Day: August 28, 2019

Lab Gab launches on August 28th via YouTube

Posted on by Inara Pey
Image courtesy of Linden Lab

Lab Gab is the title of a new live stream event being hosted by Xiola and Strawberry Linden, that commences on Wednesday, August 28th at 15:00 SLT. Initially announced in a blog post on August 23rd, Lab Gab is intended to be:

A variety show of sorts – we want to explore Second Life, answer your questions, talk to Residents from all over the world, and stream it through the internet and into your homes, phones, and wherever you get your quality entertainment.

With Xiola going on to note:

In our first show, we’ll be introducing ourselves, talking a little bit about what Lab Gab is, and interacting with you through YouTube live. In the future, we will invite special guests to come visit us on the set and talk about events and issues that impact the communities in Second Life.

For those interested, Lab Gab will initially be streamed via the official Second Life You Tube channel – although other platforms will be added in the future – with shows planned to go out every couple of weeks or so.

I confess, I’m not a great fan of live streamed events (outside of things like meetings, where there tends to be a more formalised approach to things), simply because at times things can get dragged out or take a sudden right turn away from something that might have otherwise been interesting. However, there is no denying the seat-of-the-pants sense of adventure those actively leading / participating in such events can feel, and the very unpredictable nature of where things might lead can add to the appeal for a watching audience.

At the same time, I also admit to being curious as to whether the show might at some point down the road – depending on its longevity – also occasionally “hop over the fence” into Sansar or even perhaps take some “behind the scenes” (desires for things like privacy allowing among staff) looks at the Lab itself. “Lab Gab” seems to be too broad a title to remain purely about Second Life (although there is a lot to explore on that subject alone), even allowing for it being intentioned as a “catchy” name for the show.

Certainly, dipping the occasional toe in Sansar’s waters might help dispel some of the many misconceptions that circulate among SL users concerning that platform, while taking a peek inside the Lab could also help both dispel certain myths and offer greater insight into what goes into keeping Second Life chugging along. Just a couple of ideas I’m throwing out there, LL, if you’ve not already considered them 😉 ).

In the meantime, if you are curious to see how Lab Gab sets itself up as a magazine show look at Second Life, be sure to watch tonight’s instalment via the You Tube link above, and keep an eye on the Lab’s social media and blog for updates about future shows.

 

2019 SL User Groups week #35/1: Simulator User Group

Posted on by Inara Pey

][Octopussy][ goes Cuba; Inara Pey, July 2019, on Flickr][Octopussy][ goes Cuba, July 2019 – blog post

Server Deployments

As always, please refer to the server deployment thread for recent news and updates.

  • There was no deployment to the SLS (Main) channel on Tuesday, August 27th,  leaving it on server maintenance package 19#19.08.06.529800, containing internal fixes.
  • On Wednesday, August 28th, the core RC channels should be updated as follows:
    • BlueSteel should be updated with server maintenance package 19#19.08.23.530348, comprising the simulator deployment improvements recorded in the Lab’s official blog post:  Simulator release channel improvements, and my own blog post Lab notes updates to SL simulator deployments.
      • Among other things, this update will see the RC channel name be removed from Help > About in the viewer (it will simply be recorded as “Second Life Server”), and the channel name will no longer be returned for LSL enquiries.
      • Note this is the RC channel name that will be changing – both the simhost name and the simulator version will still be visible, contrary to comments in the forums. Also, simulator version number will remain available to LSL; it is again, just the channel (sim_channel) that  will always return “Second Life Server”
    • Magnum ad LeTigre should receive server maintenance package 19#19.08.23.530380, very helpfully referred to as “Maintenance fixes” and “Maint Train woo woo chuga chuga chuga chuga”
    • There will be a further small-scale RC deployment that will (if I understand things correctly) comprising the script usage improvements  –  the smaller deployment being cautionary after things went sideways when an attempt was made to deploy these updates to an RC channel in week #34.

SL Viewer

The Bakes on Mesh viewer was promoted to de facto release status on Monday, August 26th, with the release of version 6.3.0.530115. You can find out more here:

As a result of this promotion, the Umeshu Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.3.1.530411 on Tuesday, August, 27th, bringing it to parity with Bakes on Mesh. This will likely be the next viewer to be promoted to release status in around 2 weeks time.

The rest of the viewer pipelines see no change at the start of the week and remain as follows:

  • Release channel cohorts:
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Muscadine viewer (Animesh enhancements), version 6.4.0.530100, August 19th
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, July 16th.
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.2.3.527749, June 5. Covers the re-integration of Viewer Profiles.
  • Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, promoted to release status 29th November 2017 – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
  • Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8th, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.

In Brief

  • The planned changes to RC deployments (see the blog post links above) has caused some drama, partially due to people misunderstanding that the RC channel names will be less obvious, as noted above – but not the simulator / simhost names.
    • However, it is true that the downgrading of ready access to RC channel names will make it harder for users to recognise which channel they are on – which could made testing capabilities and features harder, given that people are not so familiar with simulator versions and simhost names.
    • The flip side to this is that in some respects, the Lab doesn’t want people to know which channel they are on to stop preconceptions about issues, etc., they may encounter (e.g. “I was on Magnum, which has X release on it, and I have this issue – so it MUST be X that is at fault!”) – and according to Oz Linden, they would like to see more testing of new features on Aditi ahead of any main grid RC deployment.
    • To help people understand what is being released, the simulator version release notes are promised to be “more informative” in future and where relevant. That said, “Maint Train woo woo chuga chuga chuga chuga” isn’t exactly setting the bar that high in terms of informative release notes.
  • There is a reported issue with experiences whereby any scripts compiled to an experience prior to simulator version 19.08.06.529800 will not recompile on 19.08.06.529800 or later. The issue is further described thus, following any attempt to recompile:
    • Checking Properties for the recompiled scripts will show no compiled experience. Plus shift-copying or using the edit menu to copy or dropping an experience script in a host, will all result in the experience being completely lost from the script compile. However, llResetScript() doesn’t trigger the loss.
  • A bug report has been raised on group chat lag (BUG-227477). The Lab is aware of this and has left the report open for further input from those experiencing issues. Constructive and informative feedback is clearly being sought, along the lines of the comments thus far left.