Anicha Heartsong

I have an M1 Mac Mini with 8gb and SL runs fine in Firestorm, Catznip and official viewer. I do get overpowered by lag in very busy sims, even when I take protective measures (very small draw distance, max complexity of other avatars set very low). I should have gone for more RAM, I guess. One of those Studio machines will blow mine out of the water. If you buy the Ultra and don't like it, I'll gladly take it off your hands...

As a long-time Mac user, and one who regularly installs apps from outside of the official app store, I'm quite used to using the "control + click" command to tell Gatekeeper that I do want to install FS and other apps. No problem there. I've never had the initial problems experienced by TaraSimone, with the corrupted file. It sounds to me like there really was a corrupted file - perhaps because of issues with the download. Maybe the interwebs were having a funny five minutes. It should not be necessary for the vast majority of mac users to disable Gatekeeper entirely, even if only on a temporary basis. I can confirm what Anastasia Horngold says above - it's been necessary to follow these steps for quite a number of years, and with a whole range of apps as well. I'm no developer, so can't speak from experience, but I believe there's more to going through the Apple approval process than simply paying money. It can also, I believe, be a right royal pain the backside, and take quite a bit of time.

I use the free version of BBEdit on a mac to open and edit xml files. (It is a replacement for the old app Text Wrangler, given a new name). It's made by 'Bare Bones Software.' https://www.barebones.com/?ref=AboutBBEdit

No, it doesn't. I never go onto other people's property or impose their privacy. But I also never put up ban lines or install security orbs.

Because this isn't real life. If someone comes onto your property they literally cannot steal anything. They cannot harm you. You can eject them effortlessly if they are being a nuisance. People bring an awful lot of baggage into SL - including an almost pathological need to 'defend' their patch of virtual land against all-comers. They buy a nice plot and then throw up ugly, unfeasible walls all around it so that no one can see in. Except that they can, of course. It's kinda weird, don't you think?

We need a "right to roam." Why can't we have more open public spaces in some areas, perhaps whole continents like that? People who want walls and force-fields around their patches of land to somehow 'protect' themselves can go live in areas where there is no passing traffic at all.

What the Lindens really need to do is to create an offline inventory archive - one that respects the principle of folders within folders, which can't be done with the basic 'put everything in boxes' strategy.

Well worth checking out Amara Beauty. They do amazing skins and are one of the best at making mouths that look good rather than awkward. Their skins are almost flawless. That is possibly their only flaw - they can look a bit doll-like, though it is possible to add your own imperfections. However, I wear skins from DS'Elles, which doesn't often get a mention in these kinds of chats, but is one of the best makers out there. I'm currently wearing 'Olga' from DS'Elles. Give it a try. (Results should not be judged by reference to my current forum profile photo by the way - that's not my SL Avatar! That's Aughra from Dark Crystal. Everyone else was going for muppets. It's a long story.)

I've bought a sim edge water parcel as abandoned land before now - but it was right next to my existing parcel, which helped me to get in first, and gave me a stronger reason for wanting it. A fun way to find abandoned land is to go for a drive around those continents that have public roads, go exploring and see what you find.

Katherine, the sim you mention sounds a lot like Autumn Trace. If that's not the one, it's still worth checking out. Lovely build and they do have scattered houses for rent, or did last time I was there. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Tranquil Bay/110/173/21

There's one at [Magnificent] but it's male hair and quite high / thick. Might be worth a look.

Halo, you need help in-world for this. Trying to do it via the forums will be slow and frustrating. Try asking for help from one of the welcome centers, or IM me if you wish. Or go to the Lelutka mainstore and see if there's anyone there who looks friendly, and ask them.

Bear in mind that the demo shapes that come from mesh head and skin suppliers are invariably awful. You can't judge the head properly from their shapes (which is a major flaw in their marketing, if you ask me.) You'll need to buy a specialist shape - or better still make your own. Or get someone to help. In the meantime, some shape makers provide demos. West End certainly do.

Halo, that's definitely a skin, not a head, please see my reply above.

Stealthic Ivy is great, Truth Eternity, several by Magika - but my all time favourite is Thor by Magnificent - which is supposed to be male hair but with the right hairbase and addition of some flexi bangs looks just wonderful, and feminine.

Halo, hi, small world. It looks like you haven't bought a mesh head, but a skin to go on / with a mesh head. If you want a definitive answer- the best mesh head on the market at present is Lelutka Avalon. (Subjective, yes. But it is.) You could also consider Lelutka Ceylon. A lot of the other recommendations on here are a bit out of date. Some of the heads mentioned above date back around 4 or 5 years. Avalon is the best choice because it is virtually the only mesh head ever made that doesn't feature a slightly weird mouth that you can never get right no matter how much you tweak it. You need to put Avalon into Evo X mode and use a evo x skin with it. The evo X range use a whole new map-thingy for the skin (I forget the technical term), so it doesn't work with older skins. But they do look much better because they deliver more detail. If you want assistance, IM me in world and I'll help you out.

System avatars? No thanks. Losing interest in that idea rapidly.

Not understanding most of the technical talk here, but it seems like one of the major issues in crowded environments is the number of rigged mesh items and animations working in tandem. So, would enforced nudity for all public events help to reduce the lag?

[Magnificent] specialise in beards etc, but they do a couple of male hairs as well. The one called 'Thor' is pretty good. So good, I even wear it myself from time to time, with a bit of customisation and some extra wavey fronds. I never thought I'd be tempted to buy a male hair in SL!

You've done an amazing job there. Maybe the eyes need to be just a touch more wide set, just a tiny bit narrower, add some freckles but really subtle (that's tricky though - most you can buy are not subtle at all) and maybe the mouth just a touch wider. All of those are tiny tweaks though.

You could try DS'Elles: Flickr:

I like the ones from DS'Elles.

Have you tried using an alt of your own to contact him - perhaps offering work and asking his rates etc etc, just to see if he responds?

Coffee, I've been sleuthing: on another thread you recently wrote: "The M1 Air is the single best self contained computing experience I have ever had (and I have an absurd amount of computing hardware going back 40 years). It packs a huge punch, has battery life that just keeps going, has no fans and is completely silent, gorgeous accurate screen and Monterey ties everything together beautifully. It's an objectively excellent machine that can stand toe to toe with PC laptops up to double it's price." Does this mean you now have an M1 Mac? And... and... does that mean... ?

You should be able to delete a single teleport destination. I did a clean install at one point and lost my teleport history - but was able to find that text file and do a cut and paste of my entire teleport history as a way of restoring it.