News and Commentary: "Graphics Card" Griefing Attacks on Club Show a Serious Problem

Griefers in Second Life are nothing new. Ranging from simple pranksters to good for nothings whose single purpose on the Grid seems to be to make others miserable, for most residents they've been little more than a pesky nusciance. But a recent series of attacks at the Junkyard Blues Club have demonstrated a double problem: a new griefer weapon that's gotten people worried about the safety of their computers, and Linden Lab seemingly not doing a single thing about those using it, or even its appearance on Marketplace.

Read the commentary in Extra.

Oskar Linden Dismissed From Linden Lab: Full Story

A few days ago on the SL Universe forums, Oskar Linden posted that he had been fired by Linden Lab. Rumors had been going around for a couple days in SLU before Oskar finally responded.


To solidify all rumors, yes my employment was terminated by Linden Lab last Friday. It was a surprise Skype call with the manager of my department and HR. At the same moment all my accounts were locked and I was told a courier was on the way to my house to take my laptop. This is standard operating procedure at the Lab. The reasons given were quite vague, but at the root of it was complaints from a griefer who I had banned from a private testing sandbox that I managed after he was harassing people and threatening to crash them and the region.

I was also told that there were issues with my communications. I don't understand that because I have operated in the role of public communicator for the lab for three years and have always had stellar reviews. It's not like the reasons really matter anyway. When the Lab wants you gone it's over.

To be quite honest this has all come as a surprise and a shock. I have known for a while that this would happen eventually though. All Lindens fear 'the skype call'. The old Linden culture is long gone. Many Lindens are disappeared in that way when the Lab no longer has use for them. It has been difficult working through the changes at the Lab the past few years. I could have left, perhaps I should have left on my own. I would have been better off. I did not choose to do so because I was dedicated to the wonderful residents I have met during my 4 years working on SL. I was committed to all of you and committed to making Second Life and Linden Lab a better place. I felt I was fighting the good fight and didn't want to just run away. I felt that I was making a difference. I hope that I did.

I have no idea what is next for me. I have varied passions that I will follow until I feel the need to pursue further employment.

I have nothing disparaging to say about Linden Lab, in fact I am not legally allowed to because of the wording of my separation agreement. :-) 
 
Linden Lab is cotton candy and kittens, unicorns and rainbows.

I greatly appreciate all of you who friended me and were so passionate about helping me make Second Life a better place. Your enthusiasm to help find bugs greatly helped the quality of the server code. You are all amazing. You are Second Life, not Linden Lab. Never forget that. I love you all and will miss working with you greatly!

In his profile, Oskar stated he was he Technical  Lead and QA engineer.

Someone in the SL Universe forums thought that last weekend's Grid glitch happened after he left was no coincidence, "Oskar leaves LL and SL breaks for 7 hours, does that say anything?"  Daniel Voyager commented that questions about his sudden leaving will probably be around for weeks. " I think many appreciated Oskar Linden’s work and SL/LL communications over the years. Oskar Linden ... will be missed deeply by the SL community. I wish him all the best for the future!"

 Images from Daniel Voyager and Oskar Linden.

Breaking News: Oskar Linden Dismissed From Linden Lab

In the Second Life Universe forums, Oskar Linden annouced that he has been terminated from Linden Lab.

More details to come later.

Oskar Linden's Response to Questions about the Maintenance

On a thread in the official Second Life forum asking about why there was a grid failure on May 7 (fortunately less extensive than the one on April 26th), Oskar Linden had the following to say:

These issues were the result of a hardware failure in one of our data centers. The issue was noticed immediately and acted upon within minutes. A key first step is intentionally disabling logins and billing. The second step is recovering the hardware or working around it. The third step is bringing services back online slowly to make sure all is well. This entire process took 30 minutes. Say what you will, but that is a very impressive response time. After core functionality was returned we focused on regions that had been affected and worked to get them stable again.

I know it is frustrating when events like this happen, and we understand the difficulties it is from your perspective. We react as quick as possible to stabilize the grid once events like this arise.

__Oskar

Apparently this was the cause of the scheduled maintenance this week for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, in which residents were cautioned about certain activities.

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager