Qarl Fizz Announces Closing of Sim, "Goodbye Second Life"

Qarl Fizz, the former Qarl Linden, announced in his blog that he had deleted his sim, citing Linden Lab's new Terms of Service in regards to content creators. He also stated he had been ignored when asking for info about his mesh deformer project.

i just deleted my sim. i’ve had it for what, eight years now? i am forced to. i have no choice. because the second life terms of service, as it is currently written, lets LL steal all of my intellectual property.
shame on you LL. shame on you. shame on you. shame on you.

i can imagine nothing more despicable. truly, you have become the most craven of the internet low life. i can hardly imagine where you might go from here - nigerian scam spams to your users, perhaps?

nor am i comforted by your statement “oh dear me, no, this is all just a misunderstanding.” there is zero chance your legal department is so incompetent. even if you retract your “misunderstanding” tomorrow, it is impossible for me to believe your behavior here is an accident. instagram nearly went out of business less than a year ago on an identical scheme. you guys don’t read newspapers?
literally disgusting.

meanwhile, with the deformer project - you have begun completely ignoring my requests for information. it’s been two years, and a company of 200-ish employees can’t find the time to review a couple hundred lines of code? or answer an email asking about it? nice.

…

fellow citizens of the virtual world: next time we do this, we absolutely must be more careful. no matter how cute and earnest our rulers appear in the beginning, we cannot accept their promise “trust us”. we need DEMOCRACY. we need it in the foundation. and we need it in writing.

see you on the other side.

Qarl worked for Linden Lab until August 2010. Since then, he came in Second Life as Qarl Linden, working on a "mesh deformer" to help mesh clothes better conform to avatar shapes.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Qarl Fizz Announces Alpha Release of Mesh Deformer

Qarl Fizz, the former Qarl Linden or Karl Stiefvater in real life, has finished the alpha version of his Mesh Deformer. Daniel Voyager reports it's included in Version 1.03 of the Niran Viewer, or one can just get the code from Qarl. Hamlet Au states it's also in the latest version of the Exodus Viewer.

The most notable feature of the deformer is how it addresses the complaint of mesh clothes forcing users to make their avatars conform their shapes to the outfits. With the deformer, the mesh coat in the video expands out to conform to the avatar's expanding body fat. Qarl says it's far from finished, but the "heavy lifting" is largely done.

Qarl is looking for feedback on the alpha, which can be done at this JIRA.

Sources: Daniel Voyager's Blog, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: Maybe Not So “Fast, Easy, Fun” After All

A few events kept me from commenting on Philip Linden’s inworld meeting at the end of July sooner. With more recent developments, maybe it’s fortunate I did.

At the meeting, Philip Linden outlined some goals for Second Life. A couple slogans summed up his objectives. His for how Linden Lab would operate was “back to basics.” For Second Life, it was “Fast, Easy, and Fun,” meaning his vision on how it should be to its viewers.

It didn’t take long for the second slogan to become the butt of jokes, notably with those “Fast, Easy, and Fun” women's’ T-shirts being passed around. Those who took the words more seriously often expressed skepticism. Tateru Nino commented the words reminded her of the expression “fast, good, cheap: pick two,” feeling there would be chances where two of the three could be pulled off, but all three were unlikely. Then there was Philip making Second Life “fun” as an objective, “Most Second Life users make their own fun (quite literally, by creating content, games and activities to suit themselves), and the amount of fun you have is proportional to what you put in; if, indeed, fun is actually your goal.”

“Fun,” she felt, was “the most ill-defined word of the set, and the one which is likely to precipitate the greatest trouble and most stumbles.“

Hamlet Au was on the nose about the slogan when he stated to make Second Life “fast, easy, and fun” ... “The effort required to reach that goal will be slow, difficult, and boring.” It would take a lot of work by the people in the company to make even basic activities much easier for users. He went on to state that although the “Linden coders are all extremely smart and dedicated people,” most weren’t too interested in the Second Life community.

One such exception was Qarl Linden, whom loved Second Life and what it’’s users had made of it. On Thursday August 5, he was laid off from Linden Lab with no explanation given. Qarl has quite a resume. In real-life, this includes his work on special effects in movies. In Second Life, he’s noted for helping to develop sculpties. More recently, he was on the head of the team for the mesh program. Philip had talked some about mesh in his meeting, saying he was “excited” about it, but wanted to be careful about its impact on Second Life. Qarl’s dismissal puts the future of this program in doubt.

Qarl being given the pink slip raises some troubling questions. Even after the “restructuring,” Linden Labs is still reducing it’s numbers. Not the best of signs for its health. And between this and the firings from the “restructuring,” the Lab doesn’t seem to be paying attention to the performance of individuals when deciding whom to lay off. They seem random, as if they’re using a dart board to chose.

Philip’s return as Linden Lab’s leader gave the residents of Second Life new optimism. Optimism that at least allowed them to listen to his message. But with the dismissal of a valued Linden soon afterwards, will the optimism last?

Sources: New World Notes, Massively, picture from Gwynethllewelyn.net

Bixyl Shuftan

Qarl Linden: He Will Be Missed

On August 4, 2010, Linden Labs killed off Qarl Linden. As the word spread quickly through SL and RL, residents were shocked and sadden by the departure of such a skilled and well-liked creator. A texture was sent to many residents, including this reporter, and posted throughout the SL blogger world, protesting the decision and demanding an explanation. So far, no one from Linden Labs has responded.

Even Qarl himself was shocked at the decision, especially since he had gotten glowing job performance reviews. As he wrote on his blog, “honestly, I’m completely baffled at the decision, as are all my coworkers (and my boss, and…)”. Check out the details at his blog: http://www.qarl.com/qLab/?p=64.

In real life Qarl was Karl Stiefvater, a multi-talented programmer. His credentials include two “Matrix” and “300” movies. His background and professional history was very broad. Most importantly, he loved Second Life and its possibilities. “SL is the coolest thing on the planet - the world we’ve all built is literally incredible - beyond belief,” he wrote on his blog.

I talked with Samantha Glume, CEO of Samantha Glume Enterprises, who builds communities and creates worlds with an emphasis on sci-fi. Like many creative people, she knew Qarl best through his work on sculpts, Jira and other projects. She described him as a talented programmer who had a spotless reputation.

His departure has had a devasting effect on the morale in SL among creators. Glume characterized the news of his removal as demoralizing. Because he was one of their best programmers, she said the Linden decision “just makes no sense.”

Qarl was working on mesh compatibility, which Glume said will enable the sci-fi community to build ships that look realistic without requiring thousands of prims. His work on sculpts was invaluable because sculpts are what make SL look and feel real. He was also working on the shadow engine, which will allow things in SL to cast a shadow, just like objects do in RL. His departure will be a huge loss to the creative community because, as Glume explained, he was responsible for actually building the systems.

“He will be greatly missed,” she said.

Source: Quarl's blog

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