Bellisseria extension: new homes theme takes shape(?)

Posted on by Inara Pey
What form might the upcoming Linden Homes theme take? We don’t yet know – but it would appear new regions in support of them are being developed / tested by the Lab

As those who follow the development of the “new” Linden Homes are already aware, a further theme is due to be previewed at the RFL SL Christmas Expo, and it appears that when released, this will take the form of a large-scale increase to Bellisseria’s southern extent.

This year Linden Lab, the Society’s partner in the fight against cancer, is joining the 9th Annual SL Christmas Expo. Not only will Linden Lab be decorating Linden homes as part of the Lights of Hope contest but the Expo will be the venue of the BIG REVEAL!  The long-anticipated ALL NEW Version 4 LINDEN HOMES will be UNVEILED at the Lights Of Hope!  Expo visitors will be treated with the newest premier member homes as well as some very VERY Special Linden surprises and incentives!

– from the announcement of the 9th SL Christmas Expo

The additional regions can be seen in the Bellisseria development / test SSP continent. If I’m honest, in their current form, that look like an artificial, rectangle-like bolt-on to the more organic form of the original continent – but this may well change as the new expansion grows over time. It this, it has something of the “bolt-on” feel of the original Houseboat expansion.

The new Linden Homes SSP extension regions

What’s interesting about the new extension, however, are the individual parcels. These are somewhat different to those seen with the Traditional Homes and Houseboats. Also, whereas the Traditional Homes sit alongside what are clearly roads, the profiles of the houses in the extension regions not only have a different outline, that also appear to be built around a different style of road / footpath.

Nor is that all. The south extent of the existing regions of Bellisseria show the continent’s railway line passing through a cutting in the mountains and onward into the new regions.

The Traditional Homes parcels in Bellisseria (l) compared with a parcel from the extension – note the different house profiles and road / footpath elements

The extension of the railway lines tends to demonstrate that – as promised – they will be a prominent feature of the continent and the new Linden Home theme. On the flip side, the new regions do not appear to include Houseboats – which might disappoint some – but they do appear to offer beach houses and island homes.

In his SL16B Meet the Lindens session, Patch Linden indicated that there are likely to be commercial opportunities arising in Bellisseria – at the time suggesting one of these opportunities might come with the Trailers and Campers. Such opportunities have yet to appear, and whether or not they will as a part of the eventual deployment of the new Bellisseria extension (whenever that happens) remains to be seen.

Within the development / test regions, the Bellisseria railway lines appear to be a core part of the new extension’s infrastructure

Another point of interest with the SSP development regions is the demarcation of a series of SSPXT regions (located to the east of the main continent and shown in teal or green). It’s not clear what these are to be, but one guess is perhaps the green regions will be shaped into outlying islands, and the teal regions might form some kind of archipelago. Then again, they might be something else entirely – time will tell as to whether they stay and are developed (and become clearer) or not.

In the meantime, and beyond the promise of previewing them at the 2019 SL Christmas Expo, it’s not clear when the new Linden Homes theme will become available – but doubtless, many are watching the SSP development regions with interest. However, those wishing to obtain one of the new homes – whether Premium or not – might want to enter the Christmas Expo’s One Of A Kind (OOAK) auction – on offer is a 6-month Premium subscription and one of these new Linden Homes provided on a specially designed parcel, and with extras. See EPIC OOAK Linden Home Auction @ 2019 SL Christmas Expo for more on this.

2019 viewer release summaries week #47

Posted on by Inara Pey
Logos representative only and should not be seen as an endorsement / preference / recommendation

Updates for the week ending Sunday, November 24th

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

  • Current Release version 6.3.4.532299, formerly the Ordered Shutdown RC viewer, dated November 4th, – No Change.
  • Release channel cohorts:
    • Wassail Maintenance RC viewer updated to version 6.3.5.533043 on November 22nd.
    • EEP RC viewer updated to version 6.4.0.532771 on November 20th.
  • Project viewers:
    • Project Muscadine (Animesh follow-on) project viewer updated to version 6.4.0.532999, November 22nd.
    • Copy / Paste viewer updated to version 6.3.5.532860 on November 20th.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V6-style

V1-style

Mobile / Other Clients

  • No Updates

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Winter’s blanket at The Four Seasons in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The Four Seasons, November 2019 – click any image for full size

Elyjia Baxton has a long association with regions designs in Second Life, be it those of her own, or those created with Brayan26 Friller, and I’ve been fortunate to cover a number of them in these pages. In 2018, she produced Snow Falls, a winter wonderland rich in detail (and later to become A Way of  Life – see: Enjoying some Snow Falls in Second Life and A Way of Life in Second Life). Now, for 2019, she has (with Brayan’s involvement) returned to the theme of Snow Falls, turning her current Homestead region The Four Seasons into another winter wonderland.

It’s a setting that has a certain Scandinavian feel in that the region is intended to be surrounded by tall, snow-capped mountains which, together with the crystal clear (and cold-looking) waters, bring to mind a location sitting within a deep fjord.

The Four Seasons, November 2019

I say “intended”, because the region seems to be a victim of BUG-225295, which can make whether or not a region surround rezzes something of coin toss. During our first visit, we saw the region entirely sans surround, for example, and when I returned to take the photos seen here, it only popped-up when I was well into the second hour of my visit, despite several attempts on my part to force it to rez.

However, whether or not the surround pops up for you is actually  – to me – neither here nor there; the region is attractive in its own right with our without the frame of mountains ringing it. In fact, I’d go so far to say that I found the lack of the surround allowed more of the colours evident in the region’s windlight setting to be better reflected within the region itself – as I hope is apparent in the majority of the photos in this article.

The Four Seasons, November 2019

Certainly, the lack of the surround, should it fail to rez for you, doesn’t actually detract from the beauty of the region, which is a wonderful mix of a low-lying landscape running south to north from the landing point, and Arctic-looking waters that cut into it to form channels and bays frozen into stillness by the cold, and on which snow is in places lying.

The landing point, with its parade of shops, offers the suggestions that beyond it, there just might be a bustling town, while the land to the north, with its wooden cabins, stone-build pavilion and gazebos and timber church, speak to the “rural” outlying regions of that town; a place where winter brings with it a sense of Yuletide spirit and celebration by means of crisp walks in the snow and cuddles under blankets before open braziers.

The Four Seasons, November 2019

From the shops and landing point, a rutted, snowy track points the north, an invitation to set forth and explore and visit places like the timber chapel, the pavilion and Santa in his gazebo. Along the way, there is plenty of detail to appreciate, from foxes to snowmen to reindeer and more. Rowing boats bravely left out on the water now sit frozen in place, offering more places to sit and appreciate the landscape.

This is very much a place that puts one in the winter spirit: the weather has been handled such that just looking at the setting makes you want to bundle up in warm clothes before going out into the snow and exploring – to the degree that I felt my avatar was positively under-dressed in jeans, shirt and western boots and at risk of catching a nasty cold!

The Four Seasons, November 2019

As well as following the main path around the region,  there’s also the opportunity to head westwards from the landing point and visit a glass-sided pavilion where shelter from the weather might be found in front of a decorated tree (although a little fireplace would help add to the appeal!). Meanwhile, across the first bridge and off to the east, a cosy little cabin offers a similar refuge from the cold, warmed by a cast iron stove.

Rounded-out by a soft sound scape over which a slightly mournful bell slowly tolls (perhaps bringing to mind the words of John Donne), The Four Seasons offers a rich, wintertime setting for the time of year, with many opportunities for photography. Those taking pictures may like to consider submitting them to the region’s Flickr group.

The Four Seasons, November 2019

With thanks to Shawn for the pointer to the region!

SLurl Details

 

 

Space Sunday: Europa’s water and a Starship’s mishap

Posted on by Inara Pey
An artist’s impression of what the 2012 water plume might have looked like if seen from the vicinity of Europa. Credit: NASA / ESA / M. Kornmesser.

What has long been suspected has likely now confirmed: water is present under the ice of Jupiter’s moon Europa.

As I’ve noted on numerous occasions in this space Sunday articles, it’s long been thought that an ocean of water exists under the cracked icy crust of Europa, potentially kept liquid by tidal forces created by the moon being constantly “flexed” by the competing gravities of Jupiter and the other large Moons pulling on it, thus generating large amounts of heat deep within its core – heat sufficient to keep an ocean possibly tens of kilometres deep in a liquid state.

Europa’s internal structure, showing the subsurface ocean that could be up to 100 km deep

Circumstantial evidence for this water has already been found:

  • During its time studying the Jovian system between 1995 and 2003, NASA’s Galileo probe detected perturbations in Jupiter’s magnetic field near Europa – perturbations scientists attributed to a salty ocean under the moon’s frozen surface, since a salty ocean can conduct electricity.
  • In 2012 the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) captured an image of Europa showing what appeared to be a plume of water vapour rising from one of the many cracks in Europa’s surface – crack themselves pointed to as evidence of the tidal flexing mentioned above. The plume rose some 200 km from the moon.
  • In 2014, HST captured images of a similar plume rising some 160 km above Europa.
A composite image showing suspected plumes of water vapour erupting from Europa at the 7 o’clock position, as imaged by the Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014. They rose 160 km, and are believed to have come from the sub-surface ocean. Note that the image of Europa is superimposed on the original, and comprises a mosaic of images taken by the Galileo and Voyager missions. Credit: NASA, ESA, W. Sparks (STScI), and the USGS Astrogeology Science Centre

Now a new paper, A measurement of water vapour amid a largely quiescent environment on Europa, published on November 18th, 2019 in Nature, offers the first direct evidence that water is indeed present on Europa. Specifically, the team behind the study, led by US planetary scientist Lucas Paganini, claims to have confirmed the existence of water vapour on the surface of the moon.

Essential chemical elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulphur) and sources of energy, two of three requirements for life, are found all over the solar system. But the third — liquid water — is somewhat hard to find beyond Earth. While scientists have not yet detected liquid water directly, we’ve found the next best thing: water in vapour form.

– Lucas Paganini

Evidence of plate tectonics have been found on Europa, again pointing to the influence of tidal flexing. This conceptual illustration shows the subduction process where a cold, brittle, outer portion of Europa’s 20-30 km thick ice shell moved into the warmer shell interior and was ultimately subsumed. This resulted in a low-relief subsumption band at the surface in the overriding plate, alongside which cryolavas containing water vapour may have erupted. Credit: Noah Kroese, I.NK

Using the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, Paganini and his team studied Europa over a total of 17 nights between 2016 and 2017. Using the telescope’s spectrograph, they looked for the specific frequencies of infra-red light given off by water when it interacts with solar radiation. When observing Europa’s leading hemisphere as it orbits Jupiter, the team found those signals, estimating that they’d discovered sufficient water vapour to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in a matter of minutes. However, the discovery has been somewhat tempered by the fact water may only be released relatively infrequently.

Such infrequent releases help explain why it has taken so long to confirm the existence above Europa, but there are other reasons as well. The components that comprise water have long been known to exist on the moon whether or not they indicate the presence of water. Thus, detecting these components within a plume doesn’t necessarily equate to the discovery of water vapour – not unless they are in the right combinations. There’s a further pair of complications in that none of our orbital capabilities are specifically designed to seek signs of water within the atmospheres of the other planets or expelled from icy moons. So Earth-based instruments  – like the Keck telescope spectrographs – must be used, and these deal with the naturally occurring water vapour in our own atmosphere.

Within Paganini’s team there is confidence that their findings are correct, as they diligently perform a number of checks and tests to remove possible contamination of their data by Earth-based water vapour. Even so, they are the first to acknowledge that close-up, direct studies of Europa are required – particularly to ascertain if any water under the surface of Europa does form a globe-spanning ocean, or if it is confined to reservoirs or fully liquid water trapped within an icy, slushly mantle. It is hoped that NASA’s Europa Clipper and Europe’s JUICE mission (both of which I’ve “previewed” in Space Sunday: to explore Europa, August 2019) will help address questions like this.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: Europa’s water and a Starship’s mishap” →

A Seanchai Thanksgiving week in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Seanchai Library

It’s time to highlight another week of storytelling in Voice by the staff and volunteers at the Seanchai Library. As always, all times SLT, and events are held at the Library’s home at Holly Kai Park, unless otherwise indicated.

Sunday, November 24th 18:30: Ann Mary; Her Two Thanksgivings

Calaedonia Skytower reads Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman’s short story. First published in 1892, as a part of the short story collection, Young Lucretia and Other Stories. Though Thanksgiving preparations are often stressful, what’s most important is celebrating with family!

At The Golden Horseshoe, Magicland Park.

Monday, November 25th 19:00: Teacher’s Pet / War and Peace

Gyro Muggins returns to Larry Niven’s Known Space universe and the Man-Kzin Wars series to bring us two short stories from that series written by Matthew Joseph Harrington, and which appeared in the Man-Kzin volume 11 (edited by Niven), first published in 2005.

Set after the end of the war, the stories within Man-Kzin XI are predominantly set during a period where the Kzin are down (but not necessarily out) and having to adapt to no longer being the masters of all races they encounter, and are in roughly chronological order.

The two stories by Harrington follow the trio by established writer Hal Colebatch, and marked his début as a published author at the age of 35. They are regarded by many as being strong studies in the Man-Kzin lore, whilst also drawing on other literary sci-fi sources. The stories are also noted for Harrington’s ability to round-out a number of “loose ends” within the Man-Kin wars as well as offering new slants on the broader carves of Niven’s Known Space universe.

Both stories use a play on words in their titles, with War and Peace doing so both in the manner it reflects the period of peace following war, and also for the way it focuses on the life and work of Peace Corben, a human female Protector, who returns in Harrington’s sequel story, Peace and Freedom, published in the 2009 volume Man Kzin Wars XII.

Tuesday, November 26th 19:00 Spirit of Steamboat

Kayden Oconnell returns to the tales of sheriff Walt Longmire, reading the ninth volume of Craig Johnson’s tales about his laconic US Marine-turned-lawman protagonist.

It’s Christmas Eve, and Longmire is reading A Christmas Carol in his office when he is visited by a ghost of Christmas past: a young woman with a scar across her forehead. He doesn’t recognise her, but she clearly knows him and his predecessor, sheriff Lucian Connally, under whom Longmire started his career as a deputy sheriff in 1972.

His interest aroused, Longmire takes the the young woman to see Connally, now a resident at an Assisted Living Home. But Connally, a former US Army Air Force pilot who flew B-25 Mitchell bombers in the Second World War, fails to recognise her. This is in some ways hardly surprising, given Connally’s frequently inebriated state.

Disappointed at the two men’s reaction, the young woman whispers a single word, “Steamboat”. In doing so, she embarks on a tale that tales Longmire and Connally back to Christmas Eve 1988, when Longmire had been a deputy sheriff just two months. The holiday season had brought with it a record-breaking blizzard – and a road accident that left Longmire and the (again inebriated) Connally with no choice but to pull a B-25 out of mothballs and make a dangerous flight through the blizzard to Denver, Colorado, in order to save a life.

Wednesday, November 27th 19:00: What’s Cookin’?

A favourite food stories and recipe exchange with Caledonia Skytower and friends. This week, the Thanksgiving Edition, with Turkeys and stuffing galore. All are welcomed to bring some of their favourite recipes to share, on note card.

Thursday, November 28th 10:00: Alice’s Restaurant Massacree

A Seanchai Library Thanksgiving tradition.

via Wikipedia

You can get anything that you want
At Alice’s restaurant.
You can get anything that you want
At Alice’s restaurant.
Walk right in, it’s around the back,
Just a half-a-mile from the railroad tracks,
And you can get anything that you want
At Alice’s restaurant.

As Thanksgiving arrives in the United States, Shandon Loring presents singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie’s famous 1967 musical monologue, Alice’s Restaurant Massacree (also popularly known as Alice’s Restaurant, and the inspiration of the 1969 Arthur Penn film of that name, starring Guthrie himself).

Aside from the opening and closing chorus, the song is delivered as the spoken word accompanied by a ragtime guitar. The story is based on a true incident in Guthrie’s life when, in 1965, he (then 18) and a friend were arrested for illegally dumping garbage from Alice’s restaurant after discovering that the town dump was closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

What follows is a complicated, ironic and amusing story told in a deadpan, satirical tone, which encompasses fines, blind judges, guide dogs, 27 8×10 copiously annotated glossy photos related to the littering, frustrated police officers, the Vietnam War draft and, ultimately, the inexplicable ways in which bureaucracy moves to foil itself, just when you’ve given up hope of foiling it yourself.

Also presented in Kitely (grid.kitely.com:8002:SEANCHAI).

2Lei and a return to a Lost Town in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Lost Town: Cecilia Nansen – 2Lei 10th edition

In previewing the 2019 2Lei No Violence! season to raise awareness of the annual International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, I was surprised to see that one of the exhibition centres for this year is Lost Town – La Citta’ Perduta.

Surprised, because between 2012 and 2014, the Lost Town was a regular destination for me in exploring the arts in SL (in fact, it’s the place where I first made an attempt at a “full” SL machinima). However, somewhere along the way, I lost track of the location (I actually thought it had closed!) – so my apologies to sivi Kelberry, the region’s holder, for doing so.

Lost Town: Eve Pearl – – 2Lei 10th edition

For the 10th 2Lei edition, Lost Town is hosting exhibitions by Cecilia Nansen, Dixmix Source, Eve Pearl, Hillany Schofield, Mistero Hifeng, Moya Patrick, and Nevereux. This is an accomplished group of artists, and the art is equally so. As such, each of the displays presented in Lost Town has a particular attractiveness and message.

Some of the exhibits tackle the subject of violence against women head-on, as with Mistrero Hifeng’s Di quel che e’ stato non resta, which is startling in its context and presentation. Others focus more on the beauty and femininity of women, an approach that is particularly effective given the primary subject matter for the season. This can be seen through Eve Pearl’s images, for example.

Lost Town: Mistero Hifeng, – 2Lei 10th edition

Still others provide something of the hidden truths of the violence that can exists within a seemingly loving relationship. Note the hard, cold look evident in the male of Dixmix’s images, and the pose / look of the female – her looks suggestive of a desire to please that could go beyond a “simple” desire to show love.

However, I confess to finding Cecilia Nansen’s triptych of monochrome images especially powerful. From the hand raised in a appeal to stop / to be left alone, through the eyes closed against tears, to the line of blood trickling from a nostril, these three images convey all that needs to be said about the hurt and terror of domestic violence.

Lost Town: Dixmix Source – – 2Lei 10th edition

Evocative throughout, all of the displays offered in Lost Town are all emotive in content and should not be missed. For more information on the 10th Edition of 2Lei’s No Violence! season, please refer to my preview piece: No Violence! the 2Lei 10th edition in Second Life.

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