and we're already too late if we arrive at all

So, finally we arrive at the last names JIRA. Now, as usual, no matter how many times I or anyone else says it, people are still voting, not watching.

Don't vote. Watch. I know, I know, it's antithetical to everything the Lindens have told you in the past to do, but never mind--they changed their rules this time. The great case in point is seen on this JIRA:

Vote:	1893
Watch:	622

See what I mean? Swap those figures and Linden Labs would suddenly be a lot more interested in what's going on, believe me.

From the description:

In hopes of Linden Lab taking notice in the many Second Life Residents who would like the options of last names when creating a username in SL, I have created this JIRA! So many of us wish for the option of originality like we once had and hope that new residents in the Second Life community would be given this option.

The problem is, without completely revamping the entire SL experience--which I'm thinking might be coming in a year or so, anyway--there has to be some preservation of Legacy systems. And Legacy systems run on firstname.lastname pairings. So...one does wonder why the option was proposed in the first place.

Many people have expressed interest in having the option of choosing from a list of last names but also being able to choose "Resident" as their last name if they want to. So many of us believe that one of the best aspects of Second Life is the ability to be original in our virtual world and by being able to pick a last name we are able to find identity and originality!

First of all, SL never worked like that, just FYI. It was always You pick a first name, we'll do the rest. Some people learned the trick early on of going through specific server set-ups for specific names, but most of us, when we set up our accounts, chose from the list of that day's twenty names or so, and came up with something we could at least tolerate, if not actually like.

Now, would it be a good thing to be able to pick both your first and second name? Maybe, save for the distressing variations on John171827 Studd or SexyMILF WannaSexxMe that would crop up. (And if you think I'm kidding, just look up how many women named some variant of "Vagina" turn up under Search. Go on. Look. Bet it's still over fifteen.)

If this is a feature you would like to see brought back to the Second Life Grid please consider voting on this JIRA!

Stop that, you're losing intelligence points. It's WATCH, not VOTE.

We love all the new features that Linden Lab has brought our way the past few months,

No we don't.

but taking away the option of a last name, in our opinion was a mistake.

Especially since they NEVER TOOK IT AWAY--because the Legacy system STILL REQUIRES IT. Basically, all the Lab accomplished with their arcane maneuvering was to ensure that if thirteen girls log up for SL the same day and they all want to be named BellaCullen, that instead of BellaCullen Clockmaker, BellaCullen Wanderer, BellaCullen Noisette, and ten others, they're going to default to BellaCullen1 Resident, BellaCullen17 Resident, TheOnlyBellaCullen Resident, BellaCullenn Resident, BellllaCulllle3n Resident, and eight others that are worse.

Now often times the name people want is taken and they are forced to use numbers within their username, resulting in what looks like an instant messaging screen name.

See, this is what I don't get. We have a wide, wide world of diverse anime, books, comics, music, and that's not counting original thoughts, wandering impulses, and descriptions based on likes, hobbies, professions, and favorite plays--just to name a few. I will admit, part of my elitism is running across someone who has numbers in their name and immediately thinking they're lacking in some fashion. (And, outside of a few notable exceptions, I haven't been wrong.)

Of course, I did use the "BellaCullen" example earlier...because I thought it was sufficiently ridiculous as to be laughable in any virtual world...save, well, pull up Search again sometime and look up how many of them there are. Tragic.

This being said, we do also love the feature of being able to change our names in world. Keeping that option is great, especially for those in family settings within the Second Life Community!

No comment.

We simply would love to have the option to have a last name choice once again when creating an SL avatar! It makes will in turn, hopefully make the community feel less divided between the older residents and the newer ones. I know many new residents have expressed interest in wishing they would have had the option of a fun last name like the rest of us!

See, I think what all of us thought when display names were initially discussed was something that made rational sense--that we'd all keep our originally-chosen firstname.lastname combos, but we'd be able to change them at will from, say, SexiiBabii Dimplefobber to RillySexxiBabi Babe, or something. (Okay, yes, I'm being mean, but at least if my name was Emilly Orr--oh wait, it is--and I went to some space-based RP sim, I could change my display name to Zarin Nenotech or something that sounded more suitable. I'd still have my name, but the name displayed would be altered.

(Instead, what we got was this botch job of a .resident last name for everyone past the change date, and a display name option that didn't automatically override, and that could be abused with unicode characters, expanded into multiple words, and in general diluted to the point of madness. Yeah. Great plan, guys.)

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and casting your vote!

You're an idiot. Urge people to WATCH if they want anything done, not VOTE, don't be stupid.

And randomly from the comments:

Resident as a last name, might be great for store owners or so, but having resident as a last name, even when you dont see it on 2.0 still makes it feel now your not part of the SL family anymore, your a code or a number.

Spelling uncorrected. But the sentiment is correct, nonetheless; and I'll tell you something else. Especially after the latest viewer 3 revisions, I see someone walking around just under Elly or John19 my first thought is not, Oh, they look interesting, I should go say hi but Gosh, their last name fell off. Sucks to be them.

As someone who has needed to make a business alt in the last few months, I found it extremely difficult to find a unique username that isn't full of numbers etc.

See comment above on how many different forms of characterization are out there. Read a book, I lack all sympathy.

I am for the return to a choice of last names. I think it has created two classes of "residents."

Unfortunately, I agree with her. As much as I fight against it, I see someone under a Resident tag and I dismiss them as someone who obviously doesn't know the world. And that's not good. There are some really alive minds under those Resident tags (though granted, I haven't run into many), who've fought and clawed their way to make impressions on the grid. More power to them (meant in actually non-sarcastic ways, because yes, the added burden of innate discrimination does not help when one is already trying to learn a new world, new controls, and what constitutes acceptable behavior here.)

All of the new residents now look like they have AOL handles. Also, all of the "good" names were picked up quickly - by older SL residents!

To some extent she's right--I know a lot of people who immediately ran out and got all versions they could think of "their" name affixed to Resident tags--specifically so no one else could do the same. This both artificially swelled the numbers of new accounts, and locked up a lot of names that could have been in use.

See, the old system, as annoying as it was on occasion, offered say, a list of fifteen names. Say you're Sallen Coster, and you decide you want to be Sallen in SL, too. Under the Legacy naming system, you'd log in and see something like this:

__Sallen__	[__Beaumont__]
__________	[__Dumoris__]
__________	[__Farthingbike__]
__________	[__Gisorri__]
__________	[__Ifrit__]
__________	[__Lemonteeth__]
__________	[__Morris__]
__________	[__Nathaniel__]
__________	[__Owlflight__]

and so on.

Obviously, these are not all "real" last names--hells, I'm not sure any of them were actual last names at any point--but my point is, say there were seven other people named Sallen who wanted to retain that name. Under the Legacy system, they could--because everyone could choose a different last name.

Now? Not only is that distinctiveness gone, that choice is gone. It's actually a far more restrictive system, and as much as I complain about people not using their imaginations, if I really wanted to be Emilly-with-two-Ls these days, I couldn't do it, because there already is one. As opposed to one choice separated between half a hundred potential last names--and that was just on any given day--now there's one choice separated between nothing--it's first come, first serve, and that was never how SL worked in the past.

The last one I'm going to quote--for now, though I am going to be going through the comments on this one over the next few days--is also the longest extract I'm choosing to mention:

I am really missing this part of secondlife, as now we are no residents anymore we are numbers like we are in all other chat worlds in the internet. It does not feel like being born into secondlife anymore, its just a chat like all others with a poor graphic. When i started secondlife i really felt like being born into this world, i had only a few last names to choose from, just like in the real life when you get a name by your parents. and inworld it was funny to meet someone with a strange name or also to meet "family" with the same last name. all this feelings are totally gone now. the feeling of a community is 0 now as you only see names that have got numbers just like in any other chat. there is nothing special here anymore. Since there are no last names there is no feeling of having a life in secondlife.I hate all this "xx12395433SUGARHONEYxxx Resident" names this is not what i would expect in a internet world that claims to have residents that live there.

Give back the last names, give back the soul of secondlife!

Now, again, spelling and grammar errors left intact, but essentially, there's a good point here. It's sort of like the frontier days of the internet, all over again--it used to be that everyone had handles, everyone went by something--something that became just as valued to their core identity as their own name. Something they lived by and defended, something that reflected their personality and personal choices.

Then AOL and Compuserve and a couple of other non-Usenet derivatives launched, and suddenly, everything crawling out of AOL onto the wider net had names like Bob1942 and Suzie1729 and--of course--the dreaded xxCommandoxx-style names. And sparks flew when the two tribes met. Those pre-AOL dismissed the 'new kids' because if they'd known or cared how to operate a computer before, they wouldn't have such a ridiculous name, and the 'new kids' retaliating that at least they were going by recognizeable names and weren't thugs and criminals hiding behind a fake screen name.

In microcosm, this is something akin to what happened when display names were introduced--instead of expanding the choices available, it caused division. Instead of causing the residents of their grid to embrace the newcomers, the newcomers were spurned as stupid kids, spammers, hackers, or even worse, outright copyright infringers. People started, for the first time, widespread bans of anyone under a month old from their stores, or anyone without payment information on file; some merchants even went so far as to set up scripted programs that would auto-ban anyone who walked through their doors without an identifiable last name beyond "Resident".

Was this really what the Lindens wanted when they introduced this? I don't think so. But it's entrenched now, and good or bad, the prejudice is widespread. Even the most outgoing folks still withhold, by perhaps the merest amount, when facing a Resident-only last name. Because it is marking these people, and in no good ways.

you gave me roses, and I left them there to die

Sometimes charts are helpful. This one will helpfully tell you whether you're a hipster or a Time Lord. You're welcome.

And--a little late, but surely it can be saved for next Samhain--the great and terrible Steampunkin. Muahahaha?

Meanwhile, DC Universe Online has put up this picture on their Twitter feed as an example of the amazing things that can be done in their game. I get what they're trying for, I just don't entirely sure if they understand their target audience. I can't think of more than a scant handful of people who would sit up in their seats and think, "My GODS, I've always WANTED to be a big reptilian bird, SIGN ME UP!"

From another direction entirely, here's a lovely introduction to Victorian hair craft. If you're truly interested (and not already an enthusiast), there are scores more information pages on the net.

The Freebie Hunters' blog took a poll on what people wanted to see in hunts, and what people hated seeing in hunts. The results are fairly specific, fairly interesting, and posted on their website.

I still don't have my Master ranking in Octoberville. I'm not pleased. But I'm going to let another day or two go by before I drop more notecards asking for the rankings to be reset. I finished in time, damn it, in something of a blurred two-day frenzied haul. I fought hard for that. Frankly, I want it.

Have I mentioned the mechanical ring clock? I can't remember. But I want one.

but you made me murderous, viciousness showed itself in me

I had other things to talk about, I did...and then this came along.

Frankly, would it have been just too much to ask for there to be more than, oh, say, three people with any integrity in their souls for this? Vampires on the grid who've been vampires before it was The Next Cute Marketable Thing? Or maybe, just maybe, not invite anyone from Bloodlines? Would that have been so hard?

I'm offering some scattered comments to tell you the approximate level of intellect in this "vampiric" brain trust. From "D" in the newly established "Vampire Forums":

"Hello I would like to say hi to everyone. I have many friends that Enjoy the bloodlines games and I feel they have had a bad rap. So on my sim I have built a Vampire Retreat named [D's] Dark Shadow Forrest Vampire Retreat. My Partner a master builder spent many lindens puting this together. The reast of the sim is a no hunting no recruiting so I need a very special place for my friends to enjoy there RP and the fine art of Blood. I would hope three things happen.
1 I would like to find a good manager or a couple good moderaters to help out.
2 I would like some feed back on are work.
3. info on keeping it classy because that is what the rest of the sim is."

Translation: "I'm not that bright but vampires are cool and classy, and I want a cool and classy sim with vampires. If anyone can help us out, that would be great, we're taking applications all week. Spelling is so not an issue lol."

I have no words. Other than, they can't be serious. They just can't be.

From "W":

"I have never seen Twilight. I don't know what the fad is about an emo-tween and an emo-vampy with funny hair having what could be, the most romantic movie ever made since Titanic."

Good gods, I hope she's being sarcastic, but that hit my gag reflex, so we move on.

From "r":

"You can join bloodlines and when you in you never can go back only by wearing the garlic necklage.
Why isnt there a posion like the wormwood for people who want there soul back?????"

Please be kidding. I note 'r' can't spell, either. And unless they've badly revised the code, yes: if you've been bitten once, you can go back by wearing the garlic necklace; however, if you've joined and become a "full vampire", you know you you get out of being a Bloodlines vamp?

Stop friggin' playing Bloodlines. It really is exactly that simple. It's a pyramid scheme, not a vampire house. Get over it.

From "B":

"It seems that vampires are quite popular in our pop culture today. Twilight, True Blood, Underworld something, to name a few."

....

Underworld 'something'? You can't even just say 'Underworld' and leave it at that? And the fact that in her head, Underworld, Twilight and True Blood exist on the same playing field...that's just profoundly sickening, and it's also profoundly sad.

And then this--they get the full name because of who they are. From "Linden Lab":

"Have you come across any great vamp-themed machinima that's less than 1 minute in length? If so, share the YouTube or other link here. Thanks!"

Um, don't you have a publicity department for this kind of nonsense, or did you fire them too? And just SL-focused vampire-themed machinima under one minute in length? Have you lost your tiny minds?!?

I'd also recommend anyone interested read this--to date, it's only two posts, and especially the first post shows exactly why this was such a staggeringly bad idea in the first place.

Perceive. There are many different ways to play non-human characters, especially vampiric ones. Some were born into their powers. Some gained them through "turning" (a phrase I revile in RL, as much as in SL, but hey, it's their mythology). Some vampires were cursed (it's a small subset, but there are a few examples out there). Some were brought over with ceremony; some were brought over by a single bite in a back alley.

However avatars get there, they get there, and that should be the focus of the event. Why do people want to play vampires? What does vampire life give them that their physical lives don't?

And from there you can get to the stuph that lines the pockets, like what sims fit the lifestyle? Who's making prefab castles, who's making really good cloaks, capes, and blood-drop jewelry? What RP sims are doing top-notch work making the genre engaging and powerful?

Instead, what do we get? Buy Bloodlines. This man owns a lot of sims, he must be a vampire success. This vampire "expert" is blond and tanned, you should trust him because he has piercings.

Even one of the few folks I grudgingly respect involved in this catastrophe pretty much turned in a chirpy "buy from these stores, they're big on copyright violation!" post. The hell, people.

I don't know why I expected better from the Lindens, or from the folks on the grid, but I did. This has been very much like watching people I don't know nor care about trample a beloved pet snake to death while telling me that they're bringing life and interaction to the grid. Something I loved still had to die for them to do that.

And the Lindens were all on the sidelines, cheering the sacrifice on.

don’t you know I’m not your ghost anymore

Steamships? Sure. Steam cars? Fine. Steam bicycles? Well, apparently yes to that too!

Also, brace yourselves: Magic: the Googling now exists. (I know. Talk about your insane Tumblr specializations!)

Four words which most of you will dread hearing: "My Little Pony MMO". I know, I feel the same way. It's not out now, that's at least one good thing. We move on.

Want to pillow-fight in style? Now you can.

I don't often refer to things I'm watching online, but I am bitterly disappointed with the Project Runway finale for this year. Bitterly, bitterly disappointed.

To get over that, I've been wandering architectural and fashion blogs, and I discovered an intriguing new alarm clock. Meng Fendi seems to be advertising it for couples, but I'm absolutely sure when it's developed, it could be sold to singles, as well.

In a similar vein, the CG Society has a fascinating concept design--which again, I'm hoping becomes reality--with their mechanical ring clock. Just a fascinating concept.

And, again in honor of the day, have some incredible--and incredibly seasonal--spooky foods.

Possibly more later, but now, off for Samhain ritualizing--and meatloaf. (Yep, this year we went there.)

stifled, her touch is leprous and pale

Non-glare glass has been invented! I am really, really hoping this gets widely adopted, because it would absolutely revolutionize the electronics industry on a planetary scale.

Also, for anyone having problems with iDevices that play music, that ceased to play music after upgrading to iOS5...well, here's the 'unofficial' official solution. But it sucks if you have a large music library. Even worse, there also seems to be a bug in how the updated music app handles music files with variable bitrate, and...maybe it's just me, but I don't know where on the .mp3 file I'd even find variable bitrate settings!

The other problem is that the upgraded music app seems to be glitching with large album artwork. See, it didn't used to be a problem--whether it was a 100x100 or a 1024x1024 size album graphic, the app would just resize it appropriately and move on. Now? It doesn't. It wants it close to, or the exact size, that it needs the artwork to be, or it just throws up its pixilated hands and flips past the song. Argh!

Somewhat out of nowhere, because I had such trouble tracking down an online seller of this product today, have a recipe for candied winter melon. Also called wax gourd, it's popular in Singapore, but it seems fairly easy (if somewhat time-consuming) to make it yourself. For a short batch that you don't plan to be preserved for long, use the recipe as given. If you want it to be preserved long-term, then after the first batch of sugaring (and heating, and cooling), make successively stronger batches of sugar syrup, until you are left with crystallized, translucent melon sections. Good luck!

In the meantime, news from Octoberville:

[03:55] Peewee Musytari: ooh emily snuck in there....CONGRATS #274 EMILY ORR - YOU ALSO GRADUATED, PLUS ADDED CERTIFICATE FOR STEALTH FINISH hehe :))
[03:56] handyreecechalmer: Yeah. I thought she had called it a night.

I had! But then I got pulled back in for the last achievement for this year's hunt, and...well...

(from the scavenging album)

That number you can barely make out next to my name (which you can also barely make out)? Indeed, that's number 274. Used to be (back when we had wood-burning cats), the Wall of Fame capped at 250 names. This year, they hit 250, and people kept finishing the hunt. So they added another board.

Me, I'm just happy to be finished. That is a hard hunt, and pictures will be forthcoming, but in the meanwhile, I'm going to collapse somewhere. Hopefully not on a baby cobra, a burning marshmallow, or a can of gasoline. And my sincere, humble, and most effulgent thanks to everyone that helped me, which included CreamyGoodness Resident, Handyreecechalmer Resident, Dorrie Fredriksson, dante884 Reanimator, last year's Octoberville Queen, Elise Rodenberger, and this coming year's Octoberville Queen, Peewee Musytari--among others. I can't thank you enough.

there were stairs, they were steep, I was falling, falling deep

There's a lot of things I'm working up to talking about--I want to do a run-through of the last-name JIRA, and I want to toss up some of the pictures I've been taking in Octoberville, but today's going to be shorter than that; this is both advice and a posting of intense gratitude towards Cherub Spectre (who co-runs Octoberville, along with Master Kaos and Nathan Oddfellow).

Last night, I wanted to get a hunt item for the Indian Summer hunt held at 22769. When I ported away from Octoberville, I had 41 groups. I really don't like maxing out my groups, in case I need one for a job slot (....notthatI'mworkingrightnowbutshhh, it's habit). So I found a store group I could leave without too much angst, and joined the 22769 store group.

I had been at 41 groups; I dropped a group, making it 40; I joined a group, bringing me back to 41. Then I ported back to Octoberville.

When I returned, I had 39 groups. And one that wasn't there? Octoberville.

Frankly, I panicked. It's bone-deep in me now--I can't leave Octoberville as a group, I lose my ranking. And in that sense, I don't blame them, because Ms. Spectre was constantly (may still be constantly) getting IMs saying, "yah I left the group 6 mos ago can I have my rank back now?"

And the answer to that, of course, obviously, is no.

But I didn't voluntarily leave the Oville group. I know that because I've never taken off the notification button for leaving groups. If I leave a group, I want to be asked if I'm leaving. The only pop-up I had was for the Ambrosia group--and I was asked if I really wanted to leave, to which I pushed the Yes button.

I wasn't asked that question about any other group. And yet, I left with 41 groups, and came back with 39.

(I still don't know which other groups I lost--everything looks like it's still there, and--after rejoining Oville last night--I'm up to 40 groups. I know I lost something, though. And yeah, it bugs me.)

But I was in panic mode, so I sent a notecard to Cherub Spectre and Master Kaos. I didn't realize until I opened Ms. Spectre's profile that she states there to contact her, or Nathan Oddfellow, with requests.

Oops.

But I hunted about in Octoberville, solving occasional quests, getting frustrated at not finding other items, until it was time for bed. Having sent the two "halp, halp" notecards, I figured that was really all I could do. The rest was up to them.

This morning, I woke up to this IM in my email:

[8:49] Cherub Spectre: This is why we have people register on the site. I was able to verify your rank and gave you your epic tag

Cue huge sigh of relief.

So yes, much gratitude and full props to Ms. Spectre, thank you thank you thank you, and for everyone else, if you're interested in maintaining rank at all, register on the website. It's www.octoberville.com, and they have forums (for those what like the chat option), a place to upload a pic of you for a little profile section, an online web HUD that tracks what you find in the game, videos, polls, Facebook updates (not that I care, but I know I'm in the minority with Facebook loathing), and more. And they're still working on making Octoberville a PC game.

For the rest, yeah, I'm pretty sure we're in another unstable portion of SL's weekly run. From the grid status site:

Ongoing Issue with Offline Regions
Posted by Status Desk on October 29th, 2011 at 02:10 pm PDT

[POSTED 10:08AM PDT, 25 October 2011] We are aware of a problem that causes regions to go offline more frequently than normal. Our developers were alerted to the issue over the weekend and continue to work around the clock towards a solution. We understand how disruptive this is to your inworld experience. If your region is offline, please go to your support portal and submit a case using the following types: "Land & Region" > "Report an Offline Region". This queue is being closely monitored to ensure the fastest turnaround possible. We will post an update as soon as we have more information on resolution.

So, did that have anything to do with losing groups on teleporting? No idea. Also, I find it odd that that paragraph was supposedly posted yesterday, yet is dated five days before.

Odd, that.

But yes, the grid's still flaky, it was flaky yesterday, it's been off-and-on flaky since the server upgrade...this really isn't anything new. What is new is losing the groups I lost...but at least one of them (and to me, the most important one) I've got back.

Sometimes, we get a simple, easy solution for things. It's always nice.

so let your light so shine before men

This is going to be another clip entry to dodge what I truly want to talk about, because this is a blog I've tried to keep focused on the virtual (and technologies, music and movies that support that virtuality), and what's happening in Oakland is all too real.

So, first up: have some instructions for a Jack-o-lantern flamethrower (which, by the way, the creators absolutely do not encourage anyone to make on their own). But the instructions are there, and the video on the page is pretty fun to watch in general--though if you blink, you'll miss it. (Head on over to Instructables for the technical details.)

Next, the "Not Okay" campaign--which has a valid, simple message to begin with--is (as are most things) perverted by the internet. Go us. Seriously, I think the 'parody' posters have just as much of an impact as the actual ones.

Next up, if you're the sort to favor tea or coffee (or absinthe), you tend towards wearing black and pairing it with more black, and you occasionally like to set a more formal table? Meet your new sugar cube purveyor. You can buy them decorated or plain, and you can even order a tall apothecary jar packed with delectable pale skulls to stir into things.

There's a Nyan Cat launcher on the Marketplace; apparently (at least in damage-enabled sims), it works fairly effectively (though people near the one wielding it might complain about being killed by rainbows instead of bullets).

Next, the Kickstarter campaign to "hire" Qarl Linden to fix mesh has been fully funded. Me personally, I'm not entirely sure how that's going to work--because if the Lindens won't integrate the code patches in their actual viewer releases, it's just going to be those TPVs that can get it to integrate with their own viewer code, which yet again is going to break down the grid into the "haves" (those that can see/interact properly with mesh objects/avatars/landscapes), and the "have nots" (those whose systems can't run the mesh viewers, and thus cannot properly see mesh objects/avatars/landscapes). The avatar thing is especially worrisome, still, because if you're not on a mesh viewer, and someone wearing a mesh avatar walks by, initial reports are still that you'll see them naked. Which is a reportable offense in PG areas, so...yeah. That's still kind of a big deal.

Next (and also from NWN), Will Wright is joining the Linden team. So...we seem to be moving from the hideous forced integration of FacebookLife, to the more "game-like" potential of SecondSimLife...and to be frank, well, we're already kind of there anyway. It's not so much a bad idea in my opinion, as it is a strange one. But we'll see what happens when he comes on board.

I'm wholly on board with cyberpunk; I've made my peace with steampunk; I'm even okay with dieselpunk. But "methanepunk" is going to have to prove to me it has a right to the name.

On the other hand, microbial home decor makes sense to me. We've had microbial waste reprocessing technology for some time, that takes waste material into the top of the column, and turns out oxygen and pure water at the other end of the column; it works faultlessly. (It was originally designed for the planned trip to Mars several years back that, err...never got off the ground. So to speak.) And expanding the concept to generate methane to fuel household devices, power lights, and be used to sprout hydroponic food seems like a great idea.

(Of course, on the other other hand, this is the sort of thinking that could lead to insular underground warrens, a la Vault-Tec, but mayhap I'm quibbling there.)

Finally, let's play a game of Find Your State, and then you can figure out what's coming to get you. You're welcome, and I hope it helps to avert great and monstrous catastrophe this holiday season.



Happy Halloween!

Stepford wives, who are we to complain?

Why yes, it's another clip post. (I am trying to minimize them, I've just been scattered lately.)

But we're going to start off with a picture gallery of the world's largest pumpkin being carved. They picked a really, really impressive carver to do the deed.

Also, this is full of so much win I can barely stand it. Halloween light shows--who knew they were becoming popular? But this fellow went all out with it, stringing up thousands of LED lights on 1,144 controller channels (using the Light-O-Rama system), and a ton of song-based programming so actions mostly match up with lyrics. An incredible amount of devotion went into this.

(Amusingly, same house, completely different song and programming, and it's still cool. Oh, and if you didn't see the connection between LMFAO and Halloween? Well, their video for Party Rock Anthem features rock zombies. It also features singer and photographer Lauren Bennett, inexplicably, but hey, pretty girl in a party mix? Likely never a bad call.)

Ars Technica recently reviewed the Maylong tablet, available at the staggeringly low price of $99 from Walgreens, of all places. It's an incredibly harsh review, but from what I've been reading, also incredibly true. It seems like it would be a far better deal to take that $99 and buy several iStyle decals, a mirror, and a thick plastic frame, and glue everything in place, because it would work better than the Maylong.

Not to be outdone, though, BBYOpen's Joshua Kahn thought that Ars Technica may have been too strident about its utter uselessness, and to prove the point, came up with fourteen tried-and-true uses for the thing. I guess the end result is...do you want a mini cutting board, doorstop, and portable whiteboard enough to pay $99 for it? (Because, seriously, in that case? Chunk of wood from Lowe's and a couple pieces of sandpaper, buying a mini whiteboard, and buying a mini cutting board will cost you $20, max, and that's IF you're not shopping around for deals.)

I'm also bringing you the penguin sweater project, courtesy of Mr. Drinkwater, because I can.

And the Gutters blog brings you both the one-page explanation of the X-Men: Schism series, and the one-page superhero reaction to Occupy Wall Street. You're...welcome? (Though to be fair, I am interested in reading the X-Men book, now, and that's the first new comic book in a while I've been interested in reading.)

Someone took a clip from the second ever broadcast Doctor Who episode, wherein they address the "First Question" to brilliantly minimal effect. (What's truly interesting is that I found that mention when Mr. Allen tossed me this link, to a special Doctor Who mini-episode written by a group of schoolchildren at the Oakley Junior School. Even more impressive? The winning students were invited to the studio in Cardiff, where Matt Smith congratulated them personally. Now that's a boost to educational efforts everywhere.)

Finally, getting to Second Life-based news, Ms. Uccello Poultry takes on the next generation of SL viewers, in a fairly detailed review. Good, clear pictures are always a bonus; but for me, what she says is more important than what she shows.

Also of note: when she uses it? She's still crashing on nearly every teleport. The new beta release is that unstable, still. We're all hoping it gets better, not worse.

it's such a shame for us to part

A new boycott of the grid begins. This time it's starting in the art world, because of the Lindens' incredible and inexcusable mis-handling of SL-to-HTML blocking. Without concrete communication and a prioritized technical issues queue, she's going to leave the grid.

And if she goes, there are a lot of artists that will follow, I have the distinct feeling.

Your grid is DYING, Lindens. Why don't you stop it?

In an update on the megaprim issue from yesterday, more information (if only on a slight amount) has been published. Including the start of a JIRA file on the issue--and a reminder, folks, WATCH, do not VOTE, the Lindens no longer respond to votes cast, only watchers watching the issues.

Keep in mind that only Crowley Avro's prims seem to be affected. Megaprim creators whose creations will NOT have been returned:

Anya Ristow
Ceera Murakami
Charles Fauna
Dawn Ireton
Gene Replacement
Moy Loon
MrsDay Oh
Research Projects
Winter Ventura
Zwagoth Klaar

But if you built with Avro's prims? Your builds are now toast. If they show up in your Lost & Found folder, again, you seem to be able to re-rez them without issue, as they've reversed the decision, but this still affects more than a few sims, and more than a few builds. This was a rash and ill-considered action, indeed.

In the meantime, this weekend the Labs are holding a land sale! Get any homestead at a $375 discount, get any full region at a $1000 discount--and that, to me, is nail-in-the-coffin time, because if they're that desperate to get new owners of sims onto the grid, then how many sims are leaving--or have left already?

I'm tasting ashes on the wind, people. This is in no way good.

these tears won't fall for you this time

First there was this:

[POSTED 10:35AM PDT, 20 October 2011] Due to a change we recently made to address a griefing problem, some megaprims were removed from the grid, which has affected users’ creations containing these megaprims.

The issue has been resolved, and the megaprim objects can be re-rezzed from your inventories at this time. If you do not have a copy of the affected build, please go to your support portal immediately and file a case.

Then there was this for (minimal) explanation:

[21:10] Txxxxx Mxxxxx: so [whose] mega prims got dumped this time?
[21:12] [axxxxxx Zxxxxxx]: Crowley Avro but they are back now

So check your builds, people, be aware there might be an issue.

Researchers at Microsoft are working on ways to turn hands into touch-screen devices. Well, not just hands, specifically--any surface. Right now, it's buggy, and the initial coding is not recognizing things efficiently, but they're working on improving it. Their concept is that it will be far easier to utilize computers if they are portable, and do not require specialized equipment to access.

And...now the painful bit. For once, I'm omitting the name of the store involved in this, because I don't think the main point is which store this happened in; for me, the main point is that it happened at all.

[Note: Because I thought this was an important point as well, I pulled up [Gorgeforce]'s profile. She has no responsibilities other than basic member in the main store group of the store I discuss below. She's listed as "Caller" in the lucky chair group I mention below, which I suppose is a certain level of trust...but certainly not the level of trust I'd need, were I this store owner, to give her all the powers she's threatening that she has.]

[17:46] [Gorgeforce]: OK, this is how it is. If your little group competes with the [store's lucky chair group] anymore, you and each of them will be banned. Already talked this over with [the store owner]. OK?

Now, first, I don't know if this was said in IMs or in main chat. I get the feeling it was in main chat, which to me strikes as inutterably rude and abrasive; but even in IM it would be galling.

[17:47] [Gorgeforce]: I know what is going on. We are not fools. We have a loyal group and the backing of the owners.

And sounds somewhat spoiled, to boot, but...okay, let's break this down, giving this personage the maximum amount of doubt I can summon.

• They've noticed a problem with 'chair campers'; namely, people who simply hang around the chairs, blocking other people, and members of the group are feeling resentful about it.
• For some reason (I am not privy to specific incidents), they are blaming the Kitties for this camping abuse.
• For some additional reason, this particular soul has taken it upon themselves to be the shield and sword of this store (as if they needed defense), and is--for whatever additional reasons--threatening the Kitties with specific dooms.

Very specific, as it turns out:

[17:47] [Gorgeforce]: I'm taking each of their names as they arrive. They are not going to thank you.
[17:47] Sxxxxxxx Sxxxxx: I'm going to talk to the owner I had no idea this rule was in effect.
[17:48] [Gorgeforce]: Go right ahead. It's not a rule. It's the sentiment about chair groups who come and strip the place and move on.

Okay--and again, giving this person the maximum amount of doubt here--there are lucky chair groups who call any random chair they happen to be at, so the members of that group can descend in droves, take anything with that letter, and vanish like locusts in autumn. Fine. We've all seen this behavior--I've even heard of worse behaviors, like rezzing out boxes to cover lucky chairs in places where rezzing prims is allowed (and personally, I think that's reprehensible for residents on the grid, selfish, and completely childish).

However--as far as I know, I've happened to check the chairs in this store when I stop in looking for a specific thing; when I'm shopping one of their special weekly deals; when I come into the main store but I'm actually aiming for one of the side ventures in the same sim; or when I'm checking back to see if an item has been revised (for instance, this store at one point made lovely thigh-high boots. I've been meaning to check back and see if they've been rereleased for Viewer 2 alpha layers). And I don't think I'm much different than most members of the Kitties: stores where I like the effort that goes into Midnight Mania items, or lucky chair items, or Mobvend items, I try to actually spend Lindens there, because I want to support that kind of care and concern. I don't think I'm alone. This individual seems to be referring to the Kitties as if we're all ravenous vultures, and I for one take offense at that.

[17:49] [Gorgeforce]: And get out from in front of the mob*vend while you are at it.
[17:49] Sxxxxxxx Sxxxxx: What? Is there some [limit] where I can stand now?
[17:50] [Gorgeforce]: I am not going to race you for calls and you and your people are not going to block the view of the chairs and the vendors. OK?

Several problems with this statement:

• It's again insufferably rude. The longer I read the chat log that was passed to me, the more I'm thinking this is either a person under great mental stress, or who has the social graces of a rabid badger.
• The warnings against "stalking" the lucky chairs aside--and dropping into a store to peruse their chair letters while shopping is far from "stalking"--what if she was trying to seek help to get the Mob*vend lowered? What's wrong with that? When Mob*vends drop, you have several options, from waiting until the absolute, bargain-basement price (which is still paying the designer for work done), all the way up to judging one's personal time, and deciding to pay full Mob*vend price (or some gradation of the price; for instance, I've frequently decided at DV8 that I want the Mob*vend prize enough to not wait around for the lowest possible price, and tossed whatever was on the board in that moment so I could simply receive the prize and leave.
• Finally, why warn someone away from the Mob*vend board--which is, in this particular store, situated between the chairs, not in front of the chairs--if you're not wanting to "race" someone for letters? Also, [Gorgeforce] has a starting letter of their name that is radically different from the letter Miss S owns. So there is never, ever going to be a time in which [Gorgeforce] and Miss S are in direct conflict for a chair.

[17:46] [Gorgeforce]: OK, this is how it is. If your little group competes with the [store's lucky chair group] anymore, you and each of them will be banned. Already talked this over with him. OK?

Now this person has moved up to direct hostility, and frankly, even if this person is speaking with the voice of the store owner, it's still a bad thing to say. Why? Well, just for starters:

• With as rude as this person was, throughout this entire exchange, it's difficult for me to put faith in their words. To be blunt, even with later confirmation (I'll bring that up later on), at this moment I do not believe [Gorgeforce] is speaking the truth.
• Second, it's not just Miss S that [Gorgeforce] is threatening. It's all of us. Every single member of the Kitties group, if we are seen by this abusive nitwit, we are being told that we will be banned.
  • Just for being in the store.
  • Just for shopping there.
  • Just for being seen.

And why? Out of...vengeance? Stupidity? Didn't have a puppy to kick that day? No real clue. But we've moved from rude, to hostile, to demented in the space of a half hour.

In five years of Second Life, I have never (and I do mean that, this has never, ever happened) been singled out and banned from a place because of my group affiliations. Because of my opinions I have been banned from stores and sims--and okay, fine, every store owner has that right, every sim owner has that right, and I am well aware that I'm a snippy wench.

But simply because I know someone? Because I'm in their group, this troglodyte is going to watch for my name? I mean, seriously, they have enough time in their day that they're going to hang out with a crate of Mountain Dew and scan profiles that obsessively?

It honestly makes me uneasy about going into the store. A store, moreover, I like going into. A store which is well-built, well-publicized, active, and with attractive products for sale.

A store, moreover, at which I have spent Lindens. And I'd like to spend more. But with [Gorgeforce]'s unsubtle threatening stance, I don't feel I'm able to go in unless I hide that group.

And screw that. If I'm traveling from one mature area to another mature area, there is no reason I should have to hide my groups. And that's still no guarantee.

I will admit, there is some small part of me that wants to walk in under the Lucky Kitties badge, just to see if this idiot can ban people from the sim. But if I get banned? Then this person will have succeeded in banning a customer (past and future); a reviewer of product for this store (unpaid and uncompensated; when I have reviewed this store's merchandise I have done it on my own dime); and as if that's not bad enough, this person will have banned someone in that store's group.

Frankly? That's insane.

So--with this sort of treatment, and with no clear answer pro or con from the store owner--my friend left. But she remembered the subscribe-o, and returned to unsubscribe. At which point from what it sounds like, she was either bounced from the store, or sniped at when she returned. The explanation? Was on the vague side:

[17:52] [Gorgeforce]: Sorry. But you were invited to our group and refused. You aims are clear.

What aims? She may not have had group space. She may have thought--as many of us do--that the subscribe-o system works better for notice management (I will say, sadly, that while my notices tend to cap either way, that subscribe-o notices tend to get through to my email, consistently, whereas in-world group notices do not always.) She may not have had the Lindens just then for any particular fee that was assessed at any point. Ascribing any additional motivation to her "refusing" the group invitation only demonstrates [Gorgeforce]'s enduring paranoia and lack of clear thinking.

[17:52] Sxxxxxxx Sxxxxx: Forgot to leave the suscribe-o-matic, sorry for returning. I don't see why I have to be a part of any group to just watch lucky chairs.
[17:53] [Gorgeforce]: You were doing more than just watching. Don't be obtuse.

Again, these are the ravings of a paranoiac, not someone honestly and openly representing the store.

But remember I mentioned the store owner got back to my friend?

[17:55] [Store Owner]: The Subscribo is for more than that - but I did talk to her about people crowding and blocking the view - show some courtesy, or don't as you wish - I prefer people who will come and sample the chairs and also shop - so someone dedicated to chairs only and a chair blog is not high on my priority list. As cruel as it may sound - this is a business first, and I reward MY groups first as well.

Okay, as far as it goes, I understand that completely. We are still struggling through an economic downturn, more stores are leaving SL every day, and every store owner who wants to stay is struggling as well. Any store on the grid right now is resorting to extraordinary measures just to keep their heads above water, let alone turn a profit.

[17:56] Sxxxxxxx Sxxxxx: Sorry but I have shopped at your store before and was on the suscribe-o for a long time checking updates when you sent them out. I did not think this was wrong and sorry if standing around watching the chairs is some form of ill will. I will not return, sorry.
[17:56] [Store Owner]: you didn't read what she said or what I said
[17:56] [Store Owner]: but leave if you wish
[17:57] [Store Owner]: the problem was *crowding* and *[blocking the view]*

I will fully grant, I may not have been given the complete chat transcript, so I may not have access to everything that these two individuals said. However, from what was passed to me, from what I read that was typed in chat (or IM), where in checking letters on lucky chairs does crowding and blocking the view come in?

You rez into a store. Maybe the lucky chair is there, mayhap you have to walk a little. Generally--at least for most of us--once we get to the chairs, we stand, and wait for the letters to rez in. Some people stand farther back, some stand farther forward--I can't see how it's blocking the view or crowding to stand there. That's a major part of this I just don't get.

[17:57] [Store Owner]: it's fixed as simply as *step back a few paces*
[18:00] Sxxxxxxx Sxxxxx: She told me not to teleport in people, it was more than just step back a few.

Yes. I would agree, [Gorgeforce] went above and beyond all boundaries in what was said.

[17:58] [Store Owner]: and if you want the chair callers to be friendlier, try joining the [store's lucky chair group] and show them you're not just here to grab free shit and run

So...just to be sure I understand this...if I happen into the store, on the off chance that this person isn't there to take my name down and have me banned, I mean...I should then seek out the lucky chair group that, over a year back, I thought was dissolved because the store owner thought it such a profoundly bad idea that he gave it up?

But I should join it because if I don't, I'm just...what...stealing from him if I don't? Is that the thinking we're dealing with, now? Even if I make purchases at the store or the satellite stores. Even if I rarely check those lucky chairs, and sometimes, even rarely check the Midnight Mania boards? The mere fact of checking for my letter on one of the lucky chairs if I don't make group space for two store groups for that store is now theft?

[17:58] [Store Owner]: we do get a lot of 'chair-raper' groups through - people in it for nothing more than a load of free items
[17:59] [Store Owner]: if you *act like* one of those - the loyal [group members] are going to treat you like it

Here's my question about this one: what's "acting like" one of "those"? I'm all for avoiding consequences, but not without clear guidelines. And this is likely to turn away shopping customers as well as "freebie hunters", isn't it? Is that what store owners want?

Moreover, the inference I'm drawing from this is that being abusive, sniping, insulting, paranoid, and threatening to people who weren't even in the sim when the original incident happened is both lauded and approved by this store owner. Seriously?

All in all, this incident is profoundly disturbing to me, not the least of which is due to the store owner in question seemingly backing extraordinarily rude, aggressive and lunatic behavior. It puts further patronage of this store into serious doubt for more than just me.

there's a fire that's been burning right outside my door, I can't see it but I feel it, and it helps to keep me warm

From Thane Woodford of Raven's Heart Sculpts:

If you were a member of Builders Brewery or the name now intrigues you …
Their bot had an issue and ejected most of their members, from 16700+ to now 434. So, to help you rejoin, here is group slurl secondlife:///app/group/04f595b0-cdc8-97f0-e710-9564824c03b2/about
Thanks Azure for getting the info on it.....Thane

Now me, I don't know what the issue was, but I wasn't one of the 434, so I logged back into the grid and re-joined. If you were a member, check your group list; rejoining is free. If you weren't, right now they have a Halloween build (the same cemetary structure from Pravda, it looks just as wonderful on their sim as in the Lunitarium haunt) where you can pick up lots of group-made freebies--if you're a group member. Plus, Builders' Brewery has a long-standing tradition of classes, instructional help, in addition to having a lot of items to build with for free, for cheap, and for reasonable prices above and beyond.

Frankly, if you build in SL, there's not many good reasons not to be in their group.

Just in time for the sacrificial season, comes the cuddle altar! No, I don't know why either, but hey, now you know there is one. It...proudly?...joins its fellow WTF builds like the sex coffins, the sex bookcase, and the bondage pickle. (I wish I were making that last one up. Thankfully, it seemed to be a hunt item, so might no longer be available.)

Miss Tateru Nino talked with Rhett Linden about the upcoming new UI, and there's some good (as well as bad) news found in that article. It's well worth the read, and does at least seem to indicate that (at least on alternate Sundays, when the third appletinis have kicked in fully along with the local intoxicants of choice) they're listening to grid residents. Well, some of the grid residents. Well, some of the time.

At any rate, Nalates Urriah took the first iteration of the build for a spin (as she put it). She also notes the laundry list of current bugs:

• The Viewer floater camera views and presets do not work.
• The Nearby Voice panel does not update to a new call or from
• nearby voice info once opened.
• Viewer crashes when updating UI size in preferences.
• The Speak button is activated when dragging and dropping between
• toolbars and/or moving back to the Tool Box.
• Viewer crash when moving the speak button from one toolbar to
• another when there is an active call request.
• Teleport history doesn't display visited locations.
• Viewer crash when double-clicking the mini-map in People & Nearby.
• Notification and conversation chiclets overlap.
• WASD controls don't move avatar while the Move floater is in focus.
• Closing voice controls while a group or p2p call also closes the
• group call/IM window
• Viewer crash after teleport
• Hitting back in the 'Create Group' panel or 'Blocked' panel requires multiple clicks for action to occur.

Bolding mine, and damn. So basically, right now, it's extraordinarily buggy and glitched all to hell. But how does it look?

Like this. And frankly--and I know, this will shock some long-term readers--I'm not disliking the look.

I know, I know, I am a fervid, avid, if not actively rabid detractor of Viewer 2, and of everyone--Linden and non-Linden alike--who had a hand in coding for it being dropped into an oubliette without internet service for the next forty years. That being said, however, this particular UI build looks clean, uncluttered, and it still looks like I can find everything.

Instead of a massive sidebar eating real estate on the right-hand side, by Ms. Urriah's description, we have individual icons tucked away on the left that open into moveable, floating windows. Along the bottom, we don't have a massive set of doubled bars with buttons, we have again, individual icons that when pressed, seem to open up what we need, only as long as we need it--the friendslist, the chat bar, help for new users, et cetera.

Also, it seems to have adopted more 'game-based' movement options--instead of walking forward with the arrow keys, now it looks like we'll have the option to click the ground ahead of us--something I got far too used to playing Runes of Magic--and we will move to that spot. I'm liking this potential, if it stays in the viewer.

Now, there's a LOT of info in Ms. Urriah's post, and it's picture-heavy--both of which are good things when talking about a new viewer. Something did pop up for me, though, that's setting off alarm bells, and it's not the crashing on almost every teleport. (Like that doesn't happen now some weeks, this is not just the new UI, it's Second Life in general.)

Here's the passage in question:

"It is fast. In my cottage I’m getting 35 to 45 FPS on my 8800 GTS Duel Core2."

Why is that a big red warning sign for me?

Listen, I know the way of the world is moving towards multiple cores in computers, I get that. I'd love to have a dual core system. One of my friends has a quad-core system, and there's talk in the works of either releasing--or possibly already have been released--an octo-core--that's eight processors in one.

But right now? Single-core. Single-core old. That's what I've got, and I'm on one of the faster computers in my house. So yeah, that's siren time for me--it may work (eventually), it may be very fast for her dual-core personage, but on my aging Pentium 4? Not even sure I'll be able to run it. Which is definitely on the depressing side.

Still, for once, it seems like they're doing things that will work for the residents on the grid, not against them. Unfortunately, Ms. Urriah does not build; there's nothing about the build menu and what things were moved where on the viewer. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see if a builder decides to download the new UI and try to build with it.

Won't that be fun?