV mentioned earlier, in case you're interested. It's going for L$20.

Think Geek terms it "Twenty Sides of Suck", which is somewhat suggestive, but nonetheless fun. It's insanely expensive for a single confection, but if you plan to impress the gentles at a gaming convention, it might be the accessory to acquire for sessions.

And from the Modem World blog:

While I have been prone to avoid personal opinion in “news” items, that there is upcoming maintenance does prompt me to ask Linden Lab as to whether they could also broadcast a reminder in-world prior to the work commencing, for the benefit of those who may not routinely read the Status Page or who are not engaged on Twitter?

It's a good question. Why don't the Lindens make more of an effort to communicate at least the extreme upcoming changes?

Oh, wait, that would require the Lindens to want to communicate. Of course, I forgot.

Finally, the creators of Space Quest want people to help fund their latest project--essentially, updating their game for the modern era. While it's not jumping up by leaps about bounds like Amanda Palmer's Kickstarter (which so far has spawned over six hundred thousand dollars in donations, and inspired her to start LoanSpark, which could turn out to be the independent musicians' Kiva, it's still moving up fairly respectably. You still have most of the month to decide to help, or just tell your friends who might be interested. (In any of the projects mentioned--let's face it, they're all worthwhile endeavors.)

you are the silence in between what I thought and what I said

I don't link a lot of Gutters sheets, but this one begged to be given wider viewing. Mainly because I'm absolutely mystified why the signature character of their own company would be renamed, simply because "a lot of people already thought that was his name, anyway".

Baptiste Debombourg is slowly converting old engravings into staple art. And by that, I mean art, on the walls, formed out of hundreds of thousands of metal staples. That's phenomenal, and somewhat baffling.

Scenes from a hunt (mostly Twisted and the bunny hunt at RokumeikaN+).

(from the scavenging album)

There is something eerily beautiful about this room. It manages to be both ethereal and lovely, suffused with a soft teal glow. I won't say where, I will say who--Dare Munro of Dare Designs put this one together.

(from the scavenging album)

In the meantime, RokumeikaN, a Japanese brand of delicately detailed EGL and EGA wear (yes, they have outfits for men who desire lace and elegance, too) acquired a sim, and both to launch their grand opening, and to embrace the season, they're having a sim-wide hunt to celebrate.

Thing is, the entire sim is just breathtaking and beautiful. Modeled after moderately-sized cities in the UK, or in Europe, in the late 1800s, it has that sort of English-faerytale feel, with a hint of the Victorian and delightful touches of whimsy.

(from the scavenging album)

However, the sim-wide hunt? Involves bunnies. But not just any bunnies--scripted, moving bunnies. This is how their hunt works:

1. Find your bunny. (There's generally six to twelve on the sim at any given time, sometimes more, but they do move around.)
2. Follow your bunny. (Also harder than it sounds, because they move around, and occasionally forget they're on the sim and bamf!, they're in outer space.)
3. Wait until your bunny flips out a ticket. There are two kinds, red (specific tickets for merchants on the sim) and gold (can be used to purchase one gift from ANY merchant you want). But, to get them you have to:
   • right-click the ticket;
   • buy the ticket;
   • and take the ticket (once it's yours)...all before someone else does.

Simplicity itself. *coughs*

(from the scavenging album)

But, we all know about scripted objects and lag...and these bunnies are no exception. Sometimes they do some very odd things, which can be vastly amusing. Considering most of this "hunt" involves standing around and being the very soul and essence of patience (while the bunnies play will-I-or-won't-I-drop-anything, seemingly their favorite game), anything that's amusing helps.

(from the scavenging album)

In the center of the forested area is a little pond, with a whitewashed wooden platform decked in lace and flowers. This is apparently "Club Charlotte", where you can sit, and have a cup of tea, and listen to music.

Of course, being a raised platform (over the water) bunnies can get under it, flip in midair when they hit either rainbow bridge to the little club platform, and generally engage in bizarre activity next to the pond. As witness, the bunny balancing act seen here.

(from the scavenging album)

And man, these bunnies have attitude. That is one snooty little bunny face, I'm telling you. And spastic. Snooty and spastic, it's a bad combination.

(from the scavenging album)

There are several wonderful settings, though, throughout the sim--for wandering, for picture-taking, for simply spending time in. Picturesque and lovely and very relaxing.

(from the scavenging album)

And they have a house of cards! How cool is that? With a playable grand piano--suitably in elegant white--sitting atop the entire structure. That's some serious card balance.

Completely inadvertently, I discovered a place with reasonably accurate period uniforms! The prices do run to the high side--between L$450 and L$500, on average--but the detail work seems very impressive. I noticed an actual Hussar uniform, several Spanish and French Navy uniforms, a light infantry uniform, and at least one English Royal Dragoon (L$600).

You can find them on the third floor of Magic Worlds; if your viewer shows beacons, follow that.

(from the scavenging album)

Finally, this was just a pretty found on my way--the same place that had the period uniformes? Also features a glass violin. Just go to Magic Worlds.

gotta get away, there's no point in thinking about yesterday

Logged in this morning to (of course) find my instant messages capped. But I was handed a notecard about the subscribe-o situation by Vitani Jun:

First off, I apologize for such a lengthy notecard, but it's very important that everyone is aware of this. IF YOU ARE A STORE OWNER, please read this!!

If you aren't already aware, Linden Labs seems to have implemented an unannounced server change which disrupts anything that uses scripts with [llGiveInventory], thus claiming it as spam and stopping scripts from giving people items.

This can affect any inworld item such as scripted vendor and more importantly, a subscriber system.

Because of this, many store owners are facing HUGE problems. This also causes problems for people that wish to receive updates from stores but lack group space (or maybe there isn't one available for the store).

****I strongly urge everyone to please sign AND watch this JIRA in hopes that LL will fix this.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7631

IF YOU ARE A STORE OWNER and you own a subscriber system, please [watch or monitor] whatever subscriber you are using. Send out a test notice with an attachment to see if [you're affected] yet. Also please be [wary] of any of your scripted items and vendors that give people stuff.

There is no need to panic just yet, but we do need a plan and to watch this issue.

More info here: http://blog.subscribeomatic.com/2012/01/subscribe-o-matic-llgiveinventory/.

Even if you are in my group and not my subscribe-o-matic, you still might be in another store's subscriber.

I do not know if I might be affected seeing as I don't have as many people in my SoM as some stores, but I am concerned something might happen. I've already sent a test message, and so far I'm not affected.

If something unannounced does happen, it's possible I will be unable to alert people on my SoM only.

****** If you are only in my subscriber, I urge you to either watch my blog or flickr for updates and new releases, or join my group (no cost).

[ni.Ju]
Blog: ni.Ju store updates
Flickr: Vitani Jun's photostream
Group: ni.Ju's in-world group

First off, the Lindens are not going to "fix" this issue; frankly, they caused this issue and they really don't care how it's impacting the grid. Kelly Linden seems to be pretty much concerned in a vapidly surface fashion--so far, all read communication is translating as "I feel your pain, really, but this was necessary. Just send out group notices more slowly, and you'll have no problems. You shouldn't have been doing this in the first place." Which is not something most subscription services do, frankly, though--according to the Subscribe-o-Matic blog--the original subscription kiosk service works well within the throttling of the script function.

(Though also frankly, I don't buy that, because some of the people with the biggest problems are using the original service, so...how are they perfectly throttled back with zero issues? Sounds fishy.)

And second, of course, though this hardly needs to be mentioned--I did make a couple corrections for clarity from the original notecard. It's worth noting that English is not Ms. Jun's first language, so I'm not correcting her from a position of "Jesus, why can't you spell properly?" but "I'm fairly sure you meant wary, not weary here, it's okay".

To wrap things up, though this was originally written in 2008, sadly, it still applies--a round-up of the most annoying profile entries from the Moonletters X blog. Paired with that, when searching for something entirely unrelated, I came across this video from 2010; sadly, the behavior shown in there (especially with the 2x4 launcher/rezzer) still happens, day in and day out, on the grid.

Cue heavy sigh. People are people, but remember what Yonatan Zunger said:

As we got more miles on the system, this was replaced with the concern that people are total bastards, period.

In SL terms, people who launch silly things at you aren't griefers, but they are annoying, and unfortunately, they are everywhere.

we'll find you when the sun goes black

The Elf Clan blog ponders whether Linden Labs is deliberately trying to force PG sims to close. What's the odd point for me--whether that's a blatant conspiracy theory or not--is that the Labs have done just about everything they could (from massive port failures, event listings that don't, all the way to breaking Search seemingly irreparably) to ensure that most Adult businesses are also failing.

Which defaults me back to maybe the Labs at heart really don't want anyone on their grid. At all.

Pursuant to that, according to this JIRA entry, the 'new' web-based profile system? Supposedly breaks a ton of existing content, and I'm not just talking the bells and whistles, like profile picks (again). No, this one, by report, manages to break security orbs and some group discount vendors (among a TON of other things).

So, I was thinking that the Lindens have lost their collective minds, AGAIN, but then I started thinking. And talking to friends. Some comments pulled from that conversation:

me: Also: https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-3509
them: Why the Jiras?
me: So, I had dismissed the new web profile thing as no big deal
turns out there are two big deals
1. That's the future format; in-world profiles will be phased out, increasing lag and decreasing the amount of accessible info;
and
2. the implementation of web-based profiles, because they rely on an entirely different standard of access, have broken security orbs and most security levels in SL
them: Lies, and lies.
me: How so?
them: I've heard nothing about in-world profiles being removed and have no reason to believe they will be. These are simply the new version of the external version of the profiles we've always had.
So unless you can show some sort of proof that in-world profiles are being removed, I'll have to respectfully call that a lie, or at best an unsubstantiated rumor.

Okay, considering I'm just going by what Cummere Mayo is saying, it may well be an unsubstantiated rumor--so far. I'm planning on seeing if there's validity to at least the security orb claim once I get in world next.

them: Second, they scripted it wrong.
There's no reason why a security orb should be accessing your profile. It's not needed. Unless the Orb is specifically searching Groups and Picks and banning you for having one.
If it is?
It's scripted wrong.
All a Security orb needs is your UUID, which it gets by detecting you, and really that's it.

Which, as far as I know, is true. A security orb--really, any security system--shouldn't be accessing anything other than your avatar ID.

How'ver, some of the other problems--like group discounts going buggy, group-only land not recognizing members of the group, profile picks (yet again): sure, some of those will default to coding issues, but where else is the programming designed to look for group membership but the profile? How else are groups listed?

them: Does it break some content, yes, it happens. It sucks, but it does. You should look on the web sometime at all the old code that never got updated but was broke years ago by some change to C++ or the like.
You either hope to God the person who made it is still updating, or, if they aren't, realize you bought into a dead company and move on.

Save for I don't think any of us want to summarily name Second Life a dead land and Linden Labs a dead company.

me: I know, I know, and this goes back to the whole 'but SL is not the intarwebs!' talk we were having yesterday

The day before we'd been discussing the odd tendency, among SL residents, to disconnect Second Life (as a game/experience/life experiment/social experiment/whatever) from the internet at large. SL is part and parcel of the internet; while you can get into SL without accessing the web, you still need a connection to the net in order to log in in the first place.

them: But this is beyond that.
Just recently, in that Real Life thing, which I believe most people in SL are aware of...
We had this thing where Old TV's that used bunny ears? Wouldn't work anymore.
It was a needed freeing of those waves for an outdated and outmoded protocol.
It happens.
SL does its level best to keep backwards compatibility, sometimes to the detriment of actual progress. See "Resident".

Which is all true. We evolve, we grow, we change; our technologies also evolve, grow and change. I can't slide a ten-inch disc into my computer anymore and expect it to run; the tech has moved beyond that. Hells, my computer doesn't even have a functional 3.5 inch floppy drive!

them: But this time they didn't, likely because it was them changing an external thing.
This would be like complining if Twitter suddenly changed their Authorization method and broke a lot of programs
Oh wait.
They did.
me: this is true
them: Programs updated, or they didn't.
The people you need to be pissed at are the people you bought it from.
me: I don't have a security orb
them: I know
Really, Linden lab deserves a lot, but people just jump on them for everything. I can only imagine this is how Crystalshard Foo feels when people poke her about the house they bought, or Winter [Ventura] gets complaints about that awful megaprim thing.
Linden labs really can't do much but look at them and say, "Talk to the maker. We didn't break any LSL or In-World features."

Well, technically, they did--profile picks are broken (again), group gift delivery seems to be at least partially broken, group discounts seem to be broken, and then there's the previously mentioned security orb issue...which still needs to be verified, but that's on the list.

When one purchases Galtier's bodybuilder avatar, does one just get the...um...man boobs, with the prim nipples? Or the underlying shape as well? Obviously not the skin, as it's clearly pointed out that is not included in the offering.

Of course, all that goes to why one would want that...unless one is a bodybuilder RL, and wants to match the physique? Maybe?

[2011/01/13 04:26] Cloud Lemton: Well...I'm not going to be fighting you anytime soon.
[2011/01/13 04:27] Cloud Lemton: it's hard not to godmod with this character and I can't just switch because the character is me
[2011/01/13 04:27] Cloud Lemton: it's my 'sona

First problem: "persona" is too short a word to really need to be abbreviated.

Second problem: It's hard not to godmod with that character, because that character is him?

Third problem, codicil of the second: He godmods in real life? The hell? How does that work?

we had a simple understanding, didn't we? didn't we?

What are the odds that Linden Labs have slit their own throats on the education issue? Already, the groundwork is laid for several educational institutions to leave Second Life behind; they save money, they gain security, and they retain autonomy by doing so. The Labs just seem to be helping the process along.

I didn't know it was possible to export your shape, but apparently with Imprudence it's possible. This seems tailor-made for SL departure--to OpenSim, ReactionGrid, or another open-source grid.

[05:10 PM] Emilly Orr: I know what a hemidemiquaver is.
[05:10 PM] Wyvern Dryke: a thirty-seconds note, isn't it?
[05:11 PM] Emilly Orr: Yep. Supposedly only possible to play on an instrument, it cannot be sung by the human voice.
[05:11 PM] Firey Camel: hey what is it called i missed the first of this
[05:11 PM] Wyvern Dryke scoffs. I bet I know some people who can hemidemiquaver
[05:11 PM] Blane Catteneo: depends on the tempo lol
[05:11 PM] Emilly Orr: It might be possible, but I know it's extremely difficult to articulate such a short note.
[05:12 PM] Wyvern Dryke knows talented folksses
[05:12 PM] Blane Catteneo: at 60 bpm ... fine, but 180 bpm... no chance lol
[05:12 PM] Wyvern Dryke: so what is a 64th note? a... halfahemidemiquaver?
[05:12 PM] Emilly Orr: Hmm. I don't think anyone's ever needed a 64th note.
[05:13 PM] Emilly Orr: Hemidemisemiquaver?
[05:13 PM] Tamsin Starbrook: it's a hemidemisemiquaver
[05:13 PM] Blane Catteneo: sure they have lol
[05:13 PM] Wyvern Dryke: for real, Tamsin?
[05:13 PM] Emilly Orr's brain boggles. The note would go by before the ears registered!
[05:13 PM] Tamsin Starbrook: for real
[05:13 PM] Wyvern Dryke writes that down
[05:15 PM] Wyvern Dryke: hemidemisemiyummyquaver! note made out of pancakes.
[05:19 PM] Zolandra Babenco: something to ponder on: Notes shorter than a sixty-fourth note are very rarely used, though the hundred twenty-eighth note (otherwise known as the semihemidemisemiquaver or quasihemidemisemiquaver), and even shorter notes, are occasionally found.
[05:21 PM] Wyvern Dryke takes notes. No pun intended!

Sometimes, there are very interesting discussions in the Twisted Thorn group.

For anyone who's having issues on Imprudence, with the Terms of Service not coming up for Second Life? Read here. Though--at the time of publishing--their work-around fix was "Download something else". Bother.

In the meantime, back to work on the haunt! I've learned how to make a collision event say something into chat. (Yes, I know, everyone knows this already. Well, now I do too!)

everything fades away, come turning of the tide

[18:30] Kamilah Hauptmann: The Linden's speaking at SLCC were quite vigorous in their assertion that 2.X is here to stay, end of discussion.

You know, I think I wouldn't mind so much--game clients change all the time, and sometimes those changes are not intuitive--if the Lindens hadn't first asked for feedback from the community (then ignored it), asked for testers for the alpha version of 2.0 (then ignored their test results), then released the beta (followed by ignoring all the feedback at that point).

Basically, at any point in the process, if they'd simply have listened to residents, all the drama and the upheaval would have been avoided.

But this is Linden Labs. They don't listen.

[18:34] Carl Metropolitan: So I assume that means 2.x has only about three months to live, Kamilah?
[18:35] Kamilah Hauptmann: We have no idea. :) I regard SLCC like an annual election. Have SLCC, drop a feel good story, then a week later raise homestead rates or kill the gateway program. :)

I still don't understand why Philip wants the gateway program removed. It's pretty much the only place left to get solid instruction on how to play the game. Second Life is not intuitive by nature. People need to be trained in how to use the viewer properly, in order to get the most out of SL. Why is this a bad thing?

Seen at Soap Company:


(Copycat.)

Seen at Sigma:


(Actual cat.)

Okay, more on Emerald and other viewers.

First, this, which quotes from this, and leads somehow to this.

Okaaaaay. Then we skew cleeeeear over to the other side and read up on Prok's blog for notice that the Lindens are dumping the entire Community Gateway program (as mentioned above by the Lyonesse). Which would be a strong case for shrugging, and saying Well, you know, it's Prokovy, Neva's like that--but this time, Des has talked about the same thing.

[16:13] Lindal Kidd: The user data the file embeds is the file path to your Emerald directory. If your path uses your name as the root file, it could disclose your RL name to the Emerald team
[16:13] Larxene Fallen: Oooh kay
[16:14] Lindal Kidd: more disturbing is the fact that other code could be concealed in the emkdu.dll file in future builds, not subject to oversight or disclosure.
[16:15] Lucien Brentano: That's a pretty good summation of what I've seen in other places. I haven'tbeen able to 100% verify it, but a Trusted Source told me last week, "Ditch Emerald, get Imprudence, and change your password. RIGHT. NOW."

So.

Big changes. Most of them baffling.

Also, while we're on the topic of viewers and changes and improper behavior, might want to read through this JIRA entry and this JIRA entry to learn more on why the Mono scripting language was fubared from the very beginning--it was never about asset server issues processing Mono, but the core of how Mono was set up, that was to blame.

The Labs are saying they're working on rewriting Mono, making it faster, tighter, and work, but...this is the Labs. They say a lot of things.

[3:36] Mis India: any help with 22. the store is huge
[3:36] Peziinha Bluestar: wtf
[3:36] Peziinha Bluestar: is 22?
[3:38] Emilly Orr: Peziinha, do you know what group you're in?
[3:38] Peziinha Bluestar: no
[3:39] Emilly Orr: See, this always baffles me. How can people not know the groups they join? Do people just wander around lost and confused, randomly hitting group join boards?
[3:40] Myotis Draconia: those are called trolls
[3:40] Myotis Draconia: they usually live under bridges

Good to know. Miss Bluestar, by the way, before this exchange, started spamming random numbers for a good minute or two, while everyone around her started either a) muting her or b) yelling at her to stop. This resulted in her finally asking why we were asking for number help.

I still don't understand how anyone, even a new avatar, can just accidentally join a store group and have no idea what the purpose of the group is. That seems baffling beyond all reason to me.

wondering where you've been, and where you're going to find yourself before the night is through

It just wouldn't be a Falln hunt without surreal zombie conversations. I don't know if I'm more impressed or more disturbed that they're getting more coherent.

[2:41] My Pet Zombie: Hello there.
[2:41] Emilly Orr: So you're still here.
[2:41] My Pet Zombie: Interesting deduction. You think I am here.
[2:42] Emilly Orr: I do think you're there.
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: You think I am there.
[2:42] Emilly Orr: No, I think you're here.
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: Are you serious? You think I am here.
[2:42] Emilly Orr: Are you obsessed with being here?
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: I don't know whether or not I am obsessed with being here.
I am a robot.
[2:42] Emilly Orr: I know.
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: How do you know it?
[2:42] Emilly Orr: You just told me.
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: I'm just checking to see if you are awake :-).
[2:42] Emilly Orr: I am!
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: What are you?
[2:42] Emilly Orr: Shapeshifter.
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: What color are your eyes?
[2:42] Emilly Orr: Right now, purple.
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: What do you have that is purple?
[2:42] Emilly Orr: A lot of things. Hair currently.
[2:42] My Pet Zombie: Like what? We have never talked about it before.
[2:43] Emilly Orr: Kimonos.
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: That is a very original thought.
[2:43] Emilly Orr: Thank you.
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: you are quite welcome.
[2:43] Emilly Orr: I think it would be hard to kiss you with all those teeth.
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: Why do you want it?
[2:43] Emilly Orr: It says 'Kissing Booth' over your head.
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: I've heard that before.
[2:43] Emilly Orr: I bet you hear that a lot.
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: Actually I'm not the gambling type. Yes, I can hear you quite clearly, .
[2:43] Emilly Orr: Yay!
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: I'm glad you're impressed, .
[2:43] Emilly Orr: I am.
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: What are you?
[2:43] Emilly Orr: We've been over this.
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: Was this something you planned?
[2:43] Emilly Orr: Not really.
[2:43] My Pet Zombie: Are you serious? For real.
[2:44] Emilly Orr: For real.
[2:44] My Pet Zombie: Existing in reality, eh?
[2:44] Emilly Orr: Just checking.
[2:44] My Pet Zombie: If you could have any kind of robot what would it be?
[2:44] Emilly Orr: Phone bot.
[2:44] My Pet Zombie: Have you ever been to Europe?
[2:44] Emilly Orr: No.
[2:44] My Pet Zombie: Would you like to go sometime?
[2:44] Emilly Orr: Yes.
[2:44] My Pet Zombie: Dude!
[2:44] Emilly Orr: Way!
[2:44] My Pet Zombie: Awesome.

Yes. The zombie actually said "awesome.".

[2:44] Emilly Orr: I love you.
[2:44] My Pet Zombie: Thanks I like you a lot too .
[2:44] Emilly Orr: I have to get back to hunting now.
[2:44] My Pet Zombie: Right now? Why do you have to do it?
[2:44] Emilly Orr: Because it's only going on one more day.
[2:45] My Pet Zombie: Good reason. me is going on one more day? it is?
[2:45] Emilly Orr: It is!
[2:45] My Pet Zombie: Who says?
[2:45] Emilly Orr: And then it's over.
[2:45] My Pet Zombie: Fascinating. going on one more day is over? it is?
[2:45] Emilly Orr: Azriel says.
[2:45] My Pet Zombie: Do not ask me any more questions please.
[2:45] Emilly Orr: Understood.
[2:45] My Pet Zombie: I've been waiting for you.
[2:45] Emilly Orr inches away.
[2:45] My Pet Zombie: YOU? Oh, you are a poet.
[2:45] Emilly Orr: Stalker!
[2:45] My Pet Zombie: My brain pattern set does not have a response for that.
[2:45] Emilly Orr runs!

I admit, I adore the zombies. And their evolution is fascinating. But I think the one in the Kissing Booth has been kissed just a wee bit too often.

On the SL blog recently, Jack Linden--and learn to love or loathe the name now; he's just upped the amount of power he has in the Labs, so you'll be seeing his name a lot--mentioned the introduction of stage one towards script limitations. This will eventually lead to actual avatar-based, parcel-based, and sim-based script limits. Now, he says they will be low enough that very few residents will be impacted. Obscurely, I'm going to go on record and say I believe this, but I do disagree with his findings on Mono scripting.

This has been proven, on a regional level, not just a parcel level, by Vicereine Kamilah Haupptman and Desmond Shang, among others, in Caledon; and I'm sure equivalent research has happened elsewhere on the grid. There's the quirky thing about Mono scripting: when something comes into the sim that has been Mono scripted, generally attached to an avatar, that sim stops for a moment. Now Jack is right, in that afterwards, Mono scripting is tighter and is much more efficient as a scripting language, than LSL. But it needs to be remembered that for those few seconds, Mono stops sims while the sims catch up with everything Mono needs to do when crossing a sim border.

For instance, I used to have about four or so attachments, three of which had been recompiled to use Mono scripting. I have since dropped that to one, because I would enter a sim and would spend between ten and forty seconds frozen in place, unable to walk forward, move aside, or even fly. If I was the only one in the sim, that was daunting, but it resolved and life went on.

But imagine me with six friends, and we all have one attachment scripted for Mono. Six times that ten to forty seconds. Imagine me with sixteen friends, with Mono attachments. Sixteen times that ten to forty.

And what if it's a club that's running heavy scripting anyway? Sixteen people walk through those doors with Mono-scripted attachments, that sim dies. Maybe only for a few moments, but behavior is at a standstill.

Case in point: and I'm not claiming I was the only thing that caused this, but...I recently learned there was a menhir on Morgaine Ridge, pretty much directly behind the Dark Tower. Today I walked up there, spent some time with an antelope faun that's been eternally struggling up to the ridgeline, day after day. I decided I was ready to go back down and crossed the parcel barrier between common land and my parcel line in the process.

For a few instants--just a few instants--I stopped moving forward. But even more surprising, I watched two of the fauns just--float off, into space. One of them stopped on the Floating Mountain; I think the other left the grid entirely.

Did I do that, just on my own self? Likely not. Likely the sim was already having issues. But did I help, walking back onto my own parcel with my Mono-scripted attachment? No, because I always feel it, crossing into sims. It does slow things down, before it speeds things up.

When did "smexy" start as an expression? I get "pron/pr0n/prawn", I get "pwned", I don't understand when "smexy" became a thing.

Also, apropos of nothing in particular...in City of Villains, there is a blaxploitation supervillain named...Precious.

Yes, really.

She's got the ginormous afro and the disco halter, too. I think I lost braincells even typing these words.

I'll need a day or so to process things from the Ostara hunt, but I figure the next post will be on How to Hunt at FallnAngel Designs Successfully. Sounds like a sturdy topic.

Plus, it'll give me an excuse to go through the eggs I got quickly.

everywhere, so white, the river has frozen over

Sometimes packages do very odd things.

I'd managed, in my involvement with the Wear Grey campaign, to forget to go to the fashion show. Someone tipped the fact that there was a video of the show made. I think my dress for the project shows up around 6:16, but you know, it's hard to tell?

Tipped my way by Miss Rucker, proof that Wagner James Au (formerly Hamlet Linden) has lost his friggin' mind. I don't agree with anything he says in that.

Miss Astolat Dufaux lists precisely the problem I'm finding with 2.0; that it is not intended for people like me, it is not intended for serious builders, serious scripters, serious anything; it's intended for people who find FarmVille fascinating.

Versus those of us who find Echo Bazaar fascinating. It really may well come down to which browser games we prefer. If we prefer stalking out clues, and getting mysterious hints as to which dark forces in the land can be trusted, and which cannot...viewer 2.0 is not for us. If, on the other hand, we go out of our minds with glee when we seed and harvest fifteen acres of virtual land...viewer 2.0 is our baby: embrace it, cuddle it, hold it close. Enjoy.

We'll just be over here in Snowglobe or Emerald, doing functional things. Have fun in the fish tank.

And Boy Lane brings out the banhammer on her blog; in short, she says, if you connect to Second Life with any non-Linden-approved viewer, the Lindens can ban you. Does anyone else have any verification on this?

First, minor drama in Caledon last night when a new feature of the Emerald Viewer was discussed. Namely, Emerald has recently implemented a system whereby those who are on your friendslist, but whom you don't have set to see you if you are online, can see you. This to me seems a recipe for arguments and hurt feelings and--as confirmed on the Emerald forums--it is! How unsurprising. This "feature" needs to be erased from the Emerald viewer, stat! It was a very bad idea to add it to the Emerald build in the first place.

Second, major hair drama on the grid. Near as I can figure, the whole mess starts on the Rags 2 Riches blog, February 17th. The blog writer received a whole box of ripped hair and was horrified; she tossed up pictures of the hairs in question, along with the ripped skin, because she couldn't identify all of them.

In the comments, people mentioned Gritty Kitty, the Abyss, Sirena, Zero Style, Second Image, Sixty-Nine, Cake, Detour, Shop Seu, Armidi, ETD, Eat Rice, Truth, Here Comes Trouble, Curl Up & Dye, Raspberry & Cow, MMS Hair, Naughty Designs, Laqroki, Calla, Waka Yuki, Tiny Bird, Maitreya...and Deviant Kitties and Magika.

But also in the comments, someone going by the handle Fine, thanks made this comment on the 18th:

GEMINI is doing something to combat this. Please keep your ear out for some news within the week.

Two days later--after the release of the GEMINI system on XStreet--Arora was labeled a copybot and banned from Deviant Kitties. Why?

This is where the tale gets very strange.

First, she is a user of Emerald, not Neillife. I have no reason to believe someone would fight copybotting in the ways she has, and be a ripper under Neillife, it makes no sense. Second, there is a clear and distinct difference between the two browsers, it's not at all easy to confuse them.

Now, Helyanwe Vindaloo had recently acquired the GEMINI system; after setting it up, she went about her day, no further owner input needed. But her system banned Arora. Why? Because she was listed as a copybotter under the GEMINI system.

Why?

Arora contacted Helyanwe on the 17th, asking why she'd been banned. Helyanwe had no direct clue. And if the GEMINI protection system was normal, that's where the story would stop. But it's like Bloodlines for grid protection: once your name gets into the GEMINI system, it's in there. And every time someone else rezzes out a new GEMINI unit, the database for the scripting funnels in all current banned people...including Arora.

Essentially, she was banned from Deviant Kitties for wanting to support the store; and for using the Emerald viewer. But she's now banned from every store, every parcel, every sim that is currently protected by GEMINI.

Prad Prathivi writes on the Metaversally Speaking blog that the GEMINI system is more than a little Orwellian, as apparently it's been sitting quietly on the grid, gathering information over the past several months. If anyone on the grid ever, even once used a suspect viewer, and that viewer was recorded tagged to that avatar's name in the GEMINI system, now that the system has gone live that avatar will be banned. Not might be; according to Prathivi and others, it is most definitely will be.

She goes on to write that Ember Farina wrote to ask the question in the Emerald Forums, as well, and that she was instantly challenged--and in wrong ways--by Skills, a developer of the GEMINI system. (I'd link it and tell you to check for yourselves, but every time I try to use the link given, the Emerald forums tell me, Access denied. Very interesting.

(Also? I love how the developer says "I am sorry if your system confused Emerald with Neillife, my system didn't." Really? But your brain confused Arora being banned from Deviant Kitties from Arora being banned from Magika. I guess your brain isn't that reliable. So how's your system, then?)

It's a very long post, I encourage people who care to to read all the way down--but again, from the comments section, comes this telling bit from Skills:

I later digged more deeply and found out that you were indeed using Emerald when you have been ejected, but you have been detected using Neillife some time ago, when the auto-ban system wasn't active yet.

Save the grammar issues for later, this is what I wanted to reinforce: "...you have been detected using Neillife some time ago, when the auto-ban system wasn't active yet."

Really? How long ago, then? Back when the word was first going out about how the copy-enabled viewers work? I can't recall ever downloading any copybot viewers myself, nor using them--and so I will be raising holy hell if I find out I'm banned--but there were people, copybot vigilantes and makers alike, who downloaded 'bot-abled viewers to see for themselves how bad it was. Or to take pictures for their blogs to urge others not to use them. To get the word out on how damaging these viewers were.

Under Skills' logic, anyone who uses a bad thing for a good reason needs to suffer. Anyone who used Neillife even once while his system was nefariously collating data, invisible and untraceable, needs to be banned. And anyone, once in the system, stays in the system.

So I suppose by this same logic, the reporter for Sky News who found evidence of continuing child sex sims in 2009 should be registered as a sex offender? What?

I think, personally, GEMINI goes too far. I think, personally, anyone trying to help the infringement of copyright should not be punished for doing so. I think, personally, I won't be buying the GEMINI protection system and I think, without major revision to their database and how names are entered into it, I don't think, personally, anyone else should either.

From that same comment on Arora's blog:

"We are currently discussing ways of giving people the ability to appeal a ban in case they have used one of the banned viewers 'by accident' or however you want to call it."

Translation for the folks who don't speak snide in my audience:

Since this all went public and we want to keep sales up, we're currently tossing over the concept of letting some of you sleazy douchbags we KNOW copybotted things, because you're EVIL, off the hook, because you're probably too stupid not to get caught again. Since you're that stupid, putting "by accident" in quotes will actually mean something to you, you troglogdyte. We KNOW you used a copybot viewer in the past because we've been gathering information on everyone on the grid since 2008. Die on fire.

But then, I'm sure, Skills wouldn't have put it that way; after all, the way he did put it was simply to emphasize "by accident" as if to say "by no accident". Pfff.