I’ve been staying out of this mess with Linden Lab’s trademark shenanigans, mostly because there’s nothing to gain really.  They have a lawyer or probably lawyers on retainer and they have to do something.  So, modifying the usage of their name and trademarks is something for the lawyers to do.   From LL’s standpoint, it might be worth something in the future, so it’s worth protecting.

I’m not a lawyer, but I think most of the bloggers are pretty immune to this whole mess as they probably fall under the category of reporters.  You don’t see little TM’s and disclaimers on CNN’s webpages when they report on other companies, do you?

On the flip side, they’re probably fully within their rights to protect their name from being used by other companies for financial gain.  This makes sense.  If you were running a company, you’d want the same protection.  So companies like SLExchange might find themselves in trouble.  Trademarks are to prevent consume confusion, and that makes sense.  Is SLExchange owned or run by Linden Labs?  No.  Same thing with the whole SLart silliness.

That’s probably why Onrez has the name it does, it doesn’t infringe.  This does bring up an interesting point that I hadn’t considered when I started this blog.  I might have a personal problem with my name.  Now, Veyron is a French surname, and I suppose I could one could argue it’s generic.  But it is probably inevitable a bored VW lawyer is going to nail me.  If not today, eventually.  It’s like gravity.  I suppose other Avatars might have similar problems, who knows.

It’s also interesting to note that lawyers by their nature are bullies.  They usually try to avoid court, since once you land in court everything is in play.  There is no defined outcome.  Take for example this reply to Monster Cable’s threats to a smaller company.  My guess is Monster will go away.  They want an easy victim, not one that will fight.

What does surprise me is that Linden Labs continues to make public relations faux pas.  Pretty much with every plan, statement or policy change for the last year they have managed to not only get both feet in their mouth but generally blow one foot off just before insertion.

I have noticed a trend though.  Linden Lab’s has been very consistent.  Take for example the number of “issues” in the last month.  What it seems to me is that the grid starts to really fall apart at high concurrency loads.  What happened to the “contingency” plans from last year?  Restricting uses to the true addicts.  :)  I can’t ever recall it happening.  Ah, but then it would be inconsistent if we followed through on something.  Which I guess is where the trademark policy will go.

Oh well.

-Veyron

I finished reading Eudeamon yesterday… It was a great read. It was really quite enjoyable. It reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode (or was it Outer Limits) where a person was condemned to be invisible for a year as punishment. It only involved putting a raised symbol on his forehead. From that point on all of society ignored him. Eudeamon has more of a techno-sci-fi piece to it that that episode which was much more cruel actually. Anyhow if you get some time, give the story a try - you’ll probably liked it.

To go hand and hand with the Eudeamon story, I also watched Secretary. It is quite good and it involves BSDM, but not really any sex (okay there’s a few very brief scenes). Instead of trying to be cured of her submissiveness and his dominance, they embrace it and in the end it makes them both happy.

What I found really amusing was the times the Secretary intentionally tries to get “punished”. Gee, it was deja vu all over again….

-Veyron

Okay, we Second Lifer’s do some weird things, but this has to take the cake….

New Haven, Conn. — April 17, 2008

Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art.  Her art project includes visual representations, a press release and other narrative materials.  She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages.  The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body.

She is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art.

Had these acts been real, they would have violated basic ethical standards and raised serious mental and physical health concerns.

Well, she got the attention she was looking for, obviously.

-Veyron

So I was able to upgrade site here with the latest and greatest Wordpress, 2.5. I was able to do it pretty painlessly with the Instant Upgrade plugin. Except for the first time it did not seem to work, and I had to restore some of the files from backup.

Anyhow, contact me if something looks broken….

On another matter, I’m pondering what to do with my hosting provider. I’m not terribly ecstatic with their uptime or speed. I’ve looked at colocating a server, changing providers to someone like Dreamhost, and even running a virtual machine with Amazon EC2 service. None of which I’m happy with. I moved off blogger to get more control, so I think Wordpress.com is out.

Anyone have any thoughts?

-Veyron

If you’ve lost any inventory (checking now) here’s a tip I got today from The Brood….

If your account is enabled for using the Beta Grid (learn more here), then if you realize that you have missing inventory, you can try this tip. Follow the steps below as soon as possible:

1. If you do not yet have it installed, install the latest Beta Client.

2. Login to the Beta Grid and find a quiet place where no one will annoy you while you are trying to solve a problem.

DO NOT REZ ANYTHING WHILE ON THE BETA GRID. GO INTO BUSY MODE IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT ACCEPT ITEMS, DO NOT DELETE ITEMS, DO NOT PASS OR RENAME ITEMS.

3. Open your inventory, type in a search term and allow your inventory to populate.

4. Got your goods back? Awesome! Quit the Beta client, login to the Main Grid and do the same thing. Once you have retrieved your items on the Main Grid and your inventory has fully populated, logout and cache that stuff.

5. Log back into the Main Grid, recheck inventory, smile a lot, raise Hell as usual.

This technique has been proven to work more than half the time so it may save your hide. Please bear in mind that you should only expect positive results if you attempt this workaround as soon as possible upon discovery of your missing items. I am not guaranteeing that you will be able to recover your items but having at least a chance at doing so is much better than no chance at all. I hope this helps some of the residents that fall victim to this issue.

Read more about inventory loss issues on the Wiki. 

-Veyron
   

Tags: bugs, inventory

I have signups for Ping.fm. It allows you to update a lot of services like Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce at one time. It is in beta right now. If you want one, contact me to get one.

-Veyron

I’m beginning to see a pattern here….

1. Today:  Various Issues
2. April 1:   Various Inworld Issues
3. March 31:  Second Life In-World Service Issues
4. March 30:  In World Services Down/Website and Support
5. March 30:  Transactions Timing Out
6. March 29:  Inworld Money Transactions Problematic at the Moment
7. March 28:  Asset Server Issues
8. March 27:  Inworld Issue Affecting Transactions
9. March 26:  Obviously took the day off….
10. March 25:  In World Service Disruptions Under Investigation
11. March 24:  Disruption in inworld services

I’d keep going, but I was getting tired of cutting and pasting - there seemed to be an endless supply of entries like these.  Oh, what we really need now to help Linden Labs out is a trouble blog entry generator.  It might save them a lot of time in creating the blog entry about the problem.  It could slap some random words together for the title, like “Transactions Inworld Timing Out Affecting Servers”.  Then they could use the tech support excuse generator to follow up with it.

Maybe we need to turn this into a game.  Sort of a meta-game.  This doesn’t quite work as a drinking game, as they manage to spread out the disasters by at least a day.  At most you’d get a headache, and we already have that.  I know!  We could do something like SLBrokenDownInTheGrid Bingo.  (Now does that meet new trademark policy?)  You get a bingo card and every time they have an outage, you get the first letters of all capitalized words they use in the title.  What would make a good prize?  Hmmm…  I need to think about that.  I do have this stockade I could put the winner in.

Obviously, any members of Linden Labs’ couldn’t play because they could fix the game.  Like they COULD STOP THE GRID FROM CRATERING EVERY FRIGGIN DAY!

I’m sure they’re getting right on with solving these problems as soon as they pick the next letters to use….

-Veyron

Supposedly, I see that it is possible with a bug exploit to make a giant avatar…. Veyron really want’s to know how to do it. If it’s a big secret email me how it’s done. I promise to reward to the informer….

-Veyron

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: bug, avatar

I’ll admit it, for grins and giggles, several times I’ve camped out.  Why?  I’m not sure, perhaps the thought of getting something for nothing.  Which really is not true since I am sure I consumed more in electricity than I gained in Linden dollars.  A few times it was almost a social event.  Sitting in a silly chair with some other strangers making odd conversation.

One thing that does annoy me is the whine from various n00bs and even some veteran Second Lifer’s that they have no money to buy Linden dollars to get things.  Somehow this stretches the believable.  The fact you could get online with a computer makes me think you’re exaggerating.

You know and I know that a few dollars in Second Life, if spent wisely, will go a long long way.  The price of a Starbuck’s latte and scone will do you well.  I think these cheapies probably fall into a few groups:

1. The underaged.  Sneaking into the main grid.  They don’t have PayPal or a Credit Card.
2. The lazy.  This goes without explanation - because that would take a lot of work to explain.
3. The sneakers.  Afraid of producing a money trail to their Second Life account.  Get over it, we know where you live, it’s just we don’t really care about your little life (although it makes you feel better that we might)….
4. The true idiots.  See the Second Life Fashion Police for the evidence file on this one. 

But I do offer a small solution for the rest of you lindenless who don’t fall into the above, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.  You can be paid slightly more than camping for using the grey matter between your ears that computers don’t have.  As part of this, you can play around with a new service called TagCow.  For a bit less than a penny you can tag a picture with who and what it is.  Arrington thinks that you could make a $1.20 US an hour at this….  Which is around L$350 - better than camping - except you’ll have to work at it.

Moo!

-Veyron

I have been in Second Life now for some time. First off, let me confess that I am one of those special kind of users, a full on addict. So my views are bit colored. I put up with far more than an average user probably would. I use the service far more than normal people do, and I bitch probably more than other people do. I’m in that 5-10% userbase of heavy users. But you already knew that.

Next I want to be clear, I am an eternal optimist. I want things to get better and I want to see Second Life succeed. I love the place, but then with every minor and major grid implosion is is being coming more and more clear that my optimism is not going to be paid off.

The other day Tiessa and I were discussing how things were on the grid. I commented that it seems like there’s a minor disaster every day now. She said, well, it used to be a major disaster every day, so obviously, it is getting better. I would argue that it is not getting better, it is getting worse.

I have seen things pretty bad on the grid. Major outages, inventory disasters, so many client crashes in one day I couldn’t even begin to count them, yet for how much better we are now, things are getting worse. Why? It’s a time and distance thing. Things have not improved enough given the amount of time that has past. It’s a slippery slope and it’s not obvious that it is happening.

Most of us put up with a lot - a lot - of basic shit with Second Life. Why? We really do love the people, the environment, and potential the place has. We got past the hideous learning curve, the icky UI, and the crashes. I think most of us try hard to overlook a lot of the warts of Second Life except when things go really wrong.

1. Ridiculously low number of avatars a sim can support without going into the toilet.
2. The joke it is to walk or gawd forbid try to drive or fly from one sim to another.
3. Hair up your arse. Hippos on your friends list? Other ludicrous problems.
4. Lack of foresight causing no end of problems.
5. Lag me into the ground.

The sad part a few of these problems could be assaulted with some brute force. Yes, it’s not the smart way to go, but it does work. A few years ago I figured out that a faster computer is much cheaper than a few hours of programmers time, and usually guarantees results. Take the current Class 5 sim servers. They started appearing in October 2006. With 4GB of RAM and a Xeon 5148. That should have obviously made the sims faster, right? Nope, it allowed them to pile more sims onto a single server. That’s what’s really going on. Servers are now twice as fast, but not Second Life servers, and even if they were, it wouldn’t matter, because they would simply pile more sims into a single system. In fact, I would suspect that they are already doing this, which leads me to the next bad thing that’s going to happen… over-commit.

Ah yes, now when they really want to start making money, they will start to pack more sims into servers, more than they can really run all at full speed, users be damned. Like we would know the difference at this point anyway? Linden Labs gets to sell more sims without actually spending any more on infrastructure. I’m sure the temptation will be irresistible at some point if they haven’t done it already.

I play quite a bit in the Havok 4 sims, and I can honestly say they seem to have done nothing for lag improvement. So, that’s a bust. I hear concerns that the mono project will not make things even slower than they are now. One thing that is probably hurting lag is voice. I’m not sure how much it’s being used, but it has to be eating up a lot of bandwidth. That bandwidth is now unavailable to make things less laggy.

What does this all boil down to? Things are not getting better, they’re not really getting worse, but it’s moving sideways. Neither really better but not really bad enough to really raise hell. Instead of bitching about what needs to be done, let’s go over an obvious wish list:

1. More than 25 groups - duh - already said it won’t happen. It’s just *too* hard for them. Whine bitch moan.
2. More attachment points, maybe some more clothing points. (We’ll just ignore that one.)
   
3. No more inventory loss… uh - we’re working on that. We promise.
4. More than 75 avies in a sim without lagging the hell out it. You can’t tell me in 2008 it can’t and should be done. If they wanted to they could support 150. Hell - 250.
5. No more lag. Let’s try not introduce the word LAG into every language in the world.
   
6. No more crashing clients. Let’s be honest here - world peace and harmony will happen before it drops below 5% of sessions ending in a crash.

You know and I know. Linden Labs has made miles of promises and has miles to go. You know they can’t deliver on them. Let’s all be brutally honest about it. It ain’t gonna happen. Anyone who’s been dealing with Second Life and Linden Labs long enough knows none of these things they can actually deliver on. It don’t think it is for lack of brain power, I think it has been a management problem in Linden Labs. We see Cory and now Phil depart management rolls, but probably now a culture problem. They have years of bad habits that will be very hard to break.

Where are we going to be in future? We will be in the same basic place in spring of 2009 as we are right now. Bitching about lag, inventory loss, and crashes.

Where does this lead us? Ask Ultima Online what happened when World of Warcraft came along. Second Life survives because their competitors are incompetent. They limp along dragging us long with them because of that. But it won’t last. Nature and capitalism hate a vacuum. And that giant sucking sound coming from Linden Labs will soon draw - if it hasn’t already - a competentcompetitor. Think it can’t happen? Ultima Online had a huge market share of the MMORPG field, now it’s tiny.

When will it start? I think the first sign will be a change in the value of the Linden dollar. I suspect Linden Labs has is actively manipulating the currency market to keep the exchange rate more or less constant. I expect that will end at some point as it is costing Linden Labs too much money. Then inflation will start. The economy will fall apart. It will be interesting to see how they might try to control it. Price controls?

Second Life is at tipping point right now. It’s going to get better or it’s going to get worse.

-Veyron

Now boys, pay attention to your flight attendant. She has important safety information to tell you.

Hmmm…. I wonder who cast this little skit? Who said safety can’t be sexy? So, buckle up, I heard it might be a bumpy ride today….

-Veyron

better than the face of the virgin mary on a tortilla, originally uploaded by artolog.

I wonder if Tiessa knows anything about this….

Apparently this appears everyday around 2pm at the St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco.

-Veyron

Most. Distrubing. Teddy Bear. Ever., originally uploaded by mathowie.

Queue stripper music….

-Veyron

The DJ for the upcoming party is going to be Nova Sakigake.  She will be putting out some cool tunes over in Tiessa’s Club.  The location for the party is in South Gate.  South Gate has a forced teleport entry location, so you will need to walk to the party - follow the beacon.

-Veyron

Time for some fun in South Gate at Tiessa’s, Lexy’s, and Veyron’s den of naughtiness and debauchery.  It’s a Hump Day Brood Party.  We need some fuel for the Brood Gate and dang it we know the best source of sin in Second Life - and I don’t think it is playing canasta….  The Shadow has been doing her best to keep the Brood Gate fueled, but now I think we need to help her out.  Starting at 8pm and going until 11pm SLT  on March 26th.  Bring a friend!  Better yet, bring a victim!

Veyron is also going to offer some prizes!  First of all, everyone attending gets a limited edition party token.  You must have an active CCS on to enter a contest.  You must be at least level 2 on the CCS to enter a contest and to get the Grand Prize.  It takes a hour or two to get up to level 2, so if you are new to City of Lost Angels and want to play at the party, best to plan ahead and get acquainted with things.  This is to try to limit party crashers.

From 8pm to 8:45pm SLT:

L$250 to the Sexiest Male CoLA N00B.  Avie must be at least 14 days old, and must be between levels 3 and 7 inclusive on their CCS.
L$250 to the Sexiest Female CoLA N00B.  Avie must be at least 14 days old, and must be between levels 3 and 7 inclusive on their CCS.

From 9pm to 9:45pm SLT:

L$500 for the Sexiest Avie chained on a leash.
L$500 for the Best Chest (Male or Female)….

From 10pm to 10:45pm SLT:

L$1000 for the Most Exotic Male Avie
L$1000 for the Most Exotic Female Avie

The Grand Prize….   L$2000 for the most number of confirmed make-outs that get to - uh - home plate….  Must be done between 8pm and 10:45pm SLT.  The deed must be done within the land of Tiessa, Lexy and Veyron; on ground level or underground (no skybox).  Must be emoted in open chat, no IMing, poseball needs to be used, and no dry humping - you’re not a teenager (like do I really have to make these rules?)….  One couple can only count once, but we do appreciate that extra endurance.  Both avies must fill out the report card confirming the time and place to keep things honest…  There will be a reporting station outside of the loft.  :)  Veyron will be the final judge of any cheating….  Cheaters will be used to make condoms for teenagers.

There will be plenty of locations scatter through the area for play, plus Tiessa’s nightclub area for dancing.  Wallflowers can also be expected to grabbed, chained up, and possibly molested at gunpoint.

Hopefully there will be a GM or two on hand to perhaps award XP bonuses for certain activities….

I will post a SLURL to the location shortly.  It will be in the South Gate sim.

Now, if you want to get up to level 3 on the CCS system, you’ll need a few hours of play in City of Lost Angels or one of the other CCS sims, so plan ahead.  The City of Lost Angels Manual is a good start on how to play. 

-Veyron

Tags: sex, cola, party