Month: April 2014

Santaurio: paradise found …

Posted on by Inara Pey

~Santaurio~, April 2014” ~Santaurio~, April 2014 (click for full size)

I’m a fan of Jac Mornington’s work; that should be clear from my coverage of places like Yuki no Yume, Sol Existence, Black Basalt Beach and Baja Norte (which I understand is now under new management, but set to continue “as-is”). So when Ziki poked me about a new region Jac and Romy Rosea had opened, I put the landmark carefully to one side until life give me enough time to go and enjoy.

~Santaurio~, April 2014 ~Santaurio~, April 2014 (click for full size)

~Santaurio~ is subtitled “The Lost Island”, and the landing point appears to take its inspiration from a certain television series by JJ Abrams which featured an aeroplane crash and an island … However, while this tropical isle has mysteries to find and enjoy – ruins, spiritual hideaways and more – it is far from sinister. Indeed, Jac welcomes people to the region with a warm greeting in his profile:

Paradise can take the form of anything
It can be a flower or it can be a word or it can just be a sincere smile

We welcome you to Santaurio ❤
Jac & Romy

~Santaurio~, April 2014 ~Santaurio~, April 2014 (click for full size)

Once ashore from the arrival point, there is much to discover. Beaches run around the island, allowing you to explore the coastline with ease – but do try not to upset the nesting turtles! There a small beach club to be had, and further around the island, sheltered spots for couples to enjoy – do be aware that animations-wise, some of these have a slightly adult slant to them!

Move inland, and there’s more to discover, starting with the ancient Mayan-like stone ruins visible from the beach. The land between these and the beach club is cut by a fast-flowing river which leads the intrepid explorer inland, through the tropical jungle, up cascading rapids and to a rocky pool fed by a waterfall lying beneath what appears to be a natural rock arch.

~Santaurio~, April 2014“Rescue…?” ~Santaurio~, April 2014

Make your way up under the arch, wading through the water, and the truth is revealed: the arch is a part of the wall of an ancient volcano, now long extinct, the crater flooded to form another pool of water, this alive with the vibrant colour of lotus and lilies, humming birds flitting from flower to flower. In the midst of this sits a small stone Buddha, awaiting travellers seeking peace, candles and joss sticks on the rock before him, while water tumbles down from fissures in the rock behind him, constantly replenishing the pool.

For those who love Jac’s work and who haven’t seen ~Santaurio~, I cannot recommend it enough. If you’ve not seen Jac’s work previously, then ~Santaurio~ is an excellent place to start. Access at the moment is free. However, if you’d like to rez props for photography, etc., you’ll need to join the ~Santaurio~ group. It costs L$300, but joining it also helps cover the region’s tier, so if you decide to be a regular visitor, why not join? And for those who are viewing one of Jac’s superb builds for the first time, don’t forget the links to the others at the top of this article! All are very much worth a visit – or six!

~Santaurio~, April 2014“Rescue…?” ~Santaurio~, April 2014

Related Links

SL projects updates 16/1: Server and misc news

Posted on by Inara Pey

Server Deployments – Week 16

  • Main (SLS) channel: no deployment.
  • BlueSteel and LeTigre RCs: no deployments and remain with AIS v3 enabled
  • Maganum RC: should receive a new server maintenance package on Wednesday April 16th. This comprises a crash mode fix, and a fix for BUG-5533 (“llTeleportAgent() and llTeleportAgentGlobalCoords() can break any script in any attached object that contains a change event.”).

SL Viewer

The SL Share 2 project viewer, which includes the new options to upload text and snaps to Twitter and snaps to Flickr, complete with post-processing filter capabilities, and with the updated Facebook snapshot upload tab (also with the filters), was updated on Tuesday April 15th to version 3.7.6.288806.

Other Items

AIS v3 Inventory Outfit Links Issue

For those who use the Outfits folder in inventory, a useful option is that of being able to create links to no Copy items, allowing them to be “shared” among multiple outfits. This capability was originally introduced in Viewer 2, and has been popular among a number of TPVs.

While testing the new AIS v3 code, Henri Beauchamp noticed that when creating a new link in  inventory in an AIS v3 region and when using an AISv3 compatible viewer, the AIS server reply is not properly parsed, resulting in a failure to sync the viewer-side inventory (and its cached list) with the server-side inventory.

He has filed a JIRA (SUN-129) relating to the issue, although it is not clear if the issue is unique to Cool VL viewer, which uses a different algorithm to create the COF links, or whether it may affect other viewers still using links.

MAINT-535 Viewer URI Name Space

Viewer URI Name Space is a means of specifying URIs in a format the SL viewer can understand and use. For example, “secondlife///app/teleport” can be used to display a teleport link in local chat, IM or from a browser such that when the link is clicked, the user is automatically teleported to the destination. For example: “secondlife:///app/teleport/ThisPlaceHere/71/6/22” would display a link “Teleport to ThisPlaceHere” in chat / IM which when clicked, would teleport the user directly the destination.

However, because the capability can include an innocuous label, rather than displaying the actual SLurl, there have been concerns that the capability could be abused. For example “[secondlife:///app/teleport/GoHereAndGetBanned/3/4/56 CLICK FOR FREE STUFF!]” would be displayed in chat or IM as “CLICK FOR FREE STUFF!”

Because of this risk, Linden lab updated things such that the use of Viewer URI Name Space causes the official viewer to display a warning:

SLurl warning

A couple of side effects of this are that all SLurls which use Viewer URI Name Space can be impacted, and other uses of the capability can also be affected as well, as is the case with BUG-5702.

To address the issue with teleports, the Lab has introduced Maint-535 (currently in the Maintenance RC viewer, version 3.7.6.288799. This works by opening a dialogue box which displays the actual destination, together with button for the user to either teleport or ignore the offer, as shown in the example below.

tp-warn
MAINT-535 causes teleport links which use Viewer URI Name Space to generate a dialogue box displaying the destination, regardless of any label used to disguise it (click for full size)

Do note that all of this is only relevant to SLurl which use Viewer URI Name Space, Slurl from the map, landmarks, etc., do not see any change in behaviour.

Some concern was raised at the Simulator User Group meeting on Tuesday April 15th that because the dialogue box is displayed for all teleport offers using Viewer URI Name Space, even those that display the destination (e.g. “Teleport to ThisPlaceHere”, and that it might cause annoyance among people as a result of the need to confirm a teleport.

MAINT-535 also doesn’t address issues such as BUG-5702, where the “untrusted browser” message continues to be displayed.

Me and Flat Ebbe

Posted on by Inara Pey

Strawberry Singh’s Monday Memes are fun – not that I participate in all of them, but I do read them. A while back, she did a Flat Rodvik meme, which I actually missed out on, so when she decided to do a Flat Ebbe meme, I knew I had to give it a go.

The rules are simple, as Berry states:

Meme instructions: Pick up a copy of Flat Ebbe Linden from my marketplace store for free and take him to one of your favorite places on the grid. Also, share at least three things that you’d like to tell Ebbe. Please remember to leave a link to your post in the comments and share your Flat Ebbe picture in the Blog memes flickr group.

A week or so ago, I invited the real Ebbe to come see the sights of Blake Sea. While he did indeed do so, he passed on my offer to chaperone him to places of interest (I must not be popular, it was the second invite he’d turned down from me 😦 , even if he did come and sit with me for a while at the overspill auditorium ahead of Philip Rosedale’s VWBPE keynote before he managed to slip into the main presentation regions). So, deciding to make the most of the next best thing, I decided to take Flat Ebbe on a cruise around the Blake Sea estates.

Things started out well enough; he even brought some champers along and we had a quick slurp before setting out. Then, ever the gentleman, he offer to drive the boat.

A little pre-cruise champers. such a gentleman!
A little pre-cruise champers. such a gentleman! (click for full size)

Along the way, I thought about what I’d like to suggest to Ebbe, particularly as I’d already taken the liberty of saying a few words on the day he officially started at the Lab.  However, there are some things I’d probably say, had I the opportunity:

  • Don’t just consider the ToS issue to be about problems of ownership. The concerns are as much about the lack of limitations – duration, scope, purpose, all of which should be addressed if equilibrium is to be restored.
  • Encourage your marketing team to think of ways to engage with SL communities to help promote the platform. Leverage some of the incredible experiences people create here. Get marketing to think beyond just following IMVU’s banner ads, and to consider more engaging ways to broaden SL’s appeal.
  • Don’t fall back into just looking at the technical issues when it comes to getting new users engaged in SL. You may not be keen on talking to psychologists about matters, but do consider making use of an ethnographer It’s a diverse world we have here, and techniques used in the real world can have value here as well.
  • Keep those doors of communication open! It’s been great to see more informative communications through the blogs (not to mention your time in the forums and on Twitter).
  • Keep having fun 🙂 . And if you want to find out more on e-sports, always happy to take you skydiving or boat racing ;-). Or as you like skiing, why not take a look at the facilities Bay City and the East River Federation are bringing together for the SL Winter Games at the end of the year?

I could go on, but I always dread sounding like a cliché about grandmothers and eggs in matters like this. As it is, these are the things uppermost in my mind right now, so I’ll leave it there 🙂 .

Now, I just *know* this wouldn't have happened if the real Ebbe Linden had been driving...
Now, I just *know* this wouldn’t have happened if the real Ebbe Linden had been driving… (click for full size)

April 12th Firestorm meeting: video, transcript and notes

Posted on by Inara Pey

firestorm-logoOn Saturday April 12th 2014, the Firestorm team hosted a meeting and Q and A session to discuss a number of issues, including the OpenSSL issue and how it affects SL / Firestorm, Firestorm blocking, the next Firestorm release and more, and answer audience questions.

While the meeting was recorded, the Firestorm team are aware that many of their users have hearing difficulties, and / or prefer to read text, so this transcript has been supplied on their behalf.

When reading, please remember:

  • This is not a word-for-word transcript of the entire meeting. While all quotes given are as they are spoken in the video, to assist in readability and maintain the flow of conversation, not all asides, jokes, interruptions, etc., have been included in the text presented here
  • In the interests of readability, topics in the transcript are not necessarily presented chronologically compared to the video. For example: specific topics of interest raised in the Q&A session, and which are self-contained, are presented under their own heading outside of the Q&A section.
  • If there are any sizeable gaps in comments from a speaker which resulted from asides, repetition, questions to others etc,, these are indicated by the use of “…”
  • Timestamps are provided as guidance should anyone wish to hear the comments in full from any speaker on the video
  • Questions / comments were made in chat while speakers were talking. This inevitably meant that replies to questions would lag well behind when they were originally asked. To provide context between questions and answers, questions in the transcript are given (in italics) at the point at which each is addressed by a member of the Firestorm team, either in voice or via chat.

Please note: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. I am not an official member of the Firestorm team, and technical or support issues relating to Firestorm cannot easily be addressed through these pages. Such requests for assistance should be made through the in-world Firestorm Support groups or at the Firestorm support region.

With thanks, as always, to North for the video.

The TL;DR Summary

The following is a brief summary of topics discussed. Timestamps in braces refer to times in the video where the relevant commentary can be heard. All sections are expanded upon in the main transcript – click on the timestamp to go to them.

  • 0:00:15 Ebbe Linden – a review of Ebbe Linden’s (LL CEO Ebbe Altberg) presentation and Q&A at the VWBPE conference on Friday April 11th (video and transcript)
  • 0:05:15 Firestorm 64-bit download: an issue with the certificate for the 64-bit Firestorm expiring meant the download had to be temporarily pulled. It has now been restored.
  • 0:08:22 Firestorm DUI: the dynamic User Interface is very proof of concept and requires a lot of work and if it is developed, will possibly require as much as a year before it is remotely usable, and this with the collaboration of over TPVs and developers. Right now, it doesn’t require bug reports.
  • 0:23:04 The Heartbleed SSL bug: a error in versions of an OpenSSL extension called Heartbeat can be used to expose server-side information to attackers. The SL servers are safe, the Firestorm server is safe, however, people can be at risk when connecting to external sites using MOAP or the built-in web browser. Firestorm 4.5.1 and 4.6.1 use OpenSSL, but the chances of them being vulnerable are negligible, and because of the log-in hash, users names and passwords are secure. The very, very small risk will be removed in the next release.
  • 0:39:21 Firestorm blocking: older versions of Firestorm are blocked to try to encourage users to keep reasonable pace with the latest updates and capabilities in the viewer, and to meet with LL’s requirement that as many users as possible are on up-to-date viewers. It is not a Trojan, backdoor, spyware or malware. Log-in IDs, etc., are not compromised, nothing is passed to the FS server. Period.
    • 0:56:19: Why Firestorm doesn’t use an auto-update process and the pain of clean installs
    • 1:02:00: Due to a coding error, Firestorm 4.4.2, 4.5.1, 4.6.1 will be blocked from accessing OpenSim when the time comes to block them. This is not deliberate; it is the result of the code required to limit blocking to Second Life not making it into the viewer, which will be rectified with the next release. Firestorm remains committed to support OpenSim.
  • 1:09:30 Due to the use of automatically-generated SLurls with images uploaded to Facebook accounts using SL Share to Facebook, the snapshot upload capability was blocked by Facebook. This situation has now been resolved between the Lab and Facebook, and photo uploads work once more.
  • 1:14:05: The Next Firestorm release hopefully will be available in early May, and will include updates, fixes and new features, including some Mac updates, the new Vivox files, etc.
  • 1:31:36: bugs don’t get fixed in either Firestorm or the LL viewer without people filing bug reports via the JIRA. Please help in making Firestorm, the SL viewer and SL better
  • 1:36:25 Oculus Rift is coming, but it’s coming via Linden Lab. If you want to have a play, join the closed LL beta, or try CtrlAltStudio (just make sure you have a headset!)
  • 2:02:02 a look at the SL Share 2 capabilities, and why they won’t be in the next release of Firestorm
  • 1:51:06 Ed’s reminder about Firestorm Classes
  • 1:28:36 Start of the Q&A seesion

Continue reading “April 12th Firestorm meeting: video, transcript and notes” →

Fantasy Faire 2014: getting ready for the Faire

Posted on by Inara Pey

I’m a little behind on a number of things, including updates on Fantasy Faire 2014.

The Faire, an annual event in Second Life in support of RFL of SL and the American Cancer Society will this year run from May 1st through 11th inclusive, and the official press release announcing the event on April 1st, reads in part:

Celebrating its sixth year, Fantasy Faire 2014 is the largest gathering of fantasy designers, enthusiasts, roleplayers and performers in the virtual world. From Thursday, May 1 to Sunday May 11, treat yourself to eleven days of shopping, live music concerts, auctions, hunts and roleplaying as thousands of Second Life residents and creators bring their own visions together to support the American Cancer Society’s vision of a world without cancer.

Avatars, clothing, furnishings, gadgets and exclusive items are available from more than 150 of SL’s top Fantasy Creators across eleven stunning sims designed by some of the visionary artists behind many of the hottest spots on the SL destination guide.

Sponsors

Sponsors of Fantasy Faire 2014 include:

  • Event sponsors: Curious Kitties, Dark Goddess Designs, Epic, .Luminary., L’Uomo and Spyralle
  • Region sponsors: Cerridwen’s Cauldron, Creators of Fantasy, Dwarfins, Fallen Gods Inc., Fuubutsu-Dou, The Looking Glass, NeoVictoria, Roawenwood and Solarium.

Bloggers

Applications from people wishing to be official bloggers are currently being accepted. This year will see a change to how things are run, as the Blogger FAQ & application post explains:

This year there will be some changes to how the Faire blogging occurs. First of all, there will be no obligatory assignments. Instead there will be challenges. We do not want to force anyone to do anything, we want to inspire, dare, encourage: challenge.

It’s worth taking the time to read the FAQ in detail, as there are some important changes from previous years, including the option for people to blog for Fantasy Faire on the official blog. As it is worth reading the FAQ, I’m not linking directly to the blogger application form from here – please follow the link at the end of FAQ page.

The blogger challenges mentioned in the FAQ are open to anyone, whether accepted as an official blogger or not. These are designed to encourage bloggers to cover the event from unique perspectives. In all, there are three blogger challenges:

  • Faire Folk: bloggers are invited to create a character from the Fairelands and pick one of the Faire sims as their home, make a look mostly from Faire items, make the character come alive. Take at least one picture of that character in the chosen home sim and blog away!
  • My New Shiny: bloggers are asked to find a shop in the Fairelands they have never heard of before and blog something from the store. It’s about finding and showcasing the hidden talents, the newcomers, the surprises at this year’s Faire
  • Why I Relay: a challenge for those who have a personal reason to support Relay for Life events and who would like to share it.

As I blogged the 2013 Fantasy Faire from the perspective of a traveller passing through the Fairelands, I  rather like the Faire Folk challenge.

 Keeping up with Fantasy Faire

You can keep-up with Fantasy Faire preparations and activities a number of ways:

Related Links

Viewer release summaries 2014: week 15

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending: April 13th, 2014

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 Current Viewer Releases 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.

Official LL Viewers

  • Release viewer: updated to version 37.5.288464 (formerly the Google Breakpad RC) April 7  (download page, release notes)
  • Release channel cohorts (See my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Sunshine / AIS v3 RC updated to version 3.7.5.288822 on April 11 – Stability and performance improvements for SSA; Stability and performance improvements for SSA (download and release notes)
    • Interest List RC updated to version 3.7.6.288879 on April 11 – improvements to how the viewer and server work together to know what scene objects to draw (download and release notes)
    • Maintenance RC viewer version 3.7.6.288799 released on April 9 – some 54 MAINT fixes (download and release notes)
    • VoiceMO RC viewer version 3.7.6.288881 released on April 9 – combines the Voice RC viewer and the Merchant Outbox RC viewer (download and release notes)
    • Voice RC and Merchant Outbox RC removed as a result of the VoiceMO RC release
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V3-style

  • No changes from week 13.

V1-style

  • Cool Viewer updated on April 12th to the following versions: Stable: 1.26.10.18; Experimental: 1.26.11.18; Legacy: 1.26.8.55 – core updates: ALL: backport of Firestorm feature to prevent your avatar from turning around when selecting an object; bug fixes, code clean-up; Stable & Legacy: Backported the AISv3 protocol from Experimental; Ecperimental: AIS v3 code enabled by default; new XUI-based file (and directory) selector (release notes)

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No updates.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links