Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - "Online Strategies for Quarantine: An Evening with Pathfinder Lester"

"Online Strategies for Quarantine: An Evening with Pathfinder Lester"

Saturday April 25

10 AM to 11 AM SL time

John Lester (Pathfinder Lester) has worked in software development, product design and management, knowledge engineering and online community building for over 20 years. He has led projects and teams in a variety of settings from startups to Fortune 100 companies, and his diverse background includes neuroscience, perceptually immersive learning, VR, artificial life, fintech, infosec and big data analytics.


With his background in neurology, John developed the first immersive medical education products and online patient support communities while doing research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. John co-founded the the first computer security hackerspace “The L0pht,” he’s a long-standing member of the oldest white-hat hacker group “Cult of the Dead Cow,” and he led the development of pioneering immersive learning education initiatives for Second Life while working at Linden Lab.


Matthew will discuss the following topics with John

(1) Platforms Pathfinder is excited about

(2) Tools recommended; Apps, websites, podcasts, etc

(3) Strategies

–  Synergies to using a platform and a tool together

–  The role of social media during quarantine

(4) Caution, things not to do or to avoid?
To read more, Click Here.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/67/129/32

Space Week in Second Life

It's World Space Week in both real life and Second life, and there were some events this week on the Grid that made note of the occasion. The majority of them were in the sci-lands, but there were other events such as one in Steelhead and one not far from the Newser office at the Vinyl Museum club. At one event, there was a former Linden whom is still making his presence felt on the Grid.

Read more in Events.

News and Commentary: New Terms of Service Spark Questions Among Residents

By Bixyl Shuftan

Logging into Second Life last night, I found myself presented with a new updated terms of service. The choice was pretty simple, sign if you want to continue logging on the Grid. Many of us just automatically sign without a thought. Myself, I read it, noticed a few things, and expected to hear about more before long.

So what was the result of this new TOS? In a couple groups, worried residents expressed their concern, as well as some IMs aimed at me. A few people asked me if Linden Lab would be doing away with Adult content. While it is true some people are jumpy every time there's a change, the recent blunder with third-party Linden exchangers has rightfully shaken the already shaky confidence residents have with the Lab.

There are two lengthy forum threads discussing the TOS, in the official Linden Forums, and Second Life Universe. Among the changes noted was the line "You are not our employee." Was this to limit the Lab's liability of the behavior of it's employees when on SL off the clock, putting in writing that they owed content creators and others who benefited Second Life nothing, or a possible defense against people who were tricked by residents pretending to be Lindens?

The general idea, at least among those not confused as hey, is that the changes were a "cover your butt" move to protect the Lab from additional possible legal complaints. One commented, "LL has a really good TOS in the sense that they have it in mostly proper order along with a lot of legalese that scares most people. There is always that one who isn't scared with money to either burn or feels strongly enough about something that will push it to the envelope (right or wrong) through the courts. But at the same time, loopholes galore all through out it because they just can't CYA everything."

There were no shortage of comments, including a proposed TOS by the former Pathfinder Linden.

If only if it were that simple.

Sources: Linden Forums, SLU Forums

Image credits: Daniel Voyager, Pathfinder 

Bixyl Shuftan

Pathfinder Lester ex Linden Interview on Tonight Live Feb 23rd 2011

"This is an excerpt from Tonight Live With Paisley Beebe 23rd Feb Show 2011. Pathfinder Lester was Laid Off from Linden Lab owners of Second Life in March 2010. He Joined Reaction Grid an Open Sim Virtual World in October 2010. In this interview he discusses his time at Linden Lab, the Education Discount discontinuation, the new CEO of Linden Lab Rod Humble, the direction Linden Lab need to go now, and interoperability between Virtual Worlds. Watch the entire Show at http://tonightlivewithpaisleybeebe.com"

Cartoon of the Day

The Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum

Gemma Cleanslate goes to a museum in Second Life dedicated to one of the best architects of the 20th Century: Frank Lloyd Wright. Here, one can find many highly-detailed replicas of the man's work, as well as much information to read about Wright himself. The museum also hosts a semi-annual contest for house design.

Read the story in Places.

The 30%

Last week, Second Life Newser reported on the appearance of a memorial set up in the honor of those Lindens whose jobs were terminated in M Linden's "Restructuring." A few days later, our reporter Gemma Cleanslate went to the place, and found people were still visiting there to pay their respects.

To read more, go to People.

Memorial Cemetery Set Up for Dismissed Lindens

At the Rouge Lounge and Boutique nightclub, the owner CodeBastard Redgrave set up a graveyard with rows of headstones as a tribute to the Linden staff whom were laid off in the “Reorganization” announced on June 9th. Porting in to the place, it was gray with lag, and half over water. The gray took some time to fade as people were continuing to port in to pay their respects, including a few Lindens. Blue, Teagan, and Mia Linden’s stones were particularly full of tributes.

Being thanked by one visitor, Code commented, “It’s only normal. I didn’t know what else to do.” After building the memorial, residents had been porting in, and leaving flowers, bears, and other items in tribute. When asked about the turnout, Code told that it had taken her by surprise, “it’s been capped all of the last 24 (hours). I had to lower the avatar count to make it less laggy, but it’s been from 40-80 people non-stop. ... I have no idea how many people circulated around here ... since my visitor counter busted over memory usage.”

“I didn’t plan anything, to be honest, but I am on the lookout for a place that could host it better than here, a more permanent one. ... I just wanted to pay my respects to them, for serving us for so long and being so patient with us. I'm just so in awe of the response.”

People continuing to drop in asked about leaving flowers, finding they no longer could. Code explained she had disabled that option, but left at least one flower in front of every stone. She had also made headstones for a few Lindens let go before the purge yesterday out of requests by visitors, such as Pathfinder.


A number of Lindens dropped by, including Zen, Aimee, Cayle, Fisher, Kona, and Coyote. Most spoke nothing. Some greeted the others hello. Only Kona spoke with any degree of boisterousness, “lol ... wow.” Other visitors expressed their sadness for those let go, occasionally one asking one of the visiting Lindens how could they let this happen. Coyote Linden remarked that he couldn’t say anything not in the press release, “Now please let me be,” and he walked to the memorial to contemplate what happened to his peers.

The graveyard is at the Rouge sim at (152, 51, 21). Code plans to house the memorial until a more appropriate place is found.

“Thank you CodeB for giving us all this chance to show the Lindens how much we appreciate them.”

Bixyl Shuftan