Linden Lab Releases EEP

Linden Lab yesterday released a new SecondLife viewer with uses an entirely new way to create and use environment settings for the appearance of the sky, day cycles and, Linden Water, within the viewer. This is called the Environment Enhancement Project (or in short EEP).

Photo by Inara Pey (as used in her blogpost)

But instead of me trying to explain this wonderful feature for you, please head on over to the infinitely more technologically savvy Inara Pey on her blog "Inara Pey: Living in a Modem World" (URL).

As I understand it Firestorm will release a compatible viewer in the near future.

Thank you, Linden Lab!

When Dej Disappeared (Update)

I haven't been able to see my brother Dej at all during the last week, not even his tag. I couldn't figure out what had happened or what was wrong.

Everyone else we asked saw him perfectly well, but not I. 

Dej in a screenshot when Mirco shares his screen on Skype

What I saw on my screen

With the help of Mirco and his friend Miro Collas, we finally figured out what it was and then I understood when, where and how I had messed. I feel like such a noob!

Tomais, Dej and I visited The Men's Department a week ago for some serious shopping. 

As always the place was full of eager shoppers, so I did what usually do in those laggy circumstances, with one fatal exception. I marked all the other shoppers and derendered them, but instead selecting to do so temporarily I selected permanently. 

So my poor beautiful, meshified, albeit much older brother ended up being blacklisted on my screen. It was a great relief to finally see his sweet face again.

Thanks for the help Mirco and Miro!
---
Update 8/13/2017
If you are using the Firestorm viewer my friend Anonymous has a nifty trick for you on how to derender all avatars at a busy event and then to render them again later with only two clicks.

I may have learned this once upon a time, but had since then managed to forget it. There is no better way to remember things than by repetition, especially if you are a forgetful and absentminded person like yours truly.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones!

In the 3rd year of the almighty, wonderful and charming Ebbe Altberg (a k a Ebbe Linden), CEO of Linden Lab, the creative gods at the lab have - in close cooperation and collaboration with SecondLife content creators - achieved the revolutionary Bento Skeleton.

Both Linden Lab and Firestorm have now released viewers that are Bento compatible.

Bento is an extension of the SecondLife avatar skeleton whereby we get dozens of new bones to support rigging and animation and new attachment points.

The new skeleton, which is compatible with existing avatars, rigging and animation, gives creators the power to build more sophisticated avatars than ever before. The skeleton extensions include:

• 11 extra limb bones for wings, additional arms, or extra legs.
• 6 tail bones
• 30 bones in the hands (all 10 fingers!)
• 30 bones for facial expressions
• 2 other new bones in the head for animating ears or antennae
• 13 new attachment points associated with the new bones

What all this means is simply that our wonderful SecondLife content creators have gotten more and better tools to make things look, move and appear better and a greater range of customization to your own preferences and individuality. 

Depth of Field

So while my hubby Tomais had hustled off to work yesterday, I tried to use the "depth of field" in the photography tools of the Firestorm viewer while taking a few snapshots.

I must have done something wrong, because to me the whole picture looks blurry, not only the background. 

My Upgrade to Windows 10 (Updated)

Yesterday I upgraded to Windows 10. The upgrade itself was rather easy and took little over an hour.

All my personal files (pictures and documents) were left undisturbed, but most of my additional tools like Adobe Reader, AVG TuneUp, Chrome, Firestorm, GeForce Experience, Kaspersky Total Security, iTunes, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Skype and Quicktime were lost. This was possibly due to those apps being set to a different language (American English) than my computer is (Swedish), it could also be because they weren't - and still aren't (as I found out when I tried to reinstall some of them again (Kaspersky and GeForce Experience) - compatible with Windows 10.

My biggest concern initially was the loss of all my browser bookmarks, however they all miraculously returned to me today, once I had logged into my Google account. With the returning bookmarks I also got all my saved passwords in Chrome back.

I have reinstalled AVG TuneUp, Firestorm, iTunes and Skype, but - as I said above - Kaspersky (solved) and GeForce Experience (solved) don't seem to be compatible with the platform yet.

The only problem I have right now, is that my SLT time app on the blog isn't working in Chrome but is OK in Microsoft Edge... (solved)

Glory hallelujah!

Firestorm: "Restore to Last Position Needs You!"

Jessica Lyon of The Firestorm team is asking for support from residents of SecondLife in trying to convince Linden Lab, the makers of SecondLife, not to block the feature "Restore to Last Position".

The Firestorm Team believes that if residents can supply "a well structured set of use cases that demonstrate clearly and concisely how useful and valuable this feature is to (us)" Linden Lab may be convinced of the features value and usefulness.

If you use this feature and would like to see it stick around please leave a comment on this post Firestorm: 'Restore to last Position' needs you!, detailing how you use it and why it is valuable to you.

Please note Jessica's sage advice: "Kicking, screaming and calling foul will not save this feature, nor will criticizing LL or anyone else for not understanding the feature. In fact actions like that will speed up its demise."

Hurry hurry, because the post has been up a week on Monday!

---

As readers of my blog most certainly should know I am a huge fan of this feature, it has doubtlessly saved me from much agony and guilt and many, several nervous breakdowns and many hours of redoing things because of my inability to sometimes do several things at the same time, I delete stuff if I am distracted. Please, never ask me to chew gum and walk down stairs at the same time!

The latest major incident when I used the feature is described in this blog post,Bock in SecondLife: 'Thank You, Phoenix Firestorm Team!'.

For an interesting analysis, please go to Inara Pey's blog post: Living in a Modemworld: Firestorm seek feedback on “restore to last position” and the other links Inara provides there.

Award Acceptances on Twitter

@BockMcMillan Thank you!
— Ebbe Altberg (@ebbealtberg) March 7, 2015

@BockMcMillan Oh wow, thank you. :-)
— The Firestorm Viewer (@PhoenixViewerSL) March 7, 2015

At the Linden vs. Residents Snowball War

Jessica Lyons (of the Firestorm team) in the center of all the action as always

Daniel Voyager was there to check out hot women

Frau Jo Yardley just dropped in to take a look

Inara Pey & Strawberry Singh meet...

Strawberry Singh running away shortly after meeting Inara Pey...

One of the many Lindens attending, this is Guy Linden

Thank You, Phoenix Firestorm Team!

There I was, a couple of days ago, in my wonderful mansion, deleting stuff I had pulled out from Inventory to take a look at, while I was talking with Tomais on Skype. Tomais had gone to La Galleria to pick up some plant or other.

Suddenly I noticed a change in the light where I was sitting. Almost at the same time I realized I was seeing a lot more of the sea outside the sim. It took about ten seconds for my brain to process the information it was receiving before I consciously understood what had happened.

- "Tomais", I shouted, "I just took the house back into Inventory!"
- "You didn't lock it in place, babe?", my lover asked in the way that comes natural for those who know it all.
- "No!", I said sullenly and guilt-ridden.
- "OK, I'm on my way home soon. We will sort it out!", the second-most patient man in the world said calmly.

While I was sitting there, feeling devastated for having yet again pulled a home into Inventory (I think I have done that with almost every home I have lived in) I vaguely remembered the thing saying "Restore to last position" that I see when I click about in my Inventory.

"What about 'Restore to last position´, Tomais?", I asked.
"You could try it, but it doesn't always work...", he answered.

So I looked for the house under my Recent tab, and sure enough there it was in the Trash. I right-clicked it and chose "Restore to last position".

Nothing happened. I took a deep breath and started thinking of all the time consuming work that had gone to waste due to my imprudent action. And hoped that it would work...

"I tried it but nothing's happening!", I informed my hubby.

The seconds passed slowly by and I was waiting for a miracle to occur, but still nothing. Then suddenly after ninety seconds - at least - and just as Tomais arrived home the I saw a big shadow looming over me and the house appeared in place. In the exact same place as it should be and where it had been before. I sighed with great relief and the tension that had been building up left my body. Jubilation and laughter!

"Woot! It's back!"
"Yes, I see and exactly where it should be", Tomais confirmed. He continued, "We are very lucky that you are on the Firestorm viewer, none of the other viewers have that feature!"

I sent the little geniuses at the Firestorm team many grateful thoughts, while I hastened to lock the mansion in place.

---
I would like to say a heartfelt "Thank you so much!" to all the marvelous and wonderful people who are involved in the Phoenix Firestorm Project, for having the foresight to create such a wonderful feature for those of us who are klutzes sometimes. If you ever feel in need of praise or a hug, just come by Southern Charm and I will lavish you with kisses, hugs and compliments.

Special Firestorm Q&A Today

We will have Dennis Harper from OnLive on hand and on stage to answer any questions you may have about SLGo, but as always with our Q&A’s, it is an open venue for you to ask us your questions about anything you like.

Topics will be about SLGo, Firestorm, what’s coming in the future, whats next and anything else that may come up.

It will be held over voice as usual, recorded and streamed live to a webpage. I will update this post with the URL for that stream just as soon as I have it.

Region may or may not fill up quickly, hard to say at this time of year. Come early.

Sunday Dec 21st @ 1pm slt in the Firestorm Auditorium

Jessica Lyon
Project Manager
The Phoenix Firestorm Project, Inc.

UPDATE: Live stream will be here: http://www.slartist.com/pages/fire.html

Firestorm Q&A: "The Future of SecondLife"

(via my friend Neo Timeless' blog "Free Your Mind")

Jessica Lyon, of the Firestorm team, hosts a Q&A concerning the future of SecondLife, with Oz Linden and Peter Linden.

This is an interesting talk, especially due to the (in my opinion) somewhat excessive reactions among residents since news spilled recently that Linden Lab is investing financial and labor resources in creating the next generation of an immersive 3D virtual reality, i.e. a new SecondLife or a "SecondLife 2.0".

Not Just A Pretty Face

Guyke Lundquist, the Prince of Paradijs, is my son and heir, my pride and joy and my longest lasting friend in SecondLife. I love him to bits!

Guyke's Christmas Card this year (Photography by Danne Guardian)

The first thing everyone notices about my Guykechen is his stunning beauty, the second is his devastating charm and the third is his astute sense for fashion. The man shines brightly even in the presence of the many other luminaries on the SecondLife sky of male beauty.

What people don't know, and rarely take the time to notice (overwhelmed as they are with his dazzling presence), is that Guyke has the full package. Besides his good looks he also has a curious and an inquisitive mind which is stacked with knowledge about just about anything one needs to know and also an emotional depth and concern for his fellow man.

Almost every time I am with Guyke he teaches me something new. Just the other day he taught me something I had never even heard about. For instance, did you know that there is an easy way for those of us using the Firestorm viewer to reach a certain height in the skies above you? Well Guyke did and it is an easy trick which is extremely useful for me as I now have a lot of my landscaping stored at 1.000 meters above Southern Charm.

You use the Firestorm feature "Go To Height" by simply typing "gth 1000" in your nearby/local chat and hey presto you are at the designated height. Going down you just do the opposite, type "gth 25 (or whatever your level you prefer)" and down on the ground you are. Nifty, isn't it?

Another thing he taught me is that I can mix the sound levels for Skype, Firestorm and whatever so I get the combination of the levels that I prefer. You do that simply by clicking the loudspeaker symbol in the bottom right and then go to "Mixer" to choose the settings you want with the sliders. Hey presto! For some of you geeky guys this is probably really basic, but for me it's news.

Avatar Physics?

While I was installing the latest version of the Firestorm viewer about a week ago, it suddenly dawned on me that I had not seen the options for "avatar physics" in a very long time. It was all the rage in SecondLife about two (?) years ago.

Does anyone else remember "avatar physics", the thing that could make women's boobs bounce and both sexes asses jitter about 8 minutes 28,6 seconds after they had stopped dancing or walking? 

"À chacun son goût!", I always say, but did even the most heterosexual man ever find that appealing I wonder.

Anyhow, what happened to it? Did it turn out to be one of those impasses in technical development that lead nowhere so that it was later scratched or is it somehow integrated into the viewer somewhere out of harms way so that the most ridiculous uses are prevented? 

Ziggy On The Firestorm Viewer Release

Ziggy Starsmith, the renowned straight talker and adventurer in SecondLife whom I am also proud to call my friend and son in-law, has kindly tested the latest Firestorm Viewer 4.4.1 (34164) that was released today for our convenience.

Read about his findings and recommendations at Ziggy And Guyke On The Edge Of Second Life; Test Driving The Brand, New Firestorm 4.4.1.34164 Viewer Release....

Protection Against Gesturbation

In SecondLife we have something called "gestures", which are pre-programmed messages often combining sounds with words or other signs in local chat.

Gestures can be quite amusing if they are not used too often and are reasonably short and sweet. 

As an example of this kind of gesture I will one I received as a birthday gift from my dear friends Vampi Twine-DeSantis-McMillan- McMillan (honorary) and her husband sirhc DeSantis-McMillan.

Having activated the gesture beforehand all I have to do to play it is write the trigger in local chat. The trigger to this particular gesture is "/bock". So when I (or anyone who happens to have the gesture) write that trigger in local chat and press enter everyone in the room will hear sirhc saying with his sexiest voice; "Bock is in the building" at the same time as they see the same line appear once in local chat.

Another example is the popular gesture "Yeahaaaawwwwwwwwwww!" where you will hear a someone shouting yeahaw. A third example is "Mmmmmmm Bock, is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?". The last one was a present to me from my buddy Regi Yifu so you hear his sexy and very dark voice speaking the words.

The best thing about the three examples I have given here are that they are one-liners and last at the most about five seconds, so the interruption in chat is minimal, both with sound and text.

Evil people in SecondLife have spent a lot of time making gestures that last extremely long and fill the screen with jibberish for up to - or sometimes even more - than 100 lines. If such gestures come into the hands of unscrupulous avatars - especially if there is more than one in the room - the result is pure havoc with spam filling your screen. The most notorious gesturbation-lovers in my experience are generally Italians, Germans and Americans (not necessarily in that order). As always you should be careful when reading generalisations because they do not mean that every individual of the mentioned nationalities gesturbates.

Previously the only option has been to block/mute the culprit(s) after you have gotten sick with them, in the Firestorm viewer there is however now an option that, if you activate it, automatically detects and protects you against the gesturbators. You activate it by going to your viewers Preferences and in the Firestorm tab go to the Protection tab and check the box that says "Enable Spam Protection" (see the red arrow in the image below). 

In the same place you are also able to choose the options when you wish the spam protection to be activated. There is also an option to immediately protect you from repeat-offenders.

Miraculous Recovery

Some of you may still remember my problems in world named Support Ticket #01587329

• repetition of my own chats in local and Instant Messages,
• repetition of purchases and tips,
• repetition of movements,
• repetition of teleports,
• etc. etc.

The problem remained whichever viewer I used (Yes, I did clean installations every time!), the official Linden viewer 3, other Linden versions or their beta-versions, Firestorm or Singularity etc. 

Linden Lab's customer support could not help me to completely get rid if the issue, but helped me with a few useful workarounds to alleviate the problems it was causing. I am now happy to inform you that the problems are now completely gone. 

This miraculous recovery happened after I had installed the latest major update of Firestorm (4-4-0-33720). I read about this on my buddy Ziggy Starsmith's blog Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life.and thought I might as well try it. Lo and behold I am cured!

Technical Malfunctions

Since a couple of weeks I have been experiencing some strange technical problems in SecondLife. Below I will give you a complete list of the various problems, the causes that have been suggested to me and what I have done to try to solve them.

I noticed all the problems at the same time, so as far as I know they arose simultaneously. At that time I was using the Firestorm viewer.

Problem 1:  Repetition of my chat in local

Frequency: Daily

Description: When I speak in local chat all my remarks are repeated once. It looks like this in local chat:

"Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat.I am speaking in local chat."

or 

"Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat.

A.A: Bla bla bla

B.B: Yodel-yodel-yodel

C.C: Di-da-de-da-dum-dee-dum.

Bock McMillan: I am speaking in local chat."

What I have tried to illustrate above is that sometimes the repetition is instantaneous while at other times there is a delay of between 10-60 seconds. There are no brackets around the repetitions. Mostly I can see it happening myself but at other times I don´t see it.

Suggested causes: a) Translation is activated, b) Pushing Page Up, c) Lag

a) I have checked this at least 25 times and translation is never, and has never been, activated, besides if it were a translation it would - usually - have brackets around the repetition.

b) No, I do not try t annoy myself and everyone else at the venue by pushing the "Page Up" key on my keyboard every time I have spoken in chat. (You will have to take my word for this, I´m afraid.)

c) Yes, it happens in venues where there is lag, but it can also happen where there is no lag at all.

Problem 2: Repetition of my chat in Instant Message

Frequency: Daily

Description: When I speak in IM all my remarks are repeated once. Reportedly sometimes the repetition is instantaneous while at other times there is a delay of between 10-30 seconds. I cannot see it myself but the people I am talking with tell me about it.

Suggested causes: See Problem 1.

Problem 3:  Repetition of payments

Frequency: Daily

Description: When I buy, donate or tip my payment is repeated either immediately or within 60 seconds afterwards. This means I make two purchases and receive two deliveries of everything I buy or that I donate or tip twice the amount I had intended.

Suggested causes: Lag (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this)

Problem 4: HUD's are turned on or off involuntarily

Frequency: Daily

Description: If I have a HUD turned on it turns itself off and if I have it turned off it turns itself on.

Suggested causes: Lag. (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this.)

Problem 5: Involuntary movement

Frequency: Weekly

Description: When I am standing around or dancing at a venue my avatar starts moving around until it ends up in a corner from where it cannot be moved.

Suggested causes: Lag. (See Problem 1 c and my additional information about this.)

Measures I have already taken to try to solve the issues, to no avail so far.

1. I have cleared my caches 984,367 times (Well, no less than 100 times if that is more believable)

2. I have restarted  my modem no less than 25 times, on occasions leaving it off more than an hour.

3. I have re-installed the SecondLife viewer more than 20 times, making certain that I did a fresh install every time.

4. Switched to Linden Lab´s viewer 3 and then back again to Firestorm and then back again to Linden viewer 3, making sure every time that I did a fresh install.

5. I have talked with a sweet Linden on the labs Live-Chat support. She made the same suggestions that I have listed above (1-2), checked my avatar for corruption and told me it was low but she was going to run a cleaning procedure anyway, which she did. 

6. I have taken off all my attachments and HUDs and reset the HUDs.

7. I have run several virus and malware scans on my computer, both online and offline.

Today, after yet another fresh install, I took the drastic measure to delete everything in my Inventory that was younger than sixty days. Luckily I have not been purchasing much lately, but unluckily all your holiday greetings had to go I am afraid. Results of this drastic measure are still pending. This measure did not help at all!

(The information in this post was later turned into the support ticket #01587329 I sent to Linden Lab)

Seasonal Chores

The time has come to prepare for the traditional - well for those of us belonging to the Western European and Judeo-Christian culture - seasonal celebrations. As an atheist Swede, who was  born into our secular lutheran church, I am of course referring to Christmas and New Year.

For Ars, as for many other Americans, decorating - or even over-decorating - for the any of the holidays was a cherished obligation. He used to go completely bonkers and we had colored lights, poinsettias, christmas trees etc, etc, all over the place. I am more low-key, much more.

One of the things I do like to do however is sending out greetings to friends and family, even those I haven't been in touch with for months or even years. I still love them and think of them its just complacency, life and other obligations that has caused a - temporary - breach in the daily or at least regular contact.

Another thing I like is having a get-together before people get immersed in their first life families and obligations. This year I had delegated to - or rather pressured - Millimina and Guyke to handle the party, alas they could not get their scheduled synchronized so the party will have to be in the New Year instead, which is fine by me too because a party when people get back to SecondLife is just as good.

Well, to come to the point, yesterday I went to Calas Galadhon (I always go there) to take pictures for my card. I had a great time with myself and the camera in the Firestorm viewer.

Our Amazing World

When I had some time over today I started playing with the sky settings. The Firestorm viewer has a shitload of presets and it is easy to change from one to the other.

I think the results are stunning! It is no wonder that many artists and filmmakers use SecondLife to enhance their art. I wondered why we don't use this neat setting more often. Then I thought that perhaps everyone else actually does and it is only I who don´t...

Zig-Bam-Boom

I am sure you all know of Ziggy Starsmith. Ziggy is (to quote myself from a comment on his blog) "my dear, sweet, charmingly hotheaded, fiery and wonderfully passionate but extremely rash darling buddy". On his blog (Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life) he regularly rants wildly about different viewers, sim-crossings and such things. To put it succinctly, Ziggy does not - and I emphasize not - love Linden Lab and that company´s customer or product services as much as I usually do.

Well, after my horrendous experiences inworld yesterday I was extremely close to agreeing with him. It was the second worst night of my whole existence in SecondLife. Whatever I did, and even if i did nothing at all, I crashed, crashed, crashed and - yes, you probably guessed it - crashed again and again.

The laird at the lowest point

I was white with rage and fuming with smoke coming out of my ears and my nostrils flaring  To top it off. my dear, sweet and loving son Guyke takes the time to inform me "I and Janttu are actually running Firestorm viewers on the Ultra graphic setting and are having no problems at all!" 

Murdering one´s stepson is not considered acceptable in polite company, but I was just seconds from doing just that. Luckily I crashed and was thus saved from that fate.

The impertinent boy also told me to upgrade to Windows 8 and to abandon the official Linden viewer (Viewer 3) and install Firestorm again. So after my last crash, the one following the murderous thoughts, I did just that to cool myself down.

The upgrade to Windows 8 Pro was simple and cheap (around US $40). The upgrade assistant did all the work well. I love the sleek new look 

But when I tried going inworld again with my Windows 8 Pro platform and the Firestorm viewer, guess what happened? You got it, I crashed, crashed and crashed! Then I decided to call it a night and try again today, reports will follow.