Recent Comments:
Censorship and freedom
Second Life Insider
Jan 8th 2007 8:49AM I think my answer has to be, that it's easy to let people we find easy to agree with to have their freedom, but it is a true test of our attitudes to freedom and censorship if we can allow someone we radically disagree with to have their say.
As Beatrice Hall wrote, in trying to sum up the attitude of Voltaire: "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
I dislike Prokofy's comments often, and I maintain that much of what is said in him comments are untrue, but I still think it should be possible for him to say them. It's easy to skim over comments from people if you don't want to read them.
Once you start to censor people because you dislike what they say, that's already manipulating the truth.
Login problems
Second Life Insider
Jan 6th 2007 8:55AM Yes... but can they see when I've tried 16 times and failed to get in? Often you can't get a picture for yourself of what is going on by talking to friends. When there was the recent looong unexpected downtime, I remained logged in for about 7 hours after friends had failed to log in. I couldn't tell who was logged in and who not because presence was borked and people looked online who weren't.
I miss being able to chat on the SL forum and to be able to make a judgement about what's happening.
Wikipedia fight
Second Life Insider
Jan 6th 2007 5:27AM Well ... as for Anshe's escort services, I do not judge her for having been an escort, but ~I DO judge her for wanting to rewrite history, especially for wanting to distort the story to make it look like an attempt to smear her reputation.
I met Anshe on her first day in SL, and offered to help her with an event she wanted to do at that first meeting. I realised in short measure once she began charging for sex lessons with days of joining, that she was learning fast.
When Anshe was working as an escort out of the Cannibis Cathedral, I often attended events there, and it was not a secret that her name was up there on the wall along with other escorts. At that time, when there were only around 100 sims and about 10,000 accounts, there were few sex-based places in SL and escorts were not the common thing that they are now. It was unusual, and therefore something that you noticed about them.
I have no idea if the card which was widely circulated was authentically Anshe's, but I do know that she worked as an escort and sex teacher, and she set that up very quickly.
You have to remember, at that time there were no custom animations, and so giving sex lessons was no easy task - it involved using the default animations in combination with attachments and a device known as "box on box off", which allowed people to manipulate their avatar into the required position. I was astonished that Anshe went from newly-minted avatar to sex expert in a flash, AND set up lessons with couples AND charged a fee for the lessons too. It was quite an achievement, actually.
Incidentally,I think you wronged Joshua when you implied that he would be willing to pay for manufactured dirt on Anshe. He said in the Second Citizen posting: "I will give out L$1000 for every good, sourced reference provided".
That doesn't sound like someone inviting people to make stuff up to me.
MegaPrim crackdown
Second Life Insider
Jan 5th 2007 10:06AM When I asked about mega prims recently, the Linden I talked to said that Megaprims weren't banned, but they didn't advise their use....
Rumour alleged that Gene Replacement's banning was not just related to Megaprims, but the images which were applied to them (which were allegedly in contravention of the TOS) and the fact that the prims in question were griefing other people ... but that is just unable to be confirmed.
It would be odd if he were banned solely because of the use of Megaprims, given that many people have used them, and one group of developers appeared to be offering them as free gifts on the Linden Emerce island.
Under The Grid - Prims
Second Life Insider
Jan 5th 2007 9:58AM Have to add my congrats, Tateru, fantastic detail even if I now feel as though my head has turned inside out. Thanks!
Kokomo: the unedited version
Second Life Insider
Jan 3rd 2007 3:49PM Ok Gando, show me where I misreported and I will provide a correction.
Kokomo: the unedited version
Second Life Insider
Jan 3rd 2007 1:54PM Hi Zillow, the boots are Moopf's most recent ice skates, available from vendors everywhere, including Nemesis, price $150 lindens. He also does basic skates and roller skates at $50 lindens or $85 for the pair, which include animations and can be customised. They are freely colourable using the menu from the accompanying HUD, and so I coloured them this way. As I have said on the blog more than once, the skates are great fun -- Nemesis is still mostly ice if you fancy a skate! The special ones shown in the picture also come with snowflake particles.
Ban on photographs in open sim?
Second Life Insider
Jan 3rd 2007 5:13AM OK ... I am pretty annoyed that CaveCub Milk has sounded off in the comments for this article when it is clear that he doesn't even know or understand the contents of the notecard which is being hurled at everyone who comes into range at kokomo, which most definitely states that you need written permission in order to take photographs in the sim.
I have had a long conversation with him, which I can publish for all to see if necessary, in which it becomes clear that he did not understand this was what was being said. I have a copy of the notecard contents also.
I understand that the aim of the sim in general is to prevent people from ripping off their textures, to prevent the artists who appear there from suing them because someone else took a photograph of their avatar or recorded their performance, and to cover their backs generally.
To do this with a blanket ban on photography in general is stupid. As he said several times, you can't stop people taking photographs. So trying to do that by threatening them with the full weight of the law, especially when that doesn't back you up, is ridiculous.
And accusing me of not checking facts when you clearly don't have an idea what is being said to people who receive your notecard, also ridiculous.
Moopf's Steamers SLI sneak preview
Second Life Insider
Nov 18th 2006 3:35PM I had shiny turned off for the picture -- I must say they are sensational with it on!
CopyBot anger rises
Second Life Insider
Nov 16th 2006 3:01PM There are people who will argue the point of whether it is a game or not. I don't think it is a game but I won't argue with you -- if you think it is a game that's your right.
What is undeniable is that people are making their real life income from it. A real income. So whether it is a game or not, if you wish to make your income by working inside it, I see no difference between building structures or objects in Second Life and building webpages. It's a virtual product, worth real dollars.
