WolfBaginski Bearsfoot

I reckon it's always a good idea to have an alternative viewer, if only to eliminate some possible causes. There's been some problems with Mac systems. You have missed what might be the critical detail: the OS version

The lack of explanations during the sign-up process is a good example of the way that social problems accumulate in SL. I've long thought that a better explanation, presented before names were chosen, would have better served all interests than the technical fix that was imposed. I had a stronger idea than most of what I was aiming for, and I reckon I was lucky in the last names available when I signed up. It is a while since I made my Alt under the .resident system, but the actual use of Display Names was never mentioned, and it isn't a well-signposted process on the Dashboard. As it is, it's possible that Rodvic knows about the vestiges of the old system, and has been correctly informed about their long-term viability, but that isn't what he wrote. What he did write suggests that he was misinformed, and that worries me. It's one of the oldest management problems in the book: how do you cope if you can't trust subordinates to tell the truth?

Yeah, that works. Well-hidden, isn't it. The same problem seems to afflict a lot of "scenery" lighting. Switch on Shadows, and half the room is burnt out by the lights. I spent a while re-working a horrible facelight into something that looked good. Good facelights are possible, but the results depend on the onlloker's viewer.

I've done a little research, and it also looks as though facelights are badly designed. They don't, for instance. need to light everything within 10 metres, and at full brightness. If you're standing in a pool of light, 9it's bad design An Example of Photo Studio Lighting The basic sun in SL isn't a good setup, especially at Midday. But you can get some good lighting with a couple of lights I'm told that the look of AV faces is why some people want to see the glow option on AVs, I think we'd get better results if the virtual sun was at 60 degrees above the southern horizon at noon, rather than exactly overhead, because glow is so easy to abuse.

I have noticed some people using incredibly intense facelights, since I started using shadow rendering. The normal lighting of a scene is a little different, a little brighter by maybe half a stop, in photographic terms, but facelights are are grossly over bright, at least three stops, burning out colour out to 10m distance in some cases. It seems that the old OpenGL limit on the number of light sources rendered may have gone, but that doesn't explain why just these light sources are so bright when shadow rendering is on. Does anyone know what is going on? I struggle with finding things in the JIRA system: is there an entry which covers this? There is a work around, an option in the Advanced/Developer menus to switch off attached lights, but that would also affect stuff like the lamp on a Miner's helmet (which would probably be affected by the problem as well).

Nalates, with all the work you're doing, which the Lindens should be doing--not telling people about new viewer versions being released really plumbs the depths of uncaring stupidity--maybe you should sent them a bill for services rendered.

As I write, a good three hours into Wednesday, your timezone... No updates to the info. I suppose we shall still get the restarts, which has other benefits, but is it fair for anyone to expect weekly roll-outs of new code?

1: Clause 1 of the TOS. 1. CHANGES TO THIS AGREEMENT This Agreement may be changed by Linden Lab effective immediately by notifying you as provided in Section 13.4 below; provided that Material Changes will become effective thirty (30) days after such notification. By continuing to access or use Second Life after the effective date of any such change, you agree to be bound by the modified Terms of Service. A "Material Change" is a change to this Agreement which reduces your contractual rights or increases your responsibilities under this Agreement in a significant manner. Section 13.4 is about how to give notice, and includes pu8blication on this website, so the Forum post on the 24th is valid notice. It is less clear what the status is of Oz's voice recording of the in-world meeting with developers. Is these new clauses a "Material Change"? If you're working on a TPV, arguably it is. It is explicitly increases your responsibilities. 2: Section 13 lists what is and isn't part of the contract established by the TOS: 14. ADDITIONAL TERMS AND POLICIES The following additional terms and policies are incorporated by reference in and made part of this Agreement, and provide additional terms, conditions and guidelines regarding the Service. Linden Lab Privacy Policy Intellectual Property Policy Second Life Brand Center Second Life Trademark Guidelines Snapshot and Machinima Policy Second Life Fee Schedule Second Life Billing Policy Second Life Marketplace Fee and Listing Policies Community Standards Second Life Mainland Policies Gambling Policy Banking Policy Age Play Policy Maturity Ratings Policy on Third-Party Viewers API Terms of Use Online Safety Guidelines Any other communications or Content made available by Linden Lab on the Service is not part of this Agreement and should not be relied upon as such, or consulted for contractual purposes, but rather is provided to assist and enhance the user experience in Second Life. So a "Material Change" to the TPV is subject to the 30-day delay before it becomes effective, and what Oz Linden said at the developer meeting is explicitly not part of the agreement and not to be relied upon. "the Service" is defined as "Second Life" or the "Service" means the multi-user online service offered by Linden Lab, including its Websites, Servers, Linden Software, Linden In-World Content, and User Content (as those terms are defined in this Agreement) Conclusion: Nothing Oz Linden says, unless the TOS is amended, can be relied on. He in known to have said that the new TPV clauses take immediate effect, but he isn't apparently able to make that statement, and the clauses appear to be a "Material Change" which cannot take effect until 30 days after the announcement. Had Oz Linden said that the new clauses would not take immediate effect, and referenced the 30 day rule, it would have been legally safer. It would likely have been possible to attach a limited communication privilege to Oz's job title to cover the issues arising from the TPV policy If we can trust Oz, there's no immediate action being taken against any customer, so why not invoke the 30 day element? Note that I am not a lawyer, I am just an ordinary guy, a native English speaker who has experience in business. It doesn't seem to make sense that anyone unleashes lawyers over this, they cost too much. But it looks so simple to avert this obvious error.

I do get the impression that they suffer from institutional NIH syndrome. There can be legal provlems over their use of code from a TPV, for instance. I don't see much sign of them figuring out a way of dealing with that sort problem. but I have heard that Californian statute law expects certain things. It's all bad Linden communications again.

I doubt that's something Oskar has any involvement with. It's all in the viewer. (Oh, have the new rules on Viewer features just made their own Mac Viewer a breach of TOS?) You can try asking in the Viewer forum, but don't expect any useful answers. That bunch of Lindens don't even bother to announce new Viewer versions. But keep an eye on the Viewer download page, and good luck.

The Phoenix team did get involved with an alternative Grid provider, a long time back now. I can't recall any details, but I think the outfit was doing something about a multi-Grid marketplace, a sort of XStreet that would deliver the same item to more than one Grid as a single user transaction. For a while, Firestorm seemed to be a bit dismissive of alternative Grids. I have a local OpenSim server I can run, and I usually use Phoenix. Firestorm setup was awkward and apparently unsupported. There are things I am seeing reported which make a local OpenSim server seem to be a really good content-creation option for a Merchant, but I'm not clear about how OpenSim and Mesh works out, Physics is also a likely problem. What's next? Stopping the import of link-sets?

If that recording were an audition tape, Oz wouldn't get the job. If it were a presentation to senior management, on some new project, I'm inclined to doubt he'd get the budget. Oz doesn't give me a sense that he knows what he is talking about, but I shall admit to having high standards on this sort of thing. Still, there's more than a bad performance involved.

Oz Linden's voice recording seems to be confusing people. It's hard to infer a consistent policy from the examples he gives. I doubt that it can be trusted as an expression of formal policy. And not trusting such things may be documented formal policy. I'm beginning to wonder just why it's all looking like a last-minute panic before the server support for Viewer tagging gets switched off. What has scared the Lindens?

I just hope that they're correct about what switching off the function will do. There's two things they talk about. This one, stopping sending a particular data-element from the server to viewers, might not need testing, but I'd want to hear that from Oskar or Maestro. The other is a change to LSL, about reporting online status, and that is going to need proper testing. It has to be done right, and it has to be tested for effects on scripted objects. And there's no date been announced for that. Past experience on LSL changes suggests that they're never going to be able to stop items using the old behaviour from being sold on the Marketplace or in-world.

Just to say, I don't trust anything the Lindens say about griefers, largely because they don't say anything useful. Griefers are to Linden Labs the bogey-men of the Grid. the Al Qaeda seconds-in-command who get killed by drone-launched missiles every time a budget comes up for review. It's not that they don't exist, I have seen the blighters in action and made the Abuse Reports. But after that, nothing but a uselessly generic automatic message. It's that nobody knows what happens to them. There's no feedback loop, no warning for the foolish or assurance for the afflicted. It's a bit like the claims of copybotting. The last dodgy viewer I can be sure was blocked is Emerald, which was blatantly public about the TPV rules it broke in the last-ever version. (And that sort of uncertainty probably fuelled the Redzone Affair--the Lindens don't act, so I have to protect myself.) I know some of the legal problems: name somebody as a wrongdoer and it is possible you will get sued. Even getting a frivolous suit dismissed is going to cost money. But avoiding that doesn't depend on total silence. The Lindens even admit that this new policy isn't going to stop the stalkers.

If your ears are better than mine, you may be OK. But audio isn't good for this sort of stuff. It needs a special sort of guy to overcome the disadvantages, a combination of performance and good script. Rhetoric and oratory used to be prized skills. I would pay Oz to stay away from a microphone, if that were his audition tape.

I see what you're getting at. I don't know enough to be sure of what Oz thinks is different and wrong, and why, but past experience leaves me with a suspicion that he doesn't know what he is talking about, when it comes to how TPV features work. It may be an unfair opinion, but his performance on the sound recording doesn't inspire confidence.

Oz said that Temp Image Upload should never have been allowed? Well, of course not, It means that content creators have to pay 10 L$ every time they want to check that they have a texture looking correct. Or they can set up a private OpenSim server on their own machine, pay nothing for uploads until the final product is complete, and bilk the Lindens out of maybe a whole US Dollar.

I shall try to use short, simple words My hearing is not good. I cannot search a voice recording for specific terms in the way I can search a Chat log or an official text transcript. And you know as well as I just how long this session is. Yes, you have made a voice recording available. Thanks. A voice session is a piss-poor way of documenting this major Policy change, not just because I am a half-deaf freak who can be accused of being a social misfit.

I have enough of a hearing problem, age and too many loud noises, that I struggle with voice in SL. Some things work but, without an official transcript, I feel I can't rely on anything out there attempting to interpret this new policy. Putting out critical interpretation examples only as a voice session might be taken as an attempt at plausible deniability. Famously, a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it is written on. Oz Linden, by his actions, seems to have opened a huge legal can of worms. And if, as I have heard alleged, Oz gave the reason for killing off Viewer Tags as griefers, all I can say is that I have little confidence in the way Linden Labs deals with griefers. It is a system of hidden and arbitrary justice, totally unreported which hence does nothing to affect the behaviour of potential griefers. Though I suppose if there are people using voice to abuse user of the Linden lab viewer, nobody can provide evidence of what was happening: voice in unloggable and deniable. Part of this is a social problem, not a technical one. But the Lindens seem incapable of dealing with social problems, often resorting to some ingenious and expensive technical fix. They appear to ignore whay paying customers say. On the subject of Linden Labs communication, polite words often fail me.

It seems that the server functionality which allows this will vanish with the next roll-out of code. No testing apparent. Polite words fail me. And if the server code doesn't allow it, why the TPV change?

That's how I read that clause: it's software being used by another player. And it could also ban the feature in Phoenix/Firestorm that, only in the Phoenix/Firestorm support group, signals which Phoenix/Firestorm version you're using. That's optional, you can switch it off. 2.i : You must not display any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of any other Second Life user. Nothing about permission there. So it can't be displayed. And if you can't display it, it can't be used in-world. 2.j : You must not include any information regarding the computer system, software, or network connection of the user in any messages sent to other viewers, except when explicitly elected by the user of your viewer. OK, that would allow the data to be sent, with permission. That is a damn strange pair of clauses. I don't know how a lawyer would interpret them, there are general rules on how that is done, but it looks to me as though they have just put Firestorm and Phoenix outside the TPV, because of a feature that offers better support to their users.

It is looking good. It's not very obvious, but sim crossings seem a little bit better. There are a bunch of secondary problems, like the old ones about blocked parcels at region boundaries, but I think I can be a little more hopeful now.

There are getting to be other reasons to leave SL. I know of several groups which have moved en bloc to other grids, but I recnetly learned of another grid (not SL-compatible) aimed at the Adult market, and not pulling any punches with the advertising. If the video was a reliable guide, the AV-design was better. Linden Lab certainly need to buck their ideas up. Some technical fixes are needed, but that's not the only place where they look to be lagging. Selling adult service is a very specific sort of marketing, but how many prospective SL customers even hear of Zindra? (At the moment, the number of sex-starved n00bs is tolerable, but the questions they ask are so incredibly basic.)

To save folk the hassle of checking, these are essentially the same as last week. The version numbers have all increased. but there's no change to the description, so I'd suppose there have been code changes, but no bug fixes. For instance, is optimising a piece of code a bug fix? Looking at the dates, any changes must have come from Beta Grid experience anyway. Old code: 2nd Feb 2012 Code to be rolled out: 15th Feb 2012