Silence. I should feel guilty, I know. I kinda do even. Especially when I get email enquiring if I’m still alive - *pinches herself* Yep!!! -, asking me if all is well - yeah, awesomeness! - and asking me when I’ll write something again - err.. now?. But I have a few excuses:

1. I’m stuck on 3G/GPRS in the evenings. Which is better than no internet - imagine! scary, no? - but still sucks. Stuff to read loads slowly, image quality is terrible and uploading stuff or logging into Second Life or an OpenSim grid is something I can only dream about.
2. This is London! It’s like… hmm… how do I put this. The entire mainland filled with art galleries instead of ad farms, fascinating people in stead of campers, events in stead of abandoned areas, 12 times as many shoe & clothing shops and… err.. well, the transport system is just as flaky I guess. But anyway, this tends to keep me busy.
3. The fact that I do need to revive my RL flickr stream in combination with the above “This is London! Woot!” overload of things to do, see & capture, makes I spend the time I can’t spend inSL capturing & playing around with RL pixels. Some more proof of that on Flickr of course.
4. RL friends are coming over to London this weekend! (so, don’t get your hopes up to high about me reading up on SL stuff the next few days)

Anyway, I try to read a select group of SL news items still, answer email, Plurk, … but I’ll have a lot of catching up to do when Broadband has arrived at the new residence. I’ll trust you to help me with that when fast-internet-times have finally come! ;) But err, actually, I just wanted to show some images of Lokum & me on our ‘Buy /meloves Prim Tshirts! Mission‘. (I haz a pink & grey one. Going to try and collect them all! ;))

Tags: ann wuyts, lokum shilova, London, photographs, real life, rezzable, slashmeloves, vint falken
Categories: Rezzable, Vint Falken
3 Comments »

Ok, I’m new to London, and I might not have figured the whole “e-groceries” thing out, but this truly confuses me. An “eCoupon” from Tesco, received in my inbox today, and time stamped “24 maart 2009 16:50″:

(direct to large size, or if you don’t believe me, here’s the webpage equivalent)

I replied to Kendra Banks, Marketing Director with my questions, but no extra information on why in the UK “March” comes before “February” or on what kind of day “31 February 2009″ is was supplied yet. ;( Now, how do I get my 10£ so I can ‘enjoy spending it’?! Or is this just a very effective way to dupe your customers into buying something without having to give them their discount?

Miss Banks,

I would love to take you up on this offer, but, could you please advise how I can use this coupon I receive today before the 31st of February 2009 if ..

1. We’re March 2009.
2. A “February 31″ has never existed as far as I know. February only goes up to 28 - an exceptional 29. Really, you should look it up on the wikipedia!

Kind regards,
Ann Wuyts
A confused Tesco customer

Tags: coupon, FAIL, human error, London, real life, shopping, stupidity, tesco
Categories: Vint Falken
5 Comments »

Right. I was going to announce this, but in the end, all the paperwork, packing, and saying goodbyes took a bit to much time. So I kept postponing blogging about this until… well… I’ve spend my first night in a lovely apartment in the Camden area. I would write a tremendously long article now about first experiences, how great the apartment looked, how sweet it was from Lokum to come welcome me at the station with a ’slashme loves prim’ Tshirt, and how nice it is to have a friend from Belgium (and appendix) that carried my sleeping gear, and to now spend my first evenings with, were it not that were decided on spending those evenings well. :D So just some random blurbs:

1. I’m never leaving the office early EVVAH again. Tube is waaaay to crowded then.
2. Bram, there’s a Sushi place at 3 minutes walk from where I live!
3. I fell in love with my curtains.
4. Still smoking a little, but waay less than in Belgium. I did not have a single cigarette “inside” yet, and planning to keep it this way.
5. I went grocery shopping, for now I have: real butter, two ‘real’ breads (got one free, sighs, someone help me eat it?), yoghurt, grapes, cucumber, mature cheddar, coffee (instant, blah) and toilet paper.
6. Taking only two pair of shoes, was definitely a mistake.
7. My camera gear is still in Belgium, but will come to visit me on Saturday. More images then!
8. I got location data on the iPhone images working, but only in Herentals Belgium, not in London. ;( (Scott thinks this might have something to do with the fact that I don’t have an English carrier by default.)
9. I did find that hard disk after all! ;)
10. I spend half the day installing legal version of Adobe Suite CS3 and then updating it to CS4. Illegal software might be ‘irresponsible’ but at least you get it running in 30 minutes time. *sighs*
11. Miss Beatrix Newt is coming to visit us in London soon and will stay at my place. Woot!
12. Having to travel 30 minutes is way more annoying, than having to travel 3 meters to work.
13. Dear mommy, this means I’m one hour behind on you. So you should not be texting me “good morning” at your 7.30AM!!!
14. Jon got me a kick-ass, ‘high-ceilinged’, furnished, old-style but new and neat and clean apartment. (Only, if possible, I’d like to return some of the ‘art’ hanging there to the landlord.)

Any questions? ;)

Tags: London, real life, rezzable, vint falken
Categories: Rezzable, Vint Falken
16 Comments »

Big 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:

1. 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.
2. On the sales page write “Eye Texture created by Vint Falken, available under Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-derives license”.
3. Make the above text a link to this blogpost.
4. Optional: add an excuse.
5. 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.

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:

1. 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.
2. AbusedBarbie - “Pink eyes whit heart in senter , if u want own colour made holla me”. *sighs* (link)
3. 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)
4. 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? ;))
5. Saw_disabled_29924354 - Ocean Eyes? Nope! (link) (Where does the “disabled” stand for?)
6. napalmpyro_disabled_15558889 - Love-ly Eyes (link)
7. 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)
8. Arlizzz - Emerald heart eyes (also part of IMVUsale.com) (link)

Tags: copyright, creative commons, IMVU, texture
Categories: Vint Falken
75 Comments »

Or “how crashes & bugs can sometimes be incredibly enjoyable and enrich your virtual life“. This one might not look so impressive, but it really really really was kewl to have happening. (And totally my own fault, as I was teleporting around on the grid whilst they were still working on it.)

(watch on Flickr)

What was your best “bug encounter” or most memorable crash ever? (faking it does not count! ;))

Tags: crash, machinima, open sim, private grid alpha
Categories: Vint Falken
12 Comments »

Statistics on how much landmass actually disappeared in the last 3 months is still ‘unavailable’ and although some basic maths leads us to believe more than 15% of Second Life’s landmass was lost due to the Openspaces Issue, Lindens refuse to disclose the numbers. But of course, we need numbers to have some kind of idea how Second Life is doing. Here are some alternative metrics suggestions for Lindens to implement:

1. Total Travelled Distance

The Big Benefit of Second Life is that you - about 50% of the time - can travel through the virtual world without much effort and without drastically increasing your ‘carbon footprint’. “Travelled Distance” is the total amount of kilometres avatars did not have to walk due to public transportation called “teleports”. The more you TP, the better our stats will look, so hand out the landmarks, dear Residents! We’ll also supply “average travelled distance data” which either means that residents find what they need quickly and thus don’t need to relocate often, or that they have a fun time exploring the Second Life Grid.

2. Trackbacks Removed

Any press is good press. “Trackbacks Removed from Second Life blog” will give you an idea of the exact amount of interesting, in-depth articles about Second Life.

3. Talking Nipples & OEZ

“Talking Nipples and Other Erogenous Zones” is the metric for Resident Interaction. We strive to build a solid community of residents, interested in “play”, “flirt” and “romance”. What better way to measure this than the amount of sentences spoken by aroused Xcite bits?

4. Outfit Changes

You’ve all been long time asking for a metric that would exclude the so-called “bots”. Well, here’s it, because which bot would spend an hour/day searching into inventory for something that will only attach after 5 attempts? The number of outfit changes will really reflect the number of active residents in Second Life.

5. DMCA reports

Many creators threaten to leave Second Life, but only few actually do. The Number of DMCA Reports will accurately reflect the serious creators still sticking around. Those who spend hours and hours creating innovative products, only to see them ripped. (Mind you, we’ll just count them, don’t expect us to actually act upon them.)

6. Island Added

We’ve fixed the numbers on this one. Starting today this will only show the total of regions added to Second Life each month. The simulators decommissioned or abandoned, you ask? There aren’t any. Really, nobody is leaving Second Life.

7. Drama coefficient

The Drama coefficient is an average/IP address metric. We won’t give you the exact algorithm, but can say it has something to do with the number of alts created, partnerships & divorces and TXT TIPED N KAPS! The more drama, the better!

Any other great suggestion for Second Life metrics which easily enable a ‘positive spin’? Client downloads? (Hey, let’s just release one every two days!) Or maybe Crash amount? (we all know it’s unhealthy to stare at the PC screen longer than 1 hour at a time.) Bot concurrency? (See, as long as they don’t do anything, concurrency is way fine. It’s you residents, in the wrong, trying to walk around and rezz things!) Linden bears handed out? Percentage of residents that are forced to use “low” graphics settings! (We told you ‘bad’ PCs can handle it!) Snapshots taken? What else? :)

Tags: metrics, parody, second life, statistic
Categories: Vint Falken
6 Comments »

One of the best ways to ‘brush off’ frustrations for me is to dive into Photoshop, preferably after 3AM. I must admit I had a completely different end result in mind when I put the Imagen Mannequin Skin* on. I wanted contrast between the dark neighbourhoods that are Midian and a soft white, pearly, innocent ‘nude’ mannequin doll look**. Guess what? I’m not good at ’soft white, pearly, innocent’ it seems. :)

So err… may I present to you:

(800px width version on Flickr linkie)

I worked with a 3000px wide file and the original unedited version you can see on your right. Pixel torturing included - but was not limited to - liquify, layer modes, manual dodging & burning (for shading and highlights), dismembering limbs, spraying graffiti, adding a crowd, artificial lighting, … . Shading/lighting directions aren’t 100% perfect, but at least better than in the original? :)

* Imagen Mannequin Skin available for 1L$ in the Imagen shop, complete with WindLight settings. See the momola’s blog. (This skin is based on the templates released by Sezmra Splendor.)
** I even recruited Veyron Supercharge as stylist, but as the pictures took a different turn, I need to apologise to her as she’s not in the photograph.

Tags: imagen, midian, photoshop, robovint, snapshot
Categories: Photography, Vint Falken
5 Comments »

You gotta love Prok, especially when she is - once again - making erroneous statements. It’s funny, how she thinks there’s nothing wrong with launching personal attacks on those who disagree with her, yet if I publish someone else’s comment saying there must be a loose wire somewhere in Prokofy’s humans head, for that same twisted brain, all of a sudden I turn… male. Or at least in the process of transgedering. I don’t really follow the underlying arguments, maybe I’m not female because I don’t loath technology and ‘tekkies’ the way she does? Or is it just ‘the loose wire’ talking?

So please, could those of you who have met me in real life, have heard me on voice for a few hours, or that have taken the time to look here, here or here, help put Prokofy’s troubled mind at peace by confirming I am a ‘real life’ female? So Miss Prokofy may publish a rectification on her blog, where she also made this statement? It’s about time that-what-shall-not-be-talked-about (and that-what-I-was-ignoring until she pulled this stunt) learns to say ‘OMG, sorry, I was wrong!’

Vint, are you a male originally in real life, either cross-dressing in that rather ambiguous photo you put up here on your website under “about me,” or perhaps in the process of transgendering? Nothing wrong with that, but I find ambivalence about such a status often does often explain the particular obsessiveness and viciousness with which some SL types like yourself begin hysterically hating me, putting up hate pages about me, whiting out my comments like Orwell’s 1984, etc. etc. So, you know, just sayin’. Say, has anybody actually seen the real Vint Falken in RL, and can they comment on his/her real or presented gender? (From the comments at BD vs. Catharine Fitzpatrick. As you can see, I’ve been quiet there for ages, so I don’t see why she all of the sudden feels the need to attack me again. Except for ‘the loose wire’ theory, of course.)

Update: So this is why (s)he’s pissed. And article I wrote in defence of Benjamin Duranske when Prokofy Neva chose to attack Benjamin’s RL persona, that is ranking well on Google and titled Benjamin Duranske vs. Catherine Fitzpatrick. The irony is that it was supposed to help Benjamin’s reply to Prokofy’s accusations rank well. As Benjamin took down his article, I guess mine went up to first place. Well, it’s staying up, regardless which gender/sex that gets me.

Tags: gender, prokofy neva, rant, vint falken
Categories: Privacy, Rant, Vint Falken
79 Comments »

Image Credit

Image based on Looker Lumet’s “Christmas on Mars”. I intended to do something with the Xmas Greenie & the 3D Stereo Viewer but then I saw Looker’s image and just fell in love with it. As I prefer ‘multi-functional cards’ (cross-lifes), I was pretty sure the RL folks would appreciate his design more than what I had in mind, so I begged him for a “full perm” copy to use as my christmas card. Looker was as kind as to grand me those perms. Woot! Tyvm, Looker!

Tags: 2009, greenies, looker lumet, season greetings, xmas
Categories: Vint Falken, Vintfalken.com
10 Comments »

There couldn’t have been a better period for Daniel Voyager’s “passing on” from Teen Grid to Main Grid - happy 18th birthday, btw! ;) - as he brought with him tons of goodies Smiley Barry wrapped for me on the Teen Grid. Oh, was I excited to start opening those lovely gift boxes! Anxiously, I rezzed them, clicked them, choose ‘open’ from the pie menu and behold:

I now own the cutest cling-on panda to go on my leg, a matching panda backpack and penguin slippers which might help me to get off my shoe addiction. Now who needs “decent” shoes when they have cute, furry animal slippers, hand crafted by minors, right? It’s like owning real Nikes! :D (Although this might be a start of a panda & penguin addiction.) Smiley also got me furniture - I admit, there’s nothing to sit on my skybox as, LL still did not return that half of my bed they lost - which comes very handy and a crystal night lamp. The rotating sculpted gear was already pretty large - Crap is going to be so jealous - but the sandcastle was really to huge to fit the picture. I’m sure I’ll find a place for it, though, there’s beach on Scheherazade after all. Final item I unpacked was a giant banhammer. Read this, anonymouse?

Smiley, thank you so much for these gifts which were definitely worth the wait! (I’m looking at them more as Holiday presents rather than rezzday presents, which makes they were delivered just in time! ;)) And I promise, we’ll try to take good care of your friend Daniel, showing him the best we’ve got on the Main Grid! (He already joined the Second Life Bloggers group and owns both a Greenies Avatar as well as a Zapgun. Good start, no? ;))

Tags: gifts, rezzday, Smiley Barry, teen grid, teen second life
Categories: Vint Falken
5 Comments »