Category: News

Frank ends the silence

Posted on by Inara Pey

Frank Ambrose (FJ Linden) ends the long silence from Linden Lab, with a newsworthy posting on upcoming technology improvements. It makes welcome reading as it spells out the upcoming quarter.

First up, Group limits are raised with immediate effect to 42. Many have been grumbling about the “non-arrival” of this ever since it failed to materialise at the end of last year; hopefully this announcement will finally put a stop to the complaints and confusion. It’s not clear what overall impact the change will have in terms of system performance, and FJ again warns that if there is a major adverse impact, the option will be throttled back to 25  – although those with more than 25 won’t suddenly lose any groups: they simply won’t be able to add more and those below the 25 limit won’t be able to go beyond it.

The danger here, of course is that every suddenly rushes out and just a gazillion Groups as a whole, and SL starts reeling around in shock. Of course, LL will be anticipating something of a surge, so this won’t lead to an immediate turn-off of the facility – but one can well imagine the rumour-mill churning, “Quick! sign up to X,Y Z, A, B, C before they stop you from doing so!”

We’re also promised a new Group Chat system by the end of March. Quite what this is – and how it integrates into the existing Viewer options – remains to be seen. However, and with due respect to FJ, I cannot help but shudder when I read “industry standard” in a press release – and doubly so when it is associated with Linden Lab. Let’s face is, the blogrum software was supposed to be “industry standard” and they still cannot entirely get their collective heads around it…

More improvements to teleporting are being promised – and are needed. I wagged a finger at FJ on his last technology blog, wherein he was suggesting such matters were now a thing of the past because “the software sez so”. That LL are prepared to admit there is still an issue to be addressed and rectified – while blindingly obvious to those of us who use their platform – is actually very welcome news.

So to is the news that LL will continue to tweak and improve matters around the infrastructure in general, and will be once more looking at the Asset system. The latter in particular has long needed a good long, hard look – although again, as FJ has in the past posted, it’s not something that will have an “easy” or even short-term fix. All we can hope for is steady improvement. And this is fair enough.

That said, one thing LL could do with sorting – and granted, this is not precisely in FJ’s bailiwick – is providing full and proper assistance for those suffering inventory losses as a result of Asset system failures. Far too many people are in a position of finding vast tracts of their inventory either vanishing or sitting in an inaccessible part of their inventory (on the same level as the MY INVENTORY and LIBRARY folders). That every ticket and JIRA raised on the matter is closed by a Linden employee with a curt “contact support and request an inventory fix” does not help matters. The fact that some people have been chasing “support” for nigh-on a year to try to get said “inventory fixes” is utterly unacceptable. So even before getting to the nitty-gritty of technology fixes, it’s about time someone at LL looked into the matter from a customer services perspective.

The one thing – when it comes – that is liable to cause some grumbling and growling is Viewer 2.5, with its “ties” to Facebook, etc. It looks like the roll-out of Viewer 2.5 will also herald an official notification about the “new” web Profiles that are already available, as I and others have already reported, as well – certainly FJ hints at them. But it will be the Facebook (Twitter, LinkedIn) tie-in that is liable to provoke negativity – even though this is already effectively there with the web profiles. All I can say in response to any complaints is a simple don’t like? Don’t use!

All-in-all, some good news from FJ – and open and to the point. As someone in the comments states, he really is one of the better communicators in LL.

Profiles on the web

Posted on by Inara Pey

Despite the “silence” reported on earlier, Linden Lab actually slipped out a new “feature” last week. Open a new tab in your web browser and type:

https://my.secondlife.com/First.Last

…and replace “First.Last” with your own name (including the period) – and voilà: your SL Profile (in part) is right there on the web – searchable and shareable with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

What’s more is – if you log into the web profile, you’ll be able to edit it – and the edits will appear in your in-world profile. You can also change your Display Name from the web and see it reflected back in-world. When viewing other people’s profile, you’ll also see a button called ACTIONS, which lists options to IM them, pay them, etc., – but sadly, all these actions currently require you to launch the Viewer; you cannot say, simply pay someone directly from their web profile without going in-world.

Additionally, things like URLs included in your profile and any Groups you have openly displayed in your profile become clickable.

All of this makes this new feature rather clever, even though – like just about everything released of late by LL – it is apparently still “beta”.

Overall, I like it, despite some people crying out (already) that it is an open door to “data mining”; certainly, the arrival of such a capability explains (at least a little) as to why Avatars United went nowhere.

Going to be interesting to see how this one develops.

40 Groups – a little update

Posted on by Inara Pey

Back at the end of last year, I questioned whether the new 40-Group limit would apply to 1.23.5-based TPVs such as Phoenix and Imprudence. Innula Zenovka posted a comment indicating that Phoenix may already have such support.

….So I did some digging and found out that it does indeed. The code can be enabled via a Debug Setting (PHOENIX40GROUPSUPPORT).

However, before you get too excited over this, bear in mind that in order to actually work, a server-side change still needs to be implemented by Linden Lab, and the nearest to a date we have for this is “sometime” in January 2011 (if other matters don’t intervene) – and until this change has been rolled out, enabling the 40-Group limit on your Viewer will not actually change a thing! Your limit may say “40” – but you won’t be able to subscribe to more than 25…

Indeed, such are the rumours about the 40-Group Debug Setting in Phoenix that Selene Gregoire from the Phoenix Dev Team has stated in the Phoenix Support Group: Re: Rumor about 40 groups support in phoenix…To be clear, while Phoenix does have a debug setting to enable 40 groups this is NOT enabled server side! We added the debug setting for when LL DOES enable it server side some time in the new year. Currently enabling 40 groups in Phoenix will do nothing! It will not work.

All, this does (for the time being) is confirm that once the server-side code is rolled-out by LL, Phoenix will be able to support up to 40 Groups.

Hopefully, the code will also be available in Imprudence and elsewhere as well. Again, as Innula informed me, Henri will be providing a patch for his Viewer – so doubtless this will be ported (if it hasn’t been already).

TOSing out the changes

Posted on by Inara Pey

“Ringing in the changes” is a term that goes back centuries. Originally used in terms of campanology – where it is indeed still used – it entered English slang in the mid-1800s to mean “changing bad money for good; in respectable society the phrase is sometimes employed to denote that the aggressor has been paid back in his own coin, as in practical joking, when the laugh is turned against the jester.” Nowadays we take it to simply mean “employing alternative methods”.

One of the common uses of the term in western society is around the New Year period where we face the opening of another year and are acknowledging we’re going to perhaps do things a little differently (a-la New Year resolutions). So, given we’re fast approaching that time of year, and accepting that broad changes are afoot, it’s no surprise that Linden Lab have thrown out a revised Terms of Service – and once again left it to residents to work out what, precisely, has changed rather than simply highlighting the changed section up front, or even producing a blog posting to explain the new ToS.

So what has changed?

Well, the core of the changes are around the upcoming merger (aka “absorption”) of TSL into the Main Grid and the throwing open of the doors to anyone aged thirteen or older. Here’s what has changed:

Section 2.1 Age Requirements now reads:

By accepting this Agreement in connection with an Account, you represent that you are at least 13 years of age and you have the legal authority to enter into this Agreement.

Clarification is then given that those below 18 years of age must have a) received parental / guardian approval for them to have joined the service, and b) their parent / guardian has read the ToS.

Section 2.2 Age Requirements for Use of Areas of Service (formerly Age Requirements for Teen Second Life)

Sets out the requirements / limitations of under-18s using Second Life, which fall into line with what has already been released by Linden Lab, namely:

  • 13-15 year-olds will be restricted to estates (called “Teen Estates”) operated by Sponsoring Organisations (which are in turn defined in Section 2.4 of the ToS) and which must comply with Linden Lab’s General Maturity Rating in terms of both content and activities
  • 16-17-year-olds will be restricted to Mainland and private estate sims operating under the General Maturity Rating and, at the discretion of the Sponsoring organisation, may continue to access any “Teen Estate” they have been affiliated with prior to turning 16.

Section 2.4 Requirements for Corporate Users now has “and Sponsoring Organisations” tacked on to the end and has the following statement glued on to the end of the original Section 2.4:

If you are a Sponsoring Organization, you agree that (i) you will maintain your Teen Estate in compliance with the General Maturity Rating; (ii) you will comply with the the API Terms of Use; (iii) you will limit the access of Affiliated Accounts of users between 13 and 16 to your Teen Estate; (iv) you are solely responsible for all Content and activities that take place on your Teen Estate, and (iv) you will comply with such guidelines as Linden Lab may issue from time to time with respect to Teen Estates.

This comes across as a lot of waffle that doesn’t actually say much – other than attempting to absolve Linden Lab of any blame should anything go “wrong” on such sponsored estates. Who or what actually qualifies as a “sponsoring organisation”? According to the revised Section 2.2, the new Section 2.4 is supposed to provide such a definition – but it doesn’t.

Elsewhere in the ToS Section 8, Conduct of Users of Second Life has seen some toughening-up   of the wording in respect of minors accessing the Main Grid, namely:

  • Section 8.2 (ii) now requires that adults will not impersonate a minor for the purpose of interacting with a minor using the Service
  • A new Section 8.2 (iii) has been added, stating users of Second Life will not Stalk, harass, or engage in any sexual, suggestive, lewd, lascivious, or otherwise inappropriate conduct with minors on the Service
  • Section 8.2 (iv) (formerly 8.2 (iii)) clarifies and improves the wording of how matters relating to age play will be handled.

Similarly Section 11.4, dealing with the suspension / termination of accounts has been updated to read:

We may suspend or terminate your Account(s) if we learn, or in good faith believe, that you are a Registered Sex Offender, that accessing Second Life may violate a condition of parole or probation, that you have engaged in, or attempted to engage in conduct with minors on the Service that violates this agreement. [my emphasis for clarity].

Outside of the age changes to the ToS, there is one incongruous change to the ToS that has been thrown in, relating to the taking of snapshots / making of Machinema in “publicly accessible areas” (section 7.4). The inclusion of the phrasing in the ToS when it first appeared back in April of this year caused much gnashing of teeth. It’ll be interesting to see if its removal will be noted in any way…

Overall, these are not in and of themselves major changes. The main area of concern is that, in typical fashion for these kinds of documents, the ToS is more about protecting Linden Lab against any perceived wrongdoing with the upcoming changes that it is about anything else. As such, people (assuming they read the new ToS prior to agreeing to it) will continue to rend cloth and scatter ashes ahead of the upcoming changes. And while is it true that a part of me is concerned at the one-way flow of things here (it would be nice to have some kind of visual indicator, for example that the individual you’ve bumped into in a store is actually a minor rather than, say, an adult operating a below “average height” avatar that looks like a minor), I’m still not convinced that the arrival of Teens onto the Main Grid will be the God-awful disaster many seem to believe. And in truth, outside of the sheer woollyness of Section 2.4, it’s hard to see how else things could have been worded.

Casper, Apez, clarifications and the future

Posted on by Inara Pey

With the reported closure of Apez, rumours started circulating to the effect that CasperVend, which had produced a means of helping content creators utilising the Apez iVend system to migrate to Casper’s own systems, were in fact Apez  rebranded.

Such were the scale of these rumours, that Casper Warden, head of CasperVend, issued a strongly-worded and entirely open rebuttal to the claims – and full marks to him for doing so.  While there are still issues surrounding Apez itself none of them have anything to do with CasperVend, which has provided an extraordinary opportunity to ease the pain of existing Apez customers – and has done so with the minimum of additional headaches.

So, kudos again to Casper.

In the meantime, Apez have sold their land holdings in Second Life, with the monies raised being put towards honouring outstanding withdrawal requests – which is also good news.

However, as of today, Weds. 8th December 2010, account balances that have not had a withdrawal ticket posted against them have apparently been voided. It is unclear as to how many accounts are affected, but again, given that Apez was not operating as a bank, nor – I understand – were monies deposited via in-world ATMS or pending withdrawal by merchants intended to be used in support of other aspects of the Apez business, it still seems extraordinary that they are now apparently baulking at honouring all outstanding accounts by introducing an entirely arbitrary deadline by which account withdrawal tickets must be submitted.

If it remains the case that Apex are unable to honour all account holders with a full repayment of funds deposited (less the obvious commission, in the case of deposits via vendor sales). then it is hard to see how any potential purchaser will benefit in taking on the Apez brand.

 

Casper the friendly Vending System

Posted on by Inara Pey

Further to the commentary on the closure of Apez, the hoped-for deal with CasperVend appears to be going ahead. Today a Notecard with circulated by CasperVend to all Apez customer, outlining a means to migrate to their vending service.

The Migration kit itself is located on SL Marketplace. It appears to eliminate some of the work required in setting-up vending systems, etc., completely from scratch, although from the outline description there is still a fair amount of work to be done.

I have no exposure to CasperVend (I use a combination of VendBob rezzing vendors and Hippo systems), but this life raft would appear welcome, even if those taking it are faced with a 1% increase in payable commissions or to pay for a “replacement” system.

Kudos to the folks at CasperVend for making the offer.

There are still concerns surrounding Apez I would hope Cenji (or someone will) fix, including:

  • What is happening with the refund of all deposits, given the caveats appearing in the last announcement
  • Why is the website otherwise appearing to offer a “business as usual” face to the world

I’m not suggesting any improper has occurred by asking these questions, rather simply that they need answering, and leaving both as they are could lead to further upsets, confusion and general bumpiness down the road.

But well done to Cenji and CasperTech for offering a first ray of hope in the matter.