Ayesha Askham

I post this to see what response it gets. I have had enormous difficulty in replying to posts on this forum lately, despite following the actions recomended by support (clearing browser cache, using compatability view etc etc.) Now I uses (for my sins) IE8 and we all know that SL works better on Firefox, but that cannot be the only reason things are so quiet. So, does the SL website have a general issue....seems not, I can log into almost every part without issue....except this blog. So, what gives? I welcome comments.

@Maestro and Alexi The point of Alexi's irritation, Maestro, is that the Grid Status Page has no notice about the restarts of the RC channels. I know the Google calendar states when these are scheduled (as does Oskar's lead post) but someone in charge of the Grid Status page is asleep at the wheel....again. I know it is most likely not yours or Oskar's job to kick the arse of whoever SHOULD do it, but it's not hard to see why folks get upset. @Alexi There is just no point in continually sniping at Oskar in this way. It just isn't his job, and given the way Linden Lab is structured, it probably isn't even POSSIBLE for him to kick the GSP people. There are a million reasons why we get annoyed at LL's seeming disregard for us residents, but kicking Oskar, who is one of the Lindens that really does engage with us (and Maestro too, I know...:smileyhappy:) isn't going to help anyone. The people we need to kick are far removed from those of us at the interface (and don't we know it!). This is a bad omission, since the restarts are happening (my sim is being rolled as I type this) and there is absolutely NADA on the main script of the GSP. EDIT: So I now see the RC channel rolls are "Resolved"...Bolting the stable door after the horse is gone? Oh, and SVC-7499 on LeTigre is NOT fixed!:smileymad: 8/12/11: After a few hours' work I can say this. SVC-7499 and SVC-7522 may be fixed as far as the ongoing bug is concerned, but any poseball rezzing items that were broken by the bug have remained broken due to a script failure (sample of 3 different items). This is not the first time that a poor piece of QA has resulted in material loss to residents. This is not inventory loss this is asset breakage - a whole different matter. Someone at LL legal group may need extra coffee. If the item's creator has left SL you are stuffed not to put too fine a point on it. Further edit 8/12/11: Seems SVC-7499 and 7522 are fixed after all. A lot more work by myself and my partner appear to have cleared some of the mess that LL made, for two of the three items anyway, the third is still broken, and I await a reply from the creator. We have spent nearly all day mending what that server code broke. Not at all happy. One final issue; this blog is still borked, it took me three attempts to get logged in and post this edit. Does ANYTHING in SL work properly at the moment?? Oh Yes, tier payments to Linden Lab...of course!

@Oskar Is the bugfix for SVC-7499 in this week's LeTigre roll out? Maestro seemed to be suggesting that it was.

@Nalates Yes, you are right. In my experience showing some willingness to assist Oskar and Maestro in their jobs will reap benefit in the quite short term! That being said there is a huge groundswell of frustration present in the SL userbase, and Linden Lab seem singularly inept at getting folks on their side in almost any matter. The bug on last week's LeTigre is a case in point, fixed (we hope) quickly and relatively efficiently. BUT... That bug may have destroyed irreplaceable no copy items made by creators no longer in SL. It has certainly caused upset to content creators still in SL who yet again have had disgruntled customers to deal with. In such a situation it is simply not good enough for a well-meaning resident to come along and say "Bad things happen...Live with it" Reason went out of the window in many cases a long time ago and SL residents are not among the most patient. It really is up to Linden Lab and its employees to come to SL and engage with residents in a meaningful way, and by that I do NOT mean the travesty that is called "Office Hours". In this case KT was a necessary evil, due to unforseen issues with the last Linux upgrade, but its sudden unannounced and rather cavalier imposition on SL traders at their most active time was crass to say the least. SL residents need to think before they vent, true, but LL also need to show more care before they act as well.

Answer to the question is clearly that Linden Lab think they are a special case with SL and can do as they damn well please! I know some of the folks at LL work hard for us residents, but some others deserve to be kicked from here to beyond...legally of course!

@ Barry I suggest you look at JIRA SVC-7499, Barry. It may not be your issue, but it may well be. In order to vote or watch it you need to log in (incase you didn't realise).

Crissi there is a bug...see SVC-7499. I noticed it a couple of days ago, Maestro Linden says a fix is being tested on the Beta grid Aditi at the moment.

@Wolf Seems that LL are setting out to fix those things they broke with the last OS upgrade. Who'd have thought that Linux could wreak such Havok?:smileytongue: I bet SL retailers love this.

@Oskar Thanks for the KT info, and pass on my thanks to Maestro for coming and looking at the bug on our sim.:smileyhappy:

@Oskar Thanks for the info on the new "KT" channel. Much appreciated.:smileyhappy:

I see. Silence. And Lindens marking JIRAs as fixed when they plainly AREN'T FIXED?? C'mon, guys, give me something to believe in other than Santa Claus.

Oskar Something odd is going on on LeTigre. All our poseballs rezzed by our bed (NOT PURELY A SEXBED) and a couple of other toys are hopelessly mis-positioned. As far as we can recall the Jane's bed was OK last week, but I'm not certain - it was certainly OK two weeks ago. We were sim 21110 on LeTigre. I've just restarted our sim, I will add more once we see what's what after the restart. Oh, and what on Earth is RC KT?? Not Triple's post, it was a shop I just was in on that RC. EDIT: Tried a restart to sim 21076...no change...pls see SVC-7499. This is definitely related to the server version. also FWIW we are having issues with previously worn (and removed) prims showing up on our avatars after a relog...asset server issue? Yet again??

*Gives Thinkerer the bird* " ready for a beak" lol!:smileyvery-happy:

@Lali LL restart sims every week to add new software and fix known bugs. Each sim is usually only restarted once, and if you are building, it is important to look here: http://status.secondlifegrid.net/ to see when Restarts will happen. If you are building very soon before a restart, you will lose anything that you do not "take" before the sim restarts. Restarts to most of SL (Main Server) occur between 5am SLT and 9am SLT on Tuesdays. Restarts to RC (Release Candidate, or trial) Channels occur on Wednesdays between about 7am and 10am SLT. You should always check with the Grid Status page before starting to build. The reason you may lose builds is that "Snapshots" of each sim are taken regularly during the day, and if you new build is not in the backup snapshot taken before the restart it will be "lost" irrevocably, unless you have a copy in your inventory.

@All Not sure what's going down here, but something is. From being simply spikes of low Physics FPS this is escalating into a serious issue, though not on my home sim yet... We are back to spikes in TD and Sim FPS as well as physics, so I'm guessing that some memory hungry sim is now also on the same server as us (21110). Thankfully at home the spikes are few and far between, but I'm seeing more in other sims and it ain't me..others see them as well, simultaneously. So, we're almost back to square one with the crash/spike fixes, or so it seems. Anyone got a clue as to what's going on? I don't mean to sound negative, but this is not good. Any software can have bugs, but I now wonder if the upgraded OS is uncovering more than before.

@Nalates Thanks for the reply. I don't think it's a local CPU issue, I have an Intel i7 processor so there are plenty of cores and threads to go round! But I did check and nothing seems to be eating processor cycles (nothing I've caught yet anyway!:smileywink:). I run Phoenix BTW, so I doubt that current LL Viewer issues will affect me. I will be migrating to Firestorm soon, now the official release is out so who knows? 'S a bit of an oddity!:smileyhappy:

Hello I don't know if this is just a SLunday thing, but I've been seeing periodic massive (>10FPS) but transient drops in Physics FPS figures on my sim. Sim FPS and TD remain high as normal, so it's not like what was happening a couple of weeks ago when TD would crash as well. This isn't related to TPs in or out on my sim at least. Is anyone else seeing this effect, or is it just our sim? Our prims are well under the allocation and scripts at about 1300, with plenty of free time showing in stats. FWIW it is a LeTigre Homestead. Anyone care to offer a sensible explanation?

Hi Oskar Yes I am an idiot, I only part read it...sorry!:matte-motes-bashful:

Hi Oskar Just a quick point. I don't think your link to the Grid Status Page is pointing to where you think it is! So, if I understand it, we will have just a restart at the normal times this week, with no code changes, Yes? Happy Thanksgiving!:smileyhappy:

MB... I have been in SL for nearly 4 years now, and, Yes, I have seen huge progress in the way that this platform performs. That is NOT my point. You have only to visit other fora pertaining to MMUs to see how SLs reputation is being slowly trashed. My points regarding Linden Lab's internal wrangling are extremely germane to the current situation. Those Linden employees that connect with Secondlife do indeed treat it with the respect it and its residents deserves. Sadly some (many?) others do not. I know Linden Research is a small company, but it cannot abrogate its responsibility for its creation. Linden Labs are not ALL on Thanksgiving leave...I worked for years in a small company that never allowed itself to be found "asleep at the wheel". As a result it was acquired by an incompetent larger organisation that needed our business model, a "win-win" result, I believe. And just one brief personal item - I am NOT a grinch - but I DO have a work ethic that is offended by LL's current performance. I have never advocated putting out rapid fixes to perceived issues without due QA process. If you read my post again you will see that what I was asking for was simple courtesy. If LL cannot manage that, them maybe Linden Lab and Secondlife deserve to perish. Now I do not think that this is the correct place for what is becoming a personal exchange. I will not further this aspect of this thread. But...I will not be moved from my opinion. Addition 10:32am SLT Monday: At last a response in SVC-7459. "Charlene Linden" posted, and a notification has appeared on the Grid Status Page. Thankyou Lindens! :matte-motes-smile:

@ Oskar or anyone at Linden Lab who is in work this week 1) Despite the announcement that this week will be a "No Change Window", rolls are announced of the Grid Status page for Tuesday 22nd and Wednesday 23rd. How come? To say that "It's Thanksgiving and we're all full of Turkey (Wild?)" will not wash at all. 2) The status of SVC-7459 is still unassigned, despite 200 watches and way over 300 votes. A simple acknowledgement of the fact that Linden Lab is aware of the concerns would go a long way towards cooling the rarther heated atmosphere there. More than that, it would be common courtesy. I have to wonder just what is going on behind the smoked glass windows at Linden Lab, and it is high time that either Rod Humble or Philip Rosedale made damn sure that all LL employees were reading from the same page. Linden Lab and Secondlife is becoming a laughing stock in the cyber world. That is an unfair reflection on the hard work put in by many at Linden Lab and many others in-world to make Secondlife so good.

Oskar I know this isn't strictly your job, but... In your heading post you say that there will be no rolls in the week commencing Nov 21st, yet the Grid Status Page is blithely announcing rolls on all channels for Tuesday and Wednesday. It'd be nice to think you were all reading from the same page!:smileywink: Also there are dozens of SL business owners screaming about traffic figures in the JIRA...Talia mentions it...SVC-7459. What is going on there?:smileysurprised: I don't expect we'll get much out of LL until Thanksgiving is through, though.:smileysad:

@Fisk What Chelsea says is essentially true...however... I would make a couple of suggestions. 1) Your RAM is not high by current standards, upwards of 8MB might be advisable. But its not THAT bad, 4 is thought to be adequate. 2) Check your settings, Draw distance of over 400m is pointless, IMO. Also in your Viewer's Graphics settings, check the Anti-aliasing setting: x4 is plenty, I gather recent Linden Lab "official" viewers default to x16 which will crucify even a GTX580. Do you have "Vertex Buffer Objects" enabled? If not try it, if Yes try turning it off. (It's a fickle suck-it-and-see setting). Other than that I cannot suggest anything else. I run an Intel i7 @3.4GHz, with 16MB 1366MHz RAM, an NVidiaGTX580 on Win 7 64 bit HP so I am not that different, I get 75FPS normally, with a low if about 20FPS in complex scenes. Oh, also check your line speed and SL bandwidth settings. Good Luck! :smileywink:

@Oskar Thanks Oskar, for clarifying it...put it down to ignorance or stupidity on my part! I understand now. (I thought I did before, but now I'm sure!):smileyhappy:

Thankyou for that comprehensive post, Nalates:smileyhappy:. I wish I could say that it relieves me, but I get the distinct feeling that "Joined Up Thinking" is not a frequently employed concept at Linden Lab. That one big change has led to others being needed is no great surprise, but I still get the impression that while there is clearly a lot of work being done at LL, the teams work in isolation from one another. Has no one at LL realised that Team-meetings where proposals and ideas can be shared is a really good idea, and a sure-fire way to improve efficiency? I cannot help but believe that if the various teams at LL were to coordinate better, that their work would be far more effective and SL would be a much better and fitter place. Am I missing something?:smileysurprised: