Inara Pey

Rare Diseases Day in Second Life

Posted on February 28, 2021 by Inara Pey

*Rare Diseases Day exhibition, Community Virtual Library*

It may not be widely known, but for the last thirteen years, the last day of February has been Rare Diseases Day – and Sunday February 28th, 2021 will continue that tradition, both around the globe in the physical world and in Second Life.

Approximately that one in every 20 people suffering with one or more of over 6,000 of the currently identified rare diseases, with the overall impact of such diseases impacting the lives of between 3.5% and 5.9% of the worldwide population.

Roughly 72% of these diseases are genetic in nature, with 70% of such diseases starting at childbirth or during childhood, whilst the remain 28% of rare diseases are the result of infections (bacterial or viral), allergies and environmental causes, or are degenerative and proliferative.

Often diagnosis of such a disease can be complicated by the fact they can be hidden by relatively common symptoms, thus delaying what can be vital treatment. Many are quintessentially disabling, dramatically impacting the patients quality of life as a result of the often chronic, progressive, degenerative, and frequently life-threatening aspects of such a disease.

Treatment is made more complicated for a variety of reasons, such the lack of scientific knowledge and quality information on a particular disease; the lack of appropriate quality health care, or lack of access to treatment and care; and / or the fact that symptoms can vary between patients suffering from the same disease.

Given all this, Rare Diseases Day encompasses two aims. The first is to raise awareness amongst the general public and policy makers, public authorities, industry representatives, researchers, health professionals about rare diseases and their impact on patients’ lives.

The second is to achieve equitable access to the diagnosis, treatment, health and social care for those affected by a rare disease and to ensure that have access to equal social and work opportunities.

Initially European-centric, Rare Diseases Day has grown to a world-wide event, with oner 100 countries participating in 2020, with thousands of individual events organised at the local level.

Within Second Life, three core events will be taking place on February 28th tied to Rare Diseases Day:

Midnight SLT, on Saturday, February 27th through Midnight SLT on Sunday, February 28th: a mix of live performers and DJS on stage at the Rare Diseases Day music event. Details of those performing are available at the event and in the panel on the right.
10:00 SLT: Research Pavilion, Healthinfo Island – Congenital Heart Defect Awareness, presented by Gentle Heron (February is also Heart Health Month).
12:00 noon SLT: a discussion at the Rare Diseases exhibition presented by the Community Virtual Library (CVL) in association with the Conrado F. Asenjo Library at the University of Puerto Rico, to be followed by a trip to the Rare Disease Day music event.

Links and SLurl Details

Rare Diseases Day Website
SLurls:
- Rare Diseases music event, Hawklord Residence (Tainted Island, rated Adult)
- Congenital Heart Defect Awareness (HeathInfo Island)
- CVL Rare Diseases exhibition and discussion (Cokkie, rated Moderate

Third annual “RL Photo Festival” announced

Posted on February 27, 2021January 1, 2022 by Inara Pey

*Photographer Nils Urqhart is organising the 2021 “RL Photo Festival” – you can see his work at his Art Gallery Rill’Arts*

The Third “RL Photo Festival” (formerly the Annual International RL Photography Festival) will take place between Wednesday, March 31st, 2021 and Sunday, April 25th, 2021. organised by photographer Nils Urqhart, and hosted at the Helvellyn Gallery).

The festival is intended to be a celebration of artistic photographic expression for the physical world, and is open to anyone from across Second Life with an interest it, or passion for, photography. All submissions should meet the following guidelines:

Submissions must be original photographs recorded in the physical world (to images captured in Second Life or computer games).
Submissions may be in colour or black and white, and may be on any theme, and in accordance with the following criteria:
- All content must be family friendly. Submissions can depict the human form in all of its forms, but any content with nudity must be presented tastefully.
- No sexually explicit imagery will be tolerated (and will be returned).
- All content must be in keeping the the requirements of the Second Life Terms of Service and Community Standards.
Images may be offered for sale (there is no fee or commission for any sales), and participants are free to promote their SL and RL presence as a part of their exhibition.
Submissions for participation should be made to Nils Urqhart in-world.
All submission must include:
- Four sample photographs in the form of individual textures of at least 512×512 pixels resolution.
- All textures must have the following permissions: Copy, No Modify / No Transfer.
- The textures must have the photographer’s avatar name (NOT display name) in the Name field and image title in the Description field.
- If desired, submissions can include a photographer’s biography note card.
- Submissions can be made in the form of a single note card containing image textures and biography – please do not forward them as boxed items.
The deadline for submissions is 23:59:59 SLT on March 20, 2021.

Successful entrants will be contacted with details of their location within the exhibition space. Up to 20 LI may be used per display, and entrants are responsible for the layout of their images. The four images sent as a part of the submission process must form a part of the exhibit. It is requested by the organiser that scripted items are not used.

For further information, or should you have any questions concerning the festival, please contact Nils Urqhart.

2021 Home and Garden Expo in Second Life

Posted on February 27, 2021March 28, 2023 by Inara Pey

The 2021 Home and Garden Expo (HGE) in support of Relay for Life of Second Life and the American Cancer Society, opens it gates on Saturday, February 27th and runs through until Sunday, March 21st. Taking place across nine regions (Hope 1 through 9), the event offers some of the finest in home, garden, and furnishing designs available across the grid.

With multiple exhibitors taking part, the event offers something for anyone who is looking for a new home, ideas for furnishing and décor, wishing to improve their building (or other) skills, or who just wishes to keep abreast of the latest building / home trends in Second Life.

As always, the Expo there will be a range of events and activities, including entertainment, focused on the main stage at Hope 1, talks and presentation focus on the auditorium at Hope 3, artists, auctions, breedables. and more.

*Home and Garden Expo 2021 – main stage*

Once more returning the the event is the Home and Garden Decorating Competition, which this year offers fourteen different builds, including two of seven different styles, including beach houses, tiny homes and one with a distinctively Mexican style. These will be made available to fourteen finalists, who will have a 350 land impact allowance with which to decorate a both a house and its garden.

These finalists will be chosen by a raffle draw and will be assigned one of the fourteen houses, based on their preferences. Finalists can be individuals or teams, and must decorate their house in keeping within its style, and must include at least three purchased from RFL vendors at the Expo. With winning design will be decided on the basis of a popular vote by those attending the Expo.

The time line the competition is thus: entries for participation to be submitted by the end of Friday, March 5th, with selected finalists able to decorate their houses been noon SLT on Saturday, March 6th and the end of Friday, March 12th. Voting will then take place between Saturday, March 13th and Wednesday, March 17th with votes cast via donations make through the kiosks placed outside of each house. The winner(s) will be announced on Thursday, March 18th.

*Home and Garden Expo 2021 – auditorium*

The full shopping guide for the event is now available, and further information on events, entertainment and associated SLurls are/will be available via the Home and Garden Expo website.

So, do be sure to drop in the the Home and Garden Expo, tours the houses, look at the furnishing and enjoy the entertainment – and feel free to drop a donation or two into the RFL kiosks, even if you’re not in the mood to purchase anything, and help support ACS and RFL of SL in their world-wide endeavours.

The House that Love Built in Second Life

Posted on February 27, 2021July 28, 2022 by Inara Pey

Archetype11 Nova, currently using the name Lex Machine, recently opened his latest region design on his Full private region of Solveig. Entitled The House That love Built, it is once again a most eye-poppingly imaginative design that completely captures the visitor’s attention and holds it with a fascinating mix of art nature, the expected and the unexpected that is both marvellous witness and difficult to describe.

With his previous two builds, Archetype11 presented vistas that were incredibly visual, rooted deep in the imagination and with a recognition that in Second Life, expression can more-or-less free-form – but which also carried something of a massage to fit the times in which they were built (see Inside mR J’s HoUsE in Second Life and Isolation’s Passengers in Second Life). That House That love Built also carries something of a theme, but one that comes from an altogether different direction.

It’s not usual for me to do such a build … Ana [his SL partner, Anastasia Nova] challenged me to show love with a build; this is the result. it was outside my comfort zone.

– Archetype 11 describing The House That Love Built

The result of this is an incredibly diverse build in which can be found so much that, despite being so varied in content with new scenes seeming to open up at every turn, nevertheless clearly carries the themes of love and sharing throughout.

Spread across a rolling landscape rich in trees, flowers and grass, these scenes may at first appear to be chaotic, or at least random, in placement and tone. Gigantic figures here, a house on the water there, cars either wrecked or being repaired lie scattered about; an overgrown yard, a barn decorated in expectation of a wedding, an old school house, rivers of bright flowers winding through the the rich green of the grass, and blossom hugs the branches of trees to contrast with the greenery of others.

When first seen, the theme of love may be hard to discern; but it is there, perhaps most clearly in the barn that awaits a wedding, a clear sign of the joining of two lives into a union borne by love and affection. But so too can be it found elsewhere, such as within the house over the water. Lit from without, its lamps glowing in the evening light in greeting and warmth, the space within sits empty – a promise of the times to come when it will be jointly furnished to become a home for those living within,a personal place of love and sanctuary.

Similarly, the yard outside might speak to the passage of time and the acceptance of individual hobbies – such as a passion for rebuilding powerful cars; while up on the hill a short distance away sits a little schoolhouse. Tired and ageing it might be, but might it also not stand in reflection of childhood loves and the first innocent hints of romance?

Then there is the setting itself – the cast of the late evening Sun, the softening colours of the sky as they blend with the gentle tones of the blossom in the trees and the wash of colour in the winding trails of tall flowers. All give an air of love’s enchantment across the land, while the little spots to be found across it – a piano here, a swing there; a panic spread beneath a parasol, a boat sitting quietly out on the water, the artist’s retreat on its little island – all further speak to ideas of love, courtship, togetherness and sharing.

And then, of course, there are the statues; rising across the western side of the landscape, they are hard to miss. From great horses frozen in time as they thunder across the land to female figures caught mid-dance or pose to those wreathed in a fine net or shadow and completed by a couple in one another’s arms, these all stand magnificently within the landscape, adding to its ethereal mystery and yet very much a part of it in tone and style.

Even when apparently fragmenting or incomplete, these massive statues add a further depth to the setting. They present a magical scene through which to wander, a place where unicorn roam. Beneath and around their great forms lies a richness of fairytale and romance that extends even to the the ageing cars sitting amidst the tide of flowers surrounding them and under the shadow of old awning.

This is a place where even fears can be subdued: up on a hill sits a head with blank eyes staring wide and mouth open in a primal scream. Liquid Fear may well be its title, but the glass butterflies rising from it remind us that even our deepest fears can be be calmed through the presence of one we love.

I became enamoured with Archetype11’s build from the moment I first set foot in his original Hotel California build some two years ago now. Since then, everything he has produced and shared with us has allowed me to partake in the most incredible of creative journeys, each building on the last. So much so that I can say entirely without hyperbole, that his region designs are some of the most visually engaging, imaginative and photogenic to be found in Second Life. They are also, thanks to the subjects he cares to embrace, some of the most deeply personal to be found in SL, a fact that again draws the visitor into them to a point where they are places the open heart and mind does not so much visit, but participate in.

There is so much more that I could say about The House That love Built – such as the small, but evident nods to past builds -, but really, given it is a place to be experienced first hand, please do go and see it for yourself and take the time to allow it to reveal its stories to you.

SLurl Details

The House that Love Built (Solveig, rated Moderate)

Lab Gab Feb 26 summary: AWS update and a farewell to Oz

Posted on February 26, 2021June 15, 2021 by Inara Pey

On Friday February 26th, Lab Gab, the live streamed chat show hosted by Strawberry Linden on all things Second Life, returned with a show of two halves.

Featuring guests Grumpity Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Product and Oz Linden, the Lab’s Vice President of Engineering, the first part of the show took a look at the latest of the work to migrate Second Life and all its services to running on Amazon Web Services (AWS) hardware and infrastructure and attempted to address questions forwarded to the Lab by Second life users.

Table of Contents

The show was also an opportunity to say “farewell” to one of the leading lights at the Lab – Oz himself, who is retiring from the company and from full-time work as a whole – after more than 11 years with the company.

The official video of the segment is available via You Tube, and is embedded at the end of this article. The following is a summary of the key topics discussed and responses to questions asked.

Please be aware that as some topics were touched on more than once during the conversation, the notes blow collect references together, rather than presenting them in chronological order. However, where relevant, time-stamps are provided.

*Strawberry linden (l), Oz Linden and Grumpity linden (wearing an Oz ‘tache and goatee in his honour)*

On the Status of the AWS Migration and the Future

Current Status

[1:43-2:50]

All of the services related to Second Life were transitioned to running on AWS hardware and infrastructure by the end of December 2020.
The last aspect of the core work was the removal of all of the Lab’s own hardware and equipment from the Arizona co-location facility that had been hosting Second Life, which included the shredding of 10,588 hard and solid state drives to ensure data security.
The majority of the work went a lot more smoothly than had been thought might be the case, however, there are some services that have given rise to some problems that are still being resolved.
Chief among the latter is the Land Store, which was once again turned on ready for use on Thursday, February 24th.
Map title generation has also been a issue sine the migration, but work is progressing on fixing this.
- [9:09-11:34] A core issue with the Map tile generation failure lay in the fact that the code had not been touched in a “long, long time” – so long, in fact, that the code isn’t geared to rendering mesh objects, hence why they can look so abstracted on a map tile.
- In terms of the current problems, the code made a lot of assumptions about the architectural environment in what it was running, assumptions that are no longer true with the move to AWS.
- The current work is focused purely on getting the service to generate Map tiles one more, without making any additional changes to the code to account for things like rendering mesh objects correctly or addressing other bugs.
- Most of this work is now thought to be complete and Map tiles are now being generated as they should. however, there is some work to be completed on stitching tile images together when a user zooms out on the Map.
- There is a project to improve the overall appearance of Map tiles, but this was put aside in the focus of migrating to AWS, but will hopefully be picked up again at some point in the future.

What is Next?

[2:54-5:45]

While the physical migration of Second Life services from a proprietary environment to AWS is complete, the Uplift Project work is not, and so will continue to be a focus of engineering efforts.
In particular, the immediate focus is on optimisation work, which encompasses:
- Optimising the performance of the various series on the new hardware / infrastructure.
- Optimising (for the Lab) the cost involved in running within an AWS environment.
- Fine tuning systems and operations within the new environment.
- Working to leverage the new hardware options and infrastructure presented by AWS to favour Second Life as a product running in that environment.
In this it should be remembered at the initial migration work of getting Second Life transitioned to AWS was devoted purely to taking all of the SL services – front-end simulators, back-end services, middleware, web properties and services, supporting tools, etc., – from the proprietary environment in which they had always run and just getting them running on AWS in what was called a “lift and shift” operation, whilst making as few changes to any of the services as possible.
With the “lift and shift” aspect of the work completed, the engineering team has turned its attention to gathering data on exactly how the various services are running in the new environment and understanding where opportunities for making the improvements noted above may lie, and how they might best achieve them.
In this, the Lab now has much improved service monitoring tools at their disposal, and these are now allowing the initial work on tuning performance on key services to be made.
Two practical benefits of the move are:
- Regions running on AWS can run more scripts / script events in the same amount of time than can be achieved on non-AWS regions.
- The way in which simulators are now managed mean that LL can more directly obtain logs for a specific region, filter logs by criteria to find information, etc., and the entire process is far less manually intensive.

Will the Migration Mean lower Prices for Users?

[5:46-9:02]

Sort answer for the foreseeable future: no.
There has been an idea circulating among users that running SL on AWS is “dramatically cheaper” for Linden Lab; but this is actually not accurate.
Prior to the migration, all of SL and its services had been running on LL’s own hardware for which there had been no capital expenditure for years, and which had completely depreciated.
The move to AWS represents something of a new capex spend, increasing the Lab’s costs [although it is not unfair to say that the capex involved is liable to be significantly less over time than repeatedly buying-in new server clusters to allow SL to run on more modern systems].
Rather than presenting LL with reduced costs, the move to AWS is designed to:
- Present the company with far broader options for delivering a more performant and capable service to users – although as noted above, it will take time for all of this to be delivered.
- Improve the overall longevity of the Second Life service through the noted performance improvements and access to better hardware and infrastructure services.

Second Life Mobile App Status

[19:20-20:39]

Mobile has taken longer than expected to bring forth, for two primary reasons:
The first is that while the initial release will be more of a communications tool, considerable foundational work has been put into ensuring the app can be encompass a lot more functionality than that in the future.
The second has been that as a result of testing by Apple, the Lab has been forced to make changes to the way in which chat works.
- These changes will, in time, be filtering through into the viewer as well.
- They should actually make chat more reliable in the future.
No commitment as to when the app may be more widely available.

About the Lab’s New Owners

[20:50-24:06]

Linden Lab put itself up for acquisition in 2020 (see Linden Lab announces it is to be acquired, and Linden Lab’s acquisition: sundry thoughts & speculation), a process that was completed at the end of the year (see: Meet Linden Lab’s new board of directors).
Since then, board member Brad Oberwager has joined the Lab’s management team in his capacity as Executive Chairman).
The overall feedback that the new board and their staff are enthusiastic about the platform, and have brought a lot of energy into the company.
Mr. Oberwager has apparently made an impact with the management team by not only putting forward ideas but responding to ideas by saying, “Do the right thing for the residents” – a phrase Ebbe Altberg brought into the company when he took over as CEO.

Looking Back at Oz’s Time at the Lab

[24:20-46:20]

The latter half of the programme looks back over Oz’s time at the Lab and provides him with the opportunity to discuss what attracted him to Linden Lab, the nature of his work, why he regards his time with LL as potentially the best job he’s ever had, and to discuss his post-retirement plans and answers various questions.

Rather than offer a summary of this part of the show, I encourage people to listen to it in full, as it really is informative and enlightening, particularly if you’re not familiar with Oz’s work, his teams, or the Lab as a whole.

[46:23-end]

The end of the show sees Strawberry teleport Oz to s special in-world retirement party, where the teams reporting into him and other LL staff have gathered to wish him well. This again a touching and moving tribute that says so much about Oz and the high regard in which he is rightfully held, and should be seen without input from the likes of myself.

For my part – and because Oz has been both a direct and indirect influence in my SL time – I’d like to just repeat what I wrote a few days ago on reading of his upcoming retirement:

For my part, I cannot claim to know Oz as well as I would like to – but I’ve always found find his enthusiasm for Second Life never to be anything less than totally honest and infectious, and his high regard for users utterly genuine and sincere.

As such … I’d like to take this opportunity to offer him a personal and public “thank you” for all the times he’s provided me with insight and / or encouraged me to get involved in various projects, all of it has been greatly appreciated. I am, and will be, genuinely saddened to see him leave the Lab; we are all losing something in his departure, and the void left will not be easy for the management team to fill.

VWBPE 2021 in Second Life: programme announced

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Inara Pey

The 14th annual Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education (VWBPE) conference will take place in Second Life between Thursday, March 18th and Saturday, March 20th 2021, with the supporting programme commencing on Wednesday, March 3rd.

The core schedule of events for the conference has been officially announced, and highlights include (att at the main auditorium, unless otherwise stated):

March 18th:
- 08:00-09:00 SLT: Kick-off event at the VWBPE Gateway.
- 09:00-09:50 SLT: Keynote address – About the History of Virtual Reality and the Meaning of VR for Education with Dr. Undine Frömming (Angenblick Winkler SL); HMKW Berlin, University of Applied Science for Media, Communication and Management.
- 15:00-15:50 SLT: What’s up at the Lab? with Patch Linden and hosted by Kevin Feenan (Phelan Corrimal), VWBPE Director; Rockcliffe University Consortium.
March 19th:
- 08:00-08:50 SLT: Keynote address – Heike Philp (Gwen Gwasi). Details TBA.
March 20th:
- 09:00-09:50 SLT: keynote address – Dr. Bryan Alexander (Bryan Zelmanov SL). Details TBA.

The above are just the tip of the iceberg – through the three days of the event are discussions, presentations, workshops and social events. In the lead-up to the conference that are numerous in-world events and activities. This being the case, please refer to the official schedule for a full breakdown of all events currently planned, and check back on it as further details will be added between now and the start of the conference.

Attendance at the conference is free and open to all. Educators and those working in the educational sector are obviously especially welcome, and those wishing to can also register their intent to attend.

I’ll have a preview of the event ahead of the conference opening.

Call For Volunteers

Volunteers are still being sought to help with the conference. he organisers are looking for people willing to get involved in the following areas:

Event hosts.
Mentors.
Steaming support.
Technical support.

Those wishing to give of their time should visit the volunteer page and look at the tabs and then click on the volunteer button.

	Inara Pey on On Sunday May 17th, join Bay C…
	Tish Coronet on On Sunday May 17th, join Bay C…
	bootseh on Burleh’s Liquid Landscap…
	bootseh on Burleh’s Liquid Landscap…
	technicallypolice496… on Contemplation in the Garden of…

Author: Inara Pey