Pixels Sideways

Hello Lindens and Moles: #3 box isn't working. This is frustrating. Especially this box because getting to it isn't easy. Keep getting this chat message: [03:43] Winter Gift Box v 1.14: Please stop clicking the box. It will not respond to you again unless someone else clicks it first. Another person who was here couldn't get the box to work either. Now we have sadz... The mist just kicked me way from the box -- now I have to try to get back to the box again. Super sadz. I will check back later. Good night.

Update: I just picked up Gift #2 -- it's a much easier clue/find. The gift box at the second location gave the gift but it didn't register on the HUD. >>> Detaching and re-attaching the HUD worked. Gift #2 is def different content than Gift #1. To check the contents, just add the gift box you received from your inventory to your avatar and it will auto open and send the contents in a folder to your inventory when you select Keep. Then you can check the contents asap at the location. Gift #2 is much improved and better experience than Gift #1 - which I hope they are still offering to folks as that one was totes confusing. ADDED: Still can't find where the Premium Tokens to wear are for the "special" skates and snowboards. Does anyone know? Lindens? Moles? Meanwhile...

To The Lindens and The Moles: About 2-3 hours go I finally found the gift box. I found out about this from TP message, went to the online news announcement for Winter Swaginator, got your map SLURL/LM TP and got sent to the Portal. It's not clear what you do next. I just turned 11 on my rez day on Nov 6 and I still had trouble figuring it out so for noobs it must be like WTF? When I finally found the Winter Wonderland portal the first time it flashed the experience pop up but not long enough to say yes. I tried again and was able to TP into WW where I got the swaginator from the sign. I couldn't read the sign right away, it was very slow to rez but I figured sign in middle of landing area, touch it... . Once in WW, I knew from asking in Builder's Brewery group what area the gift was located in -- snowball area which I had trouble at first finding until I saw the signs. Even following the signs was rather confusing but eventually, made it to the Snowball Arena. Found the gift on a bridge however, shortly after I got the gift and it showed up on the swaginator, the gift disappeared so all the people after me were like, where is it? Did it move or is it gone? Many people had sadz... So, Lindens and Moles. This is NOT an easy hunt/gift find like SL15B was. If you want people to spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure this out and then searching two sims for gifts, it would be very helpful (and less frustrating) if you could provide more specific clues AND leave the gifts up for at least 10 days. I only found out about the hunt yesterday so if the first gift "expired" just after I was lucky enough to tag it, then I have no doubt many other people are totally unaware of the winter swaginator or if they just found out, and figured it all out, they are very disappointed to find there is no gift. Unless it moves. Then you NEED to put that in the info online and inworld. Also, where do you get a premium token for the snowboards? That was totes not clear. Suggestions to make this experience a lot more enjoyable: 1. More info online and inworld on how to access Winter Wonderland (go to WW portal, touch portal door/whatever, get experience window, say yes to the experience to TP to WW) 2. Once in WW, the HUD signs are clear once they rez. So touch sign to get HUD, wear it. (You might consider putting MESH letters above the signs that say HUD which would rez faster than the textures on the signs). 3. Once HUD sign is touched, provide more detailed HUNT location information to find the gifts. 4. Leave gifts out for at lest 10-14 days to allow for people to figure all this out and find them. 6. If you move gifts to different locations during their individual 7+ days, please let people know both online and inworld that they moved and what area they moved to. 7. The Snowball Arena should be nicknamed the land of frozen molars/teeth. 😄 8. Please have instructions by the snowboard dispenser on how/where to get the premium member token. I didn't see anything that gave out one. 9. Last but not least: Thank you for making all of this. I realize it's a lot of work. I like the fun surprises here and there and over and under. 😮 10. I am so going to snowball you. 😄

Years ago I did a "ride along" with a couple of people from the Virtual Ability sim on an orientation for a new resident who was legally blind. She was using some special viewer/screen reader combo that allowed her to mouse over objects and the interface between the viewer & screen reader would allow the screen reader to read aloud the object name and info. This also worked for chat and I think notecards. She could also listen to streaming music and streaming media if it had sound and also just regular sounds in SL. You might consider contacting the folks at the Virtual Ability sim to find out what new tech they may know about that visually impaired folks are using in Second Life in addition to what Whirly Fizzle said about increasing the UI font size in preferences.

** CHAT SPAMMERS: This is the second weekend I've been plagued by ass*oles who kept creating and spamming group chats-- I have no idea how or why I was included in these that were littered with really disgusting racist, sexual, sexist, bigoted, etc., awful stuff. As soon as I would block their text, and close the chat, another one would pop up. This was borking my viewer. I couldn't find a way to report the avatars who initiated these group chat spams -- I'm using the SL viewer for Mac and I couldn't find a report avatar button specifically for these group chat spam attacks. Am I missing something in the viewer or user profile window where I can report them while it's going down or is there not a report avatar for abuse button on their profile? These chat spam griefing incidents weren't just annoying, the content was offensive and creepy and violated the LL TOS. OTHER THINGS: 1. INVENTORY SEARCH: Unlike searching for content on marketplace, the search feature in inventory requires exact properly sequenced words so if I want to find all my red shoes or pink elephants, unless i put in the exact name and punctuation elements of each object like red-shoes or shoes red or Jumbos Shoes - Red, I will not get all the red shoes results whereas on MP if I put in pink elephants or red shoes, pretty much everything with those words in them will appear. This should have been an upgrade ages ago. 2. MARKETPLACE SEARCH: Now, this search does work they way it should, however, a bunch of crap that shouldn't come up when doing a search on red shoes or pink elephants does appear because people are either stupid or intentionally annoying and think by putting all kinds of search/words in their product descriptions/tags that I'll see their product and want to buy it. This actually is so annoying it has the opposite effect and I will NEVER buy from that merchant because they are intentionally wasting my time by making me have to scroll through all their crap I am not interested in. This could be fixed by a filter that I could access and filter out that merchant so their content won't appear. There should also be a report button for this. I can see if something might be cross referenced but a lot of these are not. I should not have to wade through a gazillion skanky whore outfits when I'm looking for Catamarans. AND there also needs to be a way to filter out words like GACHA and DEMO so I'm not bombarded with those things either if I don't want to have to scroll through a crapload of search results so a "filter out words" or shops or creators feature would be brilliant. 3. MARKETPLACE REVIEWS: These should be editable so they can be updated so, if a product has issues down the road or you discover some cool thing you didn't notice before or the creator does something really cool or ignores you when you need help, you can update your review. Also, I should be able to find all my reviews in one place so maybe in the list of all the things I've purchased, I would be able to select "show reviewed purchases" and that list comes up. Also I should be able to search my purchases and my favorites and the recently added wish list. 4. MARKETPLACE QUESTIONS: In addition to reviews, there should be a feature on the item page to ask the creator/merchant questions about the item they are selling. Too many people get ripped off buying things that are misleading or lack specific details in the descriptions. The creator/merchant would answer the question there as well. This would also alert buyers to creators/merchants who don't answer their questions and would provide answers for buyers and save creators/merchants from answering the same questions over and over again. 5. SIM ARCHIVING: Being able to save entire sims with all the terraforming, terraform textures, all content, etc., on them so they can be swapped out in a few minutes. This should have always been an option for private sim owners and even for projects like LEA art exhibitions. I have no idea what the storage challenges would be but there could be a small fee to cover that storage. 6. SL VIEWER: Since I mentioned searching inventory and marketplace, why doesn't LL integrate find object(s) on a sim search features into the viewing client like Firestorm has? Also add copy paste features on the build menu so if I want to move an object to the location of another object, I can copy the destination object's vector location by checking a box and then paste it into the object I want to move there. Should also be able to do this for the sizes and for rotations too. If I think of anything else, I will add to the list. Thank you for all you do to keep the lights working in SL. pixels sideways

Thanks for sharing this. BTW, I snuck into your house. Totes love this room -- and the the animated background. I hope you are okay. It appears you may have been eaten by a shark.

Sansar is also not compatible with Macs / Macs are not compatible with Sansar. That's keeping a lot of folks out of that loop. So it's either SL or Open Sim for Mac users. SL doesn't have near the numbers of users like when I first logged in back on 2007 -- that was sort of the heyday period. But it's definitely improved a lot with the addition of mesh and other features. Still expensive if you want your own sim even with the recent reduction in pricing. I do think VR will prevail but the cost of equipment that is VR capable has to come down as well and right now we're in some deeply uncertain times with the crazy stuff going on with the US and trade tariffs so that could change for the worse -- with costs of electronics increasing across the board. The idea of a VR Amazon is still hovering out there but the costs to recreate everything in 3D is high so that may not happen on that scale. I keep seeing more companies using 3D content -- not necessarily in the scope of VR but it's becoming more common especially in home improvement and decorating and of course games and apps. And I have a few VR people and companies that I follow on Twitter so I'm seeing articles all the time about what is happening in VR. There are a lot of interesting things going on -- just not in SL. Education is an area that has seen growth in VR and VR is an ideal match for educational development. The immersive and interactive aspects of VR enhances learning. It's being used in teaching medical procedure, safety training for various industry, and for general academia, history, art history, cultural history -- I can a lot of opportunity for VR. How all of this filters back into Second Life -- that depends on where SL is headed and also the land costs. Education isn't exactly a priority of the current US gov administration so academic institutions are not jumping into VR with fistfuls of dollars when they're not sure about their own basic funding to cover their overhead. On the flip side, online VR classes could have a huge cost advantage, however, that may be more suited to Open Sim where you have more control over you space and the costs are significantly less that SL. SL still has to offer outside of the general fun and game -- but selling that isn't going to be easy -- the novelty has worn off and Open Sim and other VR worlds have gotten a lot better. I'd like to see more collaboration between LL and residents -- especially in crossover SL/RL art projects that exhibit in RL galleries, museums, art festivals. That's an area where VR is definitely making inroads. I also think LL would do well to really support the RP and gaming challenge sims beyond their own. I wanted to ask Ebbe a question but missed the question deadline and the the live Town Hall. It's about sim archiving which would be a very cool feature to have. I started a topic on it in this forum.

My bad -- missed the deadline on the official forum so hoping someone at LL will see this. I have been creating full sim experiences for art and edu in SL since 2008, primarily on the LEA sims. I've also visited sims throughout SL in the 10+ years I've been in SL. So many wonderful places that are gone. While this has long been the transitive ephemeral nature of Second Life, it doesn't have to be. I've discussed with many artists and content creators and having the ability to archive a full sim -- a special kind of inventory where you can select and rez an entire sim exactly as it was -- all the terraforming, content, etc. -- would be pretty awesome. This would be especially great for sims created by people who are no longer active in SL or have passed away. When someone creates a full sim experience, they could archive it and choose some options such as, if I am no longer active in SL, I give my permission to LL to exhibit my work" so that the sims could be handed off to LL as legacy exhibitions so they could be razzed periodically for new residents to explore and be inspired by. This would also be wonderful for RP and and exhibitions by groups or individuals to be able to swap out sims. The cost of a full sim in SL is still very expensive so having the ability to archive sims and swap them out would expand the use of full sims. The LEA sims, for example, if they had been "archived" would be able to provide some amazing full sim exhibitions from the past. Within a few minutes, an exhibition that took someone months to create could be easily recreated. This would also allow people to rework old projects to update with mesh, etc., using the previous sim as a template. I have no clue how much storage an entire full sim full of content, scripts, etc., would take up on a server if it was "zipped." There would obviously be some kind of fee that people would pay to have full sims archived. It should be very nominal though. I think this would also be an economic advantage. People who are struggling to fund one full sim are not going to get another one to create more experiences unless they are willing to scrap all their work on the current one they are using to create a new full sim experience. However, having the ability to archive an entire sim -- and being able to easily reinstate it -- would encourage sim owners to make more use of their sims -- and create or purchase more content for several different sims that could be archived. So that's my question. Can LL set up some kind of full sim archiving capability? Thanks! pixels

It's been fixed. Thank you.

UPDATE: It had been fixed. Thanks Quartz. Hello Lindens and Moles: The SL15B Weekly Gift Box at Bay City airport is not working. The script may need to be reset. Thanks! PS: Looks like someone is trying to fix it . :-)

Thank you. As I noted above, I went with the original touch script. Thank you for info. xoxo

PLEASE NOTE: I figured out a workaround by placing the original touch script in the root -- however, I would still like to know why this didn't work. Thank you. Hello: I need help sorting out this script. I have a listen script that works except for the avatar llDetectedName(0). The list text comes up into chat but Instead of the avatars first name, it returns all 0's. It worked fine as a standalone touch script but I need it to work in a child prim so created a listen script -- and need to have listens to send instructions to other child prime as well. Thank you! This is what pops up in chat: The answer to your question, 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000, is Blah blah blah.. This is the listen script in the child prim: list linesofchat= [ "Blah blah blah.", "Yada yada yada.", "la la la la la la la.", ]; default { state_entry() { llListen( 12345, "", NULL_KEY, "" ); } listen( integer channel, string name, key id, string message ) {if ( message == "motorboat" ) { integer j = llFloor(llFrand(llGetListLength(linesofchat))); string av = llDetectedName(0); av = llList2String(llParseString2List(av,[" "],[""]),0); llSay(0, "The answer to your question, " + av + ", is " + llList2String(linesofchat,j)); } } } This is the call script in the root prim: integer channel = 12345; default { touch_start(integer total_number) { ; llSay(channel,"motorboat"); } }

Thanks for taking a look. Foucault's pendulum is exactly what I'm trying to accomplish / emulate. I can somewhat grasp how the rot would have to be incorporated into the math formula, but it's totes over my head. I was wondering if there is a way to add a few degrees to baseRot = llGetRot(); after a certain amount of swings or time so that it would add say 10 more degrees to the previous get rot pos and after 36 times - a full 360 degree rotation, would be reset back to the 0 degrees. Also was wondering what this would be like if it were made physical and how much that would drive the physics lag on a sim. I recall there is/was a group of folks in SL who experiment in making physical objects do "RL" things instead of the smoke and mirrors of client side animations. Still would have to be scripted. I once tried to make a giant physical perpetual motion thing -- with the five pendulum balls and it sort of worked until the physics blew it apart. Anyway, here's the math that explains the Foucault pendulum in the wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum My workaround idea is to fake the Foucault motion by making a couple dozen of the pendulums, setting them up so each is set rot a few degrees from the previous one and sequentially making them visible/invisible -- would have to auto on/off each one in the sequence and timed to alpha/on off precisely at the resting point. Also would have to on/off the swing or have all 24-36 running the swing script which I would imagine would be lagalicious and they would all probably wind up swinging out of sync. Thanks again. I'll try to contact Dora.

Hiya folks -- I have a large pendulum and am using the Dora Gustafson, Studio Dora swing script (below) from the outworlds script library. The text prims are set up and linked as such: pendulum (cube prim, tapered at the bottom), then a cylinder stretched out on z that acts like a rod and at the top, a small cube that is the root and contains the swing script. it works okay, i had to adjust the angle and the steps in the swing script to decrease the swing angle and slow it down -- well, it works mostly okay, it can be kinda jerky every now and then but I can live with that for now. What I'd like to do next is to rotate the root cube so the pendulum continues to swing but via the root, will also slowly rotate within a circular space on the ground so that if you attached a pencil to the pendulum end, it would act like a kind of spirograph. Not sure how to incorporate the rotation of the root prim into the swing script. I plopped in a target omega line of code but it didn't do anything - I'm guessing because I have no clue what I"m doing and that I read somewhere and can't find it there is a specific target omega for physical objects. (?) in an absolutely perfect world, the swing script would also randomly change the angle so that would alter the length of the path / lines. Appreciate any help. Thank you! This is the swing script: // :SHOW: // :CATEGORY:Pendulum // :NAME:Pendulum // :AUTHOR:Dora Gustafson, Studio Dora // :KEYWORDS: // :CREATED:2015-11-24 20:38:39 // :EDITED:2015-11-24 19:38:39 // :ID:1094 // :NUM:1870 // :REV:1 // :WORLD:Second Life // :DESCRIPTION: // Will swing a prim like a simple pendulum pivoting at an axis parallel to the prim's Y-axis // :CODE: // Pendulum motion by Dora Gustafson, Studio Dora 2012 // Will swing a prim like a simple pendulum pivoting at an axis parallel to the prim's Y-axis // The pivot axis will be at the top of a prim with the Z-axis pointing up // Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendulum_(mathematics) // • A simple pendulum is an idealization of a real pendulum using the following assumptions: // • The rod or cord on which the bob swings is massless, inextensible and always remains taut; // • Motion occurs only in two dimensions, i.e. the bob does not trace an ellipse but an arc. // • The motion does not lose energy to friction or air resistance. // The periode time increase with the Z dimension (the pendulum length)... // If it is too small the motion will not be well because of the time limitation with Key Framed Motions // The parameters set in the script works nice with a 3m long pendulum // If the pendulum is moved, rotated or resized the script must be reset to update the motion float angle=1.0; // max swing from resting (radians) //I CHANGED THIS TO 0.35 float steps=12.0; // number of Key Frames //I CHANGED THIS TO 48.0 float step=0.0; list KFMlist=[]; vector U; vector V; float angleU=0.0; float angleV; integer swing=TRUE; vector basePos; rotation baseRot; default { state_entry() { llSetMemoryLimit( llGetUsedMemory()+0x1000); llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_PHYSICS_SHAPE_TYPE, PRIM_PHYSICS_SHAPE_CONVEX]); basePos = llGetPos(); baseRot = llGetRot(); vector v1 = llGetScale(); float periode = TWO_PI*llSqrt( v1.z/9.81); float dT = periode/steps; dT = llRound(45.0*dT)/45.0; if ( dT < 0.11111111 ) dT = 0.11111111; v1.x = 0.0; v1.y = 0.0; v1 = -0.5*v1*llGetRot(); U = v1; while ( step < steps ) { step += 1.0; angleV = angle*llCos( TWO_PI*step/steps + PI_BY_TWO); V = v1*llAxisAngle2Rot(llRot2Fwd(llGetRot()), angleV); KFMlist += [V-U, llEuler2Rot(< angleV-angleU, 0.0, 0.0>), dT]; angleU = angleV; U = V; } } touch_start( integer n) { llSetKeyframedMotion( [], []); llSleep(0.2); llSetPrimitiveParams([PRIM_POSITION, basePos, PRIM_ROTATION, baseRot]); if ( swing ) llSetKeyframedMotion( KFMlist, [ KFM_MODE, KFM_LOOP]); swing = !swing; } on_rez( integer n) { llResetScript(); } }

Last logged into SL a couple days ago -- everythign was fine. Tonight I logged in as usual and saw that my entire inventory was in loading mode - every folder had the word loading next to it, however, it shows my inventory item number but it's aoubt 60k short -- my avatar was just a ruth hair and some mesh flower head piece I had on when I last logged out. Obviously, my avatar is not loading either.. I cleared my cache and logged in again but it's still not working -- now I get the same loading text next to every folder but the inventory number now reads zero and it's not populating. And my avatar is just smoke. I use singularity 64 -- I also tried SL viewer and had the same problem. I've never run across this before -- where my inventory would not load -- especially after clearing the cache. Very concerned. I also can't IM anyone nor does it seem I can teleport. I checked the grid status and saw they did a rolling maintenance main channel earlier today but that was completed long before I logged in. And wondering if that would affect my account/inventory. Also, I haven't made any changes to my computer such as updateing drivers, etc. so nothing has changed there either since I last logged in a couple days ago when everything worked.. Anyone else experiencing this issue? Any suggestions how I might fixt this? Thanks! **** UPDATE - JULY 6, 2016 --- I logged back in to an empty sim -- FURBALL -- no changes to the viewer and the inventory repopulated itself so all is good so far. Cleaning up my inventoyr -- thanks for the help. And the tip on keeping folders under 5K content. Will check all to make sure they stay under the limit. Thanks again! .

So am trying to buy stuff -- keep getting notices that transaction failed, then not enough L's in (have more than enough), then bought more L's and the transaction went through but the total is not reflected/added to the L's I already have. Mega issue needs to fixed asap. Thank you.

So am trying to buy stuff -- keep getting notices that transaction failed, then not enough L's in (have more than enough), then bought more L's and the transaction went through but the total is not reflected/added to the L's I already have. Mega issue needs to fixed asap. Thank you.

I'm particularly happy that Linden Labs has appointed itself as my attorney. I will now direct any legal actions toward me to their offices. However, I will need the private numbers of the Linden Lab legal team in case I need bail or have a pressing legal question that keeps me up at night. I assume that will be forthcoming? I should have Rod's personal number too, just in case the legal team is tied up writing the next version of the TOS. Thank you Linden Labs for covering my ass -- I'll never have to worry about being sued or having to use some pro-bono or court appointed attorney now that you represent my legal interests. NOTE TO LL Legal Team: I may be in touch soon -- apparently there will be a huge protest against Fracking coming up and I plan on chaining myself to a fracking rig and will likely be arrested so please hurry up with those 24/7 phone numbers. xo

To Rod the Humble: Just reading your explanation of your "Marriage Game." I think I need a marriage counselor. Good luck wth the new gig -- there will be lots of whine and cheeze waiting for you.