Day: August 1, 2012

Mountain Lion issues for SL viewer

Posted on by Inara Pey

An issue has emerged trying to use the Second Life Viewer on Mac systems running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Notification of the issue has been posted to the Grid Status Page, which reads:

Issues Opening the Second Life Viewer in MacOSX

[Posted 8:30am PDT, 1 August 2012] Some residents may be experiencing problems opening the Second Life Viewer in a MacOSX Mountain Lion environment. This is due to a security feature of this operating system which is misidentifying some programs as potential security risks. While this is not indicative of any actual issues with our software, we are working on an update to our viewer which should address this. In the meantime there are instructions on how to bypass this feature temporarily, as well as an explanation of the cause of this issue, here:

http://osxdaily.com/2012/07/27/app-cant-be-opened-because-it-is-from-an-unidentified-developer/

Please note that this is not a problem with the viewer, and that we are not responsible for the workaround above – we are merely providing a link to a possible fix posted by a third party.

If you are experiencing issues using Second Life on Mac OSX, you might try the workaround noted above – but again, please note, as the report states, it is a link from a third-party, and Linden Lab (nor I) cannot be held responsible if the workaround fails or causes other unforeseen issues with your computer.

Bob Komin departs LL

Posted on by Inara Pey

As reported by Tateru Nino, Bob Komin, Chief Operating Officer / Chief Financial Officer and interim CEO of Linden Research has departed the company.

Komin joined the company in January 2010, and is widely seen as one of the most influential members of the company’s senior management team.

Bob Komin

His describes his initial remit within Linden Lab  as being to: “Lead development of [a] plan to re-focus strategy from three target markets to one and to greatly simplify operations and organization in Q2 2010 with [the] goal of returning [the company] to profitability and positive free cash flow in Q1 2011.”

This resulted in LL becoming profitable and cash flow positive each month from October 2010, “With >20% adjusted operating margin and >30% EBITDA”, and 2011 becoming the most profitable year with the highest cash generation in LL’s history at that time.

Komin was actually appointed COO/CFO in July 2010, at the same time being made interim CEO (following Mark Kingdon’s departure and around Philip Rosedale’s brief “return” to the company). He remained interim CEO until Rod Humble officially took over the role at the start of 2011, and Komin is regarded as instrumental in both the formation of a smaller, tighter management team within the company and for Humble’s own recruitment.

Rumours about his possible departure started circulating in June, “So I asked the Lab about it.” Tateru reports on her blog, “Got confirmation a few hours ago.” Tateru indicates that LL confirmed yesterday that Komin had departed the company, stating: “After more than two and a half years at Linden Lab, Bob Komin has moved on to pursue a new opportunity. Linden Lab is thankful for his contributions to the company, and we wish him all the best in his next endeavour.”

With thanks to Tateru Nino.

Related Links

LL announce “first set” of advanced creator tools now live

Posted on by Inara Pey

Yesterday, as I reported, Linden Lab rolled-out the first pass of the advanced creator tools across the main release channel for the grid. These are the functions that lead to an outbreak of griefing when they were first rolled-out on the Magnum Release Channel back in June.

Since then, the code has been revised – and now includes a “master switch” that allows Linden Lab to disable the functionality should anyone try to get up to mischief using the tools. The code was in fact enabled on both LeTigre and BlueSteel last week without major incident, and so the code was rolled-out to the main channel in an enabled mode on July 31st.

Today, LL has formally announced this initial release of the tools via a new blog post. This initial release comprises three new functions:

These functions should allow a range of new experiences to be created, some of which are demonstrated in the Linden Realms game, wherein the attachment option is used to attach the game HUD to avatars and the teleport options are used in conjunction with things like the rock monsters.

Linden Realms HUD (top left): attached using the full experience tools

The functions are also designed to be used with a new permissions system, which has yet to be rolled-out across the grid. This means that until the new permissions are rolled-out, some of the functions will not operate as transparently as they eventually will. For example, rather than something like a HUD being automatically attached to your avatar (as is the case with the Linden Realms game, which does use the new permissions system), you will be prompted to accept the object first (thus making you the owner) in order for it to attach.

It’s not currently clear as to when the new permissions system will be rolled-out, but with the “master switch” at their disposal, Linden Lab are confident that the kind of issues that marred the June RC roll-out can be avoided.

The official blog post includes a video from Torley.