Archive for the 'Second Life' Category

Linden Labs does it again with SecondLife woes

Published at March 25, 2008 in Second Life and First Life. 3 Comments

(and yes, I know that they’re called Linden Lab, and it’s called Second Life, but this is just for protest ;) )

Well, Linden did it again with their ridiculous new trademark policy. True, I signed up for that inSL™ program, but, who says we have to give up our free use of the Second Life name? (Nope, no ™ there.) True, businesses will have to do that, but we should us bloggers and talkers use that weird and out-of-context ™ mark? Why should we stop expressing our thoughts freely, without a stupid law requiring us to add a ™ after every stupid name Linden Lab registered? Why?

Let’s say i’m talking about having my own iPod, and, I just blogged about buying it:

Yay! I finally got my iPod™! Now, I just need to fire up iTunes™ and download my entire library to my iPod™… Ugh, it’s so much better than that Zune™ Microsoft™ have been trying to advertise for so long! It works much better, and it runs homebrew :D Plus, it has a graphics chip (by the world’s worst graphical cards makers, Intel™) so it can render 3D stuff :D . I wonder if it can run Second Life™, There™ or even The Sims Online EA-Land™…

Why should I stick a TM there every few words? Why should I add a small symbol that takes a few more seconds every time I add it, but ends up taking a whole minute in a post (in total) ? Why? I say we don’t use that ™ symbol, and if Linden care so much for their TM symbol, then make an exception for personal blogs! (News companies will still have to use it, they will have a serious legal issue if they don’t)

So… Who’s with me?1

(legal text)2

  1. I don’t have to use the ©, ® and ™ since i’m outside the United States, in Israel. I can also use the Second Life name written in Hebrew letters like it was a free word around the internet, as it is not a trademark this way. [↩]
  2. Linden Lab and Second Life are named how they should not be, only to express the problem us bloggers have now run into. Linden Lab and Second Life are registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. and are not affiliated with me, Smiley Barry, in any way. [↩]

We fight for SLart!

Published at January 19, 2008 in Second Life. 3 Comments

As previously mention on Vint Falken’s blog, a jerk named “Richard Minsky” has trademarked the term “SLart” as his own. He has sent “cease-and-desist” letters to all currently who keep a website stating the term “SLart”, including but not limited to, the SLart Wiki, Rezzable’s SLart website, etc.

And so, give me the honor to do the following. *Clears throat* Me me me me MEE… (Tests vocals) This goes to you, Richard:

SLART!

Linden stopping inworld banks, will the teen grid comply?

Published at January 8, 2008 in Second Life. 1 Comment

After seeing Linden have just set out a new policy against inworld banks without a license, I began to wonder: Will our grid comply? I wonder this because, lately, some parts have failed to comply with Second Life standards. (E.g.: Spam on Mainlands, breaking the peace multiple times, weapons on Sandbox Islands, etc.) Even temporary mature skyboxes appear once in a while. This should light up one or more warning lights to Linden: What the f*** are you doing? Pay attention to our grid’s status! .

There has been a new bank lately, which I know is trusted — the owner’s a friend of mine. Now, this locks out options for us teens — if we ever “go over the laws of our conscious and reason”, our parents can punish us — since we cannot get a “permit”. We are minors, obviously. Plus, ~90,000 residents don’t make a hell of a difference in Second Life, since we’re a tiny part of the 11,000,000+ database, or at least the 1,200,000+ (says to be 1,227,xxx , I remember it being 1,500,xxx a while ago — what happened?) active residents.

Now, after setting a link to the post I bet i’ll appear on the sites that have started a blog post regarding that page. (I forgot the official word — what was it?) Go ahead Lindens and read this, i’m just stating the facts.

So, in conclusion, Linden Lab should pay attention to what’s happening on our grid, or soon it’s going to bite ‘em back when the teens move to the main grid, or even worse, if the media gets to them first.

(Have you noticed I used no emoticons at all in this post? Weird :lol: )

Why Second Life machine tags are useful

Published at January 7, 2008 in Second Life. 5 Comments

I have recently tagged a few of Torley’s photos from Second Life, and seeing as he just places a link to the location, it reminded me of asking you guys this: why is no one using the “secondlife:region”, “secondlife:x”, “secondlife:y”, and “secondlife:z” tags for photos? First, the “secondlife:region” tag would do great if someone wants to look up photos from a particular region. Second, there is a very popular Greasemonkey script which uses these machine tags to put a little note on the side with region coordinates and a teleportation link:

This has been taken by Jessica Shannon (superrabit in Flickr URLs) and is licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-sharealike license. 

There is a Creative Commons license attached to this image. AttributionShare Alike Taken and made by Jessica Shannon

The script adds a little teleportation link, as you see, to either a SLURL map location or inworld — haven’t used it in a while — and simplifies the process of looking for the teleportation link and teleporting. (If I knew the Greasemonkey API, i’d make a big shiny “Teleport” button next to it.) In addition, this is also useful for computer bots. For example, an inworld bot that scans Flickr photos and shows them inworld, could supply a teleportation link, if the photo has appropriate machine tags. Because currently, some using SLURL, some SLBuzz, and a few more use an unknown source, so the computer application searching for the teleportation link, may not find it.

And so, I ask you: use the Second Life machine tags! There is information about each tag below:

 

  • secondlife:region=[REGION NAME HERE]
  • secondlife:x=[X COORDINATES HERE] 
  • secondlife:y=[Y COORDINATES HERE] 
  • secondlife:z=[Z COORDINATES HERE] 

Happy new year!

Published at January 1, 2008 in Second Life. 0 Comments

[UPDATE @ 02/01/08 5:05pm UTC+2: Seems the WP-Polls plugin isn’t working - says no polls are available. Stupid plugin! :???: .] 

Hello, and welcome to 2008! To your right is the new year celebrations and to your left, real life :) We suggest going right, and party ’till 2009 before going left ;) . I have no idea for a gift, sorry :( but still, its the thought that counts, right? right? :lol: . What do YOU think was the most awesome feature of Second Life this year?

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Answer the poll! Really, I need PEOPLE voting for it, so link to it please ;) .

Second life placed on hold due to first life complications

Published at December 17, 2007 in Second Life and First Life. 1 Comment

I’m doing terribly this school year, all due to my “web life” and lack of organization skills (currently). And so, I am suspending my second life (all, not just my Second Life account. However, it will not be cancelled or suspended, as I still have an ongoing premium plan. I’ll look into giving my land tier to someone…), in order to get my first life stabilized as it should be. The 9th grade is the big step between middle school and high school, and such, I need to get perfect (or at least very good) grades to allow me to be placed in my wanted class next year, or even make it to the next year. :???:

As of such, projects including DuoGrid will be placed on hold, and will be continued along the way. Sorry… :???: 

The new Second Life search — now for your browser too!

Published at December 11, 2007 in DuoGrid Web Services and Second Life. 0 Comments

I recently searched for a search plugin for Firefox which searches for stuff in the new Second Life Search. I was amazed to see the only one, was using Google for the Second Life sites (main, blog, JIRA, etc.). So, I looked up that old OpenSearch guide once again, and compiled my own. I sneaked the search URL from the client, and now it does the exact (except for the specific-for selection box) actions the new inworld search does. While I was at it, I found an exploit and managed to view Vint Falken’s profile, through the “real” (the one with Picks, Interests, etc.) profile viewer! Don’t tell about this though, I wanna see you adults’ profiles! :P .

To install the new search engine, click here, or go to this page, and follow the instructions for your browser.

I’ll send an email to Linden soon to point this out, and post it on the official wiki as well. Please, spread the word! And don’t mind hotlinking, the file is barely 1kb, so, it will need 10,000,000 clicks to hit my bandwidth limit!

Reality check: YEAH!

Published at December 10, 2007 in Second Lounge and Second Life. 0 Comments

I recently sent OnRez a large, and formal request, to make a version for the teen grid. I got turned down once they were SL Boutique since I didn’t explain it right, but now, that 11+ lines formal email worked! I just received a reply from one of their (support team) technicians, saying she forwarded the request, and agrees with my idea — I guess Second Lounge will have commerce support after all?1 ;) .

By the way, if you are a pretty good web developer, either code-wise or graphic-wise, I need your help! Contact me at Smiley[at]DuoGrid[dot]com.

  1. I planned on it, using Katharine Berry’s TSL Emporium code, after she closed it down, but prepared several offers if she says no, which she did. So, YIP YIP HARRAH! [↩]

Vint ruthed and Sho laughs? Vint, you got rights!

Published at December 8, 2007 in Friends and Second Life. 2 Comments

UPDATE @ 03:10 UTC+2 10th of December: Vint, i’m not mad at you! It’s OK! It just came to me all of a sudden back then ‘^_^. I tend to react badly to big, sudden changes…

UPDATE @ 21:28 UTC+2: Way to go, Vint! I just recieved a reply from Vint saying this was a joke. So, I just embarrassed myself in front of, well, the metaverse! >.>

Just like real life photos, you have rights associated to your virtual self. Explained in this post on News.com, you have the same rights you have when you’re featured in an unpleasant picture or video. So, you can take it down, in a SNAP!. Here’s the story:

Vint got ruthed in the opening of SLart at the Cannery: A Different Light, and Sho took the snapshot and uploaded it to Flickr. As much as I kinda like it, Vint didn’t, and asked Sho kindly to take it down. Sho refused meanfully, and even wrote a blog post, dedicated to the photo, here. Vint found a “Nipplegate” photo of Sho, which I will post right in a second, and the war between the two began. As a friend of Vint’s, i’m on her side, banning SLart at the Cannery from making a teen grid appearance through DuoGrid, making them go through a painful, up-to-6-months process involving age verification, simulator set up, permission from Linden, and inworld advertising, until they settle this.

Shoshana Epsilon, with a mean, yet awfully funny bug.

Haha, actually looks as if Sho said “Oops, my boob fell, wanna get funky??” :D

Oh, and don’t give me that “Mature” crap, virtual “art” is PG13 or else no user-created animations would exist on our grid.

Smiley’s “eight facts” about real life and virtual life

Published at December 4, 2007 in Second Life and First Life. 2 Comments

After seeing how others (multi-link — click each letter for a different post I found!) are writing these “eight facts”, I thought “Heck, why shouldn’t I do it as well?”. So, here I am!

Facts about Smiley

  • Smiley has a slight crush on someone in Teen Second Life, but doesn’t want to tell her name online in fear she will see it :oops: .
  • Smiley sometimes likes to be a pixelated character in Habbo Hotel or Xabbo more than a laggy 3D character in Second Life or There.com .
  • Smiley looks forward to his human’s 18th birthday (due in 4 years) to move already to the main grid. “What’s taking that human so LONG???”
  • Smiley wants more time online and hates that his human neglects him lately…

Facts about Smiley’s human

  • Smiley’s human recently got addicted to his recently purchased copy of Folklore and is now in Chapter 5 with Ellen, and Chapter 3 with Keats out of 6 Chapters (per character). Smiley’s human does hate that the game doesn’t last forever…
  • Smiley’s human isn’t popular in class, but since this isn’t an all-popularity-based school, like in most US schools, he gets through the school day easily.
  • Smiley’s human likes gadgets, ALOT.
  • Smiley’s human likes a certain someone in school since the 7th grade, but is afraid to show any emotion :oops: .

So, let the tagging begin!

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Smiley's Blog by Smiley Barry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License. Second Life® and Linden Lab® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. All rights reserved. No infringement is intended.