On Wednesday, May 4th, the Lab issued an important announcement to Second Life users that as from Wednesday June 15th, 2016, anyone wishing to use the Second Life cashier service to send, receive, or exchange L$, must be using either a web browser or version of the viewer which supports TLS 1.2.
This is because, as I’ve reported several times in these pages (see here and here for background notes), the Lab is updating secure access to their cashier functionality to TLS 1.2, to comply with applicable US regulations.
As the official blog post posts out, the latest updates of most modern browsers should be TLS 1.2 complaint, as is the official SL viewer. All actively maintained Full Third-Party Viewers should also be TLS 1.2 complaint. However…
Again, as the official blog post states, the safest way to ensure you are using a compliant browser and viewer is to check for yourself by visiting How’s My SSL? through your web browser and via the internal web browser built-in to the viewer. The Version section in the top left of the web page will indicate whether or not your browser / viewer is using TLS 1.2.
Use How’s My SSL? to confirm whether the versions of the web browser and SL viewer you are using are TLS 1.2 compliant.
If either your web browser and / or current viewer version is not TLS 1.2, you will not be to send, receive, or exchange L$ after Wednesday, June 15th, 2016.
On Tuesday, May 3rd, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance package originally deployed to the three RC channels in week #17, comprising a crash fix and minor internal improvements.
There will be no deployment to the RC channels on Wednesday, May 4th, and no scheduled restart of simulators on that channel.
SL Viewer Updates
The two release candidate viewers currently in the release channel were updated at the end of week #17:
The current Maintenance release candidate updated to version 4.0.4.314579, dated April 28th
The Quick Graphics release candidate updated to version 4.0.4.314426, dated April 26th.
This means there has been no promotion of an RC to de facto release status, while the project viewers have not been updated, leaving the complete list of remaining official viewers as follows:
Current Release version: 4.0.3.312816, dated March 23rd and promoted on April 1st, formerly the HTTP / Vixox RC viewer
Project viewers:
Project Bento (avatar skeleton extensions), version 5.0.0.313876, dated April 15th
Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13, 2014
Obsolete platform viewer version 3.7.28.300847 dated May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.
Avatar Complexity
There are still some issues yet to be resolved with Avatar Complexity which is why this viewer is currently not progressing towards a release status at present. One of these is avatars which should render as solid colours (or “Jelly Dolls” as the popular term for them is now) or imposters are invisible.
This has been a long-standing issue (see BUG-10330), which has proven hard to reliably reproduce, and has had a number of theories attached to it. Recent testing has suggested one of the causes is a possible conflict between the viewer trying to render avatars as Jelly Dolls whilst trying also to account for any alpha mask applied to the avatar with all the layer check boxes ticked. This is possibly because ticking the alpha mask check boxes result in a “special” UUID being applied. Currently, the precise cause of the issue has yet to reach a consensus opinion, and investigations and tests continue.
Now open at The Living Room, the art and music venue operated by Owl, Daallee and Nora, is the May exhibition, this time featuring a personal favourite of mine: Mistero Hifeng.
Anyone who has seen Mistero’s work will known that it stands and some of the most instantly recognisable 3D art in Second Life. His pieces, with individual figures, couples, or set-pieces has a unique look, style and evocative presentation which has us instantly responding to it as much on an emotional level as on a more objective critical level, engaging heart as well as eye.
Spread across all three floors of the gallery space are some of Mistero’s most iconic pieces, together with more recent works, offering those who may not be so familiar with his work with the broadest possible introduction to it. Many of the pieces have been imaginatively displayed. E rubero’ per te la Luna, for example, presents our erstwhile lunar thief gamely tugging the Moon through the gallery’s window, while the gaunt figures of Veglio su di te form canopies over the circular seats scattered around the exhibit space, thus literally watching over those seated!
Among some of the more recent pieces from Mistero is Oltre l’azzurro (Beyond the Blue), which is featured flanking a piano – one of the motifs he also uses at his gallery space; it’s a fitting pairing as well, given Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue… Oltre l’azzurro is one of his pieces I find particularly interesting as its possible interpretation can vary with just the slightest change in mood on the part of the observer.
It is the suggestion of narrative which makes Mistero’s work so attractive. Take La vita…imparare vorra, for example. is the person leaning against the wall weary from thinking, weeping as a result of some loss or happening, or engaged in a game? The story is entirely ours to determine. And again, the story may well change with or own mood, or simply as a result of the local lighting.
Mistero will be on display at The Living Room through until the end of the month, and don’t forget the monthly music sessions there as well! Thursday, May 19th will see The Vinnie show providing the music from 17:00 SLT, followed by Mark Allen Jensen at 18:00 SLT. Then, on Thursday, May 25th, Tone Uriza will be taking to the stage at 17:00 SLT, followed at 18:00 SLT by Bat Masters.
Radheya Jegatheva – #MyFreoStory peoples’ choice winner, thanks to the help of Second Life users
In March 2016, the city of Freemantle in Western Australia launched the #MyFreoStory video competition. The challenge was for budding film-makers to produce a short video, promoting what the city means to them.
Run entirely on-line, the competition was intended ” to showcase the many different aspects of Freo through the eyes of locals, visitors and anyone else with an interest and passion for Freo.”
Films could be entered into one of two categories, adjudicated and People’s Choice. One winner in each category would be awarded Aus $2,250 in cash and a further Aus $1,250 in prize vouchers, with the winning entry in the People’s Choice category being decided on the highest tally of likes and comments received though social media platforms such as Titter (hence the hashtag title of the competition), Facebook, Google+, and so on.
In April, I was one of a number of people friend and colleague Jayjay Zinfanwe contacted concerning his son’s entry in the People’s Choice category of the competition. Having previously witnessed Radheya Jegatheva’s narrative and film-making skills through his excellent Journey, I was immediately intrigued and, having watched the film, more than happy to show my support.
I wasn’t alone. People from Second Life and around the world were liking and praising the video as word spread. Even so, as Jayjay reports, writing in the University of Western Australia’s SL blog, Radheya faced an uphill battle. His entry came just four days before voting closed, and the leading contender for the Peoples’ Choice award,Virtuosity by Harry Jones & Jordan Swindell had been gathering points for some two weeks. Nevertheless, My Journey Through Freo – entirely filmed using an iPhone, I might add – quickly gained traction.
“In the first day [it] had cut the lead by half,” Jayajay comments. “This swift rise by the newcomer was quickly noticed, and the ante was upped by other contenders with varied posts on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Google+ and Instagram, among others, and the battle was on.”
Even so, it was a close-run thing between the two top entries, again as Jayjay relates:
A surge of support from Twitter then pushed Virtuosity in front, by a seemingly insurmountable margin one day before the close of voting. Twitter votes seemed to surge by the hundreds with every Twitter post. However, steady support across the following 24 hours a great number of which came from Second Life saw the lead change hands again leading to a tense final 12 hours where it remained close enough to go either way.
In the end, My Journey Through Freo pipped Virtuosity at the post, allowing Radheya to deservedly take #MyFreoStory People’s Choice prize.
In commenting on his son’s winning entry, Jayjay is convinced that it was the input from Second Life residents which gave Radheya the win. More particularly, it is interesting to now that throughout the voting process, Second Life users appeared to demonstrate greater involvement with the film than was perhaps witnessed through other social media channels, providing Radheya with a lot of direct support through comment and feedback.
This has led Jayjay to ponder whether research is warranted into the nature, strength and responsiveness of the various communities built via the various social media channels. It would certainly be interesting to see how effective a medium Second Life is in terms of providing a social platform on which to share news and information.
For now however, I’ll leave the closing words to Radheya himself, while congratulating him on a great little video and a great win. And who said Second Life users don’t have a voice? 🙂
Lundy De Luca (Londinia Leistone) is a maker of mesh home and garden furnishings under the Hive brand. She also offers her store’s homestead region of Honeycomb as a place others are welcome to visit and explore, as indicated in a recent Destination Guide Highlights blog post from the Lab.
Honeycomb presents a rugged landscape, deeply cut by the sea into a series of headlands linked by a low, forked tongue of land, and two equally rugged islands. The store and landing point occupy the largest of the headlands, located in the north-west of the region, a dirt track dipping down from it, turning north-east at the fork of the tongue, to arrive at small farmstead where horses peacefully graze in a field of grass turned golden brown by the sun. Here sits an old garage with a makeshift wooden deck before it, looking out across one of the inlets towards the middle headland.
Reached by crossing the local railway line, this middle headland offers a careworn beach on its west side, backed by a tired cabins built on or over its rocky eastern shore. A rickety looking bridge runs out from the beach to the smaller of the two islands, scarcely more than a table of rock rising from the sea, which is surrounded by a small skirt of sand and topped by a tall pier.
The railway line, which emerges from a tunnel beneath the Hive store, curls its way across two trestle bridges and the middle headland to arrive at the larger of the two islands, where it abruptly ends. Here sits another cabin on top of a rocky table, looking westwards towards the setting sun. A board walk and wooden steps offer a means to get down to the water’s edge on the east side of the island, passing under the railway. but to get to the gravelly, overgrown western shoreline of the island requires a bit of a scramble over rocks.
While it might sound tired and a little past its prime, the landscape of Honeycomb is nevertheless highly photogenic and evocative, and it is hard to avoid turning the camera slightly left or right and finding another view worthy of a photo. Gulls call from overhead, waves wash against the shores with soft hisses, while geese wander, horses and deer graze, and trawlers work just off the coast. From the tatty/chic beach through the connecting lowlands there are numerous places to sit and while away the time, with rowing boats out on the water offering a chance for a quiet cuddle with a loved one.
All in all, another great place to visit and, if you’re looking for something for your home or garden, or with which to further decorate you land, you might just find the answer in the Hive store!
Open now through June at LEA 26 is a retrospective of Gem Preiz’s entire catalogue of fractal art installations in Second Life. For anyone who is familiar with his work, they offer a visual treat in spades; while for those who have yet to encounter Gem’s stunning canvases of intricate, fractal-generated images, all of which combine technology with wonderfully organic forms, even when depicting artificial structures, there has never been a better opportunity to be immersed in his work.
The installations are reached via individual teleports, arranged in chronological, left-to-right order as the visitor looks at them, each with its original info card giver located on the wall above the teleport disc. This allows visitors to not only visit each of Gem’s past installation in turn, but also to witness his growing confidence in using fractal generators to not only create scenes, but to weave narratives through his work, offering insight into his own growth within his medium.
I have covered Gem’s work extensively in this blog (all of my reviews can be found by following this tag, or view the menu: Second Life > Reviews > Art Reviews > Art in SL > Gem Preiz), and so was personally delighted to see his two earliest installations, Heaven and Hell and Complexity are included in the retrospective, as I’ve not previously had the opportunity to view them.
Heaven and Hell, Gem’s first ever exhibition in Second Life, dates from 2012 and takes as its lead a quote from French artist Georges Braque, “Art is made to disturb, science reassures.”
“It seemed to me funny and interesting to evoke the concepts of hell and paradise, which are by definition irrational, by means of one of the most accomplished domains of the science: mathematics and fractals.” Gem says of the installation. inviting people to cross the Styx and enter the devil’s domain before being reborn in paradise.
Complexity, first displayed in October 2013 at Timamoon Arts, is an intriguing voyage of creation and growth, physically and in terms of knowledge, reflected in a quote, “The detailed knowledge of the world helps us to better understand it, but we never understand it better than when we forget its details.”
It takes us through fifteen images, each an ever more complex outgrowth of the last, carrying us from a single fractal at the centre of a blue realm, to the most intricate and complex shapes which form their own universe, expanding ever outwards until at last we come to … what appears to be a single fractal floating in a blue realm. A perfect summation of the quote.
From Complexity, one can travel onwards through Cathedral Dreamer – my first exposure to Gem’s art, to Polychronies, which still stands as one of my favourite installations by Gem, and onwards through to Metropolis, with his most recent joint work: Heritage: Vestiges and Wrecks, also on display above the same entrance hall, thus providing a complete tour de force of Gem’s work to date.
Gem’s work is a wonderful mix of art and science, organised structure and organic growth. Within it complex themes are interwoven, which also doesn’t prevent him from having a little fun as well. But when taken as a whole, his work simply isn’t something to be missed, as this retrospective amply demonstrates.
On Wednesday, May 4th, the Lab issued an important announcement to Second Life users that as from Wednesday June 15th, 2016, anyone wishing to use the Second Life cashier service to send, receive, or exchange L$, must be using either a web browser or version of the viewer which supports TLS 1.2.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 