Taeem

The firestorm shortcuts for crouch are C or PgDown. C makes me type, PgDown works fine for me. If you want to use C, you´ll have to go Avatar->Preferences->Move&View->Movement and check the option 'Pressing letter keys affects movement (i.e. WASD) instead of starting local chat. See Firestorm´s handy shortcut sheet for that and more: http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/keyboard_shortcuts

Yes, please do, feedback from people on what they finally got and how it turned out for SL, is rare and precious for those in the same boat, and gives the people who know of threads on this that dissappeared from the first pages info to pass on in newer threads, people don´t always use search, and search doesn´t always work well.

Groups seem to have a tendency to act up since some weeks to me. I´d first ask a friend if they can see the group still, if they can´t, sure, remove yourself and forget about it, if it will let you leave the group at all, obviously, that is, I´d not count on that before I´d have tried lol If they can see the group, I´d (try to) leave it, too, after having triple checked that the group isn´t set to open join and is set to not show in search, just in case it lingers

Hi Latasha. Desktop PCs are better No, sorry, using a laptop for SL myself usually. Your configuration doesn´t look bad for your expectations. The GTX 950M would be considered as lower end graphics card by many people (960, 965, 970 as mid-end, 980 as high-end) but it´s a dedicated graphics card and there are weaker dedicated ones around as well, not to talk about integrated graphics even, so personally I don´t quite agree with that view, I´d call it mid-range for laptops. I think medium graphics should work in crowded places, but nobody who doesn´t actually use a laptop with a 950M in crowded places will guarantee you that maybe someone who has one will show up. There was someone who bought a laptop with a 950M after asking about it on here, and came back to the thread to say she was happy with it, but I don´t know about crowded clubs, iirc she was more looking for something to take pics on high settings. A 5400 rpm hdd is pretty slow, if the configrator offers an upgrade to one with 7200 rpm for not much more, I´d take it, best/fastest/most silent of course would be a ssd, but that´s usually an expensive upgrade to choose. You might be able to exchange the hdd for a ssd later on yourself, when you've processed the cost for the new laptop, it´s not that hard to do. That´s provided the laptop model you chose allows for that, but usually configurable 'made my own laptop' laptops should have that possibility. In case you consider, spending a bit more for a better SL experience, I´d think about, in that order, a GTX 960M instead of the 950M, a ssd, more RAM. But if the specs you posted meet your budget, keep with that, should be okay (If you want to keep the latter two options open to you, make sure to get a laptop that allows for that, you could do it yourself as upgrades later on, it´s not that hard, or let a local pc repair shop do it - ask the people you´ll buy it from if it´s possible to exchange hdd for ssd and pop in additional RAM yourself, or post a link to the exact thing you´re looking at, we can´t say with the data you provided.) Generally for any laptop considerations, to not get loads of 'PCs are better' replies and also for help when something goes wrong, or you´d want to install more RAM etc., I can recommend this forum: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ They´ll want exact links to what you´re considering to buy though but there are lots of people with lots of laptop experience and willing to help, and even chances are good that someone there already has the exact same laptop you consider buying or upgrading. If you tell them in which country you want to buy, they might even give you either cheaper options for what you´re looking at, or tell you of lmachines with more power for your money. Of course it makes sense to ask here when you specifically want a laptop for SL, but here there´s a better chance for more 'Buy a desktop.' posts than there, as you see it´s a notebookreview forum, so they are inclined to not judge those of us who want to use a laptop too hard And there´s lots of gamers, and the requirements of SL and games are pretty similar, even if SL isn´t a game

Hi Darcy. You need to open your pic in a program you can edit images with. If you have the pic you want to put text into only in your inventory´s photo album, you need to download it onto your pc first, download it either as .png or jpg best. Open the image edit program, e.g. the one Freya suggested, and from that open the pic, find the option to put text in your image. Or you can even just do it in your browser, on sites like this one: http://picfont.com/ When you´re done, upload the edited pic with your text on it to SL, you do that in the Build-menu, with Upload Texture, you´ll find it not in your foto album folder but in the texture folder then but can use it just like your fotos for your profile. (If you want to do more, but need to invest more time then too, GIMP is a nice free program with a lot of functions comparable to photoshop if you play around with it some time you can do all sorts of things with your pics. You´ll find plenty tutorials on how to do things in GIMP, e.g. this one on youtube for putting text in images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJXePdDIPLo)) Have fun.

http://www.wikihow.com/Check-if-Windows-Is-32-Bits-or-64-Bits

Try another admin, maybe the one you messaged is in holidays or sick or whatever, but a sim with highpriced rentals like that (I never saw rentals for around 1500 on a rp-sim myself and I saw certainly a lot of rp-sims) should have more than one admin who can give out invites to the Landgroup, if they don´t have the rental boxes configured so you can click them to get an invite. And if nothing else they can tell you what the problem is. Best try an admin that´s online, live, while you are, since you say roleplay sim that should be possible, else just IM + NC any admin you´re aware of existing with the same text, and add that you sent that to multiple admins, cause you didn´t get any response from sending to the land admin and don´t know who can deal with your issue. If the sim gets 3K from you for 2 weeks of a rental, they should all be interested to sort this out for you.

I´m interested in the alienware console now myself actually, for my son lol so read up more on it, andI couldn´t find anything regarding the alienware console and Second Life, but I actually saw a review on another mini-pc, not the alienware, but also with a 860M, the Zotac ZBOX, that mentions it, in case it helps you with your decision: quoting the relevant text: 'I cannot comment on its suitability for games but it's powerful enough for Secondlife which is evermore memory and GPU hungry. What you're actually getting is a mobile processor, mobile memory and a mobile GPU: In short a gaming laptop in a mini PC form factor. But don't let that fool you: USB 3.0, gigabit ethernet, bluetooth 4.0, discrete GPU with 2 gigs of dedicated memory and 802.11ac wireless takes it way beyond the average low end machine which is what you'll get at this price. Overall very pleased with it. It's taking everything being thrown at it so far and there's so much empty space on our computer desk we're looking for a smaller desk.' http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B00KLUOZSM/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewopt_kywd/275-3346590-8721149?fil...

They don´t have the same form factor, but since NVIDIA calls them full desktop GPUs and dropped the M for them. Obviously they won´t be in a Macbook Air anytime soon yet, but they fit in the fat gaming laptops obviously. Some links for more info for people who are interested in the now ultimate laptop GPUs in laptops and don´t mind if they are not the same size as their desktop counterparts as long as they deliver: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/introducing-the-geforce-gtx-980-notebooks http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/214701-nvidia-launches-overclock-friendly-gtx-980-desktop-gpu-for-gaming-laptops http://www.vrworld.com/2015/10/12/asus-rog-gx700-water-cooled-gaming-laptop-revealed/

AMD GPUs are a gamble for SL apparently. If you want the best graphics card in a laptop, that would be either a nvidia GTX 980M, or even the same without the M, as there now very recently are some models that sport a desktop GTX 980. Or even the newest Asus ROG laptop that comes with external water cooling But the latter models are new as yesterday and very expensive. Your harddrive might be slow, if you want speed, a fast ssd like the Samsung Evo ones are your best bet, and of course there are now models with the newest skylake processors showing up too, the question is, do you really mean 'best possible graphic experience' or 'best possible graphic experience for a budget of 1000/2000/3000/5000 $' I´d look into gaming laptops by Sager, Schenker (or other rebranded Clevo barebones), Asus, MSI, depends on your budget and where you´d get one of course too bc. customer service and such. MSI already has models out with skylake processors and GTX 980M, up to 32 GB RAM, too, but well, that´s if you really want the best laptop you can get with no price limit

Hey. I don´t have one and don´t know anyone who has personally, but in case nobody does, hope maybe this helps you more than no answer. Is there a specific reason you want a small solution like that box because of space or carrying it around or because you could get one that would cost you considerably less than a desktop? Because there seem a few disadvantages coming with that vs. a 'normal' pc. You forgot to specify the number the graphics card has, so I looked for specs and assume you mean this one: 'dual-core Intel Core i3 4130T, 4GB of DDR3/1600 RAM, a 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive, 802.11a/c Wi-Fi, and a custom overclocked GeForce GTX 860M graphics card with 2GB of GDDR5.' For a general idea: GTX 860M is a lower end gaming laptop GPU. The current generation of mobile GPUs are 960M (lower end), 965M and 970M (medium) and 980M (high end; there even since some days are laptops that support a GTX 980, without the 'M, which is kind of a quantum leap for laptop GPUs and very expensive). The more important number btw is the 2nd one, so a last year´s 880 might well run better than a this year´s 960, for example, just as an aside, there are websites with benchmarks and one-on-one comparisons for all nvidia cards to check. So, 1st disadvantage, you´d have a laptop GPU in your box instead of a 'normal' GPU in a pc, the laptop GPUs, the models with the 'M' after the number, aren´t as powerful as their pc counterparts. I assume they use the mobile GPUs because of space and cooling, which is why laptops have them, as the box is pretty small compared to a desktop. I suspect you could get a more powerful GPU if you go with a desktop for the same kind of money. 2nd disadvantage, the GPU is soldered, you can´t exchange it, if you burn it, or want to upgrade it some time, like you could with the GPU in a PC. 3rd, from what I read it seems to be nice to use in the console-mode, but not so much in pc-mode, depends on your actual usage of course if you´d be ok with that, I´d definitely recommend googling for reviews. And even that unfortunately doesn´t really tell you much about secondlife itself, as it´s a special kind of snowflake, if you can´t find someone who actually has that console and runs secondlife on it, it will be guessing. That all said a GTX 860M, coming from integrated intel graphics, should be a quantum leap in enjoyment of SL still. It was one for me when I changed from a cheap 400 € laptop with integrated GPU to one with a dedicated lower end one, and then again from that one to a gaming laptop. Each time a big 'wow'-effect. Everyone always tells the people who ask for laptop advice for SL 'get a pc, much better specs for less money' and of course that´s right, but some of us really need a laptop or simply want one for their own reasons, and sl is running quite fine on my gaming laptop, so it´s not that I want to talk you out of the console in favour of a bulky desktop, just be aware that a GTX xxxM isn´t the same thing as a GTX xxx (without the M), and 2 GB VRAM isn´t that much either, and I guess you mean the version that has a 4th gen core i3, while currently the new 6th gen and skylake processors are out, so that´s not the newest either. I saw a lot of 1 star reviews on amazon for the alienware console, I´d definitely do some more research before getting one. If you really want the console, for looks or something, what you could do for extra speed, now or some later time, is swap the harddrive, which is a very slow model, with a fast ssd, and I think you can add more RAM too. But I don´t think anyone who doesn´t have the console themselves and runs special snowflake SL on it, would want to guarantee you how it will run

While you might get banned, with or without the option to appeal, nothing might happen as well, drink some tea, ponder the lesson and wait for the Linden Lab mail, and actually it might help and be the right thing to do, now you´re certain it was no regular RP but griefing, to IM the people you grieved at the wedding and apologize? Probably most of them even will accept your apology, if you´re sincere and tell them you´re new and now understood what you did and won´t do anything the like again. I know I would. At the least it might help you in case of a ban with the option to appeal. And in case nothing much happens or you decide to start anwew on an alt - just go down a few threads on the forum and see this one to try to RP https://community.secondlife.com/t5/Role-Play/bd-p/RolePlay or use inworld search to find real roleplay sims and groups. RP sims are glad for nice people who want to RP, no need to go shooting people on a wedding which might not even be 'real rp' to them.

That´s a great idea!

The link you give for the laptop you´re pondering specifies a NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 950M, there was a thread here some time ago by someone asking if an Asus ROG laptop with a 950M would be a good buy, she ended up getting it and iirc from her last post in the thread was happy with it. Here, found the thread for you: https://community.secondlife.com/t5/General-Second-Life-Tech/Will-this-laptop-be-able-to-run-SL-on-Ultra-Graphics-without/td-p/2959361

BC is up and running again, with new price structure though.

Apart from that they said both L$ as account identity/names will be transferable, it´s still Linden Lab that´s the owner of Sansar, I don´t see much reason for them to change the currency or it´s name. If it was called Second Life $, sure, but it´s called Linden $, so all´s good.

It´s not that they don´t want to, they can´t, for now. There was a meeting of the in-world group some days ago, they put the log on their blog: http://blog.brightcanopy.com/blog/

Bright Canopy Service is down for now, but they did an in-world meeting/Q&A recently, and they are working on finding a sustainable solution, there´s still hope for an alternative.

Bright Camopy news: http://www.brightcanopy.com/blog/ They had to adapt their plan after the initial open run. The monthly plan for 17 $ means you get 20 hours, so there´s the answer to a question discussed in the BC group in-world recently.

I fear the answer to the last question is money. I thought about it, but actually I guess the people it really would matter to if I logged in anymore or not, would know, when I´d not reply either to a few IMs or/and e-mails for a while. Whatever one thinks of google, gmail has a brillant thing for that called Inactive Account Manager, not many people seem to know about this, so if you use gmail and didn´t know yet, have a look, you can even choose an inactivity time down to 3 months: http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2013/04/plan-your-digital-afterlife-with.html Hello Linden Lab people, if you read this, there´s an idea in that for SL and Sansar, a thing like SL should really have something comparable, maybe at least for premium account holders (as an additional incentive, maybe for that account plus a small alt number if they specify to want the same service for alts and name them themselves, too), maybe with more 'Hey, we´re going to terminate you account in x days, you really want that?.Log in and say hi or bye to your friends!'...up to... Hey, we´re sorry you´re dead, have fun in 3rd life!'-reminder-mails in increasingly shorter intervals after 1 month of account inactivity.

Thank you for the links, going to read.

I´m pretty sure there wasn´t an 'Experiences' tab on the 'About Land' window before, I now noticed on both Firestorm and LL viewer. Did I only miss that somehow, or what´s up with that - I thought 'Experiences' is one of the Sansar buzzwords?

Interesting, thanks for the links. on a reated note: https://twitter.com/ASUS/status/634705311882870785?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&sig=cc36f25669cd7b11cb293e02b3751adba0bdd4ac&al=1&refsrc=email&iid=bc73b6edba024d66bfcd930179eddb90&autoactions=1440171804&uid=3191030617&nid=244+1489

For pictures specifically, from the technical and not the photography skill side, it should be enough if you can turn on shadows and still take pictures without crashing, I know people who can´t run their laptops on ultra to really move, but can do so for taking pictures. The more powerful the computer though, the easier it will be to get good pictures from far away, if your pc can´t handle high draw distance, you´ll not get happy then with pics from zoomed out, like a whole sim, depends on what kind of pics you want to take.

I have a ROG 8 GB which is pretty much exactly 2 years now I think, it has the GTX 765 M, and runs pretty smoothly on ultra, lag happens in very crowded places. The laptop is awesome generally, I´m glad I took that one back then, the cooling is really good and it´s silent for a gaming laptop. I´m a bit glad I have an earlier model though, since they changed the backlit keyboard from then white to now red, so I hope to bridge another year with it and they´ll go back to white maybe the following year I don´t think you should have trouble with it, (the general unpredictability with sl and computers aside) but it´s noteworthy that the 2nd number indicates how good the graphics card is, e.g. here: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-950M-vs-GeForce-GTX-860M you can see that the older 860 gets higher benchmarks than the newer 950, so if the pricejump is not too high, you might be better off with a 960, or maybe even can get a good deal for one with a 860, if the rest of the specs is ok. edit: I just noticed the one you´re considering doesn´t have the cooling like mine has (2 big rear fans) but the fan on the side, and it´s not so big too, so not sure on the cooling and noise then...I saw that model life in a shop recently actually, maybe the 2 rear fans versions start with the X60 M graphics cards only. It should be a pretty decent laptop still, but no guarantees you won´t need to plug it into a cooler when using it for SL and keep it away from your lap