Server 1.36.4 is deployed in main grid. Release Notes/Second Life Beta Server/1.36.
Hot from the press, the Emerald guys has discosed a document of rogue viewers that they know of. Rogue Viewers are those violate LL policies, such as those can bypass permission system, free upload, IP address spoof (so bans have no effect on them), ..., and in some cases, send out your login name and password. The list is here: http://onyx.modularsystems.sl.
The Xstreet SL Terminals is obsolete, announced by Linden, here: Say Goodbye To Xstreet SL Terminals.
To transfer money between SL and Xstreet, just login to Xstreet on the web. Then, you'll see the links in the “My Marketplace” box. You can also buy lindens on Xstreet too, of course.
Consolidated my blog entries on LSL into one page: Misc LSL Tips.
Consolidated my blog entries related to sl viewers into one page: Misc Info On Second Life Viewers.
Discovered Racers Island. A high quality sim for car racing fans.
Furry Soldiers (screenshots)
Created a Xah Particle Maker Frequently Asked Questions.
See: Second Life Futuristic Cities.
Just discovered that Linden Labs has a rating of F (on a scale of A to F) at Better Business Bureau. See: Source.
“HEARTSEED”. A exotic forest scene. The sim is build by a friend, Jedda Zenovka.
In this year, often i found many sl news's original source is from this MMORG news site: http://www.massively.com/. Today again, so i take a look.
Discovered Tabula Rasa (video game). Which closed down, and with a law suit from Richard Garriott, a famous game developer and entrepreneur, for USD$24G.
More detail of this lawsuit, including link to court document, are reported here Source.
asides from the business aspects, here's a vid of the game play, their final day:
I'm reading Massively's top 5 stories of 2009. The closing down of of Tabula Rasa was #5. Another interesting story i learned, is The Matrix Online, also closing down. Here's a vid of game play:
seems boring to me.
while reading gmail today, the side bar prompted these google ads:
3D modeling for SL - easy create 3D models by simply drawing its shape and export to SL! http://www.archipelis.com/
Buy Second Life Lindens Fast delivery,online live support. The easiest way to purchase lindens http://www.tradelindens.com/
Second Inventory Backup Restore tool for Second Life Legitimate CopyBot for OpenSim http://www.secondinventory.com/
Texturama.com Seamless Texture Map Collections 4000+ Download Pro Texture Maps http://www.texturama.com/
A Beautiful Virtual World Create a Whole New Life. Make New Friends, Chat, Play Games, & More! http://www.there.com/
Except there.com, all these are new to me. Quite amazing how diverse and majorish business for sl are growing. Remember slx? which is bought by Linden Lab for gazillions.
While searching for how much Linden paid for slx, i ran into this blog. Source by Gwyneth Llewelyn. She seems to be a pro gamer, with some insider knowledge.
Starting a blender blog. Xah's Blender Blog. Subscribe there.
Voldo Dance 4. Fantastically funny.
perm url and more: Voldo Dancing.
Someone mentioned to me this is a good Blender vid tutorial: http://blog.machinimatrix.org/2008/07/02/new-tutorial-page/
A bit of rare juicy info on sl business. Here's a quote from Wikipedia Second life:
According to figures published by Linden Lab, about 64,000 users made a profit in Second Life in February 2009, of whom 38524 made less than US$10, while 233 made more than US$5000 [21]. Profits are derived from selling virtual goods, renting land, and a broad range of services. In March 2009, it has become known that there exist a few Second Life entrepreneurs, whose profits exceed 1 million US$ per year[22].
Some companies generate US dollar earnings from services provided in Second Life. Examples are Languagelife.com,[23] Rivers Run Red[24], BNT Holdings, and Beta Technologies.[25] This opportunity is extending to normal residents and non-Second Life users via affiliate programs.[26] The total value of these transactions has not been calculated but in 2008 consultancy firms Rivers Run Red and Electric Sheep have reported annual revenues of $6 million.
The reference 21 about who made what amount, is from sl official site: http://secondlife.com/statistics/economy-data.php. That page is raw data, you'll need to do some computation to get a readible summary.
The reference about those making millions, is from a blog: Top Second Life Entrepeneur Cashing Out US$1.7 Million Yearly; Furnishings, Events Management Among Top Earners (2009-03-24) by Wagner James Au. At Source
The source of this millions claim is from Robin Harper's blog, at http://couldtherebewhales.blogspot.com/2009/03/correction.html. Apparantly, Robin was a VP of Marketing and Community Developmen at Linden Labs, and left in 2009-02.
Robin being a VP is readily verified on web. Here's a article: http://www.massively.com/2009/02/02/robin-harper-to-leave-linden-lab/, and here: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/02/robin-linden-leaves.html. Here's Robin's linkedin url: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rharper.
Second Life Dive Roll Movement Enhancer Comparison
Fascinating: Corrupted Blood incident.
The Corrupted Blood incident was a widely reported virtual plague outbreak and video game glitch found in the Blizzard Entertainment computer game World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the Warcraft series.
See also: Massively multiplayer online role-playing game (aka MMORG). MMORG is pretty much the future of web. (be sure to read the Psychology section of the article in Wikipedia.)
Also note, MMORG game are in my opinion the most advanced and complex software system today. Quote from Wikipedia article, Development section:
The cost of developing a competitive commercial MMORPG title often exceeds $10 million.[34] These projects require multiple disciplines within game design and development such as 3D modeling, 2D art, animation, user interfaces, client/server engineering, database architecture, and network infrastructure.[35]
am wondering, among all the MMORG, which has the most user, and what are their numbers.
World of Warcraft (WOW) has 11.5 mega monthly subscriptions as of 2008-12, and holds Guinness World Record for that. WOW holds 62% of MMORG subscription market. (info from Wikipedia)
Second Life has 16 mega accounts as of 2009-10. Of course, huge part of it is alts and people who tried and never used again. No reliable data about actual active users. Though, at any time there are about 40k to 60k people online. Total number of active users is probably just a few times of that.
Some online Second Life friends are also getting into Eve online (EVE), which is science fiction theme, with space crafts. Much of my thing. Not much into medieval and sorcery theme as in WOW.
But besides playing, major part of my interest is looking into the business prospects, and the 3D technology and communication technology and social impact thing, i.e. virtual world.
Imagine, if one can teleport from Second Life to EVE, or WOW, or EverQuest, or from any of the MMORG to another. This is similar to different telephone phone networks merging (1900s), IM chats networking merging (2000s), or as recent cell phone networks merging. It is just a matter of time, say 5 years, 10 years.
According to EVE official site Source, EVE has a record of 51k concurrent users, as of 2009-02.
So, am wondering what does WOW virtual world actually looks like. Here's a youtube vid:
Here's what seems to be a typical EverQuest game play.
EVE got many very cool vids. See them at: youtube.com EVE online.
Just reading a linden blog about their update on their map technology. Improvements to mapping and upgrade to SLurl.com (2009-01-22) By Philip Linden. Source.
Few interesting tidbits. The new tech can update 30k tiles (regions) in 2 days, running on 4 machines. They are using Amazon S3 tech for storage. And of course, they are also using Google maps tech.
Their map API doc is here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Webmap_API.
My latest Second Life product: Xah Combat Aim Radar.
Trackball Mouse Reviews (computing)
A look at mouse technology today: Gaming Mouses.
Second Life's web based shop the XStreetSL, will start to charge merchants for listing of freebies, within a few months. Source Be sure to read the FAQ link on that page. This is a great move. One of the fact we learn from the article is that: “Currently, less than 20% of Xstreet SL listings make at least one sale per month.”.
Here's a summary of the change:
- Monthly Listing Fee of L$99 for items that's L$0
- Monthly Listing Fee of L$10 for all items L$1 or greater
- Minimum Commission of L$3 on all items priced L$1 or greater
- Freebies will be placed in a separate category.
- These new rules will be in place sometimes before end of 2009-02. There will be a 2 weeks noticed in advance.
“The Ordo Imperialis: Litany”
perm url and more vids at Second Life Military.
Someone made a video of my avatar in Second Life. “Second Rage - Xah Toll, fun with cheating.” By Lotsofpins (aka Annoying Blogger in Second Life)
Second Life. Item using brand names may be a problem. (e.g. Nike, Ford, ...) Source
Mesh is coming to Second Life. Source
Crooked House, a model in Second Life of science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein's concept. This is built by my friend Henry Segerman (segerman.org). The cat in the vid is my avatar “Xah Toll” in second life. For external view of the crooked house, and other vids by Henry, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOEFvCZJM4s.