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)

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.

The Results of the SL-Viewer Poll Are In

My buddy Eddi Haskell has now posted the results of the poll concerning your preferred viewer to access SecondLife.

Read the results here.

Once again it seems I am in the minority, because I absolutely love my Viewer 3 from Linden Lab.

The Splash Party with DJ Regi

After fiddling unsuccessfully with the settings on my viewer (Linden Lab´s Viewer 3) for about an hour and a half to get it to play Birdcage for me, I finally gave up.

At the end I reached so far that the viewer told me it was playing Media but I still could not see or hear anything. I know that it is way easier on the Firestorm viewer, because Media has a button of its own there, but that viewer is too heavy and slow for my purposes, and it´s overloaded with shit I do not need or want.

Searching for something else to do I saw that the Second Pride Splash Party was on, so I decided to go there with my music turned down very low - and I do not regret it because the place was filled with Ziggy Starsmith, Levi Ewing, Larz Kaz and a lot of other of SecondLife´s hunkiest male avatars and a few of the nicest female ones too, like Kharissa Indigo and Tootsie Nootan.

The motto for the party was "as bare as you dare, but no erections allowed" which, as I told Ziggy, was the first request I heard of that is actually easier to accomplish in SecondLife than in first life.

For more pictures from this event visit Ziggy On The Edge Of Second Life; Fun And Fabulous Second pride Part 6: Ziggy Gets Butt Naked...

The Yifus, Regi and Ty

Citius, Altius, Fortius

After constant crashes for more than two week and a lot of other technical problems, in both my realities. I decided to change my SecondLife viewer back to the Linden Lab Viewer 3 and to upgrade my hardware. And you will most like not believe it, but this time I actually checked that my graphic card is from NVIDIA, it has always worked better for me.

The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm and prince of Cascade Falls, is consequently much improved.

Added value is gained by the fact that I again have voice-capability, although I have not had time to try it out yet, but I do not expect any problems.

As for my much needed attitude adjustments and the way I interact with people around me, these issues may take a while longer. However, you must always remember that I am steadily working on improving myself to your satisfaction, but this seems to be a lifelong project. Until this goal is successfully attained I have promised myself to

1. take three deep breaths,
2. think twice, 
3. count to 1.000 and 
4. (perhaps) "sleep on it" before reacting.

P.S. (as a response to my bosom buddy Apmel´s comment): Miracles are not to be expected, nor do I give any guarantees. All I can say I will still react, but hopefully in a calmer and non-boring manner.

Firestorm Viewer Update (Updated)

The Phoenix Project has released a wonderful - I think - viewer update today, the Firestorm FUI Beta 4.0.1.27000.

The new viewer includes the amazing FUI developed by Linden Lab for its Viewer 3 and keeps the vertically stacked chats and also seems to have added lots of amazing functions, if one can judge by the video above. The vertically stacked chats, which I have become completely addicted to, were the only thing that made me leave Viewer 3 and go back to Firestorm.

Keep you fingers and toes crossed, I am downloading and launching it now!

PROBLEMS (to be continued)
1. I cannot choose the language for my download, it forces the Danish version on me. Which is plain stupid. Sure as a Swede from the far south of Sweden I do understand a lot of Danish but not the technical stuff and I have become accustomed to the English version and want that.

2. Ughh say whaaaaaaat? I got this when I started the viewer to log in on Wednesday March 21:

I will check to see if a fresh install helps me.

3. Same problem as yesterday occurs again, do I really have to re-install the viewer every time I want to use it?

SOLUTIONS (to be continued)
1, Change the default language to English from "Mig" to "Indstillinger" and then change it in "Sprog"

2. I did a fresh install and the problem came back, but after I had changed the language from Danish to English it did not come back. Really strange and confusing.

3. No problems after the third day using it, really do not understand this, but anyway everything seems to be working fine now.

BENEFITS (to be continued)
1. The problem with me being stuck down to my ankles and not being able to move when I log in has been solved. I had to teleport to another sim to get out of that clinch and to get the sounds working properly. 

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

Rage Against Technology

I live with the not unreasonable expectation that every time I do a certain thing to a machine or with software programs I should and can expect the same results.

This expectation has more often than not been proven to be false, which absolutely stuns me every time. I think of myself as a human being with some emotional weaknesses but on the whole mostly rational. The fact that machines and software programs have the audacity to act up against me and take on a will of their own totally and completely pisses me off!

What has made the otherwise meek, happy-go-lucky and ever so humble Bock so angry you wonder? Well, this is what happened.

Yesterday I read about the new Linden Lab Beta Viewer 3.2 on Sven Idyll´s blog. He was very convincing so I uninstalled my Firestorm viewer, cleaned up my computer from anything SecondLife and downloaded and installed the new viewer.

I was totally enchanted by the exceptional usability of the new user interface and by the fact that my personal and group IM´s were vertically stacked (see picture).

It´s an awesome feature that prevents you from missing any IM´s and also keeps them collected in the same space instead of spreading out all over ones screen.

Well today I did the mistake of reading Sven Idylls blog again and seeing his praise for Starlight I decided to try that feature too. I shouldn't have done that! Because when I had installed the Starlight my vertically stacked IMs disappeared and seem to be lost forever.

In an effort to try to retrace my earlier steps I have uninstalled Starlight. uninstalled  Beta Viewer 3.2, cleaned up my computer completely from SecondLife, re-installed Firestorm and chosen the vertical tabs, uninstalled Firestorm, cleaned up my computer, re-installed Beta Viewer 3.2.

Nothing helps and my vertically stacked IM´s are gone and instead I end up with this (see picture).

Thinking about this I realize that I am mostly angry with myself. When the f**k will I learn not to mess with something that is good!

P.S. Finally I must emphasize that this was none of Sven´s doing he only got me excited when I read his blog. If I in any way have given you that impression I apologize to Sven Idyll!

I Think I Love it!

This is a photograph using "depth" instead of "color", cool huh?

After reading the Swedish blogger Sven Idyll´s posts about the new Beta Viewer 3.2. and seeing the short explanatory videos he has posted there Linden Labs new instruction videos for Viewer 3 I just couldn't contain myself and was eager to try out the new viewer.

I followed my own previously described routine about how to Install a Fresh Viewer and then downloaded the new one. I must say I fell for it immediately. You can move almost everything around anyway you want it to get the thingies exactly where you want them to be and with the shapes you desire.

Is it strange I love the guys and girls at Linden Lab as much as I do? These brilliant people have given me everything I can ask for in a viewer.

Love you guys, have a round of beer on me (but no more than 30 of you and you must include CEO Rodvik Linden/Rod Humble) and chairman of the Board Philip Linden. (Rodvik is almost catching up with my all time favorite CEO Philip with this stroke of genius.)

Sorry for being unfaithful to you guys there for a while, but I am back home in the fold with ya´ll now!