Earlier in June, and following Strawberry Singh’s lead, I posted about the fundraising kiosks created by Casper Warden to specifically to raise money for the victims of the horrific shooting at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub. Now Casper, in partnership with Cerberus Xing and designers from across Second Life are taking things further in support of the victims and their families.
The Pulse Fundraising event opens its doors at 11:00 SLT on Tuesday, June 28th. It features over 100 designers, is sponsored by CasperVend and held on a region donated by CerberusXing, with the intention to support the Pulse Victims GoFundMe Page established by Equality Florida, the state’s bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organisation with the aim of providing financial support for the victims of the shooting and their families.100% of all proceeds from the event will go to the campaign, which in turn promises that:
Every penny raised will be distributed directly to the victims and their families. We are working with a team of attorneys and experts, including the National Centre for Victims of Crime, which deployed funds in both Chattanooga and Aurora, to ensure funds are distributed correctly.
The event will run through to Tuesday, July 12th. Participating designers include Blueberry, Little Bones, Moon, Birdy, Addams, Exile, Cyberus Xing, Pixicat, Reign, and more, who will be offering new or discounted items.
As a part of the event, there will be a raffle for one year free at Bella Pointe (valued at L$77,948) from Bella Gacha. Donation kiosks are also available for those who wish to show support for the Orlando victims without necessarily making any purchases.
On Saturday, June 26th, the Alchemy team announced the official release of Alchemy 4.0.0.37571, which essentially moves the recent Beta releases to release status, together with some tweaks and tucks.
As Alchemy beta users will know, 4.0.0 brings Alchemy up to parity with the Lab’s 4.0.0 code base, and also adds some upstream fixes from 4.0.1. This means the viewer includes the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) for media handling.
Given I have provided a couple of overviews for the February and April beta releases of the viewer, the following is a quick bullet-point list of major updates in the viewer:
Automatic update capability (matching the official viewer update capability) – Preferences > Setup
Alchemy 4.0.0 includes auto-update options to help with maintaining parity with latest releases / receiving beta version updates
Enhanced environmental tools
In a change introduced on the April Beta, the local chat bar (see my February Beta release overview) no longer has a chat check-box to activate the option (Preferences > Chat). Instead, the chat bar will open automatically if your mouse focus is in-world (e.g. not already focused on the conversation floater or another floater) and Preferences > General > Pressing Letter Keys is set to Starts Local Chat.
The Alchemy local chat bar and options, as it appears in the 4.0.0. release version of the viewer
At the time of writing, the full release notes were reported as “will be generated soon”, so users are referred to the Alchemy web site for these and a detailed breakdown of updates.
This summary is published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Official LL Viewers
Current Release version: 4.0.5.315117 (dated May 11), May 18th – no change: formerly the Quick Graphics RC viewer download page, release notes
Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.11 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.13, both on June 25th (release notes)
NASA’s Curiosity rover has resumed its long, slow climb up the slopes of “Mount Sharp”, the 5 km high mound abutting the central impact peak of Gale Crater on Mars.
For the last few months, the rover has been easing its way over what is called the “Murray Formation”, a transitional layer marking the separation points between the materials deposited over the aeons to create the gigantic mound, and the material considered to be common to the crater floor. Named in honour of the late co-founder of The Planetary Society, Bruce Murray, the formation comprises a number of different land forms, which the rover has been gradually examining.
On June 4th, 2016, Curiosity collected its latest set of drilling samples – the 11th and 12th it has gathered since arriving on Mars – on the “Naukluft Plateau”, a further region of sandstone within the Murray Formation, similar to the area dubbed the “Stimson Formation”, where the rover collected samples in 2015.
The Murray formation extends about 200 metres (650ft) up the side of “Mount Sharp”. Starting at the “Pahrump Hills” below “Murray Buttes” in late 2014, Curiosity is about one fifth of the way across the region, spending extended periods examined various features within the formation. Credit: NASA JPL
The aim is to carry out comparative geology between the two sites to determine whether or not their formation is related. The “Stimson Formation” sandstone strongly suggested it has been laid down by wind after the core slopes of “Mount Sharp” had been laid down by sedimentary processes the result of Gale Crater once being home to s huge lake, but which had then been subjected to fracturing by the passage of water. These bands of fractured sandstone have become more prevalent as the rover has continued up through the “Murray Formation”, so it is hoped that by obtaining samples from “Naukluft Plateau”, the science team will gain further understanding of precisely what part water played in the evolution of the slopes of “Mount Sharp” after the lake waters had receded.
The HiRise imaging system on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity on the Naukluft Plateau in May 2016 Credit: NASA/JPL / University of Arizona
Since completing the drilling operations, Curiosity has turned south, and is now climbing the mound “head on”, rather than gradually zig-zagging its way upwards.
The MSL rover has also provided geologists with another surprise. In mid-2015, the rover collected samples from a rock dubbed “Buckskin”. Reviewing the analysis of the minerals in the samples, as discovered by Curiosity’s on-board laboratory suite, scientists have found significant amounts of a silica mineral called tridymite.
“On Earth, tridymite is formed at high temperatures in an explosive process called silicic volcanism. Mount St. Helens, the active volcano in Washington State, and the Satsuma-Iwojima volcano in Japan are examples of such volcanoes,” said Richard Morris, a NASA planetary scientist at Johnson Space Centre. “The tridymite in the Buckskin sample is thought to have been incorporated into “Lake Gale” mudstone as sediment from erosion of silicic volcanic rocks.”
The find is significant because although volcanism did once take place on Mars, it has never been thought of as being silicic volcanism, which is far more violent that the kind of volcanism associated with the formation of the great shield volcanoes of the Tharsis Bulge and other regions of Mars. So this discovery means geologists may have to re-think the volcanic period of Mars’ early history.
China Launches Long March 7
Saturday, June 25th saw the inaugural launch of China’s Long March 7 booster, a vehicle I wrote about back in April 2016. The launch was also the first from China’s fourth and newest space launch facility, the Wenchang Satellite Launch Centre, located on Hainan Island, the country’s southernmost point.
The Long March 7 is a core component to China’s evolving space ambitions. Classified as a medium lift vehicle, it can carry around 13.5 tonnes to low Earth orbit (LEO), it will operate alongside China’s upcoming heavy lift launcher, the Long March 5. This craft will be capable of lifting around the same payload mass directly to geosynchronous orbit, and around 25 tonnes to LEO. Both vehicles will play a lead role in China’s plans to expand her explorations of the Moon, establish a permanent space station in Earth orbit by 2022, and reach Mars with automated missions.
China’s Long March 7 (right) launched on it inaugural flight on Saturday, June 25th. The bigger Long March 5 (left) is due to launch later in 2016. Credit: China state media
The inaugural launch of the Long March 7 took place at noon GMT on Saturday, June 25th (20:00 local time). It carried a Yuanzheng 1A upper stage and a scale model of China’s next generation crewed orbital vehicle into an orbit of 200 km (120 mi) by 394 km (244 mi) as confirmed by US tracking networks.
Yuanzheng is an automated “space tug” China has used numerous times to deliver payloads to their orbits, and is capable of re-using its engine multiple times. It is most often used to boost China’s communications satellites into higher orbits.
The sub-scale capsule was used to carry out an atmospheric re-entry test to gather data which will be use to further refine and improve the re-entry vehicle which will form a part of China’s replacement for its ageing, Soyuz-inspired Shenzhou crew vehicle. This unit returned to Earth, landing in a desert in Inner Mongolia on Sunday, June 26th, after orbiting the planet 13 times. Also aboard the vehicle was a “cubesat” mission to test a navigation system, and a prototype refuelling system.
As a part of the run-up to its 10th anniversary, Virtual World Best Practices in Education has announced the VWBPE Virtual Science Fair, and is inviting educators, schools, colleges and universities to participate.
The event will form a new element in the annual VWBPE annual conference, which in 2017 will take place between Tuesday, March 28th through Saturday, April 1st inclusive. It was announced via a VWBPE blog post on June 21st, which also gives a definition of “science” for the purposes of the fair:
In this instance, the term “science” encompasses a body of knowledge, whose systems, concepts, or major paradigms can then be demonstrated, experimented, and/or designed through the lens of any number of social, behavioural, and natural sciences as disciplines.
Those wishing to participate are invited to submit proposals which may include, but are not limited, to:
Science and Mathematics (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geology, Mathematics)
Social Sciences (Education, History, Anthropology, Economics)
Behavioural Sciences (Psychology, Sociology)
Fine Arts (Languages, Art, Music, Theatre)
Submissions can be made in one of three categories:
Submitting as a group for an entire class (Grades 9-12) or
Submitting as a group for an entire class (University/Continuing Education), or
Submitting as an individual teacher.
Each option his is own Requirements for Proposal Submissions, which applicants are asked to review, and each of which includes a link to the relevant proposal submissions form. The deadline for the receipt of all submissions is Friday, July 15th, 2016.
Meet the Lindens is a series of conversations / Q&A session with staff from Linden Lab, held as a part of the SL Birthday celebrations in-world. These present opportunities for Second Life users to get to know something about the staff at the Lab: who they are, what they do, what drew them to Second Life and the company, what they do, what they find interesting / inspirational about the platform, and so on.
Thursday, June 23rd saw Xiola and Pete Linden sit down with Kess Crystal and Saffia Widdershins, and this article hopefully presents some “selected highlights” of the chat, complete with audio extracts from the event. The video of the discussion is embedded at the end of this article.
About Xiola and Pete
Xiola Linden is the Lead Community Manager at Linden Lab. she originally came to Second Life in 2006, and joined the Lab in 2011. Her role is broad-ranging, including elements of customer supporter, through blogging and social media output for the Lab, to organising events such as the in-world get-togethers and the likes of the SL13B music fest. She leads a team “100% focused” on supporting and serving the communities of Second Life, and who may be travelling in-world as Linden or equally, using her alt for that ground-level “resident eye” look at things.
During her time in Second Life, Xiola has enjoyed many roles: DJ, designer, shopaholic, music event lover – and outside of her official account still finds time for many of these activities.
Pete Linden is the Lab’s Senior Director of Global Communications, a role which sees him leading the company’s PR work and managing the Marketing team, covering all of the Lab’s activities and products – Second Life, Blocksworld and Project Sansar.
He joined Linden Lab in 2009 from a PR firm which representing the company, and became a PR specialist and then PR Manager, before moving to manage the PR and communications team and thence to his current role, which includes overall management of all of the Lab’s communications activities – PR, marketing, communications and community management.
What were your first impressions on joining the Lab? Was it what you were expecting?
Pete: For me it was, but part of that was because I’d had the good fortune of working with a number of people quite closely at Linden Lab for about three years before I made the move. I was working pretty closely with Catherine Linden Melissa Linden and some others at that time. So, I had a pretty good sense of what the company was like, how things worked here.
And obviously, that’s changed over the past number of years; Linden, like Second Life has been through quite an evolution. But it’s still the most exciting and most fun job that I’ve ever had. It’s a great place to be.
Xiola: It’s interesting because I had actually been watching the careers page at Linden Lab for quite a while, waiting for the right opportunity to arise. The timing ended up being perfect and it worked-out really well.
One of Xiola’s many looks
So that aside, I think – it’s a tough question, because like Pete mentioned, the people here are some of like the coolest, smartest people you’ll ever meet. So every day there’s something surprising. It’s kind of how I feel about the Second Life community, which sort-of makes sense, that the people working here, working on Second Life, have similarities with our community as well, because they are the community as well.
But there’s always some things that surprises me about people, and it’s almost, I would say, 99.9% of the time delightful. And so in that regard, I really didn’t know what to expect coming here, and I enjoyed that, actually. I was excited about something new and different, even though I had been a resident and understood the product from a resident’s perspective. My background had been more in straight Internet, web and e-commerce sites, and that sort of thing.
So I came here, and it was almost like, “These are my people! This is my tribe!” And it’s continued to be that way over the years, it’s very cool. But the people I have as friends before and after Linden Lab have that similarity. I really appreciate when people surprise me; and I definitely get that every day here.
I think Oz was talking about not going a week without the residents surprising him with something; that really is a common theme, I think, internally as well as externally. It’s really cool. You definitely have to be on your toes, but it’s fun!
Do you still use your other avatar?
Xiola: Every day, actually. Well, lately because of all the Second Life 13th Birthday coordination stuff, I’ve definitely been spending more time on Xiola, even “after hours”, even though no such thing really exists. So, my alt has been a little bit neglected. But I still actually log her in every day, if only to check notices and note cards, as my alt is a creator and I want to make sure I stay on top of that stuff as well. I would hate to go a few days and come back to note cards from customers or something like that, wondering, “what the heck?”
So I spend time on my alt every day. and between her and Xiola, spend a lot of Lindens updating our avatars all the time!
I guess from a marketing and community point of view though, having the alt allows you to do a certain amount of mystery shopping and see how people are engaged in the community. Do you get a lot of feedback on the alt?
Xiola: I do. So, I mean obviously it not like I go around interviewing people or asking when I’m on my alt, that would be a little obvious. But I hang out in places, and people will be having conversations about things, and you definitely get a different perspective when folks don’t know there’s a Linden present. And I try to treat it that way; I mean when I’m doing alt things, I respect the alt code, I’m a resident right now, not a Linden! So there’s definitely some interesting things.
And even some of the outside Second Life stuff, some of the communities that exist on Plurk and Facebook; they definitely have a different perspective. But funnily enough, it’s sort-of like they say, two different parties can have the same goal, but they’re just using different words for it; at the end of the day, I think at the end of the day, a lot of it aligns. And maybe it’s just coming from a different perspective, the feedback I hear externally and the feedback I hear in here, I think a lot of it actually lines up really well. So that’s kind of kismet and kind of cool.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 