New home of SLN at Skybeam

Our new office is built and our new home at Skybeam is ready. Come and visit, sit and have a chat in the lounge area while you peruse todays news.
Skybeam have made us most welcome and I am happy to be here among friends.
Overlooking the huge sandbox is great fun as there is always something new to see each day. You never know you may even find me out there building just for the fun of it :)
http://slurl.com/secondlife/SkyBeam/164/199/38

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New Office for SLN

We outgrew our old office so have had a makeover with a much more spacious building.
Feel free to visit you will be able to pick up all our freebies in the main reception area plus we have 2 money trees to help those just starting in Secondlife, one is by the entrance the other in the courtyard - also a great place to sit and read todays news!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ian%20Bernard/95/161/37

Each crew member has their own office plus we have added an online indicator board so if you have a story you will know if someone is online to talk to you.

In the top of the water tower is our photo studio a great place for getting just the right shot for your story.

We will probably have a party next week just to celebrate - but more on that later, for now come and visit and have a wander around.

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Cartoon of the day

By Bixyl Shuftan

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Introducing Magdeleine Rossini The NOT SO Tranquil Writer

While setting up for the birthday celebrations Nazz Lane introduced me to a friend of his Magdeleine Rossini, now bearing in mind how hectic things were you might agree this was not the best time for me to pay attention BUT with Mags you just can't help it!
To show you what I mean I asked her to write to me and tell me a bit about herself, for perusal at a later time, I wouldn't normally publish this sort of thing but to give you some idea what to expect I am going to print a little of that letter:

I descend from a long line of wordsmiths who totally rebuffed the idea of ever becoming "journalists". I learned at the knee of a fine "newspaperman" -- who, by the grace of God, married a bawdy Vaudevillian.
I'm fairly transparent in all my various worlds -- one to the other -- and as such, my writing is frequently infused with gobs of unvarnished maternalisms and absurd notions of hope. Can't be changed. Tried and failed.
"Well, Madam. You certainly didn't topple me over in a fit of glee with *that* introduction," Dana said.

"Wait! Wait!," Mags crouped out; her tone gone all whiskey-voiced from sucking in file vault dust. A chalky fist emerged from the abyss."I found it! Filed under 'Potato', where else?"

Dana did a quick read through, poised to grab the Mighty Red Pencil and get to work. "Mags, may I ask you a question?"

"Shoot," Mags replied.

"Why did you send me a clip about channeling serial killers in order to make searing investigations of their deep-seated feelings?"

Mags froze solidly. Fixed in space and time like a deer caught in the headlights. "Damnation! That one should have been under 'Porridge'." She proceeded to leave her "particulars below" in the event that she hadn't flummoxed the entire first impression. "Well, maybe they'll let me write some risible obits...."

With a letter like that I just couldn't do anything else but take her on, you will find Mags first column in the PEOPLE section.

Dana Vanmoer

Disclaimer: SL-Newspaper takes no responsibility for accidents that occur to their readers through laughing or choking. DV

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Gambling back in Second Life?

On September 11th, last week, the US House of Representatives passed Bill H.R. 6870 amending the UIGEA, the part of the Safe Port Act that forced Linden Lab to ban all gambling in Second Life in July last year. This new Bill states that the ban on internet gambling only attacks sports betting. Furthermore it appoints a commission that will determine further definitions of what constitutes internet gambling.

Last year, on July 25th 2007 to be precise, Linden Lab announced a change to its Terms of Service (ToS), banning all gambling for money in Second Life. Basically, any game of chance that involved L$ transactions were outlawed. As most of the people who are in SL for at least a year remember, this caused a huge uproar and large protests. Not only that, but the economy of SL also got a direct hit (see chart).

Now it seems that the House has un-done this ban, at least for normal casino games like Poker and Roulette and BlackJack and even including the good-old Sploder. As long as it doesn't involve betting on sports results, this bill makes it legal again.

But of course, the fans of gambling in SL can only call this a glimpse of hope, because the Bill hasn't changed into Law just yet. First the US Senate has to pass this Bill, and after that the US president (currently Mr. Bush) has to sign it. And after that, Linden Lab has to feel compelled to revoke their ban through the ToS.

So there are still a few heavy steps to take, but in general it seems that at least some people in the Land of the Free have come to their senses. And of course, with the commission in place, they still have the power to outlaw casino games again, but that is not expected because that is not the intention of this new Bill.

The SL Newspaper will keep an eye on further developments although it will probably take some time before we hear anything else about this. When it's time to start in-world protests to convince the Lindens to change the ToS again, we'll certainly let you know. Or protest AGAINST changing the ToS again of course, if you want to keep SL free of gambling.

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SL5B: Rounding up the wagons ...

On it’s 5th anniversary SL is way passed the pioneer era. But then again ... It’s not.

"It is always an uneasy transition for the pioneers, and I think we’re going to go trough that again." (Mitch Kapor)

Under the flawless pixel summer sky, a crowd that was way passed the limit of safe occupancy of sims, struggled with lag and gathered to attend Mr. Mitch Kapor’s closure speech of SL 5th birthday celebrations.

People there where anxious, and hoping to hear announcements of change. Maybe we have this feeling about the Linden Lab being a kind of a nice Big Brother, but a Big Brother after all, that is supposed to provide us with tools for enhancing the experience and help make our virtual existence richer, more comfortable, more successful.

He encouraged residents to stop whining and start acting like the grown ups that the platform has become.

I sensed I bit of disappointment (Especially from residents who pay money to be here). I think both points of view are partly right. To people "in the know", the showing of clips from the video previewing his 3D camera (www.handsfree3D.com) was no news.

There was, instead, a 'political speech'. Sounding a bit like President Kennedy ("We stand at the edge of a New Frontier ..."), Mitch talked about the Internet, and about how a new technology always starts out in a frontier condition. In the beginning, SL residents have been pioneers, and he compared their spirit to those who settled the West.

The first pioneer era is ending now. We are at the gates of a transition. It's like we have reached the moon… and now we have to figure out how to move on from there.
It's not have been easy for pioneers. It's still not easy for newcomers. Only the strong stay.

He spoke about the 'high attrition rate' of the early years (many believe it's still high). "There are some things that Linden Lab has to do, to allow the potential of the platform to unfold, to improve ease of use, ease of learning", is a phrase that seems to point in the right direction.

Please see the video of Mitch Kapor's video, or just hear the audio, by going to the Linden Lab official blog. He spoke about the SL5B week, about the stage of development that Second Life is now in, and about new upcoming developments including real photo-realistic avatars, controlling your avatar by moving in front of a webcam. He also talked about other things, but please see the video on the LL blog for that.

Mitch Kapor is member of the Linden Lab board of directors. He has been involved with Second Life long before it was opened up to the public as an investor. Besides this, he has made a name for him self in the IT and internet world for various accomplishments. Please see the Wikipedia page about him for more detailed information.

Written by: Covadonga Writer

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SL5B griefer attack?

It's not that long ago that I personally learned from a Linden (at his office hours) that griefing has been dramatically reduced in the past months. Well, SL5B (the Second Life 5th birthday celebration mini-continent) seems like a perfect target.

Enus Linden, who has a nice dock in the SL5B Prim region, has become victim of this. His little place really has been set aflame with colored particles.


However, what's strange about this, is that a certain person who is in all the right groups for the SL5B events and sims and even Burning Life, seems to be the owner of these rezzing objects. So is this just a joke, or a real griefer attack?

Both Enus Linden and the owner of the particle rezzers were unavailable for comments.

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BREAKING NEWS: new land store is open!

Today, Linden Lab announced that the new land store is open for business!

This new feature has been announced for a long time already, and had to be postponed weeks ago. There has been much debate about the new reduced pricing that was announced at the same time as the new land store. Through the land store, only complete sims/regions can be bought (normal or openspace), not smaller parcels.

Through the history of announcements of this new land store, residents have been bounced back and forth between happiness and sorrow, because of the way that Linden Lab has handled these changes. First they announced the new land store, then they took the old land store offline, then they announced that the introduction of it was postponed, and after that they re-opened the old land store with the new prices. And now D-day is finally there it seems.

But ...

They say it is in beta-phase (still testing), which seems to be understandable. The old land store was in beta-phase for years without ever changing. However, you need to submit a support ticket to be granted access to the land store. And even worse: you have to promise to buy land, before access is granted! You have to activate a tick box on the support ticket page which says:



The problem with is that even though you can actually submit the ticket without activating that tick box, it is unclear if access will be granted if it isn't activated. And what would happen if I would promise to buy a new region, but not do it? And no time-frame is mentioned to do it in. Several people have asked about this in the comments on the announcement, but no responses have come in yet. Imagine that you can't access a website like Amazon.com, without promising to buy at least 1 book.

UPDATE: Linden Lab said in a personal chat with us that they will approve tickets even without agreeing to buy. We now have proof of that; my ticket just got approved.

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BREAKING NEWS: Land store closed, new store launch postpone

Today, Linden Lab announced on their official blog that the launch of the new land store, with drastically reduced prices, will be postponed by a few weeks. Linden Lab did not give a new date for the launch.

In the meantime, the old land store has been closed down indefinately to prevent people from ordering new regions for a price that is too high. Of course another reason for this is that the Concierge Team has been overworked for a while already and has had to deal with a lot of stress. Hopefully this will give them a bit of rest.

Rumour had it that Linden Lab had a lot of trouble with the payment system behind the new land store. This would be the reason for the new delay.

However, this does not take away all the protests (for example during Linden office hours) and upset residents. If anything, it will make it worse. After being haunted by devaluation of investments first, and now not even the possibility to recuperate, this is a heavy hit to take for anyone who owns 1 or more (or even many) sims.

We at SL Newspaper are pretty sure it's all for good reasons, but it is yet another blow to the economy of Second Life and the larger companies are already withdrawing from the SL world to look for other alternatives. The new land store, in combination with the 40% drop in sim prices, was supposed to be a way to draw more companies and investors to Second Life, but the opposite seems to be going on. Especially if you add that to the serious problems with performance and stability of the past few weeks.

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BREAKING NEWS: Region prices dropped by 40%

UPDATE (Thursday, April 10th, 3:30am SLT):

Linden Lab have released some more details about the new pricing for sims. The most important changes are:
- Openspace sim prices will also drop (to US$ 275, excl. VAT)
- Tier fees will remain the same for all types of sims
- New land store will probably open on April 16th/17th
- Orders for new regions that have not been processed yet, can be cancelled
- There will be compensation for those who bought a new region after March 10th
- First month's tier will still be included in the setup price

It seems that Linden Lab has given in to the many many comments and complaints about these price changes. It is mostly the enormous drop in prices (over 40%) and how sudden this all came to the public at large, that has been upsetting many residents. Especially those who have bought a region not too long ago, but long enough not to get compensated, are very aggrevated to see their investments drop 40% in value overnight.

The post on the LL blog reached the maximum of 150 comments within hours after the details were released. About 80-90% of the comments are negative and critical towards these price changes.


Original post (Tuesday, April 8th):

Linden Lab has done it again! Another very controversial decision that will shake up Second Life completely! Very angry sim owners are screaming and shouting how unfair the latest of LL's decisions is.

Yesterday/today, LL announced that prices of private regions will drop from US$ 1695 to US$ 1000 within the next couple of weeks.

Imagine that you ordered a new region yesterday, and that you paid almost US$ 1700 for it, while only a few hours later you read that if you had waited 2 weeks, that you would have gotten exactly the same private region for US$ 700 less! Or imagine that you have invested in 20 sims for your RL business, or that you have started your own business in-world, renting out land. You would have invested US$ 33,500 (or even more if you lived in the EU), and now would loose about US$ 15,000 !!!

It almost seems that with two major top-level managers in Linden Lab gone, things are going downhill very fast and decisions aren't thought through very well.

Of course this decision also has it's advantages for those who were thinking about buying a region sometime soon. They will simply get a huge discount. But that will not weigh up against the tremendous amount of upset sim owners, protests and maybe even law suits against Linden Lab.

Another decision that was announced, is to drop the bottom threshhold for mainland region auctions from US$ 1250 to US$ 750, and to 'agressively' sell abandoned mainland.

All we can think of, after the mere flabbergasted feeling fades away, is one question: what is Linden Lab trying to accomplish with this action? Why this enforced rapid expansion over the backs of current residents who will loose 40% of their investments? Has Second Life been subject of some kind of contest over who has the biggest online metaverse? Or did they just get a very good deal on an investment of new servers and do they want to earn that money back very soon?

The article on the LL blog was not very clear on the Openspace regions, on which there has been a huge run since they became a lot easier to buy about a month ago. It is unknown if the price of those 'void sims' will drop by 40% as well. And if so, will LL be sued over it? A lot of people ordered a lot of those sims very very recently!

For now we will have to wait for the new Land Store to open (before the end of April), and in the meantime we will see if this will finally make the economy of SL collaps.

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Havok4 introduction completed

It's done. It's finished. It's there. The physics engine, this vital part of the server-side software that Linden Lab uses to control everything in Second Life has been upgraded from version 1 to 4.

Today the last rolling restarts made it happen. The upgrade project was started behind the scenes over a year ago and has been available for testing for everyone on the Beta grid for months and more recently in the early adaptor program. And now it's gone public. Today the last sims were updated and restarted.

So is this the promised milestone that will make everything better? Or is it the introduction of more problems? I've done some research and to be honest, I'm not sure. Time will have to tell.

Two months ago I was in a wild mood and tried the Havok4 Beta. I went out, rezzed about 100 go-karts on a nearly empty Beta sim and made them all physical. Now, you must know that under the old Havok1, this would almost certainly bring everything on that region to a near stop, if not crash the sim completely. I've seen it happen. But I must say, this first try with Havok4 really made me smile! Holy moly, what a big step this would mean. I won't say this test went as smooth as it would be in real life, but the go-karts actually fell down and tumbled down the hill. I could see it happen, and I even could still walk around!

But ... is this really an improvement? Or will it just turn out as one of those things where things get more complicated, and get more buggy? Will it make everything run more smoothly, or will it cause more lag? Again, my first experiences with Havok4, even now that I've seen it on the SL grid, is very positive.

But if you consider that this introduction has been done during a number of other performance problems (specifically this weekend was very bad), one might wonder if they're really doing a smart thing there.

Let's wait and see. For now I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt.

Further reading and explanation on Havok4 can be found in the new Barbwire section, if you're interested. It'll tell you what Havok is and why they were upgrading it.

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BREAKING NEWS: LL has new CTO

UPDATE: APRIL FOOL !!! Please see 2nd comment for more info.

From a reliable source within Linden Lab, one of our reporters has learned that a new CTO has been hired. When this person will start is at this moment unknown and it should be announced on the official LL blog sometime today.

The name of Dr. Ted Polofaril has been mentioned and apparently he has great plans for Second Life. It has been said that one of the first things he will do is increase the maximum number of prims on regular regions considerably. This should happen sometime in May. According to him, this should be a logical step, following the introduction of Havok4 and updated hardware.

When we tried to contact the PR department of LL to get this confirmed, we did not get any answer. So for now this is only rumour. It is also said that Dr. Polofaril has been hired by Phil Rosedale himself. At top level his ideas are supported, but at lower level this decision is much debated, because of possible increased lag and increased number of system failures.

We will keep you updated as this story develops and we get an official reply from LL. Or of course when this is be publically announced. Please note that this Linden employee has requested not to disclose his name.

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Rumor control: prim savers not banned.

Yesterday, SL Newspaper picked up on a rumor that has been going around. The rumor said that rez-boxes, also called prim savers or temp rezzers, because of their function, would be banned from Second Life alltogether. The reason for this would be that they cause too much lag.

For those who don't know what it is: A prim saver (for example the famous Rezz-Box by Stukas Zephaniah) is an item that you can put your build in. Whether it's a tree, a building, home decoration, whatever. What it lt does, is rez it, but as temporary prims, over and over again. Those don't count against the prim limit of a parcel, but are still there. It's a way to be able to rez more than your prim limit.

Of course, if this rumor was true, half of SL would be jumping up and down out of frustration. Many people use these boxes, including builders, club owners, land owners, basically all kinds of people. It could also have great impact on land owners, because suddenly their parcel would not be big enough to hold everything they want to rez or create, and they would have to buy more land.

We went out to investigate and talked directly to one of our Linden Lab sources. Their response was something along the lines of: If this was true, we would post an announcement on the official LL blog. We don't plan anything like outlawing temp rezzers for now. But people should realize that they are pretty severe on server performance (causing much lag and sometimes even cause sim crashes).

Actually, this is what we already thought, but it was good to have it confirmed from LL side. So all we can say is: the rumor is not true. Even though the rumor tells that Lindens are going from sim to sim, deleting those items as undercover agents, there are many possible explanations for that. I only heard of one of those cases, but if it is really true, it could easily have been been because of a bad rez box causing trouble somewhere. It could have been reported by an angry neighbor and reported upon.

Either way, if you plan to use prim savers AKA rez-boxes AKA temp-rezzers, please use them wisely. There are some bad ones on the market, causing lots of lag, but there are also a few good ones. It is true that any temp-rezzer is lag causing, but usually only cause problems if there are many in one region.

For those who heard the rumor too: please ignore it and/or tell people that it's not true.

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Is Second Life 3D enough for you?

Don't we all love Second Life, and how it looks so 3 dimensional? Well, apparently, to some it still doesn't look right. The 3D lab of the University of Michigan in the USA has made it's own 3D stereoscopic viewer, using the open source of the official SL viewer. So it's time to get those silly looking 3D goggles out and really go in deep.

And you know what's even better? That same university has also announced that it will be implemented in the standard viewer in the future. I don't know if that's supposed to leak out already, but they said it on their website.

There are different kinds of 3D images. The most common types are where you wear the red-blue or red-green glasses and look at a slightly distorted image. Nowadays there is a more modern equivalent of that, which looks more like sunglasses. But the idea behind it is the same. It's called stereoscopic or anaglyphic viewing and it doesn't only work with still pictures. The UM 3D Lab has found a way to use it for moving pictures like in SL as well.


Then there's also the type of 3d images that only works for still images. It's basically 2 pictures that are next to eachother, but have a slightly different offset to one another. You can see the 3D effect when you look at them cross-eyed. Moriash Moreau has a website with some examples, like the well known SL location Bora Bora.


And there's the well known 3d images, or autostereograms, that you have to stare at for 3 days (or a few seconds, if you've managed to get it a couple of times). Like with the picture below ... look for the shark. However, this would not be a practical thing to do within SL, for obvious reasons.


There are a couple of other ways to look at things in a 3d way. You can find them on this Wikipedia page.

So for now, for all you geeks out there, the anaglyphic method where you need the goggles is the best way to go for now. However, I coudn't find any download link for the official University of Michigan version of the SL viewer, but I did find this site, which is an ongoing 'beta type' project for a new viewer. It has some nice features, including the 3D anaglyph patch from the UM.

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