Linden Lab

Check out the hottest Second Life fashions at Modavia Fashion Week, held Sept. 8-15. For the full lineup, which features 50 of Second Life's leading couture designers, visit the Modavia Blog.

Visit the Bay City Aquarium and enjoy the sea life with your friends.

Check out the August 19 SL Flickr Pic of the Day: "Rez Day — Zombie killing party," by Lillian.   

Check out the August 18 SL Flickr Pic of the Day: "Pourriture Noble," by LuciaGenesis. 

Língua portuguesa — Blogs e recursos sobre o Second Life    

É novo no Second Life e fala português? Pode ser frustrante conhecer o SL se você não fala inglês. Por isso, Tiamat Bingyi, residente do Second Life, junto com seus amigos da comunidade de falantes de português, colaboraram para reunir alguns recursos úteis em português que podem ajudar a quem é novo no SL. Eis as recomendações: Fórum oficial do Second Life Esse é o fórum oficial do Second Life para a comunidade de língua portuguesa. É o lugar para conhecer outros residentes em seu idioma! Blog Mundo Linden Liberato Lindman mantém esse blog, um dos mais antigos em atividade. Ele trata do SL em geral e inclui tutoriais, machinimas, informações sobre a economia do SL, notícias sobre o SL e a LL, compras, lugares interessantes para visitar, RPG e muito mais. O blog é bem organizado. Blog LindenBR Outro blog interessante, bem parecido com o mundolinden.blogspot.com. Blog SL por Montekuri Um bom blog com muitas ilustrações. Você encontrará muitos tutorais aqui — e eles são ótimos! Aprenda como usar o SL e construir coisas, além de obter informações sobre segurança, meshes, scripts, sculps e muito mais. Blog Avantasia O Avantasia aborda as noções mais básicas do SL e inclui alguns tutoriais, notícias sobre grupos brasileiros e outros interesses relacionados. Second News! Brasil Esse é um blog antigo sobre o Second Life. Muitos dos tutoriais são sobre versões antigas do Visualizador do Second Life (V1.23 e anteriores), mas eles mantêm um fórum ativo sobre o SL. Você também encontra informações sobre machinimas, fotosd e moda no SL. Revista Innerworld A revista Innerworld é uma revista eletrônica e um blog sobre o SL. Publica informações sobre moda, criadores de conteúdo, lugares para visitar e design. Também há várias entrevistas com residentes. A revista é bilíngue, em inglês e português. Kurka’s Blog Khrys Kurka mantém esse blog, focado em moda e itens gratuitos. Também apresenta tutoriais e algumas dicas de segurança. Turistas do SL Esse blog é sobre os melhores lugares para visitar, mas também apresenta informações sobre vendas e itens gratuitos. É muito bem organizado e tem um layout agradável. Você tem um blog em português ou gostaria de recomendar um blog favorito ou recurso útil da Web? Conte-nos sobre eles na seção de comentários abaixo ou visite o fórum oficial para se conectar e compartilhar seus favoritos com outras pessoas. Obrigado a Tiamat Bingyi por nos ajudar a reunir essa lista útil de links e recursos! Visite o perfil de Tiamat no Second Life para saber mais sobre esse prestativo residente.

Check out the Crossworlds Gallery to visit 13 floors of sculptures, paintings and photography from some of SL's best artists.

Check out the August 17 SL Flickr Pic of the Day: "DNA/ Signature space ship_037," by Patch Thibaud.  

Resident and prominent blogger Honour McMillan explores Ravens Mist in Second Life. Check out her photos and travels on her blog. From Honour's Blog: "Two sims full of art on a fantasy landscape, I couldn't resist. Ravens Mist is Katz Jupiter's gift to those who love to poke around and find great art in a completely unnatural setting - well it's unnatural if you think art has to be in a walled gallery or organized in nice neat display areas." Keep reading on Honour's blog...

Check out the August 16 SL Flickr Pic of the Day: "Emery&taketomi Snapshot_41086" by larcoco.

Interested in learning more about virtual worlds? Check out the University of Washington's Certificate in Virtual Worlds, developed in partnership with the University of Washington Information School. Get more information about the program here.

Check it out at 11 AM (SLT/PST) Pure Dark Night with DJane Dark Unicorn:

Check out the August 15 SL Flickr Pic of the Day: "Steam Punk," by Cade Nansen.

 Check out the August 14 SL Flickr Pic of the Day: "Fringe Top (with beads)" by Izzie Button.

The Second Life economy remained consistent in Q2 2011. The highlights were strong growth in registrations, a steady Linden $ exchange rate with slight appreciation, and continued growth in Linden $’s held by customers –with most other key metrics within 1-2% of recent quarters. For a definition of the metrics in this post, please see this wiki page. Click on each image below to see a larger version. DAILY COMPLETED REGISTRATIONS With the addition of Basic and Advanced viewer modes, plus an improved new user registration flow in early Q2, there was a sharp uptick in registrations that continued throughout the quarter. Q2 averaged 27.9% more completed registrations per day than Q1. AVERAGE MONTHLY UNIQUE LOGGED-IN USERS Average monthly logged-in users for Q2 increased 2.8% from Q1 2011. This chart is more comparable to industry standards for reporting size of customer base and will replace previous measures based on user repeat logins or time active. USER HOURS User hours remained within 2% of the most recent quarters. AVERAGE MONTHLY ECONOMIC PARTICIPANTS Active economic participants were within 1% of last quarter. AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE The exchange rate remains very consistent and strengthening slightly with a 0.4% appreciation in the L$ over Q1 and a 4.3% appreciation in the L$ over the same quarter last year. *Note that the exchange rate is expressed in L$/USD, meaning larger numbers represent a lower L$ value and smaller numbers represent a higher L$ value. The average rate is calculated by dividing the total L$ exchanged through the LindeX by the total US$ exchanged through the LindeX in the quarter. L$ SUPPLY Money supply grew by 2.2% in Q2 from the prior quarter and 15.8% year over year, bringing the equivalent US$ value of all customer-held L$ to US$30 million. *Note: From time to time we will change our reporting in order to provide the most relevant and accurate summary information for the use of merchants, landowners, content creators, and other participants in the Second Life economy. Q2 2011 is an estimate calculated based on different methodology versus previous quarters. LINDEX VOLUME Q2 LindeX volume declined 2.7% to US$30.6 million in line with seasonality. This is a strong 4.4% increase over the same quarter last year. WEB MERCHANDISE SALES VOLUME The volume of web merchandise sales grew by 4.9%when compared to Q1 2011 and by 38.1% when compared to Q2 2010. WORLD SIZE World size remained consistent with last quarter at just over two thousand square kilometers. 

Check out the August 13 SL Flickr Pic of the Day: "My hot SL sister saphaire," by Janel Trinity1.

Check out the August 12 SL Flickr Pic of the Day: "My lovely besties" by Amita Yorcliffe; photography by Julie Hastings.

"The 7th annual Second Life Community Convention 2011 begins today!...Those attending SLCC remotely can check out the IN-WORLD PAGE for SLurls, schedules, streaming video, and more information for virtual attendees..." Keep reading. Excerpt from the Aug. 12 post on SLConvention.org, authored by AvaCon, Inc. a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the growth, enhancement, and development of the metaverse, virtual worlds, augmented reality, and 3D immersive and virtual spaces. Linden Lab is one of several sponsors of the convention.

"I’ve been getting a lot of emails from people that know nothing about Second Life, but have somehow found my blog through various social networks, asking me for more information. Therefore I figured I would write up a quick tutorial for those interested in joining and looking for some free resources to kick start their inventory..." Keep reading at StrawberrySingh.com 

Brain-Computer Interface for Disabled People to Control Second Life With Thought Available Commercially Next Year "This is an awesome use of a brain-computer interface developed for disabled people to navigate in the 3D virtual world of Second Life, using a simple interface controlled by the user's thought: Developed by an Austrian medical engineering firm called...(continue reading)  from New World Notes

This update brings a variety of features for you to check out, including upgrades to Profiles and the Viewer. The new features are part of our ongoing quest to create an excellent experience for you — whether you’re creating, connecting or exploring. Profiles It’s easy to forget about RL for a while, socialize as your unique SL identity, and share what you love about Second Life when you’re part of SL Profiles. Connect with other Residents and explore Profiles using whichever identity you choose. You can add your interests, tweet your favorite locations and form friendships with other Resis, as well as continue the conversation through Facebook, Plurk and other social sites. As always, we value your right to network under any identity you like — and SL Profiles lets you do just that. Your SL Profile name and identity can be whatever you like — let your imagination run wild! Update your status, share your location and comment on friends’ posts. You’re in charge of how you connect and how much of your RL identity you share. Spend some time exploring — there’s a ton of ways to customize your settings for a rich, social SL experience. You can edit your Profile at any time — and there’s a spot for your real-world info, too. Customize your settings to optimize your Profile. The Recommendations tab lets you know which Residents might make good friend match-ups for you, and the more interests you add to your Profile, the more recommendations for potential pals will pop up. You have the option to add your recommended connections to your friends list right in Profiles, and you can contact them right away through instant messaging — or just have fun reading the profiles of like-minded Residents. Updates to the Viewer We’ve made big changes to the Viewer Login Screen. When you open the Viewer, you’ll get a peek at what’s happening inworld. Check out the latest Destination Guide Editor’s Picks and stay up-to-date on SL news with a direct link to the blogs. Want to chat? “What’s Hot Now” reveals the most popular locations — click, log in and start socializing! Get started right now. Just click on any one of the images before logging in, and you’ll start your SL experience at that location. You’ll also notice some changes relating to Region Environment Settings. These give region managers the ability to customize environment settings — like atmosphere, sun, time of day, and cloud coverage. Visiting Residents will automatically see those settings, unless they’ve already chosen to use a personal override. For example: a Gothic castle might have a gloomy, spooky environment — and a tropical island might be bright and sunny. This feature is sometimes referred to by its previous moniker, Windlight Environment Settings. Check out the Knowledge Base for more info. For greater discoverability and to provide you faster access, you’ll find the Search Button displayed along the bottom bar in the Viewer. Another new feature gives parcel owners greater control, including the ability to hide avis, avatar activities and conversations from everyone outside a parcel and vice versa. You also gain the ability to restrict sounds emitted by avatars on the parcel. We expect to release the next version of the Viewer toward the end of August. Meanwhile, we continue to work on the issue of full compatibility with Apple OS X Lion — we’re currently testing out compatibility issues. Many Residents have chosen to wait on upgrading their versions of Mac OS X so they can continue to go inworld. Check out more details here, and join in the conversation. More new avatars We’re proud to introduce the latest members of the SL family — a new troupe of human avatars. Last month, we rolled out our line of robot, animal and vehicle avis, and this month we’re adding to the new selection. Avatars created by: Adam n Eve The newest group of human avatars includes a spectrum of ethnicities, and complements current inworld trends — Steampunk, anyone? You can try them out by going to the Library folder in your Inventory and choosing Clothing > Initial Outfits. These guys (and gals) have been designed to optimize loading time. We considered various benchmarks, including Avatar Rendering Cost. We worked with Adam n Eve to craft detailed textures that emphasize aesthetic beauty. This balance provides a good starting point for customizing your look, and serves as an example for creators of how to make inworld items look good — and also load quickly. Second Life is about creativity, diversity and communication — and this new pack of avis gives you a greater range of personalities to try out. They’re also completely modifiable. Payments It is our goal to continue to improve our payment process in order to make it easier and worry-free. Starting this month, Residents will begin to see improvements in usability including simpler layouts and flows, and we’ll be working on making the system even easier over the next couple of months. We’re also working on a new-and-improved way to offer local currency options. If you are currently part of the Local Payments beta there are no changes just yet. Mesh is in production We’re still accepting volunteer regions to receive mesh support here. If you just want to experiment with mesh creation, the same link will provide you with the steps you’ll need to take to get involved, and locate a mesh sandbox to work in. We’ve started to roll out mesh to regions across the grid via our release channels, and it will soon arrive at a region near you. While it’s being deployed, mesh objects are supported — but not all viewers will display them, and not all regions will fully support them until the rollout is completed. Also, we know there are going to be questions about some concepts being introduced with mesh, and we’re working to help explain them — more to come on that topic in the near future. The mesh forum is a great place to see and read what others are doing, as well as ask questions. More Personalized Emails If you’ve unsubscribed to optional news and promotional emails in the past, you can now resubscribe to emails by category. It’s important that you enter the email address that’s connected to your SL account. These subscription options don’t affect the emails you receive for transactions, instant messages from friends and/or customer service responses. Have fun, Linden Lab 

 Does your campus have a cool 3D exhibit created in SL? Or do you have a unique learning experience or research project that you want to share with a larger audience? Tell us about it! As the new semester approaches, Linden Lab ushers in the new school year with a celebration of the best in interactive academic offerings in SL. Starting on Aug. 15, we’ll debut the Academic Showcase – a new, limited-time Destination Guide category that aims to spotlight some of the many interactive learning exhibits, online education events, and other academic pursuits in Second Life. This opportunity is open to all SL venues that house 3D learning projects – so it isn’t limited to real-life universities. To contact the Second Life editorial team, use the Destination Guide Submission Suggestion form with a description, SLurl and suggested image that represents your project. We’ll be rounding up the best submissions for inclusion in the Academic Showcase, which will soon be accessible on the Destination Guide on SecondLife.com and inside the Second Life Viewer. Can’t wait til Aug. 15? You can explore some of the best ongoing academic SL offerings now in our existing Destination Guide Education category. Unlike the upcoming Academic Showcase category, which is meant to spotlight specific learning projects, the broader Education category will continue to spotlight the overall educational institutions and nonprofits in Second Life.

You may have noticed that we’ve added a Mesh Enablement tab to your Account. Get ready to explore the latest innovation from the Lab! Mesh? What the heck is that? We’ve had quite a few questions from users about mesh — mostly along the lines of what is it? How can I use it? When will it become available? Well, we’ve got some answers for you — and some good news! First of all, what is it, exactly?The term “mesh” refers to an object that consists of polygonal geometry data. Essentially, it’s what you see in modern video games, special effects and 3D animation. It's extremely flexible — and when it’s well-made, it can be way more efficient than the existing prims and sculpties you’ll find inworld currently. Mesh objects are first created in external programs, such as Blender or Maya, and then imported onto the Second Life grid. Once there, mesh objects can be manipulated in pretty much the same ways you would manipulate a regular old prim. And, here’s the best part — the wait is almost over! We’ve been rolling out mesh-upload capability to selected regions over the past week, and the rollout pace will increase in the coming weeks. Mesh on the Main Grid Because we’re rolling out mesh-upload capability across the Main Grid over the next few weeks, mesh is not going to be available everywhere all at once. But, you can get a preview. Ready to try mesh? Here are a few steps you'll need to complete to get started: 1. Get enabled. To do this, you'll need to first complete a short tutorial about mesh and intellectual property rights. 2. Download the Mesh Project Viewer. 3. Once you’re inworld and using the Mesh Project Viewer, teleport to the selected Project Regions where mesh capabilities are enabled. If you're interested in uploading mesh objects, you will want to visit public areas to test. View the list of current mesh enabled sandbox regions here. Intellectual Property rights tutorial Mesh Project Viewer Download If you have a region and want to get upgraded early, check here. Before you do visit a Project Region, you should check out the Mesh Project Wiki Page and read about uploading mesh. It's also a good idea to read through the Mesh Forums to get more info and to ask questions of your fellow creators. During the rollout period (until we enable upload in the next version of the Release Viewer), Linden Lab will charge a discounted fee for uploads. Also, during this initial period, no mesh items should be posted to the Second Life Marketplace due to the limited availability of places to rez mesh objects. We’re excited to share our latest project with you — and can’t wait to see the awesome things you’ll build with mesh! Go out and create something amazing – have fun! Linden Lab

Linden Lab is excited to announce the latest updates on one of our coolest new features — mesh. With mesh, you’ll be able to create, build and beautify even more incredible objects inworld! You’ll find a new Mesh Enablement functionality tab in the My Account section of your Account screen. It’s just another part of the innovation and imagination that makes Second Life the magical place it is. Uploading Mesh Now that mesh is in rollout stage and many users will soon be able to utilize its content-creation capabilities, there are a few things creators should know before giving it a whirl. Potential creators will need to satisfy a couple of requirements in order to gain access to mesh-upload capabilities. First, you’ll need to review a short tutorial that is intended to help Residents understand some of Linden Lab’s intellectual property policies — they can be kind of tricky, and we at the Lab want all content creators to be well-informed This tutorial outlines some of the key points relating to intellectual property. Second, if you have never given us billing information, you'll need to enter it into your account. Why, you ask? Because having payment information on file is an important step in establishing direct relationships with content creators who will be working in mesh. Note: We do realize that with the current configuration, some Residents will need to make a purchase in order to enter their billing information. The first round of rollouts of mesh will be happening over the next few weeks! We look forward to seeing your continued imagination, skill and creativity in this exciting new format. We hope you’ll be pleased with our innovations — and can’t wait to see what you come up with! Now go create something amazing! Linden Lab

One of the most powerful examples of community in Second Life is the annual Relay For Life event, which helps raise money for the American Cancer Society’s fight against cancer and to celebrate the lives of people who have battled this disease. Over the past few years, more than $1 million real-life U.S. dollars has been raised in Second Life for this important cause. This year’s fundraiser (themed “Seasons of Hope”) takes place from July 16 to 17 and features several community activities and events, including: Live and silent auctions Live music performances Scavenger hunts Exclusive, limited-edition goodies Machinima screenings Theatrical performances ...and much, much more! We hope you’ll take a moment to visit and participate in this Second Life community-organized event. Visit the Relay for Life event in Second Life >> Find out more at the official event website >>