Second Life age verification – beta is live

After many months of development, Linden Lab have announced the beta version of their age verification system. Tateru Nino has a great summary of what it does and doesn’t do. Suffice it to say, it’s not compulsory unless you want to be able to access restricted areas in Second Life.

ageverification.JPG

To test the system I contacted two SL residents I know who are casual users and asked them if they’d mind verifying their age for the system. One resident provided their actual name, address and NSW Driver’s Licence with a fake date of birth – they were verified successfully. The second person also provided actual name and address but used a fake Driver’s Licence and fake date of birth. They too were successfully verified.

You do check a box stating you’ve provided correct information so I imagine there’s some protection in the system for Linden Lab if false information has been provided. However, if Linden Lab started to claim that it was a fairly robust security measure, I’d be quite concerned. For the record, my age verification was flawless using a Driver’s Licence – so the company running the service obviously has some Australian information on its servers….

Update: A further missive from Linden Lab admitting to high rates of failures for international users.

Update 2: Another clarification on the process by which the verification occurs – I’m still fascinated how the third-party system has so much information about individuals in the first place.

Second Life “Winter” Festival – good old ethnocentrism

Linden Lab have announced their fourth annual winter festival. I can’t resist making an obvious comment – who decided that a virtual world has seasons that match the US / Europe seasonal cycle?

Ethnocentrism at its very best. Bah humbug.

Beware: Second Life viewer flaw

Just when you thought things couldn’t get glitchier,Linden Lab have announced a further flaw in the SL viewer. QuickTime is integral to video streaming in-world and that’s the source of the flaw. Read the blog post for more details.

Update (22nd December 2007): Linden Lab have released an optional viewer update that will ascertain if you remain susceptible to the flaw.

Basic Account residents – check your credit card statement

As per Linden Lab’s notification, they’ve incorrectly billed a number of basic (free) account holders. If you hold a free account you might like to check your credit card statement.

That said, given how wonderful Second Life’s stability has been in the past week you might like to start paying for your free account 😉

Another rolling restart underway

The fun continues on the grid, this time to bring the server code up to version 1.18.6 for the next browser roll-out.

After last week’s login issues, its remained a fairly bumpy ride. How are the frustration levels going for you at present?

Freedom Expressed

Freedom Xpress is one of the more recent memorials to appear in Second Life. Its subject is freedom of expression and the journalists who have been killed for doing their job.

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The organisers of the memorial, Dakila Lacava and Galilla Sinatra, describe their motivations:

“Freedom Xpress is a place of tribute to those who have fallen in the name of freedom of expression and the press. We are also a group dedicated to promoting these freedoms as indispensable to genuine human development and understanding.

Today, people continue to be persecuted, even killed as governments and groups with dire agendas seek to suppress the truth and those who bear witness to it. Freedom XPress is our small contribution to the effort to stave off the darkness from descending on us.

At the moment, we have erected two monuments, one to Philippine journalists murdered since 2001, and another to slain Russian journalists.

We would like to invite journalists from as many countries as possible to join us, to build their own tributes to the heroes of press freedom and free expression in their lands. We also welcome those who, journalists and non-journalists alike, wish to join us spread awareness through SL about how freedom of the press and of expression continue to be threatened and attacked all over the world.

If you want to know more abut Freedom XPress or get involved with us, please feel free to IM Dakila Lacava or Galilla Sinatra. We would be honored to have you on board.”

Check it out in-world

Linden Lab CEO responds to technical issues of the past week

The Official Linden Blog is carrying a lengthy post from CEO Philip Rosedale. Its premise is a revamp of Linden Lab’s mission statement but it’s also an exposition on the future of Second Life in Rosedale’s eyes.

First, he admits to how frustrating the problems of the last week have been for residents. He then stated that the new physics engine (currently in beta) will address a lot of those issues. He’s cited the first half of 2008 as being focused on stability. Many would argue that the second half of 2007 should perhaps have been about stability as well.

Second, Rosedale admitted that “we need to create new and different ways to communicate more often and more clearly with the community”. I doubt anyone would argue with that and the few people who are left that frequent the Second Life forums wold argue there were already some useful mechanisms in place thaty were gutted months back. The commitment by Rosedale to a monthly blog post is encouraging but far from a comprehensive communication strategy. Effective communication needs to come from all facets of the organisation, not just the CEO. Some steps have been made in that regard but it’s well and truly a work in process.

What wasn’t said in the post? Well for one, no mention of further internationalisation of servers, which makes me wonder how close, if at all, the Australian servers are as we reported last week.

One statement of Rosedale’s with which I’d agree wholeheartedly: “The rocket is lit. Virtual worlds are finally real”. There’s no doubt about that at all. The trouble is, the rocket doesn’t launch some of the time, crashes after launch other times and even when it gets into orbit it can undergo decompression for no obvious reason. Here’s hoping in six months that the launch pad is still there and is having a much better launch record.

UK’s National Health Service and Second Life

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) is the world’s largest public health system and it’s currently under review. Second Life will play a small role in the review according to a message on the SL Health list today:

“The NHS Next Stage Review in Second Life:

England’s National Health Service (NHS) is under review: The ‘Our NHS our future’ review. The NHS is England’s publicly-funded healthcare system, providing the vast majority of healthcare in the UK, which is based on clinical need and not the ability to pay. The Review provides an opportunity to ensure that the future of the NHS is clinically led and can meet the challenges of delivering healthcare over the next decade.

As a key component of the Review, on the 21st of November there will be an International Clinical Summit on pathways to care, where 1500 invited clinicians and physicians will be meeting in real life in London. But you can follow the meeting in Second Life or via the webcast. In Second Life you will be able to register your own opinions and meet and chat with the speakers.

This SL event will mainly be of interest to healthcare professionals, both within the UK and internationally. Our Second Health Auditorium can accommodate up to 50 avatars. If there is sufficient demand we will open a second auditorium, and you can always follow the Summit’s live webcast outside SL if we are over-subscribed. Text chat will be logged, and we may record video and audio portions of the in-world event for later playback.

Dates and times:

21 November 2007, 14:20-18:45 Greenwich Mean Time

21 November 2007, 06:20-10:45 Second Life Time (GMT-8)

Locations:

Teleport straight to the presentation area

If the main auditorium is full, the overflow auditorium is here.

To take part in the text chat with speakers in the main auditorium, you will need to join the Second Health London group. This will be explained at the overflow auditorium.

Agenda

14.20-14.30 Welcome and opening the event (CMO)

Overview of SHA engagement events (David Nicholson)

14.30-14.45 Objectives of the NHS Next Stage Review

14.45-15.00 Setting the scene – how to move the needle on health and health outcomes

15.00-16.00 Speaker Session One: High quality care across a healthcare system

David Levine from Montreal

Jack Cochran from Kaiser

Table discussion & questions

16.00-16.30 Tea Break (break in webcast)

16.30-17.30 Speaker Session Two: Examples of integrated care systems from abroad

Dr Schwartz from Westchester

Prof Schulte from Polikum

Table discussion & questions

17.30-18.30 Speaker Session Three: Examples of integrated care systems from UK

Dr O’Kelly from Tiverton

Dr Ian Rutter from Bradford

Table discussion & questions

18.30-18.45 Wrap up

Webcast: If the event is oversubscribed, or you can’t access SL, you can view the live webcast.”

Now if only Australia’s health systems could receive the same amount of attention….

Logins down again

Just for something different, some residents are experiencing login issues again. As mentioned on the weekend, we can only hope this constant problem gets better.

It could be a special Xmas present from Linden Lab.

Landbots and drowned avatars

The Second Life Herald ran a story today about landbots, those automated entities that cause all sorts of problems with buying and selling land. The SL Herald is alleging that around 20 avatars placed in water sims are part of the landbot scam. Whatever the reason for the submerged avatars, it’s a little strange. Yesterday I noticed that an avatar was showing up in the middle of a water sim:

landbot2.jpg

I teleported to the spot and found this:

landbot.jpg

I returned 24 hours later and found the avatar in the same position and location. Not surprisingly there’s no profile data and the avatars are usually dressed in stock standard orientation clothing. Have you come across one of these drowned avatars? If it turns out they are linked to landbots then hopefully Linden Lab will have a clean-up. It’s hard to imagine what legitimate reason there is for their presence.

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