Update: La Virevolte has closed, SLurls have therefore been removed from this article.
Iska (sablina) and ChimKama have returned La Virevolte (“the Twirl”) to the grid after the Homestead region on which it sits – Lemon Beach – spent time as Ponto Cabana (read here for more on that design), and are currently presenting it in a marvellous springtime rural design that carries hallmarks of central France in its look and feel.
To the east of the region sits a a rugged curtain of cliffs, a stream tumbling down the slope leading away from their feet to pass under a bridge that carries a narrow road away from a tunnel that appears to cut through them. Their presence suggests this is a headland somewhere, the tunnel cutting through their walls forming a link to the land beyond, while the water flanking the three remaining sides of the setting has the feel of being a great lake, the far shores of which are obscured by haze.
La Virevolte
Buildings lie to either side of the road as it runs down from the tunnel. Some of these – most notably the church-like stone-built gatehouse – indicating this place has been inhabited a long time. Other buildings, such as the auto shop – are of far more recent architectural design, and pointing to the longevity of occupation in this part of the land.
The road splits at the old gatehouse, one arm continuing south onto the headland’s finger, passing a small café where tables are set outside on a cobbled terrace and a Pétanque boules game overlooks the calm waters. This arm of the road ends at a small, slightly run-down farm, where dairy cows quietly graze, and which also offers a view out over the water towards the small island on which a painter’s retreat sits.
La Virevolte
The northern arm of the road crosses the little stream at a second bridge to form a relaxed loop around grassy tiers on which sit apple trees in their springtime blossom, and which are topped by a second farmhouse. Lantern-lit paths run along and around these tiers, while the road’s passage around them is marked by stone walls and wooden fencing.
A small shingle beach sits off the south side of this road, marked by the carcass of an old rowing boat that forlornly looks towards the little painter’s island. However, there is no water crossing to the latter – which doesn’t appear to be private – is provided; flying or wading seem to be the only way to reach its adobe walls with their Spanish looks.
La Virevolte
It offers a cosy terrace and flat roof, each with places to sit and pass the time, paintings stacked against walls, a fresh canvas occupying an easel on the roof, perhaps waiting for inspiration to strike the artist who sometimes occupies this little getaway.
Other places to sit can be found scattered throughout the region, and there is a wonderful and quite natural sense of age to this little village – and not just as a result of the presence of the more medieval buildings to be found here. There is the tired-looking farm mentioned above and, not far from it, the yard alongside the auto repair shop, that looks for all the world like an abandoned playground.
La Virevolte
Which should not be taken to mean this is a place of ruin or decay; far from it. The beauty and appeal of La Virevolte is clear; what there is, is a perfect balance between natural beauty of setting and landscape and the careworn feel of places perhaps past their prime; a balance that can often be witnessed when passing through any town, village or hamlet.
Finished with a gentle and natural sound scape and framed under an ideal windlight complete with birds flying and wheeling overhead, this current iteration of La Virevolte makes for an engaging, photogenic springtime visit and is not to be missed.
The Lin C Art Gallery, curated by Lin Carlucci, has opened the doors on its April exhibition, featuring as its chosen artist Yumi (Yumanthi), with an official opening event on Wednesday, March 27th, 2019.
Entitled Yumi’s Art, the exhibition presents around 29 pieces, which might be broadly split into three areas, each of which reflects Yumi’s approach to her work.
I am in SL a lot to visit places for photo-shoots of landscapes, people and situations, and show them in my special View. I love to work with light and shadow and special and different colours I use from the viewer tools and other paint programmes.
I love to present my photos in my galleries and other places and am always glad when people enjoy them. I am learning a lot from great artists in SL and my art is a work in progress.
The ground floor exhibition space is largely devoted to Yumi’s images of her Second Life travels, providing interesting and in place unusual views of the places she has visited. Above these, on the mezzanine level, is a selection of avatar studies, some of which might be deemed NSFW, and what I can only describe as a series of experiments in colour, some of which border on the abstract, and three of which, depicting scenes involving a mermaid, I found attractive in their bold use of colour and contrast.
An interesting and eclectic mix of images and styles, Yumi’s Art officially opens with music and dancing at 13:00 SLT on Wednesday, March 27th, and runs through until Thursday, April 26th, 2019.
There was no deployment to the SLS (Main) channel on Tuesday, March 26th, leaving it on server maintenance package 19#19.03.07.525089. Previously deployed to BlueSteel and LeTigre, this update contains:
Internal fixes.
The Environment Enhancement Project code.
On Wednesday, March 27th, the BlueSteel and LeTigre RC channels should be updated with server maintenance package 19#19.03.22.525531, comprising:
Internal Fixes
Removal of UDP Asset message handling – see below
There is no planned deployment to the Magnum RC channel, which should remain on server maintenance package 19#19.03.15.525315, comprising:
The new operating system update.
The Environment Enhancement Project code and all bug fixes for it.
Removal of UDP Asset Message Handling
The BlueSteel and LeTigre RC deployment sees the removal of server-side support for asset (inventory) messaging via UDP. All maintained viewers should be using HTTP for all asset handling – and this has been the case for a good few years for several asset types, with the last few moving to HTTP in 2017; as such these viewers will not be impacted by this deployment.
However, it does mean that anyone using very old viewers still reliant on UDP messaging for assets will not be able to receive any updates on regions on either BlueSteel or LeTigre – this includes the two legacy viewers provided by Linden Lab, the Linux Spur viewer and the Obsolete platform viewer, neither of which contain all of the HTTP asset fetching code.
If you hear someone on a BlueSteel or LeTigre region complaining they are constantly a cloud on those region, suggest to them they check their viewer, and perhaps move to a more recent version.
SL Viewer
Bakes on Mesh reached RC status with the release of version 6.1.1.525409 on Tuesday, March 26th.
For those not familiar with this project, Bakes on Mesh is a new feature to allow system avatar baked textures to be shown on mesh attachments. Currently you need this viewer to use it.
The Love Me Render RC viewer updated to version 6.1.1.525446 on Tuesday, March 26th.
The Estate Access Management RC viewer updated to version 6.2.0.525404 on Monday, March 25th.
The rest of the viewer pipelines remain as follows:
Current Release version 6.1.0.524670, formerly the BugSplat RC viewer February 13, promoted February 28 No Change.
Linux Spur viewer, version 5.0.9.329906, dated November 17, 2017 and promoted to release status 29 November – offered pending a Linux version of the Alex Ivy viewer code.
Obsolete platform viewer, version 3.7.28.300847, May 8, 2015 – provided for users on Windows XP and OS X versions below 10.7.
On Tuesday, March 26th, 2019, the European Parliament voted in favour of the EU’s new European Union Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. As I noted in Copyright, the EU and user-generated content, this has proven a controversial piece of legislation. Although intended to help protect the rights of content providers / creators, aspects of the Directive – notably Articles 3, 11 and 13 – have been seen by opponents as potentially causing damage to the Internet.
Article 11, (colloquially referred to as “the link tax”) which could severely restrict how we can share links, and information found on European on-line sites.
Article 13 (the so-called “meme tax”, although its scope is far greater), which has drawn the heaviest criticism,which could do much to block or restrict the availability of user-generated content.
Article 13 – which is now, somewhat confusingly, Article 17 – has been of particular concern, as it pushes the onus of rights protection aware from rights holders and pro-actively onto the shoulders content sharing platforms, which potentially causes issues, as I noted when writing on the topic at the start of March:
Aimed at the likes of Google (including YouTube), Facebook and the like, Article 13 could fundamentally impact any platform playing host to user-generated content (UGC), including Second Life, Sansar and other virtual worlds.
Under the Article, all such services are expected to pro-actively prevent any content that might violate the Directive from being uploaded. They are to do so through the use of “proportionate content recognition technologies” – that is, automated content filtering, designed to block anything that might by in violation of copyright. However, such systems a) may not be affordable to those required to implement them, and b) don’t actually work as advertised (as is the case with Google’s multi-million-dollar ContentID system, which has been shown to be far from successful).
Drawing the loudest criticism, Articles 11 and 13 (/ 17) have seen the Directive pass through a number of re-writes, and amendments were being put forward right up until February 2019. The final Parliamentary vote was subject to intense debate, but saw the Directive pass with 348 votes in favour, 274 against. A proposal to allow MEPs to debate and vote on individual amendments was rejected by just five votes*.
So now the vote has been taken, what does this mean?
Well, contrary to the more alarmist reactions, the Internet is not about to totally implode before the weekend arrives; nor are we going to see sudden changes to policies relating to content upload within Second Life. But the risk to EU based content creators, bloggers, vloggers, streamers, etc., is still very much there, and shouldn’t be sidelined; it’s just that there are some more steps the Directive must go through.
Julia Rada, former rapporteur of the EU’s Parliament’s review of the 2001 Copyright Directive referring to the new EU Copyright Directive as “a disaster for the Internet and a generation”
The first of these will come on April 9th, when the Directive is put to the European Council for adoption. Until recently, this looked like a foregone conclusion. However, despite being one of two countries responsible for the final wording of Article 13 (/ 17) in particular, it seems Germany is having something of a change of heart, with their Minister of Justice publicly opposing the idea of upload filters:
We think #Uploadfilter is the wrong Way to go about it. Dear Union, if You want to maintain a Spark of Credibility, You support our Motion in the European Parliament. How we can prevent Upload Filters.
– German Minister of Justice Katarina Barley on Article 13 via Twitter, March 23rd
This means Germany might still retract its support, particularly giving the depth of public opposition to Article 13 (/ 17) that has been voiced. While this seems unlikely (see the video above), it is still important because five other member states – the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Italy, and Finland – have voiced public opposition to the Directive the vote. So should Germany, a key nation behind the legislation and of the EU, change its mind between now and April 9th, it would prevent a Council majority being reached. This would likely result in further negotiations n the Directive being required after the EU elections due to be held on May 26th, 2019 – elections which could see those determined to see the Directive passed over and above the many concerns raised, voted out of office.
And even if the Council pass the Directive, it will still take time to come into effect. EU nations (and probably the UK, despite Brexit), are theoretically allowed two years to transpose EU Directives into legislation; more often than not, it takes longer than this to be achieved. In the case of Article 13 (/ 17), the process could well be exacerbated by the fact – and as I again noted in my March 5th article – it contains many holes which need to be dealt with. This in itself could result in a chaotic situation – something that activists in Germany and Poland, as well as concerned organisations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation are already taking up ahead of the April 9th EU Council meeting.
Despite potentially benefiting from the Directive and Article 13 (/ 17) Google, whose parent Alphabet has spent $100 million pursuing the development of content recognition filters, has joined with other major players within EDiMA, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Snap and Microsoft, in speaking out against the vote, noting the Copyright Directive stands at odds with other European legislation:
EDiMA, representing digital businesses and online platforms in Europe, regrets the lack of clarity and practicality of two key articles of the Directive.
Specifically, Article 11 of the Directive have been found to be ambiguous and will lead to the greater likelihood of litigation. Whilst Article 13 continues to be technically unworkable because it imposes a monitoring obligation on platforms, in conflict with the e-Commerce Directive which states that there should be none.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association in Europe has similarly spoken out against the passage of the Directive, referring to it as a “missed opportunity” and commenting:
We regret the adoption by the EU Parliament of the #copyright directive. We fear that upload filters and the press publishers’ right will harm on-line innovation and restrict on-line freedoms.
Some hope that gentler language added to Article 13 (/ 17) after the September 2018 vote, and which talks of platforms putting the means in place for rights holders to more ready point to infringements in order to have them removed, might present a means to prevent the more dreaded impact of the Directive. But this is very far from certain.
As such, while a significant battle against the EU Copyright Directive has been lost, it is not unreasonable to say the war is now over – but it is going to be significantly harder to win for opponents of Articles 11 and 13 (/ 17) as the fight moves to a more national level in order to persuade governments and the Council of the Directive’s flaws.
* Ciaran Laval, via Twitter, informed me this was actually the result of an error: a group of Swedish MEPs apparently intended to vote in favour of allowing the debate on individual Articles, but pressed the wrong electronic buttons. Unfortunately, the vote stands as recorded, but the error has been noted.
The auction system leverages Second Life Place Pages as the medium for presenting land for auction and for placing bids, together with a new “cover page” listing available parcels up for auction, which can be found at https://places.secondlife.com/auctions.
If you are not familiar with Place Pages, you can find out about them via my Place Pages tutorial. This will be updated to include the relevant information on setting a parcel for auction in the near future, once the service has been confirmed as being “live”. In the meantime, additional details on Mainland auctions can be found in the Second Life Knowledge base as follows:
Update:in keeping with Serene and Jade’s approach to keeping their region designs open for approximately a month, Ukivok has closed, and SLurls have therefore been removed from this article, as the host region is under private holding.
As I’ve frequently noted, Serene Footman and Jade Koltai are the creators of what are arguably the most evocative region designs made for Second Life.Each of their creations tends to last for a month, and when available, should not be missed, given they are so beautifully presented and perfectly reflect the physical world locations that form their inspiration.
Each and every design – the majority I have written about in this blog – are exquisite, but I confess there is something about their latest design – Ukivok – that is utterly breathtaking; quite the most visually impressive presentation of a rugged, isolated island, one that offers an informative look at a part of the world perhaps unknown to most.
Ukivok
Our new sim is a recreation of the abandoned Alaskan village of Ukivok … Once home to around 200 Iñupiat, the village is located King Island, which is situated in the Bering Sea, around 64km off the Alaskan coast and 145km from Nome.
– Serene Footman, describing Ukivok
The Iñupiat (or Inupiaq) are native Alaskan people whose traditional territory extends from Norton Sound on the Bering Sea to the Canada–United States border. Those who once lived on Ling Island called themselves Aseuluk, “people of the sea” or Ukivokmiut – a name combining the name of the village and “miut”, meaning “people” (and so might translate as “people of Ukivok”).
Ukivok
The village itself seems an impossible place; built against a rocky slope of the island’s flank as it rises at a 45-degree angle from the sea. Houses and community buildings sit upon wooden platforms, themselves standing on stilts, with the platforms rising in uneven tiers, connected by rickety looking wooden walkways and steps. Nestled between the frigid sea below and the desolate upper slopes of the island, the most recognisable building in the village is perhaps the 2-storey faded white block of the former Bureau of Indian Affairs school, the closure of which in the latter part of the 20th century marked the beginning of the end of village life on the island.
For their build, Jade and Footman could not recreate all of King Island, which is 1.6 km wide (and, as an aside, was named thus by Captain James Cook in 1778, in recognition of Lieutenant James King, a member of his crew). Instead, they have focused on the bay the village sits above, and the village itself.
Ukivok
And the reproduction perfectly captures the windswept, elemental look and feel of the now-deserted Ukivok perfectly, including a homage to the school mentioned above. The landing point sits off-shore platform that provides a glorious first look at the island as it rises from the waves, reaching an impressive, and entirely natural 108 metres above the surrounding sea floor.
Even without the village, the island makes for an incredible sight, and it’s clear considerable thought an effort has gone into designing and building it; if you can, make sure you cam all the way around it to fully appreciate the beauty of the design. A board walk links the landing point with the shoreline, where a steep set of steps offer the way up to the first platform – and the start of an adventure up through the village, using steps and ladders (click the latter to ascend / descend them), passing through areas that offer echoes of the lives once lived here, and opportunities to sit and appreciate the island as a whole.
Ukivok
The Ukivokmiut were subsistence hunters and whalers who had lived on King Island for centuries. Their activities on and around the island included hunting for seals and walruses, crab fishing, and gathering bird eggs and other foods.
– Serene Footman, drawing on notes about the Aseuluk of King Island
Above the upper levels of the village are more steps, linking shelves of rock one to the next. Some of these steps might be easy to find, others hidden by the scrub hedges that cling to cliff and slope. Follow one group, and you may find your way to the north-eastern headland, which again offers a stunning view back across the rest of the island to the village. This route will also take you past an homage to an entirely natural tor of rocks that crown the physical world King Island.
Ukivok
The crown of this Jade and Serene’s version is a little different, and lies to the south-east. It is marked by a single statue looking down over the village, and the view gives a further understanding of Ukivok’s seemingly precarious position on the island. Close to the statue is a zip line which descends steeply (and quite rapidly) down to an outcrop of rock and shingle close to the landing point. Should you take the ride, you’ll have to fly back to the landing point or to the island; or you can rest a while on the chairs set out on the rock.
Set under an ideal windlight, surrounded by ocean foam and perfectly placed submerged terrain that is naturally suggestive of rocky shallows close to the island, Ukivok is completed by another superb sound scape. And once having seen it, I think you might find it hard to deny it is one of the natural wonders of Second Life – so many sure you visit it while it is here.
La Virevolte – click any image for full size
La Virevolte
La Virevolte
La Virevolte
La Virevolte
La Virevolte
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 