The SL9B regions are bustling with builders and exhibits are taking shape. However, there are still a good number of parcels that are still standing empty.
While we appreciate many of you may well be taking our earlier advice, and working on your builds elsewhere and are planning to rez them on your parcel once they’re finished, please remember that time is running out for you to do so.
Time is running short for builds to be set-up
The SL9B sims will be closing to all access at midnight SLT on Saturday 16th June.
This is to allow time for full technical rehearsals to take place, and final clear-up of the sims can take place ahead of the Press Day opening on the 17th, when the sims will be visited by the SL and RL media.
It’s therefore essential that all builds are in place ahead of this deadline. Please don’t leave everything until the last-minute, just in case some adjustments are required to your build once it is in position; we really don’t want people feeling rushed as closing time approaches!
Also on the subject of builds – don’t forget your land setting information. Getting these right ahead of time will help make your landmarks more attractive and help draw visitors to your exhibit. Our resident spooksperson, the Prim Reaper, is here to provide you with more help on this:
About SL9B
SL9B is being organised by residents, for residents – there is no direct involvement from Linden Lab. Along with the festivities there will be fundraising for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, a charity supported by Dream Seeker Estates.
Lumiya continues with what amounts to almost weekly releases, with version 2.0.4 arriving in Google Play on June 10th, bringing with it the first cut at inventory support, as well as a host of other features.
Inventory Features
The inventory capabilities comprise the ability to view your inventory; copy, rename, move and delete inventory items; edit asset permissions and the ability to share inventory with other users. The inventory display can be accessed from most of the Lumiya screens via your device’s Menu button, and uses the familiar suitcase icon.
Inventory access in Lumiya (click to enlarge)
Tapping INVENTORY will display a familiar folder list, ordered in the default System Folders to Top mode. Currently this can’t be changed, but the inventory capabilities are still evolving in Lumiya, so this may not always be the case.
As with the inventory panel on any graphical Viewer, you can navigate through your folders – simply tap on a folder to refresh the screen and show its contents. To work your way back up through your inventory, tap the BACK button at the top of the screen not the Back button on your device. The latter will quit you out of inventory and return you to the screen you were displaying prior to accessing inventory.
Also, note that Lumiya will remember your last position within inventory for as long as you remained logged-in to SL, and that it is this position that will be displayed when you next access inventory; thus it is very easy to switch in and out of inventory when performing a number of activities with Lumiya. You are only returned to the top-level of your inventory if you use the on-screen BACK button or if you sign-out of your current SL session and then log back in.
Asset information (click to enlarge)
Tapping on an item in the inventory window will display the asset information for the object (see right). If the item has any editable permissions associated with it, this screen will include an EDIT PERMISSIONS button. Tapping this button will display a pop-up where you can set those permissions to which you have access: tap on the required check boxes to assign (green tick) or remove rights. When you’ve finished, tap Save Changes at the bottom of the pop-up to save, or Cancel to leave the permissions unchanged. Tapping either will return you to the asset information screen.
Tapping either of the PROFILE buttons in the asset information screen will display the associated profile information (owner or creator). Tap the Back button on your device to return to the asset information screen.
If you perform a long touch on an object item in inventory (press and hold for a couple of seconds), a pop-up menu is displayed allowing you to copy (permissions allowing), rename or delete the object as well as providing another means of displaying the object’s asset information.
To copy an item of inventory, display the pop-up menu and select COPY, navigate to the point in your inventory where you wish to paste the copy of the item and then tap the SAVE HERE button displayed at the foot of the screen. Note that:
At this point in time Lumiya doesn’t support inventory links
When you have copied an item, the originating folder for the item will be displayed, not the location to which you have copied it.
Edit and create notecards in Lumiya & embed attachments (click to enlarge)
The inventory functions additionally allow you to:
Teleport directly to a location by tapping on the associated landmark in your inventory
Open and read / edit (subject to permissions) any notecards in your inventory
Create new notecards by tapping on the Menu button on your device and then on New Notecard. When creating notecards, be aware that:
The notecard will be created in the current folder you are browsing, not the notecard folder
You can add landmarks and other notecards to a new notecard by tapping on your device’s Menu button and then on Insert Item – this will open your inventory display, allowing you to navigate to the landmark / notecard you wish to embed; tap on the item to add it to your new notecard.
Sharing Inventory
Inventory can be passed to another user (permissions allowing) via the CONTACTS screen using either the CONTACTS or NEARBY lists to select the person to whom you want to give inventory and then tapping on their name to open an IM window.
With the IM window open, tap your device’s menu button and select SHARE ITEM. This will take you to your inventory window, where you can locate the item you wish to give. Tapping on a full permissions item will automatically transfer it to the selected individual. Tapping on a Transfer / No Copy item will generate a pop-up warning you that you are about to transfer a No Copy object; click on OK to complete the transfer.
If you are offered an item of inventory, a message will be displayed in an IM window from the person offering you the item (as with graphical Viewers). Clicking on Accept in the IM window will open your inventory window, and you can navigate to the folder in which you wish to save the item. When you have located and opened the required folder, tap SAVE HERE to save the received item. Note that you can also DECLINE unwanted inventory offers, which are discarded.
Group Notices
Group notice with an attachment (click to enlarge)
Lumiya 2.0.4 also includes the ability to send group notices (with attachments). Note that in order to use this function, you must be in a group role that allows you to send notices (be an owner of the group, for example) – if you do not have such a role, the group notice option will not be displayed in Lumiya.
The option is accessed by tapping CONTACTS and then opening the IM window for the group, then tapping the Menu button on your device and selecting NEW NOTICE.
A button near the top of the screen allows you to access your inventory to attach items to the notice – once an item is selected by tapping on it, you are automatically returned to the notice editor, and the button switches to display REMOVE, allowing you to remove the item (and replace it with another if you so wish).
Opinion
This version also sees a number of nips and tucks to Lumiya; hardware keys are now supported in the 3D world view, log-in performance has been improved for those with large contact lists, etc., all of which make 2.0.4 a further very positive step forward for the client, bringing some important functionality to the client. Currently there is no support for wearing / adding clothing and attachments, but again, this is only the first release for inventory handling within Lumiya; things will very probably improve as the functionality is enhanced.
This is also the first version of Lumiya I’ve got to use on Android 4.0.3 ICS – largely because I’ve only just got my Galaxy S2 updated. I encountered no problems running on the new OS, while overall, 2.0.4’s performance on the S2 continued to match that of earlier releases on both wifi and 3G.
With all of these recent updates, Lumiya is now firmly in the lead in providing mobile access for SL on the Android platform, making it the obvious choice for those running suitable phones or Android tablets.
This is a weekly summary of changes to all SL Viewers / clients of which I’m aware and which are in popular use across the grid / listed in the TPVD. Detailed links to said Viewers / clients can be found in my Viewer Round-up Page. The links supplied in this summary are either to change logs or to reviews within this blog.
An interesting week which saw the Libretto text client updated for the first time in a year with the roll-out of version 0.17. Dolphin issued a new version, but graphics issues have meant that downloads have been rolled back to last week’s release until fixed. LL’s Pathfinding Project Viewer received an update as the roll-out of pathfinding draws closer, while Lumiya joined the “usual suspects” with a further weekly release, this one incorporating inventory controls.
Updates for week ending: 10 June, 2012
SL Viewer updates:
Beta version: 3.3.3.258769, June 4th (release notes)
Development: rolled to 3.3.4.259223, June 9th
Pathfinding: 3.3.2.256513, June 6th
Dolphin Viewer rolled to version 3.3.9.24419 – June 14th (release notes)
3.3.9 graphics issue fixed.
Exodus has introduced nightly builds ahead of the next release
Niran’s Viewer rolled to 1.41 on the 11th June (release notes)
Zen Viewer released version 3.3.4.1 June 10th (release notes)
Cool VL Viewer rolled to 1.26.4.17 on June 9th, (change log)
Lumiya rolled out version 2.0.4 on June 10th (release notes)
Libretto rolled to version 0.17 on June 10th (release notes)
Oskar Linden has provided an update / post-mortem on the recent bout of griefing that took place across the grid as a result of person or persons unknown abusing the advanced user experience code that was released onto the Magnum Release Channel two weeks ago.
The problem hit on Monday 4th June when the advanced teleport functions released to Magnum were used to teleport individuals or groups around the grid, with some people reporting they were teleported to the likes of The Cornfield, while others found themselves unexpectedly picked up and dropped into stores or meetings.
Linden Lab reacted rapidly to the issue, determining a fix for the exploit on the afternoon of the 4th (SLT) and deployed across the entire grid in a rolling restart that affected the main channel and all release channels.
The key points relating to the issue remain:
The exploit came about due to a permissions restriction within the advanced tools not working as anticipated
To prevent further misuse of the code, the advanced tools were also removed from the Magnum RC channel
Both the code and the associated test plans have been revised and are being run through LL’s QA process to better ensure the situation of the 4th June is unlikely to be repeated when the code is rolled-out once more
Coyot Linden estimates that the advanced experience tools project has been delayed by around 2-3 weeks as a result of these events
LL are at this point in time unclear as to when the tools are likely to be rolled back out onto a Release Channel; the slot assigned to the tools on the Magnum RC has now been taken by other security issues in preparation for their roll-out to the grid.
One immediate outcome of the griefing situation is that the teleport capability has been revised so that when someone is teleported, the function will tell them the name of the owner of the object that teleported them (thus allowing any potential abuser of the system to be reported to LL via an Abuse Report).
The last few weeks have seen Kitely roll out further features to enhance their on-demand virtual world service.
Today, June 10th, the company has announced that Kitely Credits have become a full virtual currency and that web messaging is now a part of the Kitely service.
Kitely Credits as currency
You can now use your Kitely Credits (KC) in-world. This finally makes it possible to sell goods and pay for goods and services in-world. Your current KC balance is shown in your Viewer – although note that some Viewers may show the balance as “L$” rather than “KC”. Additionally, all of your KC transactions will appear in the History tab on your Kitely account web page, and some transactions can be clicked to get more information such as the name of the item that you bought or sold.
Note that KCs cannot be purchased through the Viewer. This is because the BUY button is hard-coded for the purchase of Linden Dollars. Please continue to use the website to purchase your Kitely Credits.
This is just the first step in Kitely developing KCs, and further features will be added in the coming weeks, including the ability to earn them through charging people to access your world and the ability to pay your monthly payment plan using KCs. Anti-fraud mechanisms will also be rolled out, which will allow in-world ATMs to be created and used (although Kitely recommend ATMs are not implemented by users until the anti-fraud controls are in place).
Web Messaging
The web messaging capability enables Kitely users to contact one another through the website. Wherever a user’s name appears in the website (i.e. on the history page for a world, in the Public Worlds list, etc., you can right-click on the name to display a pop-up menu, which will contain an option to Send Message. Click on this to open a message pad.
Simply type your message into the pad and click on Send. The recipient will get your message the next time they log-in to Kitely, if they are not already logged-in. If they are logged-in at the time you send the message, they will receive it as an Instant Message in-world.
Updates to Group Policy
There have also been a few changes to the Kitely Group Policy:
It now costs 100 KC to create a group.
Users can join a maximum of 100 groups (note that some viewer may only display a maximum of 42 Groups, but the limit is 100)
You must add at least one other member to a group when creating it in addition to yourself. Any group with less than two members will be automatically deleted two days after creation
Note that existing groups were grandfathered in: they didn’t incur the new charge of 100 KC, and have not been deleted if they have only one member.
Finally, there have been a number of additional improvements and tweaks – including the Kitely plugin now supporting the Teapot browser.
The replace world function allows the contents of an existing world to be updated with a new OAR file, retaining some of the settings associated with the world, rather than overwriting them. In particular, the world’s URL remains the same and all Facebook likes and Twitter tweets associated with it are kept. In addition:
All of the settings in the Manage World dialogue, e.g. the world’s description and its access controls.
Where possible, all parcel settings will be retained. This is handled by the OAR upload process comparing parcel names in the world with those in the OAR file; where the names are the same, the existing settings for the parcel are retained, rather than being replaced by settings in the OAR file. This affects the parcel’s flags (e.g., “No Build”), and the parcel’s permissions: which group it belongs to; which users can enter it; etc.
The Replace World feature is located in the Files tab of the Manage World dialogue (previously called Edit World – note that the Export World feature has also been moved to this tab).
Disconnect idle users
The disconnect idle users helps to ensure you do not remain unduly connected to Kitely (and using either time or Kitely Credits) when real life takes you away from your computer for extended periods and you haven’t logged out. This feature can be used to both ensure you are logged out from Kitely should this happen, and can be used to remove avatars that have been “parked” (i.e. left unattended for extended periods) on your worlds.
Idle avatars can be disconnected automatically after 30 minutes of inactivity in one of two ways:
To ensure your own avatar is automatically disconnected: go to your account settings page and ensure Disconnect from worlds when idle is checked (under the General section)
To ensure other avatars are automatically disconnected from your own worlds: go to Manage World, then click on the Access tab and make sure Disconnect idle visitors is checked
A tradition of SLB celebrations is that of a time capsule, wherein residents are invited to try to create a capsule that represents something significant from the year or which was inspired by the year’s theme. For example, SL4B’s capsule had flexis, SL5B’s used glow while SL6B’s capsule was a meteorite chunk for its space theme.
The 2003 time capsule at SL1B, June 2004. (secondlife.wiki.com)
This year we’re sending out an open invitation to residents to propose their ideas for the SL9B time capsule. If you’re interested, here’s a summary of the guidelines:
Keep your design relatively low-prim; some older designs reached up to 96 prims, and we need to keep things relatively modest
Keep the size manageable; the SL3B vault was 6m cubed, and we’d like to consider that at the top end of the scale; while designs that go over this limit on one side or two won’t be disqualified, we don’t have room for the Death Star…
Please make sure your submission is FULL PERMS. We may have to make modifications to it – such as adding the actual contents!
If the capsule is designed to open, please supply a “closed” and an “open” version – no need to script it opening – we can help with that, just so long as we have versions that present the illusion of opening it
If you wish to keep a copy of your design, please make sure you do so before passing the original over; it may not be possible to return it to you after the fact – although in a worst case, we’ll do our best
Feel free to design your own pedestal or display case for your capsule – particularly if it is small enough to warrant a pedestal / display case of its own
Some particle activity is OK, but again, please keep it manageable: no huge firework displays with the capsule opens or anything
Be creative and remember that this year’s theme is “Community” if you want to go in that direction.
The closing date for submissions is midnight on the 15th June. To submit a design, or to ask any questions on the matter, please contact the Keeper of the Capsule, Will Webb. Note that previous capsules can be seen upon request for those who require a little inspiration or guidance in developing a design.
And just to help, a quick word from our spooksperson, the Prim Reaper:
About SL9B
SL9B is being organised by residents, for residents – there is no direct involvement from Linden Lab. Along with the festivities there will be fundraising for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, a charity supported by Dream Seeker Estates.
The SL9B regions are bustling with builders and exhibits are taking shape. However, there are still a good number of parcels that are still standing empty.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 