Madelaine McMasters

Void Singer wrote: Deltango Vale wrote: An important reminder: born in San Francisco in Feb 1955 to [unmarried] students Joanne Schieble and Syrian-born Abdulfattah Jandali adopted by a Californian working class couple had a summer job at Hewlett-Packard while at school - later worked at Atari dropped out of college after six months and went traveling in India, where he became a Buddhist interesting, and explains a few things to me... intelligent kid from medicocre background seeking meaning becomes jaded and builds an empire out of crass commercialism. (a compliment, even if backhanded) Void, I don't think Jobs was jaded. But you're another story entirely! ;-) http://allthingsd.com/20111006/walt-mossberg-reflects-on-life-and-career-of-steve-jobs-for-fox-business-video

Surely this has been posted before (maybe by me?!)...

Ishtara Rothschild wrote: So Steve Jobs really did what Johannes Gutenberg had done before him: He took the art of calligraphy and manual lettering, combined it with modern technology, and made it available for the masses PS: I learned calligraphy in vocational school (along with mechanical typesetting, the use of Letraset transfer fonts, diatype photosetting, and other things that I thought would be useless for me in later life). It's nice to know that I have something in common with Steve Jobs, no matter how little. Ishy, this merging of art and technology is something Jobs talked about often and it may be why techno-geeks get so bent out of shape over the success Apple enjoys. While the engineer in me may be curious about the technology of a thing (and I can recognize elegance there), the craftsman/artist in me cares very deeply about the aesthetics of a thing, too. I've spent more than two decades splitting my day between PC and Mac environments (now entirely on Apple hardware) and they feel very different to me. I remember the joy I shared with my Father as we played with our first Macintosh in 1984. I still feel it when I touch their plastic bags, close the smart cover on my iPad, or have a video chat with Mom. And that this joy extends to watching Pixar movies tells me that Mr. Jobs genius was in seeing through my eyes. Maybe the reason the loss of Steve Jobs resonates with us so is that he had more in common with us, and more hope for us, than we ever understood.

Void Singer wrote: :: watches unfortunate consequence of single person in power replying to the crowd as elements of the crowd all dredge up their own personal causes :: popcorn anyone? This is the beauty of people with vision, they're looking elsewhere.

Pussycat Catnap wrote: Madelaine McMasters wrote: As race has no biological meaning, I'm afraid I see your selection criteria as "The only pre-requisite is that you consider yourself of multi-meaningless descent". I'd never thought of myself this way before, but I kinda like it! Nevertheless, I don't think that's what you intended, so I'll leave it to those who consider themselves of multi-meaningful descent to participate. Good luck, Hartwig ;-) This is the new way in which the white-power movement tries to destroy minority groups: Well the truth is, after 500 years of oppression, you don't really exist. Get over it, and stop acting funny and just be white like a normal person. But they still won't invite you and your browness over for dinner. I'm multi-racial. And yes race is real. Its as real as saying you are democratic or republican or christian or muslim. Its a culture thing. And it is a shared ancestry thing. And I come from cultures and shared ancestries of 4 different continents, equally. And if you've lived with the harrassment that gives you from folks of many shades; you'd know its darn well real not just to oneself, but to how others label you. Tell a Tusti, a Black Sudanese, a Tamil, a Tibetan, a Quechua Amazon, a 1940s Jew, a modern Palestinian, a Pygmy, a White Zimbabwian, A Black westerner, a Native American, a European Gypsy, etc... that they're just imagining being slaughtered and/or oppressed and see how well that goes over. Skin color is as arbitrary a distinction for prejudice as religion or politics, but I think you do a disservice to your argument over prejudice against color (or other indelible distinctions) by comparing it to either of those. One can change and hide one's religious and political views. There are still a great many people who think "race" may be an indicator of intelligence, including possibly (as there is disagreement over the interpretation of his remarks) Nobel Laureate James Watson of DNA fame. I don't see how my refusing to recognize these arbitrary distinctions leads you to presume I'm ignorant of the atrocities committed daily using them as a pretext. Pussycat, you are welcome to dinner anytime, even though lacking opposable thumbs you are likely to fumble my good silverware. ;-)

Canoro Philipp wrote: “When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” Steve Jobs Canoro, my Father taught me cabinetmaking and this is exactly right. I remember him showing me an old Shaker pie-safe with frame and panel doors. The panels were flat on the outside, but beveled on the inside, the opposite of what you'd expect. Beveling the edge allowed the panel to fit in the thin slot in the frame while still being rugged overall. That you were skilled enough to bevel an edge was nothing to brag about, so you turned that necessary detail out of sight to preserve the simplicity of the piece. There is a bit of this ethos in Apple products. Mr. Jobs never let the tremendous technologies inside get in the way of a simple, thoughtful, joyful user experience. It is this attention to the humanity of the customer that sets Apple apart.

Quinn Morani wrote: Love this Steve Jobs tribute logo. It's been floating around Facebook unattributed but here is the source: http://jmak.tumblr.com/post/9377189056 I'd gone without tears until seeing this, Quinn.

valerie Inshan wrote: :smileyvery-happy: I knew videos would come at some point!!! See what happens when we all take a n-i-p from Lia's bottle?!?!?!

Lillie Woodells wrote: I need a hug! The hugs are on the outside, Lillie. Let's make a run for it!

valerie Inshan wrote: Lia Abbot wrote: val! Maddy stole my fave blanket! Waaaaa! (This fake crying works real well) Tsstsst kids, if you start fighting over the blankets, Mummy's gonna get angry! :smileytongue: Hey! Dee gave me the blanket to wipe the milk off my glasses! Lia, when did you start drinking milk from a bottle? Okay, who's got the gin? I can't see a thing.

Mmmm, "Under the Sea" has me thinking of taking up the steel drum. Wonderful music, Dillon.

Here’s to the Crazy One. The misfit. The rebel. The troublemaker. The round peg in the square hole. The One Who Saw Things Differently. He wasn't fond of rules. And he had no respect for the status quo. You can quote him, disagree with him, glorify or vilify him. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore him. Because he changed things. He pushed the human race forward. And while some may have seen him as the crazy one, we saw genius. Because the man who was crazy enough to think he could change the world... ...was the one who did. Thank you, Mr. Jobs.

Oooh, one of my favorite tunes is Bobby's...

Wildcat Furse wrote: .... oh I love being a cat!!!! :smileyhappy: *meows* It shows! ;-)

DQ Darwin wrote: how are the Dave's:) They're doing well, Dave #9 got a part in a movie. Top billing went to the shark because she was willing to sleep with Lorenzo Llamas. Dave #11 has taken up residence in a Japanese city park where he's been eating hapless children. Dave #3 still lives in my basement, playing SL all day. He only comes up to empty the pantry and complain about my cooking. How are you, Dee?!

Hi, Kids! Paris and LadySue, welcome to the madhouse. Dillon, could it be you're not in the nursery because you're too hot to handle?

Hartwig Valerian wrote: Greetings fellow residents! I would be honoured if you would take a little time to complete a survey I am using for data in an article I'm writing on "multiracial indentity" in Second Life. The only pre-requisite is that you consider yourself of multiracial descent and (of course) participate in Second Life. The link follows (with addtional instructions and privacy information), and while I am not currently offering any perks for your participation (as the link has been active for quite some time now, and I am wrapping the survey since my article deadline is due at the end of November 2011), you will receive my heartfelt thanks and a copy of the survey results (if you wish): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?authkey=CM-XnL4M&hl=en_US&formkey=dGlqRGRVRjdqdVBRNG9RWk1mR3c1ZUE6MQ#gid=0 Thank you and regards. Hartwig Valerian As race has no biological meaning, I'm afraid I see your selection criteria as "The only pre-requisite is that you consider yourself of multi-meaningless descent". I'd never thought of myself this way before, but I kinda like it! Nevertheless, I don't think that's what you intended, so I'll leave it to those who consider themselves of multi-meaningful descent to participate. Good luck, Hartwig ;-)

Jo Yardley wrote: I may have overlooked it, but I couldn't find a topic about it yet. Yes, Humble has spoken! And I for one am very excited. Again it all sounds positive and he seems to know what he is talking about and what is happening. Especially this bit; Over the next few months (with testing most likely starting in December), we will be rolling out a series of more advanced features. These will make the creation of artificial life and artificial people much smoother. For starters, we'll unveil a new, robust pathfinding system that will allow objects to intelligently navigate around the world avoiding obstacles. Imagine being able to create advanced pets, creatures or even a living town where non-player characters are walking about. Combined with the experience tools I mentioned above, it should soon be possible to create more advanced MMORPG’s or interactive experiences which use AI right within Second Life. Of course I hear a voice in my head shout "Imagine the lag this will cause!" but I love the idea of being able to create a living, populated even busy sim with artificial people. Not to mention the orchestra, chorus line of pretty girls on stage, soldiers marching, etc, etc. Those things that are very difficult to find people for can now be performed all the time. Anyway, what do you think about his post? Jo, I don't understand enough about the sort of game play AI creatures allow to say if I'm impressed or not. As a person who comes to SL for the real people in it, I'm not excited about the prospect of artificial ones. We already have enough of them ;-) Otherwise, this sounds like Fiat announcing that they're adding a power glove box door when what I really want is for the car to start when I turn the key. I'm with Deltango here, I want to hear something that makes me think LL has vision. If I have a worry, it's that Rodvik's gaming background will work against what I love about SL, the absense of rules and goals.

Okay, now you're both being rude and obnoxious. Get a room, you two!

Josh Susanto wrote: Not that I don't think ralph isn't ultimately full of beans in the final analysis, but I think one of his main points has probably been roundly misunderstood by the lot of you. His complaint about the abundance of cheap stuff is not specifically about how much of it is sold, but about how much of it is rezzed and remains rezzed, including free copies. If I understand him correctly, what he seems to be trying to say is that the almost automatic proliferation of copymods, facilitated by the fact that everyone's first copy is cheap, fills in space that people don't bother to fill with something better because they already have something they perceive to be culturally sufficient, due to its ubiquity. Is this correct, ralph? If this is what he means, that too has been true been true from the start. I'd need to see some indication that the proliferation of cheap copymod stuff has somehow reached an inflection point. Does Ralph have anything other than "gut feel" so show this? I don't see it.

Medhue Simoni wrote: I would give all those corporate figures little value. I'm not talking the SL figures. It's the SL figures that refute the OP's contention, that's enough for me. We can wonder what IS causing the stagnation of SL, but cheap goods, if you believe the SL numbers, are NOT the cause.

Chelsea Malibu wrote: The statement SL is boring is not a fact, it's a opinion and as such, 'calling my bs' does not quite fit here. However, you can clearly disagree with my opinion. What has bee reported is that 85% of all new users will quit by the end of 12 months. They have a survey they used to ask when people deleted their account and among them where questions about what people wanted in SL. Many said they did not feel this was a game and that their was no "achievement based" systems. I have invited dozens to come play with me in WoW and of them, none have come back to SL (cept me). Ask any of them or my hundreds of friends I've met in SL who don't come here anymore and they all say pretty much the same thing, there wasn't much to keep their interest. I'm sure there are many who could have a blast with a toilet paper roll and some tape but not many. Some are just entertained easier than others. My point to be clearer is that SL just does not have the creative things to do anymore. Sims that where awesome go offline and are never seen again. Each time a well made activity sim goes offline, some of the game goes with it with little to no backfill. We now have a great place to shop, dance and create. If you don't fall into this category, then you will more than likely be part of the 85% who will leave within the first 12 months. My point is, which is the theme of this thread, that a 10L item is not what will destroy SL. Edit...btw Madeline, thanks for posting this. This is where I think our OP was confused. Chelsea, your observations match what I've read. Games like WoW are crafted to a specific vision designed to draw people in and keep them there. The production levels are very high, including beautiful scored music and high performance graphics resulting from careful scene design. There is no cohesive vision like that in SL, this place is a free for all. Some of us like it, apparently most dont.

It's zooming right along for me Chelsea. There was a forum glitch a few days ago that seemed to be related to the path from SL some of us, as not everybody reported seeing the problem. Hopefully someone will blow the lint out of whatever pipe connects you to the forum!

ralph Alderton wrote: @Madelaine, This problem, the SUPERABUNDANCE of dross, has existed for several years and now is reaching fantastic proportions. Perhaps, Madelaine, you should ask yourself why Secondlife is not growing ? Why retention rates of new users are so poor ? Why is the grid getting smaller ? 650 sims lost last year There are a number of reasons for this and one of them is the SUPERABUNDANCE of dross, 10L$ poor quality products at the marketplace. If Secondlife doesn't look good, how will it attract and retain new and existing users ? I see little evidence that anything in SL is reaching fantastic proportions. Where are the numbers to back your claim? I have wondered why Second Life is not growing and I don't believe it's your "cause" at all. Many immersive games are seeing declining hours in-game as people are drawn away by things like Facebook. I just read yet another article (don't have the link for it) that said console game manufacturers are scaling back the depth of their game designs to address the fact that a substantial part of their development effort goes unseen. Players are no longer sticking with games into the deeper levels. This is a recent development, thought to be brought on by the explosion in lightweight mobile games and social networking platforms with gentle learning curves. Zynga (founded 2007), the game developer responsible for Farmville (debuted 2009), is currently valued at north of $15 Billion. That's 30-50 times more than Linden Labs. Zynga's 2011 profits will be greater than Linden Lab's revenues. The Farmville game alone is worth several times Second Life. The world in which Second Life competes is shifting, regardless of whether anything inside SL itself is shifting. SL has a steep learning curve, intensive UI (by virtue of being immersive), heavy hardware/internet requirements (can't run on a phone) and no clearly marketable "hook". Couple this with management missteps along the way and you have more than enough large reasons for SL's current state. Two links in support of my numbers (I don't claim they are gospel, but the decimal points are in about the same places I've seen in other reports). http://www.launch.is/blog/report-second-life-making-100m-a-year.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20075199-93/ipo-values-zynga-at-$15-billion-to-$20-billion/ Now, having suggested some reasons for SL's current state, let me pull up some figures to refute your claims. I went to a website that tracks SL metrics and pulled five transaction plots spanning April 2006 to September 2010. They've segregated LL's transaction history into price ranges. I picked four ranges. If freebie/L$10 dollar sales were reaching fantastic proportions, you'd see it in the first two chats, no? You'll see that upscale purchases are growing faster than the L$10L stuff you rail against and L$1 purchase seem to be in decline. This last chart is total transaction volume, which is doing better than the cheap transactions and about as well as the mid/high dollar transactions. If anything, I see slight evidence that consumers are moving upscale. It took me only a few minutes to find all this evidence. Before you claim you know a cause, I suggest you find some evidence of your own. ETA: Charts came from here: http://gridsurvey.com/economy.php Anybody know what caused the spikes in April and August last year?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Second Life economy has been working more or less the same way since the start, with people making stuff of various quality at various prices, including free. Why is this a problem now?