Medhue Simoni

Kwakkelde Kwak wrote: Medhue Simoni wrote: In most cases, the regulations distort the market and push investments into areas that are unsustainable, hence causing a crash. That's quite a claim, without any references. Well, let's go over the last big crash, from a libertarian perspective. Government incentivizes homeownership with FHA and HUD loans. They back Frannie and Freddie. They also insure bank deposits up to 250k. Every 1 of these causing distortions in the markets. They then put pressure on banks to give out more homeload, and they lower restrictions on qualificatons on homeloans. All of a sudden, any1 can buy a $200k home. That demand drove production in new homes, further feeding into an unsustainable market. Yes, the banks were complicit, but most of the initial banks that sold those homes knew they were holding bad crap, and sold it immediately. Just the immediately selling of the loan should set off fire alarms in any rational person's head. When I bought my first home, I was only 23 and it was 1994, but had a steady work history and brought in more than enough to cover the monthly payment. My house was also extremely cheap, as it was before the boom. That bank made me jump through hoops. My credit had to be imaculate. I even had to drive 45 mins to Ypsilanti(next to UofM) to pay off a $5 debt that my old college said that I owed them for the cork board in my dorm. Seven years latter, some moron wanted to buy my house for more than twice what I paid. You bet I sold it to him. I'm the only person I know that didn't get screwed in the housing debacle. The signs were obvious. It was the governments interference that started the ball rolling. Every1 else, was simply reacting to the governments incentives. The only thing the regulations did was take away the risk that each of those businesses would have incurred. Look at who really lost in the whole deal. Only the common man lost. The biggest banks in the world used our money to secure themselves while screwing every1 else. With the money we paid the banks, we could have bought every single 1 of those loans, and saved every1 down the line. Instead, they saved the largest, most destructive corporations that ever existed, and allowed us, and our children to pay for it. See, the point was not to save the nation, or the people. The whole point was to further impoverish the people. Whether intentional, or not, that will always be the direction of government policies, because the way governments grow and government employee get raises, is to make the problem worse.

Hilarious! Especially the Indian 1.

Pussycat Catnap wrote: Unregulated currency is unregulated. There should be no surprise at any fiasco or scandal that therefore ensues. Unregulated just means that the consumer needs to do their research. Personally, I don't need the government to be my caretaker. I'm an educated, intelligent person that can take complete care of myself. And, actually the market does have inherit regulations, which benefit both parties in every transaction. More often than not, those regulators agencies get corrupted and work against the public, not for them. By relying on a regulatory system, you are blindly trusting in something that deserves no trust at all. Any large corporation knows, all you have to do is spend some money and you can easily control the regulatory system. In most cases, the regulations distort the market and push investments into areas that are unsustainable, hence causing a crash.

qwerty Qork wrote: yes, most of the Animals at the VKC are Pathfinding enabled now, and because some land owners THINK, PF causes lag,,, you may also switch the pathfinding off ,, but far more real like if pathfinding is on. Well, I don't have access to tests on whether pathfinding actually causes lag, but IMHO, I think that pathfinding just shows them the lag, and they think it's the pathfinding. What I think is more likely, is that all the scripts that it takes to run the animals creates the lag, and it's just most obvious when animals are moving around. This is why I'm advocating for custom skeletons, as all the movements would be much smoother, and eliminate a whole portion of coding. It is amazing what they have done with these animals with just coding tho. I have animals for my combat system that move around with coding only, but I have tested them with pathfinding and want to implement it, but I'd rather wait until we get custom skeletons.

Perrie Juran wrote: Medhue Simoni wrote: A good, educated critique of Bitcoins would be to argue that it is not gold, or silver. This argument shows that bitcoins have no inherit value. A bitcoin supporter would argue that the dollar has no inherit value anymore. They would also argue that bitcoins has an inherit value, which is the value to the user because of it's easy of use, and lack of fees. I see and understand the Austrian arguments, but I'm all for experiments and testing theories. If nothing else, to those that understand, bitcoin is an extremely interesting experiment, and I can be involved at whatever level I like. The Dollar still has one inherit value the Bitcoin does not. I can pay my taxes with it. I see that as a negative. lol

Great points! Although, I think you are thinking about the transaction wrong. The value of bitcoin is based on other currencies. So, if you are billing some1 30 days later, you are billing them in the amount of dollars, or whatever currency you are using, compared to bitcoins. So, if the value of a bitcoin changes, you are still billing them for the dollar, or whatever currency. It is just the total amount of bitcoins that changes. This is why most merchants cash out their bitcoins as soon as they recieve them, to make sure they get the full amount back in their normal currency. On my website, I don't list how much the product is in bitcoins, I list it in dollars. If some1 buys from me and uses a different currency, then the amount is calculated based on the going rate. It is no different with bitcoins. Of course, unless I needed the money right away, I'd likely hang on to every bitcoin I get, just to take part in the experience, and possible buy other things I might need with it. To me, I accept that bitcoins are volitile. How could it be any other way? There are millions of factors that are playing a part, and the volume of transactions is still quite low. Every day more and more merchants are accepting them. Everyday, it seems, some big bitcoin event happens. It's almost remarkable that it has stayed as stable as it has for this past year. Over time, the market will find an actual price for bitcoins, but I don't expect that for a good 5 years or more.

Great story qwerty Qork! I find AI very interesting. Do the animals use pathfinding? Oh, imagine if LL finally implemented custom rigged meshes for objects. Those guys could have their own skeletons and custom animations. Fully animated too, with every part moving, like ears, tail, tongue. I know they do alot of this now, but they would use far less code, and cause alot less lag. I made some animals for the Unity game engine, but I really wish I could bring them into SL and add pathfinding and a simple brain. Ebbe! Get on it! Please! Custom bones for rezzed objects. You know! NPCs with their own skeletons! We(I) have been for years, and am now, begging.

A good, educated critique of Bitcoins would be to argue that it is not gold, or silver. This argument shows that bitcoins have no inherit value. A bitcoin supporter would argue that the dollar has no inherit value anymore. They would also argue that bitcoins has an inherit value, which is the value to the user because of it's easy of use, and lack of fees. I see and understand the Austrian arguments, but I'm all for experiments and testing theories. If nothing else, to those that understand, bitcoin is an extremely interesting experiment, and I can be involved at whatever level I like.

Here is my prediction. If Bitcoin fails, it will be because of a flaw in the code, not because the market rejected it. There will always be a want or need for a digital currency like Bitcoin. I can understand why some1 might compare bitcoins to lindens, but there is nothing at all similar between the 2, other than that are both digital. LL could learn quite a bit from the technology tho. Because of it's embedded security features, LL would not have many of the problems they have dealt with in the past year. There are good reasons why LL shut down the independent linden exchanges. LL also wouldn't need a 5 day wait period on payouts. Lindens actually have more similarities to the dollar than it does to a bitcoin. To really understand what bitcoin represents, you have to know something about how fiat currencies, like the dollar, work. Originally, the dollar was backed by gold. It actually said "redeemable for gold", and the constitution mandated that only gold or silver could be money, which is why the dollar was backed by gold. See, when your currency is backed by a commodity, your government can't easily just print more of it and devalue the currency. Even our coins were made of silver. In 1965, all silver was removed from our coins. In the 1970s, the dollar was completely decoupled from gold. Since then, the US government has printed money like crazy. If you want to understand just how much the dollar has declined in value, all you have to do is compare the price of gasoline right now to the price in 1960. See, most people think the price of gas has gone up alot, but the reality is that gasoline is actually cheaper than it was in 1960. Back then, you could buy a gallon of gasoline for 1 quarter. That quarter was 98% silver. If you had that same quarter today, you could still buy a gallon of gasoline, and probably get a cup of coffee. Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation. That is the point of it. Created for the common man to avoid the tyranny of their governments. The theory is, that if there is no central controllers, no1 can inflate the value of it. When you see the value of bitcoin spiking and crashing, that is the natural processes of the market trying to figure out the price. It will take quite a long time to figure out the price. 1 of the reasons why gold was deemed money by the market, is because of the long history it has in the market, and how stable the price is. When the price of gold spikes, it is not gold moving in value at all, it is the dollar, or euros, or whatever, that is changing in value. Over time, the true value of bitcoins will become much more obvious, and all speculation on the currency will fade away. If any1 had paid attention to the debates that sparked up around bitcoins spiking to $1200, the arguments were that traders were treating bitcoins as if their were gold. Since those debates, the price has been cut in half, and more and more merchants are accepting them. To me, it all makes sense. Now, we'll see what kind of an impact the merchants have on the value. There are also bitcoins kiosks being installed in strategic areas of the world.

There is no trust needed. There is nothing to trust in. It's just some code. Now, you can say you don't trust the exchanges, which is fine, then don't use them. An exchange is not needed at all. The whole point is, you don't have to trust any1, like we do with the dollar or euro. Like the guy said, the best way to earn bitcoins is to sell something for it, and accept them as a merchant. For me, there is no risk. I sell digital goods, if there is a problem, I don't have manufacturing cost to make up on a sale, hence I lose nothing if the transaction goes bad. Me, I've only has a couple of sales that were purchased with bitcoins, both went thru with no problem, but I will likely buy more, just for the heck of it. As an investment, it is interesting, but also very risky. You could win big, or lose most. That said, you can buy in at any level, and get any amount, so to have a little, just in case, is more than worth it. Notice also, the guy didn't hide his affiliation, as he doesn't need to.

Here is a video with 2 people that understand Bitcoin and the bitcoin market. They explain things and recent events.

I will post again about a different topic later, but I wanted to suggest something about the Marketplace first, as my other topic is not about the MP. Many others can easily talk about the problems with the MP, so I won't go there. I just want to make a suggestion to Ebbe. First, please, fellow merchants, keep an open mind. Of course, I'm not 1 for asking to pay more for something, but here, I think it is warranted. I suggest charging 10% commission instead of 5%. I say this because LL has little economic incentive to prioritize the MP. This will give them more of a reason, and more income to hire more coder or whatever is needed. We might want some guarantee that the extra money goes toward the MP. All other 3D marketplaces charge much more than 10%, and it's still a good deal for merchants. This will also encourage more inworld sales, and probably make LL address the freebie issue. On Xstreet, the top sellers also got a break on commission, and it was nice because that gave those merchants a decent idea of where they factored into the total economy and a gauge as to how the economy was doing. I had always thought I was a small fish, until I was regularly only paying 3% on Xstreet, and occasionally only 2%. This told me, and my placement in the rankings of the inworld search, that my stats were a decent reflection of the SL economy. This is the only reason that I comment on other people's theories about the economy. I likely don't command that kind of presence anymore, but I still know that my data is likely more valid that others. Really tho, we had many economic markers for us. Our ranking in the inworld search was another marker, that LL destroyed. It would be nice to get some of these markers back.

Hmmm, it is interesting that I have not had a terrible day of sales since we knew that Ebbe was our new CEO. I find it hard to believe that he isn't the reason, or that people being optimistic isn't the reason why. Maybe it's just a good couple of weeks of sales, but we'll see. IMHO, all of SL problems start with the SL economy. When the SL economy is pumping, every1 is making more money, especially LL. It's the SL economy that is the engine that makes this world viable. When you are flush with cash, everything is easy, and nothing is impossible. Custom skeletons is not a difficult thing for SL. It is only because LL is weary about income that they chase tails to find a good smelling crotch, instead of being confident and doing what is needed. When the money is flowing tho, you just hired the people you need to make that task easy. This is why I'm optimistic. Ebbe could have the right understanding of economics to correct the bad decisions made over the past 5 years. I"m probably 1 of those "know it alls" that some people despise. I'm confident about my theories because it is supported by the statistical evidence. When you run a digital product like SL, you want to rely on the data that you track to tell you whether your decisions were good. LL has not done this, despite having more than enough economic markers to judge things by. They have made decisions at a whims, somehow thinking that ratically changing something in SL won't have a big negative impact, and then refused to back out despite the data. It was basically like nobody understood economics. They decimated the merchant class with their policies. They catered to the masses view of economics, which is child like, instead of creating insentives. Ebbe restructured Yahoo, and that says something. The big question for me, is whether Ebbe will truly empower us, or empower more his rulers. We'll see. I feel a little like Morpheus, trying to convince every1 that Ebbe could be the ONE. :matte-motes-nerdy:

Pamela Galli wrote: I am not one of those you agree with in this thread. There is not enough evidence to draw any kind of conclusion at this point, and I am more than willing to wait and see what he does as well as says. I'm with Pam. He has said quite a few things that encourages me. The way he phrased things in his reactions to some aspects. They were genuine and telling. He's a get it together kind of CEO, at least I get that from all I've seen of him. And, I think the Yahoo experience will suit his work here well. I wasn't all that happy with his responses about the TOS, as he seems a bit relaxed about it, but other than that, he has impressed me quite a bit. As far as the commerce team, I don't know. Don't get me wrong, the site is a disaster, as far are features and function. Nothing we've seen from the "team" impresses me even in the slightest. I can't even imagine why nothing gets done, nor why the site runs so bad. How can you not blame it on the team? Then again, I don't code and know nothing really about marketplace sites. What I do know, is that Xstreet ran like a fricken charm. My own website marketplace and shopping cart works like a dream, with 2 different apps handling all the digital delivery and payments, in which I can accept every payment type on the planet. It's mindboggling that the SL Marketplace is so bad.

Personally, I laugh that so many are irrationally against something they do not understand. Maybe they love their owners, or are just unaware of the manipulations that go on. It really makes no difference to me what happens with bitcoins. It's irrelevant. The process has started and that is all that matters. If nothing else, it makes people more aware of how our currencies are manipulated. I accept bitcoins on my website and always will, as long as it is around, or some other digital currency. I have no reason not to accept it. IMHO, these crazy moves are just a symptom of the nature how thing have come about. More people horded bitcoins in the beginning, and few merchants accepted it. Now, we have more and more merchants accepting it, while those horder are selling, or panicking, to try and get some value. It's likely the price will stabilize over the coming month, but I would not expect it to reach 1200 again, which is a good thing. As the volume of trading get larger, the price will better reflect a stable value. It's all about the volume of transactions.

Qie Niangao wrote: Because it's always more fun to have one's currency debased by some anonymous clowns than regulated by a central bank. Yeah, cause the central bank will just extort the value over years. The solution to not losing the value of your assets, is to put those assets in Gold. Bitcoins are not gold, and any1 that think it is even like gold is delusional. That said, the dollar is guaranteed to go down, every single year, so I'd still favor bitcoins at this point. People want to make a big deal about this latest decline, but you are still up a crapload if you bought it in 2012. The dollar will never, ever, see a return, despite the fact that almost everything gets cheaper and cheaper to make every single year. See, deflation is a natural process of the market, and if the dollar was not inflated, the average people would be wealthier and wealthier over time. Hence why we have a central bank, as you wouldn't want to solve the problem of poverty if you are the government, as how are the politician going to get rich if they can't control things.

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: The foundation is the organization behind Bitcoins. So while the US dollar , like all currencies is used for illegal activitiy, of the two, only bitcoin has criminals as founding members of the board that supposedly is as close to the authority for bitcoin as you can get. Sorry, but I have to correct you. The Bitcoin Foundation has as much to do with bitcoins as your local bank has to do with dollars. Bitcoin has no controllers, other than the people that write software to exchange it. So, anything any of these people did, has ZERO influence on the currency, other than people's reactions to it, and the fact that the Feds have more bitcoins to play with the market. I have no idea if Bitcoin will succeed. It really depends on what you think is succeeding. To many, it already has succeeded. IMHO, bitcoin will succeed when more vendors are accepting it, and less people are hording it. Basically, it comes down to the volume of transactions. If the volume gets much higher, the value will more stabilize. Why wouldn't a merchant accept bitcoins? Really, any fears are unfounded. It's like saying you won't take American Express. You will only be disadvantaged by not accepting it. The value of the currency is somewhat irrelevant, but I would still cash out as soon as you can to avoid any problems. This is also why the value is so unstable, as too few every day merchants hold the currency and then use it to buy other things. As more and more merchants accept it tho, this will all even out. It's just a medium of exchange in the end. If you don't want to use it, then good. I'll have more customers then. And..... if any1 just want to donate some bitcoins to me..... cause I'm cool........ then.....

I have a couple of full perm weapons animation packages in my store. Or you can get them on the MP.

I can't wait to have Tabs! All I've been doing lately is weighting clothing. I can barely have both the brush changing tool and the reshape visible at the same time. Is there any other way to switch weighting brushes? Also Gaia, as a suggestion, could you look at either moving the Reshape button, or making it look different in some way from the other buttons? I have a nasty habit of clicking other buttons when trying to click Reshape.

Ebbe Linden wrote: Nobody knows what may happen in the future. But we have no intent to steal your stuff. I can imagine scary scenarios that are more likely to happen, that none us have control over, that would concern me more. I don't see how SL as we know it could be successful if we started to steal your stuff. I certainly don't see a business model based on stealing stuff that could last very long...so I don't really see the logic in this conversation. It sounds scary to some of you but how it could really become a real problem I don't really know. Welcome to SL Ebbe! lol Well, I'll just put my 2 lindens in here, just to emphasize some things and to express how I, as a merchant, feel about this TOS issue. It's not about whether LL is going to steal our stuff. Creating 3D stuff is our living, or maybe our LOVE. Many of us don't just sell our creations in SL, but also many other places. We are doing business across many platforms, and dealing with many clients, all with their own TOS, and contracts. Some conflict with LL's TOS. There are no current TOS that any of us deal with that are as broad as LL's, at least in the 3D market. In 1 instance, LL went from the place for creatives to be, to questioning where we should do more on other platforms. Read over those TOS again, then go read Unity3D's TOS and ask yourself, if your livelyhood depended on it, and you had other options, where would you create? I'm not saying I'm not creating here, but I've definitely changed my focus. If LL's TOS clearly stated all intents, and expressly limited to those intents, I don't think any creators would be up in arms. To many of us tho, this is a very big deal, and will affect where we spend the most time. Also, let's not be fooled by what LL is. It's a corporate entity. It's not a person, and it doesn't have feelings. It could be bought at whatever price, and we'd have new owners tomorrow.

Thanks you every1 that have participated so far. I loved all the stories. Keep them coming!

Quite funny!

Drongle McMahon wrote: ETA. Note that textures (and material maps) don't affect LI. This is a pity, because texture lag can be a real problem, but it means your strategy of testing LI before texturing is the sensible one. I never upload textures with the model anyway, for other reasons. However, you do need to do the UV mapping if you want an accurate LI, because the seams affect the download weight. You also need to check at the correct size (or sizes if it's going to be variable). I just want to add that every object in SL has a Display Cost. That Display Cost is a combination of a number of things, including your texture, shine, bump, glow, and the mesh.

Interesting!

Astrid Kaufmat wrote: I use maya I don't know how better is the suite that you're using for blender. Blender has an Addon called Avastar by Gaia Clary. This Addons allows for easier rigging, weighting and animating of the SL avatar. It really takes everything about making anything related to the avatar, and makes it so much easier. Custom avatars and all, even access to other bones and another animation format to use those extra bones.