Peggy Paperdoll

I haven't thought about this for a few years but back when I was toying with selling clothing that I make I tired to get a price comparison RL to SL. What I did was look at the price of items for sale in SL, then compare that to the price of similar items in RL. One example that I can remember was a pair of "quality" shoes. The SL price was about $L350. Then looking on the Internet to see what a pair of RL shoes that are considered "quality" (not top of the line designer shoes but better than the "buy one get one free" stuff at Wal-Mart). A pair of RL shoes would cost about $75. Okay, $L350 equals about $1.50 USD. And $1.50 is 2% of $75. I did that with a few different items and found that when you convert the $L to USD, then figure the percentage it is to an item equivalent in RL it always fell somewhere between 2% and 5%. It's pretty consistant, though not cast in stone...........it boils down to what people will pay and not what it might be worth. Trying to figure for a service is going to be difficult. For instance: I might pay a landscaper $1,000 USD in RL to build me a Koi pond in my backyard.......I would never pay $L5,000 to an SL builder for a Koi pond at my SL home. $1,000 is about $L250,000 and 2% of $L250,000 is $L5,000. You'll have to experiment with pricing to find what people will pay for your service. You have to realize that it's not what it's worth........it's what people will pay. If your RL services are worth $200 USD, 2% of that price in $L is $L1,000. That's a pretty high price for most things in SL and I don't think many will flock to your business............I could be wrong since I don't know what your service is. I hope this gives you a base to start with.

The card will run SL well. It's not going to deliver the best graphics performance but if you can settle for mid to mid high graphics settings with a little bit of texture lag I think you will be be happy. For the most part you can ignore the first number in the model number for nVidia cards.........that is the series (or "generation") number that basically tells you the age of the card. The 4 indicates it's fairly new and because of that it is in the series that supports the some of the higher performance factors that graphics cards are capable of. It's the second number that is most important as far as performance is concerned. The 3 says it's below mid range for the 400 series of cards (a 9 would indicate it would be at the top performance wise in that series). If you are looking for better performance at an equal (or even less price) look for a card with the second number 5 or higher in an older series..........such as a 350 (or higher) or even a 280. The 200 and 300 series are card both a little older than a year old (the 200 is probably approaching 2 years) but, for the money (and expected life before obsolescence) is a couple of years or more. I run a GTS 250 in this machine......Though I can run settings at Ultra and 256 meters draw distance, I get a noticable drop in frame rates and texture lag. I run SL at high settings without lag and decent frame rates in all but the most populated sims.

You can contact Linden Lab: http://lindenlab.com/contact Since you said your SS number (meaning Social Security number) failed I think maybe you are in the United States. You can take your documents to any major office supply store (such as Office Depot, Staples, Kinkos) and make copies and FAX then to LL. Or you can mail them via the US Postal Service. Some places will even scan your documents to a memory stick so you can email them yourself. You can also submit a support ticket via the Support Portal (if you are a premium member you can contact Live Chat). All the links are on the link I pasted.

It sounds like the email I get about every 6 months or so. I moved my payment method from a credit card to my debit card about a year and a half ago and it seems about every other billing cycle (I pay my premium account quarterly) my bank rejects the hit on my checking account and LL sends me the email saying that I need to update my payment method. I called the toll free billing number and was told to update my payment via my account dashboard which I did........I got the successful billing email two days later and all was fine. I also called my bank to try to find out why the hit was rejected.......they didn't know. Anyway, my last billing failed and I had to update my payment method again. It's a pain in the butt but you do have 7 days to get it done. Call LL's billing number that Peewee provided.

A virus certainly could cause your computer to shut down (as can spyware). A deep scan should uncover a virus should that be the problem and it seems you've done that (I assume you also did a spyware scan). Though a virus and/or spyware could do what you are experiencing, it's really not likely to be the problem. I say that because, apparently this only happens with a single program (SL, in this case)........malware isn't particular about when it might bring an operating system down. The problem would be happening randomly with any program........and if this has been going on for 2 years I think you would have known it was more widespread than just SL causing your computer to shut down. That's my thinking about why I don't believe your problem is malware related. I'm going to say your problem is hardware related. Specifically, I'm going to point my finger at a memory module that has failed. I don't think your graphics card is to blame since if it failed you'd be having a world of problems from crappy video to your computer refusing to boot at all. If it were heat related to your graphics card, what you are discribing could be the early signs of a pending failure........but in 2 years I can't imagine the card not failing completely. A memory module, however is a little different. Most computers have 2 or more modules to make up the total RAM. One of those modules could fail, un-noticed, until a program is launched that requires all the modules to perform. SL is one such program. You didn't say if your computer is a desktop or laptop. If it's a desktop my recommendation is to remove the side panel and check to make sure all your plug-in cards and modules are securely seated. If they all appear to be seated properly, remove one of the memory modules, put the side back on and boot your computer up. If it won't boot or runs very slow, you probably found the failed module right off the bat. If it boots normally then try SL. Let SL run to see if it crashes your system like you discribed. If it doesn't then you found the module. If it crashes as before, then replace that module in it's original slot and remove another one.......repeat trying SL until you find that SL no longer crashes your system. Replace that module with a new one (it's best to take that module with you when you go to get a new one so you get the same memory). Things will likely run slower than usual while your testing..........but your system should not crash. Also while you have the side off, it would be a good idea to blow out the dust with a can of compressed air. The problem could always be a heat issue. But you said this is a 2 year old problem..........heat almost always leads a failure and in 2 years it's hard for me believe it wouldn't have failed some time ago. That's why I'm suspecting a memory module.........one of 2 to 4 modules might go without you noticing. A video card going would be noticed immediately.

At the top of each page on these forums you'll see "Help". Click that and you'll be taken to the main Help page. Near the middle of the page on the right hand side you'll see a link named "Support History"........click it an you'll get a dialog telling you what help is available along with links to get the process going. You'll probably want to go to "Live Help" first.

The suggestions by Cinnamon and Foxtor are both very good and likely on track for what your problem is. A system shutting itself down unexpectedly is very unusual and is always an indication that something major is going on in the computer. A virus and mal-ware can be the problem but normally the problem is caused by some hardware device either failing or has failed in the computer. Since SL is very graphic intensive it works your video card/adapter very hard......much more than almost any program commericially available to the public.......Cinnamon's suggestion to check your card is the logical first step. SL is also extremely memory intensive and it will put a lot to stress on your RAM.......check your memory modules (one or more may be failing or has failed). The CPU is the third device that gets a pretty good workout but if that is failing your computer would be crashing a lot more than you indicated it is........if it's failed completely, your computer would not start at all. I don't believe your CPU is the problem. You said you married a "geek". Have him check both the video card and memory modules. I'm sure you keep the inside of your computer dust free, but a good blowing out with a can of compressed air never hurts. And Foxtor's suggestion to scan your computer for virus/mal-ware is easy enough to do.......and not a bad thing to do anytime your computer does unexpectedly things (like shut down).

You say you've done "everything". I take that to mean you've cleared your cache. reset your modem and/or router, you've change your avatar shape and/or skin, checked your download speed, tried logging into a different sim, checked for an updated video driver, defragged your hard drive, ran anti-maleware software. If you did all that and you are still having the same problem then give us someystem specs for your computer, what type of Internet connection you are using, what your operating system is (and is it updated?). If you haven't done all I listed in the above paragraph, then give it a try. There are other suggestions I have but unless we know exactly what you've done so far and have some system specs anything I (or anyone else) suggest is just a shot in the dark (or spitting in the wind, if you want).

You mentioned your WiFi connection was poor. I believe that is most of your problem. Even a good WiFi connection won't perform very well with SL. WiFi is fine for regular web surfing, email, even video streaming (though you'll get a lot of starts and stops to buffer data ahead of what you are trying to view). SL is a different animal. Nothing is buffered, nothing is stored on your computer (except the viewer........think of it as a browser since that is what it really is)........everything you see (including your avatar) is delivered to your computer from servers located in several places around the United States (mostly from San Francisco, CA and Dallas, TX). You log in and your viewer makes requests for data so you can see what's around you. The servers send that data (a lot of it too). If your connection is "poor" (slow), it's going to take a long time for your computer to get it, process it, and display it on your monitor screen. Then theres the added "problem": The data changes almost constantly. Everytime you move or pan your camera it changes, everytime something else or someone else enters that area you are in, everytime someone's scripted prim changes it's color or texture. If you are not recieving that data quick enough you won't see it, your avatar won't load, you'll find yourself appearing to walking in super slow motion or moving to jerks. Your computer is capable of handling SL..........not the best but is should work. Without a good connection even the best computer ever made won't load everything (or even anything) if the connection is too slow. You need, at the very least, 500 kbps download to have an extremely laggy experience. 1,000 kbps for an exceptable experience (but still have to deal with lag in most places). 2,000 kbps is probably good enough for most places (but lag will rear it's ugly head once in a while). See where I'm going? Internet connection is key...........the more speed the better. Three things that are paramount for good SL experiences...........lots of connection speed, lots of RAM, and an above average graphics card/adapter. You're close on the processor and RAM, marginal on the graphics, and bad on the connection speed. That's all I can offer. I know it's not good news but it's an honest answer from what I know about computers, the Internet and SL.

Is you video onboard or dedicated? What I'm asking is whether you video adapter is intergrated with your main board (motherboard) or a separate, dedicated (plugged into a slot on your motherboard). If it's dedicated, take the Catalyst driver.....if onboard (or IGP) take the Intergrated driver. You can look at the point where your monitor connects to the computer to tell.............the plugged in video will be down where the removable "tabs" are located. The intergrated will be up near where your USB devices connect. I'm assuming you have a desktop computer and not a laptop.

No.........as long as those programs are not running your computer doesn't know they exist. If they are running while you are trying to use SL that would make a big difference...............I trust you are not trying to do that, though. I think you're problem is your driver.

You're a little weak on the graphics but SL should run for you..........at mid-low to mid settings. Go to ATI/AMD's driver download site and get the most recent driver for you video card. That video adapter will work but it just won't work well. You didn't mention what your system memory is (RAM) which will be important since the 256 VRAM for your card is lacking for good proformance........your system will have to make up the difference. From experience Vista 32 requires at least 800 megs to run........SL is looking at a minimum of 500 megs. That's 1.3 gigs that any computer will need between the graphics dedicated and system just to launch. If you are running 1 gig of RAM with your Vista machine you are marginal at best.......remember your anti-virus, firewall, and other services running in the background are using RAM too. A Vista machine with less than 2 gigs or RAM and a video card with less than 512 megs dedicated will struggle with SL. Your Uncle is probably correct that your computer should run most anything. But what your Uncle probably doesn't know is that SL uses OpenGL for graphics rendering where most online (and even local games/graphics programs use DirectX). So comparing World or Warcraft as a comparison is not valid. I believe most of your problems is you needing an updated video driver...........one with OpenGL 2.0 support or greater.

It's really hard to find anything (not just your older posts) on this site. That's one of the main reasons I've almost entirely quit posting here (it just seems so useless when I know whatever I post is likely to be on page 2 or deeper in a single day......no matter how many responses it might have). Not only do you have to find and click on the "View All", you have to also pay attention to the "Comments" on any (or all) responses to see everything people may say. Then there's the ordering of the post. I have to constantly go to preferences and set the order to "oldest first"..........if I clear my browser cache (which I do often) it reverts back to the "most recent first" and that is backward in my mind. The only suggestion I can give is to "View All", scroll through the pages until you find your thread or post, then click on it to see the "replies".........but that won't give you all the responses because you have to also click on any "Comments" that were made to a poster who replied to your thread. It's confusing and it should not be..........it's almost as if LL did this on purpose. Answers is almost completely useless as it is now. Especially anchoring a question according to the time and date of the initial post in a question............I've seen questions posted less than 6 earlier on page 3 when "View All" it clicked. How in hell will that ever help someone seeking help?

I'm with Void on this. I also use a trick that I've discribed a few times. I never draw on an opague layer. I always draw on a 100% transparent later........if I need contrast to see what I'm doing I place an opaque layer under my transparent layer. I don't save any layers I use for my convenience. I've never had the "white halo" problem........never.

Sounds more like a connection problem.......reset your router.

Live Chat isn't going to be able to help you much. If your system is crashing to the point of having to turn the power off to your computer, you have computer problems not SL problems. The first thing I would do is to check for a more recent driver for my video card and update it. If that doesn't fix it then post your computer specs here and maybe someone will know of a solution. The easiest way to get those specs is to launch SL (don't attempt to log in). Under the "Help" menu, click "About Second Life". On the pop up you'll see your basic computer specs..........copy them and paste back here.

I don't know how Saudi Arabian financial laws work but Mastercard is a US credit card company. I would imagine that Mastercard would treat any use of the card the same (as if you were in the United States) no matter where you live. I think you want to allow your real life wife to use your Mastercard for purchases or membership in SL. You can have more than one account on a single credit card (I've done it with Visa and I'm sure Mastercard is the same). You can let your wife use your credit card as payment information on her account...........but remember, you will be responsible for any charges made by your wife. Just have your wife go to her account dashboard and enter the payment information using your credit card.

I could be misreading your question but, if you can browse the Internet using your browser of choice, you should be able to browse profiles or anything else in SL that requires a browser. AVG does not know your browser has been called up by SL........only that it has been called upon to take you to some location on the Internet. There is an option in SL to use SL's internal browser (Mozella, I believe) or to use your "external browser" (such as IE or Chrome). If your browser is different than SL's internal browser, your firewall might be blocking it because it's looking for the browser you have chosen to be your system's default browser. I believe the browser choice is on the "General" tab in Viewer 2 and with other viewers (TPV's or 1.23 based viewers) it's on the "Web" tab. Try changing the option to "external".

You can do what I did a couple years ago (maybe 3 years ago I guess). I do not have those files anymore since I deleted them when I upgraded to Win 7 about 9 or 10 months ago..........I'm sorry because I think it may help you understand how the 2D templates relate to how your designs lay (or drape) the avatar in world. I would have happily given you the textures if I had them..........however, I don't want to spend another 3 or 4 days making them. Here's what I did (beware, it's time comsuming and tedious....but it helped me immensly with my clothing making). I also us GIMP but what I did and suggest you might consider doing yourself isn't graphics program specific at all. Open your templates and you see the the UV mesh lines. The darker (or major) lines is what I used so I'll discribe what I did. Both the upper and lower templates have a center dark line........those lines are the only point that meet precisely on both the upper and lower templates when uploaded and applied to the avatar. All the other lines are distorted to some degree between the upper and lower templates (that's what Rolig was referring to in the difficulty of matching across templates..............a jacket uses both upper and lower templates). I created a layer that was 100% transparent and drew (traced) each darker line on the templates using a very narrow line (I think I made the line 2 pixels in width.......I could be wrong and maybe it was 4 pixels). Once I traced each darker line I filled every other area defined by those lines with black (I used bucket fill) Then in the remaining areas I filled with white. I did this on both the upper and lower templates and saved to TGA at 512 x 512 to upload. I then did the same thing on both the upper and lower templates but this time I did alternating horizontal lines and saved to TGA at 512 to upload. Once I had all four templates done I uploaded them and created clothing to wear...........one "outfit" with vertical alternating stripes and one "outfit" with horizontal stripes. It wasn't over fashionistic but it taught me where the mesh from the upper template meets the lower mesh.........it gave me a visual I could see in my mind when trying to match across templates. On the "outfit" with horizontal stripes it showed me how the front to back templates meet and match. It also showed where the major distortions occur around the breasts, back, buttocks, crotch, knees and on the sides under the armpits........all problem areas for most clothing creators. Taking the time to make your stripes outfits won't make you an expert (it certainly didn't me) but I believe it will help you a great deal when designing your clothing. Like I said I wish I hadn't neglected to keep those files but I had fun making them for myself.............maybe you'll have fun too. Good luck.

Go to your dashboard. Click on "Account", then click "Billing Information". On the page that comes up you'll see three options. The first option is "Update Credit Card"............click on that and follow the instructions.

That's a Windows problem with little or nothing to do with SL.........try going here to see if it's your problem: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/libeay32-dll-not-found-missing-error.htm Also Google "libeay32.dll" for other possible solutions.

You got cache problems. Go to the "Setup" tab in preferences and make note of the cache location. Close the viewer and navigate to that location and delete the entire folder. It will not harm your viewer installation.........the folder will be rebuilt when you launch SL again (this time, it will be completely empty, which is what you want). Launch SL again and change your log in location to either "Smith" or "Pooley". Log in and you'll be in a sim that has no scripts and next to no prims (probably underwater). Do nothing but move a few steps off the landing point (so others arriving won't land on top of you). Open your inventory and in the search box slowly type the letters "A", "B", "C".............until you get the search going. Watch the counter until it stops completely (it will probably stop then start again several times but you probably know how many items you have in your inventory so wait til it reaches that number.......it might take some time). Once it's completed TP back home or where ever you want to go........you should be good to go. Don't try to change clothes, chat too much, IM or anything..........let your inventory load without other tasks to slow or interupt the process.

You can delete any and all files left from the uninstall process as long as you obtain and install a good, uncorrupted new setup file. The only thing you will see that can be annoying is you'll get those popups that you got when you first started SL and all your viewer preferences will be "default". Go to the download site again and get a fresh copy........save it to your hard drive (don't run from the website). If you already have a saved download on your hard driver, delete it before you save the new setup file. Close any browsers you might have running and reinstall.........try SL again.

Uninstall SL, go to the website and get a fresh copy of the viewer and save it to your hard drive. Close any browsers and install the veiwer again. If that doesn't fix your problem then uninstall again and before you install the new viewer do a thorough search of your hard drive for SL (or Second Life) and manually delete any files found..........install the fresh copy again. Try the first method before you manually delete the files the uninstaller left on your computer so you don't lose your preferences and logs. I think you chose "Run" instead of "Save" when you downloaded the viewer..........that is never a good idea for any upgrade to any program (not just SL).

Next month? Same question from the same poster? We'll see.