Bits of SL Life And Times

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Here's a selection of pictures and happenings that didn't make it in earlier, for various reasons.  

 

I posted some about Halloween, but this detailed avie from Kitacelia I thought deserved a mention. 

 

 Quite detailed, I hadn't seen anything like it. The pumpkin added to it. 

 

 This shirt worn by Charlee Harmony was certainly worth a chuckle.

 

 Ever see someone in Second Life whom everything rezzed but their head? I was thinking of both that and a few sci-fi tales in which the brain of a dying supervillain gets transferred to a nutrient jar with this look by Shockwave Yarreach. 

 

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In October, I wanted to get a picture of a Belleseria Fairgrounds party, but was in something of a mild hurry, and didn't want to disappoint anyone who wanted a long chat. So I sent one of my alts over, Droppa MaPants. So logging on him, I went to the party location, and greeted the people there. 

 

 [12:25] Waifu Ghoul: Hi Droppa, Hi KaL
[12:25] Now playing: Hexenkraft - The Thing [Synthwave Remix]
[12:25] Droppa MaPants (DroppaMaPants Resident): hey :3
[12:26] BM - Dirty Spanker: Lillyth Waydelich dreams of kissing Sondra Le Stoop's ass
[12:26] KaL (Kalegthepsionicist Resident): drop ma pants what aname LMAO
[12:26] KaL (Kalegthepsionicist Resident): xD
[12:26] Waifu Ghoul: haha
[12:26] Droppa MaPants (DroppaMaPants Resident): *chuckles*
[12:26] Elfi Stoker: lol
[12:26] Chucky Ghoul: Hi KaL, Hi Droppa
[12:26] Droppa MaPants (DroppaMaPants Resident): Got the name from a Zelany novel
[12:27] KaL (Kalegthepsionicist Resident): ah sex novel?
[12:27] KaL (Kalegthepsionicist Resident): xD
[12:27] KaL (Kalegthepsionicist Resident): jk
[12:27] Droppa MaPants (DroppaMaPants Resident): *chuckles* No, Fantasy
[12:27] Sondra Le Stoop (Distel Stoop): haha
[12:28] Droppa MaPants (DroppaMaPants Resident): one of the characters was named that
[12:28] KaL (Kalegthepsionicist Resident): okay
[12:28] Elfi Stoker: O.O
[12:29] Droppa MaPants (DroppaMaPants Resident): thought it would be a good name for me :3

 

And so was this latest reaction of people to one of my alts. 

 

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 On Sunday November 2 at Noon SL time, I went to the grand opening of something called AI Land, showing artwork done completely by AI. Pooky Amsterdam, who I hadn't chatted with in a while, told me about it. Longtime residents will remember her for "The 1st Question" game show. Since then, she's occasionally been involved with something. And now it was this show about AI. 

 

 Sometimes it's hard to tell when art is done by AI, to me. 

 

 There was certainly quite a light show. 

 

 

 But what I remember the most was seeing Pooky again. 

 

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 It's been *years* since I last wrote about wrestling. But on November 17 came another chance to. Merryjest Starchild's been noted for his stage performances and his singing. But that day came a new one: Wrestling. He'd gotten a slot for a "Dark Match" on Monday Nov 17, and invited people to drop by, "come early if you want to see me either succeed or fail spectacularly XD."  It was at United Furry Wrestling. So it was my first time watching a furry wrestling match.

 

 Merryjest put up a good fight against his opponent, him getting in a few body slams.

 

 "Go Merrryyyyyy!"

 

 But sadly for the Cheshire Cat of the stage, it didn't end with a grin. His opponent eventually got the better of him, and after the "one, two, three" was declared the winner. Merryjest's reaction wasn't being dispirited, but exhaustion, "That was kind of nerve wracking, the lag is for real tonight." 

 

As it turned out, Merryjest had good reason not to feel down. Several days later, he announced, "I just got news, I passed my Dark Match and I'm now part of the main roster at UFW O_O" 

 

So it seems Second Life's colorful opera singer will be adding the wrestling ring to his talents. 

 

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Then there's this gem from Bellisseria chat. People get alts for all kinds of reasons, but this one is a new one to me. 

 

 [10:31] Dreamer Pixelmaid: Poor calts, they keep getting send to "safe" hubs lol
[10:33] Kialaya (Kialaya Shilova): I know what alts are, but calts?
[10:33] Dreamer Pixelmaid: The alts I have because of cats for especial birthdays etc lol
[10:33] Kialaya (Kialaya Shilova): x-D LOL ooook
[10:34] Dreamer Pixelmaid: I should have sent them in before posting the notice lol
[10:36] Kialaya (Kialaya Shilova): yeah, hahaha poor babes
[10:38] Bixyl Shuftan: Heh, you made an alt just to get a one per customer kitty?
[10:41] Dreamer Pixelmaid: One per account kitty :P
[10:42] Emily Abbot: I thought it was about the houses?  hehehe

 

One of those "only in Second Life moments. 

 

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 And finally, there's the funeral for Crim Mip that I covered in early October. What I should have done was post a few pictures the following week. But I thought that it wouldn't take me long to have the whole thing done. I had forgotten how busy I can be sometimes, especially in October with Burn2, then Halloween. And by the time I've finished writing about those, here comes Christmas. 

 

 (click here if the video does not load)

 

I'll finish it up, soon. For now here's a picture and the video. 

 

Well, that's all for now. A few bits of my Second Life that were better late than never.

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

Rita Mariner and the Sawyer Squad

By Bixyl Shuftan

Many residents in Second Life have at least one alt, short for "alternate account" for those outside the virtual world. It's on the record yours truly has two. Some have a few to several. But few can boast of having the number that Rita Mariner, the chieftess of the Sunweaver community, does. She has over a hundred, most in what she calls the "Sawyer Squad." Her alts are no real secret as she often has a few around Club Cutlass, and will occasionally have one by her. Recently, I had a few words with her about these accounts.

"Maybe 120 plus Sawyers" Rita answered when I asked how many she had. Asking her how did the Sawyer Squad start, she answered, "It started just after I got started in Tiny Empires and Tiny Empires 3000 myself, we were finding it hard to find enough players to become subjects or subordinates.  Also many players would start in one, the other or both, get bored and quit. So I started the Sawyers to fill the gap and try to give active players ... at least one person in their downline, that was active."

How soon and how fast did the alts grow in number? "That happened over a period of years," she answered, "only as I needed them and also due to the investment each one represented.  I figure between the avatars, HUDS, clothes, etc, each alt has, they cost me approximately 20,000L each. ... I have close to $14,000US invested in them over the years."

So what did they have besides HUDs and basic clothes? The chieftess replied, "Well, right from the beginning I decided that all Sawyers would be black, my Babes in Black, as I call them.  Most have aat least two avatars, an Uchi Kani and then a second one of a different critter and most also have a EP pony. Then you toss in several changes of clothes, 7 Seas Fishing game, Crowley Corp ships, AO's.  The costs add up."

Why the name Sawyer and why black? Rita answered, "Sawyer is from the female cat, Sawyer, from Cats Don't Dance. I liked her.  I picked black, 'cause a black Kani is very sexy looking."

"The fun part is several of my alts have their own fans now," the Sunweaver leader revealed. I asked how that came about and why, and was told, "Sawyer021 and Brandi Tungsten both have mice avatars, so they play cousins. Momma Gil, has both Sawyer017 and MissMystique. She wants them on all the time, I don't have the computer power for that. ... MissMystique I created just for MommaGil. She is a cream colored Chinchilla, very pretty. Sawyer017 also has a black Uchi Chinchilla."

Besides the Sawyer Squad, Rita stated she had a few other alts, "I also have a bunch more named ones I created just for fun, The Chipettes have been used in a music video, by Nydia Tungsten. I have the chipmunks too, still looking for the proper hair and outfits for them. Once I actually found a nice chipmunk avatar I created set of named avatars with that, for fun, the female ones are cute, the male ones, not so much."



I brought up Valkyrie Ice, whom was the one non-Sawyer in the "Babes in Black" group. Rita told me, "They are not a separate grroup, Babes in Black, is part of my Sunweavers group. If you have a black avatar, you can be in it. I put the Sawyers in all the regular groups and treat them like a regular player. If someone tlaks to them, I try to get them to respond back. They are not there just as eye candy. I do try to have some fun with them too. That's why they are NOT disposable to me. I come to Second Life for only a couple reasons, be with my friends and play Tiny Empires and Tiny Empires 3000. I don't build much and don't script, (but) I have a massive investment here already in my ten sims. I do participate in the Relay For Life with my Sunbeamer Team, and I am happy to raise what money we can for the American Cancer Society."

Rita stated the response others have had to her alts has been positive as far as she's seen, "They like them, Queen Ranchan titled me 'Sawyer Swarm Queen' in Tiny Empires. In TE3K, I am Space Booty Hunter. (Also) in TE3K, I was able to move some of my Sawyers under a new player who moved to our guild and bump him back up to Director. ... That's what the Sawyers are for."

Rita then mentioned a problem that had recently come up, "I want to get my alts off Singularity and onto a better viewer, I can't do it without help. All my pass codes were written a ledger book and months ago, (and) it got accidentally tossed out in the trash and I mean ALL my pass codes, not just for Second Life. So that is why I am trying to get Linden Lab to understand the situation. I can't go through the normal procedure to recover pass codes, the e-mails tied to the various accounts have long since disappeared or been changed into something else." And when she tried contacting Linden Lab, their response was bureaucratic, "I put in a ticket to try and get this issue with my alt avatars fixed and have run into a roadblock they NEVER had out in the open, but buried in their wiki site. Who goes to the wiki site? They say, on their wiki site you limited to five alts! They will help me with five. And even they screwed that up. They are stuck on Singularity, I want to move them to Firestorm/Phoenix, can't do it without the passcodes."

"I don't want to throw them away," Rita spoke about Linden Lab's five alt limit, "I have close to $14,000US invested in them over the years." She did have a possible compromise for the Lab, "I suggest to Linden Lab, that they put a third option on the signup page for alts. If they want $9.95 fee for each alt, then ask at creation, I would have gladly paid it, then.  but in exchange I want no hassles if I need help."

Some days later, Rita had an update on the situation of her alts, "Linden Lab actually took my suggestion and I got my five accounts back." I asked if she was going to get help with the rest, and the Sunweaver leader answered, "It's all done. I told them to just put a simple code on each one for now, e-mail me the code, I would use that to access their AL account page and reset the passcode myself. So they did it, I accessed eacch one and they are all reset."

And so all is well once again with one of the largest groups of alts in Second Life. If you want to see some of them, come on over to Club Cutlass, or message Rita Mariner.

Bixyl Shuftan

Paisley Beebe interviews Azure Twine of Team GreenZone

Sunday March 6 had a few guests on Paisley Beebe’s “Tonight LIve” show. First was MenuBar Memorial, whom had an unusual kind of breedable pet to sell: a breedable pet rock! Singer Sonyajevette Charisma was on as the musician.

But the main guest was Azure Twine of Team GreenZone. Paisley introduced the subject as being the result of a “massive security hole,” which the product Redzone exploited, and the Greenzone HUD was created in response. Azure began by saying, “Greenzone’s a product, we’re not a militia group .... we don’t promote harassment or greeting. We were grown organically as a group of concerned citizens.”

“I was kinda drafted ... I was the one they chose to speak to you” She had been asked by the creator as her native language was English and his wasn’t, “Redzone scans you ... captures your IP address ... an invasion of your privacy.” Rezone, she explained, will ban all your alts without an appeal process. GreenZone was developed as a result. One of the team had been banned by a RedZone device, so wanted a device to tell her when she was in a Redzone area. She described Redzone some more, and the complaints of it being a community standards violation. As it worked by tracking IP addresses, it would report everyone at a Starbucks venue on Wifi.

One could keep oneself safe from Redzone by turning off both music and media streams. Azure explained she had been told Redzone used only the media stream, but it was best when traveling about to turn off both music and media, “all copybotters out there have media off by default.” Greenzone is a HuD, Azure explained, and not against the ToS. Paisley asked if Voice was vulnerable. Azure answered probably not, although she heard it could be. Greenzone has a 96 meter range

Soft Linden’s ban announcement was discussed, as well as Redzone creator zFire Xue’s threat to release database on web,“I take them very seriously.”

How many Redzone devices were out there? Azure stated zFire claimed 22K, which considering there were 32K sims on the Grid suggested a flawed method of counting, “the number’s much lower.” Of zFire’s claims that if Redzone was banned, another product would replace it, “there are several other systems that say they do what RedZone does, but without the one banned dying in a blaze of glory.” Azure stated Redzone had an animation that if someone banned, the avatar was set afire or caged, others “more professionally done.”

Paisley went on to say she had read some of the Redzone forums, and in a sense could understand the frustrations of some of the Redzone users, saying their argument was
“Linden Lab have allowed Second Life to get to a point of vigilantism because there are no effective ways of protecting oneself from griefing or stalking that people feel comfortable with.” Azure brought up the copybotting issue, agreeing Linden Lab did not take copybotting as seriously as most content creators want, “whom I’m one of.” While there was a process, “It requires knowing that you’ve been copybotted, which is unlikely as the Grid is so large.”

Paisley brought up the stalker potential, that products could be used to track someone on the Grid. Azure explained Redzone could do that as well. Paisley told that the person she had heard had a stalker never filed with Linden Lab as she believed it would just be a waste of time. Azure felt Linden Lab’s attitude was “until you are a victim, there hasn’t been a crime yet.”

How to tell if a Redzone on a sim was the new legal version or the old one? Azure explained there really was no way for someone else to know, “It’s up to Linden Lab to police that. ... It doesn’t actually look in the script.”

Of those Redzone users whom excused themselves, stating since Google tracked IPs, so could they, “Google won’t publicize my IP address, or keep it ... or turn it over to the police. ... there is no good way to link someone’s avatar... only Linden Labs can.”

Azure stated the privacy issue was reaching the point to places on the Grid were starting to advertise themselves as “Redzone Free.” She went on to say Linden Lab had to take this issue more seriously, “someone is going to suffer in real life, there are real life consequences to having your IP address (tracked).” Someone could potentially find himself fired, and with teens in Second Life, this added another level of problems.

Paisley wondered if this might hurt the music industry, with people turning media & music off to stay safe from Redzone and similar, “This is going to affect our entertainment in Second Life.”

Azure felt, “the Lindens need to acknowledge that there is an exploit, acknowledge that there is a hole, and that they do take it seriously and they will fix it.” The issue was not so much the IP addresses than how they were getting them. She concluded, “I sympathize with all the people who think they need to use RedZone ... but that does not justify you violating my privacy.”

As the show took place, there was something of a debate within the audience, albeit a mostly one sided one. There were a few people sympathetic to Redzone, one man in particular whom was very vocal. But most in the audience were clearly against it.

Paisley and Azure chatted for a few minutes after the show. It was felt this was “the Emerald decable all over again. Azure felt zFire’s stubbornness in trying to keep Redzone alive was him “trying to salvage a dying empire.” She did acknowledge it would probably be difficult for Linden Lab to fix the hole.

For more on the show, check the post on Paisley Beebe's Tonight Live site: Here.

For GreenZone's blog, click Here.

Bixyl Shuftan