Paul Hexem

I go into the marketplace. I say "Hey, since in-world search is terrible, maybe I can look here for what I want." So, I type "black gloves" into search, and I hit Enter. I see that I got a lot of matches, so I narrow it down to the gloves section. Now I'm looking at pink scarves and blue beanie hats and red boots... WTF? I double check. "black gloves" is still the search term. Apparently I don't REALLY want black gloves, I want pink scarves. Nice, LL. My ten year old niece can set up a good search engine on her blog, but you can't, with all your resources, make one for your website?

Monti Messmer wrote: Hi, you can do alot with winamp and plugins. The easy DJ job not the scratching maybe but i guess u find plugins for that too! Cost nothing and it worked for me on my first months as SL-DJ Monti You know any plugins? I didn't notice any that seemed to do the job, but my search fu may have been weak.

Yeah, but the "cheap" version is still a hundred bucks plus tax.

So, I've been moved to look into doing DJ work. I've been pressured to use a mic. The problem I have now is finding software that doesn't cost 300 bucks that can stream and allow voice input too. WinAmp used to work for that, from what I read, but since Vista, it hasn't been able to stream voice and music at the same time. It does one or the other, on a toggle, which can't be toggled while the stream is active. I've looked at other software programs, such as SAM or VirtualDJ, but these all seem to cost hundreds of dollars. Is there no middle ground for streaming voice and music at the same time, without spending hundreds of USD or using multiple pieces of hardware and/or inputs? Sure, I could jerry rig something and plug my laptop into the line in jack on my desktop and use the speaker fucntion in the Windows mic control and then all the sound goes into the toggled Winamp stream, but then people can't see track info anymore, and the volume for music/voice is a bit off... Not an ideal solution. So, to reiterate my question- anyone know of any software under a $50 USD price tag that streams both voice and music?

Marcodigi Aeon wrote: This is the best part Gadget Portal. I will not earn anything for me, but all the sales would be shared among the workers. My apologies, then. That does sound a little more appealing. Let me know if you need any scripts.

Why would anyone that has any of these skills, and can likely sell stuff for themselves in SL, want to do this? Unless you intend to pay very well after you have these people start doing all the work for you...

Jennifer Boyle wrote: Darrius Gothly wrote: The reason it cannot be reasonably applied to Virtual Goods sales is .. Virtual Goods do not age, wear or break over time. That is a good point. However, you ignore the fact that people, in RL and SL, buy new things mostly because they want something new, not because what they have is worn out. The reason they want something new may be that it is more fashionable, that it is superior in some way, or simply that it is new. I have over 17,000 items in my inventory and a lot stored in prims, mostly clothing, which is, as you point out, in pristine condition. Yet I keep buying more. Why? Because I like to shop, and when I shop I see clothing I want, and I buy it. While things don't wear out in the virtual world, they do become obsolescent. As I mentioned before, the further development of the platform continues, and will continue indefinitely, to make more possible, and better products will naturally follow. We now have flexiprims and sculpties and a tattoo layer, each of which made new, improved products possible. LSL continues to be expanded. We're about to have mesh. I never wear the high-quality hair and skin I bought four years ago because better ones are available now. The other thing you're forgetting is that this is a virtual world. There are asset servers and sim crossings. No-copy means any time one of those things has an issue, my item and my money are gone. No-copy for buildings and vehicles and certain other objects is downright impractical, and in some cases, plain stupid.

Yeah, I just tried to check, but there's some griefing/spamming device in the region making it impossible to look around.

So, I used to rent land on a private estate. That got really boring though. I had neighbors, but I never saw them. The few times they were online, they were hiding in a skybox with a security orb. So, I left. I went premium and got some mainland. Put my build there. Met one neighbor... With banlines and TWO security devices (as if the ban lines aren't enough). No one else. Even when I drive my various vehicles along the two mainland roads I built on, the place feels empty. With this many people logged into SL at any one time, how come I never see anybody? More than that, maybe I'm just weird for liking the idea of seeing what your neighbor built, chatting with them, trading ideas, etc, instead of ban lines and sky boxes to seclude you from your neighbors as much as possible?

Another option is to play any animation that changes your hands, then stop. That usually fixes it too.

Chronometria wrote: I dont mind waiting for it to load textures. The problem is when it "gives up" half way through and just stops loading the ones it has not done yet. Slow would be better than never.....and sometimes it chooses never. This says it better than I did. As for LOD... no. I'm not complaining about textures 200 meters away. I'm complaining about textures 2 meters away. They load halfway and stop. Then you're stuck clearing cache, relogging, rebooting your router, your modem, running speed tests... It's kind of ridiculous to have to do all that for a texture to download... Oh, by the way? For everyone calling me an idiot, here's some documentation that says "STFU" better than I can. https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-24191 Feel free to comment in that JIRA and go "It's not broken, it's LOD and user content!!" Pull your heads out of LL's asses and do a little research before you insult someone next time, please. Texture loading problems are a documented issue. Been documented for years. Looks like a fix may finally be pending, however.

Yeah, I started off annoyed, then got punk responses to my annoyance, which made it worse. Everybody keeps coming in to spout off the "It's 3D and user created, it's supposed to be laggy" excuse (which despite knowing the technical reasons, I'm still skeptical about), and nobody's saying anything related to the actual topic of why loading halfway is better than loading or not loading. It's not a technical question. It's a practical one. When is doing something only halfway a good thing?

Fun fact: If I go to a website I've never been to before, I have to load the images for the first time. They're not installed on my computer ahead of time, and they either load or they don't. Bad excuse is a bad excuse. Next?

SL has to have the worst possible method for loading textures I've ever seen. What moron thought partially loading textures was a good idea? EVERY other thing I look at online, in games, websites, 3D applications, EVERYTHING, images either load or they don't. And when they do, they don't take more than a couple seconds. But I won't get into that. I just want to know how is it possibly a good idea to load textures halfway, giving us ugly blobs to look at for ten minutes at a time? If you can't make 3D application that can load textures, maybe it's time to look for another line of work? Christ.

Ansariel Hiller wrote: You should read what I wrote more exactly or did I mention script count anywhere? I was referring to those "Oh, you use like <<Insert highly oversized amount of memory here>> MB of script memory! You are evil!" displays that server no purpose except giving people unknown of how this value gets calculated a tool to annoy other people. This is independent from that I personally don't like all that scripted resize crap either and get rid of all scripts I don't need. But judging people based on a script method that returns the theoretical amount of memory used that all scripts that person is wearing might consume is just plain dumb! Nope, you didn't. I did. All I said was even if you ignore the innaccuracies in the counters concerning memory, they still give a good ballpark, and the amount of scripts counted won't be wrong. Therefore, lowering your script count because you saw an alert from one of these devices is a good idea, and they shouldn't be ignored as per your bad advice earlier in the thread.

Accuracy isn't in question. Whether or not you should reduce script counts is. And like it or not, you should. Any scripts you can dump, you should.

"Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately." From wikipedia. Therefore, having your bot send bulk messages indiscriminately to everyone that might (I stress might, because I get signed up for crap daily while driving the mainland roads, because their sensor range is set too far. I AR those types.) have visited your store in the last year, that never signed up for it, is spam. But, the advice to send a note and then mute is good, either way.

If clothes aren't mod/copy, they're borderline worthless. Except maybe as freebies, I guess?

Well sure macros work great on PC gaming, and/or for basic communication. Can't argue that. At lot of games have quick clicks that get you things like "Look here!" and "Go this way." and "Cover me.". If you want to convey any kind of moderately detailed thoughts though, you're either wasting time typing or speaking into a mic on the go. As far as first person shooters are concerned, I'd much rather be able to talk and shoot at the same time. Hell, ever play either of the Left 4 Dead games? It's common practice to be booted off of servers if you can't communicate by voice. I don't agree with it, but it is what it is. My point is, for conversation, VOIP IS easier when you're on combat sims or driving a vehicle or similar activities, and if you've ever played online games, the same applies. Which brings me back to my ORIGINAL point, that chances are you've never done these things (or not "seriously") if you hadn't considered it as a factor when debating in this thread.

That was me that mentioned gamers. While yes, all games allow text chat, even the new ones on the XBox 360 and PS3, people standing there like a ninny typing their message are the first to die. So yes. They're gamers, technically. They're just really bad gamers.

Ansariel Hiller wrote: My opinion on those script meters: Ignore them! Most of them are put in place without even knowing how they work in detail. Because: The script function to determine the script memory will report any LSL script that is compiled as a Mono script as using 64 KB of memory. That however is complete nonsense! LSL Mono scripts dynamically acquire only as much memory they need - most often less than the 16 KB memory that classic LSL scripts *always* acquire. With those script memory meters, you can actually make memory usage worse! Think of wearing an object with 4 LSL Mono scripts in it. Let each script acquire 4 KB memory in total. Now, that meter report that object as using 256 KB of memory while in fact they only use 16 KB in total. The apparent solution to reduce reported memory use would be to compile those 4 scripts as classic LSL scripts. Then they will be reported of using 64 KB of memory in total which is basically correct. But in the end, you use 48 KB memory more while some other people might think you have reduced the memory used in total! So my advice: Completely ignore those stupid meters and if somebody asks you to reduce script memory because of that thing, point at him while laughing loud! Terrible advice. While those devices CAN be innacurate regarding memory counted, it's usually not by a lot. Moreso, the amount of scripts isn't an incorrect amount. However many scripts it counts, you have. Even if it does get the amount of memory wrong. Yes, recompiling from mono to lsl can make your memory usage worse... But chances are, if you have to ask "Why am I seeing this message?" you don't even know HOW to recompile mono/lsl. That type of resident is more likely to take the script off than recompile. Which... lowers their script memory, and thus the device works. 8 MB of memory is insane. Even allowing for the innaccuracies in mono memory, you're still way too script heavy.

Clearly, not many people in this thread are gamers. Voice isn't an issue for me, and I'll use it if someone requests. The first time I used voice online was actually via my XBox 360. The statement was "Pop a grenade around that corner and kill that mother****er. I'll cover you." After communicating* through games like Call of Duty and Rainbow Six and Medal of Honor, casual conversation is nothing. *I call it communicating instead of conversation because there often wasn't time for idle chit chat. You got a word in edgewise before something exploded. Usually the word was "cover me" or one of the cardinal directions, if you know where the shots are coming from.

Peggy Paperdoll wrote: We used to get into some pretty heated discussions over ban lines a few year back. All the arguments for and against them haven't changed even a little bit. There's a side that is ambivalent and more or less neutral.......the take it as it is group (I'm in that group). There's the side that says "it's my land and I'll do what I please"......not many have spoken up in this thread but believe me, they're out there (and, to be fair, many of those are just ignorant of what ban lines are and how effective they are). Then there's the side who thinks because it disrupts their personal SL experience that ban lines should be banned (and those are the most vocal about ban lines). There are many things in life that some people (even a majority of people) don't like. But should they be outlawed or banned? If that's the case, then I vote to ban palm trees from being planted in residental areas...........have you ever seen the mess they make when the Santa Ana winds blow here in Southern California? I don't want to remove them. If people want to use them, that's fine. I also don't want everyone to be forced to have to look at them. I'd just love to have the option to toggle "Always show at any distance" for my own use (and any other vehicle drivers that want some kind of warning so they don't lose their vehicles).

If you're supporting your RL family and paying people 16 USD an hour with SL as your income, you've got other things to worry about than this thread, I think.

In that case Luc, you'd go into the View menu and toggle them off. Then when you want to take a vehicle out, toggle them back on. As it stands now, it's worthless to toggle it on, because you can't see it until you're on top of it and it's too late to do anything about it then, except hope that your vehicle lands on the border to their parcel so they can't return it and annoys them more after you're gone.