The Teen Grid

Interview with Katharine Berry

This month, Blue Linden and Iridium Linden sat down with Katharine Berry, the Teen Second Life creator of AjaxLife, the Ajax-based SL client. The transcript of that interview follows with minor edits for clarity.

Tips and Tricks

Don't Miss the Active Speakers Window

The Active Speakers window is a useful feature for seeing who is speaking and controlling the volume of each speaker in a conversation.

SLCC 2007

The third annual Second Life Community Convention is being held at the downtown Hilton in Chicago, August 24-26th. There are four tracks this year: Social/Entertainment, Business, Education, and Machinima, guaranteeing there will be something of interest for everyone! You can register at http://www.SLConvention.org/register/ or find out more information at http://www.SLConvenion.org - we look forward to seeing you there!

Are you already attending the Second Life Community Convention in Chicago? Are you a Second Life Mentor, Teen Second Life Mentor, Greeter, Live Helper, Instructor or just want to know about the Volunteer Program? The Volunteer Team will be hosting a wine and cheese Meet and Greet on Friday, August 24, 2007 from 9-10:30PM. This is RSVP ONLY as space is limited. If you would like to attend please drop Mia Linden a notecard in-world with your Second Life Name - VOUNTEERS ROCK!

Het-Grid: Less Downtime and Stabler Releases!

Thanks to the recent release of Message Liberation, almost all future viewer updates for Second Life will be optional, so you can upgrade whenever you want. Message Liberation also lays the groundwork for Heterogeneous Grid or "Het-Grid" for short.

Het-Grid will provide Second Life a smoother transition between both small and major patch releases. Linden Lab understands that by having separate beta grids, we aren't able to fully test new versions of Second Life viewers and servers. With Het-Grid, we will be able to release new server versions to small areas of the Main Grid for testing. This allows Residents to beta test new server upgrades without having to disconnect from the primary Second Life grid and empowers Linden Lab to update the Second Life servers without creating grid-wide downtime.

• Thanks to Message Liberation, viewer and server versions will be forward and backward compatible. If you are using a normal viewer, you will still be able to enter into the beta regions, and vice versa. You'll usually be able to keep using the same viewer when the entire grid updates, as most future updates will be completely optional! Of course, we always recommend you upgrade to the latest version, but now the control is handed over to you.


• By allowing Residents to beta test new versions while on the Main Grid, Linden Lab will get a greater amount of accurate feedback, ensuring less release day bugs will occur! We will still host separate beta grids as there will always be changes that won't fit in the Het-Grid model. Keep your eyes peeled if you consider yourself an avid beta-tester.


• When we eventually use Het-Grid to deploy beta server versions onto the Main Grid, Linden Lab will blog about the location of the regions so you can check them out. When you travel to these regions, you'll be given release notes with the changes that have been made and a list of precautions to take while beta testing, keep these in mind, there may be side-effects moving content between beta regions and normal regions.

With the ability to keep the same viewer versions when you want to and with your help on our new beta servers, Linden Lab hopes to give everybody a much smoother experience in Second Life. For more information and FAQ, please check out Het-Grid.

Name Dropping

Robbie Dingo is a Second Life filmmaker extraordinaire, having produced some of the most compelling clips ever to come out of Second Life. His latest work is a stunning real-time construction of Vincent Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' as a 3D interactive build. You can watch this short film as well as his equally impressive previous work at 'My Digital Double'.

If that wasn't enough, Robbie is also an accomplished Second Life instrument maker. Some of his most popular creations include the Hyperflute, Drum sets and even a Javanese Gamelan ensemble. He has also created a complete composition tool for Second Life called the Hyper-Instrument. It uses a HUD system to display notes and audio settings. We're honored to have Robbie as a member of the community since January of 2005 and look forward to more great things to come!'

Know someone worth mentioning? Tell us!

Civic Center

Casinos Away

On July 25th, Robin Linden posted our official policy on wagering in Second Life. The policy has come under a lot of scrutiny from those who use Second Life specifically for this purpose. I thought I'd take a moment to inform everyone here about the policy and how Linden will enforce it. In her post Robin stated: "...Linden Lab does not offer an online gambling service, Linden Lab and Second Life Residents must comply with state and federal laws applicable to regulated online gambling, even when both operators and players of the games reside outside of the US."

Developer Focus

Real Estate in Second Life: Coldwell Banker Enters the Market

Coldwell Banker, one of the biggest players in the real-estate industry, has set up shop in Second Life with a virtual office and more than 500 homes on 550,000 square meters in the Ranchero section of the mainland. Coldwell Banker entered Second Life to connect with a younger real world real estate while making certain it could make a positive impact within the metaverse.

As We See It

New Features vs. Bug Fixing: A defense of features

Recently, a Resident approached me about the Features vs. Fixes debate. And although I'm prodded about this issue on a regular basis, something about the way in which said Resident framed the topic caught my attention. He asked, "What's the right balance?" Thinking about features and fixes in this light helped me draw certain conclusions and clarify why I support introducing new features despite the fact that Second Life still has bugs, many of them major.

Agree? Disagree? Let us know - send us your Letter to the Editor - with your Second Life username - and we will publish a representative set in the next edition of The Second Opinion.

Your Letters

We received several thoughtful responses to our opinion piece SL Voice: Another Valuable Choice. Below is a sample of the replies. Thank you for your responses!

Unsure about Voice

Voice initially sounded like a really good idea. Unfortunately, it has not turned out to be such a good thing for the following four reasons:

1. Not loggable. If someone is abusing text based chat, people can turn the individual in and they can be dealt with. This is not the case for voice chat. It is almost impossible to tell who was (past tense) acting inappropriately. This limits the ability of in-world Residents to report breaches of conduct.
   

- Anonymous

Not a Voice Fan

It's an awful idea. I have no doubt it will be implemented to the rolling eyes of the majority of the community, but I don't see it making anything better. I can see frustration, resentment, annoyance, and larger technical difficulties in the future.

- Daxton Briggs

On the Fence about Voice

Thank you for your thoughtful article. It is clear that Voice will bring advantages in some situations. I will not be able to ignore it, however, and I can see more disadvantages than benefits for my experience of Second Life.

- Rolig Loon

Thanks, but No Thanks

The addition of voice can be a big benefit to some of the community, especially the teaching and meeting community. But even there it introduces new problems because if you miss something you cannot go back to the chat or IM history to see what was said.

- Torian Carter