Has Rod Humble Gone Techno?

When Rod Humble left Linden Lab he did so with a statement on Facebook that said in part :

I am starting up a company to make Art, Entertainment, and unusual things! More on that in a few weeks.

Since then, many many weeks later, we haven’t heard a lot. Puzzled by this I decided to do some investigating but could only really find links to articles about Rod Humble leaving Linden Lab. I had heard a whisper that I should be looking for a chap in a hat, but that really didn’t take me far. I did find one or two odd links, links that left one saying “No, that can’t be him.

I was about to call for assistance, I was halfway through writing a telegram to Inara Holmes when a certain odd link cried out to me :

Can I pimp my own stuff? I just released a techno / EDM album on iTunes & Amazon, woot!

My bands name is Chaphat and my Album is Outsurge.

This leads to an album on iTunes called Outsurge by a band called ChapHat.

Now you may be wondering what on earth stood out about that link, well it was the user who posted it, a certain Rod Humble, AKA Rodvik, from the San Francisco Bay area who also happens to be a fan of Aston Villa. Coincidence? Identity Theft? Neither can be ruled out, but there’s more.

Continue reading “Has Rod Humble Gone Techno?”

Science Fiction Convention Now Open

SCI-FI

 

There are many fairs and events in Second Life during the course of the year, some more popular than others. Regular readers of this blog will know of my love of Fantasy Faire. However another big love of mine is Science Fiction, I don’t see enough of it in Second Life, this is more due to time restraints, which Science Fiction should be able to fix!

However, as part of the Relay For Life effort, there is a Science Fiction convention going on in Second Life, right now.

Colourful Planet

The event opened on May 30th and runs until June 8th, so there’s plenty of time to see the sims, of which there are six and they come in a variety of themes from your classic Sci-Fi look to more colourful offerings.

Continue reading “Science Fiction Convention Now Open”

Palmer Luckey Unsure Of Second Life Future In VR Age

I’m not Palmer Luckey’s biggest fan, this largely stems from the lack of understanding and lack of giving something back to the Kickstarter community after Oculus landed on their feet with the Facebook deal. In the wider scheme of matters this wasn’t exactly a huge let down and certainly didn’t merit the level of vitriol the decison received, I mean he’s certainly not in the Nick Clegg league when it comes to being a complete and utter let down and let’s face it, the future looks extremely bright for Palmer Luckey and Oculus Rift, the same definitely can’t be said for Nick Clegg, the future doesn’t even look as if it will be orange for him.

Hamlet Au over at New World Notes has managed to get some really interesting comments from Palmer Luckey regarding Second Life:

I think that virtual worlds are going to play a big role in the future of Oculus and VR on the whole, but it remains to be seen how big of a part of that future Second Life will be.

Second Life is of course approaching its official eleventh birthday and is therefore an older platform, it’s not young and exciting but I still believe Second Life can be a platform that takes advantage of technology such as Oculus Rift because Second Life is a very dynamic platform. Second Life is a platform whereby you can wipe the slate clean on a parcel or sim and start again, therefore I believe that people could create builds that are optimised for technology such as Oculus Rift, but being Second Life, that would also mean vast swathes of Second Life aren’t optimised for the technology and that could very well prove to be a stumbling block for widespread adoption of the technology in a virtual world such as Second Life.

Oculus Rift will probably be better served by a virtual world that is created with Oculus Rift in mind from the start. Hamlet asked Palmer Luckey what Second Life most needed in order to transition to the Oculus/VR age, and be relevant in it? Palmer replied:

I don’t think anyone will know for sure until VR has more time to mature, lots of poorly understood problems right now. 

This brings us back to the point I was making earlier that Oculus Rift will probably be better served by a virtual world built with Oculus Rift in mind. This is a point that I’ve seen Adeon Writer make time after time regarding existing games and virtual worlds, the advice is that trying to fit existing virtual worlds and games into the Oculus Rift umbrella is likely to be more pain than its worth.

Continue reading “Palmer Luckey Unsure Of Second Life Future In VR Age”

SL11B Applicants – Don’t Panic!

SL 11B Logo Should Be Here

The Second Life 11th Birthday celebrations are just around the corner and many people have applied to be part of the event. Now as applications are closed and people are awaiting responses, there may be a bit of anxiety regarding whether or not your application has been accepted, the message from a MadMan … umm the organisers, is, don’t panic!

The event will be running from June 22nd to June 29th and this year’s theme is Winston Churchill ….. wait wait wait.. what? Oh sorry, the theme cant be Winston Churchill because he enjoyed alcohol and cigars, neither of which are welcome on General rated sims, the theme for this year’s event is “The empires of the future are the empires of the mind“, which is a quote from Winston Churchill.

This quote provides quite a wide scope for people to create displays for and it will be extremely interesting to see what people come up with.

Continue reading “SL11B Applicants – Don’t Panic!”

Moving Land Between Groups Leads To Headaches

There’s an interesting thread over at SLUniverse regarding the trials and tribulations of buying mainland, deeding mainland to a group and moving land from one group to another group whilst at the same time trying to avoid incurring increased fees by tiering up.

The process is fraught with danger and confusion and Linden Lab should take a look at that thread to understand the challenges people face. The old old official Second Life forum archive had a sticky by Skye Whitcroft with some advice on how to move land around without tiering up, here for example is an explanation on how to transfer land from group A to group B, or in other words, transfer land from one group to another :

HOW TO: TRANSFER LAND FROM GROUP A TO GROUP B
—————————————————————–

1. Set Destination Group as Active Group
2. Donate/Transfer Tier (Set Land Contribution)
3. Transfer Land to New Group

SET DESTINATION GROUP AS ACTIVE GROUP

Choose Edit >> Groups. In the box highlight the group TO which the land will be transferred. Click Activate.

DONATE/TRANSFER TIER (SET LAND CONTRIBUTION)

If you have donated tier to Group A for land and you need the tier in Group B, remove your tier donation in Group A.

1. Select Edit >> Groups from the menubar. The list of the groups you belong to appears. In the new pop up box, highlight the group where land currently is held (Group A). Click the Info button. The Group Information box opens.

2. Go to “Land and L$” tab. In the white box next to “Your Contribution” change this number to zero to remove all of your tier from group, or subtract the amount of the land you will remove and click “apply”.

3. This puts Group A into negative tier and gives warning message. Don’t panic. It will be OK for a few minutes to have negative tier in Group A to complete this transaction.

[N.B. You can simply sell land to yourself and tick the “remove contribution from group” box EXCEPT that if you do not have sufficient tier to cover buying the land back out of the group, you are bumped up to the next tier level. These steps help ensure you do not incur a higher tier charge]

4. Add tier (if needed) to Group B. [If Group B does not need tier donation, skip to steps for Transfer Land to New Group.] Select Edit >> Groups from the menubar. The list of the groups you belong to appears.

5. Highlight the group you want to donate to (Group B) and click the Info button. The Group Information box opens.

6. Click the “Land & L$” tab.

7. In the Your Contribution box, enter the amount you want to donate and click “Apply”

TRANSFER LAND TO NEW GROUP

1. Go to the land and right-click it. Select About Land from the pie menu.

2. Click “sell land”

3. In the new box, type in agreed price for land (can be 0).

4. MOST IMPORTANT STEP!! Choose “SPECIFIC USER” from drop down box. In new popup box, type your own name and click on “find”, then click “select”

****If you choose ANYONE from the dropdown list, and you are selling below the market price for land, you’re almost guaranteed a bot will buy your land. In effect, you are telling Second Life that you are selling the land to anyone in the game for the price you have just typed and that means anyone can buy it.*****

5. Choose whether you transfer the objects with the land.

6. Click “set land for sale”

7. Go to the land and right-click it. Select Buy Land from the pie menu.

8. Click on “Buy Land for Group” <— Double check you have correct group active!

9. Watch for the transfer message. If Group B does not have sufficient tier, you will get a message saying the transfer failed.

Now some of the information may be a little dated due to how the viewer now works but the process remains complicated. Skye’s old guide also includes the following information:

  • HOW TO: TRANSFER LAND FROM INDIVIDUAL TO INDIVIDUAL
  • HOW TO: TRANSFER LAND FROM A GROUP TO INDIVIDUAL
  • HOW TO: DEED LAND TO A GROUP (TRANSFER FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GROUP)

These are tasks that many Second Life residents want to engage with but are put off from doing so due to issues such as group land carrying a 10% bonus, which means if you try and sell said piece of land back to yourself, you lose this bonus and may need to tier up to buy your own land, which is confusing to say the least.

Continue reading “Moving Land Between Groups Leads To Headaches”

Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: