Phil Deakins

Trinity Yazimoto wrote: but on another hand... my french accent while i "try" to talk english must be so worth to be heard than the indian one, you know .... :smileytongue:.....something unforgetable and awesomly fun ehhehehhehe I'll accept that - when I hear it

squashy Beeswing wrote: I had one from an Indian sounding lady (the call may have originated from Indian, idk). She claimed she was calling from "Microsoft" and that "there was a problem with my computer". She called me "madam" so i gathered she didn't know my name from Adam plus, get real, there's no way Microsoft are EVER going to call me about ANYTHING *rolls eyes* blah blah blah, so i hung up immediately... well... banged down the phone is more like it. :matte-motes-mad: It's highly unlikely that Microsoft will call but they did used to call your fax machine if you requested it. I.e. if you used their automatic menus on the phone, to request a fax of some document, they would send the fax at their expense. That was quite surprising even for those days (back in the early 90s). ETA: Or it might have been requesting it online. It's a long time ago.

Trinity Yazimoto wrote: arrfff it was just me on phone... :smileyhappy: i didnt hung up... :smileysad: : my phone fell on the floor :smileytongue: You do a very good Indian male accent Have you thought of taking up acting?

Melita Magic wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: so the "fat, unshaven, sweaty woman in a grubby, dirty vest sitting at the keyboard" is acceptable How you doin'? ...I'm kidding, Phil. But, I couldn't resist. Suddenly, my image of you took a drastic turn there for a second lol.

It may well have been that same one, Melita. Certainly the guy sounded Indian, but the call only lasted less than a minute because he hung up when I asked what company. He said he was my broadband provider so I asked what company. It's not the specific call that I started the thread about. It's the scammy 'reasons' they dream up for phoning me that I find interesting.

I know I shouldn't be surprised but I am. I just got a spam phone call from "The technical department of my broadband connection". That was a new one on me but I new it was a scam, so I asked which broadband company, and he hung up., dammit. I like to be the one who hangs up! It's the lying 'excuses' they use for phoning that I'm sometimes surprised about. This one was a lie because he wasn't representing my broadband provider, but some of them are debateable. E.g. "It has come to the goverment's attention that..." And it really has come to the goverment's attention (the overselling of PPI - UK), but the guy isn't representing the governemt. Another is that, "It has come to our attention that you had an accident at work recently", which is always a lie, and "How is your Dyson vacuum cleaner?" when I've never had one. That one is just fishing for Dyson owners. Actually I do have a Dyson now but I only got it recently - and it's bloody brilliant!. The lying scammers annoy me. They may well be representing genuine services but the way they go about getting my interest is a lying scam.

Garibaldis are ok but custard creams are much much better I don't need an 'out' though. I haven't written anything that I need an out for. Also, I don't get many ins these days, but that's by choice

Tex Monday wrote: I think you need to take into account that a lot of people in SL play ALTs. I have one other AV (who happens to be female) and you are allowed 8 per main account. So it is possible that a large number (maybe my 60% was off as well) of female AVs are played by men. I also have a female alt, but I never use her around SL. I created her within days of first joining (she cost $5 back then), The intention was to use her as a pole-dancer to make a few L$, but it never happened, simply because I'd no idea how to go about it. All she's ever been used for is testing animations as I made them, and positioning couples animations in my furniture. I also have a lot more female alts - and males. But they were created to be bots so they never log in these days. One of them was a damsel-in-distress in my castle. It was funny watching a guy trying to get her to get on the sexbed in her tower room. Another was a sexbed demo bot. She used to get tips! lol. And she used to get guys asking her to remove her undies lol.

Beth Quander wrote: The thing I find most puzzling of all about caring what the RL driver looks like (rather than, as you say Tex, how well they play the part for the situation on the screen) is that the worry is of bumping pixels with the "oft lampooned fat, unshaven, sweaty bloke in a grubby, dirty vest", when it could just as easily (and quite likely) be a fat, unshaven, sweaty woman in a grubby, dirty vest sitting at the keyboard. Seriously – just where’s the difference? I know, I know – the answers will come back as “I can’t answer that question! It’s just a feeling!” or “I don’t know! It’s just my nature!” I’ll leave it as rhetorical. Lol! The difference for me is that there is no way in the world that I will accept being sexually physical with another man.- RL and SL. I'm not judging anyone when I say this, but I do find the idea of me having sex with another man to be totally abhorrent. How other men feel about it is their business, and not mine. Pixel sex isn't just pixel sex. If it is, then it's a waste of time. Pixel sex gives rise to RL sex, and the idea of me doing that with a man is just too distasteful for words. It's not what the RL person looks like. For me, it's the gender that matters, so the "fat, unshaven, sweaty woman in a grubby, dirty vest sitting at the keyboard" is acceptable

I already had a cup of tea on the go before I got to your post, Beth, and it's still on the go, so I didn't need another You are probably right that there are more women playing males that I imagine. I come across so infrequently that I've really no idea. It seems to be unusual but I don't know. Regardless of your reasoning, Nobody can fault anyone for needing to know a person's RL gender before getting into a 'romantic' relationship with them. Everyone has their own views and criteria concerning relationships, and nobody can fault another person's criteria. I don't find any fault if a female simply refuses to acknowledge her RL gender, and my attitude concerning it can't be faulted either. Incidentally, I've never asked a female what her RL gender is. I've sometimes hopped into bed with female avatars without any thought of RL gender, but I've never put much in the way of effort into it. I'll never develop even a mild relationship with a female without a strong feeling that it really is an RL woman. The rest of your post is fine. Everyone does things in the ways that suit them. I can't argue against what you or anyone else writes on this topic, even though much of it is not for me. I can argue against someone who finds fault with other people's views and way of doing things though. And I can argue against anyone who is offended that I need to feel reasonably sure that a female avatar is an RL woman before I will get into it with them, because that's just a statement that they are right and I am wrong, and that would be absolutely wrong.

Orca Flotta wrote: Orca Flotta wrote: For women like me I coined the phrase SLesbian. **Only uploaded images may be used in postings**://secondlife.i.lithium.com/i/smilies/16x16_smiley-happy.gif" border="0" alt=":smileyhappy:" title="Smiley Happy" /> That's not a phrase. It's a word **Only uploaded images may be used in postings**://secondlife.i.lithium.com/i/smilies/16x16_smiley-wink.gif" border="0" alt=":smileywink:" title="Smiley Wink" /> Oh my. And here I thought I cleverly borrowed some elegant wordsmithing from natural born englishers. Of course SLesbian isn't a phrase but a ... hm ... wait a moment ... ugh .... a term! Can we agree on that? BTW, what's wrong with anyone not being in SL primarily for pixel sex or founding virtual families or hooking up potential SLex partners? And why is it so important for many ppl to know other people's sexual preferences anyway? Want me to wear a pink triangle on my sleeve? They tried it in Germany between 1939-45; in the end it didn't make them too many friends. In my profile I state somewhere that for me SL= Second Life, not SL=Sex Life. But nowhere did I state my sexual preference. And I neither have a cam nor a microphone. Does that make me just outdated or a bad person? Yes, 'SLesbian' is definitely a term. We can agree on that There is nothing wrong with what you described. I didn't say it was wrong, and I didn't say that anyone who chooses not to use voice or a cam is even a slightly bad person. There is nothing at all wrong with anyone doing it exactly how they choose to do it. I did say that, because men playing females is so common, and the idea of being intimate with a man using a female avatar is so undesirable to me, I do need to feel reasonably assured that the person the keyboard is a woman before I get into any of that with her. That doesn't necessarily mean voices or cams. There are plenty of female avatars that I'm sure are women, and who I would be comfortable with, without ever seeing them on cams or hearing their voices.

Someone who knows the definitive answer will reply but, in the meantime, anyone can sell on the marketplace, and I believe you can sell the clothes there. I'm certain I've read about selling second-hand one-off stuff there.

My observations strongly suggest that the percentage of lesbian female avatars in SL is much higher than in RL It's completely unrealistic. Some good reasons have been given and the biggest one by far, imo, is men playing women because sex between women generally appeals to men. It's for that reason that some men in SL, including me, really need to know, or at least have a strong feeling, that a female avatar actually has a female person at the keyboard, before being comfortable with a romantic relationship. Some men can completely separate SL from RL and see only the female avatars. They can be happy enough having intimate relationships with female avatars knowing full well that the person at the keyboard, with whom they are being romantic and intimate, may be that often lampooned fat, unshaven, sweaty bloke in a grubby, dirty vest. I can't do that, and I think that many men also can't do it. From what I've read in the forums, some women object to the idea of needing to prove their gender. It's an unfortunate consequence of men playing females, but I can't fault the attitude. Neither should those women fault men for needing to know. Incidentally, it does happen the other way round, where women play male avatars and have romances with female avatars. I remember a thread where a lengthy relationship between a male and female avatar turned out to be between two RL women. When the real woman found out that she'd been deceived, she started a thread about it. It's uncommon that way round but it does happen.

Orca Flotta wrote: For women like me I coined the phrase SLesbian. :smileyhappy: That's not a phrase. It's a word

In other words, LL put little to no time into customers. Nothing new there then.

Just a little comment... If the EU blocked Google and Facebook, nobody, or a very few people, would shed any tears. Not for long, anyway. Facebook is a part of people's socialising but Google is a search engine that people use, and there are a few equally good alternatives. Many people use Gmail, of course, but there are excellent alternatives and they would need to rearrange their email. I would welcome Google being blocked in the UK. They've been up before the government here more than once (the latest was just a couple of days ago) because they cheat our tax system by making billions here (they admit that) but paying a very few millions in tax. They are not the only big U.S. company that's cheating the tax system here out of nothing other than sheer greed.

Moni Duettmann wrote: Well... to me to use a viewer, "because it is the thing to do", regardless of what the viewer really does, is stupid. And I doubt you'*ll find many to which this would account. You already said that you have a special use for a TPV, so I'd assumed that 'because it is the thing to do' didn't apply to you when I wrote it

Interesting, Coby. Thank you.

Just out of interest, Coby, what are the extra features that you find useful? I know some extra features are useful to some people. There are couple that I find useful when I'm doing certain things, but I rarely do those things these days, and they are not things that your average would do. I'm curious to know if the there are some things that the 'average' user would find useful. Not that I'm suggesting that you are average, of course. I love you and I don't love just any old average user From what I've read here, I know about the necessity of RLV viewers for some people, of course.

GingerHenderson wrote: I'm still curious why the OP tried the item at the inworld store and then, to buy it, searched for it in the marketplace. That's a very strange thing to do. Methinks there's more to this than meets the eye. Hi Phil, I went to the In-world store and tried the demo but had not enough L$ to purchase at that time. Had to close out of the viewer to do a backup on my PC and after the BUY I replenishing my account, went to the MP as I used to do in the past anyways to look for the product. My mistake was that I did not notice the 'Store/User' was not Vista and clicked BUY. Also saw the PROMO in front which I should have been suspect. If it is too good to be true then it is not real, just as in RL. To me my lesson has been learned and will never do that again in this way. I may use the MP for reference or search for items I would like to buy but will visit the In-World stores. I knew there were sensible reasons why it could happen. I imagined a few I'm glad that you explained it though because it did make me wonder if we were hearing the whole story

GingerHenderson wrote: Thanks,also did not know that inworld gave them more. They have charges in Marketplace? If there is a inworld store I will purchase it there after this lesson. The rules of the marketplace is that items have to be sold at the same price as they are sold inworld. The difference is that LL gets commission on every marketplace sale so the seller receives less than the user pays for each item. Incidentally, that's the sole reason why I've never sold my stuff in the marketplace, and I never will. It's not the money - it's the principle.

I agree that the V2 was a very big reason why many people switched to a TPV. I don't know where you got the "opportunistic" idea from, but it wasn't from my post My post doesn't suggest that I think of TPV users as stupid. A lot of people avoid anything to do with Microsoft as much as they can. They have their reasons but they are not stupid. The way that people use TPVs in SL reminds me a lot of the Microsoft thing. I am not forgetting that the majority of users use TPVs. What I am saying is that most of the people don't use TPVs because they are necessary, or even useful, for what they do in SL. They use them because 'it's the thing to do' and other similar reasons. That's my opinion, and I firmly believe that it isn't wrong. Incidentally, I didn't suggest that LL's V3 is better than other viewers. I don't believe it is. It isn't any worse though. The V2 was worse - much worse - but the V3 is perfect for most users, whether they use it or not.

EllieSueKaru wrote: Basically I have a problem. With the new ToS I can't buy L$ via other exchanges (such as DutchX or WoozKash). I know people may advice me to buy via Lindex but I wont. I always bought my L$ via other exchanges because they had easy options such as paysafecards, call for your lindens, text message to get your lindens, ... And now with the new ToS, I can't. I think and hope I'm not the only one who does this because those options were always handy and personally I NEVER had a problem with a 3th party exchange. I hope all this sh.. With the new ToS will be solved ASAP because right now, I can't buy lindens so a big thank you to LL for messing all this up All I wish right now is a good explanation and that some 3th party exchanges who are trusted and safe to come back That's your problem. In other words, you don't have a problem.

I don't know about media stream buttons because it's extremely rare that I make use of media. LL's V2 and V3 are poles apart in terms of the screen itself. I found the V2 so obnoxious that I simply wouldn't give it a fair crack of the whip. It was that idiotic right-side thing that caused it, and such things as the enormous camera controls. It was designed by idiots. The V3 was so different that I started a thread to sing its praises as soon as I tried it. For me, the "essential difference" is what I see on-screen, and not the little things like button presses. The V3's camera controls are still too large, but I've got used to using SL without the cam controls. I still use Phoenix when I want one of those little differences, such as getting the UUID of a selected object. It doesn't happen often, so I prefer to use LL's V3 as my viewer. To be honest, I have the strong impression that most users of TPVs users use them just for the sake of it, or because someone suggested it, and not because they are any better for them. Example: there's a new thread in which a new user uses Firestorm because someone suggested it to her, and not because it was any better for her. There are some times when a TPV is better for a particular thing that a person does, and so it's understandable that the person will use the TPV all of the time, but, imo, for most people there is no benefit in using a TPV, other than being 'in with the in crowd', perhaps, which is no good reason at all,

Yes, the marketplace does have that advantage, but it's not such a big advantage that it outweighs the merits of buying inworld, imo. I'm still curious why the OP tried the item at the inworld store and then, to buy it, searched for it in the marketplace. That's a very strange thing to do. Methinks there's more to this than meets the eye.