Update on Mieville

 

Yesterday in the Mieville group posts, I noticed one "Regarding Mieville Rentals in Mieville Regions," in which "The rental situation is being resolved in a new way," I noticed the following sentence, "Linden Labs is in direct contact with us." Noticing that Wyv the FloxMonster™ (Wyvern Dryke), I asked if they were stepping in to help. Wyyvie wasn't sure as the talks were still ongoing. Annakari Dragonsworn (Annakari Genesis) did say, "Yes we are working closely with them to organize a plan for in case Perryn is unable to return to us. We are also gathering any information for possible transfers and have been guaranteed ample time to remove items from regions if there is no one able to have them transferred.  However, at this time, there is no reason to do anything except to plan."

Wyvie has gotten his own sim, Flox, where "Haunted Nawlins" can be found, and was told others in the community either have or are planning to get more sims. Exactly what will happen to the community lands is still up in the air. But it's fair to say they'll continue to have a place, or places, to call home.

 

Stay tuned for more details,

Bixyl Shuftan

 

 

Getting One's Phil(ip)

 

Just after the premiere showing of Draxtor Despres' "Virtual Cultures in Pandemic Times" at Film Threat, only a few minutes after Draxtor himself logged off for the night, a very famous Linden dropped by: Philip Linden, the founder of Linden Labs, and thus Second Life. Today, Philip's position is basically an advisory role. But he's still very popular among the residents.

Philip had hoped to catch some of the film. But even Lindens can be late for shows. In any event, he was soon surrounded by admirers. He was happy to see the crowd, complementing people on their avatar designs, saying much had been accomplished over the years. He himself was still in his old prim hair, facial hair, codpiece, and "Rocky Horror" t-shirt. So it was a happy contrast of classic, mesh, fitted mesh, and bakes-on mesh. 

Happy trails, Philip.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Bob Komin (BK Linden) Leaves Linden Lab

Both Hamlet Au and Tateru Nino are confirming that Linden Lab's Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operations Officer Bob Komin, known in Second Life as BK Linden, has left the company. Spokesman Peter Gray was quoted as saying "Bob Komin has moved on to pursue a new opportunity," stating the Lab planned to employ a new CFO, "Linden Lab is thankful for his contributions to the company, and we wish him all the best in his next endeavor."

BK Linden's legacy is a mixed one to many. He's credited to making Second Life much more profitable to Linden Lab, but it was partially done by laying off about a third of the staff. He also made the corporate management of the company a more traditional hierarchy, which from the point of view of many, "diminished the democratic 'Tao of Linden' spirit Philip Rosedale instituted." He was the acting CEO between Philip Linden's departure as Interim and the hiring of Rod Humble.

Hamlet Au had a few things to say about BK's legacy. The way he say it, "Bob Komin has helped prepare Linden Lab for a post-Second Life era, in which SL is less and less central to the company's strategy and plans." He had helped create the "very large" cash reserve to finance projects, such as games. "much of Linden Lab's management … likely see Second Life as a legacy MMO which has run its course. With the launch of new development tools, followed soon by a steady withdrawal of company resources, the future of Second Life will soon be almost completely in the hands of it's users."

In another post, Hamlet had a few bits of advice on how Second Life residents could help save the Grid after such a departure, notably multiplayer games inside Second Life, and third party viewers that could be tailored to support such games. However, to those who keep asking the Lab to lower tier, he felt Linden Lab was unlikely to do so without "substantial growth of active users. Maybe several hundred thousand." Hamlet doesn't seem to be a fan of what economists call "dynamic analysis" or "dynamic scoring."

Not many Lindens have had as much impact as Bob Komin. It should be interesting to see whom replaces him.

Image source: Second Life Universe

Bixyl Shuftan

Protestors at Linden Meeting

I was told about an open meeting with Andrew and Simon Linden, at 4 SL time. The sign there read that it was about "physics and simulator issues, no whining."

But what got the attention of the person whom sent the aynominous tip were the protestors, "Oh, Em, Gee, it's like Occupy Wall Street." While the person's claim of close to a hundred was inflated, shown here in the sim next door, it was still sizeable.

Besides the "No whining" statement, there were also comments the Lindens were only interested in talking to sim owners. This left some others feeling irritable, feeling you didn't need to own a sim to have valid concerns.

*Update* One of those attending wrote a little on the meeting Here.

Reader Submitted: A Few Notes on Mesh - Redone

10 Gooson heard about her article on Mesh published yesterday, but because of the delays some information was out of date. So she offered an updated version, which is now up in it's place.

Read the updated story in Design.

Reader Submitted: A Few Notes on Mesh

10 Gooson, a longtime friend of Second Life Newspaper and SL Newser, sent us some notes on her (and her partner's) experiences with Mesh, "I've tried to explain what meshes are, what is still unknown, the in's and out's for 'almost-noobs' to explain some more about meshes."

Read more in Design.