opropi: July 2007

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Whats faster... spaceship or flight?

Angry Investors Scuttle AVIX Acquisition

what a surprise

Your World... Your Suggestions....

Well, SL certainly is full of changes at the moment. New Policies, new guidelines, new features... Some of these come from the minds of our virtual government, The Lindens, but others do actually come from suggestions of everyday residents just like you and me. If you've ever wondered how you can make your voice heard (and I'm not talking about SL Voice), you may want to make your way over to http://jira.secondlife.com/, also known as Second Life Issues.This website is a open forum for sl residents to report bugs, glitches and problems on SL, for the guys at Linden Lab to tackle as part of their system support. It also allows residents to make suggestions for modifications or improvements to SL, to make it more friendly, and make it the best experience for all ingame. Once the suggestion has been made, any SL user can log in to the site, using their sl username and password, and show your support, by voting for the change, thus putting the weight of the populace behind the proposed change.Here are some of the more interesting suggestions currently being voted on:* MISC-208 - The ability to be a member of more than 25 groups, to avoid that heartbreaking group box cleanout.

* VWR-1569 - The creation of an "Are you sure?" prompt to when you click the "Take off all clothes" option, to avoid embarrassing accidental nudity

* MISC-262 - The ability to sit on prims attached to an avatar, so that if your friend is a horse, you can jump on their saddle

* VWR-1080 - The addition of a slider to the edit appearance shirt options, allowing women to have a top that spans their breasts, rather than looking like it's been sprayed on.

* MISC-224 - The creation of some zero gravity space SIMs, possibly above the grid, or at least an option for someone purchasing a private island to restrict gravity to create their own space sim.

* MISC-253 - The addition of resident's rl nationality to the mythical age verification that is apparently approaching at some point, to possibly allow gaming to resurface, as then gambling could be restricted to those who to whom gaming is legal in their countrySo, why not go and have your say, and who knows what could be the next change we're reporting here in the paper. Oh, and here is my favourite suggestion, which could effect exactly who we hear about these problems from: MISC-508 - Subject: "Scapegoat Linden"

Refreshing new club opening tomorrow

WSE Announces 3.0 Issues Fixed, Trading Open

TelePort Workaround Offered by Residents

Massive Problems Continue to Plague Grid

For the third straight day, massive problems continued to interrupt services across the grid and disrupt or immobilize residents' use of Second Life. By 20:39SLT on Saturday, when Linden Lab made its first formal announcement on the SL blog that widespread problems were being experienced, residents had already been suffering through disabled TelePortation and limited Search functionality for several hours.In its initial statement, Linden Lab said that "We’re experiencing gridwide slowdowns or failures of multiple services, including mapping, teleporting, search, and asset operations. Operations has moved quickly to resolve the issue, and we expect resolution very shortly." Residents were advised to avoid in-world transactions and all copy operations until further notice. By 23:49, a resolution was announced and Linden Lab declared the issues resolved recommending that residents relog onto the grid.By 01:40SLT on Sunday morning it was already apparent that the declaration that the issues were fixed had been premature and Linden Lab announced that it had disabled Places and Group searches as they continued to try to identify and resolve the problems. Other features continued to function intermittently and unreliably, including TP, Maps, Friends Lists and L$ account balances. By 15:13SLT, some 18 hours after the initial announcement, Frontier Linden reported via the blog that progress was being made and service restoration was expected soon. A fix was announced at 17:00SLT Sunday.Many frustrated residents immediately noted that despite the announced re-enabling of all Search features they were still unable to search for Places or Groups. More aggravating yet, the previous issues with multiple grid functions re-appeared with a vengeance leaving residents stranded and unable to TelepPort, Search, open the Map or rez some inventory items. At 20:26 Linden Lab posted essentially the same announcement as they had made almost exactly 24 hours earlier stating that "We are experiencing gridwide issues at the moment. Residents may experience slowdowns or failures of search, mapping, teleporting and asset operations. Inworld L$ balances may show as Loading… Ops is working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible, in the meantime please avoid making any inworld transactions or operations on no-copy assets."At 00:11SLT Monday the status was updated to include the following: "Reports of issues with other features such as llDialog have been confirmed. No additional information is available at this time. We would like to thank you once again for your continued patience."Rumors flew as residents speculated as to the cause of the massive failures. Blame was hung on everything from a botched rolling restart earlier in the week, to a software attack and hacking incident involving Linden Lab servers, to testing of the new "upgrade" to voice. As is their habit, Linden Lab offered few updates and no response to residents' speculations.As of 09:45SLT Monday morning the problems had been unresolved for more than 49 hours and Linden Lab had not as yet provided an explanation or any estimate of when the issues might be resolved other than "Our Ops team is still working diligently towards a resolution. We will be sure to keep you posted on our progress."Do be sure to do that, Linden Lab.

What do you get when you cross ...

RFL

The Second Life Weather Forecast with Khamudy Mannonen

For the 28th July 2007.

Brought to you by Khamudy Mannonen and the SL Newspaper.

Scene of the Imogen Sign.

Good Morning. Recent environmental changes within the Metagrid have significantly reduced local variability for many of us, the general picture is one of blue, sunny skies across the continent. Those of us out in the Northwest may experience some problems after a blob of jam from a Linden sandwich entered the mainframe servers, causing a loss of physics in several areas, causing residents to fall through any solid object they happen to be sitting on.The Met Office has issued a weather warning for those on the East coast following a sudden drop in pressure causing many attachments to relocate themselves upon one's personage. Whilst this may be somewhat uncomfortable for the majority, owners of prim eyes are reminded to check themselves before leaving their homes.

By contrast the subculture reports show a much more mixed picture, largely prompted by a massive westward pushing front of Linden enforcers being drawn into a collapsing area of Gamblers. There is a high risk of storms in this region as a largely inert, but glittery, front to the south and an unusual superkawaii cloud formation in the northwest have held, gradually pushing the Linden front further northwards.In the far north flashes of lightening and outbreaks of grief continue to occur between three highly active subculture fronts.

The collapsing gambler front has had a significant impact on idocee indices, the meteorological method by which we measure an individuals connection to reality, although the levels recorded are not directly comparable with the subculture situation and reflect a more general malaise.The aggressive pushing in of the Linden front and the damage being caused to properties deemed as being "risk" orientated has triggered a large wave of idocee that has swept northwards. Local reports indicate many now believe the approaching front has caused the value of a Linden to drop to a parity with the green bean, the abolition of all freedoms except the right to "rinse and repeat" and that a rolling programme will begin censoring all words except "cuddly".The general advice is to avoid anywhere with large crowds of people or card games and ensure you wear a tinfoil hat at all times in public.

Whilst many in the media are reacting in a hysterical fashion, this reporter wishes to assure his viewers that the makers of the Second Life Weather forecast believe the stories of a sanitising of Second Life to be a fabrication based on unfounded fears. The producers wish to inform the public that this report will remain at the cutting edge of meteorological activity on the grid and we will not water down the information we feel you need to fully enjoy your Second Life.

This is Khamudy Mannonen for Second Life Weather, wishing you a very good day.

Are You A Petrol Head?

RELAY for LIFE

Gambling Ban Spawns Confusion, Anger

WSE 3.0 Debuts to Problems, Frustrated Customers

Letter of one of our loyal readers ;

WSE information updated.

New Wise Advise up in PEOPLE

Flying High with Trin & Voo

L$500,000 prize to best Second Life business plan

Gambling in SL no more cont.......

New Gambling Policy Spurs Protests, Concern Over Economic Impact

Gambling in SL no more?

The protests over the new TOS concerning gambling grew more and more heated taking up most of 4 sims with at the last count over 80 avatars at any one time.

Click images to enlargeJust some of the comments that were shouted:

Graciella Princess shouts: IF THE POTS ARE LESS THAN 250 USD, IT IS PENNY POKER AND LEGAL!

Johnny Clarke: banning poker is pure discrimination

Graciella Princess shouts: THIS IS NOT JUST POKER GUYS! THIS IS ALSO SPOLDERS, SLINGO, ZYNGO... ALL OF THE THINGS THAT WE DO FOR FUN, OR FOR A FEW EXTRA LINDENS TO PAY OUR RENT WITH...

Lizzie Bergson shouts: i thought sl was about having fun and playing these games what has happend to our rights to have freedom and liberty after all we pay for it

Minos Boa shouts: LINDEN LAB ABUSE OF ITS RESIDENT

Morgaine Dinova: Apparently that description is wrong. Now Second Life is California Life, and residents from other lands can get stuffed, it seems.Elizabeth McMahon shouts: WE ARE SL! Give me my DAMN RIGHTS!!!

Isabel Hocken shouts: If you're going to stop my poker, stop these clubs that offer paying for sex!

Anna Grant: I dont want to live my SL according to the american laws =((((((

sneeky Snook: IM IN THE UK AND HAVING TO LIVE MY SL UNDER US LAW IS THE AMERICAN GOVERMENT WANTING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD

Neplusultra Coage: ITS ABOUT OUR RIGHT TO BE FREE CITIZENS, HERE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE!

Stephanie Rolland: You're not a free citizen here. You sign up, you pay your money, you sign the ToS, and you're their citizen. Not a free citizen. In fact, you're not even a citizen, you're a customer. Simply a customer

Morgaine Dinova shouts: They have to either move their servers abroad or make their lawyers do something for their money, and fight the CA crap.

The strength of feeling aroused here was incredible and understandable, it is not just a matter of the 1000's of USD lost by casino owners but also the freedom to enjoy what is in many countries, including many states in the US, a legal pasttime.

There are several petitions already up and running but as we all know, they probably will not help. SL is not a democracy and we as residents have no say in what the Lindens decide.

http://www.thekonstrukt.com/protest.asp

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/slgaming/

Dana

Metastock 2007 for Metaverse TV

Protests pack 4 sims

Exchange Commission Chief: “Markets Will Not Crash”

The Truth According to Voodoo

In the real world, the nationality on my passport says British. Why are you telling us this, I hear you ask, since this is a newspaper about Second Life, our brave new world, and only our residence in their is relevant. Well... it is because of the fact that the situation is not entirely like that, which is the reason for me typing this. You see, SecondLife is a place where we SHOULD be free to be the people we want to be, and yet our freedoms are being restricted, and the place of your birth is unfortunately going to affect how you see this.SL is a virtual international community, where people from across the world can create an avatar and come live the lives they have always wanted to. However, Linden Labs appear to be forgetting this situation. In a way very similar to the fact that the US Baseball championship is called the World Series, LL appear to have forgotten that just because they have to work under certain rules and laws in the place that they reside, the rest of the world does not necessarily have to. The biggest case in point is the situation announced yesterday with the effective announcement that online gambling has been effectively banned in SL. The reason behind this, taken from the Official Linden Blog, is that "Second Life Residents must comply with state and federal laws applicable to regulated online gambling, even when both operators and players of the games reside outside of the US". Exactly why an island owner from the UK, offering a gambling service to a resident from Holland, should be subject to US state and federal laws, rather than the laws in their own countries, both of which allow online gaming, is neither explained nor logical. Linden go on to state that "Resident compliance with real world laws has always been an integral part of our Terms of Service.", forgetting that the policy they are blanket enforcing, does not comply with the real world laws of many of the residents of SL, myself included. It has been well documented throughout the world that part of the appeal on online communities like SL is the fact that this is a new frontier, where the laws and interactions as they relate to the real world are still being worked out. So, this illogical, lazy, and infuriating policy is neither needed in this form, nor sensible. One has to wonder what is next? Will I need to pay US taxes on items bought from SL residents? Even if they live down the road from me?The biggest irony in this whole debacle can be seen further down the Linden blog itself: They have announced a policy directly conflicting British law the day before LL are staging a meet in Brighton, England, in order to recruit potential Lindens in the UK. You can become an employee of the company, and work on SL in the UK, but will not be allowed to take part in activities inworld which are perfectly allowed and endorsed by your country's government.Perhaps, since LL seem to modelling their policy for dealing with their international customers on another US centred company, AOL (America OnLine), they could at least have done us all the courtesy of similarly warning us all in their name. Might I suggest Second America?

Tiny Party on Fire Island

Photo contest - 4 days left

As you know, we regularly do photo contests. Mostly they're linked to one of our newspaper sections. The current contest is called "Funniest Box Attachment" and the deadline will be there on July 29th. That is 4 days from now !!Of course you know what this contest is about. We all remember the days when we were new to Second Life, or maybe you still are. And I bet you've all experienced it: wearing something that is in your inventory and then finding out it's just a box or something else that should be on the floor, not on you. Well, just think of something funny to wear and take that photo !!The prize consists of 2 parts. The most important part to most of you is the very handsome award of L$ 1000. The second part is a private SL photography workshop by me. Of course it's your choice to decide if you need or want this second part, but even if you don't need it, maybe we could have some fun exchanging experiences and maybe learn some small tips & tricks from eachother.The workshop will consist of a short introduction to see at what level of experience you are. After that, we will take a look at some technical tips to make sure you get the best out of your SL photo's. We'll also explore some of the differences and similarities between RL and SL photography, and of course see how you can utilize them. And of course we'll do some practicing in a professional studio or somewhere on location, whichever you and your friends prefer.Now, if you are completely inexperienced with taking photo's or snapshots in SL, this contest might be a bit difficult to enter, but just send me an IM and I will show you the basics. I'll be happy to show you, just because I love to see all those funny pictures. And wouldn't it be great to win the L$ 1000 and the workshop?To enter, you can also drop your snapshot/uploaded texture in my inventory. It might be easier for you if you haven't saved your picture to your harddisk. Or of course e-mail it to dixiebarb@gmail.com, as it says in the poster here.Good luck & happy photo shooting !!Dixie Barbosa

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Monday, July 30, 2007

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Friday, July 27, 2007

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Monday, July 23, 2007

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Friday, July 20, 2007

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Monday, July 16, 2007

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