Ceera Murakami

Ceera's apparent age is 27. That was what she felt was her best look, so as a shapeshifter that is the age she normally chooses to appear as. Chronologically, well, she's a Kitsune, and isn't Human, so she is actually over 700 years old. My "oldest" looking alt is a male that has an apparent age of 50 or so. But being a furry, it's rather hard to tell. My youngest alt appears to be eight years old, but after I have some fun with her for a while as a kid avatar, I'll probably allow her to age to be 19 or so.

That is an exceptionally nice article, Penny! I really hope that LL listens to your advice on this one, and your JIRA definitely gets my vote! Personally, I don't care for the "offset left or right" view, as that screws with the perception of what is on the other side. To me, it feels like being partially blind on the side away from the camera, and I would prefer being centered behind the character. But your proposal offers multiple options, so that is cool. I agree with one comment in the JIRA - it would be good to be able to record multiple presets, such as one for "preferred avatar view", and another for "Tiny Avatar", and another for "Quad avatar". Since the distortions used to make tinys and quads place the functional head height lower in the bounding box, I think a separate preset would be needed if you switch forms. Also, one note: If you choose "Disable camera constraints", your camera doesn't get "forced down by solid object", or blocked from going below the surface of the terrain. As a builder, I usually have Disable Camera Constraints checked, because I need to look from below the terrain some times to adjust foundations or to locate a prim below the ground's surface.

Any large real-life city has areas that are "strange", "sexy" or have "too much sexual content". That doesn't prevent businesses from conducting perfectly straight business in those cities. SL has a lot of places that are certainly "not safe for work". But it has a lot of other places that are perfectly straight and work safe. What I tell people when I talk about SL to friends that are unfamiliar with it is "It's a virtual world, where what you can do is limited only by your imagination, and the constraints of current technology. For example, I build college campuses that can be accessed from anywhere on the Internet, with detailed recreations of the buildings and architecture. I can be in Texas, and can meet with someone from Canada and with someone else from France, I can give them a tour of a campus that is in New Jersey, and we can talk about virtually anything that is legal. Like any real place, having "the freedom to do anything" means there is also freedom to express oneself sexually, and many people do, in Second Life. But it isn't at all required that you hang out in areas where that is going on."

Depending on what viewer you try with, some will present you with Shadows options that are not grayed out, even though shadows can't work on that hardware. For example, if I use Firestorm on my Win XP PC that has an older (yet fairly powerful) graphics card, Firestorm acts like I can select the options for Shadows. But the options do nothing at all. With the current LL 2.x Viewer, the shadows options remain grayed out. Only a small subset of graphics cards and operating systems can see the new Shadows. Your friend is probably out of luck until they do a major upgrade of at least their video card.

The only web-based SL client never made it out of initial public testing, and never could use normal accounts or have full access to the virtual world. You had to create a new account specific to that web client, and it could only travel to certain pre-selected destinations on the grid. A failed idea. Even if you could find a downloadable app or web-based tool for your limited-use Chrome notebook, Netbook, Nook, Kindle, iPad or other limited-use device, it is unlikely in the extreme that it would have the graphics processing power to even consider accessing SL in a viable fashion. Things like that Chrome Notebook and the netbooks are only really designed as glorified e-book readers, with a little capability to surf the web and send and receive e-mail. If it doesn't allow you to load a normal application for a normal OS, think very carefully before you spend any money on it. You'll very likely be disappointed if you ever want to exceed the limited capabilities that you see at first. If you want to access SL, get a real laptop, and make sure it's a "gaming rig", with very high end graphics and not restricted to a low end chipset on the laptop's motherboard. Limited use devices are lousy for accessing high end games or virtual worlds.

No. Even if you "own" all the parcels in a Mainland sim, you still don't have full ownership when it comes to things like the sim rating, or changing the terrain textures, or making radical changes to the terrain. LL reserves those rights to themselves.

Use Builder's Buddy next time. It's free and you can get it here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Builders_Buddy Reaches anywhere in the sim, no problems. For commercial stuff, Rez Foo is worth the price. It has more bells and whistles, and id designed to be fairly foolproof for the end user of stuff that you sell in a rezzer box. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Rez-Foo/1681520

What rezzer script are you using? The most likely causes of failure are position of rezer box on the parcel (causing some pieces to attempt to rez on or to move through or to parcels other than your own - parcels that don't allow others to rez prims or to move objects through their land), or attempting to rez something across a sim edge (the commands stop at the sim edge). I have successfully rezzed builds with over 5000 prims from a single rezzer, Builds as large as a full-scale football stadium, using the free Builder's Buddy scripts. Prim count or number of linksets isn't your problem. If the script uses llRegionSay, distance shouldn't be a problem either. Builder's Buddy and Rez Faux, and all the "for sale" Rezzers like Rez Foo all use llRegionSay, and can rez things to any position in the sim from a single rezzer. However, you can still have problems if the sim is laggy, or if land permissions from other people's parcels make it impossible for some of the pieces to rez or move. Try using the rezzer in a full-sim sandbox, where the size of your build can't possibly push parts over the parcel edges into some other parcel or sim. RUCE 3 is a sim that would allow you to try that. It's the Rutgers University sandbox sim, and they have several sky platforms (accessed via a teleporter) above the football stadium where you can try rezzing your build without overlapping someone else's project. Just be sure to clean up after yourself when you're done testing the rezzer. If the rezzer works fine in a large sandbox, then the problem is most likely related to where the rezzer is in the parcel, with relation to the size and shape of the pieces when they initially rez, and how it has to move them to get the parts to their final positions. Try rebuilding the rezzer at different locations in the parcel, and see if that fixes the issue. By that I mean while the build is rezzed in-world (in a sandbox), you tell the rezzer box to forget the recorded data for the linksets or individual prims, and then turn scripts off in the rezzer, move it, turn the rezzer scripts back on, and record prim positions again. That will allow the rezzer to be placed at a different location within the parcel, and may avoid parcel encroachment problems with the neighbors.

I've built several multi-bedroom homes, including some with features specifically for SL kids. But I don't build prefabs. I only do custom work. It's not hard though to offer a "family friendly" SL home, or even one with clearly delineated "kid friendly" and "Just for Adults" areas.

Viewer 2 users can use that alpha layer instead of invisiprims to make things like shoes work. On a 2.x Viewer, alpha layer stuff works better than the old invisiprims. For example, high heels made with alpha layer effects don't crop out Linden Water and alpha-textured surfaces, the way Invisiprims do. The alpha payer will do absolutely nothing for you while you continue to stick with a 1.2x-based viewer. You can't even attach it, and can't use 2.x to attach it and then go back to 1.2x to use it. But don't throw it away. The time is coming all too soon when the 1.2x Viewers will be unusable, and you'll have to switch to a 2.x Viewer. When you do, you'll want that alpha layer with those shoes. While you still use a 1.2x-based viewer, you may find that some of those newer products that include an alpha layer won't work for you in 1.2x. That is because some merchants are taking the easy way out and just switching to use of the 2.x-only alpha layers instead of invisiprims. It's extra effort for diminishing retturns to make new stuff that has both invisiprims and alpha layer invisibility, and some merchants don't want to expend that effort. Other merchants are offering their products with both an invisiprim version for 1.2x viewers, and an alpha layer version for 2.x viewers. Still unsolved, as far as I know, is one serious problem with alpha-layer products. You can't combine alpha layers. So if you have, for example, a furry avatar that uses alpha layer effects to hide the head, that same furry can't wear alpha-layer shoes. (They could wear the old invisiprim-style shoes, however. One more reason for merchants to continue offering both options!) Despite the multiple attachment point changes in 2.x, as far as I am aware, you can only attach one alpha layer, for the full body, on an avatar at a time. (I despise the 2.x Viewer myself, but the reality of life is that Mesh is coming in August, and it will make the 1.2x viewers useless once enough mesh-content is on the grid, because the 1.2x viewer can not display mesh properly at all.) Edited to add: As Anaiya pointed out, some third party Viewesr do support alpha layers, even with the 1.2x UI. But LL's 1.2x viewers never will.

Brad, the reason you can still find some references on the website that indicate that access to Mature is the default for all users is because that is outdated information, posted before the forced migration of the 16 and 17 year old accounts to the Adult grid. LL is notoriously sloppy about updating references to policy changes in their website documentation. For example, there were references to the "First Land" program still on the website for as much as three years after they discontinued the "First Land" policy. (First Land allowed a new Premium member could buy a Mainland 512 parcel for L$1 per M2 at a time when land sold for well over L$30 per M2.) If you search enough you can probably still find a few stray references to the First Land program, and it's been dead a very long time now. The official policy on 16 and 17 year olds is that they are restricted to the G-rated General sims. The only legal way for you to get to the Mature sims (or the Adult ones) is to wait until you turn 18, and then age verify as an adult.

I did a little checking. The new robots and new animal avatars do not show (yet) in the avatar choices for 2.x Basic mode. Only the Humans. Not sure if they are choices for brand new avatars to start with, as I am unwilling to bother creating a new alt right now to check it out. Hopefully these new choices will be visible in Basic mode soon. I looked over several of the robot avatars, and wasn't that impressed. the mechanical design of them just seemed sort of random, and didn't strike me as particularly good robot designs. But a robot form is one I wouldn't choose to wear anyway, so my opinion of them is skewed to begin with. The dog and cat animal avatars are quad form, and rather nice, though the cat is as big as a German Shepherd Dog - way out of scale, if you want to be a realistic quad kitty. I think all the rest are bipeds, including the unicorn. Some, like the female unicorn, only have one gender version. As free starter avatars go, they are pretty good, using simple sculpts for the head, ears, paws, etc.. Compared to some of the furry avatars that you can purchase, it's no contest - the purchasable avatars are much nicer. But these free ones are a big step up from the typical freebie fox or whatever that is based on prim-only methods from 4 or 5 years ago. Definitely a nicer starting point than we used to have for furries. The only real problem will be if they hide it and don't tell newbies that those neat avatars are in the library. They already have them tucked an extra layer deeper, where it's easy to miss them.

Apparently they also added 12 animal avatar choices. Haven't tried any of them on yet, but as both these and the Robot choices are among the "Initial Outfits" choices, I assume these will be in the "Basic Mode" avatar list now?

Second Life no longer uses the "First Name" + "Last Name" account structure for user names. They have moved to a single-word "User name", and the ability for users of the 2.x version Viewers to set a "Display Name" in world that can be anything they want. For compatibility with older scripts and the 1.x series browsers, people with single name accounts use "Resident" in the last name field, and people with two-name accounts type both names, separated by a space or a period, into the single "Name" field. I would question whether the current data on the Reg API is valid. Many of the sites using the Reg API currently are inaccessible, and the few that still work recently had to revise their code to the single-name format, and cease allowing two-name account creation. Since this is a users forum, and not an official communication channel with the Linden Lab staff, 99% of the people here can't give you a definitive answer on a question like this. I would advise contacting Linden Lab directly, by phone or by e-mail, and asking them how the Reg API will be supported in the future. The code you downloaded, that supports a two-name account creation, is obsolete and most likely will not function now.

It is impossible to give a second person the same land rights that you have for your Linden Home. Those homes are intended to be starter homes for new accounts, and not intended for couples or groups that already know how SL works and who want the full range of possible activities for their household, in their home. Since you can't deed a Linden Home parcel to a group, the best you can do is as one other poster suggested, and create a group that you set all your portable stuff to, and set the parcel to allow *anyone* to rez stuff and to run scripts on your land. Then your Partner can, if the group settings allow it, move the items that you set out, and you can move what she sets out. The down side is that anyone else can also rez stuff on or over your parcel. So you may come home some day and find you have zero prims available, because some freeloader has set up an illegal skybox above your parcel, mooching your prims. The best way to share a home with a Partner and allow him/her to have full land rights is to abandon the Linden Home and buy a normal parcel, either on the Mainland or on a private sim, and deed the parcel to a land group that you both belong to. Then you can use the group roles to give your partner the same rights that you have on the land, in virtually all regards.

B. Yes Copy, No Trans I also like to have the option also to be able to purchase an item for someone else, to give the item as a gift, so the recipient gets the item with Yes Copy, No Trans permissions. (I never see the item in my inventory - it goes direct from seller to my friend.) Honestly, the only time I have ever found transfer perms to be useful on SL clothes was when I was considering switching from one avatar to another. It was sort of nice to be able to give the "new" account a few of my old favorite outfits, to get her started.

Well, you'll need to either buy or rent suitable land to rez your yacht on. If it was a drivable vehicle, I'd suggest going to one of the Blake Seas sims or to the airport at Bay City (which also has a boat launch). But for a place to rez a non-drivable yacht, the best advice I can offer is to use the in-world Map, have it show parcels for sale, and look along the coastlines for attractive places.

Well, they can if they parcel the land properly, and if they have the renter as a member in the land group that the land is deeded to, with the proper rights. But again, many Mainland landlords don't parcel their rental properties that way. I'm just saying it's far more likely that the OP will get what they want from a Private Estate landlord than from one operating on the Mainland. Simply because it is more difficult and convoluted for a landlord to set it up properly to allow that level of control for a renter on the mainland.

There is a parcel-level control that disables Voice on your parcel, yes. The person who legally owns the parcel can turn Voice off and on at will with that control. But if you are renting from a landlord that doesn't set each rental up as their own parcel, owned by the renter or deeded to a group owned by the renter, then you probably can not turn Voice off on your land. If the landlord tried to do it for you, it would also turn Voice off for all the other renters for that landlord, since it's all one big parcel. To have the ability to control use of Voice on rented land, choose to rent from a Private Island estate owner, instead of on the Mainland, and choose a landlord that will "sell" you the parcel, so you have parcel Owner rights. On a Private Island estate, the sim owner can sell you parcels, and can reclaim them if you fail to pay rent or if you break their covenant agreements. So they can give you far more rights to control your individual parcel. But on the Mainland, they can't do that. If they sell a Mainland to you, , or Deed it to your group, it's no longer theirs. You're paying the tier to Linden Lab then, and they have no control over it any more. At best, they may be able to 'set' (but not Deed) the land to a group that you own, provided they are also an officer in your land group, at least temporarily.

Considering that Linden Lab recently eliminated their discounts for verifiable education accounts and registered non-profit organizations, I think the chances of getting them to give discounts or incentives for clubs is absolutely zero. The current management at the Lab apparently doesn't care about "building community" or that stuff. They just want to rake in as much cash as they can.

justum wrote: When I teach I prefer voice, because you can react faster to peoples questions. But when you teach using Voice, your students lose the lecture notes that are automatic and comprehensive if you use Text. Do you record the audio during the class, and transcribe voice transcripts after each class, and send them to your students? Or at least provide a text form of the intended lecture notes? A class offered only in Voice is one I wouldn't bother going to in SL.

Oh, and two other reasons why I don't use Voice, and in fact normally keep sound turned completely OFF while I am in SL - Background Noise, and being considerate of my house mates. I live in an active household with two other people and at least one barking dog. Other members of my family frequently come in and out of the room where the computer is located. The TV and stereo are in the same room. And my home is under the approach path of the local airport, so we occasionally hear the big jets flying low over the house. Despite all that noise, I can quietly curl up in the corner and text chat to my heart's content. But I can't use Voice with a barking dog and the loud sound track from an Anime movie that my daughter is watching drowning out what I am trying to say. Voice may be fine if you live alone, with no noisy pets, or if your computer is in a quiet room in the basement away from all other noisy distractions. It is unusable in a busy, noisy household. And that doesn't even get into the issues of how rude it is to force everyone else in the room to listen to a one-sided conversation. Using Voice while others are in the same room is like having a loud conversation on your cell phone in a busy restaurant. No one else in the room wants to listen to just one side of your conversation that doesn't involve them, nor should they be forced to do so.

A very solid NO, from me. Personally, I do not ever use Voice in SL, and anyone who insists on using it as their primary or sole means of communicating won't be interacting well with me, or with the majority of my friends. Use of Voice is banned on my land, and I won't hang around in places where people insist on using Voice, because I can't hear them or respond to them. So I may as well not be there. For me, Voice shatters the illusion of our avatars being able to be whatever they want to be. SL allows us total freedom to express our selves, and to take any form that we can imagine. A good text actor can make it extremely believable that their character is a teenaged female fox furry, or a 700 year old dragon, or any manner of creature imaginable. They can even operate multiple and very different avatars in the same room, with no one suspecting they are played by a single person. Voice destroys that illusion, as much as it would destroy a movie for one of the actors to take off all their makeup and cease using their stage-trained voice to appear to have a different accent, and speak and act in the movie as if they were just their mundane selves. Who wants to see "The Hobbit" acted by people with no makeup or special effects? Who enjoys a film or play where the actors constantly "break the fourth wall" and talk out of character to the audience? I certainly don't. I want to accept an avatar for what they present themselves as, and not have it hammered into my head every time that they speak that the pretty wood elf princess I am trying to talk to is actually a teenaged boy with a New York accent. I play avatars that are all possible genders and many different species. Forcing all of them to speak with a single Human voice destroys that carefully crafted illusion. The "voice morphing" available is nowhere near believable, and is often hard to understand. And Voice can ONLY be used by one logged in avatar at a time. There is absolutely no way, short of using multiple computers and multiple headsets, to have more than one avatar in-world at the same time and all of them using Voice. Yet with text chat, it's quite possible. I don't come to SL to be my real-world self. None of my avatars are clones of the "real me", and none of them claim to be. I come here to be what I can not be in real life - a fox furry, or a 4-legged dog, or a horse, or a dragon, or a girl with a beautiful, youthful face and body that I could never hope to achieve in this lifetime, no matter how much I diet, use makeup, or apply radical surgical changes. I can recapture my youth, and make it better than reality was. I can play an ancient sorceress, wise with centuries of experience. I can even be a male, and have someone believe that it is true. SL without voice offers an actress (or actor) an unlimited range of roles to play, without the constraints of age, gender, race, or body configuration. Voice brings that all crashing down, where no matter what you try to portray, your real-life voice is stuck to that character. I have also found Voice in SL incredibly difficult to listen to. And I have tried. I have activated it without a microphone, to try to listen to others using Voice, while trying to type my replies, so I could attend a meeting where the Lindens or client running the meeting insisted on solely using Voice to communicate. Without the visual and auditory cues that we have in real life, it was very confusing determining who was saying what. Sound quality was inconsistent and often unintelligible. And unlike text chat, nothing that is spoken leaves a transcript of what was said. If I have to step aside for a moment, or if I get distracted, or if too much is said at once, there is no way to go back over the chat log to catch up on what I missed. I suppose that if your avatar is a carbon copy of your real-life self, Voice may seem wonderful. To me, it's one of the worst "innovations" ever adopted by SL. The only thing worse would be to require all Residents to have a web cam and force their real-life faces to be reflected on the avatar's faces.

There is no parcel-level control of terrain textures. It is controlled sim-wide. On the Mainland, LL never changes those textures once a sim is placed into service, so you can't get the real terrain texture changed. It is possible however to put a "skin" of textured prims over your terrain, and texture them with terrain-like textures. All the terrain textures that LL uses are in the Library section of your inventory. If the ground is very flat, this is fairly easy with just a few prims, and a lot of people do this to have a nice flat "lawn" on their property, regardless of what the sim terrain textures look like. If you want to appear to texture non-flat terrain just in one parcel, you can use multiple prims, or else there's at least one product on SL Marketplace that will scan the terrain in your parcel, and give you a sculpted prim 'skin' that you can texture and place over your land, simulating the ability to texture the terrain in just your parcel.

Sounds like you dropped out of "insert" mode in your computer's keyboard settings. Look for an "Insert" key on your keyboard, and press it one time, to revert to the behavior you are used to. On most operating systems, including both Windows and Macintosh, that key toggles typing behavior between inserting characters at the cursor position, and overtyping what is to the right of the cursor.