Second Life Birthday Begins

 

The Second Life Birthday celebration officially began yesterday. There were some technical difficulties as some, including exhibitors who had been in earlier in the day, found themselves unable to teleport over. But eventually the glitch would be repaired,and the residents could all head over to the SLB grounds.

 

The first of the events was Philip Linden's opening speech at the Orpheum Theater. But relogging after a crash, I couldn't see his area of the stage. I ended up getting a picture through Vic Morningon's youtube. You can also see a replay on the Second Life Youtube.

 

Brett Linden spoke first saying a few words then introducing Philip Linden. Philip gave short speech, complementing the audience on their avatars, saying "one of the coolest things that I think signals change in Second Life is the changing avatars that I see." He would give thanks to the creators, as well as the Lindens and Moles involved in The Birthday. He would also give his thanks to Patch Linden, "who was the one who initially created this event and helped us grow it to where it is today." He gave a few statistics, "nineteen exhibit regions with 240 exhibits built by over 500 exhibitors ... over 480 creators participating in the Ship and Hop ... 600 scheduled music and dance performances held across five different event stages ... and there are about 125 volunteers helping as stage crew and greeters, thank you so much."

"As I look at you and all your avatars, I'm reminded of the early days of Second Life," He would talk about how he and Leviathan Linden first imagined Second Life as an "artificial life garden. We weren't even sure exactly what role people would play in the whole thing. ... We didn't know what avatars would look like. ... But ultimately look at us all here today. This room represents an evolution and an enormous amount of content production and changes that you created in the very nature of Second Life. ... we are very much driven by all our collective work." He would comment that he felt one of the reasons Second Life was still around was because it's residents "collectively exist in a place here that can be shaped by all of us." 

He would also comment that when Second Life first started, the total number of sims was smaller than those dedicated to the Birthday event. He would talk about some of the first areas the Lindens made for the residents such as a kind of "Coney Island" amusement park and a "giant black pyramid disco" called AltZoom, SL's first nightclub. Very quickly, the people got control, demolished the first builds, and created things of their own. Philip would also comment Second Life was like an alternative history, noting the social media was often known for it's nastiness and SL was in some ways what could have been in terms of people on the whole treating each other better. "Thank you for being part of this." 

Philip then went over to a kiosk on stage, the "Golden Ticket," saying people would soon be able to click on five of them around the SLB grounds for a chance at a million Linden dollar prize that they could enter every day (more on this later). He stated he would take no questions today, but would answer some at the Meet the Lindens event next week, his being at Monday at 1PM SL time. "Congratulations everyone, it's wonderful to see you. And I hope to see you around the Birthday celebrations. Thank you."

 

 Following the eight minute speech was a period of quiet, then Merryjest Starchild performed the first of the SLB's music events. 

 

 Sometimes he would sing alone, other times he was joined by dancers. But there was one point in which things hit a snag. There was one tribute to the 80s in which the dancers appeared over the stage on giant cassette tapes, then they just vanished. I would later hear the way the dancers were arranged, one cassette touched the sim border, which then cased them to be "yeeted" halfway across the SLB grounds. Some had a soft landing in the water. Some didn't. The short time that was available for rehearsal didn't reveal this possibility. For those wanting to see the performance again, Merry will be repeating it later this weekend at a favorite venue.

 

And the shows are going on today, this weekend, and next week. Two DJs familiar to the Sunweaver community where the SL Newser office makes it's home will be spinning some tunes. Today at 2PM, DJ Minty, aka DJ MTV, will be performing at The Salty Saloon stage at SLB Smoldering (20/252/23). DJ Scratch will be spinning his style at the same venue on early Wednesday June 24 at 2 AM. Another friend of the Newser, DJ Tantari, will be performing at the Golden Palms at SLB Mesmerize (76/184/25) at 3 PM SL time. 

 

Stay tuned for more about the Second Life Birthday.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

(Almost) Forgotten Story: Linden Lab Accused of Using AI For Ads In Early 2025

 

Well, this news story could be called "better late than never."  

 

 In late February 2025, it was revealed on the SL forums that Linden Lab was using AI to make an ad. The reaction from the poster, "It looks like a bad ad for an AI chatbot app. SL has fantastic creators and content, why use AI generated video?" What followed were posts by upset and confused people, "Why would the Lab do this?  This isn't representative of SL AT ALL.  New users gonna log in with a default Ruth & duck walk & log right back out cause that video is bait & switch."especially since Linden Lab could, and was, doing proposed ads done entirely within Second Life. 

 

 Hamlet Au ended up talking to Linden Lab head Brad Oberwager. Oberwager responded that the intention was to use AI only for testing ads, and expressed surprised that they'd somehow leaked out and were seen by the residents. Hamlet would guess the Lab never asked residents for help thinking it would take too long to get permissions. 

 

Some people in the forums reacted with skepticism, "Good grief. Tell me you don't know how A/B testing works without telling me you don't know how A/B testing works, especially with FB ads." "They have no idea what the coffee they make tastes like. They will fail to find the magic bullet because they refuse to really taste the coffee." "As a marketer in RL I am sitting here shaking my head." But others were more hopeful, "Going by the article of Hamlet, it seems they did understand the mistake they made and hopefully will be correcting it." Later comments were a discussion about what kind of advertising might work. But there didn't seem to be any general agreement. 

 

Oberwager would admit of the controversy, "I f**ked this one up," and say to any residents reading, "Send me videos. Look at these bad ads [we made], and make them better."

 

* * * * *

 

On a personal note, sorry for missing this story. Thankfully it doesn't happen often. 

 

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of The Day: Shirt Fail Message

 

 

 Taken at Club Squeaks. Being a virtual world, computer humor isn't usually far away in Second Life. In this case, on a guy's shirt.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Nvidia Card Graphics Issues

When it comes to graphics cards, NVIDIA is one of two brands Linden Lab recommends your computer uses. But lately, it seems the latest driver programing is causing glitches and problems.

The Firestorm Wiki states a bug "appeared with Nvidia driver 515 and 516," with some also saying the issue is on driver 512.95, causing lines and/or flashing objects to appear on the screen, "and occurs when Advanced Lighting Model is enabled. ... Symptoms include horizontal lines on the screen, objects repeatedly flashing visible/non-visible, shadow issues on objects & avatars, and a wood-grain effect on some objects or avatars."

The solution, at least until the bug is fixed, is to "roll back the driver or use the Nvidia Studio Drivers instead." Or one can turn off Advanced Lighting.

This is not the only issue. The wiki also reported recent updates on Nvidia, "including driver version 381.65," may stop Firestorm from starting up, "The crash is reported to occur on the “Detecting Hardware' step."

Another issue is with 378.49 Nvidia drivers is there may be a blue tint on 64-bit viewers when Advanced Lighting is turned off.

Team Firestorm filed about the issue with Nvidia (here).

To read more about the issue, check out the page on Firestorm's Wiki, or this article on Modem World.

Image from Inara Pey

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Fantasy Faire Update: "There Is Not a Two Week Extension"

 
Yesterday was Patch Linden's Jail and Bail event, in which people got to bid on various things such as a name change and Linden Home. But one thing many wanted was an extension for the Fairelands sims beyond the end of the Fantasy Faire, of which the last daily events are Sunday May 8. Patch was open to it, and when plenty of Lindens came in, Patch thought it was simple enough to arrange for the sims to stay up longer, the two weeks that was being asked for.

As it turns out, the sims are staying up slightly beyond the technical end of the Faire, but not longer than planned. This was posted in the Fantasy Faire group chat.

Fantasy (FantasyFaire Resident): Just a reminder: The Faire's programming calendar will end on Sunday, May 8. The regions themselves will remain open to visitors until Wednesday evening at which point the regions will be closed to the public. There was a miscommunication between myself and Patch. He offered a very generous extension that I had to turn down. I am grateful to Patch for his love and support of the Faire. Please blame me for leading him to believe that offering additional days would be alright.

So it appears the Fairelands sims will be up a little longer. But only for two days, not two weeks.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Busy Time

 
It's been a busy time in real life for the writers of the Newser. For yours truly, real-life has gotten busier then ever in the past few days. So not only am I prone to the occasional mistake, like the failsafe message that appeared earlier today that wasn't supposed to until if something happened that kept me from updating the computer for a month, for whatever reason. But some things I planned to write about soon will have to wait a little. But we'll keep updating. 

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Reader Submitted: "Rough Sim Crossing"

 From Deanna Shadow-Lancaster (Deanna Lancaster), and taken at RFL Comfort not long after the Relay Weekend, "Silver had some fun with sim crossings in the party truck. Ven was driving when that happened. Well, he was apparently driving at top speeds to see who would make it through without crashing. Whomever was left on won the pool and the money went into a kiosk." 
  

A Correction

   

A few days ago, the Newser reported that Raglan Shire had reached the age of fifteen. As it turned out, we made a slight mistake. The community actually turned fourteen. The Newser regrets the error, though still wishes the community happy anniversary.

Bixyl Shuftan
  

Rainworx Owner Rain Puddles Banned Over Claw Game, Reinstated

 

A few days ago on October 20, customers of Rainworx Labs got an unpleasant surprise. The owner, Rain Puddles, had been permanently banned from Second Life by Linden Lab. The reason? For having a claw game at her store. The Marketplace store for Rainworx was also down. She would post about it on Twitter, her attempts at reasoning with Linden Lab being ignored.

So @SecondLife perma banned me for something I was not aware of. The product I was banned for using is still avail on the MP. How is this fair?! every ticket I submit is an automated reply with the same wording. I just called them on the phone to talk to a human being still nada

She would later say the claw game in question was apparently considered gambling by the Linden who banned her. She would add it was at other peoples' stores and there was no Linden dollar payout, and that she had heard nothing from Linden Lab until the babn, "They have claimed I have been warned several times and I was not. The only thing I have received from LL was a ticket they opened that I wasn't even aware of since there was no emails about it until I went to submit a ticket I didn't even know it exissted. ... I have grown my business' on SL for 10+ years to just have them take it from me is so heartbreaking."

Word soon got around about what happened. The Newser heard about it from a friend on our Discord channel. Rain would get a number of replies. "This whole situation smells of stinky vindictive bull****." "It just blows my mind that they wouldn't take every possible step first to ensure you were contacted in some way, even going to direct messaging, and then removing the machine. Or hell, why not just remove the machine, give you a notice and a slap in the wrist, and go about it?" "This is so unfair. I hope you'll be able to fix it, and that LL will see how this was a honest mistake."

Eventually, someone came up with what the issue was, "It's been a law case in California for years now. Essentially California courts ruled claw machines are technically gambling on the account  of not being guaranteed a prize. And because gambling is illegal in California, any definition of gambling follows." But in the words of one person on Twitter, "I didn't know that a claw machine would be considered gambling, I honestly don't know HOW MANY residents know either tbh."

Eventually, Patch Linden responded on Twitter that he was looking into the matter. The following day, Rain would announce the ban had been lifted.

So good news! @SecondLife @LindenLab have decided to unban me! I want to thank everyone for their support during all of this and thank you @LindenPatch. My marketplaces are still not available so please bare with me.

As of the writing of this article, Rainworx Marketplace is still down. But the items in the mainland store have been discounted. A Marketplace search would reveal a few claw machines up and available for sale. Talking with friends about the incident, a few considered it an example of Linden Lab's behavior.

In any event, a big misunderstanding has been cleared up.

Bixyl Shuftan

Rolling Restart Issues Trouble Second Life

In Second Life's early years, it was common for the entire Grid to be taken offline and the residents having to leave for a while so the Lindens could fix glitches. These days, things are much better with most residents having to face rolling restarts about once a week. But earlier this week, things began to go wrong. Starting on early Tuesday morning, people in some places found themselves unable to go back to some sims. This included Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich), whom couldn't get back to his home.

Read Cyfir's article in Design.

Reader Submitted: My Psychotic Little Friend

Kain Scalia, also known as Maus Merryjest, recently send the SL Newser a reader submission about a tale from his early days in Second Life ten years ago. It was one of those stories in which at the time he was terrified, but now he can look back at it and laugh. In his first experiment with scripting, he tried to make a virtual pet that would follow him, and anyone else, around. What could possibly go wrong, he felt. As it turned out, the answer was "plenty."

Read Kain's reader submission in Design.

"Cheesy" Tournament at the Happy Vixen: More Pictures

Well, sometimes when you think you've lost something, you've found it again. When I was looking for pictures of last weekend's "Cheesy" tournament at the Happy Vixen, I found fewer than I thought I took, and many of those I did couldn't be used. As it turned out, I had relogged, and saved the pictures with a slight misspelling in the name. So here are a few more images of the event.

 The goal was to win two matches. But several players won one before someone finally came out on top.

And here's ScentualLust, the winner. While "au naturel,"she always keeps her fur brushed over certain parts of the body that would make a picture unusable in this publication. She gave her prize to a friend in Derpyland.

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

Picture from 2009, this fox had a rather odd glitch that put his head in an unusual position.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Firestorm Viewer Undergoes Emergency Update

By Bixyl Shuftan

Users of Firestorm are having to upgrade their viewers once again, at least those whom had just upgraded to the version before. Linden Lab informed Team Firestorm the viewer was causing them problems. So the team went to work on a new update in a hurry.

It was June 26 when Firestorm released version 4.4.1 of their viewer. Jessica Lyon told the users this was a mandatory upgrade due to it's Project Sunshine and its upcoming rolling out of server-side baking, or server-side appearance as it's being called now. Five days later, The Firestorm blog had some bad news.


According to Jessica, when the viewer was being beta-tested, it was made to "enable special data logging." This sent a sizable amount of information to Linden Lab's servers and user logs, "mainly avatar appearance debugging data and usage data."  Unfortunately, this feature wasn't turned off for when the viewer was released. The "usage" information was the bigger problem as the viewers were sending this information "every 30 seconds … instead of the usual 10 minutes. The result according to Linden Lab was their statistic servers were being overwhelmed. So Team Firestorm had to act fast.

Version 4.4.1 was removed from their downloads page right away. The team then went to work on a new version of the viewer with the feature for the extra data disabled. They stated it would be available on July 2 at latest. Later in the day, work on it was finished and it was made available as Version 4.4.2. Team Firestorm then began blocking the logins of Viewer 4.4.1s in service.

Those whom had yet to upgrade from 4.4.0 do not have to upgrade right away as their viewer wasn't blocked, at least not for a few days when Linden Lab's server side appearance goes into effect.  But it was recommended they make a "clean install," that is "clearing the settings from the hard drive, along with uninstalling the application and manually wiping the cache."

Jessica accepted responsibility for the error, "we screwed up, and because of our screw-up, thousands of you are going to need to upgrade yet again, only this time with little to no notice or choice whatsoever. We acknowledge this will be, at the least, very inconvenient to most of you and on behalf of myself and the entire Firestorm Team, we extend our deepest apologies."

"… we won't make this mistake again."

Various residents across the Grid also acted. Hearing about the emergency update, they spread the news, telling friends in-avatar as well as IMs, group chats, and group notices.

Jessica stated July 9 is when Linden Labs rolls out server side appearance. For those still using Phoenix, she urged them to upgrade to Firestorm, or use another Third-Party viewer that can handle this new way avatar data is processed. Otherwise for them, Second Life may become a very colorless place.

Source: Firestorm Blog

Bixyl Shuftan