Next Lab meet-up: Basilique Town – Thursday, May 14th

Basilique Town - selected as the venue of the Thursday, May 14th Linden meet-up
Basilique Town – selected as the venue of the Thursday, May 14th Linden meet-up

On Friday, May 8th, Xiola Linden extended an invitation to users to suggest the location for the next in-world Linden meeting-up.

Many suggestions were forthcoming for the event, which has, since it’s resumption, taken place at “Mole Town”, aka Meauxle Bureaux (see my report on the last gathering).

However, the venue for the next meet-up has now been confirmed. Scheduled to take place from 13:00 on Thursday, May 14th, the gathering will take place at Canary Becks’ outstanding Basilique Town.

The Basilique Theatre
The Basilique Theatre, Basilique Town

For those who have not visited Basilique before, you’re in for a treat. Frequently featured in blogs as a place of outstanding beauty and design. There’s a host of things to see and do here, and the region hosts events of its own and is, of course, the home of the Basilique Performing Arts Company, who has staged the outstanding Romeo + Juliet and ground-breaking Paradise Lost at the threatre occupying the south-east corner of the region.

With its mix of architecture, outlining islands and backdrop of rugged peaks, Basilique presents a wonderful Mediterranean look which blends a cosmopolitan feel with more coastal, rural look which simply invites exploration.

So, even if you don’t make the Linden meet-up, and have not visited Basilique Town before, make sure you add it to your itinerary!

Related Links

Windwept echoes of a Starfall

WindWept, Dolly; Inara Pey, May 2015, on Flickr Windwept (Moderate) May 2015 (Flickr) – click any image for full size

In 2014, Starfall’s Twiight’s Edge proved to be a popular stopover for Second Life travellers. Both a destination and a venue for performance art, it was a captivating place to see; a beautiful use of water on which to build some captivating scenes (my own initial visit is recorded here). So much so, that its closure was met with a fair degree of lamentation.

Such ws the love of the place, that the news that Nezzy (Inez Pennell) and Imp (Cinderr Resident) had created a new location in Second Life filled a fair few people with delight – including myself; although I admit it’s taken me a little time to work my way around to making a  visit. And I have to say, Windwept, the new region, doesn’t disappoint, at all.

WindWept, Dolly; Inara Pey, May 2015, on Flickr Windwept (Moderate) May 2015 (Flickr) – click any image for full size

Windwept provides a watery environment surrounded by gently undulating hills which encompass a place rich in echoes of Starfall while evoking a look and feel entirely of its own. Those familiar with the latter will doubtless recognise some of the art and elements placed within Windwept, all of which helps generate a comforting déjà vu like feeling that while one might well be visiting for the first time, there is something comfortingly familiar about the region.

Scattered across the water are a series of rocky vignettes, each inviting exploration. The largest of these is a high plateau which offers both a commanding view of the region and its surrounding hills, and a cosy little coffee shop in which to relax. Equally cosy, thanks to it being chock full of bric-a-brac, is a converted shipping container, sitting on the water a little apart from everything else; while right across the region are places to sit and be cosy with a friend or friends.

WindWept, Dolly; Inara Pey, May 2015, on Flickr Windwept (Moderate) May 2015 (Flickr) – click any image for full size

But like Starfall, Windwept is a little deceptive in nature; what you see is not necessarily all that there is; towards the centre of the region is a wooden pier with a small stone-walled garden at one end, bounded on three sides by windows floating in the air. Here sits the top of a ladder, descending into a watery hole – the first indicator of hidden delights waiting to be found; in this case, an underwater room, and little hideaway tucked out-of-sight.

And there is more. Touch the windows (three were active at the time of my visit), and you can be transported to other locations, high overhead, which offer an interesting mix of themes and a touch of whimsy – including one which looks like it may well be intended for live events.

WindWept, Dolly; Inara Pey, May 2015, on Flickr Windwept (General) May 2015 (Flickr) – click any image for full size

It’s good to see Nezzy and Imp open a region like this again; Starfall always had a wonderfully tranquil fee to it, and the skyborne areas for art and contemplation were always a pleasure to visit. Windwept captures so much of Starfall’s spirit, but offer something this is also wonderful in it own right.  The winter’s morning look and feel to the region is ideal for photography, but as can hopefully be seen in the images here, the region offers itself to a range of windlight settings.

But don’t take my work for it – go see for yourself!

Related Links

SL project updates week 20/1: Server and viewer; outfits

Join Hands: raising money to help the WFP's aid work in earthquake-struck Nepal
Join Hands: raising money to help the WFP’s aid work in earthquake-struck Nepal with Fashion for Food – May 13th through May 16th inclusive

Server Deployments, Week 20

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest updates / news.

There was no main (SLS) channel deployment on Tuesday, May 11th. On Wednesday, May 12th, the three RC channels were all updated with a new server maintenance package, comprising:

  • Internal server logging changes
  • Back-end system bug fixes
  • Reply-To email changed in postcard sends

As noted in my TPV Developer meeting report for week #17, snapshots are sent via the “secondlife.com” domain, but use the sender’s own e-mail address as the originating address in the “from” field. This, and other ways ways in which e-mails flowing out from “secondlife.com” are handled has resulted in some ISPs regarding the domain as a spam domain, and have been pro-actively blocking it.

The “reply-to email changed in postcard sends” refer to a change made to how the “from” field in snapshots sent to e-mail (which the Lab refers to as “postcards”)  is addressed in an attempt to alleviate the problem.

At the time this issue was raised at the TPV Developer meeting, it was indicated that the Lab was considering removing the the snapshot to e-mail capability server-side. However, as was indicated in the meeting, doing so would break a number of wardrobe HUD systems which are popular among users. Whether or not this fix is an attempt to address the spam issue without having to remove the snapshot or e-mail functionality is currently unclear.

SL Viewer

Attachments Viewer (Project Big Bird)

The attachments viewer was promoted to release candidate status with version 3.7.29.301361, release on Wednesday, May 13th. This viewer provides a series of fixes for attachment-related issues, particularly when multiple attachments are added or removed at the same time. It also has enhanced logging, so the SecondLife.log file will have some additional lines related to avatar state in general and attachments in particular.

Linux

As noted in a separate report, the Lab have now blogged about seeking assistance from open source developers in the continued development and maintenance of the Linux flavour of the viewer.

 Outfit Folder Changes

A recent change to viewer functionality means that it is no longer possible to drag and drop sub-folders of items into the My Outfits  / Outfits folder – see BUG 9209 (FIRE-15603). This change, which is in the official release viewer, is filtering out into various TPVs, and has been causing some consternation.

While it is still possible to create sub-folders within My Outfits / Outfits and drag and drop items into them, many people have tended to simply unpack new clothing items into a default folder and drag that folder (or the Direct Delivery folder for the clothing) into My Outfits / Outfits, and then sort the contents into suitable outfits from there. Others have used the Appearance floater to create outfits, save them, and then drop them into My Outfit / Outfits – which also is no longer possible.

It’s unclear precisely what problems can occur in allowing drag-and-drop in My Outfits, although it appears drag-and-drop into My Oufits was never intended to be allowed. The change itself was made by Vir Linden, shoe has most recently been working on a range of improvements to try to reduce issues of inventory loss; he is now involved in the JIRA discussion, seeking to understand use cases relating to dragging-and-dropping folders into  My Outfits.