Category: News

SS Galaxy refits for a new role

Posted on by Inara Pey
SS Galaxy - set to return to SL
SS Galaxy – set to return to SL

Update, May 18th: Keira Linden sent me the following in-world, and has given me permission to share it. Hopefully it will both please those of us hoping to see the Galaxy resume her role as a location for events:

“Hey Inara!  Just read your blog about the SS Galaxy.  Great article! 

“Just wanted to clear a few minor things up.  I saw where the topic of Events was discussed and wanted you to know that once the dust settles on the ship it will be available for public events just as any other parcel set as a Linden Location would be. I know that the ship had numerous events, and we would hate to have that opportunity vanish for those who have enjoyed it for so long.

“Also, I wanted it be clear that this wasn’t a situation where we came in and took over.  We worked very closely with the former owners for quite some time before they offered us the opportunity to preserve the builds for the entire community.  As long time residents ourselves, we are very sensitive to the disappearance of historic areas such as and work very hard to ways to keep them in world and active.  Thanks again for the blurb on SS Galaxy! Talk to you later!”

In April 2015, I wrote about the final cruise for the SS Galaxy. At the time, a series of circumstances meant that the owners had decided to reluctantly call time on the great ship’s eight-year cruise on the “Sagittarian Sea” and make a return to port at the start of May.

Now, it seems that the great liner is to make a return to the open oceans of Second Life. DB Digital, who has operated the liner’s long with his SL partner Mia Epsilon, for the majority of the the ship’s cruise, passed me a short communique on Tuesday, May 12th, which has also been posted to the SS Galaxy blog, and reads as follows:

Dear Supporters and Friends of the SS Galaxy,

There have been many rumours cycling regarding the Galaxy and what really happened.  I can’t release that information as of yet.  However, I can now say that the SS Galaxy has been acquired by Linden Labs and will return.  She is currently undergoing retrofitting to sail under the Linden Labs flag.  I have been tirelessly converting all the transferable prims I personally owned to Linden Lab ownership, and my part of the project is now complete.

Sadly being under Linden Lab’s flag also means that none of the previous management or crew will be aboard in any sort of capacity.  I have also been told there will be no rentals or events.  This means she will not quite be the Galaxy you know and love.  But she will still exist in a museum state and be open for visitation in the near future.

More information will be released as I can.  I wish to thank everyone again from the guests, to the staff, and beyond.  You all made the Galaxy the special place she was, and no one can take that from us.

DBDigital Epsilon
Former Managing Director
SS Galaxy

SS Galaxy - the spa pool
SS Galaxy – the spa pool

As can be seen from the communication, it doesn’t look as if the Galaxy is going to be available as a venue, but like Svarga, is to be preserved as a piece of Second Life history. I also understand from DB that her final moorings have yet to be determined. Should an update be forthcoming on this through DB or the Lab directly, I’ll update this post and will doubtless cover her return when it happens.

Lab says: “help decide the next meet-up location”

Posted on by Inara Pey
The group gathers for selfies at the Meauxle Bureaux fountain during the Wednesday, March 25th meet-up with Linden Lab folk
The group gathers for selfies at the Meauxle Bureaux fountain during the Wednesday, March 25th meet-up with Linden Lab folk

Linden Lab has resumed the habit of social get-togethers with SL users. It’s a welcome move, and the events tend to be very popular. Since getting things rolling again, the Lab has selected the venue – which so far has been “Mole Town”, aka Meauxle Bureaux (see my report on the last gathering).

However, for the next get-together, they’re looking to do things differently. In a blog post published on Friday, May 8th, Xiola Linden is asking for venue ideas from residents. The post reads in full:

It’s just about in-world meetup time, and since we’re in the habit of sharing some of our favourite spots from the Destination Guide, this weekend, we wanted to flip the script and find out from you what spot you think is one of the best to visit for our next in-world meetup.

Share your recommendations in this forum thread – links to Destination Guide entry or SLURLS are best – and we’ll pick one to have our next in-world meetup.

The next meetup is planned for Thursday, May 14th at 1 PM SLT, so get your recommendations in soon!

As always, if you have a region or location that you would like to show off – be sure to share it, and we always love to see pics of your adventures on the Official Second Life Flickr page.

A chic Alexa Linden and a very tall Torley at the last gathering
A chic Alexa Linden and a very tall Torley at the last gathering

While there are no guidelines on what might be considered acceptable, any venue put forward should probably be rated Moderate at best, or General. Ideally, it should also have plenty of space for people to mingle – so it’s probably best not to suggest your back garden (unless your back garden happens to be an entire region, of course!).

There can be upwards of 50-60 people wanting to attend, so full regions are really the best, and those which offer things to do  – dancing, music, a bit of exploring – might well be appreciated. And do keep in mind the potential impact having an army of Lindens and residents might have on the regular users of any venue, should they all suddenly turn up!

Of course – if you do have a great venue of your own to offer which could fit the bill, this could be an ideal time to drop its name and SLurl into the forum thread.

As Xiola points out, the next meet-up is scheduled for Thursday, May 14th, at 13:00 SLT – that’s just a week away, and the Lab will need a little time to select a place and get the word out – so if you’re going to make a suggestion, best to get it in sooner rather than later!

Altas Obscura offers a clear-eyed image of Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

Second Life has been enjoying something of a positive resurgence in the media in recent months, and with May now passing us by, and June and SL’s 12th anniversary  sitting just over the horizon, it is inevitable that there will be more media coverage forthcoming on SL as the Lab’s media team crank things up.

Eric Grundhauser: touring Second Life with Ziki Questi
Eric Grundhauser: touring Second Life with Ziki Questi

One of the first out of the gate in this regard is an article in Altas Obscura, which describes itself as the definitive guide to the world’s wondrous and curious places. Penned by Eric Grundhauser, Forgotten Wonders of the Digital World offers a positive insight on SL with a novel twist.

Rather than asking a few questions of the Lab or relying on images grabbed from Flickr and cobbled together with a little staggering around in-world, Eric Grundhauser is, with the assistance of the Lab, able to gain none other than Ziki Questi, photographer and blogger (together with her partner Kinn), to act as his guide to all that is, and can be found, in-world.

The result is an engaging and informed piece which neatly encapsulates SL’s history, presents an assured view of the platform devoid of the usual clichés and asides, and which focuses on the rich tapestry of content which can be found in-world – role-play, art, personal spaces, with even the broader uses of the platform touched upon, such as the US Army’s use of SL (and OpenSim) to help service personnel deal with PTSD. What’s more, with some of the images supplied by Ziki, the article looks good as well (Mr. Grundhauser’s own snaps aren’t too bad, and kudos to him for taking them, rather than seeking to raid an archive from 2008 or so!).

Ziki and I are a lot alike in terms of taste, so for me it was good to see Roche,  A Petrovsky Flux and Haveit Neox’s City Inside Out referenced in the article, with Insilico, Kowloon and The Far Away – which Ziki herself rescued from oblivion and now curates – also getting a mention (and photographs).

Roche, a favourite of mine, and featured in the Atlas Obscura article
Roche, a favourite of mine, and featured in the Atlas Obscura article

Such is the impact of his time in Second Life exploring with Ziki and Kinn, Mr. Grundhauser willingly re-evaluates his thinking about the world, while remaining open and honest:

To be honest, when I decided to delve into Second Life, I half-expected to find a dying world of outsiders and bronies gleefully recreating pornographic impossibilities. But that simply doesn’t seem to be true. What I found, and mind you, I was only able to visit a strikingly miniscule portion of the available spaces, was that Second Life is still a fascinating and vital world that is constantly changing and pushing the boundaries of what a virtual space can be…

More telling I think, is the somewhat widespread perception that Second Life is no longer an active digital playground. The Grid is still a vital and evolving space that hundreds of thousands of users create and evolve each day.

Nor is “the sex thing” shied away from – kudos again to Ziki for being open on that subject as well, and the fact that – just as in the physical world and the Internet as a whole – there is an awful lot of it in SL. But as Eric Grundhauser demonstrates very ably – with or without established guides – just because there is a lot of sex in-world, it doesn’t bean it’s the be-all and end-all of the platform. As he notes when describing the diversity of activities and those using SL:

Doctors, universities, hobbyists, sci-fi fans, artists, and inexplicable curiosities can all be found operating in SL, by those willing to look.

Well done to him for making the effort to delve into SL and spend time exploring and getting to know at least a couple of residents, rather than simply taking the hoary old trail of slapping a few outdated headlines (and images) together in an attempt to underline a preconception.

All told, a good, light read.

Related Links

With thanks to Ziki Questi for the advanced notification that this article was upcoming.

Lab warns: Facebook upload problems possible

Posted on by Inara Pey

secondlifeFacebook recently implemented changes to the API which Linden Lab (among others) use to allow snapshots to be uploaded to Facebook from the viewer via the SL Share capability.

In response to this, as as I noted in my TPV Developer Meeting report on April 11th, the Lab made changes to SL Share itself to comply with Facebook’s update. These don’t involve and functional changes to SL Share or the way you go about uploading snaps, etc, to Facebook, and it had been hoped that the whole process of changing from the “old” to the “new” API would be completely transparent to SL users.

Unfortunately, Facebook seem to be lagging behind in actually migrating applications using the API to the updated version, and as a result have indicated that some of the applications (like SL Share) might encounter some disruptions as the switch-over occurs.

Because of this, Linden Lab have issued a warning to those using SL Share for Facebook uploads that there might be temporary problems with the service. The notice, which came in the form of a technology blog post, reads in part:

This means that when using SLShare (updating status, photo uploads, and check-ins from the Viewer) you may experience some temporary problems. Please be assured that we are aware of this and any issues you encounter should be resolved once the migration period is complete.

Thank you for your patience!

Note that potential problems might occur with any viewer using the SL Share capability to upload to Facebook, and not just the official viewer. So if you are using a TPV with the capability, please keep this in mind.

The SL Share to Facebook allows you to upload images, provide status updates, etc., directly to your Facebook account - and has proven very popular among the large numbers of SL users who are willing to connect their SL and Facebook accounts
The SL Share to Facebook allows you to upload images, provide status updates, etc., directly to your Facebook account – and has proven very popular among the large numbers of SL users who are willing to connect their SL and Facebook accounts

For those unfamiliar with the Facebook upload capability, it can be accessed either via a dedicated menu / toolbar option in those viewers supporting it, or via the unified snapshot floater (again, in those viewers supporting it). It allows those with a Facebook account to send updates on where they are in SL and what they’re doing, upload snapshots, complete with pre-processing filters. There’s also a Friends tab in the Facebook floater, but this hasn’t been defined in the Lab’s Knowledge Base article on the capability, as I don’t use Facebook, I’ve not been able to confirm it’s use. I assume its a method of connecting to other SL friends you have who also use Facebook.

Related Links

Lab confirms: Sansar is the new virtual platform’s interim name

Posted on by Inara Pey

LL logoOn May 3rd, I posted about the speculation circulating concerning two trademarks the Lab registered in April 2015 for “SANSAR” (US serial no 86593259) and “Project Sansar” (US Serial no 86593254), and whether there might be related to the Lab’s Next Generation Platform for Virtual Experiences.

At the time I indicated that I’d already approached the Lab on the matter, but has not received any feedback, I also pointed out that in October 2014, the Lab registered the domain name “projectsansar.com”.

The Lab have now responded, both directly to myself, and via Twitter.

In is e-mail I received on Tuesday, May 5th, Peter Gray, the Lab’s Director of Global communications said:

Hi Inara,

Project Sansar is the internal code name we’ve been using for the new platform, and we do plan to use that name externally in its early stages (like the invite-only alpha we begin this summer). However, this is just the project name, and we anticipate changing it prior to launching the platform to everyone.

best,
Peter

Shortly after I received the e-mail, the Lab also tweeted:

Confirmation of NGP's interim name via a Tweet and an e-mail
Confirmation of NGP’s interim name via a Tweet and an e-mail

That the name might be more an interim measure than a final operating name seemed to be indicated by the fact the domain name registration took place in October 2014, around the time the Lab was starting to indicate they had an internal name for the project. However, speculation as to the final name was understandable, given the trademarks were filed in April 2015 – although this obviously also converges with the Lab’s plans for a closed alpha to start-up later in the year, and so also fits with the name being the codename for the product.

I do still have some questions on the matter with the Lab; should I gain further replies, I’ll of course publish them here.

Is Sansar the name of the Lab’s new virtual experiences platform?

Posted on by Inara Pey

LL logoFor the last several days, speculation has been circulating on whether the name SANSAR might be the name of the Lab’s new next generation platform for  virtual experiences.

Speculation first came via a post made to the SL Universe forums, and has since appeared on both the Profile feeds and forums, relating to trademarks filed by the Lab on April 10th, 2015, namely:

In addition, in October 2014, Ascio Technologies, Inc., filed a domain name registration for projectsansar.com listing Linden Research as the Domain Administrator.

As has already been indicated in some of the responses to the forum posts referring to the trademarks, Sansara was one of the early names considered for Second life (being derived from Samsāra, which occurs in both Buddhism and Hinduism, and, perhaps more particularly where SL is concerned, was used by Hermann Hesse in his 1922 novel Siddhartha as a reference to the “world of illusion”), and currently lives on as the name of SL ‘s oldest and largest mainland continent. Whether “SANSAR” is a play on this is unclear – it might just as easily be an acronym.

Within Second Life, Sansra refers to the oldest and largest mainland continent. The word was also considered as one of the possible names for SL back when the Lab was first working on things
Within Second Life, Sansra refers to the oldest and largest mainland continent. The word was also considered as one of the possible names for SL back when the Lab was first working on things. whether “SANSAR” as used in the the new trademarks filed by LL is a play on this is unclear

The description of both trademarks is identical, and for those preferring to read it in a single pass rather than via the filings with the US Trademark office, it can be found on the Legal Force website, from which I’m quoting below:

Entertainment software, namely, software that is used for providing multi-player access to an on-line game environment; computer game software; virtual reality game software; computer graphics software; software that is used for providing multi-user access to an online 3D virtual environment; computer 3D virtual environment software, namely, software for use in creating, manipulating and participating in 3D virtual environments.

Advertising and marketing services, namely, developing and distributing electronic marketing materials.

Online financial services, namely, offering a fictional-dollar-denominated credit card to charge online purchases.

Communication services in the nature of text messaging and electronic mail services used in playing on-line computer games; communication services in the nature of text messaging and electronic mail services used in an online virtual environment.

Entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game by means of communications networks; entertainment services in the nature of providing an on-line multi-player electronic computer game; entertainment services, namely, providing an on-line computer game that may be accessed by means of communications networks.

Computer services, namely, hosting an on-line 3D virtual environment featuring a wide variety of user-defined subject matter and hosting an on-line 3D virtual environment featuring a wide variety of user-defined subject matter that may be accessed by means of communications networks; design and development of multimedia and three dimensional virtual environment software.

Most of this reads pretty much as description for Second Life – so the applicability for a new virtual experiences platform is fairly obvious, and hence the speculation that is circulating.

However, what really does pique interest in this description  – beyond whether or not it pertains to the Lab’s new platform – is not the description of the environment, but the description of “online financial services”. The Lab has already indicated that Linden Dollars would be supported on the new platform, however, the description of a fictional-dollar-denominated credit card to charge online purchases suggests a new mechanism by which good and services within the new platform can be purchased, and by which the Lab might generate revenue.

Whether the name reflects the actual name for the Lab’s new virtual experiences platform or purely an interim project name (or even both, as may be the case given the two trademarks), is unclear. Sansar itself is a popular name for organisations related to the Asian continent (including SANSAR, the South Asian Network Supporting Awareness and Research based in Canada), so brand recognition, if this is to be the name, might be interesting in some quarters.

I approached Linden Lab for a comment on the matter, but have yet to receive a reply. Should one be forthcoming, I’ll update this article.

With thanks also to Ziki Questi