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Madelaine McMasters

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Everything posted by Madelaine McMasters

  1. Perrie Juran wrote: Storm Clarence wrote: Keyboard If you are saying what I think you are saying, that the phrase should have been, "Has The Keyboard Killed Cursive Handwriting," you do make an interesting point. My general habit is when I link an article to use the article's actual title. Maybe it is a sign of the times that the writer of that article used the word "Technology." As I referenced above, when I was a kid not many households to my knowledge had Typewriters, hence, no keyboards. I took my Father's portable to College with me and it got very well used by my dorm mates. Actually it got very well used by their girl friends. A girl who could type was worth her weight in gold and treated very well by the guys. When papers were due, her whim was our command. Which would go back to another comment I made, that I had flunked typing. Typing classes were generally reserved for girls. (Sexist discrimination......training them to be secretaries. Girls were normally the only ones who took short hand also). Regardless, how I ever got assigned to the class was a great mystery. I was the sole hormone ravished teen aged boy in a class full of perky teenage female breasts who was very easily distracted from my work. So one semester of typing and that was it. Well, if the keyboard killed cursive, it sure took it's time. Christopher Latham Sholes invented the first commercially viable typewriter less than a mile from my college in Milwaukee, way back in 1868. Keyboards first hooked up to computers in the 1940s. Computer keyboards penetrated the home in late 1970s. Cursive handwriting was alive and well through that entire century. One could argue that all those things, including pen and paper, were technology. But that's not the way most people use the term these days. They mean high technology, the stuff of computers, the stuff of modern everyday living. I think the turning point was somewhere in the span of time from HTML's arrival on the Internet and now, with Google and cell phones playing noteable roles in making a world of information readily available to people using keyboards. The keyboard was necessary, but not sufficient. Lacking a better way to describe the intersection of computers, digital cellular telephony and the internet, I think Technology will do.
  2. The technical minimum/maximum is as KarenMichelle states, as is the need to check particular sim restrictions, either in the covenant, or by inquiring with the landlord. In addition, as I recall, anything above 400m is not rendered on maps.
  3. Hi Ninna, I've never been able go get LL's auto updater to work for me. It launches weird Python scripts, throws error dialogs, etc. I just manually download the latest update, mount the .dmg file and drag the viewer to my Applications folder. I often throw away the old application folder and clear out the Application Support folder in Libary/Application Support first, just to make sure there's no lint being left behind by the old viewer. If you want to save chat logs, move the viewer's application support folder (Library->Application Support->Secondlife) somewhere else, rather than trashing it. There's also a "com.secondlife..." folder in Library->Saved Application State that I sometimes trash because it can perpetuate problems caused by a previously crashed browser. And finally, I'll sometimes toss the SecondLife folder in Library->Caches. If you do all this, you will lose your viewer settings, but sometimes that's necessary to get things running again. If none of this works for you, come back and edit your question (via Options on the right). Good luck!
  4. There is evidence that writing notes in lecture hall, even if you don't read them again, aids in retention of the material. I used my own sort of ad hoc shorthand, not unlike textspeak. For this reason, I don't rail against cul8r when I see it in an IM, although I can probably type "see you later" as fast as they textspeak it. And there's no cute replacement for Toodeeloo, Caribou! I'm going through my home library, culling out half the books in it. Time Life book of Spacecraft, old Smithsonian magazines, Simplicity pattern books, etc. They're lovely things to hold, but their information is out of date and easily accessible online. I'll keep a few of my childhood favorites, like Wallace Trip's "A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me" and all my Twain/Thurber/Feynman. I'll miss the page fanning, but I need room for new things, like another curio cabinet to display my pretty geodes, or perhaps an heirloom quality trebuchet.
  5. I loved the Forrester snippets, Perrie! There was always a keyboard in our house. I briefly used Mom's Smith Corona, but quickly moved to the computer when Dad got one for his office (PDP-11). I got (stole) my own Mac in 1984. I read the e-reader article you linked, and as so often happens, I found a piece of poorly thought out writing. From Gloria Mark at UC-Irvine... "More and more, studies are showing how adept young people are at multitasking. But the extent to which they can deeply engage with the online material is a question for further research." I've read research that says teens are no better at multitasking than any other generation, unless you define multasking as "happily doing a bunch of things at the same time, all terribly". And Ms. Mark fairly questions the studies herself by wondering if multitaskers can deeply engage the material. If she believed the studies, she'd not wonder about their level of engagement. This sort of self contradiction annoys the hell out of me. I don't know if it's possible to measure the value of reading/writing cursive, as learning is an n-dimensional thing and nobody controls all the other variables. I've heard that teaching music helps kids with math. What if you took the hours of music instruction and used it to teach more math? I'm not advocating we do that, we need musicians. Butt these studies are often flawed, drawing conclusions that are not supported by the evidence. For me, reading a paper book is different than reading a book on my iPad. I can't separate my nostalgia from the paper experience. I love books, so much so that I've never wanted to annotate any of mine, leaving them pristine and devoid of that additional usefulness. Yet I'm quite happy to mark up my e-books with digital pastel highlighter and post-its, allowing me to quickly return to things I found interesting last year. I could get used to this.
  6. AveryGriffin wrote: And so it was that I found out my third grade teacher was a big fat liar. I hear ya, Avery! I was home schooled, and although my parents were neither big, nor fat, they were first degree liars and I proudly carry on the tradition. Twain would be proud of my family. I dropped cursive about eleven minutes after learning it, because Dad bought a computer with two terminals and I could text him on it. I considered changing my signature to block caps, but I like signing things in a way that does not reveal my name. As a fan of typography, I'm quite pleased that books are printed in PRINT! (Yes, I used comic sans... shoot me!) ;-)
  7. Kenbro Utu wrote: Cursive died years ago at my hands. So, it was you! You're going to hell, Kenbro. "Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company." - Mark Twain
  8. Perrie Juran wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Perrie Juran wrote: Has Technology Killed Cursive Handwriting? Good? Bad? Ugly? Bad - as the poster above me demonstrated - the group who were born into the computer era don't want to "waste time" learning skills that were once upon a time an indication of being an educated person. There were times in history when women and slaves were not permitted to learn to read nor write and, farther back in history, only those who had the luxury of time (the nobility vs the peasant class) could dedicate time to education and related skills. I do believe it was E.B. White who said, "That which is written with little thought is read with little pleasure." Oh, and I do think it's a bad idea. While I do personally lament my own lack of keyboard skills (I flunked typing in school), there is a joy to be found in putting the pen to the paper. Personally, I've no use for cursive. E.B. White's statement (with which I agree) may well have been typed on his favorite Underwood Standard Rhythm Touch ;-) Mom and Dad were Palmer method kids and taught me the same. I have a CD autographed by John Hartford, who's got the most beautiful signature I've ever seen. Watching him sign it was a sight to behold. Yet I rarely write anything by hand, and when I do, it's in block caps, so others (and I) can read it. I am unconvinced by the research that claims cognitive benefits from handwriting. I don't doubt there are benefits, but that's compared to typing. Are there benefits to writing over drawing, painting, playing the violin? Is an hour freed from handwriting practice and applied to sketching of benefit to a mind? Those questions are not asked. It's always handwriting vs. typing. I once thought that writing equations by hand helped me think more clearly. Well, I still think it. But I've a collegue who grew up with symbolic math programs like Maple and Mathematica. He runs circles around me, not only in expressing equations, but in grasping the underpinnings. He grew up turning the knobs and dials on the simulators, exploring what changing the elements of an equation would do. I wonder if all the handwringing is really the perpetual noise of each generation giving way to the next... I do not lament my lost Palmer skills, there is a joy to composing at the computer. ;-)
  9. Czari Zenovka wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Perrie Juran wrote: Read Chelsea Malibu's comments again. She is the one person here who is an Attorney and this is her field. The original TOS already forbade uploading content you didn't have rights to. The new TOS now grants them more rights: The right to sell. I read it, Perrie. I've highlighted the statement that leads me to believe Malibu doesn't think LL's intent is malicious, but to be sure, I'll ask her. Here's what she said... In the end, this is a "washing their hands move" and little more. Time will tell but as for me, I am no longer creating anything new in this system as long as this TOS is in place. I would advice anyone concerned about their IP rights to do the same. While I've got no shortage of complaints about LL, I'm not ready to call them evil. It may not make a difference. Right after the sentence that you bolded from Chelsea's comment she says, "Time will tell but as for me, I am no longer creating anything new in this system as long as this TOS is in place. I would advice anyone concerned about their IP rights to do the same." So, while Chelsea is providing her professional opinion overall, as a content creator she herself is not creating new content due to the TOS change and advises other concerned merchants/designers to do the same. If an attorney is concerned...good enough for me. Also I don't think I'm assuming too much to say that the merchants who post here regularly and thus are among the most informed on LL policies as they relate to selling within SL are not taking this case in isolation. Just over the past year and a half or so there has been one thing after another - some "small", some not so small - that has impacted merchants, particularly those who sell on the MP, so we've become a bit more "alert" to continued changes that appear to chip away or deviate from what was in place years ago. Edit: Typo Sure, but this can still be chalked up to incompetence. I'm not arguing whether the ToS makes SL a less attractive place to do business, it certainly appears so. I wouldn't bring anything I thought had commercial value within a country mile of LL, but not because I think they're hoodlums. I just don't think they've got a tenable long term business. I asked Chelsea if she thought LL had malicious intent. She doesn't think so, but if they're preening for a sale, she's not ready to trust the next owner. I agree with that. I also don't think LL would survive the backlash that would come from effectively trying to hijack creator content. Someone like Stiletto Moody probably has deep enough pockets to make a royal stink in the press and the courts if LL tries something evil, or stupid. That said, I wonder what Moody's reaction to all this is. And pressing further on the competence front, does anyone know if LL's other endeavors are bearing fruit? After a year in the App Store, Creatorverse has 50 reviews, mostly 5 stars. Bubble Ball, written by eighth grader Nathan Fray two years ago, has over 32,000 reviews (average 3 stars). It's a teen eat company world out there! ;-) Oh, and as for knowing the difference between being incompetent and being nefarious... I'm both, so I should know!
  10. valerie Inshan wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: valerie Inshan wrote: I have empathy for you Snugs. I know that feeling, I've been in her fireplace too. And, the way she stares at you... So freaky. ... glares at you. Me too. :matte-motes-evil:
  11. valerie Inshan wrote: I have empathy for you Snugs. I know that feeling, I've been in her fireplace too. And, the way she stares at you... So freaky. ... glares at you.
  12. Drake1 Nightfire wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Perrie Juran wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: Drake1 Nightfire wrote: With the coders they have on staff would it be so hard to make their own version of captcha? They don't need to make their own system. There are CAPTCHA systems out there that will cut the spam down a lot but LL isn't really interested in this forum. That reminds me of something I meant to write to you but forgot. If all forum users boycotted the forum for a period of time, I think that LL would welcome it, and say to themselves, "They don't want the forum any more" - and close it. Over the years, LL has shown that they are not interested in having the forum and I'm sure they'd welcome an excuse to close it completely. Yep. I've no idea why the forums are still here. Because then they'd actually have to hire and train staff to answer questions. Step back ten paces, look at the forums and tell me if they give you a positive or negative vibe about LL? ETA: Yeah, I know we're probably not the best people to answer this question. When was the last time a Linden actually participated in the forums? aside from monty. The point I'm trying make is that vaporizing the forums and offering no support at all, may well be better than what LL have here now. If you look at the Answers section of the forum, there are not a lot of questions being asked, and it's pretty darned rare that those answering the questions (me included) have praise for LL. Very few residents even know the forums exist. I don't think LL would have to hire anyone at all to improve customer service, they'd simply have stop doing things that are harmful, which currently costs them time and money. LL would not be the first business to engage in self harming behavior.
  13. Perrie Juran wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: Drake1 Nightfire wrote: With the coders they have on staff would it be so hard to make their own version of captcha? They don't need to make their own system. There are CAPTCHA systems out there that will cut the spam down a lot but LL isn't really interested in this forum. That reminds me of something I meant to write to you but forgot. If all forum users boycotted the forum for a period of time, I think that LL would welcome it, and say to themselves, "They don't want the forum any more" - and close it. Over the years, LL has shown that they are not interested in having the forum and I'm sure they'd welcome an excuse to close it completely. Yep. I've no idea why the forums are still here. Because then they'd actually have to hire and train staff to answer questions. Step back ten paces, look at the forums and tell me if they give you a positive or negative vibe about LL? ETA: Yeah, I know we're probably not the best people to answer this question.
  14. Hiya Mastema, Because of the limitations of SL, it's as Freya says. Both avatars must "sit" on something which is effectively a vehicle, and has animations for both avatars. The product "Rendevous" is such a vehicle for two (or more) avatars, with various animations for the avatars, including things like holding hands while walking, or piggyback riding. It is that sort of thing you'd need to carry a tiny avatar in your mouth (cute idea, btw). This is not a trivial thing to construct, but you might start by scanning the marketplace for "vehicles" that have walking animations. If you could obtain such a thing with modify permissions, you might be able to add another prim containing the animation for the tiny to be carried. Appropriate scripting could have the first to sit be the walker and the second to sit be the tiny in the mouth. Good luck!
  15. Phil Deakins wrote: Drake1 Nightfire wrote: With the coders they have on staff would it be so hard to make their own version of captcha? They don't need to make their own system. There are CAPTCHA systems out there that will cut the spam down a lot but LL isn't really interested in this forum. That reminds me of something I meant to write to you but forgot. If all forum users boycotted the forum for a period of time, I think that LL would welcome it, and say to themselves, "They don't want the forum any more" - and close it. Over the years, LL has shown that they are not interested in having the forum and I'm sure they'd welcome an excuse to close it completely. Yep. I've no idea why the forums are still here.
  16. Hello Evi, As Freya explained, no-mod mesh is often a system limitation. Mesh items that deform with your body's movements (rigged mesh) cannot be resized because every point on the mesh object is "rigged" to the bones of the SL avatar. The designers of such things must carefully do that rigging, and blind resizing by the customer would probably result in unnatural movement of the item as the avatar moves. Unrigged mesh objects, like prim and sculpty attachments, do not deform with avatar movements and can therefore be resized without unwanted side effects. I share your dismay over the state of mesh clothing, but it's the result of decisions made during the design of Second Life well over a decade ago. Third party work has been done on creating a "deformer" for rigged mesh that would allow a "one size fits all" model for mesh clothing creation, but Linden Lab has not integrated that work into the system, and may never do so. So, please don't direct that criticism at the clothing creators, they're forced to craft with blunt tools.
  17. valerie Inshan wrote: Good morning Maddy! Seems you're in a mice mood these days! Hugs! Don't worry, the spiders are coming.
  18. Perrie Juran wrote: Read Chelsea Malibu's comments again. She is the one person here who is an Attorney and this is her field. The original TOS already forbade uploading content you didn't have rights to. The new TOS now grants them more rights: The right to sell. I read it, Perrie. I've highlighted the statement that leads me to believe Malibu doesn't think LL's intent is malicious, but to be sure, I'll ask her. Here's what she said... Haven't logged into the forums in a while but thought I would to see the chatter. Actually, the premise that they don't have any "intention" to sell your content is irrelevant as they still have the right to do so. Having no intention at this time does not mean they wont or can't in the future. This is much like the US Federal Government saying, "we wont violate normal peoples rights with the Patriot Act" and now we see that they have and do. In essence, what they are saying is that they have no need to enforce copyright anymore but this presents a sticky issue as the TOS would not be able to cover any content created prior to the new TOS. That is simply a point of law and as many of you know, this is what I do. Regardless of what the TOS says, there are still laws that it cannot circumvent. One being third party "exploitable" rights. In this case, if I were to have the rights to use a brand that I am promoting in SL.Say it was Pontiac and I then use this to build a corporate region. LL would have a very hard time if they were to use this brand without the permission of the brand owner and the 3rd party rights holder would not have the right to extend these rights. I would love to litigate one of these when they come up and I assume some day it will but more over, I see this as being a very slippery slope particularly in the area of grandfathered content loaded into the system prior to this attempt at removing any copyright liability. In the end, this is a "washing their hands move" and little more. Time will tell but as for me, I am no longer creating anything new in this system as long as this TOS is in place. I would advice anyone concerned about their IP rights to do the same. While I've got no shortage of complaints about LL, I'm not ready to call them evil. It may not make a difference.
  19. The cat's away... Good morning, Hippie, Lia, Val and the rest of you Kids!!!
  20. Darrius Gothly wrote: You should have also quoted the reply to Cypherfox that explains a bit more why their statement is not correct. The language in the new ToS specifically assigns rights of ownership to Linden Lab for all content uploaded. That is a massive legal difference from copying and distributing the uploaded content via the platform for others to see and use. The previous iteration of the ToS only gave LL the right to use the uploaded content in order to make it available for display and use within Second Life and no where else. The new language grants them universal, incontrovertible rights of ownership over that content. Many platforms (games if you will) have ToS that specifically state they will use your uploaded content to share with others within the space of the platform. Allow me an analogy: You sign up for a web site that requires your email address so they can contact you and provide you with information relevant to the game. Their ToS and Privacy Statement say that they will only use your email address for that purpose. All's good, right? Linden Lab's new ToS takes that a step further. They proclaim they can sell your email address to spammers, marketers, anyone else that might want it. Furthermore they reserve the right to use your email for their own purposes, sending and receiving messages when they feel like it and without notifying you. That's a FAR cry from "reasonable use" which is what the previous ToS provided. The new version? It flat out grabs ownership from you, and because you agreed to it, you haven't the slightest hope of recouping any damages, sharing in any profits, or recovering from any harm that may come from it. I still think it's more likely that LL doesn't know what they're doing than that they intend to steal from the creators. So the ToS may have been changed because they thought they were legally vulnerable in some way. I've worked with plenty of clients who could be easily bamboozled into doing things by potential investors (who often don't know anything themselves) or lawyers. Recall that LL cannot prevent copybotting. Imagine that their legal counsel advised them that this technical vulnerability in their system is perhaps not up to the level of best practices in the industry and therefore leaves them vulnerable to IP lawsuits. I'm just making that up, but something like that seems more likely to me than LL deciding they're going to take our creations and sell them for their own profit. The moment they try that, the Grim Reaper will come for Rodvik, if he's not already dead.
  21. Here's an explanation from a user (Cypherfox) on the Daz 3D forums... It’s (the SL TOS) not thievery, it’s an absolute technical requirement, and this is them making clear what _must_ happen in order for a system like Second Life to operate. The truth is that it’s always been that way, Second Life is actually just covering their asses legally, and that makes it more obvious. Explanation: If I have an Avatar, Foozilla, and I enter into a public space on Second Life, in order for other users to see me in my full Foozilla glory, Second Life has to take the texture and model I’ve given them, and send it to everyone in that public space. That’s copying and distribution. There’s no way to build a game (or ‘VR world’) like Second Life without doing that. Well, okay, you could pre-render billboards of the character from 360 degrees, in all possible poses, and just send the billboards, but that’s pretty much impossible as the number of poses, etc., goes up. The real truth is that users who upload content from any site with a license that forbids redistribution are violating the license. Rendo’s license includes that, and I’m fairly confident that DAZ’s does also. Rendo has historically turned a blind eye because they didn’t really understand what was happening, technically. The new contract has made it clear, and suddenly they’re realizing that’s a bad thing. tl;dr - Without being explicitly granted the permission (as that ToS requires) to distribute the stuff you’ve uploaded for your character, in fact Linden Labs couldn’t show your avatar to anyone else without breaking your implicit copyright. So they HAVE to put that section in their terms/contract, to make it clear that you ARE allowing them to show your skins + models to other users. Which means that no users should be uploading skins or models that they purchase from a site like DAZ or Renderosity, because those users (us) don’t have a license to transfer it to Linden Labs, a distributor as I’ve described, in the first place. It’s not new, just explicit. I can believe that the new SL TOS is intended to explicitly state the legal reality that's always been here. The music industry is still trying to figure things out, and music is less complicated (I think) than the meanderings of intellectual property (IP) through the SL ecosystem. As I've said before, LL may have done this to address legal requirements that neither we, nor they, fully understand. And it's possible that the purveyors of external IP don't understand it either.
  22. Rolig Loon helped someone with this issue a few months ago. Here's what she had to say... "The problem is that your viewer got scrambled as you downloaded and re-installed it. The Virtual File System is messed up. You'll have to do it again. This time, be very careful to do a clean re-install. Here's how >>> http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/How-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-Second-Life... . If you don't follow those steps carefully, you'll still have a few odd files floating around from the previous installation and could be inheriting whatever was screwed up in them."
  23. Kylie Jaxxon wrote: Some glitch in the system apparently Don't you sometimes get the feeling the system is made of glitches?
  24. Ohhnoes wrote: valerie Inshan wrote: Some emotional stuff and then a load of French text with some pic Wat You dropped this in another thread: http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/ Although you don't seem the type to have any use for it, I brought it back to you anyway.
  25. I love the little girl's pauses, with eyes piercing into the imagined fireworks. I think that little one has a future on the stage. ;-)
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