The first couple continents on the Second Life grid were more or less just kind of plopped-down. At least the sim names were relatively creative. My "first land" parcel was in Glenboon. From there I took a big bite into an 8192 in Dunbeath. I have since moved around a few times, the most recent in St. Diabloux and Croix and currently in ... well... Neobelow.
Okay, what the hell kind of name is "Neobelow?" The surname Lindens are seriously slacking-off. The ZHSL main store is in a sim called "Plain Jane." Even that's more creative than "Neobelow."
Oh well. One continent where Linden Lab at least "experimented" in creating a theme is to the immediate west of the Blake See, an entire island beginning with a massive and gorgeous lighthouse on Byth (I know, another totally uncreative lazy sim name). Byth (and Blake Sea) is to the right on the map below, with the seriously majestic Byth Lighthouse at the entrance (right edge of green mark) to the long canal leading into the fascinating circular area toward the western part of the island.
Oh well. One continent where Linden Lab at least "experimented" in creating a theme is to the immediate west of the Blake See, an entire island beginning with a massive and gorgeous lighthouse on Byth (I know, another totally uncreative lazy sim name). Byth (and Blake Sea) is to the right on the map below, with the seriously majestic Byth Lighthouse at the entrance (right edge of green mark) to the long canal leading into the fascinating circular area toward the western part of the island.
The point of all this is how Linden Lab leaves a lot of little surprises for us to find and no doubt very few, if any of us find them at all. For instance, you really should see the island shown above. Tune-out most of the resident builds and focus on the overall theme Linden Lab has built. It's stunning, fascinating, need-more-of-these awesome.
It's a typical world above water at the western point near the shoals in this seemingly unimportant area. But a peek under water is a another story....
Under water ruins of some lost civilization, courtesy of Linden Lab.
The yellow space is an impressive build all it's own, like a giant Greek or Roman "welcoming" to all passers-by in a majestic sort of way. And the cool thing is most of the resident builds, if not in these are at least not too far on the garish side. The little island in the orange area looks like any other little water-wart plopped-in by the Lindens, until at nighttime you see what appears the be a castaway campfire lighting up.
And there is more, all throughout the Blake Sea as well. For instance, for whatever reason, I had to stop the Hades' Strumpet (my tall ship frigate) and delete it. Without a care I ended up under water. Fiddling in inventory, something caught my eye - movement. I looked and found what appeared to be a Bull Shark."Pretty cool, I thought. it wasn't there a minute ago so it must be scripted to come to you when you end-up in the area. I accidentally passed my mouse over it - a "sit" icon appeared. So I clicked:
The thing is, the Lindens (and Moles) are putting in a lot to see and explore. All for your leisurely enjoyment, observation and simple discovery. All this work and effort and detail when you know that 99.99-percent of the residents on the grid will never, ever see it or even know it exists as most of them are out looking for the "Bondage Ranch" or "Free Sex City" elsewhere on the grid.There is a lot to explore and discover. Hidden little coves of paradise above water and complete lost civilizations underwater, it appears.
So, think about it. How would you feel about building a bunch of nicely detailed, interesting builds knowing full well almost no one will ever see it?
How disappointing to a builder is that?Hey, every last one of you surname Lindens, especially all of you who never make it in-world and do the most menial things - like even the guy who empties the trash-cans every night...:
Thank you.
True story.
Scenario: you discover Second Life, sign-up. The newbie experience is exhilarating and you discover things, explore, observe. Within a month or so you learn to build.
So you build.
Stuff.
Like most creators, you build for yourself. To sell your creations hasn't even really crossed your mind, maybe later. It's exiting if someone notices your creations, you give away copies freely to thank them for the compliment and besides, it feels good that someone is impressed enough with your creation that they'll actually tell you about it.
Then there are those hysterical idiots who really do not have a life (first or second) and have nothing better to do than scour the grid, inspecting every object and person they see and come across - because they are the paranoid and vitriolic copybot nazi'esque soldiers.
One of them "inspects" you.
She discovers that your shoes carry the creator name of -gasp!- you!She plasters the vigilante nazi'esque hysteria group with this news:
"One month newbie waering shoes that shows THEM as the creator! COPYBOT ALERT!!!!"
An angry storm like a swarm of bees-scorned ensues throughout the group. In the ridiculous hearsay the words spread like a California wildfire, consuming all hysterically paranoid idiots across the grid in a wave akin of the final, terrible Biblical Egyptian plague known as the night of Passover - except you are the "first-born".
Suddenly you are banned here and there and that place way over there. The view on the map looks like someone sprinkling pepper all over it as each dark spot is a new banning of you.
All because you have decided to create something for your self and - gasp- actually wear it in public.
How dare you!
***
Fortunately I'm in the home furnishing business. That can't possibly be classified as fashion as we all know the hysteria and paranoia in the SL (and FL) fashion industries is constantly on the verge of the end-of-the-world mindsets.
You dear friend have been "fashionista'd". Unfortunately, that hysterical paranoia idiocy exists in more or less all other prim or texture-based creation industries as well. Just not as rampantly as the dreaded fashionista camps.
Good thing most reasonably minded people look upon those nazi'esque wackos as...well, wackos.
Good thing most reasonably minded people look upon those nazi'esque wackos as...well, wackos.
Unfortunately, mental help is only useful when they recognize they really do need mental help. But it means they'd have to actually get a life, even a "Second" one.
I don't pull punches and I prefer not to beat around the bush. Plain-talking is simply the way I communicate. Often I come-off as abrasive but the fact is sometimes truth hurts. However, overall I see myself as basically considerate and highly empathic of others. It's how I am able to look through the bullshit whining of the hysteria-paranoia crowd and see how a lot of what Linden Lab is trying to do with their roadmaps, ideas and policies is actually a good thing for us all and the grid whether we like it or not.
This post will likely appear as an angry rant, but it's not. I assure you I simply speaking plainly with a rather stoic if melancholic demeanor.
Linden Lab does a lot of things for us all. Things almost all of us on the grid will never see or know about or even fathom and I'll give some examples in my next post or two.
One of those things that is better known is the Blake Sea project. There are a lot of people who enjoy sailing throughout the grid and it is one of the reasons why virtual waterfront property is more valuable. Especially if there is access, direct or indirect to the Blake Sea.
Good. Hurray. Drive-on and have have your thrills. I also find it ironic how the USS web site features beautiful art of tall ships, but yet they give the strongest impression they don't like tall ships anywhere near them in-world. It's all I sail and that's the feeling I get.
There are a couple prim signs posted throughout the Blake Sea area (BS area LOL) that say more or less the same thing, though I don't recall any of them including the word please, I could be wrong. They pretty much state the same things and I'll paraphrase here:
"Welcome to the Blake Sea project, a coordinated effort between Linden Lab and the United Sailing Sims. There are often sailing races throughout. Please do not interfere and do not click on any of the participant boats. Enjoy the show!"
Okay, fair enough. Though it's not much of a spectator sport from my own purview, I have no intention of depriving others of their own entertainment. I would hope others feel the same way about my own activities on the grid.
I enjoy sailing the Blake Sea area. And often - in fact at practically every conceivable hour of the day - I see there is a sailboat race being organized. And here is where I am starting to get tired of the bullshit.
Mr. MarkTwain, I ask that you pay particular attention to the following portion of my diatribe because I likely speak for others beyond just myself.
If I get even within a neighboring sim, someone will start shouting, and though I am paraphrasing, it's pretty darned close to actual quoting:
"Sailboat race, keep clear!"
Whatever happened to including the word "please" in there? I ignore the shout. I'm not some idiot looking to grief your never-ending sailboat races. However, I am becoming just this side of outright pissed-off about your race coordinators or referees or whomever the fat-headed, power-drunk, self-important boneheads are.
If I am IM'd, the statement isn't quite as curt, but still curt just the same: "Racing, keep clear." To which I used to reply politely with something like "I see it, appreciated, just passing through." But it has gotten to the point where if I reply at all I'll simply say "I see it" and then just close the window. Often I will raise sails or turn into irons and then just sit idle and flounder until the cute little sailboats try hard to zoom (overstatement) past me before I continue on my way. I am courteous that way whether I am notified on a race or not.
This morning was the last straw: first, I am getting sick and tired of the phrase "keep clear". You know what? Screw you. I even try to restrict my Blake Sea excursions to 4 A.M. in the freaking morning just so I won't "interfere" with your little races with the cute little prissy-sissy-looking sailboats.
This morning - and mind you I am an entire sim distant from the starting line of a race that hasn't started yet, and someone flies right next to my boat, says "Racing, keep clear" then clicks me to freeze me solid and doesn't let me go for almost five minutes. That's it. All "courtesy" is now out the window. Screw you and the toy boat you rode in on.
Mr. MarkTwain White: that was the last straw and I refuse to take it any more.
I highly recommend you pass a notice to your group that they need to start being a bit more considerate and polite in their requests. There is nothing in the ToS, CS or even your own little prim signs that says I must "keep clear". I have every right on Linden sims to be there as you do, coordination between you and they or not. I refuse to have demands to "keep clear" placed on me.
You want to ban me from your surrounding private sims: go for it. But I am tired of the bullshit on the open Linden-owned sims. The next idiot that tells me "race, keep clear" my response hence forth will be "Go around me".
And the next time someone clicks my boat to freeze me will be when I start clicking to freeze your pretty, tinkly, prissy racing sailboats and freezing them. I believe very strongly in the "mirror" method of like-wiseness all around. You will get what you dish.
I will not "interfere" with your races or racers. I will not click on them (except in the above case). However, I will no longer alter my course to ensure I do not block their paths. From now on, screw the "keep clear" crap. Ain't happening. If I am headed from North to South and your race crosses my path I am no longer going to radically alter my course or coast to a stop. I am going to keep on course as I intend.
Tell your people tough-shit, go around me. If you expect others to "keep clear" then put up prim fences cordoning-off your entire race course.
I know this isn't you or your intentions and that individuals act on their own. But I am sick and tired of the bullshit elitism that wreaks from your group.
And to be clear, I don't mean all the members of your group and I don't even mean your race participants. But rather whomever the hell it is with the fat-headed power-trip who "coordinates" or otherwise referees these races.
Reel them in, Mr. White.
Then it will be sail and let sail as it was before from me.
Avatar Trademarks Copybotted all over the SL grid! Yes! Really! No shit!
It seems that every time Linden Lab burps, sneezes or farts, the hysterical uninformed, misguided, gullible empty-headed hysterically paranoid freaks come out of the woodwork. Okay, granted, the ones I have explicitly described above are only one in three of the overloud shrill knee-jerkers, but you get my point.
Copyright laws are not really all that complicated on the overall face of it. One easily understandable aspect of the law is that it squarely places the onus onto the copyright holder and owner to practice due diligence in defending that copyright and trademark (which are both actually different entities).
So, this creates a bit of a conundrum for the copyright owner: you are required by law to defend your registered copyrights, or risk losing them to the public domain.
And, to that end, if a copyright owner goes to an ISP or other entity displaying such copyrighted material must, by law, remove all access to it if requested by the copyright owner, and the copyright owner is technically and legally required to make that request whether they want to or not.
Some trademarks and copyrights are so prevalent that the holders, though they obviously retain all legal rights, have allowed these "fan" versions to proliferate. Anything Star Wars comes to mind. Disney. Playboy. Frank Herbert estate (Dune).
This also is why Linden Lab has made the public statement that obvious and blatant use of recognized trademarks will not be tolerated unless you are the owner, holder or authorize agent of the legal owner or holder.
But this statement is a simple legal maneuver by Linden lab to protect themselves. yet the shrill provocateurs will lambast Linden Lab for it. All without stopping to think.
Quaintly's quaint post brings this whole idea back to mind. The Na'Vi image may not be a trademarked image. or is it? What about the word, name, title, whatever you want to call it: "Na'Vi"?
Yet here is Quaintly brandishing a stunning replica of what is most certainly someone else's copyrighted design. And no, I am not referring to the shape creator, the skin creator or even the person selling this avatar in-world. In fact, I have a very strong suspicion the "creator" of Quaintly's Na'Vi avatar has zero written or any other form of permission to recreate that look. I also doubt she has any permission to use that word "Na'Vi".
In fact, one could go so far as to proclaim that and all the other "replicas" of that design across the grid as "bootlegged, pirated designs that were outright stolen by theft from the original copyright owners and holders" - that being 20th Century Fox and James Cameron's production company and James Cameron himself.
But you don't see a line of goose-stepping surname Lindens marching across the grid burning vendors and banning creators, do you? Hell, even Linden Lab (along with IMVU and possible some other virtual world systems) are capitalizing on the movie success and the imagery from the same.
Because the image of the "Na'Vi alien is used on the movie poster to market the movie proper, I suspect that image and design is not only copyrighted, but trademarked as well. The same with the word Na'Vi.
But, Second Life being second life, copyright infringement is running rampant. Where the hell are all those hysterical copybot vigilantes proclaiming that copying someone else's work is wrong and outright theft?
Perhaps I should go to each and every one of these and file an abuse report for "copybotting" copyrighted and trademarked works? After all, it's easily provable.
Okay now... allow me to be fair! I am not picking on Oblivion Creations! This is just a good example. The link immediately above lists all the items that infringe on this movie's trademarks listed at XStreet SL under the keyword Na"vi. Which also is not doubt an infringement as it is a trademarked synthetic word being used to located replicas of trademarked designs and using the trademarked term in conjunction with these creations. Any legal egle will say it creates a clear misconception that the items in question are officially licensed or otherwise endorsed by the producers.But we all really know better, don't wee? {nod, nod, wink, wink.}
The point being a lot of what Linden Lab says on their blogs, policy statements, office hours, prtess releases, Terms of Service, Community standards and all the rest is not only to communicate with you, dear resident, it's also to cover their own asses legally, which explains a lot of the vagueness in it all.
So, when Linden Lab coughs, sneezes, farts and even barfs... cut them a little slack, will ya?
The point being a lot of what Linden Lab says on their blogs, policy statements, office hours, prtess releases, Terms of Service, Community standards and all the rest is not only to communicate with you, dear resident, it's also to cover their own asses legally, which explains a lot of the vagueness in it all.
So, when Linden Lab coughs, sneezes, farts and even barfs... cut them a little slack, will ya?
Did Ari just call me a loafer and freeloader? Yes, yes he did. He's so asking for whatever happens next -- he has no idea what he's just unleashed on his poor unsuspecting blog...
I also feel constrained to point out that I've already added some meat to my bones after he told me I was not sexy enough. Men, there's no pleasing them, is there? *folds arms and sniffs, nose in the air*
Speaking of shapes and proportions, Ari has this *cough* difficulty *cough* with uncommonly tall people. If you don't believe me, pull up his SL profile, it says so right there. When I first met him inworld, I breathed a sigh of relief that he was taller... and now I'm even shorter since I've just adjusted my shape.
At the moment I'm definitely looming over him though, because I've turned into a Na'vi and you know how tall they are! And if you have no clue what I'm talking about, that's a reference to the movie Avatar. I was going to ask if you've been living under a rock, but then an Italian friend told me this evening that the movie is only opening in Italy on Saturday. So much for snide humour, eh? Darn.
...Suddenly Malaysia feels a whole lot more "advanced". o.O
Goofing around on the Second Life web site on Monday and just basically blowing the dust out of the place. You know the routine: ensure contact information is up-to-date, tier amounts set properly and all that stuff. In doing this, I've discovered a couple things. Two are good and one is bad.
The first good thing is that I get to have a full region for free. Even though I'm tiered-up for it, Linden Lab billing isn't sucking a region's worth of cash moolah from my account (and that's good news - that even though you're tiered-higher, LL will only take what you owe. But they aren't taking for this region for some reason). That's all I'll say on it as I will leave it Linden Lab to figure it all out on their own. All I can say is I'm tiered-up for it and doing everything legally and according to all the rules on my end. Almost a shame, really. Because I don't really want that region. But there's that whole "what-if?" scenario. Oh well maybe it can be turned into some disgusting garrish thing to scare all the neighbors away.
The bad thing I discovered through my all-things-SL-related house-cleaning is this: The SL Blogs and the SL web site proper still aren't really speaking to each other. And that leaves a little problem.
Updated my contact information (read: email address linked to my account). Unfortunately, in the Second Life Blogs site (even though it looks like the SL web site, it's a whole different monster) - it still has the old email address for my contact info. And with the default preferences set to "auto-subscribe" you to any thread you create or comment on, that can be a real problem.
I know, just change it, right? Sorry about that, but Linden lab does not trust us enough to allow us to change anything in our "blog.secondlife.com" profiles except our "avatar" picture and signature. Put in a web site address. The rest of it is locked-down.
Attention Linden Lab: please at least unlock the email address field so that we can update that field on an as-needed basis. The problem is that you "sucked" our account info from your user database and so all that information is "frozen"... except for the fields you have "unlocked" that you allow us to change.
Or have the blog system constantly ping the main database you use so that our contact info is updated at the blogs site when we update it at the SL-site proper.
Updated my contact information (read: email address linked to my account). Unfortunately, in the Second Life Blogs site (even though it looks like the SL web site, it's a whole different monster) - it still has the old email address for my contact info. And with the default preferences set to "auto-subscribe" you to any thread you create or comment on, that can be a real problem.
I know, just change it, right? Sorry about that, but Linden lab does not trust us enough to allow us to change anything in our "blog.secondlife.com" profiles except our "avatar" picture and signature. Put in a web site address. The rest of it is locked-down.
Attention Linden Lab: please at least unlock the email address field so that we can update that field on an as-needed basis. The problem is that you "sucked" our account info from your user database and so all that information is "frozen"... except for the fields you have "unlocked" that you allow us to change.
Or have the blog system constantly ping the main database you use so that our contact info is updated at the blogs site when we update it at the SL-site proper.
**********
And now to cool good thing...
I already am paying for two and almost a half sims so there's no reason to even bother looking at the land store. Except in the case there's a dinky little 768-square meter parcel on Neobelow that was abandoned. Why it was never thrown up for sale I don;t know. So I went in to look for it on the land store auction-block. Not there.
So I actually put-in a ticket to hopefully prod LL to put that parcel on the block (and even another ticket to update my email address at the blogs site to match my email at the SL site).
But as I was goofing around there, I discovered this:
I already am paying for two and almost a half sims so there's no reason to even bother looking at the land store. Except in the case there's a dinky little 768-square meter parcel on Neobelow that was abandoned. Why it was never thrown up for sale I don;t know. So I went in to look for it on the land store auction-block. Not there.
So I actually put-in a ticket to hopefully prod LL to put that parcel on the block (and even another ticket to update my email address at the blogs site to match my email at the SL site).
But as I was goofing around there, I discovered this:
Yes, okay, this may be really old news and all blogged-about already. So what? It's news to me. I think this is totally cool!
Kudos to Linden Lab for offering this. In fact, no matter what my intention would be with a brand new sim, say to wipe it flat and replicate the horrendous SineWave sim (I know: it's all marketing and I applaud them actually) - I still would choose one of these themed sims.
Partly to see what it looks like, partly because it's already all terraformed (and less work for me if I'll be doing that) and also so I could back-up the total coolness of the theme itself. Bake-in the terrain, download the terrain map. keeps copies of all the builds and prims that come with it.
C'mon, applaud Linden Lab with me. You have to admit this is a great idea just for the coolness and fun-factor all by itself!
Kudos to Linden Lab for offering this. In fact, no matter what my intention would be with a brand new sim, say to wipe it flat and replicate the horrendous SineWave sim (I know: it's all marketing and I applaud them actually) - I still would choose one of these themed sims.
Partly to see what it looks like, partly because it's already all terraformed (and less work for me if I'll be doing that) and also so I could back-up the total coolness of the theme itself. Bake-in the terrain, download the terrain map. keeps copies of all the builds and prims that come with it.
C'mon, applaud Linden Lab with me. You have to admit this is a great idea just for the coolness and fun-factor all by itself!
For all you people on the Second Life grid whom have the power to send group notices or wield the power of a Subscribe(Spam)-O-Matic machines to spam people with: a lot of you need help and to get help you need to get a freaking clue.
In order to not flat-out piss people off, try to not send a single "notice" more than once every few days. Once a week would be good. Once a month would be better. Anything more often than a week and you already have half the people you are sending your notice to thinking about bailing. Don't get me wrong - if your notice is so large it requires two or three in a row, that's okay. Just not more often than once a week.
I would rather be spammed only once a week with a blast of three or four or five group notices (from the same group, folks) that complete the same message than have to experience the evil sin of group notices that don't say anything in the notice itself:
"Important notice about the group! Read attached!"In this case, screw you and the horse your notice rode-in on. Talk about frustrating crap. At least make the effort to summarize what's in that attached notecard in the notice itself. Then 1) I can decide if I really need to open that notecard and pollute my inventory any more and 2) when I see the notice come through email (it is essentially an IM) - I'll at least have a basic idea what's going on.
Please also note that as I speak on group notices here, I also am referring to those non-group-required spam-o-matic notice machines, a.k.a. "Subscribe-O-Matic".
The absolute worst are the ones that automatically subscribe you just because you purchased something from a vendor (yes: I hate your guts Andy Enfield for even allowing your Hippo products to allow merchants to do this. You need to allow the buyer to effing OPT-OUT.) Or worse, those that actually scan an area where all you need to do is walk past within 96-meters of the scanner and suddenly you start getting spammed with IM "notices" of some new product you couldn't care any less about from a creator you've never hear of.And the absolute evil incarnate is the one where I tried to find the "unsubscriber" so I could get out of the IM hell I was stuck in where the merchant sent out a new notice every. single. day. about a "new item" and then sometimes ten minutes later a "new special sale" and often they were something to the effect of:
"Brand new! Read the attachment!"
Yes. Really. That's it. All of it. Except for the attachment, of course. Multiple times every day. And what was worse is that it wasn't a group. It was a Spam-O-Matic that I wasn't aware of ever being subscribed to. That also means the "attachment" is actually an inventory offer. So rather than just clicking "ignore" to close the bluebox, I have to click decline again and again.
And I couldn't unsubscribe because the SLURL given is where the sending machine is, not the prim to click for subscribing and unsubscribing. And I have a helluva time even looking for that as the area I teleported into kept causing me to crash (no, not a naughty viewer - it was some corrupt texture on a vendor that kept doing it) - so "frustration" is an understatement here. Solution: IM the person who owns the spam-o-matic, cordially and politely explain that...
"I tried to find the unsubscriber prim, but having difficulty in your sim. I would greatly appreciate if ou could unsubscribe me for now, but I certainly have your landmark for reference!"
No need to be rude. No need to say "and that landmark is in my trash begging to be emptied". No need to explain that "not only will I never, ever visit your location again and buy anything, but I will tell everyone I know about the experience and mention you, your shop and all the rest by name."
Nothing personal, of course. It's not you I hate, it's not even the spam-o-matic. In fact I love those things. It's the dipwad, idiotic uncouth-if-not-outright-unethical way you use it. Zodiac House uses a spam-o-matic. The difference is, rule: it is at the entrance in plain sight of everyone who enters the sim. rule: "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" buttons are clearly marked. Rule: never a message more than once a month at most. Rule: SLURL and how to unsubscribe included in every single message.
Funny, my subscriber list keeps growing rather than shrinking. In fact, often we are asked to send messages more often. In other words, people want to be in our notice list, not clamoring to get out of it. This is what I call qualified potential customers.
So consider this your "freaking clue."
Whew am I rusty.
Got my hands dirty in the CSS blog theme and template design again. I forgot how much I enjoy it. It's a strange mixture of creativity (where a creative's mind is a wild, untamed thing wanting to always be free) and the hard, logical 1+1 always must equal 2 disciplined routine.
Linden Lab had it right:
Muahahahah!
Got my hands dirty in the CSS blog theme and template design again. I forgot how much I enjoy it. It's a strange mixture of creativity (where a creative's mind is a wild, untamed thing wanting to always be free) and the hard, logical 1+1 always must equal 2 disciplined routine.
Linden Lab had it right:
"We'll do the non-flexible world-container coding side of things and let you be the creative types to build the world."I think I'll offer blog-theme design as a "product" in SL. I'm thinking L$5K for a custom theme.
Muahahahah!
I know, you're probably tired on my rhetoric on tall boats and sailing in SL. This sill likely be my last post on the subject for a while at least. Ironic that on yesterday's post, Anna Tsiolkovsky described literally just what I ran into in my continuing travels. So, her words, my pictures as she describes literally what I experienced myself:
I used to have to cross into the Blake Sea and Nautilus through Kshumay. On one end, the owner erect this giant tree right into the corner and the other side had this hideous grass textured block (as well as having banlines on his parcel).
Oh, ho-ho-ho, you go girl:Note the tiny shack at the near-left. There is a dinky little bit of water that passes to the left and then behind it. Bad news: that hut is on the very corner of a region. Taking that (the only) path means a kitty-corner region-crossing through a four-corner area. The crash potential was high. (And note the picture-screen wall a bit further in the distance.)
However, I made it. It took some serious maneuvering. Moving westward there was another of these blocked areas...Oh joy! A wall-screen. Practically blocking the entire passage. So I figure I'd cam-around before proceeding. More to investigate if there is enough room to make it and partly to see what's behind my blocked view. That's when I realize something odd - then went to the requisite rolling of eys...
It turns out that "screen" wasn't a just a screen. It was a box. As my camera moved nly slightly to the right another screened wall appeared suddenly - almost startlingly. It turns-out the owner is at least trying to be courteous to his neighbors by putting a transparent texture on the outside so the whole area isn't entirely ruined. Also, the owner is wise as these screens are all made phantom so they are easy to pass through.However, as referenced above, one cannot see where they are going if traveling by water means. But I decide to give it a go anyway. Then, I can't figure-out why my ship stops dead-cold just as I get around that screen. I didn't even get a "we've grounded captain!" or a "we've collided, captain!" message.
The ship is rather long (just shy of 25-meters) and the piloting is done from the stern. So - sighing - I stand-up, detach the ship details and sails, delete the boat-proper and hit the fly button to get a closer look to see what's going on...
The good thing is that the current Snowglobe viewer automatically removes all BAN LINES from snapshots! Hurray, Lindens! The bad news is that ban lines exist at all. What you don't see in the picture above is that I am literally bumping against a parcel ban-line on my right side.Sailing excursion: fail.
So I pack-up my gear and decide I will not contribute to the economy of this particular shoreline as the natives are obviously hostile toward visitors and prefer to keep to themselves. I'll make my way back to the Blake Sea, Antiquity and Jabberwock archipelagos and maintain my business closer to home in the friendly and open Neobelow vicinity where we welcome with open arms all visitors, strangers and friends alike.
For those of you who actually do visit this blog on a regular basis, you may have noticed in the left rail that little area titled "About the Scribblers" and how Quaintly's name just mysteriously appeared there one day, even though she is completely missing-in-action with regard to any reader-facing aspect of this blog and, I can assure you, she has nothing to do with or helps in any way with anything on the back-end and so, she is just a loafer and freeloader here.
There.
Perhaps that will nudge her to finally write something! Quaintly is not so much as shy as she is thoughtful of what to actually write here (being that she is contributing and it's not officially her bog). I keep telling her: hey, write whatever the hell you want - yes, even {/me shivers} about SL Fashion.In fact, consider this the place were you can be hugely opinionated and say what you really think about things. But, twisting of arms kidding aside, there really is no pressure to "force" Quaintly to post anything. I invited her here so that she can post if she wants to and for no other reason.
{Yes, I had to find a good, yummy pirate picture of Quaintly. Now to force-feed her something, anything to get some meat onto them skeleton bones!}
With that said...
Consider this also an invitation to you: doesn't matter if you are a blogger or have never blogged a word in your life. If you want a wall where you can let your perspectives known, feel free to contact me. I'll add you to this blog as a contributer and no, there are no required minimum number of posts or anything else like that.
Consider this also an invitation to you: doesn't matter if you are a blogger or have never blogged a word in your life. If you want a wall where you can let your perspectives known, feel free to contact me. I'll add you to this blog as a contributer and no, there are no required minimum number of posts or anything else like that.
Just saying that if you've even thought about blogging and just weren't sure about it - give it a go. If you want on-board Socially Mundane, the requirements are pretty straight-forward and simple:
- Need a Google account. This blog is hosted by Google Blogger.
Google accounts are free so there is no money involved. - I don't want your first life information. I don't care. In-fact, I would even prefer that in your Google profile, you go by your Second Life name, but that's really up to you.
- Yes, you can blog about other stuff, not only SL-related.
- No there is no required number of posts in any time-period.
- No there is no limit on word-count and all that stuff.
- No, there are no deadlines or cut-offs.
- Yes, you must at least keep the content "PG-13" at worst.
So there you go.
I'm not looking for any particular anything. Just anyone who wants to have a little fun tossing-up a blog post once in a while and is looking for a place to do it - without the "pressure" of maintaining their own blog, here's an open invitation.
And no, I am not paying for articles, didn't you see where I said there is no money involved? (Though I do buy gifts for my friends all the time!)
To scream at me is to scream at pixietale at gmail dot com. Nyuk, nyuk.
I looked and looked and looked but I just could not find the giant graffiti sign that said "Torley was here - LULZ!"I really enjoy cruising the grid in my tall ship. I have a fleet of them more or less, but sometimes I really like to take-out my gunboat. The prim build is stunning and it certainly is one of those joyful-surprises, quality-wise. Among the (very few) best purchases I have made in three years.
And it even takes damage if "UR doin' it wrong!":
Yes, there is the Blake Sea, but the problem with the Blake Sea is that the entire area is a no-rez zone, save for little square parcels slat-and-peppered through-out where you can rez your boat and off you go. However, the island areas are beautiful builds and there is a lot to see and explore. However, the better boats in Sl are two-parts: the main hull and the attachable "detail" portion, built this way to get around the 32-prim limit on moving vehicles.And many areas of the mainland are interesting and quite beautiful, especially the Linden-provided builds:
Unfortunately, some regions - those water or shoreline regions can be a problem. As a rule, Linden Lab includes an openspace region next to shoreline regions as an "ocean-buffer" - but sometimes they don't. Part of the challenge of sailing coastlines comes in navigating those areas where residents use every inch of land "space" they have, even when they don;t need to. As I sail from my berth in Neobelow and make my way to the Blake Sea and back, there are a couple of challenging spots. But fortunately there is just enough room to squeeze even my huge Frigate through. Kind of like a micro-Suez-canal.Fortunately, on those sims at the edge of the series of regions (a hard-edge) - I can usually squeeze through. Until I run into something like this...
A bridge. One. Single.Bridge.
Here it is with water-rendering turned-off so you can see what I mean:
/me weeps.This one bridge is blocking my access to the entire northern half of the continent, spoiling everything. I mean, c'mon! Do you really have to build right to the very edge of the world?
You obviously don't sail or own a boat in Second Life, do you?
Second Life, Linden "Mainland" - the staple of the grid. When I first entered SL in spring 2006, there were (if I remember correctly) three continents and a couple hundred "estates" (private simulator regions) and that was about it. After a few weeks I, like most others, got the land-ownership itch. I went to a few lessons graciously provided by "New Citizens, inc." - general overview of the grid and how to go about doing things. it was a two-hour class and I was riveted.
It was shortly after that class (and shortly before Linden lab discontinued the program) that I went and bought my "First Land" as my first land. The program was simple: Linden Lab offered 512 square meters to all premium (preemies) accounts at L$1 per square meter - to keep it affordable. I'll never forget those few weeks I owned that parcel in the brand new region called Glenboon. It was within a couple weeks when I decided I needed more prims and sold-out for I could buy a larger chunk (I went strait to a 4096 in Dunbeath and was the only one on that entire sim until others started showing up three months later. It was heaven.)
Private Regions: the bad.
I have never "rented" land from any other SL resident. Part of this had to do with my own perceptions. At the time everything was Anshe Chung - and expensive. I was still buying my Linden Dollars through my credit card and slowly gaining grid experience. As beautiful as those builds were (and I presume still are if they're still around,) they were expensive. Besides, I didn't want a house and luxurious place (have one already in first life. The house part, anyway.)
Like most, I wanted to create my own place. As I gained my grid experience I also started to learn how there are many estate-owners who really stack the odds in their own favor (and you can't really blame them, I guess) - and in the end, I have realized that by renting space on a private region is the same as renting from Linden Lab directly. But here are the differences:
The only other reason is that the region is "less laggy" - which isn't really always true. Private regions share server space with three others. If one of those three is loaded with agent (like a giant club or bot-farm-laden-traffic-gaming mall - it can bring the otherwise non-laggy sim to it's knees.
Linden Mainland: the good.
Basically all the opposites of the private region:
Combine these poor textures and prim builds being crammed into your your computer as it struggle to rezz all this stuff (like drinking from a fire-hose) - but your Internet connection bandwidth is likely also struggling to keep up. After everything is rezzed, your frame-rate is still low because of all those prims your computer and viewer are trying to draw in a three-dimensional perspective as fast as possible. So, in truth, the only really problem with Linden Mainland has to do with everyone's neighbors and what it is they do with the neighboring parcels.
It is one of the reasons I enjoy sight-seeing the mainland from a boat. Most of the mainland is rather ugly - as a whole. But individually: most builds aren't so bad. Some are tawdry at best and yet some are actually fascinating and beautiful. The problem I have is that I have my own draw distance set to maximum (512 meters) and so all the very ugly sky-builds appear. I wish people would understand that sky-builds placed between 500 and 750 meters cleans-up the sky and reduces any "prim lag" at the same time.
Sheesh.
The real problem with mainland: bilious sky-builds littering the grid. I am fortunate in my sim of Neobelow that I have good neighbors. For the most part, no low-hanging garbage. And the one time advertising blocks were placed at 300-meters, I politely asked if they could be removed and guess what? They were removed.
The horrible sky-build: the Emerald Castle of Oz on the right. That floating part actually hangs below the upper-most portion of the one rooted on the ground - but yet not connected. However, based on the look, it appears to be some kind of fantasy-build anyway.
This place really stood-out from the crowd and just irritated me to no end. No, not the look of it, but rather the waay the parcel owner uses his land. But I'll continue to explain that in my next post. In the mean time, I looked and looked and looked but I just could not find the giant graffiti sign that said "Torley was here - LULZ!"
It was shortly after that class (and shortly before Linden lab discontinued the program) that I went and bought my "First Land" as my first land. The program was simple: Linden Lab offered 512 square meters to all premium (preemies) accounts at L$1 per square meter - to keep it affordable. I'll never forget those few weeks I owned that parcel in the brand new region called Glenboon. It was within a couple weeks when I decided I needed more prims and sold-out for I could buy a larger chunk (I went strait to a 4096 in Dunbeath and was the only one on that entire sim until others started showing up three months later. It was heaven.)
Private Regions: the bad.
I have never "rented" land from any other SL resident. Part of this had to do with my own perceptions. At the time everything was Anshe Chung - and expensive. I was still buying my Linden Dollars through my credit card and slowly gaining grid experience. As beautiful as those builds were (and I presume still are if they're still around,) they were expensive. Besides, I didn't want a house and luxurious place (have one already in first life. The house part, anyway.)
Like most, I wanted to create my own place. As I gained my grid experience I also started to learn how there are many estate-owners who really stack the odds in their own favor (and you can't really blame them, I guess) - and in the end, I have realized that by renting space on a private region is the same as renting from Linden Lab directly. But here are the differences:
- First, you are paying money to a middle-man. That middle man does not have your best interest at heart, they have their own interest at heart.
- If you screw-up or do anything to bring the estate owner's wrath against you, you can be unceremoniously evicted (it's happened to me before for really childish and stupid reasons).
- Because the estate owner must pay his own tier to Linden Lab, they can run at-cost or more than likely, charge more in order to cover those lull-times when parcels aren't rented-out. Thus, you pay more for the same amount of prims you might when owning mainland.
- If the estate-owner is in it for the money, you could pay "through the nose" on a premium for the privilege. Example: Anshe Chung estates.
- And finally, there is nothing other than simple honor to prevent an estate owner from banning you from their estate just after you have plunked-down three-months worth of tier and lose all that money when they refuse to refund you.
The only other reason is that the region is "less laggy" - which isn't really always true. Private regions share server space with three others. If one of those three is loaded with agent (like a giant club or bot-farm-laden-traffic-gaming mall - it can bring the otherwise non-laggy sim to it's knees.
Linden Mainland: the good.
Basically all the opposites of the private region:
- You pay directly to Linden Lab. No middle-men. You pay only what you owe, no overheads.
- Linden Lab will never evict you from your land as long as your account is in good-standing.
- You have total control over your land with regard to terraforming, access and everything.
- You can find low-lag mainland - you just have to shop around a bit - in fact, my own mainland parcel is less-laggy than most private regions - and that's a fact, based on cache-clearing, stop-watch testing I have done.
- There is no covenant and so, there is no control or restrictions on what your parcel neighbors can and will build.
- ... (I'm thinking... trying to come-up with another "bad" point about Linden mainland...)
Combine these poor textures and prim builds being crammed into your your computer as it struggle to rezz all this stuff (like drinking from a fire-hose) - but your Internet connection bandwidth is likely also struggling to keep up. After everything is rezzed, your frame-rate is still low because of all those prims your computer and viewer are trying to draw in a three-dimensional perspective as fast as possible. So, in truth, the only really problem with Linden Mainland has to do with everyone's neighbors and what it is they do with the neighboring parcels.
It is one of the reasons I enjoy sight-seeing the mainland from a boat. Most of the mainland is rather ugly - as a whole. But individually: most builds aren't so bad. Some are tawdry at best and yet some are actually fascinating and beautiful. The problem I have is that I have my own draw distance set to maximum (512 meters) and so all the very ugly sky-builds appear. I wish people would understand that sky-builds placed between 500 and 750 meters cleans-up the sky and reduces any "prim lag" at the same time.
Sheesh.
The real problem with mainland: bilious sky-builds littering the grid. I am fortunate in my sim of Neobelow that I have good neighbors. For the most part, no low-hanging garbage. And the one time advertising blocks were placed at 300-meters, I politely asked if they could be removed and guess what? They were removed.
The horrible sky-build: the Emerald Castle of Oz on the right. That floating part actually hangs below the upper-most portion of the one rooted on the ground - but yet not connected. However, based on the look, it appears to be some kind of fantasy-build anyway.
Driving in to work this morning listening to the radio as most people do and I heard an ad from the "Advertising Council" (Ad Council), a massively influential not-for-profit organization and leader of PSA (Public Service Announcements) production in the United States. The advertisement is part of a campaign called "think before you speak" - good advice to be sure, and is running on radio and print.
The specific advert I heard was called "Gay". Here is the exact quote1:
I know a lot of gay people. The good ones have come out of the closet but keep all the rest behind closed doors like they should. The loud-mouthed minority make me and everyone else (including the good gays) sick and tired of their bitching and whining. Stop trying to push your twisted agenda on the rest of the world already. And of course it's about language. What the hell is the difference between "marriage" and "civil union"? The word and nothing more.
"What is your gender" is an improper sentence. "What is your sex" is the correct way to ask it. But no, you people have worked so hard to change (read: bastardize and eff-up) our language before our very eyes, no one even thinks twice about it. And how about the so-called word "aint" - it was never a word until the Webster's dictionary decided to throw it in there because it is used so much.
Even "common" statements are bastardized. Take this for example: "if you think this, then you have another thing coming!" Umm, another what, idiot? The proper phrase is "if you think this, you have another think coming" - meaning your mind will be forcibly changed in a flat hurry. All you liberal, politically correct bastards have been trying so hard to eff-up our language that's it's starting to get out of your control.
If you have a problem with "that's so gay" as a statement and it "offends" gay people (not the happy ones" as you say,) then calling a homosexual person "gay" is an offense to gay people (the happy ones!)
What? You want to have your cake and eat it, too?
That is so effing gay.
Audio
The specific advert I heard was called "Gay". Here is the exact quote1:
"there once was a time when "gay" meant happy. then it meant "homosexual." now people are saying "that's so gay" to mean dumb and stupid. which is pretty insulting to gay people (and we don't mean the "happy" people). 2. so please knock it off. 3. go to [redacted because I don't want to advertise for them].com"Wow. Talking about a massive partisan agenda. You know what? Feck those gay people who are offended. And feck you Ad Council for this dumb-ass advertisement. There is no "right", Constitutional or otherwise to "not be offended". Talk about hypocritical on a biblical proportion! You are so effing gay. Our language evolves. Word definitions change constantly.
I know a lot of gay people. The good ones have come out of the closet but keep all the rest behind closed doors like they should. The loud-mouthed minority make me and everyone else (including the good gays) sick and tired of their bitching and whining. Stop trying to push your twisted agenda on the rest of the world already. And of course it's about language. What the hell is the difference between "marriage" and "civil union"? The word and nothing more.
"What is your gender" is an improper sentence. "What is your sex" is the correct way to ask it. But no, you people have worked so hard to change (read: bastardize and eff-up) our language before our very eyes, no one even thinks twice about it. And how about the so-called word "aint" - it was never a word until the Webster's dictionary decided to throw it in there because it is used so much.
Even "common" statements are bastardized. Take this for example: "if you think this, then you have another thing coming!" Umm, another what, idiot? The proper phrase is "if you think this, you have another think coming" - meaning your mind will be forcibly changed in a flat hurry. All you liberal, politically correct bastards have been trying so hard to eff-up our language that's it's starting to get out of your control.
If you have a problem with "that's so gay" as a statement and it "offends" gay people (not the happy ones" as you say,) then calling a homosexual person "gay" is an offense to gay people (the happy ones!)
What? You want to have your cake and eat it, too?
That is so effing gay.
1. Ad Council. Gay. Radi: Ad Council, 2010. Radio.
http://adcouncil.org
I have finally and officially decided why I really don't like the Trudeau (and probably most other) boats and tall ships that are so-called "SL-wind sailable". They are built for looks, not function.
In my three-years on the grid I have never owned or wanted to own any boats at all, especially sailboats. Because they aren't "boats" - they are cars on water that don't "sail" - they drive. Even the "motorboats" drive like a car. and cars in Second Life don't really handle at all like a car. In fact, it's just "flying" the same way you can fly in SL without sitting on anything. The only difference is you have a prim (name your vehicle here) attached to you, and because it's set to be physical, the simulated gravity is in effect.
Car, airplane, boat, submarine: I find it cheesy and silly that at a dead stand-still, you can spin around and around like a top. I really roll my eyes if it's any kind of sailboat. And it's the creator's fault because they are focusing on how it looks, not how it works.
Like everyone who has one of these, I wouldn't know any better - except that as of a few months ago, I do.
I am now going to speak on the Trudeau Tradewind (pictured above) - a two-part vehicle. So these irritants I speak of obviously don't apply to the single linked-prim type vehicles. But tall ships are rather complicated in a visual sense and so always will require two-parts in order to be movable as a vehicle.
The Trudeau Tradewind tall ship is gorgeous. But, like I said before, it's built to look good, not function well. Because it looks so good, it is not efficiently built. Lots of extra prims where there is no-need. I have no-doubt I could create a damned good-looking facsimile with probably 1/3 the number of prims. But it's inefficiency has to do with how it functions: it doesn't.
As with most large vehicles of this type, it comes in two-parts. A part that is the actual vehicle that does the moving (sailing in this case) upon which you sit in order to "drive" it. The second part is work as an attachment - which the limit to prim-count is about 256 - no real reason to work hard at building efficiency in that case.
I've already mentioned what I don't like about the Trudeau in terms of how it functions. But I can live with that. What I really can't stand is the way it's built: sloppy. Part-one: the vehicle is rezzed in system water. It is invisible, but highlighting transparent prims reveals that is it the sails system and all that is visible are all the poseballs the pilot and guests sit on to ride and drive.
The "ship proper" is an attachment that you right-click in inventory and choose "wear". I hate this with a purple passion. As for actually enjoying the boat, it sucks royally. Epic fail as the meme goes. I have to rez the invisible sails, then manually "wear" the boat. If I stand-up, I have to manually detach the entire ship, then delete the invisible sails. This is stupid.
If I rezz the ship-proper, the inefficient build requires that I have a huge butt-load of prims available. Fail again.
Enter the SPD, TSS, and AoS ships and boats.
Let us forget that they actually sail very realistically in the movement, turning and true requirement to manage the sail angle with regard to simulated wind direction and all that. Let us instead look at the simple functionality...
I now have a beautiful boat - for decoration or whatever. I can walk onto it or off it or all around it. No ugly poseballs with the requirement to type-in a command to hide them, nothing "unsightly".
Anyone at anytime can right-click at various places on the boat and choose to "sit" - and even, through a HUD or command, change positions (say from the bow to the crow's nest to the port or starboard side to the stern - all without standing-up to sit on another stupid poseball).
This is functionality: walk up the dock to my boat, walk onto my boat, sit on my boat, start sailing, stand-up and walk about my boat again.
All without having to touch my inventory and manually rezz or wear or delete or detach anything. And the SPD, TSS and AoS and other tall ships of this "genre" are all damned-good-looking, too. Oh and in my previous Trudeau posting linked-to above, Dale Innis mentioned that the "gauges" HUD on the Trudeau is better because you can "see" the wind direction and sails angle.
Well, TSS just released an update to all their boats that now includes a sail HUD that works identically to the Trudeau HUD, though easier to understand, in my own opinion. So, Dale: there's the last single reason for sticking with the Trudeau Tradewind. Try any of the TSS tall ships and you'll forsake the Trudeau within an hour as for "functionality" and "usability".
And the kicker to all this? Average cost of the SPD, TSS and AoS boats is L$1600 compared to the Trudeau Tradewind's whopping (and I feel way-the-hell-overpriced) L$4500.
Screw the cannons on these "pirate" ships, they can be removed. As for a beautiful, realistically-sailable tall-ship which you only need rez once and be able to walk-on, sail and then walk-off without having to attach or detach anything, which is the better purchase to you?
In my three-years on the grid I have never owned or wanted to own any boats at all, especially sailboats. Because they aren't "boats" - they are cars on water that don't "sail" - they drive. Even the "motorboats" drive like a car. and cars in Second Life don't really handle at all like a car. In fact, it's just "flying" the same way you can fly in SL without sitting on anything. The only difference is you have a prim (name your vehicle here) attached to you, and because it's set to be physical, the simulated gravity is in effect.
Car, airplane, boat, submarine: I find it cheesy and silly that at a dead stand-still, you can spin around and around like a top. I really roll my eyes if it's any kind of sailboat. And it's the creator's fault because they are focusing on how it looks, not how it works.
Like everyone who has one of these, I wouldn't know any better - except that as of a few months ago, I do.
I am now going to speak on the Trudeau Tradewind (pictured above) - a two-part vehicle. So these irritants I speak of obviously don't apply to the single linked-prim type vehicles. But tall ships are rather complicated in a visual sense and so always will require two-parts in order to be movable as a vehicle.
The Trudeau Tradewind tall ship is gorgeous. But, like I said before, it's built to look good, not function well. Because it looks so good, it is not efficiently built. Lots of extra prims where there is no-need. I have no-doubt I could create a damned good-looking facsimile with probably 1/3 the number of prims. But it's inefficiency has to do with how it functions: it doesn't.
As with most large vehicles of this type, it comes in two-parts. A part that is the actual vehicle that does the moving (sailing in this case) upon which you sit in order to "drive" it. The second part is work as an attachment - which the limit to prim-count is about 256 - no real reason to work hard at building efficiency in that case.
I've already mentioned what I don't like about the Trudeau in terms of how it functions. But I can live with that. What I really can't stand is the way it's built: sloppy. Part-one: the vehicle is rezzed in system water. It is invisible, but highlighting transparent prims reveals that is it the sails system and all that is visible are all the poseballs the pilot and guests sit on to ride and drive.
The "ship proper" is an attachment that you right-click in inventory and choose "wear". I hate this with a purple passion. As for actually enjoying the boat, it sucks royally. Epic fail as the meme goes. I have to rez the invisible sails, then manually "wear" the boat. If I stand-up, I have to manually detach the entire ship, then delete the invisible sails. This is stupid.
If I rezz the ship-proper, the inefficient build requires that I have a huge butt-load of prims available. Fail again.
Enter the SPD, TSS, and AoS ships and boats.
(Pictures: My "Ghost Ship" customization of the TSS Dhow and avatar make-over to match!)
Let us forget that they actually sail very realistically in the movement, turning and true requirement to manage the sail angle with regard to simulated wind direction and all that. Let us instead look at the simple functionality...
- I rezz the boat on system water.
- All I see is a plain and "stripped"-looking boat hull.
- The second part, the sails and boat detail, are inside the hull.
- The hull automatically rezzes the sails and ship detail, perfectly lined-up to ensure the whole thing appears like a single boat.
I now have a beautiful boat - for decoration or whatever. I can walk onto it or off it or all around it. No ugly poseballs with the requirement to type-in a command to hide them, nothing "unsightly".
Anyone at anytime can right-click at various places on the boat and choose to "sit" - and even, through a HUD or command, change positions (say from the bow to the crow's nest to the port or starboard side to the stern - all without standing-up to sit on another stupid poseball).
- I, as the pilot simply "sit" near the aft-castle or piloting point.
- The sails portion of the boat asks permission to attach to me.
- I say "yes" and in the blink of an eye, the sails attach.
- I can now just start sailing.
- When I am ready to stand-up, I do so.
- The boat automatically rezzes a new set of sails so the boat remains "complete".
- Attached set of sails automatically detach so they disappear from world view.
- I can now walk about my boat again. The same boat, not a newly-rezzed copy!
This is functionality: walk up the dock to my boat, walk onto my boat, sit on my boat, start sailing, stand-up and walk about my boat again.
All without having to touch my inventory and manually rezz or wear or delete or detach anything. And the SPD, TSS and AoS and other tall ships of this "genre" are all damned-good-looking, too. Oh and in my previous Trudeau posting linked-to above, Dale Innis mentioned that the "gauges" HUD on the Trudeau is better because you can "see" the wind direction and sails angle.
Well, TSS just released an update to all their boats that now includes a sail HUD that works identically to the Trudeau HUD, though easier to understand, in my own opinion. So, Dale: there's the last single reason for sticking with the Trudeau Tradewind. Try any of the TSS tall ships and you'll forsake the Trudeau within an hour as for "functionality" and "usability".
And the kicker to all this? Average cost of the SPD, TSS and AoS boats is L$1600 compared to the Trudeau Tradewind's whopping (and I feel way-the-hell-overpriced) L$4500.
Screw the cannons on these "pirate" ships, they can be removed. As for a beautiful, realistically-sailable tall-ship which you only need rez once and be able to walk-on, sail and then walk-off without having to attach or detach anything, which is the better purchase to you?
Copybot.
It's a loaded word the very mention of tends to generate some serious paranoia if used in the context of being applied against someone.
In the Second Life vernacular the word "copybot" conjures utter fear among creators - and perhaps it gives a little insight to how musicians and book authors and movie producers feel with regard to the whole file-sharing of their works.
However, it is a statistical fact that the anything that has been "copybotted" - an umbrella term to represent copybot proper along with all other methods of "ripping" prims and textures to create full-permission copies (it doesn't work with scripts) - is most often not resold or given away, but rather users "stealing" for themselves.
It also is a statistical fact that all copybot activity across the grid amounts to a fraction of a fraction of overall grid business activity to begin with. I am not trying to minimize the effect and devastating circumstances the use of copybot against a creator can have. I am only saying that Second Life and its economy is so large that copybot activity is barely a noticeable drop of water in a swimming pool when viewed in context of the "big picture" - though it really is a terrible tool that can wreak havoc on a creator's business. But that's not what I am really writing about here.
What I am writing about here has been going on ever since copybot first existed back in 2006. It simply is a lot more prevalent now and is a way that the very word "copybot" is misused and abused in a far more insidious way. As a competition-killer and nothing more than that.
To accuse another creator of "copybotting" something is like me accusing you of murder just because I saw you in the same room with the victim. At least it looked like you, but I haven't bothered to take a close look, and it doesn't matter that you were actually out of the country at the time.
Simply inspecting a prim build to see that all the prims have the same object name and time-stamp does not a copybotted item make. Linden Lab has already proclaimed "prim-replicators" to be a legal, useful tool.1
It is only "external tools" that are a violation of the Linden lab Terms of Service.2 This would include viewers themselves, such as the Niellife viewer.
Linden Lab clearly states that copying does not "necessarily mean stealing"3. "There are many useful purposes and tools for copying" and as with any powerful tool, it can be abused. However the usefulness outweighs the risk - hence the "Hollywood vs. Sony Betamax" decision, paving the way for VCRs.
The simple fact is that it is easy to determine if an actual copying infringement has occurred. But it takes a little effort on your part: firstly, the alleged copied item must be an exact duplicate of the "original". An inspection must show every single prim as having an identical time-stamp of creation and the creators must be different, and the "previous owner" (available as of this writing in Snowglobe viewer) must be either blank or the same name as the current owner.
These are the methods of determining if a genuine theft has actually occurred and not a creator using a completely legal prim-replicator for their own purposes (and the Lindens can easily check thier system logs as well).
However, the word "copybot" has become a drama-bomb that piss-poor or otherwise paranoid creators now throw around as a weapon against their competition. And that is where the true rub lies. You can only legally copyright a work, not a visual. I can legally repaint from scratch the Mona Lisa and sell it as a replica as long as I don't actually title it "Mona Lisa" or try to misrepresent it as an original. Perfectly legal. You cannot copyright a "visual". Only the actual work to create it.
The problem is where similar items are created by different authors. The hysterically paranoid creators spot these similar items and immediately throw the "copybot bomb" out there - often spamming groups with vitriolic hysterical diatribe and the sad thing is a lot of the people in these groups are gullible and emotionally stupid enough to just fall for it, taking everything said at face value. How sad is that? I speak on this because the round-robin of this ridiculousness has been going around for years and it is finally my turn to be on the receiving end of it.
So, for all you creators out there, I have a fair and very serious warning for you, I strongly recommend you take heed or your ass will burn because I will pull all the stops out. In other words: don't tread on me without absolutely irrefutable proof or face my wrath.
Knowledge is power and I can assure you I have the knowledge.
Firstly, Linden Lab has the full details of my real life identity on file. Therefore, I have nothing to hide and in that is all the armament I need to defend myself and turn any defense into a seriously devastating offense. I know because I have done it before. I am a successful business person in SL. Why the hell would I risk all I have worked for by breaking the Terms of Service? As for "Community Standards", well that's a matter of perspective, so I will grief the hell out of you if you give me trouble on my sims. However, if you think I have "copybotted" or otherwise stolen your creation, the very first thing I do is invite you to rezz your "original" work right next to the alleged copy. This way, anyone and everyone can compare for themselves as it is far too easy to prove when something is or is not copied via illegal means.
If you refuse, I will name names, file an abuse report with Linden Lab against you for harrassment (which is against ToS, and CS) and I will embarrass you painfully by ensuring all visitors to my lands (real traffic by the way, no traffic bots) are made clearly aware of what a paranoid scumbag you truly are.
If you genuinely feel I have stolen your stuff, you'll file a DMCA against me or at least take my offer to rez yours next to mine. However, if you go the DMCA route I will file a counter-claim against you and obtain all your real life information, file abuse reports against you and file a claim with the Federal Trade Commission as it is a $10,000 fine for filing a false DMCA claim against anyone and I am fully prepared to do that (done it once before in real life - it was nicely effective.)
And if you don't file a DMCA while accusing me of stealing your stuff I will make sure as many people on the grid know your stuff is utter crap, quality-wise because the only reason you are making such a claim, and refusing to rezz your so-called original next to mine is because your garbage is just that: crap. Otherwise you'd have the wherewithal to actually put your money where your mouth is (or at least your prims.)
So to all my readers: the next time you see or hear of someone proclaiming to have been "copybotted" - ask for the resident name. Then I dare you to ask that accused resident if they have offered the accuser the opportunity to rez their original next to the alleged copy for comparison. If they say they have, then ask the accuser why they have not taken that offer.
Then, you, dear reader are the informed, wise, knowledgeable resident who won't fall for the vitriolic weapon of creators who simply cannot compete in the real market of SL business. Which should send up red flags about that person as a whole if they stoop to such a level lower than dog-shit as to throw the "I've been copybotted!-drama-bomb".
What brought all this about? Zodiac House (of which I am the co-founder) is accused of copybotting a dragon statue from a creator who also has created a similar-looking version (which both were copied from reference photos of a real life version - so go figure.) But the accuser refuses to rez their so-called original next to the alleged copy. So I looked at the so-called original and... uh... no wonder he refuses. It is plainly obvious there is no copybot at play here! Thus the accusation is malicious in nature and intended to specifically create drama for Zodiac House. How could anyone see it differently?
So to put my money where my mouth is: Kimo Junot: how about you put your money where your mouth is and accept the offer to rez your so-called "original" dragon statue next to the Zodiac House alleged "copybotted" dragon statue and allow the public at-large to judge for themselves? Or are you not so confident in your own product and do not wish to risk looking bad, or even worse: coming off as an unscrupulous and dishonest creator who throws the "copybot-drama-bomb" for no reason other than to attack a competitor because you don't like that tey create something even similar?
I'll save everyone here the work. Here are the two items in question, the alleged "original" above and the alleged "stolen copy" below. "Twisted Thorn Slurl" - "Zodiac House Slurl" (So you can compare and determine the "copybot" status for yourself in-world.)
Can't speak to the "Twisted" version, but the Zodiac House version is based on a real life painting artwork - available publicly to anyone who happens across it.
[UPDATE 01.06.10; 0812: I have been sent the original artwork links the Zodiac Dragon is based-off of. Which cause me to wonder where Mr. Kimo based his from - which leads me to wonder if I or anyone else should accuse him of "copybotting" his dragon statue from another source? What goes around, comes around! Image One; Image two and I am told the in-world color of the Zodiac statue is to match the decor of the store meme.]
It simply is amazing what some creators will do and to what level they will stoop when they can't compete in the market at large. In the old days, we used to call people who do these kind of things a "cheat". I have more accurate, but harsher words of description, but there are many ladies who read this blog so I will not diverge from my gentlemanly manner for their sake.
Now go show your support for the downtrodden and victimized! Go to Zodiac House and buy-up their entire inventory. Well, at the very least: BUY THAT DRAGON STATUE!
**********
References
1. Linden, Cory. "Use of Copybot and Similar Tools a ToS Violation." Official Second Life Blog (14, November 2006). Web Site. January 5, 2010.
"As we've said before, copying tools do have legitimate uses. For example, intellectual property owners may wish to back up their own content or copy it from our hosted Second Life virtual world to a stand-alone, behind-the-firewall Second Life solution. However, copying tools can also facilitate infringement, and the devil is in the details."
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/08/04/our-content-management-roadmap
2. Linden, Cyn. "Our Content Management Roadmap." Official Second Life Blog (4, August 2009). Web Site. January 5, 2010.
"Second Life needs features to provide more information about assets and the results of copying them. Unfortunately, these are not yet in place. Until they are, the use of CopyBot or any other external application to make unauthorized duplicates within Second Life will be treated as a violation of Section 4.2 of the Second Life Terms of Service and may result in your account(s) being banned from Second Life. If you feel that someone has used CopyBot to make an infringing copy of your content, please file an abuse report. Note that this is completely separate from any copyright infringement claim you may wish to pursue via the DMCA."
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2006/11/15/use-of-copybot-and-similar-tools-a-tos-violation
3. Linden, Torley. "Protecting Your Copyrighted Content." Official Second Life Blog (11, April 2008). Web Site. January 5, 2010.
"We’re sometimes asked why Residents are allowed to have or sell copying devices. The answer is that there are legitimate uses of a copying mechanism. It’s the infringement that we don’t allow and won’t tolerate."
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2008/04/11/protecting-your-copyrighted-content
It's a loaded word the very mention of tends to generate some serious paranoia if used in the context of being applied against someone.
In the Second Life vernacular the word "copybot" conjures utter fear among creators - and perhaps it gives a little insight to how musicians and book authors and movie producers feel with regard to the whole file-sharing of their works.
However, it is a statistical fact that the anything that has been "copybotted" - an umbrella term to represent copybot proper along with all other methods of "ripping" prims and textures to create full-permission copies (it doesn't work with scripts) - is most often not resold or given away, but rather users "stealing" for themselves.
It also is a statistical fact that all copybot activity across the grid amounts to a fraction of a fraction of overall grid business activity to begin with. I am not trying to minimize the effect and devastating circumstances the use of copybot against a creator can have. I am only saying that Second Life and its economy is so large that copybot activity is barely a noticeable drop of water in a swimming pool when viewed in context of the "big picture" - though it really is a terrible tool that can wreak havoc on a creator's business. But that's not what I am really writing about here.
What I am writing about here has been going on ever since copybot first existed back in 2006. It simply is a lot more prevalent now and is a way that the very word "copybot" is misused and abused in a far more insidious way. As a competition-killer and nothing more than that.
To accuse another creator of "copybotting" something is like me accusing you of murder just because I saw you in the same room with the victim. At least it looked like you, but I haven't bothered to take a close look, and it doesn't matter that you were actually out of the country at the time.
Simply inspecting a prim build to see that all the prims have the same object name and time-stamp does not a copybotted item make. Linden Lab has already proclaimed "prim-replicators" to be a legal, useful tool.1
It is only "external tools" that are a violation of the Linden lab Terms of Service.2 This would include viewers themselves, such as the Niellife viewer.
Linden Lab clearly states that copying does not "necessarily mean stealing"3. "There are many useful purposes and tools for copying" and as with any powerful tool, it can be abused. However the usefulness outweighs the risk - hence the "Hollywood vs. Sony Betamax" decision, paving the way for VCRs.
The simple fact is that it is easy to determine if an actual copying infringement has occurred. But it takes a little effort on your part: firstly, the alleged copied item must be an exact duplicate of the "original". An inspection must show every single prim as having an identical time-stamp of creation and the creators must be different, and the "previous owner" (available as of this writing in Snowglobe viewer) must be either blank or the same name as the current owner.
These are the methods of determining if a genuine theft has actually occurred and not a creator using a completely legal prim-replicator for their own purposes (and the Lindens can easily check thier system logs as well).
However, the word "copybot" has become a drama-bomb that piss-poor or otherwise paranoid creators now throw around as a weapon against their competition. And that is where the true rub lies. You can only legally copyright a work, not a visual. I can legally repaint from scratch the Mona Lisa and sell it as a replica as long as I don't actually title it "Mona Lisa" or try to misrepresent it as an original. Perfectly legal. You cannot copyright a "visual". Only the actual work to create it.
The problem is where similar items are created by different authors. The hysterically paranoid creators spot these similar items and immediately throw the "copybot bomb" out there - often spamming groups with vitriolic hysterical diatribe and the sad thing is a lot of the people in these groups are gullible and emotionally stupid enough to just fall for it, taking everything said at face value. How sad is that? I speak on this because the round-robin of this ridiculousness has been going around for years and it is finally my turn to be on the receiving end of it.
So, for all you creators out there, I have a fair and very serious warning for you, I strongly recommend you take heed or your ass will burn because I will pull all the stops out. In other words: don't tread on me without absolutely irrefutable proof or face my wrath.
Knowledge is power and I can assure you I have the knowledge.
Firstly, Linden Lab has the full details of my real life identity on file. Therefore, I have nothing to hide and in that is all the armament I need to defend myself and turn any defense into a seriously devastating offense. I know because I have done it before. I am a successful business person in SL. Why the hell would I risk all I have worked for by breaking the Terms of Service? As for "Community Standards", well that's a matter of perspective, so I will grief the hell out of you if you give me trouble on my sims. However, if you think I have "copybotted" or otherwise stolen your creation, the very first thing I do is invite you to rezz your "original" work right next to the alleged copy. This way, anyone and everyone can compare for themselves as it is far too easy to prove when something is or is not copied via illegal means.
If you refuse, I will name names, file an abuse report with Linden Lab against you for harrassment (which is against ToS, and CS) and I will embarrass you painfully by ensuring all visitors to my lands (real traffic by the way, no traffic bots) are made clearly aware of what a paranoid scumbag you truly are.
If you genuinely feel I have stolen your stuff, you'll file a DMCA against me or at least take my offer to rez yours next to mine. However, if you go the DMCA route I will file a counter-claim against you and obtain all your real life information, file abuse reports against you and file a claim with the Federal Trade Commission as it is a $10,000 fine for filing a false DMCA claim against anyone and I am fully prepared to do that (done it once before in real life - it was nicely effective.)
And if you don't file a DMCA while accusing me of stealing your stuff I will make sure as many people on the grid know your stuff is utter crap, quality-wise because the only reason you are making such a claim, and refusing to rezz your so-called original next to mine is because your garbage is just that: crap. Otherwise you'd have the wherewithal to actually put your money where your mouth is (or at least your prims.)
So to all my readers: the next time you see or hear of someone proclaiming to have been "copybotted" - ask for the resident name. Then I dare you to ask that accused resident if they have offered the accuser the opportunity to rez their original next to the alleged copy for comparison. If they say they have, then ask the accuser why they have not taken that offer.
Then, you, dear reader are the informed, wise, knowledgeable resident who won't fall for the vitriolic weapon of creators who simply cannot compete in the real market of SL business. Which should send up red flags about that person as a whole if they stoop to such a level lower than dog-shit as to throw the "I've been copybotted!-drama-bomb".
What brought all this about? Zodiac House (of which I am the co-founder) is accused of copybotting a dragon statue from a creator who also has created a similar-looking version (which both were copied from reference photos of a real life version - so go figure.) But the accuser refuses to rez their so-called original next to the alleged copy. So I looked at the so-called original and... uh... no wonder he refuses. It is plainly obvious there is no copybot at play here! Thus the accusation is malicious in nature and intended to specifically create drama for Zodiac House. How could anyone see it differently?
So to put my money where my mouth is: Kimo Junot: how about you put your money where your mouth is and accept the offer to rez your so-called "original" dragon statue next to the Zodiac House alleged "copybotted" dragon statue and allow the public at-large to judge for themselves? Or are you not so confident in your own product and do not wish to risk looking bad, or even worse: coming off as an unscrupulous and dishonest creator who throws the "copybot-drama-bomb" for no reason other than to attack a competitor because you don't like that tey create something even similar?
I'll save everyone here the work. Here are the two items in question, the alleged "original" above and the alleged "stolen copy" below. "Twisted Thorn Slurl" - "Zodiac House Slurl" (So you can compare and determine the "copybot" status for yourself in-world.)
Can't speak to the "Twisted" version, but the Zodiac House version is based on a real life painting artwork - available publicly to anyone who happens across it.
[UPDATE 01.06.10; 0812: I have been sent the original artwork links the Zodiac Dragon is based-off of. Which cause me to wonder where Mr. Kimo based his from - which leads me to wonder if I or anyone else should accuse him of "copybotting" his dragon statue from another source? What goes around, comes around! Image One; Image two and I am told the in-world color of the Zodiac statue is to match the decor of the store meme.]
It simply is amazing what some creators will do and to what level they will stoop when they can't compete in the market at large. In the old days, we used to call people who do these kind of things a "cheat". I have more accurate, but harsher words of description, but there are many ladies who read this blog so I will not diverge from my gentlemanly manner for their sake.
Now go show your support for the downtrodden and victimized! Go to Zodiac House and buy-up their entire inventory. Well, at the very least: BUY THAT DRAGON STATUE!
**********
References
1. Linden, Cory. "Use of Copybot and Similar Tools a ToS Violation." Official Second Life Blog (14, November 2006). Web Site. January 5, 2010.
"As we've said before, copying tools do have legitimate uses. For example, intellectual property owners may wish to back up their own content or copy it from our hosted Second Life virtual world to a stand-alone, behind-the-firewall Second Life solution. However, copying tools can also facilitate infringement, and the devil is in the details."
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/blog/2009/08/04/our-content-management-roadmap
2. Linden, Cyn. "Our Content Management Roadmap." Official Second Life Blog (4, August 2009). Web Site. January 5, 2010.
"Second Life needs features to provide more information about assets and the results of copying them. Unfortunately, these are not yet in place. Until they are, the use of CopyBot or any other external application to make unauthorized duplicates within Second Life will be treated as a violation of Section 4.2 of the Second Life Terms of Service and may result in your account(s) being banned from Second Life. If you feel that someone has used CopyBot to make an infringing copy of your content, please file an abuse report. Note that this is completely separate from any copyright infringement claim you may wish to pursue via the DMCA."
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2006/11/15/use-of-copybot-and-similar-tools-a-tos-violation
3. Linden, Torley. "Protecting Your Copyrighted Content." Official Second Life Blog (11, April 2008). Web Site. January 5, 2010.
"We’re sometimes asked why Residents are allowed to have or sell copying devices. The answer is that there are legitimate uses of a copying mechanism. It’s the infringement that we don’t allow and won’t tolerate."
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2008/04/11/protecting-your-copyrighted-content
Spotted this at the Grid Status reports:
All, I can do is laugh with fond memories! If you are an "oldbie" then you recall how every single Wednesday the entire grid shut-down at 6 A.M. to 10 A.M. for "grid maintenance" which often included a viewer update (and sometimes lasted a lot longer!)
Yes, the entire grid was completely shut-down to public access. Only Lindens were allowed in. The SL Blog back then didn't have a 150 comment limit and it was fun to follow that entry and reading how so many people were actually going through serious withdrawals.
Ah those were the days. Of course those also were the days of complete and utter frustration when Teleports wouldn't work for three days straight, or the grey-goo attack that screwed the grid up for three days, or the bug that cause the Lindens to turn off all scripts for three days...
Of course anyone who signed-up after the "new" grid technology that allows "rolling updates" won't understand the nostalgia of the entire grid effectively shutting down and just can't appreciate it.
(Via Second Life Grid Status Reports » Blog Archive » Logins and In World Services Down for Maintenance Wednesday a.m.)
"Wednesday January 6 2010 at 5:00 a.m. Pacific, we’ll be closing logins and disabling major in world services for ninety minutes of upgrade work on our databases.
During the maintenance, logins and account registrations will be unavailable."
All, I can do is laugh with fond memories! If you are an "oldbie" then you recall how every single Wednesday the entire grid shut-down at 6 A.M. to 10 A.M. for "grid maintenance" which often included a viewer update (and sometimes lasted a lot longer!)
Yes, the entire grid was completely shut-down to public access. Only Lindens were allowed in. The SL Blog back then didn't have a 150 comment limit and it was fun to follow that entry and reading how so many people were actually going through serious withdrawals.
Ah those were the days. Of course those also were the days of complete and utter frustration when Teleports wouldn't work for three days straight, or the grey-goo attack that screwed the grid up for three days, or the bug that cause the Lindens to turn off all scripts for three days...
Of course anyone who signed-up after the "new" grid technology that allows "rolling updates" won't understand the nostalgia of the entire grid effectively shutting down and just can't appreciate it.
(Via Second Life Grid Status Reports » Blog Archive » Logins and In World Services Down for Maintenance Wednesday a.m.)
M Linden put up this predictive post at the official Second Life blog on the potential direction of Second Life, here's my take:
When I set my draw distance out 10 years and envision Second Life then, here is what I see:
Everyone has an avatar. Avatars have the ability to travel across virtual worlds, maintaining their unique identity (and inventory) as they go. Some are stunningly vivid fantasy avatars and others are hyper-real. You express yourselves through your avatar using interfaces we weren't able to imagine in 2010.
Actually I'm not so sure about that. Unless you consider a photography of my real life face being my "avatar" (avatar is not necessarily 3D in nature) to represent me in non-physical form. In this case, everyone already has an "avatar". As for the interfaces part: no doubt about it. Especially if Microsoft gets involved as they can't seem to leave a good interface alone. Windows Vista to 7 is a shock that they didn't radically change the UI between versions. But then again, 7 is just Vista that's had the garbage gutted out.
Second Life is galactic. With a massive influx of new Residents, Second Life becomes a collection of interconnected (and independent) worlds' some terrestrial, some extra-terrestrial. In terrestrial terms, Second Life grows 10x from being the 170th largest country in the world to the 134th (as measured by landmass) right between Denmark and Switzerland.True. Just as in the universe there are a bazillion galaxies. all on their own, worlds unto themselves, disconnected in any way. Sure. the SL grid might connect to Open grid and so on. But until SL grid can connect to IMVU and Habbo Hotel and Barbie World and all the rest - uh-uh. It's partly about the technology being able to mesh, but it's also partly to do with who controls what, intellectual properties, licensing and in the end: money. Though I get what you mean.
SLHD blurs the distinction between real and virtual. New tools and capabilities for content creation and animation together with enhanced graphics and multi-sensory rendering enable SLHD (Second Life in High Definition) to blur the distinction between real and virtual. You pet a chicken and feel the smooth texture of its feathers. You bend down to smell a rose and, well, you smell a rose.I get that now. At least: visually. Though I think I get the gist of what you are saying here. But this is true for all computer technologies, not just SL.
We are able to explore the edge of possibility. Combining SLHD with innovations in display technology gives us powerful and flexible new augmented- and mixed-reality environments that enable us to explore the edge of possibility that fascinating edge between virtual and real. Walls in your office become portals to the metaverse. Imagine the possibilities for information visualization.
I concur. However a couple caveats apply: technology doesn't stand still. What will Linden Lab be like 5 or ten years from now. How will LL's product hold-up? Technology, like time stands still for no one. The powerhouse of Microsoft is quaking in their boots right now because they are no longer as powerful the leader they once were. The three "kings" (Microsoft, Adobe and Google) are constantly fighting it out. Where is IBM now?
And newer technology, no matter how good it is has to arrive at the right place at the right time. Compare Blue Mars to Second Life. Which is better? Moot question. Which is more popular and mature and established?
Blue-ray DVD for example will take-off as a data-based format, but not for movies because it's too late. Download and streaming is the new wave of the future with Tivo boxes, Netflix boxes and Apple TV boxes taking content from the Internet and playing it in HD on your 5000-inch television. Blue-ray is too late to the game to really take-off.
SL is there now and Blue Mars is late. It is up to Linden Research to evolve SL to keep it current and maintain its presence. This requires the changes you are implementing now - good for you. Sorry that the emotionally charged users are so vitriolic toward you because they cannot see this requirement.
The walls come down early in the second decade. Second Life quickly spreads beyond the walled garden of 2009. APIs connect it to commonly-used social utilities. It's available on mobile devices. It's part of real life experiences. All together, this makes Second Life a natural, practical extension and enhancement of everyday life. Imagine you are out shopping one day. You see a great dining table in a real life store and scan it with your mobile device. Moments later it appears in the dining room of your Second Life home visible on your mobile device, projectable on the wall of the store.
You see it in context but you're still not sure it's right so you check your friend list to see who might be available to offer a second opinion. You send an invite and your best friend pops in, looks at it and gives you two thumbs up. You still have reservations. Later in the evening, you visit your Second Life home again to see how the table looks. You love it. With a few clicks, you purchase it and arrange for delivery to your real life home.
I can see this. And I like what I see. Let's step back to the "galactic" analogy. Get that working right and this will surely follow!
The Second Life economy becomes meaningful among real world economies. The Second Life economy -- powered by a robust marketplace, a stable Linden Dollar and superb tools for content creation, management, protection, sharing and consumption continues its high double-digit growth -- and zooms from number 175 to number 150 among world economies (as measured by GDP). The availability of a robust and secure global marketplace gives people in emerging economies education and income-earning opportunities they don't have domestically.
I hope so. But you'll have to really make the words "Second L:ife" a bit less cartoonist and a bit more "serious". Have you any idea what kind of reactions I get from my boss and co-workers when I say we should consider "Second Life" as a mean for delivering our product (we are a training company that currently uses WebEx webinar format)?
It sounds too much like 1) a game, 2) a play thing 3) A place to waste time 4) a game.
Find a good "corporate-sounding" name. Create a grid just for that (no, not the enterprise thing you have now - but a whole grid - like the teen grid, but for enterprise - and linked to the main in a one-way fashion - into the main, but not back into the enterprise) and offer a considerably less expensive way to enter for small companies (easy to sell my boss of $5,000 over $50,000 - get it?)
Right now all I have to pitch to my boss is: $50k for the enterprise thing (way over budget!) or "main gris with all the porno crap too easily accessible for $5k a month" (Affordable, but not enough "control against what we don't want to be associated with").
When you do that - then the grid and SL technology will be seriously considered for business use by the so-hos and small companies- and that's when it becomes a tidal-wave in the business community and the idea really spreads. Right now you are limiting yourself to the fortune-1000.
It sounds too much like 1) a game, 2) a play thing 3) A place to waste time 4) a game.
Find a good "corporate-sounding" name. Create a grid just for that (no, not the enterprise thing you have now - but a whole grid - like the teen grid, but for enterprise - and linked to the main in a one-way fashion - into the main, but not back into the enterprise) and offer a considerably less expensive way to enter for small companies (easy to sell my boss of $5,000 over $50,000 - get it?)
Right now all I have to pitch to my boss is: $50k for the enterprise thing (way over budget!) or "main gris with all the porno crap too easily accessible for $5k a month" (Affordable, but not enough "control against what we don't want to be associated with").
When you do that - then the grid and SL technology will be seriously considered for business use by the so-hos and small companies- and that's when it becomes a tidal-wave in the business community and the idea really spreads. Right now you are limiting yourself to the fortune-1000.
Second Life becomes a standard in business, education and government. All sizes of companies use Second Life as their preferred collaboration, simulation and learning tool to connect with customers, suppliers and employees all over the world. Universities funnel expansion funds into the virtual world, eschewing expensive real world building projects in favor of Second Life. Essential government services are delivered virtually."
See my previous comment and mark my words here and now. Business will not take SL seriously until you overcome the things I have mentioned. Though ten years is a long time, so yeah, I can see it happening eventually.
Provided someone else doesn't come along under the radar and take that business away from you - and becomes the "defacto-standard" virtual world for business and play.
(Via Second Life Blogs: Features: Happy New Year! Looking Back...Looking Ahead.)
(Via Second Life Blogs: Features: Happy New Year! Looking Back...Looking Ahead.)
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