Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays from all the crew at Second Life Newspaper.

Cartoon of the Day

A Former SL Mentor Speaks Out

With the official Second Life Mentor Volunteer group no more, where can a newbie go for help and whom can older residents recommend? Is good help hard to find? Former Mentor Xymbers Slade has a few thoughts in Community.

Today in SL Newspaper

Below in Main News, we look at a sim of Christmas past at Renaissance Island, and the Lindens announce they intend to do something about script lag. In Fashion, M&M announce new releases. In Extra Extra, a poetic look "Inside the Minds' Eye." And in Community, Breezes ponders during a "Snowy Night All Alone."

Renaissance Island

By Shellie Sands

Browsing through music events, I saw  a concert of period yuletide renaissance music.  I thought this would be enjoyable and different.  A lover of the renaissance period, I tp'd to partake in the concert.  Upon arrival, I was given a note which provided a very interesting history of the origins of Christmas from ancient times.  Excerpts of that note are as follows:

"In medieval England Christmas lasted for twelve days, from December 25 to January 6, the date of the celebration of the Epiphany. Originally Christmas was celebrated on January 6 when presents were given in honour of St.Nicholas. Some Eastern Europeans still celebrate Christmas on this date."

"It was a time of merriment, feasting and general festivity, but still primarily a 'holy' day.  The 16th century didn’t participate in Christmas celebration as we know it now. Until the 4th century, Christmas could be celebrated throughout Europe anywhere between early January through to late September. It was Pope Julius I who happened upon the bright idea of adopting 25th December as the actual date of the Nativity. The choice appears both logical and shrewd - blurring religion with existing feast days and celebrations. Any merrymaking could now be attributed to the birth of Christ rather than any ancient pagan ritual. "

"One form or merry making may involve the Feast of Fools, presided over by the Lord of Misrule. The feast was an unruly event, involving much drinking, revelry and role reversal. The Lord of Misrule, normally a commoner with a reputation of knowing how to enjoy himself, was selected to direct the entertainment. The Lord of Misrule sometimes led revelers on wild nighttime processions through town, which of course angered the resident church leaders. However, churchmen had their own form of this custom--the appointment as a young boy as bishop for the holiday season. Lords usually chose this time to bestow gifts upon their servants; a common present was a new suit of clothes. The festival is thought to have originated from the benevolent Roman masters who allowed their servants to be the boss for a while. "

While I didn't get much satisfaction from the concert due to streaming issues, I decided to walk around. I arrived at the clock tower, and touched a sign that read "Pray touch for notes regarding said place."   Note in hand, I strolled on and came upon a horse and carriage offering  a free carriage ride to the docks.  I hopped on and went for a short  gait to the docks where the carriage deposited me and vanished, presumably returning to its station.  Having passed several quaint looking shops down the path by which the carriage took me, I strolled back up the path, stopping first at Madison Creations, a shop selling medieval clothing.  Loving all things medieval, and having a natural footwear fetish, I was compelled to purchase a pair of shoes.  The shoes come in a variety of colors and are crafted to match the gowns, all made by Isolde, one of my favorite designers.  Across the way was a shop called, appropriately enough, Medieval Attire.  In addition to the clothing, Tudor style homes and farmhouse are available for purchase there.  Up the path a bit is the Roble House, boasting art and antiquities. 

Other points of interest on the island include St. David's Society Hall, where you can learn of traditions involving Yule logs,  free Renaissance period clothing, the Parish of St. Minutia's, a lovely church that was one of the monestaries that escaped The King's ransacking, Lagswell Hall, The Wharf on the Thames,  Market Square, Globe (a replica of the London Globe originally built in 1599), the Jousting Arena,  and Bulwark, the arena where men at arms train. Individual landmarks are included in the note given at the Clock Tower. 

"Renaissance Island was created in Feb 2007 by a group of dedicated historians that envisioned what life during tudor times would be.  They collaborated to form a group that would take on roles of parish members that in this era would have lived such as what you will see. They created objects  to allow visitors to  interact and feel how life would have been in tudor times.   Don't be surprised if you see King Henry VIII,  or Queen Bess, herself,  as our sim covers the entire 16th period .  Of course you shouldn't see them at the same time, but depending on our events,  one or the other shall bestow their graces and blessings to their parish. "

Visit Renaissance Island and take the LMs to the various places.  Although I was disappointed that I could not hear the concert, what I got instead was a tour through a quaint village and many  interesting historical facts. 

Eye on the Blog: Script Limits

Second Life is a rich and engaging interactive world due to scripts. Every time you open a door, fly a plane, sail a boat, use a vending machine or dance in a night club a Resident authored script is interpreting your interactions to make things happen.

Unfortunately the current scripting system does not include any mechanism to limit the number of scripts that can be added to the world or attachments on avatars. This allows both malicious Residents to cripple simulators by running huge numbers of scripts and well meaning Residents to accidentally run more scripts than a simulator can cope with.

When too many scripts are running in a region the server simulating that region runs out of memory, dramatically increasing the lag experienced in all regions running on the same server. This is especially noticeable in homestead regions as more homesteads run on a single server. In addition, when an avatar with many scripted attachments enters a region the simulator has a lot of work to do setting up the scripts to run in the new process, causing a lag spike that can be noticed by all Residents using that region.

At Linden Lab we are working with Mono developers to reduce the lag spikes experienced when scripts enter a region, adding scripting functions that allow more efficient scripts to be authored and building a system for limiting the resources used by scripts on a per m^2 and per avatar basis.

We're also working very hard to analyse the current memory usage by scripts across the grid to determine the best values for script limits that minimise the lag caused by simulators running out of memory while affecting as few Residents as possible.

We're planning to make script memory usage along with our proposed script limits visible to all Residents for an extended period before enforcing any limits. This will give us time to gather feedback on the proposed limits and identify any situations where we're going to be imposing unreasonable restrictions and give will give you time to compare your usage against the proposed limits, give us feedback and have plenty of time to prepare.

I'm looking forward to working with you all towards a lag free and more efficient Second Life in 2010.

Posted by Babbage Linden in the Second Life Blog.

Read comments under the blog post Here.

Climate Change and Hopenhagen in SL

With 20,000 RL people meeting in Copenhagen, Second Life is buzzing with chat about climate change at numerous events and ecology exhibits. I found some incredible rays of hope here in Second Life beyond the gloom and doom of global warming.

Lately it's fashionable to be a climate change skeptic; I re-examined the science, starting with SL resources at NASA, NOAA, and EPA sims, and what I found is quite shocking. For brevity, I wrote a companion blog with all my notes and citations at: http://tiny.cc/T0p9f

I'll summarize what I discovered. The Earth is heating up steadily for the past century. A dramatic change happened to Earth around 1979; we broke the planet; 57% of human-caused carbon emissions persist in the atmosphere; Earth can't absorb it. Earth heating and greenhouse gases are accelerating, and mean temperatures are expected to rise 2 to 3 more Celsius degrees this century. Since seas rise as land ice melts at the exponential rate of temperature cubed, this is equivalent to a sea level rise of 21 to 41 meters (i.e. about 100 feet).

That would be bad. A 100 foot sea rise and concurrent storms would put under water 13 of the world's 15 largest cities, virtually all coastal settlements, and several nations (Holland, Bangladesh, Pacific Islands) would be mostly submerged. It is painfully obvious that this is not an option for humankind.

Now the hope. I met an amazing SL gentlemen, an exhibitor at OneClimate sim, who has wonderful hopeful ideas and SL freebies to share! Meme Autopoiesis is an environmental researcher at the RL Institute for Sustainable Communication. Meme says energy efficiency is a killer app; he told me examples and case studies about how computers, data centers, and electric power can be redesigned for great efficiency. Meme is most excited about Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED). OLEDs are a new fangled light source, made from organic compounds, in particular melanin, the biochemical that colors our RL skin. Melanin can be made from renewable plant resources. Cool to the touch because they are highly efficient, OLEDs can replace most of our energy hog plasma TVs, light bulbs, computer displays, and even printouts and newspapers.

Meme invites you down to OneClimate to pick up many colors of free Hopenhagen T-Shirts. Hopenhagen is an SL/RL campaign to give people a sense of hope and empowerment about climate change. RL Hopenhagen shirts are 100% recycled PET from plastic water and soda bottles. Most importantly, Meme wants you to sign the Hopenhagen Petition online at http://www.hopenhagen.org/ Over 1,700,000 people have signed it, "voicing support" for a successful Copenhagen conference.

But what can you really do to repair the Earth? Going Green campaigns are not enough; it's high time for political action. Get involved in Second Life, get informed, and become RL climate change activist. Meet inspiring eco-activists in SL at Better World, OneClimate, Africa Live, Ecologia, Etopia, and World Wildlife Fund. If US citizen, call, email, or write your Senator at http://senate.gov (SENATORS link). One letter to Congress counts as much as 1000 emails. In a nutshell, that's what I'd do. Every voice matters alot!

By Any1 Gynoid

Twitter Hacked by “Iranian Cyber Army”

Twitter was hacked for a short time on early Friday morning, December 18. The attackers called themselves the “Iranian Cyber Army.” Despite the disruption, service was soon restored.

People whom tried accessing Twitter durring the time it was hacked, around 10 PM SL time. were redirected to a website displaying a green flag with Arabic script reading “Ya Hussein,” probably meaning a grandson of the prophet Mohammed, and a suggestion that the hackers were most likely Shiite Muslims, whom are mostly in Iran. Blue script near the flag read “Hezbollah is victorious.” There was also a poem with further words of defiance.

By 11:30 AM, users were able to access Twitter again, and on the official page a message was posted, "Twitter's DNS (domain name system) records were temporarily compromised but have now been fixed."

Last summer, Twitter found itself involved in Iranian politics when those protesting the disputed election used it and other social networking sites to both make reports and broadcast pictures. As the authorites had been trying to shut off media access to the dissidents, Twitter proved to be a thorn in their side.

Some speculate the attackers targeted Twitter in retaliation. But this is just the latest of a number of similar troubles. In August, Twitter was knocked offline for two hourrs due to an attack on a Russian hacker. The service has also been the target of scam artists.


Source: BBC, CNN

Cartoon of the Day

SL Ice Hotel

The 2009 SL Ice Hotel is now open. Located at Lapplandia (231, 154, 21) the Ice Hotel sits high on the Artic Circle, with beautiful views of snowy mountains and glacial blue ice. Like its real life counterpart, the SL Ice Hotel will melt when the warm weather returns. In the meantime, you and your mate can enjoy all the best that winter offers: ice skating, snow sports, dancing, and of course, cuddling.

     Ice skates are provided free, and there are benches and booths for resting and putting on skates. Sleds can be rezzed for fun times, too.

     The hotel is managed by Ewa Aska and Jesper Prinz.  Ewa gave me a tour of the hotel and its surroundings. The lobby is decorated with hanging furs, a concierge desk, and even has a register for guests to sign. Standard rooms, which rent for $700L per week, come with furs, table and chairs, dance balls, and a great view. Or you can splurge on a larger deluxe room for $900 per week that has furs on the wall but a real bed.  A deluxe room is perfect for a honeymoon, anniversary, or holiday treat.

     There are bars, ballrooms for dancing, and even a wedding chapel. The chapel is elegantly simple and seats around 30 on tiers of ice. Furs are provided here, too, for everyone´s comfort. Bridal consultant services are also available. 

 

By Grey Lupindo

Trans Siberian Orchestra Rocks SL

On December 13, SL rocked with sounds of the Trans Siberian Orchestra. The group played a rare concert at Dreamcastland, complete with laser lights, and a full stage of guitarists, singers, strings, and drums. The group played all of the holiday music that they are famous for: "Wizard in Winter", "Nutrocker", "Christmas Canon Rock", "Christmas Eve Sarajevo", "A Mad Russiańs Christmas", and more.
     The musicians who performed  were: Lead guitarist Dagoth Graves, Drummer Vyper DeSantis, Lyorick Flux on Keyboard, Guitarists Chuck Morgridge, Toaster Ragu, and Kenny Moreland, Singers Giggsy DeViana, Blaize Rockett, and Tarn Haalan, Violinists Nikolaos Frog, Morningstar Braveheart, and Redangel Paine, Celloist Ruth Sandalwood, and Sarena Penucca on Bass.
     A huge crowd cheered and applauded during the hour long concert. The sim quickly filled, and many residents were unable to get in. This concert was the second of three held in SL. The last one will be December 23 at the Sands of Freedom.

By Grey Lupindo
(pictures also by Bixyl Shuftan)

Cartoon of the Day

“Copenhagen” Green Expo in Second Life

With environmental activists meeting in Copenhagen for the Global Warming Summit, a number of Second Life residents have been organizing to bring attention to environmental issues. In several sims, exhibits have been put up, and events have been held.

In the OneWorld Meetings sim, there is a pavilion with numerous displays up for people to read, calling for action to cut down carbon dioxide emissions by industry, and encouraging residents to take steps to “go green.” Some exhibits had links to websites.

Again and again, there were the numbers “350.” The number is what some environmental activists believe is the “safe upper limit for carbon dioxide” in parts per million. Anything more they feel puts the world at risk of rising global temperatures and disruptions in the climate. The number has been exceeded, and activists have demanded that the countries of the world take steps to reverse it.

Nearby sims continued the theme. To the west in Plush Nonprofit Commons was an European village, with an occasional display. To the north in Health Commons was a rocky shore with a few animals. It also had a “house of horrors” describing how common activities as simple as using make-up had a detrimental effect on the environment. There was no sign, at least near OneWorld Meetings, of an exhibit describing the criticism of the Theory of Global Warming.

SL Newspaper met up with two of the organizers of the event, Paolo Rousselot and Marian Sapphire. “She deserves her due,” Paolo described Marian. Paolo says the idea for the event, “came about shortly after I opened an office on Vio. The owner there kept asking me to host a green expo. Delays kept pushing it back to where eventually I suggested an Expo be held in conjunction with the Copenhagen Conference.” Unfortunately, Vio had to back off from hosting due to problems. So Paolo looked elsewhere, “I met the management team for Beta Business park, and we were off!”

Of the others behind the event, Paolo told, “The Beta folks have been indispensable, Gayle Cabaret from Beta, Coughdrop Littlething from OneClimate. Coughdrop is actually in Copenhagen now with the London staff. We've had a wonderful response from a great many people and groups in Second Life. Many of which have displays on both OneWorld Meeting and Beta.”

Paolo mentioned there had been a number of topics discussed, “Energy from Biomass, EcoVillages ... Meshed Gears ... had a wonderful class on Integral Farming.” Paolo described integral farming as managing the water and waste output of a farm. “We've presented topics that are both directly related to climate change, as well as subjects that don't appear to be. Last week, Bev Landar gave a wonderful presentation on the complexity of human interaction. On the surface it wouldn't appear to be a fit, until you consider everything that we will have to address in the coming years. In that light it is extremely pertinent. ... we'll have a presentation on Negotiations. Not exactly ‘green’ - but then what is going on right now in Copenhagen? Won't the pressures of 21st century challenges require us to know ‘negotiations’ quite thoroughly?”

Paolo brought up the Open Panel Discussion on Friday December 18th from 2:30 PM to about 4 PM, “Pooky (Amsterdam) has committed, as has Hacks from NOAA. Also Delia from Better Earth. Then I'll close things out.” Of the problems the real-life conference in Copenhagen has had, Paolo couldn’t think of any impact on the expo, “not that I know of.” He listed the expo’s real setback as technical difficulties canceling a live Q&A session.

When the “Climategate” scandal was mentioned, Paolo had this to say, “That isn’t a simple ‘either/or’ question. It’s not whether you believe in climate change or you don't. We clearly cannot continue to treat our planet and each other the way we have in the past. The challenges the 21st Century will bring simply won't allow it. Air pollution from Los Angeles and Phoenix mixes over the desert. Pine trees at the tree line in the Swiss alps are dying, and guess what from? The pollutants can be traced directly back to LA & Phoenix. But clearly it illustrates how we have to recognize out behavior in one corner of the planet affects life in another.”

The real-life meeting in Copenhagen has been hit with a number of problems, such as hundreds of protesters arrested, the timing of the “Climategate” scandal, and the conference itself being deadlocked between rising economic powers and established ones, China and India stating they will not be held to any global warming treaty. Another issue was VIPs creating their own sizable “carbon footprint” by taking private jets to the talks.

With people at the Green Expo using only the amount of energy needed to power their computers, some in Second Life might argue the real greens were here.

Bixyl Shuftan

Your christmas wonderlands!

Send me a picture of your fantasy winter wonderland and i will publish it in our community section!

Jpeg format 520 x 380 pixels preferred email to me at dana.vanmoer (at) gmail.com

(the picture above is my home at skybeam vistare)

Dana

Today in SL Newspaper

In Main News below, we look at the Xanadu disco club, a good place to dance to the music of the 1970s and '80s. The Community section shows the "Corner of Relaxation," where one can find a number of freebie Christmas decorations. And in Extra Extra, writer Dana Paxson not only brought his novel onto the web, but into Second Life as well.

Perri's Xanadu

In the movie “Xanadu,” two men turn an empty auditorium into a successful nightclub with the help of a muse. In Rainbow Wood, it might not have been a muse behind the club Xanadu, but there are certainly a number of creative people behind it.

Club Xanadu is owned by Perri Prinz (Perri Rhoades in real-life) and RECoyote Mindes. “There was another Club Xanadu when I first joined Second Life,” Perri explained, “It was my favorite hang out, but the owner never advertised it, so it soon disappeared. Later I found the building on SLX and bought it. I carried it around in my inventory for about a year, having no place to put it. Then we got a place, and REC wanted to (open it) too, since he liked the movie. So we set it up. But we soon saw it was beyond us to do a real Xanadu sim based on the movie. So we developed it into a classic rock club for people who enjoy both popular and obscure rock music from the 70's and 80's.” Club Xanadu opened in May 1, 2009.

Perri and RECoyote told of another club Xanadu, but with a much different atmosphere than theirs. “Some of our old employees were also with a group called Peach Fuzz that makes SL videos” Perri explained, “They liked the idea of building a more close to the movie Xanadu as a set for their films. We helped them find the building on SLX, and they built a true replica of the movie disco.” RECoyote explained this other Xanadu was more detailed, “but they are thinking of the free yiff of the 70s, not the love of music that the movie did.” Perri explained, “Peach Fuzz is pretty much an X-rated business, and strictly Furry. Our Xanadu is PG and created with the general Second Life population in mind.”

RECoyote, “When we couldn't do a exact copy of the disco, we went for a 70s feel and music. But even getting DJ that stick to a 70 and 80 easy pop listing music is not easy.” Still, they found some who would, such as Nydia Tungsten, Lsai Aeon, Dusk Griswold, Timber Wolfenhaut, and Asuna Kaligawa. “Timber is one of the best for era music,” RECoyote felt. “Well, I'm the main DJ,” Perri told, “My music plays there round the clock, 24/7, when another DJ is not hosting an event. I play eclectic 70's and 80's album music, hit tracks interspeced with non-hit tracks. Disco, Classic Rock, Soft Rock, Progressive Rock, Jazz, Swing, Rock & Roll and Novelty tunes. We have other DJ's that specialize in things like Anime tunes, Euro-disco and other things for special events.” RECoyote described their special events as including, “Hippie, Groovy, Cartoons, Movies, Sci Fi, and a mix of general events.” Spoke Perri, “Whatever theme we can imagine, we do it.”

Club Xanadu is on a wide sky platform high in the air over Rainbow Wood. The exterior, like it’s movie counterpart, is based on the real life Pan Pacific Auditorium. The interior is dominated by a huge colorful disco dance floor, with a DJ stand in the back decorated with a row of vinyl records. One clicks on either the black singles danceball or the rainbow-colored couples’ danceball. The ring around the dance floor can be used as a roller rink, and residents can sometimes be seen skating around. On the walls are a small number of artworks and posters, including the poster of the Xanadu movie. There are a few seats further away from the dance floor one can rest one’s avatar, as well as a bar. The club also has a balcony, with a few cuddle couches and more displays of art. Just outside the club, there are a few cuddle spots for couples.

In one corner of Club Xanadu is a tribute to the Pan Pacific Auditorium, several photographs of the structure. The Auditorium was built in Los Angeles in 1934, and became an iconic structure. It hosted a number of events (including wrestling, which was mentioned of the auditorium in the movie). The place was closed in 1972 after the opening of the L.A. Convention Center. For the movie Xanadu, the exterior was made to look covered in neon lights through special effects. It was hoped among some that the movie would bring attention to the building and it being refurbished and saved. But no effort was made to preserve the building, and it continued to deteriorate. Just six days after it’s 54th anniversary in 1989, the building was destroyed in a spectacular fire.

A friend of RECoyote and Perri, Aurora Avilla, had the idea for a “Chocolate Lounge” as part of the club. But that idea was shelved and instead was set up elsewhere in Rainbow Wood separately. “Was created for the chocolate bunny craze that was going around a few weeks ago,” Perri explained, “We were thinking of adding a chocolate bunny lounge to the club, hosted by chocolate bunny dancers.” Aurora leads a group called the “Chocolate Nosebobbly Collective.”

Perri talked about a mall being planed to match the club, but for now there are a couple art shops outside the club. The larger one is especially important to Perri, “This is the art done for Perri's story,” RECoyote told, art for Perri’s thirty year old work of writing: Spectral Shadows (http://www.perrirhoades.furtopia.org/). Perri’s website describes Spectral Shadows as “a novelized serial in format of Doctor Who.” It’s origins go back to the 1960’s when a “makeshift demo” was made for a series of rock operas. But instead Perri began writing it down in the late 1970’s. She rates it “PG-16.” The store contains artwork for the stories.

“The saga concerns the exploits of intelligent animals with time travel capabilities. It is very much inspired by the traditions of Doctor Who and Star Wars, with a good bit of Watership Down and Jonathan Livingston Seagull thrown in for contrast, and a bit of Spellsinger and Xanth to provide balance. Whereas George Lucas used old-time movie serials for the formatting of Star Wars, we use the formatting of old-time radio serials. This works well, as it is a very dialogue driven series, containing many cerebral oddities and conundrums. What you might call a thinking person’s adventure serial. It’s something that, by all logic, should not work. But it most often does work, if just through the sheer tenacity of the creators to make something ridiculously impossible seem like a logical course of events.”

So for a walk back in time to the music of the 70’s and 80’s, come to Club Xanadu. The club is at Rainbow Wood (128, 72, 2501)

Whether it’s music, art, or fiction, “Find your muse at Xanadu.”


Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

Outerland: A Different Kind of Estate

The Outerland Estate is comprised of 130 carefully landscaped and designed islands across 90 regions on 111 sims.  The Estate was founded in April 2006 by Dana Bergson, who remained the owner until June of 2009.

Originally called the "Otherland,"  Dana had to sell it in June 2009 due to personal reasons.  The Estate was purchased by the ACS group owned by Anshe Chung. 

Although the name was changed, and a few internal changes came with the sale,  the "base and philosophy of the Estate remains unchanged."   The motto for the estate, coined by Dana Bergson, was "Make Otherland a different kind of land."  The idea was to create something special, beautiful and an estate viewed as a whole and not by the individual components/sims  which it encompasses.  Rivers run through almost the entire estate and there are oceans to sail on.  This provides the residents the opportunity  to explore the estate beginning at their own doorstep. 

What a wonderful thought:  to walk out of your front door, hop into a boat and sail around the Estate...although I imagine in a place that massive, it would be quite easy to become lost.

An important project for the Outerland staff has been the Outerland Archipelago, a unique concept.  Consisting of a group of private sims, it is a beautifully landscaped area, free of griefers and excessive lag.  You will not see large, flat areas without structure there, no typical "tropical islands in the sun.  The result is certainly some of the most beautiful land in SL. Think of islands large and small. Think of lakes, rivers, waterfalls. Think of softly rounded hills and some steep cliffs. "

I had a chat with Julienne Caudron recently, one of the  Estate Managers for Outerland, who was able to provide me with a wealth of information.  Julienne joined the Estate Team in March of 2008.  

Julienne, together with Natasha ACS, are the main players in keeping the residents happy, resolving any issues and answering questions.  

Their different times zones allow them to be available during most of the time zones around the globe. 

Combined with customer support, bookkeeping, and language skills, the two managers have enough skills to keep residents informed, as well as satisfied, and tend to the various administrative tasks associated with the Estate. 

The staff at Outerland place emphasis on quality rather than quantity.  Hiring staff consisting of "poorly paid real estate agents whose main aim is a sale" is just not an option. Ban lines are not allowed so residents will not be booted during their exploration around the estate.  The residents contribute to the Estate's outstanding status.  Friendships have grown between neighbors who share a common love of regions such as New England.

Mother Nature recently showed up at Outerland in the form of snow and an "All-Around-Christmas-Party" is being planned  by the residents.  There is a great sense of community.   "When the lake in Xabbu Park froze over, Sylvia Sonoda opened her famous ice skating course for everybody. She put some awesome ramps with some special surprises for the real skating pros. Hot Chocolate, basic skates, and snowball fighting fun are on the house until January, when the snow is going to melt."

The Outerland Estate has recently welcomed Wandering Star to the Estate.  This group is in the Verdant Homewood, a long established community of music lovers, holding regular music events in a pub on the Khao sim.

A visit to one of the New England themed parcels revealed what one might expect to see in New England in the winter...landscape and trees all covered with snow.  There are some tropical themed parcels as well, including Ellaidhu and Antibes.  The two boardwalks at Dulcie and Anwin are charming indeed, with a rustic seaside appeal.  Eschach Castle is a part of Outerland, a small, cozy looking castle nestled up against a snow covered peak.  There are just so many beautiful sims and islands to see. 

The entire Estate is beautifully and carefully landscaped and it is obvious that great care went into every design.  This Estate sounds to me like an awesome home for those who want a sense of community spirit in a place that has a covenent for ensuring beauty and not commerciality.  

By Shellie Sands

http://www.otherland-group.com/real_estate/

Opinion: A Few Thoughts on Mass-Marketing Second Life

Earlier this fall, another online newspaper wrote a few articles on the subject of mass-marketing Second Life, starting with “Only Mass Adoption of Second Life will Best Address All SL’s Major Challenges.” According to the writer, Second Life had around a quarter million unique users every month. Hardly a bad number, but compared to the millions across the planet visiting virtual words, pretty small.

Among my friends and family in real life who use computers, none of them use Second Life, although a few have given it a try. Among those I’ve met on the Internet, a few have come here and still come by. I myself came here because an online friend kept talking about it. But only a fraction of my ‘net friends I met elsewhere moved on to here. Talking to my friends in World of Warcraft for instance, only a couple ever heard of Second Life. So the writer of “Mass Adoption”s claim that most looking for virtual worlds were passing SL and going onto it’s competitors were quite believable.

So why isn’t Second Life a bigger presence online? My friends gave me a couple reasons. One described a very frustrating first impression, crashing right after first logging in. She decided it just wasn’t worth the trouble. One of SL’s drawbacks is that it needs a fairly new computer to go about, especially in popular places. If one’s on a budget, it may mean Second Life becomes a taxing experience full of lag and crashes, or perhaps out of reach altogether. Such people may turn to places such as Gaia or Runescape.

Another friend was more of an avid gamer, “Sorry, but I miss the chance to go and kill something.” Core gamers may not find much appeal outside the combat areas in SL. And indeed those accessing the ‘net from Internet cafes, which in some places in the world is how the majority of computer users go online, tend to be limited in how much time they can spend, and more inclined to a virtual world that reliably gives faster gratification, such as WoW.

There are other problems. Second Life is often difficult for newcomers to operate at first, having a “high learning curve.” People do not always know how to get money. People may feel out of place in areas full of avatars unlike their own. There are the bugs, that have a habit of coming up at the most inconvenient times. There is the tech support, which can be what one radio talk show called “technical no-support.” There are the Linden policies, which occasionally seem to be designed to shoot themselves in the foot.

And of course, the ever-present lag.

I’ve heard numerous suggestions on how to make Second Life more appealing to the masses. Get a less laggy platform. Allow the option of point-and-click movement. Connect SL to a social network such as Myspace or Facebook. And of course, better customer service and Linden Labs listening to it’s residents better before making a policy change, and numerous others.

Of those mentioned, I’m not sure how feasible the first is (although I'd be singing haleuha if it happened), and the last seems wishful thinking given past history. The option of point-and-click I can see happening. Connecting to a social network I’m a little skeptical of. Some have policies against pages for “fake identities,” and rely a lot on teenagers for traffic whom are too young to use Second Life. One improvement they have made is their website, which has better allowed for residents to find things to do and places to see.

There is one factor I’ve heard mentioned very little. There is one thing being done by much of Second Life’s competition that it doesn’t do.

Advertising.

World of Warcraft advertises. I’ve seen their banners pop up on the Internet somewhere almost every day, even on Second Life’s Wiki. I’ve also seen their TV commercials. And it’s not just games that advertise. IMVU, a social networking place that gets some comparisons to Second Life, also advertises. But Second Life, to my knowledge, has never done any advertising.

In the business world, spending nothing on advertising is usually a sure way to keep your product virtually unknown. So why hasn’t Second Life done so? Possibly because when it was new, there was quite a bit of publicity about it. Science and gaming magazines wrote stories on it. The news did stories on it. It even made mentions on prime time television, notably the CSI “Venus” episode.

With all the free publicity, there was no need to advertise. So much like “Hershey” chocolate for years, Second Life hasn’t bothered with an advertising budget.

While Second Life still gets mentioned on the news, it’s not nearly as often as before. With Second Life no longer new, the mentions it gets in the media are smaller and less often. And it’s not always good publicity, such as the story of a couple whom met on there who broke up after the wife caught the husband with another girl on SL.

Ads needn’t be expensive to make. I’ve seen a mini-movie on SL’s website in the past that would be a good 60-second ad on the Internet, or possibly television, showing the things people can do to have fun in the Metaverse. Ad campaigns can also be done on a budget as well. Internet advertising would be an inexpensive way to get the word out to computer users.

On the other hand, being a longtime SL resident, the question comes to mind of “how badly can the Lindens goof this up?” Some ads can be rather annoying. WoW’s “Mohawk” ad makes me want to send a few Bloodelf arrows at Mr. T to shave it off. Some ads just make no sense, such as the “Hardees” ads with scantily-clad women eating burgers Then there are those that end up backfiring, such as the "Burger King" commercial with a cowboy and a midget, “Texas with a little Mexican,” that brought howls of protest that got the company taking down the ad and apologizing.

So when doing an ad campaign, the Lindens will have to use a little more sense than they’ve shown at times.

On the other hand, what if it works? Suppose a marketing campaign by the Lindens succeeds, and brings in thousands of visitors? We long-term residents will be having to deal with masses of newbie avs moving about. Hopefully Linden Labs will be able to direct them to places like Help Island and The Shelter, and encourage people to make a few more. Residents like myself will have to be prepared to take a little more time to help a newbie out.

But if that means that a few people I know in real life every day will know what I’m talking about when I mention Second Life because they go there too, it will be worth it.

Bixyl Shuftan


So readers, what are your thoughts about how to mass-market Second Life, or why it shouldn't be? Please comment below.

Winter Fun

There are many winter sports activities throughout SL. 

If you have skis you can glide down the mountains in some places. Snow boarding is available also. 

Skating is very popular and many sims have a skating pond for use. Just search winter sports and you will find places to visit. 

My friends, Roselinda Mayo and Eymerich Lane invited us over to see the skating place they made. It was great fun! There is solo and couples skating, also relaxation places to sit and listen to the music. 

We watched as Abby Calllisto built a snowman and found out you can build one too. Trim a tree if you like! 

I trimmed and then sat down to read The Christmas Carol.  

Abby is the owner of Abby Lane and has some wonderful interactive winter scenes. This was her tree and her snowman . The site  is located high above the sim. You are invited to skate there. You will find free skates in a box . 

Enjoy the wonderful experiences you will find there.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Roselinda's%20Paradise/96/4/3982

By Gemma Cleanslate

Today in SL Newspaper

In Main News below, the Second Life grid seems to be troubled by bugs that can make old IMs reappear in chat days, weeks, or months later. In Fashion, M&M is having a winter wear design contest, with the winner getting a 10,000 Linden voucher and three months advertisement space in SL Newspaper. And in Extra Extra, Bree runs into the clown prince of crime, but help isn't far away.

Grid Issues: Old IMs Reappearing in Chat

We have had reports of old IMs, some as old as 2 months, reappearing in chat as if they were just resent. We want to assure residents we believe this is a technical problem and not associated with anything intentional or malicious. We are investigating the cause and if you wish to send in a support ticket with your experience we will pass that information on to the investigative team.

Posted on Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 6:11 AM on Grid Status Report.

This bit of news was already known to some, judging by the chatter in some groups, "You mean they just noticed that?" One lady claimed to have gotten someone's reply to a question a little late, five months late.

Holiday Happenings at M&M Creations

I had heard some interesting events were planned at M&M Creations for the holiday season.  A visit there recently revealed a unique shopping experience.  They offer  a variety of items for landscaping, as well as sculpties and items ranging from lanterns, furniture, gazebos and animals.  The creative people behind M&M Creations are 10 and Marcthur Goosson.
At the M&M Highlands, 10 and Marc have created a spectacular Mystic Winterland. 
I recently  met with 10 and Marcthur at their main store in a cozy wintery sitting area.
SS:    So I understand you have big plans for the holidays, including treasure hunts. Tell me about some of the other things you are planning.
10G:   Well, full of plans, hopefully they (will) all be worked out and become a success.  First we wanted to do something like we did last year, discounts on the boxes with sculpties, but to focus only on the sculpts while we have much more to offer is a pity.
SS:  Yes, I agree.
MG:  Yes , soo much more (to) us.
SS:  What kinds of goodies can be had at the treasure hunts?
10G:   In the hope our visitors will take their time to see the island, I planned to have a kind of treasure-hunt by making 2 items each day for sale for 1 linden.. only they will stay on their original place and people have to start walking.
SS: Yes, that's what I heard...it sounds like a good plan.
10G:  Trees, lights or lanterns....gazebos, maybe even animals, flowers, shrubs...particles, (cacti)...do i need to go on?
SS: It sounds like a lot.
10G  Oh, books not to forget those.
SS:   And this is kicking off on the 11th?
MG:  Yes together with my birthday which (is) also the 11th:-)
10G:   Next to that we fill the gift box at the X-mas plateau every day with another gift, an item from our shops around the main store.
MG: LOL never coincidences.
10G:  That's no treasure or discounted, but just a gift like gifts should be, for free...and to see what can be created with (fashion) sculpties, not only fashion!!
SS:  And hopefully come back with their friends.  It's a great opportunity for people to get a sample of what is available here.
MG:  We are working hard, but SL has grown soo huge that it is difficult to get the right attention.
SS:  I can understand that Marcthur.
MG:  Marc is ok ;-)
 SS:   Good, thanks, Marc, easier to type lol.
SS:   SL is almost overwhelming in what is available here.
10G:  Of course,, we focus mainly on fashion-designers, but it would be boring for us, we simply do not fashion-design, we have the resources for the designers, and the rest is 'having fun with sculpties'.
MG:  What 10 says is that we supply sculpties for fashion designers, but our inspiration let us make many more be.
SS:  Did you begin with that idea when you started out? I mean, the fashion end of it?  I know nothing about fashion design here, but I imagine the sculpies help to make the various pieces of an outfit?
MG:  Yes, indeed.  We started out  with scenery screens.
SS:   Yes, sculpties would be helpful in landscape too
MG:  And then sculpties arrived which finally gave me an opportunity in RL to make designs in 3D.
 SS: That must have been exciting for you :)
10G: (and so it grew and grew and grew)
MG:  Exciting YES, and many many hours experimenting :-)
10G:  Out of making, building with and selling sculpties grew the questions for explanation or workshops, so tutorials have become a part of my sl-fun.  Hopefully I will do some more next year.
SS:  I'm sure it could not have grown without your creative input and ideas
10G:  I'm happy the pc's are still indoors and the windows aren't broken hahaha.
MG:  And of course with the help of so many creative minds here in SL,
SS:  Yes, there is a lot of creativity in SL.
10G:  That's why we would like to thank all our friends, costumers, designers , they made this all happen and possible as well.
SS:  What sets M&M Creations apart from other shops in SL?
MG:  Quality for sure, and we offer FULL PERM sculpties...and variety, originality.
10G: Quality.
SS:  Full perm, a very nice feature.
MG:  And shapes that put other creative minds into work.  Others are inspired by us, to make stuff with our shapes they never thought of, and customers are free to inspire us with their ideas.
10G: And we're helpfull, but that's a common thing I noticed last year.
SS:  Do you feel that others are in a sense taking your ideas?
MG:  Sure we are copied.
S S:  I guess there is a lot of that in SL.
MG:  But it is ok when others are inspired.
SS:  It seems like you manage to remain unique, however.
MG:  We are unique in our kind of way,  we have our own identity.
SS:  The trick is keeping it Marc :)
MG:  Hahaha, well, so far so good.
10G:  That's why we don't explore entire SL like most do.  We never go out looking for others or our competition, so we will stay that way I guess.
MG:  I hardly ever explore SL.  I visit my customers .
SS:  I do not do a lot of exploring either, unless I have a purpose to go somewhere.
 MG:  Well as a jouralist you should :-)

SS:   Things tend to fall into my lap.
MG:  That is a good phrase.
SS:  Hahaha, I am lucky I suppose.
10G:  If we would explore sl we (would) find too much realistic places and it will 'kill' our creativity and own identity in what we do.
10 and Marcthur are a RL couple also affectionately referred to as M&M.  Their work in SL is their daily RL work.  I found them both to be very creative, interesting and intelligent.  Their combined talent is amazing.  I would encourage all to participate in their scheduled hunts beginning on the 11th.  Further details are provided below.
Every day another  FREE gift-in-a-box with an M&M Creation can be found on the X-mas tree-plateau in the middle of the  Main Store and TP point in a special M&M GiftBox.  Also every day, another SCULPTY BOX  created by Marcthur Goosson with a discount from 10%-50%!!!  These can be found underneath the tiny X-mas tree standing on the box itself at the Main Store!!
Additional promotions include 2 creations of M&M Trees & Landscaping for sale for 1 linden .  Those landscaping-items can be found outside the mainstore at the Natural Park, they will change EVERY DAY!
You need to walk around and click items (such as trees, flowers, lanterns, entrees, shrubs, furniture, gazebos, animals, et.) to find the ' Treasures of the Day'.  MAYBE look out for a tiny X-mas tree which could be found near the Treasures.
I had heard some interesting events were planned at M&M Creations for the holiday season.  A visit there recently revealed a unique shopping experience.  They offer  a variety of items for landscaping, as well as sculpties and items ranging from lanterns, furniture, gazebos and animals.  The creative people behind M&M Creations are 10 and Marcthur Goosson.
At the M&M Highlands, 10 and Marc have created a spectacular Mystic Winterland. 
I recently  met with 10 and Marcthur at their main store in a cozy wintery sitting area.
SS:    So I understand you have big plans for the holidays, including treasure hunts. Tell me about some of the other things you are planning.
10G:   Well, full of plans, hopefully they (will) all be worked out and become a success.  First we wanted to do something like we did last year, discounts on the boxes with sculpties, but to focus only on the sculpts while we have much more to offer is a pity.
SS:  Yes, I agree.
MG:  Yes , soo much more (to) us.
SS:  What kinds of goodies can be had at the treasure hunts?
10G:   In the hope our visitors will take their time to see the island, I planned to have a kind of treasure-hunt by making 2 items each day for sale for 1 linden.. only they will stay on their original place and people have to start walking.
SS: Yes, that's what I heard...it sounds like a good plan.
10G:  Trees, lights or lanterns....gazebos, maybe even animals, flowers, shrubs...particles, (cacti)...do i need to go on?
SS: It sounds like a lot.
10G  Oh, books not to forget those.
SS:   And this is kicking off on the 11th?
MG:  Yes together with my birthday which (is) also the 11th:-)
10G:   Next to that we fill the gift box at the X-mas plateau every day with another gift, an item from our shops around the main store.
MG: LOL never coincidences.
10G:  That's no treasure or discounted, but just a gift like gifts should be, for free...and to see what can be created with (fashion) sculpties, not only fashion!!
SS:  And hopefully come back with their friends.  It's a great opportunity for people to get a sample of what is available here.
MG:  We are working hard, but SL has grown soo huge that it is difficult to get the right attention.
SS:  I can understand that Marcthur.
MG:  Marc is ok ;-)
 SS:   Good, thanks, Marc, easier to type lol.
SS:   SL is almost overwhelming in what is available here.
10G:  Of course,, we focus mainly on fashion-designers, but it would be boring for us, we simply do not fashion-design, we have the resources for the designers, and the rest is 'having fun with sculpties'.
MG:  What 10 says is that we supply sculpties for fashion designers, but our inspiration let us make many more be.
SS:  Did you begin with that idea when you started out? I mean, the fashion end of it?  I know nothing about fashion design here, but I imagine the sculpies help to make the various pieces of an outfit?
MG:  Yes, indeed.  We started out  with scenery screens.
SS:   Yes, sculpties would be helpful in landscape too
MG:  And then sculpties arrived which finally gave me an opportunity in RL to make designs in 3D.
 SS: That must have been exciting for you :)
10G: (and so it grew and grew and grew)
MG:  Exciting YES, and many many hours experimenting :-)
10G:  Out of making, building with and selling sculpties grew the questions for explanation or workshops, so tutorials have become a part of my sl-fun.  Hopefully I will do some more next year.
SS:  I'm sure it could not have grown without your creative input and ideas
10G:  I'm happy the pc's are still indoors and the windows aren't broken hahaha.
MG:  And of course with the help of so many creative minds here in SL,
SS:  Yes, there is a lot of creativity in SL.
10G:  That's why we would like to thank all our friends, costumers, designers , they made this all happen and possible as well.
SS:  What sets M&M Creations apart from other shops in SL?
MG:  Quality for sure, and we offer FULL PERM sculpties...and variety, originality.
10G: Quality.
SS:  Full perm, a very nice feature.
MG:  And shapes that put other creative minds into work.  Others are inspired by us, to make stuff with our shapes they never thought of, and customers are free to inspire us with their ideas.
10G: And we're helpfull, but that's a common thing I noticed last year.
SS:  Do you feel that others are in a sense taking your ideas?
MG:  Sure we are copied.
S S:  I guess there is a lot of that in SL.
MG:  But it is ok when others are inspired.
SS:  It seems like you manage to remain unique, however.
MG:  We are unique in our kind of way,  we have our own identity.
SS:  The trick is keeping it Marc :)
MG:  Hahaha, well, so far so good.
10G:  That's why we don't explore entire SL like most do.  We never go out looking for others or our competition, so we will stay that way I guess.
MG:  I hardly ever explore SL.  I visit my customers .
SS:  I do not do a lot of exploring either, unless I have a purpose to go somewhere.
 MG:  Well as a jouralist you should :-)

SS:   Things tend to fall into my lap.
MG:  That is a good phrase.
SS:  Hahaha, I am lucky I suppose.
10G:  If we would explore sl we (would) find too much realistic places and it will 'kill' our creativity and own identity in what we do.
10 and Marcthur are a RL couple also affectionately referred to as M&M.  Their work in SL is their daily RL work.  I found them both to be very creative, interesting and intelligent.  Their combined talent is amazing.  I would encourage all to participate in their scheduled hunts beginning on the 11th.  Further details are provided below.
Every day another  FREE gift-in-a-box with an M&M Creation can be found on the X-mas tree-plateau in the middle of the  Main Store and TP point in a special M&M GiftBox.  Also every day, another SCULPTY BOX  created by Marcthur Goosson with a discount from 10%-50%!!!  These can be found underneath the tiny X-mas tree standing on the box itself at the Main Store!!
Additional promotions include 2 creations of M&M Trees & Landscaping for sale for 1 linden .  Those landscaping-items can be found outside the mainstore at the Natural Park, they will change EVERY DAY!
You need to walk around and click items (such as trees, flowers, lanterns, entrees, shrubs, furniture, gazebos, animals, et.) to find the ' Treasures of the Day'.  MAYBE look out for a tiny X-mas tree which could be found near the Treasures.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

In the Oahu sim lies a virtual replica of the USS Arizona Memorial, built in honor of the servicemen who fell at Pearl Harbor. On December 7th at 2 PM, a ceremony was held in remembrance.

Read the full story in Community.

Angels Beach

At Cape Suzette in the Sunweaver region is a small but growing beach club, Angels Beach.

The club had some small beginnings, starting off as just big enough for several patrons. “We opened in April, and we have expanded three times,” club owner Nydia Tungsten explained. She credited Kim7 Avril for the idea, “she helped me when I was down and helped me create Nydia's Angels (Nydia’s group). About the same time we were working on the club and it just fell into place.” Nydia credits Treminari Huet with building the club, “this club is her design.” Treminari has been happy with the club’s progress, “I’m glad to see Nydia doing something successful with it. :) “

Of the club’s small and cozy beginnings, Nydia commented, “I like to still think of it that way, compared to the size of most clubs. Angels Beach is a good size. No wasted space to get lost in. No fancy ‘themes’ like space or playing cowboy and Indians or pirates. What we wanted was someplace to come and be themselves and relax just hang out and maybe even meet someone special, kinda like I did at Zero. ... We made the club a beach club because, people go to the beach to have fun. And that is my number one goal, to help people have a good time.”

Nydia herself is an experienced DJ in Second Life, having played at a number of other clubs, including (but far from limited to) Club Zero Gravity, Xanadu, and Cutlass, “We will be playing what people want to hear music-wise. Our DJ's will be taking requests from all genres, except crap ... I mean rap ... wait, I had it right the first time.“ She also has other DJs on her team. There is Lsai Aeon, coined the “Purple Puppy” by her fans, noted for her Saturday night  antics when DJing. And there is whom Nydia calls her lead DJ, “the mistress of the tunes if you will,” Alexandra Tymets, “I was impressed with her wide selection and general knowledge of music.”

Alexandra, or “Sexy Lexi” as she’s sometimes called, plays a variety of music, “I can do 80s, Trance/Techno, and Eurometal. A little bit of Angry Grrrl Rock too, Pink, Liz Phair, etc. And, umm, of course a selection of silliness. Technically I could even do Classic Rock if it came down to it. I have a little Corsi and Bob Rivers, and of course a ton of Weird Al. Oh and some Lemon Demon and Mc Chris. And if I don't have it, I have a talent for finding it.” During the conversation, Lexi’s neko mousegirl avie, or “Nezumi” as she calls it, had her ears rubbed a few times by a friend, resulting in a surprised squeaky expression, “They keep me around to DJ and make me squeak.” Her friend grinned, “She's our little squeaker toy.”

Scheduled parties are not the only time people gather at Angels Beach. Sometimes a few friends show up just to hang out, or dance to whatever the stream is playing. With the recent expansion, there are cuddle chairs available for couples, plus a fun inner tube ride on the new underdeck underneath the main deck that allows the swimmer to take a leisurely drift on the river around some of the surrounding land, and back to the club. Just be careful of that patch of green ...

Although the club’s general theme is always a beach one, there are themed parties. One was a Wild West party in which most of the people showed up as not cowboys, outlaws, or Indians, but the horses. “Had plenty of horsepower that night,” Nydia joked. Nydia felt the party with the largest turnout was the “Hi-tech Redneck.” The winner, “I think she went for a cyborg rancher. It was pretty inventive ... had a neon coyote, a mech dog, robo horse, had a few good ones.”

Nydia reminded that although the majority of the club’s patrons are furs, all are welcome. There are some normal human avatars in her club group, “Human, neko, merfolk, who ever or what ever you are in Second Life, you will be welcomed. I will be looking for water scenery for the merfolk.” She is also looking for a “mermaid” dance animator for the club. Nydia mentioned one in her staff, Jian Alcot, lives in Europe, and plans to run events at times more convenient to Europeans when more join the group, “if she can get enough from across the pond we will start having Euro-parties as well.”

With Club Zero having to close it’s doors, Nydia made the decision to expand the club’s schedule to fill the hours the space club once held, “I have talked with Ranchan and she and I think Angels beach would do well as the Zero's replacement, so she is supporting me with this by allowing me to send notices in the Zero's groups and she will spend some time here as well as I hope DJ'ing every now and then.” There will be parties every Tuesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 PM Second Life time, and 8 to 10 PM on Saturday nights. For fans of Lsai Aeon, Nydia says she will be taking her act from Club Zero to Angels.

On Saturday night on December 5, the club held it’s Grand-Reopening party at 8 PM SL time, to celebrate it’s expansion in size and hours. The theme was “Angels & Demons,” with everyone  enjoying the heavenly-looking dancers and having a devil of a time. It was a well-attended bash, with close to two dozen people at the club. There was a contest with a 2000L prize for the winner for best in theme. The result was a tie by Vania Arashi and Alpine Plessis.

The location of the club is at  Cape Suzette (74/ 34/ 24), and has a small website and schedule here - http://sites.google.com/site/angelsbeachclub/schedule-1 .

So for a great day at the beach to play or unwind, and a great place to party at night, come to Angels Beach.

“A little piece of Heaven on the sandy shore.”

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

World AIDS Day - 1 December 2009

Muse Isle

A flurry of activity took place around the globe on World AIDS Day.   Statements were issued by the US, South Africa, the UN, China, Australia, the UK, Afghanistan, Zambia and the District of Columbia, all about new policies, new treatments and new programs focused on the reduction, treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS globally.

Second Life played its own role, once again, in bringing attention and awareness to this tragic, life threatening virus.  This was done at various events at multiple venues across the grid. 

Muse Isle presented a day of music and readings.  Once again, the SL music community came together to volunteer their support for this important cause, as we have seen so often in the past.  All proceeds from the day's event  were going to the Bailey Boushay House in Seattle, Washington, USA.  The Bailey Boushay House is "known for its professional and compasionate care of people who are patients afflicted in the final stages of AIDS. The BBH also cares for terminally ill patients of other disease processes. Another important factor is thier day program that offers resources to people that are HIV positive. Assisting in nutrition, medication, assistance in housing. The 2009 legislature of Washington State allocated funding which was narrowly missed."

The musical portion began at 6 am . The lineup for the day included Russell Eponym, Avatar Quinzet, nadidi Aeon, Jon Bazar, Bones Writer, Skye Galaxy, Clairede Dirval, FaecelessAPe Mefusla, davecorbett Darwin, The Sue McCullough Bagpipe Band, EvaMoon Ember, Wren Hartunian, Arimo Teixerira, srv4u Conacher, Edward Kyomoon, Noma Falta, EricSteffenson Mistwalker, Cellandra and her light show, with readings occuring simultaneously beginning at noon,  and ending with a candlelight vigil at midnight.

"Bad Bones" Bones Writer , an accomplished pianist, performed at 10 am.  All instrumental, he went from guitar to piano, playing jazzy and dreamy tunes and classical style music.  He played a  "warbled" rock 'n roll old style jazz piano tune, written by Wayne Shorter, a well know sax player who played with Miles Davis.  Following Bones was Mr. Skye Galaxy, also an accomplished pianist (my lucky day).  Skye has a voice like none other, both emotional and sincere. He performed songs with a dreamy quality and meaningful lyrics.  I will definitely see Skye again, a new talent to me. 

I left the music at noon to head over to the place where the readings were happening.  This event was hosted by Ms. LoriVonne Lustre and Jenaia Morane. The space was graciously donated by Panacea Luminos.  Lori gave an intro speech and offered special thanks to all involved, as well as to Judi Newall for those unable to. 

"...thank you to our authors for sharing their stories with us here today.  Some of the stories you will hear today are about loss, some are about remembrance, and all are from the heart.  Events like this show the power of virtual worlds."

" World AIDS Day was started on this day 21 years ago.   This is a day to raise awareness, fight prejudice, improve education, and remember our friends and family members who are living with AIDS or have lost the battle.  Valuable progress has been made in increasing access to HIV and AIDS services, yet greater commitment is needed around the world if the goal of universal access is to be achieved. Millions of people continue  to be infected with HIV every year. "

"World AIDS Day provides an opportunity for all of us - individuals, communities and political leaders - to take action and ensure that human rights are protected and global targets for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care are met."

The readers I heard included the following:  Ludo Merit, Marty Snowpaw, Saxet Uralia, Franchella Milena, Raevn Rhiadra, millay Freschi , Bill Whiteberry, Elegia Underwood, Lizzie Gudkov and fellow reporter, Nazz Lane.   All read poems, letters and short stories of heart wrenching journeys through loss of loved ones, the grieving, followed slowly by acceptance and, ultimately, the healing.   It was more moving than I can describe and I soon found tears streaming down my face...I took a break and got ready to head back to the music.

Back at the music venue, I was able to catch one of my best friends, davecorbett Darwin, performing his usual amusing songs with subtle messages and emotional undertones.  Dave is a recorded accoustic guitar musician hailing from the UK.   Dave can often be found supporting charitable events like this, and does so on his own in RL, as well.  Following Dave was the Sue McCullogh Bagpipe Band.  What a treat!  I had never heard anything like this in SL before.   Dressed in matching kilts, they played traditional celtic melodies, as well as much more modern popular music.  A very interesting thing to hear bagpipes doing other than celtic songs.  I completely enjoyed them and joined some of the crowd in doing a jig. 

These are just a few of the many musicians lending their support and readings that took place brnging awareness and, yes, the human side of the reality of HIV/AIDS

By Shellie Sands

Today in SL Newspaper

Today in Main News below, we look at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Alajueala, with it's vibrant paintings. In Community, a glance at the political side of Second Life in Cafe Wellstone. And in Extra Extra, Breezes has more winter adventures.

Visions in Color

For weeks I have been meaning to take a tour of The Criss, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Alajuela. I have been hearing such wonderful things about it. 

As I arrived I was struck with the structure of the museum. It is very contemporary itself and a fitting vessel for the art. There are walking tours every Monday, Wednesday and Sunday at 2:30.  Kathy Nikolaides, our guide met us at the entrance and with her was one of the new artists, Kirle Adamski. We entered into one section of the building which displays the wonderful abstract watercolors of Antenna Rae. 

They are splashes of color to the eye and the mind.  We moved on to the next section and there were the delightful works of Genevieve Silvercloud in which you see features in 3D within the art piece. 

The next exhibit made me feel I was in the old west of the US. Van Caerndow executes his art on glass and is wonderfully vibrant. As soon as we arrived in the next gallery I was taken with a work called “Sunrise” . Kathy told  us we were privileged to be with the artist who turned out to be Kirle! 

“ I use storm colours in abstract themes . i never draw the motiv before i paint, the motiv just grows by itself”. 

Her works were lovely. Rolling Shuffle was the final artist we viewed. The exhibit is called Jazz in Oslo and I actually saw the music before I heard the name. 

Outside the building again we admired the view. There is a poetry reading area with a relaxation rug for comfort. Across from the museum is a large amphitheatre where building classes are held. You can check on events at a Board in the front. 

You will enjoy your visit whether you take a guided tour or wander alone. 

Ours was a quick visit so I know I will be back to see more. Begin here,
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Alajuela/188/78/22

Gemma Cleanslate

Calling All SL Poets

In keeping with the real meaning of the Christmas season Da Vinci Isle is conducting a delightful and different charity silent auction. 

For this charity event Da Vinci Isle has the support of the people in Second Life representing WarChild. War Child’s goal is to empower children and young people in war-affected areas through community-based programs, which strengthen their psychological and social development and well-being. 

They are calling for SL poets to submit some poems. These  poems will be displayed in their Hall. Those who like a specific poet may bid in silent auction for that poet. The “winner of the poet “will then ask that he or she compose a poem specifically for a chosen person. There is a note card that gives all the information regarding the endeavor. 

Any poet interested may contact ppmediadev Blinker in-world or by email at philippe@snowcrashdigital.com   

Good luck to all participants and Kudos to the Sponsors! 

Gemma Cleanslate

What Happened to Book Island?

A visit to Book Island, adjacent to the now vanished Publishing Island, revealed a virtual ghost town, one that lent an eerie feeling of abandonment. 

Walking about, it was evident that quite a few empty booths were present, and not a soul in sight.   An information sign provided rental details and contact individuals.   Notes were sent to each of the two contacts listed, Selina Greene, the sim owner, and Ariadne Korda, "Cultural Manager."   A click on the blog link in an effort to obtain more information proved to be futile...the blog was no longer recognized.

Book Island was once an active sim, complete with its own blog and  various events focused on writers, as well as readers, offering live readings, etc. One author, Diana Allandale, once held writing seminars there.  She did not respond to a request for comments.   

Word on the street has it that the sim owner vanished, supposedly to pursue her RL publishing career, rarely communicating with only one other person on the Island.   According to Ariadne, Cultural Manager, she assumes that tier continues to be paid, but had no information to offer on the demise of Publishing Island.   I had a chat with Ariadne, who was kind enough to respond to the request for information.  The information she had to offer began to paint a very sad picure. 

AK:   "Hi Shellie - I would LOVE to know what is going on with Book Island myself - the owner has disappeared, not a word from her for over a year (to me at least). I can add people to the group (and still do), but can't even remove things with my name on them. The whole thing is frustrating and extremely disappointing to me - there is zero communication. Yes would be pleased to tell you what I know, but it's not much."

SS:  "Thanks for your response...If you can tell me the evolution of things, that would be sufficient I think."

AK:  "The owner just said she had some RL issues and then disappeared, basically...

she communicates rarely with another person at BI, who is also pretty frustrated. I would have dropped the group but I still answer requests to join it, and never say anything negative...but it's hard when people say 'it's not very dynamic, is it?' I can only presume the owner is still paying tier but I had no info about the sale of Publishing.  I am SORELY tempted to send out a group notice (I still have powers, I think) and ask what the hell is going on."

SS:  "Not a bad idea...have you made repeated attempts to contact her?  It seems she has left the place to rot, and it is also a portion empty."

AK:   "YES. I had her mail, and no answer, including some fairly blunt ones."

SS:  "Lost interest it seems."

AK:  "Yes... and people are still paying rent, which is sad.  I was hired as 'cultural manager' (I'm a published writer) to do events, but that was like bashing my head against a wall,

every idea was 'well, I'll give it some thought'."

SS:  "And then left to nothing?"

AK:  "I organised dozens at first, for which she OCCASIONALLY paid me (but only if I was there... which isn't possible on US times).  So I got the odd 200L, but not if I did the work but  wasn't actually present..then she disappeared so I wasn't going to just give and give. I rebuilt the beach area (I build on here) - to virtually no comment.  So yes, frustration all along the line, and it's SUCH a shame - the place has potential but not if it's just left to rot."

SS:  "Gosh, it could be a meeting place for writers and sharing of ideas and such, have readings and stuff."

AK:  " Yes I did that...at one point she mentioned wondering if to keep it - and a group of friends offered to buy her out and she said 'no' - this was before she disappeared.  So I'm afraid I more or less abandoned ship. I was getting nothing from it in terms of pleasure or appreciation."

SS:  "I understand that."

AK:  "The place really needs a rebuild and some WORK on it, but I can't see anyone doing that for free...I really AM sympathetic if the owner has problems."

SS:  "It seems such a shame the whole thing, how can someone just abandon an entire sim?"

AK:  " But how much effort would it take to answer my mails, IMs, notecards?"

SS:  "Exactly...well, I understand your plight Aridane, and I sympathize...please le me know if you find anything out further."

AK:  "I will... I would actually just like to LEAVE but as my name is on the notecards I feel I should still give people the group tag...although even then..."

SS:  "I understand...maybe the article will bring some attention to the situation."

AK:   "Maybe. It's just such a SHAME...But... getting it turned around would be a massive job."

SS:   "Yes, and would require time and dedication."

AK:  "At the time, I had that... But not when I have no leeway, and not least no income from it.  It's NOT my place, and no instructions, no nothing...such a shame..."

SS:  "Agreed Ariadne :(  I'm so sorry, but I am happy you gave me the info you have :)"

AK:  "You can quote me, particularly the 'such a shame'.  I'm sad rather than angry."

SS:  "Thanks so much for your time."

AK:  "You're welcome."

So, it seems  the future of Book Island is unknown at this time.  One can only hope that change will occur and bring new life to this worthwhile place.

By Shellie Sands

Man Arrested for Plundering Runescape Online Game Accounts

Britian’s Police National e-crime unit announced in a statement, “A 23 year old man was arrested in Avon and Somerset on the morning of Tuesday 24 November ... on suspicion of a number of computer misuse offences.” The target of the crime: the accounts of Runescape players.

Jagex, the company that created and owns Runescape, stated that it was likely to be the first of several arrests, “We have pinned down and identified the handful of ringleaders.” It is believed they gained access to the accounts by “phishing” emails, then once they gained access sold off the items then plundered them. The virtual cash can be sold for real money. Two million in Runescape gold can sell for about ten US dollars in the Internet's "underground."

Jagex stated it was working with the British police and FBI to find and catch those stealing from peoples’ accounts. The arrest on the 24th “was one result of a long-term investigation “of those behind the attack that struck, “a few thousand Runescape players.”

Selling Runescape gold has been against the rules of the game, “and Jagex has made many changes to it’s underlying code to stamp out gold farming.” A Runescape official thought these efforts may have led to the thefts.

Before, the worst offenders could expect was a canceled account. Now, they face real time in a real jail for their theft of virtual cash and goods.

“Players invest years of time and effort into developing their Runescape character, so the theft of a Runescape account shouldn’t be treated differently to the theft of any other valuable possessions, such as a games console, television, or car.”

Sources: BBC News, Casual Gaming.

Giving in Second Life

The season for giving is here, and I wondered what opportunities existed in SL to help others. So I visited Aloft Nonprofit Commons (143, 81, 31). There I found a huge number and variety of causes from many different countries.

In addition to Aloft, there are 3 other connected sims: Plush, where weekly meetings are held; EcoCommons for environmental concerns; and HealthCommons for health related nonprofits.  All of the areas can be reached by teleport from the main hub.

At the hub you can take a tour by horse carriage or magic carpet. The carriage didn´t want to work for me, but the carpet ride provided a quick tour of the basics. I hopped off about mid-tour to walk around the different shops and offices.

There is also a large display that lists all of the organizations and their location. This is the best way to find a specific group and get there quickly. The list is not alphabetical. However, once you find the group that interests you, it is easy to get there. A click on its number causes its location to be listed in your historical chat, where you can quickly teleport to the site.

The variety of causes was extensive: animal rescue and protection groups, museums, hunger and health groups, Sierra Club and child protection groups. Whatever interests you, there is probably a group for it here. Being a furry, I was especially partial to the Mountain Lion Foundation, which is still under construction, and the Sierra Club, which is build in a tree house.

Kiva, a group that works to end poverty by giving loans, has a large presence here. "Turning Lindens into Loans" is their motto, and their shop is filled with photos of the people they are helping. I didn´́t see any wreathes for sale at this shop, but they are selling them at Winterfest through Xstreet, and the money goes to support their cause. On the second floor, they had a donation barrel, too, where you can drop off items for re-sale.

Another group, NSW Animal Rescue organization from Australia was selling rugs for $49L. The rugs have photos of different types of dogs, and you can buy one to show your support for your favorite breed.

The Aloft sim has lots of fun things to do. Horses for Healing gives you a horse that you can ride as you explore the sim. There is a picnic area, hang-gliders, and a swimming pool, too.

I went back 3 times, and I still haven´t seen it all. It is a great place to give and have fun, too.

Grey Lupindo

More Trouble at Foxworth

Earlier, the Foxworthy sim was the scene of trouble when a number of accounts were permanently banned for reasons that made no sense to anyone familiar with the area. More recently, the region was the target of a griefer, whom went as far as to threaten someone. How the Lindens reacted was a surprise.

To read more, go to Community.

Club Zero Closes

Due to the Sunweaver region cutting back on it’s number of sims, Club Zero is having to close it’s doors. The final party was Saturday November 28th at 8 PM SL time, with Lsai Aeon as the DJ. The “Farewell Bash” had the announcement:

“Come one, come all. Come bid a fond farewell to our beloved Zero Gravity. Come as you are. Come to party. Come to blow this place out of space. DJ Purple Puppy (Lsai) spinning the tunes. Who knows what she will do... Party starts at 8. Get up here. “

The party lasted late into the night, with people determined to have fun while they still could at the space club. Among the highlights, 2000 Lindens were up for grabs in the “Come as You Are” contest. Tippers were also generous, one poledancer getting 2000L. Club Manager Ranchan Weidman will be asking another club in the area not affected by the cutbacks to take up its time slot.

Club Zero has been in it’s current form since spring 2009 after it was placed under the management of Ranchan, and was created over a year ago, run by Spectra Ninetails. The space club has been known for it’s unique design and it’s lively Saturday night dance parties.

Although Club Zero's regulars have other clubs, notably Cutlass, the space station will clearly be missed.

Bixyl Shuftan

Today in SL Newspaper

Below in Main News, we take a look at the SS Galaxy, a massive cruise ship so big it takes up a few sims, as it moves to a new region. In Community, Second Life had it's own version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, complete with balloons and floats. And in Extra Extra, one of our reporters goes on the halfshell a new kind of critter one can raise comes to Second Life: sea turtles.

Massive Move

It was a mind boggling thought when someone mentioned the SS Galaxy, Queen of the Saggittarian Sea, was moving. 

You probably know, but in case you don’t, this is a full size cruise ship with all the amenities. 

The huge ship occupies three regions, actually four.. It is more than 2 years old in SL and is much loved by all who have spent time there or has lived on board.  

The new locale only adds more possible fun to a visit. The Galaxy, with the help of Linden Lab, sailed off to the new home on November 17. 

It is located just south of Little Gull Islands on the map. I took a quick tour, and everything is in place as it was before the move. All activities are up and running and all the tp’s are working. People were about the decks riding unicycles and playing miniature golf. 

Events are posted. The cinema has movies scheduled. The current port of call to visit on the tp from the deck is Mouse World. The week’s events took me some minutes to read. One thing that is missing is the ferry to Sagittaria. 

I did meet the cruise Director, Lars Donnelly, who said that discussions are under way with the sailing community about future events.

“ we hope to welcome sailors who want to stay with us for some time during a exploring tour” he told me.  

Here is the entrance if you would like to check it for yourself!  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Galaxy%20AFT/66/54/21

Gemma Cleanslate

Steal of the Day: Curious Kitties Gift Boxes

Anyone who has shopped around the grid for quality gift boxes will notice that they are precisely hard to find. Then, they might cost L$200 or more. Since I found one heck of a bargain today, I thought I would share it with you guys.

The Curious Kitties shop is making its 1-prim sculptie boxes available for the Christmas shopping season at only L$10. In several color schemes, those boxes are made by a veteran designer, Ameshin Yossarian, who sells a variety of gothic/punk/Japanese styled clothing.

Be careful. If you also check out the clothing, you may find it highly addictive, as I do since I first bought a pair of boots at that store a couple of years ago.

You can find the boxes by going to Curious Kitties with this link. The boxes are at coordinates 186, 221, 21.

Alesia Schumann

To Call Second Life a “Game,” or Not?

In Community, a little tale of some friends and I talking about what exactly to call Second Life, one of whom had a rather interesting way of describing it to a friend and getting him interested in joining.

To read what happened, click HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today in SL Newspaper

In Community, a music event was held at the Crystal Gardens to raise money for prostrate cancer research. In Fashion, M&M has a number of new releases, including the complete Tutorial-box. And in Extra-Extra, a few of Breezes' Thoughts.

Literary & Artists’ Villiage

In the Astrid sim is a place where people with a love for writing have small shops and boutiques to display their craft, as well as getting together occasionally to listen to each others works, the Literary and Artist Village. Since it’s official opening on November 7, it and it’s group have been ways promising writers can meet and find an audience.

A poetry reading on it’s official opening had some readings to offer, done in voice. Kalli Birman read some romantic poems. Persephone Phoenix read a “disturbing” poem of a woman who committed suicide from mental stress from her time in Iraq. Corwyn Allen recited poetry one reader commented he liked for his touch of “dry humor,” including “Spanish Dancer” one he had written that morning, and “Saturday Morning” about a lawn mower covered with the first frost of fall, near a lawn that won’t need it until spring. Stosh Quartz had a grandmotherish voice, and read what one called a “pot poem,” one about her cat and an encounter with the dog that left the canine running, and “EEP!! There’s a Spider on My Computer Screen!” Kalli Birman finished the reading, “I’m kind of in a ‘I hate men’ mood” and recited “Social Nos,” which had lines like, “You are a little man, living in his father & mother’s basement, being what he dreams ... lover of many, but provider to none.” A few hung around after the poetry reading to chat about various subjects.

DaSaved Eros passed around a notecard with another poem:


I'm friend with all  I love all

I make God a pocket universe to joy for the making of being just to re-build the devil wings was it seen ?

I love all Plus you

Would not God love the devil God best that was once lost

missed

lost

but whole and once again love all

friends  with love


Besides poetry readings, there are other events, such as live music,  and informal “Night Cap” discussions in which people come by to talk about things such as love and relationships.

SL-Newspaper had a chance to talk to one of the women behind the Literary and Artists’ Village, Cath Munro. “We service well-known authors and just starting authors as well and are involved with many international authors who are trying to break into US market,” Cath explained, “I allow for authors to feature their work on Second Life and we also advertise the community in real-life and in the publishing world. Readings, meetings, networking are basically the goal here, except in more real-life targeted environment than is customary for other literary outfits on SL. The sole goal is to help authors to get published in real-life, and the Second Life events are just a ‘workshop’ to do that.”

Cath informed there was more planned than just readings, “We also plan on having live music regularly, and other events that will be organized by Kalli Birman.”

The group interested writers would join is the ALA, which announcements are made, “ALA announcements include real-life calls for writers, and other real-life opportunities as well as just promotions of the events and readings of our residents and writers anywhere on Second Life.” Cath also showed a mailbox in the village, “a real-life literary agency mailbox here where the authors can place their samples and potentially be contacted and get a contract of representation. This is the drop box for anybody to leave a sample. It is forwarded onto the real-life literary agency. “

Cath says so far, they have been getting, “about 500 queries per week” total. “Well, this is exactly why this village was opened, to find new talent without having to run around the whole (of) Second Life. ... the poetry reading at the Grand Opening opened my eyes to how many talented people are really around here. It's just that it is time consuming having to find them (laughter). So having them read here helps. Anyone can do events here.”

Cath Munro mentioned a few of the more talented writers by name. One was H3 Turbo, a self-described “rouge scientist” with a place called the “Clockwork Orange H2onE2 University” whose writings discuss politics and science. Chaos Priestman “writes scifi and we had a few readings for him. He took a short brake to get married to a wonderful lady that he's met on Second Life.” She also mentioned Paul Levinson, “whom I've met on Second Life and who actually was the person who kept asking me to open this village. He recently wrote a book, New New Media.”

As it turns out, this is not the villiage’s initial opening, but it existed before. “It was up last year,” Cath explained, “but then the agency got really busy with real-life inquiries and there was simply no time to manage it. We have since hired more people both in real life and on Second Life, and Kalli will be helping to manage the Literary village now. We are trying to read all the queries that come via email and sometimes it means reading 1000 pages a day. So we have two additional people helping out.”

“On Second Life, we have asked Kalli Birman to help managing the events for writers. Hopefully that will help but we still aim for quality not quantity and want to remain a boutique environment with a personalized assistance to writers. For example, I am currently working on a PR story for a writer that will be publicised to promote his book. That is a bit different from other agency services. The writer and I communicate both via SL and real-life email, but Second Life is truly helpful to be able to communicate faster and more vividly, as well as being able to "test" some visual promo ideas.”

Cath says all are invited to the “make up” Grand Opening party, which came about as the one on Saturday November 7 was marred by the major glitch in Second Life then, “I hope to have this event in mid December as the upcoming holidays might cause busy schedules. After that we will have regular readings, networking, live music and literary competitions.”

Bixyl Shuftan

The Joy of SL Belly Dancing

By Any1 Gynoid, reporting for SL-Newspaper

Get wild, get nakies, and party your tushies off, usually means a trip to SL naughty land, SL’s adults only regions. But there is an alternative: belly dancing. In mature sims round SL's main grid, amateur belly dancers are fun party goers who bare it all, or at least most of it, in a brave new form of personal freedom and self expression. Why is it brave? Because I can't even coax most my bff macho party buds to check it out. And they call us "chicks"! Who's chicken now? Ha! Hey, SL belly dancing is guys and ladies and a whole lot of tushie shakin' goin down. Too much fun! This is why god invented the perv cam! lol

When you think about the Middle East, do you ever think FUN? But our mission in SL is fun, and yes we do bring out the fun in every RL culture to SL. Belly dancing has ancient Babylonian origins, but in modern times was revealed to the West at the 1893 World's Fair. The golden age of belly dancing was in the 1960s and 1970s, promoted in part by an Egyptian film renaissance. Which is quite interesting, Islamic cultures were very much more liberal than they are today; even in Afghanistan, women openly wore miniskirts in public in the 1970s. How far we have regressed RL, backwards in cultural values and human progress.

The personal is the political, and you can participate in cultural revolution right here in SL, by shaking your tushie to Middle Eastern beats. Belly dancing in SL is amazingly liberating and extremely fun. In fact, I can only think of one thing more fun in SL, and I shall cover that soon for SL Newspaper. It's NOT sex silly! Shame on your dirty mind! Terrible thang to waste! Tee Hee Hee!

 

From left to right in picture 1 is Guy Vollmer (a supercool party dude), Garret Mehrens (an impossibly hot dish of male beefcake), me (wearing my naughtiest outfit), and my beautiful friend Acceber Smythe. Picture 2 shows Garret's flip side. LOL Making it painfully obvious why we love belly dancing in SL!  Am I objectifying men? You betcha! And high time for that! Yuppie Buns! Slurp! lol

Anyways, I hope you get a chance to try SL belly dancing soon. Most Mondays at 4pm and Thursdays at 8pm, you will find me slinking round the club Parvana Ayre in Angel Shark Shallows sim, wearing practically nothing and "working it"! You know what I mean! IM me if you dare! Only the brave and truly fun loving need apply. Peace!

There are lots of free silks in SL, and I would be happy to share. In fact I only wear freebie silks when I belly dance. I've tried most of them all and can tell you about the best ones. I fancy my blue & white silks (shown in pictures), my chrome, and my tie dye colors. By losing the top bits, these free silks can work for guys too, just put on a thong, and attach silks to arms and legs. Well at least 1 brave bff was able to do that! There is hope!

Cartoon of the Day

Banned for Looking???

Rumors are floating around about Linden Lab banning not only third party viewers but people using them. So I decided to investigate. 

I am not a geek so I do not really understand the technical aspects of the question but will try to explain what is happening; 

A long time ago someone recommended that I download a viewer that was not SL but worked the same way and better, I was not sure what to do so I decided against it.

There have others that I heard of in the meantime but was reluctant because of the copybot issue that was being talked about so much.  

Recently I began to hear raves about Emerald. Being older and somewhat wiser I decided to try it. It was made from open source with input from some Lindens I understand. 

I loved it! 

It is just like using SL but has some neat helpers. I understand from serious builders they really like it because they can create smaller prims and try textures before uploading them among, other things.  I really liked having the draw line bar right there on the menu bar so I could adjust the distance quickly when I wanted without opening the preferences. There are other enticing features. 

That is just one viewer. There are a host and most of them were built with the open source information that is in the sl wiki and is still there; (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Get_source_and_compile). 

The  “brown bag” meeting sessions to discuss and get input from residents regarding a change in the policy have started and may help clarify the future. No viewer or anyone who is using one will be banned from sl, unless, as always , there is a violation of SL TOS. 

Gemma Cleanslate

SL Enterprise Sounds Very Promising

It has been great news for Second Life when, on November 4, Linden Lab announced that they would bring a SL Enterprise product. This product that will replicate the virtual world behind a firewall will be comparable, for corporations, to having an internal Internet system without granting access to the outside world.

This is great news and an inevitable step that LL had to take to build its credibility in the business world. A 3D environment such as SL brings incredible potential for companies to organize meetings and other collaboration activities between people who work in different countries or even continents, at a fraction of the cost.

Let's make a quick comparison: you pay the $55,000 entry price to set up 8 regions with the possibility of having 800 users, 700 of them online at the same time. Add some costs to maintain the system available and you have a pretty decent "live meeting" solution. To this you can add the possibility of storing documentation and scripted learning tools that allow employees to learn and perfect their skills, without having to organize classes.

The price may be hefty for small and medium-sized businesses. The product that LL offers in beta clearly is targeting larger corporations.

The comparison with live videoconferencing systems is still funny to make. A telepresence solution from Cisco to hold meetings for 18 people will cost… $340,000. For companies, such telepresence solutions have already been cost cutters.

Although different in nature, you can compare both products and see that what you would sacrifice in real-life visual experience by using SL Enterprise, you would save. That's without even considering the potential for interaction other than plain conferencing.

This also makes me think that SL may do with virtual worlds what the Internet did with online activity. If businesses adopt SL Enterprise quickly, it will be hard for a competitor to displace SL as a "virtual world with a firewall" solution.

This Enterprise product is promising because using it with the security of a firewall will make 3D more tempting to organizations. Let's hope LL customizes it for other needs, too.

Second Life Veterans Tribute

Veterans Day/Remembrance Day may have come to a close, but the money one group of volunteers raised will be helping soldiers for some time to come. They also built a sim full of detailed memorials in tribute for the week-long event in honor of US Veterans, and those from other countries.

Read the article in Community.

SNOWY MOUNTAIN RESORT

Before I came to Snowy Mountain, I was wondering how I should start my report. I had never seen it before and did not know what to expect, except snow and mountains. Even, I could get that!

But when I rezzed here, on the veranda of the log cabin, I turned round and the view took my breath away. It was an immediate emotional reaction!

Continue reading Kims' adventure in the Community section.........

Eye on the Blog: Lindens "to Retire the Current Mentor Volunteer Program"

Upcoming changes

The company has decided the time to evolve and grow as a volunteer community has come. While the official Mentor Volunteer Program has been an extremely valuable endeavor, its sheer size has made it increasingly difficult to support, and we need to reallocate our resources at the Lab for other Resident-focused programs. We've decided to retire the current Mentor Volunteer program—launching new opportunities for expanded volunteerism within Second Life.

For more information about the close of the Mentor Volunteer Program, please take a look at our FAQ.

We're sad to see the Mentor Volunteer Program go, but we're also excited about new opportunities! Now is the time participate in new offered programs, create your own programs or groups, or simply volunteer on an individual level. On our end, Linden Lab will work even harder to create the framework that highlights your efforts and supports the efforts of even more volunteers—heralding in a more sustainable and more creative phase of volunteerism. Rest assured that we will always want and appreciate volunteers in Second Life!

Announcing two new programs!
Linden Lab is focused on building robust volunteer programs in collaboration with the Residents of Second Life. Not only do we plan to help support their amazing work, but we also want to increase the visibility of their contributions for other Residents to enjoy.

If you're looking to volunteer, here are two Linden-supported programs that might interest you:

1. Second Life Answers. Residents submit questions and other Residents answer them—it's both simple and awesome at the same time. With over 200,000 page views, the Second Life Answers Beta has been a huge success, thanks to our Residents who participated by sharing knowledge, guidance, and friendly support on a wide range of topics in multiple languages. As Second Life Answers continues to grow, it will become even more effective as it attracts even more questions from Residents and more knowledge from our volunteers.

2. Coming Soon: The Resident Help Network (RHN) Beta! This program, which is expected to launch in about a week, will highlight the “best of the best” Resident-run help groups. There's a lot of great information out there among different help groups, and this network is designed to help our Residents find what they need. To apply to be part of the network, help groups must meet a high standard for helping new Residents, maintain over 50 active members, have an established history, produce documentation on how they help, and submit three Resident testimonials. There are more criteria for applicants, which you will be able to read when the blog and wiki information is available at launch. The accepted RHN groups will be listed on the website, featured inworld, and help shape future new Resident experience. We also hope to have an inworld Resident Help Network Fair early next year, so you and other Residents can learn more about the first groups accepted into the network.

Read more in the complete blog post by Lexie Linden Here.

Eye on the Blog: Good-Bye Xstreet Freebies

The Xstreet SL Experience:

The Xstreet SL Marketplace is not meant to provide a replacement or even identical experience to that of shopping in-world. Instead, it serves as a specialized shopping experience which makes shopping & selling easier and different in many ways. All of our research and your feedback demonstrates that. Since it is clear that the increasing quantities of free, cheap and stale goods are hindering that experience for shoppers and merchants alike, we will take action to counteract and balance them within the marketplace, for the benefit of all. To be clear: we believe in a free marketplace and will not implement price controls on what merchants can charge for their goods.

The Roadmap:

We will enact the following new controls for the Xstreet SL Marketplace within 90 days, with at least two weeks' notice, in order to improve the shopping experience:

Monthly Listing Fee for Freebies of L$99:

• Listings for free items will now be treated as a marketing/promotional tool and thus will have a price.
• L$99 is the price of our least expensive listing enhancement and so we will start there.
• Depending upon desire for this marketing opportunity and perceived value given such demand, we will adjust the price as necessary to maximize this value and keep the freebie listings from becoming bloated again.
• Expected Delivery: 30 - 60 days
  

Minimum Commission of L$3 on all items priced L$1 or greater:

• We will enact a minimum commission of L$3 on all sales of non-freebie listings.
• Since Freebie listings are now considered marketing and are charged as such, they will not incur this fee.
• A L$3 commission will raise the commission on all listings under L$50. This was a range suggested by residents, but it turns out that this is the price range where there is a very high transaction volume and low commission income which combine to cover the costs of those transactions.
• We may adjust this minimum commission as we see its effects on the marketplace. L$3 does not cover the full cost of a transaction, but the goal here is first to manage freebie growth first.
  
• Expected Delivery: 30 - 60 days
  

Monthly Listing Fee of L$10 for all items L$1 or greater:

• All non-freebie listings will now be charged L$10 per month to remain listed in the Xstreet SL Marketplace
• Currently, less than 20% of Xstreet SL listings make at least one sale per month. This displays just how much clutter of unsold items exists on Xstreet SL.
• Doing this will provide an incentive for merchants to remove listings which are not selling, while keeping this fee low enough to have a minimal effect on listings which are selling and are desired by shoppers.
• By reducing the overall number of listings on Xstreet SL, the shopping experience will drastically improve which will please our shoppers and be a boon to the business of all of our merchants.
• Expected Delivery: 60 - 90 days
  

Separate freebies into their own category:

• There is already a freebie section on Xstreet SL. This section will become the place to browse for new freebies.
• We will remove free listings from the browsable categories and keyword search results on Xstreet SL.
• Expected Delivery: 60 - 90 days
  

Timeline:

• We will provide at least 2 weeks notice before releasing any of these changes.
• We expect to enact these controls within the time window 30 - 90 days following this roadmap announcement.

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Read more in the complete blog post by Colossus Linden Here, or join the discussion Here.