Spiffy Voxel

One thing I'd definitely like to see is the Lab reintroducing some of the older pre-2010 last names, perhaps via votes to find which ones are most wanted back. Whether they'd do that, however, I've no idea. Letting new Residents choose a last name at sign-up? I agree it's a good idea, but on the flip-side it might cause people to back out of joining SL due to decision fatigue, plus those newcomers might not then be willing to pay for a different last name later on. That's probably what the Lab's response would be, but hope springs eternal and all that.

There are a few good reasons for using Discord in addition to an in-world group. One is that SL has occasional outages. (Yes, I know Discord has those too, though thankfully not as regular.) Another is the ability to have multiple channels of communication in one Discord server. An example: I'm a broadcaster and manager at Gorean Whip Radio, we use a Discord server to coordinate scheduling, event coverage, show check-ins, publicity and general station management. So we have public area, staff area, and management area with corresponding visibility and access. There are a few other pluses to Discord: being able to post pictures directly, and access via smartphone. That last one is a life-saver if — as has happened to me a few times in the past — I've had a broadband outage and needed to let Gorean Whip Radio management know I couldn't do my show.

I don't know what Linden Lab's process is for refreshing the pool of available last names. I suspect they don't want to make the list so long that people back out of the name change process due to decision fatigue, perhaps? They have retired a few of the original batch from when Last Names were relaunched, though I think that was a while back and hasn't been repeated as far as I'm aware. The seasonal ones have been available for limited periods (obviously).

Open the Sidebar in the session window, click on the Info button and you can rename it there.

Hi Lia, I've used Audio Hijack for several years now (and Nicecast prior to that, also made by Rogue Amoeba, which was retired a few years ago.) I've attached a screenshot of one of my session setups. The reason you're hearing yourself talk is because of the order of the outputs. As you can see from mine, I have the monitor output fed with just my music — I'm using Swinsian but that was Apple Music previously. The microphone then gets fed into the auto-ducking module along with the music after the monitor output. No more tripping over yourself! Regarding microphone volume, it's trickier with one that's built-in to your Mac. Other than getting closer to it, my advice is to speak loud and clear, enunciate your words, and remember to breathe! If you can get an external microphone that'll definitely help, but practicing talking into your current one will pay dividends in the long run. Trust me on this. (Small shameless plug, I'm a broadcaster for Gorean Whip Radio, so I get lots of feedback about how I sound from management.) You might notice the recorder module in that screenshot. A great way to find out how you sound would be to create a session with the recorder instead of the broadcast block, record yourself playing music and talking, then listen back to the recording. Nobody else needs to hear those, so you can try different ways of boosting your mic without embarassment.

I've seen that avatar on Marketplace before, and it does look really nice! Hopefully the designer can come up with a lower-complexity version so more people can make use of it and still be seen. These days my base avatar is a shade over 20K and most of my outfits put that up to between 21K and 50K depending on how much mesh is added. I've ended up throwing out a lot of items that, while pretty, were far too high complexity — the majority of those were older mesh designs and pre-mesh items.

I cut my avatar-related costs by leaving all but a few in-world store groups, unfollowing all blogs related to events and sales, and leaving my Premium subscription and Mainland tier fees to move to a rental in Nautilus with double the land allowance. Removing the temptation to buy more stuff is the key. I do buy new things occasionally, but now I'm much pickier about it, trying demos first and making sure that it fits my body and can be customised to my liking. Oh, and I've unearthed a load of extra outfits and accessories that I'd bought in years past but never got around to unpacking and/or setting up. 😆 As a rule of thumb nowadays, I have a style guide when it comes to outfits — pink (pastel / bubblegum), holographic/oil or rainbow colour scheme, gold or copper metals, and preferably latex, though not necessarily skintight. As an alien I lean towards sci-fi, though if I find any fantasy items that'll fit that works for me too. Of course, rules are meant to be broken, so I have some space/galaxy prints that I wear for casuals. On a more philosophical level, and particularly if you've not made the jump to mesh bodies and heads, my advice would be to make the most of what you already have and find a look that expresses the vibe you want for your avatar. Don't feel obliged to go with the 'popular' choices, explore and discover the things that appeal to you. Some of my most valued purchases, and the ones I still wear, were chance discoveries.

I have a similar spec Mac to yours, and I'm getting great framerates with Ultra graphics settings using the latest Firestorm Viewer. The one caveat is that I've turned off High Density display support, as that knocks the framerate down, but honestly I'd have to put my face right up to the screen to notice the difference. While it's true that the number of third-party viewers for Macs is fewer than for Windows users, the latest performance improvements made by both Linden Lab and third-party devs have made Second Life much more enjoyable. 😍

I'm not a millenial, but I'd recognise that beaming face any day! Eh-oh!

I started in SL in 2015 with a human female avatar, and the Imposter Syndrome was very intense for most of that first year! Over time I changed to being a female android, then a female alien, and now I'm just an alien. 👽 That actually suits me just fine, as I'm fairly androgynous in both RL and SL. Obviously, my voice is unmistakably male, something which trips other folks up occasionally, but in general the gender I'm perceived as seems to vary depending on who is viewing or talking to me. (I'm open about this on my profile, but of course that assumes the other person reads profiles... 😆)

I'm in a similar position, I have a Lara body and lots of clothes and accessories for it, those won't be going anywhere. I've also got PsiCorps' Astra Nova Androgynous body and some alternative hands and feet from another store (whose name escapes me). I'm going to (re)learn Blender so I can design my own outfits for that combination, but those will be in addition to the Lara-based appearances I've already put together. I've already gotten the hang of creating custom skin textures for my current avatar setup, and plan on trying my hand at material appliers soon. I've no idea what will happen with the current market for mesh bodies, some have fallen out of favour over time and more will follow, but with Kalhene, Legacy and Inithium joining the fray over the past few years, plus established players updating their lines, I don't think we've reached saturation point yet.

laughs I've occasionally done that. (Sometimes even when DJ-ing!)

At the rate I've been culling stuff from mine, there won't be much to see. Most of my regrettable purchases have already been consigned to the Bitbucket of Eternity, and the remainder won't be far behind. (I should add that 'regrettable' in this case doesn't mean embarassing, more a mix of poor impulse control and insufficient demo-testing.)

I definitely won't be hard to spot, not only because of my colours but due to my towering over most folks around me.

Honestly, you should only change your shape if it starts causing some of your clothing to break, and even then that probably says more about the mesh design than it does you. I've tweaked my shape to the extreme, meaning I always try a demo first to make sure stuff covers the parts they're supposed to cover.

Oh lordy, where do I start? Apart from myself, a few notable characters I've met include Avariel the unicorn (regular attendee at various Relay For Life events as well as Second Life Birthdays), Ito the dancing Cylon (does RP and helps out at Sci-Fi Con & Sci-Fi Expo), DJ Puddles (fairy riding her unicorn companion, DJs and is involved in BURN2 events), and DJ Bunbun (cutest of bunnies, DJs and runs his own store selling clothing and accessories), my friend DJ Foxy (fellow Gorean Whip Radio broadcaster), plus the staff and owners of Club Neon Wyre.

My avatar is androgynous / femme, my meat-frame is androgynous / bio-male. As my avi doesn't really have boobs, or any discernable junk between their legs (I have some alien genitals for giggles, but only occasionally put them on), their gender isn't really relevant, and would probably elicit a shaking of the head and "oh you humans!" 😛 Now, since I do voiceovers when I'm DJ-ing or doing broadcasts for Gorean Whip Radio, my vocals are most definitely male, something I've never hidden (though initially I had palpitations about doing so, back when I had a human female avi — yes, I was the stereotypical male-pretending-to-be-female when I first joined in 2015), in fact I flag this up in my profile. I've only had a few WTF reactions from people over the years, most comments have been positive and complimentary. 🙂 These days I'm a lot more comfortable in my RL skin, so my SL avatar is much more of an artistic expression than an idealised form. I have lots of fun experimenting with custom shapes, textures, modding of clothes & attachments, etc. 🙂

The Three Enemies of IT: Real-life environments, Mother Nature, sufficiently motivated humans.

Good article, I've read quite a few Asimov books and while they're a great story hook and plot device, that's all they're really useful for.

Sounds good to me, it would just be pictures of cats asking WTF is up with all the hoomans going gaga for blockchain-crypto-VR hype. 😛

Wow, that's a name I've not heard in a long time... looking at his Wikipedia entry, I see his face is as nauseating as I remember.

I just checked this out, super-neat! ❤️

As someone who travels the Mainland — and wishes they didn't need to reduce draw distance to keep reasonable frame-rate — any improvement to make it more 'scenic' and show off some of the beautiful landscapes would be welcome. I know that not everything in the landscape is 'picturesque', but I see that as perhaps a challenge for Linden Lab to help residents be confident in building, decorating and landscaping, and a challenge to creators to make better mesh that is lower in land-impact.

I recently switched from owning a 2048 square metre plot over in the south of Sansara to renting a plot of the same size over on Nautilus. Not only do I get more land allowance to play with, but I also get a reduction on the rental cost if I pay for a month or more in advance. Plus, I no longer have to pay land tier fees to Linden Lab, so the cost overall to me is pretty reasonable now. Obviously, your situation will be different, and ultimately it comes down to balancing cost against location and features. In some cases, the area you're interested in may already have been bought for rental, so that'll force your choice somewhat. If you're not in need of access to roads, waterways, railway or airports – and you're a Premium or Premium Plus member — you can check out the Land Auctions. If you already have a Mainland space and need more room, and there's abandoned land next to yours, you can ask Linden Lab for some of that — you'll pay L$1 per square metre if your offer is accepted. The main difference between buying and renting land is that the latter doesn't require a paid SL account and there are no land tier fees to pay, as the rental agency pays those.

That is one weird-looking screwdriver. <_<