Coming on top of the limited-time offer of the SL10B bear avatar launched last week, the Lab has offered-up more freebies for folk to celebrate SL10B, comprising:
The blog post also reiterates the SL10B Destination Guide category. Anyone organising an event to celebrate SL’s tenth anniversary can submit details of their activity for consideration for inclusion in the special DG category.
Sl10B mesh t-shirts from LL
The post also includes a reminder of the Lab’s SL10B Photo Contest, which could see the lucky winners obtain a homestead region for up to four months.
It’s now a month since the furore over the changes made to the Second Life Terms of Service relating to the buying and selling of Linden Dollars (L$) and which lead to the Lab writing to third-party exchanges (TPEs) requesting they cease trading L$.
Immediately following the change – which was officially referred to as an “anti-fraud” measure by the Lab, there was a lot of speculation as to the cause of the changes, most of it related to the guidelines issued in March by the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement network (FinCEN), which I originally reported on back in April. There was also a good degree of confusion in the days following the announcement, with some exchanges receiving notification of a possible opportunity to resume some for of operations, while others found their SL accounts suspended, before everything was finally resolved with what some are referring to as a “climb down” by the Lab with the establishment of the “Linden Dollar Authorised Reseller Programme”.
Whether the original move was a direct result of the publication of FinCEN’s guidelines is actually somewhat debatable – as I’ve commented here across several articles. For example, blocking TPEs doesn’t actually mitigate the Lab’s own exposure as an MSB as FinCEN currently sees things; for another FinCEN gave all companies not compliant with their regulations six months to put their houses in order, and at the time LL announced the ToS change, barely two of those months had passed.
Again, as pointed out within this blog, there’s a reasonable argument to suggest that the change could have been a clumsy grab at revenue the Lab felt it was missing out on. One which may have been thought through in blinkered terms and put into play without any real understanding of how the move would actually impact a reasonable proportion of SL users.
At of June 8th, 2013, 29 organisations have signed-up to the programme
However, whatever the reasons, things appear to have calmed down somewhat, and in the 22 days since the launch of the Authorised Reseller Programme, some 29 organisations have signed-up and are now listed on the Linden Lab Official: Linden Dollar (L$) Authorized Reseller Programme wiki page.
The wiki page provides basic information on those organisations which have registered for the programme, including the currencies and payment methods they will accept from people wishing to purchase L$.
SL resident Uzi Boa (Joanna Bogacz in real life) has also compiled a reference guide for SL users wishing to purchase L$.
This provides the same information as the official website, but also includes details on typical prices charged for the purchase of L$1,000. She further breaks the list of authorised resellers into two parts: those which are operating as expected (i.e. accessible websites and services) – which total 16, and those which are described as “listed by LL but not operating or with website error” (12 in all), for a total of 28 TPEs. Hypno is listed on the LL wiki page but does not appear on Uzi’s page at the time of writing, or to actually be offering any services (the website noting that “webpage is only in Czech language. This time we are not able to accept random custommers from alien countries”).
Commenting on the comparison page to Maria Korolov in Hypergrid Business, Uzi stated she plans to try to maintain the information on the page and keep it as up-to-date as possible for the benefit of SL users.
If you’re unwilling / unable to use the LindeX for direct L$ purchases, Uzi’s page could be a handy resource for you.
Seven months ago, on Halloween 2012, MadPea Games opened Carneval, a phan-tastic series of rides, puzzles and games set in a ghostly fun fair which is itself an awesome and atmospheric build, and one presided over by none other than Cthulhu himself.
Now it seems that Cthulhu has had enough of the ghoulish revelry, and has decided to call “time” on the Carneval and the wickedness within. Perhaps it wasn’t wicked enough for his dark heart?
Already, fires are burning within the ground of the carnival, and Cthulhu’s minions are at work destroying parts of the build, and at midday on the 31st, we’re told the zombie hordes will arrive to wreak further mayhem before the entire place is swept away in a 48-hour Demolition Party focused on the Carneval main stage.
The fires are lit and the countdown has begun at Carneval
So, if you’ve not had time to visit the Carneval and drink-in the atmosphere (I’m not entirely sure how many of the rides are still operational, if any), you only have a few short hours in which to do so – so hurry; even without the rides being operational, the build alone makes this a worthwhile visit.
Nor is Carneval alone in facing The End. The Lost Treasure of the Inca Warrior is also closing (one that I’ve admittedly not had time to visit) after its own extraordinary run, in what the MadPea team are calling “the end of an era”.
Cthulhu’s minions are already at work bringing the Carneval to a suitable end
“Is This the End for the Potty Peas and Their Devious Developments?”
Not at all. New games and activities are promised, as the blog post announcing the closures states:
From the ashes and dust rises a brand new MadPea bigger and better than ever before.
Whole new games with immersion never seen before are on their way. We are creating together with the best of the best to take SL by a huge surprise.
To help fund their plans, the MadPea Games team are running a raffle which features a range of special items – some of which are from their well-respected hunts, others of which are one-of-a-kind offers. The raffle items are all on display opposite the Carneval stage, and will remain available through until midnight SLT on June 1st.
And a teaser has already been produced, hinting at what is coming in the future.
In the meantime, and if you’re up for getting some snaps of a truly inventive build and fancy an hour or two listening to music, dancing and blasting seven bells out of a zombie or three, why not grab your camera, put on your dancing shoes and slip into your favourite anti-zombie outfit and pay a last (or first) visit to the Carneval?
Regulars to this corner of the SL blogsphere know I’ve been covering Project Shining – the various projects the Lab is currently undertaking to improve Second Life on the technical front in order to give us all a (hopefully) better experience.
Part of this work includes Project Sunshine, which is more colloquially know as server-side baking (SSB) or server-side appearance (SSA) or server-side baking/appearance (SSB/A) – the choice is yours, depending on personal preference, and which I’ve covered throughout numerous reports in this blog. The primary aim of project Sunshine is to resolve the issue of avatar bake fail – those situation wherein your avatar (or other avatars) fail to render correctly to either yourself or to others around you.
Today, the Lab itself moved to formally announced the forthcoming arrival of SSB/A with a special blog post of their own on the matter, which includes a short video explaining matters:
As the post indicates, SSB/A is being deployed in three parts:
A viewer update – which is available now for the majority of commonly used SL viewers
The deployment of server-side changes, which should be commencing shortly
A further viewer-side update once the server deployments are completed.
The server-side deployment will take a while to complete, as the new service will require a degree of testing. As such, it is expected that a number of regions on the main grid will be enabled for SSB/A (if they have not been already), and these will be used to measure performance over a period of time prior to a decision being made on “throwing the switch” to enable the entire grid is SSB/A enabled (the test regions may even be scaled-up over time, depending upon how the initial testing goes.
Server-side baking / appearance: must viewers should (or will shortly) support SSB/A – make sure you update to a current release of your preferred viewer to avoid seeing grey avatars as the server-side of the new capability is deployed in the coming weeks.
As you won’t be able to tell which regions are using the new SSB/A service and which are using the existing avatar baking service, it is important that you make sure you are using a viewer which supports both capabilities – otherwise you might find yourself encountering grey avatars in increasing numbers. This means updating to a viewer which has the SSB/A code; at the time of writing, these are:
Doubtless, Catznip (R8 with SSB/A has been in development for a while), Dolphin and Exodus will have SSB/A-capable viewers out shortly as well.
Those wishing to obtain a further overview on SSB/A and also on the most recent updates out of LL on the server-side deployment plans are welcome to refer to the following reports from this blog:
Work continues on implementing the new viewer release process, although it is unlikely to debut this week (week 21). Commenting on the state-of-play at the Open-source Development meeting on Monday May 20th, Oz Linden said, “There are some new services to stand up, and I don’t have enough experience with that to be able to estimate it well.” He also indicated that the necessary changes to the log-in process I reported on in week 20 are still being progressed with care.
However, as of May 20th, 2013, the viewer beta repository has been discontinued by the Lab. This means that the next beta viewer to appear – which is due to be the Materials Processing viewer due out possibly later this week – will be built directly from the Materials project repository and not a merge with the existing beta viewer, although it will go through the existing beta channel for release and made available via viewer download page.
Viewer Naming
Under the new system, viewer names will be broadly streamlined, with beta and release candidate versions of viewer being broadly identified by the viewer type and project name (e.g “Second Life Beta Materials” or “Second Life Release Candidate Materials”), prior to being updated as the release viewer.
“Willing to Update”
As previously noted in this blog, when a user downloads a specific viewer, they will only receive updates specific to that viewer until such time as it reaches a release status (although user can theoretically run several viewer side-by-side, and receive the required updates to each of them as they become available). However, the beta viewers will in future a new Preferences option, “Willing to update to release candidates” (Preferences > Setup).
The new beta viewer option for updating to RC status
Precisely how this option works is unclear (I have contacted Oz Linden on the matter but have yet to hear back), but it appears to suggest that if unchecked, then notification of any RC updates to the viewer will not be forwarded to the user / automatically downloaded and installed, and will thus leave the user running with the viewer in a beta state until such time as a mandatory update is forced as the viewer becomes the de facto release viewer.
How Many?
The new release process means that there will be more viewer options to download via the Alternate Viewers wiki page. How many depends on the number of projects and general work is going on with the viewer. However, it also means that once operational, there should be fewer incidences when a specific project or issue interrupts the flow of viewer through to release status, as occurred towards the end of the 2012, when the viewer releases became “stuck” in the beta release channel as a result of a single crash issue.
Update: May 18th: Podex and Gyndex have indicated they have applied for Authorised Reseller status with Linden Lab.
Upate May 17th: Gwyneth Llewellyn provides an analysis of LL’s move – very much worth a read.
Linden Lab has issued a further statement on the recent changes to the Second Life Terms of Service relating to the buying and selling of Linden Dollars.
The blog post, which covers the fact that Linden Dollars can be purchased via credit card in using some 27 currencies and which includes the Lab’s “Getting and Spending Linden Dollars” Quicktips video, reveals that the Lab is launching a new programme of “Authorised Resellers” of Linden Dollars – a move which is likely to spake the most reaction.
The post reads in part::
Now, to give users more options and make it easier to purchase L$, we’re launching a pilot program of Authorized Resellers of L$. These sites are authorized by Linden Lab to purchase L$ on the LindeX and then resell those L$ using a variety of international currencies and payment methods. To be clear: per the Terms of Service, these resellers will not be allowed to purchase L$ outside of the LindeX (i.e. they will not be able to buy L$ back from users and cash people out). The list of Authorized Resellers participating in the pilot program is available here.
If you would like to receive an application to the program when it formally launches, please send an email to LDollarSeller@lindenlab.com.
The initial list of Authorised Resellers comprises AnsheX, Buildo, VForEx Inc, VirWoX, and Zoha Islands, with more potentially to be added to the scheme – there is an invitation for other exchanges wishing to join the programme to e-mail Linden Lab.
The full terms and conditions for the new programme can be found on the SL wiki.
Coming on top of the limited-time offer of the SL10B bear avatar launched last week, the Lab has offered-up more freebies for folk to celebrate SL10B, comprising:
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 