Yavanna’s pod tours: agreement reached between Linden Lab and Yavanna that will see normal operations resume
Updated, August 25th: following Patch’s forum post, Yavanna issued a note card through the in-world Pod Riders group stating her pleasure with the outcome, and I’ve quoted it at the end of this piece.
On Friday, August 21st, I reported on the news that for various reasons – including her on-going recovery from being stricken by COVID-19 -, Yavanna Llanfair, had decided to suspend the automated running of her Mainland YavaScript Pod tours (see: YavaScript Pod Tours Mainland operations suspended – UPDATED).
At the time, there was a certain amount of confusion over what may have happened with regards to an account suspension she had received in late July. As I noted in an update to that original report, this matter had particularly confused Patch Linden, who commented on a forum thread on the subject, promising to look into things.
Keeping his word, on Monday, August 24th, Patch provided a further update:
Howdy everyone!
I have returned with an update! 😁 We have just met with Yavanna and I am super excited to say that we will be working more closely together going forward on not only helping to support the pod tours system as it currently exists, but also expanding it in to other areas it does not reach today. I’m sure that as expansions and other fun add-ons unfold, there will be more updates on those as they happen. For the immediate future, the pod tour system should be retuning to normal functionality.
By “returning to normal functionality”, Patch presumably means that the automated running of the pods across the Mainland will shortly resume.
In the meantime, speculation has already started on what the “expansions” to the system might be – including suggestions such as using the pods to make tours of Bellisseria and the SS Galaxy, which as I reported in January (see: SS Galaxy drops anchor at Bellisseria), is now moored off the west coast of that continent.
Obviously, time will tell where the expansions are concerned, but for now, Patch’s immediate news is being warmly received by the majority of Mainlanders concerned about the situation, and pod users.
Update – Yavanna’s Comments on the Outcome
Following the publication of this article, Yavanna issued a note card giving her very positive reaction to the understanding that has been reached between herself and the Linden, which reads in full:
Dear pod riders,
I am very pleased to report that I’ve just had an extremely constructive meeting with Patch Linden, Derrick Linden and Tommy Linden. Hopefully I won’t get suspended for a pod crash again! (It was clearly a mistake). I have therefore removed the server block on the pods.
It’s actually better than just that though. We were able to discuss possible future joint ventures, and how they could help me going forward. So I’m very happy about the outcome of all this.
I’m extremely grateful to you all for your support. It’s not been an easy time for me lately for reasons I’ve talked about before, but your good wishes have made me feel so much better.
I’m still going to be mostly keeping out of SL for the moment, but as the winter nights draw in and I feel better in myself I hope to be working on more pod projects.
Yavanna’s pod tours have been a staple of the Mainland for exactly a decade, but automated operations are to be suspended
August 24th: Please see my further update on this subject.
YavaScript Pod tours have been a part of the Mainland in Second Life for a decade, but news is now circulating that on the very day of their 10th anniversary, the automated element of the service is to be suspended.
Notification of the suspension was given by the system’s creator, Yavanna Llanfair, via note card, which was circulated initially through the in-world Pod Riders group, before being more widely circulated within the Second Life community.It comes as a combination of factors, including an issue related to Yanvanna’s account, and her continued need to take time in recovering from being stricken by COVID-19.
Following the start of their operations in 2010, the pod tours grew to become a staple of the Mainland landscape, following the major road systems across Sansara, Heterocera, Jeogeot, Corsica, Mãebaleia/Satori and Nautilus. In addition, they’ve also become a familiar sight at the Second Life Birthday celebrations, and others have taken to running their own services using Yavanna’s system.
The announcement of the decision to suspend the Mainland automated service reads in full:
Dear pod riders,
Today is the 10th anniversary of the first road pod – “YavaScript Pod V5.0 (MCT)” – MCT standing for Monowai Constant Tour, which I put on the road in the morning of Saturday 21st August 2010. I have set that pod running again; it will run until it is swallowed by some random event (like a sim restart or a crash).
However, I am sorry to report that it is also the last day of the pods as we know them today. I have made the decision to suspend all services as of later today. The reason is as follows:
For the entirety of the running of the pod service, I have said I will only run the service where I considered I had the approval of the Lindens and the community. Whilst there have always been a few who would criticise (sometimes quite vocally), they have been a very small minority. And I have always felt that the Lindens have tacitly approved of them, though they would never say so directly. Certainly a number of moles have expressed their approval, and to them I am very grateful.
On 27th July, my account was suspended for 24 hours because of a pod crash in Mieum (on the Wellington Road). At least, that is what I traced it to, because the Linden who suspended me would not tell me of the reason – merely that the object was returned to me. I explained that it is impossible to avoid crashes in all circumstances. I raised a ticket to the LDPW asking them to let me know if this meant my pods were no longer welcome on the roads. I said that I would take anything other than a positive to be a negative. My ticket was closed without comment.
It would have been a shame for the pods to have fallen short of their 10th anniversary, and so I have continued the service until today. And for now, I will merely suspend all operations by flicking a switch on my server. This means that the road pods will still rez, but de-rez shortly after (within 5 minutes). Pods will also still be available from the pod stations by clicking on the rezzer. But this is not a sustainable situation, as the vast majority of people come to know about the pods by seeing them pass on the road, so without that, the service is far less likely to be sustainable in the longer term.
I announced back in June that I was stepping back, due to a long Covid-19 recovery. That recovery is still not complete; whilst I have made progress, I still have some issues, mostly neurological. And stress is therefore something I have to avoid at all costs. Therefore I am not willing at present to fight anyone on this. Maybe one day I will. If the Lindens wish to get in contact to ensure me that the pods are welcome again, I will of course re-instate them. But I suspect that is not likely to happen.
I will continue to support pod owners who run their own systems.
Thankyou to each and every pod rider for coming along on the journey with me. It has been exciting and a lot of fun. It isn’t necessarily over, but for now autonomous vehicles from the YavaScript stable will no longer be on the Second Life mainland roads.
– Yavanna Llanfair, via note card
Yavanna at the Yavascript Pod centre, Castell Yavana, Monowai
In terms of the suspension, pods can still be taken from the stations manually, but they will de-rez when the rider(s) alight off, rather than continuing on their own, and will no longer be seen travelling the roads on their own.
Commenting on the situation, Asadorable Delightful (Asadora Summers), one of those who passed Yvanna’s note card to me said:
The Pod Rider’s group has been busy most of today. We have all come to a decision as a group to express our memories/thoughts and feelings on how the pods have been an integral part of our virtual lives on Mainland. We are doing this in a positive way and would like for our memories to be shared.
Those with any enquiries regarding the service suspension, should do so via the Pod Riders group. If you have any memories about the pod tours you’d like to share, please contact Asadorable Delightful (Asadora Summers).
With thanks to Asadorable Delightful (Asadora Summers), and Holocluck Henly.
Update Saturday, August 23rd
The news of the suspension of the automated pod runs sparked speculation that there has been some form of change in policy at the Lab regarding Mainland vehicles / something else internal to the Lab. In response to such commentary, Patch Linden posted the following to a forum thread related to the news:
Howdy everyone!
I am potentially as confused as everyone else. But then again I’ve been out of town this week and I have some catching up to do. In any case while standing in the house of mouse, this did make it to my attention to look in to. While I’m digging in to find out what happened there are a few things I can assure everyone of:
We’ve made no policy changes surrounding automated vehicles on the Mainland.
We like the Yavapods system
We use it in Bellisseria as the “engine” for the ferry boats, with Yavanna’s permission of course
We keep having it back to SLB every year
These items do not seem like a recipe for a change in policy. Hopefully things will unfold and we’ll get to the bottom of this in a positive manner. I can’t really see any other way forward, and the team and I have no reason to not support or help Yavanna.
In terms of the order of events surrounding Yavanna’s account / support issue, Patch added:
This is where part of my confusion is. The LDPW and the Moles do not have a real ticket system. We sometimes receive JIRA’s for issues, but that’s not really a ticket and the Moles are not reachable directly through the support ticketing system. While I’m not here to dispute any of this, there also seems to be some real confusion on what or how this happened. If this took place in July, this is the first I’m becoming aware of it. There is no “fight city hall” here, again, we have no reason to do anything other than help with the system and the situation.
I’ll attempt to update this article or provide fresh input should more information / news be forthcoming.
Saturday, August 15th 2020 marks the start of a new public experience in Second Life when the Virtual Peale formally opens its doors to visitors from both within and beyond the platform.
Virtual Peale is a collaborative project involving The Peale Centre for Baltimore History and Architecture and Linden Lab, and with the support of Virtual Ability Inc. It encompasses an in-world reproduction of the historic Peale Centre building, which will be used to host a range of virtual exhibitions and events that both mark the original building’s foremost roles as both a museum, and its modern day role as a cultural heritage centre for the City of Baltimore.
Some of the images of the Peale building over the decades, located in the Virtual Peale entrance hall
As one of the most historic buildings in Baltimore, the Peale Centre building is a US National Historic Landmark, appearing in the US National Register of Historic Places. It first opened its doors to the public on August 15th, 1814 as the first purpose-built museum building in the United States. It was designed by Robert Cary Long, Baltimore’s first native-born (and self-trained) architect, and commissioned by Rembrandt Peale, whose father, the artist, inventor, naturalist and politician Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), had co-founded the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Philadelphia Museum in 1805.
The Peale building functioned as a museum from 1814 through to 1829, becoming famous for its exhibitions of natural history, militaria and selections of art by some of history’s most renowned painters from around the world, together with works by members of the extended Peale family, most of whom – including Rembrandt Peale – were accomplished artists in their own right. In 1816 the museum made history by becoming the first gas-lit building in Baltimore, Rembrandt following the example of his brother Rubens, Rubens, who had installed similar lighting in the family’s Philadelphia Museum. Doing so allowed Rembrandt to gain the backing needed to establish the Gas Light Company of Baltimore, the first commercial gas light company in America, and this in turn resulted in Baltimore becoming the first US city to be illuminated by gas street lights.
One of the ground floor rooms of Virtual Peale with (l) a drawing of Rembrandt and Rubens Peale demonstrating gas-powered lighting, and (r) The Artist in His Museum, a self-portrait by C.W. Peale painted in 1822, the original now hanging in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
In 1829/30, the museum relocated, and the Peale Building became Baltimore’s City Hall through until 1877. In 1878 it became the location of the first public high school for African Americans in the city, prior to passing into commercial use from 1879 through until 1929. Following an extensive rebuilding programme, in 1930 the building returned to its roots as Municipal Museum of the City of Baltimore, although it was referred to simply as “The Peale Museum”. It continued in this role through until 1997, gaining considerable recognition over the years for its collection of Peale portraits, its annual art and photography events and for several exhibitions combining the history and architecture of Baltimore, such as the nationally acclaimed Rowhouse: a Baltimore Style of Living, a celebration of Baltimore’s distinctive row houses.
Today, the building forms the nucleus of The Peale Centre for Baltimore History and Architecture, and is in the midst of renovations to restore it to its former glory. Once completed, this work will allow it to function as a historic heritage centre / place of learning through the 21st century, including enabling local cultural communities to share their authentic stories of the city both through live performance and on-line.
Another of the ground floor exhibition spaces within Virtual Peale. Note that many of the items throughout the museum are interactive – left-click them for information to be displayed in local chat
To mark the 206th anniversary of the building first opening to the public, the Virtual Peale will similarly be opening its doors within Second Life on what has become known as Founder’s Day for the building. Through it, visitors from across Second Life and beyond will be able to learn about it and the Peale family and participate in special virtual exhibitions.
Developed from a 3D model of the Peale Museum building originally created by the Imaging Research Centre at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) for the university’s Visualising Early Baltimore project, the Virtual Peale reproduces the original’s historic frontage and includes a virtual take on the Peale gardens. Inside, the building presents aspects of the physical Peale Centre’s interior, with exhibition spaces that help tell the building’s story and the work of the Peale family as artists, curators, inventors, and naturalists. The one departure from the original floor plans is the long entrance hall leading to the main lobby area, which is used to present photographs of the original Peale building throughout its history.
The Virtual Peale Garden
For the first exhibition, Virtual Peale presents Redefine/ABLE: Challenging Accessibility, marking the 30th anniversary of The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Originally developed by students from the University of Maryland (UMD), to be presented as a cross-platform, multi-site exhibit utilising both the UMD’s College Park campus and the Carroll Mansion Museum in Baltimore, thanks to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, Redefine/ABLE has been re-imagined as an immersive Second Life experience. It is designed to address diversity, inclusion and ableism, and seeks to engage audiences about the successes and challenges of persons with disabilities in Maryland and beyond.
Developed with a grant from Maryland Humanities, and with the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Maryland Historic Trust, and with the active support and advice of Virtual Ability, Inc., Redefine/ABLE can be found in the Virtual Peale’s second floor Picture Gallery – actually a teleport that leads to a separate platform than is automatically activated on climbing the stairs and “entering” the exhibition space.
The Redefine/ABLE exhibition in Virtual Peale, featuring interactive panels
By using the space in this way, with teleports connecting exhibits with the main building, it will be possible to expand Virtual Peale’s internal layout to offer additional gallery spaces. Some of these will reflect and expand on exhibitions that can also be found in the physical world, whilst others will be inspired by the Peale’s programming and partners, allowing the Peale in Second Life to become a creative hybrid of physical and imaginary museum spaces.
It has been thrilling to develop this new experience of the country’s oldest museum building in Second Life. Thanks to the amazing work of Linden Lab and Virtual Ability, Inc., we are now able to welcome a huge new community to the Peale, and share its rich history as well as the authentic stories and creativity of Baltimore with the largest and oldest virtual world on the Internet.
– Dr. Nancy Proctor, Executive Director of the Peale Centre
In addition to providing input and advice on hosting the Redefine/ABLE exhibition, Virtual Ability has also played a key role in developing Virtual Peale: most of the interior detailing has been put together by Eme Capalini of Virtual Ability, and she also spent time developing a “Mastodon Hunt” to help celebrate the ties the museum and C.W. Peale have to the unearthing of the first mastodon skeleton to be found in the United States that went on to become the focal point of the museum’s opening exhibition and the subject of C.W. Peale’s 1086 painting, Exhuming the First American Mastodon (a reproduction of which can also be found inside the Virtual Peale building). Further, Virtual Ability are assisting The Peale Centre in helping members of the public sign-up and join Second Life for this opening event.
The Redefine/ABLE exhibition in Virtual Peale
Also included in the Virtual Peale build is the StoryTelling Studio. As noted above, a major part of The Peale Centre for Baltimore History and Architecture is to keep alive authentic stories about the City of Baltimore through live performance and on-line events, and the Storytelling Studio is a part of this, together with a partnership the centre has with Libraries without Borders. It is also something the Peale Centre wants to extend into Second Life.
So, if you are a resident of Baltimore and / or have a story connected to Baltimore and its history you’d like to share, the Peale Centre would like to hear from you. contact them by dropping your details and story via note card into the mail box inside Virtual Peale, or if you prefer, you can use the Peale Centre’s Add A Story page, or reach out of project members through the Peale’s in-world group or e-mail them at info-at-thepealecenter.org.
You can learn more about Virtual Peale and the work of the Peale Centre via the Lab Gab video below.
Virtual Peale Opening Event
As a part of the opening, Virtual Peale will host three events on Saturday, August 15th, 2020 (all times SLT):
08:00: a tour of Virtual Peale, hosted by David London, the Peale’s Chief Experience Officer.
09:00: a panel discussion, Accessibility and Inclusion in Physical and Virtual Spaces, featuring George Ciscle, Curator-in-Residence Emeritus at Maryland Institute College of Art; Alice Kreuger, founder of Virtual Ability, Inc.; Monica Rhodes, Director of Resource Management, the National Park Foundation; and Dr. Jeremy Wells, Associate Professor in the Historic Preservation program in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at the University of Maryland.
10:30 (approx): a further tour of the Virtual Peale and open Q&A session with representatives from The Peale Centre and Virtual Ability.
Since that first article, I’ve provided a number of updates on the development work – please use the SL Mobile tag to catch up with all of them.
At the Web User Group on Wednesday, August 5th, Keira Linden gave a further update on the client’s status, as per the notes and audio below, which have been provided alongside my usual notes on the app.
August 5th Update
iOS Client
The iOS version has been in a closed alpha that includes a number of residents for some 2+ months, having started in May.
In keeping with the Lab’s plans, this version offers the ability to communicate via IM and view your Friends list.
As a result of this close alpha testing, the Lab now has a build that is “destined for [Apple’s] App Store”, which is currently “bouncing back and fort”h between the development team and LL’s QA team.
The hope is that this version can be submitted to Apple for review some time in August 2020.
This does not necessarily mean the iOS client will immediately appear within the App Store, as Apple can be exceptionally picky in their review process, which can result in requests for changes to an app to be made before listing is allowed.
LL obviously hopes the app will not encounter significant issues, but because of the review process, no time frame can be given on when the app will appear in the App Store – but there will presumably be an announcement once it is available.
Android Client
Having started much later than the iOS version, which remains the Lab’s focus, the Android version is still at a somewhat earlier stage of development.
However, it is under active development.
When it is ready, it will likely follow a similar Alpha / Beta test process to the iOS version.
In-world Presence
In a change to earlier statements, Mobile app users will have an in-world location.
This will be in one of several special “Mobile” regions. However:
As Mobile users have no 3D world view, these regions are not landscaped or populated in any way.
Access is restricted to those using the Mobile app, general access by users on the viewer or other clients is not allowed.
Currently, three Mobile regions have been set-up.
General Capabilities
Note: this is a reiteration of notes from earlier updates on the SL Mobile client.
It should initially be regarded as more of a communicator / companion app than a fully-rounded client. The initial intention for the client is to provide users with a means of maintaining basic contact with other users whilst away from their main means of accessing Second Life.
As such, it will support logging-in to Second Life services to support IM and group chat support.
Capabilities such as having an in-world rezzing location, the ability to chat locally, support for scene rendering will be added over time.
However, in terms of any in-world rendering, this will not be part of any initial released (in the meeting it was described as “not even Soon™”), as LL are focused in just trying to get the basic app available to users as soon as reasonably possible.
Reporting and Updates in this Blog
Again, all information I’m able to provide through this blog, including future updates can be found under the SL Mobile tag, and can be accessed directly from the top menu options:
SL → User Group & Viewer → Viewers → Android & iOS and then selecting either:
Lab Gab returns on Friday, August 7th, 2020, with a very special guest in the form of Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life and co-founder of Love Machine Inc., and Coffee and Power – which would become High Fidelity.
In 1995, Rosedale created FreeVue, an Internet video conferencing product, which was acquired by RealNetworks in 1996, with Rosedale joining that company as a Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. He later left RealNetworks to form Linden Lab, initially working in virtual reality before moving to focus on a virtual world platform with the goal of demonstrating a viable model for a virtual economy or virtual society.
Philip Rosedale
We don’t see this as a game. We see it as a platform that is, in many ways, better than the real world.
– Philip Rosedale, Google TechTalks, March 2006
As well as founding Linden Lab, Rosedale served as CEO and / or as a member of the Board until 2009, when – having already handed over the CEO reins of the company to Mark Kingdon – he announced he was stepping away from the board to focus on other projects (Love Machine Inc.). In 2010, he briefly returned as interim CEO through until Ebbe Altberg was appointed to the role.
Contrary to the rumour mill, Philip will not be discussing the recent announcement about Linden Lab putting itself up for acquisition (as this process is still on-going and cannot be publicly discussed beyond what has already been said by way of the announcement), but will be talking to Strawberry Linden about the history of Second Life, what he is up to now and his views on the future of virtual worlds.
Blake Sea is now on Aditi and running in the cloud for those wishing to test vehicle region crossings
Following from the announcement concerning Ahern and Morris on Aditi (the beta grid), being in the cloud – see my Simulator User Group update of July 14th, 2020 – it has been announced that most / all of Blake Sea has also now been cloned to Aditi, and is also running on AWS cloud servers.
The came via a forum post by Mazidox Linden on Monday, July 21st, and the move has been made so that those who use boats and aircraft can carry out region crossing tests.
We’ve now expanded the number of regions we’re running in the cloud on Aditi to include the entirety of the Blake Sea mainland regions. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Blake Sea, you can use the following entry points to log in on Aditi and rez a vehicle to start exploring:
Test region crossing code (particularly using vehicles) between cloud simulators on the same host, and cloud simulators on different hosts.
– Mazidox Linden, July 21st
Again, just to emphasise, this is Aditi, the beta grid, only (at least one person has responded to the thread referencing Blake Sea region crossings on Agni, the main grid).
Those wishing to try boat / aircraft region crossings can do so by logging-in to Aditi and teleporting to the locations given above. you can also use Blake Sea – Half Hitch on Aditi for rezzing boats and seaplanes can be rezzed.
When testing, be aware that crossings between these regions can be unpredictable – so please do report your experiences via the forum thread, and with the following points in mind, as also indicated by Mazidox:
Some regions can cause you to “bounce off an invisible wall” at the region border, even though you are able to see into them.
Please report instances of this occurring in the forum thread, including the name of the region you were in, the region you were trying to enter, the date, and the time.
Some regions will not show up at the edge of your current region, even though they are adjacent.
Again, please report instances of this occurring in the forum thread, including the name of the region you were in, the region that failed to appear, the date, and the time.
HTTP-out for LSL scripts is disabled on cloud-based regions, as is sending e-mails via LSL scripts. Please do not report either, as both are currently working as intended.
to Access Aditi
If you have not logged-into Aditi before, you should file a support ticket requesting access.
Once your ticket has been responded to, you can log-in to Aditi via any Second Life viewer using to SL account name and password:
Launch the viewer.
If the grid selection option is not displayed, press CTRL-SHIFT-G.
Select Beta Test Grid (Aditi) from the drop-down (see below).
Enter you log-in credentials.
Use the Grid selection option in any viewer to access the beta grid
To return to the Main Grid select Second Life Main Grid (Agni) at your next login
Note: when you log-in, your inventory may not reflect your inventory on the main grid (so you may not have your desired vehicle available, for example), and you’re need to wait for your inventory to be duplicated from Agni (the main grid).
The inventory copying process is automatic, and occurs at approximately 06:00 SLT daily. Simply by logging-in to Aditi you will have flagged your inventory to be updated the next time the copy process is run, so you should not need to wait more than 24-hours for your Aditi inventory to properly reflect your Agni inventory.
Further information on Aditi can be found on the Preview Grid page of the SL wiki.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 