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One year with Second Life Insider
Filed under: News, SL Insider Business, Mixed Reality, MMO Watch 
Well, what a ride it has been. This is my 365th day with Second Life Insider. A whole year of writing about Second Life and things related to it. Digging up news tidbits and trying to generally provide you all with useful content and news. In the last year, I've produced 1,120 posts - a total of 367,657 words. We've all been working hard to bring you great stuff, and it's great to see how you've all responded. Journalists, corporates and media agencies read Second Life Insider daily. Linden Lab certainly does. Second Life Insider is bigger now than it has ever been. The last couple of months have been absolutely massive, and your support has been fantastic. And we've got equally massive changes on the way, too. For the last month, we've been working behind the scenes on a new, expanded site: Massively. Everything you love about Second Life Insider, and a massive dose of news from other virtual worlds, and MMOs, more writers (everywhere I turn, I trip over another great writer that we've swiped from somewhere), more ... everything. While it's a bit sad to put down the Second Life Insider name, it's even more fun and interesting to be branching out, and covering more good stuff. There's more than 200 virtual worlds and MMOs on our list, and more on the way, including everything Second Life as usual. So this isn't goodbye - it's welcome to SLI's new home. Welcome to Massively. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Yesterday's Money: 1st November
 Yesterday in Second Life we: - Spent US$1,372,000 at an exchange rate of L$268.7 to US$1
- Exchanged US$274,000 at an average of US$11,400.0 per hour.
- Market buys were US$197,000
- Market sales were US$75,000
- Limit-limit buys were US$1,400
- The busiest time was at 11am when about US$16,000 was exchanged.
- The quietest time was 3am when about US$6,000 was exchanged.
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Today in Second Life - Thursday 1 November, 2007
Filed under: Odds and Ends  Today in Second Life we had:
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New Second Life viewer release candidate
Filed under: News, Updates  Linden Lab has released a new Second Life viewer release candidate, specifically, 1.18.4(RC2). This fixes a number of issues with since the last release. There's a list of those changes below the fold.
The viewer is available from the optional downloads page as usual, and we suspect that this one might just be a little more plausible as a release candidate than the last one. Since the last release, the following changes have been made:
- Fixed several UI elements
- Fixed new group not appearing in group window until relog
- Fixed Trash folders in user inventory
- Fixed missing line of information on land sales
- Fixed parcel listings showing [AREA] instead of parcel size
- Fixed bad teleports from landmarks
- Fixed up/down arrows for Repeats Per Face
- Fixed a viewer nested message crash
- Fixed a viewer crash with editing classifieds
- Fixed a viewer crash when pressing Ctrl-F with a minimized Search window
- Fixed secondlife.log spam when group info window opens
- Fixed Publish on Web not saving for parcels
- Fixed missing dialog for Publish in Classifieds
- Fixed updates for Land and L$
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Hello???
Filed under: Op/Ed 
Hello? Akela? Moo?! Where did everybody go?!
*tries door*
Is anybody in there? HELLLOOOOO?? Come on guys, this isn't funny anymore! I'm cold and there are wolves after me!
This is like that episode of Star Trek where everybody kept disappearing and only Picard noticed it was happening because everybody else thought the missing people had never even existed in the first place. And that kept happening until Picard was the only one left and it turned out he was just trapped in some shrinking universe-type thing and when he himself disappeared he was back with his crew. That was massively cool.
*whistles to self*
Well. I don't think they're coming back. I guess I may as well go too.
Bye.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Short notice rolling restart
Filed under: Updates  According to the official blog there's a rolling restart underway. Details are sketchy, but when they're this poorly announced they usually mean it's an exploit fix and we won't get a lot of additional details, although it is also setting up for the new search, fixing sale auction IDs and (most interesting) allowing inventory databases to switched in and out without booting everyone.
The restart is running North to South, so jump North if you get caught by it. It started at 2:17pm and will run until about 6pm.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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I'm going to miss Second Life Insider
Filed under: News, SL Insider Business  I'd been a reader of Second Life Insider for quite some time when I heard that Akela Talamasca was looking for me. I couldn't quite understand why he'd want ME to write for this blog. I'm still not sure what he saw in me, but now I feel like I'm part of the family.
These last nine months have been so enriching for me, but like Akela, it's time to move on. I promised myself that I wouldn't cry, but I'm just so sad to go. I wish I could tell you more, but that's for another post. For now, just know that I'll be taking this massive opportunity to provide you with even better coverage of the things that you love. I'm pouring some liquor out for you, SLI.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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A new year dawns
Filed under: SL Insider Business, Resident Snapshot  If I were a pagan, this would be the first day of the new year. Although it's not a description I'd use, I've known more than enough over the years, and sometimes that feeling of looking forward now (in relative sobriety) rather at the more normal new year (which is also a RL friends birthday and rarely sober if I'm healthy) feels right.
Somehow I think this year to come will be a year of massive changes. Looking back, a year ago I wasn't writing, now I find things to write about in SL most days as well as the "boring numbers" column - although a lot of people read the boring numbers too, and find them useful.
A year ago I was trying to make a living from SL. Now, I still am - having meningitis and recovering from it slowed me down, but I'm close to the point of making a comfortable living now, and writing for SLI helps with that massively. Over 125,000 words so far, and more to come, whatever the future might hold for us all - at least unless LL shut the door!
There have been things of a personal nature that have changed my life massively and that haven't made it into press, but journalism of this sort agrees with me equally massively. Hope you'll follow through whatever changes the next year brings and enjoy what you read.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Hire some journos!
Filed under: Op/Ed  If Linden Lab couldn't find any evidence of wrongdoing at Wonderland, perhaps they need to hire some journalists to investigate incidents like this. It seems that most everyone else found something broadly offensive in the place, and well, the journalists apparently found the worst sort of offense in next to no time.
Linden Lab has apparently shut Wonderland down now - we don't know if they found evidence of wrongdoing themselves, or if it is a reflexive reaction to the mainstream media putting the story in front of about 150 million people so far. Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Farewell, Second Life Insider
Filed under: News, SL Insider Business
Those of you who follow me on Twitter have heard me refer to this announcement: I will no longer be writing for SLI. As Lead Blogger, and one of the remaining founding members (along with Aimee), I've found writing for you all to be one of the most rewarding experiences I could have asked for. I've seen amazing things, met wonderful people, and generally had the time of my virtual life! Now I'm moving on.
This is not to say you've heard the last of me, though some of you will be sorry to hear that! No, in fact, I'll be jumping right aboard a brand-new blog, which will be announced tomorrow right here on SLI! So, shed no tears for wolfie; I'll be in good hands. Good, warm, massive hands.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Yesterday's Money: 31st October
Filed under: Linden Dollars, Business Yesterday in Second Life we: - Spent US$1,284,000 at an exchange rate of L$266.4 to US$1
- Exchanged US$257,000 at an average of US$10,700.0 per hour.
- Market buys were US$173,000
- Market sales were US$84,000
- Limit-limit buys were US$200
- The busiest time was at 11am when about US$26,000 was exchanged.
- The quietest time was 11pm when about US$5,000 was exchanged.
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Today in Second Life - Wednesday 31 October, 2007
Filed under: Odds and Ends Today in Second Life we had:
- 32,528 new signups bringing us to 10,585,610 signups total.
- A peak concurrency of 50,872 at 3:30PM, and a minimum concurrency of 27,105 at 1:05AM. Median concurrency for the day was 39,968.
- The Grid Stability Index for the day was 1.84 (lower is better).
- Famed teen resident Katharine Berry turns her back on Second Life.
- Akela rounds up some of the best Halloween Haunts in Second Life, while Moo brings you an excellent list of Halloween freebies and cheapies!
- It turns out that screen legend, and deft comedian Stephen Fry has a Second Life too.
- A Second Life grid backbone service failed causing some users to have login problems.
- Group IMs have been identified as having some ongoing issues.
- Hamlet Au wants to know what you think about the quality of Linden-to-resident communication.
- The 18th episode of SLI's very own podcast, On The Inside, is available now with Ansel Gasparini, the author of Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World.
- Accounts and Inventory on the beta-grid is being wiped and reloaded from the main grid, there are several upgrades, and improvements to Havok.
- Grady Booch rocks - but then again, he always has.
- DJ Nexeus Fatale gives back to the community.
- slscout.com launches a new social networking site for Second Life.
- Moo provides a quick primer on encoding video for Machinima.
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Resident Opinion Survey - How would you answer?
Filed under: Linden Lab, Op/Ed  I've been reading about the resident survey that Linden Lab has been randomly sending to Second Life residents via their client. I was surprised to find it on my screen the other day. It asked the question, "Is your Second Life experience getting better or worse?"
The brown noser in me immediately wanted to answer "better", but when I thought about it, it hasn't gotten any better. As you can see by my answer on the right, I chose the simple response that the grid seems to be buckling under the large amount of logins. I don't know if this is the real cause of the problems, but we've had more inventory loss, texture issues, and transfer problems than ever.
Did you receive the survey? How did you/would you answer? Leave a comment!Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Encoding video can be scary, but it doesn't have to be
Filed under: How-To, Machinima  While it's Halloween and we're embracing our fears, I'd like to chat about encoding video. When you look at all the setting choices that you have, it can be downright intimidating. I recently had the chance to speak with the wonderful Machinimist extraordinaire, Paul Marino, about this very topic and he set me straight.
There are a couple of programs that you can use to encode SL-friendly Machinima. The first being Quicktime Pro. It runs roughly 30 USD and gives you some quick and easy options. Since I'm running the Ed Wood Festival this year, I'm using it to re-encode every video in Quicktime MOV H.264 compression with AAC 48khz, Stereo, 160kbps audio.
Another handy program is something that Frank Dellario, ILLBixby Cerveau of the ILL Clan, recommend. It's called Super C, because it has the copyright symbol after Super. It's totally free, but can be daunting because of the sheer amount of options in it. It also has a hard to find download link, so keep your eye out for it.
Do you have a program you'd like to recommend, or specific settings that you like to use? Leave a comment!Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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slscout.com: A New Social Networking Site for SL Residents
Filed under: News  slscout.com is the latest SL-focused social networking site, and it's got all the right elements: embedded videos, forums, etc. Even better, they're holding a contest right now wherein users can post their favorite photos, have them rated by other users, and possibly win the First Prize of 25,000L!
Join up today!
(Thanks, Johnvan!)Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Nexeus Fatale: DJ For a Cause
Filed under: News, Events, Odds and Ends, Arts and Culture, Live Performance  Nexeus Fatale, DJ Extraordinaire, has hit upon a great way to give back to the community. His 'DJ For a Cause' mission is to donate his DJ services to anyone, individual or organization, who fits the requirements: Their event must be philanthropic in nature (such as fund raising) and has to embody the Holiday theme of giving to others.
I see this as a great way to promote SL's philanthropic nature, which is embodied in its residents. These days, most of the press goes to sensational events, and not enough to the altruism that I see so often in-world. Nexeus is on the right track with this, and hopes that others will follow this example. You can read more of this here.
(Thanks, Nexeus!)
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'Second Life for Teens', but Without Second Life
Filed under: News, Odds and Ends  This is your moment of WTF? Dorling Kindersley, who many of you may know through their wonderful Eyewitness Series of illustrated reference books, have created a new game in Habbo Hotel to promote a new Christmas book called Do Not Open. Apparently it's going well, attracting over 1,000 players in its first week.
However, DK is calling this approach the 'Second Life For Teens model' -- but they're not using Second Life to do it! Couldn't they have called it the 'Virtual Worlds For Teens model' instead? Not to assume too much about the intelligence of the average member of the public, but I can see people getting confused about this quite easily. And it begs the question: Does DK have an interest in SL at all?
(Via The Bookseller)Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Booch is no mooch
Filed under: Odds and Ends  Grady Booch might not be a household name, but he's the Chief Scientist for IBM's Rational Software Corp. unit. In a recent interview with Computerworld, Booch has held forth on a number of topics, including his take on SL. His approach to explaining the value of SL to himself is practical:
"IBM has 50 or so islands that we own [in Second Life]. We've derived business value by using it internally. I can look at the lectures I have done and say, "I have saved IBM money." Certainly the company saves huge costs on employee travel and accomodations by holding meetings in SL. Why isn't this being trumpeted more often as worthwhile to the average user? He has a bit more to say, so go check out the rest of the interview.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Good Summary of Virtual Worlds Forum Europe
Filed under: Events, Odds and Ends  Tech Digest does a good job here of highlighting 20 trends gleaned from their recent trip to the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe, and they go like this:
1. Shedloads of virtual worlds will be launched in 2008
2. Teen-focused virtual worlds are huge
3. Brands still get it wrong
4. There's a problem with communication
5. There will be big growth in corporate use of virtual worlds
... and 15 more. It would be boorish and redundant to list all twenty here, even without explanation. You'll simply have to trust me and go check out the list yourselves.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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Can we call them SLphones?
Filed under: News  This Tech Digest story has it that TokyoZERO, in a partnership with a company calling itself Sun (though not Sun Microsystems, as that's not their logo), are apparently working on a way to get SL on your cellphone. Or perhaps not you, but the Japanese. Now, we've been on this before. Is this any different? For that matter, has anyone tried this other service, and does it work? I can't imagine shoehorning all of SL's features into a cellphone, no matter how advanced. There are some things that just need a mouse and keyboard for a fully realized experience, and SL is one of them.
Someone who reads Japanese: please look over this site and send us some answers!Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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