Why Second Life is a Horrible Place to Telecommute On
Posted by: n3x15 on: December 7, 2009
I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m getting sick and tired of Linden Research relentlessly pushing their shitty project to companies as a telecommuting/virtual advertising system. I’ve worked (as an intern) in the City of Oak Harbor’s IT department for a few months, and even that brief flash of corporate culture has taught me the following:
- Corporations need their communications platforms to work. Period. Second Life has all kinds of communications issues, one of the most glaring and famous is the completely broken group chat implementation. Although IBM is working on fixing it, it’s certain LR’s QA department is going to cock it up.
- Advertising in SL does not work. Ever. See How Madison Garden Wastes Millions on a Deserted Second Life. SL residents are more willing to pork each other on top of a billboard rather than read it.
- Company workers are going to spend more time shopping/fucking/griefing than working on their assigned projects.
- Second Life is a resource hog like no other. Implementing SL as an advertising strategy or telecommuting platform would require excessive expense in hardware upgrades, software upgrades, Internet access upgrades, and IT management overhead. When your computers were originally designed to run M$ Word and Excel, you’re going to need to buy a completely new system in order to handle SL, as even my GeForce 8800 GTS (or whatever submodel it is) is overheating when running it.
- The Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory (Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Fuckwad) results in a higher percentage of improper employee behavior during meetings when in any online medium. This is especially true when introducing kids to an SL classroom, as such classrooms are completely unmanageable (banning the kids would only result in them being able to skip class). SL needs a synonym to IRC’s +m.
Because of all of the above points (and some others, mainly negative public perception and a Better Business Bureau rating of F), many corporations not only are unwilling to use SL, but ban it from their internal networks.
FlexLife – Now with Proper Threading
Posted by: n3x15 on: December 7, 2009
Decided to get off my ass and work on FlexLife’s Lua engine this week. Here are the changes:
== 6 Dec 2009 ==
[*] Lua Engine now properly implements LLThread
and queues hooks and commands.
[+] /lua command added to chatbar commands, so
you can now execute raw lua code directly
from the chatbar.
[*] /m[acro] moved to Emerald's
chatbar_as_cmdline.cpp file, since it's a
bit easier to screw with stuff from there.
[*] Changed some function prefixes to reflect
the change of name I made back in the
Jurassic Era (ShoopedLife -> FlexLife).
== 7 Dec 2009 ==
[*] Updated to Emerald 1.23.5.1101 (from
1.23.4.something)
[*] Clutter cleanup
Still compiling. Also considering switching to Git since SVN is getting a bit messy.
Linden Lab has now decided to commit suicide.
Posted by: n3x15 on: November 14, 2009
According to a post by Darling Brody (who has access to the concierge group), Linden Lab is asking creators if it’s okay for Linden lab to provide:
- Free Land to build a shop
- Automatic linking to xstreetsl
- Special Advertising on xstreetsl
- A HUGE commission on all sales going to Linden Labs
Why is this a problem? Consider the fact that Linden Lab already violently raped the 3rd-party sales websites XStreetSL and OnRez by (according to rumor) threatening to sue them with trademark infringement if they did not accept a merger proposal. Now consider HippoVend, Second Life’s most popular vending machine system, used by at least 65% of all vendors in Second Life. Hippo has been creating dozens of useful products for SL residents for eons, and they’re relatively cheap (5% commissions on their demo vendors, 0% commission on the L$2000something full version + some low commission for catalog vendors due to system load). Now imagine Linden Lab smashing into the market with their own vendor, which they spam advertisements for on login, give free land on, etc, stuff that HippoVend couldn’t do even if they had unlimited funds. Also take into account all the other vending machines residents have created for residents.
To put it simply, Linden Lab is forcing a great industry out of business because they can’t seem to run their own god damn company into the ground hard enough. What’s next? Forcing people to pay for rezzing prims again? Banning anyone who rents land? Seriously, this shit is getting out of control.
Intellectual Property Protests? What?
Posted by: n3x15 on: November 1, 2009
- In: Rants| Second Life
- 5 Comments
Apparently there will be a bunch of intellectual property protests being held on the 5th and 6th of November in Second Life (where the Lindens don’t give a flying fuck). According to the reasoning set forth in the thread, LL will care if 5 people stop selling stuff and lose money for two days.
They won’t.
LL makes most of it’s money off of the rediculously high tier they charge for private estates. In addition, they don’t give a shit if people wave little prim flags that take two whole hours to load: It’s their company, and by God, they’re going to run it into the fucking ground if they feel like it. The only way to get their attention is by not paying tier, and that’ll only get you banned. Someone else will buy the land, anyway, so it wouldn’t work.
You can also ask tough questions at the LL office hours, but then again, they regularly dodge the question by saying it’s a managerial decision (which it is), or ignore it completely.
Therefore, the only real course of action is to file a class-action lawsuit against the lab for failing to honor the Digital Millenium Copyright Act by failing to act on DMCA requests within a timely manner. However, there’s a 97% chance that this will simply get laughed out of court (although Stroker Serpentine managed to do it with his sexgen crap).
tl;dr protests don’t do shit.
Neil tries and fails to spam me (for some reason)
Posted by: n3x15 on: October 28, 2009
I got a heads-up from someone that Neil apparently tried to spam me/take down my site/something else. I saw an entry on his blog where there are a few references to doing so, but he apparently removed the post, possibly because he wouldn’t know how to spam me if his life depended on it.
Anyway, back to playing Dorf Fortress.
[Server Status] Windstorm
Posted by: n3x15 on: October 24, 2009
Freak windstorm, power outage imminent. Gonna go gas up the generator.
Server 1.30.2 Fails to Fix Script Theft Exploit
Posted by: n3x15 on: October 14, 2009
Linden Lab has once again shown us how much they love us by reportedly failing to include 3 crucial security patches that fix script-theft exploits. These patches would have fixed last month’s rash of asset thefts, but it seems LL has other interests, probably related to paying off investors.
In addition, Neil claims to have an exploit that fetches assets, despite the new server rollout this past week. Whether this exploit is the same that was used to grab assets prior to the rollouts is unclear.
More news when I get it.
[Ad] Quantum Terra Lots For Sale
Posted by: n3x15 on: October 10, 2009
[EDIT: ALL SOLD WITHIN ONE HOUR]
Two lots in Quantum Terra are available for sale for $25 US Dollars a month (about L$6750/mo) to help Darling Brody reduce costs. The land is highly variable, as all tenants are allowed to change each other’s land. Security is provided by Quantum Land Security, account age checks, and me. Keep in mind the land is PG.
- Quantum Terra Southwest
- 1024 Prims
- 16,368 sq/m
- Right next door to a combat sandbox
- +50 -20 terraforming
- Commercial or residential
- Quantum Terra Northeast
- 1024 prims
- 16,368 sq/m
- Close to a combat sandbox
- +50 -20 terraform
- Commercial or residential
Neil Says He’s Not Violating the SL ToS
Posted by: n3x15 on: October 8, 2009
[*adds a new fucking category for this crap*]
Neil is, once again, whining about the “abuse” he is receiving. This time, however, he’s claiming that his intent is not to violate the Second Life Terms of Service Agreement (he makes no mention of the Community Standards, indicating he doesn’t give a shit either way). Let us analyse this claim.
- His viewer, due to its nature of using exploits to obtain assets that are not supposed to be obtained, automatically violates ToS item #4.1, item V:
In addition to abiding at all times by the Community Standards, you agree that you shall not: [...] Make any actions or upload, post, e-mail or otherwise transmit Content that contains any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spyware, time bombs, cancelbots or other computer programming routines that are intended to damage, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate any system, data or personal information; - His actions of willfully distributing stolen assets via his blog violates Sections #4.1.5 (above) and #4.3, which deals with DMCA rights.
- He also violates the GPL + FLOSS licensing agreement of the viewer’s sourcecode by not distributing the source code of the “Pro” version of NeilLife.
- He and his users violate California Computer Crimes laws by using exploits to gain unauthorized access to the assets in question. Similar cases, as documented by the United States Department of Justice, can run Neil a sentence in jail ranging from 10 months, to 110 months + applicable fines.
True, if the users were backing up their own data that they are the sole creator of there wouldn’t be a problem. However, Neil was (apparently) distributing popular HUDs with full permissions, in addition to other popular items, so even if his users were not violating the ToS (which, for most of them, is not the case), he is still at fault for distributing exploits and using those exploits himself.
In addition, he also claims that by using the exploits, he is bringing SL’s vulnerabilities to LL’s attention, which is pure, unadulterated bullshit. White-hat hackers usually work for the company, and they absolutely do NOT expose these vulnerabilities to the general public. Gray-hat hackers, who do expose these vulnerabilities, occasionally for profit, are liable. Neil is neither, as he uses exploits apparently nabbed from an unsecure PN SVN server to slap into his own viewer and to call his own. He is a Script Kiddie. Nothing more.
A Whiny Monologue About HUD Competition
Posted by: n3x15 on: October 8, 2009
This is a basic public service announcement to all the content creators in Second Life who are currently making a HUD or considering one.
HUDs in Second Life have a long history, beginning with the hackiest, thrown together bundles of scripts that formed during the beta process, and leading up to the user-friendly, fast, stable systems we see today. Combat HUDs and utility HUDs are a necessity of day-to-day Second Life culture, as they are able to deflect attacks, help with building projects, and other useful functions. Unfortunately, a new trend of aggressive competition has begun to seep out of the sewers from which it spawned.
In real life, aggressive competition is a necessity. Products are restrained by weight, heat, and size requirements, and therefore can only have a set of limited functions before they become too ungainly or simply explode. Different sized products have different market niches (I.E. handguns are marketed more towards residential users, whereas artillery can only be hauled and operated by an army of trained professionals), so competition to be king of the hill in that niche can become fierce. Corporations fight corporation for dominance of the marketplace, swapping out functions in their products for more commercially interesting designs and concepts, but they are still limited by the laws of physics and usability.
In Second Life, the laws of physics do not apply as much. A user can literally fire exploding train engines from their eyeballs without any recoil. Therefore, an interesting phenomenon has taken place among many combat products: They are all completely unique. One HUD deals in death-themed combat, another is geared towards vampire roleplay. One HUD has two functions, another has 1000. One HUD has five different interceptor shields, another has five different orbiters. All of these HUDs have completely different effects and behaviours, created through the desire to be unique. Most niche markets have been eliminated, as individuals are using multiple HUDs at once to reinforce their collective features against their individual flaws. One HUD may have better shielding and crappy attacks, while another has great attacks but crappy shielding, for example.
Unfortunately, a few HUDs have begun to follow the old-world concept of direct competition. They imitate many of the design and feature elements of another HUD in an attempt to dominate a marketplace that doesn’t exist. In a world accustomed to unique design, this understandingly creates allegations of copying and intellectual property theft. These HUDs choose to design their market around how they are better than a particular product, rather than simply stating the features of the HUD itself so consumers can determine if that HUD would reinforce their current armaments. If one HUD imitates anothers’ features, then a consumer is simply going to say, “Well, I already have all that. Why bother?” and move on to look at other products.
Content creators should stop pointing fingers at each other and start looking at whether they complement each other, or conflict. I’m not saying everyone should go on LSD and start getting into group hugs. What I’m saying is that, if you are imitating another HUD and find that your sales are low, you should consider finding interesting features of your own to add that would reinforce your competitors’ HUDs. That way, you can get more sales by luring in consumers looking to add more tools to their belts.
And while we’re on the subject, don’t disable a HUD just because people go to certain sandboxes/combat sims/roleplay sims. It makes you look like a jackass and discourages people from buying your products.
</rant>
LL AGNI Grid Status
- [COMPLETED] Rolling Restart for 1.34 December 10, 2009
- [RESOLVED] Live Chat Outage December 9, 2009
- [UPDATED] About Land Information On Some Regions December 9, 2009
- Old IMs reappearing in chat December 9, 2009
- [RESOLVED] Groups not showing inworld December 8, 2009
- [RESOLVED] In-World Disruptions December 8, 2009
- [UPDATE] Planned overnight region restarts tonight and tomorrow December 7, 2009
- [Resolved] Some live chat unavailable December 7, 2009
- [Resolved] Web outages December 6, 2009
- [RESOLVED] Temporary web outages December 5, 2009
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