I light the candle for the ghosts in my home

DARPA--yes, that DARPA--has released an open-source catalog of software and research project notes. Why? Got me. But apparently the agency working to develop weaponry and battle armor for the US government wants input and coding help from...everyone who wants to help out.

Unpaid, of course, but they also say that since it's open-source, it can be used in coders' own projects, as well.

What this means in the larger political sense, I am purely not the one to ask. I'm just baffled.

Meanwhile--continuing in strange US news--there's now a sculpture of a nearly naked man...on the all-female Wellesley College campus. Why the sculpture there? Why is it a nearly naked man? The artist made a companion piece of a nearly naked woman; would that have been more or less disturbing as an installation on the campus lawn?

There's an entire page devoted to the rest of the installation set (including the female version of the Sleepwalker, and an alternate male version) on Tony Matelli's website; but does seeing the rest of the installation pieces invalidate the oddity of the lone somnabulist on campus? In my opinion, not really. (Also, a warning for that link--Matelli's artwork meanders from the clinical to the profoundly disturbing. View at your own risk.)

Moving to the field of neuroscience, Robert Provine, author of the new book Curious Behavior, posits that not only do tears serve a physical healing function (not the least of which is to lubricate irritated or injured eyes), but might also serve as a mood elevator--a compound called NGF, which stands for nerve growth factor, seems not only responsible for axonal branching (the thing that makes nerve fibers grow like tree limbs), but also potentially has an anti-depressive, anti-psychotic effect. If proven, this could have wide application in terms of recovery from mental illness (schizophrenia, depression, general dementia) as well as mental impairment (autism, Alzheimer's, possibly even the full range of anorexia and bulimia illnesses).

Further study is definitely needed, but it looks promising.

And Linden Lab has a new CEO. So far, he seems sane. Yay?

go tell the world I'm still around

So, normally I'd be covering this over on Topping Out, since it's implant-related, but...yeah, I kind of have to talk about it here, because...well.

Bewbapalooza has started for another go-round, and while I'm all for implant-related events (both because it makes it easier to find new stores, and because said stores usually offer limited-edition items or sale-event pricing), I'm having a problem coping with one particular offering.

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

This particular offering.

Awear calls this their "PVC Police Officer" look, but...that is pretty close to an exact reproduction of an SS officer's hat. And while I realize Nazi memorabilia and Nazi fashion still influence modern culture, both domestically and globally, for me this goes too far.

There are two outfits called "Kinky Latex", one in black:

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

and one in pink:

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

but they still have the same hat.

I know I'm sensitive on this issue. Having friends, having people I consider family who had family in the camps, some who made out out, most who didn't...it leaves an indelible mark. As indelible as the string of numbers tattooed on their arms, a daily reminder of the chilling horror humanity is truly capable of. Because make no mistake about it--until the tide turned, the people who captured them, forcibly transported them, guarded them, tortured them, dehumanized them, killed them--had been friends, neighbors, even countrymen. That, also, leaves a mark, and in this case, that mark is on several cultures, not just one.

(from the fashion album; Nazi-influenced outfits from Awear at the current Bewbapalooza.)

A closer look at the main outfit.

Yeah, I...I'm pretty sure I can't attend this round of Bewbapalooza until that's gone. And I'm sure Awear's off the list of implant fashions to buy, ever. Some things are just not cool.

without regret for all the things that we have done

Can you endure 23,000 spoonfuls of terror? Or, y'know, at least spare ten minutes for a short film about an inexplicably slow murder?

I will say, past the first four minutes or so--the first three of which are really, really funny--the concept seems to drag on. And on. And on. And maybe that's the point, really.

I've been pondering how to bring up dio, but part of what trapped me in place was trying to figure out what it was, exactly. Nothing I read really answered the questions I had. But, now I don't have to! That last post contains all you really need to know!

Interested in making books by hand? There's a lot of resources, from simple online tutorials to paid classes, but this actually covers all the basics in a short series of photographs. Impressive.

In the world of gaming, there's a lot of parody videos. There are even entire parody games. So when I first saw the trailer for Blocksworld, I thought it was exactly that--something filmed just for the fun of it.

Apparently I was wrong. Blocksworld exists. It's not a parody, it's a really good game designed (mostly for kids) for the iPad. Who knew?

Ever find yourself curious about D&D? Or if you play D&D, and you don't know how to explain what you're doing to people that don't? There's an online tutorial just for you. (Personally, I find their description of sorcerers scarily apt. For several years, the battle cry of my human mage was "Sorry about that!")

The Prim Perfect blog brings us a story about the not-so-secret "secret" of Second Life--that many participants are older than they say they are. I'll go one better and say that the other "secret" population was just grazed over in this article--the deaf.

Well, I'd say handicapped in general, but for folks in SL who cannot hear RL, it's especially relevant. Though this particular population was severely unhappy when voice launched--because, before voice, everyone typed. Not every deaf person speaks, and for some of those that do, they don't speak in ways we're accustomed to. Sometimes, this is because of the inability to hear their own voice; sometimes simply because they don't think to speak before they think to sign. But there's more than a few deaf people in SL, just as there's more than a few who have retired from their First Lives.

Speaking of the disabled, we're in the land of medical breakthroughs--again. Brendan Marroco, a U.S. soldier who'd been on the ground in Iraq, lost all four limbs to a roadside bomb. The loss of his legs, he managed to accept fairly equably. He already has prosthetic limbs, and he says they work.

But what he really missed were his arms. In January, he got them back. It was a thirteen-hour surgery, and he will have months, if not years, of rehabilition in order to regain the function he can with them. But already he can push his own wheelchair, brush hair out of his eyes, and pick up light objects. It's nothing short of amazing.

The next chronicle of Riddick has released stills! It's coming. And it looks very dark and gritty, but really, did we expect anything else?

Finally, back in 2011, on on SLUniverse, Miss Wunderlich started posting images--and explaining the whys behind--her recreation of the Crystal Palace in Second Life. It's still up--you can visit it--because she's made it her store.

I realize I'm late to the party on this (and really, that should be my cue that I need to visit her store more often!), but this strikes me as especially significant not because it's the first recreation of this structure (hers would, in fact, be the third, though the thinking goes that one of the three is no longer up0. Rather, this is significant because for historical purposes, there's very little more accepted as a structure that represents the Victorian era. The thread she largely worked from is also one of the most amazingly detailed, a room by room examinations of the structure I've ever read.

Go see it if you can, and walk through recreated history.

I look over out of the window, I see your face, and I'm frightened, 'cause I live on the eighth floor

"Please, get the name right when citing it elsewhere: the name is "Cool VL Viewer", and not "Cool VL", "Cool Viewer", etc..."

Bite me, Henri. Especially since I had to abandon the use of CoolVL--again--when I lost the ability to perceive scattered text (so far observed: landmark descriptions, sim descriptions, the 'Buy/Pay' button on menus, my last name on login, and names of avatars I'm searching for, among other things) whenever I logged in. After spending two days tracking down the exact version of my graphics driver and reading something like eight different sites dealing with graphical concerns, I can say with some authority that it wasn't my drivers.

Mr. Allen talked me into downloading Catznip, and while on the catputer, it failed to work at all, on this one, it does. I have the usual days-to-weeks of figuring out where everything is, but seriously, I'm so tired to having to change viewers because they get buggy and stop working.

Which, in this case, I lay entirely at CoolVL's door.

(from the Canada album)

Remember Power Girl? Rather infamously known for her "boob window" (though her backstory was originally something like, she didn't feel she could wear Superman's token 'S', so she removed it from her costume, leaving the oval where it would have been bare), she's been largely given the Emma Frost treatment by fans and artists on her comic line both.

(from the Canada album)

Granted, she's always been slightly tilted towards pinup art, even briefly dipping into nigh-porn territory on occasion (at the very least, heavy on the cheesecake poses), but...I really have to protest, because this goes WAY too far in the other direction. Plus, keep in mind that's art published in one of the newly-revised lines; somewhere, somehow, that art passed the test for publication.

Power Girl as a giraffe with malformed hips (her legs quite clearly split in twain just below the curve of her right hip, and the hell?), linebacker shoulders, at least one broken arm, holding an invisible handbag...That was the best they could come up with?!?

Apparently, the "look" they were trying to go for is seen more proportionately here, but seriously, that's not an epic costume redesign in the first place. (And there's more than one artist doing weirdly mutated version of Power Girl in the New 52 as well--witness this appalling example, with her snarling knees and that staggeringly reconfigured package.)

The best image I could find of the new costume doesn't even seem to feature the new costume--it ditches the wonky 'arm capes' entirely, removes the tightly boned and lengthened giraffe neck, and trades in her expected white/gold/red color scheme for a navy/red/gold scheme, but barring all that, it's not that bad. But everything to get to that point, so far, is tacky at best, and revolting at worst. Poor Kara.

Finally, for Memorial day, a poppy to wear. While it is a US holiday, it's one with historical standing: the roots go back at least to the Civil War, if not farther. I also know there are at least a few international groups in Second Life who broaden the day to include honorable dead from all conflicts, not just the US ones.

Remember, honor, acknowledge; really, that's what Memorial Day is. And that goes farther than any one nation.

he's the devil in disguise, a snake with blue eyes, and he only comes out at night

Admittedly, the original Tweet caught my attention, but as far as the Air Force article it mentions, it's far less invasive. It was less "hijacked" and more "Can I ask them some questions?"

But it seems the questions were answered correctly, because the general in question logged his son's avatar off, and then flew out to meet with the Air Force department responsible for owning MyBase in Second Life.

This sounds like the kind of innovation Second Life should be involved with. Now, granted, because they deal with real places and occasionally real names, and definitely classified material, MyBase is sectioned off from the rest of SL. Translation: you can't get there from here. But where they are, and where they're going, is fascinating in terms of actual training happening on the grid, that is then duplicated on the ground.

Meanwhile, an unnerving issue has come up for users of the new service Google+. I, like many in Second Life, got invited, and accepted, and now have an account.

But there's apparently a hitch...and the hitch doesn't make a lot of sense.

From Gmail's Terms of Service:

When you sign up for a Google account, we ask you for personal information. We may combine the information you submit under your account with information from other Google services or third parties in order to provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services. For certain services, we may give you the opportunity to opt out of combining such information. You can use the Google Dashboard to learn more about the information associated with your Account.

There's another section from there I want to quote:

5. Use of the Services by you

5.1 In order to access certain Services, you may be required to provide information about yourself (such as identification or contact details) as part of the registration process for the Service, or as part of your continued use of the Services. You agree that any registration information you give to Google will always be accurate, correct and up to date.

There's also this:

20. General legal terms

20.2 The Terms constitute the whole legal agreement between you and Google and govern your use of the Services (but excluding any services which Google may provide to you under a separate written agreement), and completely replace any prior agreements between you and Google in relation to the Services.

Fair as far as it goes, right?

Essentially: provide identifying information; maintain that identifying information; understand that they may be retrieving information on you from a number of Google-aligned services you may encounter as part of, or not as part of, Gmail; and Google agrees that these are their Terms of Service, unless another service they provide has separate terms.

That last one is the catch.

The Terms of Service from Google+ are slightly different, in that they're hosted under the general Google banner. They also go more places, so let's start first with a privacy clause from their ToS:

In order to use the Google +1 button, you need to have a public Google Profile visible to the world, which at a minimum includes the name you chose for the profile. That name will be used across Google services and in some cases it may replace another name you’ve used when sharing content under your Google Account. We may display your Google profile identity to people who have your email address or other identifying information.

Still okay, as far as it goes, but again to translate: what that means is that if you choose one name for Google+, and you have another name somewhere else, and they determine your content is linked, your Google+ name will dominate.

Not a large deal for some of us, but according to thinq it's getting grimmer on an hourly basis. Why? Because of two provisions in their Community Standards, which has nothing to do with their official Terms of Service--for any service. Here's the first passage:

Impersonation
Your profile should represent you. We don't allow impersonation of others or other behavior that is misleading or intended to be misleading. If you believe that another user is impersonating you with a Google profile, please go to the profile in question, click Report a profile, and select the appropriate radio button. Learn more about reporting impersonation.

And here's the second:

Display Name
To help fight spam and prevent fake profiles, use the name your friends, family, or co-workers usually call you. For example, if your full legal name is Charles Jones Jr. but you normally use Chuck Jones or Junior Jones, either of these would be acceptable. Learn more about your name and Google Profiles.

Now, I'm in a somewhat tenuous position here. While "Emilly Orr" is not my full legal birth name, there are people who call me by that name in my real life. By pseudonymic rules--and especially that it's been ongoing for the past six years--that means it is an established alternate name, like a "writing as" name or a "known as" name. It's also a name I have signed legally binding documents in (for the Picture Production Company, among others). If I've made it my legal name by sign of contract, and I'm known by it to friends and family, that makes it a binding legal alternate name. At least as far as I understand contract law. Am I wrong?

There's also an interesting uprising regarding Google in general from the professional photographers' community, namely that Google is granting themselves exclusive rights to professionally produced content that isn't theirs.

Let me repeat that in legalese:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

Basically, they've now bracketed the evil mentioned in the blog entry on the 6th by saying 'but the content is still yours, too' and 'we can't sell it, we can just use it'. Which is still dilution of copyright, isn't it? And isn't that what got GeoCities in trouble, lo these many decades ago, when Yahoo bought it out?

There's another angle on "pseudonymity" from Sarah Stokely's blog (though I also like Geek Feminism's post on anti-pseudonym bingo).

Ultimately, I have no idea how things are going to shake out. I, like Opensource Obscure, could be banned from Google+. Which, considering I haven't figured out precisely how I'm going to make use of it, doesn't have more than momentary impact on my consciousness--at least currently.

Because that's an honest question: I use Gmail for email and chat; Skype for voice and conference chat; Twitter for instant updates; Tumblr for picture posts or reblogging chosen content; and Fancy for the liking of things.

Why do I need Google+ again? I guess we'll see if Google needs me first.