The Inventory Meme

Another Monday, another Meme. I saw Strawberry Singh publish her "Inventory Meme" blog post just before I went to bed last night and, oddly enough, I didn't dream about Second Life at all so eloquent words and pretty pictures for me to post didn't pop into my head. Here's what I came up with on the fly while eating a hamwich and some yogurt at lunch ...

Meme Instructions: Copy and paste the questions and answers below, delete my answers and input your own. Don’t forget to leave a comment with your link so I can come by and read it!

What is your current inventory number?
61,731 items, after emptying the trash. This is a sort of misleading number when you consider how I organize my Inventory. The pic above is an example.

Small, color-coded cubes become the home for stored items such as whole outfits, avatars, furniture sets, and all purchases where I can't save the copiable item in it's original container. These are then put into a larger "trunk" in lots of 100 (The Lab recommends putting no more than 100 items into a prim or risk loss of all though nesting 100-lot-cubes in another doesn't seem to be a problem). These are then stored in an Objects (Stored) folder so I can get them later. I'm in the process of sorting clothes to store, give away, or just delete and then I'm going to do that with all my building materials since I doubt I'll do any serious building soon. Right now I have eight "trunks" marked Clothes and one each for footwear, jewelry, tattoos, etc. All totaled, I have about 100+ of these so you can imagine how much larger my Inventory would be should I release all the contents back to the wild.

Another factor that skews the 61K is that I use alts for storage. Way back in the day when Hamlet Au wrote a book about Second Life he recommended creating an alt character to dump all un-used transferable inventory to so if your main account loses it's Inventory, you have at least some fall-back. I do that when I can and back then is when I started this boxing strategy, too. But I also have an alt that I use just for landscaping. At some point I decided it would be in her personality to be a gardener and it would ease my Inventory to have her buy and keep all things outdoor. A quick guess without actually taking the trouble to look, I'd say that she has about 35,000 items boxed and unboxed in her Inventory. My "back up" storage alt has fewer items, but I do have other alts so I have a lot of stuff scattered about.

If you had to delete your whole inventory and could only keep one thing, what would it be?
Aside from my shape and other things that the system wouldn't let me delete? Pictures that I don't have backed up to Flickr or to my hard drive. Everything else can be replaced, but pictures can't be.

What is the last thing you purchased?
An outfit from Plastik (SLurl). Actually, it was their July gift so I guess I didn't actually pay for it. Just before that I grabbed a 2009 Winterfest Linden Bear, also free, and that needs to go into my Linden Bear storage box.

Which item do you wear most often?
My shape. In my Saved Outifts folder I have a couple versions of a "Dressable Uccie" each with a shape ("mesh standard shape" boobs, busty boobs, Furry, Neko, Male, etc.), hair, AO, and other items that I need minimum before getting dressed. A shape is the core. If we are talking prim attachment, then it would be my wedding ring. I change pet collars, hair, eyes, etc. faster than most people change their underwear, but the wedding ring is always there.

When you search for the word penis, how many items pop up? Six. Three of those are in a Freenis kit I give out to poor male Noobs in need of a confidence boost. So many have really sketchy bits I found a decent-looking freeb that I give them then tell them to leave me alone. Two are pictures with the word "Penis" in the title and I'm afraid to look at them since I also know who sent them. No, I didn't search for euphemisms but I'm sure the count would go up a bit.

If you aren't bored enough after reading this, check out this post from when I had about 50,000 items in my Inventory in April 2012. With more time on your hands, I have quite a few posts tagged with Inventory you could look through as well. Probably a better use of your time, though, is sorting your own Inventory. Good luck and happy packing!

Earth Day & My Rules

A rainy day here in Maine, USA as a Nor'easter approaches to drench us tonight so it isn't the most exciting of Earth Days in Real Life. While I'm struggling to figure some nice connection with the special day and Second Life, Honour McMilan is taking the high road and writing about her rules for Second Life blogging to compliment nicely Earth Day-ish pictures. Go ahead, Honour, and make the rest of us again look like hacks. Sheesh.

Svarga (SLurl) is a fine place to celebrate Earth Day in Second Life.

I don't pretend (much) to be a journalist so I really don't follow rules outside the AP Stylebook or the grammar tips I get from the A Way With Words podcast. To put it another way, I watch how I write more than what I write. This is a blog. I'm beholden to none because I really write more for my own amusement than for any other reason. If I manage to entertain, impress, or inform anyone else in the process, it is purely by accident though pleasing nonetheless.

Dating back to 2006, Svarga is (or was) home to a very early experiment in virtual artificial life, with plants propagating on their own with the help of bees (as food for carnivorous plants and to pollinate others).

As I write, though, there are some personal guidelines that I do try to keep in mind ...

It is perfectly okay to bite the hand of the people who own the world I play in, but I try to not go so far as to alienate them should the opportunity to be an LDPW Mole come up or that I might get another chance to appear on the official blog again. Fair, well-reasonsed criticism — positive or negative — founded with documented facts is healthy. For this reason I've kept pretty silent on the recent news that there will be no Linden-sponsored Second Life Birthday celebration like there has been in the past. I don't know all the internal politics or finances and it would be unfair to speculate.

A L$25 donation to Taras Balderdash for the charity Modest Needs earns a note card with your fortune, just pay the orb in this underground chamber below what looks like an empty marketplace.

Pure speculation and opinion is also perfectly okay, but should be clearly identified as such. It would be one thing to claim that The Lab hires only satyrs for staff since the fall of M Linden, but proving it would be another thing even if I had a reason to spread such rumors. Not that I follow drama if I don't have to anyway. Life is too short and if I really want drama, I'll rent a movie. Or see another psychiatrist.

Focus, focus, focus. This is primarily a Second Life blog so I try very hard to not write about anything else, especially Real Life. You may have seen posts about Lego Universe and my Apple iPad and other seemingly random, off-topic posts, but they do tie back to Second Life in some (usually highly tangental) fashion. Since changing the subtitle of this blog to "Real Me. Digital Life. Virtual Spaces." I've opened up the possibility of expanding post topics but have more or less avoided doing so.

Very little has changed in Svarga since 2006. The shop is gone, as is the giant sea serpent and a nice cuddle hammock. You can still pay L$1 to feed the birds but you can no longer rez the seeds you get so don't bother. Somewhat recently a Stargate showed up but it looks entirely appropriate.

With all this in mind, I freely pillage Honour's rules and steal "Rule #5; Don’t take yourself seriously. We’re bloggers not gurus" for myself. If I ever appear to be more than I am, I expect and appreciate when someone takes me down a peg or three. While I grudgingly (or not so grudgingly, at times) agree with those who tell me I write well, I freely admit but sometimes forget that there is always someone much better than I am at any task I set myself or any activity I participate in at any given time. Having a blog doesn't make me an expert at all. Anyone can blog. Only in the last few years has the community of professional journalists acknowledged that this free-form, un-regulated forum often can and does contain proper reportage and punditry.

I'm not a professional like Hamlet Au, but as you can see, I try to keep at least some guidelines to my writing, if not actual rules conforming to professional standards.

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From the bee tour: "In European mythology Svarga or "Heaven" is the residence of the god Svarog."

# # #

Windlight Sky: [TOR] Sparz puft
Water Preset: Glassy
No Shadows or post-process re-touching

Announcing ... erm ...

Many thanks to all who sent congratulations for my new job as a Linden Mole, but ... April Fools!

Honestly, I didn't think anyone would really fall for it. Sure, I bought a L$500 avatar from Extrovirtual (SLurl), got a friend to change her Display Name and set up a group for an appropriate title so I could photograph the tag, had certain Profile Feeds edited, and Photoshopped the tag into pictures of me then faked a map showing me somewhere I'm not allowed ... but did I make it that good?

No, I'm not Correspondent Mole. There is no Correspondent Mole. And there is no ChooChoo Mole, either, as mentioned in yesterday's post on this site. The train engine was completed just last night as my wife watched — yet she fell for the joke!

This mole avatar is just one of the many fine Tinies from Wynx Whiplash at Extrovirtual (SLurl).

So, in addition to my thanks I have to tender my apologies for apparently being so good at this April Foolery. And my apologies to all the fine Linden Moles, each of whom I envy and look up to for their skills and generosity. In fact, I've long avoided buying the mole avatar knowing that it is the official one used by the Lindens and I haven't earned that honor.

It's flattering that so many felt that I could be so honored, but it just isn't the case. One day I might again be invited to write for the Official Blog (remember last Halloween?) but I doubt The Lab would ever hire another full-time writer (remember Hamlet Au?) let alone me.

I hope to see you around the Grid, though, especially the Mainland. And if you see me in my mole avatar ...

SL Begats Primville?

Linden Lab will soon launch a light, game-like experience that’s separate from Second Life that will emphasize the SL values of creatitvity and alternate identities, but architected to run on the web and tablets.
     - Hamlet Au, on his blog today.

With so little to go on, let me speculate wildly starting with WTF?

So, in other words, this won't be Second Life. It sounds like a non-competitive version of Farmville or some other social network-heavy wannabe-successor. This doesn't sound like this is really for current customers (we are commodities to The Lab, mind you, not Residents) and it doesn't sound like implementation of the technologies to Our World in a capable Web browser as was tested late last year (Web). Rather than cultivate a new customer base or possibly mine the existing one by drawing them away from the current product, why can't The Lab give us a new, convenient way to keep doing what we clearly want to do?

Again, that is wild speculation. I could be completely wrong. But with The Lab's track record thus far ...

I Don't LIKE Facebook

Hamlet Au of New World Notes once again writes about Facebook, this time bringing up the idea that "liking" an in-world place somehow relates to popularity. Many of the comments shoot down this idea but one comment asked "... why are you trying to push us onto Facebook?" I just had to post my two $Lindens-worth, as follows.

I actively dislike Facebook. There are serious privacy issues, I rapidly grew tired of all the "XXXX has a carrot from their farm to share with you" messages and the like when I tried it, plus I found very little actual utility to it. What is equally annoying is that Linden Lab is turning lemming by trying to make Facebook a part of their service experience.

Attention Corporate Overlords: There is no need for me to use Facebook to enter your contests, apply for your coupons or product rebates, or to show my loyalty in any way other than continuing to give you my money for your product or service. If you want to give me information, it can be provided via e-mail, your Websites, or other forums that do not require me to risk identity theft, expose me to personal attacks by people with more time on their hands than they have morals in their being, or require me to remember one more password. Please do not continue to marginalize Facebook non-users. Treat us with respect and we really will "like" you.

It's BACK! SVARGA!!

New World Notes announced yesterday the return of Svarga, the legendary living ecosystem experiment in Second Life (Web; SLurl). Hamlet Au has confirmation that Linden Lab has purchased the property as part of a program to promote and preserve the arts (Web). When I heard about a year ago that Svarga was closing I had hoped that the Lab would do such a thing. Actually, I had hoped to purchase it myself, but I'm glad that someone did.

In my brief, 20-minute look around, almost nothing has changed. Most obvious is the lack of items for sale in the store, but some plants that I remember floating mid-air are still in place as is the slightly "suspicious" plant that yields a surprise. The futuristic sound experience that was tucked in a corner is gone ("[19:08] svarga wasp whispers: There was an exciting chat to sound experiment here [19:08] svarga wasp whispers: we hope to get it back soon," announces the tour wasp), as is the Wyrm sea dragon that I often swam near, and as I write this I'm looking for the "float in space" activity that used to make me nauseous. These "missing" items were likely No Trans so were retained by their owner. However, I did find a hidden library that I hadn't seen before.

Interestingly, the L$1 bird feeders still pay Laukosargas Svarog, the original owner (pay the dispenser at night and it refunds your money ... sometimes more) and she's still listed as the land owner in About Land, under the Svarga group, despite a statement in her profile that says that the land has a new owner. Confirming this is he region information. It shows that Patch Linden (Concierge Team Manager) is the owner. I would think that Governor Linden would be the owner. Perhaps it is all being sorted at this time.

Now I'm curious, though. Was the region simply hidden, like the Cornfield regions, or was it re-created from a back up? Either would explain the mis-positioned plants. If it was brought back from storage, the Lab could have gone far enough back to return the dragon and other items (Yes, the Lab can copy anything it wants). I'm also a bit curious that mushrooms seats from the Relic shop are still here yet the really great hammock from the same shop is gone. Again, it might have been No Trans. The one in my inventory isn't transferable.

In any case, I'm very happy to have Svarga back. From it's inception it was well ahead of it's time in design and execution. Compared with some of the marvels of texturing, sculpties, and particle scripting that have been developed during it's absence a few aspects seem a bit dated, but the region is still a masterpiece.

Postscript: I don't clearly remember the tour vehicle being a wasp, but rather an ugly pod. Does anyone remember a wasp?

Random Thoughts on SL Viewer 2.0

If you've missed the news, iteration 2 of the Second Life viewer is in public Beta. I had a pretty long discussion via IM with noted SLebrity and all-round good guy Daniel Voyager while playing with the software and he has some great insights on his blog. Following are my disjointed observations after tweaking and adjusting the software to meet my tastes. Please keep in mind that some of my comments are biased by my heavy reliance on the fabulous Imprudence viewer by Jacek Antonelli.

• The 2.0 viewer is faster and more memory-friendly than any other viewers I've tried, official or otherwise. When I task switch on my i7-powered 27" iMac the other programs have whatever access to the 4GB RAM they need. Start up and shut down are also faster and even my avie seems to fly faster.
• Some changes will take a while to get used to due to extra steps needed for access or some new locations. File uploads are the 'worst' of these. Instead of using File > Upload one needs to open the Inventory pane then use the File menu there to upload. Next worse? Using About Land. No more simply clicking in the menu bar.
• Related to About Land and sorely missed: Avie coordinates in the menu bar.
• Chat is easier for me to see. Actually, the UI is generally easier on my eyes. I did bump the size up a bit, though, to compensate for what seems to be smaller fonts than in other viewers. The cute little profile pix in chat are ... well, cute. Handy, too. Not having the Inventory (and related windows) go translucent when not in focus makes them easier to use.
• Everything takes up more screen real estate, particularly the Conversations (AKA Communications) window. I quickly searched for a way to bind all the individual windows into one tabbed unit to preserve my sanity.
• I'm probably going to make a special folder for Favorites Bar LMs. Each will have an edited name for clarity.
• There are some items in the Advanced menu that need to be accessible otherwise, such as Stop Animating Me, Set Window Size (formerly in graphics preferences), Rebake Textures, and the Lag Meter. These are not Power User tools and should be more easily found. Horizontal tabs in the Conversations window would be nice, too.
• The 2.0 viewer needs to steal some items from Imprudence, such as double-click Inventory items to wear/take-off (including prim attachments). Every mini-map enhancement needs to be ported, pronto. Also, the quick access draw distance slider. Having fast access to the Sky Editor and presets is more for a Power Users, but it is sooooo handy.
• Inventory sharing is a nuisance in 2.0 if you are not close to the other avie and I can only guess why a separate Conversation window needs to activate if an IM chat is not active.
• As you see in the picture above, the Clothing folder from the standard Inventory is quickly available. I have yet to read about this, but I suspect it might have a relation to the "Link" function buried in the Inventory's advanced menus ("Select an original item, then choose this to highlight all linked items to it," says Help, whatever that means.). It does not increase your inventory size unless you wear an outfit. Then it is fully imported into the My Library's Clothing folder, just like before. "Clothing" is a misnomer as these are now and have always been complete avatars. I'm sort of excited, though, if this feature can be used for favorite outfits.
• The media Play button uses the Pause ❙❙ symbol to show it is playing and the Play ❯ symbol to show it is paused, just like an older iPod I have. All other media players I use are just the opposite. The volume control is "hover to see" and clicking it mutes everything. Quick access to details is via the "configure" button if you hover to get the volume slider. If I mute my computer via the keyboard, the SL volume speaker shows the International NO sign.
• And that brings us to Voice Chat, something I seldom use but had to hunt for to deactivate. It is in Preferences > Sound & Media as opposed to a conveniently named Voice Chat section.
• The Color Picker has many issues. The standard colors are not there and saving a custom color usually fails. For example, I can make and save a custom color to change the URL color in chat but that same color is not available for other items. Probably a bug.
• I like the Info buttons in the place tool bar and if the pointer is hovering over certain objects.
• Texture sizes and aspect ratios in Profiles are now all different. Many folks spend money or spend extra time making Pick pictures and profile pictures extra nice. The new viewer does these no justice. There is plenty of room to make these bigger. Let's get some standardization going as well. Here are the current aspect ratios of some SL textures. If you look you'll see the sizes were chosen by committee or chance. Or both.
• Also concerning the People tab: The Groups section of a person's profile needs a lot of work. The text is too small and the list is clumped together. Make the font bigger and set them all as bullet points, please. Blogger Hamlet Au has written about a controversy with the new Profile format's clumping of Second Life and Real World information on the same pane. As far as I'm concerned: Meh. I have fun with the RW section. As far as you should be concerned, this is my First Life.
• Now and then a pose ball stays highlighted after sitting on it (Right-Click > Sit Here) or object that you've edited or inspected (via the Info button on the hover tip).
• In the picture above the hover text in my hugger is off center. This happens with other HUDS that use hover text, too, but only in the 2.0 viewer.
• Ban Lines are now translucent yellow on yellower "warning" stripes like a police line tape.
• The top bar with Favorites and such needs to be collapsable to save screen space.
• The My Appearance pane could be done away with if the Wearing tab is moved into the Inventory panel. Usra, my model in the pic, pointed out that obviousness to me.
• I like the bottom tool bar. The new basic buttons can be hidden but the usual buttons are gone. Nope. No Build button. Mostly I used that to see if I could rez something on the parcel I was visiting. It will take some getting used to, but I like the tool bar in general.
• Of course a transition period is needed, but I'm very excited about the new layers available in Appearance. A tattoo layer has long been needed and the alpha layer will make boots and attachment-intensive avies a lot nicer.
• What?!? No more Inventory count? How many Whatsitz do I have?
• [17:49] Angela Seale: mention taht your wife HATES the interface [17:49] Angela Seale: the whole thing, it's just inconvienent, it's not user configurable, adn it feels clumsy like 2-5 building blocks [17:52] Angela Seale: it feels like it's "playskool" interface
• Conversely, I generally like the interface. If I hadn't seen v1.x first I'd probably be rather happy with this one.

On the whole I would have to say I like v2.0 and that most of the criticisms I've heard in-world and seen in print are mostly from folks who don't like change. Remember those who didn't like Windlight? There will be alternative viewers based on the Open Source Snowglobe and I'm sure these will have more appeal to Power Users and those with specialized needs. This viewer is aimed at new and casual users with many features that should still appeal to even more advanced users. It certainly meets that goal and then some.

XStreet & OnRez Acquisition Reactions

Quite a few blog hours have been burned over the XStreet & OnRez acquisitions so, of course, Hamlet Au of New World Notes has done a round up (Web). I've posted a comment there (Web) and I copied it below for those who just can't wait to read it or who are too lazy to click a link.

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A feeling of betrayal was my first reaction. On my blog I wrote that "the situation reminds me of the plight suffered by my Irish immigrant ancestors who worked the mills and mines, paid in Scrip redeemable only in the Company Store, essentially no better than indentured servants." The acquisition of the independent services gives more power to The Company. Rather then spend the money to solve asset database server issues they chose to spend money to monetize Residents, further relegating us to the role of revenue streams rather than having us participate in the "Your World, Your Imagination" partnership.

I agree with Hiro Pendragon that shopping malls will suffer unless they are innovative or closely linked to a community such as you see with Rocket City FurMeet, the Isle of Lesbos, and the Raglan Shire malls. The loss of OnRez and the elevation of XStreet to being the official shopping service could lead small-scale merchants to abandon an in-world presence in favor of being only virtually virtual. What would this do to the economy? What would this do to the culture?

Smarter people than me likely have answers to those questions just like they (i.e., Peter Stindberg ... "Hi, Peter! Love your blog!") are much more competent to judge issues like trading Linden Dollars. From my point of view (very small merchant; active shopper; experienced Resident) not having an independent source where I can trade my currency is not a big issue. But rather I liked being able to keep a sizable portion of my funds tucked away off The Company's notoriously unreliable servers. I've seen my Inventory whittled down by server issues and I full well expect to some day see my Linden Dollar balance not recover from a 'Loading ...' state.

The upside of the news? Maybe people using in-world search will find my shop and buy more of my products (Look out, Peter! I sell upwards of L$600 of stuff on XStreet each month). Sure, I'm not trying hard to make a living or earn a lot of money ... mostly I build what I feel like building and price it low to recover my costs and a wee bit more ... but some money is nice. And being able to send purchases to anyone in-world, not just registered service users, will be wonderful. Or will anyone miss having go to a terminal or find a place to rez a wallet to deposit money for a purchase?

Up or down, right or wrong, good or bad, keep this in mind: We don't have a choice. It was taken away from us.