Madelaine McMasters

Thomas Galbreus wrote: 'Pornography (often abbreviated as "porn" or "porno" in informal usage) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purpose of sexual arousal. Pornography may be presented in a variety of media, including books, magazines, postcards, photographs, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video, and video games. ' Source: Wikipedia. I won't argue over the definition of pornography, but I do wonder if you're stretching the definition of "subject matter", which is defined as "the subject represented in a debate, exposition, or work of art" (Google) or "information or ideas that are discussed or dealt with in a book, movie, etc." (Webster). Interactions between two consenting adults in private, or in a venue designed for such activities would not be considered "subject matter". It becomes subject matter when made available more widely. Yes, people can cam into adult SL venues, but the existence of RL peeping toms has not caused reasonable people to consider sex in the bedroom pornographic. There are more than 10,000 people signing up for SL every day. So any argument that SL's purported sleazy reputation has hampered enrollment must explain that away. Unfortunatlely, more than 10,000 people leave every day, and I expect that's because the experience here (including sex) isn't quite what people had in mind. Your argument parallels that of "sexting". The nature and availablity of text messaging makes sexting seem inevitable, doesn't it? Would you advocate companies taking measures to prevent sexual content in text messages? I'm sure there are people who would pay a premium for that. I'm also sure there are far more people who wouldn't touch such a service with a ten inch pole. ;-).

Hi Nikki, I think you'll have better luck asking this question out in the Lifestyles and Relationships forum. Put on a little skin lotion before you do, you may need it. ;-).

Hi tuka, As Rolig explained in another thread, there was unscheduled maintenance on the grid this morning. Whenever you have trouble logging-in, you should check this page for announcements... http://status.secondlifegrid.net

I hope everybody had a pleasant time at breakfast this morning, Hippie. I bought a GoPro camera... I'm going to try my hand at time-lapse photography. Happy Sunday, Kids!!!

Hi bateliii, Even if you mentioned which group you'd been ejected from, it would be extremely unlikely for anyone here to know why you were ejected. We're residents, just like you. Group owners are allowed to allow and eject for any reason, including mood swings. It's curious that you were ejected from two groups in as many days, but I can't explain that either. :-(.

I have a weakness for old salty Swedish sea dogs... ... from the salty seas, ya newr. Thar she blows! ;-).

Of course he's a genius, that's his spessiality...

Hippie, baseball is best played in Mudville... Happy Saturday, Kids!!!

Where does Lady sit, Hippie? I don't know if you get fireflies in Florida, but we've got a bumper crop this year. I've been trying to photograph them with little luck, but Tsuneaki Hiramatsu has nailed the technique... Happy Wednesday, Kids!!!

Hi Belladonna, I'm afraid that group is gone forever. You are now aware of the two person minimum. To prevent losing your next group, create an alt (if you haven't already got one) and enroll it as well. You are allowed up to five accounts on the same e-mail address, and there are other good reasons for having two accounts, such as being able to test permissions on things you create. Good luck!

It's gonna be hot today (83 already) Hippie. So, I'm setting up the sprinkler... Happy Tuesday, Kids!!!

Hippie Bowman wrote: Good morning all! Monday again? Have a great one! Peace! Yes, it's Monday again. And it couldn't have come too soon! I did my nails this morning to celebrate... Ya like 'em? Happy Monday, Kids!!!

Hi Mary, As Theresa says, notebook computers are generally weak in the graphics department. Absent more information about your particular computer (which you can provide us by coming back to edit your question, via "Options" over there on the right) we're unable to provide much help. Linden Lab does provide a page describing the minimum requirements for a computer to run SL. Here it is... https://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements/ Good luck!

Good morning, Hippie. I'm heading out for another glorious day, starting with a dash along the beach... Happy Sunday, Kids!!!

Hippie Bowman wrote: Fantastic Val! Ooo ahhhh a bit lower please! Hugs and love! Peace! You want lower? You got it! Happy Thursday, Kids!!!

Goodness you Floridians are a prissy bunch. You know you're just gonna get muddy again. Why fight it?... Happy Wednesday, Kids!!!

Hippie Bowman wrote: Good morning all! Happy Tuesday! I thought I would help LadySue with the gardening today! Peace! That garden looks mighty dry, Hippie. You need an irrigation trench, and I'm just the one to dig it for you... Happy Tuesday, Kids!!!

Hi Riff, Linden Lab's adult content filter was designed... well that's an overstatement... okay, it fell from the sky and lies crumpled on the ground. People like you have been trying to make sense of it for ages, with no luck. Here's another thread with more, but not enough, information... http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Everything-Else/EVENT-POSTING-ISSUES/qaq-p/2769728

I haven't followed this thread, so I'm sure I'm missing ideas that are being tossed about, but I agree that there's no reason to think that LL is in some superior position to move forward. Fifty years from now, I don't imagine many will remember SL. Whatever we're doing together virtually by then will be unrecognizable to us now. The potential for technological disruption is increasing, not decreasing. Ebbe knows this. He's not pushing ahead to SL2 because he thinks he's in a superior position to do so, but because he knows SL1 is in an inferior position. The nature of disruption is that it generally does NOT come from within. For that reason, I cannot dismiss the possibility that LL's familarity with SL is a disadvantage.

Hi Jackie, You create an alt the same way you created Jackie. An "alt" is just an "alternate account". Snugs McMasters is my alt, my conscience, and a royal pain in the neck. You are allowed to have up to five accounts on the same e-mail address, but I'm sure people have done more. There are practical reasons for having alts. Groups must have two members, and unless you want to risk losing a group if everybody else leaves it, or risk giving control to a another person, I'd recommend enlisting an alt to keep the group above the two person minimum and keep control to yourself. It's also handy to have an alt when you want to test or align couple's poses in something you're creating. Alts also allow you to enter SL unperturbed when you want to concentrate on building. You can give your alt edit rights on your things, but inventory transfers are subject to the same limitations as for anyone else. You cannot transfer no-trans items and if you transfer a no-copy item, you lose it from your inventory. So, go create an alt!

I once owned a rocket pack that zoomed me around at what felt faster than 30m/s (67mph). In the following thread, dd Temin claims to be scooting around on his racetrack at greater than 55m/s (123mph)... http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Second-Life-Server/Avatar-not-capable-of-usual-speeds-since-the-Rolling-Restarts-on/m-p/2492445#M13791 This may be out of date, but the SL wiki says avatars may zoom no faster than 250m/s (560mph!)... http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Limits

That laptop meets the minimum requirements for SL, but barely so. I'd not expect it to do well in SL. Here's a searchable table of benchmark data for various graphics cards... http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php The minimum required graphics card scores 60. Your AMD Radeon® HD 8180G scores 197. My eight year old Mac Laptop has a graphics adapter that scores 90 and my current iMac has a graphics adapter that scores 4341. Current generation laptops with Intel's baseline integrated graphics score around 400-600. Lower your draw distances to 64 meters or less, set your graphics to low and turn off any extra goodies in the graphics preference panel that you don't need. SL is a computationally intensive virtual world, and taxes even the best hardware. I wish I had better news for you, but if you want a better experience, you'll need a faster computer. You could also try SLGo, which shifts the heavy lifting to run SL into the cloud. It's USD$10/month for unlimited access, which is cheaper than purchasing a whizzy new computer. You can find out more about that here... http://slgo.onlive.com

Rhys Goode wrote: In Firestorm and in the official viewer, I think you want the debug setting MaxFPS. Default is -1 to use all the resorces it can get, but you can set a max level. I think, MaxFPS alone controls the frame rate in the official viewer, but Firestorm also requires FSLimitFrameRate to be set to TRUE. This may have changed recently, so don't take my word for it.

While mesh is the best way to get a realistic paned window, the easiest way may be to cheat. Here's a window I built in my early days in SL, using just two prims (LI of one if link them and set Physics to convex hull or none, as Lindal suggests). The frame is a hollowed cube and the window is an alpha texture. It's not 3D accurate, but it gets the job done. Alpha textures contain an additional channel (beyond red/green/blue) to specify the opacity of each pixel. In this window, the mutton bars are white (or gray for shadowed areas) and opaque and the panes are white and almost completely transparent... The door you see through the window has a segmented arch window. The door is one prim, again done with an alpha texture. I've done versions of the window with dirty glass, snow in the corners, cracks, etc. The sort of patina you'd expect from Thomas Kinkade would be difficult to impossible to create without alpha textures. So, it's worth mastering the creation of alpha textures, even if you do learn mesh. Google "create alpha texture" and you'll get links to lots of tutorials. Good luck, have fun!

Hippie Bowman wrote: You look stunning Maddy! May I have your autograph? Peace! Thank you, Hippie!