her CD changer's full of singers that are mad at their dad

Ran into an unusual problem over the past couple days. I decided that my install of Viewer 2, main viewer branch, likely needed updating, so off I went to download and install 2.8.1.237758. It unpacked neatly, installed, I clicked the icon to log in...and crashed.

Huh, I thought. How odd. I verified my settings, realizing that I had automatically chosen the Nostalgia Blue default setting for the StarDust skin, so switched to Original Orange. (Not my favorite, but hey, I can cope; I'm still hating everything about viewer 2 in the first place, so the colors generally don't get under my skin as much as the coding itself.)

And I crashed on login again.

So I switched to the nauseating baby blue, followed by the equally nauseating baby pink, variants of StarDust--colors that I would have serious trouble using. And crashed both times.

At that point I walked away from viewer 2 for a while, because technological glitches when I'm already in full hate mode don't do me any good, and only reinforce the hatred. I came back, hours later, and tried it again, going through both Original Teal and Nostalgia Blue of the Starlight skins. And crashed both times again.

That would be bad enough. But then I started having problems with Singularity, after I had downloaded and installed 2.8.1.237758.

(Well. To be fair, this has been ongoing for about two weeks now. I log in on Singularity and can barely move. I realize I'm carrying a heavy inventory load, but two weeks back, it worked fine; now, it doesn't.)

So, late last night, I tracked down the latest download of Imprudence, because even if I wanted to use Firestorm, I can't, because I crash every single damned time using that, and always have--and installed it. And crashed dead at the start when I loaded it up.

While I'm now uninstalling every version of every viewer I have on my engine, I'm idly searching JIRA filings for similar problems. And not finding much that's actually relevant.

Oh, there are mentions. This, for instance, filed near the end of July, which is now in JIRA limbo because a) the original poster gave almost zero info, and b) when asked for more, has never returned to the JIRA afterwards.

There's also this one from May, but a) it's complaining about a Mac feature for Snowstorm, not the main branch, and b) it's saying that there's a failure to start with install of a new graphics card, which frankly (at least for me) comes down to a driver issue, not a viewer issue.

There's another complaint specifically pointed at the 2.6.3 release, which again does me no good, because it's specifically pointed at Macs, too--and is about a viewer several generations beyond the one I'm trying to use.

And this comment from the SL Community forums just makes my teeth ache. Is your viewer experience less than optimal? Don't worry, you can fix it, because it's ALL YOUR FAULT. Yeah, thanks for that. Only that one doesn't matter for those of us who run Disk Cleanup every few days (though I will grant I don't defrag as often as I likely should). But still, the coding on the main SL viewer shouldn't be so sensitive that emptying the trash will give better performance!

Also, it's really starting to bug me that nearly the default stock answer on the Community forums is use Firestorm. Screw you people, that crashes too. Give me a viewer that goddamn WORKS, and I will swallow my innate mistrust of the Emerald-influenced conniving bastardy behind Phoenix--but since Phoenix can't do that for me, I'm not even considering their product as a viewer!

And Rainbow's out, because Rainbow has major code glitches in the Estate Management system. And now Imprudence is out, because every time I download it, it says the files are corrupted, and to download a new copy!

Friend Alex suggests CoolViewer, which just makes me depressed, but after I track down the latest version of SnowStorm to try that, I'm also going to install CoolViewer and see if I can stand it.

[Note from the Editrix: Near as I can tell, the actual CoolViewer hasn't been updated with any coding past 1.22. I'm trying to go forward, not to backslide into code made obsolete by 1.23! So no on CoolViewer.]

Look, Lindens, I realize I'm not the biggest viewer 2 booster on the grid--it's not hidden in any way that I despise every action of every section of the code. I do not like it really isn't virulent enough, unless I'm also etching that in hydrochloric acid on someone's skin.

BUT. Viewer 2.7 worked, as annoyed as I was by it, and I was hammering it into some form of shape I could live with (which admittedly, basically consisted of me beating at the code and asking it to tell me there were five lights while it begged me to stop hitting it all the time).

Now? Viewer 2.8 fails to work at all. This is, to borrow the parlance of the JIRA, a major showstopper, because if I can't get in, I can't participate on the grid. I can't buy things. I can't go to social events (though seriously, who am I kidding? I no longer go to social events). I can't support charitable efforts. I can't do the job I'm being paid to do. If I can't get onto the grid, why am I bothering to play Second Life?

And it's not just me. Friend Hank has a more highly evolved computer system than I do, and is running at least a dual-core processor, if not a quad-core. His system is fast, lean, and eats code with style and grace.

And he crashes with 2.8.1.237758.

To be absolutely, shockingly blunt about this--Lindens, you fucked up somewhere, and you fucked up badly. Your product no longer works. FIX. IT. Or you will lose people. Because "Fast, Easy, Fun" no longer works as a motto. This is no longer fast, it's far from easy, and in all seriousness, I'd rather be gang-raped by angry dentists than fight viewer 2.x this hard. I am really, honestly, openly, starting to despise everything connected with SL.

Now, if you'll pardon me, I have to install SnowStorm 2.8.4.237830, in the hopes that that will work, and start fixing everything I had fixed in the main branch of the viewer all over again.

and my frozen pulse quickens as the black plot thickens

Wau. Glad I'm not a journalist.

(Seriously, I'm not. I follow the news--most of it--but when it boils down to it, this is a tabloid with fashion tips. I'm a muckraker. I'm comfortable with that, but honestly, either English BBC-tagged blogs are a hundred percent more insane than American 'news' blogs--which I highly doubt--or dear Andrew doesn't get out much.)



Feel like being a Tiny? Tired of the traditional options? This is your creator. Everything from Japanese black bears, to capybara, to Ganesh! Fun, fun little street-side shop.

Remember How to Put Yourself Inside a Coat? Now, learn How to Open a Banana. I'm here to help. Be safe out there.

As was noted on Twitter, this may well be the most amazing wedding photo of all time. But what of the fellow whose lass could not pull open his dress shirt on time?

I'm thinking his secret identity...is the Shadow.

And ever wonder why your sim's lagged all the time? This will help with that. Look your sim up. Note its neighbors. Now you know who you need to track down and set on fire.

Rivula? Beloved former home in the very lowest edge of the Southern continent? Shares server space with six other sims. Gad, no wonder it lagged out all the time.

There's an article in the Imagination Age blog that typifies the main problem with Second Life, Blue Mars, and other virtual worlds (game-based or not): Either you get it, and--to whatever extent you're able--you embrace it; or you don't get it, and you don't stick around, or jeer at people who do understand it (hello, griefer motivation). And there is a wide, wide split between these two states of being.

Victorian...taxidermied...performance art? Maybe sculpture art? Can one have "sculptures" of formerly living things? Perhaps macabre tableau? What's a good word?

In fact, is it art if it involves formerly living things? It's performance art if it involves currently living things. What class of objet d'whatever do stuffed animals fall into, after all?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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