Linden Lab – Page 32 – Ciaran Laval

March 7, 2016

April’s No Fool When It Comes To Grid Rolls

A couple of weeks ago Second Life was subject to a Grid Roll, on a Friday of all days. Friday is not a good day for doing work like this, for a start, if it all goes wrong, people might have to work on Saturday and people generally don’t want to have to work on a Saturday when they could be at home relaxing.

However the reasons for the Grid Roll and the inevitable disruption it caused have been carefully explained by April Linden in a blog post : Why the Friday Grid Roll? Why indeed, it’s a good question and April provides a good answer. The brief answer is that there was a bit of a security storm, which needed to be fixed quickly, but which also need to be handled in a quiet manner to enable the Grid Roll to be completed with enough care and attention that it didn’t cause further disruption.

The post also gives us a useful insight into how different teams at Linden Lab work together. The Security team handed the issue over to the Operations Team, who submitted the fixes to ensure the security issue was dealt with. However at that stage, the fixes aren’t live.

The Development and Release teams then do their stuff and pull the fixes into the server image but Linden Lab aren’t finished yet.

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February 1, 2016

How Second Life Can Help People Lose Real Weight

Just over a year ago I blogged :Baylor College Of Medicine Utilising Second Life To Aid Women With Physical Limitations Lose Weight. That post looked at a program designed to help women lose weight when exercise is not really an option due to their physical limitations.

Fast forward to January 29th and wheelchair user Terri O’Hare has blogged about her experience of the program. The post is not too lengthy but well worth a read. Terri explains how it was with some major reluctance that she entered the virtual world of Second Life, due to the fact that she thought it would be largely inhabited by thirteen year old boys. However, she soon discovered that this was not the case :

At first I strongly resisted Second Life (SL), figuring it was a fantasy world full of 13 year-old boys. But then I actually entered it after a training session and walked, flew, and jumped around the beautiful “world” our program instructors built just for us.

That space included a workout area complete with yoga, bicycles, rock climbing and more. Terri also describes how she became attached to her avatar.

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January 22, 2016

Project Sansar Looms Large But Second Life Is Probably Still The Best Virtual World Out There

Project Sansar Concept Art

Project Sansar is widely being dubbed as the Second Life of Second Life. This makes it sound as if Second Life has gone away, if you read the headlines, but when you read the articles then you discover that Second Life is not only healthy, it’s arguably still the best virtual world out there.

We’ll take a look at a couple of articles to demonstrate this point, the first is by Annie Gaus and published on Silicon Valley Business Journals : In virtual reality, Second Life prepares for its second act. The article talks about the virtual reality boom, the fact that Linden Lab have a new product on the way and dives into the hype machine that is currently in action regarding VR :

Now, the makers of Second Life are preparing for a new life of their own in the fast-developing virtual reality market, which Deloitte analysts estimate will hit $1 billion for the first time in 2016.

However, before we can move forward into the new virtual reality, we have to step back and the article acknowledges that Second Life was a successful early experiment, so successful that the article also points out that Second Life’s longevity makes it ancient in Internet years.

The article also contains some quotes from Ebbe Altberg, many which have been heard before but one really stands out from the crowd, especially when people seem to feel that the end of the Second Life virtual world is nigh :

It’s still the best virtual world out there today. We’re profitable all thanks to Second Life.

People should bear this in mind, Second Life is still paying its own way for Linden Lab, Project Sansar is still some way off from being a polished product and even when it is a polished product, it won’t be Second Life, which means that Second Life may still have a home. The article does of course delve into Project Sansar, which is seen as the future, but the future isn’t here yet.

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January 22, 2016January 22, 2016

Crystal Delights Move From Virtual To Real World Gathers Pace With New Store Opening

Virtuallyabout LLC dba Crystal Delights doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue as a company name, but it’s a company with interesting roots because they have made the leap from the virtual world to the real world with a range of adult products.

The leap from the virtual world to the real world hasn’t just happened, as we can see from the about us section of their website :

Virtuallyabout LLC dba Crystal Delights began in 2008 as a successful line of digital toys in the virtual world of Second Life. Along with the “Crystal Delights” virtual adult toy product line, we launched virtual sales kiosks that allowed Second Life avatars the ability to purchase real-world pleasure products using Lindens, Second Life’s currency. When Second Life began to pursue different avenues, and restricting adult commerce, the idea grew to create a real-life “Crystal Delights” pleasure product.

The above also explains why I stumbled across news of the company, because I was searching for articles on Second Life at the time and found this article at PTLeader.com : Retail store offering adult glass pleasure products opens. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it. The reason the company are in the news now is because their new store is opening on January 23rd.

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January 15, 2016

Kidnapped By Elves

So there I was, wandering around Second Life, minding my own business when an Elf leaped out of the bushes and ordered me to stop. I decided to do what I always do when I encounter Elves, never trust them! Unfortunately this Elf was far more cunning than I expected.

He invited me to a party, fed me copious amounts of food and a strange liquid. Initially everything was fine, I felt rather merry and many more Elves arrived. We danced, they sang, I forgot my suspicions and then awoke, my memory mysteriously erased.

“Where am I?” I pondered.

“Azeroth, land of people with yellow exclamation marks above their head“, came the reply, from someone who identified as a Rogue.

“Noooooo” I cried, “This can’t be happening, how will I ever get home?”

“Hearthstone?” suggested the Rogue. Unfortunately that just returned me to a strange location with lots of odd looking characters.

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