The end of another year is approaching, bringing with it a time of reflection as we look back over the old before pausing to await the arrival of the new. It’s become something of a tradition in these pages for me to offer a summary of the year as recorded in these pages, and offer a chance to revisit the ups and downs and the good and the bad the last twelve months have brought us. And so it is for 2018, starting with January through June.
January to June is available here.
Note that this summary isn’t supposed to document everything that happened through the year, but is intended to be a highlight some of the more notable events reported on through these pages. In addition, and for a more detailed look at the various technical and Lab-driven updates to Second Life, please refer to A look at Second Life updates in 2018.
July
Second Life
With the changes to private region fees – and the inevitable backlash from some over grandfathered regions being excluded, I offered an alternative perspective. Whatever estate holders thoughts might have been, two weeks after the private region price restructuring grid growth was slow – but positive. The Lab launched the revamped mainland auction system, initially for Lab held land only.
My Second Life
I repurposed a rezzing system to use as a personal rezzer for vehicle, and got to take the Airfish GEV by Ape Piaggio for a test run – expect it on the marketplace soon! The Get The Freight Out! system came in for examination.
Travel and Arts
| July Travels | July Art Reviews |
| Abandale (closed) | Cica Ghost: Another Planet |
| In the Wild (closed) | Terrygold: A Rusted Farm |
| Strawberry Lake (closed) | Astral Dreams Project |
| Smash | Starz Art Corner |
| Ravenwold (closed) | DiXmiX: Bicycles |
| Cloudbreak (closed) | Lin C Art Gallery |
| Erebos Harbor (closed to public access) | Diomita Plaza Gallery: LuAnne Anatine |
| Ponto Cabana | Kayly Iali |
| Pandora Box farewell |
Sansar
The July Sansar release saw the introduction of custom avatars with UI and scripting updates. Linden Lab made a surprise announcement that the number of experiences granted to users was dramatically increased.
The Secret Of Mount Shasta – click any image for full size
Sansar Travel
My visits for the month encompassed The Secret of Mount Shasta, Horizon Maze and Ebucezam, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Linden Lab
The Second Life 15th anniversary celebrations included another series of Meet the Lindens talks featuring Keira and Patch, Grumpity and Oz, Xiola and Brett and Ebbe Altberg, all of which I attempted to summarise (with audio extracts) under a general heading.
Space and Astronomy
At the start of July, the Martian dust storm reached global proportions, and I looked at asteroids and attempts to study them. The Parker solar probe was readied for launch and I revisited the Chinese space programme. Rockets and a temperate exoplanet also occupied my writings, the UK announced its first spaceport location, while evidence of a subsurface lake on Mars grabbed the headlines. NASA got ready to turn 60, and many were treated to the longest lunar eclipse of the 21st century.
August
Second Life
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer announced their 2018 season, while the American Cancer Society announced announced a major overhaul of how it will go about fund-raising from 2019 onwards and sought ideas from supporters. I got to tour some of the new Themed Learning Islands designed to help bring new users with specific interests into Second Life. Firestorm launched a fund-raiser of their own to help cover technical and licensing costs.
Tech and Viewers
Linden Lab issued the Estate Access Management viewer to enhance the estate access management tools available to region holders and their estate managers within the viewer. A new version of the Second Life bug tracker (Jira) was launched.
My Second Life
After several weeks of work, the re-vamped Holly Kai Park, featuring a brand-new gallery space, neared completion.
Travel and Art
Sansar
With the first anniversary of the Public Creator Beta reached on July 31st, I offered some personal thoughts on Sansar. The Lab gave some indication of plans for the platform’s Edit Mode and the planned permissions system. The end of August brought the monthly update, known only by its release number, but which included a lot of information.
Sansar Travel
I visited the Roddenberry Nexus for some Star Trek and Wurfi’s Little Gallery.
Linden Lab
The Lab announced a further Town Hall with Ebbe Linden, to take place in September.
Other Virtual Worlds
High Fidelity announced the ability for users to earn and exchange HFC for USD
Space and Astronomy
The “Commercial Nine” – the first astronauts to fly aboard the US commercial vehicles designed to carry crews to / from the International Space station were announced, although there were concerns about the launch schedule The Parker Solar Probe launched. A study was published on the availability of water on the Moon.
September
Second Life
RFL of SL announced an expanded Making Strides Against Breast Cancer season. I provided a summary with audio of the 2nd Town Hall with Ebbe Altberg, and also dropped in on Les Fest 2018, A Spoonful of Sugar 2018, Rock Your Rack and the 2018 Hair Fair.
Linden Lab released the new sign-up process and new user experience for Second Life. The Governance User Group resumed in-world meetings, and Dog Food Days were launched for members of the SL teams. Team Diabetes of Second Life announced their 2018 season.
My Second Life
I got to try the Culprit Sonata Bento piano.
Travel and Art
Sansar
The R25 release came out, bringing with it the in-client store, shopping cart for the web store, avatar and Look Book updates and the ability to gift Sansar dollars. I re-visited the Smithsonian American Arts Museum to see the upper floor expansion.
Linden Lab
Linden Lab switched to using Stellar Connect to provide Second Life first-line support.
Other Virtual Worlds
High Fidelity announced their second load test on the road to One Billion in VR, and set a new concurrency record for the platform. The event proved so popular, High Fidelity then put out a call for paid help with future load tests.
VR and AR
Facebook announced the Oculus Quest.
Space and Astronomy
Following the dust storm on Mars, NASA launched an attempt to re-connect with the rover Opportunity and a Soyuz space vehicle suffered at the ISS. I focused on the potential of the space elevator while NASA launched a mission to observe Earth’s changing ice patterns. SpaceX announced a new private mission around the Moon and Spock’s “homeworld” was discovered.
October
Second Life
EEP, the Environmental Enhancement Project reached a test release status on Aditi, the Beta Grid. Linden Lab blocked an Android client (IM To Secondlife) due to “serious TPV policy violations”. Linden Realms was re-launched following a total makeover. Wish Lists and Favourites arrived on the SL Marketplace.
Tech and Viewers
Second Life suffered another large-scale DDoS attack.
My Second Life
Travel and Art
Sansar
October saw Release 26 (R26), also called the Thumbs Up release, which included the first release of Sansar’s long-awaited permissions system. Following initial feedback, this saw some revisions. The Lab announced Sansar would be expanding to Steam before the end of the year.
Linden Lab
Jason Ghoulston, Product Manager for Sansar and responsible for the formation of the Lab’s Sansar Studios, departed the company,
Other Virtual Worlds
High Fidelity announced their first VR festival, to be held in November.
Space and Astronomy
NASA published its latest roadmap for returning to the Moon and China’s space programme got another examination. Astronomers discovered the first exomoon. A Crewed Soyuz booster suffered a mid-flight abort. Bepi-Columbo lifted-off on a mission to Mercury. I offered a quick round-up on news from Mars.
November
Second Life
Animesh as officially released, grid-wide. The November town hall meeting featured Oz, Grumpity and Patch Linden taking questions, and I produced a summary with audio.
Tech and Viewers
November saw further updates to the Marketplace, including new categories, with one for Animesh / animated objects. It was also confirmed that January 2019 will see the final deprecation and removal of all UDP asset fetching messaging from the viewer. In short: if you’re using a viewer that doesn’t use HTTP for asset fetching, you’ll not see avatars correctly.
Firestorm put out a call for volunteers, and was a victim of a fake account attempt to obtain user details. Kokua caught up with the official viewer Animesh release.
VWBPE announced a call for paper for the 2019 conference and news came that a Second Life machinima had probably achieved a world first.
A restructuring of the Linden Endowment for the Arts, set to start in 2019, was announced.
My Second Life
Ape allowed me to try out her Roadrunner electric scooter – and I find it’s a lot of fun. I also wrote about kitbashing in Second Life.
Travel and Art
| November Travels | November Art Reviews |
| Ocho Tango | Men in Focus Gallery |
| Broken Dreams Project | La Maison d’Aneli: Cybele Moon, Anadonne, Barret Darkfold, Nevereux, Rikku Yalin |
| Soul2Soul Highlands | Vintage Art |
| Masters Amusement Park | Cica Ghost: Rust |
| Somewhere in Time | Paola Mills: Behind the Avatar |
| Magritte | Blue Orange Gallery |
| Dagger Bay | Sisi Biedermann |
| Snow Falls | The Vordun Gallery |
| Lutz City | Monroe Snook |
| Let It Snow! | 2Lei: No Violence |
| Cherished | DiXmiX Gallery: Kimeu Korg |
| Pfaffenthal 1867 | Rainbow Painter’s Gallery |
| Winter’s Hollow | |
| Isle of May | |
| Tranquil Bear Winter Resort | |
| R.A.H.M.E.N.L.O.S | |
| Calas Midnight Clear |
Sansar
More feedback is given on the expansion to Steam. The Look at Me release arrives, with a new client UI, new VR capabilities and new options in general. Linden Lab also announces a new event / series involving well-known comedians coming to VR. And with Pfeffenthal closing in Second Life, I look at their new project in Sansar.
Linden Lab
With controversy surrounding recent DMCA actions and speculation around about them LL issued a statement on creator rights and IP protection.
Other Virtual Worlds
While not exactly a virtual world, Flickr is popular with Second Life users, and news of changes caused some upset. I also offered my own thoughts on things, while Flickr issued a clarification on free accounts with images uploaded under a Creative Commons license.
Space and Astronomy
November was the month to say goodbye to the Kepler Observatory. ‘Oumuamua gets the first of two mentions in November Space Sunday articles, and SpaceX announce BFS testing plans. ‘Oumuamua gets its second mention for the month, alongside more on exoplanets. NASA’s insight mission arrives on Mars.
December
Second Life
Linden Lab offered their own look at the last 12 months for Second Life. I offered my own look at the key SL updates through the year.
Team Diabetes of Second Life ran their Winter Showcase and RFL of SL their Christmas Expo. Firestorm launched a Pets for New Residents drive. There was some apparently sad news concerning ACS and RFL of SL, which quickly got turned around, together with additional good news. Survivors of Suicide also had a winter market. Harambee Charity Market returned to raise more funds for the IKSDP schools project.
Tech and Viewers
Firestorm 6.0.1 was released as an “early access” update, and Kokua updated.
My Second Life
I celebrated 12 years in Second Life and made some small end-of-year changes to Isla Pey, and to this blog. I also picked up two ‘planes during the month: the CLSA Stampe SV.4 for L$10 (now L$15), and the TBM Kronos V6. I also caught up one vehicle product review, looking at the aR Wild Goose and Piaggio Tracky.
Travel and Art
| December Travels | December Art Reviews |
| The Forest – Winter Wonderland | Club LA and Gallery: La Robbiani and Wintergeist |
| Mesmeric Cove | DiXmiX Gallery: Megan Prumier |
| Hollyee and Winter Dream | Bryn Oh: Jane and Eloise |
| Bay of Dreams | Cica Ghost: Lullaby |
| Junbug (Monet’s Garden) | Ribong Gallery |
| Wild Edge | La Maison d’Aneli Gallery |
| Nevgilde | Paris Metro Art Gallery: Cybele Moon |
| Zimminyville | MC Grafite |
| [Valium] | Nitroglobus Roof Gallery |
| :nostos:deer: | Diotima Art Gallery |
| Ponto Cabana | DiXmiX Gallery: Neveraux |
Sansar
Sansar launched on Steam, and was followed with the final release for 2018. I offered some thoughts on Sansar at the year’s end.
AR and VR
I opened the first part of a series offering a personal look at AR and VR.
Space and Astronomy
NASA’s Mars InSight mission took up a lot of my month, with a look at the lander’s arrival, the opportunity to hear the sound of the Martian wind, and the start of initial operations – a piece which also looked at the latest success for Virgin Galactic. When 2019 being the 50 anniversary of Apollo 11, I recalled the momentous Apollo 8 mission, then looked ahead to New Horizon’s encounter with Ultima Thule.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 