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Friday, February 29, 2008

The living

“At dawn, when the new world arrives many will be troubled.

Creatures of the night roam the lands freely and the innocent become victims.

When sheep turn to wolves and nothing is what it seems a bright light will come.

The messenger has arrived." (more in our extra section)

cartoon of the day


Click to enlarge
By Bixyl Shuftan

A City of Dreams….

Lady Breezes introduced me to her favorite sim by inviting me to attend a tournament in the arena. I dressed appropriately in the closest garment I had to medieval times and joined her there, Avatars with drawn swords danced a deadly ballet across the arena floor slashing away . They were wearing meters (DSC2) which recorded their health or lack of it and determined the winners of the battle.
This is Samarkand, an In- Character role playing sim. The theme of Samarkand is ”Full role play with combat.” It is “dedicated to honour and integrity” I learned from the Khanum , or Queen , Lanalii Nishi when we met at the spacious and lovely palace.........
Continue reading in the EXPLORE section

Rolling restart over the weekend !

Source : Linden Blog - We’d planned on doing server software updates last week, but due to the discovery of a bug this slipped into this week. We took that opportunity to pull in some fixes pertaining to inventory loss, some of which take effect immediately and some of which (which address only perceived loss, not actual loss) will become active when future viewers are used.

We’re going to play the deploy “by ear”, meaning roll it out to a small number (hundreds) or simulators first before deploying to the whole grid. Here’s a rough schedule:

* Thursday AM: Rolling restart of ~500 regions [Done]
* Thursday PM: Rolling restart of ~1500 regions [Done]
* Friday/Monday (?) AM: Rolling restart of the rest of the grid

We plan on updating the regions running the Havok4 Server Beta code in parallel with this early today. Sidewinder Linden will post with an update soon.

As usual, the rolling restarts will occur in “random” order across the grid (they go by hardware arrangement rather than region arrangement). A 5 minute warning is given before each region is restarted.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

A 'Tiny' bit of fun

Tiny can be BIG fun, come and join us this evening :)
Click image for larger version

A Wedding Fit for a Princess


by: Lucy Halberd

Most of us women have thought about our perfect dream wedding at least once. We have thought about the details of who we would like to marry, where the wedding would take place, and who we would invite. Even more of us have fantasized about the perfect wedding gown that would make us look and feel like a princess. So, what would it be like to have that fairy tale wedding? I’ve been talking a lot with a Tiny Empire princess, who would like to share with us just how much work goes into having the perfect royal wedding!

read more about Bachel and her royal wedding in the PEOPLE section of the paper!

WSE to Abandon Linden Dollar, Postpones Re-Launch

In a rambling, 90 minute long video broadcast carried on the WSE web site and Justin.tv Hope Capital Limited CEO LukeConnell Vandeverre announced that the re-opening of the World Stock Exchange (WSE) on its new 4.0 platform would not occur until "late March", and that when the exchange resumed trading it would no longer utilize the Linden Dollar. For the entire story see SLN Finance.

VLB - Virtual Live Band Celebrate 1st Years Anniversary

What’s the big deal you may well ask, and I’ll tell you. The VLB is made up of Members from Europe and the US, but through the wonders of SL are able to field a virtual band that somehow manages to play live in SL from two different continents.

Click here to go to Events section and read more.

Violence erupts in Ghul Federal Prison

To read about this latest violent episode with the walls of Ghul Federal Prison click here.

Action Movie

A good friend Adonis Action made this movie for us about the paper and I thought I would share it with you. I have known Adonis for a long time and he is always coming up with new ideas like AMI, the great loan system anyone can place in their mall allowing people immediate loans to spend in your mall, what a great idea for us shopaholics!
Then these movies, who doesn't want to have a reminder of that special event - engagement, wedding, party, opening, a great build, your first sl home? This is a great way to keep those memories forever rather than just pictures which never seem to quite capture the moment. Give Adonis a shout if you would like him to record your moments or of course advertise - this movie is a great ad for our paper - (thanks Adonis) - he could do the same for all of your shops, clubs or events, lets see a few more sl related movies out there and maybe you will find it here one day too!
Dana
http://www.slactiontv.com/index.html

The invention of Television Time Travel (3T)

The Steamshed X4D10's inside is more like a club or restaurant... to give people the feeling that they are on their holiday destinations already..............
What will happen to the 5 youngsters on their dangerous journey? Continue reading in the EXTRA EXTRA section

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Content theft continues

Some may mistakenly believe that content theft, texture theft, copybots, primjacking or whatever else you want to call it, is either being dealt with or just isn't your problem.
I believe this is EVERYONEs problem after all if you can't build/make something new without the risk of it soon appearing all over SL, with someone else profiting, then what is the point of creating?
Maybe you are just looking for great content at the lowest possible price?
Aren't we all, but please remember if the original content creators stop bringing in anything new where are we then?
At a recent discussion held at Hawthorne and hosted by FlipperPA Peregrine for content creators Frank Taney, avatar name Extinct Darwin, answered questions on content creators rights in Secondlife.
The discussion was well attended and I don't intend to copy the full transcript, it can be found HERE.
Frank started by explaining the four different intellectual property types and how they relate to Secondlife he went on the explain what a DMCA (Digital Copyright Millennium Act) was and how it worked to protect copyright.
One of the things that struck me was the level of frustration over Linden Labs lack of action and also how difficult it can be to prove that an object/texture has been stolen, even once a DMCA has been proven, it is still up to the original creator to track down all copies and report on where the infringement is occurring rather than LL removing the article from the inventory as it should:
'Nyte Caligari: I was told by my own IP lawyer that LL isn't exactly following the DMCA by not removing the texture or whatever from the offenders inventory. How valid is that statement?'
'Extinct Darwin: I can only speak from my personal experience . . . .
Which is that they have not gone into inventory. I don't think that is living up to the requirements of the DMCA.'
After several question relating to bring a class action against LL Frank had this to say:
Extinct Darwin: Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (governing federal lawsuits) sets forth a number of requirements a putative class action must meet before it is certified as a class action by a court
generally, to be viable class actions, the issues to each plaintiff class member must be common, and involve common legal and factual issues . . .
the common issues must predominate over the individual issues, in other words,
to fully go through all of the requirements as the pertain to this situation would take a while indeed.
More and more ways of copying are pouring into SL and the only thing we as purchasers can do is be very careful who we buy from! But as copying methods get better it is harder and harder for the mere consumer to know which are the originals
It appears most of the Lindens do not even know its a problem and those that do simply point to the DMCA and Abuse Report system obviously with no knowledge that these are temporary fixes at best, yet one more sign that 'The Lindens' no longer have any clue what is happening in Secondlife - stop looking at numbers and get in world! Use an alt if you have to, talk to your residents and creators see for yourselves what really is going on.
I can fully understand the designers' and content creators' frustration over this issue I just wish just for once the Lindens would stop worrying about user numbers and start worrying about the users themselves!
Dana *ends rant*

Finance in the news...........

Bank Business Revisited
Well, I have access to my money back, though there's a catch.......................


By Bixyl Shuftan



AVC ESN Update and proposed re-structure
Dear Investors,
As you are all most likely aware, Vstex have decided to delist AVC and leave you guys to fight over the bones................



Read both in FINANCE

Furry Fun


Click to enlarge
By Bixyl Shuftan

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Linden Department of Public Works PART II

I think, they are the main three things we are starting with. And
then, we will also move on to look at.............

Want to know it all, then check for more in our EXTRA section.

Zero Linden & Rob Linden


[13:06] Zero Linden: what is that sound?
[13:06] Harleen Gretzky: The spiing cube headcrab zombies in MF's land
[13:07] Zero Linden: there - that's better
[13:08] Rob Linden: hi folks
[13:08] Everyone: hi rob
[13:08] Zero Linden: welcome all to my office hours - now with less zoombies!
[13:09] Zero Linden: likes the notion of zombie as a mass noun
[13:09] Zero Linden: okay, all discussion is in public here - speak clearly, right into the wiki....
[13:09] Zero Linden: testing.... one, two, three....
[13:09] Zero Linden: is this thing on?
[13:09] Zha Ewry: hlkjgkj kjfgyut8 kghikyu56967togl.,
[13:10] Zero Linden: Zha - that can and will be used against you in a court of the internet!
[13:11] Zero Linden: Well - seems that our nemsis, multi-agent chat (including group IM), is just a very very difficult dragon to control
[13:11] Zero Linden: Do not take this a full post mortem - or even an official one....
[13:12] Zero Linden: but, there have been some memory leaks in the code for multi-agent chat. So far, two have been fixed, but there appears to be a third
[13:12] Zero Linden: these are hard to find because they seem to only really leak with the server is stressed enough to start swapping
[13:13] Zero Linden: at that point, something isn't reaping some data structures fast enough and the whole thing snowballs
[13:14] Zero Linden: indeed - and as I understand it, this was all just supposed to be the server side push of some IM improvements,
[13:14] Zero Linden: Rex - actually, multi-agent chat is now handeded entirely by its own python process
[13:14] Zero Linden: actually, 16 of 'em on the central utility machines
[13:15] Zero Linden: Well - yes, though I don't think leaking in the sense of losing memory that is no longer reachable (Python's GC does work, as far as we know)
[13:16] Zero Linden: but as in there are things, like unused sessions and agent caches that under some condition or other isn't getting cleaned up fast enough
[13:16] Zero Linden: and thrashing python isn't pretty....
[13:18] Zero Linden: ah - I see from the internal IRC that the team has just caught one of these IM servers in the act!
[13:19] Zero Linden: Is Rob still here? and movement on the possibility of getting some of those files released?


More to follow soon !

photoLIFE Brings Next Generation Photography to Second Life!

After doing research with several photographers and photo studio owners, OomPoppaMowMow Snookums armed himself with statistics on photo studio requirements then started the creation of his own unique studio, now known as photoLIFE.



Find out more in DESIGN

Baron DeSantis Set Free




To read the Diaries of “The Ghul Prison Sink Freak” part 1, click here. Names of Guards and convicts have been deleted to protect the guilty and innocent, but they will know who they are, especially the one that dragged me to The Tower twice in one day, B******.

Monday, February 25, 2008

BNT Financial Unveils Depositor Repayment Plan

BNT Financial was caught in the same net as the rest of SL's legitimate banks when Linden Labs banned the payment of interest on deposits. After exploring several alternatives for refunding deposits, Brautigan & Tuck Holdings (ACE:BNT) announced its repayment plan on the Ancapistan Capital Exchange (ACE) web site earlier today. Read the entire story in SLN Finance.

Vstex Delists AVC, SLC

The Virtual Stock Exchange announced this afternoon on its web site that it had concluded its own investigation into the charges and counter charges surrounding the departure of Atlas Virtual Capital (VSTEX:AVC) CEO Monkey Canning and that AVC had been "permanently delisted" by the exchange. Read the entire story in SLN Finance.

Fashion News

A new Sim and line for Simone plus news on her sale
PLUS
Rfyre's newest release

both in our DESIGN section

Bid for a Model Raised more than 100,000L for Warchild International

SL Illustrated sponsored a week long auction called Bid for a Model, that was participated by thirty ( 30 ) models in SL, these models were from different agencies namely SL Illustrated Models, Face2 Face Model Academy, Sophisticated Models, and Modavia Models. Auctioned Models were, Zipben Aeon, Frolic MIlls, Bianca Vita, Ost Clawtooth, Selena Fellini, Tanisha Withfield, Gabriella Meriman, Lorens Carling, Wynter Kidd, Lile Bikcin, Alyssa Masala, Salvo Waydelich, Poptart Lilliehook, Manoushaz Matova, Madison Sullivan, Mikaela Yifu, Rachael Lowey, Jolanda Sellers, Elise Mersereau, Kamala Hesse, Tula Howlett, DJAteo Kuhn, Krystal Gagliano, Micheal Hynes.
The week long auction event was able to raise L$ 101,682.00 coming from different individuals wanting to date the said models. 100% of the proceeds went to WarChild International represented in SL by Rosalie Rothlisberger.
Warchild International sponsored in-world by Rosalie Rothlisberger, is a network of independent organizations, working across the world to help children affected by war. The organization is founded upon the fundamental goal of advancing the cause of peace through investing hopes in lives of children caught up in the horrors of war. More information about this organization can be found at http://www.warchild.org
The event opened last February 16, 2008 at 9am slt, held at the SL Illustrated grounds. The launch was very successful and was attended by around 30 people at a given period that lasted for several hours.
Hand-over of the raised amount and the actual dates of the models with their winners, closed the event last February 23, 2008 that was held at the lavish and posh SLI Angels Club, where the famous DJ Zane Bijoux played romantic love songs for the couples on their date. The closing was attended by the Management of SL Illustrated headed by Ted1 Kamachi ( CEO ), Ariel Lingiuan ( COO ), Madison Sullivan ( SLI Models Director ), Dadaist Gears ( SL Illustrated Editor-in-Chief ), and Stone Klaxon ( SLI Master Scripter ).

Sunday, February 24, 2008

AVC Trading Halted; CEO Announces Departure

The Virtual Stock Exchange (VSTEX) has temporarily halted trading in the shares of Atlas Virtual Capital (VSTEX:AVC). According to VSTEX Communications and Public Relations Director Samantha Goldflake the action was taken in response to allegations by AVC CFO Mike31 Dawes that CEO Monkey Canning was in the process of liquidating AVC assets and that he, Dawes, feared that Canning intended to “take that and run.” Read the full story in SLN Finance.

Electronic transmission from Ghul Federal Prison

connection complete......
Hi Everyone, have to be quick as managed to sneak into unmanned security station. Success I finally got a sink !! Oh the agony of three painful trips to the Tower was worth it for a sink. Will release full details of incarceration when I get out... I Am getting out right? Oh no.. a Guard has noticed the monitor is on..he has seen me uh oh..
'No Sir I got lost Sir. Didn't touch anything Sir. No Sir not the Tower. Nooooooooooooooooooo
connection terminated........................

Can you HELP?????

The govenor is not satisfied at our appearance of 'good will'
If you can help us click here to donate to the American Cancer Society
and show enough good will to get poor baron out!

by Wishedon !

I know that there is no choice as I load the next items photo to slexchange... this is the only show on the block. I want to get the word out more about my items and that means selling them on the web and the place where that can happen in Lindens and Pay pal is SLexchange.com but .........

More in our
design section.

Reader Responses

Being SL Newspaper's "Fox reporter" has been interesting. Among the perks are the responses to my articles and cartoons. Usually the responses have been simple complements. But sometimes they've been a little more detailed.
Go to EXTRA EXTRA to read more.................
Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Department of Public Works

Linden Department of Public Works
by: bluelinden (source lindenblog)

Work has begun on Bay City, home of the "Fighting Moles" also known as The City by the Void.

LDPW is getting in touch with, and getting signed contracts from, our first set of resident builders and we expect to have our first team meeting in the upcoming week to discuss allocation of tasks, share reference materials, and hand out trowels & grout bags. These skilled contractors will be given project-specific accounts so should you run into a very small avatar with a hardhat, bearing the last name "Mole" be sure to say say hi!

In the meantime, Michael and I (bluelinden) have been organizing the layout of the Regions and parcels.

The style is the American urban experience, between 1940 and 1965, perhaps best typified by Chicago circa 1950 and marked by a distinct deco influence. Most parcels will be around 1024 square meters and "join and divide parcels" will be turned off at the estate level. Residents can still build across parcel boundaries if they own, or have permission to build on, adjacent parcels; but by not allowing parcels to be joined or divided, we hope to influence the "scale" of builds in Bay City.

Secondlife in REAL 3D !

Watch Secondlife in REAL 3D !

3D glasses like the image below do their magic by means of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) shutters, which let only one eye see your monitor at a time, and flicker very rapidly so you get the illusion of a continuous image. Asus has brought this before for usage in games like Quake and Halflife, but now the way to secondlife seems to be found.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Beauty is Far Deeper..

So, it pays to look good in SL, does it? Check out PEOPLE to find out if beauty really is only skin deep.

THE CAGE - Dance Club !

FRIENDLY - MATURE - FUN !
If you like to have fun - chat amongst the peeps...this is the place for you !!Great Place to meet new people - and find out what the locals are up to !!

Find out more in EXPLORE

This weekend at Zurich


Find out what is happening at the opera house and zurich hillside in M.A.C.E

Friday, February 22, 2008

Breaking news - reporter arrested...........

We were settling in for a wonderful tea in the manor gardens the guests were starting to arrive I was looking forward to seeing Baron, as he had been away for some time, when suddenly in the employees group we got this message:
Baron DeSantis: Sorry folks.... have just been arrested and summoned to the Ghul Federal Prison for interrogation....

Reactions were immediate:
Gemma Cleanslate: good heavens
Breezes Babii: Baron how could you get so messed up?
dana Vanmoer: must be a mistake there is no truer gent in SL
Baron DeSantis: Sorry guys, but I am really in the **** have been arrested and now in an interview room, mind you the guard is cute :) OUCH
@&*.........
dana Vanmoer: oh no whats the charge?
Baron DeSantis: don't know yet eeek
Then later that evening we got more news from Baron:

Baron DeSantis: What the **** can someone get me a lawer!!
Baron DeSantis: OMG, they have stuck me in with a lunatic leather mmmmmmphhh
Baron DeSantis: Have been accused of exposing myself in a public urinal for Godssake...as if!!
Baron DeSantis: Anyone know a good lawer?
Not long after this conversation the Boss arrived and managed to get in to see Baron although not too sympathetic:
JamesT Juno: What happened?
Baron DeSantis: I .. AM.. IN.. PRISON for allegedly exposing myself in a george micheal fashion
JamesT Juno: How much do I have to pay to get you out?
Baron DeSantis: boss.. I did not do it!!
JamesT Juno: I know - but now stop crying - get a grip ! lets sort it out!
James managed to find out that if enough money was raised as a good will gesture to a charity then there was a good chance Baron would be released.
To help out please go to the main office at sunrise reef, out side the office, you will find an ACS (American Cancer Society) donation box - please donate whatever you can to help us get our reporter out! We only have a few days then we don't know what will happen (its rather worrying seeing 'the chair' in background behind the pictures that were sneaked to us) I hope he can hang in there, apparently there aren't even sinks in the cells just a toilet and a bed!
Dana Vanmoer

The Search for PRIM's

The search for PRIM starts in our EXPLORE section :)

Found another ? - Email it to JamesT Juno

Be-Dazzled

A quick view of the two (by SL supported) extra first-look viewers for SL right now. More in our EXTRA section.

Department of Public Works project

DPW (Department of Public Works)

No less then 7 Lindens were attending at a Linden press conference yesterday. Voice powered everyone could ask questions about the ongoing DPW project involving the "beautification" of public locations in SL.

The full transscript will be available soon from Linden Labs. As soon as its available we will publish it here !

Jack Linden said that the main goals for DPW are

1. To improve the mainland experience for those living or visiting there.
2. To encourage community involvement in the mainlands.
3. To make the Linden Estate the best showcase for the face of Second Life.

It was great to see Jack, Melissa and Catherine Linden so enthusiastic about this "beautification". Thanx

JamesT Juno

Cartoon of the day


Click to enlarge
By Bixyl Shuftan

Thursday, February 21, 2008

What to do around the Zurich Sims?

These sims have been designed with meticulous detail and there is so much going on it would take pages to tell you everything.
Have a look in our EXPLORE section to find out a little more.............

Music Awareness Event to be Held March 21-23

Gretchen (a manager in SL) and I were hanging out the other day at a show and started talking. We thought about doing a beach party but by the end of our conversation we decided to try something to help bring more people to the music community. I spoke with the owner of Money Island and pitched an idea.
Read all about this idea in the EVENTS section

(image by Strawberry holiday from flickr group Secondlife (Free to Copy)

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Crashes & Lag:

During a recent meet with an 'arty' friend, Artfox Daviau, we attempted voice chat. Eventually after much messing about it worked to a point. He later sent a poem about Crashes & lag in SL.
To read the poem click here.

The Unicorn

Talking to mommy one day she told me about a wonderful ballroom she had run across in her travels and asked me to take a look, being busy at the time, I couldn't but she passed me a couple of notecards and urged me to see it when i could. It totally passed from my mind until today, being midweek and quiet I sat and sorted through my inventory and here I found this story:
Read it in the EXPLORE section

FORSYTHE WHITFIELD RELEASES CD

Roots & Blues artist Forsythe Whitfield is set to release his new CD "Worn Out Shoes" live in Montreal Canada on February 29th 2008 at 5:00 PM SLT/PST. Forsythe will also be releasing "Worn Out Shoes" in Second Life at the House of Flames at the same time.
See our EVENTS section for more info......

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The Varma Bumm - Day +5

The Varma Bumms - Day +5

The Late Yonsay.

Life! Or should I say Second Life, no that’s too much, how about slife, that’s better. Yes, I like that, slife, said with a certain pathos. So anyway, here’s a double apology. Sorry for the gaps between articles, and sorry for being late Zena! Who is Zena, I can almost hear you mutter, don’t worry, I’m going to tell all (about her positive thinking talk that is).

Find out more in the Explore section.

Designs from Nyre Gray of Caliber

I have wrote a lot about Caliber over the last week but mainly about the sim Rivendell today I want to tell you about one of the designers Nyre Gray.

Find out more in the DESIGN section

RL education in SL.

No matter what you think your purpose in life is about, If you'd tell me anything different then 'to learn', I know for certain that you are wrong. We are here in this life for only one thing and one thing only.... to learn ! In Real Life or Second Life or whatever life you think you are leading... On your way along life's highs and depths the answer will always be: to learn.
Continue reading in EXPLORE with Pelton Darkstone

Monday, February 18, 2008

KoKo Nuts Beach Club

Looking for a great family friendly club to meet or entertain that special someone? Come to KoKo Nuts ...

Read all about it in EXPLORE section.