September 2007

Havok 4 going beta

Havok 4 (now belongs to Intel), the recent version of the physics engine Second Life uses, is going into beta test. This is something many people have been waiting for one or two years.

This is first going to be a change under the hood; Lindenlab expects a more reliable SL experience out of it. So you should not expect big changes in the beginning.

Later this could lead perhaps to better prims per vehicle, since many ppl awaited this feature for long. We are going to see.

What if…

…too many residents would try to cashout all of there L$ at the same time? Would Lindenlab still be able to pay them? Or would the value of the L$ go down so quickly it wouldn’t hurt LL at all?

Just a funny thought that popped up into my mind after reading an article about a similar problem – bonus mile programs of airlines.

„Your host is working hard“ – nonsense

Many good going clubs are living on the presence of some live staff, mostly a host, better going clubs also a live dj from time to time and a security officer.

In many clubs I can always here the slogan "Please don’t forget to tip your host – we’re working hard…" – this is nonsense. The work of a host is no hard work at all. It’s mostly greeting people, something you can do with some good macros at east. Perhaps just also looking if the people behave, and if not, ejecting or banning them as last measure and that’s all.

This is a kind of job, that’s quite easy to do and which I also appreciate, but it’s no hard work at all. I almost cannot stand this saying anymore.

New terms of service, anyone?

It seems that Lindenlab introduced today a new version of their ToS according to their blog. This means, if you want to continue to play SL you need to agree after the next login in the client to them. There should be a dialogue box with the new ToS in it and you can either agree or disagree.

Well, in reality the dialogue box on my client looked like that:

This is something that shouldn’t happen. I could have agreed to it that way. After a restart the client showed the new ToS correct.

Police blotter on casinos

It’s nothing new, but today I’ve taken a look at the police blotter after a while. Seems the Lindens are really serious on their no gambling policy now.

For example you can read there things like this:

Date: Monday, September 17, 2007
Violation: Terms of Service: Gambling
Region: De Campion
Description: Operating a casino.
Action taken: Suspended 14 days.

Date: Monday, September 17, 2007
Violation: Terms of Service: Gambling
Region: Deepscale
Description: Operating a casino.
Action taken: Warning issued.

So no one can’t say he hasn’t been warned, yet.

Griefers on the ride again

I haven’t noticed griefer activity for months now in the sims I am visiting frequently. It seems they come and go, and the more succesful a business is, the more griefers you can get. Whatever. I was visiting the region of Daikoku today, which is always quite populated because Blackheart’s Cafe is in it and became the witness of a griefer attack.

Well, I’ve taken a look at the objects, filed an abuse report, but this is not going to help much, I guess, because the owner of the scripts was just created today and I bet there is soon going to be another avatar.

Well, here’s also a picture of the whole event; click on it to get the bigger picture.

[Edit]: A funny thing is, when I take a look at the picture no: I’ve never realized until now that water is reflecting objects above it. Cool.

[2nd Edit] Seems those attacks were already happening last week, too, according to the Avastar #39.