News In Brief

There's a lot going on in Second Life. But between the Relay, the SLB, and our upcoming anniversary, so little time to write about it. Here's a brief mention of a few things going on.


In an article in Vice magazine, Linden Lab's CEO Ebbe Altberg stated Second Life's monthly usership was close to 900,000 thousand. Ryan Schultz would point out this was a 50% increase from the days before the Coronavirus Pandemic.


There's a new Firestorm viewer out, Update 6.3.9.58205, "this one comes with a LOT of changes, bug fixes and improvements."


A few days ago, Linden Lab would announce all further US dollar transactions, not just those for cashing out Lindens to real world currency, would be handled via it's Tilia service, "to stay compliant with regulations across a number of U.S. states." Also a few days ago, the Lab announced it would be adding the Value Added Tax to transactions involving residents of Norway and Australia.


Earlier this month, Daniel Voyager reported that the Second Life app, powered by Android, was still in an "internal alpha" stage of development, "This is a communications only app, for now." There's no date as to when a public beta will be out, Ebbe Linden recommending for now the web-based Speedlight.


Yours truly was also given a tour of the CDS Catacombs, located at Colonia Nova (78,108,22). Mermaid Celene (CeleneHighwater Resident) of the Radegast Viewer group met up with me to discuss "Silver Economy," which blind SL users can take part in. After a tip from a friend about "a free downloadable board game ... based around making fun of the toilet paper shortages," I had a talk with the maker, Wanders Nowhere.


We'll have more on some of these when time permits.

Bixyl Shuftan

Announcement: Accessibility Planning Meeting at Virtual Ability

Accessibility Planning Meeting
Hostess: CeleneHighwater
When: Tuesday, Sept 5
Times: 1:00 PM, and repeat at 4:30 PM SLT
Place: Cabana Classroom, Virtual Ability Island

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Virtual%20Ability/44/138/23

Come join us as we have a lively discussion about inworld accessibility planning. We will toss around ideas for projects, and inworld improvements, big and small, to help the disabled Second Life users get the most out of their inworld experience.

Radegast Has Recieved an Update!

by Celene Highwater

I know this might not mean a whole lot to those using regular SL viewers, but Radegast has just received an update by its developer.

In November 2014, Latif Khalifa announced that he was ill and could no longer continue work on the project. However, we have received the news that the viewer has been updated to version 2.18.
The viewer is a text-based viewer that works well for the blind and visually impaired. This  viewer has allowed people like me to not only enter Second Life, but participate in events and activities as if we were using a 3d viewer. So if you like, please take a look. The project is open-source so if you like what you see and no how to code, please consider helping us keep it alive so those who can't see can continue to enjoy SL.

Source: Modem World

DJ Clair Knows How to Make Hearts Sing

Clair Westbrook is not your typical music player. While some DJs specialize in certain genres such as rave or trance, Clair's choice of music to focus on is one not the most commonly found among DJs across the Grid: romance music. Celene Highwater recently met up with her, and the two sat down for an interview.

Read Celene's story in People.

Radegast Text-Based Viewer Opens SL to a New Community

Second Life has opened a virtual world of possibilities to the public. But what about those whom are visually impaired or blind? Celene Highwater (Mermaid Celene) writes about Ragegast, a text-based viewer designed by Latif Khalifa. For those with problems with sight, the viewer can make all the difference in accessing the Grid.

Read Celene's article in Design.

Addition: Earlier the link was broken, it's fixed now.

A Look Back at the VWPBE 2014

In April, the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education conference took place in Second Life, noted for the appearances of Philip Rosedale, the former Philip Linden, and Ebbe Linden, the new CEO of Linden Lab whom was giving his first speech in front of an inworld audience. Celene Highwater was there, and wrote about what she saw then.

Read more in Events.

Third Annual Hot Bay City Nights a Roaring Success

Last month, Bay City held their annual "Hot Bay City Nights" event, which offers car designers to show off their classic models and a chance to raise some cash for the Childs Play charity. Celene Highwater was there to take in the sights, and had a chance to speak with Bay City's Marianne McCann about what goes on with this look back at America's classic cars.

Read Celene's article in Events.