Archive for February, 2009
First Life Atomic Design Review
February 15, 2009 10:00 amFor my Valentine? An entire island, please!
February 14, 2009 6:41 pmupdate:“We are extending the promotion throughout the Valentine day weekend! Now anyone can send their Island request to @ec29 till 15 Feb and all Islands will be available fill Mon 16 Feb 10:10 AM GMT.“
update II: My ordered sims arrived flawless.
Only recently sim-on-demand launched, and now during the Valentine days, they are doing a damn great promo stunt:
“The New Improved Sim-OnDemand with ability to hookup with OSGrid is now out. As many of you are already aware, Sim-OnDemand indeed strives to create Virtual World abundance. Since this Sim-OnDemand release coincides with the Valentine week, we though we will spread some cheer with our VW abundance.” Shortly summarized: giving a way free islands, with the name of your loved one engraved / terraformed in them!
“What if you had an entire island as a canvass to scribble your Significant Other’s name? If it is a real physical one, sure it is lot of work! And a lot of back breaking travel just to show your work! But what if the Island is all digital and available online? Yes we are talking online 3D Virtual Worlds. Now that is significantly more accessible. No sweat! More like you! Scribbling your Significant Other’s name on a virtual Island online is not just possible, it is insanely easy! And it is free too on 13 and 14 Feb. Just send your Significant Other’s name as a reply message to @ec29. An Island will magically show up in OSGrid within half a day. You will be alerted via a twitter message as soon as it is ready.“
Let’s recap: you just ‘tweet’ a message starting with “@ec29″ and then the avatar name. For example, and island that would say “Greenies”:
I tweet: @ec29 Greenies
Make sure that your message isn’t longer than 12 characters and only contains English characters and numbers. And also some disclaimers from the sim-on-demand crew: “This is an experimental service. Some or all the things listed above may break down. No guarantees, warranties implied or otherwise what so ever. The Island along with all its content will be dismantled after 15 Feb 10:10 AM GMT. Bring your own pose balls!” Of course, you need to access your island first. ;)
I take my hat off for this great promotional idea, demonstrating once again the possibilities of OpenSim and not depending on Second Life’s - very very very limited - estate management tools.
Full info: Say it with an Island.
Looking for something a tad more conventional Valentine’s gift? Get some romantic eye textures for free, but please, abide the license! ;)
Second Life web resources for February 9th 2009 through February 12th 2009
February 13, 2009 1:30 amSave the Hippo! (easter egg)
February 12, 2009 6:48 pm
Second Life has a long term history as it comes to the appreciation of friendly hippos. Hippo’s, you say? Those gigantic animals are the worst enemies of bug-evoking gnomes, a prestigious Second Life OpenSource award of appreciation that you can win, residents of “Hippotropolis” - Second Life’s OpenSource community island - and also what all your friends turn into when asset servers are not able to keep up with information demands. Last but not least, the presence of “Hippos!” was made clear through the following easter egg: pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H evokes a hippo statement. But now?
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H doesn’t say “hippos!” anymore!
The JIRA Issue VRW-11118 “Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H doesn’t say “hippos!” anymore” reported by Phli Foxchase has gathered a massive amount of votes already, 838 to be precise. Soft Linden stated: “If this gets 1,000 votes, I will submit a fix to main-viewer that very day.” So c’mon, show your love for the Second Life hippo, and be one of the 162 still needed votes!
Although Lindens have posted some mixed statements about why the Hippos! disappeared - Qarl Linden for instance states: “I believe the problem is that we’re running low on hippos, and so we try to use them very sparingly.” - the general consensus between the Second Life community seems to be: “Whatever it takes, get us our ‘Hippos!’ back!”. Although some object to putting a price on this noble creatures, we know what it takes: 1000 votes, and one of those votes should be yours!
As Adeon Writer puts it so well: “We need to be concerned for the future - the newbies who never knew a Virtual World with hippos. They will all need to grow up hippoless. Do not let this be their future!” Go vote to reinstate the Hippo! easter egg!
If you’re not sure how JIRA works, here’s the “how to vote on JIRA”:
Hat tip to the always lovely & ‘kawaii’ Nock Forager.
IMVU Avatars “stole” my eyes (textures)
February 9, 2009 10:27 pmBig was my surprise, when I received this Facebook message: “Hi, I had many options in ways to contact you and figured this would be a good one. I have seen a free eye texture ( green with a heart for the pupil) that you are giving away free on Flickr. I am letting you know that I found several different people profiting off it and thought I should tell you.”
Identifying the infringement
My stuff’s good ’nuff to steal/copyright infringe?! It actually sells? Neat! Err.. oh, wait. As I clearly wrote on the HeartEye Texture, that it is available under a “Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derives license”. Which means they can’t profit of the use of my textures. And they should have credited me. If they can’t play by the rules, they should play at all. Right? See:
What shall I do?
So now, what should I do? Probably file a DMCA takedown notice to IMVU - it can be filed by e-mail to DMCA@imvu.com and they even supply an example letter, but how does IMVU punish avatars for copyright infringement? -, but I’m a nice lady, so I’ll get myself an IMVU account, try to find out how to notify these avatars and tell them I won’t file this complaint, if they, before Monday February 16th 2008:
Set the eyes for sale for 0 credits. For FREE that is.Apparently, this is impossible, see comments. Nvm these requests then, just remove the eyes.- On the sales page write “Eye Texture created by Vint Falken, available under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-derives license”.
- Make the above text a link to this blogpost.
- Optional: add an excuse.
- Leave a comment here that they’ve rectified things.
I do realise that the chance they will comply is minor, but well, let’s give them a chance? The following so-called IMVU designers are infringing on my copyright, a list of “shame on you!!!!”:
LizzieBorden - Products by Lizzie Borden
Avatar Lizzie Borden has the guts to even write down that she created these “!ML My Heart-Envy” eyes: “I made these eyes for myself, I love anything heart shaped, as me & my hubby got married on Valentines Day, so needless to say I’m a bit partial to hearts, lol! ;o) Anyway, I thought you would enjoy them as well, they’re very sparkly & shiny just like real eyes are, & with their heart pupils they’re just too cute not to own at least one color, hehehe! Try them on, there’s 8 colors in total available in my catalog, as well as many wonderful nightmares”. I think a “welgemeende fuck you!” is appropriate here. Miss Borden has my eyes available in many different colours. (Link)
status: LizzieBorden did not respond to my message, but did take down the eyes.
quofan
Quofan alls himself a designer of “rooms, furniture, stickers, stamps and more”. Has no time left to IM customers. Hmmm. Strange, it’s not like you need to put much effort into your designs if you steal other person’s textures, right? (link)
status: Quofan took down the product, but did not respond to any messages.
mystryssjoi - Mystryss Joi
Mystryss Joi claims to sell “sexy” stuff and renamed my eyes to “MJs Envy Heart Eyes”. Envy might be an appropriate description if you can’t make something of your own, yes. (link)
Status: Mystryssjoi took down the Heart Eyes and apologized. Very reasonable, would not mind dealing with her again, under other circumstances, of course! ;)
HILDOR - Hildor Productions - -H-
Dear Hildor, kuddo’s on the sales texture, it’s the best one of the bunch. But err.. please sell something that’s actually yours to sell! (link)
DiamondSakura3286 - IMVUsale.com
Really. Not even the name of the eyes is original with Diamond Sakura: “Green Heart eyes”. (link)
status: Took down the eyes, but relectantly. To good not to share:
“How was I supposed to know”? Maybe because it was WRITTEN IN PIXEL UPON THE TEXTURE?! This could have been a mild clue.
“Anyone with photoshop can make this texture.” Yep. I would thus suggest you make your own textures next time. :D
“And for future reference, before you humiliate people like this, the way that you did on your site, how about you kindly approach the person first, if you think Your texture has been “stolen” and they refuse to comply, then go on and do as you very well please”. Of course, hun. I do assume that you, for future reference, will check if a texture is in the public domain and not under license before using it?
“Had you approached me directly, this could have been done faster, and more sufficiently, but thanks for humiliating me, I greatly appreciated it.” I tried. Sadly enough, private messages on avatar profiles don’t work well on IMVU for ‘guest_’s it seems. How many attempts & time spend on contacting someone that should not have used that texture in the first place do you expect from me?
LEBANESEDIAMOND - Products by Lebanese Diamond
“Be Romantic, Be Special, Be Unique” is what Lebanese Diamond writes. Errr… what about “don’t be a thief”?!! (link)
Status: Lebanese Diamond apologized & took the eyes out of the catalogue. Thank you.
update: Trying to reach those IMVU avatar is harder than I thought, because most of them have comments from guest on their home pages turned off and I’ve found no other way to reach them yet. I did put up a message on the IMVU creators forum.
update: DiamondSakura3286 and mystryssjoi responded and took the infringing eyes down. Mystryssjoi politely, but DiamondSakura3286 clearly doesn’t realise yet this was a deserved “public scolding”.
update: Apparently, the above selection of content creators was not all. Also:
- SamanthaRavena - Samantha Ravena offers my heart eye texture in at least 4 different colours. (link link) Status: SamanthaRavena answered my private message on the content creator forums, and shall take down the eyes. She also promised me to look into where she got the texture, as she doesn’t remember it having the license on it. (And I’m 100% sure that text was engraved in pixel on that texture starting day I created it.) Apologies were added to the IM. Thank you for the quick reply.
- AbusedBarbie - “Pink eyes whit heart in senter , if u want own colour made holla me”. *sighs* (link)
- JanianaPaladin - Calls them “Akemiana’s Eyes” and puts “Akemia” on the texture. Errr? (link) Janiana also offers them for 3000 credits in blue. (link) and another cheaper version in green (link)
- Mineolea - “Love Eyes”. Ah well, not yours to sell, though. (link) (status: Mineolea answered my message and took down the eyes. If you Google Image search, it says “Image may be subject to copyright.” What do you think that means? ;))
- Saw_disabled_29924354 - Ocean Eyes? Nope! (link) (Where does the “disabled” stand for?)
- napalmpyro_disabled_15558889 - Love-ly Eyes (link)
- ZorkhtTheMetalHero - Has a “don’t hate me for having everything you want” badge on his avatar homepage. Errr, nope, don’t worry, only for selling things you shouldn’t have! (link)
- Arlizzz - Emerald heart eyes (also part of IMVUsale.com) (link)
RMB City in Second Life
February 8, 2009 7:26 pm
We’ve seen Cao Fei’s “RMB City” in many forms already, ranging from real life 3D models to CGI images and video of the virtual city design, but only recently this giant build was created in Second Life. Ranging 4 Second Life islands, the RMB City is since January accessible for the wide avatar public. Together with the opening in Second Life, the RMBcity.com website is being filled with lots of RMB City goodness, such as RL & SL event listings, a city guide, the latest news and a city manifesto. In that city manifesto Cao Fei (avatar name: China Tracy) writes:
“What we see and touch are real, what we breath and feel are virtual; our voice is real, our memory is virtual; fortune is real, poverty is virtual; fulfilment is real, sadness is virtual; resentment is real, affection is virtual; foolishness is real, wisdom is virtual; reigning is real, endurance is virtual; living is real, dying is virtual; the land is real, the sky is virtual…then, from this moment on, let all the virtual-real conflicts vanish in RMBCity.”
You can spend hours in this virtual city, wandering around, trying to understand why the People’s Pond is shaped as a giant toilet, trying to imagine exactly how neat it would be to live in a building like the People’s Entertainment Television suspended from a giant crane and trying to capture all what makes this city truly unique in series of virtual photographs.
At RMB City, there is just one thing that makes that this virtual urban area does not qualify fully as a city, yet. Despite all city planning, in real life, never does one person, or only a few, think out a city. It’s a collection of little pieces of lives… your life, that of your neighbours, that of your colleagues, that of the stranger on the bus, a kid going out for ice cream … . RMB City has not been “lived” yet. There are no marks of use: a road worn down, buildings that tell history, graffiti on the bus, a thrown away bottle, little advertisements with phone numbers on them or even worn down flowers for the kid that wanted the ice cream so badly it didn’t look before crossing the road. Some might call this all “decay”, but it’s exactly that contamination by life which makes a city interesting to me. I hope, that as RMB City progresses, we get to see exactly that, fragments of how life in this city could be.
Read more on RMB City at rmbcity.com (press connect to enter the site) or go see for yourself in Second Life (TP link or search for “RMB City” using the Second Life Map). And if you have figured out how your life this “virtual but real” metropolis would be like, write them down, illustrate them with snapshots and share the story, as I’m dying to know how it is to live here and how the city will look once it’s “used”!
(PS. water reflections are off in the snapshots, and glow makes things look weird. blame LL. that they stop forcing us to mandatory upgrade to buggy clients when the previous one was working perfectly. *sighs*)
Bite me! Not. Ever. Again.
February 7, 2009 4:27 pm
We already know what to do when the Horde storms in, but how to protect yourself from digital vampires and their never ceasing “bite requests”? The Thirst: Bloodlines is one of the most scolded upon Second Life games pyramid scheme entertainment, as it leads to an endless amount of spam from random vampires all over the grid, harvesting “blood” for their bloodline. Sadly enough, there’s no option “mute all that are playing this game”, nor did these wannabe über vampires learned about not bugging total strangers recently. The avatars behind The Thirst: Bloodlines - Lyle Maeterlinck, Mars Bracken, and Curse Aszkenaze from Liquid Designs - did finally add the functionality to “opt out” on receiving Bloodlines bite requests by wearing a scripted garlic necklace. Now this is news that should appear on the Official Linden Blog!
“This garlic necklace was created by Liquid Designs, the creators of the Bloodlines game in Second Life, to ward off vampires. Bloodlines is supposed to be a fun game, but some people have complained that they receive too many bite requests from our vampires, and they don’t think that it’s very fun to be beset by bloodthirsty creatures of the night at every turn. So, we created this free, transfer / copy item for people that don’t want to be a part of vampire roleplay.”
Luckily, you don’t need to constantly wear the necklace - once you’ve selected “Activate”, you’ll be impervious to vampire bite requests. So what are you waiting for? Get yours now (TP to “Liquid South”), and be forever free from ill-mannered digital bloodsuckers.
