The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, June 6th Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. They form a summary of the items discussed and is not intended to be a full transcript. A video of the entire meeting is embedded at the end of the article for those wishing to review the meeting in full – my thanks to Pantera for recording it.
Meeting Overview
The Simulator User Group (also referred to by its older name of Server User Group) exists to provide an opportunity for discussion about simulator technology, bugs, and feature ideas.
They are open to anyone with a concern / interest in the above topics, and form one of a series of regular / semi-regular User Group meetings conducted by Linden Lab.
Dates and times of all current meetings can be found on the Second Life Public Calendar, and descriptions of meetings are defined on the SL wiki.
Server Deployments
On Tuesday, June 6th, the SLS Main channel servers were restarted without any user-facing changes. Those regions within the channel which still supported LSL XML-RPC functionality had that capability switched off.
On Wednesday, June 7th the RC channels should be updated with a simulator release providing support for the new inventory thumbnails viewer capability soon to be forthcoming. See my recent TPVD meeting summaries for more on this capability.
This project – or at least the simulator element – is apparently known as “Manicure” internally at the Lab!).
Viewer Updates
No changes to the crop of official viewers for the start of the week, leaving the list as:
Release viewer: Maintenance S RC viewer, version 6.6.12.579987, dated May 11, promoted May 16.
glTF / PBR Materials viewer, version 7.0.0.580330, May 25.
Maintenance T RC viewer, version 6.6.13.580262, May 24.
Project viewers:
Emoji project viewer, version 6.6.13.580279, May 30.
Puppetry project viewer, version 6.6.12.579958, May 11.
In Brief
The long-requested Linkset Data (LSD) functions llLinksetDataDeleteFound and llLinksetDataCountFound should be going to LL’s QA team for testing in the upcoming week, and so could be appearing in a maintenance simulator update Soon™. Although it will first go to Aditi for testing.
BUG-233832 “llCreateLink LSL function sleep time might be excessive” is due to be addressed in a simulator update due to go to RC in week 24.
BUG-202560 “Allow us to pass list data between links to vastly reduce script time” is currently under consideration. Rider Linden’s thinking is that, rather than send the 3 predefined int, string, and key data items, it would be possible to send an arbitrary list.
He also noted that at some point he “would love” to add JSON as a first class datatype. Ding so would vastly reduce the time spent parsing and the memory usage, as it would remove the need to keep playing with strings and substrings.
The latter pert of the meeting includes a discussion on sensors (and sensing avatars), which touches on BUG-233784 “Add sensor type LOW_SCRIPTED as an option”, and BUG-4329 “Feature Request: New sensor functions that are not bound to a prim’s position & rotation plus inclusion of an Owner filter”. Refer to the video below for details.
† The header images included in these summaries are not intended to represent anything discussed at the meetings; they are simply here to avoid a repeated image of a rooftop of people every week. They are taken from my list of region visits, with a link to the post for those interested.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, June 2023: Caly Applewhyte – Through Their Eyes
Now open at Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, curated and operated by Dido Haas, is an exhibition by Caly Applewhyte (Calypso Applewhyte). Entitled Through Their Eyes, it opened of June 5th and is the second exhibition I’ve visited of late (the first being Yes Her, which I reviewed for both itself and a possible wider context here) seeking to make a valid statement about women in society, and the unfair bias all too often demonstrated concerning our right simply to be who we want to be in societies – including, increasingly, even within so-called liberalised nations in the west – and not to be subject to uneven demands / expectations.
As Caly offers her own very clear and concise description of the focus of Through Their Eyes, I won’t bore you with my own subjective ramblings; instead, I’ll quote Caly directly.
Women have long been an integral part of society, but their experiences and perspectives are often ignored or undervalued. When we look at the world through women’s eyes, we see a complex and multifaceted reality.
In many societies, women are expected to conform to certain standards of behaviour and appearance, which can be restrictive and limiting. These societal expectations can have an impact on women’s self-esteem, confidence and sense of worth. Women often face a double standard, where they are judged more harshly than men for the same behaviours or actions. Despite these challenges, women have shown incredible resilience and strength, and have made significant contributions to society in a variety of fields.
– Caly Applewhyte, on Through their Eyes
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, June 2023: Caly Applewhyte – Through Their Eyes
Through women’s eyes we can better understand the challenges they face, the unique perspectives they bring and the importance of promoting gender equality. By recognizing and addressing these challenges, and promoting women’s unique perspectives and contributions, we can work towards a more just and equitable society for all.
– Caly Applewhyte, on Through their Eyes
Thus, the exhibition presents a series of individual studies representing women of many ethnicities and backgrounds, even one a focused head-and-shoulders portrait in which the colour of skin, style of hair, mode of dress (where visible), is not intended to be the primary focus (although they clearly have a role to play in reminding us that women are global citizens who come from many backgrounds and social groups and who aspire to many things – just like the male of our species). What is important in these images are the subject’s eyes.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, June 2023: Caly Applewhyte – Through Their Eyes
Whether looking directly at the camera or focused on something unseen from the perspective of the camera’s lens, the eyes of the women Caly has created / drawn together for this series all speak to matters of intelligence, vitality, hope, strength, desire; the emotions and drives that play such a key role in the lives of men, often to high levels of peer praise and adulation, but when shown by women are discounted – or worse, derided or subjected to passive-aggressive responses that (truth be told) perhaps speak to the fragility of the male ego than anything else.
These are eyes that speak of a wish to be free to express, to strive, to achieve; they present each individual in these portraits as an individual. At the same time, they offer a window by which the the world might be seen as women are too often forced to regard it: as a place of struggle simply to be accepted as an individual with needs, wants, drive and desires. In considering the world the eyes in these portraits are looking out upon, some might be encouraged to better understand the constant uphill struggle women face to simply gain a foothold of equitable respect within societies which are still the world over, driven by a patriarchal expectation of position and privilege rather than equality and openness.
Nitroglobus Roof Gallery, June 2023: Caly Applewhyte – Through Their Eyes
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation
Updates from the week through to Sunday, June 4th, 2023
This summary is generally published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:
It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog.
By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.
Note that for purposes of length, TPV test viewers, preview / beta viewers / nightly builds are generally not recorded in these summaries.
Official LL Viewers
Release viewer: Maintenance S RC viewer, version 6.6.12.579987, dated May 11, promoted May 16.
As a part of my on-going (and occasional) visits to museums in Second Life, I recently had the opportunity to drop in on the quite excellent Museum of Computing History, managed and curated by Brian Aviator, with the assistance of Timothy McGregor and Kevin Jackman.
Tucked neatly under Brian’s Blackslough Field Regional Airport and overlooking the inland seas and waterways of Sansara, this is one of two museums Brain operates / curates in Second Life, the other being the LGBTQ History Museum and Cultural Centre (also due to appear in these pages later this month, and which is – at the time of writing – featured as an Editor’s Pick in the Destination Guide in recognition of Pride Month).
Museum of Computing History, June 2023
Extending over two floors, and with an ample, well-tended forecourt / terrace public space before it, the museum offers an impressively comprehensive dive in to the history of computing, from the abacus to the blade server and the rise of AI, featuring not just the technology and technological innovations, but many of the the individuals who have contributed to the development of computers, computational engineering and computer science down through the centuries and decades.
From the entrance foyer, dominated by a bust of Charles Babbage, the lower level of the museum comprises the Admiral Grace Hopper auditorium and four exhibition halls in which may be home to static exhibitions, and others have their displays rotated over time as new exhibits are developed (as is the case on the museum’s upper floor). At the time of my visit, the exhibits in these lower halls comprised:
Museum of Computing History, June 2023. Made famous during the Apollo 11 landing mission, July 20th, 1969
Early Pre-PC Computing, which includes one of the earliest computational machines known to Man (the abacus), alongside models of Babbage’s Difference Engine; the electro-mechanical devices which played major roles in the European theatre of World War II – the German Enigma code setting machine and the Polish-British code breaking Bombe; the machines from the early decades of the modern computer era: punch-card and tape-driven monsters, and even a look at one of the first computers to be used extensively “off-world”: the Apollo Guidance Computer (thanks to Hollywood and numerous dramatizations of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, perhaps now more widely known as the “1202 alarm computer”).
The Personal Computers Exhibit, which is liable to raise fond smiles for some, including as it does models of Commodore, Sinclair, Apple, Tandy, IBM and other machines as well as their associated operating systems upon which many enthusiasts cut their computing teeth. I personally found myself smiling at the presence of the BBC Model B and (for reasons that are both convoluted and irrelevant to address here, but include personal travels, Sir Arthur C. Clarke and film director Peter Hyams) the Kaypro II).
An Interactive Fiction Exhibit, with its reminder that there was a lot of brain-engaging fun to be had with computers long before the arrival of graphical games and shooting the bejesus out of others. This is also supported by a video presentation called Get Lamp: the Text Adventure Documentary, available through the Admiral Grace Hopper auditorium.
A look inside what might now be regarded as an “old school” data centre with huge boxlike machines (rather than huge boxlike racks of machines), and the odd super computer.
These hall all feature models of the various systems, boards, boxes and computers which in turn represent the work of multiple creators from across Second Life – such as (but most certainly not exclusively) Crash Lunar and (appropriately, given the museum’s subject matter) Ozzy Wozniak, both of whom provide a range of free models of computers, handhelds and consoles for those interested. Additional models have also been provided by Brain himself, imported (I believe I’m correct in saying) from 3D models developed by the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain – for whom Brian gives acknowledgement. All are presented with display boards which, when touched, will provide a notecard of contextual information (and it should be noted that even the posters on the walls in some of the halls can also be touched for information of their own).
Museum of Computing History, June 2023
The upper floor if the museum comprises five exhibition halls, all following the same approach as the lower floor, with each focusing on a specific exhibit related to computing. At the time of my visit, these comprised: the relationship between computers and telecommunications and the rise of networking; video games and console systems; the development of artificial intelligence; the noble / ignoble art / act of hacking (which of these terms largely dependant on the who, what, where, when and how of the said hacking) , and biographies of some of the leading personalities and individuals who have played a role in the evolution of computers, mathematics, computer sciences, communications, and related subjects.
Comprising images of the individuals concerned which can be touched for a notecard-based biography, the latter covers people who – at least in name – are likely be known to many: Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, Alan Turing, Steve Jobs, William Gates III, Steve Wozniak, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Linus Torvalds, for example – and one Philip Rosedale; those who might be familiar (if not really known, such as Blaise Pascal; Seymour Cray; Vinton “Vint” Cerf (who has actually been in Second Life) and Robert Kahn; to those who really should have much wider recognition than they do, but whose achievements have perhaps been overshadowed by others – such as the aforementioned Grace Hopper, together with Margaret Hamilton and Dorothy Vaughan, who at times get pushed aside in the male-dominated history of computing, and Douglas Engelbart, whose work at times gets subsumed by the near-mythic achievements of Steve Jobs.
Museum of Computing History, June 2023
The latter’s work (with that of his team at the Stanford Research Institute – now SRI International) is the subject of a second video presentation within the museum, highlighting what would become retrospectively called The Mother of All Demos. The was a live event held in 1968, in which Engelbart interactively demonstrates his team’s oN-Line System (NLS), which is very much the precursor of just about everything we take for granted with computers today: the graphical interface with its cursor (or “bug” as they called it) and mouse; the ability to work collaboratively and share files dynamically; the use of hypertext and hypermedia – even teleconferencing. The video offered at the museum summarises Engelbart’s presentation, but for those interested, the entire demonstration – which lasted over 90 mins – is also available on You Tube.
I admit I did find myself a little conflicted over the use of notecards throughout the museum; not because it is a difficult format to understand, but rather because there are instances where the information is liable to change (such as with the biographies of some of those featured within the upper floor exhibitions, or on the subject of AI), which might lead to some information becoming out-of-date. As such, I wondered if offering a mix of web links as notecards, depending on the subject matter, might not be easier from a maintenance standpoint.
Museum of Computing History, June 2023But, that is very minor quibble; there is no denying the Museum of Computing History has been extremely well put together, offering as it does something of interest for anyone with an interest in the subject – whether computer nerd or as someone simply interested in historical context and / or the influence of computing and computational machines have had down the centuries / decades. Information is easily accessible, and the range of topics cover and their associated depth means there is a lot of be absorbed without being overwhelming, and more than enough to encourage repeat visits.
Factory Arts Collective Gallery – Yes Her, June 2023
Intolerance of others, whether based on gender, ethnicity, religion, and /or sexuality has throughout human history been as much responsible for human suffering, depredation, subjugation and death as any of our multitudinous wars throughout the ages (with religion and ethnicity themselves being two of the most obvious causes of war / conquest).
In the modern age, to say, “you are less than me” purely on the basis of skin colour, gender, sexual preference and to whatever deity a person might opt to pray (or indeed, the manner and direction of said prayers), should, for most individuals capable of the basics of free and rational thinking be anathema. And yet, here we are, facing a rising tide of politically-motivated and damaging “otherism” which encompasses all of the above noted differentiators. Even women in what are regarded as “free” societies are finding their basic rights under threat / being rolled back.
It is a level of public intolerance that is concerning on multiple levels. There is obviously the increased risk those being marginalised face in terms of diminishing rights and growing potential for violence against them – and well as the encouragement it gives to others to engage in such violence. Then there is also the the positive reinforcement repressive regimes in other nations might see when they hear views similar in nature to their own being espoused by politicians from so-called “world leading” nations. Both of these should give pause to reconsider words about to be spoken by those considered to be in high office – but they don’t.
Factory Arts Collective Gallery – Yes Her, June 2023
Such intolerance is poisoning almost all walks of life; for those facing it, it can be – as intended – utterly debilitating, and thus either achieves the goal of subjugation, or generates an anger that can overtake thinking and outlook to a point where it is as damaging to the individual as any form of mental disenfranchisement in the face daily exposure to it. So what can be done? The answer to this simple-sounding question is both myriad and complex; but one part of it can be summed up as support one anotherand be who we are.
Yes Her is an exhibition of art curated by Scylla Rhiadra which seeks to do just that, with a specific focus on the matter of women’s rights, possibly spurred by the manner in which they are under open attack in the United States, but which embraces women the world over who face a daily challenge simply to exist as people rather than chattel. To use Scylla’s own words concerning the exhibition:
Women around the world are under a great deal of stress right now. And whether we live in Tehran, in Manchester, or in Forth Worth, Texas, we have good reason to be angry. Anger can be a powerful motivator to action. But swimming in constant anger is also a terribly toxic and ultimately self-destructive way to live your life.
Yes Her is an exhibit that chooses instead to highlight positivity and optimism, and the immense point on which women can call, whether or not they are aware of it. … This exhibit argues that, while our anger can be justified, we need not always be reactive: we can make positive change happen without being prompted by assaults upon our rights.
We can make a change by being who we are.
This exhibit celebrates the positive strength and affirmation of what it means to be a woman.
– Scylla Rhiadra, from the introduction of Yes Her
Factory Arts Collective Gallery – Yes Her, June 2023
Having opened on Sunday, May 28th, at the Factory Arts Collective Gallery, Second Life Left Unity (if the SLurl delivers you to the ground-level unity station rather than the gallery, climb the steps into Nelson Mandela Park and follow the track to the left to the teleport kiosk), Yes Her sees Laurel Aurelia, Suki Blossom, Kira Fizzgig, Tatiana Demonix (Nikolay), Eva Knoller, Belinda Newell, Onceagain (Manoji Yachvili) and Saskia Rieko, join with Scylla in an exhibition celebrating womanhood. Each of the artists has contributed at least one image, which are displayed with several of Syclla’s own pieces – including the original Yes Her which help foment the idea for this exhibition.
These are images which are all narratively rich (and self-explanatory), offering a reminder to all of us that women are people, capable for expression the same emotions and desires as the male of the species – and, like it or not – the same autonomy of choice and right to a voice (both of which perfectly exemplified by Scylla through Yes Her (My Door) and Yes Her (Listen!). Within them are statement of power through simple companionship, fearlessness (and facing the future), strength, beauty and the essential humanity in being a woman – a humanity to which all of us should aspire, again regardless of religion, creed, gender, sexuality, age or ethnicity.
Factory Arts Collective Gallery – Yes Her, June 2023
Whilst a statement on the power of womanhood, as we enter Pride Month at a time when the LGBTQ+ communities are facing what is fast becoming an all-out assault on their rights (even, I’m ashamed to say by women of “status” who really should know better), Yes Her has a broader context in which to be seen.
Although the focus of the art is clearly on the power and beauty of womanhood and the right of women to make their own choices in life, Yes Her speaks out against all such intolerance and toxic behaviour and offers encouragement to any finding themselves marginalised by the bigotry of others. Simply substitute the word of your choice (gay, lesbian, pagan, refugee, person of colour, and so on) for the final “woman” in the quote from the exhibition’s introduction I’ve used earlier in this article, and you’ll see why. As such, it offers a message of strength extending well beyond its core focus, and offer s a reminder that no matter what those who would use intolerance as a message of hate and a means to ostracise and / or control, we are all people, with far more that unities us than separates us.
A quick reminder that the Second Life Marketplace will be undergoing infrastructure upgrades for an estimated period of one hour, commencing at 10:00 SLT on Wednesday, May 31st, 2023.
This work will involve, among other things, a reset of the shopping cart functionality, and any items users may have placed in their shopping carts for future purchase will not be saved.
To to avoid any upset in having shopping carts emptied, Linden Lab recommends shoppers take one or both of the following steps:
Finalise all purchases ahead of the maintenance period, and complete pending transactions to clear your shopping cart.
For those items you are not in a position to purchase ahead of the maintenance period, or do not wish to purchase at this time but would like to keep recorded for future reference, list them either in your favourites or your wishlist.
During the maintenance period, the Marketplace will be unavailable for either shoppers or merchants to access. For complete details, please refer to this official blog post, and to the SL Grid Status pages for updates.
A quick reminder that the Second Life Marketplace will be undergoing infrastructure upgrades for an estimated period of one hour, commencing at 10:00 SLT on Wednesday, May 31st, 2023.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 