Author: Inara Pey

Eclectic virtual world blogger with a focus on Second Life, VR, virtual environments and technology.

Tilia LLC gains strategic investment from J.P. Morgan

Posted on by Inara Pey

Tilia LLC, founded by Linden Research Inc., as a wholly-owned subsidiary specialising in virtual currencies and providing money services business solution to virtual platforms, has announced it has gained strategic investment from J.P. Morgan Payments, a part of the world’s largest bank (by market capitalisation), JPMorgan Chase.

Tilia has been running Second Life’s US $650 million dollar economy for the past seven years, handling over US $86 million is payments to users in the last 12 months alone. Tilia’s services have also been used by the likes of Sansar, Upland and Avatus, and leverages in partnerships with Unity (allowing Tilia’s API and services to be made available to Unity developers as an integrated end-to-end payment solution) and Applovin.

E. Drew Soinski, Senior Payments Executive, Managing Director at J.P. Morgan Payments joins the Board of Tilia LLC

While an (unspecified in dollar terms) minority investment, J.P. Morgan Payment’s involvement is liable to allow Tilia to increase pay-out methods and the number of currencies it can support, thus allowing it to provide a pay-out in local fiat currency for creators to pretty much anywhere credit cards work.

The deal has been in motion for almost a year, with effort being put into ensuring Tilia’s services are interoperable with those of J.P. Morgan Payments as well as structuring the overall financial elements of the deal. With its completion, E. Drew Soinski, Senior Payments Executive, Managing Director at J.P. Morgan Payments, has  joined Tilia’s board of directors, serving alongside Brad Oberwager, Raj Date and Aston Waldman, who is also the company’s CEO.

From Tilia’s perspective, the partnership means the company will be even better placed to serve the emerging stream of “metaverse”-related companies, providing a wide range of currency services.

Tilia is money into the metaverse. It’s money moved into the metaverse and money moved out of the metaverse. And why this is so important is because you cannot have this concept of the metaverse without a social economy. It is both the social aspect and the financial aspect. Those two things must work in harmony. To do money, you need some virtual token to make money work. Money has to be rock solid. That is JP Morgan. That’s the partnership. What’s the value of Tilia? You can’t build a metaverse without user-generated content. You can’t build a metaverse without social interaction. You can’t build a metaverse without some sort of financial token that allows people to build a world.

– Tilia Director (and Linden Lab Executive Chairman) Brad Oberwager to Dean Takahashi in Gamesbeat

He further noted that in strengthening Tilia’s ability to provide these services to platforms, J.P. Morgan Payments are helping to both fuel new economies that directly benefit creators participating in them, allowing such economies to step away from the route of revenue generation through the invasive use of data farming and advertising.

“This is a good thing when creators can make money. There are people around the world who make their living by building things in Second Life …  Here’s why I think it’s so important: these universes are social economies. If you don’t allow people to make money, if you don’t allow this economy to happen, if you don’t support creators, you’re going to have to rely on an advertising model to make your world work. That is a disaster. That would be the worst thing that could hit our society — an advertising-based metaverse.

– Tilia Director Brad Oberwager to Dean Takahashi in Gamesbeat

A great strength with Tilia is that it utilises virtual tokens rather than blockchain-powered crypto-currencies. This means that it is better placed to offer day-to-day virtual currency stability. Crypto-currencies are all too often treated as a speculative securities; they are therefore vulnerable to market volatility, going up and down in value by the day. Such volatility can potentially damage the foundations of any social economy using them.

Add to this Tilia now having such a well-regarded name within the financial markets / payments environment as a strategic partner further enhances Tilia’s standing and reputation – with Oberwager noting that new clients are already “lining up”. At the the same time, the partnership provides J.P. Morgan Payments with access to a market sector that might otherwise prove difficult to access.

More on the partnership can be found in the links below:

Onceagain: a broadening artistic presence in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Onceagain Gallery, October 2022

It’s been barely a Kwarting¹ since I was last at Onceagain Art Gallery curated by Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili), with my last visit being to witness the B&W Group Exhibit (see: Onceagain with black and white in Second Life); and while a month is traditionally said to be a long time in politics, the same is very much true in Second Life. This is because in the time since my last visit the gallery has been relocated from the sky to the ground, and Manoji, and has expanded, its facilities.

Now located on the ground level of its home parcel within the Peaceful Mountains region, the Gallery comprises a number of halls and buildings separated by landscaped gardens. At the time of my visit, parts of the the gallery were still in development. However, this is to be expected because, as Manoji notes herself, she is always tweaking things and making adjustments (and in fact note that the Gallery might be closed on Mondays so that she can do so in peace) – but there is more than enough to occupy the eye even should some elements of the gallery’s lands be under development.

Onceagain Gallery, October, 2022

This being the case, the new facilities,  which opened on October 16th, 2022, comprise:

  • The Main Gallery, alongside of which is the primary landing point for the Gallery spaces as whole (although the landing point is not enforced so that all remaining gallery spaces can have their own LP). The Main Gallery provides an ensemble exhibition of art.
  • The Private Collection, which as the name suggests, features art from Manoji’s personal collection.
  • The Personal Exhibition Gallery, featuring Manoji’s own work, which appeared to be under construction at the time of my visit.
  • A “Free to Rent” gallery, which was again under construction at the time of my visit, but once available, will be available subject to guidelines offered through a dedicated note card.
  • The Artist of the Month gallery, presenting the featured artist invited to display within the Gallery’s spaces – if I am understanding Manoji’s notes correctly, may be presented in one of a number of gallery space designs, as selected by Manoji after viewing the artist’s work.
Onceagain Gallery, October 2022

In addition to the above, at the time of my visit, the north side of the parcel was marked as Under Construction both for what I took to the Personal Exhibition gallery noted above, and to what appear to be three further boutique style gallery spaces and a little caravan park.

Between and around the buildings, the setting has been landscaped as a garden space, high granite cliffs forming privacy walls along two sides, and from which water falls, some of it to feed a stream burbling and bubbling its way through the land. A good portion of the garden has been constructed using Alex Bader’s always popular Zen Garden Building Kit, with the more open lawns being home to 3D art elements again from Manoji’s own collection, whilst towards the centre of the gardens sits what appears to be an office-come-bookshop / quiet spot.

For October, the guest artist is Kika Yongho who, along with Manoji, presents a light-hearted selection of images entitled I only have eyes for the Flamingo. Kika’s images are located on the upper level of the gallery (alongside the landing point), and clicking each piece will supply a note card offering something of a story to go with the image. Four further flamingo-centric images by Manoji can be found on the lower floor of the gallery.

Onceagain Gallery: Kika Yongho –  I only have eyes for the Flamingo

Those wishing to have their art displayed at Onceagain as a featured artist should contact Manoji directly for information on how to do so – with information also being supplied via note card to those using the main landing point.

SLurl Details

  1. Kwartang (n.). A unit of measure for time in British politics named for Kwasi Kwartang, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is roughly equivalent to three times the American political unit of measure, the Scaramucci – itself some 11 days in length. (Yes, folks, a touch of political humour to go with the time, if utterly divorced from the focus of this article.)

2022 viewer release summaries week #41

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates from the week through to Sunday, October 16th, 2022

This summary is generally 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.
  • Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.

Official LL Viewers

  • Release viewer: version 6.6.4.575022 – hotfix for Crash at ~LLModalDialog() – promoted September 15 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts::
    • No updates.
  • Project viewers:
    • Puppetry project viewer update to version 6.6.3.575529,  on October 12th.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

  • No updates.

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Group Tools – website unreachable since January 2022.
  • Radegast – website unreachable since April 2022.
  • Speedlight: updated to v25 on October 10 – release notes.

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

A journey through the Gardens of Shadowfell in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Gardens of Shadowfell – October 2022; click any image for full size

October is here once more, and with it come the familiar round of pumpkins, mysteries, hauntings and region and parcel builds with a spooky twist.  To be honest, I’m not actually much for all the kafuffle that goes with Halloween, as I’ve noted in the past; however there are one or two exceptions to my overall lack of enthusiasm, of which the most notable is probably the annual Calas Galadhon Halloween build – and 2022 is no exception.

Every year, Tymus Tenk, Truck Meredith and the Calas team bring us worlds of wonder to explore in the form of their Halloween and Christmas wonderland builds as an adjunct to Calas Galadahon Park, and each year we are gifted with (generally) two regions of mystical / seasonal delight. Mixing an atmospheric setting rich in places to explore, scenes to uncover, rides to enjoy and events to attend, all knitted together by the weave of environment settings, soundscape and supporting music, these builds are always and genuinely a highlight of Second Life.

Gardens of Shadowfell – October 2022

For October / Halloween 2022, the team present Gardens of Shadowfell, a journey to a realms which although probably not modelled specifically after any element of Tolkien’s mythology, carries with it something of a sense of Middle Earth during the Second and Third Ages, mixed with hints of other franchises to offer an engaging potpourri of elements deserving of careful exploration.

As with all of the Calas themed builds, this is one in which it is very important visitors not at least some of the guidelines regarding a visit, all of which can be found at the landing point – with the most important perhaps being:

  • Make sure you Used Shared Environment (via World → Environment).
  • Make sure Advanced Lighting Model is active via Preferences → Graphics).
  • Enable local sounds.
Gardens of Shadowfell – October 2022

It is suggested that those who can, should also enable Shadows via Preferences → Graphics.  This is worthwhile if you can, but I would suggest you’re not losing a lot from the experience if you cannot, as the general look and feel of the regions is just as atmospheric with shadows as with. For those who would like to see Shadowfell with shadows enabled, but may find it hard going, pulling any high (128m+ draw distance down could help boost performance – particularly as the overall design of the build works with moderate draw distances.

In terms of exploration, Shadowfell offers two primary means: on foot, following the paths winding through the regions; and via tour boat (available a short walk from the landing point). I strongly recommend you take the time to use both; the paths and trails offer the most comprehensive way through Shadowfell – including a journey through the caverns; while the boat tour misses the latter, it has its own features and views of the setting that are unique. I would also suggest, perhaps, that when exploring on foot, the accompanying music track is turned off during a first visit. Instead, turn the music on for the boat tour (and for subsequent visits); in this way all of the local sounds can be fully appreciated when exploring. Finally, and as per the guides at the landing point, keep an eye out for the eye-in-hand tapestries along the routes – they offer teleport opportunities to additional sit points and locations that you are unlikely to otherwise reach.

Gardens of Shadowfell – October 2022

This is a place very much of two halves: the landing point directly adjoins a walk that takes visitors through a dark realm. It’s not Mirkwood by any shape or means – but in places it carries a Mirkwoodian vibe. Here the trail winds under the boughs of bent intertwined trees and along an ancient stone path that passes over strange, misty waters on the back of stone bridges. Follow the route correct through trees and mystical quarry, and it will bring you to the entrance to the caverns.

As this entrance here is open and without a great lake before it, there is no need to ponder riddles before suddenly crying, “Mellon!” or fear what might emerge from the waters behind you. However, the first part of the route through these caverns is not as simple as may appear; and those who fail to Touch at the right place might be fooled into retracing their steps prematurely….

Gardens of Shadowfell – October 2022

The caverns proper are one of those places where I wish Second Life allowed us to set music streams via altitude – for within them, we move from a suggestion of Middle Earth and Tolkien to what might be called the Realm of Ridley Scott; a place that ideally suits the music of Jerry Goldsmith, as written for Scott’s 1979 Alien (a film which, the first time I saw it a good few years after its release but still on the big screen, fairly scared me out of my knickers!). These are tunnels made to be walked to the haunting strains of Goldsmith’s theme from that film (in fact I actually did this during a visit, with a little help from You Tube, even allowing for the spiders along a part of the route and their suggestion of Mirkwood again!).

Beyond the caverns, visitors can travel onward to where the path is partially drowned; its stonework visible just under the glowing waves, stairs descending to it and rising on the far side of the water indicating it is still the way forward. Cross the waters brings you to a very different realm (and over a region crossing). If the first part of the journey gives a sense of travelling (in part) through Mirkwood, then here lies a suggestion of that great forest before it fell into darkness, and the times when it was known in elvish as Eryn Galen, or Greenwood the Great.

Gardens of Shadowfell – October 2022

Here, while there are still creatures of darkness / mystery lurking, so too are sights more pleasant: rabbits might be found frolicking, whilst further on is a great and wild garden of exotic flowers and plants filled with a sense of a mystic presence. This is a place in which, gardens and ruins alike, there is an unmistakable elven feel – and more than one path to explore. It is also where several of the tapestry teleports can be found – although they are not exclusive to this part of Shadowfell. The platforms and pavilions they access offer a mix of places to sit and opportunities from private dancing.

The individual scenes to be found throughout Gardens of Shadowfell are many and varied – from the Alien-esque elements up in the caverns, to the orcs busily at work through to the zombies wandering here and there and the crocodiles waiting to waylay boat tours and more, time is needed to appreciate all of the detail and care poured into this setting – care and detail that are Ty and Truck’s annual hallmarks. And , of course there are the little touches of humour awaiting discovery – like the Gollum-like alien sneaking his precious way among the face hugger eggs, or the zombie worried about her broken nail or Mickey Mouse, who pops up quite unexpectedly with a happy greeting whilst simultaneously looking a little lost and bewildered…

Gardens of Shadowfell – October 2022

I could wibble on and on about Shadowfell, but in truth, it’s best you go see it for yourself – and check the schedule of entertainments set for the pavilion there as well!

SLurl Details

Animal Instinct at Glinka Gallery in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Ginka Gallery: Lash VV – Animal Instinct

Currently open at The Glinka Gallery, operated and curated by Wolfgang Glinka, is an exhibition of original paintings by Serbian painter and digital artist, Lash VV. Entitled Animal Instinct, it marks his fourth show at the gallery, and focuses on one of his core interests as an artist: the natural world.

Located within one of the gallery’s halls, Animal Instinct is a collection of some 25 paintings of animals in the wild. It’s a selection that offers insight into Lash’s range as an artist, the pieces representing original works produced in oil, acrylics, watercolours, charcoal and ink drawings, drypoint, his skills with digital post-processing techniques and more.

The Ginka Gallery: Lash VV – Animal Instinct

These are pieces also representing their subjects in a similarly broad range of genres – still-life, impressionist, minimalist, abstracted – with each approach clearly balanced to best reflect the motion of its subject or captures the manner in which we tend to picture them in the mind’s eye.  This gives each picture a depth and sense of life that can so easily capture the eyes – and also offer a hint of a story.

Take Dance of Love, for example. It captures two Japanese cranes in courtship, but more than this, though the the style, the minimalist use of colour, the piece offers a broader suggestion of the country itself.  close by, Antelopes similarly captures the alertness of their subject while the light hatching of lines beyond them as all we need to see in order to be transported to the Serengeti.

The Ginka Gallery: Lash VV – Animal Instinct

Standing just inside the hall on the right is Fight, a beautifully raw piece, accompanied by a poem by Wolfgang entitled Rutting that equally captures the rawness of animal life in the wild.

Watched over by a 3D salamander also created by Lash, this is a wonderfully evocative selection of art guaranteed to capture the hearts of wildlife lowers.

SLurl Details

Space Sunday: collisions, gamma bursts and rockets

Posted on by Inara Pey
A Hubble Space Telescope image from Oct. 8 shows the debris blasted from the surface of an asteroid called Dimorphos 12 days after it was struck by NASA’s DART spacecraft. Credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / Hubble

The results are now in – to a degree – on the success of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission which has been the focus of my two previous Space Sunday updates.

An attempt to test the theory that a vehicle launched from Earth could successful divert the orbit of a near-Earth obit (NEO) threatening this planet with a collision simply through the kinetic force imparted through crashing into it, DART struck Dimorphos, a 160-m asteroid orbiting the much larger Didymos as both orbit the Sun every 2.11 years crossing and re-crossing Earth’s orbit.

As I’ve previously noted, Dimorphos was selected as a target as scientist know a lot about its orbits – it shares a stable solar orbit with Didymos, it had a near-circular equatorial orbit around Didymos once every 11.9 hours, allowing DART to strike it pretty much head-on, thus transferring all of its 22,530 km/h velocity into a force to counter Dimorphos’ own velocity and 5 million tonnes of mass.

Prior to the impact, the DART team indicated any change in Dimorphos’ orbit of Didymos of 73 seconds or more would be considered a success – although it would likely take a couple of weeks after the impact before the exact change in the asteroid’s orbit would be known, as detailed Earth-based observations would be required.

It turns out that DART didn’t affect the orbit of Dimorphos by seconds – by a whopping 32 minutes, altering it from 11 hours and 55 minutes to 11 hours and 23 minutes and also reducing the average distance between Dimorphos and Didymos. This strongly suggests such a mission, undertaken a the right time, could be an effective means of diverting an Earth-threatening asteroid. However, the team note further observations are required.

This result is one important step toward understanding the full effect of DART’s impact with its target asteroid. As new data come in each day, astronomers will be able to better assess whether, and how, a mission like DART could be used in the future to help protect Earth from a collision with an asteroid if we ever discover one headed our way.

– Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division.

One of the reasons DART may have had a much greater impact (no pun intended) on Dimorphos and give pause for further consideration is that while much was known about its orbit around Didymos, little was known about its composition. Post-impact, the images captured by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes and Earth-based observatories suggest Dimorphos is essentially a ball of loosely packed gravel, dust and ice. Thus, DART’s impact was amplified by the jet of ejecta throw off of the asteroid. As such, it is unclear as to whether the impact would have had the same effect against a more closely-bound asteroid, such as those which are iron-rich.

A mosaic of enhanced imagery shows the material that was ejected from the asteroid Dimorphos as a result of the DART collision. The nested “windows” in the picture reflect how the exposure was adjusted to compensate for the brightness of the material. Credit; NASA

Given this, getting an early a warning as possible of a potential impact so that the threatening asteroid or comet could be struck at a point in its orbit where it is far enough from Earth, it only requires a slight alteration to its orbit in order to be deflected.

An upcoming mission that could achieve this is the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor. Due for launch in 2026, this Earth-orbiting observatory is specifically designed to seek out NEOs of 140 m diameter or larger which regularly cross Earth’s orbit around the Sun and come within 30 million kilometres of our planet while doing so.

An artist’s impression of the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor, due for launch in 2026. Credit: NASA

By using two heat-sensitive infrared imaging channels, the observatory will be able to make accurate measurements of NEO sizes and gain valuable information about their composition, shapes, rotational states, and orbits, allowing scientists and engineers to determine the best means to divert any that may come to present a real impact threat.

Gamma Ray Burst “The Most Powerful Flash of Light Ever Seen”

Astronomers just detected what may be the most powerful flash of light ever witnessed.

Gamma ray busts are the most energetic type of electromagnetic explosion known to exist in the universe. They are believed to come in two forms: short bursts, lasting around 2 seconds and believed to be caused by ultra-dense neutron stars colliding; and long bursts, lasting several minutes, believed to be caused by so-called “hypernovas”, – the death explosion of really super-massive stars prior to them collapsing into black holes.

Gamma-ray bursts are the most energetic flashes of light known to exist in the universe. Credit: NASA, ESA and M. Kornmesser

Up to 100 times brighter than supernovas, and therefore also referred to as super luminous supernovae, these latter blasts can give off as much energy in a minute or so as the Sun will generate throughout its 10 billion year lifespan.

The blast detected on Sunday, October 9th by NASA’s orbiting Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, appears to have released 18 teraelectron-volts (TeV; one trillion electron volts) – almost double the energy of any such other burst thus far detected. In fact it was so powerful, it confused astronomers. Initially, it was believed the burst came from somewhere relatively close to the solar system and that it was an X-ray burst. It took additional analysis to confirm the flash was in fact a gamma-ray burst, and that it originated some 2.4 billion light-years away – which still makes it the closest such burst ever seen.

An artist’s impression of the explosion of SN 2006gy, a superluminous supernova. Credit: NASA

Officially designated GRB221009A, the burst was far enough away to cause excitement among astronomers rather than concern. However, should such a blast occur anywhere close to our stellar neighbourhood, it could very realistically end all life on this planet. In fact, it is believed that one of the biggest mass-extinction events in Earth’s history – the Late Ordovician mass extinction (LOME) event, which occurred 450 million years ago and eliminated up  60% of marine genera and nearly 85% of marine species in the second-largest mass extinction event of Earth’s history – may well have been triggered by such a blast.

Exactly which star caused GRB221009A isn’t known at this point, but it is so bright across all spectrums – X-ray, optical, radio and gamma – it is easy for observatories on Earth to monitor, allowing an extensive catalogue of data about it to be gathered.

When you are dealing with cosmic explosions that blast out stellar remains at near the speed of light, leaving a black hole behind, you are watching physics occurring in the most extreme environments that are impossible to recreate on Earth. We still don’t fully understand this process. Such a nearby explosion means we can collect very high quality data to study and understand how such explosions occur.

– Astronomer Gemma Anderson, Curtin University in Australia

Continue reading “Space Sunday: collisions, gamma bursts and rockets” →