Linden Lab Looking For Engineering Manager

 

 

On Linden Lab's "help wanted" page, there's a new opening that suggests they're taking the development of their mobile viewer fairly seriously. It's for a manager for the engineering team for their Mobile Viewer. 

We’re looking for an Engineering Manager to help bring Second Life to mobile devices. 

This is a technical lead role, reporting to Second Life's Viewer & Server Director of Engineering. In this highly collaborative position, you will write software, architect new systems, mentor staff and manage a small team responsible for bringing the mobile Second Life viewer to life.

This is a hybrid role, with some expectation of in-office presence in our Seattle office or San Francisco HQ.

The requirements for the job are:

 

8+ years experience as software engineer including mobile development; 3+ years in a technical leadership role

 
Modern web, game, C# and Unity development experience

 
Familiarity with game networking, UDP/TCP

 
A track record of leading teams and shipping successful projects

 
Earnest interest in learning new technologies

 
History of working with cloud based computing platforms such as AWS, Azure, GCP

 
Great communication, awareness, self motivation and collaboration attributes

 
Familiarity defining the strategic direction for AI initiatives and ensuring alignment with broader business goals

 
Curiosity for experimenting with and implementing novel AI capabilities to solve complex problems and create new user experiences

 

The Lab did say people can apply anyway even if they don't meet every single requirement. The salary will be between $163,000 and $223,000. 

 

Hat tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Interview With Snowy AngelBun Lefavre (Skylark Lefavre)

 

One familiar face to the Newser, and the Sunbeamer community, is Snowy AngelBun Lefavre (Skylark Lefavre). The manager of the Happy Vixen and the Bouncing Bunny Beach Club, she also DJs at those and other clubs. Recently Penny Shuftan sat down to have an interview with her.
 
Read Penny's interview in People.
 

April Linden Leaves the Lab

 
Fans of April Linden, the self-described "Gridbun" of Linden Lab, are getting some sad news. On Friday November 5, she announced she was leaving.

Hello Residents!

Today is my last day at Linden Lab. I am gonna let this account go dormant after today. Watching y'all use the things we build in ways we didn't expect (or even know was possible!) has been an amazing joy the last eight years, and I am going to miss it. (heart)

My personal Twitter account is @bunnyhalberd , but I'm not a very exciting person to follow. I live in a small town in rural Washington and mostly just post about the silly things I build in my workshop because I figured they needed to exist.

Thank you for making the last eight years be a wonderful experience! I am very muchly going to miss being on the inside of this wonderful and crazy world that we all build together. (heart)

April's announcement got dozens of replies, including some from noted residents. Prokofy Neva, "Dear April, you left the virtual world a better place than you found it with your devoted work on the cloud migration and all that followed. Good luck on your future projects!" Daniel Voyager, "Thanks for all of your hard work to make Second Life a better place and keeping everyone updated when the grid had downtimes. Good luck for the future." Inara Pey, "Nooooo!! Say it's not true! We need Lindeny Gridbun! Seriously, am saddened to hear you are leaving LL, but wishing you all the very best for the future. Shall add your other account to my Following list!" Will Burns, "You will be missed... teh cute shall go on!" Luca, "April noo! =c will miss April, but best of luck with whatever April's going to do next x3" Caitlin Tobias, "Dear April, I wish you all the best and hope you’ll have fun on your new adventures!" Pantera Polnocy, "Thank you for being the awesome gridbun for all this time. ~"

April Linden joined the Lab in 2013, and became instantly known by her purple Luskwood bunny avatar. She would appear at numerous Bay City events, and others such as the Happy Vixen's Luskwood Tribute Party and just walking down the road at Second Life Birthday events. She eventually rose to the position of operations manager, and would take it upon herself to apologize to the residents when something went very wrong. With the move to "the Cloud," she would occasionally update the residents on the Lab's progress, and about a year ago announced all data from the sims had been transfered over.

In July 2019, April was interviewed along with Oz Linden. April revealed she had originally a regular resident who signed up in 2006, whom still came on using the accound and had a couple regions. She considered Second Life important as she came from a family where certain issues "were not to be discussed," and one could listen and talk about them here. Of maintaining the Grid, she called it a complex job with one "generation" of Lindens building on top of one another year after year, and sometimes the only way to fix things was to take the Grid offline, which she disliked, partially because it kept happening to her so much in her days as a regular resident.

On a more personal note, April Linden was spoken of fondly by some friends and neighbors of mine. She will be missed. 

Image credit: Inara Pey

Bixyl Shuftan
 

How To Maintain a Community in Second Life

One of the big draws about Second Life is the chance to meet up with people from around the world. Some of us will gather in communities for a place to hang our virtual hats and do things together. But keeping a community together can be just as hard, even harder, than establishing one. Over time, Newser reporter Cyfir (Cyfiremmerich) has seen sim owners and managers try to maintain the communities on them, as well as in the past found himself in the position of helping to maintain one. So for those whom have just found themselves in the position by choice or chance, he has a few suggestions.

Read Cyfir's article in People.

Resident Spotlight - Albright

In his latest article, Cyfir felt there was a resident who deserved the spolight: Albright. Albright (Nihilisticloupe Resident) is known online as an artist. But in Second Life, her duties include being not just being on the staff of one business' sim, but two: Timber Wilds Industries (TWI) and Furry Fashion. Cyfir recently met up with her and asked her how she came to Second Life and ended up helping out the two companies.

Read Cyfir's interview in People.

Linden Lab Hiring Digital Marketing Manager

For those skilled in digital marketing, the Lab may have a job for you. Linden Lab announced earlier this week they are looking for a Digital Marketing Manager.

Linden Lab is seeking a Digital Marketing Manager to develop, execute and analyze paid marketing strategies that drive aggressive traffic and revenue growth to Second Life, the Internet's largest user-created virtual world. This position will also work closely with a dynamic team on overall strategic marketing initiatives.  

So what does this mean? It means Linden Lab is making more of an effort to advertise and attract new users. Perhaps they hope to catch a wave of revived interest in virtual worlds in the wake of the "Ready Player One" movie. As just weeks ago it looked like the Lab was giving Second Life scant attention in favor of Sansar. This suggests that's not necessarily the case.

So expect to see more ads for Second Life on the Internet.

Bixyl Shuftan

Stepinwolf Darkstone, Virtual Ability's Apartment Manager

Deaflegacy recently interviewed Stepinwolf Darkstone. While most readers might not recognize the name, many of you will recognize the places he helps take care of: Virtual Ability's apartments for it's disabled residents. She had a few words with him about what the job involves.

Read Deaflegacy's interview in People.

Brandy Maltas (Kalli Birman) Has Died

Some sad news for the music scene in Second Life. Brandy Maltas (account name Kalli Birman), noted for being the manager of Mankind Tracer (Seth Regan) and other musicians, has passed away. Her death was announced on Facebook, as well as a friend's blog. Cancer was the cause of death. She was forty, and survived by three children.

I talked to Brandy briefly while I wrote for the Second Life Newser to arrange a time for an interview with Mankind Tracer. I would meet her again in February 2012 when Mankind was part of a veterans benefit concert at Patriot Island. She would help manage the Second Life careers of other musicians, but remained best known for her time with Mankind. She and Mankind would also organize an "SL9B Street Fair and Bar Crawl" in 2012 in response to Linden Lab's decision to not sponsor any more Second Life Birthday events.

Brandy would write in her blog in July 2014 that she had come down with cancer, later stating it was uterine cancer. Although she was responding well to treatments at first, the cancer spread and she began getting worse. Her last Facebook post was on May 26, a couple weeks after the one before. On the night of June 1, she was rushed to the hospital, but despite the efforts of the doctors she would die the next morning.

Brandy's Facebook page had a number of people expressing their sadness and condolences, "My heart is breaking right now. Brandy was one of the most courageous ladies I have known." "I hope to see you in Heaven too, don't forget me." "What a brave strong woman she was to fight so hard." "Although I didn't know Brandy very well, I followed her journey on Facebook and am heartbroken to hear she has moved on."

Mankind's own statement included the following, "Heaven gained an angel yesterday. Brandy leaves behind three children. She did not have money. In fact she struggled just to get by. Believe me when I tell you, she had it rough but I did what I could to help her family, I know others who also did. Yet, she gave of herself unconditionally, to help others, to do what was right. Well, SHE was right, in so many ways, and she was a representation of so much what is right in the world. With her loss, right now her kids are going through this incredibly difficult time and I'm trying to help them to be strong, to be ok and this means trying to help in whatever way I can." Mankind would also request people donate to his paypal account to help out her children.

The author of www.freewheelintravel.org  wrote she and Brandy had become close friends. When the subject of death and mortality came up a few months ago, Brandy was quoted as saying, "Don't mourn me. I'm happy. I like the person I am, and I have no regrets. So when I die, don't have a funeral. Have a party, drink some beers, and celebrate my life."

The Newser is not yet aware of any plans for a memorial service or memorial.

Bixyl Shuftan

Arton Tripsa’s Party at Book Island

Book Island recently bade farewell to it's manager, Arton Tripsa. For four years, she helped make the place run. She will be missed, and the people there threw her a party to say farewell. Grease Coakes was there, and got the story on what happened.

Read Grease's article in Events.

Manager Wanted for Green Meadows "Xanadu" Club

 Perri Prinz is looking for a manager for the Green Meadows Club. Originally named club Xanadu, it was later renamed Green Meadows after a club in Perri's stories to avoid possible trouble with the makers of the movie. But her friends have continued to call it "Perri's Xanadu." The club itself was made as a tribute to the music of the 60s & 70's.  Perri herself is known for having a great collection of music from the time period, though is currently taking a break from DJing.

It is requested that those applying to be manager be familiar with the music of the 60's and 70's, as well as the 80's. Perri is flexible as to what hours the manager can run events, though there is the goal of coordinating with other clubs of the FCA, the club alliance Green Meadows is part of.

Green Meadows is jointly owned by Perri Prinz and RECoyote Minds, and is at HV Community (67, 207, 4051)

Help Wanted: Managers Needed for Castaway Cove, Green Meadows, Clubs

Two clubs are looking for people to help manage them, due to the owners having multiple demands in Second Life and real life. These are the Castaway Cove and Green Meadows clubs.

The Castaway Cove club was built fairly recently, a few months ago. Built in the Kalmeere Paradise sim, it was intended to be a temporary club until the sim was developed for residential use. But plans for housing have changed, and the club will be untouched for some time. Most likely, it will stay at the sim in some form.

Castaway Cove is owned by Nydia Tungsten, a longtime DJ whom has also ended up with ownership of a few clubs. This beach club has a unique layout, resembling a wrecked pirate ship broken in two. The dance area is located in between. There is a small shopping area, some board games to play between events, jet skis to boat around the sim's ocean area, and a "Primtionary" game, possibly the only one around outside Luskwood.

Castaway Cove is in Kalmeere Paradise (18, 184, 21)

The Green Meadows Club has been around for a few years. Originally opened as Xanadu by Perri Prinz and RECoyote Mindes, it was developed to be a "classic rock club for people who enjoy both popular and obscure rock music from the 70's and 80's." The club temporarily closed in 2010, but was reopened a year later to a cheerful group happy to see its return. Officially, it was renamed the Green Meadows Club, but fans continued to call it "Perri's Xanadu."

The club's exterior has a strong resemblance to the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, which was the setting of the club in the movie "Xanadu." The inside of the club is made to look like a 70's disco, with sacks of vinyl records next to the DJ booth. The place has a small store area nearby, as well as a teleport to Perri's art gallery with illustrations for her "Spectral Shadows" stories, and more.

Green Meadows is located at HV Community (61, 201, 4051)

Both venues are part of the FCA club alliance, of which the various clubs work to coordinate their schedules to avoid time conflicts. Those interested in managing Castawave Cove are asked to send a notecard to Nydia Tungsten, and for Grean Meadows send a notecard to Perri Prinz.

Bixyl Shuftan