Ten-Thousand Hits

Yesterday, the Second Life Times blog reached 10,000 visits!

Asset Server To Be Fixed!

beez Linden said today that the asset server will be repaired tomorrow from 8-8:30 AM SL time.

“As Karen announced in the forums this weekend, the asset server has been having some load problems the past few days. To work on this problem, the Second Life grid will be closed to all Residents Tuesday between 8:00 and 8:30 AM SLT. During this short downtime, Operations will make changes to the asset server cluster that we expect will help with the asset server problems.

The Wednesday downtime Josh announced last week is still scheduled. We’ll use that downtime - 7:00 AM to 12:00 noon SLT - to upgrade software on the grid.

Thanks for your patience as we keep working on the asset servers.”

God Mode - Dead

The God Mode “plugin” died today after the update to SL 1.11.1. Many people that purchased the L$2500 plugin are upset that the program no longer works.

Paper having no troubles!

I am pleased to announce that the SL Times, Issue 1  is doing very well. It was released only 4 days ago, and already has sold many more copies that I would have thought.

Right now, all money is going to buying rental space for more vendors, etc. Please see the MetaWiki for vendor locations!

If you would like to host one of our vendors, please see Luke Birdbrain in world.

Second Life 1.10.5 Fixes Account Verification Problems

The last few weeks, Residents have been upset about the registration changes made by Linden Labs. That all changed with today’s release of Second Life 1.10.5

Posted By Lee Linden:

Release Notes for Second Life 1.10.5(1) June 28, 2006
=====================================
New features:
* Each resident’s profile now includes a field revealing whether the resident has provided payment information to Linden Lab.
** The profile’s “Account” field includes account status: “Resident” or “Linden Lab Employee” and, in the case of “Resident” status one of three status entries:
*** “No Payment Info on File” - account was created with no credit card or Paypal
*** “Payment Info on File” - account has provided a credit card or Paypal
*** “Payment Info Used” - credit card or Paypal on account has successfully been billed
** We plan to provide features in future updates to mark specific parts of the Second Life world (or allow residents to mark their own land) as accessible only to accounts with payment information.

Other changes:
* The “Report PvP Abuse” option has been removed from the Help menu
** Residents can and should continue to report harrassing PvP abuse via “Report Abuse” under Help
** Residents should provide as much relevant information as possible when filing Abuse Reports
* Residents explicitly banned from a land parcel cannot fly in that parcel’s airspace, to a height of 768m
** Residents not explicitly banned, but not on the access list, can fly over the parcel at an altitude greater than 50m
* More categories have been added to the Places menu
* The Library is displayed at the bottom of the Inventory for quicker access to one’s own Inventory
* Snapshots to disk are now taken with CTRL+` instead of just the ` key
* “Copy and Wear” now behaves identically to dragging a folder from inventory onto your avatar
** Existing clothing and attachments will be removed

Bug fixes:
* Transferring an island to a new owner no longer causes objects on group-owned land to be returned automatically
* The Open option is not displayed when the object has no contents
* PCI-Express cards should no longer give errors that AGP is disabled
* Corrected several error messages about incorrect driver versions
* The version number of an optional update is now displayed
* Fixed a bug that caused some objects to be missed by rectangle-select
* Fixed a display bug with transparent avatar textures in Upload Preview
* Doubled the space available to display the estate name in Region/Estate

Linux client fixes:
* No linux client specific fixes in this release

Got the blues?

Albata (146, 213, 47) - While surfing the upcoming events, I found one that caught my attention. A grand opening of a new club, called Club Blue. The three owners: Raphael Debs, DJNaughtyjay Valentine, and Bunny Pinkdot have put this club together as a part of a RL adventure. All three of these people in RL are DJ's for a radio show called Bluecrew Radio. "We have the club as another outlet to share our radio station with our listeners and to have a good time doing it" said DJNaughty. Raphael and Bunny continued with "It's an internet radio station. The station bluecrewradio is the forfront of our club. We will have live dj's and dancers and events mon-fri 4-5sl time."

They were all very kind and decided to give SL Times an interview:

SL Times: What are some of the events that SL'ers can expect to find here?
DJNaughtyJay Valentine: We will do various events … for example thursday is best in wings and fridai best formal.
Bunny Pinkdot: To start with, on thursday, our grand opening, we will have a 'best in wings,' then friday a formal event, and some time in the future a princess ball.

SLT: Do you offer any prizes or gifts as part of your event?
DJNaughtyJay Valentine: We have a raffle ball for money and prize items.
Raphael Debs: Raffles for big prizes , cash, certifacates to our neighboring stors etc
Bunny Pinkdot: I will also be setting up a booth for vendors to display there items for events that coordinate with them. For example, on friday we will have a formal contest and our vendor will set up a small booth for them to have a quick easy selection.

SLT:  Are there any jobs being offered to SL'ers now, or can we expect some in the future?
Bunny Pinkdot: we would like to find managers or hostess' for mon-wed 3-5 pm.
Raphael Debs: Yes, dancers too, but thats future.

SLT: What do you think Club Blue offers that sets you apart from the club norms?
Bunny Pinkdot: We will have a lot of different events bringing all social backgrounds together, allowing a place to people to go to meet like minded firends and companions.
Raphael Debs: We arn't "hey contest time" and the ignore you…we soclize.

SLT: So what can a normal person, coming in from out of the blue, expect his/her experience to be like?
Raphael Debs: Meet great friends for one, possably a mate
DJNaughtyJay Valentine: They can expect a friendly atmosphere geared toward the satisfaction of our guests.

After the interview, I experience a wonderful tour. They showed me everything from the DJ booth, or the special dancing cages, to the wondeful courtyard geared for socail events. Club Blue is definatly a club to keep on your list of hot places to be. They interact with everyone, and make you feel welcome. If you every have the blues, come to Club Blue and give them away!
-Luke Birdbrain.

Second Life’s 3rd Birthday Approaches!

According to this post by Torley, the preperations for the 3rd birthday celebration of Second Life is underway. One of the main features will be an art show. More information is available on the SL History WIKI.

Advertise with us!

Second Life Times now allows advertising on our blog. Contact Simon Lameth or advertising@metaversemedia.port5.com.

Metaverse Media to help in making of Titanic 2!

Metaverse Media Executives have just finished signing a contract that will allow them to help in the making of “Titanic Two The Surface”. The movie is expected out Summer 2007.
You can find a trailer at the Official Site. Read on after seeing the trailer!

Linden Labs to remove dwell

From Phillip Linden:

“he past several months have seen a gradual decline in the value of the Linden dollar on the LindeX currency exchange. Most recently, the Linden Dollar has dropped in value by approximately 11% since mid-February. In response to this decline, and in keeping with our desire to maintain a stable currency exchange rate, Linden Lab has decided to discontinue the payment of traffic incentives to parcel owners. For the most recent month of March 2006, these traffic incentives totalled $4.7M Linden Dollars. Removing these incentives will reduce the amount of new money being created and should be expected to have a stabilizing effect on the value of the Linden Dollar. Following this change, we will continue to watch the economy and make further changes as needed.

We will also be posting a number of different economic statistics in the forums, for those who wish to follow the Second Life economy in more detail. Additionally, Robin Linden will be following up with detailed information and schedule about the traffic incentives.

The overall growth of the Second Life economy continues to be very strong: For the first quarter of 2006, user-to-user transactions in Second Life totalled $4.17B Linden Dollars, an increase of 68% over Q4 2005. Currency purchases on the Lindex for Q1 2006 totalled $743M Linden Dollars, meaning approximately US $2.6 million dollars traded at average exchange rates.”