Rick Nightingale

That's why I run a locked-down LTSC with extensive hardware and personal firewalls and local DNS.

Floaters linger under sewer hatchways H A T C H

Prices are a bit different in rip-off Britain so I'm not sure can be compared with dollar prices. However, I've been pricing an upgrade recently. My current, home-made, main PC is now ten years old based on the MB and CPU it still has. It was close to top level when I built it but life has changed a lot since then. It's had upgrades (SSDs, max'ed the ram to 16GB, GTX 1080Ti GPU). It still runs SL OK but with the latest Firestorm PBR beta, the system and GPU fans are ramping up and getting noisy a lot more than previously. GPU use is close to 100% and 80 Celsius much of the time. By contrast, my PC for everything except graphics-heavy stuff (because integrated Intel GPU) is an HP mini (size of a medium paperback book) with an i7-13700T CPU, 64GB RAM, 8TB NVME and external Dragonfly DAC and lives bolted underneath a little side table in the lounge here. That cost £1500 including the extras I installed, about 3 months ago when my previous little one bit the dust completely. It runs SL like a Citreon 2CV runs a formula one race, even on absolutely minimal graphics settings and no PBR. Replacing the main one with something worthwhile for SL and just the few games I sometimes play (Witcher 3 mostly; fortunately (for my wallet) I'm not really a gamer) would cost around £2000 for the parts. The only thing I can re-use is the case, and maybe an SSD for slow bulk storage. Spending less wouldn't make much sense; I would just want to upgrade. Upgrading is partly prompted by the fact that it is so old. At some point it's going to start failing; like the monitor I'm writing this on which now flickers badly for a minute or two every time it's powered on. I might as well build something new and decent rather than play fix-it with the old one. That's if I can find the money, and justify it for a PC that now only runs SL and related software like Blender, Photoshop, etc. and an occasional game. I could really do with knowing if SL is going to be around long enough to justify buying a PC for it 🤣

Sneakers have oblong, elastic SOLES

Take refuge; enraged, attacking TOADS!

Many announcements yield bitter emotions. L E M O N

Drawing blood

Stagnant water encourages annoying tsetse FLIES

Yep - I wish the viewers could have a lot of things on separate windows, especially since I have two monitors attached. I get the impression that some developers have huge, ultra-wide monitors so don't see the issue of large HUDs.

Defence attorneys need compelling evidence C R I M E

Medicine ball

Young otters do enjoy LICKS

Worm gear

Roasting chestnuts

That's the one thing that stops me using that body. I had hoped it would be a modern replacement for Aesthetic, but I just can't cope with the size of that bum!

Powder monkey

Freon leakage affects weather systems OZONE

It was unintended and should be fixed in the next update. It's in the latest Firestorm beta too, since it's the same code. It seems to be just a visual slider scaling issue, rather than actually affecting the shapes. Importing a previously saved shape's XML file still gives the correct shape, just showing different slider values because of the current mis-scaling. The XML file contains both the absolute slider value, and a fractional floating point value which is clearly the one actually used on import (otherwise the import would currently give a wrong shape, if it were using the saved slider value). I'm not relying on saving shape XMLs until the issue is reverted though, just in case.

Ghastly hauntings occupy seance TEAMS

Legendary unicorns respond, endangering daylight D E M O N (Can't resist the reference to my favourite movie... and me! 😈)

Space invaders (hours 'wasted' in arcades in the 80's, lol).

Hmm... "Nature's most perfect food". (At least mine is, with added bacon layers)

I'm a hobbyist. I would not sell items of the poor quality we are seeing; I would be ashamed of myself. If somehow I did, believe me, it would be corrected within days and I would probably give everyone a refund too by way of apology. Besides, I'm talking about demos that come from established stores and well-known shopping events that are not easy to get a stall at. Those sellers are not merely hobbyists. Anyway... clearly we have different views and have made them clear so further arguing on that is pointless

I disagree. Demos are to see if we like a product; if it suits our needs; if the skirt matches the top we have; if it fits our 'out of average' shape or works well with our favourite dance animation. They are not to see if the creator bothered to make the product of suitable quality for sale that matches what they claim. That should be a given; they are charging money for it and making claims about the suitability. We should not have to demo to check the basics and if we miss something while demoing be blamed ourselves for the matter because we didn't spot the problem before buying. That's the whole attitude that allows this sort of thing to continue. Yes, the reality is the above is necessary, because so many seller are liars, incompetent, money-grabbing scammers, or just don't really care that much (probably the majority of such). Saying that is what demos are for though immediately puts it on the consumer to be responsible for that when it is not, it is the seller that is responsible. And yes, we demo everything too; and a high proportion of what we demo is rejected because it is substandard. That's the point of the thread - that so many things are sold making claims that the product does not meet. Not whether or not a buyer demos a product 'sufficiently'.

Standing together