Category: Second Life

SL18B: Meet the Lindens – who and when – UPDATED

Posted on by Inara Pey
SL18B Meet the Lindens will focus on the leadership team of Brett, Grumpity and Patch

Update: Monday June 21st: well, I did say some aspects of SL18B may cause me to eat my hat, and the first Meet the Lindens session is one of them! In difference to the opinion voiced at the end of this article, the first of these sessions  – Meet the Leadership Team will feature board member and Executive Chair, Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden).

A staple part of the SL Birthday celebrations over the past few years has been the Meet the Linden sessions. Featuring selected members of the Lab’s management team who appear each day on stage, either individually or in pairs and groups, to discuss (almost) anything related to Linden Lab and Second Life, the sessions are a popular source of information straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

2021’s SL18B continues the tradition, offering another a week-long series of Meet the Linden events. These have now been formally announced via a blog post from the Lab, which provides information on them and other streaming events that will be taking place during the week commencing Monday, June 21st.

Featuring the core Leadership team, this year’s Meet the Lindens events kick-off with a special Lab Gab Live Stream on Monday, June 21st, and the complete line-up of sessions is as follows:

Day (Times SLT) Lindens
Monday 21st June
(14:00-16:00)		 Lab Gab SL18B Special with the Leadership Team (Grumpity, Brett, and Patch Linden) together with Executive Chair Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden).

You Tube Link
Tuesday 22nd June
(13:00-14:00)		 Patch Linden, Vice President of Second Life Product Operations.

You Tube link
Wednesday 23rd, June
(14:00-16:00)		 Grumpity Linden, Vice President of Second Life Product, who will be discussing several Second Life initiatives including recent efforts focusing on growth, a stronger, more balanced economy, movement towards better community cohesion.

You Tube Link
Thursday 24th June
(13:00-15:00)		 Brett Linden, Vice President of Marketing, who will be talking about recent user acquisition and retention efforts for Second Life including advertising, public relations, content strategy, and social media.

You Tube Link
Friday 25th June
(13:00-15:00)		 Meet the Moles. The Moles are builders, scripters, and content creators employed by Linden Lab to work in the Linden Department of Public Works.

Live Stream Link

You can watch any of these session in two ways:

  • By being a part of the live audience in the SL18B auditorium,
  • By following the You Tube live stream links above at the time of the event.
    • In addition, the Tuesday through Friday events are listed on the Lab’s Meet the Employees page on You Tube, together with pass SLB and Lab Gab sessions.

I confess to being a little disappointed that we’ll not be introduced to / hearing from Executive Chair Brad Oberwager (Oberwolf Linden) or Chief of Staff Cammy Bergren (Cammy Linden); it would have been nice to hear from one or the other, even if via a Lab Gab session. I certainly hope there may yet be an opportunity for such a session in the not too distant future.

In the meantime, I hope to have summaries of all this year’s Meet the Lindens sessions available through this blog as soon as possible after each has taken place.

Landscapes, avatars and digital dreams in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
GenovArt June 2021: Deyanira Yalin

I made a return trip to the GenovArt Galleries, curated by Juna (Junanuj) to continue my promised explorations of the Glass Hall there, after my initial visit to the B&W Hall last month (see: Four artists for June at GenovArt in Second Life).

My visit came just after the opening of the new ensemble exhibition within the hall that features the work of Jamee Thomson (Jamee Sandalwood), Vanessa Jane (VanessaJane66), Deyanira Yalin and Eyes Kirschtaria (varutina).

GenovArt June 2021: Jamee Thomson (Jamee Sandalwood)

Both Jamee and Venessa are highly regarded for their landscape images of Second Life, and rightly so. Although neither is constrained to just this form of art, it is the core of the pieces they present on the lower and upper levels respectively of the gallery.

Each of them has a considered eye for their work, perfectly balancing angle, cropping, lighting, post-processing and finishing to produce truly memorable pieces that both reflect the region in which they were captured and offer very individual views of Second Life.

GenovArt June 2021:  Vanessa Jane (VanessaJane66)

Deyanira Yalin has been active in Second life since 2007, but I believe that this exhibition is the first time I’ve encountered her work; a fact that is to my loss, as her art is simply marvellous.

It is also said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I believe that my art is the product of cumulative dreams and visualisation. I get joy if the beholder finds something unique to him or herself that may be hidden or may be an illusion. I do not know if I am an Artist or a dreamer who likes fiction and dreams, but what I believe is inspired by all of the above.

– Deyanira Yalin, describing her art

GenovArt 2021: Deyanira Yalin

A graphic designer by training, Deyanira has had her work exhibited in Mexico City, and her involvement in Second Life has enabled her to fully embrace the digital art form – a fact more than demonstrated at GenovArt.

These are truly extraordinary works that fold into them digital collage, suggestions of abstract art, surrealism, pop art and  – notably those images in the rear section of her exhibition – a tremendous depth of narrative.

GenovArt 2021: Deyanira Yalin

As such, I would respond to Deyanira’s musing on whether she is an artist or a dreamer by saying there is no either/or – she is both, and she is also a weaver of dreams and teller of tales through her work.

Eyes Kirschtaria is another artist whose work I do not believe I’ve previously encountered.

GevovArt June 2021: Eyes Kirschtaria (varutina)

Hailing from Japan, he presents a magnificent series of male avatar studies at GeovArt, all of them deeply rooted in fantasy and the imagination, and each ready to weave its own tale of heroes and / or villains, warriors and princes, magicians and hunters, and more.

Rich in colour and depth, several of these works beautifully blend what might be seen as western fantasy and oriental tales and influences, whilst others offer more traditional oriental tales in the making or enfold touches of science-fantasy (who cannot see shadows of the Dune series hiding within 15, for example?).

GenovArt June 2021: Eyes Kirschtaria (varutina)

With its rich diversity of talent and content, the June exhibition at GenovArt’s Glass Gallery exhibition should not be missed.

SLURL DETAILS

SL18B: Shop and Hop, the Music Fest Line-up + more

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The Second Life 18th birthday celebrations are almost upon us, and while news in advance of the event has been scarce this year, the Moles and the Lab have been busy with things.

On Tuesday, June 15th, Strawberry Linden issued a note card to members of the SLB Press Group, providing a short update and links (including the Birthday Calendar – see below), with a focus on the upcoming SL18B Shop and Hop event. A blog post was also issued later on Tuesday, highlighting the Music Fest and the Birthday Calendar directly.

SL18B Shop and Hop

Shop and Hop

The SL18B Shop and Hop event is perhaps the largest S&H event thus far held, featuring no fewer than 16 regions and 320 creators offering a 20% or more discount on items and a free (non-group) gift for shoppers.

Dates

  • Public access to Shop and Hop, 09:00 SLT on Thursday, June 17th, 2021 through until July 6th, 2021.
  • Early access for Second Life Birthday Group members from 09:00 SLT  on Wednesday, June 16th, 2021.

Shop and Hop SLurls

Note these SLurls will be available on Wednesday, June 16th for members of the Second Life Birthday Group, and from 09:00 SLT on Thursday, June 17th for everyone:

Aurelian Chickory Dahlia Frosted
Gleaming Gilded Golden Halcyon
Hollyhock Jubilant Lupine Poppy
Snapdragon Snowflake Sugarplum Tinseled

A full list of participating creators with direct SLurls  to there S&H stores is available here.

Music Fest

The Music Fest will kick-off at 13:00  SLT on Thursday, June 17th, and conclude at 19:00 SLT on Saturday, June 19th. It will feature 25 artists, with the line-up as follows:

Time (SLT) June 17th June 18th June 19th
09;00 Gates Open — Randy De Lucia
10;00 — — KATIA
11:00 Opening Ceremony — SpiritLed
Noon — Seli Blackmore Semina
13:00 Milan Zepp Toxie Skye Galaxy
14:00 Rogue Galaxy and The Tiny Rebel Band Staring At The Sun Fly Kugin
15:00 Oblee Dandy Pianoman Marqs DeSade
16:00 Maximillion Kleene Mimi Carpenter Dude
17;00 Erik Kottzen Ruvilyn Gatchie Effinjay
18:00 Joaquin Gustav Wytchwhisper Sadofsky Gabriel da Silva
19:00 — Gabriella Rothschild —
20:00 — Kendall Jigsaw —

The venue for the Music Fest will be the SL18B Live Stage – the SLurl will be available when SL18B opens.

Second Life Birthday Calendar

The Second Life Birthday Calendar provides a full breakdown of events -note again that all times are SLT.

Destination Guide links

Note some of these may not be available until Thursday, June 17th:

2021 SUG meeting week #24 summary

Posted on by Inara Pey
Bella’s Glade, March 2021 – blog post

The following notes were taken from the Tuesday, June 15th, 2021 Simulator User Group (SUG) meeting. These notes relate to the core points of discussion; other topics may have ben raised without specific feedback from LL as actionable items, so  please refer to the video at the end of this report for the full meeting and all points covered.

Server Deployments

No deployments are planned for the week, other than those related to the SL18B regions. Restarts will be taking place for those servers that have not done so for the last 10-ish days. The (non-)deployment notes are here.

Week #25 (commencing Monday, June 21st) should include a deployment to the RC channels.

SL Viewer

The Project UI RC viewer updated to version 6.4.20.560520 on June 14th.

The rest of the official viewer pipelines remain as follows:

  • Release viewer: LMR 5 viewer, version 6.4.19.560171, dated May 27, promoted June 7 – no change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Maintenance 2 RC viewer – Fernet, version 6.4.19.559726, dated May 19.
  • Project viewers:
    • Legacy Profiles viewer, version 6.4.11.550519, dated October 26.
    • Copy / Paste viewer, version 6.3.5.533365, dated December 9, 2019.
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer, version 6.4.0.532999, dated November 22, 2019.
    • 360 Snapshot project viewer, version 6.2.4.529111, dated July 16, 2019.

In Brief

  • Group chat remains unsteady, but the Lindens are planning for additional work in an attempt to stabilise things further.
  • The Aditi inventory syncing / log-in issues continue. The root cause appears to have been identified, but fixing it has been referred to as “complex”, although the hope is the issue fixed Soon™. Mazidox Linden further added:
I can’t really get into details because it involves the insides of how logins work. But the best thing you can do on Aditi is log in using an alt with a tiny inventory. That’s more likely to succeed than your account with all the stuff you have on Agni. (The actual issue has nothing to do with inventory, but that’s the only thing you can control from your side to make it more likely to succeed.)
  • Scripts and resources: the core of the meeting revolved around the issue of script usage and its impact on server resource use and simulator performance – notably, but not exclusively – with regards to in-world scripts and the impact of idle scripts. In brief:
    •  Onus tends to be put on avatar scripts (which do have an impact – most notably when an avatar is entering a region and all the data related is being unpacked and all its associated scripts are re-started.
    • However, in-world scripts, even those that are idling, can have an impact on performance. Whilst action has been taken to ease some of this, the impact of have thousands of scripts in a region can and will have a cumulative effect on simulator performance.
    • How better to manage things is a matter of much debate. Should script resources be increased? Would it be better to allow larger scripts rather than making people split functionality across multiple scripts? Do large, multi-function scripts  run better (or worse) than a plethora of smaller scripts doing the same thing? Would it be possible to restructure script handling / LSL capabilities such that scripts that only need to be active in the presence of an avatar can be automatically be disabled when no avatars are within a (creator-defined) proximity, etc.
    • This discussion starts around 22 minutes into the meeting, and full context can be gained through the meeting video below.

Video

The following video of the meeting is courtesy of Pantera Północy.

Paying respects to Ebbe Altberg in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Ebbe Altberg memorial

On Friday, June 4th, Linden Lab announced that the company’s CEO, Ebbe Altberg had passed away. Across the grid and blogsphere, tributes and obituaries have been offered in the wake of the news.

Ebbe Altberg memorial

Now, for those who wish to commemorate Ebbe’s time with the Lab and pay respects to his memory in-world, a memorial has been created on – appropriately – Altberg region in Bellisseria.

Designed by the Moles of the LDPW, the region features a single island that is home to the memorial. Surrounded by fir trees offering a hint of Scandinavia, with water falling into a pond that feeds flowers, the memorial stands  as a tall bronze figure of Ebbe, with a photo of him and the text of announcement of his passing located at the base of the plinth.

Candles are also to be found at the base of the statue, which will light on being touched, and benches are available for those who wish to sit and remember Ebbe and his time at the Lab.

The island is a gentle, quiet place; a place one cannot help but feel Ebbe himself would appreciate.  A place where contemplation and reflection can be embraced.

So, for all those who  do wish to pay their respects to Ebbe in-world, I can think of no better place in which to do so.

The base of the statue includes the test of the announcement of Ebbe’s passing (l), while the memorial has been drawing a steady stream of visitors (r)

With thanks to the Moles for creating the memorial.

Note: as Tish Coronet has pointed out via the SL Feeds, be sure to look down on the memorial from overhead – the ground before Ebbe’s has been set memorial has actually been set out to form the Second Life Hand logo, the statue replacing the eye. 

SLurl Details

SL18B: still time to submit questions to the Leadership Team

Posted on by Inara Pey
via Linden Lab

The Second Life 18th Birthday event is almost upon us, and it promises to be a time of celebration, and also of remembrance and sadness following recent news.

Given all that has happened since the start of the year – the acquisition of the Lab by a new Board; the arrival of Board member Brad Oberwager as the management team Executive Chair and his long-time business associate, Cammy Bergren as the Lab’s Chief of Staff; the sad news concerning Ebbe Altberg; the on-going technical work on Second Life, the upcoming “new” New User Experience, and so on – many SL residents are doubtless a-buzz with questions.

To this end, and as announced on Thursday, June 10th, Linden Lab will be holding a special Lab Gab session, hosted by Strawberry Linden. She’ll be putting questions to the Lab’s leadership team of Grumpity Linden, Brett Linden and Patch Linden – and there is still time for people to submit questions.

If there is something you’d like to ask of the team, simply hop over to the submission form, type in in and send it off. But hurry – the form will be closed some time on Tuesday, June 15th, 2021.

The show itself will be live streamed via the Second Life YouTube channel. on Monday, June 21st, starting at 14:00 SLT. If all goes according to plan, I’ll have a summary of the session on this blog after the event.