Dwell On It

Just how do you identify an alt online?

Tateru Nino — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 08:35:50 +0000

Alts (AKA alternate accounts) exist in pretty much every online and offline service, from Second Life to Social Security. Usually, identifying an online alt is just a little bit easier than identifying an offline alt.


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Linden Lab explains removal of Amazon special offer

Tateru Nino — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 01:08:54 +0000

Linden Lab pulled down the Starter Vehicle Pack that was a part of its Friday launch of Second Life on Amazon within just minutes or within a couple of hours of the announcement of its availability, depending on whom you ask.

The pack included a hoverboard vehicle and L$1000 (a little under four US dollars in Second Life currency) and was limited to one-per-customer. Intended to sell for USD9.95, the pack was a free promotion for the weekend, but was removed quite promptly after the announcement.

Peter Gray, spokesperson for Linden Lab, tells us why the offer was pulled.


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That’s just plain embarrassing

Tateru Nino — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 00:49:13 +0000

A short time ago, Linden Lab announced that Second Life was available through Amazon, along with a number of content bundles. I have to confess that I find this development plain embarrassing for a couple of reasons.

Full post: That’s just plain embarrassing

The new management line-up at Linden Lab

Tateru Nino — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 04:37:18 +0000

For a very long time now, Linden Lab’s corporate information only listed three people. Rod Humble, CEO; Jeff Petersen, VP of Engineering; and, Lisa Berry (General Counsel).

There’s been an update, and the management team’s line-up looks far more comprehensive now.

Full post: The new management line-up at Linden Lab

Amaretto vs Ozimals: Wow, what a doozy!

Tateru Nino — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 02:38:18 +0000

I must confess that, while I was still keen on the progress of the lawsuit between Amaretto Ranch Breedables and Ozimals (et al), very limited access to court documents and the relatively slow progress of the case had sent my attention largely elsewhere.

On the fifth of November, however, this little beauty turns up. Judge Charles R. Breyer is granting (in part) and rejecting (in part) a motion for summary judgement. And wow, this document itself is probably the best thing you’ll read about this case.


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Full post: Amaretto vs Ozimals: Wow, what a doozy!

Linden Lab shuts down viewing of Second Life bug reports

Tateru Nino — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 01:29:44 +0000

Okay, I’m a bit taken by surprise on this one, but let’s quickly take this from the top. Firstly, Linden Lab has added a simplified reporting form for Second Life JIRA issues. That part is pretty okay (and some might say that it is many years overdue) being that it is the sort of bug-reporting form that you might see for many major pieces of software, but that increases the triage-level workload on reports significantly. Now, that triage process has so far been split between the Second Life JIRA users and Linden Lab.

There’s a couple problems with bug triaging though. The first is that the Second Life JIRA users do it badly. The second is that Linden Lab do it badly. Okay, so issue triaging becomes more complicated now. So, ouch, right there.


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Full post: Linden Lab shuts down viewing of Second Life bug reports

Bob Komin leaves Linden Lab

Tateru Nino — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:08:43 +0000

Bob Komin, Linden Lab’s CFO and COO has departed Linden Lab after a more than two-and-a-half year stint through some pretty tough times at the company.

Komin turned the company around from Q2 2010 to Q1 2011, reversing the company’s high cash burn-rate and guiding it to record profitability as the head of the Global Technical Operations, QA, Customer Support, IT, HR, Legal, Finance and Accounting teams.


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Full post: Bob Komin leaves Linden Lab

Your router could be screwing up your connection to Second Life

Tateru Nino — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 00:02:56 +0000

Yes, your home router could indeed be letting your Second Life experience down, and a couple quite common series of routers are among the most culpable.

I’ll start by pointing out that the IEEE 802.11 networking standards aren’t the easiest set of networking protocols to implement correctly in device firmware. It’s all too easy to get them almost right, resulting in wireless access points and routers that work just fine for some kinds of workloads and that fall down spectacularly for others. As a bonus, RFC-2663 IPv4 Network Address Translation is also a commonly poorly-implemented feature in many network devices.

In my experiences from 2000 to 2005, the vast majority of wireless access-points/routers of that period – while just fine for Aunt Tilley and her Facebook habit – turned out to be duds (ranging from extraordinary failure to far more subtle symptoms) once you hooked up a power-user or a small three or four person office. They might choke and die, they might toss stations off at random, they might just run some connections very slowly, or some might unpredictably stall, leaving you wondering.

Finding good hardware during that period was a chore, and it hasn’t gotten that much better since, in my opinion. Often the best you can hope for is “just good enough” (if you’re lucky) unless you use something like a dedicated Linux system as a firewall and router.

Even such networking giants as Cisco Systems has gotten them wrong on occasion. Few (if any) manufacturers seem to be entirely exempt from glitches in these particular standards implementations.

All that said, Linden Lab has recently been performing somewhat extensive testing of consumer routers as a part of Project Shining, and come up with two common series that are already problematic with Second Life.

Full post: Your router could be screwing up your connection to Second Life

Second Life age-verification “tweaked”

Tateru Nino — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:56:41 +0000

One year and one week ago, Second Life’s age-verification was changed to asking you your date-of-birth. This week, there’s been a tiny tweak. It only asks you once, instead of twice.

Technically, it isn’t “age-verification” anymore, either, and that terminology seems to be on the way out.

Full post: Second Life age-verification “tweaked”

Review: The Microsoft Touch Mouse

Tateru Nino — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 04:07:57 +0000

The time came yesterday for a new mouse. The cordless mouse that I’ve been using, while faithful for some time, has been getting increasingly dicky. The rubber tyre on the mouse-wheel had stretched and scrolling and middle-clicking often yielded unexpected results and directions.

I eyeballed the digital rodentia at the local JB-HiFi store without the intent to purchase anything right away, but ended up walking out with a brand new Microsoft Touch Mouse ($100AUD). It was the largest mouse on the shelves, and my hands are large with long, slender fingers. Most of the rodentia on offer weren’t as long as my index finger, let alone comfortably large enough to rest a hand on.

Here’s the short version: Don’t buy this mouse. Do not be seduced by its apparent features and sleek curves, for it has a wicked design flaw.


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llSetTimerEvent()’s runtime guarantee

Tateru Nino — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 02:44:48 +0000

The core of any API (application programming interface) is a set of runtime-guarantees. Lately, I’ve been asked a fair bit about LSL’s llSetTimerEvent() API function and its interaction with the new region-idling model, where regions are shoved down to less frequent updates when not in certain kinds of active use.

Obviously that’s going to have some sort of effect on timers, but does it break llSetTimerEvent()’s runtime guarantees? No, it doesn’t.


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Linden Lab declares war on Second Life lag

Tateru Nino — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 11:11:27 +0000

Linden Lab has announced that it is working on three projects that each will reduce some amount of unnecessary lag and delays from Second Life.

All three are positive improvements, and at least one has been on many peoples’ wishlists for rather a while now. Those aren’t the only things in the works, however.

Full post: Linden Lab declares war on Second Life lag

That was sudden

Tateru Nino — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:50:24 +0000

Just last night, UK’s Channel 4 aired an investigative piece about Sulake’s Habbo Hotel (or just “Habbo”), the social virtual environment for kids.

The investigation alleges (among other things) that sexual predators are using the service to groom children for sex, despite Habbo’s couple of hundred live moderators – and it isn’t the first time these sorts of allegations have been made about Habbo, or about a number of other virtual environments.

Another UK channel (that I won’t name) went so far as to fabricate a scandal involving Second Life a few years ago.

What strikes me about the Habbo incident is how sudden it has been.


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I don’t even know…

Tateru Nino — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:46:32 +0000

When Hamlet refers to game-mechanics in this post, I don’t even know what he’s referring to, actually.

Could he be talking about the new experience tools bundle that includes path-finding? I wouldn’t think so, because those aren’t game-mechanics. While they’re the sort of thing that are commonly used in games, they’re just as commonly used in things that aren’t games.

So, what game-mechanics are we even talking about?


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Full post: I don’t even know…

Graphical performance is all about control

Tateru Nino — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:43:29 +0000

The Elder Scrolls Online, Zenimax’s upcoming MMOG take on the Elder Scrolls universe is going to have nowhere near the sort of graphical fidelity that you’re used to from, say, Skyrim. And there’s good reasons for that. Reasons that are applicable to pretty much every graphical title you’re likely to encounter, from IMVU and Second Life to … well, Skyrim and The Elder Scrolls Online.

Leaving aside the individual hardware for just a moment, perhaps the single most important factors in graphical performance, is control.

The customer has 3D hardware, and your software contains a tuned and optimised 3D rendering engine and pipeline. That’s great.

However, the best 3D engine on the best 3D hardware can still run about as well as a wounded tortoise if you don’t exercise proper control.


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Relay For Life of Second Life Raises 1.5 Million US Dollars

Tateru Nino — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:57:34 +0000

The Relay For Life of Second Life is proud to announce that due to the dedication and commitment of our volunteers and supporters, we have collected 1.5 million in US dollars (USD) since 2004 to support the fight against cancer. This is an increase of $500,000 since we reported $1 million In April 2011.

Full post: Relay For Life of Second Life Raises 1.5 Million US Dollars

Shed me no tiers

Tateru Nino — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:41:39 +0000

“If only,” I hear you cry, “land in Second Life was less expensive! Why things would positively boom!”

But would they? Let’s look at the scenario more closely. You’re not going to like it.


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Blog bumps

Tateru Nino — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 07:40:03 +0000

Just a heads-up, I’ve been doing some underlying work on the blog, and comment pages are about to change suddenly – which may invalidate some links into comment pages. Some options are getting tweaked and some layout already has. Pardon the dust. Forgive any temporary breakage.

Normal service will resume as soon as possible.


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Linden Lab trademarks a new product or service … or something [updated]

Tateru Nino — Wed, 30 May 2012 03:33:40 +0000

It’s been a while since the Lab went near the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a fresh trademark registration, but it went back again in March, and I tossed it into my slush pile, where it has sat for some time now, waiting for me to get to it.

There’s not really a whole lot to go on here, anyway. Not much more than a name.


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Full post: Linden Lab trademarks a new product or service … or something [updated]

Built from the inside

Tateru Nino — Sat, 26 May 2012 17:56:02 +0000

Why are the Elder Scrolls Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic like Second Life?

They’re both built in much the same way… collaboratively from the inside.


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Full post: Built from the inside