Linden Lab/Second Life HQ by ilamont.com (CC)

Some things still amaze me after being a Second Life resident for the last 4 and a half years. Let’s say one of the workers of Linden Lab (knows by all the residents as Lindens because the traditional last name for Linden Lab employees) is fired, or decides to leave the company for any reason. Then a “choir” of voices raise, in Twitter, Plurk, blogs, Flickr, Facebook or in any social network related with Second Life in any way, and they even ask directly to Rodvik Linden (aka Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab) “Why? What’s happening?”.

And then i wonder: Why… you ask? Why is important to know about the personal or the corporative decision of a company when you are a simple costumer, not even a investor or stockholder? There may be two reasons for someone to stop being an employee of Linden Lab:

• He/she found a better place to work, or a better job conditions or simply a more interesting project for him/her.
• He/she was fired.

In the first case, come on, that’s great! I just can say “Congrats” and farewell. I just can wish the best for him/her and say “thank you” for everything. In the second case… well, in this case i can’t know if is great or not, since i can’t know the reasons but i’ll wish the best for him/her and say “thank you” for everything too.

I’m sure most of the people who seems to feel outraged when some Linden leave the Lab don’t know if that Linden was fired or simply decided to leave. And even in the case the Linden was fired i’m sure they don’t know the reason… maybe he was the one who was stealing the ballpoints, or maybe she was arriving late every single day… or even maybe there was no other reason than a corporative decision to close a department. In any case there’s no a single reason to feel outraged, except if that affects to the service that Linden Lab is providing to you, and of course, in the case you are have some kind of personal relationship-friendship with that Linden (nobody is happy to know a good old friend has been fired).

Don’t get me wrong, is not i’m happy when someone is fired, but i think sometimes a company needs to reduce the number of employees (and i’m sure that’s not a nice decision to take) and i think also some people in some cases totally deserves to get fired. In any case is a company decision and asking the CEO… well… seems pretty silly to me, unless you are a shareholder, of course.

And again i wonder: Why you ask? I have been talking about this with some other residents and it seems there may be at least three reasons: first, Second Life residents are passionate people, we love what we have in here, we love it SO MUCH that some may arrive to think that we actually OWN Second Life, and that means residents should have the last word over ANY decision and ANY change. Second, many Lindens have some like a “star status” and that can be a problem when they are not around anymore, even if it was a personal decision. And third, “evil corporation fires employees” is always a compelling story.

About the first, we don’t “own” Second Life. We are customers of Linden Lab’s services, we may like or not the changes on the services we are receiving, we can agree or not with the corporative decisions of Linden Lab, but we don’t own Second Life. As customers the only power we have is to stop buying the services but we don’t have power over corporative decisions unless we are shareholders, and even less if it’s the personal decision of someone to leave the Lab. About the “star status”, Lindens are only people who works in a company that offers services to us, they are not stars, they can be REALLY COOL people, creative and helpful but they are not stars, they are people who work for us as customers. And about the “evil corporations” well, that’s a real topic and not only affecting Linden Lab… and yes, some are pretty evil.

This is only my opinion, my point of view, and i would like to say again that i can’t never be happy when someone is fired… but i know the people who works in Linden Lab are talented, creative and good enough to keep me feeling i love to be a resident of Second Life and in the sad case they are fired i’m sure they will find a really cool work soon.

I blogged some months ago with the test i’ve been doing in the Beta Mesh Grid. The effect is just AWESOME! Really complex objects rezz just fast, way faster than sculpties, and the collision maps work just good as any normal prim. About the time of release in Main Grid Linden Lab said:

In July, we will enable a limited set of regions to use Mesh and will roll it out, in a phased approach, throughout August. By the end of August, everyone in Second Life will be able to import Mesh objects. Of course, if we run into unforeseen issues or bugs, then this time line will need to shift.

I’ll paste here also the video i filmed on my first visit to Mesh Beta:

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Right now Search is slow, sometimes inaccurate and even sometimes seems pretty random. Sometimes i think SL is a world that changes so fast that Linden Lab could not have a search engine good enough, but that can’t be possible. The web changes faster than SL and Google seems to work pretty good! So, finally, the Lindens posted a blogpost about the new Search engine, in Beta for what it seems. Torley Linden made also this video-tutorial:

For what i can see in the video it works pretty cool and they will be work on it improving it after its first release… so i think it’s a GREAT start. About the new Search system on SL Viewer 1.23 and 3rd party viewers, let me paste something that say in the blogpost i mentioned above, pretty important:

One of the first questions many will have is, “Will new search work in Viewer 1.23 and Third-Party Viewers?”  New search will soon be available to you in the official SL Viewer and we will not be implementing it for the 1.23 Viewer. To be clear, you can still use the 1.23 Viewer, but search functionality will be impaired once new search is released into general availability, after the test period. (We cannot speak to which Third-Party Viewers will adopt the new search technology.)

After they fix Search… please.. start with Group Chat…

LEA Theater (Outside view)

The Linden Endowment for the Arts (LEA) organized a big event about machinima, some like a festival, that will run starting today May 4th to December, the Month of Machinima (MoM).

Today in the LEA Theater (SLurl), in the opening of the event the screens were showing the entrants for May competition, a variety of films from the artistic to the humoristic and even the musical. MoM has its own YouTube channel so you can see some of the movies in it, but in order to see all the entrants is better you go to the LEA Theater and enjoy a bunch of really cool movies filmed by some of your fellow residents.

LEA Theater (Inside)

The LEA was created in 2010, actually for some event in SL7B (Second Life 7th Birthday) but for some reason it was sleeping since then. Probably that was caused for all the changes in Linden Lab, but it was a really good initiative and i’m happy it is back.

The LEA Committee are a group of really good and really well known artist who work in SL and it’s really good Linden Lab decides to support Art in Second Life with this, specially after they decided to not support Burning Life anymore.  In the last times the Lab seemed to be more worried about Merchants than about Artists and, under my point of view, both are REALLY important for what Second Life is and will be. Will speak about this last topic in my next show on Soup Radio and probably will also blog about it some time soon, so lets left the topic until i do it.

Now go to the LEA Theater and enjoy the awesome work of a lot of filmmakers of Second Life:

Also, if you want to know some more about the opening event itself (i was late, hehehe) you should read Inara Pey’s post about it, really interesting. Also Courtney Linden blogged about the event in the Linden Blogs.

And also i wonder… will the LEA organize and event called DaD, that would be pretty cool!

Exactly 10 days ago i blogged about the possibility of having different configuration in SL viewers, basic and advanced modes, and… finally we got it here!!!

Rodvik Linden posted in the Community blog today about the release of a Beta Viewer (2.6.0) with this option. I think it’s a really interesting post to read and gives a lot of information about the project.

I downloaded the Beta and started playing with it, first of all you get the “Welcome” window and next to the Password area it appears a “switch” for the different modes. Switching modes will require a restart of the Viewer. For what i read in the post of Rodvik the default for new residents will be Basic:

"Welcome" screen with the Mode switch

There are many differences, but let me first paste the description Rodvik Linden made about the modes:

Basic mode is an easier, simplified experience designed to introduce users to Second Life. It includes simple communication and navigation tools such as click to move and hold to move the camera, a choice of 24 pre-configured avatars, and an integrated Destination Guide to help you connect to friends and interesting places quickly and easily. Certain functionality, such as voice capability, building tools, and the ability to purchase virtual goods, is not available in Basic mode.

Advanced mode is for those already familiar with Second Life who use the full feature set of the SL Viewer.

So, as you can see in the next image the viewer is… let’s say REALLY basic:

SL Viewer Beta 2.6.0 in Basic Mode

I think it is a bit too basic, only Chat, friends, basic avatars, destinations and a simple “How to” information. No menus, no outfits, no inventory… but i think is a good idea. One of the things i remember when i logged on the first time is how hard was to work with the UI, and that’s a huge problem, there are a lot of people who create an account, try for some minutes and when they feel all is too hard all together they decide to not come back anymore. With this i’m sure more and more people will, at least, be there for some minutes more to just try and once they are used with the environment they will switch to the Advanced mode.

It is a Beta and probably they will change some things before releasing the Viewer, but i think this is a good start. It seems things are moving in the Lab.

Japan Relief Linden Bear

The Lindens decided to create one of the famous Linden Bears to help Japan in this terrible moment, after the earthquake and the tsunami. Any Second Life resident can go to the Marketplace and get one of these bears, donating from 300 L$ to 3000 L$.

Let me repost the blogpost Kim Linden published in the Community web of Second Life:

Our thoughts today are with all of those who are suffering in the devastation caused by the earthquakes in Japan and the tsunami in the Pacific. We encourage all Second Life Residents to support the relief efforts however they can, and we would like to help.

We have created two special Linden Bears–one that is wearable and one that sits–which are now for sale in the Marketplace at several pricing levels: L$300, L$1,000 and L$3,000. Here’s the direct link to purchase them. We will donate all proceeds from sales of this bear to the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Relief efforts of the American Red Cross.

Please help us to support the relief efforts – buy the bears, and help spread the word in Second Life.

Additionally, we know that independent groups in Second Life are also planning to support relief efforts. For example, Radar Magazine in Second Life will be holding a month-long event and are seeking designers to donate virtual items (see this article for details). If your group is planning an inworld relief effort, then please share it in the comments here.

Thank you,

Kim

So you know… go to the Marketplace and help if you can.

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I was checking Twitter lately and saw some people is speaking again about that “dilemma”… Should Linden Lab have only one viewer for Second Life, or to improve the usability is better to have two?

I think it was Anthony Hocken who restarted the topic, anyway this have been a topic long time discussed by a lot of people in a lot of places. Some people wonders (and for some comments by Rodvik Linden in Twitter that may be the way Linden Lab decides to go) if it would be better to have two kind of viewers instead of only one, one for basic users with a simple and improved UI and one for advanced users with all the options we have and maybe some more.

Even this may seem a good idea some people thinks that would keep the new users away from content creation since they would be used to a simple UI and may be scared to use an advanced one. One thing Rodvik Linden mentioned was the possibility of having only one viewer, but with a “switch” to change between both options.

Personally i think the two viewers option is not a bad idea. One of the big problems of Second Life is how hard the UI and the learning curve has been always keeping potential users away and making a lot of people create an account only to try it and never come back. Having a simplified viewer, or a web-based one, would be interesting to permit new users have a basic approach to Second Life and even to have access for SL from iPads, mobile phones or netbooks. This kind of viewer would permit also that integration as Facebook game some think is a good idea. I think having SL and Facebook together is not actually needed or even a good idea, but this is material for another blogpost.

Then, after this web-based viewer Linden Lab would have a really improved SL viewer (maybe 3.0?) with that “switch” Rodvik mentions. As now we have some menus as optional (Advanced and Develop for standard users) we would have a really improved and simple UI and at the same time the possibility to change to a more complex one but really powerful. And speaking about all this… please, Lindens… can you improve the building tool? Thanks!

I don’t think that last option would keep new users away of content creation, i know people who were SLusers for the last 4 years and never created a simple plywood cube even they had the ability to do it in the viewer. The ones who would be interested in content creation would click the “switch” for sure and will experiment. At least is what i think… and you? *points at the comment section below*

We all know Linden Lab uses to manage their Public Relations in… let’s say interesting ways. One of those “interesting ways” is a group called Second Life Press Corps. For those who don’t know it, is a group managed by Pete Linden to connect with SL bloggers, informers, writers, TV-machinima creators, etc… Some like a press club. The group is not “Open” but theoretically everybody would join following the instructions included in the group chart:

This group will be used by Linden Lab’s PR team to share announcements, invitations to inworld press events, etc.
To request an invitation, please email pete@lindenlab.com with the following information:

• Your Second Life name
• The outlet (blog, magazine, TV show, etc.) that you work for – please provide the name, URL, and a brief description

Note: To be admitted to the group, the outlet you work for must be in compliance with our trademark guidelines: http://secondlife.com/corporate/brand/

So if you want to join, you know what to do. I’ve been member of this group for a year or so, and it was pretty silent until a month ago or so, i presume that’s related with the changes in the PR team of Linden Lab, well, in the full Lab. Sincerely, never thought to blog about it, because of this silent, but after reading this interesting blogpost by Chestnut Rau possibly it was the time.

I’m not an expert in PR, but i understand the Lab wants to control who has access to some information, or at least who has it first. Let’s see an example, today there was a Meet and Greet event with Rodvik Linden (Rod Humble), new CEO of Linden Lab. The PR team of Linden Lab sent a notice in the Second Life Press Corps group, and i think only inside this group, asking the members to send a request by email to be in that meeting. Initially i was supposed to be out today and i didn’t send the email (Chestnut Rau was in the Meet and published a transcription *good work*).

I’m trying to be neutral and just to tell the facts, but is hard not to express an opinion about that matter. I presume Linden Lab wanted to introduce the new CEO to the “inworld press”, and that’s nice… i also presume they wanted to do it in a “safe environment”, out of greefers, excessive lag… maybe excessive criticism too? It’s nice the CEO connects with the residents, is even important since those residents are also customers, but i wonder if that could be done in a different way not so… FIC, not so “VIP club”. Maybe is just i’m missing the times when we had those Town Hall meetings with the Lindens to talk about things…

Anyway… what do you think?

So i’m here, seating on a bench in an abandoned train station somewhere in the grid, with my friend Kevin, talking about this and that:

So yes, Kevin, it seems the Teens will be officially in the Main Grid… yes, we talked about this two years ago… no, i d0n’t think either this will change much, Linden Lab made some clear changes to the maturity levels of content and regions some time ago…

Oh, Kevin, yes… also heard something about the new CEO of Linden Lab… Rod Humble, right? Well, he comes from managing The Sims series in Electronic Arts and also he was part of the team who managed EverQuest so… maybe i think he can make some interesting things for Second Life, let’s see what happens with him… and let’s be patient, we all know the resident can be sometimes really demanding… Well, call me naive but i think things will go better from now…

The new web style profiles in Viewer 2.5 Beta… i think they should do some work on them, they places the side bar to reduce the windows in screen and now we need a giant window to check someone’s profile… and takes a lot to load compared with the traditional profiles! Well, let’s think it’s in Beta still and they will work on it… It’s nice, Kevin, we think alike about some things!

Oh, yes.. i met a man i like a lot! *smiles* Yes, but well, let’s see what happens with that, we met not much ago but i like him, he is just sweet, fun and really sexy! *winks* I’ll tell you more about him soon.

So, yes, Kevin, my friend, everything come and goes… life is nice, isn’t it?

Shadows in SL combined with different Windlight settings produce some interesting effects. Colored shadows, different light feeling over avatars and objects, etc. Just wanted to show some of the options in the slideshow above.

It seems for the moment shadows are only working properly in computers (PC or Mac) using Nvidia graphics cards or the latest ATI graphics cards. To set shadows on in Second Life if your viewer includes them, activate Develop Menu (Ctrl+Alt+Q), select Rendering and activate Lighting and Shadows. Shadows are not working in all the viewers, i know for sure they work in Linden Lab’s SL viewer 2.3 and in the 2.4 Snowstorm experimental edition, if you use a TPV (Third Party Viewer), please contact the developer for more information.