Hip, Hip, Hooray, I'm Nine Years Today!

Today is my 9th rezday in SecondLife. That means I will start to believe that talking about my weak knees, my bladder problems and how flatulence bothers me as a suitable topic at any given time. Although I - of course - still look and feel spectacular and gorgeous, everyone is starting to discuss whether or not I have had one or more plastic surgeries.

"Not a single cut, dear, not even a circumcision!", I will tell them all proudly. "It all comes naturally for us royal McMillans, we never show signs of aging ever - at least not in SecondLife."

So let me finish with a poem in my honor by the poetess laureate of Southern Charm, Mlle CruCru McMillan.

Roses are red,
           Violets are blue... yeah they are...
You are nine years young,
            and we still love you... yeah we do!

Trespassing

Today it felt like I had gotten my second life back again!

After first making sure that the effects of changing the setting of "Quality and speed" in the graphics was still there, I felt a lot of the anxiety and worries just leave me. It was a glorious and wonderful warm feeling, because for a while I had believed I might have to abandon Bock, which would be like cutting away an arm or a foot. So much of me is tied up with Bock.

Well, the effects were still there and I could actually recreate the strange phenomenon of #01587329 by changing the graphics settings to between High and Ultra. And stop it by changing the settings back to High or Ultra.

The strangest thing about this whole experience is that I had two avatars (Bock and Cruella) running simultaneously on the same hardware, software, ISP and the same viewer with the exact same settings and one of them had the problems while the other one did not. Very curios!

My only problem now is that I freeze up after many teleports and a short while later I crash, but that I think I can live with even if it is a little annoying.

The warm and happy feeling made me do a few mischievous things, I went trespassing to the homes of a few friends who were otherwise occupied or away in first life.. Would you believe it, at one of the places the owners had actually had the nerve to change things since my last visit there so that I landed in water? Cheeky buggers!

When the cat is away....!

When the boys are away....!

Support Ticket #01587329 XIX (Updated)

I got this email from my friend Theresa Linden at Linden Lab this morning. It is quite a lot to respond to so I am posting the response I am sending when I have gather the information that Whirly wants.

Illustration from PCCare

Somehow they seem to be under the impression that the unchecking of the HTTP Textures did not help, I cannot understand why because I thought I told them in my report that it actually worked very well, except for the first four minutes or so. 

I blame myself, my English must be poorer than I thought and I will have to clear up that misunderstanding in my response to them. So here goes with the email from Linden Lab.

"A comment has been added to your Case.. 

Case: 01587329
Avatar: Bock McMillan
Type: Other Inworld Issues
Status: Information Requested
Hi Bock!

More fun and more suggestions from Whirly here:

Sorry to hear Bock is still having problems.

Some more thoughts...

When did this problem start for Bock? Can he think of anything that changed at his end that coincided with this issue starting?

eg) Change of ISP, moving house, new computer, new router/cable modem, change of router configuration, installing different firewall/antivirus, installing any "gamebooster" type software, Kitty walking on the keyboard...

His system info is taken when not logged in so doesnt show packet loss.

When he is seeing the repeating chat etc, if he goes to Help -> About Second Life, what does his packetloss show on the last line?

Where did he actually take his connection readings to?

Are his readings looking as good if he measures to where LL have their servers?
Follow these links, then select "Your Preferred Server":
Dallas,TX: http://softdallas.speedtest.net/
Phoenix,AZ: http://brinkster.speedtest.net/
Reston,VA: http://reston.speedtest.net/

Does he have another computer in the house connected to the same network and can he reproduce his problem on that?

He has reported that he created an alt LadyCruellaMcMillan, and there are none of these issues happening with it.

Is he totally sure about that?

It seems this problem can seem cured & then reappears the next day. Did he test long enough on the fresh noob before declaring there was no problem?

If his problem really is account specific, that seems quite strange & probably isnt a good sign for a hopeful cure lol Is there anything unusual about his Bock account that could possibly have an effect on his problem? 

eg) Does Bock have a massive inventory size and is he maybe clearing his cache each login? (People do this often >.<) or was Bock a reactivated account after being deleted?

It sounds like Bock has already been put in test character & that didnt help the issue, so I guess t...

To reply to this case, either Reply to this email, or visit : https://secondlife.com/my/support/?caseID=01587329

(To view the Case online, you will need to log into Secondlife.com with this Avatar: Bock McMillan)"

---

Support Ticket #01587329 XVI (Updated)

Well I took the dear noob Cruella for a spin today to get the screenshots for dear Theresa Linden and my other friends at Linden Lab.

I have sent these pictures today.(As always, you can click the pictures to enlarge them!)

1. Bock speaking in local chat at Southern Charm

2. Cruella speaking in local chat at Sothern Charm

3. Bock in IM with brother in-law Dej at Southern Charm

4. Bock in local with Dej at Southern Charm

5. Bock at KMADD in IM with son Guyke Lundquist

6. Cruella at KMADD receives IM from Bock at KMADD

7. Bock at KMADD in IM with Dej

8. Cruella at KMADD in IM with Guyke

9. Cruella receiving IM from Bock at KMADD

10. Bock in local chat at KMADD

11. Cruella in local chat at KMADD

12. Bock buys a shape demo for 0 lindens at KMADD
(and please note in upper right corner that he pays 0 LD twice)

13. Cruella buys the same demos at KMADD and only pays once (see upper right corner)

When I went to my email to send the screenshots, there was a pleasant message from Theresa waiting.

"A comment has been added to your Case..

Case: 01587329
Avatar: Bock McMillan
Type: Other Inworld Issues
Status: Information Requested
Hi Bock,

You are such a lovely person and I adore you. Thanks for working with me, and take your time. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Theresa Linden

To reply to this case, either Reply to this email, or visit : https://secondlife.com/my/support/?caseID=01587329

(To view the Case online, you will need to log into Secondlife.com with this Avatar: Bock McMillan)"

---

I think I am in love but I played cool and sent her this message with the pictures in three batches.

"Hello again dear Theresa,

I am sending you 13 screenshots I took today with the help of Guyke and Dej. I could not recreate the double teleport thing that I have sent you a picture of earlier. As it seems I can only send you six pictures at a time I will send the other 7 after this.

Please tell me if you need a screenshot of something else, my brain is still a bit mushy LOL

HugsBock"
---

Update, late Sunday morning (CET)
When I woke up on Sunday there was a new email from dear Theresa Linden waiting for me.

"A comment has been added to your Case..

Case: 01587329

Avatar: Bock McMillan

Type: Other Inworld Issues

Status: Information Requested

  Hi Bock,

I know you are sleeping so I will be quiet...shhhhh... lol!

I just have one more question for you before we move your info on to the developers.  I will gladly create a Jira or add your information to the existing Jira related to this issue.  The only problem with that is since public JIRA went internal only back last September, residents are only able to submit and see their own Jira. If I create it, you will not be able to get the updates and communicate directly with Alexa or the developer investigating it. I would be the middle man between you and them and that can may delay some of the process if you aren't speaking with them directly.  I would highly recommend you submit your own Jira ONLY for this reason, and if you need help I can gladly help you with it.  But either way, I will help you.  Please let me know how you would like to proceed.

Warm regards,

Theresa Linden"

To reply to this case, either Reply to this email, or visit : https://secondlife.com/my/support/?caseID=01587329

(To view the Case online, you will need to log into Secondlife.com with this Avatar: Bock McMillan)
---

I have just sent Theresa the following answer.

"Hello Theresa,

I would very much prefer to have you as the middle man even if it should mean a little delay. I am not fluent in IT-nese (That is actually one of the reasons my brain had turned to mashed potatoes on Friday, I have become involved in two projects at work which forces me to communicate with our IT/personnel and they speak the most atrocious IT–Swenglish, i.e. a mixture of IT terms and vocabulary in both Swedish and English that becomes totally confusing to me). You and I communicate well, so I would prefer to keep it like that, if that is OK with you and Linden Lab.

I have been thinking a lot on the problems and will probably send you something soon to be relayed on to the developers, if I think it's worthy of your and their attention. I am after all only a rational man and not well-versed in the workings of any programs or computers.

So in summary, please, please stick by me in this until the end!

Yours,

Bock"

There´s A New Girl In-World

There is a new female avatar is SecondLife and I met her tonight for the first time.

Her name is Butchella DeVille and she is only two days old. She looks wonderful, stunning and really sharp! Exquisite taste always helps in creating an avatar and this girl can rely on one of the best.

Actually she has everything except shoes, which is how you would recognize her creator... smelly, bare feet (Butch has actually progressed to sandals lately. I am happy to say.)

Below you see today's gathering of male avatars with their newly created female alternate accounts (alts).

The amazing thing that happened is that I kept up my usual repeats in chat (sighhhhhhhh good old #01587329 is getting really tiresome), while Lady Cruella didn't repeat at all. As Butch told me, it cannot be my computer or my broadband causing this problem, it must be something else.

From left Butch Diavolo, Lady Cruella (reclining), Butchella and Bock.
Photographer Butch Ciavolo

Support Ticket #01587329 XII

Illustration from Vintek.net

"Hello Theresa,

I hope you had a great weekend and Inaugural Day.

Let me give you an update on what has been going on and the results of my testing with invaluable help from my family members Guyke Lundquist and Dej Mycron. They have been very patient and supportive and have also given me assistance through it all.

On Thursday evening, after I had pulled down the bandwidth on Bock from 1,500 to 500, as recommended by Alexa in the Jira, it seemed that we might have gotten the problem in hand. The repetitions in local chat, IM and payments seemed to have gone away even at laggy stores and I was very happy but did not dare rely on it until further testing had been made, so as you may remember I told you I was cautiously optimistic.

Friday and Saturday I spent in first life nurturing an end-of-the-workweek-coma on Friday and a head splintering headache on Saturday.

When I returned to SecondLife again on Sunday the repetitions also returned when I left the home sim without any of the settings being changed (i.e. the bandwidth was kept at 500 initially). I then got so frustrated that I yanked up the bandwidth to 5,000 and went to a two hour long membership meeting of the Second Pride. Lo and behold, I did not repeat once, neither in local chat, nor in IM.

However, after the meeting had finished I went out shopping and to my utter dismay and confusion the repetitions returned again, first at 5,000 and they remained even after I had pulled down the bandwidth to 500. This happened while testing at the stores of KMADD, Burley, Kalrau and Greed (Sey). When I was at Greed Guyke suggested I create a new alternate account and that we do some parallel testing with the new account and Bock. So I created LadyCruellaMcMillan (someone had been talking with me about animal-abuse earlier that day). Well, the strangest thing happened while Bock kept repeating in local chat and IM and with payments the new Lady Cruella had no problems at all, none in the least.

This got me totally confused and to the brink of total madness (as you may notice I sometimes like to exaggerate wildly). I had two accounts running on the same computer, one with problems ad one without! Well, even if I was not quite at that point I was still feeling absolutely despondent and felt that we would never get control of this problem. We stopped the testing for the day and I ended it with deleting everything in my Inventory that I had amassed since September 2012. Luckily I have not been shopping a lot lately...

I am going back in today, feeling refreshed and eager to try again. I will get back to you with a new report on the results later today.

Hugs,
Bock"