Madelaine McMasters

Music is the soundtrack of our lives. - Dick Clark 

Send my best wishes to Ajja and your Father, Val. There are a few extra in there for you as well. /me hugs you all up

emmettcullen93 wrote: I never miss a chance to have sex or appear on television. - Gore Vidal These days Vidal could have done both at the same time.

Charolotte Caxton wrote: Hahahaha, I think that is one of the factors that gets people into Second Life Hey! Stop looking at meeee!!!!

Charolotte Caxton wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Charolotte Caxton wrote: So yes, the explanations that it would be too difficult or impossible to do are obviously not correct as it is plainly being done. The explanations that it would be too difficult or impossible to do may have been misremembered/misunderstood. Here's a quote from Rodvik's response... "But back to the matter at hand. As I promised if we couldn’t figure out a way that was a win/win for folks who want complete freedom vs. a list of last names, we wouldn’t do it. We couldn’t, so we wont." Rodvik said a win/win solution couldn't be found. I did not read this as a technical statement so much as a business decision. Yes, both single and last name systems are still in operation. That is different than Linden Labs stating, as I quoted here, that the last name system created a lot of sign-up friction. While it is often technically possible to do unwise things, that doesn't mean you should. That said, I'm not recommending we stop questioning LL's wisdom, just that we remember they see more than we do. I find the widespread supposition that forumites are representative of the larger SL population to be a bit a bit presumptive. We might be, but LL suggests otherwise, both directly (that previous quote) and indirectly (by their actions). I don't believe anyone has stated that the forumites represent the Second Life population as a whole. It is only because forumites post on the forums that our thoughts and opinions are heard more than those that don't. However, a casual Google search of the terms Second Life and Last Names will bring up quite a few non forum discussions of what other persons think of the last name fiasco. I will admit, prior to it being brought up again in this thread, it is pretty much a dead issue. I do believe, as has been stated, that as the legacy names die off, last names will just be something for the archives. What I find odd about LL wisdom, is that in the short time I have existed, many LL decisions have come and gone, whereas many of the residents that are vocal throughout the web have been here for quite awhile, so I would question who has more experience to draw this supposed wisdom from. It's stated indirectly, every day. A statement like "I don't understand why LL ignores the will of the residents" issued by a forumite (and you've heard plenty of statements to this effect) either implies that the forumite experience represents the larger SL population, or that the person making the statement has access to a statistically significant sampling of the SL population's thoughts on the subject. The total population of all external SL related forums/blogs/etc pales in comparison to the total SL signups (25+ Million as of last Autumn) or even concurrency (which is now below 50,000 and still falling). What we have here is called "selection bias". As I said, I question LL's wisdom every day. You make a valid point about LL decisions which come and go (or schedules/promises not kept). That's not affected by selection bias, nor are the large scale statistics I've linked to. However, selection bias does not go away just because your selections are aging. Whether one is not representative of a population for one year or a thousand makes no difference ;-)

Dillon Levenque wrote: Irene is going to immerse us in the history and culture of Spain one quotation at a time. She will, and I love it. By the time we are finished the women in this thread will all be elegantly beautiful and the guys will all be courtly, dashing, and speak with Castillian accents. Not if I can help it.

Charolotte Caxton wrote: So yes, the explanations that it would be too difficult or impossible to do are obviously not correct as it is plainly being done. The explanations that it would be too difficult or impossible to do may have been misremembered/misunderstood. Here's a quote from Rodvik's response... "But back to the matter at hand. As I promised if we couldn’t figure out a way that was a win/win for folks who want complete freedom vs. a list of last names, we wouldn’t do it. We couldn’t, so we wont." Rodvik said a win/win solution couldn't be found. I did not read this as a technical statement so much as a business decision. Yes, both single and last name systems are still in operation. That is different than Linden Labs stating, as I quoted here, that the last name system created a lot of sign-up friction. While it is often technically possible to do unwise things, that doesn't mean you should. I find the widespread supposition that forumites are representative of the larger SL population to be a bit a bit presumptive. We might be, but LL suggests otherwise, both directly (that previous quote) and indirectly (by their actions). All that said, I'm not recommending we stop questioning LL's wisdom (I do it constantly), just that we remember they see more than we do.

CommerceTeam Linden wrote: ANS just launched. http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Merchants/Automatic-Notification-System-ANS-Launches-for-Direct-Delivery/td-p/1492527. That's a dead or incorrect link.

Innula Zenovka wrote: Verena Vuckovic wrote: I think in the end the whole issue boils down to this...... One should not have an SL that is more absolutely 'private' than RL could ever be. Why so ? Well, because in RL, even though people have their privacy there are always ways round it.........which is precisely how we find out that people are up to no good. Imagine a real world where nations could not spy on each other, wives could never determine that husband was cheating, employers could never find out that an employee has a criminal record, and so on etc etc. A real world where everything was so private that one could NEVER know anyone was lying, cheating, stealing, etc. Well.....that world is increasingly what we have in SL. The problem is......while the real world always offers some means of finding things out even if doing so is not easy......in SL, there are no get-arounds. In the name of so-called 'privacy'.....what one has is a world where people can lie and cheat with utter impunity ! Is that really the sort of SL people want ? Or is it not more likely to be a factor putting a lot of people off ever joining in the first place. So you seem to be saying that you suspect people on your friends list are likely to take the opportunity to lie to you, cheat you, steal from you and generally get up to no good, unless you're able to keep a close eye on them? I usually get up to no good because someone is keeping an eye on me. And what's most curious is that it happens without any effort, knowledge or expense on my part. I do love that kind of efficiency.

"Ooohh, a woman! Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo-woo!!!" - Curly Howard

valerie Inshan wrote: Our French crooner was not bad either! ...can't decide who's hotter, Yves or Marilyn... so swoons twice.

Tailsy Loxely wrote: I was apart of the grid merge I think like two years ago and haven't spoken to anyone other than my teen grid pals. I feel like I shouldn't make any new friends until I'm 18. It's only fair right? If I meet someone they will most likely be an adult and I think it's only fair that they are speaking to another adult. What do you think? Welcome to the forums, Tailsy. I bet you speak to adults in RL, so why not here? Limiting adults to speaking only to other adults hardly seems fair. As a teen, I expect you are naive, silly, full of unnecessary angst and sometimes driven by hormones. As adults, we're prolly not all that interesting, as we think we're no longer naive, silly, full of unnecessary angst or sometimes driven by hormones. Be careful, use common sense, listen to your inner voice and have fun. :-)

valerie Inshan wrote: Probably my favorite love song. Love you kids (quoting Maddy again). Probably my favorite love song... Love you too, Kids! (Quoting Val quoting me again).

Hippie, I dug a little deeper into two of the entries in your list... 4-18-1775 Paul Revere begins his famous ride through the New England countryside after seeing two lanterns in the bell tower of the Old North Church. Unknown at the time, the two lanterns were not the planned signal indicating the arrival of British invasion forces by sea, but where instead lit by two teen lovers who discovered that the moonless night provided insufficient light for undoing all the laces and buttons common to clothing of the period. In one of history's most unfortunate coincidences, a small flotilla of British ships was actually approaching Boston Harbor at that time, bearing gifts of reconciliation from King George III. 4-18-1930 After nearly an entire day without news, BBC radio announcer Bethel "Lispy" Thayer discovers that someone pulled the choke on the 24-Hour News Cycle, flooding the engine. A few minutes of vigorous cranking with the choke wide open restarts the cycle at midnight. In an effort to get back on schedule, April 19, 1930 becomes the biggest news day in BBC history. 4-18-2012 Hippie Bowman posts his 5000th in the "Where are all my friends?" thread. In response to the achievement, the ever erudite and reserved Bowman exclaims "Weeeeeeeee!"

Eloise Baily wrote: Charolotte Caxton wrote: Yep, we had that discussion, last names are still possible but are not an option for most persons https://my.secondlife.com/rodvik.linden/posts/4f285951be9e8f0001002204 What a shame the rest of that discussion is no longer available. From rodvik's forum post... "So when it comes to last names, I have spent a lot of time going through all your comments and chatting with the team here. I learnt a lot. Firstly, as I already knew identity is very important, and the last name issue is extremely polarizing. What I didn’t know was how big a negative impact it used to have on new users signing up (the data is startling at how much friction it added). Folks just wanted to create their own name; they became even more annoyed if there was a pre-done last name that could fit but that had already been taken. The namespace hijacking issue was not solved by pre done last names." We can: Take Rodvik at his word that the forumite view of last names does not match the big picture. Wonder if their means of measuring "friction" (and other metrics) is flawed. Wonder if they're just ignoring the obvious and placating us with manufactured excuses while they do as they please. Rodvik and the Lindens make their livelihood by keeping SL afloat. That doesn't really give me a lot of visibility into their throught processes, other than to think they're not being flippant. So, I think I'm not such a fan of the third bullet point. Unfortunately I also can't tell if SLs stagnation over the years is the result of lack of execution by LL or external market forces (I have, many times, mentioned the tectonic shifts in online gaming and entertainment caused by mobile computing). So, I'm not ready to kick Rodvik and the team over this issue. But I will say that focusing on new user signups without addressing retention (which might be positively impacted by having a name you like, an opinion that might change after you've been in-world a while) doesn't make much sense. And maybe they are addressing retention, I don't know. They did brag about 20,000 new signups/day last fall. I'll say it again, signing up 20,000 people per day without increasing concurrency is simply taking 20,000 from the population of people who've never used SL before and transferring them to the population of people who may never use SL again. That's nothing to be proud of. ETA: New user signups have fallen considerably, to about 13,000/day. I think that's a good thing, as it decreases the rate at which LL drains the potential new user pool.

Ceka Cianci wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Ceka Cianci wrote: it used to be about jello parties..but people were getting the wrong impression with that one..so i switch to this hehehe What's the right impression? ;-) well i kept getting IM's for stuff like jello wrestling and things like that..my intentions were jello shots hehehehe I could imagine your right impression eventually leading to the wrong impression ;-)

Ceka Cianci wrote: it used to be about jello parties..but people were getting the wrong impression with that one..so i switch to this hehehe What's the right impression? ;-)

Charolotte Caxton wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: Charolotte Caxton wrote: Lol, that's like when someone bought me a new phone cause I wouldn't answer every single time they called. They figured there must be something wrong with my phone. ... stops answering all calls in hopes someone will buy her a new phone. Sorry, Madelaine, I meant cell phone, they are like little computers you can carry around in your hand. I don't even know if they make the kind you crank by hand anymore. They might not make them, but they still exist, as evidenced by the two longs and a short that just rang out from my phone. I did not sense urgency in the cranking on the other end, so I didn't answer it.

Charolotte Caxton wrote: Lol, that's like when someone bought me a new phone cause I wouldn't answer every single time they called. They figured there must be something wrong with my phone. ... stops answering all calls in hopes someone will buy her a new phone.

4-17-1781 The first cup of "Continental Tea" is brewed by Benjamin Franklin, who observed that Continentals were now worth less per pound than actual tea leaves. Franklin noted that "While 55 dollar notes produce a full bodied tea with a piquant flavor, one dollar denominations are perfectly suitable for serving casual company". 4-17-1969 Michael Lang's announcement that Woodstock, planned for August of that year, would be "A seminal event", sparks a heated battle between NY state health officials who insist that the concert promoters provide free condoms and local farmers who do not want them gumming up their combines. Lang's rewording of the announcement as "A sentinel event" draws immediate criticism from the ACLU. 4-17-2005 Fledgling Emo Ragtime Rap band "Deja Vu" abruptly ends their first public performance when audience members start tossing food while yelling "Hey, I get the feeling I've heard this before!".

garey Solo wrote: Hi probably a very dumb questions so apologies in advance.. but how do i find the exact coordinates for the center of my island? I need to place a prim right in the center. Thank you If it's a full sim, that would be 128,128,z. If it's a quarter sim, the four possible center points would be 64,64,z or 64,192,z or 192,64,z or 192,192,z. Where "z" is the altitude at which you wish to place the object (20 is sea-level, I think). If your island is an odd subsection of a sim, tp to opposite corners of your island by opening the map and double clicking on the corners, observe the coordinates in the map window, then average the x and y coordinates of the corners and round to the nearest meter. Good luck!

Good morning, Kids!!! To Ajja, Val and Lia, I'm sending my best wishes. Good luck to you all.

"I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy." Richard Feynman

Ya know Hippie, you just can't make this stuff up.

4-16-1999 Students dancing to Prince's "1999" at a rave party in Boston's Back Bay come to the sudden realization that no imagination is required. Within a year, Prince's song will spark waves of nostalgia everywhere. 4-16-2013 The last physical copy of Rad Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" rolls off the printing presses at Ballantine Books. It is announced that e-book versions of the tome will be retitled "Fahrenheit 95" to reflect the fact that, while the autoignition temperature of book paper is approximately 451°F, the typical e-book reader is specified to operate only up to 95 degrees. 4-16-2014 After more than two years re-analyzing scripture, Rapture prognosticator Harold Camping announces that his persistant inability to predict the end of the world stemmed from his mistaken assumption that it would happen for all at once. "I have now discovered that the Rapture is an individual event. I will make it my life's work to ascertain the date of the Rapture for each of Earth's seven billion inhabitants." explained Camping, who was 93 at the time.