Lindal Kidd

I am not aware of a way in which someone IN SL can take control of your keyboard. You may have responded to a request to "take over your avatar's control inputs" or some such. If you are using RLV, log out, re-open the login page, go to your Preferences, disable RLV, and re-log. You may also wish to Block (mute) the avatar who did this. (If you are using the standard viewer, you are NOT using RLV and can ignore this part of my comment.) If you responded to someone's suggestion that they help you troubleshoot your computer, there are programs and websites they may have requested you install or go to in order for them to remotely access your computer. Only do this if you know and trust the helper! These steps might have started from a conversation in SL, but would involve your taking actions outside of SL. If this is what happened in your case, you must find and remove any remote access software that you installed. You may need to go as far as reformatting your hard drive and setting up your computer from scratch, if you think the person has evil intentions.

Well, LL has been known to assess a penalty if you accept stolen $L...not only will they remove the stolen funds from your account, they can assess you a 50% penalty. You can see who has paid you money in your Transaction History. MOST payments, even by strangers, are legitimate. People may send you money as a way to say "thanks", for helping them out or any number of reasons. But if you suddenly receive a large payment of $L and are suspicious, you could do the following: 1. IM the person who sent you the money and ask what the payment was for. If they don't reply or you don't like the answer, you could 2. Open a Support Case with Linden Lab. Explain that you received this money and you would like them to check to see if it is legitimate. Include the information from your transaction history. In this way, even if they take the money, you should avoid getting a penalty. But I wonder why anyone would do this to you? In most cases, scammers who sell you stolen $L don't just deposit them into your account...they want you to PAY them $USD first. No one is going to stuff your account with stolen $L unless they are 1) a criminal, and 2) hate you a whole lot and want to frame you. If you mean, "how can I protect myself from buying stolen $L?", the answer is simple: Buy them on the Lindex!

How do you control your camera? Keyboard, joystick, or the on screen camera control pad? (and adding to your post by editing it is the right way to reply!)

Rolig's suggestion is probably best. You can also write a script to flash the glow property of a prim on and off, or the "emit light" property. Or you can create a particle script to emit glowing, even moving, lights.

While you can file an Abuse Report, I wouldn't. There is very little chance that Linden Lab would do anything. Your best bet is to simply move on. Shop owners who are rude to their customers don't last very long in Second Life. The problem will correct itself.

Rolig is correct. Furthermore, there aren't any realtors in SL...or very few. There are some sales people for the larger private estates, but that is about all.

Generally speaking, I would avoid machines with Intel graphics, and get one with a AMD/ATI Radeon or Nvidia GeForce graphics card.

That it's still quite a lot of scripts. Take off things one at a time and see what the worst culprit (s) are. Then wear something else with fewer scripts. I generally get by with 90 to 150, and others manage to use even less.

The dashboard only lists events that are coming up soon, maximum of 24 hours. Maybe your event is further in the future?

Try wearing a different bald head item. If that does not work, try changing your shape, then your skin.

Rez a 50 meter tall prim baby right at your border, in the pool of stuff. Put up a big sign facing your neighbor saying"xxx Resident is my daddy"

To add to Rolig's superb answer... Some creators feel that Modify permissions on an object increase its vulnerability to copying. That is one reason given for making an item No Mod and equipping it with re-sizing scripts instead. I disagree with this position. Unless the Bad Person is using illegal copybot software, Modify objects are (IMO) no more vulnerable than No Mod objects...and if they ARE using copybot, making the object No Mod gives no protection. The other reason given for using re-sizing scripts is it makes things easier for edit-challenged users. That one makes more sense, but, "Let Them Learn Editing Like the Rest of Us Had To", I say grouchily.

There are two ways around it. 1. Change your payment method to one that LL will accept. They will take a major credit card (NOT prepaid or gift cards) or a verified PayPal account backed by a credit card. 2. Buy $L on a reputable third party linden dollar exchange site that WILL accept your prepaid card. Look for a site that uses the "Linden Lab Exchange Risk API". I have used VirWox with no problems, but neither I nor LL make any guarantees about third party exchanges. Caveat emptor!

Yes and no. Someone who does not have edit permissions for your objects cannot take them (either original or a copy), even if it is full perm. UNLESS... ...they are using illegal copybot software. In that case, it does not matter what permissions you have set. Copybot can copy anything except scripts. If you are concerned about this (and if you are building items for resale, you should be) then don't build in a public sandbox. Join a group that offers a private sandbox, or pay for a Premium membership and use the Premium-only sandboxes. Copybotters seldom shell out money for Premium memberships.

I doubt that things happened in that order. If LL froze the account, there would be no way for a hacker to get into it. Also, the account cannot be re-named. Accounts are always tied to the user name you chose when you created the account. However, the Display Name could be changed. If the account were NOT frozen, and you visited a phishing website and entered your login information, yyou account could certainly be compromised. Contact LL at once.

No, you don't need a Premium membership to rent, or to lease land on a private estate. If you are looking at Abandoned mainland owned by Governor Linden, you DO need to be premium to purchase it. The purchase price is shown on the General tab of the About Land window (right click the ground, select About Land). For Abandoned land, it will always be set at $L1 per square meter. You cannot contact "Governor Linden", but you can simply buy the land by clicking the Buy button in About Land. But the purchase price is not the only cost...you also have to consider the monthly tier fees. For mainland, tier depends on the total amount of Mainland you own, which is why you don't see it listed with the land parcel. A table of tier levels can be found here: https://secondlife.com/my/account/landfees.php?lang=en-US But back to rentals for a moment. When you rent, you will pay the land owner a weekly or monthly fee, usually by paying a rental box on the property, or a kiosk set up elsewhere by the landlord. The owner's advertising material will tell you the details about the property and any restrictions on it. BE SURE you understand these restrictions and will be able to put your shop on that land. If in doubt, IM or send a notecard to the land owner. You can find rentals by setting the appropriate filters in the Search/Land and Rentals/View all land and rentals function. I teach a class on buying and renting land at Caledon Oxbridge University on Fridays at 5 pm SL time. It's free, and we cover a lot of things you should know before buying or renting virtual land. I hope to see you there!

This isn't an answer to your question, but you SHOULD use both an antivirus program and a spyware detection/removal program on your computer. Unless you are installing those fly-by-night programs that send ads to you (Warning! Your Computer May Be At Risk! Click Here for Free Fix!) they will not "add viruses" to your machine. If you can't afford to buy an antivirus program, install the free Microsoft Security Essentials program from the MS web site.

It's the other way around...higher platforms generally have less lag. But it's not a linear relationship. The performance advantage comes from your viewer not having to render all those textures that are visible at ground level. At 1000m, the ground is no longer rendered. So any skybox placed above 1000m will be less laggy than one placed below 1000m.

The answer to most of your concerns is a qualified "no". There aren't "programs or scripts" that give a spy super powers. But there are methods... For example, there IS a way to determine IP addresses. Any time you listen to a music stream or watch a video stream on the internet, the stream provider has the ability to obtain your IP address. Unless you use a fixed IP address, this is generally not much of an issue. Someone who knows the IP address assigned by your ISP can determine your general physical location, but only as far as the area served by your ISP (e.g., Miami FL). So in SL terms, if a DJ is providing a music stream at a club, he can determine the IP addresses of everyone who's listening to his stream. You can keep most unauthorized people from getting your IP address by disabling the autoplay media feature in your viewer. Only listen to or watch streams that you trust. A good spy will put together clues from many sources. For example, I might have written my email address in local chat while talking to a friend. If a Bad Guy had a chat spy object near me, that information would be sent to him as well. IMs are private, but local chat is vulnerable to spying. Phishing scams are more common in SL these days. People will post a link in group chat, or send it to you personally. When you click on it, it seems to lead to an SL login page...but if you enter your user name and password, the scammer gets them, and can then log in to your account. If you suspect this has happened, see this link: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Email_Scam_%28Phishing%29_FAQ

If editing the hat to sit higher on your head doesn't do it, I have a blog post on how to edit your hair to work with a hat. http://acrossthegridwithlindal.blogspot.com/2011/06/hats-off.html

Here is the official word on this error: Computer's clock is set incorrectly The full error reads: Unable to connect to Second Life.Often this means that your computer's clock is set incorrectly.Please go to Control Panels and make sure the time and dateare set correctly. This message refers to time-based sensitivities with security certificates but normally isn't a problem, as you can test for yourself by deliberately setting your computer to the wrong time and trying to login. It should work. If you're absolutely certain your time is set correctly, you haven't changed your system setup, and Second Life was working fine moments before, it's likely a transient problem with our servers. Check the Grid Status Reports page for news and try to login periodically. If you continue to get this message after logins are again working reliably for other Residents, contact Support.

Try turning off your computer, router, and internet modem. Wait a minute or two, then power everything up again and reboot.

First of all...it can be tough. The dragging rectangle is sensitive, and if you move your mouse just a couple of meters, the side selected will adjust to follow. I find it helps to be cammed up directly overhead, or nearly, and to have all the land you are going to select visible on your monitor. Second, you can't select out anything except a rectangle. You can't anchor a corner and then go off in another direction to get an L shaped parcel. You must select one leg and subdivide it. Then the other leg, and subdivide it. Then select both legs and Join them into a parcel.

It's not just you. I have to sign in multiple times, depending on which part of the web site I go to. A separate sign in is required to access these forums, the marketplace, Lindex transactions, and probably others. It's just how the web site is designed. Stupid, huh?

NishaBear, At first, I was going to say, "I'll do it!" Then, I was going to give you the names of some friends whose taste I admire. But in the end... ...I really think this is something you should do for yourself. I mean, you're putting together your personal space, making a statement about who you are and what you like. I think it's a cop-out to hire someone to do it for you. Besides, by doing that you'd be missing out on a lot of the fun of Second Life. If this were Real Life, my answer would be different. Decorating a home can be an expensive project, and calling on an expert for suggestions and ideas is just good sense. But in SL, mistakes are cheap and easy to correct. Go ahead...give it a shot, and if you don't like the result, just try again!