what strangе claws are these, scratching at my skin?

The only peace at present...planting new blooms and cultivating magic circles in On Sea...It's something to do, at least.

and the more I straighten out, the less it wants to try

Kittens...I know, you all feel better when you're sick if you stay together, but...



...this is ridiculous. There's FIVE of you on that dock. And I'm fairly sure two of those AREN'T sick! Can you please stop fusing with each other??

I want you to be unused, I want you to remember

The blurb said

"Haunted house on route 8! Come explore or start the hunt for a prize at the end. October, Halloween, haunting, ghost, hunt, prize"

So off to Morbid Manor we go!



More drunken skeletons. They are fun to watch.



Well, that's not creepy at all. The creepiest thing? This wasn't even part of the haunt, these were someone's breedables on the next parcel over!



To stand at the window, alone, in a dilapidated house...while spirits degraded to floating lights flow past...That's also creepy.



And this is a very dilapidated house.



And the game rips start. This place was doing so well...evocative mood, fun little effects, definitely had the creep factor going...and now the game rips. This one they didn't even bother to hide--she's actually named 'Samara'.



And two more. Well, I guess I'm done here, then.

Overall, I really liked this one until the game rips. It really does present with lovely little mood pieces. For that alone, I'll give it four out of five skulls, but...really. Next year, do the same thing without copyright infringement? And it will be stellar.

heard a bump, and somebody screamed

[13:20] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: if any of you have ozimals bunnies in your inventory, get to the store now and get the free timepiece and convert it if you want to keep it. ozimals is no more because of a court order

This is addressed further in the notecard post.

[13:21] Dxxxxx Fxxxxxxx: :0
[13:21] Rxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: :O
[13:21] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: pufflings too
[13:21] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: i dont know exactly who the beef was with but they sent a notecard sayng they have a cease and desist order they cant fight
[13:22] Rxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: wow
[13:22] Rxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: theyve been here forever seems like
[13:22] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: 7 years
[13:24] Zxxxx Hxxx: Amaretto i believe had the case against them
[13:25] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: they have been fightng with amaretto for years yes, but at one point they won against them
[13:26] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: im not sure if its them or someone else
[13:26] Zxxxxx Hxxx: I could be wrong but remember hearing of something between them a while back
[13:26] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: the notecard names the people but rl names
[13:26] axxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: name and shame i say
[13:27] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: "At 8:00 am on Monday, May 15, 2017, I received a Cease and Desist letter from legal counsel representing [Exxxxx Dxxxxxxxxxx] and Akimeta Ltd. This letter demands that I cease all use of Ozimals intellectual property."
[13:27] Kxx Hxxxxxxxx: Lm to Ozimals, please [Pxxxxx]
[13:27] Rxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: did they sound like dutch names?
[13:27] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: Magic of Oz
[13:29] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: they do, dont they?
[13:29] Rxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: wonder if its sion chickens
[13:33] Axxxxxxxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: hiya evyerone
[13:33] Axxxxxxxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: posting breedables is not allowed in group chat
[13:33] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: hi [Axxxx]
[13:33] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: if its sion, i'd expect all the breedables to vanish.
[13:34] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: sorry [Axxxx]. this isnt exactly posting breedables. its announcing the death of one
[13:34] Axxxxxxxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: oh I see
[13:34] Jxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Eh what happened? I just logged on
[13:34] Zxxxxx Hxxx: Feel like posting the lm was more of the issue
[13:34] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: although i DID post the link to the store for the timepieces to save your favorites
[13:34] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: mea culpa
[13:35] Jxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Which ones?
[13:35] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: [Jxxxxxxx], Ozimals got a cease and desist order from the court, theyre shutting down
[13:35] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: but there is a box full of copyable treats, grow potion, time pieces etc in the store
[13:35] Dxxxxx Fxxxxxxx: wonder if it would work on the babies
[13:35] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: it will
[13:35] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: you can also make any of them big or tiny
[13:36] Kxx Hxxxxxxxx: So how does this timepiece work [Pxxxxx]?
[13:36] axxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: i found there address :P shall i get the heavys in? lol
[13:36] Jxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Ah. Only ones I marginally care about are Kittycats xD I am curious about this legal issue though
[13:36] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: ill send you the notecard i got
[13:37] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: if its someone like sion chickens behind it, they can shut down all the breedables if they shut down ozimals
[13:38] Rxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: yeah and thats bad ...
[13:39] Rxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: reason i wondered if its them is because i thought back to the oldest breeder, and something rings a bell but i cant remember..
[13:39] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: i think they were. or maybe turtles before them?
[13:40] Rxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: turtles came after
[13:42] kxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: so the idea is that someone says breedables are their own copyright idea and no one else should be able to do it, [Pxxxxx]?
[13:43] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: well, someone says ozimals was their own at any rate
[13:43] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: i don't know if other breedables are effected,I was just speculating there
[13:44] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: im just going to take and convert all my special ones so i can keep them. i have. LOTS
[13:44] Jxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I think someone would have a really difficult idea arguing that in court against a business with some actual backing, such as Kittycats or that other large one I can't recall the name of
[13:45] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: you think ozimals didnt have backing? lol
[13:45] axxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: i found a post about akimeta saying about ozimals but that was back in 2009
[13:45] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: they were the first really big one. amaretto came next and they fought in court for a couple years
[13:45] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: theyve been here 7 years, id been breeding them since the first week
[13:46] Kxx Hxxxxxxxx: How does this time peice work, [Pxxxxx]. No instructions came with it
[13:46] Jxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: They're not the most widespread though. The other one is that horses group. Regardless it's still an interesting issue. *goes off to google the briefs*
[13:46] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: first, make sure the bunny isnt hibernating. the sun in the folder will fix that. then just rez it beside the bunny you want and youll get a popup
[13:47] Kxx Hxxxxxxxx: They are all in hibernation lol
[13:47] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: mine too! first rez a sun beside each one
[13:47] Kxx Hxxxxxxxx: Ok
[13:48] kxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: hmmm, I just saw a new store go up with tons of breedables, not kittycats at good prices today, lol
[13:48] kxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: maybe will not be such good prices later, then, huh
[13:49] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: if you see a 'collectable' bunny someplace, id buy it
[13:49] kxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: maybe plenty of "bargains" people hedging their bets then
[13:49] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: if i were you
[13:50] Pxxxxx Pxxxxxxxx: a mutant or an elite

So...that seems to be that.

Now, it's well known I have issues with the very concept of breedables, but they've gotten much better in both script usage and prim counts over the years. It's still a case where I land on a sim that has a significant amount of breedables rezzed out, or even shelves full of the boxes of breedable animals to buy, that I experience pretty significant lag. That's a common issue, not just something I experience.

But this goes a bit deeper for me. I first met Malkavyn when he had a tiny shop for eyes, eyes I instantly fell in love with. He and I talked a bit over the next few months, when I stopped by his store, and when he bought his own sim, Magic of Oz, he told me and others about it. I thought it was an amazing venture, but admittedly, he had a bit of a problem funding it.

Then, a few years after sim launch, he and his partner invented Ozimals. And they were massively popular. The problems of owning a sim disappeared, so much so that they bought another sim just for the Ozimals line.

With Ozimals now shut down, what's going to happen to Magic of Oz?

tombstone hand and a graveyard mine

Well, this is upsetting.

ello, friends.

At 8:00 am on Monday, May 15, 2017, I received a Cease and Desist letter from legal counsel representing [Exxxxx Dxxxxxxxxxx and Akimeta Ltd. This letter demands that I cease all use of Ozimals intellectual property.

I don’t personally agree with this claim, but I do not have the means to fight this in court, therefore I have no choice but to comply.

As of the morning of Wednesday, May 17, 2017, my products and their associated games will cease to function.

This means:
All databases supporting the bunnies and Pufflings will be offline.
Support, both inworld and through the ticket portal, will cease.
All Ozimals inworld groups will be closed.
Pufflings will cease to function.
Any bunny who is Everlasting will continue to function, as he or she does now: without cost.
Any bunny who is not Everlasting will be unable to eat and will hibernate within 72 hours.

This really [fxxking] sucks, and I’m sorry. It was never my intention for the time we’ve all spent with the bunnies and the Pufflings to end like this. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of the support this community has given me over the last seven years. I wish there was more I could say.

Malkavyn Eldritch

In the meantime, there's coverage of Steelhead Bay by the SL Newser, and by New World Notes. I'm proud that Gearhaven has their small mooring station there to support the cause. May Steelhead Bay thrive.

having the directions doesn't mean you ought to go

First up: Meeroos are creepy on occasion, not just annoying:

(from the bizarre album)

It really took me a while to figure out what I was staring at, and even then, I got it wrong the first time. I took this for two Meeroos sharing the same space (sort of).

(from the bizarre album)

Instead, as this shot shows, there were three of them, all curled up, little pixel lungs breathing together. Or whatever passes for breathing in a Meeroo.

(from the bizarre album)

And I'm fairly sure this one was just blinking, but--no eyes! It had no eyes! Aaaaaah!

In the meantime, some demo stuph. Now, I won't lie--while I understand the push to get mesh out there and working, I--and a fair number of others--think it was pushed out too soon. Not in terms of the timeline--people have been asking for better mesh implementation for over two years--but in terms of its readiness to...well, "play well" with Second Life as a whole.

Case in point. This was taken at the Lassitude and Ennui booth at this month's March Mesh Madness fair:

(from the mesh album)

Now, I should say, these are pictures from a mesh-enabled viewer. There was so much lag on Fate Island, both trips I went, that even with less than six avatars on sim, there was lag. I took off all scripted items (save for my lowered AO: it contains one stand, one walk, a very limited animation loading notecard, and NO other notecards or scripts beyond the two necessary to run Zhao programming), removed my shoes, dropped the multi-panel flexi skirt, and tracked down one-prim hair. Even with these changes, walking was impossible, and flying was barely possible.

But this. I shudder to think of what people who can't see mesh would be seeing at this point. (Of course, why would they go to a mesh fair if they couldn't? That does seem particularly pointless.)

At any rate, I was determined to wait until they looked better. Sure enough, five minutes later (and I'm not kidding, I timed it out):

(from the mesh album)

Oh, much improved. Now they look like attractive severed feet.

...that didn't come out right. But they look like shoes now, not mathematical problems.

...and, hell. I went back in world tonight with the express purpose of tracking down and photographing a couple specific demos I was handed in world, and rats. I got pulled into the Twisted hunt, may all their names be cursed, and it took me an hour to find the box.

Argh.

So mesh dresses and makeup tomorrow! Rawr!

I bang on the strings just to drive him crazy, I strum it loud just to rattle his cage

We start off with an update of the post about which viewers are coded for mesh; though mostly, things haven't changed.

Phoenix: Not updated; not going to be updated for mesh. Ever.
Kirsten's Viewer: Kirsten's can still upload mesh on the Agni test grid, and see mesh in-world.
Singularity: Cannot see mesh; not updated.
CoolVL: Can see mesh; cannot upload mesh for test (or other) use.
Firestorm: Near as I can tell (because the Firestorm and Phoenix viewer links lead to the same page) Firestorm cannot see mesh yet.
Imprudence: Not updated for mesh, and while Kokua is still being discussed, it hasn't been released yet.
Emergence: Not updated, and won't be.
Restrained Love: No mesh, but Marine reverted the current build of the viewer to restore the build mode change that the Lindens switched (for no good reason, and with no announcements).
Rainbow: Not updated.
Ascent: Not only not updated, but now a dead viewer.
Dolphin: From the dev's "mesh myths" entry: That being said, I am working on a Dolphin Viewer with mesh support. I’m just not exactly rushing it. There you go.
Libretto: Not updated, and won't be.
METAbolt: Not updated, and won't be.
MobileGrid: Not updated, and won't be.
OMV: Linux only, hasn't been updated since May.
Pocket Metaverse: Not updated, won't be updated.
Radegast: Likely won't be updated for mesh, and isn't updated now.
Sparkle: Not updated, won't be updated (Sparkle, Pocket Metaverse and MobileGrid are iPhone/iTouch apps anyway).

So there it is. Pretty dismal still, on the viewing side of things, and really dismal for creators, who are pretty much limited just to Kirsten's Viewer and the official SL Viewer 3.x. From the mesh entry on the Dolphin viewer page again:

As of last week, 2/3 of the Second Life population is running viewers that do not support mesh. And about half of them run viewer versions that are so old that I’d like to think that those people would rather cancel their accounts than upgrade to anything from this decade. Add to that what I’ve seen on the SL Merchants group chat, and I’ll have to conclude that at least half of the grid has not even heard of mesh yet. How sad is that?

Pretty damned sad, but this is one I have a really hard time not blaming on the Lindens. They outsourced Viewer 2; very few of the in-world population liked it (even the educators and estate owners bitched about having to use it, with some educators/estate owners switching to third-party viewers as SOON as they'd updated to viewer 2 features); and they wouldn't back down.

Listen, Lindens, I realize, you sunk a ton of cash into a project you thought would be revolutionary, and you just didn't anticipate the backlash. But, rather than working with people, trying to find out what they could cope with, and what they utterly refused to use...you just kept pushing Viewer 2.

And now it's Viewer 3, with even more bonehead changes made (including one that pretty much cripples builders on the grid who use it), and the ability to see mesh. I predict you'll have a lot of downloads to try it out, and maybe 25% of new Viewer 3 users will stay with Viewer 3. The rest? Back to whatever does--or doesn't--work for them, because that's what they know, and they don't trust Linden Labs anymore.

And how sad is that, Lindens? You've eroded so much trust in your native population that--even to see mesh builds at all--they'd rather wait until Firestorm updates to allow mesh viewing. You rolled out the shiny new toy, and by and large, no one cares.

That, to me, is almost heartbreakingly tragic.

On how mesh is looking itself: clear back in August one of the denizens of SL Universe was asking how mesh actually looked, after it went live. Demo pictures followed (with the unspoken codicil we now know, that mesh clothing cannot be modified at all, and mesh clothing must use a shape similar to the creator's shape used, for it to be seen in the same way. As many bloggers have pointed out, the parade of clones will now commence.

There's also a mention of a nonhuman av, and that one also breaks my heart. It's a Curious Kitties freebie, and I'm pretty glad now neither I, nor anyone else, paid money for that, because look at the unsoftened planes in that thing! That I wouldn't wear for love or money; in fact, when I get in world, that one's being auto-deleted from my inventory as soon as I track it down. Tragedy.

As has been pointed out (also on that thread), all anyone needs to do to find mesh on the Marketplace is search for it, but here's another tragedy--say I buy one of the dress templates. (I'm not dealing with the cost of most mesh full-perm items; the actual cost of it aside I'll pay for good templates, but seriously, three thousand for one miniskirt is pushing it.) I take it into Zbrush, paint a texture on, open Gimp, bake that texture with shadowing, then take the finished product back into--oh wait. Because it's not a sculpt, I can't just save it as an .obj file, I have to save it as a Collada (.dae) file. Okay, saved as Collada, now I upload it--oh, wait. I can't just upload it, I have to download Viewer 3. Okay, I download Viewer 3, and now I just--

Oh, right. Because I have to be payment-verified, and go through the Mesh IP Tutorial, before I can be authorized to do anything with mesh uploading, anywhere.

Now, more to see how I'd do than anything, I went through the tutorial as I'm already payment-verified. Currently it consists of ten fairly easy (to me, because I've researched a lot about copyright law) questions, but I'm not sure if you can get approved only if you get all ten right, because I got all ten right. There was one interesting bit, though--one of the questions states a premise of Barbara, content creator of copyright-infringing objects, having her mesh objects deleted from the grid, yet other creators of similar copyright-infringing objects not being deleted:

Linden Lab removed Barbara's meshes or other Second Life content but did not remove other similar content. This could be because...

	Linden Lab has not discovered or been notified by a rights owner about similar content.
	Barbara doesn't have a premium account.
	The other similar content is prettier than Barbara's content.

Now, I admit, in the beginning, I got the impression that to upload mesh objects at all, you had to be a premium account holder. I can't remember if that was a rumor or fact at this point, however. But that first option stunned me slightly. Not because it's not true, but because I've called out the Labs on these pages about pulling some content but not others, or pulling some content but not all.

Let's use Nike as an example. While they're pretty fierce about protecting their IP with magazine ads, movies and television shows, I'm fairly convinced Second Life is off their radar. (As are works of literary fiction, which amuses me.) Warner Brothers, on the other hand, does follow Second Life developments--or at least, those developments listed on SL Marketplace--but their blind spot is stopping at the first item that catches their attention. Whomever the code monkey is who was assigned to guarding SL variants of WB products either isn't particularly skilled, or is pretty scattershot in how they work.

But this is also how DMCA works--you have to be specific. You can't just claim a DMCA violation against all products using the swoosh, you have to name precise companies and individuals in violation. It's a lot of paperwork. It's also gearing up to a potential legal battle, which no one really, honestly, wants, but because of that, the paperwork has to be legally accurate, and enforceable in an RL court of law. For some companies, for some violations, it's just not worth it to send out the cease-and-desists. This doesn't mean they don't care about their IP rights, or that it's "okay" to use these products names and ideas. It just means those companies haven't figured out what's going on in SL yet, or just don't care about what they perceive as 'only a game'.

So big companies--if they notice what's in SL at all--will pick one single avatar, and tell the Labs No. This one has to stop doing what they're doing. And the Labs comply, with that one avatar, but no others. Who might be making similar content, or the exact same content, but aren't named as specifically violating parties.

It gets really cumbersome.

There's been some great advancements in mesh, to be sure--Loki Eliot (mentioned by name because yep, I want people to track down his store) put up an entire entry with video to demonstrate his coming mesh clothing line. And it does look really good, but watch that video carefully--mesh will still clip. And it will likely clip worse with a shape that isn't Loki's, because Loki designed all those items to fit his small avatar shape, and no one else's.

Alexandra over at the Alexandra's Choice blog had another entry on mesh--Jane, like Curious Kitties, being one of the first big entries in the mesh wars--with another video showing how well the long striped jersey dress moves. But again, this will only work if the creator's shape closely approximates your own, or you wear it with alpha concealing layers. (Which only work IF you're in a viewer that allows multiple system-layer attachments, which some viewers don't.)

That's the biggest challenge of mesh for me--how am I, with my highly customized short shape, going to fit into rigged mesh clothing designed for people taller, thinner and/or hippier than I am? Plus, there's the fact that I still can't walk around in mesh items and be seen. It's frustrating.

(Oh, and just because it amuses me, at least one owner of Meeroos say they're crack addicts. Hee!)

she is silenced, an ocean widens, leaves the daydreams behind

[01:21] KittyCats - Daiquiri: http://kittycats.biz
▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼
♂ Daiquiri

҉ 11 days ♥ 68% ☻ 76%

↯ 89% 모☁ 4%

Fur: Genesis - Smokey
Eyes: Genesis Water (Shape: Curious | Pupil: Big)
Shade: Natural
Tail: Genesis
Ears: Genesis
Whiskers: Silver (Shape: Guitar)
Size: 25 cm (9.8 inch) - Toy Cat

Version: 1.08
Owner: S[xxxx] R[xxxx]
ID: xxxxxxxx-xxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓
MOM: Funny
Fur: Chateau Cat - 3 Spot No. 2
Eyes: Genesis Sunshine (Shape: Curious | Pupil: Big)
Shade: Natural
Tail: Genesis
Ears: Genesis
Whiskers: Silver (Shape: Guitar)

DAD: Sweety
Happy Birthday - SL8B
Fur: Genesis - Smokey
Eyes: Genesis Water (Shape: Curious | Pupil: Big)
Shade: Natural
Tail: Genesis
Ears: Genesis
Whiskers: Silver (Shape: Guitar)
▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲

I have to stop touching breedable cats. They're like a virus of green spam over my entire screen. There is no amount of cuteness that makes this acceptable, ever.

"Dear Disney, you can have your license back now." Well, ouch.

[12:46] POOTERBILT Mommy's HUD 4.06 politely says to you, please don't eat that yucky stuff again today, I want something else today.

First of all, if your child's name is POOTERBILT, you've obviously made some grievous life choices and you need to stop. Secondly, if your child's name is POOTERBILT and you still have a talking tummy in this day and age? Something's gone wrong in your Second Life.

Also, you might want to speak to your HUD's manufacturer, as they used 'today' twice in that single sentence.

[NPC] Abomination: TaskForceName can't be allowed to live!

On occasion, City of Heroes gets unintentionally hilarious.

Meanwhile, more outfit drama. But this one's deeply odd. Not the least of which because it's a complaint against Bare Rose by someone I've never heard of.

It started on Flickr, on her photo stream. That particular image showed her in a burnished gold costume lion suit, standing next to a box showing June Dion's pale buff costume lion suit. At first glance...hells, at thirteenth glance...they look nothing alike save that they're both lion costumes. The hell?

But I wanted to track it down, so off I went to Bare Rose to track down the ShiShi Mimi Leo.

(from the Comparisons album)

Now, this is not the original. Because of this controversy, and because June Dion works incredibly fast, by the time I'd heard of it, she'd already redesigned the outfit, reshot it for the product box, and put it back out for sale. Still, as is my practice, I do what I can to get hold of the outfits under dispute and examine them myself.

As it stands now, the outfit has relatively zero comparison points. June's outfit has studded armbands; Miss Alter's does not. Miss Alter's has a sculpted hood; June's outfit does not. June's outfit has sculpted paws and feet; Miss Alter's has paw and feet additions, but they're not sculpted. June has a belt with a sculpted, detailed belt complete with added Jurassic bone and Leo zodiac symbol on the belt buckle itself; Miss Alter, it looks like, forwent the belt on those squared hot pants. Miss Alter's has self-patterned stockings, June created tribalist stockings and gloves that could be very intriguing with other outfits you might have.

(from the Comparisons album)

As far as the outfit concept goes, the huge feet and paw hands are a little too costume-y for me, a bit too cartoon, if I may go so far, but it's a cute concept. And I'm going to make no bones about this--from the single image I have (more about that later) from Eln Alter's outfit, I think June not only put more work into both the first, then the revised versions, but also, I think June made a better outfit, period.

(from the Comparisons album)

I should also add that I adore the zebra-hide wrap, which was part of the updated version June put out. Granted, I had to go from rather busty to Geena Davis to fit under the prim piece, but I was willing to do that, because it really looked good. The bottom of it is flexi, the top sculpted, and yes, that does create some oddity at times, but still, it's very well done.

(from the Comparisons album)

This image shows a close-up of the Leo zodiac sign belt; also, observant viewers will note the shading on the very short short shorts. Granted, this is shorter than I like my shorts to be, but it works with the outfit as a whole.

(from the Comparisons album)

And this is the back of the ShiShi revised; I will grant that the ginger tabby skin I was wearing this morning (when I took these pictures), didn't precisely completely the tawny buff of the outfit's pieces, but even so, the seams meet, the shading is lovely, there are several separate prim pieces (the arm and leg bands, the neck leonine ruff in cream, the hip bone, the zebra-hide drape, among others) and it forms a quirky and cute whole.

And yes, the tail does swing; it's scripted.

(from the fashion album)

As for the other side of the argument...well. Miss Alter apparently doesn't sell the outfit anymore. Also, there's no shop on the site of Eln Alter's store given in her picks; there's a mall, which she apparently owns, but no "meow.style" shop.

Just from looking at this one image, while I can't analyze the seams or look at how it fits to me, as opposed to how the ShiShi Mimi fit--I can honestly say it doesn't impress me. The lion-maned hood would make it impossible to wear 95% of my hair, plus, it looks as if her head's been partially detached, not draping as a hood would, by default. In addition, it's pretty much entirely the same texture, with very little shading, very little line matching (the seams I can see, that of the inner arms of both gloves, looks dire).

But beyond that, I really don't know, because there's no "meow.style" on the grid anymore. I'm left analyzing that one image--and from that one image, fair or not, June Dion's not only looks more original and takes more chances, but it just overall looks like it's made better. And--apart from the similarity of "I'm going to make a lion costume! Rawr!", there is NOTHING these two outfits share, period.

So the complaint is that--on an item no longer sold, which is on the surface in no way similar--there is, apparently, similarity. Simply because there's that lion costume involved?

Plus, if you've stopped selling the item, there's no competition. If you've stopped selling the item, there can be no accurate accusation of copyright infringement. If you've stopped selling the item, you're no longer in the game. This is hard to understand?

I'd say Eln Alter's complaint is frivolous beyond belief, but unfortunately, she made it and June Dion responded to it, because June doesn't like getting complaints. June's not saying she cribbed from Alter's design; in point of fact, since June's been doing the Zodiac series (in both male and female sets of specialty armors, quirky cosplay, and EGL/EGA outfit versions) for over a year, I'm thinking I'm safe in saying she didn't know anyone else, least of all Eln Alter, had made a lion costume.

But that being said, making a lion costume isn't the issue. It's only the issue if they are similar enough to cause confusion, one from another. And they're not. They're just not.

Case closed.

and I made me a ladder from a pawn shop marimba, and I leaned it up against a dandelion tree

I realize, as does Comics Alliance, that it is (sort of) a shift to a more equal playing field--after decades of leaping female crotch shots and high kicks in skirts or insanely tight tights, we finally have a male doing the same thing.

But there are more than a few problems. The main being, of course, did the world really need a flying shot of anyone's super-genitalia? And the second being, if that really is what it looks like, it's in the wrong place, so we're dealing with bad art (I can justify it's bad art, just look at the rest of the cover) on top of latex bits in play.

Whether intentional or not, there is a fair amount of bafflement over this one, because it just doesn't make any sense from any angle.

Meanwhile, remember the name trick in MMOs? You know the one--you sign up as Lord Fencivral the Lesser, and it turns out there's already one of those on your server? (Well. Maybe not another Fencivral, that's silly.) Say you signed up as SteveGod, and you couldn't get that name on one server, you could just switch to another, right?

Which is all well and good, unless you're DCU Online. Now, as they merge everyone's best and brightest into one of four "megaservers", they're going to be analyzing for duplicate names:

At a fan appreciation event at Comic-Con 2011, the DCUO staff laid out the rules. Basically, if there's a "collision" in name choice, whoever has an active subscription at the time of migration will get to keep the name. If two players have active subscriptions and the same name, then whoever has the most hours logged in the game gets to keep it.

Now, they're not being completely evil about this; they'll offer free Name Change tokens to anyone left in the dust, and instructions on how to rename yourself (because the system will automatically assign you a new name), but still, it's throwing a lot of people in the game.

In more local news, what the hell is wrong with the eyes on this horse? Also, a company that's trying to improve its image should not put "playful" on the ad, when the female avatar is staring lovingly at the bug-eyed horse. That's edging into The Love That Dare Not Neigh Its Name territory, just a bit.

Also, what does it say to those watching from the legal sidelines? That Ozimal bunnies were dropped like a hot rock, because the Lindens didn't want to show favoritism, but hey, they'll pick up weird freakish runt ponies for weirder love affairs, and obliquely advertise Amaretto?

More from the JIRA that will never die, but this time, it's more proof for the 'Why We Like Yoz Linden' fan club:

Kelley: As previously mentioned in this comment thread, the privacy - or rather, lack of it - of your self-contributed user profile is covered in section 6 of our Privacy Policy: http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php#privacy6
Specifically:

• You may choose to disclose personal information in our online forums, via your Second Life profile, directly to other users in chat or otherwise while using Second Life. Please be aware that such information is public information and you should not expect privacy or confidentiality of this information.

This clause has been part of our publicly-visible privacy policy for over five years. As Lance and others have mentioned, the new web interface actually provides greater privacy control than profiles have ever had before, even though the clause above means we have no obligation to provide it.

Brilliant. Also, (mostly) accurate (I'll explain that after the following quote). As for the comment from Kelley Boyd he was responding to:

2.You cannot hide every part of your profile; you can only hide your feed.
3. You did not "opt in" to web profiles when you signed up, despite Lance's lies.
4. The new web profiles give you more privacy in the SL grid, but they give you unprecedented vulnerability outside the grid, especially on Facebook. They are a clear violation of the privacy laws of many nations; things that cannot be usurped by user agreements.

Now, let's break this down.

1. Obviously, the question from Lance Corrimal that Kelley chose not to answer.

2. You cannot entirely hide your profile, this is true. As proven by my ability to pull up Kelley Boyd under the mysecondlife.com website. The down side, though, of hiding your profile, is that--while it is still visible on the web--you then lose the ability to be found by anyone on the grid. That's not what Kelley's complaining about. The complaint is that Kelley--and a few notable others--don't want visible web-based profiles, but still want the abilit to be found in world.

This is a dilemma of epic proportions--how do you script code that will both conceal and reveal them? It may not be able to be coded, flat out.

3. Answered (again, brilliantly) by Yoz Linden above, and I think his words stand as both confirmation and accurate accounting.

4. Kelley keeps mentioning online privacy laws. Being an American, I know our laws, but I had to admit, I'm curious now.

Argentina:

Article 5 — (Consent).
1. Processing of personal data shall be unlawful if the holder has not given free, express and informed consent thereupon, in writing or evidenced by any other similar means, according to the relevant circumstances.
The above referred consent, given with other representations, shall be expressly stated and highlighted, with the prior notice to the person from which data is required, which notice shall include information described in Article 6 hereof.

Austria:

Article I
§ 1.
(3) Everybody shall have, insofar as personal data concerning him are destined for automated processing or manual processing, i.e. in filing systems [Dateien] without automated processing, as provided for by law,

1. the right to obtain information as to who processes what data concerning him, where the data originated, for which purpose they are used, as well as to whom the data are transmitted;
2. the right to rectification of incorrect data and the right to erasure of illegally processed data.

Australia:

8. Anonymity

Wherever it is lawful and practicable, individuals must have the option of not identifying themselves when entering transactions with an organisation.

Belgium:

Chapter II - General rules on the lawfulness of the processing of personal data.
Article 4
§ 1. Personal data shall be:
1° processed fairly and lawfully;
2° collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a way

1. incompatible with those purposes, taking into account all relevant factors, in particular the
2. reasonable expectations of the data subject and the applicable legal and regulatory
3. provisions. Under the terms established by the King after the advice of the Commission for
4. the protection of privacy further processing of data for historical, statistical or scientific
5. purposes shall not be considered incompatible

Brazil:

Article 5
10. the privacy, private life, honor and image of persons are inviolable, and the right to compensation for property or moral damages resulting from the violation thereof is ensured;
11. the home is the inviolable asylum of the individual, and no one may enter it without the dweller's consent, save in the case of "in flagrante delicto" or disaster, or to give help, or, during the day, by court order;
12. the secrecy of correspondence and of telegraphic, data and telephone communications is inviolable, except, in the latter case, by court order, in the events and in the manner established by the law for purposes of criminal investigation or criminal procedural discovery;

14. access to information is ensured to everyone and confidentiality of the source is protected whenever necessary for the professional activity.

Bulgaria:

Article 2. (suppl. - SG. 70 of 2004, with effect from 01.01.2005, amend. - SG. 103 of 2005)
(1) (Amended - SG. 91 2006) Personal data are any information relating to an individual who is identified or can be identified directly or indirectly by ID or by one or more specific signs.
(2) Personal data must:

1. be processed lawfully and in good faith;
2. collected for specified, specific, and legitimate purposes and not further processed in a manner incompatible with those purposes; further processing of personal data for historical, statistical or scientific purposes is permitted provided that the administrator provide adequate protection to ensure data are not processed for other purposes;
3. (Amended - SG. 91 of 2006) are relevant, related and not exceeding the purposes for which they are processed;
4. accurate and, where necessary updated;
5. be deleted or corrected when found to be inaccurate or disproportionate to the purposes for which they are processed;
6. maintained in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than necessary for the purposes for which those data are processed, data to be stored for longer periods for historical, statistical or scientific purposes, maintained in a form, precluding the identification of individuals.

Canada:

PROTECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
5. (1) Subject to sections 6 to 9, every organization shall comply with the obligations set out in Schedule 1.
(2) The word "should", when used in Schedule 1, indicates a recommendation and does not impose an obligation.
(3) An organization may collect, use or disclose personal information only for purposes that a reasonable person would consider are appropriate in the circumstances.
6. The designation of an individual under clause 4.1 of Schedule 1 does not relieve the organization of the obligation to comply with the obligations set out in that Schedule.
7. (1) For the purpose of clause 4.3 of Schedule 1, and despite the note that accompanies that clause, an organization may collect personal information without the knowledge or consent of the individual only if
(a) the collection is clearly in the interests of the individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way;
(b) it is reasonable to expect that the collection with the knowledge or consent of the individual would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province;
(c) the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic or literary purposes; or
(d) the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations.

Chile:

Title I
The use of personal data
Article 4 .- Personal data may only be stored and utilized if expressly permitted by this law, or the data holder expressly consents to it.

The data holder must be correctly informed about the purpose of storing their personal data and possible communication to public.

This authorization must be in writing.

This authorization may be revoked, but without retroactive effect. This must also be made in writing.

Personal data collection and authorization arising out of, or collected from, sources accessible to the public when they are in nature economic, financial, banking or commercial, containing listings on a specific category, are allowed, but limited to the below:

• such records indicate the individual as belonging to a certain group, a profession or personal activity, their educational qualifications, address or date of birth, or records necessary for direct response marketing communications or marketing or direct sales of goods or services.
• Nor will authorization be required to process personal data gained by investigation of law (private or public), or by associates or entities affiliated with statistical purposes, pricing, or other sources which benefit investigation of law or authorized collection.

Columbia:

Article 269A: ABUSIVE ACCESS TO A COMPUTER SYSTEM. Anyone who, without permission or outside the agreement, access in whole or in part, a computer system protected or not with a security measure, or keeps within the same, against the wishes of those who have the legitimate right to exclude it, will be held liable to a prison term of forty-eight (48) to ninety-six (96) months and a fine of $100 to $1,000 minimum statutory monthly wages.

Article 269B: ILLEGITIMATE OBSTRUCTION OF COMPUTING SYSTEMS OR TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS. Anyone who, without being authorized to do so, prevents from or hinders the normal operation of or access to a computer system, the data contained therein, or to a telecommunications network, will be held liable to a prison term of forty-eight (48) to ninety and six (96) months and a fine of $100 to $1,000 minimum statutory monthly wages, provided that the conduct does not constitutes an offense punishable by a higher penalty.

Czech Republic:

Chapter II
Rights and obligations in processing of personal data

Article 5

(1) The controller shall be obliged to:

(a) specify the purpose for which personal data are to be processed;

(b) specify the means and manner of personal data processing;

(c) process only accurate personal data, which he obtained in accordance with this Act. If necessary, the controller is obliged to update the data. If the controller finds that the data being processed thereby are not accurate with respect to the specified purpose, he takes adequate measures without undue delays, in particular he blocks the processing and corrects or supplements the personal data, or otherwise he must liquidate the personal data. Inaccurate personal data may be processed only within the limits of the provisions of Article 3(6) of this Act. Inaccurate personal data must be branded. The controller is obliged to provide all the recipients with the information about blocking, correction, supplementing or liquidation of personal data without undue delay;

(d) collect personal data corresponding exclusively to the specified purpose and in an extent that is necessary for fulfilment of the specified purpose;

(e) preserve personal data only for a period of time that is necessary for the purpose of their processing. After expiry of this period, personal data may be preserved only for purposes of the state statistical service, and for scientific and archival purposes. When using personal data for these purposes, it is necessary to respect the right to protection of private and personal life of the data subject from unauthorised interference and to make personal data anonymous as soon as possible;

(f) process personal data only in accordance with the purpose for which the data were collected. Personal data may be processed for some other purpose only within the limits of the provisions of Article 3(6) or if the data subject granted his consent herewith in advance;

(g) collect personal data only in an open manner. Collecting data under the pretext of some other purpose or activity shall be prohibited;

(h) ensure that personal data that were obtained for different purposes are not grouped.

Denmark

Title II
Rules on processing of data

Chapter 4

Processing of data

5. - (1) Data must be processed in accordance with good practices for the processing of data.
(2) Data must be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and further processing must not be incompatible with these purposes. Further processing of data which takes place exclusively for historical, statistical or scientific purposes shall not be considered incompatible with the purposes for which the data were collected.
(3) Data which are to be processed must be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purposes for which the data are collected and the purposes for which they are subsequently processed.
(4) The processing of data must be organised in a way which ensures the required up-dating of the data. Furthermore, necessary checks must be made to ensure that no inaccurate or misleading data are processed. Data which turn out to be inaccurate or misleading must be erased or rectified without delay.
(5) The data collected may not be kept in a form which makes it possible to identify the data subject for a longer period than is necessary for the purposes for which the data are processed.

6. - (1) Personal data may be processed only if:

• the data subject has given his explicit consent; or
• processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract; or
• processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject; or
• processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject; or
• processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest; or
• processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller or in a third party to whom the data are disclosed; or
• processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by the third party to whom the data are disclosed, and these interests are not overridden by the interests of the data subject.

And that's only to Denmark. Obviously, there are a lot of alternate applications of the use of personal data collection, so Kelley may well have a point there, too.

The issue is--whose rules are used? American company, American law, used to be the standard, but there are many international players. Whose law trumps?

the forest scares the hell out of me

Minecraft does not need camouflage creepers. But it's all part and parcel of Evil Minecraft, the next "Adventure" expansion for the game.

There's also one fellow who's found another way to turn Minecraft into more of a game. Personally, give me rainbows and lava over Creepigs, cannibal boars, and Endermen--it's...happier.

And there are now more options than you might ever need to get custom Batman skins for the next chapter of Arkham Asylum.

The problem with this video is not that I think it's a bad representation of Oblivion as a game. The problem with that video is I think that it might be a good representation, and that scares me.

The problem with listings like this one, on the Marketplace, is not that listings like that exist on the Marketplace. It's that people on the grid are stupid enough to buy things like that on the Marketplace.

Is it just me? Is this the most boring login screen ever? Maybe it's just me. It does feel sort of like we're logging into a blog, though.

Some more info on the Ozimals vs. Amaretto debate, and how it's heating up off the grid. You're welcome?

[08:39] KittyCats - Kitten: http://kittycats.biz
▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼▼
♀ Kitten

҉ 17 days ♥ 45% ☻ 72%

☪↯ 97% 모☁ 11%

Fur: Genesis - Flame
Eyes: Genesis Water (Shape: Curious | Pupil: Small)
Shade: Natural
Tail: Genesis
Ears: Genesis
Whiskers: Silver (Shape: Guitar)
Size: 44 cm (17.3 inch)

Version: 1.08
Owner: Malaika Arcana
ID: e7547a45-2c77-ec2c-2211-a86fd1579a78
〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓〓
MOM: Peanut Butter Outlander
Fur: Genesis - Flame
Eyes: Genesis Earth (Shape: Curious | Pupil: Big)
Shade: Natural
Tail: Curious
Ears: Genesis
Whiskers: Silver (Shape: Guitar)

DAD: Burgandy Outlander
Fur: Burmese - Champagne
Eyes: Genesis Meadow (Shape: Curious | Pupil: Big)
Shade: Natural
Tail: Genesis
Ears: Genesis
Whiskers: Silver (Shape: Guitar)
▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲

Remind me never to touch someone's breedable kitten again. Dear gods, that's a lot of pointless green to wade through.

In other news, this came up on the Dead Dolls group (of all places):

[08:44] MariBrasileirinha Aboma: .;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ferraris 20Estates 2019/74/86/22 Galera, Harry Falcone is launching a new collection of AUGUST! is lisdos sets of clothes, shoes, accessories together for only 145 l $ 145 l $ is true and dressed for only 65 l $ 65 l $ and do not forget the blouses and shorts (note: sunglasses stuck on her shirt shoow) for only tb l run $ 145 to ca:] • • • • •.;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'`'*+:;..;:+*'
[08:44] Maxxi Toxx: O_O
[08:44] Pandora Edwyn: i hate people
[08:44] dєlє skчwαlker (delendum): LOL
[08:44] Star Fairymeadow: lol, Pan
[08:44] Emilly Orr: You are a blight and a terror this early in the morning, and I wish one of the mods were on to kick you twice.
[08:45] Christine the PaperDoll (christine34986): they are yummy with cheese and bbq sauce
[08:45] Maxxi Toxx shun the non-belliever.

Which seemed to be the general consensus--shunning, I mean, not cheese and sauce for tender meaty humans.

At any rate. So, I wrote her.

[08:47] Emilly Orr: Não anunciar neste grupo para as coisas que não dizem respeito a este grupo.
[08:48] Bad Romance (maribrasileirinha.aboma): a desculpe
[08:48] Emilly Orr: Qual é a sua desculpa?
[08:48] Bad Romance (maribrasileirinha.aboma): de ter mandado aqueele negocio pro grpo
[08:48] Bad Romance (maribrasileirinha.aboma): grupo'
[08:49] Emilly Orr: Então você tem anunciado no grupo Dolls Morto antes?
[08:50] Bad Romance (maribrasileirinha.aboma): n

After that, I gave up. Meanwhile, apparently the folks in the Twisted Thorn group woke up cranky, too:

[07:42] [Jericho the Very Dim]: u al think your smart but ya not lol ...what does open source mean ? huh
[07:43] [Jericho the Very Dim]: and why should u care what i do with my shit

And we were off. Some highlights following that stunningly dim moment:

[07:43] Emilly Orr: Well, because it's deeply tacky if you pass off others' work as your own.
[07:43] [Triple T]: yes of course
[07:44] [Jericho the Very Dim]: your dumb then Emily if u think that...u never use other ppls textures in your builds then sell ??
[07:44] [Jericho the Very Dim]): fkin nazis

It went downhill from there.

Now, to be fair, Jericho the idiot was talking about pulling out poses from someone's OpenCollar build--who had obviously neglected to make their animations no-transfer--to build in an item of his own. And/or pass on to anyone who asked. (That part's unclear.) What is clear is that Jericho is really, really stupid:

[07:45] Emilly Orr: I in particular take umbrage to the term 'Nazi' when applied to "knowing ethics and morality'
[07:45] [Jericho the Very Dim]: i have been in this group for years and you are trying to tell me whats right and whats wrong ?
[07:46] Emilly Orr: If you've been in this group for 'years', Jericho, then you've read enough of Nighty's Terms of Service to understand their meaning.
[07:46] [Twinkle]: and Jericho, you really should be asking the creator of the animations what their TOS is before passing them off
[07:46] [Jericho the Very Dim]: no i shouldnt Star...i know i can use them
[07:46] [Triple T]: maybe ppl leave sl and there animations are free

And he kept not getting it:

[07:47] [Jericho the Very Dim]: i dont need to ask anyone for thier permission
[07:47] Emilly Orr: Why not?

This went on for far longer than it should have, and I take full culpability for my part in prolonging group suffering. Some more (edited) snips:

[07:49] [Twinkle]: lol. he says let me make a chair out of them so i won't be breaking TOS... if he had the permissions to transfer them, why didn't he just state that in the beginning?

[07:50] [Jericho the Very Dim]: coz i know i can..but u lot think i cant so
[07:50] Emilly Orr: And it's not like we can't all make note of the name, and refuse to buy anything he's made. The power of the pocketbook works even in here.
[07:50] [Jericho the Very Dim]: i was making fun out of your comments about TOS

[07:53] [Jericho the Very Dim]: sorry i NEVER stated i am ALLOWED to transfer or give away......i didnt realise i needed to spell everything out for you guys to understand

[07:56] [Jericho the Very Dim]: Emily you said "making a chair and he thinks its not breaking TOS"....im sure u make something with TTT textures and sell.....same thing no ?
[07:57] [Jericho the Very Dim]: just saying...im wrong but everyone else is right ? lol
[07:57] Emilly Orr: I never mentioned making a chair. I had no idea what you were making.
[07:57] Emilly Orr: In point of fact: [07:43] Emilly Orr: Well, because it's deeply tacky if you pass off others' work as your own.
[07:57] [Twinkle]: Jericho, you need to abide by the TOS stated within the specific product.
[07:58] Emilly Orr: Now, generally, when I use textures that I don't create, I credit where I got them in the enclosed notecard. Not everyone does, and as textures, it's not specifically demanded.
[07:58] [Jericho the Very Dim]: so you dont use nightys textures in your builds to sell ? ok
[07:58] [Twinkle]: if someone's TOS states that you cannot use the animations in full perms in your work, then that's what you should do

[07:59] [Jericho the Very Dim]: you all jumped on me as soon as i said i will pass her some
[07:59] [Twinkle]: he said he took them out of other people's collars
[07:59] Emilly Orr: If you took animations out of someone else's build, at the least you need to drop by the maker's store and check their permissions.

[08:00] [Jericho the Very Dim]: open source is just that
[08:00] Emilly Orr: No.
[08:00] Emilly Orr: Open source still has makers' mark provisions

[08:01] Emilly Orr: It's not about me, [Jericho]. It's about whether you want to participate in the culture in which everything must be 'free', because it's on the net, or whether you want to respect that digital art is still art.

[08:03] [Jericho the Very Dim]: well half of u are saying its ok and Emily your saying its not ok
[08:03] Emilly Orr: It's not okay.

But talking to him was remarkably like talking to a wall. Worse; when I'm finished talking to a wall, I just feel silly. After spending several minutes talking to Old Enough to Know Better, there, I felt silly, drained, frustrated, and cynical.

I want to know what you're thinking, there are some things you can't hide

In a startling development, the main asset-holder for the Meeroos on the grid was banned from SL. Now, to be fair, mistakes do happen, and the Lindens have been known to reverse their decisions on bans, but...I'm just going to coast on this small little rose-colored cloud of Meeroo incipient demise, so don't mind me. It'll likely all blow over, but right now I can see the lack of Meeroos on the horizon, and it comforts my soul.

If I ever wanted to play Diablo III, I don't now. No modding, no offline play, and an auction house setup guaranteed to attract quest farmers and gold farmers, so Diablo III will become yet another fantasy enterprise where we'd spend more of our time dodging level-2 idiots screaming in the street about how cheap their gold is...versus actually playing the damned game.

No. I give up. Not playing.

In other news, Michael Prime--aka zFire Xue--has pleaded guilty to four counts of violating his previous probation--interestingly enough, for computer fraud.

For the next two years--after his release--he is confined to his home, prohibited from all interaction with computers, and his activities will be monitored.

Save--barring the ankle bracelet and the confining part--that was his previous prohibition, and look what happened. Here's hoping this time around goes better for us...and results in less activity from him.

Last thing--this was a quick little entry--I was fascinated to find a brief comparison to World of Warcraft and the Iliad, via the expeditious acquisition of epic loot. It raises some very pointed questions about society, history, and military culture. I'd love to see it expanded, but for now, since McKnight is working on his doctoral thesis...that may be all we get.

Still, it's a great question to pose. What relevance did 'epic loot' play in history? What relevance does it play now? There's looting on every battlefield; what's taken, and why?

All good questions; it's just a pity McKnight's too busy to explore the answers. (Still, possible book in this...it's a thought.)

as she pours herself into the mold he made for her

There are now breedable bees on the grid. Gods help us all.

And damn you, Imprudence, for not including links on your load-in screens! I want to know where this is and YOU WON'T TELL ME!

More from Hair Fair! First, an announcement from our organizers:

The amazing folks at Exile and DCNY have created a low lag outfit for everyone to wear while they shop, you will find these all over the Hair Fair sims, for free!! Many many thanks goes to both DCNY and Exile for their generosity.

While that's nifty and all, I want to know how a set of prim board shorts with a prim drawstring can possibly, in anyone's universe, count as low frickin' lag.

(from the Blogger Pictures album)

Seriously. DCNY? Do let me know. Because otherwise you and the Hair Fair organizers are LYING TO PEOPLE.

On to the hair testing!

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Charlie
Color: Agouti
Materials: Sculpted braids and curls with flexi strands
Maker: Discord Designs, located on Hair Fair IV (aka Salt Water Taffy/Osmium)

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Lilith
Color: Auburn
Materials: Two separate pieces: 'Drapes' is the over-the-shoulder sculpted braid and flexi braid pieces, and 'Scalp' is the blend of sculpted braids and flexi braids. The 'Scalp' hair can be worn without the 'Drapes' piece, but not vice versa.
Maker: Discord Designs, located on Hair Fair IV

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Lola
Color: Berry
Materials: Sculpted braids, flexi braids and flexi strands with sculpted bangs
Maker: Discord Designs, located on Hair Fair IV

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Lindsay
Color: Unknown, but if pressed, I'd say Warm Blonde or Light Brown
Materials: Entirely sculpted
Maker: Vive Nine, located on Hair Fair I (aka Independence/Iridium)

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Lindsay
Color: Flames
Materials: Entirely sculpted
Maker: EMO-tions, located on Hair Fair II (aka Oceania/Platinum)

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Mochi
Color: Orchid
Materials: Entirely sculpted
Maker: Wasabi Pills, located on Hair Fair IV

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Cause
Color: Purple
Materials: Sculpted curls, buns, and accessories with flexi long bangs
Maker: Fiction & Chaos, located on Hair Fair IV

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Ashtoreth
Color: None named; if I had to guess, I'd say Slate Blue
Materials: Sculpted curls and accessories with flexi end tails
Maker: Tekeli-li, located on Hair Fair III (aka Carnival/Rhodium)

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Hathor
Color: None named; I'd call it Blonde
Materials: Sculpted curls and accessories with flexi end tails
Maker: Tekeli-li, located on Hair Fair III

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Milena
Color: Fiery Red
Materials: Entirely sculpted
Maker: Decoy, located on Hair Fair I

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Avian
Color: None named; I'd name it Silver
Materials: Entirely sculpted
Maker: Dark Side Creations, located on Hair Fair II

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Pretend
Color: Blonde 02
Materials: Entirely sculpted
Maker: Elikatira, located on Hair Fair IV

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: With
Color: Red 02
Materials: Entirely sculpted
Maker: Elikatira, located on Hair Fair IV

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Cassandra
Color: Not listed, I'd put it as Swamp Green
Materials: Not sure on sculpts, but nearly-to-floor-length flexi strands
Maker: Enigma Hair, located on Hair Fair IV

(from the Hair Fair album)

Style: Georgiana
Color: Not listed, I'd put it as Swamp Green
Materials: Not sure on sculpts, but nearly-to-floor-length flexi strands
Maker: Enigma Hair, located on Hair Fair IV

(Worn for this set: the Patriot dress from Delectable Doll [this weekend, only L$50]; Adam & Eve's "Rosalie" skin in Charcoal with M.O.C.K. Cosmetic's "Government Hooker" makeover [group gift, might still be available]; Rue's "Mortis" eyes in Blood [not available in world, might be available on the Marketplace]; Show Me On the Doll's Carnival Lady Pumps [the 4th of July special, no longer available].)

close your eyes, all the rest will flow

It's always difficult to have an idea but not the means to execute it. We search for the right tools, the right medium, the right material, and when everything is almost enough, but never quite enough, it gets frustrating.

That isn't to say there aren't amusing moments in the journey. This for instance--on a random search through the Marketplace for insect sculpts. I suppose that qualifies, vaguely--they're insect parts, after all, and they are sculpted parts...but what I was looking for wouldn't look good on an avatar.

And I still haven't found one single snowy owl sculpt on the marketplace. I may need to talk to the sculpting types I sort of know and see about custom work.

So, I can't track down if I mentioned the stolen logo controversy--apparently, according to New World Notes, it's just Miso saying her logo was stolen, with zero proof to back it up--but it does sound from her own entry that she did have proof...and then things got stranger on her own blog, when she made a follow-up post about losing all copies of her design. Which, me being me (paranoid and a hoarder-OCD type, not a clean freak-OCD type), I simly cannot imagine doing, ever (though getting things lost in the clutter has and will continue to happen).

And then came this news of two more Linden departures (confirmed by Daniel Voyager), that seems at least tangentially, if not directly, related to the magic-hat business.

Okay, so what's the upshot of all of this?

1. Get it in writing. Record IMs/main chat if you are coming up on an important business meeting, or meeting with people in world on logo design or ANY commissioned design project. Even a notecard with details--from them, not you--will help. Save emails. If you don't like them cluttering up inboxes or inventory, print them out and have them notarized--it won't help a LOT, because such things can be faked, but it will help SOME.

2. Confirm payment, or lack thereof. If it's purely a charity thing, get that out on the table first thing. If it's not, discuss financing. This doesn't mean you're being discourteous, unfriendly, or "a pain"--it means you're thinking ahead.

I'll use Miso's words for this, because (while she's wrong) she puts it well:

Maybe I am just lame. I never viewed such work (esp solicited by a friend, who remains a friend) as a moneymaking opportunity. I never expected to be paid. I don't plan to be a golddigger; that is not a "business model" to me. I just thought it would be a nice thing to include in my portfolio.

And sure, I agree with that--who wouldn't? Design work for any major company reflects well on those of us who do it. But the part I don't agree with in that? That simply because she never expected to be paid meant she was free to discard all her work, and treat it like it didn't matter in the least. Especially if she had had problems with design work in the past with Linden Labs, she should have known better, and kept prototypes, initial designs, in-project work, finished work, and at least bcc'ed everything back to herself, if not cc'ed everything to herself openly.

Though I suspect--partially due to Courtney and Amanda Linden leaving, and partly due to her current listing as co-designer of the logo on the SL8B wiki page, that some confirmation of her logo work has in fact been found. Because unless things have radically changed, the Lindens tend not to cave in to these things if they're not actually discovered to be in the wrong. (And even then, sometimes they don't.)

3. This was addressed partially above, but ALWAYS KEEP YOUR WORK. It's worth reiterating. If I could make that sparkle and leap off the screen, I would. There are even several reasons why:

*it protects you with a date-stamp of digital creation
* it protects you with a "physical" (read saved) copy of your work for future reference/redesign (you need to know where you've been to know where you're going)
* it protects your client because then they know what's been contracted out (and in the case of the Lindens, Miso had presented to them, so they should have kept meeting notes at the least...oh, I forget, the Lindens meet in voice, and don't keep notes anymore.

So, what can everyone learn from this? Life gives you lessons. And while yes, that is a hoary old chestnut of a tired cliche, it's still true. It's our responsibility to learn from them, and if not never make the same mistakes again (how bad are the librarians and teachers twitching right now? Pretty bad? Okay, I'll stop), at least see those mistakes coming and turn away from them sooner.

Remember, the job of hindsight isn't meant to be a protective buffer for every future occasion. It's more meant to be a map, unfolding. If we do something stupid over here, chances are, when we reach similar circumstances over there, we'll do the same thing. Just keep reading--and updating--our maps, and we'll find our way.

Most of the time.

Last thing I want to mention, is something over on Crap Mariner's blog. Namely:

If you’re at Linden Lab, developing something that gets in the way of that experience or connection or enjoyment, I want you to stop what you’re doing and think about that.

If you’re a content creator or reseller of service and your approach to sales and service interferes with that experience or connection or enjoyment, I want you to stop what you're doing and think about that.

There's a damned good point there. Viewer 2? Interfered with that. (Though I think people are finally starting to adapting, now that the soul-killing bugs are--mostly--dead. And Inara Pey has some insightful things to say about overall viewer construction, and I mostly agree with her...to the point that I might be willing to try Firestorm and see how it works for me.) The establishment of Zindra? Interfered with that. (Though again, I think people are finally adapting, but not in the way I think the Labs would best like.) And yeah, I think breedable pets of all stripes interfere with that. (But that's maybe just me.)



And that is all.