Month: June 2016

Second Life TLS 1.2 update – what works, what doesn’t

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Wednesday, June 15th, 2016, the Lab updated their Web Cashier services to TLS 1.2.

The change, which has been highlighted through official blog posts (and reported through pages such as this blog) has been implemented as a part of both LL’s on-going compliance work and in response to an ongoing  set of regulatory / compliance requirements which are global in scope (as explained by the PCI Security Standards Council).

However, there has been a certain amount of confusion over precisely how widespread the impact of the change will be, and what will or will not be affected.

To this end, and with the switched flipped, Whirly Fizzle and I have been trying older viewer (e.g. pre 4.7.7 Firestorm releases, the official obsolete platform viewer, Singularity) to find out what is and isn’t affected, and seeking feedback from the Lab.

This is what we’ve been able to determine:

If you have a web browser or viewer which supports TLS 1.2 (all recent official viewer releases and TPV updates should support TLS 1.2):

  • You will be able to continue to make in-world L$ transactions as normal
  • You will be able to carry out LindeX transactions and  / or use the SL Marketplace through either your web browser OR the viewer’s built-in browser as usual
  • You will be able to add/edit payment info to your account.

If you are using a web browser which does not support TLS 1.2:

  • You will not be able to make L$ transactions on the LindeX via your browser
  • You will not be able to add/edit payment info to your account.

If you are using a viewer which does not support TLS 1.2:

  • You will still be able to buy L$ through the Buy L$ button / option in the top right corner of the viewer
  • You will still be able to PAY / BUY via right-clicking on other avatars or on in-world vendor systems
  • You will not be able to use your viewer’s built-in browser to perform LindeX transactions and / or make Marketplace transactions. Attempting to do so will result in a Connection Closed message:
With thanks to Whirly Fizzle for the screen capture
  • You will not be able to add/edit payment info to your account.

This should – at this point in time – be the extent of the impact (there might be further changes at some point in the future). If you do note any more, please feel free to provide specifics in the comments below.

My thanks to Whirly Fizzle for her assistance and support in putting this article together.

When art and stories combine in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Stories at the Park - Holly Kai Park
Stories at the Park – Holly Kai Park

Sunday, June 5th saw the second of Holly Kai Park’s series Stories at the Park, which is run in partnership with Seanchai Library.

Presented by Seanchai Library, Stories at the Park is held alongside each of our Art at the Park exhibitions, and offers writers and poets the opportunity to produce stories and / or poems based on any of the art on display by our Visiting Artists at Holly Kai Park.

Writes are invited to produce a 100-word story (known as a “drabble”), or a poem of up to 100 words on any of the displayed art which inspires them. The collected stories and poems are then read, either by the original author or a member of the Seanchai Library team (if you prefer not to speak on voice) during the Stories at the Park exhibition, which is generally run mid-way through the current Art at the Park exhibition.

The event on June 5th featured Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop and Kayden Oconnell reading stories and poems they and Rosedrop Rust (who was unable to attend the reading due to work commitments) had written to the works of our Invited Artists for the May / June exhibition, Ceakay Ballyhoo, Eleseren Brianna, JudiLynn India, Lantana Silverweb, Slatan Dryke and SisterButta.

The authors  have graciously given us permission to reprint their works in the Holly Kai blog for those unable to attend the event, and this post is to encourage readers of this blog to follow the links below to have a read.

To make things easier, the stories and poems have been split by artist, and each piece is presented with an image of the painting or work which inspired it. In addition, some of the works include an audio recording of the reading for your additional enjoyment:

Holly Kai Park - Stories at the Park and Art at the Park
Holly Kai Park – Stories at the Park and Art at the Park

As things got a little delayed with this session of Stories at the Park, the current exhibition will remain open at Holly Kai Park through until Sunday June 19th – so please do visit and see all of the works displayed by our visiting artists and see the images which inspired these stories and poems first-hand.

Calling writers and storytellers

If you would like to participate in Stories at the Park by submitting one (or more!) stories and / or poems for the next session in July, Please contain either myself or Caledonia Skytower in world for information on what to do. You don’t have to read your finished works yourself if you don’t want to – the folk at Seanchai Library can do that for you – but of course, you’re also more than welcome to read your works if you enjoy doing so.

Our next exhibition at Holly Kai Park will not be starting until early July, so as not to clash with events like SL13B and the RFL of SL weekend (and to allow us to complete some further renovations at the Park!). We’ll of course let those participating in the next Stories at the Park know both the date of the event and when the next exhibition is available for viewing as soon as our artists have set-up.

In the meantime, please enjoy the stories and poems linked to above!

A Carnival of the Arts in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Dirty Grind
The Dirty Grind

The Dirty Grind, the open arts community founded by  jasmine0alaya and her partner, Ian McConach marks its anniversary in June 2016, and in celebration will be hosting another  Carnival of the Arts III. The event will take place from Wednesday, June 15th through Sunday June 19th inclusive. and will encompass live music and performance and  visual art.

The featured artist for the event is Bloo Ansar, and those participating in the Artist Row are: Winston Ackland, Kiesta Aljon, Bloo Ansar, Suzen Juel, JudiLynn India, Solana Python and Toysoldier Thor.

In addition, the celebrations will also see the official opening of The Movement Lounge in the basement of The Dirty Grind theatre. The Movement is intended to provide a relaxed setting for impromptu  performances and open microphone events for both the community’s artists and those visiting The Dirty Grind.

The Movement Lounge
The Movement Lounge

Live Performance Schedule

At the time of writing, the performance schedule lined up as follows (note Thursday, June 16th was marked as “TBA”, so please check with The Dirty Grind blog for updates). All times SLT:

Wed 15 June Fri 17 June Sat 18 June Sun 19 June
15:00: Zoz Quandry 15:00: Etherian Kamaboko 15:00: Efinjay 15:00: Phemie Alcott
16:00: Suzen JueL 16:00: Strum Diesel 16:00: Ren Enberg & Quai Franklin 16:00: Laidback Celt
17:00: The Matthew Show 17:00: Bat Masters 17:00: Senjata Witt 17:00: Winston Ackland
18:00: Kiesta Aljon 18:00: David Csiszer 18:00: Shannon Oherlihy 18:00: Kinagree-Smith
19:00: Marqs DeSade 19:00: Jamba 19:00: Wald Schride 19:00: The Vinnie Show
20:00: Lyndon Heart

The Dirty Grind has a great community spirit, and is a place I’ve visited numerous times, both to write about in this blog and simply to enjoy. Steeped in music, and with a strong support for art, it is a great place to explore – so why not find a little time over the next few days to hop over to wish them a happy anniversary?

Useful Links

 

SL project updates 16 24/1: server, viewer, weekend issues

Posted on by Inara Pey

Khaled; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr Khaled – blog post

Server Deployments

As usual, please refer to the server deployment thread for the latest information.

  • On Tuesday, June 14th, the Main (SLS) channel received the same server maintenance project, as previously deployed to all three RC channels, comprising “minor internal changes”
  • It is likely there will be no planned deployment / restart for either the LeTigre or BlueSteel RCs.

There is a deployment listed for the Magnum RC, which quotes the same version number as last week’s deployment. When I asked Simon whether or not this indicated there would be a deployment, he replied:

I believe they won’t actually roll it. The two versions in RC were almost identical, except for one bit of code that executed when entering a region.   We were comparing them for speed and are promoting the less laggy one. The slow code was kinda nice in that it gave us better diagnostics but wasn’t worth it.

Weekend Issues

On Friday, June 10th the main grid experienced a series of issues which appeared to be very similar to those which occurred at the start of May and were related to the central database node failure. I asked Simon if we would be seeing a further write-up from April Linden or another member of the ops team, prompting him to reply:

I’m not sure if April was going to write up another report. Last Friday’s outage was another main database failure.  I know they’re looking to see if there is any noticeable cause we could address.

Should a post appear, it will most likely be via the Tools and Technology blog, and I’ll of course cover it through these pages.

SL Viewer

Friday May 10th saw two viewer updates:

  • The Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 4.0.6.316312
  • The Bento project viewer updated to version 5.0.0.316366, comprising a small set of bug fixes.

Otherwise, all viewers remain as per my last projects update:

  • Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117, dated May 11th, promoted  May 18th, and formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer
  • Inventory Message RC viewer, version 4.0.6.315555, dated May 23rd – removal of deprecated and unused UDP inventory messaging mechanisms from the viewer
  • The Visual Outfits Browser (VOB) project viewer, version 4.0.6.316123, dated June 6th. See my overview of the viewer for further details
  • VLC Media Plugin viewer, version 4.0.6.316087, dated June 3rd. Sees the Quicktime for Windows media plugin for the playback of media types such as MP3 MPEG-4 and MOV, replaced by one based on LibVLC (https://wiki.videolan.org/LibVLC/) Mac viewer currently unaffected.
  • Oculus Rift project viewer, version 3.7.18.295296, dated October 13, 2014 – Oculus Rift DK2 support
  • Obsolete Platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, dated May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

 

 

 

La Vie in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

La Vie; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr La Vie – click any image for full size

“This is actually one I did over a year ago now; I’ve made changes, and decided to reopen it,” Krys Vita informed me when I dropped in to see La Vie, a long-standing region she recently opened to public access, albeit on a temporary basis. “Tre [TreMeldazis] and I did this one together,” she continued, “It’s just too pretty not to share for a while :)”.

“Pretty” is actually too small a term for this beautifully landscaped and presented homestead region. I’d actually be inclined towards “idyllic”. The sandy landscape rises gently from waters which appear to have done much to sculpt its shape, dunes gently inclined across the centre of the landscape from the flat western beach to slightly higher, rocky eastern side, two bays cutting deeply into the land on the north and south sides, wasping the land’s midriff whilst presenting tongues of sandy headlands waiting to be wandered along and enjoyed.

La Vie; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr La Vie

This is a place for lovers and couples; swings and hammocks and love seats hang from bent trees, while coves and dunes shelter snuggle spots which range from upturns rowing boats through tents to little treehouses given a new lease of life as they sit out over the crystal blue waters.

There is an exquisite sense of peace and tranquillity about La Vie which is captivating; everything has been placed and the landscape sculpted to present an incredibly natural setting, one which might be found along any temperature coastline on a fine summer’s day. Breakwaters and fences give the region a sense of order; tall logs arranged as piles prevent dunes collapsing into a bay – and stop the waters of the bay from encouraging them to do so. Up on the east side of the land a small summer-house sits, luggage by the door suggesting that for someone it might be time to leave the sanctuary of beach, tree and sand; the lyrics of Birdy’s Wings on the typewriter adding a sense of regret that they have to do so.

La Vie; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr La Vie

Quite how long La Vie will remain open to the public is unclear, “I’m not sure yet,” Krys told me when I asked her. “I’m debating some changes ;).” However, if you love beauty spots in Second Life, this is one I really do recommend you hop along to sooner rather than later, just in case.

SLurl Details

La Vie; Inara Pey, June 2016, on Flickr La Vie

Supporting the victims of the Orlando shootings

Posted on by Inara Pey

orlando

Update: Shortly after I published this article, Casper dropped me a line to say the distributable version of the Support the Victims kiosk is now available on the SL Marketplace, price: L$0.

Strawberry Singh has a powerful post on the Orlando shootings, including how those in Orlando, in Florida and around the world can offer physical and practical support for the victims and their families.

For those of us in Second Life in particular, Strawberry (and Linden Lab, via Xiola Linden) point to a donation kiosk Casper Warden has established at his in-world store specifically to raise money for the official Pulse Victims Fund page for Equality Florida, the state’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organisation, which is collecting contributions via GoFundMe to support the victims of this horrific shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub.

Strawberry, a resident of Orlando, notes:

Hate and extremism can be dangerous and dividing, I wish people would see that. I wish one day I would open my eyes and the world would be completely tolerant and non-judgmental. I wish we all could just live and let live.

I can only join Strawberry in that wish; it is sad that human nature is what it is, and that ideas such as tolerance, understanding, and plain common sense and compassion appear to be utterly alien concepts in what seems to be an increasingly divided world.

In the meantime, please show your support, be it through Casper’s kiosks (he informs me he hopes to have a distributable version which people can rez in their own stores and locations in due course) or directly on the Equality Florida GoFundMe page.