Year: 2016

Teager requests: “please do not buy from my MP store – for now”

Posted on by Inara Pey

Update, Tuesday February 23rd, 01:15 GMT  / 17:15 SLT, Monday February 22nd: Agent86, Teager’s husband, has been able to confirm that her account(s) have been unbanned by the the Lab. “There is news regarding Teager,” AgentEightyEix announced via the * Breeders Choice * in-world group. “She has been unbanned. She’s not home right now, she got the email on her phone, but I’m sure she’ll be on a little later. For everyone who donated at the donation box, thank you.  No need to do any more.  We’ll take it down tonight, and everything can get back to normal around here.” 

I’ve been asked to help spread the word on the following. If you are a Breeder’s Choice or Teegle customer, please take a moment to read.

Teager
Teager

Second Life content creator Teager has issued a request via Facebook that people wishing to buy her products – sold through her Breeder’s Choice and Teegle brands –  should, until further notice, do so via her in-world store and not from her Marketplace presence.

The request comes as a result of Teager having her accounts banned from Second Life. This first became apparent on Tuesday, February 16th, Subsequent to this, on February 19th, she was able to ascertain the reason for the ban, which in turn prompted her request for people not to use her Marketplace store.

In making the request, Teager explains why:

So, here is the situation as it stands right now. I have been banned. As of right now, I, including all of my accounts present or future, are permanently banned from Second Life. I AM still fighting this ban and I DO have a legal leg to stand on. Don’t lose faith just yet.

The purpose for the ban was an old alt account of mine, which sold animations on marketplace, including some animations of an adult nature. I am told that I am in violation of the TOS section 6.1 subsection vi, which states that you shall not “(vi) Post, display or transmit any Content or conduct or host any activity that is sexually explicit, or intensely violent.”

Teager, who has been one of the content creators involved in the Lab’s Project Bento work,  believes that the listings in question were actually rated as Adult, and therefore in compliance with section 6.3.iv of the Terms of Service and the associated Maturity Ratings. She is therefore pursuing matters through the Lab’s appeal process. However, the situation might take time to resolve, leaving her with a problem in meeting her tier, as she goes on to explain:

My marketplace store, which is still online, funnels all profit into the Teager account, to which I have no access. That means I CANNOT withdraw any money from purchases made on marketplace right now and I CANNOT place those funds towards the preservation of the sims.

While I argue my case, profits from my rent boxes and from all major items in my store will be forwarded to my husband’s account, agenteightysix. For now, this includes all items costing 900L or more, but I will notify you of additional items as time goes on. Please do your best to assure that any first time buyers purchase through my in world shop, not my marketplace store, so that I can funnel that money into keeping the sims running while I am without access to my account. I have also transferred all of the mall’s rental boxes to pay towards my husband’s account as well, so all payments towards mall rent boxes from this moment forward will also go towards keeping the sims running.

For further information on the situation, plus any updates from Teager, please refer to either her explanatory Facebook post  or her Facebook page timeline. I’ll also update this post and / or follow-up on it as I receive further news from Teager or agenteightysix.

Note: subsequent to this article, I received news that two other SL content creators have also received recent bans: ~ Ladies Pleasure ~, and Warm Animations. See here and here for more.

Follow-up article: Sundry thoughts on recent bans in Second Life.

ALS awareness week 2016 in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Harvey Memorial Ensemble ALS Awareness Week
Harvey Memorial Ensemble ALS Awareness Week

Opening on Sunday, February 21st and running through until Sunday, February 28th is the Harvey Memorial Ensemble ALS Awareness Week, a charity event intended to both raise awareness of ALS and raise funds for continued research into the disease.

Dedicated to the memory of ALS victim Harvey22 Albatros, the week focuses on music and art, with both live performers and DJs offering sets throughout the week, and a number of SL artists offering pieces for auction, with all proceeds as well as donations during the week going to AISLA, the Associazone Italiana Sclerosi Laterale Amiotrofica.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes also referred to as motor neurone disease (MND) or the synonyms Lou Gehrig’s disease and Charcot disease,  is a specific disorder that involves the death of neurons that control voluntary muscles. For about 90-95% of all diagnosed cases, the precise cause of the disease is unknown; for the remaining 5-10% of diagnosed cases, it is inherited from the sufferer’s parents. There is no known cure, and symptoms generally first become apparent around the age of 60 (or 50 in inherited cases). The average survival from onset to death is three to four years. In Europe and the United States, the disease affects about 2 people per 100,000 per year.

Harvey Memorial Ensemble ALS Awareness Week
Harvey Memorial Ensemble ALS Awareness Week – Drops of Memory, a tribute to ALS victim Micol Coche, featuring images of her times in SL, as taken by Micol and her friends, and built by Rubin Mayo

In 2015, the Harvey Memorial Ensemble ALS Awareness Week raised €840 (approximately L$234,000) for AISLA. This year once again sees a host of live performers and DJs participating in the music events, and there will be an auction of artwork from Bryn Oh, Mistero Hifeng, Solkide Auer, and Kicca Igaly. Bids for the works they are offering can be made via the auction flower alongside of each piece, and the winning bids will be announced at the closing of the week, on February 28th.

The events schedule for the week, at the time of going to press, is given below. All times are SLT.

Sunday, February 21st
13:00 – 13:30
 Opening
14:00 -16:00
 Lisa Brune – live
1600 -17:00
 Music from Solo Donna
Monday, February 22nd
07:00 – 09:00
 DJ Denise (70/80/90’s music)
09:00 – 11:00
 Dj SoloUnNick – Freestyle Time
Noon – 13:00
 DJ Van Loopen
13:00 – 14:00
 Giulia Elton – Live
14:00 – 16:00
 Incanto Dreams in “La Danza Macabra” Show
16:00 – 18:00 DJ Maddina – Rock Session
Tuesday, February 23rd
07:00 – 09:00
 DJ Bred Brunswick – House music
09:00 – 11:00
 DJ Ful Macchi – Freestyle Time
Noon- 14:00
 UnikoSogno
14:00 – 15:00
 DJ Tritta
15:00 – 17:00
 “Bunny Isle Harambee Kenya” – DJ Dimitri74x in Rock Cover Session
17:00 – 18:00
 DJ Ciottolina – DJ Session
Wednesday, February 24th
07:00 – 09:00
  DJ Erik & Meme – DJ Session
09:00 – 11:00
 LadyB (Birba72) – Live
Noon – 14:00
 Luke Auster Live (Country rock) / Nefer Adder Live
14:00 – 16:00
 Dance Group “Michael Jackson Tribute” Show
16:00 – 18:00
 DJ Joy
Harvey Memorial Ensemble ALS Awareness Week - main stage
Harvey Memorial Ensemble ALS Awareness Week – main stage
Thursday, February 25th
07:00 – 09:00
  Musicalmente insieme
09:00 – 11:00
 Tempio Breil – Live
Noon – 14:00
 DJ MaurizioMitico
14:00 – 15:00
 Dennis Bohannes – Live
15:00 – 16:00
 DJ Step Skytower
16:00 – 17:00
 Isabella Rumsford – Live
17:00 – 18:00
 DJ Ciottolina
Friday, February 26th
07:00 – 09:00
 Dj Myo Slade – “A Tutto Rock”
09:00 – 11:00
 Johnbig what else – “Musica di gran classe” – DJ session
Noon – 14:00
 DJ Lorenvox – Techtrance & Electrohouse
14:00 – 16:00
 Yang Nairod & Stefania Colamr
16:00 – 18:00
 DJ Ux Hax
Saturday, February 27th
07:00 – 09:00  DJ EFX & DJ Selen
09:00 – 10:00 Darko – Live
10:00 -11:00
  Mauro – Live
Noon – 14:00
 Pixel Fusion Jazz Band – Concert
14:00 – 16:00
 DJ Elia
16:00 – 18:00
 DJ Kristal
Sunday, February 28th
07:00 – 09:00
 Mascia Luminos – Live / DJ Linda
09:00 – 11:00
 Dj Tarallo – “Rock live mixato per voi”
Noon – 14:00
 Black Label Society Concert – Extreme Metal
14:00 – 16:00
 Closing event with Phoenix J – Live

SLurl Details

Mysteries, wizards, tributes and tours

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s time to kick-off a week of story-telling in voice, brought to our virtual lives by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s Second Life home at Bradley University, unless otherwise indicated.

Sunday, February 21st

13:30 Crazy Eights: Tea Time at Baker StreetHolmes-return

When Hilton Cubitt of Ridling Thorpe Manor in Norfolk presents Sherlock Holmes with a piece of paper with a mysterious sequence of 15 stick figures, the Great Detective and Dr. John Watson find themselves embarking on The Adventure of the Dancing Men.

Cubitt reveals that he has been married to is wife, Elsie, an American, for about a year. All had been well until a letter arrived for her from the United States. Clearly upset by the letter, she threw it in the fire – and shortly afterwards the strange little figures started showing on in pieces of paper, chalked on a wall or door… all with a terrifying effect on Elsie Cubitt.

Holmes instructs Cubitt to make sure all occurrences of the figures are copied and sent to him at 221B Baker Street. As they arrive, Holmes realises they are a substitution code, and the last message causes him to rush to Riding Thorpe Manor. But by the time he and Watson arrive, Cubitt is dead from a bullet in the heart, and his young wife, despite being wounded in the head, is the prime suspect in his death.

15:00 Crazy Eights: Storyteller’s Sandbox

Providing a forum for new stories, new storytellers, and new ways to present them.  The first Sandbox will feature Artist and Storyteller Hana Hoo, self-published author Dulcie Mills with her newest work, and the ever creative Trolley Trollop with “The TAO of Martha.”

Monday February 22nd 19:00: Wizard of Karres

Gyro Muggins returns to the universe created by James H. Schmitz and given form through his 1949 novel, The Witches of Karres, as he continues reading the 2004 sequel, The Wizard of Karres, penned by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint, and Dave Freer. So why not join Gyro as he once more traces the adventures of Captain Pausert and his companions, Goth and the Leewit, the Witches of Karres.

Tuesday February 23rd, 19:00: A Tribute to Harper Lee

Caledonia Skytower and Trolley Trollop pay tribute to the authoress of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Go Set a Watchman (2015), who passed away in her sleep on the morning of February 19, 2016, aged 89.

Wednesday February 24th 19:00: Resort to Murder: Thirteen More Tales of Mystery by Minnesota’s Premier Writers

resort to murderIn The Silence of the Loons, editors Carl Brookins, Ellen Hart and William Kent Krueger (known as the Minnesota Crime Wave) brought together 13 of that state’s top crime writers to present a series of tales of mystery.

Now, in Resort to Murder the Minnesota Crime Wave are back with 13 more tales penned by writers. All of the stories have one element in common: Each tale takes place at a Minnesota resort. Minnesota has over 10,000 lakes, and there’s something in the water.

Join Kayden Oconnell as he reads from this fascinating anthology.

 

Thursday, February 25th,19:00 Crazy Eights: On the Island

Shandon Loring and Caledonia Skytower, continue reading the February choice for Seanchai Library’s Crazy Eight’s Featured books reading, On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves.

Anna Emerson, a 30-year-old English teacher accepts s position as private tutor to 17-year-old T.J. Callahan, a young man who has been undergoing treatment for cancer. For Anna, it is a plum assignment, requiring as it does travelling to the Callahan Family’s summer rental in the Maldives with the teenager. T.J., however, is less than happy; with his cancer in remission, he’d rather stay at home with friends, and not carted off half-way around the world with the dead weight of lessons to catch-up on.

The island area
Crazy Eights Featured Book area: join Shandon and Caledonia in tropical surroundings as they continue reading On the Island

Before they can reach their destination however, the pilot of the charter plane taking them to the Maldives suffers a heart attack, the ‘plane ditching in the Indian Ocean. Making it to a deserted island well off the beaten track, Anna and T.J. must work together to survive as days turn to weeks, and weeks to months without sign of rescue. As the time passes, Anna realises that her biggest challenge may not be caring for T.J. should his cancer return – but the fact he is growing into a young man.

Note: On the Island is also to be presented at Seanchai InWorldz. Check Seanchai session posts during the week for specific grid locations).

Saturday, February 27th, 14:00: Crazy Eights Story Forest Tour

The paty through the Story Forest at Crazy Eights will lead you to literary discoveries, courtesy of Seanchai Library
Take a guide tour along the Crazy Eights Story Forest path

A guided exploration of the Crazy Eights Story Forest with selected stories shared live in voice. Guests meet at the Welcome Plaza and join Tour Guides for a walk and a talk featuring some of the 20 stories from around the world found in the Crazy Eights Story Forest.

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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 Heifer International, working with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth.

Additional Links

Holly Kai Art at the Park: February – March 2016

Posted on by Inara Pey
Art at the Park, February – March 2016

The second ensemble exhibition in the Holly Kai Art at the Park series commences on Sunday, February 21st 2016, and runs through until Sunday, April 10th.

For this exhibition, we are both pleased and privileged to be featuring the work of five talented artists, who between them offer a rich diversity of art and styles. They are: Goodcross, Hana Hoo, Io Bechir, Sisse Singh and our 3D artist for this exhibition: Mistero Hifeng.

The exhibition will open with a special gala event at the Holly Kai Pavilion – see below for more details.

About the Artists

Goodcross

GoodcrossAnyone encountering images by Goodcross cannot help but be stunned by their richness of imagery and narrative. Covering a broad spectrum of landscapes, images of SL art, avatar studies, and composed pieces, his work is never anything like than utterly compelling.

I first encountered his work at the ever excellent Dathúil Gallery, operated by Max Butoh and Lυcy (LucyDiam0nd), and on seeing it, knew I had to see him display his work at Holly Kai Park.

“I love creativity,” Goodcross says. “The process, the people and the whole gamut of ideation. I’m utterly passionate about it. When I came to SL, I was gob-smacked by the rich graphics. As time passed by, I learnt a lot about not just photography but so many different aspects that you could use your creativity for: building, texturing, making poses, creating lights, flirting (hell yeah that’s creative too! 🙂 ), and finally making strong, enduring bonds with real people. I have been very lucky.”

Hana Hoo

HanaHana Hoo is a woman of many talents: artist, writer, traveller, roleplayer, storyteller and more. Her blogs, The Runes of the Gatekeeper’s Daughter and Desert Mice and Dreams, which focuses on her story writing, are a joy to read.

Hana’s art is often a wonderful mix of the physical and the virtual, the two enticingly mixed to present not so much an image, but a tale; a place where the line between our perception of what is real and what is a dream becomes blurred,the two fading seamlessly into one another.

“I am a storyteller, but at the same time I am very visual because a good image will tell a story of its own,” Hana says of herself. “I love to explore the mystery of light and shadow at play and I’m fond of both woodland and old stones. In SL I began to see some of my own stories reflected in fantasy landscapes, so I began to use some of the images I photographed here with my stories.”

In this, Hana’s work serves as something of a reflection of our own relationship with virtual environments as well; for most of us, the “divide” between our physical and virtual selves is also blurred, a space where we can ebb and flow from one to another.

On first encountering Hana’s work, I was amazed by its ethereal power and beauty, and I’m absolutely delighted that she agreed to be a part of things at Holly Kai Park.

Io Bechir

Io Bechir“My hope is to communicate my impressions with regard to my experiences here over the past three years,” Io says of her display at Holly Kai Park.

“During this time period I fell in love. I met some amazing and wonderful friends. I suffered a broken heart. I came to realise my own strength. I took up sailing. I found my voice as an artist, and discovered new ways to express my Self in this limitless space of ethereal light and imagination. Probably, many of the same experiences you have had.”

The result is an evocative and highly personal series of images, rich in colour, context and narrative, each one very much a story – a chapter, perhaps – in its own right. Thus Io’s display becomes an autobiography in images, embodying each of them with a power to reach deeper into us than had then been merely posed for an audience. Through them we are offered the opportunity to join with Io’s exploration of Self and share in her discoveries.

Io’s work amazed me when I first encountered it, and I’m very pleased she accepted an invitation to participate in Art at the Park.

Sisse Singh

sisseAn established Danish artist working in watercolours, gouache, powder and ink, Sisse has seen work displayed in the physical world in public and private art galleries, culture centres, government offices, banks and offices.

Inspiration for her art comes from many sources: her surrounding, nature, the people she meets and her own imagination, and at Holly Kai she presents two aspects of her work. On one deck is a series of her floral watercolours, each beautiful reproduced; on the other is a display of abstracts, portraits and landscapes. Together, the two decks allow us to witness the rich diversity of Sisse’s work.

All of the pieces are offered for sale, and in a special way: not only can you buy an in-world copy of one of Sisse’s paintings, you can also – if it is available – acquire the original in the physical world. Simply e-mail Sisse at her website, or IM her in-world, with the details of the piece you would be interested in acquiring, and she will inform you of its availability and price.

Mistero Hifeng

MisteroI’ve been an avid admirer of Mistero Hifeng’s sculptures ever since I first encountered them almost two years ago. His gallery space and his exhibitions have been a regular feature in my coverage of SL arts because they are so beautifully evocative and captivating.

Indeed, even if you are not familiar with his name, you’ve very probably come across at least one of his pieces if you are an SL explorer; his work has captured the eyes of many region holders across the grid, and as a consequence, his work graces many public and private spaces.

Mistero’s work presents a subtle blending of realities: very human figures often in very extraordinary – you might say surreal – situations, driven from deep within the imagination. Little wonder, then, that he takes a Tom Watts quote for his profile description:

I can almost always rode both the reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket . My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.

The results of this blending of reality and imagination are frequently extraordinary in look and appeal, richly evocative and perfectly suited to either indoor out outdoor display, and I hope his selected pieces at Holly Kai Park will amply demonstrate the latter.

Gala Opening

Erin68 Frog
Erin68 Frog

The February – March Art at the Park exhibition will officially open at 2:00pm SLT on Sunday, February 21st with a special gala event at The Pavilion, Holly Kai Park (just walk across the bridge from the landing point).

Erin68 Frog and Satin will be providing the music for the first hour, which will be followed by a live stream thereafter for those wishing to continue in the party spirit. Formal dress is requested.

Should you wish to sail to the park rather than teleport, mooring slips are available on the east side of the park, with auto-return set to one hour and re-rezzing possible from the piers.

We look forward to seeing you at Holly Kai Park!

SLurl Details

This post also appears on the Holly Kai blog.

Project Bento User Group update 5 with audio

Posted on by Inara Pey
Project Bento extends the avatar skeleton, adding a significant set of bones (e.g. 30 for the face, 30 for the hands Project Bento - extending the SL avatar skeleton
Project Bento – extending the SL avatar skeleton

The following notes and audio were taken from the weekly Bento User Group meeting, held on Thursday, February 18th at 13:00 SLT on Aditi.  For details on each meeting and the location, please refer to the Bento User Group wiki page. Audio extracts are provided, however, due to circumstances beyond my control, I missed the first 20 minutes of the meeting, so the following update is not a full summary of all that was discussed.

The Default Avatar Mesh and Bento

An area of concern regarding Bento is that while custom-built avatars can make use of the new Bento skeleton, and some work has been done on making some of the appearance sliders for the default avatar mesh compatible with Bento, there is next to no way at presents for the default Second Life avatar mesh to make full use of a Bento extensions. Much of this wouldn’t actually matter,  given that many of the circumstances where the new bones are being used would likely require the use of a custom mesh avatar. However, there are two noticeable areas where the it does have an impact: hands and faces.

Essentially, Bento introduces 30 bones into the face and 30 bones into the hands. However, these cannot currently be leveraged by the default avatar mesh, as demonstrated in the first 20 seconds of the video below.

As such, there has been discussion over the last couple of Bento meetings on ways in which this might be addressed. However, there are significant problems in trying to make the existing default SL avatar compatible with the Bento skeleton. One of these is that the default skeleton is designed in three core sections (head, upper body, lower body), each of which can only be rigged to utilise a maximum of 15 bones.

This means that trying to rig the default avatar to make correct use of the Bento skeleton additions isn’t that easy; the head and hands, for example, simply cannot support the number of bones offered by the Bento project. A further complication as that when it comes to facial expressions, the default avatar uses morphs rather than pure animations to achieve various expressions, and these could conflict with animations which utilise the Bento bones.

One solution would be to completely overhaul the default avatar or replace it. However, this is a massive undertaking, and one which could easily result in a lot of existing content breakage, as such it is not something the Lab is entirely sanguine about doing. Another idea put forward was for the Lab to provide two default heads, one utilising the default morphs and the other Bento bones and their associated animations. However, the limit of how many bones the default avatar mesh can support made this idea a non-starter.

Cathy Foil summaries the discusses on the avatar head, which occurred prior to my arrival at the meeting

During the discussion, Vir and Oz revealed that having the default avatar make use of the Bento skeleton is something the Lab has been pondering. However, it is not something that will be implemented during this initial phase of Bento due to the amount of work involved. However, it could be looked at as part of follow-on work from Bento.

Vir and Oz Linden raise the potential for Bento follow-on work to provide a means of making the default avatar head and hands more compatible with the Bento bones

That the Lab are considering trying to make some changes to the SL default avatar to leverage Bento capabilities lead to the suggestion by Medhue Simoni that perhaps the Lab should at the same time more broadly overhaul the avatar to provide a consistent set of vertices and weights throughout.

The idea here would be to present an avatar form which content creators could more readily use to model and rig fitted mesh items to a single, consistent set of vertices and weights, rather than each having to work to their own weightings. This would allow fitted mesh clothes to work more precisely with the avatar appearance sliders than is currently the case, and thus provide a more consistent and better feature set going forward.

The problem here is again exiting content breakage. One suggestion for dealing with this, put forward by Cathy, is that if the Lab decided to go the route suggested by Medhue, they could need to provide two default avatars, which users could swap between as needed dictated, by means of something like the gender change options currently found in the avatar appearance panel.

Comments on a wider re-working of the avatar skeleton

Appearance Sliders and Bento

As noted above, there has been some work completed on hooking some of the Bento bones to the appearance sliders – notably around the head and hands. Now that the updated skeleton is moving towards a final design, the hope is that perhaps more bones within it can be linked to the sliders.

Vir and Cathy on Bento and the appearance sliders

Continue reading “Project Bento User Group update 5 with audio” →

Lab updates on unscheduled deployments and other issues

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeAs noted in my recent SL project update, there was an unscheduled deployment to the three Agni (main) grid release candidate (RC) channels of Bluesteel, LeTigre and Magnum on Thursday, February 18th, which saw regions on these channels undergo a rolling restart. This was followed on Friday, February 19th by rolling restarts across the Main (SLS) channel.

During the Server Beta User Group (SBUG) meeting on Thursday, April 18th, Steven Linden provided some information on why a deployment was made to the RC channels, and indicated that a similar deployment would be forthcoming on the Main (SLS) channel, and promising further information would be provided once that deployment had been made:

We had an unscheduled RC deploy earlier today. It’s for a security vulnerability that was released, and we discovered that Second Life regions were vulnerable. A full public post-mortem will be coming after we deploy to the rest of the main grid. I can’t say until it goes out to the rest of Agni; I can say that it was related to region availability only…. I honestly can’t say a great deal, other than we have a fix, and that it’s coming very soon to the rest of Agni.

True to this promise, following the Main channel roll on Friday, February 19th, April Linden blogged Why the Friday Grid Roll?

The reason essentially boiled down to a vulnerability in the GNU version of Linux used to run the grid servers. The vulnerability lay within the GNU C library, commonly referred to as glibc, which if exploited could allow remote access to a devices – be it a computer, internet router, or other connected piece of equipment. It was initially discovered by Google on Tuesday, 16th February, and was labelled CVE-2015-7547.

April’s blog post provides a concise explanation of just what went into the Lab’s security and operations teams’ efforts in ascertaining SL’s exposure to the vulnerability and developing an update to secure their servers against the vulnerability.

All of this took time – but all things considered, it was still a remarkably fast effort. The Lab went from hearing about the risk on Tuesday 16th February through to understanding the full extent of the possible exposure SL faced, to having an update coded, tested and ready for release by Thursday, which as April explained, then left them with another decision:

Do we want to roll the code to the full grid at once? We decided that since the updates were to one of the most core libraries, we should be extra careful, and decided to roll the updates to the Release Candidate (RC) channels first. That happened on Thursday morning.

Given the Lab wanted to monitor how things progressed on the RC channels (which between them represent roughly 30% of the total grid), and ensure the update itself didn’t introduce anything unexpected. So it was that the deployment to the rest of the grid couldn’t be made until Friday, February 19th.

April emphasises that at no point during the known period of exposure or before, was there any attempt to use the vulnerability against the SL servers.  At the time of the Thursday roll, there was some criticism directed at the Lab for the lack of warning. April also explains why this was the case:

The reason there was little notice for the roll on Thursday is two-fold. First, we were moving very quickly, and second because the roll was to mitigate a security issue, we didn’t want to tip our hand and show what was going on until after the issue had been fully resolved.

When things like unscheduled rolls are disruptive, leaving us prone to grumbling and pointing the finger, it’s perhaps worthwhile taking this incident as an example that sometimes, there are reasons why the Lab does announced things first.

April’s post is actually one of three published recently by the operations / engineering teams which provide interesting insight into what goes on behind the scenes in keeping Second Life running.

In Recent Issues with the Nightly Biller, Steven Linden provides and explanation on why some Premium members recently experienced billing issues, up to and including inadvertently receiving delinquent balance notices. Once again, the explanation of what happened and what has been done to try to ensure a similar problem doesn’t occur in the future makes for a worthwhile read.

In Tale of the Missing ACK, Chris Linden describes another unusual and challenging incident the Lab’s engineering team had to deal with when testing a new API endpoint hosted in Amazon. This again illustrates the overall complexity of the Second Life services and infrastructure, which extends far beyond the simulator servers we some often take for granted as being “the” SL service, and the complexities involved in tracking issues down when things don’t go as expected  / planned.

Thanks again to April, Steven and Chris for providing the explanations and the insight into SL’s services.