Waiting for Philip

Wizanna Hax gave me a scare in a comment on my previous post. So this is what I will look like while blogging in the future...

Boxers may be good enough for Borat Sagdijev (the fictional character created by Sacha Baron Cohen) but definitely not for Philip Linden, my favorite interim CEO of Linden Lab.

Welcome anytime Philip, I am now prepared for you, please don´t forget to leave a comment!

Farewell Emerald

I will miss you my lovely Emerald viewer! I thought I could trust you and you had so many nifty features but reading the blogs now the truth has finally dawned on me.

I have been a total absolute fool to place my trust in a group of unsupervised adolescent gang of hackers, these brilliantly gifted but terrible children that have made up the dev team of Emerald. My complete lack of insight and knowledge about the technical and safety issues concerned with using a viewer and my realization now of what these young men and women could - and indeed possibly would - do to hurt me have forced me to make a decision.

I will never again use a viewer made by anyone except Linden Labs!

But I beg of you Philip Linden, my dearest interim CEO, please drop that terrible "Viewer 2"-project and pick up some of the slack from the Emerald viewer.

Philip Linden 2.0

Oooooooooo I almost missed this...

As my favorite interim CEO Philip Linden promised in his keynote speech at SLCC 2010 he is now inviting us all to take part in updating his avatar and to create a new iconic look for him.

This project has been loooooooooooong overdue, read all about it on the Second Life Blog and send in your contributions. The poor man needs our help urgently.

Hell no, I won´t go!

There has been a lot of talk about alternative virtual worlds lately, alternatives to "Second Life" of course.

The three alternatives I have seen discussed most frequently are "OpenSim", "InWorldz" and "Blue Mars".

The comparisons made by the believers in the alternatives invariably emphasise the shortcomings of Second Life. OK I have tried all three so called "alternatives", OpenSim a while ago and the other two just recently.

Admittedly I have only tried the alternatives for a short period of time and also with a huge degree of initial scepticism, but all I can say is that at the present stage of development they are no real alternative for me.

The points often raised by the believers in the alternatives are less lag, lower prices for land and everything else and more prims. They also speak about "the great pioneering spirit".

Less lag?
In my own experience - and I am no physicist or computer wizard - lag is often associated with the amount of avatars that occupy the same sim or perhaps the "world as a whole". No wonder then that the alternative worlds may have less lag, they only have a fraction of the inhabitants of Second Life. When I was in OpenSims there were 32 in that world, in InWorldz there were 68 and in Blue Mars there were also less than 100 (but I cannot remember the exact number).

The amount of users in those other worlds are extremely low. Being there feels very lonely, boring and absolutely useless. And even with this said, it took more than 45 minutes for my avatar to rez in Inworldz the first time I visited.

I hated Blue Mars because they let me be born with a childish face and I did not like the rest of the graphics either. (Yes I have seen that my friend Eddi Haskell has succeeded in creating a beautiful avatar for himself in Blue Mars, but all I can say it seems to have taken him a very long time, and I am not half as artistic as he is.)

Lower prices?
This is simply a question of supply and demand. The supply is infinite, the demand is extremely low. Do any of you really believe that the prices will stay low if and when more people come to the worlds you are promoting?

More prims?
I have all the bloody prims I need and a shitload of prims to spare. If i had even more prims I would not use them anyway. Who wants or likes clutter (with the possible exception of hoarders).

Pioneering spirit?
Pffffft thats just another way of saying "We don´t have anything ready made for you here, build it yourself or do without!" (I remember walking around in OpenSim with black socks and two black box shapes on my feet because there were no shoes provided in the inventory I was born with and nowhere to get any.) And to be perfectly honest, I am not a pioneer at all, send me to a shop anytime!

My top five reasons for staying in Second Life - at least until further notice - are:
1. My Ars and our Southern Charm sim.
This is where Ars was and Southern Charm still is. Until they tell me I can move Southern Charm to another grid I am staying put til Linden Lab pulls the plug.

2. My family and close friends in Second Life.
Love you guys and don´t want a virtual world without you!

3. Cultural developement.
The fantastic musicians and poets, the amazing artists, the awesome landscapers, the terrific builders, creators and developers. My world would be less without them.

4. Economic developement.
You can get almost anything you want in Second Life, and if you cannot get it you can order it from one of the creative developers.

5. I believe in Philip Linden and his creative staff.
The original dreamer is back at the helm, and soon with a better look...
Overall my Second Life experience has vastly improved during my three and a half years here, and it keeps improving.

Admittedly there are still problems to be handled, but I believe the issues will be taken care of. New problems will arise in time of course, and they will be taken care of also. I want to be here and see and take part in the evolvement of my Second Life so...

Hell no, I won´t go!

P.S. Yeah, I decided to remove the "update".

Philip Linden agrees to makeover

My favourite interim CEO Philip Linden (aka Philip Rosedale in RL) of Linden Lab gave a keynote adress at the SLCC 2010 where he promissed us a lot of improvements in SL before the end of the year.

SLCC 2010 stands for "Second Life Community Convention 2010" and was held in Boston, U.S.A., August 13-15, 2010.

Philip was as always charming and easy to listen to, even for a technically challenged person like myself. I would say I understood close to 98,7 % of what he was talking about, which amazed me. You can read all about the serious stuff on many other blogs, for example here "Tinas universum" (there is also a list of the serious promises and a link to the video of the speech) but they all seem to have missed the three most interesting  and important points Philip made.

Firstly Philip actually agreed to a long-awaited makeover of his avatar and invited all designers and the rest of us to help him out in that process. Philip wants the new look to make him sexier and better represent what Second Life offers us today but still stay in the "general area" of his present avatars looks.

We will all get the possibility to suggest a new and more up-to-date head and body. Among the contributions that are sent in Philip will choose the heads and bodies he feels comfortable to be in and we will all get to vote which combo we like the best.

Secondly Philip gave me his e-mail adress. (Well OK, not me personally but thats totally beside the point.)

Thirdly Philip promissed us all to make it easier to wear shoes in the future.

I was listening carefully to hear him promise something about my long asked for 50 group for premium accounts, but alas he said nothing about that this time.

My favourite interim CEO

Philip Rosedale is interviewed by CNN Money in it´s series on "Innovators". Watch it here.

Well yeah, he is still my favourite interim CEO even if I am really angry with him right now.

I was snubbed by Philip Linden

WTF???

Today I read on PetGirl Bergmans blog, "Tinas universum", that the meeting promised by Philip Linden a few weeks ago had already taken place and I never got an invitation to the event or a chance to sign up to take part.

I am already used to being overlooked by the Nobel Prize Committee and the Swedish Royal Household, but what did I do - or not do - to deserve this?

This really pisses me off, Philip and Linden Lab! And it raises a few questions in my mind!

Why was the meeting held in secret?
Where should I have signed up, if it wasn´t a secret?
Who got the honour of being included or invited to the meeting?
How was the selection of whom to include/invite to the meeting made and what were the grounds for selection?
Which blog should I follow in the future to see invitations to possible new meetings, because it sure was not the Second Life blog?

Please note! I am not claiming my presence at the meeting would be essential or have had a dramatic effect or even that I would have attended. But I sure as hell would have liked to have a chance...

P.S. Where do I find Philips e-mail so I can contact him and give him my view on things if I should chose to do so? ...and does my favourite interim CEO ever read my blog, I wonder?

P.P.S. And yes Philip, I am also looking forward to see your avatars look change in the future!

I knew there was a reason why I love Philip Linden

...och det är inte för att han är söt, inte i SL åtminstone.


Ni såg det kanske först hos "Tinas universum" eller "Carla in Second Life", men jag tänker föra fram det här också.

Philip Linden har skickat ut ett nytt meddelande till SLs innevånare, Update on Strategy, and call for in-world meeting!

I meddelandet utlovar han att Linden Lab kommer att
1) gå tillbaka till grunderna
"back to basics" och återta ledningen i teknik utvecklingen av Second Life-plattformen och
2) lyssna på användarna.
"Before the end of July, we will also hold an in-world gathering where we can talk more about these plans and take questions. More details about how we can best get a big group together and talking will be coming in another post."

Jag visste att det fanns en anledning till att jag älskar Philip Linden, nu bekräftar och förstärker han den.

Drömmarna och visionärerna är tillbaks i ledningen för Linden Lab, vilket de alltid måste vara. Teknikerna, marknadsanalytikerna, juristerna och ekonomerna är också viktiga, men de får aldrig överta frågan om hur Second Life ska utvecklas.

I love you Philip!

Glad midsommar allihopa!

Glad midsommar vill jag önska er alla, mina svenska och internationella vänner!

Ikväll blir det fest i svenska Second Life! Förutom midsommar firar vi Philip Rosedales återkomst som VD för Linden Lab!

Programmet till dagens festligheter i svenska SL hittar ni i ett av mina tidigare inlägg klicka här.

Den underbara akvarellen är av Ingela Andersson, Västerås. Jag hittade den på hennes webbsida Aurantia.

The return of Philip!

Returning to the Lab Posted by Philip Linden on Jun 24, 2010 9:04:47 AM

"Mark Kingdon is going to step down as CEO, and I am going to return as interim CEO, working side-by-side with former CFO Bob Komin, who is being promoted to COO.


This is a big, tough change but one the board of directors and management team deeply believes in. We owe Mark great thanks for the many things we've accomplished in these last two years -- most notably a great improvement in the stability of Second Life, and also the hiring and nurturing of a strong team of new leaders who are now ready to do some amazing work together.

Our thinking as a team is that my returning to the CEO job now can bring a product and technology focus that will help rapidly improve Second Life. We need to simplify and focus our product priorities -- concentrating all our capabilities on making Second Life easier to use and better for the core experiences that it is delivering today. I think that I can be a great help and a strong leader in that process.

It is an honor to have a chance to help more directly again, and I come to this mission with energy, excitement, and an open mind about what we need and how we need to do it. I want to see Second Life continue to grow, amaze, and change the world. It's what gets me up in the morning. Despite the challenges of such a big change, I am happy to be drafting this blog post while sitting in our San Francisco office, surrounded by the many Lindens who have made it all possible.

More to come, as soon as we all get settled and figure out how best to work together!"

WELCOME BACK PHILIP!!!

Är Philip på väg tillbaks som VD för Linden Lab?

Jag läste precis ett intressant inlägg på "Eddi Haskell´s Second Life".

Ryktena har börjat florera att Philip Rosedale, inworld känd som Philip Linden eller "King Philip", kommer att återkomma till VD-posten för Linden Lab sedan han hoppade in som talare vid det pågående SL7B istället för den nuvarande VD:n Mark Kingdon, även känd inworld som "M Linden".

Det skulle vara en välkommen förändring anser jag! Vad vi behöver i Second Lifes nuvarande stadium är fortfarande visionärerna och drömmarna. Produktutvecklarna och förvaltarna får ge sig till tåls ännu ett tag!

Mer intressant i denna fråga finns att läsa på Wagner James Aus blogg "New World Notes"

P.S. ...och nu ser jag att PetGirl Bergman redan är ute med nyheten på sin blogg "Tinas Universum".

P.P.S. ...och PetGirl får kalla mig "gam" så ofta och så mycket hon vill, så det så...

Äntligen var Valentindagen här!!!

Jag inledde den stora dagen med att åka i väg för att krama en Linden.

Tyvärr fanns varken Philip, Torley, Blue, Teddy eller ens lille Rodrigo från chat-supporten där, så jag fick hålla tillgodo med att krama Cudly Linden istället. Lindens kramanimation var alldeles bedrövlig så det såg ut så här...men det var tur kanske så fick jag inga tjejbaciller.

Luftpussar med Curly Linden

Därefter åkte jag ut för att shoppa ringar till Ars och mig för att ge honom som en Valentin-gåva. Med mig hade jag den bäste "personal shopper" som finns i hela SL, min vän Gilgalahad Gunsberg. Förutom att känna till alla bra ställen så är han en av de "hunkigaste" karl-avatarerna som finns, och en av de klokaste och vänligaste också. (Han får inte vara med på bild!)

Sedan var det dags för årets näststörsta händelse, den största är "Vimmel" på tisdagen den 16 februari 2010, kl. 20.00, Valentine-festen anordnad av dronningen, Gittrika Mint, Vampi Twine och Annabella Lundquist.

Tack för en välordnad och trevlig fest, töser! Det gjorde ni jättebra!

Överblicksbild i ett tidigt skede av festen

Här ses jag med Millimina och mina security guys

Foto: Millimina Salamander

Kandinsky Beaumont med den absolut häftigaste outfiten (hade hon varit kvar till slutet hade hon säkert vunnit) och Berra Soderstrom (som karlsloken visade sig heta, tack Vampi!).

Bejiita Imako visar sin söta rumpa

Sötast rumpa hade dock Irwin Blanchere