More Trouble at Foxworth

Earlier, the Foxworthy sim was the scene of trouble when a number of accounts were permanently banned for reasons that made no sense to anyone familiar with the area. More recently, the region was the target of a griefer, whom went as far as to threaten someone. How the Lindens reacted was a surprise.

To read more, go to Community.

Club Zero Closes

Due to the Sunweaver region cutting back on it’s number of sims, Club Zero is having to close it’s doors. The final party was Saturday November 28th at 8 PM SL time, with Lsai Aeon as the DJ. The “Farewell Bash” had the announcement:

“Come one, come all. Come bid a fond farewell to our beloved Zero Gravity. Come as you are. Come to party. Come to blow this place out of space. DJ Purple Puppy (Lsai) spinning the tunes. Who knows what she will do... Party starts at 8. Get up here. “

The party lasted late into the night, with people determined to have fun while they still could at the space club. Among the highlights, 2000 Lindens were up for grabs in the “Come as You Are” contest. Tippers were also generous, one poledancer getting 2000L. Club Manager Ranchan Weidman will be asking another club in the area not affected by the cutbacks to take up its time slot.

Club Zero has been in it’s current form since spring 2009 after it was placed under the management of Ranchan, and was created over a year ago, run by Spectra Ninetails. The space club has been known for it’s unique design and it’s lively Saturday night dance parties.

Although Club Zero's regulars have other clubs, notably Cutlass, the space station will clearly be missed.

Bixyl Shuftan

Today in SL Newspaper

Below in Main News, we take a look at the SS Galaxy, a massive cruise ship so big it takes up a few sims, as it moves to a new region. In Community, Second Life had it's own version of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, complete with balloons and floats. And in Extra Extra, one of our reporters goes on the halfshell a new kind of critter one can raise comes to Second Life: sea turtles.

Massive Move

It was a mind boggling thought when someone mentioned the SS Galaxy, Queen of the Saggittarian Sea, was moving. 

You probably know, but in case you don’t, this is a full size cruise ship with all the amenities. 

The huge ship occupies three regions, actually four.. It is more than 2 years old in SL and is much loved by all who have spent time there or has lived on board.  

The new locale only adds more possible fun to a visit. The Galaxy, with the help of Linden Lab, sailed off to the new home on November 17. 

It is located just south of Little Gull Islands on the map. I took a quick tour, and everything is in place as it was before the move. All activities are up and running and all the tp’s are working. People were about the decks riding unicycles and playing miniature golf. 

Events are posted. The cinema has movies scheduled. The current port of call to visit on the tp from the deck is Mouse World. The week’s events took me some minutes to read. One thing that is missing is the ferry to Sagittaria. 

I did meet the cruise Director, Lars Donnelly, who said that discussions are under way with the sailing community about future events.

“ we hope to welcome sailors who want to stay with us for some time during a exploring tour” he told me.  

Here is the entrance if you would like to check it for yourself!  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Galaxy%20AFT/66/54/21

Gemma Cleanslate

Steal of the Day: Curious Kitties Gift Boxes

Anyone who has shopped around the grid for quality gift boxes will notice that they are precisely hard to find. Then, they might cost L$200 or more. Since I found one heck of a bargain today, I thought I would share it with you guys.

The Curious Kitties shop is making its 1-prim sculptie boxes available for the Christmas shopping season at only L$10. In several color schemes, those boxes are made by a veteran designer, Ameshin Yossarian, who sells a variety of gothic/punk/Japanese styled clothing.

Be careful. If you also check out the clothing, you may find it highly addictive, as I do since I first bought a pair of boots at that store a couple of years ago.

You can find the boxes by going to Curious Kitties with this link. The boxes are at coordinates 186, 221, 21.

Alesia Schumann

To Call Second Life a “Game,” or Not?

In Community, a little tale of some friends and I talking about what exactly to call Second Life, one of whom had a rather interesting way of describing it to a friend and getting him interested in joining.

To read what happened, click HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today in SL Newspaper

In Community, a music event was held at the Crystal Gardens to raise money for prostrate cancer research. In Fashion, M&M has a number of new releases, including the complete Tutorial-box. And in Extra-Extra, a few of Breezes' Thoughts.

Literary & Artists’ Villiage

In the Astrid sim is a place where people with a love for writing have small shops and boutiques to display their craft, as well as getting together occasionally to listen to each others works, the Literary and Artist Village. Since it’s official opening on November 7, it and it’s group have been ways promising writers can meet and find an audience.

A poetry reading on it’s official opening had some readings to offer, done in voice. Kalli Birman read some romantic poems. Persephone Phoenix read a “disturbing” poem of a woman who committed suicide from mental stress from her time in Iraq. Corwyn Allen recited poetry one reader commented he liked for his touch of “dry humor,” including “Spanish Dancer” one he had written that morning, and “Saturday Morning” about a lawn mower covered with the first frost of fall, near a lawn that won’t need it until spring. Stosh Quartz had a grandmotherish voice, and read what one called a “pot poem,” one about her cat and an encounter with the dog that left the canine running, and “EEP!! There’s a Spider on My Computer Screen!” Kalli Birman finished the reading, “I’m kind of in a ‘I hate men’ mood” and recited “Social Nos,” which had lines like, “You are a little man, living in his father & mother’s basement, being what he dreams ... lover of many, but provider to none.” A few hung around after the poetry reading to chat about various subjects.

DaSaved Eros passed around a notecard with another poem:


I'm friend with all  I love all

I make God a pocket universe to joy for the making of being just to re-build the devil wings was it seen ?

I love all Plus you

Would not God love the devil God best that was once lost

missed

lost

but whole and once again love all

friends  with love


Besides poetry readings, there are other events, such as live music,  and informal “Night Cap” discussions in which people come by to talk about things such as love and relationships.

SL-Newspaper had a chance to talk to one of the women behind the Literary and Artists’ Village, Cath Munro. “We service well-known authors and just starting authors as well and are involved with many international authors who are trying to break into US market,” Cath explained, “I allow for authors to feature their work on Second Life and we also advertise the community in real-life and in the publishing world. Readings, meetings, networking are basically the goal here, except in more real-life targeted environment than is customary for other literary outfits on SL. The sole goal is to help authors to get published in real-life, and the Second Life events are just a ‘workshop’ to do that.”

Cath informed there was more planned than just readings, “We also plan on having live music regularly, and other events that will be organized by Kalli Birman.”

The group interested writers would join is the ALA, which announcements are made, “ALA announcements include real-life calls for writers, and other real-life opportunities as well as just promotions of the events and readings of our residents and writers anywhere on Second Life.” Cath also showed a mailbox in the village, “a real-life literary agency mailbox here where the authors can place their samples and potentially be contacted and get a contract of representation. This is the drop box for anybody to leave a sample. It is forwarded onto the real-life literary agency. “

Cath says so far, they have been getting, “about 500 queries per week” total. “Well, this is exactly why this village was opened, to find new talent without having to run around the whole (of) Second Life. ... the poetry reading at the Grand Opening opened my eyes to how many talented people are really around here. It's just that it is time consuming having to find them (laughter). So having them read here helps. Anyone can do events here.”

Cath Munro mentioned a few of the more talented writers by name. One was H3 Turbo, a self-described “rouge scientist” with a place called the “Clockwork Orange H2onE2 University” whose writings discuss politics and science. Chaos Priestman “writes scifi and we had a few readings for him. He took a short brake to get married to a wonderful lady that he's met on Second Life.” She also mentioned Paul Levinson, “whom I've met on Second Life and who actually was the person who kept asking me to open this village. He recently wrote a book, New New Media.”

As it turns out, this is not the villiage’s initial opening, but it existed before. “It was up last year,” Cath explained, “but then the agency got really busy with real-life inquiries and there was simply no time to manage it. We have since hired more people both in real life and on Second Life, and Kalli will be helping to manage the Literary village now. We are trying to read all the queries that come via email and sometimes it means reading 1000 pages a day. So we have two additional people helping out.”

“On Second Life, we have asked Kalli Birman to help managing the events for writers. Hopefully that will help but we still aim for quality not quantity and want to remain a boutique environment with a personalized assistance to writers. For example, I am currently working on a PR story for a writer that will be publicised to promote his book. That is a bit different from other agency services. The writer and I communicate both via SL and real-life email, but Second Life is truly helpful to be able to communicate faster and more vividly, as well as being able to "test" some visual promo ideas.”

Cath says all are invited to the “make up” Grand Opening party, which came about as the one on Saturday November 7 was marred by the major glitch in Second Life then, “I hope to have this event in mid December as the upcoming holidays might cause busy schedules. After that we will have regular readings, networking, live music and literary competitions.”

Bixyl Shuftan

The Joy of SL Belly Dancing

By Any1 Gynoid, reporting for SL-Newspaper

Get wild, get nakies, and party your tushies off, usually means a trip to SL naughty land, SL’s adults only regions. But there is an alternative: belly dancing. In mature sims round SL's main grid, amateur belly dancers are fun party goers who bare it all, or at least most of it, in a brave new form of personal freedom and self expression. Why is it brave? Because I can't even coax most my bff macho party buds to check it out. And they call us "chicks"! Who's chicken now? Ha! Hey, SL belly dancing is guys and ladies and a whole lot of tushie shakin' goin down. Too much fun! This is why god invented the perv cam! lol

When you think about the Middle East, do you ever think FUN? But our mission in SL is fun, and yes we do bring out the fun in every RL culture to SL. Belly dancing has ancient Babylonian origins, but in modern times was revealed to the West at the 1893 World's Fair. The golden age of belly dancing was in the 1960s and 1970s, promoted in part by an Egyptian film renaissance. Which is quite interesting, Islamic cultures were very much more liberal than they are today; even in Afghanistan, women openly wore miniskirts in public in the 1970s. How far we have regressed RL, backwards in cultural values and human progress.

The personal is the political, and you can participate in cultural revolution right here in SL, by shaking your tushie to Middle Eastern beats. Belly dancing in SL is amazingly liberating and extremely fun. In fact, I can only think of one thing more fun in SL, and I shall cover that soon for SL Newspaper. It's NOT sex silly! Shame on your dirty mind! Terrible thang to waste! Tee Hee Hee!

 

From left to right in picture 1 is Guy Vollmer (a supercool party dude), Garret Mehrens (an impossibly hot dish of male beefcake), me (wearing my naughtiest outfit), and my beautiful friend Acceber Smythe. Picture 2 shows Garret's flip side. LOL Making it painfully obvious why we love belly dancing in SL!  Am I objectifying men? You betcha! And high time for that! Yuppie Buns! Slurp! lol

Anyways, I hope you get a chance to try SL belly dancing soon. Most Mondays at 4pm and Thursdays at 8pm, you will find me slinking round the club Parvana Ayre in Angel Shark Shallows sim, wearing practically nothing and "working it"! You know what I mean! IM me if you dare! Only the brave and truly fun loving need apply. Peace!

There are lots of free silks in SL, and I would be happy to share. In fact I only wear freebie silks when I belly dance. I've tried most of them all and can tell you about the best ones. I fancy my blue & white silks (shown in pictures), my chrome, and my tie dye colors. By losing the top bits, these free silks can work for guys too, just put on a thong, and attach silks to arms and legs. Well at least 1 brave bff was able to do that! There is hope!

Cartoon of the Day

Banned for Looking???

Rumors are floating around about Linden Lab banning not only third party viewers but people using them. So I decided to investigate. 

I am not a geek so I do not really understand the technical aspects of the question but will try to explain what is happening; 

A long time ago someone recommended that I download a viewer that was not SL but worked the same way and better, I was not sure what to do so I decided against it.

There have others that I heard of in the meantime but was reluctant because of the copybot issue that was being talked about so much.  

Recently I began to hear raves about Emerald. Being older and somewhat wiser I decided to try it. It was made from open source with input from some Lindens I understand. 

I loved it! 

It is just like using SL but has some neat helpers. I understand from serious builders they really like it because they can create smaller prims and try textures before uploading them among, other things.  I really liked having the draw line bar right there on the menu bar so I could adjust the distance quickly when I wanted without opening the preferences. There are other enticing features. 

That is just one viewer. There are a host and most of them were built with the open source information that is in the sl wiki and is still there; (http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Get_source_and_compile). 

The  “brown bag” meeting sessions to discuss and get input from residents regarding a change in the policy have started and may help clarify the future. No viewer or anyone who is using one will be banned from sl, unless, as always , there is a violation of SL TOS. 

Gemma Cleanslate

SL Enterprise Sounds Very Promising

It has been great news for Second Life when, on November 4, Linden Lab announced that they would bring a SL Enterprise product. This product that will replicate the virtual world behind a firewall will be comparable, for corporations, to having an internal Internet system without granting access to the outside world.

This is great news and an inevitable step that LL had to take to build its credibility in the business world. A 3D environment such as SL brings incredible potential for companies to organize meetings and other collaboration activities between people who work in different countries or even continents, at a fraction of the cost.

Let's make a quick comparison: you pay the $55,000 entry price to set up 8 regions with the possibility of having 800 users, 700 of them online at the same time. Add some costs to maintain the system available and you have a pretty decent "live meeting" solution. To this you can add the possibility of storing documentation and scripted learning tools that allow employees to learn and perfect their skills, without having to organize classes.

The price may be hefty for small and medium-sized businesses. The product that LL offers in beta clearly is targeting larger corporations.

The comparison with live videoconferencing systems is still funny to make. A telepresence solution from Cisco to hold meetings for 18 people will cost… $340,000. For companies, such telepresence solutions have already been cost cutters.

Although different in nature, you can compare both products and see that what you would sacrifice in real-life visual experience by using SL Enterprise, you would save. That's without even considering the potential for interaction other than plain conferencing.

This also makes me think that SL may do with virtual worlds what the Internet did with online activity. If businesses adopt SL Enterprise quickly, it will be hard for a competitor to displace SL as a "virtual world with a firewall" solution.

This Enterprise product is promising because using it with the security of a firewall will make 3D more tempting to organizations. Let's hope LL customizes it for other needs, too.

Second Life Veterans Tribute

Veterans Day/Remembrance Day may have come to a close, but the money one group of volunteers raised will be helping soldiers for some time to come. They also built a sim full of detailed memorials in tribute for the week-long event in honor of US Veterans, and those from other countries.

Read the article in Community.

SNOWY MOUNTAIN RESORT

Before I came to Snowy Mountain, I was wondering how I should start my report. I had never seen it before and did not know what to expect, except snow and mountains. Even, I could get that!

But when I rezzed here, on the veranda of the log cabin, I turned round and the view took my breath away. It was an immediate emotional reaction!

Continue reading Kims' adventure in the Community section.........

Eye on the Blog: Lindens "to Retire the Current Mentor Volunteer Program"

Upcoming changes

The company has decided the time to evolve and grow as a volunteer community has come. While the official Mentor Volunteer Program has been an extremely valuable endeavor, its sheer size has made it increasingly difficult to support, and we need to reallocate our resources at the Lab for other Resident-focused programs. We've decided to retire the current Mentor Volunteer program—launching new opportunities for expanded volunteerism within Second Life.

For more information about the close of the Mentor Volunteer Program, please take a look at our FAQ.

We're sad to see the Mentor Volunteer Program go, but we're also excited about new opportunities! Now is the time participate in new offered programs, create your own programs or groups, or simply volunteer on an individual level. On our end, Linden Lab will work even harder to create the framework that highlights your efforts and supports the efforts of even more volunteers—heralding in a more sustainable and more creative phase of volunteerism. Rest assured that we will always want and appreciate volunteers in Second Life!

Announcing two new programs!
Linden Lab is focused on building robust volunteer programs in collaboration with the Residents of Second Life. Not only do we plan to help support their amazing work, but we also want to increase the visibility of their contributions for other Residents to enjoy.

If you're looking to volunteer, here are two Linden-supported programs that might interest you:

1. Second Life Answers. Residents submit questions and other Residents answer them—it's both simple and awesome at the same time. With over 200,000 page views, the Second Life Answers Beta has been a huge success, thanks to our Residents who participated by sharing knowledge, guidance, and friendly support on a wide range of topics in multiple languages. As Second Life Answers continues to grow, it will become even more effective as it attracts even more questions from Residents and more knowledge from our volunteers.

2. Coming Soon: The Resident Help Network (RHN) Beta! This program, which is expected to launch in about a week, will highlight the “best of the best” Resident-run help groups. There's a lot of great information out there among different help groups, and this network is designed to help our Residents find what they need. To apply to be part of the network, help groups must meet a high standard for helping new Residents, maintain over 50 active members, have an established history, produce documentation on how they help, and submit three Resident testimonials. There are more criteria for applicants, which you will be able to read when the blog and wiki information is available at launch. The accepted RHN groups will be listed on the website, featured inworld, and help shape future new Resident experience. We also hope to have an inworld Resident Help Network Fair early next year, so you and other Residents can learn more about the first groups accepted into the network.

Read more in the complete blog post by Lexie Linden Here.

Eye on the Blog: Good-Bye Xstreet Freebies

The Xstreet SL Experience:

The Xstreet SL Marketplace is not meant to provide a replacement or even identical experience to that of shopping in-world. Instead, it serves as a specialized shopping experience which makes shopping & selling easier and different in many ways. All of our research and your feedback demonstrates that. Since it is clear that the increasing quantities of free, cheap and stale goods are hindering that experience for shoppers and merchants alike, we will take action to counteract and balance them within the marketplace, for the benefit of all. To be clear: we believe in a free marketplace and will not implement price controls on what merchants can charge for their goods.

The Roadmap:

We will enact the following new controls for the Xstreet SL Marketplace within 90 days, with at least two weeks' notice, in order to improve the shopping experience:

Monthly Listing Fee for Freebies of L$99:

• Listings for free items will now be treated as a marketing/promotional tool and thus will have a price.
• L$99 is the price of our least expensive listing enhancement and so we will start there.
• Depending upon desire for this marketing opportunity and perceived value given such demand, we will adjust the price as necessary to maximize this value and keep the freebie listings from becoming bloated again.
• Expected Delivery: 30 - 60 days
  

Minimum Commission of L$3 on all items priced L$1 or greater:

• We will enact a minimum commission of L$3 on all sales of non-freebie listings.
• Since Freebie listings are now considered marketing and are charged as such, they will not incur this fee.
• A L$3 commission will raise the commission on all listings under L$50. This was a range suggested by residents, but it turns out that this is the price range where there is a very high transaction volume and low commission income which combine to cover the costs of those transactions.
• We may adjust this minimum commission as we see its effects on the marketplace. L$3 does not cover the full cost of a transaction, but the goal here is first to manage freebie growth first.
  
• Expected Delivery: 30 - 60 days
  

Monthly Listing Fee of L$10 for all items L$1 or greater:

• All non-freebie listings will now be charged L$10 per month to remain listed in the Xstreet SL Marketplace
• Currently, less than 20% of Xstreet SL listings make at least one sale per month. This displays just how much clutter of unsold items exists on Xstreet SL.
• Doing this will provide an incentive for merchants to remove listings which are not selling, while keeping this fee low enough to have a minimal effect on listings which are selling and are desired by shoppers.
• By reducing the overall number of listings on Xstreet SL, the shopping experience will drastically improve which will please our shoppers and be a boon to the business of all of our merchants.
• Expected Delivery: 60 - 90 days
  

Separate freebies into their own category:

• There is already a freebie section on Xstreet SL. This section will become the place to browse for new freebies.
• We will remove free listings from the browsable categories and keyword search results on Xstreet SL.
• Expected Delivery: 60 - 90 days
  

Timeline:

• We will provide at least 2 weeks notice before releasing any of these changes.
• We expect to enact these controls within the time window 30 - 90 days following this roadmap announcement.

* * * * *

Read more in the complete blog post by Colossus Linden Here, or join the discussion Here.

Flirtatious! Grand opening

What are your plans this Friday night?  I can tell you where you should be: Flirtatious!  Located at Reverie 47, 64, 45 (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Reverie%2047/64/45/) on a mature sim, Flirtatious will be holding its grand opening on Friday, November 20!  Co-owners Chip Silverfall and Treasure Zarco describe the atmosphere at the club as strictly fun with a 70’s and 80’s vibe, “But not the pop stuff you hear all over,” says Chip, “The stuff people actually listened to back then!”  The club has a lineup of DJs and live performers that will keep the jams pumping through your speakers and on these nights the music will stray from strictly 70’s-80’s and will cover a variety of genres.  I recently had a chance to sit down with the owners and ask them questions regarding the new place.

Is this your first club in SL?

“Yes.”

What made you want to open a club in SL?

“It was a whim,“ answered Chip with a slight grin, “I needed something to do and Treasure has great connections in the entertainment industry.”

“I love working the clubs and with the artists,” added Treasure.

Are there any special events going on opening night?

“The opening day schedule will be 3pm Harmonia, 4pm Cranston, 5pm Magnolia Anthony, 6pm Chandra Deed, and 7pm DJ Salina.  We will also have contest boards for best dressed or something similar with 500L going to both male and female winners!”

What perks can be found at your club?

“There are many dances available both singles and couples.  Our club will be featuring DJs Sal, Tommy, and I myself will also be DJing.  There are 7 romantic residences available.  These are skyglobes with changeable scenes, dances, and cuddle and kiss poseballs.  We have a lovers garden where you can sneak away with that special someone and, my favorite thing, the elf dance.”

The Elf dance?  Can you elaborate?

“Sure!  32 dance balls all in a circle that are controlled by a single HUD.  On the HUD there are 50 dances that we have mastered the controls over!  So, when a faster tempo song is playing we know which dance will fit and when the next song is slow, we can have it queued up and ready to go,” stated Chip excitedly.  “This is something inspired by Inspire Space Park.  Their dance was spontaneous and didn’t have as many dances, nor did it have a name, but ours will be held every Saturday at 6pm.”

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about your club?

“For us it’s all about fun!  If it’s not fun, it won’t be included.  We even have rules about being bored or lonely in our club rules note card.”

An up to date schedule for Flirtatious can be found at: 

http://www.brownbearsw.com/freecal/FLIRTATIOUS?KW=Treasure%20and%20Chip;Op=ShowIt&Date=2009-11-17 

The club is now hiring DJs, live singers, hosts, and hostesses as well as renting shop space outside near the entrance to the club.  If you’re interested in being a part of the Flirtatious team, contact Treasure Zarco for an application.  Shop space is 200L for 20 prims and your lease starts as soon as you pay the box located in the stall you choose.  Two spots are still free, so hurry up and grab yours today before they are all taken!  See you at the club!

Lucy Halberd

Outrageous Merchandising Ideas Considered at Linden Lab

If you are considered a merchant by Linden Lab, you may have had the terrible surprise of filling a Second Life Merchant Survey sent to you by Pink Linden this week.

While Pink says "none of these concepts are currently on our development roadmap, they’re just hypothetical scenarios that we’d appreciate your thoughts on", there is room to worry.

Let me give you a quick run-down on the ideas thrown around.

1- Second Life-Certified Vending Machines

This would create a unified store management, provide premium merchant support and a guarantee for deliveries. Features would include automatic listing on XStreet SL's Web platform and metrics to see how business is performing. The catch? A surcharge of 10 or 15% on all sales.

2- Listing and Promotional Program

For a 5 to 10 US dollars fee for each item listed, Linden Lab will cross-promote your virtual goods on XStreetSL and Premium Classified Listings.

3- Merchant Marketing Program

To spur growth, Linden Lab thinks out loud about bringing new tools such as branding systems, customized store systems such as a Web storefront, and automatic consideration for large scale promotions. Other tools such as tracking purchases in real-time would also be offered.

The price? 10 to 100 US dollars per month, depending on sales volume.

4- I kept the most outrageous for the last point: The Mall of Second Life.

Land would be offered for "free" to merchants. LL would offer promotions along with it… while taking a 30% surcharge on their sales.

What should we make of all this? Linden Lab is CRAVING for your sales money. It wants, with programs such as the Mall of Second Life, to create a real-life income tax on each of your sales.

With fixed land costs, any increase in sales means more revenue and profits for your business. If you use any or all of these potential initiatives, you basically hand Linden Lab a larger chunk of your revenues rather than fixed costs. With the costly listings, you also take much bigger risks by increasing your startup costs, even before you make a sale.

These ideas are also dangerous for small stores. Imagine that there are enough big merchants that make this transition because the costs mean almost nothing to them. It would make those merchandising programs central to shopping in Second Life.

Being a merchant in SL has meant working a whole lot for little money for a large majority of business owners. Many are gaining managing experience but are not getting large amounts for it. Now, if LL manages to implement the measures and make them inevitable, merchants will stand to lose… again.

T&A Estates, the place to be

When you first arrive on the T&A sim, you rezz into a startlingly beautiful room. You are surrounded on all sides buy an enormous starscape. Take a while to focus and you can then see what must be the control centre of the sim.

 Just in that one place there is a playable pool table, together with a greedy greedy table and a U-know table. There are Zyngo games arranged around the wall, and other games I have never seen before, Phrase Invaders, UFO Abductor, Scrambo and RetroArcade. What are they? Come and see for yourself!

 All part of the service is a DX terminal which enables you to buy Lindens without even having to have a credit card. If you want to buy products inworld, there is an Apez terminal, too. In between these two terminals you will find vendors for T&A Estates own products. Well worth a closer look.

 Having seen the gaming area, I went to the teleport terminal to find out what else was in store for me. Ummm. Right what do I do first? 

How about racing... or some racing or maybe some racing! 

Wow! What more could you want? Well, how about the Demolition Derby? Get some friends together, go to a teleporter and choose from more than ten options. They have a fantastic teleporter system here. Zap! You arrive in no time at all. Select to Demo Derby, pick a vehicle (you’ve got a choice of a half dozen) and you are out in a huge arena with a 1000 health points. See how long you survive!

If you like crashing into each other, you can go to the Battle Dome and have a go on the bumper cars. 

Tame? No way! 

There are hospital beds waiting outside. Woah! now that’s what I call a warning! Behind them is a vendor for DCS weapon, if you want to carry on your battle, back home.

 About the racing… I have just come back from the Red Rock Track. My heart is thumping. I accidentally found how to go REALLY fast on one of the demo bikes. I should have read the instructions first! So many bikes to choose from AND you can buy one if you want to. You don’t have to go to the T&A Cycleworks to buy one but… Come On! It’s so cool down there. And there’s the Photo Studio, , too, where you can take a selection of single, pair or group photographs. You can even have them framed if you want to.

 Altogether there a six tracks, each one different, testing different skills in different ways. On most tracks you can rezz a bike or a kart. You can even buy the track, if you want to!

Tired of the countryside? Go to the sea. That fantastic teleporter system can take you there. Domino Island is a very beautiful place at ground level. It has little hideaways and islets to sit on and watch the day go by. If you want more entertainment, go to the South Pier and pick up a paddleboat, a fishing boat, a bumper boat or, for more speed thrills, a jetski, or you can sit on the dock a spend some time fishing with the Seven Seas fishing game.

This is definitely a place for people who want to DO things. I know because, I've done it and I recommend it. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Domino%20Island/129/125/1026/

By Kim Trefusis

Cartoon of the Day

The Skybeam Fox Hunt

Among the events on Saturday at Skybeam's Third Aniversary bash, the residents took part in a fox hunt. Free horsies provided for all. But the chased could be a little "cagey" at times.

Who was the hunted and whom the hunter? Read in Community for more.

Today in SL Newspaper

Below in Main News, the man behind what looked like a new way of doing music ventures has announced with much apology he will be stepping down. In Community, Skybeam's three year anniversary events continue, with images of the Snail Race up for view. In Extra-Extra, the "Old Barn" gave it's last music event, at least for a while, as the owner closes it's doors.

Don't forget to check Fashion and Classifieds.

Tim Folds His Hand...

Back in August, I did a piece here regarding a new business model in the SL music scene.  One of the venues proposing such a model was Rasta Ventures, former management of Red Rock Ampitheater, Rasta Beach and Mama's, managed by TributeTim Kwak and his management team.

The new model, a co-op between the venues and performers, was to include Red Rock and Mama's, as well as a new venue.  The grand reopening of the venues was scheduled for 15 September.  Sadly, this did not occur.  It came to my attention that Tim encountered some dificulties with the scripter he hired., as well as having one of the musician partners pull out of the co-op.  He decided to find another scripter, regroup and get back to work on his ideas.

Tim circulated the following letter today, 12 November:

"Hi friend,

After much effort, and now much regret, i'm writing to tell you that i've decided to abandon the Rasta Live Music Co-op project. After working carefully with a very professional, very competent scripter, we've determined that the hours involved to set up the system to a the level of quality that i would be comfortable with would take well over 100 hours of coding and cost in the range of about US$6,000 at reasonable RL programming rates.

I can't afford that, and the SL economy can't justify that level of investment.  But, i am not willing to pair down the project.  I'm not willing to do a half assed job.  Perhaps if I were more skilled in scripting, and if I had the time (which i'm afraid I never will)  I could treat the project as a hobby, do the scripts myself and we would have a system that we were proud of and would be of use to the greater community.  Sadly, that is not to be, or rather, it is not for me to do this job.

As such, i have decided that i will move into other ventures in Second Life and leave venue management to others.  I love the music here, especially YOUR music, and i will always be a grateful and frequent member of your audiences.  I have opinions (like you find THAT surprising) about how the biz side of music should be structured, but they will remain my opinions and I will keep them to myself from this point forward.  Rather, I'll simply enjoy what you do, however it happens.

I want to thank you for your support. In some ways, i feel i've let you down.  But I know that this decision is a much better path than trying to proceed with something that is less than what we had hoped for.

With great love and respect,

TributeTim Kwak"

By Shellie Sands

Sculpt Baking texture tutorial

M&M Creations provide sculpts for builders, fashion designers and many other purposes and in every box you also get the 'shade textures'
What are 'shade textures'? How do you use them?
How do I get my sculpts to look like yours?
How do I add shadows to sculpts?
All these are questions commonly asked of M&M Creations owner 10 Goosson so she has decided to hold a class and put together a tutorial to help everyone to use sculpts to their full potential.
Come along on Sunday November 15th at 2pm SLT and you could maximise your own use of sculpts and shade textures.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/DoubleMM/201/52/504

Club Zero Gravity

From outside, Club Zero appears in orbit in outer space around a planet. It can be considered three sections. The landing pad is where most people arrive. On this platform are a number of Star Wars ships, plus one of the Thunderbirds. There is also a rideable rocket that seats up to three people. Every few minutes the crafter either launches and drops to the surface to land at the Sunweaver Space Port and Sunweaver Airfield, or launches from the ground to dock at the station. In the back is the store and gaming area, with a number of Zyngo games and vendors for items from vehicles to furniture.

Find out more in the COMMUNITY section with Bixyl Shuftan

SL-Newspaper 3rd Birthday Party

SL-newspaper hunt winner Callie Blackburn with CEO Dana Vanmoer

Thank you all who came to share our 3 Year Anniversary Bash

SLN Birthday celebrations

Congratulations to all who have taken part in the treasure hunt there are still 9 prizes to find hidden around skybeam estate :) so have fun hunting!
The landmraks can be picked up from the posters around the office and skybeam.
The grand prize was found last night by Callie Blackburn and I hope to present this to her at tonights birthday party!

Come and join us at 2pm SLT behind our main office at Skybeam
DJ Dakota Christensen will be spinning the tunes and the raffle ball will be dropping out random gifts all night to help celebrate.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/SkyBeam/190/252/38

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SL-NEWSPAPER AND SKYBEAM!

Dana Vanmoer

CHRISTO ISLAND

When I landed on Christo Island, I had a quick look round to get my bearings.

I decided to go for a flying survey of the whole island, to look at the big picture, so to speak. I could immediately see that it is very beautifully designed. Somebody has a good eye for detail. In the north West corner, there is a smallholding with a wheat field and a small vineyard and a vegetable garden. I’ve got to say, it made feel really good inside. It had a very soothing effect on me! Behind it there was a mountainous island which only added to the atmosphere.

Find out more in the COMMUNITY SECTION with Kim Trefusis

48 Hour Machinima Flm Project Showing: “And the Winner is ...”

On Thursday November 12 at 1 PM SL time at a theater in Rasta Ventures, Chantal Harvey hosted the showing of some of the finalists in the 48 Hour Machinima Film Project.

“This is the third time that the 48 Hour Film Project has included machinima,” Chantal told the audience, “and has come to Second Life to screen and celebrate this wonderful event. This past weekend was not a regular weekend at all, as it was divided in 48 hours, for the tream leaders and their crew, ... working hard to produce a machinima ... I recall one team leader saying ‘I love a good deadline,’ and I wonder if that still stands.”

For the 48 Hour Machinima, people had to do a film, using Second Life or another virtual world, such as the World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto games. A few elements were required for each film. Among the characters, it had to have a baker named Bobby or Bobbi Stewart. There had to be a book somewhere in the machinima. And one of the lines had to be “Are you sure about that?”

“People usually underestimate the production time of a film in real life,” Chantal explained, “and more so perhaps for a machinima. I always say there is little to no difference, technically speaking, between the two. Your story has to be strong and suitable, and camera work, light, acting, music, sound, edit, if you do a job right, it is done as thorough as in so-called real life. What makes it harder for machinima is the lack of facial expressions, so emotion is a hard thing to bring across. Each engine/platform has its own advantages and disadvantages. Big advantage, is of course no cranes, no helicopters, no rails needed to make a nice smooth pan.”

The finalist would be shown with other films in the larger 48 Hour Film project, which the Machinima contest was part of, “These films will be shown in Las Vegas, April 2010. ... I am so proud to be the machinima producer. It gives me the opportunity to help a little bit towards the goal I have set myself, to bring machinima to the attention of the world. The 48 Hour Film Project is a wonderful organization, and it has given an opportunity to many filmmakers to learn, and show their work. ... I want to thank the 48HFP for coming to virtual worlds and creating this opportunity for machinima. The producers of the first two editions were true pioneers, we can hold them responsible for the start of this wonderful event.
Which brings me to saying thanks, to Panther Chenille, our guest of honour tonight. For ever in your debt! And thanks, to Christina, Mark, and Ben.”

The audience included some noted people in SL media such as Delinda Dryssen and Pooky Amsterdam. Blue Linden was also there.

The first film shown was last year’s winner, “Merry Christmas Frank,” a tale about an elderly actor being thrown out of his regular Santa gig, saying the act’s been changed to scantily clad girls, and they “don’t need anyone about to be dead,” but the old man finds a way to get revenge. Then there was “Among the Badgerman” by Jun Falkenstein of Falcom Productions/Obvious Films, which was late but finished so allowed to be shown even if it didn’t qualify. Filmed in World of Warcraft, it shows a stereotypical TV nature show host coming upon a village of “badgermen,” treating them like simple primitives, completely oblivious to the fact they spoke perfect English and know some of the finer points of modern life.

Unfortunately, it was about this time technical difficulties began to crop up, some no longer seeing the films, just a gray or white screen. For others they took longer to load, sometimes the display cutting off before coming to a close. Using voice was not allowed, but chat was. “I've never been to a movie with so much talking... lolz!” “Shush, Trick.” (TributeTim Kwak throws popcorn at Trick) “I'm not saying anything” ... *brushes the popcorn off his hair.*

Other movies shown included “Bobby’s Wedding Cake,” by Team Machinimatrix, a lighthearted romance about a baker determined to foil the plans of his stonehearted master to marry a young girl. Then there was “Baking With Bobby,” by Team Sound’r, a comedy in which a TV show baker runs to the TV studio late for work, collides with a strange figure, and hastily picking up what he thinks is his cookbook, the results turn out to be a recipe for disaster.

Then there was “At Bakerys End” by Team Ciscovan, a dramatic tale of a man pondering love and losing it. From Team Rediculous Studios, “What of the Baker,” filmed in the Fallout 3 game, a Western. From Grey Matter Films, “The Wisk Girl,” considered of the Superhero Genre. The last machinima shown was the “Ring of False God,” by Team Clark, a suspense thriller. Two corrupt cops try to intimidate a captured enemy into revealing what a dead man was trying to hide.

Following the films, Chantal then announced the winners of the various categories. Team Clark got the most wins, such as in Best Directing and Best Cinematography. The runner-up for best film was “What of the Baker” by team Rediculous Sandwich Studios. Finally came the big moment, “BEST FILM is ... ‘Ring Of False God,’ by Team Clark.” The audience went up in cheers, lots of people saying congratulations. Chantal then continued, “Actually, you have all won!!!!!! ... And I mean it when I say you all have won.”

People continued to congratulate the winners, and Chantal for her work, before heading out.



Best Film "Ring of False God" - Team Clark
Runner-Up "What of the Baker" - Team Rediculous Sandwich Studios

Best Directing: Team Clark
Best Writing: Team Clark
Best Acting: Rediculous Sandwich Studios
Best Editing: Team Clark
Best Cinematography: Team Clark
Best Sound Design: Sound’r
Best Use of Character: Machinimatrix
Best Use of Prop: Sound’r
Best Use of Line: Ideajuice
Best Atmosphere: Ciscovan
Best Musical Score: Sound’r
Best Costumes: Machinimatrix


“It was such a pleasure to do this. I feel for the teams, as I know how hard it is. ... Bye, and welcome, and thanks ... phew!”

Bixyl Shuftan

Win L$10,000 for SLNs 3rd birthday

Who are sl-newspaper.com?
Sl-newspaper.com was founded by JamesT Juno 3 years ago, now run by his partner Dana Vanmoer

This weekend we are celebrating, first with a treasure hunt with a grand prize of L$10,000
You can find the rules and Landmarks in the poster outside our main office

http://slurl.com/secondlife/SkyBeam/190/218/38

Then a party on Saturday 2-4pm SLT with DJ Dakota behind our main office

http://slurl.com/secondlife/SkyBeam/190/250/38

I hope you will all join me in celebrating one of SLs longest running newspapers.

Dana

The Western Front

To honor Veterańs Day, I visited the First World War Poetry Digital Archives at the Western Front exhibit. (219, 199, 646).

This site focuses on the First World War and how it was experienced by the British poets, soldiers, and nurses who served in it. The site has archived poetry, letters, interviews and photographs into an interactive exhibit.

At the point of arrival, the site requests that you change into one of its free uniforms, either a soldier or nurse, before you proceed into the encampment. I chose a nursés uniform for my tour. To enhance your viewing, it also gives directions on changing your sky to evoke the mood that existed near the front lines. This is easy to do and adds a lot to the experience.

The exhibit starts with a typical encampment of tents. As you walk through the sim, the sounds of marching soldiers and bugles can be heard. (Walk slowly because it takes time for the soldiers to rez.) When they do, you will hear interviews with the men who lived through that War.

The topics include typical war information on weapons and training, but also less common information on day-to-day life in the camps.

In addition to the figures that rez, there are blue and red boxes scattered around the site. The red boxes are archived interviews, images and videos of the veterans. The blue boxes are readings of the poetry by Edward Thomas, Siegfried Sassoon, and others, accompanied by images of the poets and their manuscripts. There is a teleport to the hospital tents, trenches, and front lines. Near the rear of the site there is a transport that will give you an aerial view of the trench system, but I couldń't get this to work. However, I teleported easily to the hospital tents and trenches.

The interviews at the hospital were an interesting and sober reminder of the horros of  that war.  From here you can walk through the trenches to the front lines. Allow yourself time to go slowly through the trenches because many of the items are not initially visible.

By Grey Lupindo

Veterans Day/Remembrance Day

To veterans, an honored Veterans Day/Remembrance Day from all the crew

Skybeam celebrates 3 years

Full schedule of events in the Community section

Reader submitted movie

Winter Comes to Mystery

Winter came to the Mystery sim recently, the scenery now sporting a snowy look. And on Sunday Nov 8, they had their first big weekend live music event to celebrate. Debi Latte sang to the dancers at the Heart of Mystery riverboat club.

To read more, Click Here in Community.