Final Countdown for the Phoenix Viewer

"Volterra, Beppo,. an actor" (1996). by photografer Alex Majoli, Italy. 

Bock McMillan16 December, 2012 05:23

Finally! Wonderful news, Tonya, thanks for sharing.

The people who have refused to leave Phoenix are holding the rest of us and our world back. They have had more than ample time by now to make the move to the next generation of viewers. As you say this has been long coming.

You made my day, thanks! ;)

----

I left the above comment at Tonya Souther´s  excellent summary and evaluation on her blog The Tigress´s Second Den from a TPV-meeting with Oz Linden yesterday in her post The clock is officially ticking. Go there and read the full post with the happy news from the meeting!

(P.S. T.P.V. means Third Party Viewer, i.e. those non-Linden Lab viewers that are out there to access SecondLife.)

The Interview With Oz Linden

(via Treet.TV)

Jessica Lyon, from the Phoenix viewer, interviews Oz Linden of Linden Lab on the Labs policy changes on Third Party Viewers (TPV). (Unfortunately parts of the interview is silent or inaudible.)

Oz Linden (Scott Lawrence in first life) is the director of Open Development at Linden Lab.

This is my humble take on some of the issues discussed in the interview (and please remember I am not a programmer):

1. Privacy
The change has been put on hold indefinitely by Linden Lab to investigate more on legitimate uses, except concerning whether someone is shown to be online against the users consent.

2. Identifying viewers, operating systems, IP-addresses and other personal data about the users
I support the change in policy as I cannot see a legitimate reason for anyone to gather, store and display this information about users.

3. Altering "shared experience" (the rendering of the world itself)
I support the change as long as testing in small scale is allowed as the Lab says it will be. Most of the brouhaha on this issue seems to me like the usual psychotic Linden-bashing and mostly comes from "the usual suspects", i.e the high-strung prima donnas.

4. "Feature surprises" by Linden Lab
I don´t understand why the Lab shouldn't be allowed to develop new features in private, just like the TPV´s can.

5. Cooperation vs. Competition between Linden Lab and the TPV´s
I highly approve of the fact that Oz strongly stressed the Labs wishes to cooperate with the third party viewers in improving the user experience and SecondLife as a whole.

Oz Linden on TPV Policy Changes

"This Wednesday, March 7th at 3pm SLT. I, Jessica Lyon will be interviewing Oz Linden from Linden Lab about the third party viewer policy additions and related concerns. I will be representing the Third Party Viewer Community and the resident community during this interview, not specifically this project. This is not a Phoenix Office Hour and is very likely a one time thing.

During the first half hour of the show I will be asking Oz questions based on input I've received from third party viewer projects and the SL community. During the second half of the show I will ask Oz your questions providing they haven't already been answered.

The interview will take place in a private region that will not be open to the public, however you will all be able to participate and watch on the live stream here. http://treet.tv/live Ask your questions on the live stream and they will be forwarded to me, then I will ask them for you to Oz during the second half of the show.

Director of Open Development at Linden Lab
(Scott Lawrence in first life) 

This is a very rare and in many ways historic event that will hopefully answer all your questions and concerns in regards to the new policy changes. The policy affects you! so be informed! Mark your calendars, invite your friends and spread the word.

Who: Jessica Lyon and Oz Linden
What: Interview with Oz linden for clarifications on the new policy additions and how they effect you and the Third Party Viewers you use.
When: Wednesday, March 7th, 3pm SLT
Where: http://treet.tv/liveWhy: Because it's important!

Hope to see you on the stream!
Jessica Lyon
Project Manager"

---
I found this on the Phoenix Viewer blog, it should be interesting, but I will have to watch it tomorrow.

Thought-of-the-day: Why do all the Linden men looks so awful? Linden Lab really should hire a stylist to help them look halfway decent even if they are heterosexually challenged. (If need be I will force my straight buddies Apmel Goosson or Frostland Beornssen - both fashionistas -  to show them how to do it!)

Straight Talk With Jessica Lyon

I visited the Q&A seminar with the Phoenix/Firestorm team, yesterday. It was the three most informative hours I have ever spent in SecondLife. I must say it was an eyeopener for me, mostly though what was said by the very clever program manager and spokesperson for that group of talented developers, Ms. Jessica Lyon.

Jessica has a style and manner of talking that is both knowledgeable and creates faith and comfort in those of us that are listening to her, even when we hear her talk about some techie mysteries.

To sum up the almost three hours of continuous talk is not easy, but let me give it a try.

• Linden Lab is a company that is in it for the business and to create profit for the shareholders.
• Linden Lab has committed a great deal of time, resources and money to developing mesh.
• Mesh must succeed to create a profit for the shareholders of Linden Lab. Mesh is still in it´s starting phase, things will get better.
• The third party development teams must support that goal also.
• If Linden Lab doesn't start creating profits for it´s shareholders soon, we will lose our world. SecondLife will be no more.
• Viewers that do not support mesh are in effect outdated! They will have a minimum of support and updates and will be scrapped soon. (The Lab has previously said that the viewer 1´s would be dropped by the end of this year, but they may last a little bit longer.)
• It is high time for those on Viewer 1, Viewer 2 and Phoenix of all versions to make the transition and move along to Viewer 3 or Firestorm.
• The new viewers are as easy to learn how to use as the original viewers if you give them a fair chance. Studies show that those who have used them for three days very rarely go back.
• The brilliant FUI that was introduced by Linden Lab in Viewer 3 will be introduced in Firestorm in the future also.

I hope I got it all right, but I believe that pretty much sums up the three hours with Jessica, and I could not agree more with her.

I retract my earlier opposition against mesh being introduced into SecondLife, even if I will never buy clothes that I need to adapt my shape to use (other than shoes). I also retract my opposition against Linden Labs introduction of the inworld game "Linden Realms" and focusing it´s marketing on Vampires. 

If anything brings new users to our world, we should welcome them for whatever reason they come here, hopefully they will in time see what we have been fascinated by and remain for that reason.

Anything that is good for Linden Lab in the end is good for me by keeping my world online.

Please note: For a new viewer to work as well as possible it is always important to make a fresh install. Do so by following the easy instructions here  Install a Fresh Viewer

Telling It Like It Is

Ziggy Starsmith, my buddy and fellow blogger, isn't all brawn and sexiness, but has a well functioning brain to match.

I never understood the mesh mess and why we should  have to suffer from the introduction of that feature into our wonderful world the way we have been forced to do these many months.

Read what Ziggy has to say in the matter Ban Mesh, Back To the Old Phoenix Viewer.
---

Rodvik Linden and all our other friends at Linden Lab, hear our cries of despair and our prays: Please, please, realize that mesh is a dead end and drop it now! You are killing us with lag and crashes and worsening our over all experiences inworld.

We want clothes that adapt to our avatars, not clothes that force us to adapt our avatars to the clothes. Back to the drawing boards again my wonderful, resourceful and creative team of programming geeks! (Yes, I do realize that there may be more to mesh than the bloody gawdawful clothes... but it still seems to stink.)

UPDATE:
Jessica Lyon from the Phoenix/Firestorm team invites us to a seminar today to discuss matters.

"The Q&A will be held at1 PM SLT at the Rockliffe university regions with the following landmarks.
Note: Due to the amount of people we expect to arrive, please arrive early and use the following landmarks based on the first letter of your first name.


A - I:http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20I/2/32/29
J - R:http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Rockcliffe%20Library/227/5/30
S - Z:http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Agile%203D/227/250/31"

I Switched To The Firestorm Viewer

I have been reluctant to switch from the Phoenix viewer because it has worked wonderfully for me. I have very seldom experienced crashes and almost never felt any lag expect when that must be expected.

Well with all the talk about mesh coming and how important it was to get ready for that change I finally dared to take the big step, especially after watching Jessica Lyon video tutorial four (4) times about how to configure the Firestorm to look like viewer 1. I also remembered the praises for Firestorm by my friends Ziggy Starsmith, my regular tech-head Vampi Twine-DeSantis and Sven Idyll.

So far everything seems to be working as promised, and I have all my stuff back in their regular locations on my screen. Next thing will be to see how it works for me when I am doing my thing, but I´ll leave that for another day.

Phoenix Viewer Release Candidate is Here

Phoenix Viewer Release Candidate (1.5.2.1050) is now live.

From the Phoenix Viewer web-page: "Release candidate means that while the release has been thoroughly tested by our Quality Assurance Team and passed, we want to make sure that it is as good as it possibly can be. Your feedback over the next few days on this version will help us determine whether we get to change it to an official release. Although this is a release candidate, it is official and we will be providing support for it."

You can download it here.

I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope they have fixed my building bug...

Stupid Git #5

As you may have read here earlier I started building quite late in SecondLife.

Most likely this was a result of being surrounded by many awesome builders and creators in my close SecondLife family, Ars, Guyke, Haakon and Martial were/are all amazing builders. Whatever I needed they could build or create for me and it would look better than if I tried making it myself. 

When I finally felt the urge to start, it was sometime between my second and third years in SecondLife, my efforts were met with great support from the immediate family (especially from Ars). I have heard from others that he was very happy that I had started to build and kept boasting about my builds.

One of my first builds/creations/designs was of course "The Party Hat" which was soon followed by the renowned "The Jesters Hat". The worldwide success of the Jesters Hat among the hardcore fashionistas in-world was the of course the foundation of my own label "BMcM" and the BMcM Corporation.

At about this time I started going to the building and design classes for beginners that were held in SecondSweden by Ironside Carlberg and my dear friend Kay Uggla, after which I started creating the most amazing lines of clothing.

I am sure you all remember my wonderful line of candle-sticks. I think I may have burdened everyones Inventory with these on every possible occasion. (If you have deleted them please do not tell me, because I love to think they are still safe there.)

Moving along, when Ars passed away I lost my inspiration for the longest while. About six weeks ago I started to fiddle with building again. But something was very wrong! I couldn't build/create/design in my usual smooth style and manner. The viewer just wasn't cooperating. Everytime I tried to change a shape of something using the Edit-menu I heard an echoing "Thud" that drove me to the brink of desperation.

I naturally first blamed the viewer and ranted about the poor quality of the Phoenix. I uninstalled it completely - yes in all the folders on my computer - about 15 times, reinstalled it again being careful not to change anything in the build settings to no avail at all. My problems kept reoccurring.

I complained my misery to everyone who had the patience to listen, had my settings gone through about 5 times by the patient Vampi. Nothing helped.

Late yesterday I think I solved the problem when I suddenly realized I was writing in a "dot" in the Edit-menu where the viewer wanted a "comma". The shapes started changing nicely and according to my intentions.

So I now declare to the world that The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, and CEO of the BMcM Corporation is a stupid git!

(...and the last is especially true when I later the same day discovered that I had not really found the problem ... )

How to get 40 groups on Phoenix

Thanks to Gaia who sent out the note card in "Fride´s Club and Lounge Group". The note card was created by Miro (miro.collas).

Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

I am only a frail and sinful human, after vowing never again to use a non-Linden viewer, I finaly succumbed to the temptations of the Phoenix viewer today.

May God have mercy on my soul and may all my Saints be with me! I really don´t want to end up in another Emerald debacle, so pray for me please.