Phil Deakins

Judging by the post about German exchanges, and by LL's own blog, it does sound like LL are intent on doing away with 3rd party exchanges, and that they've made a mistake in the new ToS. If that's the case, it occurs to me that LL have decided to keep all the exchange commissions for themselves, very similar to the reason they created the marketplace. I.e. with the marketplace, they realised how much real money was being made in sales, and they were aware of the external services, so they decided that they wanted a share of it and they bought out the external outfits and created the marketplace. Perhaps they have now realised how much real money is going to 3rd parties in exchange commissions, and they've decided to have it all for themselves. If that's the reason for the change, then, for the first time, I'm coming to the conclusion that LL really is having financial difficulties. I put the marketplace down to greed, because there is a lot of money to be made in commissions, but I doubt that there's very much being made by the external exchanges (comparatively speaking), so to hijack that seems so penny-pinching that raises the question about LL and financial difficulties. On the other hand, it could be just what it says on the tin - that they are doing it because of fraud. On reflection, that seems more likely.

It sounds like a good time to learn how to create things that other people want to buy. Then you won't need to use any real money.

I completely agree about that "frantic narration" as you put it. In fact, that's exactly what stopped me watching the programme because it's impossible to follow and understand as it's being said.. David Tenant was a good Doctor, even though he put in some of the fast stuff, but Matt Smith copied that fast stuff and increased the speed to such an extent that it put me of completely, and I haven't watched it since. The programme didn't used to be a series. It was always a serial of, I think, 6 episodes, and was much better for being a serial - always wanting to see how the current end-of-episode ultimate danger was overcome - usually in a totally naff way, but survival was necessary. I used to like the programme but I've no time for the current Doctor because of his "frantic narration" and so I don't watch it.. There are plenty good stories being broadcast without having to put up with that frantic idiocy.

Rudy Schwartzman wrote: It would be much more accurate to say I pay for simulator resources. And it's pretty clear I'm not getting them. I can't offer any suggestions on how to fix your problem. What I can say has already been said, but I'll say it again anyway, just to emphasise it... If your problem isn't simply the known bug, where right-clicking causes the invisible object to suddenly appear, then you are the only one reporting the problem, which means that the cause of it is at your end - that's obvious. Continuing to believe that the cause isn't at your end, and looking for the fix at LL's end won't get it fixed. That's also obvious.

Staralien wrote: That is a fear of mine as well, that something will happen to me, I will die or something will happen beyond my control that keeps me from SL. When you build up a business, it seems like real property, something you should be able to leave behind. I have been thinking a lot about who I could leave it to, who would care enough and be responsible. Unfortunately, there is only one person in my RL family that would care enough, and at the moment, she is only 7. In a few years, she could definitely be my heir in SL, but now, she is far too young. I have a very dear friend and mentor in SL who has his own rental business as well, so my thought is to give him all of my info (log ins, other stuff), so in the event anything happens to me, he could take over my business as well. At the moment it pays for itself, and pretty much runs itself except when tenants need help, so he could easily log in to my account, take care of what needs done and pay tier as needed. My estate owner is trusted and stable, so I expect to remain there many years to come. My mentor could keep things going long enough for Makiyah to grow up enough to take over. Just some of my thoughts. I wonder if others have left behind a legacy to someone else in SL or if anyone has ever seriously thought about it. You can inherit RL land or business, so why not in SL too? For the OP, I am sorry that happened to you. Regardless of what may have happened, the right thing to do would be to refund your money. Your later post states that the land has been cleared and they seem to no longer be in business. If something happened to my land, the honorable thing to do would be to refund all of my tenants even if it drained every linden from my account. Too bad not everyone in RL or SL has integrity. In the past, giving your account to someone else was not allowed without LL's explicit consent, except when the account had been acquired by someone via your Will and, even then, LL had to see evidence before they allowed the takeover. But I read something recently that seemed to imply that there may have a change to that policy. I may have misunderstood though. Even so, if you are concerned that your account goes to a particular person, you ought to include it in your Will, or the person who inherits the residue of your estate can get it if they want it. That's what I did when my SL business reached a level of profitability that was well worth having.

Czari Zenovka wrote: Melita Magic wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: the playing field has not been equal since sculpties arrived. And that took a lot of the fun away, for me. It became a land of professionals and consumers, same as real life. QFT #2 - I still build with prims and will continue to do so until and unless no one is buying them anymore. There are some things that would just be overkill to make with mesh...such as 1-Prim welcome mats. I'm with you on that, Czari - almost. I use mostly prims as is. I do use sculpties but only very simple ones, such as corner rounding and 4 separate table/chair legs in 1 sculptie. Even my very simple corner-rounding sculpties make the playing field uneven. For the sake of reducing the prim count, some people went overboard with sculpties and made their items not work properly. One creator, for instance, made 4-poster beds that you couldn't sit, stand or walk on because the sculptie's bounding box wouldn't let you. You had to use a poseball, and when you stood up after being on one of the posebalss, you ended up on top of the 4 posts - on the canopy. In a bedroom, you'd probably have ended up in the room above lol. It was ridiculous. Armchairs and sofas with arms don't work as single sculpties for the same reason - you can't just sit on the seat part. But I digress, so I'll stop.

Reallycuriousgeorge wrote: Questions for people who don’t gender bend Why do you think that people want to play as their opposite gender on an online game? I've no idea. (a) How do you think people respond to players who are not the gender they play as? (b) How would you respond? (a) I've no idea. (b) I lose interest in them completely, and I don't even want to be in the same place as them. Do you think people who gender bend are forth coming or do they wait to be asked? I've no idea. I'll add that there is no right or wrong with gender-bending - it's each to his or her own. It's just that I have no time for it, because my avatar is me and I only want to deal with real people who are fundamentally what they appear to be. Apparent age is an exception, of course, but gender is fundamental. Many people role-play, and that's fine as long as they don't role-play the wrong gender with me

Perhaps your friends list shrinks when you stop being actual friends. To me, an SL friend is someone who I see and chat with quite frequently. It doesn't have to be as frequent as monthly or even bi-monthly, but it does have to be ongoing and not completely dead, if you see what I mean. If it becomes dead for some time, then we are no longer actual friends and, once in a while, I prune my friends list accordingly. In my case, I'm not one for getting out and about, and I tend not to make contact with people very often. I leave that to them if they want to. It's silly of me because I occasionally do want to have some contact. What I'm getting at is perhaps you have let the ongoing friendship of some of your old friends slide and they've eventually removed you from their lists. That's why my list is so short (only 14 on it). I can't imagine that the majority of people in your old friends list were only friends because they thought they may get some slex with you. It's just a thought.

I agree with both of you about it being better before sculpties and mesh because anyone could create nice objects inside SL. These days, much of what is considered 'nice' is made with sculpmaps or mesh, which can only be created externally. It's not the same any more. It would have been nice to have such building tools as 'rounding', for instance - rounding the edges of a prim - instead of sculpties. There are pros and cons, of course, but, as you said, the playing field has not been equal since sculpties arrived.

Penny Patton wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: So you agree that streaming content does affect performance and, therefore, SL cannot match the performance of games. Good. Nope. That content is streamed is an issue, but I disagree that it is to nearly the extent you believe. Once the content is visible on your screen it is already downloaded and on your hard drive. Once the bulk of the downloading is finished, any impact beyond that is negligible. How well optimized it is, on the other hand, makes all the difference in the world. You're comments about scripting couldn't be further from reality. My comments about scripting are based on my (almost) 30 years as a programmer, and my years of experience in computers at the chip level (circuit design), and even inside the chip level. Your opinion is based on.... what? I notice that you failed to provide any reasoning for your "further from reality" opinion, but I suppose it's best not to get into detailed discussions on subjects you know little or nothing about - a wise decision The necessary streaming is a very large part of why SL cannot match the performance of games. Imagine you're in SL. Everything where you are has been downloaded and nothing is changing - not in the sim you're in and not in any adjacent sims. Don't move, don't move your view - don't do anything. Now, as you rightly said, it is all in your computer, and, of course, SL's performance is right up there with the performance of games. You aren't moving, your view isn't changing, nothing is changing, so the performance is as good as any game. Now turn around. If it were a game, the new data you need would be local so displaying the new view would be very quick. But, with SL, much of the data for the new view isn't local, and has to be downloaded. Therefore, SL's performance when you turn around cannot match that of games, because of the necessary downloading. You may say that the data for the new view should have been downloaded whether you were looking that way or not - all possible views should be downloaded - so that the performance when turning around is very quick. I wouldn't argue with that, but I would say that it all has be downloaded at some stage, so it's six of one and half a dozen of the other, except that it's obviously better not to download all possible views at the same time or the performance would be badly affected while it is happening. With games, the scenario is fixed and stored locally, which means that performance is very quick. That includes all the textures, of course. With SL, the scenario and textures aren't fixed and, therefore, cannot be stored locally. It's that simple. Don't imagine that SL repeatedly streams the scenario, etc., like a video. It doesn't. Once the data for the land has been received, for instance, it stays local and only changes need to be received for that part of the session. Back in the mid-90s I wrote an online multi-user graphic game, so I'm very familiar with the concept of only sending changes to the user, but SL cannot have fixed environments stored locally, so a lot more than just changes needs to be sent to the user, simply because nothing in the SL environment is fixed - except the textures used for mainland land. You are right that users could help by optimising things like textures, but your suggestions would never cause SL to perform as well as games. They could improve SL's performance a little, but that's all. When you get right down to it, LL always knew that the nature of SL is such that it could never match the performance of games, so they've never tried to get it to match. They can't be blamed for the mismatch and neither can users, because the nature of SL is that users decide what's in it, which necessarily means that it cannot match the performance of games - not until the speed of accessing data from the internet matches the speed of accessing data from the local storage.

jwenting wrote: Ceka Cianci wrote: i saw in one guys profile while at help island that said.. because he was from 2006..the TOS didn't even apply to him.. LOL i have no idea how to even start up a conversation after reading that load of buzzard puke.. I'm usually divided between blocking them, ignoring them, or filing an AR against them for their TOS violation. Usually end up doing at least the second, and sometimes the first and last as well. It's not a ToS violation. ARing non-violations may be though

So you agree that streaming content does affect performance and, therefore, SL cannot match the performance of games. Good. About scripts: I haven't gone back to check, but I believe you said that "poorly written scripts" negatively affect SL's performance, and I asked you to explain how a script can be written poorly enough to affect performance (without including stuff to intentionally affect it, of course), but you now explain that you meant the unnecessary use of multiple scripts. Ok. You also mentioned the memory that scripts use and the time they use when running. The memory is storage and, as long as there is enough storage, the amount of it that's used doesn't make any difference at all. If the amount used exceeds the capacity, then swapping occurs which does affect performance. But on the whole, swapping doesn't occur and memory used doesn't affect performance. Script time does matter though. A sim allows a specific amount of time each frame for all scripts to run. If the running scripts need more time for their required operations, then some scripts won't get to do their operations, and performance will be affected. So the number of operations the combined scripts need to perform does matter, but, imo, most sims don't exceed the allowed script time, so the performance of most sims won't be affected by scripts, except in certain circumstances; e.g. when someone who is wearing the type of hair you described - with 3 scripts in every strand - and, I think, when a load of mesh arrives in the sim. The sim needs to set those things up and that can cause a lag spike. I don't see that splitting a script into several scripts makes any difference to performance that's worth mentioning. For instance, take one big script that needs to perform certain operations. Then split it into three scripts. The combined number of required operation in the three scripts is the same number of required operations in the one big script, so the number of required operations (the amount of work/time) doesn't change when splitting a script. There are some things that will take a nanosecond longer; e.g. when one script tell a sub-routine to do something. If the sub-routine is in another script, then it will take a nanosecond longer (that's an estimate, of course). But the number of times that happens is almost certainly low enough for it never to be noticed in performance. Now, if each script in your 300 script object has a listen open, and there are a number of that type of object in the sim, then they may well come up against the allowed script time, which may cause script operations not to be done each frame and, therefore, an apparent deterioration in performance. In popular places, performance deterioration may be quite common due to the number of scripts that people have on their avatars but, imo, that's not due to a fundamental failure on LL's part. The people who are capable of making script heavy objects have enough experience in SL to know what may happen, so it's a failure of the part of those creators. Also, the reason why some places come up against the allowed script time is because everything needs to be streamed. It's streaming that's the problem. The reason why SL's performance can't match that of a game, is because SL is streamed and games are not. It's that simple. Yes, textures that are larger than necessary play a significant part at times but, if they were all optimally sized, SL's general performance still wouldn't get close to that of games where the environments reside in the user's computer.

You completely missed the point, Penny. The point is that, with games, almost everything is in the local computer, so the performance is great. With SL, almost nothing is in the local computer, which means that almost everything has to be downloaded in real time. And, since accessing an SL computer is nowhere near as quick as accessing the local hard drive, SL's performance cannot be as good as games. One other thing. You mentioned 'poorly written scripts' as one of the reasons why SL's performance is lower than the performance of games. Would you explain what you mean by that, with typical examples, please? The reason I ask is because I see the idea of 'poorly written scripts' a lot in the forum, and I doubt very much that everyone who says it knows what they are talking about. I think that most of them don't have a clue, and are just repeating what they have read. I am interested to know if, when you cited it as one of the reasons for SL's poor performance when compared to games, you are one of those people who are just repeating what they've read, or if you actually do know how to write a script so poorly that it helps to cause SL's poor performance when compared to games.

They did win, and they are now pretty much safe this season. Liverpool also won - surprisingly beating Newcastle 6-0

Suella Ember wrote: Our awful run of form since Boxing Day (when we beat Liverpool - ner, ner to you Phil ) [...] Everybody beats Liverpool these days - except the top clubs, of course. Today we're up against Newcastle. They are also in the relegation-avoiding battle with you, so the chances are that Newcastle will win

I didn't know that Stoke are the oldest club currently in the Premier league. I've always had a soft spot them though, and I was pleased to see them get promoted to the premier League. The soft spot is because Stanley Matthews played for them when he finished playing for Blackpool. He was so good that he was still playing top division football at 50 years old, which was unheard of then, and has been unheard of since then. If you've never heard of Stanley Matthews, look him up on Wikipedia. I've been a Liverpool supporter for decades. Unfortunately, Liverpool have slipped a little in the last few years. They are currently #7 (out of 20) in the Premier League but, for Liverpool, that's bad.

It makes perfect sense. The thing is that, if the person discloses your IMs in an LL property, such as SL and this forum, "at their discretion", and without your explicit consent, they can be penalised by LL if it is reported. In other words, as long as their discretion only means disclosure away from LL properties, then that statement makes perfect sense. Or to put it another way... whilst making sense, the statement changes nothing - except that those reading it might prefer to stay away from the person because s/he's a dickhead.

So you've been a Stoke City supporter for a long time? That's fair enough They got back into the Premiership some years ago, and they've done very well to stay there. Promoted teams often do very badly - straight back down - that's what will happen to QPR and Reading this time. This is the worst season that Stoke has had since moving up - in terms of battling to stay out of the drop zone (bottom three), that is.

Dillon Levenque wrote: I'm officially a fan of a British football club: the Stoke City Potters. I don't know a thing about British football, but I'm a Stokie nonetheless. Their most charming quality is that their fans sing the old Tom Jones song 'Delilah' at every match. The thought of 40 or 50 thousand mildly potted Potter fans belting that out has always made me smile. That thought made me smile too - because Stoke would die to get "40 or 50 thousand" fans in the ground. They probably get about half of that. You may have to change your allegiance soon because Stoke are currently struggling to avoid relegation. They'll probably manage it but it's a struggle for them. Unlike the major American sports, football in the UK (and in most of the world) is divided into divisions, with several clubs being relegated to the next division down each year, and several being promoted to the next division up. Being relegated from the top division, which Stoke is trying to avoid, is a disaster because such clubs lose the tens of millions of £ a year that the top division pays them, and it's unusual for a club to get back up in a hurry. They often slip further down the divisions, and it can be a great many years before they are even contending to get back into the top division again. It all makes the latter part of each season much more interesting because there are many very important matches at both ends of each division. You'll need to keep your eye on Stoke for the next few weeks, as the season comes to an end. At the moment 2 clubs will definitely be relegated, barring miracles, and Stoke is one 5 clubs trying to avoid being the 3rd to be relegated. (3 go down each year).

Ty, Amethyst. I've now read the whole thread, and added a post of my own. She didn't actually create the 14 account for the purpose of posting there. It was created a long time ago. But she did use it to post there because the 16 account had already gone. She said she'll be back, and I look forward to that.

I'm very sorry that 16 has gone. She is/was one of my 2 favourite posters. Like everyone else, I'll miss her too. On the good side, she said she'd be back and I imagine that won't be too far in the future - when she's got her head fully around her new job and feels she can have some leisure time here. In the meantime, I wish you all the very best, 16, and I look forward to your return. To the person who criticised her posting as her younger sister:- 16 deleted the 16 account which meant that she couldn't post again with that name, so what did she do? She used another account for the purpose, and, for a bit of fun, said that she was 16's younger sister, knowing full well that everyone would know exactly who it was. Criticising it is sheer nonsense.

That's very disappointing. Still, she left with a smile so whatever the reason for her departure, it's probably not a bad one.

Ceka Cianci wrote: Phil Deakins wrote: Sephina Frostbite wrote: I just want to say I have utmost respect for Ceka.. and to be honest if it came down to a brawl between us Id be a gonner lol. If it came down to a brawl between you and Ceka, can I join in please? you would be down and out and miss the whole thing..because you would be first.. we would double team you :matte-motes-evil-invert: hehehehe Yes but the joy I'd have with you two girls double-teaming on me, even for a very short time, would be well worth it

Back? Has she gone somewhere?

Sephina Frostbite wrote: I just want to say I have utmost respect for Ceka.. and to be honest if it came down to a brawl between us Id be a gonner lol. If it came down to a brawl between you and Ceka, can I join in please?