VintFalken.com » Second Life

Wanna know why he paid you?

Vint Falken — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:55:48 +0000

Peter Stindberg opened a new JIRA (What’s JIRA & how to vote?) issue, VWR-9597 ‘Optional text for payments to show up in transaction history’, which is a suggestion to Lindens to add the following functionality to our SLives & transaction history:

An extra input field in the ‘Pay Dialogue’ where one can add the ‘reason’ for the payment. Where this information is entered, it will show up in the transaction history in stead of the vague ‘gift’. Now avatar to avatar L$ transactions show up in the history as ‘gift’. However when buying services, paying staff or other non-vendor transactions, it might be good to know what the payment was actually made for.
llGiveMoney(key destination, integer amount) could get an optional 3rd string parameter with the subject/description line as well. That way we could thus get rid of the “Object pays” nuisance in transaction histories.

An example* of how my transaction history would look like if implemented:

Good idea** by Peter or great idea***? ;)

* I just found out exactly _how_ easy it is to forge Second Life transaction history screenshot in photoshop. Font type: Verdana. Font size: 11px Font style: normal.
** In case of ‘good idea’, go vote for the ‘Optional text for payments to show up in transaction history’ JIRA issue. (How to vote on SL JIRA.)
** Great idea? Don’t just go vote, but encourage your friends to do so too! ;)

jira, second life, SLinovation, transaction history

JIRA?! And how to vote on JIRA?

Vint Falken — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:18:16 +0000

Jira?! What JIRA is for.

Jira is a bowser-based bug, issue, task and defect tracking system, and project management software solution used for open source and enterprise projects. Lindens use it for internal communication on bugs & other issues, as well as for letting residents file bug reports, functionality suggestions and other issues. Residents can keep track of - part - of the project statuses, fixes and possible solutions and can even offer their own solutions for - SL related - problems and patches to the Second Life code.

How to vote on JIRA

Voting on the JIRA shows you suffer from the same bug, or wish the same functionality as is described in the JIRA issue. The more residents vote, the more likely the JIRA Issue is to jump to Linden’s attention. But votes are not a miracle worker, there is for instance on issue that has over 500 votes, and is still not fixed: SVC-2833 ‘More than 25 groups‘ has over 1300 votes now, but Lindens are not planning on changing that anywhere in the near future.

Go to your JIRA issue. ( https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/ISSUE-NUMBER )
In the upper right hand corner it says log in, click this.
Type in your full SL name, first_name last_name. (eg. Vint Falken) Enter your password. (This is a SL run site so your password is safe.) Click Login.
You should now be back at the original page.
On the left side bar, find the option that says Voting. Under that tab it says Vote for It. Click that!
You have now helped many people by helping move this issue closer to the attention of the Lindens. (And you get to see who also voted).

Other handy things to do on and to know about JIRA

Watching - Clicking ‘Watch it!’ will make you subscribe to email notifications whenever somebody adds a comment to this JIRA issue or changes it’s status, to ‘resolved’ for instance. Emails are delivered to the email address linked to your Second Life account.

Status - 3 different choices here: Bug (A problem which impairs or prevents the functions of the product.), Meta Issue (Describes a general category of problems rather than a specific problem) and New Feature (A new feature of the product, which has yet to be developed. We mainly use it for ‘we want more functionality! ;)).

Environment - If you are posting a ‘Bug’ JIRA issue or replying to one, it’s always interesting for your fellow residents & the Lindens to know what kind of system you are using, where you were at in SL, etc… . To easily retrieve that information, in the Second Life client, go to the following menu: ‘ Help > About Second Life ‘ and then you just copy paste the upper part. Example:

You are at 265018.2, 312549.6, 21.9 in Sierra Nevada located at sim3174.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.20.163:13001)
Second Life Server 1.24.9.98659
CPU: Intel Pentium III/Pentium III Xeon (0.25 micron process) with external L2 cache (2494 MHz)
Memory: 3070 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (Build 6001)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 9650M GS/PCI/SSE2
OpenGL Version: 2.1.2
LLMozLib Version: [LLMediaImplLLMozLib] - 2.01.18664 (Mozilla GRE version 1.8.1.13_0000000000)
Packets Lost: 0/4969 (0.0%)

If you suffer from a bug or have a great idea, and there is already an Issue for it on JIRA, don’t be afraid to speak up! Who knows, your system information or your suggestion might be exactly what Lindens - or your fellow residents - need to get it fixed/rolling! Happy JIRAing! ;)

how to, jira

New Second Life skin PSD files from Eloh Eliot

Vint Falken — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:45:49 +0000

It escaped my attention - until now ;) - that Miss Eloh Eliot made 3 new skins psd files available to the public: Cf1, an astonishing male skin, and two ‘ladies’ skins Rfº and SFº. I’ve added both to the list of previous skin releases by Eloh Eliot, as that is where people will be most likely to find them.

Skin repository for fashionistas

For all those interested in how a skin gets created, Eloh Eliot also made her repository and it’s contents available to the public. This means you can follow Eloh’s work on the ‘g generation’ skins, and take a peek into an SL skin genius’ mind (and in her .ai files too! ;)). For those that go there now, it also offers a more ‘clean base’ skin to work it, which might be interesting if you want to customise Miss Eloh’s skins more personal. As usual with Miss Eliot latest releases & works: ‘You are free to use these files to create items for any grid. You are free to _alter_ these files to create new items for resale. You are _not_ encouraged to resell these files or skins as is. Credit would be nice!‘

Feel free to take, but share alike!

Although Eloh continues working on the ‘g generation’ of skins, she is disappointed about how few people in turn release Eloh Eliot based skins as Open Source. Miss Eliot mentions this in Share alike!: ‘… this is what open source is about: it’s perfectly fine to take, it’s great to redistribute, and it’s still perfectly fine to make a profit off of it, but at the end of the day, it’s still better to give back.‘ One of the people who did share alike, is Mystical Serenity, check out her ‘Carnival’ skin here.

BIAB & ‘instant business, just add water

At least the above mentioned creators, even if they don’t share open source, added something of their own to the skins, and even possible have put lots of effort in those additions. Unlike the BIAB - business in a box - and ‘instant business, just add water’ schemes Eloh describes: ‘The problem isn’t more businesses–it’s the “instant…just add water” aspect of it–namely BIABs and freebie-sellers–these businesses are, in essence, the same as the zombies in camping chairs: they don’t really add anything of value back to the grid.‘ I second that. Some say it’s good to have those dubious businesses around, as else ‘newbs’ probably would never find the skin, but they for the ease of argument probably, forget to mention that this way n00bs - and even seasoned residents - pay (and charge others) for content that is supposed to be available to them for free.

Possible BIAB countermeasures

Any advise to offer to Miss Eloh Eliot to stop her skins being used for Business in a Box and plain reselling practises? Here’s my list:

Make the free versions of your skins as ‘findable’ as possible for new residents. Make them in-world copy no transfers, but set up a vendor system for 0LS which people may rezz at their property (and is copy no trans too). That way Orientation Places, clubs, … can easily offer your skins for free. The vendor also distributes a notecard explaining your ideas about open source skins and a link to your website, telling them to look there if they wish starting to create their own skins. Make sure people can obtain the vendor from both onrez, slexchange & some inworld location. (For best easy, the vendor should be have an update system, supplying the owners of the vendor automatically with the latest edition… .
Maintain a list/directory (comments or some way of contacting you enabled) where people can add a link to a blogpost, … where they make their own PSD’s or a .tga file of their version of the skin available. I’m sure most SLbloggers will happily help with ‘linkloving’ it so it is gets seen by many. That way the contributors will hopefully get something in return too: extra traffic. And people looking for free skins have a great starting point. Of course, you can also ‘outsource’ the maintenance of that list. (Work together with OpenSim peepz? They have some ‘here to find OS stuff for your worlds’ directories already.)
Cross your mesh and keep hoping LL someday implements the possibility to easily add a CC license to inworld content.

Caledon: Machinima for Money for RFL

Vint Falken — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:39:14 +0000

Apparently, those people from Caledon aren’t serious all the time: they can have fun whilst being old fashioned! ;) The awesomely happy ‘Caledon: The Musical’ is a machinima by Prof. Oolen Sputnik - aka Nik Hewitt - for Caledon Studios:

Caledon the Musical, in aid of Relay for Life ‘08, from the Independent State of Caledon and Caledon Studios, Second Life. Raising over L$100,000 in the fight against cancer, the good people of Caledon donated money to be in this machinima. In total, in ‘08, the fine folks of Caledon raised L$3,000,000 for Relay for Life. Hopefully this film showcases some of the amazing sims in Caledon and the amazing variety of smashing people. This is filmed at peoples properties and at assorted locations around the steampunk Victorian sims. A better rez version is available for download at http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LNP0UQCR just pop in the code :-) (and now also on Vimeo. Glad at least someone listens to me! ;))

Caledon: The Musical from Oolon Sputnik on Vimeo.

Who spots Sin Trenton & Zoe Connolly?

caledon, machinima, oolon sputnik, relay for life, second inventory, steampunk

Spontaneously Me, Spontaneously Human

Vint Falken — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:32:22 +0000

According to common beliefs, a Second Life inhabitant is at least one - but most likely all - of the following: ugly, fat, socially retarded, old and male. Even I dare to think ‘that’s probably just a frustrated old hag‘ sometimes. So… is that true? Let’s take a look, shall we?

The following ’spontaneous’ self portraits of Second Life players give a good idea of who’s part of the SL Flickr community. Collected in the Flickr Group ‘Spontaneously Me by - amongst others Rob Danton, Kean Kelly and ColeMarie and inspired by Nebulosus Severine this is a Second Life photo meme that makes a statement!

Instructions ‘Spontaneously Me’ Photo Meme

Take a picture of yourself (that’s your human in this case!) right now.
Don’t change your clothes, don’t fix your hair… Just take a picture.
Post that picture with NO editing.
Post these instructions with your picture.
Submit that self portrait to the ‘Spontaneously Me’ Flickr group.
Post a link here in the comments to your spontaneous human self. (optional)

Oh yeah, here is my human.

M. Linden states ‘Progress’, but forgot to mention a few things?

Vint Falken — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:37:28 +0000

M. Linden on the official Linden Blog says we - err.. Linden Lab & the grid - are doing fine: ‘All are indications that Second Life is becoming more relevant, more usable and more reliable.‘

We should be delighted about:

Peak concurrency of 71,232. (+38% compared to 2007)
Daily user-to-user transactions in Linden Dollars continue their steady climb.
Viewer crash rates have declined.
Database/network/simulator outages are down substantially.

Promises & upcoming releases:

A viewer that is new user friendly. (Let’s hope they took a look at the User Design Interface contest submissions.)
The Department of Public Works will continue to spend our taxes.
By the end of the year, the Second Life viewer will be fully localized for all the major markets.
Product focus. (On what did not get mentioned. Neither what the actual ‘product’ is.)

Things M Linden forgot to mention:

Communications towards users are down substantially.
SLim.
~~Philip’s hair did not get fixed.~~ Land prices.
Age verification and it’s status & the Teen Grid’s future.

Anything else - positive or negative - M missed? =)

linden

second life

Michelangelo meets Second Life God: Prim in my hand

Vint Falken — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:06:25 +0000

For some strange reason, I’m incredibly happy with how the cover for Foolish Frost’s newest release ‘Prim in my hand’, a Second Life builder’s song. I already loved his ‘Avatar Song’, so I was honoured he was as lazy as to let me do the cover for this one! I already had a ’sneak prehear’ and the lyrics are - as usual - hilarious. Together with ‘Prim in my hand’, Mr Foolish will bring an ‘updated’ version of the Avatar song which, I promise you, will guarantee you at least a few chuckles over the added lyrics. The Second Life God reference? Now, c’mon, who has not heard from Mr Foolish yet? The official invite:

Those that know the ‘Avatar Song’ by Foolish Frost will be highly delighted - and those that have never heard of it should urgently check out avatar.rezzable.com - to hear that Foolish Frost - for the GMF festival - will perform ‘Avatar’, a revised version ‘Return of the Avatar’ and his newest release ‘Prim in my hand’ this Friday, 26th of September, 2PM sharp at Crimson Shadow. All invited for the release party this Friday!

More on Foolish Frost and the gig over at the ‘invitation blogpost‘. The Avatar Song is already available for watching, listening, reading lyrics & downloading at avatar.rezzable.com. We’ll publish recordings from ‘Prim in my Hand’ and ‘Return of the Avatar’ after Friday’s release party at music.rezzable.com. If you - or your human - use facebook, feel free to RSVP here (yeah, Vint testing social networking skills! ;)).

My apologies to:

Michelangelo: For ripping off God’s hand, rotating it, and recolouring it. But guess if virtual worlds existed in M’s time, he would have loved them!
Foolish Frost: For adding that cute pink flower coming out of the prim. I know it’s not really your style.

avatar, foolish frost, live music, music, parody, rezzable

The Second Life Keyboard

Vint Falken — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 18:00:10 +0000

Prad Prathivi’s ‘Second Life Keyboard’ is to hilarious not to plug it in here. Behold, look at the big size and roll over the floor laughing your pretty ass off. This will surely win him a nomination for SL’s hottest avatar 2008.

Most useful buttons? That will probably be ‘No, I don’t want to send a bloody crash report‘, ‘increase FPS‘, ‘random outfit‘ and the shortcut button to your ‘drama friendlist’.

Like SL parodies? Kewl! You might want to check out my What SL is all about or my ‘The Irony’ series (which I should urgently update). Of course, you could also have a listen.

parody, photoshop, prad prathivi, second life

Second Life getting wet & fluid?

Vint Falken — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:00:01 +0000

Update: The below machinima was, sadly enough, not shot in Second Life, but is a demo of the the nVidia PhysX fluid physics. I refer you to this comparison of the nVidia PhysX fluid physics demo being rendered on the the CPU - Central Processing Unit - and then the GPU - Graphic Processiong Unit. Replacing Lindsey Warwick’s video with the test comparison one, and hoping she just ‘mistagged’ in stead of intentionally fooling me! ;)

Image for your Second Life: pools of blood and/or champagne, throwing water balloons, wet t-shirt contests, fountains of eternal avatar youth, … . All those might be already possible, if you just know how to activate them*, who knows what the SL physics engine already is capable off? Take a look at this machinima by Lindsey Warwick (human: Sara Carter), shiny bump maps, shading & liquid, bloody water, it has it all:

~~Don’t ask me ‘how’, I’m just as ‘muchos curiositos’ as you! ;)~~ Things were obvious to graphical juicy to be true. :d If you already know, care to tell? But if the big flood would someday hit the grid, this end of Second Life’s drought would be a great step for virtual mankind! Still, shall we start building a solid prim ark, big enough to hold 60,000 concurrency? ;)

* For the wet tshirt contest tshirts, just alpha the entire tshirt at least 25% (so soft grey on your alpha channel in photoshop) or just the places you want to appear ‘wet’, et voila, the needed bits will shine through.

fluids, physics engine, second life, SLinovation

‘Choosing an avatar name’ help at SL Registration

Vint Falken — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:00:32 +0000

Recently both me and ArminasX - pronounce ‘Ar-min-AXE’ - wrote about How to pick a great SL avie name (and what to avoid). Of course, our problem was that we would only reach people that are already registered and read or blog, or who google for ‘avatar name’, etc. Miss Dandellion Kimban found the *prrrr*fect solution: Give name creation guidelines at the Second Life & other registration pages.

The JIRA issue that could use your vote is #WEB-809 and titled ‘name guidelines on the registration page’:

So many residents have “ugly” names, those that are hardly pronounceable, hard to remember and spell, with numbers… and after a month they are not happy with them. We all register all over the Web and rarely those usernames are used for anything other than registering, so it really doesn’t matter what the name is. But in SL names are important, they are part of the identity and they are used daily.

Please, put some text on the registration page explaining this to new residents. There are few good sets of guidelines for making a good name, like Vint Falken’s http://www.vintfalken.com/how-to-choose-a-second-life-avatar-name-10-tips and ArminasX Saiman’s http://www.secondeffects.com/2008/06/how-cool-is-your-avatars-name.html as a starting point.

This JIRA issue is already assigned to the ‘WorkingOnIt Linden’, so I guess it will happen eventually. But not a bad idea to speed up eventually with a few votes, especially if you are tired to talking to John69, Frank45, Vint1984, … . ;) Another nice suggestion is made on this JIRA issue by Marx Dudek: ‘I agree wholeheartedly on this issue. Further, perhaps a one-time name change option be made available (for, say, $25 or something, or as part of a premium account upgrade).‘. What do you think? Would a 1 time general name amnesty be a good thing? Would you use it to change or refine your avatar name? Or are you happy with what you have chosen back then?

avatar, jira, second life