Torley Linden

@verdale Also, do you have any USB joysticks or other controllers in? Those can be used to control Second Life, and can inadvertently move you around. For example, I have a SpaceNavigator that I leave on a tilted slope. On occasion, I've logged in to find my view changing just like you describe. You can easily turn OFF these other controllers: Select Me menu > Preferences. Click Move & View tab. Click Other Devices. Next to Control Modes, uncheck Avatar (and Build, if desired). Avatar is on by default, I think.

I, Torley Linden, am not currently blogging because my work focuses have shifted elsewhere... but you can get in touch with me on my profile page! -- In the Advanced mode of the Second Life Viewer, subtle-yet-powerful new Preferences get added — and overlooked — leaving them less used than they could be, which makes me sad unless I do something about it. I love to champion this stuff because I know how much enjoyment it can add to your Second Life. One bit I'd like to call out is the ability to double-click and teleport just about anywhere you see. I'm voracious about sightseeing in Second Life, and that means not having to put up with walls when I want to get somewhere. Fast. Why put up with hassle when you can 'port in the blink of an eye?' You can turn it on in just a few clicks: Select Me menu > Preferences. In the PREFERENCES window, click Move & View tab. Check Double-Click to and click either Teleport or Auto-pilot (which makes you walk somewhere instead of teleport). Click OK. This video shows how it looks in action: I've heard from many fans of this feature from Third-Party Viewers, so I'm glad it's come to the SL Viewer. Oh, and if you prefer to use Basic mode, this combined functionality is already on: single-click auto-pilots, double-click teleports! The difference is a small dot to indicate your destination. Which makes me curious: if you prefer Advanced mode, do you want this feature on by default? (Click to discuss in the forums.)

Re: grid monkeys, there may be an inworld "easter egg" in the not-too-distant future.  Perrie, I wonder how they made that! (Whether it was recording both convos on the same screen, or separate screens and compositing. Given the independent typing unless some other editing tricks were involved, I'm inclined to believe the latter.) I'm enamored with showing two (or more) perspectives... and the ending message is a beautiful one. It reminds me of a book I read the other day called How Full Is Your Bucket? Also, from Ramit Sethi: "Success in life is directly proportional to the number of awkward conversations you're willing to have." I started a brief gallery of bizarre and wonderful imagery from Second Life... appropriately called SLWTF.

Wildcat Furse wrote: Torley, beside the aesthetic aspects, low skyboxes cause problems for aviators in second life too, most pilots stay just below or just above the clouds and then get confronted with whatever is built up there. How hard you try to stick to whatever flightroute, the buildings can change daily ...., is it therefore an idea to create a 'no built zone' between certain altitudes? *meows* It is worth noting that for people who wonder "Why doesn't Linden Lab try an experiment for land without skyboxes?", there's Linden Homes that specify "Land cannot contain sky boxes". Beyond starter land though and tied into zoned communities (since "no skyboxes" or a similar restriction would be a type of zoning"), that's a good question for Blondin Linden. And, if anyone knows a Resident-run private estate that explicitly restricts skyboxes for aesthetic and aviation reasons, out of my own personal curiosity (as I'm an explorer), let me know the SLurl.

In short, yes, Linden Lab is currently invested in updating Second Life's graphics. Being "complacent" is a wrong assumption, but Majorino, I can understand if you're coming from a Steam-powered background (if you get my drift), your perspective would be weighted a lot more heavily on visual aesthetics... than someone who's a casual gamer but cares more about ease-of-use, which is a more visible priority because of our CEO Rod's posts. We do have a lot of Resis on lower-end hardware and can't even see SL in its current Ultra graphics mode, so please keep that in mind. (It'd be interesting to see a study on how many Residents are also avid gamers (and which games?), though.) If your computer is powerful enough, try the Mesh Project Viewer with all the aforementioned lighting + shadows + depth of field etc. cranked up. I took this awhile back, it's from this set: Even older SL builds can look pretty good with all that on. To be fair, performance (FPS) does suffer, but Moore's Law is still in effect. From experience, this is one of those topics where it's easy to come to false conclusions about, because as has thoughtfully been explained by some well-informed Residents, not only the engine matters but the applied talent of content creators. Some people want quick explanations but really understanding what's going on takes a lot of patience that the majority of folks aren't willing to look under the hood and learn about. Not to mention many games use rendering shortcuts and pre-computed environments for performance that SL — in all its just-about-anything-goes OMG WHAT JUST APPEARED IN FRONT OF ME glory — can't. The really best-looking in SL will continue to inspire other creators to new heights, though. My own background is an artistic/creative one and while I don't play a lot of games, the ones I do play get a lot of playtime, so yeah, I totally resonate with wanting to have more of that gorgeousity in SL. Oh, and I leave you with a thoughtful quote from the book Infinite Reality: Forget walking a mile in someone else' shoes, just move an inch using her senses and you would perceive reality differently.

Compliments can go a long way. What's special about your lover, especially something you've noticed that others likely miss? Tell them. Did they change their hair since last time you met? Their clothes? Do they have a cool attachment (oh, don't take that as innuendo) or virtual pet? Or, in absence of another starter topic, if you notice something funny about the situation around you, observe that. People-watching (including avatars) can be pretty enlightening for opening someone up to how they feel about other things and relate to the (virtual) world they live in. I've found it intensely rewarding to share your life goals and how you'd support your lover's hopes and dreams. It tends to be a good transition "frame" to other topics, and conversation can flow more naturally from there. It's okay to laugh if both of you get stuck in an awkward pose/dance too. I've done that lots. As in: "WHY IS MY HEAD STUCK IN YOUR..." And sometimes... sometimes there are no words.

I remember the day when the max. supported build height was 768m, before we extended it to 4,096m. I do wish we had more selective view controls, e.g., for the times you want to crank your draw distance WAY UP but don't want it obscured with skyboxes, which aren't necessarily aesthetically pleasing from the outside — I'm guilty of making a few giant black spheres and black cubes out of megaprims in my time. But as has been noted, unless there's some violation of the Community Standards/Terms of Service — like a skybox that's severely encroaching on your parcel — then it's allowed... keeping in mind there's always the human element that you can get to know your neighbors and offer suggestions, especially if they're unaware of how bad it looks from a distance. Good suggestions here, tho.

Ha, Chibi, you are one of the rare and few who remembers me as "Torley Torgeson" I think. ^5 I've always been into watermelons but I think it's grown more... colorful... after the years. Especially after local government denied me certain, ahem, liberties with the color of my brick-and-mortar house. Watermelons have been exploding too. I AM hoping that improved Interests matching will help those of us who think we are so "weird" find others with similar obsessions, mwahaha! It's nice to know we're not alone. Besides, it's only really "weird" (in an awkward way) if you're not being yourself. ==

Have you been to http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Meow/116/161/22 ? Several independent recommendations from Residents have led me there as of late! They have some stuff you might classify as "punk/goth", and the overall vibe of the shops there is quite quirky and fun, down to the graffiti and giant cartoony designs. And, if there are any awesome shopping areas not in the Destination Guide... they should be, so please submit so your kindly Editorial Team at Linden Lab can include you! (This is probably easiest done by the mall owner.)

It's never been obvious over the years that "you can click the red arrow to make it disappear". Visual feedback — like a "X" appearing when you hover over it and a notification stating "this points to your destination, click to hide it", like we already use for hints — would make sense. I feel there should be a debug setting for this (in Advanced menu > Debug Settings) but I haven't found one.

HAR HAR HAR LOOK WHAT'S BEEN ROLLIN' IN!!!!1 @Perrie Yup! In Grand Theft Auto IV, you can use an in-game, simulated web browser at an Internet cafe. While "My Online Me" — or "MOM" — has an acronymic similarity to "WOW", the wording definitely makes me think of none other than secondlife.com. I'm surprised hardly anyone else picked up on this before, considering that GTAIV has been out since 2008! @Storm Oh geez. I heard a joke about "Do kids with ADHD go to Concentration Camp?" the other day. @Rhonda On a vintage tip, yes, that video was circulated madly within LL years ago. An unlikely fusion of bits and, well, bites of candy. Recursion is so funny. Incidentally, our CEO Rodvik (Rod Humble) has been known to deliver a computer to the player inside The Sims. Mmm easter egg. @Persephone Yes! It's like, "OMG I've done that too..." when a joke says what's been on a lot of people's minds. I have so many memories attached to treasures too. Along the same lines as "OMG-It's-A-Cube!", someone else (I can't remember who) packaged a set of basic prims and said "With these, you can build anything in SL!" I saw a clever trick once where a single sculptie prim was used to resemble multiple plywood cubes. @Peewee Haha, I remember a time when some guy said, "One thing I like more about RL is that the framerate is so much faster. But the downside is I have to eat." There've been some amusing April Fool's as well: http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Did_You_Know @Irene I used to go about with a rowdy gang and dress up people on camping chairs — they endured the humiliation for the lure of "riches" was too great to detach them from said chairs! MORE MORE BRING IT ON!

Oh Suella, that shirt totally crax me up. I haven't found much of a use for Facebook myself, but I enjoy seeing memes based on it! Have a Marketplace link to that shirt? Also, I found this "Funny" page on the wiki which compiles some videos and other riffing on SL memes.

I heartily enjoy humor about Second Life, including that which happens within SL: like cultural jokes about hippos and purposefully wearing a blurry texture suit so everyone else goes mad wondering when you're going to clear up (takes one to know one). Also, shows like The Office that show characters playing SL, or outright satire. I've seen other threads touching on such funny topics before, but I wanted to start this one to compile LAUGH after LAUGH. Good clean fun. OK, have at it! Here's something I spotted, and BONUS POINTS if you know where it's from:  

Chibi Chang wrote: Almost all of my friends are gone from the world now, however, and it is very lonely for someone like me, who has seen it all and has no aspirations to do anything to even log in anymore. I see this phenomena probably similar to being a senior citizen in real life, and having your friends and relatives perish, leaving you with nothing but your children to watch over. Chibi! Oh wow, remember me? I think we first met back in 2004 through mutual friends, and I was trying to find out what the whole "neko" thing was about before I adopted some feline traits shortly afterwards. Curiously the other day thanks to the nice folks at How Vexing, I have a tail again. Didn't we talk about visual effects at one point? In the years following, I became a shader freak, and one of my latest obsessions is translating optical phenomena to sound.. What you say is so poignant; I've seen people come and go, and some come back unbeknownst to me at the time because they wanted to find a new path on an alt. Speaking with my offline family reminds me how lonely it can be, despite a well-lived life, if you outlive everyone else. But I'm glad you're still here.

While filming Grand Canyon for a certain video, I had the serenidipitous fortune to hop from one ride to another: I jumped aboard a helicopter with a kind Resi piloting it towards the water, then fell — not to a precipitous death but onto one of the hovercraft, also being skillfully chartered — and the journey proceeded. I also really enjoyed using my SpaceNavigator to fly my camera in loops and whorls... easier to see than talk about, starts @ 3:19 here:

Not long ago, I was going to eat sushi with friends. (I'm so fond of sushi I named a cat after it.) But before I did, I took many pictures of the impending feast. One of my chums asked me why, and I candidly replied: "This meal will be gone soon, but the memories will remain." So it is with inworld photography, one of the most popular hobbies inside Second Life — and getting started is as easy as clicking a single button. Years ago, I started a snapshot help page that has since helped thousands of Residents discover the joy of SL photography firsthand. As time passed though, I received hundreds of requests to update the guide to reflect the newest Viewer versions. I have! Curious and short on time? Aren't we all. This less-than-three (not to be confused with "<3", although I love teaching this stuff) minute video gets you started: What's next? For text instructions and more info, go to to the "Taking snapshots" wiki help page. If you want some ultra-gorgeous places to gorgeous, they're just a click away with Brett Linden's post, "Ten Photogenic Spots in Second Life". Why not post your creations in our Art and Photography forum? It's natural to feel shy at first, but passion for capturing what you see is what counts, and as you continue to develop your craft, you'll understand that success is a continuous journey! Happy snapping and see you 'round community.secondlife.com and in Second Life!

Looking back and looking forward, it's also a great time to learn more about the history of Second Life — and feel free to update that page if you spot something that should be there!

Thanks for the heads-up on this, Peewee, I'm going to correct the link on the original page — this comes from a time (eons ago... haha) when we used a blog system before the current one.

By your request, here's one:

I've already found the new merchant/store search to come in handy when I couldn't find something in inworld search — but it was listed on the Marketplace!

@Canoro Thanks for pointing that out, and yes, that's right, the "Like" button doesn't affect submission chances. What the Editorial Team does look for is an overall beautiful experience — and what helps us is if during your submission, you have a helpful description and a great picture that you feel accurately depicts your place. I also have a guide on how to take snapshots if you need help with that. @Dillon Thanks for noticing that, we're definitely conscious of making the DG well-categorized. @Celestiall Incidentally, one of my WindLight presets is inspired by Barsoom. Alpha Point + the experimental depth of field feature is pretty gorgeous. This isn't even the best pic I took, but...

New to inworld photography but curious to get started? It just takes a few minutes. Check out my guide on how to take snapshots in Second Life! You'll also want to browse this forum for helpful tutorials from fellow Residents.

TriJin, a reason I love making posts like this is because they invite Residents like yourself to share — so I'm gonna check out Legacies 1891 (haven't been there yet). However, I'm not clear on how "Vote For This" wouldn't be used by "business merchants" in a similar way. Effective promotion of this type is often based on word-of-mouth of friends or people who trust your taste. Regardless of core interests, if you can find a lot of people who support the same thing you do and you all vote for it, it's gonna get popular! The Facebook quandary is a bigger one, since there are many Resis who use their virtual identity there. Its usefulness is dependent on your personal preferences — I don't actively use Facebook because I don't get a lot out of it. It's just a big time waste for me, as opposed to someone who genuinely enjoys commenting on friends' walls. But yes, as we continue to develop web-SL integration, we'll need better ways to see stuff that's relevant to YOU (including because your friends have recommended it).

Parallel Worlds is unquestionably one of my faves in recent memory. I get this spine-tingling demoscene vibe.

Are you looking for awesome places to visit in Second Life? Visit the Destination Guide, it's our showcase of hot spots from around the virtual world, sorted by category and curated with care. (Kinda like Lonely Planet with pixels.) Then, you can discuss your fave places in this forum. :) You can learn more about the Destination Guide, and we encourage you to help make "the DG" better:    If you're on Facebook, you can like a place to show your support. Since these places are created by Residents like you, the creators like knowing you love their stuff! Is a place broken? For example, you teleport inworld and nothing's there. ARGHH. We want to know! Email us at editor at lindenlab dot com and if you don't see results in a few days, reply in this thread — I'll be watching. Is there a cool place that should be in the DG that isn't? Submit it to us. Thank you from the ever-exploring Editorial Team @ Linden Lab!