Month: February 2015

“We are building a new product *in addition* to Second Life”

Posted on by Inara Pey

Just Another Tequilla Sunrise, Isle of Love; Inara Pey, October 2014, on FlickrJust Another Tequilla Sunrise, Isle of Love (Flickr)

It’s no secret that the Lab is working on a “next generation” virtual world(s) platform. Since the original announcement and follow-up confirmation, the matter has inevitably led to some controversy.  Since that time the Lab has sought to give reassurance to users that doing so is not the “end” of Second Life.

Hence why the Lab are continuing to develop Second Life and continuing to plan for its future, up to and including a planning meeting which took place at the Battery Street offices during February 2015. Hence why the Lab continues to circulate manpower and expertise between Second Life and the development of their new platform, so that both might equally benefit.

Indeed, after recently advertising a software engineering position specifically for Second Life work, Oz Linden, the Lab’s Technical Director for the platform, was able to Tweet:

And no, the Lab will not say who it is, or what their involvement in SL might be
And no, the Lab will not say who it is, or what their involvement in SL might be

In this, it’s also worth pointing out that Oz has very much been the cheerleader when it comes to SL’s prospective future. In 2014, when the Lab was starting a process of aligning its resources to support both Second Life and its new platform, he actively campaigned for the post of Technical Director for Second Life. In July of that year he was happy to go on record saying:

I went through kind-of a process with Linden Lab management to try to get the new position I’m in now. This is something I wanted. I wanted this. This was not some kind of booby prize that was handed me. I got a couple of IMs from residents, I’m sure they were mostly kidding and mostly all in fun, but saying, “Oh, poor Oz. He got left behind.”

Poor Oz did not get left behind. Lucky Oz got exactly the job he was looking for.

Oz Linden - Technical director of Second life offers some pragmatic and open thoughts about the platform and its future
Oz Linden – Technical director of Second life offers some pragmatic and open thoughts about the platform and its future

He also takes a very positive attitude to the debate over the new platform and how it might or might not impact Second Life, noting that for the Lab as a whole, that such a debate is going on within the community demonstrates that they still have a very passionate and supportive user base for the platform:

People wouldn’t bother to criticise us for what they see as our flaws, and we can all either agree or disagree with whether or not individual issues are a big deal, and that’s a conversation I’m looking forward to. But they wouldn’t be bothering to criticise us if they didn’t think Second Life was worth having and worth improving.

This was again demonstrated during the February 13th TPV Developer meeting, when the subject of the new platform was raised in passing, Oz again emphasised that the future of Second life is far from over. In doing so, he also demonstrates the kind of pragmatic attitude towards the new platform we should perhaps all consider adopting. He’s further  given me permission to reproduce his comments here in both audio recordings and as written transcriptions.

 

The folks that are working on the new platform would love to be able to say that they’re making something so amazing and so wonderful, and so much better that everybody will want to move over to it. And maybe that will happen; and if it does, then Second Life will be this vast, empty place, and there’ll be no activity happening here, and if we turn it off, nobody will notice.

I don’t expect that will happen, and realistically, none of them expect that will happen right out of the box, anyway. Because there’s an awful lot in Second life that will take time to to create equivalence for in whatever they end-up decided to call the new thing. So it’ll be time.

But if Second life continues to be a sound working environment for people, and they’re still enjoying it, and they’re still using it and it’s still economically advantageous to keep it alive – why would we turn it off? I mean, we won’t. It’s silly. And I think that’s going to be years and years. [That’s] just my personal opinion.

And in the meantime, my job is to continue to make it better. Not “keep it alive”; not, “keep it limping along” – to make it better.

 And in terms of future activities related to Second Life, he went on to say:

 

It’s no secret we had a big planning conference in San Francisco last week; it wasn’t meant to be a secret, we did. We got everybody involved in Second Life get together; we had developers, and QA people and support people, and operations people and product planning people and business people….

And everybody got together and talked about what was working, what wasn’t working, various ideas for how to improve things, and it was fantastic. It was really fun; everybody there learned something they didn’t know when they got there, and we came away with a lot of great ideas. And we’re going to go ahead with some of those ideas. So, we’re having fun!

So really, there’s no reason to fear for the future of Second Life at this point in time. It’s liable to be around for a good while yet. Hence why I use another quote from Oz as the title for this article, one which I’ll paraphrase in closing. The Lab aren’t building a new platform instead of working on Second Life, the Lab are building a new platform in addition to working on Second Life.

i4 Galleries: of abstracts and postcards

Posted on by Inara Pey
Leko Catnip - i4 Galleries
Ieko Catnip – i4 Galleries

Kayly Iali is an artist and the owner  / curator of i4 Galleries of Art. A suite of four gallery spaces within the Port Lydius region, i4 Galleries occupies the same quarter of the region’s sky space as Lusus Saule, whose work I also recently reviewed.

February saw the start of four new exhibits at i4 Galleries, three of which sit within the abstract school, while the fourth presents an delight take on the idea of vintage postcards.

I’ve encountered the work of JudiLynn India previously in SL, and have always been struck by her bold use of colour and materials. An artist working in acrylics and digital art in the physical world, JudiLynn here presents 14 striking pieces of her art which demonstrate her work to its fullest advantage.

Judilynn India - i4 Galleries
Judilynn India – i4 Galleries

The large format in which the works are presented allows the rich detail in each, including the texturing apparent within it, to be clearly seen, adding to their vibrant look and feel.  number also exhibit a rich, dynamic energy in both the use of colour and line; there is a sense of power and movement within them, while other are more restful in nature, presenting a calming influence whilst retaining a strong use of form and colour.

A former graphic artist working in advertising, Ieko Catnip switched to painting some 20 years ago, inspired by the work of Zao-Wou-Ki, Pierre Soulages, Antoni Tàpies and Hans Hartung. She specialises in lyric abstraction and has her own contemporary art gallery in SL.

The fifteen pieces displayed here are of  similar large format presentation to JudiLynn, which again allows the riches and dynamism of each item to be shown to its fullest.

Leko Catnip - i4 Galleries
Ieko Catnip – i4 Galleries

Also, as with JudiLynn’s work, there is a striking dynamism to the pieces on display, although one somewhat different in nature. The shapes within several of the pieces are far more anthropomorphic in nature, more suggestive of the human form in motion, while in others there is sense of movement and form which might suggest a ship in a storm or lily pads on the water.

Vonnie the Fox is a relative newcomer to Second Life. An artist in the physical world, the exhibition at i4 Galleries marking the first public display of her work. She sees SL as a means of exploring and experimenting with digital art and expression, listing both SL art and building as two of her interests.

Vonnie the Fox - i4 Galleries
Vonnie the Fox – i4 Galleries

Here she takes an interesting approach to abstract works, presenting a series of colour images of scenes in Second Life shot through the medium of Linden Water. This gives the pieces a rather unique sense of motion / distortion, while the use of bright colours, either within the subjects of the pieces or through the selection of windlights, leads to a set of highly individual pieces. Don’t forget to check his Flickr stream, either.

The final exhibit in this quartet steps away from abstract foundations and is, perhaps, the most interesting in both idea and format – and one which offers a unique way of showing appreciation to a friend.

David Peyton - i4 Glleries
David Peyton – i4 Galleries

David Peyton works mostly in photography and mixed media, and his exhibit at i4 combines both to present a series of vintage postcards featuring a range of sights from around Second Life

Not only is a delightful series of postcards offered for admiration and (like the works in the other three exhibits) also for sale, it is presented with a wonderful dash of humour through the Kisses on a Postcard element of the display, which feature imagined missives from the likes of Napoleon to Josephine or Georgia O’Keeffe to Alfred Stieglitz, and others. What’s more, David also offers a special service: select a postcard, pen your own message and David will supply you with a set of 20 individually numbered postcards you can send to friends in SL.

Kayly Iali - i4 Galleries Skyloft
Kayly Iali – i4 Galleries Skyloft

As an added bonus, once you’ve toured the main gallery spaces, you can also teleport to the Skyloft (ou can also reach it via the teleport board at the gallery landing point). Here you’ll find Kayly’s own work on display, a beautiful mix of abstract and still life work, presented in an ambient environment that really shows them to their best advantage, making it easy to see any of the pieces displayed on a wall in your own home.

All four exhibits in the main gallery spaces will be open through until April 2015. Given their proximity to one another (The Vonnie the Fox and David Peyton exhibitions are just around the corner to Judilynn India and Ieko Catnip), they can be enjoyed together. This is something especially worthwhile given the abstract theme carried within three of them, while David’s exhibit offers a unique and charming approach to art in SL. A trip to Kayly’s skyloft will also round-out any visit perfectly.

Related Links

Murder, mysteries, fiddles and ballads

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in voice, brought to Second Life and Kitely by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library.

As always, all times SLT / PDT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island, or at their Kitely Homeworld.

Sunday, February 15th

13:30: Tea-time at Baker Street – the Boscombe Valley Mystery

Watson and Homes en route by train to Boscombe Valley (Sidney Paget, The Strand Magazine, 1891)

In 1889, Holmes receives a summons from chief Inspector Lestrade, requesting he travel to Herefordshire to lean assistance in a murder investigation that is perhaps more convoluted than it may initially appear.

On the surface, it appears to be an open and shut case. Charles McCarthy, an Australian expatriate was out walking his dog when, after apparently being stalked by his son, armed with a gun, he is murdered. With two witness who saw McCarthy’s son – James – both following him and then have a heated exchange with him, it seems obvious who is responsible for McCarthy senior’s death.

However, James McCarthy insists that while he and his father did argue, their paths crossed by chance, as he was out hunting, and he certainly didn’t kill his father. The cause of their argument turns out to be Alice Turner, daughter of one John Turner, a good friend to Charles McCarthy.

As Holmes and Watson investigate and interview, so things become more involved, with requests for marriage, secret weddings, mysterious references to a rat, past crimes and secrets pasts. All of which eventually lead to blackmail and murder…

Join Caledonia Skytower, Kayden Oconnell and Corwyn Allen as they read this curious case.

18:00: A Pooh Bear Valentine’s Pajama Party!

join Caledonia Skytower for a Winnie-the-Pooh themed time at Magicland Park!

Monday February 16th

06:00: The Emerald Atlas

emerald atlasCata Charisma continues his reading of John Stephens’ The emerald Atlas, the first volume in his fantasy trilogy for young adults, The Books of Beginning.

Having been passed from pillar to post through orphanages, three siblings, Kate, Emma, and Michael, find themselves lodged at the home of one Dr. Stanislaus Pym. Kate, the eldest of the three is driven by a promise made by her mother, that if Kate protects her younger sister and brother, then their family will be one day reunited.

But in their explorations of Dr. Pym’s house the three of them find their way into the basement, where they come across a mysterious door and a equally mysterious emerald-covered booth, entirely without text. When an old photograph touches the blank pages of the book, however, the three are immediately transported to the time and place depicted in the photograph. Her they find themselves in a realm populated by witches, henchmen, giants, dwarves and more – and one Dr. Stanislaus Pym, a good deal younger than when they last saw him in his house…

19:00 The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be

Gyro Muggins concludes Fredrick Pohl’s The Age of the Pussyfoot.

(Trident 1971 hardcover)
(Trident 1971 hardcover)

First published in serial form in1966, they republished as a novel in its own right in 1969, The Age of the Pussyfoot sees us transported to the 26th century along with one Charles Forrester, who has been in a state of cryogenic sleep for some 500 years, after being killed in a fire. His time in suspended animation, together with his revival – now that technology has developed to a point where revival is possible – has been paid for through his insurance, which (presumably through the act of compound interest down the centuries, his on-going medical expenses notwithstanding) has also left him comparatively well-off.

Forrester find the 26th century a place of delight; his spectre-like computer terminal, the Joymaker, puts almost everything – including drugs – at his fingertips. He’s able to take an apartment, still enjoy the delights of 20th century food and enter into a lifestyle of parties and fun, the money from his insurance making him rather wealthy.

Then things start to go a little sideways. First, there is Adne, who appears to be out to trap him into providing for her children; there’s also the mysterious Club, who also seem to be more interested in Forrester’s wealth than him. Add to the list the man from Mars who has taken out a hunting licence allowing him and his friends to track down and even kill Forrester – so long as his revival is paid for – and the future suddenly isn’t so bright a playground. And when his money starts running out, and he’s forced to take a job, he’s also forced to reassess who he can trust and who he can’t, and just what role he is actually to play in humanity’s future…

Tuesday February 17th, 19:00: Two Nights with Neil

Continues with Caedmon Sharkfin.

Wednesday February 18th

12:15: Kitely: Explore The Great Gatsby

Explore the Great Gatsby - Gatsby's mansion: "The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden."
Explore the Great Gatsby – Gatsby’s mansion: “The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard—it was a factual imitation of some Hôtel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden.”

Join a Hypergrid Safari outing to Explore The Great Gatsby Online at Kitely, and join Caledonia Skytower. See many of the locations in which this classic American story unfold: the Buchanan’s mansion, Nick caraway’s cottage, the great Gothic edifice of Jay Gatsby’s mansion and, of course, the Valley of Ashes. Discover more about the novel and the recent Tacoma Little Theatre’s production of Simon Levy’s adaptation of the novel for the stage.

All this and more at: grid.kitely.com:8002/EXPLORESeanchai.

19:00: Poetry Out Loud

With Caledonia Skytower.

Thursday February 19th

19:00: The Fiddler of Bayou Teche

Shandon Loring opens the pages of Delia Sherman’s tale of a trickster fiddler in the deep south bayou.

Cadence lives with her adoptive mother, a medicine woman and fiddler in a small loup-garou community. She raises Cadence on tales old and new, many warning her against tricksters and their ways. But after her mother passes away, Cadence finds herself in trouble and facing one of the very tricksters she was warned about. But are the tales she remembers, and the warnings they contain, enough to protect her and provide for her survival?

21:00 Seanchai Late Night

More late-night science-fiction with Finn Zeddmore.

Saturday February 21st, Seanchai Kitely, 09:00 PDT: The Ballad of Tam Lin

With Shandon Loring.

—–

Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule. The featured charity for January / February is Project Children, teaching and building peace in Northern Ireland, one child at a time.

Related Links

Yes, you can have a View-Master with your virtual reality

Posted on by Inara Pey
The re-vamped View-Master for VR from Mattel, and one of the scenic discs that accompany it
The re-vamped View-Master for VR from Mattel, and one of the scenic discs that accompany it (image: Mattel Inc.)

Alongside all the the news and hype surrounding VR in 2014, there were a lot of witty / dour comments relating to the old Mattel View-Master system, and how people would prefer to have that, rather than strapping a plastic brick to their forehead.

Well, it looks like the laugh might be on those cracking such jokes, as Mattel have announced that the View-Master brand is to be revamped as a virtual reality headset system utilising Google Cardboard software.

Announcing the move at the New York City Toy Fair, which opened to the public in – wait for it – New York City on February 14th, 2015, Mattel’s Senior Vice President of Global Brands, Doug Wadleigh said the aim of the partnership is “to create the View-Master brand for the next 75 years,” and offer kids the chance to have “a collectible they can keep in their room.”

The iconic View-Master has been through many iterations during it 75-year history
The iconic View-Master has been through many iterations during it 75-year history, but has always had the same basic functionality (image: doyouremember.co.uk)

The original View-Master, which incredibly celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014, was once a staple part of many children’s toy boxes. With it, kids could load circular reels of 3D images into a hand-held, binocular-like device with a lever on the side which is used to flip through the pictures, providing the user with a stereoscopic views of landmarks, scenery, historic events, and so on.

The new system announced at the NYC toy fair retains much of this original functionality. It comprises a hand-held  device into which a mobile phone running the Cardboard software can be fitted.

Like the original, it is designed to use special scene “reels”; only rather than being placed in the unit, the disc-like reels are placed on a flat surface in front of the user. When viewed through the device, they generate AR-style navigational environments which the user then “enters”. This allows, for example, the key locations in a virtual “tour” to be visualised AR-style, and then individual locations within the tour selected and viewed immersively, with additional information on sights and locations being provided by pop-up text boxes.

In actual fact, the “reels” are optional, if people prefer, they will be able to download the immersive experiences directly to their smartphone for us with the new View-Master. However, the reels are being provided to maintain the “collectible” aspect of the original View-Master system, which Mattel see as an additional selling-point for the system. They plan to grow the range of available reels over time to provide many different types of experience, some of which – in a possibly canny move – might be built around the company’s other products.

For example, Mattel is already talking in terms of a video shot from within one of their “Hot Wheels” toy cars as it races through a “Hot Wheels” track, putting the person watching “behind the wheel” of the car.

Commenting further on the re-vamp, Wadleigh said, “The View-Master was first introduced in 1939, giving consumers access to spectacular 3D worlds by simply selecting a reel and looking through a device. By working with Google’s Cardboard platform, we are now able to take that experience even further, bringing the discovery and immersive viewing experience of the View-Master to the digital age.”

Google are also delighted with this further move into a broader VR presence for Cardboard, which comes hard on the heels of LG launching their VR for G3 virtual reality headset. Commenting on the partnership with Mattel, which doesn’t include any licensing arrangement or revenue sharing for Google, Cardboard Product Director Mike Jazayeri, said in a press release, “We developed Google Cardboard as an open platform to inspire companies like Mattel to rethink how to deliver new user experiences through technology. Many of us on the Google Cardboard team grew up playing with View-Master, so we were excited to collaborate with Mattel and to see the viewer evolve and work with Google Cardboard.”

The new View-Master is due to go on sale from autumn 2015 at a suggested price of $29.99 (£19.50) for the headset (sans smartphone), and the company hope to have it available for both Android handsets and iPhones. One image disc will be supplied with the device, and additional discs will be sold at $14.99 (£9.75) each.

Source Links

 

SL project updates 7/2: TPV Developer meeting

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Centaurs' Hall - blog post
The Centaurs’ Hall – blog post

The following notes are primarily taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, February 13th. A video of the TPV Developer meeting is included at the end of the article (my thanks as always to North for recording it and providing it for embedding), and any time stamps contained within the following text refer to both it and the TPV Developer meeting.

SL Viewer

Avatar Hover Height (AHH)

[09:17] It had been expected that the Avatar Hover Height project viewer (version 3.7.25.298129) might have been replaced by a release candidate during the course of the past week. However, some of the reported issues are still being worked on, most of which are related to the code which tries to keep an avatar’s feet in contact with the ground, and problems which can occur in certain extreme cases. It is now anticipated that the viewer will be updated to a release candidate viewer once these issues have been fixed.

 Viewer Build Tools

[14:37] It had been hoped that this viewer would be updated with a release candidate version prior to the long weekend no change window (see below), however it didn’t clear QA in time. Unless something significant happens on the QA side, this viewer should therefore reach release candidate status some time during week 8 (Week commencing Monday, February 16th).

However, it is anticipated it will undergo further updates while at RC status, and so therefore is unlikely to progress directly from RC to the de facto release viewer in a short space of time. One such update might be to include various patches to further simplify the build process, notably for windows, for example.

Graphics Settings and Avatar Rendering

[19:49] This work is a combination of STORM-2082, which allows users to create and save multiple graphics settings defaults, and internal work carried out by the lab to help users improve their viewer performance by defining limited above which avatars with heavy rendering costs are replaced by a solid colour. A viewer with these updates has been under limited testing for a while,  and is liable to be appearing very soon, particularly given the Lab’s recent announcement on forthcoming improvements.

Mesh Importer

[23:43] There are a fair number of bugs and issues which have been identified with the current mesh importer project viewer (see the JIRA filter list for details), it is therefore unlikely that it will be progressing in the short term.

Viewer-Managed Marketplace (VMM)

[00:05] A new version of the Viewer-Managed Marketplace project viewer was released on Friday, February 13th, version 3.7.25.298865. This viewer includes updates as a result of feedback from initial testing on Aditi, and is available for further testing, but again must be used on Aditi in regions ACME D, E, or F.

A number of issues remain open with This update:

  • VMM-20 Include product listing ID in audit listings window results
  • VMM-18 Add “sort by age of listing creation”
  • VMM-17 Support listing folders at any level of Marketplace Listings folder.

A list of key changes can be found on the forum update announcing the release of the new version of the viewer, and further details on VMM can be found in the SL wiki FAQ.

This viewer doesn’t address all of the concerns raised during testing, as some are still being discussed internally by the Lab, and a decision has yet to be taken on whether to address the additional concerns (which are presumably non-viewer specific) prior to holding a feedback meeting, or whether to push ahead with a further feedback meeting which might encompass the use of the new project viewer. This largely depends on the likely time frame for addressing the remaining issues: it might be as little as a week or so, or it might potentially be a month or so.

Experience Keys / Tools

[06:34] The Lab is continuing to work on back-end issues which need to be sorted prior to the project progressing. It is still believed that none of these issues directly affect the viewer or will require updates to the viewer, however, it is unlikely the viewer will be updated (other than to maintain parity with any other viewer that might be promoted ahead of it), until such time as the Lab is confident they are ready to start pushing things forward again.

Group Chat

The Lab is also continuing to work on group chat, and a further mini-test took place during the Server Beta User Group meeting on Thursday, February 12th. This focuses on testing viewer-side freezes when opening and closing or swapping between group chat tabs, and chat update times when moving across region boundaries either physically for via teleports. The overall results of these tests were that users experienced almost no viewer-side freezes in comparison to the last tests, where some severe viewer lock-ups were experienced.

[10:27] Most of the effort on group chat is now being directed into these issues of stability and eliminating the need for servers to be restarted as a result of server-side freezes, given that one the whole, performance for the majority (all but some of the very largest groups) has been noticeably improved. In terms of the server freezes, progress is being made, with Oz reporting that there might only be once such instance a day now as a result of fixes already implemented, which is currently being iterated upon as a result of  the additional monitoring / logging capabilities the Lab have also introduced.

Attachment Issues

[24:52] There have been increasing reports on variations of a problem with attachment rendering following teleports / region crossings (e.g. attachments seem to detach and then re-attach, people see their attachments as missing while other see them as still attached – and vice-versa, and so on). Some of the issues are listed in BUG-6925, and the issues have been noted by the Lab.

The likelihood is that these issues are the result of more than one problem, and possibly the result of various race conditions resulting from the complexities of data packaging and hand-over required in both a region crossing and a teleport (which are both essentially the same things – the packaging and handing of data relating to an avatar and its attachments between simulators, and then passing of updated information to users’ viewers). Some also appear to be directly related to AIS v3 (as per BUG-6925) Currently, the Lab is still prioritising SL issues and problems, and  full determination as to what needs to be down to resolve these problems has yet to be made.

In the meantime, if you do encounter the problem, and you’re preferably using the official viewer, you might want to consider filing the following information via BUG-6925:

  • The specific time, origin region (the place you were crossing  / teleporting from) and destination region (the place you were crossing / teleporting to)
  • Avatar name
  • The item ID (UUID) for the attachment(s) exhibiting a problem
  • The viewer log that was recorded at the time the problem occurred.

This will at least provide the Lab with data they can use in further investigations into the issues, once matters have been prioritised.

Other Items

Presidents’ Day

Monday, February 16th marks Presidents’ Day in the United States and Linden Lab will be observing the holiday. This means that there is effectively a no change window in force from February 13th through 16th inclusive. This in turn means:

  • There will be no Open-source development meeting on Monday, February 16th
  • Any server-side deployments scheduled for the week commencing Monday, February 16th will most likely take place a day later than usual. So any Main (SLS) channel deployment will probably occur on Wednesday, February 18th and any RC channel deployments on Thursday, February 19th.

Blog navigation update

Posted on by Inara Pey

One of the things I’m striving to achieve within this blog is ease of access to information, be it through the way I use categories and tags for posts or through the use of the available menu options within the blog’s theme.

From time-to-time this inevitably means I tend to reshuffle and refine things in order to  – hopefully – make finding items easier. Those who regularly visit the blog may have noticed already that I’ve done so again, with a further re-vamp of the top menu.

To help you get used to the update menus, here’s quick run-down of what’s changed.

The updated menus at the top of this blog
The updated menus at the top of this blog

News and Opinion: this menu still provides access to all my “news” and “opinion” articles, all still with their own sub-menus. However, the “SL Project Updates” item has now been re-located to the new SL Tech menu – see below.

SL Tech: this is a new menu heading, and brings together:

  • My weekly SL project updates, which look at on-going server-side and viewer work
  • My on-going coverage of viewers (official and TPV) – news, reviews, etc.
  • Articles on those significant issues that have been covered in these pages
  • The various SL tutorials I’ve written, or have pulled into this blog (with the original authors’ permissions) from other sources.
My "travelogue" articles on SL destinations, and features on other virtual world have been relocated
My “travelogue” articles on SL destinations, and features on other virtual world have been relocated

Events-Reviews-Travels: This option still provides access to all my SL event previews and reviews (RFL of SL, Fantasy Faire, SLB, BURN2, etc.), and my reviews of art installations, SL products, the Drax Files, my annual reviews, etc. However, all of my travelogue features and articles on those other virtual worlds and environments can now also be found here.

General: This option now provides access to information on me, my SL interests, this blog, etc., as well as covering those things not intrinsically SL or virtual world focused: spaceflight and astronomy, VR and AR, etc.

Information related to me and the blog now appear under the General menu
Information related to me and the blog now appear under the General menu

As with previous versions of the menu system, clicking on a “main” menu topic will display the entries for all of the sub-menus listed under it (if it has a sub-menu). So, for example, if you click on SL Tech > SL Project Updates all of the project updates I’ve written will be listed chronologically (or you can use the sub-menu to display the updates written in a specific year).

Hopefully, these changes won’t confuse those who have made use of the menus, and will further assist people in finding information in these pages.