Tech -- Culture -- Humour
There’s nothing on the LL blog at this stage but there’s obviously a significant issue with SL at present. When launching the browsers a stock standard ‘Access Denied’ message comes up within the browser:
It’s not been a great week for stability in SL, that’s for sure. One important note – you can still log in to SL by clicking the Connect button.
UPDATE: Linden Labs now aware of issue
The SL Relay for Life is in its third year, and this weekend is the culmination of months of work and promotion.
Spread across four sims, the course has some great sights, music on tap and a bunch of entertainment and commemorative events scheduled (SL Insider has the full schedule listed). There are different themed areas such as Pinocchio and Tomb Raider to walk through in addition to chatting with other participants.
Like the Australian Relay For Life, groups have set up camping areas and the whole thing has that similar community spirit. You can even enjoy the sight of yor hair disappearing as you cross sims on the walk.
Do yourself a favour and do at least one virtual lap and donate some money for cancer support and research. Check it out in-world.
Linden Labs have clarified in no uncertain terms their stance on gambling in SL – it’s not to occur, full stop.
The actual policy is:
“It is a violation of this policy to wager in games in the Second Life (R) environment operated on Linden Lab servers if such games:
(1) (a) rely on chance or random number generation to determine a winner, OR (b) rely on the outcome of real-life organized sporting events,
AND
(2) provide a payout in
(a) Linden Dollars, OR
(b) any real-world currency or thing of value.
This includes (but is not limited to), for example, Casino Games such as:
o Baccarat
o Blackjack
o Craps
o Faro
o Keno
o Pachinko
o Pai Gow
o Poker
o Roulette
o Sic Bo
o Slot machines
It also includes Sports Books or Sports Betting, including the placing of bets on actual sporting events against a book-maker or through a betting exchange. Linden Lab will actively enforce this policy. If we discover gambling activities that violate the policy, we will remove all related objects from the inworld environment, may suspend or terminate the accounts of residents involved without refund or payment, and may report any relevant details, including user information, to authorities and financial institutions.”
It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes for compliance with the policy to be achieved. When I first joined SL in 2006 I was advised to pick up some free $L by using camping chairs. I still had a casino landmark saved from back then and I tried it this evening and took the pictures contained in this story. As you can see, this casino hasn’t done anything to meet the new policy as yet.
Whether you love or hate gambling in SL, the new policy will remove a cultural aspect of the grid. Maybe some will even miss the sight of rows of zombie-like chair campers:
Will you miss the casinos in SL?
A fascinating Australian collaboration is about to make its SL debut. ‘Thursday’s Fictions’ is described as a surreal dance fantasy and it’s screening on ABC TV this Sunday, 29th July at 3pm AEST. Directly afterwards at 4pm at the ABC Ampitheatre on ABC Island there’ll be a Q&A session with Dr Richard James Allen, Dr Karen Pearlman, Gary Hayes and Story Consultant Jacqueline Turnure.
A standalone SL presence based on Thursday’s Fictions is close to completion. Gary Hayes was kind enough to point us to the build for Thursday’s Fictions for a preview and it looks like being an interesting and interactive presence. It’s likely a landmark for it will be provided at the Q&A session on Sunday.
Check the ABC website for more details on the screening or the LAMP blog for more detail on the SL build by Gary Hayes.
We asked Gary for his thoughts on the build:
“It was particularly exciting recreating what I had read and seen of the film and making it relevant to Second Life – so I was careful not to just clone the sets or be too real world in translations of the metaphors of spirituality – but try to imagine given unlimited pallette what the choices around reincarnation could be”.
Gary also gave a brief synopsis of the film and the SL build’s relationship to it:
“It is the story of a lady called Thursday who tries to cheat reincarnation in that she takes the wrong things with her into each new life. So the Second Life experience is to get you, to think about what qualities you would carry with you into a new existence. I have built a small user journey through this and the idea is to go into further development to build all the story elements – the days representing new lives. Richard Allen and Karen Perlman have been great in allowing me to work with them to be very SL specific with this”.
Second Life Insider have run a story providing some information on some challenges WSE may be facing. The grid is down presently so we can’t contact LukeConnell Vandeverre for clarification but we’ll attempt to do so later in the day.
Update: Reuters are now running the story based on a WSE announcement confirming the theft.
The Pond are promoting a rental land auction in conjunction with advertising on tradingpost.com.au.
The reserve amounts are quite reasonable and it’ll be interesting to see what the level of interest will be. What will be even more interesting will be what businesses or residences will end up there. There’s a key sentence in the information provided: “BigPond reserves the right to make its own judgment about the suitability of any potential tenant of The Pond”. You can assume Optus won’t be allowed to set up shop on The Pond….
The full notecard available in-world reads as follows:
“The Pond – Residential Land Sale Process
On the 26th July 2007 we will publish some web “For Sale” pages on TradingPost.com.au, which will allow you to offer a MONTHLY TIER amount for your preferred Lot in LINDEN DOLLARS .
A link to the relevant URL can be made by touching the in-world Info Map at the central information site. You can also search the Trading Post in the Entertainment & Electronics > Video & Computer Games categories.
An offer will imply acceptance of a minimum rental period of three months at the rate offered. After three months you, the tenant, will continue to pay the same monthly Tier in LINDEN DOLLARS.
These Trading Post web pages will have a reserve price associated with each Lot, which is the minimum Tier offer we will accept for the Lot.
RESERVE PRICES (Monthly Linden Tier)
Some lots are slightly different sizes, yet have the same reserve price.
L$ Tier Meter2
$10,800 8,192
$6,750 4,096
$4,050 2,048
$2,160 1,024
$1,350 512
If you want to make an offer, you will need to register with the Trading Post. To register as a buyer you need to have an acceptable email address.
No credit card details are required for registration, unless you cannot provide an acceptable email address. BigPond will not have access to your email address or personal information at any stage in the process.
We suggest that you using your Avatar name as your user-name on the trading post (eg. Very_Mulberry or ThreeD_Raymaker), but this is not a requirement. If your Avatar name is not the user-name used for bidding, then it is up to you to make your Avatar name clear by including it in conditions attached to your offer.
We will keep the offering process open for 7 Days. During this offering period, we will periodically review, reject and respond to any low offers, allowing you to place a new competitive offer if you desire. BigPond cannot guarantee that any offer that is not explicitly rejected will be accepted.
At the end of 7 Days, Thursday 2nd August at 18:00 AEST, offers will be closed. At this time BigPond may accept an open offer for each property, which will most likely be the highest offer. BigPond reserves the right to make its own judgment about the suitability of any potential tenant of The Pond.
BigPond will use the Avatar Name details provided with the winning offer to contact the Avatar in world via IM, at which time the Property Statement, Residential Agreement, and General Terms notecards will be given to the Avatar.
Payment of the monthly Tier at the Land Vendor by the Avatar will constitute acceptance of the terms contained within documents.
Upon payment, BigPond will transfer ownership of the Lot to the Avatar, for their enjoyment for the duration of the tenancy.
Tier payments are required monthly in advance, and can be made at the Land Vendor in-world.
Full Terms and Conditions incorporated in the Residential Agreement and General Terms will be available for viewing at the Information Stand in-world, as soon as possible.”
The ABC have taken home a ‘C+T Award’ at a ceremony at last week’s SMPTE conference. The award was in the Rich Media category for ABC Island.
The ABC’s announcement of the win was as follows:
” ‘We are delighted to receive the inaugural C+T Award for Rich Media as recognition of ABC Innovation’s strategic approach to virtual worlds,’ said Abigail Thomas, Head Strategic Development.
‘ABC Island is the ideal place for us to work with our audiences to discover what they want in this environment and to tailor our presence accordingly.’
In March 2007, the ABC became the first Australian broadcaster to establish a presence in Second Life. Since then a number of events have taken place on the island including a simulcast of a 4 Corners program exploring virtual worlds and an open forum in partnership with the Australia Council for the Arts.
ABC Innovation also received a nomination for the Broadband Production Template in the Rich Media category.
The C+T Awards were devised by Content+Technology magazine to recognise innovation in products, production and projects throughout Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.”
On ABC-related news, a voting box at the ABC Island Sandbox is showing some support for an Enough Rope interview with an SL theme.
Thanks to Wolfie Rankin for the heads-up.
Leben, Lieben, Geld Verdienen translates to Live, Love and Make Money and it’s a book co-written by Australian SL developer Jana Gillespie.
The book is directed towards beginners who already have some experience in SL plus newcomers. It is a comprehensive guide on how to create manipulate and generally how SL works. There will also be a DVD accompanying the book that will have videos and resources. Of course, unless you can read German there may not be a lot of reasons to buy the book but I’m told an English translation may be in the works.
(Disclosure: Jana Gillespie’s business, Big-Bit, advertises on SLOz)
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