High Capacity Sims Discussed at VWBPE

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Plenty happened at the Virtual Worlds Best Practices For Education conference from Thursday March 31 to Saturday April 2. Among the discussions was "What's Up At The Lab" in which Patch Linden was interviewed. "My mind gets lost trying to think through the various things," Patch admitted during the talk. He would discuss things like the Amazon Cloud servers, a mobile viewer still being looked at, and Marketplace getting "fine-tuned refinement." But he would also mention the Lab working on sims in which many more residents could be in at once.

Patch stated these high capacity event regions had seen some testing, notably at shopping events. He brought up that some had "cam regions" in which people had to look at the shopping stalls from outside, and these kinds of sims would make that a thing of the past. Testing had shown they could run a hundred avatars "safely." Patch was saying the goal was to have these sims hold up to 150 avatars, "and still be able to walk around and move and see everything." Patch felt it was "Mindblowing" to be in a sim with not 30-40 avatars around, but a hundred to a hundred fifty. He felt the technology could eventually be used to have "true large-scale auditorium style events beyond the capabilities of what we have today." 

Patch did say testing was far from done, noting that lag on these seems seemed to increase "exponentially" once the number of avatars passed 175. He wanted to hit 200, "we're marching our way towards that. ... We did actually hit 197 in one of those really big shopping events." There was much that had to be decided, such as how much it would cost residents to have one of these sims.  But Patch did say the Lab would offer high capacity sims with an educational discount. At the moment, no plans to have these high capacity sims to have a higher prim allowance. 

And the capacity of the Second Life grid? Patch stated the days of Second Life crashing when 100,000 were on are "behind us" thanks in part to the Amazon Cloud Servers, "We can go as big as we want. ... that'll be amazing once we get back to those numbers again."

 Addition: When Patch was asked if high capacity sims could be part of this year's Relay Weekend, Patch answered "Maybe."

Click here if the video does not play.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Commentary: Three Sims That Deserve Being Brought Back

In the past few months, three sims have come back from the virtual nether after vanishing for a time. The Oahu sim, the home of the USS Arizona Memorial, came back after the owner was able to finance it again. But two, Mont Saint Michel and The Lost Gardens of Apollo, required Linden intervention. This doubled the number of places brought back by the Lab. With Linden Lab seemingly more willing to bring back lost places, that got the newest writer in the Newser crew, Kain Scalia (Maus Merryjest), thinking about what locations he wished the most would return.

Read Kain's commentary in Places.

Team Sunbeamers Pass 100,000 Lindens Raised, Reach Silver Rank

On Friday night, April 10, Relay for Life's Team Sunbeamer, the team of the Sunweaver Estates reached a milestone for this year's season. It was then that the 100,000 Linden mark was passed, getting cheers from Relay chat.

[2015/04/10 20:06] Rita Mariner: Sunbeamers made Silver tonight
[2015/04/10 20:06] Trader Whiplash-Ballinger (Trader1 Whiplash): Yay Rita!!!
[2015/04/10 20:06] Madonna Daehlie (Madonna Milena): Yay Rita and the Sunbeamers!
[2015/04/10 20:06] Trader Whiplash-Ballinger (Trader1 Whiplash): congrats!
[2015/04/10 20:06] Ariel Goldrozen: YAY sunbeamers!!
[2015/04/10 20:06] Rita Mariner: On to Gold now
[2015/04/10 20:06] OldeSoul Eldemar (OldeSoul Resident): WAY TO GO SUNBEAMERS!!!!
[2015/04/10 20:07] OldeSoul Eldemar (OldeSoul Resident): that's right Ms. Rita
[2015/04/10 20:07] Melodie Jigsaw: woooo yay rita!!!
[2015/04/10 20:07] OldeSoul Eldemar (OldeSoul Resident): GO GO GO GO RELAY
[2015/04/10 20:33] RosePoison: GO GO GADGET RELAY
[2015/04/10 20:34] Lomgren Smalls sends micro hugs to everyone!
[2015/04/10 20:34] Fuzzball Ortega: Hey, Lomgren
[2015/04/10 20:34] Fuzzball Ortega: LOMGREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Special thanks go to Rayven Tentigo, whose grand reopening of Castle Primal Passions and the AC/DC tribute concert raised close to half of the total raised.

Stay tuned for the Country Rebels concert in five days on April 19 in the Pacific Waters sim.

InWorldz Reaches 100,000 Accounts

This week, the virtual world of InWorldz reached a milestone. The official total number of residents passed the 100,000 mark. 

Daniel Voyager wrote the landmark number had been reached on May 15 at 6:37AM SL time. "It's taken almost 4 years to reach the 100,000 registered users milestone, and in another four years, I would imagine InWorldz (will have) reached the 200,000 ... mark if rates continue as they are."

Inworldz had a total of 1000 registered on February 16, 2010. It would take to June 20th that year to reach 5000, August 12 to hit 10,000, and Dec 12 to get to 25,000. It would take to Jan 15th 2012 to reach a total number of 50,000 users, and to May 3 2013 to get to 75,000 in number. 

Congratulations to InWorldz.

Reading of 100 Word Stories at Book Island

Last week, Grease Coakes wrote about a discussion about Book Island. During the weekend, he made another trip over. This time it was for their reading of "100 Word Stories." So what kind of story could be told from just 100 words? Grease put his pen to the test to find out.

Read more in People.

Press Release: Relay For Life of Second Life Kickoff

The 2013 Relay For Life of Second Life season is ready to launch.  On Saturday, March 9, 2013, at 10am SLT, the Relay For Life Kickoff Celebration will be held on 4 special “kickoff” regions bordering the American Cancer Society Island.

More than 107 teams have pre-registered to participate in this year’s Relay For Life fundraising season in Second Life, but there is plenty of room for more.  Anyone who has registered, or is interested in registering a team is encouraged to attend the Kickoff Celebration to learn more about this year’s Relay For Life season.  If you are interested in learning more, contact Gem Sunkiller inworld, or you can join the Relay For Life Volunteers Group, or you can visit http://www.RelayForLife.org/secondlife.

The 2013 Relay For Life of Second Life theme matches that of the American Cancer Society’s 2013 campaign: Celebrating 100 Years of Hope.  

“2013 marks the 100th birthday of the American Cancer Society.  Our teams voted last year to use this as an opportunity to align with the organization to celebrate the many successes that we’ve had over the last 100 years of fighting cancer...and to re-commit ourselves to doing as much as we can to finish the fight,” says Stingray Raymaker, American Cancer Society Manager of Digital Platforms.

The 2013 Relay For Life of Second Life Planning Committee is led by Chairperson, Nikki Mathieson and her two Co-Chairs, Dwen Dooley and Serina Juran.  To view the entire committee, visit http://www.RelayForLife.org/secondlife.

Relay For Life of Second Life Volunteers have raised more than $1.5 million USD since we began relaying in 2005.  

“We come together each March determined to make a difference.  Each July we line 40 sims of virtual track and celebrate survivors, remember loved ones lost and re-commit to finish the fight.  Over the past 8 years we have walked more than 8000 miles of virtual track together.  It is the largest, most amazing event in Second Life, bar none,” says Nikki Mathieson.  “We welcome new Relayers, we need you!  We are friends, we are family, we are caregivers, we are survivors.. we are supporters. Come relay with us!  You can do that by forming a team, joining an existing team, becoming a 2013 Sponsor and by joining our group.  Visit our RFL warehouse by tping in to the American Cancer Society sim; check out our website for more info. Join with hundreds of incredible Second Life Relay volunteers, all united in this important mission that truly affects us all.  Prepare to be amazed at the awesome work being done right here in SL.  You'll never forget it!”

Getting involved in Relay is easy, says Serina Juran.

“Grab some of your friends and form a team,” she says. “You’ll meet a lot of fun, hardworking people and also get the satisfaction from helping a worthy cause. Teams can work together to raise funds and often do.”

Throughout the season, there are multi-team events to participate in that draw people from across the grid for exciting fun.

The Kickoff Celebration will showcase improvements made to the fundraising technology, some changes to the season activities, and an opportunity to learn about the American Cancer Society’s mission over the last 100 years.  

Relay For Life is the signature fundraising event of the American Cancer Society.  Money raised in Second Life is automatically routed through our volunteers’ accounts and deposited directly into the Relay For Life’s holding account. “This ensures donation integrity while allowing our teams to receive recognition for their fundraising efforts,” says Stingray Raymaker.

Sponsors for the 2013 Relay For Life of Second Life include: Amaretto Ranch Breedables & Touched By Angels.

Crap Mariner's 100 Word Stories

Crap Mariner is known for a few things in Second Life. One weekly event is about his ability to come up with short stories quickly and tell them to an audience. For more of a challenges, he limits himself to 100 Words. So the event was called "100 Word Stories."

Read more in People.

~2011 SL National Day of the Republic Of China Flag Raising Ceremony~

Place: WW2 TRIBUTE Kunming Air Base
Landmark: WW2 Tribute (110, 22, 25)
Time: 10/10/2011 3:30 AM SLT

Introduction:
Republic Of China National Day is commemorate Wuchang Uprising which happened on 10th of October, 1919. Wuchang Uprising was the beginning of the 1911 Revolution, and after two months, China's revolution had a great success to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and established Asia’s first republic, Republic Of China. This year is the 100th National Day. There will be a Flag Raising Ceremony in the WW2 TRIBUTE Kunming Air Base.

Things to remember and fellow:
1.Fellow the Sims Rule.
2.Wear formal clothes. Such as suits for men. Army Uniform is also allowed.
3.Please respect the ceremony. Keep quiet during the Flag Raising. And please look at the flag.
4.Admins have the right to kick or ban people who show their unrespectful to the ceremony or breaking the sims rule.

Process of the ceremony:
3:00 AM: Ready for the ceremony
3:30 AM: Ceremony Start
3:31 AM: Introdution
3:33 AM: Flag Raising
3:34 AM: Saulte
3:35 AM: Speeches
3:40 AM: Golden Tigers Air Show
4:15 AM: Fireworks
4:20 AM: End of the ceremony


Any further questions about the ceremony feel to ask
Marcus Warbunsee