Inara Pey

Brooke Linden appeared at the TPV Developer meeting on Friday April 24th to provide a brief status update to TPV devs. As her comments are likely to be of wider interest, I've summarised them as a blog post, with timestamps to the the video where they can be heard. If interested, please refer to: Viewer-Managed Marketplace: brief update

As Teresa has correctly noted, as of today, all viewers must have HTTP Inventory enabled in order for your inventory to load following a refresh and for your avatar to render, as service-side support for UDP fetching has been deprecated by the Lab grid-wide. Normally HTTP Inventory is enabled by default. To do this: Make sure you have the Develop menu enabled in your menu bar at the top of the viewer. Press CTRL-ALT-Q if you cannot see it. Click on Develop to list the menu Make sure there is a tick alongside HTTP INVENTORY. If HTTP INVENTORY does not have a tick in front of it, then it is disabled. Click on it to enable it (and display the tick) Closed the Develop menu and re-log. Your inventory should fetch correctly / your avatar should render OK once you have re-logged. The option to disable HTTP Inventory will be removed from the viewer in a future release.

To summarise the summaries: SL Go is a third-party service provided by OnLive Games (it is not an LL-provisioned service). It streams Second Life (including the viewer) to your computer or tablet device, using a version of either the SL viewer or Firestorm. As a streamed service, it should provide high FPS rates, even with all the graphics in the viewer turned up. If you use the SL Viewer version, you can connect to SL via PC, Mac, Android device or iPad. If you user Firestorm you can (currently) only connect using a PC or Mac BUT you can also use the service to log-in OpenSim grids. The service costs US$9.95 (£6.95) a month for unlimited access. It is not something aimed at people with very good computers and good internet connectivity. It is aimed towards users who either want the feature / graphical rich environment of the viewer on their tablet device (SL viewer) or who have a lower-end PC and Mac with limited graphics & who wish to enjoy the visual richness of SL. Official details here. I have a full review of the original release of SL Go, and a look at it running Firestorm on my blog. Edited for typo.

WolfBaginski Bearsfoot wrote: I don't know what the Lindens are trying to fix, it's a very standard message when they announce scheduled maintenance, and doesn't really tell you anything useful. But there are times it does feel like the CDN system still isn't working right. Or is it the SSA system? When was the last time they tested how the service worked from anywhere other than San Francisco? Have they ever used hardware to simulate a less than perfect connection? Oh, they do tests from Phoenix, do they? They're straining my seasonal goodwill to all men. As Theresa indicated, Whirly Fizzle (UK) has been heavily engaged in testing the CDN and HTTP throughout. Further, the Lab has been wroking with a number of users who are geographically spread in order to try to further improve overall CDN functionality & HTTP code in the viewer (there is a further set of back-end CDN improvements that have been under test and which should be emerging early in 2015. As to SSA / CDN - it is my understanding (from Oz Linden's statements at several TPVD and other meetings) that SSA has been utilising a CDN service for some considerable time; it was actually the overall success with it approach that enouraged the Lab to go further, CDN-wise. That said, whether the CDN in question is Highwinds or not, I couldn't clarify; but I'd lean towards it being so.

A summary of the meeting, with transcript of the Q&A is available here: http://modemworld.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/viewer-managed-marketplace-feedback-meeting-video-audio-and-qa-transcript/ There will be (as stated elsewhere in this thread) a further meeting in the New Year.

Phil Deakins wrote: Third commandment:- "WITH THY OBJECTS" ? Those commandments were abviously written by someone who doesn't know english well enough. Therefore, they cannot have been written by God, so they need not be adhered to. The correct phrase is, 'WITH THINE OBJECTS'. God would have known that. Nah All it shows is the God used to play hookie during his English lessons in favour of a crafty ciggie behind the celestial bike sheds. Personally, I blame Zeus for leading God astray, despite the Great Spirit's best attempts to ensure otherwise.

Orion is superficially like Apollo, but far more advanced, and the crew module is only one part of the system - the part to get crews up into space, and back to Earth. Once operational, in the 2020s, Orion will fly with the Service Module (to be built by ESA), on missions with up to a 21-day duration, and which can include the addition of a a habitat module, if required. For longer duration mission, say to Mars, one or two Orion vehicles (depending on the number of crew on the mission) will be docked with a habitat / flight module which will have its final assembly in space with 2-3 heavy-lift launches from Earth. The crews will then fly to the vehicle & dock with it for the flight to Mars & use a separate lander / habitat flown with the vehicle for their stay on Mars before using the larger vehicle to return to Earth orbit. The Orion MPCV will then be used for the actual return of the crew to Earth. This image is a concept of one of the Mars vehicle designs under consideration - the "Copernicus" class of nuclear-powered vehicles (which, ironically, also owe their heritage and looks to the Von Braun era of NASA's history, like Apollo). An Orion vehicle (which can carry up to 6 crew) can just be seen mated at the far right of the craft, ready to ferry the crew back to Earth at the end of the mission. NASA hasn't quite determined *how* they'll perform a Mars mission; there are several options on the table (e.g. chemical or nuclear propulsion), but now they have Orion, their choice in overall mission options has been somewhat better defined (or more constrained in direction, depending on your point-of-view). If you're interested in more, I cover aspects of space exploration in my blog, and have recently written about Orion & the future - and will be writing more in things very soon, including this inaugural flight.

Orion will finally open the doors to the solar system; perhaps later than might have been the case after 42 years in LEO, but EFT-1 looks to be previewing a time in which we can finally say, "The Human Adventure is Just Beginning" when it comes to humans in space.

Phil Deakins wrote: Do you think that £22.5 a year would keep our youth centres open, and/or buy the medical equipment that would prevent our seriously ill patients from going abroad for treatment, or keep a hospital open, or pay for the sorely needed hospital staff? I do. No, I don't think £22.5 million would have found its way to the front-line healthcare, and I have to say your view that it would is terribly naive. As I've noted, the NHS already squanders 4.5 billion in spending that could be directed towards front-line healthcare, simply so it can offer a "marketplace" to compete with itself. As such, the most an additional £25.5 million is liable to do is get swallowed up in the same idiotic wastage. Instead, that £22.5 million-a-year "waste" has gone in technology development here in the UK and in Europe, the benefits of which we can't fully discern, it's maintained productive eomployment across the UK and Europe for many individuals. It's been a part of the UK's £336 million-a-year spending on space that directly supports a UK industry generating over £10 billion a year in turnover. Phil Deakins wrote: If you've read my earlier posts in this thread, you should have known that I haven't singled out the huge waste of money on Rosetta. I agree with you that there are other things too, such as the planned £20-30 billion HS2 - a lot more when it actually arrives. I have read your posts, and I'm replying directly to your repeated and subjective claims that Rosetta is a "huge waste of money". On the scale of things, Rosettta is an exceptionally cost-effective mission that stands to yield considerable scientific benefit, and which has already helped us in studies of the Earth and other planteray bodies - and other comets - purely due to the neture of its 10-year journey through and around the solar system. Phil Deakins wrote: Interesting though it is, knowing whether or not comets brought water to the Earth and what 'stuff' was like when the planets formed, really is irrelevant. We have water here and it doesn't matter where it came from, and what 'stuff' was like back then doesn't make a scrap of difference to us today. As I said, you're entitled to your parochial point-of-view.

Phil Deakins wrote The Earth has managed perfectly well for 4 billion years without mankind having methods of saving it from space stuff. We didn't even know such stuff existed until recently. I've watched a number of science programmes about the Rosetta mission and not once was it even suggested that a benefit of it was some of the things mentioned in this thread. It's only about origins. That's all. But if you want to develope a method of deflecting an asteroid, land on a bloomin' asteroid if that what it takes. The Rosetta mission has nothing to do with it. It's only about origins. It's interesting that, in defense of the expense of Rosetta, the arguments in this thread have been about other things than what the mission is actually about - origins. Nobody has argued that knowing those origins, or getting clues to those origins, is of any benefit to mankind. The actual objectives of the project itself have not been put forward as good reasons for doing the project. Very interesting. Wrong on multiple levels. The Earth may have gotten along fine for 4 billion years. Life on it hasn't. Take the Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, 66 million years ago. The Earth survived - by 75% of the flora and fauna on it didn't. As to the Rosetta mission - yes tha primary mission is about origins; something which is actually important to many of us, however much you may personally disagree. But it is not the only objective. The point is that the data the mission gathers has the potential for many areas of research. For example, if we understand the detailed chemical and mineral composition of a comet, it potentially helps pave the way to exploiting near-Earth short-period comets (of which 67P/C-G is but one in the future as we continue to deplete the natural resources we have here on Earth. It may lead us to a better understanding what is needed to help terraform a planet like Mars, something would might be critical to around attempts to move beyond this planet and do more than live within constrained environments elsewhere. By rendezousing and lnding on a comet, Rosetta and Philae have providing valuable data should we ever have the need to attempt a the diversion of a NEO, be it comet or asteriod in the future. Indeed, NASA has had particular interest in the Rosetta mission because they're planning a manned rendezvous with an asteroid for the 2020s. By sampling the rock of 67P/C-G, as Philae has successful achieved, helps us understand the composition of a typical example of Kuiper belt comets, which may well help determine the best and most efficient means of dealing with one should it be found to be on a collision with Earth. I don't bother arguing with you on the validity on Rosetta's primary mission, simply because I don't see your argument as valid - just as you don't see the value in learning about one of the potential sources of our own origin as as being a valid. As I've said before, you're entirely to your opinion. I will, however, argue your statements that the mission is a "huge" waste of money as they are totally disproportionate to the cost of the mission and its tangible impact and benefits for the UK.

Phil Deakins wrote: Inara Pey wrote: Sour grapes over the comparative low cost of this mission aside (an annual cost per person less than that of a single visit to the cinema, for crying out loud!), if you're interested in following the project, and also in catching-up on NASA's Curiosity rover as it roams around "Mount Sharp" on Mars, I have periodic write-ups on both missions - Rosetta here, and Curiosity here. I don't care how much it cost each person. The total cost could have done significant good instead of being wasted like that. Roaming around Mars is completely different. We have to explore in that way if we are to ever gain the ability to leave our planet. Of course, if we have no intention of doing in the distant future, then even that sort of space exploration is a frivolous waste of money, but I believe the human race is aiming at being able to leave and go to other places. I'm in favour of that. I'm just against spending huge amounts of money on things that are irrelevant. "Huge amounts of money"? Get a grip, Phil, please! It's an average of £22.5. million a year over the 18 years of the programme. In 1996, the total government expenditure on healthcare in the UK was £42.8 billion (58 billion in today's terms). In 2013, the total government expenditure on healthcare in the UK had risen to £124.2 billion. Do you seriously think that £22.5 million would have had any discernable impact in front-line healthcare in the UK when compared to figures like these, and the intervening annual increases in between them? The reality is that the NHS could have swallowed that £22.5 million a year each and every year between 1996 and today, without it ever making one iota of difference to front-line healthcare. Frankly, there are plenty of other (and bigger) wastes of money that come at the taxpayer's expense at which to rage at before ever getting to the question of Britain's involvement in international space activities like Rosetta. You might want to start with the huge amount of waste that occurs in the NHS itself, given you're worried about the equipment our involvement in Rosetta "might" have purchased, or the hospitals it "might" have saved. Take, for example, the £4.5 billion The Centre of Health & the Public Interest (conservatively) estimates the NHS wastes annually in creating an artifical "healthcare market" in which it effectively competes with itself. Think of the hospitals and medical equipment that could buy! As to the mission being "irrelevant", that's your opinion; you're entitled to it. I personally disagree, but I'm not going to deny you're entitled to an opinion. But please, have a sense of proportion with it.

Here's your answer: The Hardware Issues Behind Recent Region Restarts via Landon and the team.

According to simon Linden, speaking at the Simulator User Group on Tuesday, November 18th, the work on the servers requires each box being taken down, opened-up and physically inspected, and parts (unspecified) possibly being swapped-out. Exactly what amount of work (if anything) is required on each server may vary, making the process something of a piece of string when it comes to how long it will take per box. What prompted the work isn't clear, but there was muted speculation that some servers may need a physical update of some description to avoid the potential of failing due to a defect. Whether this means one of the Lab's suppliers altered them to a problem or not or something else has come up, isn't clear.

Sour grapes over the comparative low cost of this mission aside (an annual cost per person less than that of a single visit to the cinema, for crying out loud!), if you're interested in following the project, and also in catching-up on NASA's Curiosity rover as it roams around "Mount Sharp" on Mars, I have periodic write-ups on both missions - Rosetta here, and Curiosity here.

For what it's worth, I'm on a Win 7 system, and: I accepted the update from 3.7.19.295700 (HTTP pipelining release viewer) to 3.7.20.295094 (Benchmarking viewer, current release viewer). Following install, viewer stalled on initiating VFS. I deleted my cache (default: C:\Users\[user name]AppData\Local\SecondLife) On restarting 3.7.20.295094, it fired-up correctly & I have successfully logged-in numerous times. FWIW, I've actually encountered Firestorm falling over when initialising VFS on a "dirty" install and have always found that deleting cache solves the problem for me with that viewer as well. It can also sometimes be resolved by clearing-out settings in C:\Users\[user name]AppData\Roaming\SecondLife - see here. I appreciate some people are reporting "clean" installs are failing to resolve the issue, but - and without wihing to teach anyone how to suck eggs - are those trying a clean install also manually deleting cache in addition to running the deinstaller?

Used it extensively, having been a part of the pre-release beta testing, and have since continued to use it on my Google Nexus 7 HD. It's really best suited to screen of 10-inches or larger, but can be used on smaller screens if you don't mind a lot of pinch-zooming and scrolling or have a stylus-enabled screen (hence why the recently released iOS version is aimed at the iPad). Streaming is fast and reliable, and obviously as you're getting the full viewer with all the bells and whistles ringing and whistling, it can look very sharp. The payment options aren't actually that bad if you really do need to access SL on the go a lot, and require all the capabilities of the SL viewer at your fingertips (for uploading items to the Marketplace, say), and subscriptions include a 7-day trail period (but *not* pay-as-you-go). However, if you're an Andrioid person, and you simply need occasional access to SL while on the go & are not overly concerned about having all the deep graphical richness of the viewer with full windlight, ALM, etc., then Lumiya is worth considering. T graphics are more than acceptable for short-term use and it has all the major features you're likely to need for just getting around and enjoying SL (Including fitted mesh support). What's more, it can be yours for a one-off payment that's equitable to a couple of hours or so on SL Go. At the risk of tooting my horn again, you can poke around at SL Go for yourself via my coverage (reviews, comparisons, hand-on with hardware).

The log-in updates have been in experimental and RC viewers for some time. They are a part of various new user A/B testing the Lab has been conducting over several months. The new layout has - according to the Lab - seen an increase in retention among new users of between 3 and 5 percent for those channel through a sign-up process which leads to a download of the viewer with the updated log-in splash screen, when compared to those using the sign-up process that leads them to a viewer using the "old" log-in splash screen, There may be further updates to the log-in screen coming in the future, according to Grumpity Linden. I provided an overview of the new log-in screens when the experimental viewer first made a public appearance, and again when it reached RC. Comments on the apparent effectiveness of the new log-in screen design can be found in my project update report from the Friday September 12th TPV meeting.

sodasullivan wrote: Oh, and thank you to LL for failing to monitor and maintain support and devlopment for Space Navigator (an item YOU tout as enhancing the SL experience!) Pure laziness. In fairness, the issue LL's, per se. It's Logitech / 3D Connexions. They changed the Windows driver set for the Space Navigator with version 10 of the drivers, and it's been impacting a lot else other than Second Life. Hence why if you use an older version of the drivers per my reply (or the Windows default driver, apparently), the problem goes away. As it is, a couple of people have offered to try to look at viewer-side support of the SN; whether this will resolve the driver issue remains to be seen.

Check Preferences > Moce and View > Joystick Configuation. In the top left corner is the Enable Joystick check box. Does it say "SpaceNavigator" next to it, or "KMJEmulator"? If it's the latter, that's your problem. You can get around this by installing SpaceNavigator Legacy Drivers - however, this may mean the SN no longer works with your browser, although it should still work with Google Earth. I'm running the 3.18 drivers, and have no problem with either SL or Google Earth. I don't know if there is a fix for using the version 10 drivers, I give up trying to poke the KMJ Emulator out of the way.

Mony Lindman wrote: Phoebe Avro wrote: If they closed SL going back on the statment that that they wont it will be the death null of LL! But at least they have some crappy apps to fall back on! ... and they are one of the main investors in HiFi .. Actually, LL were only an investor in the 2nd round of funding for High Fidelity. The three rounds of funding break down as: Seeding: $1.6 million sought, True Ventures only investor. Round one: $2.4 million sought:, True Ventures, Google Ventures, Kapor Capital, Linden Lab + angel investors Round two: $2.5 million sought, True ventures apparently sole investor. Sources: SEC filings, Techcrunch, Crunchbase. So while LL have invested, I wouldn't presume their investment is necessarily significant when compared to others.

The Lab is attempting to address issues of group chat. I and a number of others were involved in helping with testing some changes being made by Simon Linden to the back-end chat service in the hopes of offering some small-scale improvements in the reliability of group chat connections and message delivery, notably when moving between regions when using group chat. These updates were deployed in May. Simon believes that this has helped the Lab to better identify where the load is within the group chat service, and he will shortly be embarking on another round of work, which he hopes will yield more obvious improvements. See: SL projects update 25/1: server, viewer, pathfinding and surprise guest - check the section headed "Group Chat". The problem with group chat is that it is not a straightforward service with easily identifiable points-of-failure or bottleneck. Like a lot of the back-end services, it is interwined with many other aspects of Second Life and the simulator, all of which require careful examination and teasing apart in order to find out what is going on without unintentionally impacting something else.

For those who may be interested, a full transcript of Ebbe Altberg's keynote session is available on my blog: VWBPE 2014: Ebbe Altberg keynote – “The Door is Open” (full transcript)

For those who may be interested, a full transcript of Ebbe Altberg's keynote session is available on my blog: VWBPE 2014: Ebbe Altberg keynote – “The Door is Open” (full transcript)