Linden Lab Release New Viewer

'Unveiling An Improved New Resident Experience


One of the things we've been working hard on here at Linden Lab, as M pointed out in his  New Year post, is the new Resident experience in Second Life.


Today, we're proud to announce an important step forward as we continue to improve the welcome experience for new Residents; it's a more streamlined introduction to our online world, one that is simple, linear, and integrated with Viewer 2.  Our primary goal is to make Second Life more welcoming for new Residents, because more new Residents means more opportunity for merchants, landowners, creators--and for the whole ecosystem that is Second Life. However, Viewer 2 isn't just for new Residents. It also delivers a better, more intuitive user experience for all of us and gives everyone in Second Life the capability to integrate web-based media seamlessly into Second Life--a huge leap forward. And, what may not be immediately apparent--but equally  important--it provides us a robust and flexible platform to build on; we have much more goodness planned to roll out in 2010 and beyond.
Key points:
Second Life Welcome Island and Second Life Discovery Island
New Starter Avatars
Updated Terms of Service
Updated Maturity Ratings
Second Life Viewer 2 in Registration Flow'

Read the full post HERE

Reading through the entire post it seems aimed more at new residents and the Lindens actually point out that many testers experienced in SL have had difficulties adapting and basically completely relearning how to use Secondlife.
So looks like the long suffering residents will have to wait that little bit longer for all the bug fixes and better search etc that we have all been asking for for so long, of course we can expect bug fixes for the new viewer will take priority over little things like that as of course the new residents have no idea how Linden lab works and will expect the best service.
Luckily for now the update IS optional ;)
Dana

moreless

Introducing M Fashion

Welcome to M Fashion

M Fashion is not a regular Fashion Shop nor a shop for buying the average outfit. M Fashion is a co-operation with high skilled designers, a Fashion Photographer & M&M Creations to offer complete information and fashion related goods.
M Fashion is set up for all requests for Full Permissions outfits next to M&M's Creations Full Permissions Fashion Sculpts.

What's so special about M Fashion?
- The sets of Clothes and Outfits sold at M Fashion on DoubleMM Island will be for sale Full Permissions.
 - For resell or as complete sets to change textures and combinations that can be made with the contents of the sets.
- The contents of the boxes can be sold seperatly. (mind the TOS-form, there are some restrictions)
- The Boxes contain all materials used for the outfit displayed. (EXCEPT Templates)
- With the full permissions sculpt maps, shade-maps, shaded textures and average textures, clothes and accesoires a lot more can be created and sold at your own shop with your brand and your name as the
creator!
- M Fashion will be giving advice and will help you create your own clothes in SecondLife.
- M Fashion even gives classes and tutorials how to create SL-Fashion and using Fashion Sculpts in your designs or creating textures and templates.
- Once a month an exclusive set of fashion sculpts will be composed and sold for 1 week. These starter-sets are a great help for your creations. No need to walk around for hours and teleports to several
places to compose sets yourself and spend too much lindens. No need to buy a box with 17 skirt-shapes, if you only need 1.
These sets will contain the full permissions sculpt maps of all parts and their shade-textures besides a complete rez to work with.

M Fashion can give out landmarks, links or places you might need to improve your skills or find materials you are looking for to create smashing Designs!
For questions and requests, please send 10 Goosson a NOTECARD.

Please read our TOS-Form, it containts the do's and dont's for our Items!!

See this month's release in our FASHION SECTION

moreless

New Music - Adam Lambert Debut Single

Lambert Covers: Top is for the single, bottom for the CD.

Adam Lambert previewed his first single on the Ryan Seacrest show this morning. For Your Entertainment is the debut from the album of the same name. The album is to be released at the end of November. For more information, go to Adam's official website here.

moreless

New Music - Josh Zuckerman - Got Love?

Late in the summer, I ran a post for the single of Josh's upcoming album, Got Love? You know I love my out and proud rockers! The title song was a great rocking single, perfect for his gritty vocals. So I have purchased the album, and as with his other music, I love it. I'll get the shallow part out of the way early. Josh is quite hot, and when I seew video of him playing his low-slung guitar, I melt a little. Which he does in this live version of the first single - the official video was in the prior post.



The new release has 12 songs, all very good. I think Josh is rocking a little harder these days, and I am liking that very much. To Be Today kicks off the album, with a sweet opening that quickly moves to some solid guitar work. The sweet voice quickly moves aside for the growl I love. Then the title tune comes out, with a strong message and a guitar that blasts from the get-go. '

Black white doesn’t matter, gay, straight, thin, or fatter
When love is the answer, got no more fear…Got Love!

I Thought You Loved Me is next, and it is rock with a punk edge. The driving beat is matched with the intensity of the unrequited love. Let Love In returns to a more stadium rock approach, more melodic in nature and a a chorus that tells a lover "Love should be easy…love shouldn’t be so hard. Love can be healing…just let your guard down." Mother I is a wonderful song, offering thanks to what his mother taught him, including rocking with a slight alt.rock feel. Then If Prayer steps up to the plate, showing off a more soulful side, complete with the astonishing lyrics "If prayer is you really talking to GOD, Then listen to your gut cause GOD is talking to you." I Fall In Love Again slows it down and uses the piano to drive the ballad, and Josh's voice smooths it out and warms my heart. When We Dance adds a bit of Spanish flavor to charge the uptempo rock to another level, and really brings up the sexual quotient as well. Whoo!



My Inspiration is a highly personal song, a mid-tempo ballad that mixes up the feel with some interesting acoustic guitar and a little horn action. Take reminds me a bit of the 80s bands I loved, with tempo changes and at times a ska feel. The next song is so timely, called Our Wedding Song. It starts with a rocky version of the Wedding March, and then establishing what he wants to say with the third line "And here we are with friends and family gathering to watch us as we cry With tears of joy that remind us who we are and where we were." The final cut is Small Percentile, which returns to the ska feel, with a bit of 70s adult film score, with the wah-wah of the guitar. The search for love is never easy, is it?

So I love the album, and am just so damn glad I bought it. Josh's music makes me happy, and a little hot. Can't ask for much more, can you? I've never seen him play live, but I think I have to do that sometime, and hopefully soon. Here is a video from an earlier album, Out From Under. The song is Something Inside, a really sexy number.



You can buy this album at iTunes, CD Baby, and Amazon. You can find out what Josh is up to at his website here.

moreless

New Music - Sting

Sting is apparently ready to release a new album, a collection of winter songs entitled If On A Winter's Night. The album was apparently inspired by Sting's love of the winter season and based on a book If On A Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino. It includes the song Soul Cake, originally named A'soalin, written by Stookey, Batteaste, Mezzetti and recorded in 1983 by Stookey's trio, Peter [Stookey], Paul & Mary.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I am well aware when Sting went from a rock god [his days in The Police] to jazz singer [the release of The Dream of the Blue Turtles] but I am not sure at what point in time Sting went from jazz to medieval troubadour. I was a huge fan of The Police, and was a bit disappointed with his solo work. This, I fear, is more in the category of vanity projects than something I would be interested in purchasing. Thankfully, I this Sting needs neither my approval nor any more money. To find out more about his latest project, go to his official website here.

moreless

New Release - Christopher Dallman's Never Was

Today Christopher Dallman release's a new EP, titled Never Was. It will be available on Christopher's website prior to release on iTunes, and there will be a special bonus track on the 'pre-release.' You can purchase it from Dallman here. I can't wait to give it a couple of listens and get back to you with my thoughts. You can click on the player below for a preview!

Never Was offers four songs, although buy now and you won't be disappointed! So I've listened to them all, and love it. Even stronger than his first album, which I loved and has kept me waiting for new music world a while! It starts out with Little Bit Of Blue, a sweet song about the realization some goals change as we grow older, and need to be revised. Ghosts is next, heard on the preview above. Coming Around is close to genius, at least to me. Dallman wrote a beautiful and uplifting song about a creative block and the breakthrough that followed. Finally, there is Has Been, a haunting story of self-doubt, while at the same time reaffirmation, with lyrics like:

And it just gets to me
You get what I mean?
That the best of me is still unseen

And finally, there is the hidden track. It doesn't show up until you paid for the music and begin the download. Had no clue, until I DL'ed it. Even then I said, 'Damn, it can't be that, can it?' Well, he did. And it is brilliant. It works so well with the other music. Dallman doesn't play games with it, doesn't make it all menacing, but instead showcases the lamenting pop song ...Baby One More Time is, and Ms. Spears didn't communicate. Click here for a direct link to buy it. There is a request for a $4 minimum for 5 songs. All I can say is DO IT. Support a brilliant artist, and it will enrich your life.

moreless

New Video - Jake Walden

Jake Walden has released the EP Bleeding Love, including a duet with singer Bonnie Somerville, yesterday. Along with the title track, the four-song EP includes live versions of The Line and The Storm from his first CD, Alive And Screaming, and an acoustic demo of the song We Are. It is available on iTunes now. He also released a video for Bleeding Love, an animated featuring line drawings with anime influences.



The Bleeding Love EP is available on iTunes here and CD Baby here.

moreless

Press Release - We Butter The Bread With Butter

Wow, I feel as though I have arrived, for I received a press release about a new band I really know little about. So I did a bit of snooping, and at the end you will find a promotional clip of the band. It is true, they are a Electro-Death-Metal band, so while this clip might be fine for work, most of their videos might not be...



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 6, 2009

WE BUTTER THE BREAD WITH BUTTER:
THE NEW ELECTRO-DEATH METAL DARLINGS OF HOT TOPIC ARRIVE IN THE US WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM DAS MONSTER AUS DEM SCHRANK

Innovative Electro-Death Metal duo WE BUTTER THE BREAD WITH BUTTER has arrived with the release of their groundbreaking debut album, Das Monster aus dem Schrank (The Monsters out of the Closet) in the United States through Redfield Records. The album is exclusively available now through brick and mortar Hot Topic retail outlets as well as online through all digital retailers including iTunes.

Das Monster aus dem Schrank is We Butter The Bread With Butter’s interpretation of well-known children’s folk songs with a perverse metal twist. The album’s highly energetic beats, modern-electro melodies, and death-core vocals align to create a sound uniquely known as Electro-Death Metal.

"It's like a very, very hard and chaotic children's birthday,” explains the duo Tobias Schultka and Marcel Neumann to Noisecreep.com. “[When people see us live, they're] like, 'what the f---? Are there just two guys playing? They never can do it.' But after a few seconds, the party is on fire.”

In 2007, Tobias and Marcel started the musical experiment that became We Butter The Bread With Butter in Lübben in the East of Germany. After only a year, the pair managed to create an unprecedented international fan-base, with their impact putting the unique sound and style on the map, keeping them in the Top-10 Artist Charts at Myspace.com for over six months.

On the heels of this growing international presence, We Butter The Bread With Butter brings Das Monster aus dem Schrank to the US, available at Hot Topic stores across the nation now. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

There MySpace page can be found here.

moreless

New Music - Greg Laswell - Covers

Today Greg Laswell released a new EP, Covers, which is available on iTunes. I haven't purchased it yet - need to get home from work and my own computer - but know the following songs are included in the collection; Killing Moon by Echo & the Bunnymen, In Spite of Me by Morphine, Take Everything by Mazzy Star, Your Ghost by Kristen Hersh, and This Woman's Work by Kate Bush. I am sure it is excellent.



While available as an online download and as a CD, Laswell also makes note that it will also be the first of his collections to be available on vinyl. [God that makes me feel old] You can find more about it on his website here. And you can check out my review of his last CD, three flights from alto nido, here.

moreless

New Music - Collective Soul

Recently, Collective Soul released their latest CD, a self-titled effort. As is often the case these days, there are a variety of different packages out there, ranging from the core group of 11 songs that make up the CD, to the extras for different versions, including three extra tracks on the iTunes version. The Georgia-based band has put out another great collection I am thrilled to have on my iPod. The first song up is Welcome All Again, the released single. It is a rollicking rock song, practically defining arena rock, and I've already heard it featured on commercials for more than one television show. Here is a fan video of the boys in action recently singing the song.



I will admit I am already a fan of their music, and have most of their CDs. I seem to hear a little something different in this CD, a hint of a retro feel, almost as if lightly seasoned by some of the bands the boys listened to when growing up. Track 2, Fuzzy, has a bit of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop in it, but still maintaining that trademark Collective Soul feel. Dig is next, and there are times in the chorus I hear almost an homage to the Kinks in the guitar sounds, again, just lacing the CS sound. You is pure CS, with the trademark sound and exceptional vocals of Ed Roland. My Days starts out bold with the Dean Roland, Will Turpin and Joel Kosche wielding their guitars with a rougher edge than usual, then taking a bit of the rhythm over from drummer Cheney Brannon. They capture a bit of the flavor of the late 70s/early 80s hard rock bands. Understanding is pure CS, until the chorus, when they pick up with the sound of punk bands of the early 80s, combining the drive of the Ramones and the Undertones. About three minutes into the song, I swear they offer an homage to Pink Floyd. The following is another fan video of CS in concert, singing Dig.



The seventh track, Staring Down, comes out with a soulful feel, Ed's voice practically crooning while the band exhibits a more pop/rock side. This is familiar territory for CS, but good and still fresh. She Does is up next, another mid-tempo number with a more classic pop feel. Lighten Up has the guys coming out strong again, bringing the guitars out front and center, leading the driving beat, again touching on a punkish feel, at times an almost Bowie flavor. For the next track, there is Love, again returning to pure CS form. Hymn For My Father closes out the 11 tracks, opening with a simple piano sound, and Ed singing an obvious tribute. The piano is quite lovely, with almost a gospel/church feel.



I enjoyed this CD a great deal. It has the Collective Soul sound, with some hints and flavors of history thrown in - these boys know what came before them and how to utilize some of their influences without killing their own sound, the feel that makes it their own. They've pulled from the past, and made it all very new, combined in a way to make it their own sound and keep it fresh. I bought it, and am damn glad I did.



Collective Soul has made perhaps the strongest effort I have seen happen in the music industry by a major label act to stay in touch with their fans. There is a band member on their Twitter account [@collective_soul] every day, interacting with them, retweeting comments, answering questions, and at times letting the fan in on backstage life and personal time. Their website is also interactive, and can be found by clicking here. The official fansite is here.

moreless

New Video - Backstreet Boys Preview

Yes, I have already admitted I have a soft spot for the Backstreet Boys, so it should come as no surprise I have to do a little post about the new video. This is the official preview from the BSB Youtube site. You can see the complete video here.



Enjoy!

moreless

New Purchase - Christopher Dallman - Anthem

Christopher Dallman has released Anthem, a song for marriage equality, this afternoon. This is an issue near and dear to Christopher's [and my own] heart, as Christopher and his boyfriend would dearly love to be married, but the passage last year of Prop 8 pretty much prevents them from sharing their love as a joyous expression. But it also leaves a residual that is bitter to taste. I mean, can over half the population truly believe it is not disrespectful of the institution that Elizabeth Taylor could have 8 marriages and King Henry VIII can have six [some of whom he beheaded to avoid a messy divorce], but gay taxpayers, coworkers and family members are told they can't marry the person they love because that would destroy the institution as we know it? Christopher sings, 'Brother of mine, it's just a matter of time.' His words ring true to me.

The single is available at Bandcamp, and you can pay what you would like [there is a $2 minimum for purchases]. At iTunes, you'd be paying $1.98, without the bonus of knowing half the proceeds from Anthem will be going to Human Rights Campaign for the battle for marriage equality.



Christopher is excited about this and upcoming projects. "If you like this song, please spread it around! Play it for your friends, email it, tweet it, share it on your Facebook page! As an independent musician, I rely on your support!" The B-side for Anthem is the song from the video which premiered recently, Over My Head, You can find Christopher Dallman on the web at his website, on Twitter, and the merchandise space.

moreless

New Purchase - Casey Stratton

Casey Stratton has just made available two separate collections that are perfect for fans like me - somewhat new. There are two collections, one from the 90s, and the other from the 2000s. They are available online, and Casey has personally overseen the digital remastering of the cuts.



I was familiar with a couple of the songs form his CD Standing On The Edge, while others are new and fresh. Casey has an ethereal, haunted quality to his singing that is something you will either love or hate. He is oft compared to Tori Amos, someone he is a fan of himself. The music is rather lush. Both the track above, Hollow, and below, Take Back Your Violets, are featured in the 90s collection.



You can purchase this and other music by Casey Stratton thru his website at the online music store by clicking here. You can visit his website here, his blog here, and his Twitter account here.



Hopefully, later this afternoon we will get word on the release of a new single, Anthem, from Christopher Dallman. Fingers crossed!

moreless

New Video - SIRPAUL - Swinger

SIRPAUL has released a new video from the Objectified CD, called Swinger. It's an Urban/Electronic/Club style song. I love SIRPAUL's music, and think he always puts out an interesting video. According to a message on his ReverbNation site, he is now creating some music for Giorgio Armani.



Find more on SIRPAUL at his website here, or his ReverbNation site here.

moreless

New Music - Backstreet Boys

Backstreet - Brian Littrell, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough & AJ McLean

The big announcement today was the new song from the Backstreet Boys. Straight Thru My Heart was released on the official website as a snippet, but of course it has already been leaked on the internet. I have also said Backstreet was my favorite boyband of the 90s, so we shall see if they can still pull it off now. When they started off, they were five, Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, A. J. McLean and Kevin Richardson. Three years ago, Kevin left the group to have more time at home to start his family. Kevin was my favorite. Anyway, so then there were four.

The many looks of Kevin Richardson

The new CD, This Is Us, is to be released sometime this fall. Odd title, not sure what it means, except the obvious 'the four are us people, get over it. No new members, and Kevin is gone.'

The song is good, but certainly nothing outstanding. I think of it sounding a bit like an adult-contemporary version of an old song. But it is poppy and perky, and certainly not the worse song that might be on the air these days. This is a the music video.

We can just hope it makes enough money we never have to see another season of House of Carters, with the screwed up and dysfunctional Carter family yelling, screaming and backstabbing one another. And be glad whiny Aaron Carter did not join the Boys. You can find out other sites to find out about the current boys at their website and hear the song replayed incessantly.

moreless

New releases from AZUL

Risky by name and nature this dress comes in 8 colours including the lavender and red shown here. This halter strapped dress features ties on the back of the neck with long flowing pleats split on one side. long black gloves are also included.


Visit AZUL at joia azul

moreless