I can only assume that when people purchased Linden Dollars for use on The Marketplace, they made the purchase via some sort of legacy system, if that was the case it certainly makes sense to update the system to use the same system the rest of Second Life uses. I guess we’ll see if there are any issues in the future, but off the top off my head I can’t think why there would be.

In other, and rather less bizarre news, The Materials Viewer Has Been Released! I haven’t yet looked at this, although I hope to shortly but the blurb tells us:

“This Viewer will allow content creators to build objects using normal and specular maps and will allow users to view the effects of this new feature set. The end result is photorealistic textured objects inworld, such as the SL10B Bear Avatar, which will look even better with this Viewer.”

There’s a video, which I will embed in traditional style at the bottom of this post … well it’s traditional for me to do that! There are some important things to note regarding materials, one is that you need to be using a viewer that supports Materials, which obviously the Linden Lab Materials Viewer will do and secondly, you need to have a system that can handle advanced lighting, unfortunately not all systems will support this option.

However Linden Lab do provide an FAQ to help you along. That FAQ is really useful, which isn’t surprising as Jeremy Linden is involved with its publication, some important questions on the FAQ:

What are the system requirements to view Materials?

 OpenGL 3.0 is required

One of the following supported GPUs:

GeForce 8 and later

Intel HD and later

ATI Radeon X1000 and later.

There is also a long list of supported graphics card, which you can read at the FAQ! Another issue, and certainly one that may take people by surprise is:

Why are my Materials objects now using Land Impact as opposed to Prim Accounting?

Moving forward, all new graphics features will use Land Impact to better evaluate the system load so users and creators alike can make more educated decisions about how to build and what to place in their regions.

Now that’s interesting, I’ve blogged about texture usage in the past and I’ve blogged about how some people feel that textures should be included in Land Impact calculations. There’s no doubt that textures can add to the strain on viewers and sims. I can recall that in early beta testing, Qie Niangao ran into an issue with materials textures increasing Land Impact, but unfortunately I can’t remember exactly what the issue is.

This is an interesting development and may encourage people to engage with more efficient texture usage in the long run, it’s a shame that the guys at Linden Lab can’t run across the road into the HQ of Flickr and explain to them the issues of lots of large textures loading in a scene, but I’m in danger of going off on a tangent here!

I’m also pleased to see that LL’s blog post promotes both the Content Creators Guide and the Good Building Practices Wiki. I’ve talked about the latter a few times, it’s a very handy resource that should be well promoted.

I will end, with the promised video, this is interesting stuff:

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Magellan’s Grid Scavenger Hunt

Welcome, brave explorers and adventurers! Magellan Linden uncovered an evil scheme by the mad Doctor Talpa to build mind-controlling machines and take over the world. While Magellan builds a machine to counter this scheme, you are needed to gather materials and components — and to destroy every one of Talpa’s machines you find. Magellan has established workshops, a laboratory (even a bar) on the Isles of Ice; travel there to learn more, get equipped and start the hunt!

Visit in Second Life

Magellan Linden needs you! Well if you’re a Premium member he does anyway. Why does he need Premium members? I have no idea, but you can’t help if you’re not a Premium member, maybe Magellan is partying with basic accounts and hitting on girls, he has a reputation for booze and bawdiness. Wait a minute that would mean us Premium members doing all the work!

In the past Magellan used to write chronicles, but they ended around 2005. Magellan hasn’t been doing much since October 2008 when the infamous Nautilus City Investigation took place, you’ll find lots of links about the legend of Magellan Linden there. There you will also get some insight into the nature of Magellan Linden, as exemplified by one of the last known chat logs of the intrepid explorer:

Resident: Excuse me, but could I ask you please to move?

Resident: I mean, with that huge suit you’re wearing, it’s hard for people to walk around you in here.

Resident: Please?

Magellan: Hush, woman! I’m in three different IMs and they’re all more important than you.

Resident: But this is my art gallery. People are here for the opening party.

Magellan: Just tow it out to Weiland or Shenning. I’ll board it there, head south.

Resident: What?

Magellan: Damn it!

Resident: What did I do? Tow what?

Magellan: No, some arty-farty cow is making noise and confusing me.

Magellan: Damn it again!

Resident: Hey, wait, are you talking about me?

They gave Magellan a Mole Tank! I mean, letting Magellan loose in something like that!

Since then sighting of Magellan have been rare, although speculation about his existence has continued.

At the end of 2012, Uccello Poultry speculated: 2013: The Year We Find Magellan Linden. Well he’s certainly around, as exemplified by the hunt and whereas you need to be Premium to take part in that, you don’t need to be Premium to speculate about the legend that is Magellan Linden.

However there is more mystery, one hunts, birthday parties and exploring may not uncover, where in the world is Salazar Jack?

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The controversy over the Flickr redesign has revealed some very FIC like behaviour, that is if you believe the FIC exist. A discussion on what exactly the Feted Inner Core means can be found here at SLUniverse.

One of the feedback threads on the new redesign got a bit messy with accusations of paid shills and Flickr staff alts posting supportive feedback, you see this sort of thing happens on all forums and Flickr and Second Life forums are rather tame compared to other places, but wild conspiracy theories can rear their heads on both forums. As things got heated, Flickr staff updated the main post with:

“Since a select few in this thread seem to be having a tinfoil hat day, I want to emphasize that all posts by Flickr staff are clearly identified as such by a gray background and the staff tag underneath the buddy icon.

 Flickr staff does not use alter egos to post. Even if there are many knowledgeable Flickr members that are willing to help by responding to questions and feedback, none of them are “Flickr staff in disguise”. Please treat each other respectfully.”

Some took umbrage at the tinfoil hat swipe, personally I found it amusing and if people are going to give Flickr stick over the redesign it’s only fair that Flickr staff can poke back at times. That should have been that, but a twist emerged when pictures emerged from a Flickr meetup in San Francisco, just prior to the rollout of the new site. Some of the most vociferous supporters of the changes are seen in the pictures….. oooh!

However that’s not all, some of them were certainly there by invitation from Flickr, although there’s no suggestion that Flickr paid for the trip.

One member, who features in the photos revealed:

“Did Flickr invite a few members out to check out the new design? Yes.

Did Flickr pay Us? No!

Did We have a good time? Yes!

Are We being paid to backup Flickr and the new design? Hell No!!”

The tinfoil hat brigade certainly have some ammunition now, although they have largely held their fire. However it does make the comment about the tinfoil hat brigade from Flickr staff look a tad silly. The reality is likely to be that people who go to Flickr meetups are extremely protective of the site, want it to prosper and have a great affinity for Flickr. Whereas they will be critical, they probably save that criticism for more secluded confines.

There are supportive voices regarding the Flickr redesign from people who did not attend the Flickr meetup, so it’s not as if it’s only those who attended the meetup who are cheering on the changes, but those who did attend, certainly seem to cheer loudly, Flickr seem to have played a decent hand there.

Personally, I still think the redesign is awful and I still think Flickr will end up merging with Tumblr, but then again I have to go and get my tinfoil hat sized up!

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You know how it goes, there’s a big event, you ramp up your graphics card settings, get ready for snapshots and watch in horror as you run out of texture memory, or the viewer crashes whilst playing about with windlight settings and then you forget all about the windlight setting you like. This is when you remind yourself that you’re living in denial about the capabilities of your graphics card and settle on looking at the parcel itself, which is what I did as I found myself at Crap Mariner’s SL10BCC Shatoetry Project.

The notecard informs us:

The Second Life SL10BCC Shatoetry Project

by Crap Mariner

(UPDATED June 9, 2013)

 Shatoetry is a smartphone app that lets you create magnetic poetry with William Shatner’s voice.

 ”Second” and “Life” are available in the word packs, and that inspired this project.

 I created a bunch of Shatisms about Second Life which explore the past, present, future, and quirks of this virtual world. Then, I embedded the sounds in this build.

When you arrive on the parcel you can listen to the Shatisms Crap has created, as well as user contributed ones. Details on how to add your own Shatism to the build are included in the notecard on the parcel, I’m not going to provide all the details here as that would not be fair on the exhibit, if this sounds interesting to you, go and visit the parcel:

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL10B%20Electrify/31/104/21

The build itself is nicely done and the Shatisms are very amusing as you hear William Shatner style speech with phrases associated with Second Life and virtual worlds.

A number of people have already contributed their own Shatisms to the exhibit, they include:

• Botgirl Questi
• Codebastard Redgrave
• DrFran Babcock
• Explorer Dastardly
• Feline Slade
• Holocluck Henly
• Honour McMillan
• Kristine Kristan
• Marianne McCann
• Menubar Memorial
• Mistletoe Ethaniel
• Pygar Bu
• Sanura Snowpaw
• Serendipity Haven
• Tura Brezoianu
• Uccie Poultry-Seale
• Whiskey Monday

So as you can see, the project created by Crap Mariner has embraced the wider community very nicely, although it won’t be to all people’s tastes, I found it highly amusing and very well crafted.

A full list of Shatisms in the build is available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J16M72gX2oOHYNbx2hgRlCFPnaoyKj5kIBjMsb1bKQM/

Really though, you should visit and experience them with sound. That way you may also meet other Second Life residents, as I did when I was poked in the back with a shout of “Oi! You’ve shrunk!”

So then I moaned to Inara Pey about my graphics card woes and complained that Strawberry Singh and Inara Pey manage to capture great snapshots of islands and mine crumble into mush, then I decided it was best just to admire Inara’s tats:

Now if you could lean in closer you could see that the tatoo has Inara on it, that’s how you know you’re talking to an authentic Inara Pey! Anyway there’s more exploring to do and if you do have time, the SL10BCC Shatoetry Project is certainly an interesting and humourous place to visit.

Now where are those photography tips from Torley!

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Isle Of Dee St Vitus Festival

My chief Elf poked me asking me why I hadn’t blogged about the festival on my sim where she’s the admin……. erm I was playing Diablo III and forgot isn’t a good excuse, so I tried to perform magic on her but she just glared and handed me some notes. Now first thing, this is on a roleplaying sim and medieval or mythical attire is required for this event, it’s not required for all events but it is for this one, however if you fancy popping along free avatars are provided. Now for some blurb.

Hear ye Hear ye!

Traditionally, the Isle of Dee Citizens celebrate St Vitus Day with a Festival of games, shows, competitions, wondrous wonders, surprising surprises!

 WITH:

SILENT THE MENTALIST – GYPSIE FORTUNE TELLING – CALI SINGS SILENT SONGS – FERRIS WHEEL – TUG OF WAR – PLAY GAMES – WIN PRIZES – SHOOTING – FENCING – FISHING – ISLE OF DEE MARATHON – FOOD- DRINKS – MUSIC – WONDERS

So one of the surprises could be me forgetting to blog about it? Umm The Elf just shakes her head and tells me that’s no surprise. Ok so time to blog about what is happening. but first here’s what happened yesterday:

FRIDAY, 14th June, Opening Day

All the day: Games Carnivale Circus

 All day on request – Madame Can Gypsy fortune telling

 10 AM slt – Circus Tent Stage – The Mentalist

And here’s what you’ve missed so far today:

SATURDAY , 15th June

9 AM slt – 3 PM slt – Bath House Opening Party

 11 AM slt – Silent Poems

However all is not lost, because there’s still stuff to come! Which I’ll list below the cut.

Silent Dream- Isle of Dee

Friday , 14th of June- Sunday, 16th of June.

Come Watch The Shows,

Play the Games of Chance.

Test Your Strength of Mind meeting Silent the Mentalist,

See the dark Pixie for your fortune,

Test your skills at the fun devices, win prizes, find yer love, become drunk!

 Come, See, Be Merry!

 We spared no costs no effort, join us once more for an amazing live experience you won’t forget!

Everyone welcomed. Medieval or Mythical attire REQUIRED. Free Male and Female ( human) Avatars provided ( with AO).

SATURDAY , 15th June

9 AM slt – 3 PM slt – Bath House Opening Party

11 AM slt – Silent Poems

 1 PM slt – Traditional Isle of Dee Marathon Race

5:30 PM slt – Castle stage: Cali sings Silent Songs (ability to listen to voice required)

 All day on request – Madame Can Gypsy fortune telling

Watch announcements for Whack the evil Mole-Rats and other surprises.

Gypsies Fortune

SUNDAY, 16th June

1 PM slt – Circus Tent Stage – The Mentalist – Silent

 4 pm slt Wine stomping at the cock a hoop

 5 PM slt Banquet at the Castle

 Followed by Cali singing Silent Songs (ability to listen to voice required)

 All day on request – Madame Can Gypsy fortune telling

Watch announcements for surprises.

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/DEE/130/129/4002

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Under The Sea Expo

Whereas SL10B will grab a lot of the headlines over the next few weeks, the whole of Second Life doesn’t stand still and next week, between June 20th and 26th, The Under The Sea Expo will be taking place. What on earth is The Under The Sea Expo? Well it’s an expo for those who love the Second Life oceans, from the blurb I was handed:

The Under the Sea Expo brings you the ruins of Atlantis, reborn and transformed into a thriving market to be shopped and explored! The Lost City has been found and you are invited to join us for this very special event, Thursday June 20- Wednesday June 26!

There’s also a hunt during the expo, but this will be a guided hunt from my understanding. Each Vendor has agreed to donate one free item to the Treasure Hunt Event and visitors to the Expo will be taken on a guided hunt to each vendor location at the Expo to collect these prizes. One gift per avatar, per Vendor!

As with an event, there are plenty of vendors sharing the nautical love:

THIS YEAR’S PARTICIPANTS!!

Sponsored by Oceania Breedables

Aquatics
Bands of Cypher
Beautiful Freak
Boudoir
Botanical
Cerridwen’s Cauldron
The Cetelogical Museum
Curio Obscura
Evie’s Closet
FantaSea
Fantasy Flora
Fior di Perle Skins and Clothes
House of Rain
LunaSea
meadowWorks
Mer-chandise Cove
The Muses
:{MV}:
NDiver
Oceania Breedables
Splash Aquatics
Tarnished
Two Moon Paradise
Zohee’s Mermaid Designs

For more information visit: http://sandseaandsecondlife.wordpress.com/

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The Second Life blog has recently reminded us that there’s more to SL10B than bear avatars, they’re also giving away T-Shirts, baseball caps as well as competitions. However the bears are cool, admit it. Now ten years is a long time for an online experience, especially these days.

Personally I feel they should do a Doctor Who type special event where three version of the CEO all meet in the same space, causing potential mayhem with the laws of physics, so we’d have Rod Humble, Mark Kingdon and Philip Rosedale on stage at the same time, all wary that something may explode if they get too close, actually Philip may be there twice as we’ve had two versions of Philip as CEO.

Now looking back at Second Life is more fun that looking forward, largely because you have depth to the backwards glance. I’ve taken a very quick and random look back to 2005, a year when people were complaining about not being able to login, Linden Lab were announcing plans for a teen grid, people were asking what exactly Second Life is, Magellan Linden was exploring new land and there were eBay auctions for billboard space in welcome areas, Catherine Linden was asking for people to let her know what they used Second Life for so she could post it on the website and a nifty new way of posting snapshots from Second Life to a blog were being plugged. Let’s start with an old classic, Problems logging in anyone?

Usagi Musashi posted in that thread, and it’s as confusing a post as I recall Usagi posting, I wasn’t here in 2005, but I remember Usagi posts on the forum. I was going to do a tongue in cheek list of ten years of problems logging in forum posts, but I figured that might sound too negative, even by my standards, although it is actually fun reading them, honest!

There’s another thread from 2005, that from its title I thought was another old favourite: Second Life article on News.com – Game or Metaverse? However it’s not the usual “It’s a game“, “Oh no it isn’t!” type thread, it links to a very interesting post on Cnet regarding what Second Life is:

When tens of thousands of people can gather in a fully 3D environment to buy and sell fanciful clothing, defy gravity by flying, make friends from all over the world, build residential communities, speculate on land prices, and create and license software, what do you call it?

For three years, Linden Lab, the publisher of “Second Life,” has grappled with that question.

Interesting stuff with people wondering why Second Life was flourishing when it wasn’t based on weapons, armour or nation states …. and that question still gets asked today.

Back in 2005 Catherine Linden was asking people:

What are you using Second Life for? Teaching classes? Running a business? Research? Gathering place for far flung friends and family, creative expression, social hub, making movies, place to try out new ideas?

 Marketing/PR are looking for the various ways that people use Second Life. The goal will be to have rotating list of people and locations on the webpage and it will be a great opportunity for PR to uncover all the things that are happening in world.

This sounds like an idea that eventually became the destination guide. 2005 also brought us the intrepid explorer, Magellan Linden, who began recording his advenutres in a blog and seriously, surely Magellan will make an appearance at Sl10B?

Meanwhile Catherine Linden was telling people that SLUniverse allows you to blog your snapshots instantly, that would be Snapzilla then.

Reuben Linden was posting something about auctions being up on eBay …. there’s another one about eBay auctions for billboard space in welcome areas, interesting concept, this is the first time I’ve ever read about this.

Robin Linden, who was tagged as a “Linden Lifer” was informing people of the next steps for the teen grid:

I wanted to let you know we’re starting to build the Teen Grid. In planning these next steps, we’ve taken very seriously the feedback that you’ve given us over the last several months regarding Teens in Second Life, their safety, and the need for a special, separate place inaccessible to the adults in the main grid.

Ah how times change, there’s loads more information in the old forum archive, lots of fun stuff, lots of interesting stuff, I’m so glad that archive still exists, I’d go on and on but I think this is already too long!

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So you’ve got your new free SL10B avatar from Shopkeeper Linden on The SL Marketplace and now you want to record the magic of being a bear in Second Life. There are ways to share the love, one way is to post pics in blogs, especially when it’s a Strawberry Singh bear on a moped! I wonder if that would get more feedback if it was Strawberry Singh bare on a moped, but I like the bear!

However there are other places to share photos of the bear and one place is Flickr, yes I said Flickr. I know that some people are watching twirling balls and singing along to the Three Degrees singing “When Will I See You Again” as they try and battle with the new “More Awesome” Flickr but groups are still the same as they ever were and Crap Mariner has created Second Life SL10B Bear Avatar Photos group where you can share the love of all things SL10B bear related.

Now you may not want to share photos, but hey you might want to view them, so that’s a great place to view them in all their gory …. I mean glory. People really need to follow the bear ….. are Hofmeister still in business? I haven’t saw Hofmeister for ages…. ok I don’t think they are so I think we’re safe to say that for great (and not so great) pictures, follow the bear!

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I was looking for a place for my SL10B Bear Avatar to visit, so I decided to visit The Destination Guide and check out the Photgenic spots. There are some really nice looking places to explore but I wanted a place out in the open and then I spotted it, a hazardous looking location:

Hazardous

“Dream infinitely, remain fearless, but always seek hazardous adventures.” Hazardous is a mysterious and intriguing place to take a few photographs, hang out, dance, or just spend some quiet time reflecting. Seek it out.

Visit in Second Life

So off I went in search of adventure and found a place that is beautifully presented but has a creepy feeling that something or someone may reach out and grab you if you don’t pay attention. Therefore I was glad to be in my Bear avatar, someone or something is far less likely to attack a bear, but this may not be the right place for child avi’s, there’s a chance you’ll be sold to The Circus!

Parts of the sim are alive with trees and scenery and parts of the sim look like someone has abandoned all hope and fled, I stumbled across an old car, whose owner must have long since left the stage:

I found places to dance, places to hide, places to get petrol!

However I didn’t find any jars of honey or marmalade sandwiches, not even in the fridge:

This means the bear will just have to go on adventuring until he finds food … and maybe beer, I could sure do with a pint!

The SL10B avatar can be purchased for free from Shopkeeper Linden’s store on The SL Marketplace here.

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However Flickr is still a good place for storing images and groups are pretty much the same as they ever were, with a variety of views available. The way groups work should be the norm, not the exception. However Flickr, despite the howls of protest from users, have steadfastly refused to allow people to customise their views on the landing page, or when they explore. Why? I have no idea but I’m going to speculate that it’s part of a longer term plan to intergrate with Tumblr, because the idea that they’re annoying so many users just to implement adverts holds little water, if they haven’t got website designers who can incorporate adverts into different views, they should hire some who can. I believe their staff are more than capable of serving adverts in different views.

So my guess is that there is going to be some intergration with Tumblr. Coincidentally enough Tumblr’s homepage has had a revamp this week and one that, according to Mashable’s Samantha Murphy is : “a photo-rich design very reminiscent of its new sister site Flickr”

As I said I’m speculating, but taking the speculation further, groups are still good in terms of usability. Groups would be far more difficult to engage with Tumblr intergration, therefore there’s no need to force infinite scrolling and justified images on groups if the goal is Tumblr intergration.

However exploring Flickr could be far more easily intergrated to also explore Tumblr and there you would want consistency. Photostreams are a bit different but yes, intergration with Tumblr could happen there too and the same with the landing page where it may be an aim to combine Flickr and Tumblr accounts so that you’d see Tumblr and Flickr comments and images.

As I keep saying, this is pure speculation, but speculation is really all you can do when Flickr so steadfastly refuse to give users the customisation options that once existed and if they were available today, would deal with a lot of the gripes on the Flickr forums.

Whether I’m right or wrong only time will tell, but there must be more to the Flickr revamp than meets the eye, no company would want to annoy their customers like this just to make the site look jazzier for some.

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