Podex Website Gets an Update

The Podex Exchange website has gotten itself an updated look. A display on the website's front page shows the exchange rate of Lindens to international currencies Podex deals in. Plus, it now has a blog for the latest news, such as any changes to the exchange rate or their restoring the option to pay for Lindens by credit card (or the advert stories written by SL Newser).

Jack Linden to Leave Linden Lab

In his latest post on the Linden Blog, Jack Linden stated he would be leaving his post at Linden Labs at the end of the year, “It’s time for me to set sail for new horizons, hang up the god powers, and journey to another grand adventure elsewhere. It has been an incredible six years, and one that has been made extra special thanks to sharing it with you, the Second Life community.”

I first met him during the “Openspace” controversy, him being the one to answer questions from an often tough crowd as to why Linden Lab was jacking the tier of Homestead sims by 66%. I don’t remember him losing his cool with the occasionally hostile questions, but I don’t recall much empathy either. Tateru Nino commented, “Certainly if there was bad news to deliver, Jack seemed to be your man for the job – and it never seemed to stress him out. There’s not many who can handle that sort of thing.”

Tateru further commented, “I’ve never figured out, exactly – even the couple brief times I worked alongside him at the Lab – if Jack was a decision-maker or a communications flunky. I believe he finished up with the title of Executive Director of Product (Land, eCommerce,Search, etc), but I was never able to figure out if he actually had a voice or influence in any of the decisions that he communicated.”

Jack’s farewell post was followed by a number of well-wishers, those saying they would miss him, and others saying although they had their differences with Jack, they had to respect him, “Jack, I will give you credit for being one of the few Lindens willing to face the masses... “ There were a few who were unimpressed, one saying “your departure is long overdue.”

Jack stated he would be back on Second Life, but as a regular resident. It is unknown whom Linden Lab plans to replace him with.

Sources: Linden Blog, "Dwell on it" , Picture by Ciaran Laval

Bringing Teens to Second Life’s Main Grid and Work on Search

Last week, Terrace Linden gave an update on Linden Labs plans to merge the under-18 population of the Teen Grid with the Main. “Today, I’m happy share our plan to create rich and enjoyable Second Life experiences for teens, while keeping in mind their security and safety when joining the Main Grid. ... Our goal is to provide a safe, secure, and rewarding experience to all Second Life Residents, no matter their age.”

For those from age 13 to 15, they would be limited to places owned by a “sponsoring institution,” and would not be able to use ether the “Search” function or the Marketplace on the Internet. For residents of ages 16 and 17, they would have access to all land rated General/PG, both mainland and private sims. Moderate/Mature and Adult regions would be off-limits. But, they would be able to communicate (open chat and instant-message) and friend older users.

With nearly 5,000 General-rated regions in Second Life, the area that will be accessible to our 16- and 17-year-old Residents will dwarf the 100 regions currently available on Teen Second Life, giving them far more space to create, explore, and experience their online environment and what they can do there.

Our 16- and 17-year-old account holders will also be able to communicate fully with all other users on the Main Grid (unless they have been muted or otherwise restricted). This was an important decision for us, and one we think will make Second Life richer for all Residents.


Beginning in January, “13- to 15-year-olds will no longer be able to register for Second Life unless they are brought in through an affiliated organization.” Teens 16 and 17 can register on the Main Grid. Teen Grid residents will have their inventories transferred over, except for those under 16 not in any group moving to the Main Grid. Teen Grid residents ages 13 to 15 who cannot get on the Main Grid will have their accounts inactive until they reach the age of 16.


... the experience of teens in Second Life is only just beginning. We strongly believe that teens have as much to contribute to the Second Life community as their adult counterparts, and we do not want to restrict the flow of ideas and information between the two groups. We all have much to learn from each other.


Residents commenting below generally were skeptical to opposed. “You are opening up a tremendous black hole of legal jeopardy here,” one commented, pointing out a proposed JIRA to keep minors from looking into or interacting in any way sims with higher ratings than they could move about in. More than one resident expressed fear of arrest by police, branded as child molesters for the rest of their lives. Someone suggested that the best solution was probably the simplest, create a new General/PG continent the minors would be restricted to, or just freeze their accounts altogether until they turned 18. “How many teens are we talking about? 500? 1000?” one asked, “Was it really worth causing so much frustration for so many residents for the sake of 1000 kids?” A few commented that teens already had de-facto access, if they lied about their age. And there were those open to Linden Labs plans, but wary, "Do this, but please do it right. I don't want Cindy's dad knocking on my door carrying a baseball bat."

To read the complete Linden blog post and comments: Click Here.

Jack Linden stated Linden Labs has been making improvements to the Search function, “the SL Search team has been working hard to make Search results more accurate and prepare for the Teen Second Life migration to the Main Grid.” He stated there were new filters for Search to differentate General/PG and Moderate/Mature ratings of places, classified ads getting “content filtering to provide another level of rating validation,” “more sophisticated filters to identify spam,” and changes to the destination guide.

The coments below were generally skeptical to critical, one stating “Viewer 2 search is painfully slow compared to 1.x viewer search,” and another commenting Linden Labs was causing numbers of merchants hardship “just so a few hundred kids can come on the grid.”

For the complete post and comments, Click Here.

Mesh Imports & “Back to Basics” Tech Improvements

On October 13th in the Second Life Blog, Jack Linden announced that the Mesh Import Beta was open to all residents, “Mesh Import allows you to bring models into Second Life from the many popular 3D tools such as Blender or Maya(t), using the COLLADA file format. We see this as an important step to empower content creators to make the inworld experience an even richer and more creative one than it is today.”

Those wanting to use the Beta will need to download a special Mesh Viewer, which will gain them access to the Aditi test grid. It’s sperate from the Main Grid, so anything done there can’t be moved back with you. To help out, a few walkthroughs are available to follow. Residents are reminded the same Terms of Service of the Main Grid also apply here, so only material a resident has rights to can be imported.


Although the base technology that drives mesh is in good shape, we still have some way to go before this is production ready. We wanted to get it into your hands sooner, versus later, to get your feedback. You should only take part if you’re comfortable with beta software that may crash or cause content that you’re working on to break in unexpected ways. In addition, the product design piece -- the user interface -- still needs some work so you can expect that the interface for mesh will change and improve over time. The Mesh Project Viewer will auto-update as we ship updated versions, so when there’s a new version, then you’ll be prompted to install it.

For the beta Grid, the maximum size of a prim was increased from 10 m to 64. This change may soon be main on the Main Grid soon, depending on how these larger prims perform.

For the rest of the blog entry, Click Here.

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The next day on October 14th, FJ Linden announced some new developments for improving performance on Second Life, results of Philip Linden’s “Back to Basics” directive. To combat the “jitters” residents in a sim sometimes got whenever a new resident, especially a number of new residents about the same time, the “slow point” in the code was moved “to a seperate thread.” Faster texture loading times were aimed for, with reduced latency time for Viewer 2. A new group chat service under development was announced, with “test deployment ... by the end of the year.”

The 25 group limit will be raised to 40, with the “qualifier” that if it results in more lag they’ll roll the limit back. There was also a new Main Grid code deploment process, from three to four times a year to a weekly basis. He also announced the “Display Names” Feature was now in public beta, and mentioned the Mesh import beta of the previous day.

Response to the Mesh release was overall positive, with several people reporting some bugs. To the new tech developments, most everyone was happy to hear they’d be able to be in more groups, though a few expressed reservations about the possibility of having to give them up later. Of FJ Linden’s statement lag was being reduced, numerous residents responded they hadn’t noticed any less lag on the Grid.

For the complete blog post on tech improvements and responses, Click Here.

Linden Labs to Close Down “Avatars United” Social Networking Site.

On Thursday Sept. 23rd, Linden Lab announced through emails and its blog that they would be closing down their “Avatars United” social networking website.


Today, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue Avatars United and will be taking down the site on September 29, 2010. Over the next week, we encourage you to save any pieces of content (such as pictures, friend’s names, etc.) that you want to keep. We will also soon update you on your AU Coin refund, if you have an account balance. Over the two and a half years since launching Avatars United, we have welcomed avatars from many virtual worlds and MMOs to connect on our platform as the only social network catering to the needs of virtual identities. We are proud to have served those needs and honored to have shared this journey with you all.


Checking a few discussion boards, few Second Life residents expressed any sorrow for Avatars United being slated for the chopping block. And many of those who did were thinking of the effort the Lindens spent there that could have been put to use elsewhere, or those in AU there for reasons other than Second Life, as it has been originally created for avatars across virtual worlds, and had been used mostly by MMO players such as World of Warcraft. The opinion most seemed to have was that it was another Linden blunder that they finally admitted would not fly.

I myself got an account to see what it was like just after Linden Labs got it at the beginning of the year. But after a few weeks, didn’t use it much. It seems Second Life residents preferred to go on more popular social networking sites such as “Facebook.” And now, Linden Labs is folding what some called their answer to Facebook.

To see the whole blog post, and comments, go Here.

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye on the Blog: "Next Steps for Mesh Import"

When Qarl Linden, now Qarl Fizz, was dismissed from Linden Lab, there were worries that the mesh program, which he headed, would end up shelved. But the newest post on the Linden Blog reassures viewers they’re still at work on it, and that the non-disclosure agreements the testers were under are being lifted.

As you know, we have been working on Mesh import for some time and have had an awesome group of Resident beta testers helping us to iron out the kinks. Those testers have been under NDA, but today we will be lifting that NDA so that those folks in the closed beta can talk publicly about their experiences with Mesh in Second Life. This is in line with our desire to be ever more open about what we are working on. Look for other videos, blog posts, and Tweets (#slviewer2) shortly.

Jack Linden then gave a link to several Youtubes showing mesh at work, the first giving a brief explanation of what mesh is and can do.



We’re also getting ready to move from the current closed beta, to an open beta so that any Resident interested in helping us to test the Mesh toolset, or just curious about the technology, can get involved. Mesh Import has some incredibly exciting implications for inworld content creators, so we’re very keen to get as much feedback as we can; and of course, the more people that use it, the better the feature will be when we go live gridwide.

Jack Linden stated they planned to make the announcement of it’s opening in about two weeks.

To see the blog post in it’s entirety, Click Here.