Where in the world is ...

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As I look back I see my last post on this blog was about three weeks ago, quite some time in the fast-paced world of blogging. While I can "blame" my First Life for consuming much of my time, quite a few things have been going on in my Second Life, too, and I should have been blogging about those.

The biggest of these has been the total reboot of the club venue at the Isle of Lesbos (SLurl - women only). Earlier this year, the Isle Manager, Threshin Barnett, had come up with the idea of a versatile space some 500m above the Isle where clubs of different themes could be rezzed based on the event theme: Sci-Fi, Western, Jazz, Grunge, etc., to reduce lag and to have larger clubs. Planet Lesbos (Web) was one of these builds. For a variety of reasons it was decided to move this space to ground level, replacing the Sunrise Dock, the basic gathering area and club. That meant that all of the clubs in the sky had to be redesigned and re-constructed. Right now I'm working an a dark, Ridley Scott-ish space station to replace Planet Lesbos after completing a giant snow globe to replace the Winter club, a rebuild of the Pride Club, and a near complete reworking of Faces, one of my favorite clubs (see below).

As you can see, it is based on my SL6B Exhibit (Flickr), which was based on the original Faces club. I'll try to get pictures of the other new clubs posted here soon and on Flickr.

I've also taken time to do a lot of exploring when not building, spending a fair bit of the time on a great "planetoid" called Mos Ainsley (SLurl), a region built by the Linden Moles for no reason I can discern other than fun. I blogged a bit about it for the Lucky Kitty Crew (Web), focusing on the free space suit and overalls on site. But whether as my Pocos mouse avie (at left) or in other forms, I had a lot of fun driving the surface buggy that can be rezzed, finding alien artifacts, trying to find a way to completely seal the base, or even flying the shuttle around the sim and onward to the mainland.

Much of my recreation has been scuba diving, though. The sport has long been a favorite of mine in SL so I was delighted when I first found Dive World (SLurl) nearly two years ago. Recently they've expanded to four regions from one and have changed the basic land settings so really deep dives are possible. As before, most of it looks to be built by my friend and neighbor Kaikou Splash (SLurl to his shop) and it is all excellent. The remodeling is proceeding such that the flora and fauna appear to be reaching out to claim the new landscape. Following the growth is a great way to relax or explore in earnest.

Recently I took my Shilo there and during a dive we spotted a mermaid (and a merman!) so we quickly changed to become part of the wildlife. On another outing with my Angela, Kaikou joined us in his hermit crab avie, I switched to my nautilus avie and we floated around cracking wise and just having a great time. On a visit with both Angela and Shilo we flew the hang gliders, surfed some gnarly waves, swam, and even snuck in a little diving. Can you tell I love this place?

You can follow me on Plurk (click here) for more frequent updates about my whereabouts and doabouts, but I'll try to blog more. Unless I'm diving!

Quality vs. Quantity: Ordinal Malaprop

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Once again, Ordinal Malaprop has an insightful post that it worth your time. In "On the one hand, and on the other hand" (Web) she asserts that reliability is a more necessary goal for Linden Labs virtual world Second Life than new features. Look for my comment there.

SL6B Exhbit: Earth Primbee

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Not far from the Lesbos@SL6B exhibit (SLurl) is Earth Primbee's Virtual Life Media exhbit (SLurl) one of the most spectacular builds at the fair or anywhere. In the pic I'm some 1700 meters above the entrance area, a stunning build on it's own, doing Tai Chi on a small planetoid with stars, asteroids, and galaxies whizzing about me. You can also sit and meditate or zoom about with the heavenly bodies. Well worth a stop when the fair opens at 10am SLT on the 23rd.

Alpha Bugs

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Logging in today I noticed that I was partly invisible when wearing the jacket and shirt layers of a top from Worldwide Industries unless I turn on View Transparent. If I remove one or the other layer I also appear as I ought. It doesn't matter which region I am in and changing the graphics settings in Preferences has no effect. Could this be a temporary bug? Not sure if it is a problem with the 1.23 RC viewer as I don't recall if I've worn this shirt since the "upgrade," though I think that I have. What I do know is that the primary problem I have with the RC involves any alpha texture. They are the last to rez, leaving people and prims entirely gray for extended periods. If an object is just at the edge of the draw distance I have set, any prims with alpha will be completely invisible while "solid" prims remain visible.

Later that day ...
I changed clothes to the same clothes I had on for the first bug pic and all was fine ... for just under five minutes. Then my lower body disappeared. In this instance, turning on View Transparent brought my pants back. When I removed my underwear, others saw my body restored. Only those with the Second Life 1.23.4 (123908) Built with GCC version 40001 saw this problem. They also reported something I experienced the other day, but attributed to a bad avie change ... their head disappeared save for eyes, hair, and jewelry.

Permissions for Prim Contents

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I got a great note card from Sylva Petrov (owner of Sylva's Animation Factory; SLurl) today and thought I'd share. Of course, this works with more than just animations in a prim. Click the pic above for a larger image.

How to use the new 1.23 viewer's batch permissions system to properly set permissions on your animations:

1) Open the edit window of the object with the animaitons (does not have to be the same prim, just open the root prim)

2) Click the 'Content' tab.

3) Click the "Permissions..." button on the Content tab.

4) In the new window click the 'Uncheck All' button.

5) Go up and click the 'Animations' check box.

6) Go to the right and ensure 'Modify' and 'Resale/Give Away' are checked or else 'Modify' and 'Copy' but NOT both 'Copy' and 'Resale/Give Away'.

7) Click 'Apply'.

8) Watch the little scrolling indicater of what is being done.

9) You're done.

SL6B Couples Portraits Panel

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I'm biased, but I think my wife, Angela Seale, and I have the *best* picture on the couples portraits panel in the Lesbos@SL6B exhibit.

Unicorns

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Thanks, Sis, for my new riding unicorn :D
/me quietly hums the Happy Birthday song