Is it too early ? Well, I don’t care if it is, LOL. I felt like wishing you all the merriest of Xmas, so here it is !

*waves and gets back to unpacking boxes in her new place *smiles

diambil dari milis elektro yang diambil dari koran jawapos… bagus buat disimak…

Quick Launch

16/11/2009

10 NOVEMBER lalu, Menteri BUMN Mustafa Abubakar meminta maaf kepada rakyat karena PLN gagal menyediakan pasokan listrik. Pemerintah berjanji, pasokan listrik di Jakarta akan pulih minggu ketiga Desember. Menanggapi laporan para menterinya, Wakil Presiden Boediono meminta departemen dan kementerian mempersiapkan pasokan listrik dalam jangka panjang.

Pemadaman listrik bergilir lebih parah pernah terjadi Juli 2008. Tidak hanya menimpa kawasan permukiman di Jakarta, tapi juga kawasan industri di sekitar Jakarta. Puluhan pengusaha Jepang langsung memprotes Wakil Presiden Jusuf Kalla. Mereka mengancam akan memindahkan pabriknya ke Tiongkok bila pemerintah gagal menjamin stabilitas pasokan listrik.

Menanggapi ancaman pengusaha Jepang, Wakil Presiden Jusuf Kalla bergeming. Dia meminta pengusaha bertahan dengan mengatakan bahwa Tiongkok pun pernah mengalami kekurangan pasokan listrik sebelum proyek-proyek pembangkitnya selesai dibangun. Dia berjanji pemadaman bergilir akan berakhir dalam sepekan.

Setelah berhasil meyakinkan pengusaha Jepang, Kalla segera mengeluarkan maklumat. Kantor pemerintah diperintahkan tutup sebelum pukul 17.00. Lampu-lampu kantor dan reklame juga wajib dipadamkan, serta pendingin ruangan wajib disetel pada suhu 25 derajat Celsius. Pengusaha juga diimbau bergiliran bekerja dengan memaksimalkan pekerjaan pada Sabtu-Minggu, ketika beban puncak kebutuhan listrik berkurang. Hasilnya, pemadaman bergilir langsung berhenti dua hari kemudian.

Sejumlah orang dekatnya mengatakan, solusi adalah nama tengah Kalla. Sejumlah menteri pun mengakui ide-ide orisinal dan out of the box Kalla yang muncul begitu cepat dalam merespons persoalan pelik. Ketika orang lain berpikir untuk swasembada harus dilakukan dengan menambah luasan lahan, Kalla justru memerintahkan distribusi bibit unggul secara gratis.

Ketika Departemen Pertanian menyodorkan proposal program peningkatan teknologi pascapanen, Kalla justru memerintahkan agar membagikan terpal plastik sebagai alas pengolahan pascapanen di sawah. ”Kalau setiap hektare ada satu kilogram gabah yang hilang ketika dipanen, ada 2 juta ton yang hilang setiap musim panen. Itu artinya tidak perlu impor beras,” katanya.

Ketika Bank Century kolaps, Gubernur BI Boediono dan Menkeu Sri Mulyani Indrawati segera meminta pemerintah memberikan penjaminan penuh (blanket guarantee) dana nasabah Bank Century. Usul itu ditolak Kalla. Wapres langsung menelepon Kapolri, memerintahkan agar pemilik Century Robert Tantular ditahan. Tiga jam kemudian, Kapolri melapor bahwa Robert sudah ditahan serta dana Rp 12 triliun yang dilarikan ke luar negeri dibekukan dan dalam proses repratriasi ke Indonesia. ”Untung saja waktu itu punya Wapres Jusuf Kalla yang tegas menolak pengucuran bailout,” tegas anggota FPDIP DPR Gayus Lumbuun di gedung DPR kemarin (12/11).

Tak heran, ketika Polri dan KPK berseteru soal kasus Bibit Samad Riyanto dan Chandra M. Hamzah, banyak orang yang kangen dengan solusi ala Jusuf Kalla. Kasus itu diyakini tak akan berlarut-larut bila Kalla masih ada di dalam pemerintah.

Meski tak banyak terdengar, kiprah Kalla dalam mendamaikan konflik terbuka antarlembaga tinggi negara sudah banyak teruji. Konflik terbuka antara Mahkamah Agung dan Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan tentang audit biaya perkara yang terancam berujung ke proses pidana -Ketua BPK Anwar Nasution sudah melaporkan Ketua MA (ketika itu) Bagir Manan ke Mabes Polri- dapat diselesaikan dengan mediasi Kalla.

Seorang staf Kalla menuturkan, ketika kasus tersebut mulai bergulir ke penyelesaian melalui jalur pengadilan, Kalla segera mengontak Anwar Nasution untuk menawarkan penyelesaian di luar jalur pengadilan. Pada saat yang sama, Kalla pun segera mengontak Bagir Manan. Upaya perdamaian dapat mulus berjalan karena Kalla menggunakan pendekatan melalui jalur HMI. Baik Anwar, Bagir, maupun Kalla ternyata sama-sama pernah bergiat di HMI. Tak heran bila kedua tokoh yang sama-sama keras itu melunak.

Setelah kedua pihak setuju menempuh jalur non pengadilan, proses perdamaian formal selanjutnya diambil alih Presiden SBY dengan mengundang kedua tokoh bertemu di Istana Merdeka. Setelah pertemuan, laporan Anwar ke Mabes Polri dicabut, MA melunak soal audit biaya perkara, dan Presiden SBY mendapat pujian karena dianggap mampu menyelesaikan konflik itu ‘’secara adat”.

Kalla tak hanya sekali memberikan solusi soal hukum. Beberapa waktu lalu, Kalla mendapat telepon dari Kepala BKPM Muhammad Luthfi. Dia mengeluhkan ada dua investor asal Singapura yang ditahan di Kepulauan Riau karena tertangkap tangan berjudi kecil-kecilan. Tiga bulan lamanya kasus itu mengendap di meja polisi dan kejaksaan, sementara proyek dan ratusan pegawainya terbengkalai.

Sambil menahan murka, malam itu juga Kalla menelepon Kapolda dan Kajati Kepulauan Riau. Dia meminta agar kasus tersebut diprioritaskan untuk diselesaikan. Dua hari kemudian, kasus itu disidangkan dan dua investor tersebut dibebaskan karena masa penahanannya tepat dengan vonis hakim. Kasus itu sempat menjadi berita yang sangat menonjol di koran terbesar di Singapura, The Straits Times. Kalla mendapatkan julukan Mr Quick Fix dari koran yang diterbitkan Singapore Press Holdings itu.

Rasa kangen kepada Kalla tak hanya dirasakan masyarakat. Puluhan wartawan yang ngepos di Istana Wakil Presiden pun merasa kehilangan salah seorang narasumber terbaik. Kebijakan Wapres Boediono yang membatasi akses informasi dengan sangat selektif menerima tamu maupun menjadi pembicara di forum-forum publik membuat wartawan mati kutu. Bila pada masa Kalla wartawan di Istana Wapres dimanjakan dengan tiga-empat kali rapat sehari, yang setiap rapat selalu menghasilkan keputusan penting, sekarang dua kali sepekan pun sudah dianggap berkah.

Wartawan Istana Wapres yang biasanya mengandalkan press briefing setiap Jumat untuk mencecar soal isu-isu terkini dan mempertanyakan kebijakan-kebijakan pemerintah kini banyak bengong. Menunggu-nunggu Wapres Boediono memberikan keterangan tentang satu-dua isu ekonomi, kadang kala.

Jawapos

After using WordPress for a few years, I’m finally moving to another platform: Tumblr. Tumblr is a simplistic micro-blogging platform, with a Web 2.0-ish design and a whole lot of features. You can post photos, quotes, text, chats, links, videos and even audio on your Tumblr blog, a “Tumblog”. I’ve decided to move to Tumblr because of how easy-to-use and minimalistic it is, focusing on your content and not forcing it to be just a text article, like WordPress and others.

I’ve moved just a handful of older posts, and so I will keep this blog open for archiving purposes. I already changed the design, customized my blog and set it up, and I even wrote a new post: Hello again, World!

You can find the new Smiley’s Life located at smileybarry.com. See you there!

P.S.: If you’d like, you can also visit my software development blog at windy.smileybarry.com. (Windy is my developer nickname.)

Today I returned home in SL. To be totally honest, I cannot quite remember how long had it been since the last time I had been there. For the last couple of months I’ve been passing most of my time in-world at Ephemeria – which no longer exists as I built it.

Life has its own timings, I guess. In a way, it is curious that the same day I signed a new rental in FL, I also receive a note from my SL landlord saying I was delayed in paying the tiers, which I had totally forgotten to do. It’s great that at ACS theya re very organized, that way I could simply remove my things and abandon the land.

Anyway, I couldn’t help finding it a bit odd that I was writing dismissal letters both in FL and in SL. With a mixed feeling of sorrow and hope I became conscious that I am moving on and choosing my path, which I expect will be healthier and happier than this last stage of my life.

In SL, I am obviously keeping my home and land in 100Limite and have no intentions of letting it go. At ground level, I might have my neighbours complaining about my sometimes odd tastes in landscaping and building, but there’s where I will now set up the scenarios for my pictures.

In FL, I am finally going back to a proper appartment, after a year and half in a temporary location which was my refuge from a world that I sensed as a threat but actually looks more like a bunker than like a home, lol. My future bedroom will have TWO windows, and oh boy for someone who hasn’t seen much of the day light at home this is a luxury!

But in a way, I am sorry to leave from there. My current landlord is the mother of a dear friend whom I first met in-world. They were a huge help and probably saved my life… and I mean it literally. They gave me a place to hide when my whole life came apart and my fears overwhelmed my senses.

It’s time to move on, however. Now that I finally accepted that my ex-partner is dishonest enough to want me to pay half the house while he asks the court to grant him the whole place with no reimboursement to me, I had to face the fact that I totally misjudged him and for eight years was able to love him and his daughters dearly. I guess that we all make those kinds of mistakes, once in a while in our lives. In a way, I pity him for not being able to support himself and his family and for having to take advantage of other people in order to fulfil his basic needs.

Me, on the other hand, I am on my feet again, in spite of his attempts to bring me down. I am being helped to trust myself again, and I was lucky enough to find this amazing guy who has been standing by my side in so many dark moments, supporting me in every possible way.

Bah, I didn’t intend o write such a long post lol. I belive I needed to landmark the moment, that’s all. I have my head full of images of my new place now and yeah, some of them are a bit… different, let’s say hehehe. In time and with a lil help I will be able to set it up the way I would like it to be. We shall see. Yesterday, I was smiling just before I fell asleep… you know the feeling when you’re coming back home ?

Dal 28 dicembre sarò qui…

con annessa capatina qui, e per qualche ora, dato che ci faccio scalo, anche qui…

Del resto, se hanno dato un Premio Nobel Per la Pace “sulla fiducia” a Obama, anch’io penso preventivamente al mio premio di fine anno.

I recently handed in my PC for a disc drive repair, and it ended up that one of their USB pen-drives, which was used on my computer, was infected with a autorun.inf virus. They also apparently disabled my antivirus’ behavioral scanner, which enabled the unknown virus to act. So far the only thing it has appeared to do is spread by making an autorun.inf file on every USB stick, and I’ve managed to track it down to a Services group in Windows. To investigate, I disabled all but the basic and antivirus services and am now scanning with various other ones (Mine, BitDefender Antivirus 2009, couldn’t find it even then.). I may even contact BitDefender support for help and attach the infecting file for them to investigate, but it seems I may need to format and reinstall. Fortunately, I only set it up 9 months ago and clearly know what I need to backup and what I can simply redownload.

My mom and I already decided we will buy our future computers from a known OEM like HP when the time comes again, because of the amount of times we’ve been burnt by their bad parts and lousy support. As of now, I’ve replaced my old PC’s motherboard about 3 to 4 times, changed the power supply twice, and on my new PC that is only 9 months old, I changed the power supply 4 times and replaced the disc drive once (now). And my mom’s new PC’s disc drive is defective and can’t read any discs’ last sectors.

Given the new development, once my mom comes home from Beijing (she’s on a trip to Beijing and Tibet) we’re going to send a letter to the CEO of Ivory Computers, only ship the parts we know are bad to Ivory requesting a replacement according to our warranty agreement and if necessary, take the computer to a different branch for repair, since my uncle uses Ivory PCs and has not come across an issue like ours.

I’m sick and tired of these troubles that I didn’t even have anything to do with. I just want to use a normal, working computer. If this continues I’m sure my mom will agree to buy new HP PCs already and reuse the graphics card if the troubles continue. Trust me, the gas used to drive there all the time may actually cost the same.

This is doing wonders to my ongoing depression.

Are you hysterically paranoid about the new “copybot” grid viewers?

And – isn’t it radically ironic that Second Life residents will blast Linden Lab for acting to enforce their own Intellectual Property Rights (made to be BAD GUYS), but yet blast Linden Lab and shout shrill diatribe when their own (Residents) Intellectual Property Rights are offended – i.e. “copybot” (GOOD GUYS)? Cake + Eat = Sour-taste.

[Update: and I just read this at Not Possible In RL blog: "Animators in Second Life strive so hard to emulate the graceful movements of real professional dancers through precision motion capture, but the animation I adore and would miss the most is my trans/copy SkybornFly. I know I've had it since January 2008 because I remember handing out copies of it like there was no tomorrow at Komuso Tokugawa and MoShang Zhao's fabulous realtime jam and prototype event..." - uh... WTF? (emphasis mine) - and she didn't even know who the creator was until now. Complain about copybot or "theft"in general lately? I mean - if you didn't know who the creator was, how could you know if the license allowed you to throw it around so willy-nilly? (If it's a custom animation made for you - then clarify - but you say you've never heard of him... things that make you go 'hmmm'.)  (Source)] [Edit: I want to clarify that I am not accusing Ms. Tizzy of anything. Comments below explain why I am using this.]

(Back to regularly-scheduled diatribe):
If you’ve read Hamlet”s post about Linden Lab Incident Reports at New World Notes and all the comments to it, you don’t need to read any further here. I read all those comments and it seems everything relating to “breaking the rules” on the Second Life grid always causes the ‘copybot’ theme to rear it’s head.

The current shrill paranoia is with regard to the new open source free viewers in the wild that allow the user to copy prims (rezzed and worn by others) and textures (layered and baked) with only a few clicks. The panic seems to be reaching a fever-pitch…if you follow blogs about Second Life that is… and as I’ve spoken about in the last couple posts I made here.

My comment there at NWN was more directed to all those other commenters rather than the original article, and I got a bit verbose as I often do. After posting I looked at it and felt it was a bit long and decided I’d just repeat it here because I make a few more points that speak to what I was trying to say on my last post and I want to have my comments “archived” here at Common Sensible.

In my reply I directly answer a couple other commenters, but also largely toward one particular comment, so I will quote them in truncated form here before I dump my own rhetoric onto the page for your ridicule.

Ann’s [Otool] cryolife detector is a great tool, but increasingly, I am seeing people who are undoubtedly using “that” viewer to hide their client version. This typically shows itself by coming up with a “?” in the radar on Emerald (unless they have decided to clone a different viewer).

I stood next to a friend’s store last night changing the texture on a statue to stop someone from copying it, this person had hair on that they had created themselves the previous day – was named “hair – Liz” in their own language. In the end they either managed to copy the statue while I was changing the texture on it every time they changed it back (it’s like two clicks to copy a linkset), and they went, or I stopped them and they gave up.

My friend AR’ed, but what will be done? We have no proof apart from the hair and what they were doing.

- snip-

Ann is right .. I believe the vast majority of theft is personal use – you cannot file a DMCA for that.

So what happens when you know something is being copied, or you are 99.9% certain? You have no proof. There is nothing physical to be seen, unless you manage to find it inworld [sic] after the event – and that’s not really likely is it?

There’s no safeguard, no comeback, and soon no point in making content.

- snip -

Posted by: Toxic Menges | Thursday, October 01, 2009 at 04:48 AM
[at New World Notes]

In my reply, I speak directly to the claim that viewers that appear with a question mark in the Emerald (or Kirstens, et al) radar. This commenter proclaims any viewer that cannot be identified in the built-in Emerald radar is one of “those” viewers (that allow “ripping” of prims and textures.) And by the way “99.9% sure” is not “sure” – there is still doubt. This is why the Abuse Report will go nowhere, as it should go nowhere.

Guess what, even the Linden Lab official viewer and Snowglobe appear as a question mark (?) in the Emerald viewer. So I suppose if I use Snowglobe and create and wear hair that I happen to call “Hair – Torley” that I am evil because I’m a copybot-ripper? Sheesh. Why would I call my hair that? How about “Hair” so the name is easy to search for in inventory and how about “Torley” to name the “style”?

There also was some comment by someone else about how these other viewers, such as “Cryolife” are “unauthorized” viewers. There is no “unauthorized” viewer. Using it to actually break Intellectual Property rights is a violation of TOS and CS, but using the viewer itself is not an offense. No more an offense than owning a gun and never using it in the act of a crime. For those in the United Sates, research the Sony versus Universal Studios “Betamax” suit.

To summarize: Universal Studios basically argued that the Betamax Video Cassette recorder could be used to “copybot” movies (shock! ZOMG!). However, the Supreme Court eventually found that the device facilitated substantial useful purpose more than the potential abusive purpose and thus, video-tape has changed the way we all enjoy our private entertainment and edification studies.

The issue at hand isn’t the existence of these “ripping” viewers, it’s how they are used. The sheer panic, paranoia and hysteria surrounding what they can and might, maybe, possibly be used to do. If there is an earthquake on the other side of the world, will you lose sleep in a panic-induced worry a tidal wave will wipe-out your beach-house? That’s more or less what people are doing. Concern, yes. But outright nail-biting worry?

Thus, those in panic mode need to really get a grip on reality and seek a return to a little healthy balance between their first and “second” lives before they blow a gasket over the status of ‘toys’. Thus, my comment at New World Notes (with additional commentary and repeated here for my own archival purposes):

**********

Wow.

Just… wow.

First, there is no “unauthorized” viewer. Yes, even “cryolife” is “authorized” on the grid. Is that good or bad? You decide. As you think on it, think about the freedom of speech argument (those of you in the U.S. anyway). [In hindsight, the argument for the second amendment of the United States Constitution - “The right to bear arms” would have made a better example here —Ari]

As for copyright violation: personal theft is not a copyright violation. The simple transfer of a product from one person to another does not violate copyright (regardless if it is paid for or not, authorized or not) – else we all are in violation based on everything we own in Second or First Life. [My argument here is that it does not become a copyright violation until to begin to distribute to the public at large. Even if you give to friends and known acquaintances it falls under fair use. So, “personal use” in my point means literally. —Ari]

I agree most “ripping” of content is likely personal use. Most people are basically honest (I know it’s not a black and white issue – so I mean to say they lean heavily toward honesty and more away from dishonesty) and wouldn’t try to resell these things they’ve “shop-lifted”. [Digital Rights Management is meant to keep honest people honest and most people are honest. In the case of ‘ripping’ in SL, I believe most people are honest enough that they might go dishonest just enough to steal a copy of something for themselves, but not dishonest enough to redistribute it. —Ari]

Then there are the idiots who do ‘rip’ content and turn around and resell it. [Which I believe to be a water-drop in a five-gallon drum among all those who do steal content, and they being a water-drop in a lake as compared to the entire population of Second Life. However, the squeakiest wheels always make the biggest waves and get the most attention. The shrill minority as far as I’m concerned. —Ari]

Either way, I genuinely believe the “problem” of ripping is a minuscule amount as compared to the grid “population” as a whole with regard to the ratio of ‘honest’ people versus ‘dishonest’ people (shop-lifters) and only a tiny fraction of those ‘shop-lifters’ are actually crude enough to try to resell the content. Litterally an eyedropper drop of water into a lake. It is the most vocal who are violated that make the ‘news’.

This doesn’t mean it’s nothing to be concerned with. I just believe there is too much hype and hysteria going on. [Frankly it seems to be turning shrill. The law suit by Stoker Serpentine isn’t helping as many people are using that as a catalyst for uneducated, sloppy and loose argument and reason to turn paranoid over it all. The law suit has nothing at all to do with copybot or ‘ripping’. It has to do with Linden Lab’s ability or choice in acting upon a DMCA report, and their alleged complacency in ‘knowing “illegal” activity persists on the grid” and not doing anything proactive about it. This lawsuit will fail as Linden Lab to my knowledge and understanding based on all I have researched is doing everything by the letter of the law. So Stroker should be suing the U.S. Congress. Ari]

As for the comment above about how a viewer shows-up as a question mark (?) in the radar of Emerald (and other grid viewers with this capability): this does not mean it is a ‘naughty’ viewer. I use Emerald myself – however I have particular features turned off and I am often asked why my viewer shows as a ?. So does Meerkat and I believe the Imprudence and so on. A viewer that does not report what it is does not a “ripping” viewer make. [It’s true, if one actually reads the detailed documentation of the Emerald viewer, there is a portion that explains if you do not have certain “protections” turned on, your Emerald viewer will not report itself to other Emerald viewers as an Emerald viewer. Also, see my comment above about the Official Linden Lab and Snowglobe viewers. —Ari]

The problem here is that there are too many loose assumptions being thrown about. Guilty until proven innocent? That seems to be the case here. [Imagine yourself using the Snowglobe viewer, wearing hair you have created that you’ve chosen to name as described above, and going into “Edit” mode to discover the creator of a wonderful statue you might be interested in purchasing. Suddenly - you are ejected and banned because you are assumed to be ripping the statue. Pathetic. —Ari]

As for creators who decide to stop creating because of the very existence of these things: that’s your choice. Then they ‘win’. Perhaps you should focus on actually trying to enjoy SL. Build for yourself – for fun, rather than trying to take it all so seriously as though it were a life or death struggle. [Problem: you are taking your “Second” life way too seriously. You need to get a “Real” life and refocus your priorities in a bad way. —Ari]

Some of you might blow a gasket if you aren’t careful with all this paranoia. Second Life is an entertainment MMO and platform. I remember back in 2006 the shrill shouts to Linden Lab demanding a means to “back-up” prim creations because of the ridiculous instability of the grid at the time. [Edit: I just remembered... take a WILD EFFING GUESS as to what the creators of the original copybot said they were trying to do!]

So now that capability is here, but because (like Video Tape) it can be *misused by some* it is suddenly the evil incarnate. I suppose we all want our cake and to eat it, too.  [The old “be careful what you wish for as you might just get it” scenario. Look at what the U.S. Government looks like right now for example. —Ari]

Please understand my comment here is not to make light of the situation. But rather to attempt to put things into a more realistic perspective. [Read: don’t put more effort into worrying about what happens on the grid than you do in worrying what happens in your real life. It just isn’t that important. —Ari]

The example of the person wearing a hair prim that *appeared* to be a “rip” (How do you know they didn’t actually create it – did you ask them?) and attempt to copy a statue while you worked on it… as to the hair: so what? [(snark-on) Oh, but even though this person really did create their hair and named it as I exampled above and were just checking creator on the statue, you were sure enough to actually file an Abuse Report (and likely banned them)? Wow. Just effing wow. ( /snark-off) —Ari]

That is not a lost sale because that person is too cheap to buy anyway. They would never have been a customer to begin with. As for the alleged theft of the statue… how do you know they stole it? Did they rez a copy of the statue right before your eyes? [Read: Even if that person was ripping your stature and that hair - they are too cheap to have purchased anyway. So it really isn’t a lost sale. Rather just another copy on the grid, that’s all. get a clue. Just like Adobe proclaims a bazillion dollars in lost sales because most Second Life creators who whine about copybot and I.P. rights are using pirated copies they haven’t paid for - they never would have purchased anyway - they would find an alternative - so it’s not really a lost sale. Talk about bullshit-spin.—Ari]

If not then you are the evil incarnate because you are now paranoid, presuming everyone in sight to be a thief. Guilty until proven innocent by virtue of suspicion alone. I am not saying you are wrong or right. [Note the “snark” tag above. —Ari]

I am saying that you are losing sleep over something that firstly nothing can be done about by you, me, anyone else, even Linden Lab. And secondly, something that is meaningless in practicality and the larger scope of things. [Larger scope: real life concerns. —Ari]

I am not defending people who do this stuff. I am saying we all need to get our priorities in order rather than running around with pitchforks and torches in our hands looking for any excuse to use them. [Most, if not all these paranoid people are now on witch-hunts and will be convinced that copybotters are constantly in their midst, without actually making a genuine effort to find out, first, because it’s easier to just A.R. and ban people than it is to file a real DMCA the way the law requires. And then they will wonder why no one comes to buy from them any more, and presume it’s because of copybot, rather than a sucky ‘economy’ is the cause and so they will A.R. and ban more people and the spiral downward begins and speeds-up as they go. Then they blame Linden Lab for not doing what Linden Lab is even capable of - for their spectacular crash into the ground—Ari]

You can earn yourselves ulcers over the wrong reasons. As for copyright and Intellectual property rights, if you are serious about your creations in Second Life that you lose sleep over the fear that someone *might* come along and steal a copy, then register it, perhaps even file a patent? [Wrong reasons: over anything Second Life rather than first life. —Ari]

If your creations are that important to you then a federal registration is the appropriate way to handle it. I will not call Second Life a “game” as I know better. But at the same time if so much of your real life concerns and fears are based on the grid and what goes on there, perhaps a reevaluation of your life priorities are in order? [You have no say and no proof that your creations are actually yours until you register them. Until then, it’s your word against anyone else, unless you can actually convince Linden Lab to dig through system logs to prove otherwise. Oh, but that requires an actual lawsuit that is likely un-winnable, doesn’t it? —Ari]

I have been copybotted last year. I agree it is infuriating. It is flustering and I will not deny the anger that bubbles-up from it. But at the same time, I know the majority of people on the grid, those people who never even see these blogs, the ones who run around Zindra with prim-genitals all day look upon the Second Life grid as a *game*, and entertainment, a diversion and cannot be counted-on to consider taking anything on the grid, including creations seriously at all. [You and I might not call it a game. But we are only 1 in 10,000 of people who do think-of, look-upon and call Second Life a game. —Ari]

This is why it is a “losing battle”. I agree awareness is important. But anything beyond that, especially the high blood-pressure that arises from just the very thought of all this stuff is a reason to reevaluate the value and worth of the Second Life grid as a whole with respect to rest of your life and exactly how it fits-in and what priority you are giving to it. [Meaning if you are so paranoid about anything copybot, you actually think your creations are worth the effort to copy (most aren’t - including my own), and you need to get your priorities straight. Not to mention your hyping about how wonderful the Open Simulator (OpenSim) project is - just wait until you start creating things there.—Ari]

So my advice is: Breathe. Nice and slow, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Now close your eyes and go “mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm” and a soft, low tone. [Think: Ghandi. —Ari]

Source: New World Notes

art: Anna Eppel

[UPDATE: Cryolife is easily detectable. However, I have discovered one way to detect at least one of the others, possibly more - details in my next post to this blog. —Ari]

Copybot has been around since 2006. And now, there are grid viewers with the same capability built-in and there are those who are going absolutely nuts with paranoia. At large are Cryolife, Thuglyfe, Streetlife, Neillife, please Get-a-life.

Sure, I could easily link to each and every one of those I’ve just listed. But then I’d get flamed for “accessibility to the masses” and all that nonsense. In truth they are quite easy to find and all are free (so if you pay for any of these, you are a lot more gullible than you should be.) As for the “copybot capability” of these grid viewers, why is no one screaming in shrill tones about Meerkat viewer – actually highlighted on New World Notes – among the most-read blogs about Second Life?

The fact of the matter is this stuff (ripping textures and prims) is not stoppable and there is nothing Linden Lab or you can do about it because it happens after the scene is downloaded to the local computer. Think of the technology as a “cache sifter and extractor” because that’s basically what it’s doing (for descriptive purposes anyway.) If you can see it or hear it, you can steal it. So why is everyone so paranoid about this stuff?

The answer is simple: people are taking Second Life and their “work” in it far too seriously.

I have a real and genuine proposition for you…

I want you to work for me.

No, really. Work for me – here, in real life. No worries about grid stability or your internet connection dying out on you or any of those other things. I want to hire you to landscape my home in first life (a.k.a. “real” life) and I will pay you to do it. In fact, the best part is that you have full reign, you can be as creative as you want. Do anything and everything. Whatever your heart desires, there is absolutely no limits whatsoever.

You also can sell anything and everything you create for my garden. I won’t interfere in any way, shape or form. I want you to have as much fun as you can with it and maybe even make additional money on-top of what I pay you! I swear to you it’s a dream-come-true!

Set your own hours, be your own boss and do anything and everything you want.

However, there are a couple of caveats:

First, you must agree to the contract between us. Well, it’s really more of an agreement that you will obey my rules while on my property. You must be nice to everyone who comes by, specifically, other guests to my property.

Oh, and though you can do anything your heart desires with no limits whatsoever, you must pay me rent to use the land in my property – you choose the section and size and I’ll adjust the rent appropriately. Whatever you do in that space is all you – go for it and have a ball!

Oh, and if you do make some amazing statues or grow stunning flowers and sell them to other people, I want a cut. And by the way, you must provide your own tools, whether you buy them from someone else or create them yourself, all you get is an empty, plain chunk of ground.

I forgot to mention that because of decency laws in my neighborhood, if you intend to allow nudity or any ‘naughty-naughty-wink-wink’ kind of stuff, you’ll have to choose a chunk of my land that’s in the back-yard. You know, behind the house so people on the street won’t be offended.

Oh, and did I mention that all transactions will be handled with Monopoly money? This is better because I can easily print my own whenever I need it and they are easy to trade. You know, like a token. And because it kind of resembles money it makes for a good enumeration to account for your earnings. Oh, and I do mean all transactions. So if you sell your hard work, the buyer must obtain Monopoly money from me so they can buy from you.

Oh, but have no fear! You can make a real life living working for me! I swear it! If you make really really pretty flowers and garden decorations a lot of people will want to buy them! You’ll make more Monopoly money than you can imagine. really! No shit! Unfortunately some folks might steal some of your flowers, but don;t worry about that. I’ll let you advertise your stuff in my searchable newsletter. Those thieves wouldn’t have purchased your stuff anyway.

But back to what I was saying… Whenever you want, I’ll actually trade you your Monopoly money for real life legal tender money. Seriously, it’s a great deal! You can make your living by working for me.

All you have to do to get started is agree to my rules and then come to my house.

I know, I know, the rules are all there to protect me and all of them more or less work against you, but hey – it’s my house, right? You are the guest who comes to visit and work.

Oh, and I know that I exchange the Monopoly money for real money, but I should point out that part in my rules about that… just ignore it. It doesn’t mean anything, really. I mean, I’m exchanging Monopoly money for real money right now, aren’t I?

Remove that part of my rules? Why, whatever do you mean?

Oh, I’ll do it eventually. You know, when ever I get around to it. It’s kinda low on the priority list right now. But it’s okay, just ignore it because I’m not enforcing it at all for the time being. Which part of my rules am I talking about? Haven’t you read and understood my rules before you started working for me?

Why parts 1.4 and 1.5 of course:

1.4 ARI BLACKTHORNE REAL LIFE “currency” is a limited license right available for purchase or free distribution at ARI BLACKTHORNE’s discretion, and is not redeemable for monetary value from ARI BLACKTHORNE.

You acknowledge that the Service presently includes a component of in-world fictional currency (“Currency” or “BLACKTHORNE Dollars” or “B$” or “BS” or “BULLSHIT” or “BULLSHIT SYSTEM“), which constitutes a limited license right to use a feature of HIS product when, as, and if allowed by ARI BLACKTHORNE. ARI BLACKTHORNE may charge fees for the right to use BULLSHIT Dollars, or may distribute BULLSHIT Dollars without charge, in HIS sole discretion. Regardless of terminology used, BULLSHIT Dollars represent a limited license right governed solely under the terms of this Agreement, and are not redeemable for any sum of money or monetary value from ARI BLACKTHORNE at any time. You agree that ARI BLACKTHORNE has the absolute right to manage, regulate, control, modify and/or eliminate such Currency as HE sees fit in HIS sole discretion, in any general or specific case, and that ARI BLACKTHORNE will have no liability to you based on HIS exercise of such right.

1.5 ARI BLACKTHORNE offers an exchange, called F-YOU-X, for the trading of BULLSHIT Dollars, which uses the terms “buy” and “sell” to indicate the transfer of license rights to use BULLSHIT Dollars. Use and regulation of F-YOU-X is at ARI BLACKTHORNE’s sole discretion.

We’ll skip the details here for brevity. But suffice it to say that you are allowed to trade my Monopoly money from one person to another, but there is no guarantee whatsoever that I will give you any real life legal tender in exchange for it.

Oh, here’s another important part of chapter 1.5:

You agree and acknowledge that ARI BLACKTHORNE may deny any sell order or buy order individually or with respect to general volume or price limitations set by ARI BLACKTHORNE for any reason. ARI BLACKTHORNE may limit sellers or buyers to any group of users at any time. ARI BLACKTHORNE may halt, suspend, discontinue, or reverse any Currency Exchange transaction (whether proposed, pending or past) in cases of actual or suspected fraud, violations of other laws or regulations, or deliberate disruptions to or interference with the Service.

There. Understand it now? Oh, I won’t bother to pay your taxes for you either. So you’d better stay on top of that or the bad guys might slap you with some serious shi…er… stuff.

But please, don’t let this stop you!

I mean, even though you have absolutely zero rights at all whatsoever morally, contractually or even legally and are at my complete mercy in all things, don’t you think this is a great opportunity to make a lot of money – and even stake your very livlihood and living on it?!!

C’mon! It’s a perfect business plan! Why, any bank in the world would be fools not to back you up!

I mean sheesh… if you don’t think it’s such a great deal you could always go off and look at the competition.

I hear Linden Lab has a damned similar offer , you know. But their rules are worse, because it’s a computer game, not real life like the offer I’m making to you. And besides, you are at the mercy of your ISP and your very computer not crashing and dying on you and your electrical power going out and a whole host of other stuff completely out of your control.

No one in their right effing mind would dare think to actually try to make a living in that Second Life place with that Linden Lab terms of service. That person would well do better having a gaping hole drilled into their head.

I mean, Second Life is just for fun, right? I mean, because people do actually know better than to feel entitled there, right?

art: Rose (Dinarzad); JCLPAT; Bob (Break.Things)

A Welcome Center.  Shit.  I logged into a Welcome Center.  Every time I log in I think I’m gonna rez at my home but my sim must be down.   When I was in my second life, I wanted to be in my first.  When I was  in my first, all I could think of was getting back in-world.  Every minute I’m stuck in this Welcome Center, I get antsier.  Everyone gets everything she wants in Second Life. I wanted a project, and for my sins they gave me  one. Brought it up to me like room service.

A few months back, I was hit with an idea as I watched the Apocalypse Now.  Why not try to make a version of Apocalypse Now based in Second Life?  What really put the hook in me was a sentence in the opening narration.  Captain Willard (a young Martin Sheen) was waking up in his Saigon hotel room and talking about his return to Vietnam for a second tour of duty.  The line that got me was this:

“When I was here, I wanted to be there. When I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle.”

Why did it hook me?  Because it reminded me of moments of my experiences with Second Life.  Of the times where I was in my first life and wishing I could be in my second.  Then times in my second life where I was feeling the good pull from my atomic world.  This, of course, got me thinking.  What about a Second Life version of Apocalypse Now or Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness?  (and for those of you who didn’t know, Apocalypse Now is a loose retelling of Heart of Darkness)   I found that I was thinking about what was common to those stories and linking them to SL; telling a tale of a  lead character set on a journey for Kurtz in Second Life, but going deeper and deeper into her darker places.  Done well, I thought the SL version could be a fascinating comic, machinima, blog with pictures, just about anything.

So why are you writing about an idea that you never did anything about, Lanna?  Because, just like Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now, I got the mission I wanted.  And when it was over, I would never want another.  What mission was that you say?  Look after the jump to find out.

So yes, I found myself thinking of my Apocalypse Now project.  I mentioned it to a few people in-world; some loved it and a few others thought I was nuts (which happens from time to time, so I’m used to that reaction.)  But I thought about it, scribbling notes here and there.  Thinking of how I might make something look or feel a certain way.  The idea excited me and I had fun taking it creative places in my mind.  But, alas, I never got past the idea phase.

The main story was going to be that I was going to be asked to go on a mission to find Kurtz by “The Chairman” (courtesy of a bootleg Philip av).  You see, Kurtz had been a good avatar: involved in mentoring, owned a couple of sims, really very much an ideal Resident…until getting involved in land speculation on Zindra…then Kurtz’s methods became unsound.   Somehow Kurtz had locked down TPs, so my mission was to go to Zindra, find Kurtz, and terminate his account.  Terminate with extreme prejudice.  If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll see that there are lots of possibilities for great ideas.  I’d even gone so far to get some wonderful people to agree to playing key roles.

But just like Willard had a confession in Apocalypse Now, here’s mine.  I cared more about thinking of ideas for creative Second Life avenues than finding ways to express my creativity in my first life.  Wait.  Strike that.  That’s what I used to tell myself.  I made a very common error that I think lots of people in Second Life make.  Not everyone, but certainly a whole lot (if my friends list is representative at all).  What I started with is true, I thought more about SL creativity than RL creativity until I realized that it is all the same; I’ve only got one source of creativity for both worlds.  Gosh, not exactly an earth-shattering revelation, but still a revelation.

I’ve always had a tendency to dive into things that really interest me.  What I realized was this:  the part of my brain that controls my creativity, my dreaming, my visioning was putting energy into Second Life.   Not all of it, but I found myself wanting to be creative in SL more and more.  For me, it became an issue that there is an opportunity cost to my creativity. Time spent being creative on anything in SL meant that I wasn’t spending time being creative with my first life.

But it is hard to find time for a full first life and a full second life, so I did what so many in SL do, I slept less.  I told myself that I was wanting to make time for my creative expression.  But what was worse, I found myself waking up and thinking about my blog, or Plurk, or decorating my house, or shopping.  I found myself being excited by the creativity of my SL and forgetting about the creativity of my first life.  What did it add up to?  Being tired everywhere.  Tired in SL.  Tired in RL.  Just feeling tired.  Needless to say, my methods became, um, unsound.

Wait, who was I supposed to be again if I retold Apocalypse Now?  Willard?  Kurtz?  Oh, see?  Now I’ve let my creativity run away again.  Yeesh, I’m tired.  Sorry, I think I need to take a nap.  I wonder what I’ll dream about now.

There is big news making the rounds in the SLogosphere this week about an effort (boycott) regarding content theft in Second Life. The effort is called “Step UP! For Content Creators”. Many bloggers have called it many things. Many others, including Gwyneth Llewelyn calls it what it is and should be: an awareness effort. But I think it actually goes too far.

The untiring Gwen Carillon, one of the best jewelry creators in Second Life, and the long-time president of the Content Creators Association, a [sic] SL organisation “to support, inform and assist creators in protection of original content and other content related issues”, has launched a new project: Step UP! for Content Creators, a new way to raise awareness for content creation theft in Second Life.

[From Gwyn’s Home » Blog Archive » Step UP! for Content Creation Theft Awareness]

Fair enough. However, there is a problem. A big one, too. Gwyneth also writes:

Gwen, perhaps unlike many others, is a firm believer in a positive approach to the whole issue, that is, to find solutions to problems and get people to spread the word about what can be done.

Gwyneth’s emphasis, not mine. But also the very emphasis I would have made myself. You see, there is no solution. At least none that I can think of in knowing what I know about how computers and networking works (I have first life I.T. experience.)

There is the issue of “copybot” we all have heard about before. Frankly I am tiring of… well some might call it a ‘discussion’. I consider it all more of a one-sided paranoia diatribe. I don’t mean this in an offensive way to any who speak of it. I am only saying it’s a futile worry. “Copybot technology” is here and it is here to stay.

Period.

Gwyneth briefly and accurately covers the history of copybot and what it is from first inception and public knowledge in 2006 through now:

Enter Fall ‘09. Content pirates now aggregate around illegally tweaked copies of the Second Life viewer, and a soon-to-be-released version of one of these viewers will feature an easy, user-friendly way to copy basically everything you see in your line of sight[.]

The bold emphasis is mine and brings home my entire point. The RIAA and MPAA are going ape-shit in panic mode trying to inject Digital Rights Management (DRM) in order to prevent the “theft” of their respective works. However, in so doing they are punishing you, dear honest consumer – the majority, in order to do nothing more than slow-down the minority. A ratio, by the way, that is ridiculously out-of-whack.

One in a million motorcycle riders kill themselves so the rest are forced to wear helmets. Music and Movie files are easily copied by the tiniest fraction of consumers and the rest are forced to deal with DRM that doesn’t work and causes far more problems than it fixes.

The simple matter of fact is: if you can hear it, you can copy it and steal it. If you can see it, you can copy it and steal it. As for copybot: it works the exact same way. If you can see it, you can steal it. it always has been this way on the internet.

Every web page you view must be copied (albeit temporarily) to your local computer before it can be displayed on your screen, including every single element. All of it, except for Flash – which loads completely into memory (and is why it is a horrible, resource-intensive bloatware behemoth I personally block in my web browser.) These temporary files on your local hard disk drive used to actually display the information. It is what is called “cache“.

If you siphon through your internet cache files you can copy every movie, sound file, photograph and everything else you’ve seen or heard while on the internet browsing the world-wide web. The web site has absolutely zero-control over what you can or cannot do with that stuff.

Second Life works much the same way. The difference is the cache is not so easily browsable – unless you have a software tool to decipher it for you.

Hence: copybot.

Copybot will grab this stuff and reassemble it back into the grid for you. But only the stuff you can see – thus why copybot cannot copy scripts and animations and any contents inside prims – such as what is inside resale vendors.

So with all this the way it is, my question to Gwyneth, and you and everyone else… and Gwen Carillon, is this: Why are you punishing Linden Lab by boycotting the upload of images or whatever else you have planned and are asking others to participate in?

I mean, what would you have Linden Lab do specifically? Surely Linden Lab can placate we creators by adding more permissions restrictions or whatever else, but then we will chastise Linden Lab for not going far enough.

Linen Lab is between a rock and a hard place because they cannot win in this situation. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Content creators will never be satisfied with anything Linden Lab does, short of eliminating the problem, which is utterly impossible to do.

Linden Lab has no more control than you do with regard to your content being plagiarized (not stolen – you are not deprived in any way.) Oh, and to proclaim that you are losing sales? Get real, will you?

Like Microsoft and Adobe and so many other software companies who proclaim “lost sales” due to piracy, you are not losing any sales. The simple fact is those pirates never would have purchased what they have “stolen” to begin with. They would have simply found a less expensive, other alternative. Thus it is not a “lost sale” – because no “sale” would have occurred otherwise.

Second Life also is massive. Subtract the camping-bots, subtract the campers, subtract the alt accounts, and finally subtract all those with entitlement attitudes (the “I deserve it for free because the world revolves around me and owes me everything for nothing” crowd) and there are at least a good 100 people or more on the grid who will buy your stuff.

Your business is down and sluggish because of the economy, not because you’ve been “copybotted’. Most who “copybot” I suspect do so just for themselves. A smaller fraction will actually be stupid enough to try to resell what they plagiarize.

Linden Lab does provide a way for you to file a take-down notice. It is not easy or lightening fast. But this also prevents false initial reports. Yes, the problem is (and Linden Lab will matter-of-factly indicate to you) the one you report against will simply file a counter-claim to have the stuff replaced. A no-win scenario? Blame the idiots known as the Congress of the United Sates.

Sure, Linden Lab could make filing take-downs easier, but then the flood-gates for false initial DMCA reports will open. Besides, the problem isn’t with Linden Lab in this regard, it’s with the law. The way Linden lab handles DMCA notices is in accordance with the way the law is written. The boneheaded idiots in Washington bending over to placate the RIAA and MPAA and those guys have created a nightmare law and it should be challenged in the Supreme court based on it’s very Constitutionality. But that’s expensive and takes years.

The awareness aspect of this effort is something I agree with. However, even awareness would only matter to a fraction of the grid. The fact is no one really cares about the things we would hope they care about. The majority don’t care about quality of your creations. They don’t care that it took you a lot of work and hours and hours of prim manipulation, scripting, and texture generation. They don’t care that you rely on those sales to pay your tier fees. (if you rely on anything in SL for first life – you are a fool.)

They really don’t care if you are here tomorrow or not. That, dear friend is the majority attitude on the grid. Copybot and entitlement attitudes were given their birth at the onset of the open-sourcing of the Linden Lab grid viewer. The cat already is out of the bag and there’s no setting him back in.

I am most happy that Linden Dollars are tracked and transactions occur only through the server, because if anyone got their hands on that code, woe-be-the-grid.

I don’t mind people who debate, argue, shout, even become passionately vitriolic about something. But it’s all cry-baby whining unless you provide an alternative solution to what you are crying about along with your crying – then it’s not crying, it’s debating.

[Edit: The question has not come up, but it occurred to me that I must mention that Gwyneth does, in fact mention her idea of a solution - which I applaud - regardless how feasible it is or isn't. —Ari]

Since the copying of prims and skin and clothing textures and basically your complete avatar and what you wear, along with anything rezzed on the grid is 100% out of Linden Lab’s control, what exactly would you have Linden Lab do to placate you at all?

My own solution is to simply shrug and continue on with as minimal stress and worry about it all as possible. As for the “Step UP! For Content Creators effort”? I think it’s based on the right idea: awareness. But to punish Linden Lab (or anyone else for that matter) by attempting to “hurt them” through boycotting uploads is a bit over-the-top and based on emotion, not logic.

I know, I know – the idea is to send a strong message to Linden Lab itself. Trust me, I have it on good authority Linden Lab is well aware of our plight. However, there are many reasons, many of which we are not privy to where Linden Lab must move forward carefully. And some of those reasons are entirely out of their control.

It’s okay to “think with your heart” – but sometimes it is simply healthier to think with your head instead.

What is your solution to the problem?

art: Kevin Lim (Inju); Reachneville; FamilyGuyFan221

jo, so esch er ,,
de Capo vo de Band ,,
Uftritt amene Hochzzits-Apero in Steckborn ,,

unser Klangmaterial ,,

Balz am tunen des Verstärkers ,,

EGJ Mini ,,
great Gig

Not going to comment any of it, but it surely made me think about a couple of things. Not being online as often as I used to, surely I now have another perspective of the in-world. No doubt it brings us all many things, many experience, expertise of new skills, and opens up our eyes to a lot of things that used to hang around us in more or less unoticeable ways.

I am not going to get into philosophy in here… just read this. It is a perspective. A way to look at it. A way to live it. And a way to die as well.

Carmen Hermosillo – A Virtual Life. An Actual Death:

http://hplusmagazine.com/articles/virtual-reality/virtual-life-actual-death

[Update: totally freaky-weird - Tateru Nino has posted an new article on the whole "first hour" thing here. Well - I just noticed it, I'll put it that way. - though this article of mine was written on Friday last week. /me hears Twilight Zone music in my head]

There has been a lot of commentary over the years about the retention of new users most, if not all virtual worlds and MMO’s struggle with. Tateru Nino and others have written on this many times. It seems a pyramid is built where the base is the start resembling the many, many people reviewing the web site and working up to the top: the completion of that “first-hour” experience.

You know the routine: The ‘base” being the first step: reviewing the web site information. Next step up: actually creating an account. Next: downloading the software, then installing that software, moving up the pyramid to actually fire it up, then login… then fiddle with the interface and seeing the world for the first time. And thus begins that ‘crucial first hour’.

But it doesn’t stop there.

The pyramid is bent, like the Sneferu’s second pyramid in Egypt, affectionately nicknamed the “bent pyramid”; A very wide base that narrows as we climb higher. Then, we reach that point of downloading the software and actually logging-in. This is where I suspect the “bend” is located, where the numner of people dramatically falls-off. However, if you take it further still, beyond the ‘crucial first hour’, our pyramid is actually bent in the opposite direction: Extend the height of the pyramid to say two years beyond that first hour. It goes from a very wide base to a narrow size almost immediately. From there, the sides are very steep. And the majority of our pyramid is more like a spire. The point where it goes from being a pyramid and changes into a spire would be the conclusion of that first hour as people “fall away’ steadily, but at a far more gradual pace.

If you consider the base to be the number of people investigating the Second Life web site, and the further up we go being the people that actually follow-through to then create an account, and continue on to download the viewer, then actually install it and fire it up and finally even to finally log-in to the grid…

Then make it past that crucial “first hour”… we have a ‘new resident’.

Well, unless it’s an alt.

The christening of a “new resident” who has completed that first hour is the point of our pyramid where the shape drastically changes and it goes from a recognizable pyramid converting into a spire, continuing upward.

The ’spire’ portion of our pyramid are those ‘residents’ on the grid doing things and comfortable with Second Life – all introductory hurdles successfully accomplished. But yet, it still narrows as we go higher. Those residents who eventually stop logging-in, or allow their accounts to fade away and start-over as alts, or for whatever reason, allow their in-world persona to simply “die.”

An SL account that ‘fades’ away – the way a majority of ‘lost residents’ disappear I suspect – is like the flame at the end of a candle wick, the rotating, recycling resident population of Second Life, at the top-end of our ‘inverted bent pyramid’ flickers and puffs and struggles to stay alive… until it eventually just goes away and a thin, barely visible stream of left-over smoke wafts away for a few seconds.

It is like a water fountain. Second Life account typists (think Soul?) being the water that is simply recycled again and again from one account to the next. How many times have you peeked at a profile and it will say something to the effect of:

‘Don’t let the date fool you, I’m no newbie.’
‘Starting over so don’t let my rez-date fool you’
‘No drama please! Starting over because I’m tired of it’

…or even better: a damned good-looking resident with a rez-date only yesterday or within the last week? My first question is why is your rez date so important to you? It really doesn’t matter, does it? Are you that conceited? The reason rez-dates are important is the same reason an alt was created in the first place.

At least those who say they are an alt in their accounts are honest about it. It’s funny to me when they try to explain “Oh, I’m new. A friend got me all set-up to look this way (in one day – yeah, right – and you actually throw $25 real money into an unknown to get started without any experience, too).

So why are alt accounts so prevalent? It’s not, or at least very, very rarely ever is “drama” in the original account. What it really is is the lack endorphin flow. It’s that simple.

Yes, endorphins produced in our brains are really more of a pain suppressor. But an overflow of endorphins, often called an “endorphin rush” has been adopted in popular speech to refer to feelings of exhilaration. As I refer to endorphins and endorphin rush here, it is simply an example of the feeling one feels and not meant to be literal.

Look back to the first time you saw the world on the grid. Think back to the awe and wonder that it was. Is it still full of the same awe and wonder for you? I doubt it. Yes, there are places you might visit and see that bring these fleetingly, but as a rule you are settled-in and comfortable with the grid, the viewer and Second Life as a whole. You know how to move around adeptly, how to shop and find what you want, how to judge the value of a single Linden Dollar and whether a product for sale is worth L$1000 or not more than L$10.

You are on the path to boredom.

But you don’t want SL to be boring because the world is still too fascinating to leave it. So you try something new because it’s so easy to do. You started out as the typical wholesome neighbor man or woman but now decide to try something a little ‘riskier’ – instead of the typical ‘free sex extravaganza club” you decide to peek into the taboo and try-on silks and a collar or buy a sword and leather or maybe stick a pair of fangs into your mouth…

But even those become boring after awhile, when the newness wares-off. The shininess dulls, time to explore some more. You look into role-play – decide to become a medieval knight or Spartan soldier, to perhaps a faerie or even some kind of wicked demon. Or a magic user. Yes, that’s it! Spend L$4000 for one of those awesome “Magic-casting” HUDs and role-play a powerful wizard!

And then find that you rarely get to actually throw your magic around because role playing is work. So you move-on to another role-playing sim that caters to a completely new-to-you genre and the excitement starts over again.

Until you become comfortable in it.

Like dogs, we as humans are generally pack-animals. We want and enjoy social interaction. And we tend to gravitate often to one specific ’significant other’. Hence, the reason for the massive profusion of romantic (and other) monogamous relationships in Second Life.

Many often explode into dramatic splits but most simply fizzle-out. Only for each member to rekindle with another later-on. It is pretty rare that a romantic relationship will last more than a few months, often not more than a few weeks.

An acquaintance of mine just recently went through this cycle. And it’s a pretty common cycle that works the same way no matter if it’s a romantic relationship, a new role-play sim or even Second Life as a whole in general:

1. Entirely new thing, something we haven’t seen/heard/felt or otherwise experienced yet. Something ‘new’ and ’shiny’ to us. Our brains and imagination is stimulated. The excitement escalates, endorphin-rush kicks-in and starts flooding our minds. We have high-hopes and want more of it.
2. We become comfortable, content, happy. A routine begins and a we settle-in.
3. The routine is becoming mundane. It’s always the same thing, different day.
4. Something else catches our eye that promises (step 1 above) and we want it. Need to touch it. Know what it feels like. But what about where I am now? Sometimes it’s the other way around and “drama” causes us to go looking for something new.
5. We move-on, allowing our current “place in the world” to fizzle, the magnetic attractiveness of that new shiny thing is too big a draw, it mesmerizes us and pulls us toward it, away from where we are now. Recycle to step one above.

This is why there is high turn-over of role-players on role-playing sims. Except for a few “pillars”, the population and characters in role-playing sims constantly change with new characters coming in as old characters just… kind of… stop showing up.

This is why alt accounts are created, to begin the search for or experience of the ‘new’ while having that comfort zone to slip back into on our main accounts. Sometimes alts are created specifically as a replacement for our “old” main accounts (hence the “Ignore birthdate” messages in profiles.)

As for the reason for mundaneness on the grid and specifically with romantic relationships…

Part of the problem with SL is how everything moves so quickly.

Time is compressed. What might feel like a week in our first lives feels like a month is SL, This doesn’t help things any. Also, our actual contact with one another in SL is limited – so it when it is new it is exciting, fresh. Especially when that contact is so limited – a couple hours a day in most cases. It is a ‘treat’ like a desert – something special you get once a day.

And above that, the physical contact we have is perceived. However, because it’s in our minds, our imaginations kick-in to fill-in the blanks. The majority of our experience in Second Life is in our imaginations, which tends to exaggerate things to begin with. Then there is the grid itself: there are “a million things” to “do” – but whatever it is and whatever they are, they still are just images on a screen. So even if we see and “do” new things – there is still the routine of being comfortable with how things work when our minds and imaginations want something fresh and new on a constant basis.

The shiny wears-off rather quickly.

Endorphins aren’t being produced and flowing so freely, in our comfort things become mundane. We want fresh excitement, new shinies, new exploration, something our minds haven’t yet explored… Or – some kind of thrill. It’s why the Gor role-playing sims are so popular – and even within that community there is so much ‘capture, enslavement, combat’ – because it’s a thrill. Imagine yourself being captured and being threatened with a collar around your neck, like a dog – and that you will be sold into slavery and you are bound-up tightly and unable to break free… no escape…

Sure it’s Second Life, but it becomes really hard to not tap that teleport button and role-play the scenario out. That is an endorphin rush that comes very rarely. And that is what our minds want. But being ‘captured’ too often and it becomes… mundane. Tiring. Boring.

One of the sources of new and shiny is in the new personalities, new … people we meet. The mysterious is what holds our attention. The unknown keeps us curious and curiosity is what makes things interesting. Once you’ve learned all about the ‘thing’ or person… it becomes predictable, routine, mundane. Our interest fades and wanes and eventually fizzles.

(In case the caption is difficult to read: the “measurements” are bogus and completely from the hip, intended as an example only and the percentages are examples of remaining residents, not the number who leave.)

Thus, the relationship – with the other person, the role-play sim, your character, your SL account… Second Life itself…

…fizzles.

And for most of these accounts or participation in role-play or… relationships, all that is left is a faint wisp of smoke that wafts away for a few seconds then disappears – often – forever more.

Seriously?©

So Disney announced it’s intention to buy out Marvel Entertainment for 4 Billion dollars… that’s billion with an “illion”.  Consider this merger for one moment… we’re talking the company with probably the most global marketing reach buying out the company with over 5,000 characters and who has already produced things like “Spiderman”, “Iron Man”, “X-Men”, and “Blade”.  Sounds like a pretty positive situation …. Well that’s not how the fanbois feel ….

The best place to learn about the economics of the big deal and the socio-political ramifications of the merger of these two powerhouses is clearly to go to a site like CNN or The Wall Street Journal.  Unfortunately, I don’t know what their website URLs are so I chose to go to the next best thing… a comic book fan site to get the real, unbiased word on the street.  At this site, SuperHero Hype, the comments section is ablaze with helpful tips for the CEOs, words of reassurance for Marvel fans, and open arms to embrace the Disney characters….  It all starts like this:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Never in my lifetime did I expect to see the end of Marvel. Now that Disney has control of it there will never been anything aimed toward adult readers ever again and every story is going to be flowers and daisies and they are gonna put all their little douche-bags from the Disney Channel in Marvel movies and they will suck major ass. I was really looking forward to the next Marvel movies, but now Iron Man is not a drunk, Wolverine gives people angry looks and they go away, Hulk turns happy instead of angry. Goodbye Marvel I loved you so, you will be missed.

Well at least you’re not over-reacting….

I can see the cross-overs now Spider-Man and Uncle Scrooge versus Doc Ock and the Beagle Bros. Hulk vs Donald Duck. Darkwing Duck joins the Avengers.

What is the obsession with ducks here?

“Next Summer, Zac Efron is Spider-Man”

Soundtrack by The Jonas Brothers.

Personally, I would put the Jonas brothers as the villains ….

This is bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad! Goodbye autonomy!! The main thing that Marvel had over DC was that they were not chained to a studio but rather were independant. Now Disney will be to Marvel what WB is to DC. This is truly a sad, sad day. F*** the damn Mouse House!! These are the idiots who created the lousy Pirates of the Crap-a-bean movies! They will screw with Marvel’s early success, GUARANTEED!!!

FYE, Pirates of the Crap-a-bean franchise made a little over 2 Billion dollars profit… that bought half of Marvel right there….

Man WTF has happen to my marvel,first it was hasbro taking over the toy lines na making them gay,now disney will take all those badasses in the marvel world and turn them into gay zack effron wannbes,oooo but wait we will get good animation like wolverine saves shrek from the kings men LOL..well the marvel Gods have broken my faith..noooooooooo

I’m not sure who Zack Effron is, but his name pops up in the comments more then Micky Mouse’s… oh ye of little (broken) faith

And in a very special issue of IRON MAN, Tony Stark wines and dines PRINCESS JASMINE, CINDERELLA, ARIEL, and BELLE all in one night. He then suits up to battle his new nemisis, Billionaire industrialist SCROOGE MCDUCK!!!!

Well who can blame him for Ariel.. that chick is hot

For me, personally, this date will live in infamy. I am almost physically sick to hear this news. Such a shame.

Ya… this and the day the Squirtle was captured by Team Rocket… sad days indeed …

I KNOW WE LIVE IN THE “FREEDOM OF SPEECH” ERA BUT WHOEVER IS BEING A NEGATIVE BYCH HERE SHOULD SLAP THEMSELVES FOR EVERY NEGATIVE WORD NO FOR EVERY ALPHABET WRITTEN OF THEIR COMMENT BY THE END OF THE LAST SLAP/ALPHABET YOU ALL WOULD FEEL REINCARNATED INTO A BETTER HUMAN BEING

Thank God SOMEONE stuck up for Disney… finally the voice of reason could be heard….

Does this mean Spider-ham will FINALLY be made into a movie?

See?  There’s always a silver lining…

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DISNEY IS GONNA MESS UP MARVEL GOOD…NO MORE KNIFES AND GUNS….JUST FLOWERS AND FUN!!! EVERY BODYS GONNA BE FRIENDS AND LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER……SO SAY GOOD BYE TO ALL THE REAL STORIES EVERYBODY

And when you do… say it all IN CAPS SO THEY CAN HEAR YOU OVER THE SHOUTING…

Disney take the advice of uncle Ben, “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.” Don’t F it up!

No point will be taken more seriously then when it quotes a movie about a guy bitten by a radioactive spider who climbs on walls and wears spandex covering his entire body

Hi All

Well one thing is for certain but this to me smacks of the “Anti-Stark” and his not to mention the Linderman(s) etc of the world and their “Master Control” Program. which if that turns out to be the case will leave me and quite a few others out there little to NO CHOICE but to show up at next years Comic Con 2010 & TEAM UP with “The Dude” FLYNN Himself and “De~Rezz” virtually ALL of those who want the “MCP” to kick in, nothing anyone can do post/says or otherwise will change that fact!!. because by then will have also gone on a certain late night talk show with any luck because even getting through can be a real B**. spreading the GOOD (or otherwise) WORD TO MILLIONS WORLDWIDE!!. not to mention have put the word out to the ENTIRE “CLASSIC” GAMING COMMUNITY!!. so might or probably will make the next issue of “Video Game Collector” http://www.vgcollector.com because well the Comics Code Authority at this rate WILL BE THE LEAST OF OUR PROBLEMS. also a big “RIGHT ON” to Daniel Boone Is Dead, Ice Pick Of Time, Mike_Weezey, Papa Shory AND Three (3) Way!!!.

uh… wat?

Hi Again

Sorry folks but in my book Disney hasn’t ruled since before most of you were born back in the day when “The Wonderfull World Of Disney” was still being aired along when they were working on TRON!!. in the days of “Fox & The Hound” but at least their working on the Sequel that’s right folks the “Legacy” lives on & SO AM SORRY TO STATE TO ALL COBRA/GALAXY/KAOS & SPECTRE AGENT(S) but so does “FLYNN” RE: Lives that is. oh and “SAVE DISNEY” http://www.savedisney.com

also as you may have guessed am a HARDCORE “Old School” Classic Gamer with the Hardware etc to prove it. THIRTY (30) plus years of computer/Tech Experience so clean up isn’t a problem. but also should know have informed the allies of Alan (1) One & “FLYNN” VIA the classic gaming community By way of Digital Press http://www.digitpress.com which by the way also consists of ENDLESS contacts within the Game Programming Community both PAST AND PRESENT!!.

uh…… WAT??

Disney to Acquire Marvel for $4 Billion!
This means 4 Billion angry fans!

Well there you have it… your opinion is worth exactly $1…. I, for one, trust his math without question

So there you go.  You can see how this proposed buyout rocks the very foundations of fanboi world… If it’s ever approved, be prepared to run to the nearest fallout shelter to avoid the rioting in the streets…

I’m just speechless. Thank you Iso for sharing this with me!

Most Second Lifers have likely not used the web-based ’search’ function for searching all things Second Life. Even though there has been quite the controversial ping-pong diatribe with regard to all the newest changes, including the new ‘Adult’ rating and search-result filtering efforts; traffic gaming and ranking in results; I. P. offenses (such as with recognized commercial logos and namesakes) and a whole-lotta other hoopla about it.

I, on the other hand don’t partake in the shrill side of these changes, bashing Linden Lab directly or their policy changes and additions. You see, I clearly recognize and understand I am the guest in their house. Because of age or experience or both I have simply learned to adapt and ‘go with the flow’ making do with whatever I have to make-do with. In adapting I am referring to turning whatever the powers-that-be come-up with to my advantage wherever possible.

Surely you have noticed by now that Linden Lab has implemented their new web site look. I actually like it. It’s interesting, it’s new and fresh and I prefer the subdued colors more and it makes things a bit easier to read.

I don’t really have any complaints or whines about any of it.

Except one.

The main search page on the Second Life web site was clean and simple. It was the same kind of lean, minimalist design that made put Google on the radar and map and literally the first and primary reason it became so popular. The Second Life web search was fast and light, returning results from the “all” category with incredibly high relevance – so accurate were the results I was stunned enough to use the web site search more often than the in-world search. it was accurate, fast, lean and graphically minimalist. The same recipe Google implemented.

I have absolutely no idea if it was a different set-up from the in-world search (I know the results are from the same data, though) – I liked how it didn’t (and still doesn’t) show traffic rankings, I liked how the results always seemed to be regions first, then parcels, then people, then groups. At least that’s what it looked like. There were no sorting options or other ‘filtering’ features – just a plain results list that linked to the web page equivalents of user or group or parcel or region profiles but also to in-world profile versions (launching the viewer and opening the profile in-world.)

The one caveat was that all results were PG-only (and likely still are). Which really is just fine and there is no reason or need to show other than PG results out in the first-life space called the world-wide web, which the first world population as a whole have access to.

However, as Linden Lab beefs-up their world called Second Life and tries hard to up the ante of ‘value’ and ‘benefit’ to all – especially the commercial users to which they so badly want more of and actively now cater to, they have integrated the in-world search function into the first life world web site in a highly consistent way – consistent with the in-world version. By this I mean it looks, feels and acts like the Second Life search widget you find in the grid viewer: tabs for “All”, “People”, “Places” and so on.

Fair enough. Filtering your search to drill-down to what you are specifically looking for is good. But to me it just seems slower. It likely isn’t. At least not in any humanly-perceivable way. Any slow-down is surely in my head, like the visual illusion of a circle inside a square makes the vertical and horizontal lines of that square appear ‘bowed’ when they aren’t (the lines in this example are straight, not bowed.)

But that doesn’t matter. The point is that it feels slower.

So I repeated my little search test and popped the word “throne” in there. In the “Places” tab my ‘company’ shows first in the listing as it always has. In the “All” tab it doesn’t. It’s showing groups first, then people. That’s a change I will have to adapt to. The ‘Classifieds” are the same distraction here on the web as they are in-world, on the right rail. I personally never look at those in-world and likely never will here either. However, on the web search there is no “classified” tab. So my little L$50 classified appearing on the web site at all (meaning not) is no loss as far as I’m concerned. I just don’t really care about that area of it.

So with the word “throne” – I appear in “Places” and that’s it.

Though, if I pop the word “Thrones” in there (plural) – I appear at the pole-position in the “All” tab, but not in the “places” tab – and it’s my land group to-boot. Yes, this is ‘more fair’ for everyone, but as I am selfish just like you, I want that pole-position on all tabs.

Ironically I do also get that first position in the “Groups” tab, too.

So, shall I scream and shout at Linden Lab, perhaps even specific employees like Pink or Blue or Jack or even Philip and Mark and deride them for hosing and ruining and totally mucking-up the entire web-based search experience… because my position in the results are changing?

In the end what has really happened is what should have happened sooner or later: the web-based search was using a different “calculation” from the in-world version to determine the query results and all Linden Lab has done was to integrate the in-world version of search (and the user experience of it) to the outside web.

Good for you. Kudos and all that stuff.

Does the change in my “search result ranking” make me happy? Of course not. However, I recognize change is the way of the world and what keeps life interesting (in both worlds, actually). But the change doesn’t make me angry, either. The grand race is a long one and our position in it will change over time. Sometimes we will get ahead and other times we will slip behind.

When we slip a little it’s no reason to shout-down the world in vitriol just because we think the whole universe revolves around us and it’s unfair that anyone else might move ahead of us when (and where) we were in the lead.

So with regard to these changes – all of them: the “Adult” rating, the segregation of the naughty from the not-naughty, the search result filtering, bot-ban on traffic-gaming and all the rest – I side with Linden Lab and say hey “you go, LL and more power to ya”.

Does it mean I agree with all or even any of it? The answer to that questions doesn’t matter, does it? I am a guest in Linden Lab’s house. Does it mean it all makes me happy? It doesn’t matter. I am a guest in Linden Lab’s house. Does any of it make me angry as hell? God, I hope not, I am not so conceited as to have an entitlement attitude and expect anything from my hosts because: I am a guest in Linden Lab’s house.

It simply means I understand what they are doing and why they are doing it.

And it’s amazing how attempting to actually understand things can give you some serious piece-of-mind – even in things that seem to drive others off the wall, screaming at the top of their lungs in shrill, artery-bursting vitriolic hatred that causes them to see in blurry-double-vision in red tint – at the very hosts who openly welcome them into their house.

As for me?

I say go ahead, Linden Lab. Do whatcha gotta do to remain a viable business to keep the grid alive and kicking. Thank you for at least trying not to rock-the-boat too much and actually – shockingly – allowing me to continue coming-in for free and still wearing my freaky-squeaky-kinky latex g-string butt-floss and slave-collar and running around in virtual public with ‘more-real-than-Barbie’ boobs all hanging-out and low-rider jeans that impossibly manage to remain in the up-position to cover my crotch, but really doesn’t actually covering anything and jumping from raunchy sex-x-rated poseballs to fulfill my incredibly wickedly demented fantasies that would put the most foul-mouth, dirty-minded people into a blushing-fest and not actually disnifying the entire virtual world you have created.

Oh, and also allowing me to absolutely chastise with venomous-hatred-sounding shrill bitching and whining at you, your company and even specific employees in a fashion that would make a meek and meager mouse want to see me dead and burning in hell while you do all this, and still actually and amazingly remaining relatively polite and civil back to me about it all.

Now you damned Lindens better fix that damned web search! It’s all screwed-up! Do you have any idea how much business I am losing now that you’ve changed the web design? Hell I shoudl sell by 1543 private islands! You are so SCREWING ME OBVER LL!! How will you feel now that ALL the business people is SL are now goona LEAVE SL and go to teh othre grids!!! You’ll see what ascrew up you have done nwo!!!!!! Do you have any idea how much RL money I am losing? You are screwing over every business on the entire grid and people can’t put RL food on their RL table any more because you are ruining the entire economy and hosing the whole grid all because you changed one itty-bitty-teeny-weeny detail on your web site search!!!! Damned you all, burn in hell!!!! YOU shold all BE SHOPT!!!!! (Oh and for some reason I can’t login now. Can you please fix that part first? Please?)

/me snickers.

One of the fun things about Second Life, or anything Internet for that matter is the ability to present yourself any way you choose. Male, female, human, anthropomorphic, cyborg, robot, flora or fauna…

In Second Life, the thing that kinda-sorta irks ‘experienced’ users has mostly to do with those who choose to remain in their native human species and the wild variation of ‘body shapes’. The first problem in this has to do with the shape editor (‘appearance editor’) – because the “measurements” don’t correlate to anything we are familiar with as far as measurements go. The numbers are strictly static and (I surmise) “percentage-based” rather than anything easy to compare to. Yet the other measurements in world, specifically prim measurement is based on the metric system and easier to understand and relate to.

Secondly, most people don’t really care about the level of detail with regard to their look. As long as “good enough” will suffice, that’s all the effort they will put into it. So those who do pay attention to scale (myself included) try to correct our basic appearance in a way that allows everything else to ‘fit’ properly.

Based on accurate prim size measurements, I come out to about 6′, 5″ and I appear a midget to many others around me. And this isn’t about those with ridiculously sized bodies with pea-sized heads or any of that stuff. Just their height is almost laughable… if you care about such things. Most people in SL with a prim-measurement of 7.5′ to 9′ tall don’t know it.

The problem is with the default Linden shapes. They are scaled properly. However, for some reason many men want to bulk-up to Conan proportions and many women choose to go the anorexic toothpick route. In either case, in order to achieve their desired shape, people will turn the sliders up, rather than down. So they enlarge themselves, rather than ’sculpt’ themselves.

But this brings me to the other debate: transgendered avatars, as in a male typist with a female humanoid shape. It is debated that 50% of the “females” in SL are really men (I suspect it’s actually more than that, but just my own deductive reasoning – and that being mostly in the ’seedier’ side of SL.) Certainly the reverse is true but in nowhere near the numbers.

Half the fun is in trying to spot those “male-typist-females” on the grid. There are many theories (I won’t bother linking to the million (exaggeration, obviously) blog postings all over the SLogospher about these) – such as “large hands”, “shoulders wider than hips” and of course often just a name will give it away.

[Edit: I forgot to mention that just yesterday morning as I lurked at the "Bondage Ranch" (naughty BDSM meet-and-greet place) - I noticed a "cute girl" in a collar and though I don't usually do the profile thing I was curious. Of course the "First Life" tab had the requisite "Never ever EVAR will I mix SL and RL. Do not ask me to voice because I will never, ever EVAR!!!".  However, that persons microphone was (unknowingly) keyed on. That "cute girl's" voice was putting James Earl Jones and Barry White to utter shame as they argued with their 'significant other' in the room.]

Among the favorites is the size of breasts. Gigantic (non-prim) ta-tas with “buoyancy” set to absolute zero, size set to maximum and shoulders widened to hold them, yet hips half the size of shoulder and short arms with large hands and a pea-sized head and always proclaiming to be a ‘lesbian’ – which I shall refer to as a “mesbian” hence-forth.

Right?

Believe it or not, I have ‘voiced’ with a couple (only a couple, mind you) of these avatars and the voice was quite female-sounding. Though most often, these ‘mesbians’ do not have the little-white-dot above there heads, which most will consider and call a “dead give-away’ – especially if they argue (from within their profiles) that they will get all pissed-off at you if you even suggest such a thing!

Oh, and is it only me or does everyone get that niggling little feeling that no real female (as in the real person controlling the avatar) in her right mind would actually buy and use those Hindenburg-sized “prim breasts”?

Anyway, it’s a debate that’s more fun than argument for me. All that to say this:

I couldn’t help thinking about the “mesbians” from the grid when I ran across the “10 Things You Should Never Say to a Girl With Huge Boobs” page at Asylum.com:

9. “How big are they?” Could God make a boob so big that even he cannot lift it? Think about that while you EFF OFF.

8. “I’m sorry, I can’t help staring at them.” Limited range of motion in the neck can be indicative of a serious medical problem. Like meningitis, or quadriplegia. Both of which render you unfit for make-outs.

[From 10 Things You Should Never Say to a Girl With Huge Boobs - Asylum.com]

I’m-a wonder if number eleven is “Apply one through ten to Second Life and other SL grids.”

Go ahead and run over there to see the other eight. Oh, and I don’t take this list as a ;parody’ – I suspect it’s a genuine effort at edification for all men the world over in first life.

As in “really for real, man.”

Oh, and if you see me in world and I am shorter than you, you are an Amazonian-freak-of-nature!

art: ‘The Masked Fugger’

I know the title of this post might seem insulting and abrasive – it’s not my intent. It is simply stated matter-of-factly in a shotgun burst to everyone about everyone in general terms. No, I am not trying to project a ‘greater-than-thou’ attitude or that ‘I am always right, regardless of whether you are or not.’

However, it never fails to humor me in a ridiculous way when I see what appears to me to be common-sense being questioned over and over again, even though the answer to that question is right in front of the questioner’s nose in plain view.

The problem is in how lazy and gullible people are. Lazy in that they simply refuse to do their own research on things and actually make a good-faith effort to understand anything (as in actually comprehend things.) Gullible in that they will believe anything people say to them without citing or referencing anything – hence the other half of the lack of research.

It is why the U. S. Political landscape is what it is right now. Learn by experience often means it’s too late; hence the reason polls are showing our President with an approval index rating of -9 (negative nine; even less that Jimmy Carter who was considered the worst president in U.S. History). Obviously he has another 3.5 years to attempt a fix.

The point being is the voters had not done their research.

Neither do the users of Second Life when they are communicated with by Linden Lab. Take the new XStreet SL (XSL) Merchant Guidelines for example. The guidelines are first and foremost guidelines.

This means simply that as long as you make a good-faith effort to follow these guidelines, you shouldn’t have any Linden-dished heartache dumped on your head. I have said again and again: 90% of the Lindens (Linden Lab employees) are not tyrants.

Let us follow along like any reasonable person, shall we? Linden Lab makes a blog announcement of new and updated guidelines (Officially: “Marketplace Listing Guidelines“) for merchants who list their items for sale on XSL.

In that post, Pink Linden refers to the Content Management Roadmap post of earlier, which most, if not practically all SL users agree with more than not with glee. This is the roadmap where Linden Lab outlines their intentions to better enforce Intellectual Property Rights. Of course this is a double-edged sword: enforcing your I.P Rights also means enforcing everyone else’s I. P. Rights – hence, for example, if you create gesture sounds that use sound-bites from say, “Ghost Busters” (movie or even the original 1947 movie it is based on) – you, too are breaking someone’s rights.

Because this notice will garner questions, a link to the discussion (actually only a blog comments) section is provided. As always, the page is flooded with the requisite idiotic as well as cool-minded feedback. Because it is a discussion, knowing exactly what is being discussed is paramount, so Pink Linden has provided – multiple times in the same introduction – links to both a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page and the guidelines themselves – just as on the original post.

So, as a gesture creator, let us actually read the part of the guidelines that apply to us. Under the “Acceptable” column:

Virtual artwork that replicates copyrighted artwork that is available in the real world (like the artwork of Andy Warhol or M.C. Escher) can be listed only if the virtual artwork is officially offered or authorized by the intellectual property owner of the artwork (for example, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. or The M.C. Escher Company B.V.).

Note: as read and with comprehension – the example is the actual artwork of Andy Warhol – not the style of Andy Warhol.

And in the “Not Acceptable” column is:

An avatar that has the appearance of a celebrity (for example, Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe) cannot be listed if the listing party is not the owner of the celebrity’s right of publicity (or the right to use the celebrity’s appearance, for example, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. or Marilyn Monroe LLC) or officially authorized by the celebrity rights owner.

My original complaint that Barac Obama is not a celebrity, but public figure was taken to heart and replaced with Marilyn Monroe. Good for you, Linden Lab. See folks? They do listen.

Okay, so where do our sound-bites from Ghost Busters fall in? “Common sense” would assume both of these. The question comes down to the rights of the I. P. owner, in this case Sony Pictures (Columbia Pictures). We could write a letter asking permission to use these and believe it or not, we likely would get a letter back saying “yes”. This is the no-questions, definite bullet-proof way to do it.

We could claim fair-use under copyright law (or in the case of the “Spook Busters” – expiration of copyright and thus “public domain”.) The sound-bites certainly fall under that as they are simply short snippets. Except that we are making money with them – which voids “fair use”. Yes, Linden Dollars is money because it can be traded for legal tender. Additionally, we have hundreds, perhaps thousands of sound-bites from different sources which would be a lot of letter-writing and also raises our exposure to the possibility of becoming noticed by any of these rights holders.

We have a conundrum.

Oh, but wait – had we actually paid any attention at all to what we read in the initial paragraphs of the guidelines and made even a half-assed effort at comprehending them, this part might have jumped-out at us:

If you are a brand or intellectual property owner or the authorized agent of one, consider making others aware of this information by including it in your listing.

Well, there is our answer.

We simply indicate in our listing the following:

“Portions of this creation use public domain or otherwise non-copyrighted material as we understand to the best of our ability, or used with permission or under the fair use portion of copyright law. A good-faith effort has been made to quantify this and will respectfully and willingly remove any infringing portion of content at the behest of original property owners if notified of any unintentional infraction.”

How simple is that? Of course you’d better be genuine in this statement or you could find yourself in really hot water. However, you additionally are making it clear to any agent of Sony Pictures (should they discover you are using their sound-bites) with a wild hair that you will happily answer any complaint with compliance.

Also, the statement should be more than enough to satisfy Linden Lab because it indemnifies them of any legal responsibility – which is what this is really all about. Linden Lab simply wishes to cover their ass and rightfully so.

So, remember the very example I have lain-out for you, consider this comment (poster name removed so not to embarrass him):

Do all the Gesture Makers need to remove most of the 20000+ Gestures from XStreet ???

Or, will we get 20000+ Individual Messages from XStreet asking about whether we have permission to use the sound clips???

Or, do we need to add a Disclaimer to our listings such as “To the best of our knowledge the sounds used in these gestures are free to be used in gestures” ???

[From Chat About XStreet SL Listing Guidelines - Second Life Blogs]

Okay. Reading this comment and then reading and actually comprehending the guidelines and following the steps I have outlined above… Why are people so shrill? Find any reason to whine and bitch and complain about anything and everything? Especially when it makes them look the fool?

Let us just say I hope the title of this post makes a little more sense to you now.

art: Sërch S; Torley (Linden); Mistero Hifeng

Been busy, so I haven’t been posting as often as I’d like here. The first requirement is a subject matter that actually interests me (either to debunk falsehoods with facts or sheer curiosities) – and I must say that in my life-experience there simply isn’t a whole lot I could see or know of that would offend or shock me.

Important notice: part of the subject of this article may be offensive or even repugnant to some as I use the subject of vorarephilia as my main example.

Image: “Hannibal Lecter” character of “Silence of the Lambs” – a vorarephile (Anthony Hopkins,) which is the fetish of cooking and eating human flesh, often while still alive.

I’ve seen it all. No, really, I have. If not ‘all’ then enough that anything new I run across will be just that: ‘new’, but rarely ever surprising or shocking. And that’s just through my adventures in First Life.

Second Life, however, is an entirely different beast. Not different in what goes on in-world, but rather how freely and transparently it happens. Even today Second Life could be thought-of as a wild wilderness or ‘rough country’ like the 1800’s of the western United Sates where there was little law and practically anything goes, often without consequence.

I have been saying here for a long time: rue the day when Linden Lab drops the hammer on ‘acceptable’ public display and access of ‘deviant’ (my word) activities and, in some cases, mere display. Thus the new continent of Zindra (a.k.a. Ursula) and the requirement that all “adult-rated” content be allowed only there and the redefinition of the ‘official’ terms “Mature-rated” and “PG-rated” as they relate to the Second Life Grid.

Many have shouted out in shrill form, angry that Linden Lab is doing this. Others angry not at what is happening, but how it is being implemented. Most simply don’t care. I think it’s a good idea and probably one that is very late in coming. “Zoning” of the grid is perhaps something that should have been implemented long ago, but Linden Lab tried to remain as hands-off as much as possible. But now, their hand is forced as the ‘world’ evolves and more conservative users join the grid.

Why is sex and violence (especially sex of a deviant nature) so prevalent across the Second Life grid to begin with? Because we can.

Allow me to elaborate…

In doing some research across the internet, I ran into a humorous (but somewhat in serious tone) article about “5 incredibly impractical sexual fetishes” — and it was a fascinating read. Again, there really just isn’t much that can be thrown at me that could possibly catch me off-guard, including vorarephilia. Like sex-slavery, BDSM, … hell, even the very idea of anthropomorphic creatures acting and yif …er, copulating like humans and so on. Anything and everything you can imagine has a place located on the SL Grid where you can participate in it.

And some people (from others’ perspectives) have really whacked-out ideas and fetishes. After all, everyone has two faces, right? The public face we show to everyone and the “bedroom” – or inner selves we let-out only with others intimate to us in seclusion and privacy. “If those walls could talk…” as they say. The fact is many of these fetishes have always existed in first life and Second Life is basically “one big bedroom” where we let those deviant activities out into the public wild. The problem?

Some people have fetishes that are just plain never gonna happen unless they’re willing to break the laws of physics (and several federal laws) in the process.

Why does the idea of vorarephilia not repulse me? Because I’ve seen it before. Not in person, to be sure, but I’ve heard of it, read about it and so on. Which is why it didn’t surprise me when the Second Life Herald (now ‘Alphaville Herald”) wrote about it’s activity on the grid, though on the grid it is known by the apparently fictitious term “dolcett” – which is really just vorarephilia. Why the term “dolcett”? I don’t know. Perhaps because it sounds better than anything “philia” (which is really just Greek for ‘love’) — in either case, I’m not personally familiar with the term.

The “problem” with vorarephilia?

The thing about having a fetish for cooking and eating humans, or being the victim of such, is that’s the sort of thing you can probably only do once in real life before they put a stop to it. So folks in the community are reduced to looking at staged photos of people being spit roasted, boiled in cauldrons and even microwaved (hey, we’ve all got busy schedules) and wish they were there in person.

Most “respectable” people of “sound mind” would find this subject matter offensive and the idea that it could possibly be a fetish completely stomach-churning and revolting (I know, redundant terms there, but you get the idea).

However, in the end, for those of you like me who just shrug and think “whatever, to each his own” — does it mean that Second Life actually is desensitizing us to the idea of these and other ‘offensive’ or ‘abominable’ visuals, ideas and activities?

I suspect Second Life, more than other ‘virtual worlds’ has a considerably stronger impact on our real lives simply in the way that nothing, apparently, is off-limits including the impossible, no matter how deviant it may be. And this tends to desensitize us to the once objectionable in a large degree.

And let me be clear: though vorarephilia (and many other fetishes) don’t repulse me, it doesn’t mean I condone them or anything like that. I thinks it’s incredibly deviant and I find this in-particular to be rather disgusting. But they don’t shock or surprise me with regard to the fact that there are people who actually dream these things up.

[Source: 5 Incredibly Impractical Sexual Fetishes | Cracked.com]

Hi there!!  Sit back and I will entertain you with a tale of “How I met my Internet Friend, Biddy (and subsequently, his friend Noah and their two wives)”.  That title may be a little wordy, so let me rephrase it as this:  “Pennywise, or How I met Biddy”

So I met Biddy prolly 6 or 7 years ago… and when I say “met”, I really mean “argued on the internet with”.  Biddy started out as “Big Daddy”, which was a horrible internet name… he was a member of the same gaming clan that I belong to, The Sunflowers of Death.  He was a little obnoxious, very sarcastic, and he always made me laugh (ugh, this is turning into an E-Harmony ad).  After awhile, we confronted Big Daddy about the horrible choice he took as his name, and in typical fashion, I came up with a better one for him:  B. Diddy.  Eventually B. Diddy was shortened to Biddy for the economy of voice (I’m all about the voice) and it’s stuck ever since.  We followed each other around to different games together:  Everquest II, WoW, SWG, WoW, WarHammer, WoW, SL… and we even spoke on the phone a couple of times during and after some of the bad Florida hurricanes we’ve both gone through.  Oh, didn’t I mention this?  Yea, well Biddy only lives like 2 hours away from me, and has for about THE ENTIRE TIME.

[editors note:  I started this post on May 4, 2009 and then put it down at this point.  Work started blocking WordPress and since all my blogging was done at work....  Regardless, because Irregardless isn't a fucking word, it's now August 5, 2009 and I plan to complete this tonight]

So how did the night go, you may be asking.  Let me give you the blow-by-blow before I flood you with pictures…

About 2 months before the concert, Biddy introduces his friend Noah to the Sunflowers boards.  Noah is an instant hit because he is fun, seems to be a touch of the smart, and he’s not a Biddy fan-boy (which will get you immedeatley banned, btw).  Noah and I hit it off right away and our e-relationship flowers (get it?).  Well good news, Biddy is bringing Noah to the concert as well, and the best news of all… both of them are bringing their wives.

They travel as a group and all arrive at the venue before I do.  While I’m driving there, I have to end up driving through downtown St. Pete and it happens to be a GOD DAMN Rays Game (They play Boston) so that puts me even MORE behind schedule.  Biddy is nice enough to buy my ticket from a scalper while Im driving to save me time, and it ends up being a printout from Ticketmaster or something.  A printout….  If only there was some kind of technology that would allow you to print something out from the internet, then copy it like 20 times and sell each one for $30… someone would get rich.  So that sat on my shoulders while I thought about the possibility that I was the 20th person to get this printout and the highly sophisticated bar scanner device at the door would deny me entry…. ugh, I can’t wait for THAT.

We’re hungry, so we drop over to grab a bite before going into the show.  The only quick place (and quick is the desired result) is a Johnny Rockets.  When we sit down, we make it pretty plain that we’re in a hurry… Biddy and his wife even ask if the chicken they are ordering is something we can get quickly since we’re in a hurry.  The waitress tells us that of course everything is pretty quick, so we sit back and relax… looking forward to our delicious meal.  As soon as the waitress is gone, Biddy gets up and leaves the table… which means now it’s just me, Noah, and the two wives sitting at the table.  The wives are beautiful, but I’m pretty sure that my brand of humour won’t win them over (Biddy’s wife is still pissed at me for asking her what she was wearing during one of the hurricane calls between Biddy and I to make sure everyone was alive).  The next 5 minutes were pretty damn awkward when Biddy’s wife starts off with “So you know Justin from the internet, is that right?”  ugh… is there really any good answer to that?  Eventually Biddy comes back and him and I take a few very classy pix together to commemorate the occasion (see below).

So it’s been about 10 minutes now and we still haven’t gotten our drinks… so much for fast service.  We might have been OK, but a waiter comes out and offers us menus… thats not a good sign at all.  We tell the waiter to pretty much piss off and that we are up out of this bitch when our drinks arrive.  We remind the waitress that we are in a hurry while I gulp down my soda and ask her for a refill.  Long story short, it’s another 10 minutes before our food arrives and we make sure to ask for the checks as soon as she brings it.  Biddy’s wife is furious and may end up taking a life if we don’t get her out of there as soon as possible… so we do.

As we are walking back to the venue, my mind returns to the internet ticket I hold in my hands… I pray that if my ticket is only one of 20 that I’m the first one to use it before someone catches on to the gimmick.  We approach the gate and all decide that I should go in first… that way if I’m denied then at least Im not trapped on the wrong side of the gate while we finger something out.  I make it to the front of the queue, hand my ticket to the guy at the gate, and cross my fingers that luck is on my side and I make it in.  The guy at the gate takes my ticket, scrutinizes it very carefully…. then drops it in the cardboard box on the ground at his feet.  Seriously?©  Fuck you, Skynet… VICTORY IS MINE.

The concert was fabulous, Pennywise did a great job, and the highlight of the evening happened like this:  So Noah and his wife Brandy are standing on one side of me, and Biddy and his wife Dee are standing on my other (we do it that way so that it’s not obvious which one of us is the 5th wheel)… and we are standing very close to the mosh pit watching the huge Samoan guy wade through the tide of unwashed youth, while daring people to bump into him.  So this drunk chick comes whipping out of the pit and lands on Brandy, who then moves out of her way… allowing the drunk chick to fall back a little farther in the crowd.  This pissed the drunk chick off to no end… so she made her way back up to where she was bumped, pulled back her fist, and punched Brandy in the face as hard as she could because she DARED to move out of her way.  At least thats what the drunk chick THOUGHT she did… in actuality, she ended up sucker punching some tall blonde chick who wasn’t even near us and a huge fight broke out… apparently she got all turned around enacted her vengeance on the wrong girl, who I’m sure didn’t wake up that morning and think that 12 hours from now she would be jumped by a drunk chick.  Those crazy kids.  From that point forward, I pulled Noah and Brandy to the interior more and stood on the outside to protect my new friends.  I’m proud to say that from that point forward, no one fucked with my friends.  So anyways, thats my recap of the Pennywise concert and I’ll throw the pics down below for your viewing pleasure.  Thanks for being patient with me.

[editors note number two:  So yea, I didn't complete this post on the fifth like I thought I would, but when you're already 3 months late, whats another couple of days between friends?]

The reason I'm even writing this post... Biddy

Biddy and I finally get to touch each other

Brandy, Noah, and Dee

Doesn't it LOOK like I fit in ....

Can you spot the angry Samoan?

The reason for the season... or something like that... PENNYWISE

This is the face I make when you ask me when I'm going to post a new blog ...

Byline's main screen shows your unread items and their count, starred items, notes, and folders. Sadly, it won't show lonesome feeds.

UPDATE @ 8PM Central Time (2AM GMT): …and that’s it! The giveaway’s closed. Apparently, only Lisa entered so she’s getting the free copy. Congrats, Lisa!

UPDATE @ 6PM Central Time (12AM GMT): Bah, I forgot to close the giveaway. Well, you’ve got one last chance thanks to that. I’ll close the giveaway in TWO HOURS. That’s 8PM Central Time, 6PM Pacific Time or 2AM Greenwich Mean Time.

Today, I’m starting a new section of my blog where I review applications for Windows and iPhone OS. This odd combination of systems was chosen because I use an iPod touch and Windows PC. And to hit it off with a bang, I’m also having a little giveaway! Its details will be available after the review. (For the subscribers out there it will be placed after the link to the full article.)

Byline, developed and sold by Phantom Fish, is a Google Reader application for iPhone and iPod touch, mostly known for its key function: syncing articles for offline browsing.

Upon opening the app (or tapping the refresh button), the application starts syncing itself with your Google Reader stream. By default, the app caches all of your starred items, and up to 200 of your unread items. It also syncs the first linked page of every unread and starred item, (AKA the “real” article linked from its title in RSS readers) which is very helpful. However, the process takes too much time in my opinion, and as I don’t have a Wi-Fi connection very often or even for a long time, I disabled it. You can also have Byline save read items, so it would function similar to Google Reader when you select “all items” in reading mode instead of “x new items”. Caching also usually saves the images in the article, which helps with a lot of feeds. Especially the Sims 3 story blogs. With web page saving disabled, caching is pretty fast.

On the main screen (shown to the right) you can find out exactly how many new items are there in your stream, view your starred items, notes, and even read items by folder. However, if you keep your feeds unsorted like me, you won’t see them there. Sadly, Byline only shows folders and not lonesome feeds. Hopefully Phantom Fish will add that option in future versions.

In any screen (unread items, starred items, folders, etc.) you can sort items by feed or by date. I prefer sorting them by feeds so I could leave the good stuff for last. When looking through items, you can star and share them, with or without a note, in one single tap. Links inside the feed open in the application, and no matter the page size I have yet to run into a “out of memory” crash you could get with applications which embed Safari. (You can open the post in Safari, however, if you need to.) Sadly, posts showing videos from sources other than YouTube (like Failblog, which started using Viddler recently) appear video-less in both online and offline mode. The app feels smooth, fast and easy-to-use, with barely even one freeze ever since I started using it a little less than a month ago, and the interface looks pretty great as well, both giving the app a polished feel – performance-wise and appearance-wise.

However, Byline’s key feature is offline browsing. After your items have been cached, Byline can show you them when you have no internet connection. (For iPhone users, when you’re on the subway or in Airplane Mode, or for us iPod touch users, most of the time.) Items load very quickly from the app’s cache, without a single issue. (Except for YouTube videos, but hey, did you expect the app to cache a 20MB+ video?) The feature is great for iPod touch users, as we don’t have a constant internet connection. It’s also great for iPhone users without an unlimited (or high-bandwidth) cellular internet package, as Byline has an option to cache only when connected to the web via Wi-Fi.

In conclusion, Byline is a great RSS client for iPhone, and possibly the best Google Reader client for iPhone, which doesn’t just import feeds like most other “Google Reader-compatible” clients. iPhone users will find it a great Google Reader client to replace Reader’s web interface thanks to its great performance, look and feel, while iPod touch users will love it for its offline browsing capabilities. As of such, I give Byline a 4 out of 5.

Byline requires an iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone OS 2.2.1 or newer. The application is only available in the iTunes App Store, which can be found .

And now, to the giveaway!

To hit it off, I’m giving away a free copy of Byline (which is currently priced at $4.99) at random to any person who comments on this post and follows the rules below:

• You must be under 18, aged exactly 18 or over 18.
• You must have a U.S. iTunes Store account. The promotion code will not work in any other store.
• Your comment must be made between today, Thursday, July 30th 2009 and next Monday, August 3rd 2009. Sorry for the short period of time, but it’s only because of the following issue:
• The code can only be used once and will expire either on that use or on August 7th, whichever comes first. (Sorry, but codes are valid only for one month, and I only got it around the middle of July.)
• One comment per IP. If you post more than one comment from the same IP, your submission will still only count once. However, submitting more than 5 comments in a spammy manner may get you disqualified.
• Should you win, you will be contacted by email. Make sure your email address is correct before submitting and make sure you are able to reply to the email message by next Tuesday, August 4th 2009. (To verify you have received the code.) Should you not respond, it will be randomly given to another commenter. Should you make a mistake, post another comment saying the address in that one is the correct address.
• Needless to say you need a Google account to use the app. It can not function as a standalone RSS reader or connect to any other platforms.

Good luck!

das schöne Wetter ausgenutzt ..
mit dem Velo um die Rigi gefahren ..
Zweisamkeit geniessen ..
erfrischendes Bad im kühlgrünblauen Vierwaldstättersee ..