Deltango Vale

"IMT made the sky...FALL!" --------------------------------------------- Cities in Flight was pure genius. Who can ever forget a name like Crispin deFord? Pay particular attention to the publication date, which explains why germanium instead of silicon is the basis of the currency. Doctor Mirabilis is the first part of a larger book called After Such Knowledge.

I once served on a jury in a criminal case. It was a retrial; the jury in the first trial could not reach a verdict. After a long month listening to the evidence, it was quite clear to me that the prosecution case was speculative and circumstantial. In fact, I was baffled that the case came to trial at all. Immediately after the judge summed up the case in preparation for us to retire to reach a verdict, I wrote him a note, which he read out in court. My question to him was basically this: "Do you wish us to come to a consensus on an opinion about the accused's guilt or innocence or is he innocent by default unless the evidence has proved conclusively beyond doubt to us that he is guilty?" The judge replied (and I think I have it pretty good in my memory): "I do not want your collective opinion. The accused is innocent by default. He remains innocent until you as a group are convinced by solid evidence beyond all reasonable doubt that he is guilty." It took us 15 seconds to reach a verdict. While it was perfectly possible the accused was guilty, there were several highly plausible scenarios in which he was innocent. The judge's instructions were crystal clear. It was not up to us to pick and choose what we liked or didn't like, it was not our role to formulate an opinion, it was our job to decide if the evidence provided unambiguous proof of the man's guilt. Afterwards, in a bar across the street, we wondered what on Earth the first jury was thinking when the prosecution case was so weak. We could only conclude (since the prosecution had an opportunity to improve its case in the second trial) that the first jury was deadlocked over an opinion. Some of them thought the man was innocent; others thought he was guilty. For some reason, that first jury did not understand the concept of "innocent until proven guilty." I do not know the details of the cases below. I offer no opinion on the cases below. I offer no opinion on the death penalty. I do NOT wish to begin a discussion about the death penalty. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15013860 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-14984584 In the trial that I served on, the accused man's entire life would have been destroyed by a guilty verdict - a verdict that would have been based on speculation, circumstantial evidence and personal opinion. I therefore wish to ask those who have ever served on juries if they are satisfied with the decisions they reached. For those who have not served on juries, have you ever accused a person of something based solely on an opinion, only to discover later that you made unfounded assumptions and jumped to conclusions? In brief, has the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" been replaced by mob rule in the court of public opinion?

BTW, for dyslexic drug dealers, the title reads "Gamer Aids the Crack Enzyme"

"and reminds be a little of "Canticle for Leibowitz"." ------------------------------------------------------ Superb novel. Reminds me of Doctor Mirabilis, by James Blish

I wish LL would give us some new badge templates as promised. I'm dying to change my badge, but it's not possible to do what I want with the existing templates - and when oh when will LL get rid of the Jive date and put our rez dates? Surely, it can't be that difficult. The company is loaded with techno-geeks. It's a simple date that can be taken directly from our accounts. Even I could probably figure out how to do it. Sigh, but then Einstein probably couldn't tie his own shoelaces.

At the risk of getting myself into trouble, I tend to agree with you. I like my men to be masculine and my women to be feminine. Sounds strange, no doubt, that a woman could think this way, but perhaps I should explain that, like yin and yang, there must be a dot of the other in each. A hairy-chested alpha-male who is wise and graceful is a huge turn on. Equally, an attractive and elegant woman with brains and spirit is a delicious conquest. Think of it as enjoying both heavy metal and Russian ballet. For this reason, I have no sexual attraction to effeminate men or steelworker women. I respect them, but I won't slide into bed with them.

Several months ago, I suggested this forum be connected to the main fora structure rather than pinned off to the side. Several months before that, I suggested we needed new and better badge templates. Tonight, I thought maybe I'd update my badge, but nothing has changed; the old, limited, badge templates remain. I then figured maybe I'd see what was happening in this forum since it is no longer on the radar - and came across this thread. I presume LL has now walked away from the fora. I suppose the thinking is that it works reasonably well and no further improvements are necessary. It's a shame, because there is always room for improvement. Anyway, I wrote plenty on this forum to no avail. No point sticking around.

"For example my doctor has such an accent I can barely understand him sometimes and his penmanship is horrid and his spelling and grammar isn't all that great all the time either. That being said he is an outstanding doctor and I am glad to have him. I don't know, maybe he has better things to worry about?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you don't wake up missing a leg because he left a note with his nurse to boil an egg.

When someone asks me for money, I usually ask for his soul. Here is the notecard: I, _________ , in return for L$100, hereby post bond, in spirit and intention, to my soul, which, upon failure of repayment, shall become the property of Deltango Vale. To accept the agreement, please fill in your name, copy the text to a read-only notecard and send it to me. I shall then send you L$100. Failure to repay by _______ will result in the forfeiture of your soul (in perpetuity). The beauty of this system is: It's much cheaper than RL (people are so greedy in RL: mansions, jewelry, stardom, yadayadayada) LL does not get involved with personal disputes Tranches of souls can be sold on to investment banks for securitization Default / foreclosure is a good thing The best part, though, is the look in their eyes when they log off and your avatar remains on screen, smiling and tapping its foot

I am deeply indebted to several people who not only helped me at the beginning, but enabled me to appreciate the depth and grandeur of Second Life. First, of course, is Ceera Murakami, who not only tolerated my gross nativity as I flitted about her home, but kindly afforded me the opportunity to get my bearings in Second Life. Her generosity and gentility - and peerless fashion sense - set the standard for me in terms of social etiquette. Epignosis Thunders, another kind and generous soul, taught me the land business early on. I blush remembering the million questions I asked him almost daily - all of which he answered patiently. He was a good neighbor and friend for many years before RL blessed him with a new career and a family. JR Unknown was my guiding light in business. Seldom have I met a businessman of greater honesty and integrity. Those were early days when I was limited to US$250 maximum purchases. Based on his sterling reputation, I sent him several thousand US dollars via PayPal to purchase land. He was good as his word, enabling me to buy a home in SL that would have otherwise slipped away. Stillpink Sandgrain taught me humility. Never have I met such a remarkable woman - full of life, always cheerful - regardless of the terrible difficulties in her RL. During her final year, suffering the tortures of cancer, not once did she complain. She kept joy in her heart up to the last second. She set an example to me, which I try to emulate as best I can, but I always fall short. Yet, whenever I become an idiot, I see her Tiny avatar doing somersaults, laughing and playing, which shames me deeply. For that reason, she will sit on my shoulder for the rest of my life, forever remembered, forever respected. Zane Legion was my long-suffering business partner. If ever there was a man who withstood my petulant mood swings, it was him. We eventually went our separate ways (we are still good friends), but he taught me much of the technology I needed to survive as a liberal arts major in a high-tech world. I have a special place in my heart for Avi Arrow. For many years, I was hostile toward her, but the fault was mine alone. I eventually faced up to my foolishness and apologized sincerely for my behavior. We did not speak much after that, but, a year later, on Christmas Day, she sent me a most wonderful gift of her own design. I was alone that day, online, but completely alone in both worlds. Her gift, out of the blue - a gift of kindness and reconciliation - is one I will always cherish. There are so many people who helped me in Second Life that I fear boring everyone with a long list. I will say with sincerity that Second Life is indeed a second life, a second chance - a place of growth and revitalization. I thank everyone, past and present, who joined me on that journey.

Here is a classic sci-fi novel on the subject, written in 1969: http://www.amazon.com/Left-Hand-Darkness-Ursula-LeGuin/dp/0441478123

"Correcting spelling is generally considered bad form in most forums. And if you constantly do it you will not be very popular." ------------------------------------ So far, I have not received any hate mail for being articulate in my posts, but thanks for letting me know how deeply unpopular I have become. mbee me wrk hrddr to fitin n be lliked n futurrr

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14907590

I have disabled the display name feature. My screen is crowded enough without everyone having multiple names, nor am I going to spend my life trying to remember what someone wishes to be called on a given day. The original avatar name system worked well. It could have been improved by enabling residents to change their first name (subject to it never having been used by another resident) for a modest fee (say US$10). It was that simple. The complex and confusing username (carla2222xy) / avatar name (carla2222xy Resident) / display name (Foxy C carla2222xy Resident) fiasco makes me wonder sometimes if Linden Lab is deliberately sabotaging Second Life.

"I can't understand, what makes a man, hate another man, Help me understand!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- My team versus your team, my tribe versus your tribe, my religion versus your religion, my community versus your community, my customs versus your customs, my beliefs versus your beliefs, my morality versus your morality - because my team/tribe/religion/morality is right and yours is wrong. Now you know why I fight tooth and nail to prevent this crap from entering Second Life.

This one went viral in the UK, but many people thought the ad was from California. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1240978/Aliens-eat-fatties-Gym-sparks-outrage-new-advertising-campaign.html

I'm sure he influenced men's style in SL:

And this is what he discovers: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14843549

Arriving very late to this party (and therefore stone-cold sober), I will say that there is much about SL I find ugly, but I ignore it. I am amused when someone seeks to shock me, but I admit I AR griefers who launch spam attacks. The closest I got to being surprised was a spam attack depicting a woman, bent over, pulling aside her knickers to display a large amount of feces, which she had obviously produced and sat on. This, I will suggest, qualifies as ugly, but, hey, some people are into scat. I included a screenshot in the AR. Not sure what the G-team thought of it, but the spam was removed rather quickly. Is there any champagne left in the kitchen? Perhaps some cashews?

I am filled with melancholy as I read this thread. I was one of the first million residents, arriving in October 2006, when Second Life was in its prime. I had the amazing good fortune to experience SL for six months before management pulled the plug on SL's magic. Yes, it is true that times were tough back then. The technology was very unstable and the land scammers were outrageously brazen (although there was a certain honesty to their brutality, unlike modern phishers). Linden Lab still had some control over accounts and it was truly "Your World. Your Imagination." During the great wave of immigration, Linden Lab starved SL of new land, driving prices into the stratosphere. Jack Linden was sound asleep, dreaming of, well, no one knows what he was dreaming of, but when he eventually rolled out of bed and added a handful of new sims, there was an feeding frenzy. Bog standard sims that would be ignored today were going at auction for US$3,000-5,000. Inworld, L$500,000 for the front half of a standard waterfront sim was considered a bargain. LL's response was to flood the market - twice - essentially bankrupting the 2006-2007 immigration wave. Thousands left SL in disgust long before LL really got nasty in 2008-2009. Sigh, those were very painful years - kinda like watching a drunken stepfather smash up the house on Christmas Day. For those who are interested, here is a retail mainland pricelist for Spring 2007: 40/40 clean waterfront: L$40 per m2 40/40 clean inland: L$20 per m2 40/40 broken inland: L15 per m2 standard coral/sand clean waterfront: L$25 per m2 standard tropics clean waterfront: L20 per m2 standard clean waterfront: L$15 per m2 standard flat-green/mountain: L$10 per m2 The Europeans were the first to suffer. By the Fall of 2007 (yes, literally, the fall of 2007), they were out of SL. Maybe they were the lucky ones, because things got much worst in 2008-2009, culminating in the Openspace mispricing debacle and the forced march to Zindra. SL has been stagnant ever since. Yet, in spite of Linden Lab, Second Life has retained pockets of the old magic. The club scene remains vibrant (and for those in the know, the original floor is back at SR, hooray!) Live music is thriving. The redesigned SL fora has become useful and interesting (whereas the old fora had collapsed into chaos by this time last year). So, like the embers of a dying fire, there is still a glow in Second Life. Perhaps someone sober will cut away the dead wood and bring it back to life.

YES because in spite of Linden Lab's gross mismanagement of Second Life over the past five years, it is blindingly obvious that Second Life represents a huge shift towards an entirely new economic, political and social paradigm. Does anyone remember the first cellphones? Do you remember being embarrassed when some guy pulled one out of his pocket on a train and start talking. Everyone on the train rolled his eyes at this weirdo geek moron who thought it was cool to use a, cough, walkie-talkie on a train. What? Invest in a cellphone company? Are you insane? Cellphones are toys for boys. They will NEVER catch on. A decade after they were introduced, they still hadn't caught on. I guess cellphones were a really dumb idea after all. Y'know what? If I had tons of money, I would be thrilled at how everyone thinks Second Life is stupid. Hahaha, yup, it sure is stupid...here's US$25 billion, let me take it off your hands. Gee, I dunno, maybe you're right, let me make that US$10 billion. Yup, I sure am a sucker, hahaha, can we sign the contract please - today - right now! Sometimes I truly wonder how human beings ever crawled out of their caves and learned to walk upright. I can just imagine the first guy to try it. The rest of the tribe would have huddled against the back wall and watched as Crazy Oogoo took his first steps into daylight. What an idiot, they all said, what a kook. Imagine going out of the nice safe cave to walk on two legs. And then Crazy Oogoo found a stick and drew a triangle within a square, but this was too much for the tribe and they stoned him to death.

"I agree, there is no getting around the fact that the V2 UI sucks & is designed to be unmoddable. FS has done an excellent job of putting in options to make it more user friendly & adding back V1 features that LL took out, such as the pie menu & conversations box, but as the saying goes, you can`t make silk purse out of a sow`s ear." ------------------------------------------------------------------ Yes, I agree completely. I am now one of the significant percentage of residents who no longer even pay attention to the LLV2 development program. I continue to use Phoenix because of its intelligent design (though Firestorm is slowly getting better). I think it's a shame LL refused to scrap V2 and begin cooperative development work on V3 the moment the poop hit the fan, but I guess we are all used to LL living on another planet when it comes to human factors engineering, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, organizational management, business finance and, well, most aspects of human behavior. LL are under-the-hood, nuts and bolts engineers for whom humans are an annoying nuisance. The point is that the technological innovation of mesh in SL is greatly undermined by the decoherence of viewer development streams into three main branches: LL1.23/Snowglobe/Phoenix LLV2 Firestorm and other redesigned versions of SLV2 For this reason, it will probably take years before the full benefits of mesh are utilized by residents. Even if Firestorm produces a mesh version next week, few people are going to walk around looking like idiots to 1/3 of the population. The time has come for LL to sit down with residents and developers to construct an intelligent and useful viewer. By solving the viewer problem, LL could begin to reap the full benefits of new technologies such as mesh.

As a member of LWL, I will admit openly that we are hell bent on global domination. Our leader, mad Mad, has cunningly devised the first steps, which include 1) dancing on top of cows, 2) wearing red hats and 3) singing songs about corn. Needless to say, this strategy is paying off. Not a day goes by without new recruits showing up at barn dances to commit themselves to our care and education. The only problem is that there is not enough corn to feed the cows.

@ everyone This is a slippery problem. Let me try to give a precise example: Say I write a play called "Shopping with Sarah Cheroot" in which a character of my own creation (let's call her Izabel) has a Lara Croft statue in her living room. Izabel (an anorexic teen) fantasizes about being Lara Croft, which is why she has the statue - as well as posters of Lara on her bedroom walls. My play charts the history of Izabel's fascination with Lara in parallel with Izabel's psychological problems with puberty. At the end of the play, Izabel, close to death, has a vision of Lara, who takes Izabel on an imaginary adventure. Izabel awakes (in hospital) with the belief that she has become Lara. She accepts the hospital treatment in the belief that she must get stronger to fulfill her duties as Lara. In this way, she is cured of anorexia, but now suffers a delusion of personality. Right, I just made all that up off the top of my head, but if I were to stage it as a real play, where would I stand legally?