Archive for November, 2007
Virtual furniture popular with thieves.
November 15, 2007 1:24 pm
Second Life seems to be not the only ‘virtual world’ suffering from furniture thieves: a Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from “rooms” in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.
The 17-year-old boy from the Netherlands is being accused of stealing virtual furniture, paid for by the owners with hard First Life cash, for a total worth of 5,000 euro’s.
A spokesman for Sulake, the company that operates Habbo Hotel, said: “The accused lured victims into handing over their Habbo passwords by creating fake Habbo websites. In Habbo, as in many other virtual worlds, scamming for other people’s personal information such as user names has been problematic for quite a while. We have had much of this scamming going on in many countries but this is the first case where the police have taken legal action.“
I wonder if the boy will be punished for stealing furniture or for breaching accounts, abuse of the Habbo Hotel trademark and fraude? ;)
Hat tip to Veronique Kaminski
More about this? BBC News
Linden Lab clarifies it’s stance on Age Play, but I do wonder, it might sound nice, but will they ever be able to ‘patrol’ the whole grid? Even with help from the Second Life community?
Though, please note it does not violate this policy merely to have a child-like avatar. It is not our intent to banish child-like avatars in and of themselves does sound nice! So, fellow SL residents, please grasp this:
- You do not insult fellow avatars just because they have a child avie.
- You do not ban avatars just because they look like a child.
I do have some questions about the practical manner of this statement. According to Linden Labs, the following is ‘wrong’ and punishable:
For instance, the placement of avatars appearing to represent minors in proximity to “sex beds” or other sexualized graphics, objects, or scripts, would violate our Community Standards, as would the placement of sexualized “pose balls” or other content in areas depicting playgrounds or children’s spaces;
My guess is about 75% of scripted objects in Second Life have some functions related to sex implemented in them: try to find a bed without sex animations, a couch without - French - kissing ones, a collar or necklace without submissive poses or erotic dances? A car without back seat?
Define ‘proximity’: if it’s 10 meters, there will not be a child allowed to walk the grid anymore. Will puritans start reporting them if they are talking to someone who’s wearing a scripted collar?
So we’ll have to start creating content labelled ‘child proof’? Or do we trust our fellow residents, and will agree that a child sitting on a couch with sex functionality is not wrong, it is only a wrong doing when the child actually uses the sex functions?
I’ve used Annette Blachere’s self portrait as an illustration with this blogpost, because it reminds me of her. She had her - a child avatar’s - ‘nightmares’ displayed at the Second Life 4th Birthday event. Those nightmares- - although not sexual, they could have been interpreted that way - would now be considered to fall under ‘the graphic depiction of children in a sexual or lewd manner violates our Community Standards‘ and thus be punishable with account termination in stead of still being considered - Second Life - art.
I may still shoot a kid in Second Life - they say nothing about violence? - but the real danger is not me murdering kids, no, it’s fully dressed kids standing near a couch. *rolls eyes*
I’m curious what you have to say about this…
WindLight has returned!
2:37 am
Oh, thank you, Linden Gods, for giving us, poor avies the WindLight again! Now, go and fetch it! (And be sure to uninstall any previously WindLight versions first!, they say.)
Major changes compared to the ‘old’ WindLight:
- Classic clouds are back.
- The moon is back.
- Fallback (aka non-shader) WindLight is now much faster and of higher quality, which ensures those with older hardware still get fast, beautiful new skies.
- Photorealistic water.
- All objects can now have a glow attribute assigned to them. (Think debug menu, render glow.)
- Avatar imposter system. The claimed results: up to 40% fps increase in crowded scenes. (I’m taking a deeper look into the avatar impostors settings in a separate post.)
- Upgraded graphic preferences tab. (Actually, they just merged Graphics and Advanced Graphics.)
WindLight viewer source code will be made available soon. (For those who can actually read source code. ;))
And then there are the ‘minor’ drawbacks such as:
- Shiny doesn’t look the same as before. We’re working to get it very close, if not better.
- NVIDIA beta drivers 169.04 currently do not support shaders.
- Some of your colors and textures might appear overexposed or washed out with the new lighting framework.
As I previously mentioned briefly, a bunch of ‘us, avies’ went to see Lisa Gerrard - singer of Dead Can Dance - perform at the Koningin Elisabethzaal in Antwerp. I must say I really looked forward to this and the people joining me lived up to expectations. Even the stranger. ;)
My fellow avatars
We had a nice talk in an Irish Pub - mean people there, did not want to feed me apple pie! - about Second Life and things beyond that (amongst others, first life). What actually did help to get the talking going - I think - was that the stranger needed to be convinced that Second Life is not to be compared with ‘normal’ video games. You can use it or abuse it, as with all things in both lifes, I think. Ow, and Dalien just had to close his eyes and overexpose when I took his picture. So as for punishment, he has been replaced by a VintLabs hand drawn stick man. *sticks out her tongue*
So a huge thanks to Loki Popinjay for organising this - and paying for the drinks, we should go out more often! ;) - and to Mylena Aquitaine, Luna Zolnir, Dalien Talbot and the stranger for attending. *smooches all*
Lisa ‘Fairytales’ Gerrard
And then there is the concert from Lisa Gerrard. I must admit, if it were not for the company making that kind of music more agreable to listen to, I would have probably left the concert hall. Although I appreciate Dead Can Dance music, this performance by Lisa alone was just totally and utterly boring. It sort of reminded me of a mixture between wale sounds relaxation CD’s and Helmot Lotti. Need to say more*? Yeah, I could mention that the dress she wore was butt ass ugly, white, ‘heavenly’ and shiny and made her look like a 550 year old elven which still wears white although she had numerous boyfriends which all ditched here because she was not able to show emotion. At all.
Because that was the main problem with Lisa Gerrard’s music: she can not ditch the sweet, soft even childish voice way of singing she has. She tried to do evil, yet it continued at sounding monotonously innocent. It’s not that I do not like fairy tale music, I just like my fairy tales a bit more dark!
So, if I may do a suggestion, next time we are going to listen to a real singer? And include Bella March in the company too?
Diamanda Galas
This is the singer / performance artist I associate live, female singing with: Diamanda Galas. She’s just… well… wow! So, let’s go and watch a show of her? =)
My favourite (cover) song by Diamanda Galas: I put a spell on you. (Try to find a good mastered version somewhere!)
Diamanda Galas in the 80ties: Doube barrel prayer.
Yeah, I like my fairy tales a bit more dark. ;)
* Congratz to Lisa Gerrard’s light engineer, though.
A Different Light at the Cannery
November 14, 2007 11:43 am
Our first exhibition ‘SLart at the Cannery’ has ended: voting awards ceremony has been held, artists have been paid and feedback from both the artists as well as the visitors has been acquired.
We’ve had a great time, learned a great deal and are proud of what we have already achieved.
We had such an amazing time that a second show is in preparation: A Different Light. If you have Second Life photographs relating to one of the following four themes, do submit them for participation in the show: Shadow Play, Red Dawn, Childhood Dreams and What’s Your Angle?
If you are planning to shoot new material to submit, you have time until November 28 to submit.
To prove that we’ve learned, here is an upgraded Artist Agreement (Artist Release + Compensations).
The first person to point out to me where I mostly influenced the submission guidelines gets a free SLart at the Cannery Tshirt set. =)
The creative folks at Rezzable are hosting another grand show. Now is the time to submit your works for this incredible event.
There will be 4 themes. If you want to submit your work for the show, contact Shoshana Epsilon by Flickr mail (ShoshanaEpsilon) or email at ShoshanaeEpsilon@gmail.com. A URL is preferred. A short description of the work (a sentence or two) would be helpful. All pictures must have originated in Second Life.
1. Shadow Play
The play of light and shadow is one of the primary aspect of art. Shadows may conceal the truth and light may enhance it.
2. What’s Your Angle?
When the view is straight on, we see what we expect to see. When the angle is skew, it turns our world topsy-turvy and suddenly we are outside our normal frame of reference.
3. Red Dawn
Red is the color of passion and blood. We are born in blood and we may die there. These pictures make dramatic use of the color red.
4. Childhood Dreams
What is it like being a child? To have a child? To believe like a child?
If you have a photograph that fits one of these themes and want to see it featured in the exhibition at the Cannery, contact Shoshana Epsilon by Flickr mail (ShoshanaEpsilon) or email at shoshanaepsilon@gmail.com – or me by Flickr mail (VintFalken), email (info-at-vintfalken-dot-com) for more information.
Art submissions will be accepted through November 28th. The show opens December 5th in a gala event on the Rezzable sim of Cannery. Participating photographers will be paid a share of the sales based on the number of photographs chosen for the exhibit. There will also be awards and prizes for the best of the best. A RL book will be available for purchase showing all the art in the show!
All excited about participating in First Life.
November 13, 2007 9:48 amSecond Life web resources for November 12th 2007
November 12, 2007 4:30 pmSecond Life web resources for November 10th 2007 through November 11th 2007
November 11, 2007 4:30 pmHappy ‘yesterday, Rezzday’ to me
10:42 am
Yep. Today I’m officially 1 year and a day old. Although Kean already warned me by wishing me a Happy Rezday on 10/11, I forgot it was near and was happily surprised when my old friends from the Paradise Lost were the first ones to deliver their best wishes on 11/10. Hence, no big celebration for the one year old Vint. Maybe we can throw a huge party if I live to being two years old? ;)
As time in Second Life moves fast, there is a lot of stuff I did - and enjoyed tremendiously. And when realising that, it’s neat to have a blog, so you can look back. So highlights for every month of my meta-existence:
- November 2006 - Logged in. Found Second Life to be boring. Left.
- December 2006 - Now, there must be _something_ interesting there, if everybody speaks that highly about SL. The human sends Vint back into SL and eventually Vint ends up at the Paradise Lost and makes great friends there.
- Januari 2007 - Helena gives me a place to live on, I discover Rob Danton’s studio and Second Life photography starts to get interesting. Want to see a picture of a very n00bish Vint? Funny thing is, when I took that, I didn’t figure out of how change camera view drastically, so I have none of my face from that era of my SLife. =)
- Februari 2007 - The first tutorials on SL photography get posted and I model for RightasRain Rimboud. That is also were I decided being a model in Second Life was not one of my aspirations, although I still love the pictures he took. I take my first steps on Flickr as a Second Life avie.
- March 2007 - I get to know Veyron, Tiessa, Pieter, Dakota, October, Codie, … and move to Scheherazade. In the meanwhile, I discovered guns in Second Life are utter fun.
- April 2007 - On demand of Dolmere I post my first not a meme on ’secrets’. In the mean time, I start to dress neko - just a fashion statement at that time - and Bella teaches me how to do machinima so I can film my egg. First Flickr mail exchange with Smiley Barry, Second Life Teen Grid Resident.
- May 2007 - A good month, in which WindLight is released, things don’t seem to work out between Vincent and me and Kris starts to work on the FlickrViewer. Scary things: the first words involving Age Verification appear on the LL blog and people starting to think of all child avatars as ‘wrong’.
- June 2007 - Is mainly dominated by the SLelections, for which I teamed up with Myg and Wrath and setting everything up for the Second Life Birthday Event.
- July 2007 - End of the SLelections, call out for photographs for SLart at the Cannery, discussing respecting privacy in Second Life or not and the human abandoning me for a while.
- August 2007 - My photographs at the Code Red Gallery - never sold something, though, I think -, and OpenSim gets more and more interesting. Ow, and I tried to have SLex with Dalien.
- September 2007 - astonished by the sudden VAT decision Linden Lab made and by now really getting tired of Prok, suffered a make-over by Veyron - which didn’t last very long. Won the Second Life Blogger’s logo design contest organised by Zoe and reached 2k comments on this blog.
- October 2007 - Hosted an SL Bloggers party together with Codie and we gave away a free Flickr Pro account to celebrate we both have +50k views on Flickr and forced the human to go to a real life second life meeting.
- November 2007 - The first SLart at the Cannery exhibition ends and working on my shop at Bruges. To be continued… ;)
Hmmm. I could not list everybody and everything. But I did such a large amount of fun, challenging and interesting stuff and met that much of witty, friendly and lovely avatars, that I can say ‘it was a good first year’ and let there be many more like this! ;)
And I tried, but I really can’t remember when Nephie and I first met. I think it was at the Paradise Lost and I really loved her - hooded - outfit and told her so, but I don’t remember a date or month. :(
