Tuesday, January 29, 2008

A Goodbye Kiss

Heaton is dead. Or, Heaton Village as we knew it.

It was bought yesterday and was completely wiped out, along with Club Vanity and The Bridge. The new owner is replacing it with various themes every day. I have seen two so far.

And so, one and a half years after it began, Vanity and Heaton village disappear from Second Life, living on only in my snapshots and memories.

And so we kiss Heaton Village and Club Vanity goodbye. It was a slow, agonizing death as Hazel split, and James sold it, and Jayden abandoned it. All the while it sat and rotted. I almost want to say it's better to be forever gone than for it to sit there and betray all the fun times that passed through its halls.

So it goes.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Cracking Sims

What makes you think the Lindens are going to open source the server code, which will basically allow anyone to make their own sims independent of the Second Life grid, when the tier for owning land or an island is the main source of income for Linden Lab?

Honestly, explain this to me. What am I missing here? You could make the case that while open sourced, they will sell it to the potential coder. But then, the customer will take that and reverse engineer that and likely issue it around the internet where you won't be able to place that genie back into the bottle. You wouldn't catch these people easily either if they run their sims offline or on secure networks. Even a legit buyer gets the code and then pays no further costs to Linden Lab. It's a temporary source of income which will end when those who will buy the server code buy it and everyone else sticks around. This would lead to tier income dropping for the Lindens.

By my reckoning, they lose in any case. I suppose they could always offer a fee for hooking into the main grid, but why bother if you can start your own Second Life grid, advertise it on some freebie website host and attract people onto your private grid. More people would be drained off as they leave to try out these other grids.

I just can't see how open source would help the Lindens in the long run. In the short run they benefit from an army of coders picking the code apart and fixing it (much like what was done with the SL client and the Nicholaz client), but the point isn't setting up better servers but that separate grids would pop up and could even usurp the main grid. That is what would nail the Lindens long run. They would need something along the lines of protectionism enforced by the recording industry.

And this is why I believe the Lindens will never open source the servers completely if at all. It's a pipe dream kicked around every so often. It will never really be released unless Linden Lab itself was about to fold or if their business model changes completely (some model not based upon tier and land sells). Until then, I highly doubt we'll see open sourced servers for some time.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Glut

It's amazing how much you can write when you don't want to do actual work.

Drowned

Starax created so many wonderful and memorable creations. One of them is a statue of a man holding a limp woman, titled "Drowned".

One cannot link more than 256 prims together. This as you can imagine is a problem with larger builds and sculptures. So a common technique is to build giant pieces of your sculpture and place them all together to give the illusion that they are all linked into one piece. "Drowned" is an example of this, as the man and woman are each separate statues in their own right.

Why do I bring this up? Because my good friend Jurin (who runs Blackwater Gallery, which is definitely worth checking out and donating to) and self-proclaimed Starax worshipper (which is okay because Nunchuck likes Starax too) happens to have this particular piece on display. Her gallery is becoming renowned through the Second Life Land and people are taking notice and blogging their trips down to Blackwater. One I happened to stumble upon was an article by Stone Culdesac on The Grid Live, which pours over various galleries.

The Open Air Gallery shows how "Drowned" is supposed to be arranged. Now see Blackwater's interpretation?

You may be wondering why I am bringing this up. For you see, some time ago, someone (we never found out who) arranging "Drowned" so that the man appeared to be giving pleasure to the female statue. I don't have a snapshot on hand, but suffice to say, Jurin was both surprised and a tad miffed. Light Waves commented that this new arrangement was clever. We all had a chuckle and moved on.

Now, it seems like the mysterious rearranger has struck Jurin again. The newest pose has the woman leaping into the arms of the man which gets points in my book for being tasteful vandalism.

I wonder what we can expect to see from this mystery vandal in the future.

Political Power Playing

Politics in Second Life?

Uh, yea? There are politics everywhere. There are politics in your workplace, in your home, with your friends, with the meter maid who just slapped a parking ticket on your car because you were seven seconds too late even though they saw you running for your car.

The definition of politics is the interactions and processes by which people make decisions upon actions with other people.

According to this, by the strict definition, we've had politics in Second Life for a long time. You could start with Linden Lab opening up Second Life to the first beta tester (some would argue we're all still beta testing, but that is a story for another day) and started receiving feedback concerning the game. You had politics when residents began to bicker and coalesce and agree upon what to do with the land they were buying and renting. You could compile volume upon volume of books listing the political power plays between Joe Shone and Jack Black and their clubs/casinos/stores.

But that's me being semantic. They're really talking about real life politics as we tend to know them. Presidential candidates and political lobbies using Second Life as a staging area and center ring for their campaigns. And on this, I agree with them. Second Life has a shaky record with this.

Senator Edwards attempted (or was it his following?) to build a campaign in Second Life. It wasn't the main lane of attack for him, and in fact it was rather small and isolated. Hardly anyone noticed when it came and when it folded. It was halfway sabotaged when a group of griefers set up a similar build advocating a psychic with a similar last name (Edward as opposed to Edwards). I haven't seen or heard much of any other potential candidate (save for Ron Paul, but does he really count?) starting anything in Second Life. I've seen a few lobbies for upholding the Second Amendment or urging action against global warming, but again nothing with too much momentum.

I think hoping for this kind of thing in Second Life is fatally flawed in two ways. To think that anyone could consider Second Life for a penetrating campaign is hopeless. The grid is too suburban and sprawling, and news in Second Life itself is sketchy, that the message does not get very far. Even in the extremely unlikely event you reached every single Second Life resident, you would only reach anywhere between 200,000 to 300,000 residents (I believe the 500,000 is far too optimistic. I think the actual number, accounting for alts and one month wonders, is actually somewhere between 275,000 to 312,500 residents but I'm low balling here). 300,000 is only about the size of Cincinnati. Consider also that this is spread across the world. Only half of the recipients of your message may be Americans and able to vote for you and possibly your lobby. If I'm French, I might care who becomes President but I'm not going to be able to do much about it. I might even hurt the campaign if I try to help it (since Americans are notorious for often deliberately voting against world opinion). You're just not going to reach many people and many are just not going to care.

The other problem is that people really will not care. Most come into Second Life to relax, socialize, build, and hang out with friends. They want to escape these kinds of pressing world issues and political maneuverings of real life. We already have enough problems with ad farms, right? When the people of Second Life can barely motivate themselves for forcing Linden Lab to reexamine its policies in Second Life or organizing to strike a blow against a resident grabbing power, why should they be expected to take interest in actual politics? Are you really going to garner the support of Dave Triskaidekaphobia, who is only really interested in finding a house and some gorean slaves? I do not hold much hope that it would. The corporate builds ran into this some times ago. Why go to Pontiac or AOL island, when the average resident is going to buy neither of these products? The average resident isn't interested in either. They're running on a cable connection and using Skype rather than AIM, and vehicles in Second Life can be found for free and are useless considering teleportation and poor sim crossings. The interest is just not there.

These are ingrained into Second Life itself and will not be easily changed. Personally, I would not like to see it changed. I'd much rather see Second Life take its own course than to have it become little more than a giant political ad paid for by some presidential or congressional hopeful.

But that's not up to me, is it?

Friday, January 18, 2008

Statistics and You!

The Lindens have released some metrics the other day of user hours, concurrency, Lindex activity, and a few other things. Let's go over the things they have posted straight off of their blog.


This is the LindeX volume in Million of USD against each quarter. They claim that quarter 2, 3, and 4 were 'slow months' due to stricter credit card protocols, shutting down casinos and charging VAT tax on Euros. Despite this, they say, the economy grew. It must have! Look at the cool red arrow pointing up!



But the problem is that the arrow is lying to you. It goes from Q3 2006 to Q4 2007, and is what we call a 'secant modulus'. A secant modulus is measuring the rate of change by drawing a direct line between two points on a curve. The problem with this kind of modulus is that depending on where you set the beginning and the end, you can get wildly different calculations of growth. I could just examine Q2, Q3, and Q4 2007 and say growth has stagnated. And so on. Anyone could shift the secant modulus any which way and say it fits their story.



Look! According to this graph, using the Lindens' methods, Philadelphia is growing faster than any other city in the world! Isn't this wonderful?


Let me offer my take. The economy was growing strong until halfway into Q1 in 2007. Then it leveled off and stagnated. It actually shrank until Q3. What does this mean for us? If this trend continues, LindeX volume will just remain the same. I agree with the Lindens that the fact this graph didn't plummet with the events they have listed is a good showing of the resiliency of the economy, but did each event carry over so long as to level off the exponential trend?

In June 6th, 2006, the Lindens opened up Second Life so that one did not need a credit card or even verify any information. Notice that before that, Q1 and Q2 of 2006 were growing linearly, meaning that it was growing at a constant speed. Once registration opened, the graph explodes into an exponential, which means that the rate of growth wasn't constant, it was twice as much as the rate before it. So week 1 of June would be +2, week 2 would be +4, week 3 would be +16, and so on. This goes until Q2 2006. Then it levels off and doesn't growth or shrink significantly.


I think you know where I am going with this. Before registration opened, growth was constant. People were coming in and spending and earning money but credit card restrictions throttled it. When that barrier was removed, you had this incredibly large influx of people. And they filtered into the world, made money of their own, added cash into SL, and boosted the economy in general. People were able to jump into SL, try it, and a few became members and started pouring money into SL through the Lindex. It was only a few, but even 10% of those millions was enough to add the massive flow that we see in this graph. So why the drop in Q2 2007? Because by then, SL's glow had faded. The focus shifted from 'try before you buy' into 'visit and tour'. People were no longer coming into SL to test the waters, they were coming in solely for checking out a cool build or as part of a tie-in (CSI being the most memorable). In Q2 we had the opening of several corporate builds which drew people who really didn't stick to SL. Since we weren't adding any new blood to the churner, the LindeX didn't grow.



They say gambling and VAT tax choked the grid, but I'm not so sure. I'd expect to see a spike in volume as gamblers and Euros try to pull out their L$ before those policies were enforced. I'd expect to see more trading going on. This isn't a graph of the US$/L$ rate, this is just the volume of these transactions. Perhaps people weren't cashing out as much as SL blogs would have you believe, or perhaps casinos went underground and Europeans got Swiss bank accounts. Despite the pounding SL took in November 2007 with downtime, rolling restarts, and constant mandatory viewer updates, the LindeX volume didn't die. Go figure.


A side note is that a real life friend of mine pointed out that this LindeX graph isn't broken down into per capita, i.e. divided by the number of people running around Second Life. I'm lazy, so I leave it up to you. However, if my intuitions are right, then doing so will destroy this 'growth', because SL has been growing population wise very very fast. That 'leveling off' could very well be a plummet. It's all in the ratios.



For User/hours and concurrency, that is a mixed bag. At which point are we seeing an end to growth or the system reaching its limit? 60,000 concurrent users may be all that the current hardware can hold. Who knows? User hours also topped off. Who knows? I sure don't.


There's much more of this. They listed a bunch of additional statistics, which can be found here. This breaks everything down into little itty bitty pieces. Don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. I'm not engaged or have any background in this kind of analysis, so again, I strongly encourage you to go out and do your own calculations.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Monkey See

Anti-Griefing groups make me laugh. The kind of laughter that accompanies watching someone light themselves on fire or voting on American Idol. They're so pointless and unnecessary that I wonder why they're still around and banks are kaput.

First, their premise is entirely off the mark. Most are worse than the griefers they're trying to suppress. I was standing at Periwinkle watching a dope run around nude. It was kind of offensive but it's Second Life and we've all watched someone au natural dance in front of us. Cue this overbuff and ripped police man with dark sunglasses and all. Detective Dopey caged the nudist and proceeded to orbit everyone within a mile radius. He was attempting to throw the griefer off the infohub, but Dopey didn't realize that the griefer was caged and couldn't go anywhere. Fifteen people probably crashed from being kicked to 150,000 meters in the sky because Detective Dopey wanted to play cop. Then he told us to file ARs on the griefer!

We should have filed an AR against him. The nudist didn't do much more than smear our snapshots, this phony cop actively crashed people out of their clients.

There's the other end of the spectrum. Anti-griefing groups that show up and nag the griefer that they're very very bad people and should stop. They'll tell people to send ARs while spamming group chat with such witty lines as "Stop. Please. Don't." Idiot. Like I need you to tell me to send an AR? I'm so clueless that I was just going to stand there drooling like a zombie. Thank you so much! I don't advocate NOT sending ARs, but the condescending attitude of these passive aggressive twits just astounds me. They'll even tell you multiple times and if they think you aren't complying with their rules they'll threaten to AR you. I watched one scream and turn purple at a friend of mine. He was AFK, but I wasn't about to tell Screaming Mimi that.

I think griefing is no where near as prevalent as these groups would like you to believe, anyway. In my one and a half years on Second Life, I've witnessed maybe three total griefing attacks. I even camped around hot spots like Baku and Ravenglass and Infohubs. Griefers are too isolated and random to really impact the world as much as these groups would tell you. And when they do attack, I'll AR them and leave. Big surprise that the griefers don't follow me and get banned an hour later. Two of the event I witnessed were in places so far off the beaten path and filled with ad farms that I honestly think the only person really hurt by them was Mr Lee and his Hong Kong.

If you're claiming to be an anti-Griefing group and you take yourself seriously, don't expect me to treat you with an angstrom of respect.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Details of New Blackwater Project Leaked!

Today, the SL art world was rocked as Jurin J Juran leaked rumors that she might be starting a new project. Little information was provided, save that it required an alt and involved rezzing prims and lots of Instant Messaging.

When asked to comment on this development, Jurin replied, "Oh stop. I'm gonna wear my gossip girl hud and rate you."

Jurin Juran runs the Blackwater Gallery, which can be found on the Blackwater sim.

ResidentStories@lewispr.com

Avatar name:

Anna J Tsiolkovsky

SLurl (if applicable):
Catch me if you can.

What are you doing in Second Life?

At the moment, nothing. Unless you count existing as doing something.

How long have you been in Second Life?

One year, two months, eleven days, sixteen hours, five minutes, twenty-three seconds.

How did you find out about Second Life?

Two places:
Prokofy and Something Awful.

What were your original goals when you became a part of Second Life? Have
they changed?


I came to see if it was as bad as they said it was. My new goal is to whine and moan on this blog while experiencing just how bad it is.

Was there anything in-world that surprised you, something that you may not
have expected?


I was surprised when I found, a month after playing, that there could be days in which I could actually get something done and not crash out of the client.

What do you hope to achieve in-world?

I hope to grow watermelons, make nifty things with friends, and live out the rest of my SL days staring out a window.

What is your motivation?

More like lack thereof.

How many Residents frequent your island/business? Daily? Monthly?

I don't own a business or an island. However, I did sell a saxophone once, of which about thirty people bought over the course of about three months. So I guess you could say it was pretty dead.

How do you measure your success in-world? Is it by money or another means?

I measure success with a meter stick, although some have used ordinary twelve inch rulers to the same effect.

What are some of your favorite places in-world?

I hang out in lots of friends' homes. If I'm not there, I'm at the Chrine in Windermere. If I'm not there, I'm at Blackwater gallery trying to find statues to move and mess around with. If I'm not there, I'm at Orientation Station prying people out of walls. And if I'm not there, I'm logged out.

What do you think makes Second Life interesting?

If you mean what makes the standard client and game itself interesting, then I'd say not much. If I wanted to build a bunch of random things, I'd use AutoCAD or some Legos. If you mean overall, I'd say it's the friends I've made. If they left I'm gone.

What are the pros and cons of doing business in Second Life?

The pro is that it's much much easier, especially when you have friends helping you out. The con is that it's also much easier to go bankrupt and fold. Risks are higher but the potential reward is greater.

What do you see in the future for Second Life?

"Game over. Thanks for playing." displaying upon logging in just before the servers are shut down.

And that is my response to the questionaire.

Shutters Open

The Lindens decide to rip an idea I started on this blog but haven't really ever utilized. That is, they're taking down stories of residents. Okay, maybe not my original idea, as the Second Life Insider was doing blurbs long before I even registered an account. But nonetheless, the Lindens realize today that they'd like to hear from the residents themselves what kind of Second Life they've lived.

Only...

They don't, really. They want to hear about people who have done great things. The movers and shakers. They want the big names. Oh, I know they say that they'll keep an eye out for the little guy, but in the casting call in the first paragraph, they list off professions of what they're looking to publish. Builders. Architects. Fashionistas. Guess what they are going to focus upon. Yeah, those who have made an impact. They don't want to hear about John Doe who made a bandanna or Janet Smith who streams her own concerts every so often. They are looking for Masterful Escapes or Bill&Pams.

And there is nothing wrong with that. But it's just a little lop-sided. Because the overwhelming majority in Second Life is the humble consumer. They are the people who shape what we make and produce in SL. If they don't like it, it ain't moving. The average consumer themselves might build or do whatever on the side to earn a few L$ without dumping some dollars into SL to buy their prim penis or fancy new dress. It's not weird and wacky, but it's not supposed to be. This is what Second Life is made out of, and to feed the press these stories of the few who made a giant rideable praying mantis as if it were the norm is a tad dishonest.

They also require you to write the entire piece on your own. And give your real life name. How many people would do so? At least a quarter of those in SL are rather shy and protective of their RL info and are reluctant to give a RL name at all. For them, SL is a separate entity that isn't supposed to infringe on real life. They don't want to go do their nine-to-five real life job and have someone come down and say, "Hey, you're RainyDay Boxby! I love that de-Ruther you made!" For them, it's an escape and their stories are one of that escape from real life and into this medium such as it is. I should clarify: they also want real life contact info. So not only would your real life name get out there but your address, email, and phone numbers would all be out there at the mercy of the Lindens just for some recognition of the fact that you made a unique new way to build a canoe.

Their questions are rather generic and blah too. "How did you find out about Second Life?" Okay, why does this matter? They came here, didn't they? This is something more for research into where to place more advertising budgets for better investments, not for taking down the stories of a resident. " What were your original goals when you became a part of Second Life?" It's almost always 'I wanted to check it out'. No one comes into Second Life with a determined goal unless they had a friend drag them into it. No one knows what to expect of it and they just pop in to see exactly what is going down in it. " How many Residents frequent your island/business? Daily? Monthly?" The first part of this question is reasonable enough, just look at the traffic rating on your land. But daily and monthly statistics? Who keeps track of that? It's possible but pointless unless you plan on running a hard business. Just like it's possible to calculate the acceleration of a speeding car, but to a cop that's pointless when all he has to know is that you were over the speed limit.

"How do you measure your success in-world? Is it by money or another means?" " What do you hope to achieve in-world?" These are the same thing. They could have eliminated one or the other. They both ask what kind of goals you set for yourself. Hey, let's put this set of questions into it: "What do you think makes Second Life interesting?" "What keeps you coming back into Second Life?" Same thing. Asking for what people see as success will yield very generic answers, by the way. It will invariably fall into "Yes, I make lots of money and/or support myself entirely from inworld", "I have lots of friends and have learned a lot from them", or "I made lots of kool stuff". You're not going to get very in depth answers here. It's like the questions and answers in a Miss America pageant.

Speaking of which, why did they need to include a giant list of questions, anyway? They say you don't have to answer everything, but in reality, people will feel they have to and so fill it with quick sentences or anything that sounds good on paper. It says the more info you give the more likely you'll 'win' and get mentioned as the story of the week, so people will fill out the questionnaire instead of using it as the general guideline it was probably intended to be.

In the end, this will turn out something like the Herald's Post Sixx articles. The person featured will get pilloried by the audience for being too bland or too obnoxious or being a jerk or out of jealously and half a million other reasons. I sincerely hope it doesn't turn out this way, I hope I am dead wrong. But only time will tell.

Personally, I think (and this is only my opinion) that if they wanted to really get some stories down, they should get a few of the PR Lindens alts and have them walk around night clubs and through the landscape with a notepad. You can't take a person's picture by handing them some film. You have to have it in the camera, have the shutters open. That's how you get a portrait. News in SL travels primarily through word of mouth. If you hang out in a club for even three days you will hear some of the lesser known but trusted individuals, the guys who make good and cheap prim furniture or renowned for DJing birthday parties for tips only. Then, you take a snapshot (embedded in the client itself!) and you interview them and get them to loosen their lips. Chat them up. If you have to, follow them around for a day or two and get a real feel for what they are instead of having them answer some silly questions in two lines each.

Why do businesses interview people instead of just having them fill out a questionnaire? So they can get a feel for the person behind the resume and find out if they really are enthused about this position, if they will be an annoying jerk to work with, and much more. That's how it gets down in real life. If I do a biography on Clinton, I'm going to interview the man in person rather than email him a list of generic questions. Their method is going to flood them with an extremely large load of mail, which may or may not be useful as a jumping board to find more interesting subjects. They could avoided this problem by just being with the residents, numerous though they may be.

And then, with your shutters open and pen in hand, then you'll get some stories.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

On the Beat

One of my duties around Orientation Station is policing it. Most people coming in are fairly well adjusted and do their newbie thing, asking questions is what they do and I'm only too happy to help them out. I'd say ninety percent fall into this category. Even the ones asking for 'teh sex' can sometimes fall in here, since it's a legitimate business in SL and they just want to know where to get it. The fact that it's not allowed on OS doesn't mean it's illegal, just that you can't do it here. And I point those people in the right direction and set them on their way.

There is a distinct minority though, the remaining ten percent, who need to be slapped upside the head. They fall into a few categories.

There are newbie scammers. These folks may be involved in Ponzi schemes which proliferate in SL, or looking for meat bots to add to their traffic, or other things which I can not fathom. In any event, they draw off the new people from learning the basics and deposit them directly into SL. They circumvent the training process. Some may draw off the newbies and honestly educate them in how to build, how to dress, etc, but the vast majority are just using them like tissues. And when they've served their purpose or the person leaves SL, we end up with a bunch of people utterly clueless about SL and its workings. No one entering SL is stupid by any means, but SL is not easy to become acclimated to, and these people are truly missing out on learning the full set of the basics. And that is if they even bother to try, most will probably just drop out of SL. I hope the people who do this can sleep well at night.

There are a few people who don't recruit and ship newbies off to places far and unknown. These people just stand there, usually in the default avatar, and stand around. I find them stuck in this one wall. When I approach, they quickly teleport away or just don't respond to chat, voice, or IMs. I have no idea what they are doing but they don't seem to be doing anything constructive or destructive. I kicked one around and caged it, but other than providing a giggle to a nearby Ruth it didn't seem to do much. I want to say they're some kind of bot. What kind is the question to be asked. Land bots tend to hover in Linden sims or around land-for-sale. Traffic bots just stand around the owner's shops and lands. Copybot would copy people. It is a most unusual experience. I'm sure time will tell what kind of bot is popping around here, and the sooner the better.

Griefers, although these seem to be dying out. I've never been firebombed or grief-cubed, but I have had people verbally abuse me and deliberately run around in the nude. I do not care what they have to say, much of which is unoriginal, but the streakers bother me. There's no genitals and it is 'your world, your imagination', but I believe it is not a good impression to the average person. When I see someone streak about the sim, my first reaction would be, "Oh dear, this place is going to be crazy and probably stupid." This is the main reason that nudists drive me up walls. I don't think that the newbies would be scarred for life or must have their innocence protected, but because most of SL is rather normal and more entertaining than watching JesSmeg69 Oh run in his birthday suit. Other than this, griefers tend to ignore us and we ignore them.

On a side note, Orientation Station has changing booths, so if you so desired you could strip and check yourself out in a private room away from the rest of us. Or change your clothes. Whichever you want to do. I don't care, as long as they would stay out of the main areas.

Policing the sim isn't all about catching the baddies, however. Sometimes it is clean-up. Certain areas of Orientation Station, whether by design or oversight, have build enabled or auto-return off in various places like patch work, and prims drift and people scatter them, and eventually on occasion the sim will have litter. Cleaning up is an occasional task. Not often, as the island is set up fairly intelligently and things usually get auto-returned. But there have been moments where I had to take the initiative and sweep up. Sometimes it's my litter if I've been demonstrating something to someone and then get called away or just absorbed in what I'm doing. It has to get swept.

People can set OS as their home. And there is an odd quirk that when they teleport home, they end up stuck in walls. I've mentioned this and demonstrated this to many people, and it is fixed and then it happens all over again. We've tried everything, but people still teleport into this wall. And then I have to pull them out of it by offering them a teleport to my location. AT this point, we've done all we can do and possibly only a Linden or something with a good grasp of SL tech could probably help us. And it's another task that has to be done.

There's probably more junk I do doing a Mentor patrol, but hell if I can remember. This is about the regular fare that I've noticed over and over again.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Oversight

I have always wondered why, for the entire year that the main grid had open registration, the Lindens never paused to consider the consequences.

By keeping the teen grid restricted and blasting open the main grid's doors, it is obvious to even the simplest of simpletons that a teenager looking for a good time is not going to bother to steal his/her parent's credit card and access a grid that is heavily censored and much smaller than the wide open, sex filled and uncensored, and gigantic main grid.

This is one of many curious things that Linden Lab has done that always confounds me. They complain about children being on the main grid. They know the consequences are that the kid is going to be exposed to lots of bad nasty things. Yet they make it easier for this kid to access the main grid. For almost a year, all they needed to do was lie about their birth date. Even toddlers will tell you that if you give them a choice of working hard for brussel sprouts or watch TV and get candy, they'll let you know which they'd choose.

Age verification is finally here (if a bit narrow and shaky: it only works well for some Americans). This should have been implemented much sooner. Why do the Lindens never think all the way through their decisions? I'm not one advocating information paralysis but to overlook this is just plain stupid.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Police Blotter Round-Up: Redux

Another round of Police Blotter Round-Up! YeeHaw!



Date: Monday, January 7, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace, Ad Content

Region: LiaisonLand

Description: Repetitive spamming unwanted adverts.

Action taken: Warning issued.



You know, I am spammed twenty-four seven by ads in real life. I am spammed twenty-four seven by ads in Second Life. So why is Liaison land sacred ground? When I go to church the back of the daily bulletin is plastered with ads. During one homily the pastor was a dead ringer for a TV ad. E-surance, I think it reminded me of.



I am spammed in IMs, in group notices, and in simple public chat by ads. Disturbing the peace, sure, but would I warn someone over "Ad Content"? Are you seriously telling me that the Lindens never checked their email and got a Viagra advert? Did they email their Internet provider and demand "purdygurl@goozle.com
" be warned for inappropriate content. I just hit delete, and block the address. There is a button in the corner, Lindens and whoever AR'd this, it's called the Mute button. Use it.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Disturbing the Peace: Repetitive Content, Spamming

Region: Orientation Island Public

Description: Chat and sound spam.

Action taken: Suspended 1 days.



Spamming is now a bannable offense? Hey everyone, stop using your gestures. It might be spamming! Whatever happened to telling people to just use the mute button? Sure, it's orientation island, and the Lindens don't want new people to get the wrong impression, but wouldn't you rather have them learn how to use the mute button now instead of later?



I really hope this doesn't become a standard policy, because vindictive people will abuse this. If there is an argument, my opponent can say I'm spamming my opinion and get me investigated and held up, which in a debate is total loss. After all, in a debate you aren't trying to convince your opponent, you're trying to convince the viewers you're right. If you have a 'criminal' record, you lose. After all, how could a crook be right, right?

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Sandbox Goguen

Description: Sound spam.

Action taken: Warning issued.



Same thing as the two above. Someone must have woke today, and said, "Gee, spammers chip my block." Freedom of speech is a lovely double edged sword. FOr those insistent that LL is a company and not subject to the Bill of Rights, their old line used to be "Your world, your imagination" and "We only moderate when there is cheating/griefing/etc". But of course, there is no SL constitution so Lindens are not bound to be consistent. Fun!

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Disturbing the Peace: Misuse of Public Spaces

Region: Sandbox Goguen

Description: Selling in the sandboxes.

Action taken: Warning issued.



...Okay. This is crime now? What about those giant Mr Lee Hong Kong ads by the Linden roads? Those ads are misusing public space. Why is selling a misuse? There is always going to be some two-bit nobody hawking something or other on a street corner. With more people unwilling or unable to buy land or rent store space, they are going to see an increase of these kinds of things. Really, they shouldn't force this as an offence.



And who in Nunchuck's virtual earth reported this as an offence? I'd love to meet the guy who AR'd someone for this. I'd just love to know the thought process behind it. OH MY NUNCHUCK, NOT A MERCHANT! TRYING TO SELL ME THINGS IN EXCHANGE FOR MY MONEY!?!

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Sea of Intrigue3

Description: Prim littering.

Action taken: Suspended 1 days.



Finally, someone taking a stance against people who litter prims. There are sandboxes for these kinds of things. Sandboxes are a dime a dozen. There are public ones, and private ones which people will generously open to you. You don't need to litter infohubs, private property, and parks with your silly experiments. There are too many better alternatives, and claiming you can't find a sandbox is pure laziness on your part.

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Terms of Service: Gambling

Region: Dryas

Description: Wagering items.

Action taken: Warning issued.



A ha! I hoped one of these would make it in! Lovely policy! This truly shows me the Lindens are hard at work staying true to their word!

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Assault, Scripted Objects

Region: Dura

Description: Assaulting others in safe region.

Action taken: Warning issued.



I guarantee you the person in question here will get another warning within a week.

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Harassment, Verbal Abuse

Region: Sexy Land

Description: Verbal language abuse

Action taken: Warning issued.



"Sexy Land"? Verbal Abuse? Why am I not surprised? TO be honest, if I were a Linden and I saw this AR, I'd assume it was some kind of BSDM. Another good AR, though, since this kind of thing should never be tolerated.



Even at Sexy Land.

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Indecency, Mature Content

Region: Plum

Description: Abusive language in welcome area

Action taken: Suspended 1 days.



I do wish sometimes they'd include a transcript of the language. It is probably all the same junk, but you would find a few gems in there. ONe in a million would find a way to be imaginatively offensive.

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Violet

Description: Language abuse and pushing residents

Action taken: Suspended 3 days.



Same old, same old. I've seen hordes of these kinds of offenders in action. They're more annoying than harmful. It does grate on you after a while. It's telling that of the three total Abuse Reports I have filed in my 1.3 years of SL, two have been against these kinds of idiots.

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Tipsico

Description: Prim litter in private home

Action taken: Warning issued.



See above. Prim littering a Private home is just obvious assholelery. Even the slowest of people realize that you tend to stay off someone's property.

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Harassment, Verbal Abuse

Region: Hyles

Description: Language abuse

Action taken: Suspended 1 days.



Good Lord, people have foul mouths, don't they?

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Date: Sunday, January 6, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Assault, Scripted Objects

Region: Isabel

Description: Use of weapons

Action taken: Warning issued.



And trigger fingers as well, it seems.

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Indecency, Mature Content

Region: Ahern

Description: Inappropriate language around Welcome Area.

Action taken: Suspended 1 days.



Ha. Aha ha. HAHAHAHAHHA. Ahern gets one lowly AR? That's it? Anyone who's been to Ahern for an hour knows just how rancid that place can be. I'm honestly surprised that the police blotter isn't rife with reports from Ahern. I can only assume they just chuck all reports from Ahern into a barrel and write the whole place off as hell in a handbasket.

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Terms of Service: Gambling

Region: TROPICANA

Description: Wagering item.

Action taken: Warning issued.



Another one! That's two! Let's see if we get a hat trick!

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Disturbing the Peace: Parcel Encroachment

Region: Campbell Plateau

Description: Prims overlapping other plots.

Action taken: Suspended 1 days.



I'll bet you anything this has something to do with skyboxes. There are always skybox issues with regards to overlap. Up 500 meters into the sky, you can't tell where your parcel ends and another begins. Chances are, I'll bet the person who filed this was passive aggressive who never even bothered to confront the offender first.



I find SL is full of people like this. If you're going to hate me, just out and say it. I'm an adult, I can handle it if I add one more person to the four billion that hate me. It's okay, really.

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Disturbing the Peace: Parcel Encroachment

Region: Hwanin

Description: Prim overlapping others land.

Action taken: Warning issued.



...ugh

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Phoenix Productive

Description: Mega prim littering.

Action taken: Suspended 1 days.



Prim littering... WITH MEGA PRIMS! Yawn. (So boring I also yawned in real life upon reading this, if you can believe it. I give you my word).

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Assault, Scripted Objects

Region: Jeogori

Description: Harassing residents in multiple regions.

Action taken: Suspended 7 days.



More shootings.

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Milarepa

Description: Prim littering.

Action taken: Warning issued.



More prim littering.

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Sandbox Island Extension

Description: Harassing residents.

Action taken: Warning issued.



More harassment.

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace, Ad Content

Region: LiaisonLand

Description: Spamming residents with unwanted adverts.

Action taken: Suspended 1 days.



More 'Ad Content'. Oh noes!

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Help Island 3

Description: Prim littering.

Action taken: Warning issued.



More littering.

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Assault, Scripted Objects

Region: Help Island Public

Description: Assaulting others in safe region.

Action taken: Warning issued.



More assault.

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Date: Saturday, January 5, 2008

Violation: Community Standards: Disturbing the Peace

Region: Sandbox Goguen

Description: Spamming items.

Action taken: Warning issued.



More spam.



This 4 hour police blotter jog has opened my eyes. I now know I can report people for placing ads. I know the gambling ban is about as effective as the War on Drugs. And I learned that it's really annoying copying and pasting and formatting the blotter into blogger.

White Labcoats

Today I bought a white labcoat.

Monday, January 7, 2008

So You Want To Be An Absolute Ruler

Today's dictators just do not know how to do the job. They're weak and incredibly obvious. What's the fun of being an evil dictator if the United States bombs you out of existence a scant year later? Stalin had a nice little gig in Russia going. Saddam wasn't doing so bad for his part until he invaded a US oil interest.


They have to play their cards right. All too often they just out and deny their dictatoryiness. No, wrong, wrong, wrong. You openly admit it, wear it like a badge of honor. "Yes, I am an evil dictator. Want my card?" It disarms people. They question whether an evil dictator would admit to being an evil dictator. The best way to lie to someone is to tell them the truth first.

Next, you should maintain some trappings of a democratic republic. Allow political dissidents to broadcast nationwide... from prison. Hold elections with a candidate so awful and evil he makes you look like a kitten. Assign some of your secret police as school crossing guards in your cities. Pretend to care about what the people say. Grant something stupid, like build a few water-purification plants or stop taxing breathable air. It's the little things that people love.

Also, be sure to agree with whatever the President of the US says. If the Prez says you should hold popular elections, go ahead and do so. If your brainwashing squad and persona has done its job, you shouldn't have anything to fear. If the Prez says you should open up to weapons inspectors, let them flow in. They shouldn't be able to spot the secret bunkers you buried under your mansion. If he says bark like a dog and twirl, go ahead and tell the world you were exploring a career as an actor. Pride before the fall.

A common mistake is to place an iron grip around your citizens. Let them have freedom of speech. They're only going to say what they're thinking, and you can't read and punish thought... yet. By allowing them to speak and write their mind, you let them have a safety valve. By keeping it open and in the public, you can carefully monitor who's saying what without having to send your secret police into each nook and cranny of your country searching for political dissidents. If they act up, they'll be too complacent to bother to hide.

And be sure to keep a generic and attractive image. The uglier you are, the more likely the American public will favor invading your country and ready the noose. If you blend in, or look moderately attractive, people will find it hard to find reasons to blow you to smithereens. Saddam managed to limp along after Kuwait, but that moustache was his eventual downfall. Come to think of it, Hitler had a pretty weird mustache too. It never fails. Why would that beautiful person create a harsh and brutal dictatorship? Let's invade that monster running Rwanudanistania. He's hideous.

Finally, a potential dictator should keep in mind that improvisation is your best weapon. When the angry mob is at your door with their torches and pitchforks, you have to know the right words to turn that angry mob into your personal militia. When the UN starts imposing sanctions, you have to know the way to get your UN ambassador elected head of the council and cut it out. These things can only be learned through rigorous mental training. Dictator is not a job for the weak. Watching day-time television is not the path to victory. Shoving crayons up your nose isn't advised. You have to keep in top form.

Well, I hope this has been an informative beginner's guide to being a ruthless and heartless beast. Any complaints can be directed to the Chief of my Secret Police.

58,281

Second Life has had some login and asset server issues again lately. Some have noted that this is related to each increase in concurrency. We're seeing upwards of fifty-five thousand people online during the day. The highest I have seen was 58,281 people online.


This is cited as one of the problems with Second Life: With each increase in concurrency, failures start ripping across Second Life as the grid struggles with the load. It does this every time. The simple fact of the matter is that Second Life was just not meant for this volume of people online at the same time. When it was first opened, ten thousand was probably seen as the highest that would ever be achieved. This is reasonable given that at the time Second Life was hardly marketed to the public and sign-ups were throttled by the requirement of a credit card.


The oversight lay in opening up the grid to free registrations. This in itself is not a bad thing, the issue arises when you consider that, judging from the records (i.e., the town hall transcripts I managed to pull off the SL History Wiki), the Lindens just opened it up with no prior preparation other than expanding the help desk and updating the client to fix many of the com temporary bugs. I couldn't find anything that indicated that they took a good hard look at the structure upon which Second Life was built, and adjusting it to ensure the smooth running of the grid at 100,000 concurrent users. Is that excessive? Oh yes, but one has to take the predicted future numbers, and multiply them by seven to get a better idea of the kind of growth you get after relentless advertising by the Lindens and free-for-all registrations.


Some may say my flaw is my inherent assumption that Second Life would have grown as large as it did, and that no one at the time could have foreseen this. Nonsense. It never hurts to be overcautious. Someone at sometime should have sat down, and honestly asked themselves how many people can load onto Second Life before server/client communication breaks down, and what do we need to do to make sure it doesn't happen. Would you accept an suspension bridge built between Manhattan and Brooklyn that could only hold the current peak capacity? No, you'd reinforce it, so it could handle the traffic of two other bridges nearby and a little extra. You can't be too sure.


That's extreme, though. Second Life, unlike a bridge, won't cause terrible harm and tragedy if it collapses. But the general idea is the same. Linden Lab wants people to come in and pay for membership and buy islands and pay tier, but customers cannot do that if the store is closed. It has been said before, but it bears repeating that the general second life community has expressed its desire for stability over additions and features. I love windlight. But it lags like sin. I believe voice should be available to those who want to use it. But when it's enabled, I get the very wonderful experience of lagging from two servers: Second Life and the Voice server. Sculpties allows for more natural builds. But were they really top priority?


I believe I went over this before, but it seems like Linden Lab in general has its priorities mixed up because of Jira itself. Jira is by the people, for the people, and moderated to a great extant by the people themselves. I could go on about how clunky it can be to use and parse through, but considering that we all managed to get through and log into Second Life itself is qualification enough, and the general user should be able to handle it.


The issue arises from people. The way Jira works is you make a ticket detailing the bug/complaint you have, and other people browsing Jira (perhaps suffering the same problem) vote for your proposal. If you get enough votes, IN THEORY the Lindens look at and fix the issue. When it works, this system is beautiful and things get fixed.


But like most things designed by engineers, it fails spectacularly when you fail to account for the human factor (as engineers are wont to do). Let's go over some Jira mistakes people usually fall into:


1) Usually, people don't search for issues similar to their own. All too often, they make a new ticket. Hundreds of duplicates all pertaining to the same bug flood the system. This not only causes search to overflow, it also confuses people using search in the first place. If I see seventy similar issues, for which one do I vote for?


2) Usually, people create their tickets incorrectly. I have seen tickets labeled as "Show-Stopper" (the highest priority) which involve such frivolous things as "My boat became unlinked" or "My TV won't play". Not only are these things insignificant in the grand scheme of things, they are also far far too vague for the Lindens to figure out where to start. Hardly anyone lists a way to reproduce a bug, which helps when initially searching for it. No one lists their system specifications, which, if you're running SL with 128 MB of RAM, might explain your trouble with crashing. I could go on forever and a day with all the things people do wrong with filling out a ticket on Jira.


3) The people weeding out the good tickets from the bad sometimes foul up. Sometimes they foul up a lot. Do not get me wrong: They are performing a needed service for Second Life, one that does not involve (to my knowledge) a paycheck or any thanks and gratitude. They are all volunteers. But they do screw up. And when they do, Jira pays for it. Being human, they have bias and prejudices which reflect in the issues and tickets they keep or fix or delete. This is pure theory on my part as I have not done any extensive research into this, but the Law of Human F***-ups dictates that they will mess something somewhere. Their actions are less noticeable, so when they do it is not as evident or detectable.


4)The last is with the Lindens themselves. Jira is littered with issues that have been marked as resolved. Many of them you will recognise: "Phantom prims appearing on parcel, can't be deleted", "animations getting stuck in sim seams/crashed vehicles/upon log-in", etc. The hilarious part is that these 'resolved' issues aren't. They all still occur. Who claimed they were resolved? There was a minor issue on Jira a few months back which I will recount.


About five months ago, a new bug stalked Second Life: The Ass Affinity (or Ass Effect to some) bug. For those extremely new or absent during this period, I will explain. Occasionally, when you teleported or crossed into a different sim, all of your attachments would fly up into your rectum and wedge into your colon. The only way to fix this was to detach and retach each attachment, which was a hassle if you wore lots and lots of attachments. HUDs were also subject to this bug on occasion.


This bug was claimed to have been fixed no less than three times in four separate blog posts. After the first 'fix', they listed it as resolved on Jira, and never was it listed as 'reopened' or any of the other silly titles they have for things they overlooked. It was a very very surreal time, being told this bug was fixed when your hair suddenly teleports from your head to your anus. It defied all logic. Any normal human being spending ten minutes inworld would have noticed it within the first few minutes. This indicates that the Lindens don't spend enough time inworld, or they don't login at all, or they place too much trust into Jira. "Oh, it says resolved. I guess since it just happened to me I need to clear cache and reinstall the client or something!"


I have gone far off topic, but the issues are interrelated. Having given no forethought into the necessary measures to support a rapidly growing world, it amazes me that the last remaining recourse, Jira, is as fouled as it is. I don't have any idea of how to go about fixing this problem, but it's not my job. I don't earn a salary from Philip to figure out LL's problem. But I sure can whine about it.

Friday, January 4, 2008

New Format

2008 and the beginning of the New Year. Time to switch things about.

I changed the page to white text on black backgrounds, because I was getting a headache proofreading my posts. I also added links, which I'm willing to expand if anyone can convince me to read whichever.

That is all.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The Book of Nunchuck VI

Deep, deep within the caverns and sewers of the palace and massive towers of Sipte, built with the lingering stench of unholy blasphemy and naive ignorance, lay the Femur of legends. It is said that its power flows through space, around time, into and out of existence. It is compared to a dream, unlimited potential unleashed in a fleeting moment, then, gone in the next second. Long gone are the days when all basked in its light and harmony with the spirit and akelhians.

Long gone are the days when its power was wielded in peace and prosperity, and used for the good of all. For by this time, the Femur had long since passed into legend itself, having been lost in the greed and pleasures and ignorance of the centuries past and caught up in the excitement of having created their own servants independent of Nunchuck.

So it was that Qeosi and Ruth were caught up in a grand race to the Femur. A battle neither desired, yet neither could let the other triumph. Such was the pain of the times that a happy settlement could not been seen, save by the Femur. Such was the result of the sins of the ancestors, born of their ignorance, that these who desired the calm received their fates instead.

Philip and Ruth stood outside an entrance to the labrthyine complex that led to the resting place of the Femur. By his extraordinary feat, granted to him by Nunchuck, he had managed to give the people and akelhians hope for their future. Yet their path was not yet resolved, and the task at hand not easy. Sipte and his city were massive, built upon older and still older ruins, ever upward, so that his city sat like a concrete and iron mountain upon the land. In the days of the Era of Waning Glory, those who broke the laws laid by Nunchuck were sentenced to wander its passages and tunnels, a fate worse than death. Runors laid that deep within its foundations lay pockets of those scrapping an existence in this complex, never seeing the sun.

So they entered with these thoughts upon their minds. It was not outside the realm of possibility that they themselves might end up in such a fate, left to doom deep under the hedonistic castle of Sipte. "Worry not, my child, for the Light of Nunchuck guides me," Philip assured Ruth, yet this was blatant lie. Philip had not a clue of the path to the Femur. Also, Qeosi's ony wandering the abandoned halls and were not friendly and could not be friendly to outsiders, their hearts of stone and greed could only destroy and steal the spirits.

It was dark. That goes without saying. Words cannot convey the level of darkness they visited. Perhaps it was an illusion, their minds playing tricks in a land long dead in the bowels of a city long dead. By the grace of Nunchuck, or sheer luck and low probability of encountering such en route in such a large and massive place, they did not meet an ony, and just as well as they had no means to fight or ward them off. How long they wandered, we will never know. They themselves never knew or realized. No one will ever know. Down, down, down, deeper and deeper into the concrete and stone and brick.

Qeosi and his people grew desperate by the hour, for not long would it take Fi-Suu to realize he had been badly fooled. And so he and his people did something incredibly foolish: they began to blast through the walls and floors of Sipte's city with the unholy power granted to them by their creators. With no time to waste wandering the catacombs, instead they destroyed the barriers themselves, weaving intricate webs of destruction in the ruins. The echoes of the screams and refusals of the walls reverberated across the hallways and passages. Philip and Ruth believed them to be the groans of spirits lost.

After eternity had passed, Philip and Ruth came upon a small room, a store room of some design. Broken pottery, scattered prims, and poorly textured walls surrounded them. It was also a dead end. "I fear we are lost, and all is lost with us," Ruth lamented.

Elsewhere but not much more distant, an Ony by the name of Yashua carried on his search. He wanted nothing more than the embrace of nonexistence, for he did not know anything but to serve others. With the death of his masters and the anger of the akelhians coming down on his kind, he saw no reason to live and to him the Femur was an exit. A path to blissful and eternal unknowing and unbeing. He placed his paws upon a wall and directed his energies into it, blowing brick and mortar across into the room behind it.

And so Philip and Ruth came face to face with Yashua. For some time, neither moved or breathed or spoke. Words cannot describe the moment. For there, upon the rubble of the room and lying bare upon the stone floor lay a golden tease, a glint of daylight in a bleak and weary world. The Femur.

The story behind its placement here is a story for another time and another place, an adventure all its own and not relevant to the tale here. Monster looked to the woman, and the woman to the monster, and the demi-god to monster, and so on. None of those present could believe their eyes. It was just lying there like trash, an object of unlimited power casually tossed aside with the waste. For Real Lifers out there, it would be equivalent to seeing King Arthur at a bus stop, or Christ's cross in your cellar.

"Please take it," Yashua broke the silence, "please spare me this torment of existence in a world where I have no purpose and no masters. Please take it and use its power, destroy me." Both were agasp at this request, for never had they thought of someone searching for the Femur as an elaborate suicide implement. But one must understand: the Ony, like the Akelhians, and Grievers, and Lindens, and the Gods are not mortals like you and I. Great power requires an equal power to destroy it. A being imbued with great spirits cannot be killed by mere means.

Philip and Ruth looked upon each other.

"You have found it! Take it! And right this world!" Ruth exclaimed. Philip smiled, and said "No, it is not my honour to do so. I did not find it, we did. I do not belong to this world, you do. The right to wield the Femur should belong to the one who began the quest."

Ruth kneeled, and with her sleeve gently wrapped the Femur and picked it up. It illuminated the entire room, and the caverns nearby. Everyone turned to yellow in its pale golden light. It was warm to the touch. It had been found.

At once, the entire universe shook and resounded with the flexing of the world's fabric. Everyone turned and looked to the west, to Kissling and the great palace of Sipte, slowly sinking into itself as Ruth ascended through its ancient foundations. A great red shaft of light spiked high into the heavens, and great winds spread across the lands. Many took this to be the ending of the world and make the appropriate preparations. Fi-Suu knelt and wept, fearing that Qeosi had found the Femur. Qeosi, for his part, stared silently into the swirling hell storm building above his former master's castle.

"Ruth! Now! Now is the time to set right to the wrongs of this world with this power! It is as for you to decide!" Philip cried up to her. And so Ruth held the fate of the world there in her hands.

She could wipe the Ony off the face of Second Life, restore life as it was before the Era of Waning Glory, as it was in the Golden Age when people and akelhians lived in harmony with the U and the spirits under the warm light and protection of the Femur. She could set herself upon on high as a ruler of all of Second Life, even elevate herself to the role of God and overthrow Nunchuck Nherself. So many options, worlds of possibilities upon before her. And each tempted her and she knew not which to choose.

In a fantasy, Ruth would choose the good and true path. She would grant the Ony the gift of the right of existence and restore the world to balance, as it was in the Era of Golden Glory. But this is not a fantasy. Ruth was tempted by a presence, and it said to her, "Why help they who sent you on this fruitless task? You are but a pawn to them, now the tables have turned and they are pawns. Seize power and take your place as a God among gods." And as Ruth gave into this voice, Philip cried. The world began to ache as it again witnessed the birth of a god upon it, drawing U from it and Philip's creations.

Qeosi stood with Philip amidst the ruins of Kissling, and turned and said to him, "Fool! You have ruined us all! Coward! Taking not the power of the Femur for yourself when you knew the true path to take, trusting instead this mere mortal now seemingly destined to soon subject us to her unholy will with the Femur granted to us by Nhim in Vivenshia! All thanks are due to you, by which I imply sarcasm!" And he turned to his subjects, "Ony! Bastards of life, and outcasts of outcasts, doomed to be forever separated from the coil of the spirits in this world! Let us not spend our days under this tyrant, rise and we shall fight and die, so that we may sleep in peace!" And the Ony stood and flew towards Ruth, each knowing death awaited them and despair lay in living.

Fi-Suu came and upon seeing the Ony rising up so, despaired. "Worse! A demon so evil the Ony themselves are resisting it! Truly, the end times are upon us!" And he turned to his wards, "Akelhians! Proud servants and guardians of Nunchuck's chosen people! Let us choose this day to mark our greatest, that upon this day we rose to defy the power of a god in our devotion to Nher will and order! Go forth and let the day end in honor!" And the akelhians upon their silver and crimson wings joined the Ony.

Ruth watched this development and laughed. Fools! A god cannot even notice such a noble sacrifice, flies upon a whale and no more. No longer the humble avatar, the temptations that had found her had twisted her mind and stained her soul. Such concerns as peace, contentedness, joy; such concerns are for lesser beings, not for developing Queens of the universe.

With but a thought, she caused the explosion of half of the Ony and half of the Akelhians, sending red rain upon the land below. A whim caused the code of a third of the Ony to dissipate into the universe, till nothing was left. She tore a hole and created a weak and new universe, intending to entrap the valiant akelhians and ony in it, doomed to die with the swift and inevitable collapse of such a fragile new universe.

"Ruth! Ruth! This is not what you wanted! This is not the way! Turn to Nunchuck, this is not in your heart!" Philip cried once more to her, but for naught. "This is the way! The Femur has shown me this is true! I shall rule as Deity over all of the land, my absolute will shall bring peace upon the people, by destroying those who oppose my rule, I will weed out the war from the peace! It is true!" She replied, thundering through the heavens.

"No, it is not true! The Femur, yes, the Femur shows you that it could be true, that it could be possible! But in the Femur and in Nunchuck all things are possible! Turn not to the Femur for guidance, turn to Nunchuck to guide you!" Philip pleaded.

But Ruth's lust for power was already welded to her heart and soul, such that she believed her way to be the true path. She could not see the great evil that could develop in her, through her, and because of her. And so she continued toward her greater glory, while the world shrieked and burned around her and akelhians and ony died at her feet. Unlike with Qeosi, who was on some level was mortal, Ruth would become a god, such that only a greater being, Nunchuck, could hope to match her. And through the Femur, Ruth saw that none could, would, or will ever match her power.

All was lost.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Sex And Battery Acid

They say everyone at one time or another has tried their hand at Second Life Sex.

I can understand the language and the words and the thoughts conveyed. But I could never bring myself to do it, I'd feel silly and goofy typing out each and every reaction and detail and what not.

Plus, you might have noticed I have a tendency to go crazy on people and provoke a reaction. Like when I held a dance party on Mia Linden's roof. Or filled Lillee & Shell's with prim babies. I just wouldn't be able to resist on such a thing as cybering. I'd have to do something weird or goofy.

I was discussing this very topic with my good friend Chaos (completely innocent, I assure you), and I had a chance to find what I would be like as a SL lover. Here is the exact quote:

"As I slide my hot, wet pussy down your hard, stiff, virile cock, my nipples start to leak sulfuric acid in delight. It drips on your rock hard abs, burning a path down your abdomen and around your scrotum. You scream in agony, while I scream in delight"

Another day, another discovery.