SL Newser Archives: Fourteen Years

 

Each of the articles the Newser has done is easily accessible. Just go to the year and month in the archives. The archive display on the front page often looks like a jumbled mess with the months and list of articles. But every January 1st, there's a "reset" or sorts in which all the months of the previous year are neatly tucked away, and there's just one or two in the new one so far. It's kind of neat to see, at least in my opinion.

And lately, it shows how far we've gone. Fourteen years of reporting, with hundreds of articles, announcements, cartoons, videos, etc., sometimes over a thousand, each year.

 

And very soon, this year will have many, many articles as well.

Happy 2024

Bixyl Shuftan

New Version of Radegast Viewer Available

 

It was announced in the Blind Users Support Group (and Virtual Ability) yesterday that there was a new version of the Radegast Viewer, version 2.40, available for download and use.

I am proud to release Radegast 2.40 the first major update in quite some time. Containing up-to-date LibreMetaverse, the HTTP client has been fundamentally rewritten for speed and better resource management. You may notice things like Inventory and Map Tiles downloading much faster than they have in the past. Radgast now is built against .NET Framework 4.8, the final version of .NET Framework which is the best I can do for now to keep Linux and Mac support, such as it is, until a complete UI rewrite.

 It was also announced that the website had been down for a while, partially due to the datacenter being in the Ukraine and not having power for months. But they were back.

 Radegast is a text-base viewer that has gotten a following among blind and visually-impared users of Second Life. One can read Mermaid Celine Highwater's article from 2014 about it (here). 

Bixyl Shuftan

Linden Lab Announces Second Life Community Pages

 

In the Linden blog on Tuesday March 1, Linden Lab announced they were adding a new feature to the Second Life webside: Community Pages.

We’ve begun building in-depth community pages that will live directly on the Second Life website. Each of these pages will celebrate Residents in all different communities, and showcase the meaningful experiences that strengthen the social fabric of Second Life. This will include stories, quotes, photos, videos, and more — all directly from Second Life Residents.

The Lab is asking for input from the residents, "These pages will be extensive resources by and for each community." Residents are asked to keep an eye out for announcements on the pages, saying there will be a Google doc form to fill out. Anticipating a large volume of input, they cannot guarantee all content will be published.

One community page is already up: Black Culture in Second Life.

While it's not official yet, a reliable source informed the Newser there will be a Furry community page.

Second Life should be an inclusive haven of self-expression, and we feel it’s important to highlight every community. We look forward to sharing more community pages as we publish them.

To read the blog post in full: Click Here.

Image Credit: ZoeyNova Oatsmill
 

"Unscheduled Maintenance" Offlines Second Life For Hours

 

If you tried to log into Second Life yesterday and couldn't get on, you were far from alone. For much of the day, residents couldn't log in, or access secondlife.com, or the Marketplace. The Grid Status Report first mentioned there was a problem at 11:14 AM SL time. 

We are currently seeing intermittent issues with Profiles, Marketplace, and Log ins, and we are currently investigating this. Please watch this blog for updates.

Posted * ***** ***. Aug 31, 2021 - 11:14 PDT

Unfortunately, the issue was not resolved quickly. Hours would pass, and the Lab's finest were still working on the issue.

We are still working on resolving this, and we thank you for your patience! Please watch this blog for updates. 

Finally at 3:57 PM SL time, the Lab stated they were on their way to fixing the problem.

All services should be recovered, and we continue to monitor their performance. If you're having trouble getting to some of the websites, please try clearing your cookies. Thank you for your patience, and we hope the rest of today is going to be all smooth sailing. 

Still, it wouldn't be 5:54 PM SL time before the Lab would say with confidence, "This incident has been resolved," over six hours since they announced their was a problem. When residents tried to get on the website, sometimes all they got was a blank page. At other times they would get the "Uh oh, it's buggy" 500 error message shown at the top. A few residents would look back to earlier times when Linden Lab was more willing to poke fun at itself and post a picture of apes armed with bones gathering around a monolith, "The grid is down while we bang on things." A few more irritated residents wondered if the glitch was a result of the Cloud Servers, and something they could expect time to time for the forseable future. 

In any event, the glitch has been fixed, and all is well again, for now.

Bixyl Shuftan
 

What Happened To The Old Relay Website?

 

The Relay for Life of Second Life's website was changed in the recent past (link). The old one was relayforlifeofsecondlife.org . So what happened to it? It seems the old website now has a new, and less charitable owner. Clicking on it now leads to a gambling website in both English and a south Asian language. 

The Newser was a bit slow to make the change (we were so busy covering the Relay, we forgot about this one little detail), so we were taken by surprise as anyone else who clicked on the link on our Relay banner. The change has been made, and our regrets for any confusion. 

Hat Tip: Matt Carlton, Zzri Avian (Zri Portal)
 
Bixyl Shuftan
 

"Board of Directors" Added to Lindenlab.com's About Page

There's been a change at the bottom of the "About" page of Linden Lab's website. In addition to nine of Linden Lab's senior staff, at the bottom has been added "Board of Directors." There are three people listed there, Brad Overwager and Randall Waterfield, the two leaders of the investment group that acquired Linden Lab, and Raj Date.

Brad Oberwager

Brad Oberwager has spent his entire career in technology and consumer focused companies as an entrepreneur and board member.

Currently, he sits on the board of two public companies, Asure Software (NASDAQ: ASUR) and Better World (NASDAQ: BWACU). He is the chairman of two companies he founded, Jyve and Sundia and is also on the board of TEGSCO (aka AutoReturn). He owned Bare Snacks, acquired by PepsiCo in 2018.

Brad was Vice-chair of YPO International, a global organization of 25,000 CEOs.

Brad received his BS from Georgetown University, his MBA from the Wharton School and lives in San Francisco.

J. Randall (Randy) Waterfield

Mr. J. Randall (Randy) Waterfield, is the Chairman of Waterfield Holdings, which traces its origins to 1928. After selling the largest private mortgage company in the US and largest Indiana based bank in 2006 and 2007 respectively, he diversified into technology, manufacturing and other industries.

Randy holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a graduate of Harvard University. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Red Oak Partners, Waterfield Technologies, Linden Research, Inc. and has previously served on the boards of YPO (and was the 2017-2018 Chairman of YPO), Asure Software ( NASDAQ: ASUR), SMTC Corporation (NASDAQ: SMTX), RF Industries (NASDAQ: RFIL), among others. He is also the Co-Chairman of Missouri Cobalt, LLC, the largest cobalt mine in North America.

Randy supports various education, environmental and community development charitable causes through the nonprofit Waterfield Foundation and J. Randall Waterfield Foundation.

Raj Date

Raj Date was the first-ever Deputy Director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). As the Bureau’s second-ranking official, he helped steward the CFPB’s strategy, its operations, and its policy agenda. He also served on the senior staff committee of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and as a statutory deputy to the FDIC Board.

Before being appointed Deputy Director, Raj acted as the interim leader of the new agency, serving as the Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury. He led the CFPB for most of the first six months after its launch.

Currently, Raj is the Managing Partner of Fenway Summer, an advisory and investment firm focused on financial services and financial technology. In that capacity, he chairs the investment committee of Fenway Summer Ventures, a fintech venture capital fund, and works with clients of FS Vector, the fintech advisory firm. He also serves as a Director for a number of innovative firms in financial services: Prosper, the marketplace lender; Green Dot, the bank holding company; Circle, the digital asset firm; Grasshopper, a de novo bank; and College Ave, a private student lender.

He is a graduate of the College of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley (highest honors) and the Harvard Law School (magna cum laude).

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau came about in 2011 as a response to the financial crisis of 2008. Before Fate joined it, he was a senior vice-president at Captal One and as a managing director at Deutsche Bank. He was also on the Board of Directors of Prosper Marketplace. He left banking work in 2009, and started the Cambridge Winter Center, which was "devoted to promoting the regulation of financial firms." His being apointed Deputy Director of the CFPB came with some controversy as it was reported that he was active in the discussions over the the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which led to the CFPB's creation. But he "was never found to be in violation of any laws and he had always recused himself from rule-making regarding peer-to-peer lending." It was after he left the Bureau he founded Fenway Summer. 

More on Oberwager and Waterfield can be read in our first article about the acquisition.

Sources: Linden Lab, Wikipedia

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Linden Lab Launches Second Life Merchandise Store Through Redbubble

Numerous companies sell, or grant licenses, brand-name merchandise of products of theirs. This includes multiplayer games, such as World of Warcraft. But there's been no merchandising of products with the Second Life brand. That is until now. On Friday September 25, Linden Lab announced they had a Second Life merchandise store, through the global online marketplace Redbubble.

We heard your requests, and we are very excited to announce the launch of the Official Second Life Merchandise Store, which will be available through RedBubble. The store offers Second Life and Linden Lab branded clothing and accessories, with a very inclusive range of sizes. Don’t worry, we will have both the classic and new logos, so everybody wins.

As the store grows, we will also be adding various collections of designs, some of which will be limited time seasonal offerings. Our first collection will feature Linden Bear-themed merchandise, and will have new designs trickling in throughout the year. Stay tuned for Halloween!

 

We are so excited for our diverse spectrum of Residents to be able to show their Second Life pride IRL, as well as thankful for the opportunity to let people know that SL continues to grow, adapt, and evolve. 

Taking a look there were a number of products available, from t-shirts, to backpacks, to bags, to logo pins, masks, and more. What was on the front page wasn't all that was available. The water bottle could be in either the Linden Lab logo, the Second Life logo, or have a picture of one of several Linden bears. 

When ordering, one should keep in mind the shipping charges. Ordering both a mask and a water bottle comes to 32.15. But the shipping charges on them are $8.82, more than a quarter of their value. There's also increased charges for getting the items shipped over faster.
 
The idea of a Second Life merchandise site isn't new. It had been suggested on the forums a few years ago. The thread was promptly revived on the sight of the blog post. Comments were somewhat mixed. One criticism was the size of the shipping charges. The reviews confused some people, thinking they were for this particular kind of cup and brand instead of the cup regardless of brand. Another observation was the lack of any actual real-life Linden bears. Prokovy Neva commented, "The thing I'm puzzled by are all those 'bear collector' items. Why wouldn't they then have the bears themselves? Imagine if you could get little Linden bears in RL!"

The blog entry asked residents to keep an eye on the online store as there would be new items for Halloween. Will there also soon be Linden-themed teddy bears for real life? Time will tell.

Bixyl Shuftan

InWorldz.com Now A Gambling Website

It's been over two years since the virtual world of InWorldz, once Second Life's strongest competitor, closed down. The website closed down soon after. It was recently revealed in Virtual Ability group chat that somebody had bought the website, and changed it into something that may be "click at your own risk."

Please be aware, everyone, that if you still have any saved links for InWorldz, that the domain name inworldz.com has been taken over by a Thai gambling and online-betting site.  Be careful as gambling sites are absolutely notorious for hidden malware.  (reposted from another group)

With this in mind, one should express caution to going to any InWolrdz links on websites.

Bixyl Shuftan

New Second Life Viewer Release Notes Website

There was some noteworthy news in the Second Life Tools and Technology blog on May 16 , Release Notes.

Over seven years ago, I posted my first set of Viewer release notes to the Second Life Wiki, where we have kept all of our release notes to this day. Over the years, we’ve made some minor tweaks to the appearance and how we generate them, but for they most part they have remained the same.
 

While the wiki has served us well for release notes, it’s time to improve their readability and browsability. We’ve been putting together the finishing touches to a new website dedicated solely to release notes, with a new look and feel that makes the individual pages easier to find, and easier to read - take a look!

Previous release notes will still be archived on the wiki, however, new releases will be shared and published on the new website.

 

Our goal is to improve overall accessibility and ease in browsing and reviewing release notes. I, personally, am excited to see the dedicated new website and hope you are too!

The website has more than just it's main page, but also separate pages for Repositories, Version Numbering, their Viewer Support Policy (to support their two most recent viewers), and pages for recent viewer releases, such as 6.2.2.527338 .

As mentioned, the Second Like Wikia also keeps records of release notes.

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

SL15B Theme Announced: Crystal Anniversary

The theme for 2018's Second Life Birthday celebration event has finally been announced. This year, the theme is "Crystal Anniversary."

As Second Life begins to celebrate its 15th birthday, our “crystal” theme aims to inspire residents to reflect both on the past and see into the future. The community is encouraged to use the crystal aesthetic and concept to creatively express their favorite SL features of the past while also looking forward into the future. The “crystal” theme allows for exploration of the tapestry of time that weaves together the past, present and future of Second Life.

The theme may have been inspired from fifteenth wedding anniversaries traditionally being called crystal ones.

This is also the day that applications for performers, exhibitors, and volunteers are open for those wanting to file one. For the latter two, you'll have only a few weeks to do so as applications for exhibitors and volunteers close on May 7. On May 7, the regions are open to builders with May 29 being the deadline for parcel claims. Performers have longer to decide whether or not to take part, their deadline being May 31.

This will be quite an exciting event, so be sure to stay tuned for updates.

Bixyl Shuftan

The Rumsey Map Islands

Recently a reader requested the Newser to write up on a unique location in Second Life: the Rumsey Map Islands. The four sim area is an extension of a collection of maps by David Rumsey, the resident of the Cartography Associates company in real life. Rumsey began his "David Rumsey Collection" on the Internet two decades ago as a database and blog that today has thousands of maps, mostly from the 18th and 19th Centuries. Deaflegacy went to check out the location and there was quite a lot to see in this spot on the Second Life map.

Read Deaflegacy's article in Places.

Datemyavi.com

What sets Datemyavi apart from other dating services in Second Life?

Back in September of 2011 Zanidu Titian was having a chat with a friend. They were discussing dating panels in Second Life and how he was not a fan of the way they were set up. He felt they needed more options and he felt he could come up with a better design. His friend dared him and a few days later he created and opened Datemyavi.com where the singles could not only have the opportunity for others to see their in world panel, get brief information about them and "Like" their panel, but now they could also set up their own page on the website giving more information about themselves and what they are seeking. In world you can set up a panel that others can view and "like" and as a bonus option, on the site you can search, Vote (Hot or Not), Share blogs, search forums, chat and much more!

At this time the website has been going through a complete overhaul and once launched will be one of the most user friendly dating sites out there. The panels still continue and are constantly being updated but the greatest thing about the panels at DMA is the fact that they do not do an automatic "Match". No obligations, no trial. You can get the name of the person that likes you and if you are interested you can either like them back or just directly message them!

But, the matches don't stop there! For over a year and half DMA has been hosting Speed Dating. Five days a week, either afternoon or evening you can come over and participate in Speed Dating for a chance to meet that special someone. As well a prize can sometimes be won at the end! In fact tonight's winning prize was a Gift Card for a very highly discounted experience over at The Falls Restaurant, which is DMA's unique dining experience. The perfect place to take that date!

DMA has several other things to do and areas to explore on the sim such as an underwater movie theater, The Back Alley (Bowling and games), picnic areas, volleyball court, dancing and contest areas, several romantic cuddle spots, fishing and a nude beach.

So if you are looking for a potential significant other, stop in at Datemyavi and check out all they have to offer. They have a very friendly staff who are always willing to answer any questions you may have. And hey if you like the place enough, you can always talk to them about job opportunities. A great place to play and work!

Check out Datemyavi located at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Owendale/119/150/23

www.datemyavi.com

Datemyavi is also on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and more

Leona Kitty

A Welcome Screen With a Little Bite

For about a year and a half, we've seen those "Be a Vampire" banner ads for Second Life, advertising the Grid as a place for roleplaying the creatures of the night. Well, when going to the official website today, this is what greeted me.

Now the vamps in Second Life pretty much keep their fangs to themselves. But I can't help but wonder if some newbies might be scared off by the image, at least as is. Perhaps a collection of avatars, with vampires being one example.

On the other hand, a wag might joke this is Linden Lab's way of warning the Grid can sometimes "suck."

Podex Website Gets an Update

The Podex Exchange website has gotten itself an updated look. A display on the website's front page shows the exchange rate of Lindens to international currencies Podex deals in. Plus, it now has a blog for the latest news, such as any changes to the exchange rate or their restoring the option to pay for Lindens by credit card (or the advert stories written by SL Newser).