Month: May 2017

Detectives, animal tales, expeditions, magic and archives

Posted on by Inara Pey

It’s time to kick-off another week of storytelling in Voice 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, May 7th

13:30: The Thin Man

New York, 1932. Nick Charles, a retired west coast private detective, and his wealthy socialite wife, are in the Big Apple for Christmas. It’s a place where Nick is perfectly happy getting drunk in their hotel room or in speakeasies.  Which is not to say the couple are unhappy; far from it. They enjoy witty repartee and banter with one another, and Nora is every inch Nick’s match in wit and intelligence.

Things change when Nick is visited by Dorothy Wynant, the daughter of a former client, businessman Clyde Wynant, who has apparently vanished ahead of his daughter’s wedding. Nick reluctantly – and to Nora’s amusement – agrees to find the missing businessman (the titular Thin Man). But what starts as a search for a missing man quickly turns into the hunt for a murderer after Wynant’s secretary is found dead, with all the evidence points to Wynant himself as her killer.

Corwyn Allen, John Morland, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower read Dashell Hammett’s 1933 classic, which became the first in a series of films following Nick and Nora’s adventures, as played by the inimitable William Powell and Myrna Loy.

19:00: The Wind in the Willows

Meet little Mole, wilful Ratty, Badger the perennial bachelor, and petulant Toad. Over one hundred years since their first appearance in 1908, they’ve become emblematic archetypes of eccentricity, folly, and friendship. And their misadventures – in gypsy caravans, stolen sports cars, and their Wild Wood-continue to capture readers’ imaginations and warm their hearts long after they grow up.

Begun as a series of letters from Kenneth Grahame to his son, The Wind in the Willows is a timeless tale of animal cunning and human camaraderie – although some in current times unkindly see it as a kind of allegory for the privileged ne’er-do-well upper class (in the form of Toad) with the aid of the middle class (Badger, rat and Mole) to keep the proletariat (weasels and stoats) in their place.

I suggest you join Caledonia Skytower for Magicland Storytime, and go with Mr. Grahame’s intention with the tales – as a ripping yarn for young hearts and minds.

Monday, May 8th 19:00: Architects of Hyperspace

Humour, hard science and speculative science fiction all combine in this novel by Thomas R. McDonough, who has worked with both the SETI Institute and The Planetary society.

A trio driven by personal ambitions comes together after a dying man’s last words send them in search of the secrets of a lost alien civilisation.

A wonderful tongue in cheek story backed by great speculative science. The combination of the sometimes screwball comedy with the specifics of how hyperspace could work and the details of the time lags of space communication, etc, made for a believable and well-formed diegesis. There were times reading this book that I just had to stop to laugh. The book reminds me a great deal of Red Dwarf. 

Join Gyro Muggins as he reads this unusual story.

Tuesday, May 9th 19:00: Of Mice and Magic

Faerie Maven-Pralou reads the first in the Ravenspell series by David Farland

More than anything, Benjamin Ravenspell wants a pet. But when he buys a mouse named Amber, he gets more than he bargained for. No sooner does Ben take her home, than Amber turns him into a mouse too.

You see, Amber has magical abilities, and it so happens that Ben is a familiar, a creature that stores magical energy. Together they each form half of a powerful wizard. Alone, they’re just vermin.

Soon Ben and Amber find themselves pitted in an epic battle against a magical enemy who is as crazed as he is evil, and the fate of the world will rest on them learning to work together.

Wednesday, May 10th 19:00 The Atrocity Archives Part 2

atrocity-archivesBob Howard is a low-level techie working for The Laundry, a super-secret government agency. While his colleagues are out saving the world, Bob’s under a desk restoring lost data. None of them receive any thanks for the jobs they do, but at least a techie doesn’t risk getting shot or eaten in the line of duty. Bob’s world is dull but safe, and that’s the way it should have stayed; but then he went and got Noticed.

Now, Bob Howard is up to his neck in spycraft, alternative universes, dimension-hopping Nazis, Middle Eastern terrorists, damsels in distress, ancient Lovecraftian horror and the end of the world.

Only one thing is certain: it will take more than control-alt-delete to sort this mess out…

Join Corwyn Allen as he resumes relating stories involving Charles Stross’ unlikely hero, Bob Howard.

Thursday, May 11th

19:00: Hitchcock – Tales that Send Chills Down Your Spine

With Shandon Loring (also presented in Kitely hop://grid.kitely.com:8002/Seanchai/108/609/1528).

21:00: SEANCHAI LATE NIGHT

Contemporary Sci-Fi Adventures with Finn Zeddmore.

Please check with the Seanchai Library’s blog for updates and for additions or changes to the week’s schedule.

The featured charity for May through July is Alex’s Lemonade Stand, raising awareness of childhood cancer causes and funds for research into new treatments and cures.

Cica’s Fade Away in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Cica Ghost – Fade Away

Fade Away is the name of Cica Ghost’s latest region-wide installation, which opened on May 5th, 2017. The title is drawn from a quote by Bob Dylan, “Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it’s like they didn’t fade away at all.” It’s a quote from his 2004 memoirs, Chronicles 1,  which ostensibly looks back on his arrival in New York and immersion into Greenwich Village life.

It’s a quote which has tended to be used as a reflection of mortality, the passage of time and / or the sometimes transient nature of relationships. It is a fitting foundation for this installation, which is a deeply personal piece for Cica, for reasons those who know her are aware, and which I’m not about to reveal here without her permission. Suffice it to say, the meaning behind it is something with which we all identify at certain points in our lives.

Cica Ghost – Fade Away

Within a ghostly, misted landscape sits a bedroom, part of an old house, where a gaunt figure has apparently just risen from bed. An alarm clock states the time is some ten minutes before six. As we watch another version of the figure fades into view, apparently departing the room, looking over his shoulder, and down along a path, more versions of the figure fade in and out of view, copies of the alarm clock still frozen at ten before six sit close by, until the figure reaches a pair of wooden gates set within a rickety fence.

Nor is this all; outside of the house, and along part of the route, ghoulish creatures appear to watch and mock the figure’s progress, while he also passes through groups of cloaked figures, apparently caught in their own world. One more of these hooded figures sits apart from the rest, before a table, two cats providing him with company. Another alarm clock sits close by, also showing the same time.

Cica Ghost – Fade Away

Symbolism here is heavy – but what does it all mean? Perhaps the answer lies with a lone figure of a woman standing to one side of these various tableaux. She stands separated from them by the rickety fence the lone figure appears to be making his way without ever actually arriving, watching his progress.

Is the fence perhaps a metaphor, the dividing like between the woman’s physical presence in the world, and her memories of someone no longer in her life? If so, this perhaps makes the various tableaux across the rest of the region memories of that loved one, and his passage through (her) life. If so, might the hooded figures perhaps be more distant remembrances of time spent with him, echoes from deep within memory? As Dylan also said, “I’ll let you be in my dreams, if I can be in yours.”

Cica Ghost – Fade Away

Life is transient; however we feel about ourselves and those around us, we – and they – are only mortal. This would seem to be the message within the ghoulish characters gathered around the house. But at the same time, there is more to each of us than our physical presence, although that is often the most missed.  Through memories, we can hold on to those dear to us, however they have moved on from their physical presence in our lives so that, to one again use Dylan’s words, “when they are truly gone, it’s like they didn’t fade away at all.”

Fade Away is a poignant, heartfelt piece, rich in symbolism and deep in personal meaning, deserving to be seen and contemplated.

Cica Ghost – Fade Away

SLurl Details

SL project updates 18/3: TPV Developer meeting; viewer changes

Posted on by Inara Pey

Rustic Retreat – blog post

The notes in this update are taken from the TPV Developer meeting held on Friday, May 5th, 2017. The video of that meeting is embedded at the end of this update, my thanks as always to North for recording and providing it. Timestamps in the text below will open the video in a separate window at the relevant point for those wishing to listen to the discussions.

AssetHTTP Viewer

[1:32] As noted in part 2 of this week’s updates, the AssetHTTP RC updated on Thursday May 4th to version 5.0.5.325940.  While the sample of users on this version is small and needs to be broadened over the coming days, the crash rate is reportedly already significantly better than it was.

Project Alex Ivy 64-bit viewer

[2:28] An update to the 64-bit RC viewer is expected to appear on or shortly after Monday, May 8th. This includes numerous updates including 64-bit Havok sub-libraries for Mac and improvements for handling web-related elements.

Following this update, the only anticipated major updates for this viewer will be those related to the new viewer management process, which includes checks to try to ensure Windows users receiving the correct flavour of the viewer (i.e. if you’re a 32-bit Windows users, you should automatically get the 32-bit version of the viewer during updates; if you’re 64-bit Windows users, you should get the 64-bit version of the viewer).  These updates are already being integrated into the viewer for the next update, so it is entirely possible the 64-bit viewer will be updated twice in the coming week.

[3:52] There was a slight mistake with the current version of the viewer which meant people on 64-bit Windows were getting the 32-bit version in error, which led to incorrect stats. This will be corrected with the new update.

[22:32] The Lab plan to update the viewer build instructions on the wiki to reflect this viewer as soon as it goes out as a release candidate viewer.

[24:32] Mac users should note that this viewer does not support OS X versions below 10.9.

360 Snapshot Viewer

[7:05] Given the status of the 64-bit viewer, the Lab is resuming work on the 360 snapshot viewer, although there currently isn’t any ETA on an update to the current version.

Voice Viewer

[2:05] The Lab has resolved the issues found in the Voice viewer RC, with the updated version – 5.0.5.325998 – appearing on May 5th during the TPV Developer meeting.

[17:16] As some fundamental issues with Voice are being addressed with this viewer, the SLVoice plugin that comes with it will not work with older viewers, and the SLVoice plugin from older viewer versions will not work with this viewer. This is a deliberate change and means that TPVs will need to integrate the entire Voice update, rather than just parts of it.

[19:14] This viewer also improves overall Voice connection, by both making connections more likely to succeed in the first place, and by making improvements to the retry / reconnection process. However, particularly aggressive anti-virus packages which fiddle with network connections can still cause Voice connection issues.

[18:35] In difference to previous statements made at the back-end of 2016, the Lab currently has no plans to disable older versions of Voice. However, they might revisit the idea in the future .

Upcoming Maintenance Viewer

A new Maintenance RC viewer should be appearing shortly with a number of updates / changes, some of which were outline in part 2 of this week’s updates, and repeated below for completeness.

Inventory Improvements

[9:26]  To try to help with inventory losses through accidental deletion of objects which have mistakenly been moved to Trash, the Maintenance RC viewer will have the following behaviour changes:

  • The prompt displayed when you have over 5K items in Trash will be amended to show the trash folder when you’re ready to purge it – before you can purge it.
  • Backspace will only delete on Mac systems (as it’s the only option available), it will no longer delete on windows.
  • The purging Trash notification will give you the count of items you’re deleting and will be unavoidable.
  • The “Are you sure you want to delete this thing” warning will be seen at least once per session.

Estate and Parcel Permissions

[10:42] The Estate management floater is to be revised somewhat to make it easier to use, while the Permissions check boxes, etc at estate / parcel level are to be changed to better convey what happens when setting them. In particular, these will address BUG-4994 and see some improvements to access /  ban list management at the region level, so that more than four names are visible in the list. at any one time.

This will only be the first iteration of these changes, and Grumpity linden indicates that the Lab will continue to look at how much more can be done to improve these controls without starting to make things complicated.

This viewer will also include the changes needed to support the improved access controls for regions set to Public Access (see New region and parcel access controls coming to Second Life) – a project known internally at the Lab as Jigglypuff. The server-side changes should be on RC from Wednesday, May 10th.

Limiting the Number of Items a You can ADD from a Folder

[14:18] A new limit has been placed up the total number of items which can be added from a folder at any one time. This is specifically to prevent those situations where someone mis-clicks ADD on a top-level folder – say Clothing – to find they are stuck with the viewer trying to add everything in that folder and every sub-folder within it to their avatar.

Lower Default Media Volume

[16:58] In response to requests, the upcoming Maintenance RC will also have a lower default volume for media playback than is set by the Lab in current viewers.

A Rustic Retreat in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Rustic Retreat – click on any image for full size

Rustic Retreat is a full region designed by Pred Fromund (Predator Ryba) and Bluey Porthos Fromund (Blue Whitefalcon). Described as ” an ideal place for photographers – or those that like to explore or just chill out”, it is a place of many facets: fantasy, whimsy, beauty, mystery – and a little darkness as well.

The fantasy element is made apparent at the landing point, alongside of which a Troll stands, whilst fairies play around a nearby fountain. The mystery is also evident to keen eyes, as strange plants can be seen further away along the fire-lit path, glowing and swaying in the breeze. Also not too far away, fantasy and mystery come together beyond a stone arch sitting alongside the trail.

Rustic Retreat

The default lighting for the region is night (although I opted to take most of my images in daylight), and I recommend exploring it; at least in part, as there are several areas which deserve to be seen in daylight, such is the attention lavished upon them. Torches and fires light the trails winding through parts of the region, and the glowing beauty of Elicio ember’s fabulous plants lend themselves perfectly to the night-time lighting.

Where you wander during a visit is entirely down to you; the trails will lead you to various places – one might lead to ancient ruins here, a little cuddle spot there, Another might take you to where a fork in the path gives you a choice of a climb up to a platform among waterfalls, or a  path through the skull of a dragon and thence to a basalt-ringed garden and pool with a coastal board walk beside gigantic mushrooms close by.

Rustic Retreat

This is a place where a Tree of life raises strong and tall into the sky, its base a place of elven-like power; where a lone tower rises from the surrounding woods, overlooking a wizard’s cottage on one side, and anther mystical glade on the other – albeit one also given to a touch of whimsy thanks to the characters to be found there.

Travel far enough and you’ll encounter more: coastal ruins, the gaiety or rabbits frolicking,  more whimsy in the form of pixie and fairy houses and gardens – and throughout all of it, places to sit and enjoy the sights and sounds. Meanwhile, the more adventurous can available themselves of network of teleport discs.

Rustic Retreat

These offer shortcuts to some of the ground-level locations, but it can also take you skyward, where the “darker” aspects of the region lie, such as a ghostly club where one gets the impression vampires and lycans might put aside their differences for a  while. Alongside of this is a post-apocalyptic setting where zombies and other creatures roam – and visitors are offered the protection of a free weapon. Elsewhere, you might find a small homage to Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic novel.

Picturesque by daylight, hauntingly mysterious by night, photogenic under any lighting conditions, Rustic Retreat offers an intriguing and eye-catching visit.

Rustic Retreat

SLurl Details

Kultivate Spring Sensuality exhibition

Posted on by Inara Pey
Kultivate Spring Sensuality exhibition

The Kultivate Magazine 2017 Spring Sensuality Exhibition officially opens on Friday, May 5th at 08:00 SLT (note that any SLurls to the event will not before the opening).

The magazine’s first Adult-rated event (in which images should be considered NSFW), will run through until Sunday, May 7th inclusive in a specially constructed event area in the sky over the Kultivate home region of Water Haven.

Over 30 artists are participating in the exhibition, which will also include several entertainment events as well. The artists taking part are:

Artandsoul Constantine, Beatrice Serendipity, Booyakashaka Resident, Bri Graycloud, ByrneDarkly Cazalet, captainofmysoul, Catalina Staheli, Glitterprincess Destiny, Greg Paslong, Honey Bender Laperrier-Auer, Isis Desmoulins, JolieElle Parfort, Kacey Macbeth, Lanne Wise, Lucia Tophat, lulyboop, Lyekahgood Nighbor, Marcus Lefevre & Hikaru Enimo, Miele Tarantal, Myra Wildmist, Paradox Messmer, Pipit Peacedream, Ramsa Luv, Ricco Saenz, Slatan Dryke, Talligurl Resident, Timaaj Resident , Tintin Tuxing, Tisephone, Tiszo Cioc, Umshlanga Barbosa, Veruca Tammas, and wintergeist.

Kultivate Spring Sensuality exhibition

Schedule of Events

All times SLT, and correct at the time of going to press

  • Friday, May 5th, 2017:
    • 08:00 – exhibition opens
    • 16:00 – Parker Static, live (1 hour)
  • Saturday, May 6th, 2017:
    • 14:00 – Lark Bowen, live (1 hour)
  • Sunday, May 7th, 2017:
    • 12:00 noon – Sunday Sensuality Ball (2 hours)
    • 23:59 – exhibition closes

Please not that dress code through is casual with the exception of the Sunday Sensuality ball, at which formal attire is requested, with masquerade mask or blindfold. A free party pack will be presented to all guests.

About Kultivate Magazine and Brand

Kultivate Magazine is a publication about the cultural aspects of Second Life. The goal of the magazine is to support art, culture, photography, music, and fashion. The brand includes: the magazine, The Edge and The Edge Gallery, The Windlight Art Gallery,  The Red Gallery,  The Kultivate Bailywick Gallery, The Kultivate Select Gallery, Ristorante Ivanna, & The Tribute and Crown Pub.

In addition, Kultivate Magazine is proud to be the media partner and primary sponsor of Team Diabetes of Second Life, an official and authorised fund-raising team for The American Diabetes Association.

Links and SLurl

SL project updates 18/2: server, viewer, inventory loss

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Anthropic Principle – Gem Preiz – blog post

Server Deployments  – Recap

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

SL Viewer

On Thursday, May 4th, the AssetHTTP RC viewer updated to version 5.0.5.325940, which looks to be to addressing further crash issues with the previous RC version.

All other viewers in the pipelines remain unchanged:

  • Current Release version: 5.0.4.325124, dated April 3rd – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer overview
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Alex Ivy (LXIV), 64-bit project viewer version 5.1.0.504536, dated April 25th
    • 360-degree snapshot viewer version 4.1.3.321712, dated November 23rd, 2016 – ability to take 360-degree panoramic images
  • 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.

Inventory Loss Issues

I recently reported on people’s experiences with inventory losses, as recorded through the forums. As a result of both the forum discussion and JIRAs filed such as BUG-100541), the Lab has been looking again at inventory and possible causes of inventory loss. This will be resulting in some viewer behaviour changes  as Grumpity Linden explained during the Server Beta meeting on Thursday, May 4th:

So we are actively looking at the various reports of inventory loss (Quick thank you to everyone who takes the time to file bug reports… It helps!). With this recent wave of reports, it seems like there are a lot of things ending up in trash unexpectedly and we can’t be sure whether there’s an evil gremlin in the machinery or a bunch of accidental key presses. So we’re putting in some viewer changes to at least make the accidental key presses less likely. We’re:

  1. Amending the prompt that comes up when you have over 5K items in trash to show the trash folder when you’re ready to purge it – before you can purge it.
  2. Backspace will only delete on mac, not windows.
  3. [The] purging trash warning will give you the count of items you’re deleting and will be unavoidable.
  4. You’re going to have to see the “Are you sure you want to delete this thing” warning at least once per session.

Also, I’d like to clarify something – a lot of reports we’re seeing come up right now but are actually of past incidents. I think the discussion on the forum(s) has led to an increase in reporting.  which is great because then maybe we’ll finally get a reproducible scenario and find ways to fix.

These changes may not resolve all the issues being experienced, but they may help with at least some, and in creasing people’s awareness of what might be happening in their Trash folder. There is currently no time frame as to when these updates will appear in an RC  / project viewer; I’d assume they would most likely be appearing in a Maintenance RC.

Profile Feed Snapshot Uploads

People are (once again) experiencing issues with uploading snapshots to their Profile Feed. A bug on the matter has been raised – BUG-100516.