Category: News-Opinion

Phishing: Lab issues reminder on account security

Posted on by Inara Pey

There has recently been another round of phishing attempts to get second Life Users to try to provide their account credentials.

As a result of these attempts, on Friday March 11th 2016, Linden lab issued a reminder to users on the subject of account security in the form of a blog post.

In keeping with the request from the Lab to share the information,  I’m reproducing the blog post in full below:

As with any online service, Second Life Residents may from time to time be targeted with phishing attempts, which try to trick users into providing personal information and account credentials.

These attempts may include messages – including in-world IMs and emails trying to appear as if they were sent from Linden Lab – that prompt you to click on a link and/or provide personal information.

To help keep yourself safe from these tricks, remember: 

  • If you receive a suspicious email, forward it to phishing@secondlife.com and delete it.
  • If you receive a suspicious IM, file an abuse report against the sender even if the sender looks like your friend. After stealing an account, a fraudster often tries to trick the victim’s friends.
  • If you feel your account has been compromised, contact Second Life Billing through the Support Portal right away. (Better yet, call us at the number provided on the Support Portal)
  • Keep your anti virus software up-to-date and scan for viruses regularly.
  • You can change your account password; do so frequently to keep your account secure. If you suspect you’ve already clicked a phishing link, change your password immediately.
  • If you have multiple accounts, use a different password for each account.
  • Never reuse your Second Life password for your email account or any other website.
  • Your password should be easy for you to remember, but hard for others to guess.
  • If you think you entered your credit card information into a fake email or website, contact your bank immediately!

For more info, check out this page on the wiki.

Help your fellow Second Life Residents keep their accounts secure by sharing this post with them. Bookmark it, and the next time you see phishing attempts in group chat, share this post to help educate others. You can help put phishers out of business.

 

 

Community Gateways: of APIs and verticals

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Firestorm Gateway incorporates their viewer orientation island and includes social areas for users
The Community Gateway Programme is still coming

I first wrote about the Lab’s new Community Gateway trial programme back in September 2015. At the time, it seemed as if the programme was reasonably close to being launched, potentially with up to 20 groups involved, one of them being the Firestorm team, who subsequently soft launched their gateway at the end of October 2015.

However, other than this, there hasn’t been a lot on the programme. So what is going on? Well, there have been one or two problems which are still being ironed out.

One of them is the user registration API by which new users establish their Second Life accounts,and which was initially supplied to groups enrolling in the new gateway trial programme doesn’t have any hooks into the current sign-up process used for Second Life. This means that users signing-up through it will not be able to pick one of the starter avatars offered by the registration process, but instead will initially arrive in-world using the male or female default Character Test avatars which (a long while ago now) replaced the infamous “Ruth” avatar.

As the gateway has to use the "old" SL registration API, users do not get to select the gender of their avatar until after they log-in (left), and are then defaulted to either the female or male Character Test avatar
And issue with deploying the Community Gateway trial programme has been that the user registration API doesn’t have any hooks into the avatar selection process as a part of user sign-up, so those coming through it initially have to use the default Character Test avatars

Obviously, this is far from ideal. First impressions count, and many people seeing their avatar for the first time and comparing it to the glossy images on the landing pages could end up feeling a tad bit aggrieved or disappointed and might even simply log off. This being the case, the Lab has been working on an updated API which will both address the avatar issue and apparently offer some other options as well. This was revealed by Ebbe Altberg during his session at the 2016 Virtual Worlds Best Practice in Education conference, on Wednesday, March 9th:

We also have a lot of interesting things coming in the pipeline. An improved registration API, so that it will be easier for institutions to bring on their customers or clients or students in a more pre-configured way: choosing what avatars they can select from, getting them set-up in the proper groups, and taking them through a whole custom on-board experience.

Another issue has been has been a matter of compliance and ensuring the correct safeguards are in place with regards who can collect what data – an important consideration when users will be signing-up to Second Life via gateways hosted on non-Lab servers. On this, Ebbe informed the VWBPE audience:

The Community Gateway programme is very much proceeding. I don’t have like a final ship date for it; it goes very much hand-in-hand with the registration API work we have to do. We had to spend some more time on that than we originally thought, again for compliance; because who can collect what information in what context is something we had to solve for.

However, he indicated that things are now very much on track and a launch of the programme could be “just around the corner”. In addition, he also indicated that in order to help attract very specific audiences / market verticals to second Life – such as educators and education institutions and groups – the Lab is considering establishing its own gateways as well:

But once we get some community gateways going, we might even do some community gateways ourselves that are more vertically specific and make it more obvious to educators how to get on the platform, how to discover educationally relevant content, etc. That’s something we would like to do for a number of different verticals. It just remains to be seen which of those gateways we might operate versus which ones are better managed by in-world groups or teams or companies.

This aspect of dedicated gateways could be particularly pertinent to encouraging more specialised verticals into Second Life. If nothing else, having the gateways run directly by Linden Lab instils a level for trust which might be harder to establish between client and gateway where the latter is being run by a small group (albeit very dedicated) Second Life users who may not necessarily have any legal or other affiliation with the client or the platform. For another,  the Lab can probably market such gateways to their prospective audience a lot more energetically then might otherwise be the case, simply because they have the budget to do so.

So. The Community Gateway programme is still on its way, and it will be interesting to see which communities are directly involved, and how Linden Lab go about offering their own vertically specific gateways.

Lab: Faster Credit Processing & Upcoming Changes to Fees

Posted on by Inara Pey

On Monday, March 6th, Linden Lab has published a blog post on faster credit processing and pay-out, together with changes to fee structure for processing credit and paying real money to users’ PayPal and Skrill accounts, and on the fees charged for purchasing L$ on the LindeX. both of these fee changes coming into effect as from Tuesday, April 5th, 2016.

This is an important notification, and one which should be read in full. However, the core changes the Lab are making are quoted below:

Faster Credit Processing

We’re happy to announce that we will significantly improve how quickly we’re able to process a majority of credit requests.

Based on current data, we estimate that the upgrades we’ve made will allow approximately 75% of process credit requests to be completed within 2 business days.

For a minority of requests, the process may still take 5 business days. Because we’re dealing with sending real money to users around the world, we may require additional information and perform other processes that could impact the time needed. A good rule of thumb is that the better we know you as a customer, the more likely it is we’ll be able to quickly process your credit requests.

Changes to the Fee Structure

In addition to taking time, processing credit and paying real money to users’ PayPal and Skrill accounts incurs costs to Linden Lab. Each transaction actually costs us more than the $1 (USD) fee we have been charging. To address that and in light of the significant investments we’ve made to improve the related systems and processes, we will be making some adjustments to the fee structure, beginning next month.

As of April 5, 2016, instead of charging a flat fee of $1 (USD) per transaction, we will charge a fee of 1.5% of the transaction value, with a minimum fee of $3 (USD) and a maximum of $15 (USD). Additionally, the fee for purchasing L$ on the LindeX will increase 10¢, from $0.30 (USD) to $0.40 (USD) per transaction.

Compliance and improved processing has been one of the core focus areas for Linden Lab over the course of that past 12+ months. Work which has involved, among other things, the formation of a subsidiary company, and which is intended to support both Second Life and Project Sansar.  As such, the post from the Lab would seem to indicate the major part of this effort is now complete, and that, as promised through various discussions such as Lab Chat, users will be able to enjoy faster payouts, albeit it with increased fees.

Remembering Latif Khalifa

Posted on by Inara Pey
Latif's profile, March 4th, 2016, as updated by his SL partner Kr
Latif’s profile, March 4th, 2016, as updated by his SL partner Krintina Deschanel

I’ve received word through Thoys Pan and Dahlia Trimble that Latif Khalifa has passed away after losing his battle against a long illness.

A software engineer by profession and known in Second Life and OpenSimulator as an enthusiastic technologist, content creator, and viewer developer, he was responsible for the popular Radegast open metaverse lightweight client, as well as contributing to third-party viewer development, notably through Singularity, from which he forked his own viewer, Replex, in 2014.

I first got to know Latif as a result of my growing interest in the viewer ecosystem within Second Life. In fact, it was partially through his encouragement and the conversations we had, that I started blogging about viewers in greater and more informed detail. We became better acquainted in 2011 as he was enhancing Radegast and preparing for the release of Radegast 2.0, and I was privileged to be able to preview the work on several occasions. We also enjoyed many discussions on a range of subjects inside and outside of Second Life, something which led Latif into inviting me to join his Advanced Worlds Group in SL.

Occasionally irascible in the heat of impassioned discussion, Latif more than compensated for this with a generous heart and supporting nature, always willing to offer a helping hand, words of encouragement and friendship.

Commenting on Google+ after hearing the news, Dahlia Trimble said:

I’m very sad to hear that we lost Latif Kalifa

Latif was a good friend and collaborator. He was very helpful when I was implementing mesh physics, materials support, and particle system enhancements in OpenSimulator and also contributed many other fixes and enhancements He was the primary maintainer for libopenmetaverse for the last several years. He was the primary developer of the Radegast viewer which, among other features, had many features for the visually impaired. He was also a major contributor to PHP. His passing is a huge loss to me and I’m sure it is for the field of virtual worlds as well.

Doubtless, many within the metaverse community, including myself, will feel the same way on hearing the news. My condolences to his family, Kristina and all those closest to him at this time.

Tony Dyson: robots, films and Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Tony Dyson
Tony Dyson passed away at his home in Malta

Tony Dyson, the creator of R2-D2 and Emmy-nominated film SFx supervisor who worked on films such as Superman 2 and Moonraker, Dragon Slayer, Saturn 3 and The Empire Strikes Back, has passed away.

Professor, author, educator, and more, Tony Dyson was also keenly interested in Second Life.

He first became involved with the platform, as Azar Shelman, while investigating distance learning mediums, and recognised the Second Life’s potential as a means of creating real-time animation, something he had tried to do outside of the platform without much success.

As a result of getting involved in SL, he was introduced to  machinima producer and publisher Chantal Harvey,  (via Phalen Fairchild), and they found they had much in common. Chantal invited Tony to head the jury in the 2012 48 Hour Film Project for machinima, and thus a working collaboration between the two of them was born.

As well as investigating ways and means to produce better machinima, this collaboration led to the development of Bobbekins, interactive e-books for children which would utilised advanced animation, music, and machinima shot in Second Life, and illustrated by another SL resident, Dawny Daviau.

Bobbekins was developed on the idea that children expect to engage all their senses when involved in a story or learning exercise  – something to which educators can attest. Filming took place in Toy City, created by Tony as a constantly changing place discovered by the alien Bobbekins, who claimed it as their home. The books were developed under the Netdreamer Publications  banner authored by Tony, illustrated by Dawny and edited by Chantal, and the first book in the series, Medieval Farm, is still available through Amazon (and you can read more on the project here).

Bobbekins
Bobbekins

However, it is the builder of R2-D2 that he will be most clearly remembered. A regular guest at science-fiction conventions around the world, he never lost his love of the cylindrical little robot, and used the fame he gained through his involvement in star Wars to talk about creativity and learning and give ene[encouragement to young people to pursue their creative endeavours.

As well as building the original eight R2-D2 units, Tony Dyson was responsible for the design of Hector, the robotic antagonist in Saturn 3, and developed a robotic character modelled on (and voiced by) John  Cleese for a series of television adverts aired in the 1980s for Sony. He also designed robots for Philips and Toshiba.

Tony Dyson had a wonderful view on creativity “Be playful,” he told the The Times of Malta newspaper in 2015. “Never stop playing. If you look at life the way it really should be – enjoyed – then you become very creative”. It’s a view he shared with Shad Engkilterra at the Malta Comic Con in 2015.

Tony Dyson passed away at his home on the island of Gozo, Malta. My condolences to his family, and to Chantal and Dawny, and those who knew him.

In the Press: a potted history of SL and a look at Sansar

Posted on by Inara Pey
Project Sansar screen shot (credit: Linden Lab)
Project Sansar screen shot (credit: Linden Lab)

Writing in Readwrite on March 2nd, Ryan Matthew Pierson looks at Linden Lab’s Project Sansar and the Future of Virtual Reality. It’s an interesting article in that Mr. Pierson is a journalist who likes to research his subject, rather than relying on cliché or the input of jaded pundits.

As such, what is presented is a brief, but fair potted history of Second Life, charting the highs and lows, and pointing out that while it can be “dark” it’s simply not all about the adult naughties and nasties. So it is that Mr. Pierson charts the highs and lows of Second Life, with input from someone who know it well:  Gary Wisniewski (Wiz Nordberg in SL) the founder of Treet.TV.

Starting with the rise in SL’s popularity in 2006/7, thanks to the attention of the media, the reader who might be unfamiliar with Second Life is given glimpses into the platform’s magic which are painted as effectively with words as they might be illustrated by an image:

You could travel quickly from island to island, experiencing a fantasy world filled with a lush forest one minute and a sprawling post-apocalyptic CyberPunk-style city the next. Just about everywhere you went, there were crowds of people taking in the sights, chatting about their experiences, or dancing the night away in one of Second Life’s many nightclubs.

He also touches on the broad appeal of the platform:

This appeal extended well beyond tech-savvy early adopters. Many residents found that you could do things in Second Life that transcended physical disadvantages. For example, someone bound to a wheelchair could dance the night away in Second Life’s nightclubs, or even fly through a mountain range like a superhero.

Ryan Matthew Pierson
Ryan Matthew Pierson

The darker side of SL isn’t shirked, as noted, with Mr. Pierson pointing out the platform did suffer from a reputation for seediness – and that the Lab sought to try to address it as best they could through maturity ratings and safeguards, and without impinging unnecessarily on people’s freedom of choice.

From here, and via an all-too-brief mention of Relay for Life (when, oh when will journalists realise the sheer depths of human interest these is to be found within Second Life’s ability to support global fund-raising events in what is – when compared to the physical world costs involved in trying anything nearly so large – so utterly cost-effective? But I digress, as charity isn’t the focus of this article), the piece gently segues into an overview of Project Sansar.

In this, nothing exceptionally new is mentioned regarding the Lab’s new platform, although the parallels with the likes of WordPress and YouTube are avoided. The familiar comments on the VR tech support, the shift in revenue model away from land, and the desire to make it easer for “creators” all get the usual mention, as do the plans to make Sansar more broadly accessible to consumers:

Linden Lab also wants to make Project Sansar more cross-platform accessible. Where Second Life is largely tied to a desktop-only experience, Project Sansar’s users will be able to log in and enjoy the virtual world from various other platforms including mobile devices as well as HMDs.

It’s likely that SL users will find the Readwrite article frustrating for its lack of new information on Project Sansar. However, that more information isn’t provided stems not only from the fact that the Lab isn’t as yet ready to divulge more details – assuming they keep to their desired time scales, I’d expect this to start happening from about the middle of 2016 onwards – but from the fact that Mr. Pierson isn’t actually writing for Second Life users. He’s addressing the audience the Lab is primarily trying to reach: those ready to invest themselves in opportunities presented by the emerging wave of new VR technology.

That said, it’s fair to say the Readwrite piece isn’t perhaps as engaging as Sophie Charara’s recent piece in Wearable, but as an attempt to encapsulate both Second Life and Project Sansar, it’s a pretty good overview of the past and the present – and the Lab’s hoped-for future.