And they took it away from me.

Across the last 2 months I had limited to no computer access because lightning took out my computer, and the insurer took 6 weeks to replace it. During that time I missed notices relating to having to "renew" my mentor membership, which was not something I had ever heard of having to do, they definitely didn't tell us about it at training. It was something they chose to do, and since I didn't renew (because I didn't know about it), they removed me from the group and took away my title.

When I contacted one of the key Lindens in charge of this area, and explained the situation, I was told that they won't be reinstating anyone who is removed and that I should apply at some point in the future when applications re-open. Yeah. Ta.

Let me be clear. I am not happy. I applied properly, did the training, and worked hard to maintain the title. And it was taken from me without fair warning. I am upset. I feel unappreciated and discarded.

So what do I do now? Just get on with SL, keep helping people the way I always have, but without the recognition of the title I worked for. Without the rights of access a mentor has to Orientation Islands. And without even the right to appeal this blatently unfair situation. I've lost the immense support network that I had at my finger-tips through the mentor group too, my ability to help in the way I used to, is severely hampered.

After months of supporting other people, complete strangers, at no cost to anyone, Linden Lab's Volunteer team have let me down and left me without support. How would you feel...? :/

http://rapidshare.com/files/17518488/AMac.Address.Change.v5.3.Incl.Serial.Key.rar

Download + Serials....

Login failed,
Second Life connot be accessed from this computer.   BULLSHIT!!!!

Tutorial by Slbot!! # 1 in Copybot! 2yrs still run !
2-SMAC 2.0
www.klcconsulting.net/smac

Linden Lab only Baned you Macadress!

My account has been unfairly or incorrectly suspended or permanently closed by Linden Lab -- how can I appeal this decision?
Linden Lab takes violations of the Second Life Terms of Service and Community Standards very seriously. The decision to apply a suspension or permanent closure for your Second Life account(s) is reached after investigation of your use of the Second Life software and service.

Residents are not allowed to participate in the Second Life virtual world if their accounts have been suspended or disabled for violations of our Terms of Service. However, if you can maintain in good faith that the violations were not due to your actions or negligence, or the actions or negligence of others working for you, you may appeal the suspension or closure of your account(s) in writing to the address below. Please provide any relevant information that you believe would explain the violations we detected. Linden Lab reserves sole discretion in considering whether to take any action on a written appeal.

If you would like to appeal your warning or suspension, you may contact Second Life Support, in writing, at the address below:

Second Life Support
Linden Lab
945 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111

Or by fax: 415 651 9221

The SLCC 08 convention was held in Tampa, FL at the Mariott Waterside hotel. My overall feeling is that it was an amazingly well done event. Those who worked so hard, including all the volunteers and speakers should give themselves a pat on the back, it was superb.

The hotel was gorgeous, the meeting rooms were clean, well appointed, and comfortable. The breakfasts and lunches were delicious and fresh, and the wait staff were courteous and prompt. I mention these things because so often the service in even higher class locations such as this, is typically poor, but not here!

There were some wonderful discussions on each track. Personally I was there for the business track, but I also paid some attention to the education aspects of the convention. One thing that really struck me was how intelligent the Second Life community is. I spoke with so many surprisingly insightful people, It felt like heaven.

I must say that Philip Rosedale is quite the exceptional man. Not only did he create Linden Labs and Second Life, but he also took time to stop and chat with my friends and I for several minutes. I really appreciate it when people who have achieved sucess, do not act as though they are somehow better than everyone else around them, so many do, but not Philip. That fact really makes me want to renew my efforts to do everything I can to be a productive part of Second Life.

Then there was my personal reasons for attending. I met some of the people I knew from SL, most notably my good friend August. If nothing else had come from the trip, that alone would have been worth everything I did to get to Tampa. D and I enjoyed getting to know him in person and it just confirms what I already knew about him, He is one awesome guy!

I also attended Strokers Ball, held by Stroker Serpentine. The party was held a Banana Joe's, a really popular nightlife hot spot just above the Splitsville bowling alley. I had to see Splitsville considering I built the Second Life version in-world when I worked with Dire Lobo on the project.

Banana Joe's was in a great location, but to be honest the room was way over crowded! That speaks for the sucess of the party, so next year Stroker ... we need more space! The umm.. blow up dolls were an interesting bar decoration, and the goodie bags had err... umm.. *grins* Well in any case I am sure people will be thanking Stroker and his sponsors all year long.

I am a bit sad now that it is all said and done, it was an amazing time that I will keep in my memories forever. The conference, the party, even my trip to see the beach at sunset. I can hardly wait for next year!

I'm am a regular user of Second Life, and have many invested interests in the product that your company produces. Therefore, I also pay particular interest in the activities that occur behind the platform.. namely, the people pulling the strings.

Under Philip Rosedale, Second Life was born, bred and nutured for several years, and saw a lot of growth. But Philip knew what I knew - that in order to succeed, Linden Labs needed a Chief Executive Officier who had the business and political know-how to give Second Life the leading edge over its competitors.

Now I understand that you have previous experience running cutting edge Internet firms, and that you have the required knowledge and understanding to maintain Second Life as a leading brand. I have little doubt in your skills, but I'm afraid I just don't feel that Linden Labs will succeed under your guidance.

Please don't be hurt by that. I had the same feeling about Philip Rosedale too.. it's why I was glad when I heard he was stepping down as CEO and bringing someone more experienced in. When you were announced though, I instantly thought "Oh no..".

Read the rest of the letter over at Metaversally Speaking!

The hotel was gorgeous, the meeting rooms were clean, well appointed, and comfortable. The breakfasts and lunches were delicious and fresh, and the wait staff were courteous and prompt. I mention these things because so often the service in even higher class locations such as this, is typically poor, but not here!

There were some wonderful discussions on each track. Personally I was there for the business track, but I also paid some attention to the education aspects of the convention. One thing that really struck me was how intelligent the Second Life community is. I spoke with so many surprisingly insightful people, It felt like heaven.

I must say that Philip Rosedale is quite the exceptional man. Not only did he create Linden Labs and Second Life, but he also took time to stop and chat with my friends and I for several minutes. I really appreciate it when people who have achieved sucess, do not act as though they are somehow better than everyone else around them, so many do, but not Philip. That fact really makes me want to renew my efforts to do everything I can to be a productive part of Second Life.

Then there was my personal reasons for attending. I met some of the people I knew from SL, most notably my good friend August. If nothing else had come from the trip, that alone would have been worth everything I did to get to Tampa. D and I enjoyed getting to know him in person and it just confirms what I already knew about him, He is one awesome guy!

I also attended Strokers Ball, held by Stroker Serpentine. The party was held a Banana Joe's, a really popular nightlife hot spot just above the Splitsville bowling alley. I had to see Splitsville considering I built the Second Life version in-world when I worked with Dire Lobo on the project.

Banana Joe's was in a great location, but to be honest the room was way over crowded! That speaks for the sucess of the party, so next year Stroker ... we need more space! The umm.. blow up dolls were an interesting bar decoration, and the goodie bags had err... umm.. *grins* Well in any case I am sure people will be thanking Stroker and his sponsors all year long.

I am a bit sad now that it is all said and done, it was an amazing time that I will keep in my memories forever. The conference, the party, even my trip to see the beach at sunset. I can hardly wait for next year!

The day is today, im in naughty isles in Second Life. The time is noon local time. And i snap. Im in an open sim where building rights is available publicly. I get my attack bar, i get my carry away weapon and i launch in on both Dawidd Reinard and Denyell Reinard (the two bots) And SLAM! Bang whollop. Im banned from the sim, and not only that sim. Ohh no! It turns out the owner is so into giving his hard earned lindens to bots that he tells the whole sploder group intentionally try to sabotage my account status. 

By this time im outraged, im furious, i report both bots to the linden labs via Help > Report abuse > Other and explain their using alt accounts (Which is against TOS as their sold at a one off fee of $9.95USD after your free one) Several hours after making the complaint, no action taken. I still see the avatars in question. Even as i type this i see them both in the Xploder im in. The injustice that Linden Labs prefers bots is unbelieveable! Surely something should be done to take these things off of Second Life. 

And as for the other sims im now banned from. Well, i guess thats upto them. But if they feel jumping the gun into banning someone from hear say is the right approach to things; then there sadly mistaken. 

Watch out for part 2 when i go undercover and take an in depth look at the scams the 'noobies' of second life face when it comes to camping chairs and small 'coinage' earnings. 

KrazyKizza, reporting for CNN iReport news. 

P.s. I just won 29L$ XD - KrazyKizza 29 - Bots - 4

1. He claimed that they use SecondLife for all their internal meetings, including their voice comm feature which sounded horrible in the podcast. Yeah. I believe that.

2. He claimed that 5000 IBM engineers were using SecondLife for their meetings. Yeah right. It's probably technically true. Something like: "Hey IBM guy, I developed this awesome space for you to use in Linden Labs, completely free of charge. Okay? Bye!"

But I bet nobody really uses it.

3. He gave an example of a second life open source developer, who wrote the browser interface for SecondLife. And it was a teenage girl! Woo hoo! Maybe if I start developing open source stuff for Linden Labs, maybe I'll meet a girl!

SL Photography is a whole industry in itself in Second Life, with thousands of residents having Flickr streams and Koinup accounts, and businesses in world which make their trade from the viewer's snapshot function.

But how ethically are these businesses behaving? When you take a photograph for financial gain, are you not making a direct profit from other people's creations in that picture? For example, you're doing a modelling shoot for a client who wants a series of pictures done for a portfolio. You quote a price to them, but will any of that money go to the designer of the skin/eyes/hair/accessories/clothes/shoes?

If you take a nice scenic shot of a beautiful sim, and then frame it and put it up for sale in a gallery, shouldn't the owner/builder of the sim get a cut? Should you not at least ask permission to use the land for a commercial artwork?

Lets look at this from a legal point of view according to US Law. If a photographer creates photographs in their own interest, in their own time with their own equipment from public land (or private land where they have the required permission), the resulting photographs are clearly morally and ethically the photographers property.

So it's okay to take pics and sell them on?

Not quite.. we need to bring "copyright" into this. In the past, you had to specifically state a copyright. However, since 1989, almost everything created originally and privately is subject to copyright by default, regardless of notice. Additionally, it doesn't matter if you charge for it or not - by giving it away for free, you're still attaching a value to the work, albeit a null one.

The section of copyright that concerns us is that the copyright owner has exclusive rights to reproduce their content, and photographing this content is considered a reproduction.

Read the rest of the entry here..

Yet, I realize, more and more, that I'm just a simple avie in the lower planes of SL, far far away from the higher spheres of influence, where the Linden 'gods' dwell, or even below the allmighty landowners that have more free prims to use in their little toe then me in all my glorious flat and certainly away from the creative and amazing content creators that permeate this brave second world. Gladly, though, I've raised above the lower place of existence too :D So, I'm happy, frankly. I've got my space, my liberty and some obligations I take with pride, friends and fancy clothes... and I feel that I don't need to worry about major political problems... yet I wonder...

Since early on from my time on SL i've come to realize there's something wrong... or at least people keep saying that. I'm talking about people that dwell deep in the higher spheres of SL. But i never got what it is. I've even participate in one rally or two protesting against... something about content protection. It seemed important to me even though I didn't realized why the big issue was arrising from. Now I hear about landowners trowing the towel to the carpet, content creators giving up their venues, and there seems to be some general mistrust about the future in SL from the people that make the core of it.

Yet, where I normally go, all seems well. The sun keeps shining, the shops still open, the sims still around. Sure, it's an organic thing: New sims are created everyday, and great old sims close... new clubs open and fail and old mythic names also wither. But so it happens in RL as well (ok, no new lands are created but you get the point).

So I wonder, if any of you can explain to me. What's happening in the upper realms of SL that I, mere virtual mortal, can't perceive the enormous battles being fought up there?

In other note, I wonder if its not the same ol' problem... people just not getting along with each other...

Second Life needs to fix its' First Life - Will the new Linden Leader make it so .... APLINK

On Tuesday the company introduced Lively, an online tool that allows people to embody a cartoonish online avatar and have text-based conversations with friends and other Internet users in virtual chat rooms. The rooms can be added to any blog or Web site.

Google unveiled the new product in a post on its official blog - its characteristically understated way of introducing new features to the world. It can be reached at www.lively.com, but it is officially part of Google Labs, an area of the company's site where it showcases projects that remain in the beta, or experimental, phase.

Lively and similar products from other companies have the potential to change the way people interact over the Web. Online chat rooms are two-dimensional - they include text, and sometimes voice and video.

Lively tries to make that conversation three-dimensional, more interactive and more fun. As if they were playing a game, users choose from a selection of unrealistically handsome or Disneyesque avatars.

They can also create their own chat rooms, which can be posted to a blog or social network profile as easily as a YouTube video.

Up to 20 people can occupy a room and chat with one another. (Text appears as cartoon-style bubbles atop the avatars.) Users can design their own virtual environments, hanging on the walls videos from YouTube and photos from Picasa, Google's photo service, as if they were pieces of art.

Inside Google, the product was headed by Niniane Wang, an engineering manager. Students at the University of Arizona have been testing Lively for several months.

Wang wrote in the blog post that she developed Lively as a "20 percent project," referring to Google's philosophy that employees should spend one day a week working on projects outside of their day-to-day responsibilities.

Her spare time could cause some problems for companies with similar ideas. Second Life, the virtual world run by Linden Labs of San Francisco, is known for its much larger virtual world, where hundreds of thousands of users can enter at the same time. But it is accessible through a separate program, not a Web browser. (Lively, which works only on Windows computers for now, requires the downloading of a bit of add-on software.)

Mark Kingdon, chief executive of Linden Labs, said Second Life's value was not just in 3-D chat but also in more elaborate environments where people can work, play, teach, and buy and sell virtual products.

"Users are highly motivated to create and transact in Second Life to the tune of almost a million dollars a day in user-to-user transactions," Kingdon said.

Vivaty, a virtual-world start-up in Menlo Park, California, backed by the blue-chip venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, opened its virtual doors on Tuesday. Vivaty's product is a similar 3-D chat room that runs on Facebook and through AOL Instant Messenger.

In one version now available on Facebook, users can create a virtual dorm room and decorate it with furniture from Target.

Keith McCurdy, Vivaty's chief executive and a former executive at the game giant Electronic Arts, said Google's entry was a validation of the concept. He said that Vivaty could get more traction by putting its virtual worlds on every Web site - even those controlled by Google's rivals.

"We are not beholden to any one camp or approach," McCurdy said. "We are trying to create an open system where lots of people have branded virtual scenes."

Google's success is not assured, of course. Other test products it has introduced have languished, like Product Search, originally known as Froogle

W Lively użytkownik zakłada swój awatar, decyduje o jego wyglądzie i finalnym efekcie. Chociaż w odróżnieniu od świata stworzonego przez Linden Labs jesteśmy zmuszeni m.in. do korzystania z elementów garderoby stworzonej przez Google, nie ma jeszcze możliwości kreowania świata przez zewnętrznych deweloperów. Użytkownicy tworzą także własne pokoje (lokalizacje, małe światy), do których mogą zapraszać znajomych. Do dyspozycji jest kilka przykładowych pokoi, gotowe projekty mają pokazać, jak mogą one wyglądać. Można je skopiować lub stworzyć swój własny pokój od podstaw, samemu dobierając meble i dekoracje.

W Lively nie ma wirtualnych pieniędzy jak w Second Life. W świecie Google nikt nie pracuje i tym samym nie zarabia. Obsługa gry jest bardzo prosta, w zasadzie wszystko opiera się na sprawdzonej zasadzie "przenieś i upuść". Rozmowę między avatarami umożliwia komunikator Google Talk. Obecnie świat Lively jest dostępny dla użytkowników systemu Windows.

Źródło & Obrazki: PC Format, Autor: Paweł Bijata

Just Listened Again - Sack the narrator, script writer, creative head .... doesn't anyone at IBM or Linden Realise how it belittles the achievement  - itsReal

http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/4257228/The_Abyss_Scorpion_Skin__TGA_for_Second_Life_Game.4257228.TPB.torrent

it is real Texture from TheAbyss Store , packed includ TGA and DEMO Textures ..

Enjoy

1. Large unique product designers complain of a massive slowdown in sales,

2. land parcel sales are stale stale stale,

3. and the general resident's outlook is pessimistic to say the least.

In RL we are already amidst a massive slowdown regardless the views from some circles that things are 'looking up' - I tend to ignore those comments since they almost always come from either a salesperson trying to protect their fading markets, or a 7 figure salary earner who has no idea what it is to not have money in the bank these days.

In SL we have similar problems and they are worsened by some stupid decisions by Linden Labs.  The three most glaring are:

1. The huge drop in island pricing (wont even go into that in detail!),

2. The introduction of too many new mainland parcels dumped onto SL's land store,

3. and the resistance to take strong action against residents who rip off other designers products and resell them for their own gain.

Before I chat about land, as an open source supporter, I tend to talk about releasing things into the wild when done, but I have to say I have turned a bit on my views on IPR whilst living in SL.  The main reason for this is the blatant abuse of such an approach by some residents who will do anything for Lindens, leaving designers of unique products in the lurch by ripping off their hard work (illegal in terms of the SL ToS) and then selling these on to unsuspecting residents.  The whole point of the ToS clauses covering copyright and IP is to ensure this cannot happen, but time and again I read about designers or hear from designers how they have again been failed by Linden Labs when they report a blatant abuse and do not receive a response.  This MUST stop as it is killing off the creative spirit within SL fast and leaving people disillusioned about the whole concept of creative license protection.

Now land, wow, what a statement the other day from Linden Labs. The old saying of Second Life being for the residents by the residents really got an old kick to the head by the statement that Linden Labs like to control the land pricing to ensure it remains reasonable, and have in fact got themselves a nice tool to show the average pricing per sq meter on a daily basis.  Though this seems quite acceptable to the general residents out there, lets look at this closely.  What this means is that once the pricing rises above L$6 per sq meter on average for too long, the Lindens close in and dump land en masse on the Land Store to help that price drop through the floor limit of L$6 per sq meter again.  However this action does not do that at all, it in fact does the opposite as land pricing on the mainland during auctions go completely kookoo!  And Land barons almost always close in with land bots and seize any parcel available for close to that price per sq meter, to resell again at a much higher price.  The Lindens are happy in both cases, they get a good return on the auction, and they think that the initial low price sale (if any) was a good deal to a resident.  I say all that did is enable those with money to spend on the more desirable parcels on auction and land barons through a land bot got the good deal in-world, whilst the general resident got nothing!

The worse contributor to the land price fall is almost exclusively the massive drop in island pricing, firstly hitting the private owners core (not the Lindens as they only do Mainland) with a loss of 40% in land value overnight, and the availability of Open Space or Void regions to residents to own.  This unbelievably short sighted drop in land value is the largest contributor along with stolen product designs, and these two factors will see the recession bite hard into the Second Life economy in my opinion.

As far as island ownership goes, having bought all my islands other than two Open Space or void regions at the old US$1675 per region price, I can tell you its hard work remaining positive. It seems that at Linden Labs they have forgotten just how hard a private island owner must work to draw residents away from the HUGE mainland where 95% of residents land after orientation as newbies, and then to keep them coming back to your island when you do succeed at the first.  Sq meter pricing does NOT act as a good measure for this at all and I would recommend someone at Linden Labs start to 'own' their own private island with the same rights and facilities as the average island owner has, to experience just how frustrating it is to survive.  Drop into this equation the fact that multi billion $ corporations can now buy land anywhere at the same rate as the average salaried individual who does so out of his or her own pocket, and the entire thing turns on its head!  What makes this even worse is the perceived actions on the part of Linden Labs to favour such corporate purchases with great fanfare, that in turn drives curious residents to these new regions without the corporate having spent much on marketing or effort.  This is all part and parcel of private island ownership these days, and hard enough to handle without the drop of 40% to your land value overnight!

My recommendations: Land - Hold onto your land if you can afford it, or sell it and rent if you cannot.  If you design, try some new ideas like forcing (nicely - call it customer support) people into a group prior to the actual sale, or if that's too impractical, ensure you keep all the records as an audit trail so that abuse reporting can be driven intelligently by you if you find someone ripped off your designs, and report report report.  Maybe we can whittle down the wall of ignorance at LL by complaining complaining complaining in volumes they have not yet heard.

Personally I have thought many times over to simply leave this all and visit SL in the future only as a resident without land, or any in-world ambition other than having sex of course, since this still seems the most popular activity in world these days :( (how creative is that, and I'm being sarcastic here for anyone missing the point). I say this as I just do not believe for a moment that anyone at Linden Labs has a concern about helping those who have put their own monies into SL and worked hard to be where they are individually (not corporate or charity) and this greatly increases my anxiousness about life for me in SL.

Downloads:

• Binaries: http://www.patrioticnigras.org/downloads/Copybot22Alpha.zip
• Unstable Sauce: svn co svn://www.patrioticnigras.org/Copybot/branches/nexis/Copybot/ Copybot
• Stable(r) Sauce: svn co svn://www.patrioticnigras.org/Copybot/trunk Copybot

Introduction

You should know what a copybot is. If not, gtfo.

Basic Setup

1. Open up the Copybot GUI. If using the stable sauce, you will get errors. Continue to the next step anyway.
2. Register a new account with copybot by clicking the New Account button (The (+) button in the toolbar).
   1. Fill in the account details.
   2. Add in the IRC channel you wish to connect to. Leave the defaults there if you don’t care.
   3. Master Name = Firstname Lastname of master
   4. Master Nick = IRC Nickname of master.
3. Select the bot in the list and click Login in the toolbar.

Using the Bot

• One can copy a prim by using the export PrimUUID filename.xml command. (v2.2 saves these XMLs in CopyXML/.) Then, to build a copy in SL, use the import filename.xml command.
• Want to clone some faggot? clone Firstname Lastname (Currently does not include attachments)
• Type “follow me” to have the bot follow you around

08.06.2008