This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

 

Saturday October 25

 

    ~*~

 

    At 10 AM PST   

Writing For Low Watt Brains

https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/low-watt-brains/

 

Steven Van Hook

 

Auditorium 

 

    ~*~

 

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝  

 

 

 

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - "CRISPR" and "Science Communication In A Pandemic"

 

"CRISPR Year in Review 2021"

Saturday January 29

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM SL time

Every year there are new advances in genome engineering enabled by CRISPR/Cas editing systems. In this talk, the most important and interesting news in CRISPR-based gene editing from 2021 will be presented. Come learn about Technology Advances, New Tools, Intellectual Property, and Target Genes and Modified Organisms from a practitioner in the field. This year’s emphasis will be on the wide range of uses and modifications in medicine and agriculture.

Presentation by Dr. Stephen Gasior (Xootfly)

Auditorium

For more information, Click Here.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/72/129/30

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"Science Communication In, Or In Preparation For A Pandemic"

Saturday January 29

9:00 PM - 10:00 PM SL time

Mitigating the damage of the COVID-19 pandemic has been hugely dependent on society’s adoption of personal protective measures to curb the spread of the virus. Misinformation has also been cited as a threat to the employment of countermeasures like vaccines. To what extent is the public understanding of the mechanisms by which diseases spread or medical solutions function important in improving survival outcomes during a pandemic? Is it sufficient or perhaps better to be reliant on expert opinions and policies alone?

Fireside

For more information, Click Here.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Science%20Circle/161/99/25
 

Peter Gray/Peter Linden Leaving Linden Labs, To Join Facebook

One of the more familiar Lindens to Second Life residents, Peter Linden, will soon be departing Linden Labs. Known as Peter Gray in real life, he was known as the Lab's public relations spokesman, officialy their Senior Director of Communications. But no longer.On Tuesday January 2, Hamlet Au and Inara Pey had received emails from Gray that he was leaving Linden Lab. His new place of employment: Facebook. He will be working at the communications team of Facebook AI Research

"After about a dozen years doing marcom in the virtual worlds/VR space (starting way back in '06 as part of Linden's external PR team), it's time for a new adventure, and I'm excited to be moving on to join Facebook's comms team for AI."

"I'm not sure if anyone else has been doing marcom in the virtual worlds / VR space longer, but 12 years is a pretty long time (in the tech world, at least). What's helped to keep it interesting, exciting, and rewarding all these years is also a big part of what made becoming a Linden appealing in the first place: the enormous range of stories to tell. I'm grateful to all the SL and Sansar users who are doing such interesting and creative things with our platforms, and in particular to those who have gone out of their way to share their stories over the years. "

Peter Linden had spent over eight years at Linden Lab, joining in 2009 and serving under four different CEOs and went through a number of turning points in the company's history such as when 30% of it's staff was laid off. His avatar has been seen in a number of events such as the Second Life Birthday and Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education.  It is not clear who will replace him.

As for Peter Gray's new job. it's likely to be an eventful one as last year, Facebook had to squash rumors that they had pulled the plug on an AI that had gotten "dangerously smart."

Sources: New World Notes, Modem World, Gizmodo 

Bixyl Shuftan

Eye On The Blog: "Clear Pricing" For Land Services And The New Communications Hub

In the Linden blog, there are two recent entries for April. The first deals with services for private regions.

If you have a private region in Second Life, there are several special services you might occasionally need, like region moves and name changes. The charges for these services depends on the number of private regions you have, and to make it easier for all of our customers to understand the fee structure, we now have laid it out in this chart in the Knowledge Base:

The second blog update deals with the new Communications Hub, or Communications Hub User Interface aka CHUI as the Lab calls it. In an update, it was made part of the main viewer. It rearranges some features, as well as adding a few new ones. Among the changes, "Busy" becomes "Do Not Disturb," and the user is notifed of all IMs made once it's turned off. Local chat could be put on the same window of one's list of IMs.



DrFran Babcock reviewed the CHUI while it was being tested on a beta viewer last month (article March 4). While she liked it, she noted the majority of other testers didn't like it as well as the old interface. Checking the official forums, there were several threads on the subject, the longest one Here. Once again, the complaints outnumber those who like it, one person saying they were switching to the Firestorm viewer because of it. Complaints that yours truly has heard of the most are of bugs that interfere with one's Second Life experience, including crashing just after starting, freezes and crashes when IMing someone,  or just more frequent freezes and crashes altogether. Fortunetly, I have the Cool VL viewer to use, which has been starting up faster than the official one.

Bixyl Shuftan

The New CHUI – Chat Hub User Interface

By DrFran Babcock

Oh boy! I just happened to be in world when the notification for Maestro Linden’s Office Hours was announced in one of my group chats. Luckily, I remembered that they take place on the Beta Grid, so I logged in there, and ran to the meeting place. I hopped on a treadmill that was left there conveniently and settled in to see what was new in the Second Life Server. In all honesty, I rarely understand half of what the brainy folks there are talking about, but it is the place to be if you want to learn about new features that are being rolled out in the upcoming viewers.

 I had heard the term CHUI on some Second Life blogs, but didn’t know what it was, beyond thinking maybe it was something to eat (bad joke). However, Maestro, and in turn, Monty Linden explained that the Chat Hube User Interface was being unveiled in the Beta Viewer, and would become Prime Time if it checked out without too many bugs. I was excited to hear this news. The communications has always been a bit wonky on the viewer, and I was hoping that it would fix things up. Gone are the little “chiclets” on the top right that I was just getting used to. Instead, there is an all-in-one-place center for communication tasks and needs. Three areas have been affected by this change: The chat (Conversation Window), Friends List, and your Preferences.

Everything related to interacting in Second Life is now found in this window. It is so much easier to see when a group or individual chat is going on because the name flashes in a bright orange. (see the picture) What’s really nice is that everything is logged, and you can easily see what you have missed. All member of each group appear on a drop down underneath each group. You can resize the window, and hide or show the members, and conversations. Even cooler, you can look at complete chat transcripts within the viewer without going to your desktop.
I can’t tell you how many IMs and Group Messages I have lost since the viewer changed from Viewer 1. I think it’s nice that Linden Lab is listening to feedback from users.

In addition, local chat is docked in this window, and those of you who prefer local chat in a different spot on your screen can quickly detach it and move it away, or pop it back in there by clicking on Bring it Back in the window!

PREFERENCES

Perhaps the biggest change here is that instead of busy, there is now a Do Not Disturb option. You will not lose anything, because once you leave Do Not Busy you will receive all IMs, notices, and inventory that was held while you were busy.
You can determine the level of importance of IMs and messages in the Chat Section of Preferences, too.

FRIENDS LIST

The buttons are now moved to the top for easier access. A block button is conveniently located for those pesky griefers. You can also access the chat logs of people on your friends list from the list itself. Quite a handy feature when you want to remember the name of a store or find a landmark given to you by a friend.

If you want to try the new features, go to the Second Life Webpage and download the Beta Viewer. When I was at the Office Hours most folks were saying that they didn’t like the new CHUI. I do like it so far, and I am of the opinion that some people just don’t like change. Change for the better is always good change. Each person has their own beliefs about what’s good and bad, but I have to try for myself to know. I hope you will try it as well, and let me know what you think.

See Torley’s Video on the new tools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8IUxCMyElU&feature=player_embedded

 

 

 

DrFran Babcock