Month: May 2013

SL10BCC: the deadline approaches!

Posted on by Inara Pey

sl10b-enchant-2There are just a few short hours in which to apply to be a part of the SL10B Community Celebration. Applications close at midnight SLT tonight – Monday 20th May, 2013.

If you want to be a part of the celebrations an exhibitor, performer or volunteer or if you wish to book a slot in the Community Celebrations Auditorium, now is the time to do so!

Here’s How

  • First: please make sure you read the event policies and understand all requirements
  • Second: follow the links below for any of the applications you wish to submit:
    • Exhibitors – art, informative, community-related, instructional, media; all can be accommodated at SL10BCC. You’ll need a good idea of what you are proposing to build – it should be community-orientated and celebratory. The clearer the information you can give, the easier it will be to assess your application. Remember, all exhibition builds must conform to the requirements specified in the event policies
    • Performers – If you want to be involved in the musical celebration as a live performer or as a DJ, let us know with this form – and don’t forget to include the times that would suit you best for appearing on stage!
    • Presenters – want to run a workshop, give a presentation, teach a class, put on a media event or performance art, then fill-out this form – and remember to include the times that would suit you best for hosting it
    • Volunteers – we’re looking for keen, outgoing, friendly people to volunteer as Greeters / Hosts, Moderators, Exhibitor Assistants, and Stage Managers. If you’re interested, check-out our Role Descriptions and use this form to volunteer!
  • Third: Let us sort through and consider all the applications. Acceptances will be sent out in the week starting May 20th, but it may take a little time for us to contact everyone.
The beautiful Main Stage from SL9B - one of the many stunning builds from the 2012 celebrations
The beautiful Main Stage from SL9B – one of the many stunning builds from the 2012 celebrations

This year marks a very special milestone for Second Life – so why not be a part of it yourself, and join one of the biggest events in SL’s year and make it truly memorable? You don’t have to be SL’s greatest builder or singer or have special experience in dealing with visitors and providing help (training and support will be given for this!); but you will be among hundreds of others all working together, having fun, sharing in something very special – and doubtless make a lot of new friends along the way.

So go on, while there is still time – click those links and make SL10BCC your celebration of Second Life!

Related Links

Viewer release summary 2013: week 20

Posted on by Inara Pey

This summary is published every Monday and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Viewer Round-up Page, a list of  all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware) and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy
  • By its nature, this summary will always be in arrears
  • The Viewer Round-up Page is updated as soon as I’m aware of any releases / changes to viewers & clients, and should be referred to for more up-to-date information
  • The Viewer Round-up Page also includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.  

Updates for the week ending: May 20th, 2013

Depreciated / Discontinued Viewers

  • SL Development viewer – depreciated as of version 3.5.2.274629 April 24, 2013
  • Zen Viewer – discontinued by developer and no longer available, January 27th, 2013
  • Phoenix viewer – development and support ended on December 31st, 2012

Related Links

Surfing, moving on and eternal cities

Posted on by Inara Pey

My apologies for missing out my usual Seanchai Library update for the last few weeks. It was not intentional, just a problem with real-life distractions and an inability to organise my time properly.

It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life by the staff of the Seanchai Library SL. As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.

Sunday 19th May, 10:00 – More from the Lost Coast

lost coast“The beach is a no-man’s-land, the coastal zone a dynamic give and take of land and sea, swell and tide. The nomadic peoples indigenous to this fluid land scape belong to the global tribe of surfers. They see the ocean differently than inlanders, differently too than the other fringe dwellers who seldom set foot in saltwater. For surfers the swells, currents, and the curling folds of waves are elements of a natural language.”

Join Shandon Loring aboard the SS Galaxy as he continues through Drew Kampion’s collection of eighteen short stories, published in various magazines over the last 35 years and now drawn together in a single volume. Together, they provide a raw glimpse of the surfing life from sliding into cold, stiff neoprene to experiencing the ecstasy of catching the perfect wave and riding it to shore.

Monday 20th May, 19:00 – Exit: The Endings That Set Us free

exitsCaledonia Skytower once again opens the pages of Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot’s tenth book.

Exit is the “exploration of the ways we leave one thing and move on to the next; how we anticipate, define, and reflect on our departures; our epiphanies that something is over and done with. The result is an enthusiastic, uplifting lesson about ourselves and the role of transition in our lives.”

“Lawrence-Lightfoot, a sociologist and a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has interviewed more than a dozen women and men in states of major change, and she paints their portraits with sympathy and insight: a gay man who finds home and wholeness after coming out; a sixteen-year-old boy forced to leave Iran in the midst of the violent civil war; a Catholic priest who leaves the church he has always been devoted to, he life he has loved, and the work that has been deeply fulfilling; an anthropologist who carefully stages her departure from the ‘field’ after four years of research; and many more.”

Tuesday 21st May, 19:00: The City and the Stars

city-starsIn 1948 Arthur C. Clarke saw his first novel, Against the Fall of Night published in the magazine Startling Stories. Later, in 1953, it appeared as a novella in its own right, prior to becoming the basis of a much expanded work, The City and the Stars, published in 1956. Both focus on the same setting and principal character: the City of Diaspar and a young man called Alvin, but they tell individually unique tales – so much so that both remain in circulation,enjoying equal popularity.

One billion years in the future, Diaspar stands amidst the desert of Earth as the last, self-perpetuating city of humankind. Here, the Central Computer watches over people who live multiple lives over thousands of years before they return to storage, only to be “reborn” at a time selected by the Central Computer. Diaspar is utopian: poverty and need have long been eradicated and there is little strife. Life within the city is focused on creativity and art and in the deeper exploration of already well-understood fields. Enclosed, cyclical and ultimately static, Diaspar is both the culmination and twilight of human endeavour.

“Born” a teenager, as are all the city’s inhabitants, Alvin has no previous lives. Ass such, has none of the fear that stops others from leaving the city, and much curiosity as to what lies beyond its influence. In meeting the jester Khedron, Alvin succeeds in finding a way out of the city, where he discovers Lys. Thus is a chain of events set in motion which will forever change the world.

Join Gyro Muggins as he reads from The City and the Stars, which has been hailed as one of Clarke’s best works.

Wednesday 22nd May, 19:00: 100-word Stories

Join the irrepressible master of the 100-word challenge and podcast as he again dips into his treasure-trove of  tales, both his own and from the hands of others, all told in the span of just 100 words.

Thursday 23rd May, 19:00: Nevada: True Tales from the Neon Wilderness

Shandon Loring reads from Jim Sloan’s  collection of stories describing the idiosyncracies, colourful figures, notable events, and contributing developments of the neon capital of the world – Las Vegas.

Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and additions to the week’s schedule.

In May, library guests are invited to support Seanchai Library’s featured real world charity Heifer International. Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.

Related Links

It’s a Grand Place to visit

Posted on by Inara Pey

There are lots of examples of the cross-over between real life and Second Life to be found in-world: historical builds, the presence of real-world organisations, the (still surviving) links between SL and education, not to mention the many and varied activities which go on in SL in support of real life charities.

One of the most recent examples of the cross-over in terms of in-world builds to get my attention is that of La Baule. I admit ignorance as to how long it has been around – but I caught it as a new entry in the Photogenic Spots of the Destination Guide, and had to go take a look.

Brussels Grand Place
Brussels Grand Place

A full region, La Baule is home to the Brussels Grand Place, a complete reproduction of the famous UNESCO world Heritage site, with the market square, the City Hall and all the guildhalls – and it is quite simply magnificent. So much so, that I doubt these images really do the place justice.

Designed and built by Pascale Boucher (Passie), the build includes a museum, an art gallery and cafe, and hosts a range of events through the year, including outdoor music  performances, ice skating in winter, and weddings held inside the magnificent buildings.

Bussels Grand Place
Bussels Grand Place

“I spent nine months doing it, sweating, bleeding and weeping,” Passie says of the build, “because i want to let SL know how marvellous my home country is.”

Well, she’s succeeded.

Having visited the real Grand Place many a time, I can vouch for the attention to detail with the exteriors which are a tour de force of prim and sculpt build.

Brussels Grand Place
Brussels Grand Place

This is a stunning place for photography – although you may find it taxing on your GPU; I have to admit my Ge 9800 GT struggled mightily to try to manage things – and wasn’t entirely successful. However, this is no reason to avoid a visit; if your own card can manage the load, the rewards for seeing the place with Advanced Lighting Model (deferred rendering) are plenty, even without shadows enabled. If you can manage the full monty, then it’s well worth flipping shadows on as well the results under a range of windlight conditions are stunning and really bring home the beauty of the build.

Brussels Grand Place
Brussels Grand Place

Highly recommended.

Related Links

Bay City at Five: musical extravaganza

Posted on by Inara Pey

Bay City Fifth Anniversary PosterSunday May 19th 2013 marks the fifth anniversary of Bay City.

To mark the event, there will be a parade through Bay City, followed by a musical extravaganza, both of which are open to all!

The parade will line-up at the  bandshell in Bay City – Harwich, starting at around midday SLT. Then at about 12:30 SLT, it will set out along Route 66 at and make its way to the Bay City Fairgrounds in the North Channel region.

Music throughout the parade will be provided by Bay City’s own GoSpeed Racer of Kona Stream fame.

Starting at around 13:30 SLT in the Bay City Fairgrounds, the musical extravaganza will run through until late afternoon featuring some of SL’s top live performers.

All Residents of Second Life are invited to participate. Celebration goods are already available at the Bay City Community Centre, in the Daley Bay region, for those who wish to be a part of the parade, and a viewing area is provided. The music event is also open to all who desire to attend.

The Artists

gospeed-racerGospeed Racer

(12:30 – 13:30 SLT)

“What is KONA Stream? It is my personal station I run from my home. I play mainstream pop and rock music from the 60s, 70s, & 80s along with soundtracks, novelty songs, mash-ups and light sprinkling of country. My current library has 13,000+ tracks in it!”

CHRISTOV KOHNKEChristov Kohnke

(13:30 – 14:30 SLT)

“Hi, I love to sing and play the guitar. I play pop music of all styles from all ages. I play in real life and find playing in SL a lot of fun. I love to play lead guitar too so don’t be surprised if you hear me soloing over myself using a looping device that I use to record myself in the moment and then play over that. I pride myself in all of my playing be live and in the moment versus pre-recorded in any way.”

Celticmaidenwarrior LancasterCelticmaidenwarrior Lancaster

(14:30-15:30 SLT)

Celtic is a seasoned SL performer who’s been pleasing audiences for four years in Second Life. Now Celtic is playing everything from folk to classic rock easy listening and rounds it off with traditional Celtic ballads.

Rosedrop RustRosedrop Rust

(15:30 – 16:30 SLT)
“Sensitive ballads, classic rock and roll, unusual covers, unique songs from personal friends, heartfelt originals. Sometimes I may throw in a poem or two. I have played in excess of 1500 gigs in SL.”

Related Links

Celebrate Bay City at V with live music at the Bay City Fairgrounds, Sunday May 19th
Celebrate Bay City at Five with live music at the Bay City Fairgrounds, Sunday May 19th

SL projects update week 20 (2): materials beta, SSB/A

Posted on by Inara Pey

Server Deployments – Week 20

As always, please refer to the release forum  thread on the weekly deployments for the latest updates and discussions.

Second Life Server (Main channel)

On Tuesday May 14th, the Main channel received the Experience Keys project. This means the project is now available across the grid, although there are no visible changes to be seen at this point. Release notes.

Release Candidate (RC) Channels – JSON Capabilities

On Wednesday May 15th, all three RC channels received a new server maintenance project (release notes (Bluesteel)).  The project is designed to fix two crash modes and two bugs, and introduce new LSL support creating and parsing of JSON-formatted strings – see part 1 of this week 20 report.

Commenting on the JSON capabilities at the Server Beta meeting on Thursday May 16th, Maestro Linden said, “There are some issues with this week’s Json functions… the keys in key-value pairs are not quoted, but should be and right now you’ll run into problems when you add stings which contain escaped quotes.”

In addition, a further confirmed bug has been found in the code on the three RC channels (BUG-2601), described by Lucia Nightfire as:

Seems that the release on the RC channels has brought about an annoying bug that affects control event triggering in attachment’s child prims after changing regions.

There are two different effects depending how you enter a version 13.05.14.275813 RC region.

After going into an RC region while using any controls, those controls will lock under execution and remain locked until you reset the script or the control perms or detach the object.

After going into an RC region without using controls like with a teleport, the control event will not trigger when attempting to use any controls until you re-request/re-grant control perms or go back to a main channel region.

Should this problem be encountered, returning to any Main channel region should restore the broken functionality.

Because of both of these issues, it is believed the code currently on the three RC channels will remain on them for a further week while fixes are developed and implemented.

SL Viewer Updates

Beta Viewer

The current SL beta viewer code, which contains the FMOD Ex updates is expected to be merged with viewer release shortly, prior to going to testing. Depending on the results of the testing, an updated SL release viewer should appear early in week 21.

Viewer Release Process

Because the version upgrading changes will move to the viewer release channel with the move of the current beta viewer, the viewer beta repository will stop being used, and viewer releases will start switching over to the new release process. As a part of this, two new wiki pages will be appearing in the next future (probably in week 22).

The first of these will be a revamped Alternate Viewers page on the wiki, which will list all the available LL project viewers and beta viewers and release candidates which are available, as well as the current viewer release, all of which will have download links and links to their respective release notes.

The second wiki page will have the same information together with pointers to which repository used to build the viewer, which changesets were used to build a viewer, and whether or not the repository is public.

The plan remains that under the new release process, all beta and release candidates will have public repositories, while project viewers many not initially have public repositories, but will have as they reach the later stages of their development.

Cocoa Project

The Cocoa project for Mac versions of the viewer has been largely stalled as a result of redeploying TPV assistance from that project to the materials project. It is anticipated that once materials moves to a beta viewer status, the emphasis will shift back on to the Cocoa viewer work

Materials Processing

Providing all goes according to plan, the Materials Processing code should move to a beta  status within its own repository and hopefully also make an appearance in week 21. Commenting on this, Oz Linden said at the TPV Developer meeting o Friday May 17th, “It’s still not 100% there; there’s still a few known bugs, but we think we’ve got all the serious ones and so we’re going to put it out where people can play with it.”

Once the materials viewer does reach beta, the anticipation is that it will remain there for “a little while” and the it will not be a one-spin beta release prior to moving on.

Detail on the hint of a Katana created entirely using the new materials capability. The sword is made by June Dion and has an LI of 7
Materials used to create details on the hilt of a Katana created by June Dion – soon to be visible in the Materials Processing beta viewer

Continue reading “SL projects update week 20 (2): materials beta, SSB/A” →