all the very best of us string ourselves up for love

Before I forget--I didn't include this in the last bit, so this gets its own mini-entry:

(from the Charity efforts album)

From the notecard on this sent out by Miss Kamenev:

Wednesday, April 11th, 7 pm SLT - The Blue Mermaid in Caledon on Sea is hosting a party to Save Hypatia's Books! The party is for former Blue Mermaid owner Hypatia Callisto, & will feature book/library-themed music. Gratuities will go to Miss Hypatia.

Long story short: she's moving across an ocean and books can be quite costly to ship, even at reduced rates.

But Hypatia has a collection of rare & out-of-print books that would be extremely difficult to re-establish if she lost many of them. Lindens donated that night will go towards buying book bags (akin to Media Mail) for slow-rate shipping at a reduced rate.

Please join us if you can and bring friends. If you can't make it, contact Icarus Ghost in-world to find out how you can help otherwise. And spread the word! Thank you...

Now, this is an RL move, and it's permanent, and shipping books--especially rare, old, leather-bound editions, which many of these are--is always an expensive proposition. She's going to try and save everything she can and send them on their way to her new country, but it's not an inexpensive thing. She's going to need help.

So remember--if you can make it, seven pm SLT, tomorrow evening, go to the Blue Mermaid and give to save the books. Miss Callisto will be grateful for all your efforts. Or contact Icarus Ghost and ask for more information. Or, hells, just throw money at Hypatia. Save the books!

it's part of the noise when winter comes, it reverberates in my lungs

Meet Catrin Arno. She's a German graphic designer and digital artist currently living in Malaysia, and she's turning out these impressively detailed fantasy works, featuring women with impossible hair, impossible attire, and impossible bodies. She takes on everything from motherhood to melancholy, reading to dreaming, and she does it in a style that speaks to both the present and the past. (She also sells prints through RedBubble, but the point is not commerce, it's simply introduction.)

Speaking of reading--or at least, accessories for writing, if not writing and reading--meet Simone, who lives in Italy and runs Anticovalore on Etsy. Not only does she make and sell homemade blank journals, but she also makes tiny journal earrings and tiny journal magnets. She's also made a tribute to the Doctor's Tardis journal; so far it's seen in necklace and ring form.

Back to the last names JIRA, last seen here.

I too jumped through hoops, like Nathan Adored, to choose from available surnames and then get the name of my choice. It was part of the fun and when I was done it MEANT something to me and still does. I thought having accounts with first name + surname was creative and classy and ahead of the curve. Eliminating surnames seemed a deliberate attempt to cheapen down something that was unique and wonderful about SL. And I agree that it has created a division that does not serve the community, that separates new residents in a way that would not encourage them to stick around.

Again, reinforcing what's been said before, that the introduction of Resident as a last name, and the Linden insistence that the last name system has been eliminated, when patently it's only been crippled.

Of course, the thing about display names is, someone can easily change their display name multiple times, at their whim, to something completely different, so if you remember them only by their display name, and don't have them friended, you lose track of them. And if you do have them friended, and they've changed their display name again for the umpteenth time, you might see the new name in your friends list and no longer know what their relationship is to you because you've lost track of what their display name was when you friended them.

This is an additional complication, and I've run into this myself--before I had a 2.x structured viewer I saw the avatar names as they originally registered into the system. Post-2.x, I see some "given" names, and some display names, and this also occurs in chat.

(Case in point: while sure, yes, "Your Friendly Internet Troll" is a good description for Jakkar Carlos, if I didn't know it was him in chats that he pops up in, I'd have no clue who he was, because his display name is no longer a name at all. I find it hard to believe that the Lindens never conceived of this use of display names as alternate titlers, or as Unicode support displays, but then, if they truly had I doubt we'd have been given the option of display names.)

That entire comment post is worth reading through, but I want to pull one additional quote from it:

I've also heard it said that some of the thinking of some at LL was that people would then stick their real name as their display name, and that that would help to better tie them into their Facebook accounts, this being back when LL were trying to forge a big connection between SL and FB, which turned out to be an epic fail for a number of reasons that should have been obvious up front. But, LL were so salivating over the idea that their forging a connection to Facebook would bring in millions of new users from there that otherwise wouldn't likely have come... and since Facebook REQUIRES real name be attached to the account, OF COURSE then setting things up so someone COULD (theoretically) have their displayname be their real name would placate the powers that be at Facebook... this may well have strongly motivated them to implement this change over to making the account name less important and bolt this dumb display name thing in on top of it. The fact that no one really ever wound up using display name for that purpose pretty much shot that one down.

Yeah. And frankly, if the Lindens cared to listen at all to the people who live in their world and pay their salaries, almost any of us could have told them what an utter disaster this was going to be. FacebookLife was destined to fail from the moment it was proposed, and only the Lindens involved in the slim thread of access-grabbing failed to realize it.

Point to [N] - after all 'Resident' is still there as a placeholder. Believe thats been stated by the Lab. Placeholder in DB terms == reserved space for data.

Which is still reserved for that data, because the coding for it has only been disabled, not removed.

Thanks LL, for fixing things that don't need to be fixed.

It's what the Lindens do best, after all.

It doesn't feel like a person to me if they use the name resident.

And here's the end stop on the line of thinking--first, "Resident" seen as Other; next, "Resident" seen as threat; finally, "Resident" seen as not even a real person. In a philosophical sense at least, depersonalization is the ultimate harm that can be done, because one one human being convinces themselves that another human being is not, in fact, real at all...then (at least in the non-digital world), they can directly harm that being, willfully injure that being, even murder that being. It's part of what distinguishes serial killers from the rest of us; that they no longer see people as people, capable of being hurt, capable of being afraid...but instead, see them as cardboard cutouts, people that only look like people, but aren't really, or even worse--simply as things to be utilized, then disposed of when that particular predator is finished with them.

So take that to the grid, what do we have as a result? With this line of thinking comes dismissiveness: it doesn't matter how we talk to Residents, it's not like they're real. With this line of thinking also comes denial: because they're not real, it doesn't matter if we lie to them; if we mistreat them; if we emotionally or psychologically hurt them. With this line of thinking, dealing with Residents not only becomes a chore to be eliminated as soon as possible, but abuse-reporting Residents also becomes mainstream: after all, they're a Resident, they've probably done something wrong anyway, right?

In a world like Second Life, persistent identity is highly important. Avatars are supposed to be expressions of ourselves, of our identities. Having a last name establishes us as real people with thoughts and feelings.

See above discusson on depersonalization.

If guild wars can let me create a first and a last name of my own, and it does, why can't SL.

It's a fair point. Why can't the Lindens do this? It's not like it would be in the least difficult, because the coding's already there, nearly complete. All that would be needed would be an Other option on the last names, with an added fill-in field.

I don't like the separate classes of "people with last names" and "Resident".

I'm not sure anyone does.

With the advent of display names, you can have any name you want already. First, middle, and last if that is what makes you happy. Those who refuse to embrace the use of display names are stuck in the past.

Another rare dissenting opinion, and in this case, a wrong one, because here's the thing--when I use CoolVL, I see a mix of people: some have one name, some have many names, some have descriptives--and those are all display names showing. But underneath that? It will show things that read "bob1947.resident" or "xoxluciexlx.resident". "Resident" may still be a placeholder, but even when using Second Life's official Viewer 2, I'm still occasionally seeing the firstname.lastname format--under the display name.

Display names, while a nice novelty, was really unneeded and a wasteful use of time and resources to implement when anyone could give themselves any name or title simply by creating and editing a group title. Trying to find someone by what they happen to be calling themselves THIS week is a nightmare, as is trying to read the outrageous "names" that use numbers, symbols, Ascii, and UPSIDE DOWN letters. Its impossible to type these display names and it seems they have been grossly misused. Further, not everyone's computer has the right language fonts to actually see the display names correctly.

This is another excellent point. Second Life to this day is not auto-enabled to translate Unicode characters properly for all systems. Until they have proper Unicode support, or even better, ban the use of Unicode characters from display names, display names will continue to be a bad joke that's long since worn out its welcome.

Btw, while I was all for display names from the moment I heard about them, I was as taken by surprise as anyone when they changed the account names as well. I don't recall even hearing that mentioned when the display name debate was going on. It's like they just slipped it in while everyone was busy elsewhere.

Yeah, and I think that's the general conclusion. Display names were hotly debated and practically begged from the Lindens; what no one seemed to expect was the utter removal of system-generated names. And it just hasn't worked. It was a bad idea, and it needs to be abandoned and last names returned.

The use of Resident for all last names happened suddenly with no rationale offered. It smells of simple laziness on the part of someone who didn't want to be bothered thinking up the next list of 200 last names.

And I still don't understand why it's a burden. Most of the names of the past--those that weren't sheerly invented whole-cloth--were taken from various fandoms, geeky concepts, internet memes, and scientists and thinkers that were admired by the Lindens. As concepts keep being invented, and names are kept for some time before rotating out, I would think it wouldn't be at all difficult to keep tossing in potential names for the field. Maybe I'm wrong, and it was an arduous part of the job, but seriously--between grid instability, and integrating mesh into all systems, and keeping voice running without system corruption, thinking up "new" last names seems like the easy part of the job.

and the threadless warning flags waved as though the wind was mad

Oh, my. We now have artificial mouse babies in the world. Well. Not artificial; let me not start off the ensuing controversy by taking a stand on the distinction between "real" and "synthesised" life--because, frankly, life being life, I don't see that there is one. But this definitely goes beyond cloning.

In more genetic news, lab researchers have synthesized a functioning sphincter. Yes, you heard me. Again using mouse cells--mice seem to be the new pigs on the block--they've created functional and adaptive natural constrictors that should have no rejection effects for those who...er...need replacements?

And from there, to...mysterious orange goo. That scientists can't identify yet. Which worries me. How can scientists get a great quantity of something they can identify as eggs, without knowing what kind of eggs?

Ware thee, the invasion starts in Alaska!

More on Google+ and the death of anonymity. Which contains a brief (and since deleted) use case of Google itself violating its own internal policies. How'ver, that led to this, which I believe answers many questions, including my main one:

MYTH: Not abiding by the Google+ common name policy can lead to wholesale suspension of one's entire Google account.

When an account is suspended for violating the Google+ common name standards, access to Gmail or other products that don’t require a Google+ profile are not removed. Please help get the word out: if your Google+ Profile is suspended for not using a common name, you won't be able to use Google services that require a Google+ Profile, but you'll still be able to use Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Blogger, and so on. (Of course there are other Google-wide policies (e.g. egregious spamming, illegal activity, etc) that do apply to all Google products, and violations of these policies could in fact lead to a Google-wide suspension.)

I am feeling much less unnerved and paranoid now.

Herbert F. Austin, Jr., has tracked down a great many archival photos, and has put them together into a draggable 360-degree presentation. The topic? Hiroshima, after the blast.

I also want to send your way a list of the thirty harshest filmmaker-on-filmmaker insults in history, which contains a link to the thirty harshest author-on-author insults in history.

I'm also happy to offer up another infographic--this one on typography, and what it means. I desperately want that as a poster.

I used to have a link for Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School on the sidebar (who knows, I may still), but now I'm happy to have Molly Crabapple, the founder of the Anti-Art School, releasing a set of 44 prints of reprobates (with a few virtuous souls thrown in for color, I suppose). They are all available for purchase.

Finally, there is financial drama over at the Escapist, which is sad, because they were becoming quite the polished production house for the smart and the funny. Still, signs were showing that the company was ailing when the folks behind the Escapist News Network, one of the online mag's flagship productions, moved to Penny Arcade's site and became Checkpoint.

There's more information here, but it's a tangle; I'm still working through it myself. But regardless, it's certainly sad to see.

suddenly easy to contemplate why

I am not the math geek in the room, ever, but if you are, vote on this. It strikes me as reasonably important, and rather less drama-filled than most JIRA propositions.

Again, people, to make an impact, WATCH, don't vote. Voting does nothing now. It does absolutely N O T H I N G. I'd make that a larger font and have it flash if I thought it would do any good. Any JIRA issue you want to be heard and acted upon by the Lindens, WATCH the issue, don't VOTE ON IT. I can't make it plainer than that.

Science fiction film in 1955? Why, yes. And it's buried in the middle of one of the decade's best noir films.

The world's first acknowledged cyberweapon has been announced...and it was buried in Iran's nuclear program. Dear gods, that's terrifying.

Axi Kurmin strikes again with an article on search engine woes and the Facebook connection; also, all the previous parts of her Tinfoil Hat Theory pages are linked handily at the top.

I've always more or less lucked out, I think; while searching these days is more guesswork than surety, if I can track it down in world or on the Marketplace, I'm usually okay finding whatever it is. But I have literally left viewers in the dust that otherwise worked for me, when Search stopped working as a concept. And for many people--even those in my position, of Search working 75% of the time--that's still abysmal numbers for merchants who want to be found, and who pay high premiums to the Linden advertising guild to stay findable.

With Search this broken? They're not. And yet another explanation as to why so many businesses and makers are simply giving up and closing, and possibly even leaving the grid.

This probably won't make sense unless you've seen that episode of Unskippable, but if you have--this is a hysterically funny shirt, and it's available to the public--but only for a limited time. Act now! Sizes Small to 4XL, so pretty much everybody should be able to find a fit.

The War on Breedables carries on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum...but Tateru Nino is here to tell us that not only might the end be in sight, but there might be federal criminal charges filed.

Against Ozimals. Oops.

Iggy O brings up the troubles involved in rebranding, but suggests several new 'world names' the Lindens might want to look into. I find I'm rather partial to Otherworld, but tend to agree--Second Life does seem to be the one name they want to veer away from.

Miso Susanowa brings us her ruminations on Google+, and what they should really be looking for in their latest data mining attempts. I tend to agree, mainly because I have made purchases as Emilly Orr online, I do follow ads as Emilly Orr, and, if I'm interested in something and want more information, I register as Emilly Orr.

I do none of that under my real name. The only thing online I have sent to me under my real name are checks, and frankly, if I could get my bank to rename my account, I'd probably have them sent to Emilly Orr as well.

Speaking of which, New World Notes takes this on here and here on the difference between online identity and "real" names--which generally aren't used online, anyway. I find it highly relevant that when I do the same thing, "Emilly Orr" gets 28,600 hits on a Google search, most of them directly targeted to me. While a search on my 'real' name, on the other hand, does get 104,000 hits--none of them are me.

Let me repeat that, because I think it's vaguely important. At least in the first twenty pages of that search, I'm not there. (I didn't go back farther than that, I think that establishes the point pretty well.)

We've got people with my name in Kentucky, in Georgia, in Tennesee, in New York, in Ohio, and at least one in Washington--and none of them are me. Weird note of trivial interest: most of them are in nursing homes. (So much for my name having any cachet of "cool" whatsoever.)

I have put thought, energy, time, and yes, money, behind establishing Emilly Orr, though. While she doesn't have a credit card, or a bank account, she does have a PayPal (I didn't set it up; it was set up by someone who didn't know that PayPal was a stickler for real names.) account, and has, in fact, used it to buy things online. So she even has a purchasing history through Google.

Why isn't that good enough for Google+?

The Guardian has a short little moment of adoration for tattered books. Bibliophiles and casual readers alike seem to share this love. In fact, my favorite bookstore when we lived in Denver was The Tattered Cover.

From Tor Books comes the review of the next up-and-coming Batman title. Their recommendation: skip it. Ouch, but I understand their reasoning.

In preparation to launch the Freedom server, City of Heroes has released information on the First Ward. I think I'm going to like it there.

SCIENCE! (But very very odd science.)

And off to ponder marketing on the grid. This has been your News of the Day.

but, baby, you'll freeze out there--it's up to your knees out there

Potential new bug I have no idea how to report, so I'm tossing it up to anyone who wants to check it out and put it on the JIRA, or something:

In the Marketplace, when a merchant wants to pull out names of people who've bought their products, if a resident is actually named "Resident"--it just lists the first name.

Now, it took me a bit to figure this out--once I did, I realized any line that just listed one single first name would always end in Resident, it made things somewhat easier. But that's still a terrifying glitch.

But really, that's just the tip of the iceberg...

[06:18 PM] Aevalle Galicia: Good goddess, the sealife in the Sound has taken to flight
[06:19 PM] Emilly Orr: It happens when scripts are disabled. The poor dears get confused.

So, it's been a merry few hours of mayhem in Caledon this evening. Someone--actually, several someones, we're still tracking down who and why, but Lagala Galaga, and possibly alexgee2 Resident may have been involved--gave something to someone (who really should have known better) in Caledon Oxbridge, who then wore said item--and the fun began.

It locked this gentle sir in place and started sending out spam. And that's when things go haywire, because these scripted-object shouters manifested in almost all the Caledon sims. I have no idea, script-wise, how that could be done just from a worn object. Frightening and intriguing at the same time.

This isn't really about the griefing attack, though. This is about the last name of Resident. Along the way, Miss Aldrich and the honored Mr. Volare mentioned that 'Resident' is not a 'real' last name--at least, not as we've come to know it:

[05:47 PM] Rachel Aldrich: As I understand it, Resident isn't actually their last name, it is just added by viewers other than 2
[05:48 PM] Emilly Orr: I thought Resident was an official last name. I know these are not temporary accounts, because they have profiles that come up.
[05:48 PM] Emilly Orr: If you see [strandofnumbers] Guest, THOSE are temporary accounts.
[05:48 PM] Jayleden Miles: Resident only appears as the last name on the 1.23 viewer
[05:48 PM] Vivito Volare: Really? I don't see it in the list
[05:49 PM] Aevalle Galicia: Aren't the Guest ones from the new web viewer beta?[05:49 PM] Emilly Orr: That's very odd, then. Who ARE these people when they're not being Residents, then? How are their profiles coming up on 2.0?

So I looked into it. There's a fascinating passage on slnamewatch:

Latest News:

The only last name available to new residents of Second Life is Resident. All other last names have been retired. (Dwell On It describes the situation clearly.) Every new sign up, thousands per day, will get this name. The current design of the census bot has a practical limit of about 100,000 accounts under a single last name. I don't plan to redesign it. I will hit that limit in less than a week. This means soon my Total Residents figure will grow inaccurate as well. — 2010-11-20

This sounds like utter and complete frustration with the project...and potentially Second Life, as well.

[05:51 PM] Emilly Orr: http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/2010/11/19/display-names-phase-2/
[05:52 PM] Emilly Orr: According to slnamewatch--from whence Miss Nino's post came--the ONLY option new residents are now given is...Resident
[05:52 PM] Emilly Orr: With the expectation that they will soon change to a 'Display Name'

Now, this puts a whole new wrinkle into things, because--as I understood it--last names were still being handed out. So, though we can--should we choose--change our "displayed names"--f'rinstance, on viewer 2, I'm likely coming in as 'emilly.orr' instead of Emilly Orr--this still leaves us with a huge problem.

Namely...distinct names.

Before now, if Jane Telluride wanted to come into SL, she could get Jane Telsmith and be fine, unless there was a Jane Telsmith. Then, she could just scroll through the available names and find one she liked--and be Jane Omegume, or Jane Gearbox, or Jane Steamwaffle, or whatever. (No, as far as I know--saving Gearbox--these are not real last names.)

But say she comes in this month, for example. She makes an avatar. She wants it to have her name. But 'Jane Resident' is already taken. With no other last names available, she has no other choice. Sure, she can change her name after to "Jane Resident", if that's what she really wants--but she has to decide whether she's going to be xxJanexx Resident, or Jane11482 Resident, or o0Jane0o Resident, or...whatever goofy thing people come up with--in the meantime.

It is a vicious blow to creativity and innovation that we can lay directly at the feet of Linden Labs.

What I'm most afraid of, though? Is this:

[06:48 PM] Martini Discovolante: word to the wise-- if they have a douchebucket name...expect less than amenable behaviour.

For me, sure, "stupidfacebookthing Resident", "Dumbass Resident" and "babygirls814814 Resident" (actual names, all of them) are pretty obvious examples of People I Desire To Avoid in SL. But what about people who really, honestly, can't think of anything else than to tag numbers on their names--like AOL, Yahoo, and Hotmail have patiently shown them--but are otherwise good people? At this point, I see a number string behind--or in front of--a name, and my first conclusion is "knuckle-dragging Visigoth who's going to speak exclusively in lowercase textchat and bug me for sex". And this may not be the case at all.

It makes me very wary around anyone with the "Resident" name. And thanks to the Lab's bonehead decision-making processes...that's now everyone.

what is courage now? is it just to go until we're done?

Found via Miss Kamenev on Twitter, comes this lovely blog entry on specifically black Victoriana. For far too long history has painted Victorians as nearly exclusively white English sorts. This is good to see.

Mr. Lalo Telling reminds us that resistence is not futile; that SL's culture is bigger, broader and more diverse than any attempt to stop it by the Labs. This is hopeful. I'll be thinking on this for a bit, I believe.

News from MMORPG on the Portalarium project. It's ambitious terrain--finding the key bonding points between casual players of games (think PopCap and FarmVille) and hardcore gamers (think WoW). Find that bridge point, they say, and everyone will follow into the games that use it.

In essence, this is sounding like what the Labs are trying to do, only, you know, not in a completely brutalizing, stupid fashion: namely, figure out what people want from online gaming in the first place, and how to pair all effective styles, and then--be that. They have a point--if they figure it out, from a sociological standpoint...they'll get people invested. And involved.

Mentioned this blog entry yesterday; now it has a very interesting reply to its "Linden Labs is a "we" company" position:

Most of the original Lindens are gone now, the visionaries who lent their efforts to this pioneering dream that became something unexpected. They were the soul of Second Life. In their absence, It seems to have become a cold corporate shell who interests are less devoted to fostering strong communities and building new ones than to push forward with a business model more intuitive to industry executives and educators. The 2.0 viewer is a strong testament to that. They want real life identities integrated in and less screen names. Less sex clubs, more educational institutions and corporate alliances. [The] heads now seem to want to appeal to that demographic rather than nurture the many outstanding diverse communities and industries already there. It's disheartening to see such a chasm develop further. There is no one explicitly dedicated to community in a formal role anymore. The have purchased things like SLX and readjusted fees. They've done more things that have negative implications on traditional, casual users in an effort to expand their portfolio and increase their fiscal intake. Not a bad thing, it is a business after all, but a business built passively on the backs of hard working residents who now, often, have no awareness of Linden lab, and vice-versa. Each year, mutual awareness, and interest dissipates further, and there's not one reaching out to remedy that. They don't listen to their customers. They plant their fingers in their ears and trot onward with a blind, ignorant self confidence. Suits make the choices now because the passion that drove Second Life internally is almost completely gone.

Yeah. What Phaylen said.

Miss Dio's put up the second part of her educational...commentary? Series? Who knows...and again, she makes damned good points:

Should the colleges and [universities just] de-rez their virtual campuses and go back to meatspace?

No. Hell No. Things are just now starting to get interesting.

What she suggests to all university/campus/college-owned sims--ditch the prims they've got. Keep the land. Their younger students are already learning fine in the environment they have--namely RL. What Miss Dio is saying--and seeing--is that older students, students getting back into college life for the first time or for higher education the second go-round, learn best in nontraditional environments. Brick-and-mortar reproduction schools just don't cut it for them. Experiment, Miss Dio says. Be open to the possibilities inherent in the medium.

And what can the Labs do to help?

I think the Lab needs to stop trying to just make money off educators by simply trying to sell them classrooms in a box. The Lab should encourage schools to think about how they can actually utilize the platform for new approaches to learning. And LL should encourage academics to look upon the grid's diverse communties and [residents] as potential partners--not just as curiosities to be "studied."

Damn straight. Will their students wander into dangerous areas at times? Yeah, maybe. It happens. But will their students learn, and more's the point, pull better grades if they free their campuses from typical restrictions? Yes, and isn't that the goal?

And for [Chrissakes], they need to do something about the grieftards who make the initial experience for newcomers such an unpleasant mess...Nobody is going to learn well in an environment that comes across as hostile from the get-go. So LL must clean that up. It's bad for learning, and by gawd, it's bad for business.

Hear, hear. In fact--HEAR THAT, LINDEN LABS? That is the sound of someone who is talking to people who can influence universities to join SL telling you how to get those university contracts. LISTEN!

The whole entry is worth reading. There are a lot of gobsmacked-by-the-salmon-of-truth moments in there.

Paired with that, though, was the news that Pathfinder Linden is leaving the grid. The simple statement given seems to indicate downsizing was the culprit--or revising the Linden corporate structure to edit out what Pathfinder did. Which is wrong on so many levels, but even more, Pathfinder spearheaded a lot of big educational accounts to join the grid in the first place.

Does this mean Mark Kingdon has no further interest in promoting educational resources on the grid? Has he decided solely to focus on bigger business? Or, as Tenchi Morichi said in a comment to that entry, have the Lindens leading the Labs decided this thing is now a cash cow to be milked until the cow dies, so they can cut their losses and kill the world?

It's a daunting prospect. How many "good" Lindens are left? How many even mid-range Lindens are swimming the poisoned waters of the home base, wondering how things went so wrong? How long before Mark Kingdon kills SL and moves on to--whatever the hell he's really after, since he is proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is not interactive virtual environments?

Who's next on the chopping block? Beyond the residents.

I won't push you unless you have a net

Miss Dio wrote a rather pointed blog entry on why educators are pulling out of SL. I do think part of it, just thinking about it on my own, is the now-strong emphasis on SL's "cleaning up"--with the entire catastrophe of Zindra and the dunning for money at every third turn.

More than that, though, I think she makes an excellent point which I'd like to reinforce here: rebuilding campuses, so students can walk around in virtual reconstructions of the places they're comfortable, or at least used to, attending, and that university will lose in-world students. Every damned time.

But build something that intrigues, build something that's designed for flight, not for walking, build something that takes into account the incredible variety of form and intellect on the grid...and people will come.

Put another way, Second Life--and other virtual worlds--are immersive environments. And going from the treehouse or the sky-level skybox to the exact duplicate of a university those students see every day, in RL--well, to be plain, it's boring. And it shows a lack of forward thinking.

Even little changes can wake up sleeping minds and bring them online to interact and learn. Case in point: I'm not a full-time student, but I have taken classes, and--while for the most part they've been in sweeping incandescent towers or held on rolling glass hills, there was a class I attended that was held in a schoolhouse. A circa 1800s schoolhouse. And it was faithfully reproduced, from the whitewashed clapboard walls to the sturdy wooden tables, battered and worn.

But it engaged. We had not walked into a concrete-and-glass monolithic cube. We had not walked into something we see every single day. We walked into something amazing, even in its own quiet way, with shadowed trees and brickwork paths, and our minds opened to the imagination in it.

Use that imagination, educators. Rebuild your campuses. Keep a business office and a registry office if you like; but make the rest of the build something different. Make it something that will awaken tired minds, erase the boredom of the media-saturated minds. Be innovative. Universities are supposed to do two things: preserve knowledge, and pass it on. You can't pass on information if no one's there. And you won't get people there unless they're engaged.

So engage them. And watch the world change.

(I would also like to address a point from one of the original articles Miss Dio was pulling from, to wit, one of the comments, from "larryc":

"A friend and colleague keeps bugging me to enroll in Second Life and meet her there. But what if her avatar looks like Elvira but with a squirrel's head? How will I face her in the next faculty senate meeting?"

(And my response to that is...is he serious? Larry, you deal with her just like you deal with anyone else you meet on the street: like the person you met in the first goddamn place. Honestly. That is so ridiculously close-minded, it's surreal. It's like running into someone at the grocery store you've only seen in movies: OMIGoshIcan'tBELIEVEit'sactuallyX...and they're buying ROMA TOMATOES!

(I mean, really. Get real. They shop. They talk. They have sex. They fall down. They dress up in funny costumes for parties. They make bad eating-out and fashion choices. Just like the rest of us. So you meet someone who's drop-dead gorgeous below the neck and a chipmunk above it...well, usually in SL that means you're talking to Risusipo Jun, but I digress. All information is worth having; maybe ask her about it next time you see her. Don't get all weird and freaky, it's just an avatar.

(And...also...really. Really? The animal-headed human is what drops your brain out of your head? Man, you would not have handled the leather-clad, piercings-on-her-piercings, prim-breasted lass with the fully erect and DRIPPING equipment trailing ooze in a line between her legs, then. It gets SO much worse than your pitifully limited imagination can manage to exert, Larry. You have my pity...and not a small amount of my scorn.)

William Murphy addresses the history of science fiction in terms of MMO gaming; it's a pretty interesting article, overall, but I was more amused by the brief and dismissive mentions of Phantasy Star Online, Tabula Rasa and Matrix Online. I think all three games, still, have ardent--and on occasion vocal--fans, even though I, like the author, don't really classify Phantasy Star as a "real" MMO--it is a game one can play with friends, yes, but while that group is moving through the settings, that group is the only thing "alive" in that sense--there's only genuine multiple mingling in the various lobbies, not the instances or the station itself.

He also brought up, extradordinarily briefly, City of Heroes, which I'm trying to puzzle out. This may be a failing in me, but comic-book superheroes are specifically science fiction? They can have science fiction elements, but they also pull from fantasy (Dr. Strange) and horror (John Constantine of Hellblazer) as well. (Just to mention two things that popped to the forebrain, writing this--there are endless other examples.) Basically, the flights-in-tights brigade pulls from multiple sources, from mythology (Wonder Woman, Thor and Morpheus, Lord of Dreams spring to mind) to slapstick (The Tick), and everything in between. Why pin them just into science fiction's realm?

Other news is shorter, and more scattershot, because I'm culling through everything I saved while sick. I no longer remember where I first heard of most of these things; I will say Miss Neome handed me the "Avatar" video, and background story; and most of the rest originally came from someone or other on Twitter. Here goes:

One competition, one basic robot design. Several thousand possibilities for decoration and movement. So what do the competition judges do? Hold a dance-off.

And for another design aesthetic entirely, check out the highlights of one hundred years of movie stills, and how popular design concepts change.

What happens when you find God, and he doesn't want to play? Ask Raj Patel. That brings virtual worship to a whole new level, really.

In one of the best videos (honestly, I think it's better than the original, and I adore the boots) I've seen of the 'Avatar' song, I want to present Avatar: CoH style! Apart from the very nearly flawless matching of lyrics to actions seen, it's also a powerful statement on its own: not so much of how much fun City of Heroes is, potentially, but what happens when a creator is inspired by another creation, asks permission to use it in their own creation, and the original maker gives that permission.

This is how Weird Al has operated for decades, even though his songs in many cases fall strictly--and legally--within the parody rules for fair use. And with our current (at least, within the US) legal system, this also points out the very problematic flaws in the music industry: namely, unless one is on a first-name basis with the songwriter or singer (and even then, it's tricky) of the original work, a request to use material signed to a major label will, nine times out of ten, result in cross-filing to cease and desist from their legal department--for even asking the question.

The Borg are getting scarier in Star Trek Online; and no, you still can't play one. (Also, none of us can figure out why she's wearing a batleth on her head.)

Meanwhile, Edward found footage of a very hungry mantis. Awww. Hon, you can't eat cursors, that's not at all filling. Let's take you back outside.

Fascinating study released on roleplayers and socialization; I'm always amused when the big studies go live and reveal what many of us have known for years. Especially in SL, this is very, very true--while there's no specific, universal body language in Second Life (all body language is either inferred/invented directly by the viewer, or added by whomever designed that avatar's range of animated stands, sits and walks), what we do face, and very directly, is the choice of avatar we interact with, and are interacted with. That choice tells us very specific, surprisingly concrete things about the player inside it, and can form its own form of social language and subconscious clue-set as to that player's desires, needs, fears, and hopes.

This last one comes from Mr. Allen; I know, I remember the conversation that followed. I present to you the "digital" device that might as well have had steam power and a gerbil rig: the Tomy Blip hand-held game. Electronic? Not by half. Gear-driven through and through. That's just stunning, that is. The only thing "electrical" in the least is the input leads--that go to lighting just the one light--that are powered by batteries. One, if I recall the breakdown specifically.

So much for "high tech", even at the time.

but a smile never grins without tears to begin, for each kiss is a cry we all lost

What's signal and what's noise?

Massively reviews the happenings in SL in 2009...and concludes that, overall, it was a "relatively quiet year". The hell? Trauma, drama, content loss, personal and official, the subsequent acquisition and restructuring of XStreet, paired with half the known Lindens who worked well with people fired or forced to step down? And Miss Nino calls that quiet?!?

Meanwhile, Step Up! is at it again, now involving a mobile 'university' of sorts to train people on how to recognize "stolen content".

Words cannot describe my loathing of this term, but I'm going to try to be fair.

1. They're not bad people. They're trying to do the responsible thing, here.
2. You can't always control the idiots in charge of your logo design. Sometimes you just have to take it and accept such things, and hope for a better redesign later.
3. They're not 100% responsible for the concept of "content theft". They don't correct their thinking when it's pointed out, but it was a term bandied about on the grid, and it's a term people think they understand, so Step Up! is trying to stick with things people get. It's not actively malicious on their part, just misguided.
4. Teaching people how to recognize copyright infringement, what to do when they think they've found it, how to report it, how to urge content creators to report on their own...these aren't bad things, either.

However:

1. Continuing to call it "content theft" or "stolen content" muddies the waters considerably. It is stupid, and stubborn, for them not to use the proper terms. It's not content theft; it's NOT stolen content. It is copyright infringement, and infringing content. Stolen content and infringing content are not the same thing.
2. Developing an RL component to match Step Up!'s SL efforts is not bad, per se, but they need to realize that the decision needs to be made now on whether or not to include just Second Life, or all virtual worlds. And if they decide to integrate all virtual worlds, they're going to need a dedicated team of 50-250 avatars whose sole job in the organization is checking out everything that comes into any OpenSim. Because importation of SL content into OpenSim regions is rampant at this point.

The worst design for a VeggieTales tie-in ever.

In the meantime, Spider and Jeanne Robinson are asking their fans to help. This one should go beyond the fans, though. This one, everyone should try to help. Not only will it go to pay medical bills incurred by Jeanne Robinson's cancer, but it will help two writers of some wonderful sf out. And don't forget, without Spider, there would be no Callahan's. No #callahans on IRC. And no Callahan's on the grid. Donate if you can, buy a book, or at the least get the word out.

Because sometimes...there isn't enough time.

there is a crack, a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in

Ooh, someone did a post on less-than-well-known typographical symbols. (Yes, this is the kind of thing I find amaaaazing. I read dictionaries too. Shush.)

Steampunk synthesizer? Ooh, yes.

I wandered around somewhat today, and while I did, I looked up things, here and there, that I remembered. There's a place called Elv'an Majika (I think it's here) that sells the 'casual fantasy' crop top/skirt thing for around five Lindens a piece. She's got several free things, as well--I'd originally heard this through the Kitties--but forget that; when you can get free boots and then a jacket, top, and skirt for L$15 above and beyond that--I mean, that's a whole outfit.

Only one problem--the short skirts with the trailing sheer silk panels? Clock in at 105 prims each. Yipe!

Miss Putrid Gloom has her new store of the macabre and odd up at Gloomyville. She has cute little things on the walls, odd little things scattered about the place.



(Warning to the arachnophobic: it's not quite a spider, but it is spider-like--the second pic attached to this one is a closer look.)

Speaking of Miss Gloom, she tipped me to this short film--about the hazards of temper, especially temper directed at oneself. It's a lovely, discordant piece, and I do believe both words apply equally.

I got this in the mail when I logged in world:

Dear Friends,
This morning, in Kinvara, a small group started talking about how the world has lost its gentleness.
We talked that it takes strength to be gentle.
Then we talked about spreading the word that being gentle is okay. That gentle people are really the STRONGEST people.
A small seed of a huge idea emerged, and we want to talk about it with everyone tonight at 7 p.m.
We need artists and dreamers and builders and everyone with a gentle heart.
Please come hear and share your ideas ... 7 p.m. SLT Sunday Kinvara Village lawn.
A second meeting will be held at 9 a.m. SLT Monday.

Madeline Munro

So I went. I am far from a gentle soul; I have long said I would make a terrible Buddhist because I kill bugs, I occasionally cuff cats that claw me, I have been known to strike out violently when provoked: these are not traits of an evolved being.

But such ruminations were not the main goal of the group, it seems. While it's all generally agreed, we need to master our own passions, and seek habits of non-violence, what the group at large seems to want is...acceptance.

That the world does not have to be sharp of fang and red of claw.

That the natural state of humanity is not competition and backstabbing.

That with understanding and tolerance, we can realize there's enough room for all views without us crowded out as individuals.

That peace does not mean apathy, that gentle does not mean weak, that understanding does not mean pushover.

These aren't bad views. The Quakers have been working in these ways for centuries. The Buddhists have counseled this. Other religions, other groups, have had the same thoughts.

A gentle world. It's not a bad idea, all in all.

In any of this, in all of this, I am not the speaker on the mount. I am not gentility, I am turbulence, in most of my behaviors. But I admire the thinking, I admire the wish for a better, for a gentler world.

Where children do not need to know how to fire guns before their first kiss.

Where boys are not taught tears are bad; where girls are not taught to despise themselves.

Where adults do not grow to adulthood knotted around insecurity and fear--of themselves, of others.

Where hate is something in textbooks, not vibrating in hearts.

Is this impossible? I'm not saying so. For some of us, maybe we are too set in our ways to change. But as I said, where I may not live, I can admire; where I may not fully believe, I can embrace.

Contact Miss Elspeth Woolley or Miss Madeline Munro in world for more information; there will be pages coming on the Caledon Wiki, and there will be some form of in-world group.

if we like we stay for maybe quite a while

I've unfortunately had to enable the rather annoying type-in-random-letters verification option for this journal; but considering one entry attracted the attention of an annoying person who left sixteen comments--all saying the same pointless thing--it's going to become necessary.

Bother.

But then, what's new? Rather resembles the grid at large, at the moment. Logins restricted, the support portal going under, database and asset server issues--it's been just the most thrilling weekend so far.

*coughs*

Just ask Lord Greystoke, Gnarlihotep Abel, and his soon-to-be bride Lady Gloire Thibaud--they would have been married yesterday, but just as she was to walk down the aisle, the grid caved in around the entire congregations' collective ear!



The music for the Jellicle Ball today, in Coughton Court? Perfection. The photographic capture of all the Jellicle cats at play? Not quite so perfect. I've been trying, but it's just not going to come out much better than that.

But as today was also something of fundraiser--and raiser of awareness for--the Caledon libraries, it should come as no surprise that everyone who could get to Carntaigh for this event, did.



So of course, there was lag. And lack of rez. And slowed programming in general.

All those frocks, you know. And all those avatars. And all those ears and tails! For it was the Jellicle Ball, after all!



The music was varied, the conversation warming, and the dancing divine, as always--and I do believe we raised significant funds to keep the Caledon libraries fueled. Never let it be said Caledonians let the light of literacy wane.



Betwixt tail-twitching doses of Mousetinis and freshly juiced mice, rich chunks of lobster and shrimp, and selections from Cats the musical, and other lovely cat-themed musicalia, we danced and swayed and supped and sipped and altogether, had a superb evening indeed!

Keep in mind that you can donate funds to keep the Caledon libraries financially sound at any branch of the library; and each individual one is worth perusing at least once, at any rate--they all possess their own character and their own charm.

Much as each sim of Caledon, after all.

meet me at the fair

Celebrate, dance and make merry, for today is Twelfth Night! Celebrate the reign of the Lord and Lady of Misrule! Celebrate, for we have called CARNIVALE on the shores of Wellsian!

Also, the opening of the H. G. Wells Memorial Branch Library, which currently has a wonderful exhibit on the history of Mardi Gras, Carnivale, and New Orleans at the turn of the century.

I have pictures. :)



You should know, this was literally the best I could do...two hours in to dancing in Wellsian, and some people still had not fully rezzed in for me. We had SO MANY PEOPLE...at one point, we had MORE THAN SIXTY PEOPLE in Wellsian, and WE DID NOT CRASH. I'm very proud of Caledon for that.



Lord Brideswell, Mr. Elrik Merlin, and Miss Soliel Snook opened the first three hours of Carnivale celebration. Did ably well by all reports, and having observed for the last hour of their three, I'd have to agree. We're pleased to have Miss Snook aboard as a Radio Riel hostess (so says the also very new hostess, but shhh).



Mr. Hassanov, once he appeared, was rather despondent that his mask did not, in fact, hide his identity. I tried to cheer him by saying that was a good thing, and in fact, being identifiable--and trusted to be--is a good thing! He agreed after a fashion. :)



Myself, the hostess for the last three hours of the event, dancing next to wench-for-a-day Duchess Gabi. Apparently I hadn't rezzed in for everyone, until halfway through, when I did, and the collective jaw dropped. When the reaction died down, I was asked about the outfit.

I told the gathered crowd--and it was a large crowd--that I'd been advised by someone that the recommended dress was "minimal".

They asked me who'd given me the recommendation. I had to be honest and say Lord Bardhaven was the one who told me.

At least one man pledged to buy him a drink, and many sent their thanks. So Lord Bardhaven, you apparently made many Caledonians somewhat happier today.



All I know is, I had so much fun dancing! I tried to remember to toss in all the information on the Library, the exhibit, and Carnivale I could remember, and I think I did okay. Mostly? I was just having fun, and everyone else was too. It was a wonderful launch of Caledon's latest literary institution.



At least one fellow surrendered to the allure of crossdressing when it was openly mentioned as being common in Caledon. Kudos for peer pressure!



And then, the alien war engine arrived! With barely a sound, it landed--thankfully no one was hurt!--and I froze for a moment, barely daring to breathe.

Several women shrieked, and I hoped desperately that bloodshed could be averted.



It was very, very...VERY...tall. This is a shot from ground level of the war engine on its metal legs.



And then, with barely additional sound, it began to make its way east, ponderous step by ponderous step. Disaster was averted, but as to where it was bound...We did not know.



And then...the nuns arrived.

No, really. And not even a Steelhead SWAT team member! Someone else entirely, complete with halo!

It was a wonderful event, and a smash of a send-off for Carnivale, and, more importantly, reinforced how beloved the Caledon library system--and Caledon librarians as well--are by Caledon at large!

I also have to send my personal thanks to all who attended--I am humbly, deeply grateful to you all. I have never felt so rewarded for any effort as I did today. All of you went above and beyond the call of any duty, in providing largesse through Linden renumeration.

Put another way--you guys way overtipped, but you all ROCK! Thank you so much!

The SLUrl at the top of this entry will bring you nearly to the door of the H. G. Wells Memorial Branch Library. Do, please, see the exhibits before they leave. Mr. Woodget put a great deal of thought and consideration into the history behind Carnivale and Mardi Gras, and the history of New Orleans. It should be appreciated, especially in this time post-Katrina, when so much has been lost, never to be seen again.

Do try to see it before it goes away. And never pass up a chance to learn! After all, what else is a second life good for, if not that?