Archive for January, 2008
Ikea Cabinets Assembling Progress
January 20, 2008 1:39 pmOh! I’m so pissed! You all know the human said I can not play this weekend, as she needs the paws to assemble Ikea cabinets? Right. One of the members of the construction team took this photographs. Yeah, yeah, composition and lighting aren’t killer features here, but look: she’s doing _absolutly nothing_!
And now she wants me to come and sit there and watch her do nothing yet another afternoon. Why the ruth would I need a coffee table?! Or clothing cabinets! I have my inventory. It’s messy, and not so solid, but it suits me fine. *grmbls*
Der Untergang - Philip und das Ende des Zweites Reiches
January 19, 2008 1:42 pmSLasshole trademarks SLart. Soon SLex and SLove forbidden too?
January 18, 2008 10:37 pmslart! SLart! SLART!
See, I’ve said it too! May I add to that that both Richard Minsky as well as ArtWorld Market - Mr. Minsky’s avatar - are SLassholes? Yeah sure, this is my blog, I may say so. Just as I may say ‘SLart!’, no mather how much Richard Minsky is threatening humans and avatars all over the internet and in Second Life that are using SLart in their profile picks, on their blogs, textures and the like.
Why would he do so, you wonder? SLart is not that an ugly, offensive or idiotic word. On the contrary, Richard Minsky liked the terminology ‘SLart’ that much that he trademarked it. He found it to be such a pretty word, that nobody but him may use it, unless they pay him a ‘reasonable fee’, of course.
If you - just like me - find that trademarking ‘SLart’ does not make sense, look at the end at this post for tips on how to boycott Minsky.
Why SLart can and may not be trademarked
!!! Update: Benjamin Duranske found me this. Which is very bad news. Yet, I still think, he has no right to ‘trademark SLart’. The trademark request was filed on the 26th of March 2007, and as from how it looks, approved. He also gave me this overview of the trademark law. *goes to read*!!!
Why I refuse to remove any SLart mentioning, and will refuse to pay any fee for letting me use the SLart-world, if asked: I do not reckon Minsky’s claimed claim on SLart makes sense:
Although Richard Minsky claims he trademarked SLart, up to now, I have seen no proof of Minsky’s SLart trademark claim. I dislike false threats.- No real cease and desist letters where send out. Really, those normally come in a way that you have to prove you got them by putting your paw on them. I don’t think Instant Message
conversationtheaths count. - SLart is to generic a term to trademark. We have SLove, SLaw, SLex, SLinivation, SLavery, SLetiquette, SLasshole, … . All these are the abbreviation for Second Life (SL) + the real live word. If the real life word starts with a vowel, the SL is put in front. If it starts with an L, an S before that one is added, if it starts with an S, the L is added after the S. I am sure you can think of numerous other examples.
- If we do some investigation, I’m am sure we can find proof that the word ‘SLart’ - or slart, or Slart, and even slART - was widely used before Minsky and ArtWorld Market sought to make a gain out of it. It probably was even common Second Life jargon before ArtWorld Market even rezzed. If it’s still allowed to trademark words that frequently used, by hell, I’m going to trademark ’sex’ for sure. For christ’s sake, he does not even own SLart.com.
Richard Minsky’s SLartistic threats
I first heard of this on the 7th of January, when Shoshana forwarded me an e-mail by the SLasshole Richard Minsky. Concerning the SLart at the Cannery exhibition, and the need to change it’s title, internet locations, … . The best pieces from this e-mail:
One thing I must remind you of, however, is that you agreed to remove all of Rezzable’s instances of the use of the term SLart, which is a trademark that I own. As of today none of the uses that infringe the SLART™ trademark have been removed. Please attend to this before the end of this month, or purchase a license to use SLART™ by the end of this month.
Please be aware that SLART™ is a Standard Character Mark, meaning that its status as a Trademark/Service Mark is independent of font or style (Upper/lower case, bold/italic, etc.). SLART, SLart SLArt appear in different places on your sites, and all are infringements.
If Rezzable does not purchase a license for each use or cease and desist from the above and all other uses of SLART, whether in electronic, paper, or other media, by December 31st I will have to take further action. Please understand that I would like to remain on friendly, cooperative, terms with you personally and with Rezzable, but ownership of the trademark requires me to enforce it, which includes sending you this notice of failure to comply in a timely manner.
Enforcement may include contacting the providers of all services and products wherever infringing uses are discovered and taking action to close the offending uses. Additionally there may be punitive and compensatory judgements sought.
If you would like to discuss the benefits and costs of a SLART™ trademark license, please let me know by return e-mail. If you have not seen the real world edition of SLART™, there are pix and info at *you don’t think i’m going to link to this SLasshole, now do you?*.
Best regards,
Richard Minsky / ArtWorld Market
People Richard Minsky has threatened
Richard Minsky also talked in this greedy, egoistic and arrogant way to a friend of mine, Ganymedes Costagravas and made a row over a few ‘SLart’ mentionings in his profile. But kindly said SL art and sl-art are allowed. This conversation you can find at ‘art of making money of SLart‘. Also Cyanide Seelowe got a ‘cease and desist’ IM conversation or e-mail on the SLart wiki. That is right, Minsky thinks also open-source non profit initiatives should die because he likes to make money of the SLart word that much. Sadly enough, Miss Seelowe has given in to Minsky’s threats.
Anybody else was contacted on the ‘SLart’ subject by kind Richard? And was kindly suggested to pay up?
Own the SLart (and Richard Minsky): POA
There are a few things we can do to make sure SLart stays (or becomes again) public domain:
Use the ‘SLart’ word as much as possible. Put it in URLS, headings, titles, profiles, whatever. It consers SLart, no?Although now he does seem to have a trademark, do think twice. ;)- As you’re busy doing that, you might as well mention that Richard Minsky and ArtWorld Market both are SLassholes. Somebody might stumble over this Googling their names and discover that truth. They will also find that not all agree with Minsky’s claim and that there is no reason to give in to this.
Tag ALL your SLartsy photographs on flickr with ‘SLart’. Think of also using ‘SLart’ in their title’s. ( Organize > Select All > (drag to window) > Add Tags > “SLArt” )Although now he does seem to have a trademark, do think twice. ;)- Send a nice little IM to ArtWorld Market to tell him the human Minsky is a SLasshole. Repeat that every 15 minutes. Do consider asking him why he trademarked something that belongs to the Second Life SLart community.
Whatever you do, don’t give in to Richard Minsky threats and do not remove SLart, slart or SLART from your blogs, profiles, photographs, … . It’s not much use claiming it’s ‘overall present’ when everybody takes it down.Although now he does seem to have a trademark, do think twice. ;)- Get organised and seek expert advice on this.
- - suggestion more than welcome -
In the mean while, I’d really love to hear Benjamin Duranske’s opinion on this. It might not be his speciality (?), but he’s the only SLawyer I know (well, in SL that is). :d
Mind if I finish of by saying ‘Free slart, free SLart, free SLART!’? ;)
With this stories comes a challenge: there are some photographs of my human online, when she was about 15 years old, and lying in a bikini on an Egypt beach. For the first one that does find those, I’ll - honestly - answer a truth or dare question*. Do keep in mind, the ones at the French swimming pool do not count!
As most ’secure your - internet - data’ companies try to draw your attention with scary stories such as enormous data loss by governments, data leaks, ’stolen’ bank accounts, stalkers and the password to your favourite on-line pr0n resource - which also happens to be your work e-mail pass - hacked, the people over at Garlik found a better approach: trigger people’s curiosity and, especially, their ego’s.
So what’s the deal? You give the people at Garlik some basic information - which everybody can find out about you - such as facebook account, homepage, flickr account, etc. They in turn tell you how popular and active you are on the internet, how much influence you have and how individual they think you are. Put a score on those four requirements, and you have your QDOS score. With a QDOS of 5393, I rank above Anne Geddes and Philip Rosedale, yet right under the 14th Dalai Lama and Paula Abdul. And you, be it your human or your avatar or both? Do a little ‘vanity search’ and find out if you are sandwished between Pamela Anderson (Q6222) and Paris Hilton (Q8439)? ;)
Oh, and it must be said, that although it takes to register before you can look up your score, they do not really bug you with ads for whatever privacy they might sell.
“We’re trying to find a way for the consumer to take ownership of their digital status,” said Tom Ilobe, chief executive of Garlik. “Businesses are doing it pretty well, but the consumer is in danger of being left out of the game. Their information is in so many other people’s hands.”Fear, he said, does not appear to motivate the average Internet surfer: When the British government lost two discs full of citizens’ benefits information in November, the incident grabbed a lot of headlines; meanwhile, panicked inquiries with banks from customers about the potential for financial loss were no more than normal, Ilobe maintains.
But curiosity, playfulness and competitiveness do seem to light a spark under people. And those elements are built into the process of looking up your QDOS number - and those of your friends and favourite celebrities.
“Consumers aren’t sufficiently scared,” Ilobe said, returning to his fear theory.
Even in the absence of hyperventilating headlines, he said, “A lot of decisions are being made about us with information people find out on the Internet - people are deciding whether to date me, whether to work for me, what kind of person I am.“
“What we’re trying to do is get people engaged with their digital status. If we as a company can get millions of people engaged, they will tell us what services they want in identity protection,” he said.
I do wonder why the hell ruth I rank that bad on ‘individuality’. For Linden’s sake! Name me one other Vint Falken that lives in a virtual world, made up out of bits and bytes and meshes. Pffff.
* Loki, Dalien and Veyron can’t play. All three they already know of the existence of the directory they are in. I think.
AFK excuse: Need to attend Screw and Insexnyckel Party
January 17, 2008 12:45 amThese will go out by e-mail and ‘drop in mailbox’ tomorrow. Luckily, I have a construction crew with ‘een vijs los’ and a sense of humour. I hope we will still have some of that left by the end of the weekend. Btw, this means I’m out-of-virtual-world for those days.
Although, we do have broadband. Actually, I was planning to hook the laptop up with the webcam so you can all see the huge amount of packaged Ikea furniture become less of a huge amount until it totally disappears. But I do not have the slightest clue how to set that up or if the human will allow me some time to do this. Maybe I may already be glad if she does not forces me to ruin my nails by helping to assemble, or places a cabinet on my tail.
Found on SecondLifeVideo.com
January 15, 2008 9:41 pmQuick Reference Guide on Positioning Prim Attachments
January 14, 2008 2:12 amUpdate: I should not have written a complaining letter to the Linden Gods, but a thank you letter to Nicholaz God. Apparently he has already fixed this issue in one of the versions of the ‘Nicholaz Edition’ of our Second Life client, dated december 2007. So Dear Lindens, nevermind my quick reference guide, just take a look at Mr. Beresford’s code.
Dear Linden Deities,
When I was still young and foolish, I grabbed to a quote from the Devil’s Advocate, as it concerned ‘god stuff’ and our world being one fucked up place:
‘Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He’s a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does he do, I swear for his own amusement, his own private, cosmic gag reel, he sets the rules in opposition. It’s the goof of all time. Look but don’t touch. Touch, but don’t taste. Taste, don’t swallow. Ahaha. And while you’re jumpin’ from one foot to the next, what is he doing? He’s laughin’ his sick, fuckin’ ass off. He’s a tight-ass. He’s a sadist. He’s an absentee landlord. Worship that? Never.‘
Now that I’m 1 year old and wise, I know better than this. I cherish the thought of Linden Gods that are kind, loving and want what’s best for their residents. That is why I refuse to believe, that ‘attachments stuck in ass’ is just a psycho crazy prank you Gods are pulling on us, Second Life Residents.
I understand things there over at the lab must be hectic, and you did not have the time to take a look at this long time pain in the butt - if I may say so - attachment positioning euhm… feature. I know you’re busy being better then WoW, working on communicating more towards your Residents, checking banking licenses, making Second Life better scalable and all the other stuff that Lindens do. Time may lack to make some internal documentation as it comes to attachment positioning.
So I took the liberty to help you Gods a bit, and make a quick reference guide on positioning prim attachments to hand out to you - praised, rest assure of that - Lindens. It is only one page, but because I took the liberty - again - to include some examples, I am sure this will help to make clear where prim attachments do not belong.
Larger size here under CC license on Flickr. Even larger size needed? For instance, for printing it and hanging it above a Linden’s desk? Do ask Vint! ;)
From practical testing in the virtual field, I came to a strange conclusion, which I proudly named ‘Vint’s 1st Attachment Law’. You will be surprised to hear it! It goes as follows:
We may safely assume, that the nature of a prim attachment is such, that it never belongs ‘up the ass’. For the few exceptions on this rule that do exist, we trust the Residents to - if needed - put the prim attachments on that certain place themselves.
Strange, no? Whom could ever have guessed this! I’m sure that this law, together with the fine examples as to where to put hair, shoes, pussy and ears, will make prim attachments positioning stuff a lot clearer to the Linden Gods that are responsible for this part of our world.
There is also Vint’s 2nd Attachment Law, although that one does not matter to you, Gods, that much, so I did not include it on the reference guide: If one wishes to rezz a prim attachment to a certain attachment spot, that specific attachment spot will always be already occupied. I need to fine tune this one a bit more, but need to brush up on my quantum mechanics first.
There was going to be a second reference guide, called ‘a quick reference guide to prim attachments that do belong up the ass’, but all drafs I made for that one, were refused by the VintLabs CEO for being NSFW. I am very sorry I can not make you a clear reference guide for this.
I hope by sharing this knowledge with you Linden Gods, I have taken some of the heavy burden of developing our virtual world of your godly shoulders.
Yours in worship,
Vint Falken
Winter Photography
January 11, 2008 6:51 pm
When trying to help Adrian Sloane with the ‘WindLight’s reflections and water ripple refuse to work’ problem, I decided the wisest thing to do would be to first check if it still works for me and reflections not showing was not a general error.
After I finally found some water - I was stuck in Veyron’s basement, not being able to find the way out, even twice, because I crashed and ended up there again the first time I made my escape - I could not pass up on this great oppurtunity to show off the pussy I bought with the full CSR stamp card I got from Nock and which Wrath was suprised about I chose it over a BlackOps Machine gun.
Do me a favor, and go tell Hamlet Au over on NWN that this is a Second Life photograph: I even froze my - virtual - behind off to take this selfportrait! The original is 3200×2400 pixels and, even more important, it is a Diffuse-Glow-FreeTM image. ;)
And for those who need to see the film negative before they believe this: here you go.
