SL Map Shot

The search functions are borked. I've listening in to Cylindrian Rutabaga's set at Muse Isle and have started poking around on the map. This is what I found.

It's Wednesday!

Another SL update. Some interesting changes coming down and, typically, some grid issues. It's been going on all day. I haven't had any problems to speak of but this just came across the inworld notification system

Hi everyone! Seems some fo the issues we experienced earlier are rearing up again. Money and inventory issues, along with presence and TP issues. Teleporting failing as well. We are aware and working on it.

Earlier in the Linden blog, They explained the queue:

With our online concurrency often reaching over 15,000 users now, after an update the grid can be a bit hard to login to. We are currently experiencing everyone trying to get in world at once, so there is a queue for access to the grid. Please keep attempting or try again in 15 minute increments to get in world. If you do try logging in, and Second Life appears frozen, don’t hit the quit button and the queue should let you in accordingly. Once the mad rush of everyone trying to get to their virtual selves is over, the login queue should be cleared up and the login time will be considerably reduced. Thanks for your patience!

You can check this stuff out more fully over at the Linden blog.

I spent a few minutes toying with some of the more obvious changes from this release. First off, the new Web tab on the SL profiles. I like it. Can do all sorts of stuff with it. Some posts about it here, including the Snapzilla pics options. Secondly, the new privacy options in regards to the contact list. Check boxes allowing individuals to choose who can see their online status, who can see them on the SL map and who can modify their items. Good stuff, but from experimentation with another user (hi kaia!), it seems that a person who is limited from seeing your online status will still recognize, upon attempting to IM you, that you are online. The usual "user not online" message is not returned when the IM is sent to a seemingly offline user.

Full release notes here. I couldn't take any more for today. The wonderful blue box notification of continued grid issues was enough to shove me off for the day.

SL Sunday

What do the SL residents get today? How about a slowdown of grid performance as noted by this post in the Linden blog. A second post approximately an hour later gave everyone this stellar news,

We continue to investigate the crash bug — it remains one of our highest priorities. In addition, you should see improved network connections tomorrow as we begin the upgrade process, with further improvements due as we bring more fiber online.

Shortly thereafter, the Linden blog announced changes to Customer Service. Nothing that watchers haven't been predicting after LL first tested the resident response for these types of changes. The Lab mentions a desire for feedback. I'm not sure why. The changes appear to be set.

Before this is implemented, however, we’d like to get your feedback to these plans in a series of meetings. Our plans are to schedule a series of five meetings, with 20 residents in each, in December. We’ll schedule these meetings at different times in Second Life so everyone can participate. If you’d like to attend a meeting, please IM me (Robin Linden) in-world. Let me know the best time for you to meet and we’ll try to schedule the groups to accommodate as many of you as would like to participate.

I'm actually going to stay positive about increased staffing, changes in the phone system and the implementation of a ticket queue. Additionally, dividing the support team into functions for Governance and for System Support is a good move.

The final paragraph is pivotal.

To provide service levels consistent with expectations we propose 1) revamping the channels of support and 2) changing the priority of support based on account type. What this means is that we will improve the Knowledge Base and restructure in-world support as mentioned above. In addition we will add a live chat channel through our website. Depending on the type of account you have (basic, premium, concierge) you will have unlimited access to the Knowledge Base and email support, but limited access to live chat and phone support. We are currently still considering whether it is preferred to make live chat and phone support available to those who aren’t eligible for an additional fee per use.

I suppose this is sort of what happens already. The real question is whether the support for anything other than concierge level service will be acceptable. Maybe this is the revamp that will kick them out of the customer service funk they're in. I'm taking a wait and see attitude.

Billy, Billy, Billy

Billy Crystal. Comic Relief (HBO). What about me? Who will relieve me of the time wasted?

To be truthfull, I didn't even see it. I heard a significant portion of it on the radio. Maybe the visual really gave it something. I hope so. The audio only portion was not pleasant.

It was for a good cause, I guess. So I'm not going to get too down on the guy (and I am not a fan, anyway), but seriously, Billy, why?

If you missed it (lucky you!), Crystal did his take on an elderly, black jazz musician. Tells the tale of living through the hurricane. Punctuates every little quip with "Can you dig that?.....I knew that you could." It really missed the mark. You could hear the audience straining to find the laughs, but managing only nervous titters. It went on way too long. One count had it upwards of 11 minutes. I didn't time it myself.

This bit did nothing for me. It was actually uncomfortable to listen to. I most certainly did not dig it.

Escape From NY

NYPD installed Sky Watch partrol tower in a Harlem neighborhood.

It's basically a portable guard tower. I can see that this would deter some crime in that specific area. I don't think overall crime is reduced. I suppose you are happy about it if you live on the newly gentrified Harlem corner where they are implementing this. The tower has a camera for the unmanned hours, which is similar to the cameras that Chicago PD have been using for a while and with some arguable success. It has a certain creepy feel to me. I guess I'm the criminal sort, though, and this is wonderful for the Jones family in their new Harlem condo unit.

Take a look at this thing. I think the increase in property value from a safe neighborhood is more than offset by the sheer ugliness of the thing.

According to this article:

"The units, which costs from $40,000 to $100,000 apiece, are also being used by the U.S. Border Patrol and cops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas and Fort
Worth. "

NYPD spokesman, Paul Browne, was quoted in that NY Post article as saying that the tower is a response to a recent spike in murders. It seems like an expensive game of whack-a-mole.

Abstract Avatars Charity Drive

Read about it here.

Time is winding down on Joshua Nightshade's charity drive. Buy an avatar from Josh's Abstract Avatar store in SL, proceeds go to charity - AIDS Research Alliance and Marine Toys for Tots.

Pretty simple. Don't analyze it. It's a good thing.

Some examples of Joshua Nightshade's Abstract Avatars:

SL not over-hyped?

So says an article on CNN.com by David Kirkpatrick, a Fortune Magazine senior editor. I don't know that I really agree, but mainly because all of the articles and hype are, well, just hype. There is no real substance and often misleading or incorrect information (Guardian atricle that Channel 4 Radio will be the first radio station in SL was brought to my attention by Ordinal Malaprop). Up until the time these articles discuss more seriously the proposition of what Second Life is and how its limitations can be addressed to actually reach the digital nirvana that the hype machine describes, I will continue to see the media frenzy as another fad being recorded for posterity.

Yet Second Life may be more important, longterm, than even this much publicity would suggest. That's because what it really may represent is an alternative vision for how to interact with information and communicate over the Internet.

Maybe this holds some water, but what it really says is that the concept is worth the hype, but not necessarily the current product.

However, I do agree that there is a next level and this quote from the piece is part of that thinking,

Looking at Second Life makes me realize just how much the Web, wonderful and useful as it is, still mimics a print model.

However, as usual, the article makes much of what SL should be and not what the reality is. The "user created" content is hyped in a time when there is little protection of works (certainly not with any support from the service company) and when profiteering is starting to price out the regular users that currently make up that content (note recent Island price and tier increases). The view being described is not a user view, but a Corporate view. From that angle, SL most certainly is a potential revolution, as is any tool, such as MySpace, that grew to something so ever-present in the consumer mind that a Corporation bought it and promptly tried to take a current user's url for the use of a Media Giant (Bones Steals MySpace Page).

Read the end of the article carefully.

Every day more big companies turn their attention to this new medium, realizing that it really represents something new. I'm now convinced that one day Second Life or something related to it will become a Google/Yahoo/MySpace-scale company.

Maybe Second Life will grow organically to become that company. Or an existing giant striving to stay relevant might buy it. Or maybe somebody will build a different, even better virtual world.

Nobody is inventing the wheel, but perhaps they are adding a camera to a cell phone.

Second Life Insider interviews Plastic Duck

Tateru Nino gives us an interview with the infamous SL avatar, Plastic Duck. Love him, hate him, or ingnorant of him, the intereview is still an interesting piece. I think the intereview covers some good ground and, for the most part, shies away from the more sensational scuttlebut that surrounds Duck like a cloud of gnats.

The Trash Flotilla

Read Greenpeace's report Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans. Check out a graphic of the movement of the Trash Vortex. I would have liked to see some more pictures, but anyone that has walked the beach, particularly in the wake of an evening storm, alreadys knows the detritus that washes up. Given the size of the World's Oceans, you don't need much of an imagination to find it worrisome. Whatever your opinion of Greenpeace, marine debris is certainly something worth considering.

There have also been recent doomsday predictions for the elimination of fish stocks in the next 40 years. Perhaps staunch defenders are taking an extreme view, but the world is getting smaller and the population is not.

A Little Politics

Earlier today, I was listening to people lament the lack of any solid candidates in the local political races and one person blurted out, "They don't gives us any good choices."

This had me pondering why this well-meaning person felt that (1) it was Their responsibility to provide a slate for him and (2) how it is that the Politicians have became an alien race with no connection to the average voter.

Having poked around, I now feel confident in stating that there are actually quite a few people who think they have no personal responsibility to shape an election in terms of who ends up being on the ballot. I am not advocating that anyone grab the reigns on a campaign or even run themselves (though this would be a way to put one's stamp on the process), but I am suggesting that people who want change should be more cognizant of how everyday choices (read: non-election related actions) actually impact these things and, additionally, that the local elections will have future impact on who the politicos of the day are.

There are opportunities.

Anywho, "They" won't give you squat.