July 2015 – Ciaran Laval

July 31, 2015

PaleoQuest – Help Magellan Linden Save The Grid From The Evil Dr Talpa

PaleoQuest is Linden Lab’s latest adventure game in Portal Park and they have blogged about it – Brave Dinosaurs & Win Prizes in PaleoQuest! :

Magellan Linden put the moles to work building a theme park on the latest hunk of land discovered in Second Life… but something’s gone horribly wrong!

Uncover the mystery of a menacing plan and explore six exciting regions teeming with dinosaurs and valuable collectibles in PaleoQuest. The evil Dr. Talpa has mangled space and time – colliding past, present, and future into a single point in time – which happens to be at the PaleoQuest Theme Park. Are you the dashing hero the world needs to stop Dr. Talpa from taking over? The rewards are great – but so is the risk! Dare the treacherous obstacles that lay in waiting, and uncover a wealth of hidden tools and items that will aid you in your quest for fame and adventure.

Please read the blog post in full for full details about the prizes and any restrictions. Inara Pey has posted a very good blog post about PaleoQuest : Experiencing PaleoQuest, the Lab’s latest adventure in Second Life.

I haven’t yet delved deep into PaleoQuest, but I have briefly visiting the opening area. Starting in Portal Park follow the sign for PaleoQuest, go down the path, accept the experiences request and you’ll soon be on your way, complete with a funky hud that has information regarding the game.

The welcome centre has a lot of useful information, including videos that are well worth watching, I’ll embed a couple in this post, starting with the trailer for the game. Which isn’t actually in the welcome centre, but more on that later.

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July 30, 2015

Magic Boxes Set To Shut Down In August Along With The Mysterious Shut Down Of XStreet

More information for Second Life Marketplace merchants, Linden Lab have blogged Magic Box and Xstreet Shut Down Dates. No, you haven’t read that incorrectly.

The launch of the Viewer Managed Marketplace has erased the last remaining reasons for Magic Boxes to exist inworld. No copy items are no longer a problem. Once everyone has been migrated, they will serve no purpose, other than taking up a prim of land. Therefore the blog post informs us :

Merchants who are still using Magic Boxes to sell their items will need to manually migrate their listings by August 17, 2015, when Magic Boxes will no longer appear on Marketplace.

Hopefully this won’t be an issue for too many merchants. August 17th is not that far away. The news about XStreet is odd. The blog post informs us :

We will leave Xstreet up until August 27, 2015, so that interested Merchants can pull their data before the site is shut down for good.

This news is odd for a few reasons. New merchants might be wondering what XStreet is. Older merchants might be surprised to learn that XStreet is still running. First let’s go back in time, to January 2009 when Linden Lab announced :

Linden Lab®, creator of the virtual worldSecond Life®, today announced a key milestone in its expansion of the Second Life platform: acquiring two Web-based marketplaces for virtual goods, Xstreet SL and OnRez. These acquisitions join several other recent strategic initiatives, including enhancements to the experience for new users, which will enable Linden Lab to reach a broader global audience for Second Life in 2009. Linden Lab is consolidating the two marketplaces on the Xstreet SL platform, offering one online shopping experience for customers and merchants. This will make it easier for Second Life Residents to find virtual goods to purchase and will provide merchants broader channels to sell their products.

XStreet and OnRez were created by Second Life residents, not Linden Lab. However in 2009 Linden Lab made both online marketplaces an offer they couldn’t refuse (No horse’s heads were involved) and they were eventually merged under the Second Life Marketplace banner.

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July 29, 2015

I Have Upgraded To Windows 10 And I Feel Fine

So I fired up my PC when I got home from work and checked my notifications, to find Windows 10 was on its way. This was all rather exciting, I could hear the voices in my head :

“Hurry up and get it installed“.

However the voices on Twitter were a different matter :

“No no no“.

“Insane in the membrane”

“You must be marbles and conkers“.

However I resisted the urge to stop the update, again my own voices speaking, although at times conflicting :

“One Windows to rule them all“.

“My precious, my precious“.

“Turn back Dick Whittngton“.

“Umm I think you’re confusing stories now and need to stop this!”

Eventually, files had been downloaded, updates had been run, apps had been configured, settings had been configured and I logged in.

Hurrah! Success. Now I should say at this point that this is not my suggested method of upgrading an operating system. I’m a big fan of the clean install. However I decided to let the Microsoft process do its work and I was rather impressed to discover that the apps I largely use seem to be working fine, without any need to reinstall them.

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July 28, 2015

Viewer Managed Marketplace Migration Seems To Be Going Smoothly

Hopefully many Second Life Marketplace merchants have received an email like this :

We have finished upgrading the listings in your store to work with the Viewer-Managed Marketplace feature. You must use a Viewer that supports VMM (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Release_Notes/Second_Life_Release/3.8.2.303583), and will need to restart the viewer if you had it open during the migration. Your stores should now be fully functional.

If you would like more information on the upgrades and how to manage your Marketplace inventory items from here on, please see the Knowledge Base Article on the Viewer-Managed Marketplace https://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Viewer-managed-Marketplace-Beta/ta-p/2854226.

Thank you for using the Second Life Marketplace

That should indicate that everything has gone smoothly with your migration to the new Viewer Managed Marketplace, then you’ll just need to get your head around how everything works with the Viewer Managed Marketplace, but fear not, Linden Lab have provided plenty of helpful assistance there. A really good place to start is with the comprehensive knowledge-base article linked in the email.

I haven’t seen too many complaints about the migration, some people have reported that they’ve received an email stating there was a problem with the migration and that Linden Lab are investigating. In those circumstances you will still need to manage your Marketplace listings as you usually would.

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July 27, 2015

Dr. Sandra Winkler Talks Of The Benefits Of Second Life At Amputee Coalition National Conference

The Amputee Coalition National Conference took place between July 22nd – 25th in Tuscon Arizona and one of the presentations involved a discussion about support and education in Second Life, with Dr. Sandra Winkler of Nova Southeastern University in Florida leading the presentation :

Virtual Support and Education Through Second Life – Sandra Winkler, PhD, OTR/L; Jim Mercier;Eme Capalini

Tucson C

This presentation will:

(1) Demonstrate a virtual world environment that provides amputees with evidence based knowledge about amputation and prosthetics – including a virtual prosthetics museum.

(2) Launch the collaboration of this project with the Amputee Coalition. Participants will experience how daily activities, such as exercising and conditioning, can be learned as an avatar in a virtual world. Amputee presenters will discuss the potential of this virtual world for distant – even international – peer visitation, education, and socialization and support activities.

Unfortunately I do not have a full transcript of the presentation.

However a report on Healio by Shawn M Carter does have some quotes from Dr. Sandra Winkler :

This tool could strengthen awareness and self-management of a user’s specific disability, Sandra Winkler, PhD, OTR/L, lead researcher of the project, said during a presentation.

“The trend in health care is managing your own care, rather than relying on a provider to tell you what to do,” she said. “Managing your own care provides access to knowledge … then you can start problem-solving what is best for you.”

Recreational activities are easiest to understand when engaging in the activity, according to Winkler, who believes this program provides that opportunity.

Dr. Sandra Winkler’s work can be further investigated on the Virtual Health Adventures website, or, if you prefer, you can visit Virtual Health Adventures in Second Life.

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