August 2020 – Daniel Voyager

The Shelter Closure Notice

Posted on August 27, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

Breaking News

The Shelter in Second Life will be closing down at 8pm SLT on Sunday 30th August 2020 it has been confirmed within the last few days or so. There will be two final events happening this weekend which will be a pool party and a formal dance event.

The reasons for the closure is not really known at this point. The good news is that The Shelter building will be archived by Linden Lab very soon. The Shelter will remain inworld for as long as Second Life is still online for. The Shelter group will remain in place however for all new members who want to join they will no longer be allowed in the group going forward now.

This is the official group notice that was recently sent out to all members of The Shelter group in Second Life. It’s a shame that no one can take over the shelter and keep it running.

Shelter Closure
——————–

As I’m sure you will have heard by now The Shelter will be closing it’s doors as of Sunday 30th August 2020 8 PM SLT,

The reasons for this are numerous and too lengthy for this note, but it is not all bad news as The Shelter building will be Archived by the Lindens and will remain in world for as long as Second Life is around

I know a great many of you have considered The Shelter home and I am sorry to all of you, I hope you will continue to enjoy you Second Life’s

The main Shelter Group will remain in place but no new members will be admitted the Infra group will be closed down and all members removed

The final Events will be:

Saturday 29th 1 PM Theme Dance
7 PM Pool Party

Sunday 30th 1 PM Voice Sunday
7 PM Formal Dance

The theme Dances will both have Double Prize Money for their final outing and Wacoede will be DJ’ing the final Pool Party as he was the first DJ for the pool Party

To all the Vendors of the Shelter you have until the 30th to come pick up your items or they will be returned as a coalesced object

To all the Tier Donors feel free to remove your tier contributions but as I said above all members will be removed from the infra group on the 30th

Regards

Shelter Leadership

Wacoede Unplugged
Shadow Pidgeon

There is a discussion happening on the Second Life forums for those that want to share their memories from the past 16 years.

The Shelter is closing down at the end of August 2020

Posted on August 26, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

It looks like the Shelter in Second Life will be sadly closing down at the end of August 2020 after 16 years of operating. Apparently the Shelter build is going to be preserved by Linden Lab as a heritage site. There will be a closing event at 7pm SLT on Sunday 30th August 2020 for the last dance. The Shelter is one of the oldest resident-ran help organisation’s in Second Life since 20th August 2004.

The Shelter was a good place for newbies to get started in Second Life, get freebies, hang out during live music events and much more. There used to be volunteers who helped new residents out every day.

It will be sad when the shelter shuts down as it will be another big loss in Second Life. If anyone has more info about this closure (the main reasons etc) please let me know. I will update my blog when I hear more.

YavaScript Pod Tours Gets Support From Linden Lab

Posted on August 24, 2020August 24, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

Patch Linden has shared a update on the YavaScript Pod Tours within the past hour which is very good news.

Linden Lab will now be working more closely together going forward and helping to support the pod tours system including further expansion.

For the immediate future the pod tour system should be retuning back to normal. I think this the best news possible to resolve this situation. Well done Linden Lab.

Yay 🙂

YavaScript Pod Tours Have Now Been Suspended

Posted on August 22, 2020August 22, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

Video uploaded by Forsaken Rhoeth

The well known YavaScript Pod Tours in Second Life have now been suspended according to the system’s creator Yavanna Llanfair via note card which has been sent out to all members of the Pod Riders group this week.

There was a issue with Yavanna’s account and her recovery from COVID-19 is still not complete. Hopefully Yavanna will get well soon and that she will make a full recovery. This is a big loss for Second Life and it’s a shame that this has to happen now around the 10th anniversary of the YavaScript Pod Tours.

There is discussion going on now on the Second Life Forums and you read that here.

Here is the full announcement…

Dear pod riders,

Today is the 10th anniversary of the first road pod – “YavaScript Pod V5.0 (MCT)” – MCT standing for Monowai Constant Tour, which I put on the road in the morning of Saturday 21st August 2010. I have set that pod running again; it will run until it is swallowed by some random event (like a sim restart or a crash).

However, I am sorry to report that it is also the last day of the pods as we know them today. I have made the decision to suspend all services as of later today. The reason is as follows:

For the entirety of the running of the pod service, I have said I will only run the service where I considered I had the approval of the Lindens and the community. Whilst there have always been a few who would criticise (sometimes quite vocally), they have been a very small minority. And I have always felt that the Lindens have tacitly approved of them, though they would never say so directly. Certainly a number of moles have expressed their approval, and to them I am very grateful.

On 27th July, my account was suspended for 24 hours because of a pod crash in Mieum (on the Wellington Road). At least, that is what I traced it to, because the Linden who suspended me would not tell me of the reason – merely that the object was returned to me. I explained that it is impossible to avoid crashes in all circumstances. I raised a ticket to the LDPW asking them to let me know if this meant my pods were no longer welcome on the roads. I said that I would take anything other than a positive to be a negative. My ticket was closed without comment.

It would have been a shame for the pods to have fallen short of their 10th anniversary, and so I have continued the service until today. And for now, I will merely suspend all operations by flicking a switch on my server. This means that the road pods will still rez, but de-rez shortly after (within 5 minutes). Pods will also still be available from the pod stations by clicking on the rezzer. But this is not a sustainable situation, as the vast majority of people come to know about the pods by seeing them pass on the road, so without that, the service is far less likely to be sustainable in the longer term.

I announced back in June that I was stepping back, due to a long Covid-19 recovery. That recovery is still not complete; whilst I have made progress, I still have some issues, mostly neurological. And stress is therefore something I have to avoid at all costs. Therefore I am not willing at present to fight anyone on this. Maybe one day I will. If the Lindens wish to get in contact to ensure me that the pods are welcome again, I will of course re-instate them. But I suspect that is not likely to happen.

I will continue to support pod owners who run their own systems.

Thankyou to each and every pod rider for coming along on the journey with me. It has been exciting and a lot of fun. It isn’t necessarily over, but for now autonomous vehicles from the YavaScript stable will no longer be on the SecondLife mainland roads.

Thankyou,
Yavanna Llanfair
21st August 2020

Hopefully the pods will come back someday in the near future because it’s a wonderful way of exploring the mainland of Second Life. Hopefully the lab will get involved now and support this sooner than later.

Two Years Since The First SSP Regions Arrived

Posted on August 20, 2020August 20, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

20th August 2018 – First SSP Regions Arrive

It’s now been two years since the first SSP regions arrived on the Second Life grid. There was just 80 regions back then and no one really knew what the regions would actually be used for. Many speculated that it could of been an extension to Horizons or Linden Realms or a new continent for something.

Linden Lab back then said it was to do with a Super Secret Project they are working on. The Second Life Grid Survey picked up the new SSP regions on 19th August 2018. I discovered the SSP regions on the map the day after on 20th August 2018 with many others. There was so much buzz about these new SSP regions so a new thread was set up named SSP? on 21st August 2018.

The community excitement grew more a few weeks later when more SSP regions were added. The SSP continent grew from 80 regions to 384 regions. This became the working grounds for the LDPW Moles to start preparations for the new Bellisseria continent. The SSP continent grew further out in the weeks and months that followed until the grand opening on 15th April 2019.

Further Expansion

Since 15th April 2019 the Bellisseria continent has grown doubled in size with new Linden home themed areas and mini-continents etc. It’s been great following the new developments during the past two years and Bellisseria still has room to grow still.

Looking Ahead – (Late 2020 & 2021)

The logs home continent on the east side is still being worked on and hopefully that will finished within the next three months or sooner. The train line expansion will be worked on very soon and that’s going to be amazing once thats opened. The Moles are working along the coastline adding new homes and cool new areas.

Once Second Life has moved into the cloud before the end of 2020 then the lab will add batches of new SSP regions again. You can expect this to happen more during 2021 if all goes to plan with more new Linden Home themes launched.

The new Stilt homes will be launched on the grid either later this year or early next year. Still no confirmed date for that.

The Bellisseria Continent – 20th August 2020

More updates soon.

Second Life move into the cloud still on track before end of 2020

Posted on August 17, 2020August 17, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

Ebbe Altberg confirmed last week on 15th August via Twitter that Linden Lab are still on track for Second Life to complete the move into the cloud (Amazon Web Services) this year. Ebbe mentioned that there are “lots of things already run in the cloud” and that simulators are testing well as you can see”.

The AWS transition over on the beta grid seems to be working ok with a tiny handful of regions now in the cloud like the Blake Sea and some of the welcome area regions. There have been some problems with region crossings recently. See here for details.

“As part of moving regions to the cloud we discovered that region crossings between the cloud and our data center were terrible”.

“Once this new code was written, the performance when going from region to region got a lot better, and it worked between our data center and the cloud! The improvement was so dramatic that we decided to not make our Residents wait for uplifted simulators, and rolled the changes out right away. That code is what rolled out to the grid this week”.

“It’s really exciting that the cloud migration is helping us find really old bugs and make Second Life better as we go.”

It’s good to hear from Ebbe that “great progress” is being made and hopefully the move will be finished before the end of 2020.

We are on track to complete the move this year. Lots of things already run in the cloud. Simulators are testing well as you can see. Great progress.
— Ebbe Altberg (@ebbealtberg) August 14, 2020

Ebbe said that “placing regions outside of our starting zone is something I hope we can work on next year”. So basically “move it all first. Then find ways to optimize”.

Placing regions outside of our starting zone is something I hope we can work on next year. Move it all first. Then find ways to optimize.
— Ebbe Altberg (@ebbealtberg) August 14, 2020

Hopefully the lab will keep the Second Life community updated on the latest developments in the months ahead via the Second Life blog. The Second Life Server page on the Second Life forums is very useful way to keep updated on the latest deploy roll-outs, problems and much more.

The Mole Secret Cave

Posted on August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

There is a new Mole secret cave which can be found in the SSPE1160 region on the south side of the log homes continent. The new waterfall area looks lovely inside and from a distance. The Moles are still building around here.

If you go through the water fall you will find a Mole secret cave with a open camper inside. There are supplies, plasma balls, a operating computer, drinks and much more to discover in the Mole cave.

No carrots or bunny food here!

Come and visit the new area. What will you discover ?

Log Homes Development Update – August 2020

The Moles are working on the coastlines now and around the central areas of the large log homes continent. Check out these newly built homes in SSPE1159 and more new Linden homes will be added eastwards in the weeks ahead.

Stay tuned for more updates soon.

The Peale Opens New Extension In Second Life – Linden Lab Press Release

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

On 12th August Linden Lab released a new press release about the new virtual world extension of the Peale in Baltimore which is the first purpose-built museum building in the United States. The Peale in Baltimore will be opening to the public on 15th August 2020.

There will be a special Lab Gab episode starting at 11am SLT on Friday 14th August 2020 where Strawberry Linden will be speaking with the team that helped to bring The Peale in Baltimore into Second Life.

This ambitious new project allows virtual visitors to explore the 1814 museum building online and attend curated exhibits and interactive events safely from the comfort of their homes. Current highlights of the virtual museum include the 3D interactive Peale Museum building and the virtual world exhibition, “Redefine/ABLE: Challenging Inaccessibility.”

Here is the full press release…

2020-08-12 00:00:00 UTC

Exclusive Exhibits and Events to be Held in Second Life

BALTIMORE, Aug. 12, 2020 — The Peale in Baltimore, which is housed in the first purpose-built museum building in the United States, has extended its reach into the virtual world known as Second Life. While the current pandemic may prevent many people from visiting the Peale in person, this ambitious new project allows virtual visitors to explore the 1814 museum building online and attend curated exhibits and interactive events safely from the comfort of their homes.

“It has been thrilling to develop this new experience of the country’s oldest museum building in Second Life,” says Dr. Nancy Proctor, Executive Director of the Peale. “Thanks to the amazing work of Linden Lab and Virtual Ability, Inc., we are now able to welcome a huge new community to the Peale, and share its rich history as well as the authentic stories and creativity of Baltimore with the largest and oldest virtual world on the Internet.”

Current highlights of the virtual museum include the 3D interactive Peale Museum building and the virtual world exhibition, “Redefine/ABLE: Challenging Inaccessibility.” Exhibits and events will change regularly, and include playful and surprising elements inspired by the Peale’s and Baltimore’s history and stories – like a virtual mastodon, recalling the mastodons famously excavated in 1801 and exhibited by the Peale family in their museums in Philadelphia and Baltimore!

“This has been an excellent partnership opportunity for us,” says Virtual Ability, Inc. President Alice Krueger. “The staff of the Peale are strongly committed to accessibility, as you can see by their choice of a first exhibition in Second Life. Virtual Ability is happy to assist them to create an accessible experience in their virtual museum.”

The museum was developed in partnership with Linden Lab, maker of Second Life, who developed extensive interior spaces for a 3D model of the Peale Museum building that was originally created by the Imaging Research Center at UMBC for its online map of Baltimore ca. 1815. Over time the interior of the virtual Peale Museum building will grow to include more galleries, both extant in the physical world and inspired by the Peale’s programming and partners, making the Peale in Second Life a creative hybrid of the “real” and the imaginary. The Internet’s largest virtual world has recently experienced a resurgence in popularity as more people seek out safe and fun social interactions online during the pandemic.

“We are pleased to see The Peale bring an extension of its museum and exhibits to Second Life,” says Linden Lab CEO Ebbe Altberg. “The virtual world is the perfect home for museums that are seeking a way to extend their reach to a global audience.”

To experience The Peale in Second Life and learn more about how to access the virtual museum, visit SecondLife.com.

ABOUT THE PEALE
The Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, non-profit corporation established to restore the historic Peale Museum building as a center to celebrate the unique history of Baltimore, its people, and places. By creating a more inclusive cultural record of the city, we aim to help people everywhere see Baltimore in a new light. For more about the Peale, visit its website.

ABOUT LINDEN RESEARCH, INC.
Linden Research, Inc. dba Linden Lab develops platforms that empower people to create, share, and benefit from virtual experiences. Founded in 1999, the company first launched Second Life, the groundbreaking virtual world enjoyed by millions around the globe, in 2003, which has since gone on to boast nearly two billion user creations and a vibrant $500 million (USD) economy. For more about Linden Lab, visit its website.

For more information, contact info@thepealecenter.org at The Peale or presscontact@lindenlab.com at Linden Lab.

SL Christmas Expo 2020 Press Release

Posted on August 13, 2020August 13, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

A new press release has been sent out for the upcoming SL Christmas Expo 2020 which officially starts on 4th December though until the 13th of December. This year marks the SL Christmas Expo 10th anniversary and it’s going to be incredible. This is a mega event that raises funds for the American Cancer Society so there is loads to look forward to.

This year Linden Lab has set a goal of $25, 000 (L$6, 250, 000) to provide funding for the fight against childhood cancer. It’s time to come together to Give the Gift of Hope to Children with Cancer.

Merchant Registration

Here is the full press release…

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
August 14, 2020

From Nuala Maracas (slchristmasexpo@slchristmasexpo.com)

“CHRISTMAS MEMORIES”
The 10^th Anniversary SL Christmas Expo Now Accepting Merchants

Christmas trees towering over your head while the Lionel train makes is journey around the base. Brightly wrapped gifts spread under the lowest boughs, as the aroma of sugar cookies and gingerbread drift in from the kitchen. Carols playing on the Victrola while the family gathers together to celebrate the holidays. Christmas Memories of all shapes and sizes spring to mind each year as the holidays approach.

The 2020 SL Christmas Expo, December 4^th -13^th celebrates its 10^th anniversary this year. Once again merchants from across the grid will come together to Give the Gift of Hope to Children with Cancer.

In support of the American Cancer Society, the Expo and its partner Linden Lab has set a goal of $25,000 (L$6,250,000) to provide funding for the fight against childhood cancer.

The 2020 Expo, “Christmas Memories”, will feature a multiple region collection of more than 150 of Second Life’s premier Merchants, Breedable and One Of A Kind Auctions, Gotchas, Hunts and lots more. As always you will find Christmas Tree lots, Ice Skating, our annual Snowman Building Contest and appearances by Santa and Mrs. Claus. The Holly Jolly Café returns bring nearly nonstop entertainment and the 3^rd Annual Lights of Hope contest will feature the best builders and teams of Lindens and Moles competing in a holiday home decoration competition to be judged by YOU.

Our 10 days of Christmas will culminate with our Live Auction, featuring amazing one of a kind items from Linden Lab and SL’s top creators and the Annual Holidays of Hope Ball.

Since 2011 the SL Christmas Expo has provided Second Life residents with the premier Holiday Shopping and Entertainment event and Christmas Memories is sure to do the same. Believe in the Magic of Christmas… Reserve your shoppes and sponsorships NOW at SLChristmasExpo.com.

*In-world Inquiries should be directed to: Merchant Registration Coordinator Emirsyn (Emi Resident)

The American Cancer Society is the world’s leader in the fight against childhood cancer, attacking cancer from every angle. All proceeds from the SL Christmas Expo support the Society and its mission to Save Lives, Celebrate Lives and Lead the Fight for a World Without Cancer.

If you or a loved one has questions or needs help with a cancer diagnosis call the American Cancer Society 800 227-2345 visit cancer.org or the American Cancer Society region in Second Life.

Please spread the word on your blogs, the forums and inworld. Thanks so much.

A Visit To The SL History Museum

Posted on August 11, 2020August 11, 2020 by Daniel Voyager

The SL History Museum in Phobos is a great place to learn about the origins of Second Life. There are displays of historical Second Life images, notecards, objects and freebies. The SL History Museum was built by Oz Spade back on 4th August 2004.

Teleport Link

It’s amazing how things used to look like back from the early days of Second Life compared with today. So much has happened since 2004 in Second Life in terms of new improvements like Windlight, Mesh, EEP and much more.

About The SL History Musuem

Oz Spade started the Historical Society with Zero Medici and Merwan Marker. The first goal was to build a History Museum, which was done with land donated by Zero and built by Oz Spade. The SL Historical Museum can be seen at Phobos (220,167) on new land, currently there is most of the information on this wiki as well as several historic objects and images.