Linden Highway Construction

... and now appears a road.

I've had the land near this road since Feb. 07. It's always been a grassy "protected land", but today it's a road. The information states "Michael Linden" added the highway on "Mon Oct 8th 16:28:50 2007". I wonder what other areas have received updates?

Here, in the same region, Michael built a crude bridge that isn't exactly suburb but does its job. The annoying thing is that the guardrail pretty much cuts off my section of land.

Geektopia - Sweet Build, but only for a limited time

Today I stumbled upon Geektopia located at Father (220,221,33)

Go see it now, apparently they're losing the plot of land on Father and are moving to Onyx Ocean (127, 93, 21). I visited the new location to find ... a partially constructed "Steam Volcano". I'm not sure if the ship will make it to the new location.

So, to the folks of Geektopia, good build!.

With one statement, the gods kill my casino tycoon dreams.

On the 5th of April, the gods deemed it was illegal to advertise Casinos with the following thundering statement from the skies:

"It has been a basic tenet of Second Life that all Residents are legally responsible for their own activities and for complying with the laws of the local jurisdiction in which they reside. However, given the ambiguities of the issues, Linden Lab has decided that we will not accept any classified ads, place listings, or event listings that appear to relate to simulated casino activity."

Although I had no dreams to build or host a casino, this statement snuffs out the ability to properly market a casino. Obviously I can purchase some land, build a casino and fill it with enticing games of chance. But then how will anyone hear of it?

Some residents cheer at the fact there will be no more stupid search results for casinos while others cheer that this will force casinos to close and thus ending lag problems in their part of the world. The casino owners have said this will effectively kill their business, losing all the time and money they have invested in getting their businesses operational.

A lot of casinos provide jobs for new residents via "camping chairs" as well as "employees" who in turn spend their money elsewhere in the world. Other items that appear to fall under the new law include "xploder" balls and other novelty items found in many of the clubs and gathering places around the world. These places will have to re-evaluate their ability to properly advertise their events with accordance the new law.

As the residents cheered and cried, the heavens spoke again:

"Residents need to take responsibility for your own activities and for complying with the laws of the local jurisdiction in which you reside. If you are, or are concerned that you may be, engaging in illegal gambling, you should stop."

Confusion crossed the faces of many. This raises many questions.

When did Seokcheon become part of a government entity that passed it's own laws?

Does this imply I have to obey the laws of my user? If so, why?

Second Life Relay for Life 2007

Over the past few weeks, every where I go there is a new kiosk that is apparently used to donate to the American Cancer Society.



I'm really skeptical that this money ever reaches the earth realm and actually is 100% contributed to the American Cancer Society. The website proclaims "in cooperation with the American Cancer Society", but lists no official contact to the American Cancer Society, nor does it make claims of the amounts being donated to the organization.

Here are some breakdowns of teams that have "contributed" to the Relay For Life in Second Life:

Relay Rockers - L$577673 - USD$2012.48
McDunnoughs Relay Gang - L$469,674 - USD$1636.43
Team Eros - L$460,042 - USD$1602.68

The residents listed for contact are Fayandria Foley and Jade Lily with the latter being the only one with an earth realm contact of jade.lily@gmail.com. That's right, a google mail account, not a American Cancer Society email address. Hummm....


My user did some investigating and dug up an actual link from the American Cancer Society's website:

Second Life Relay For Life (2006)
Second Life Relay For Life Event Details (2006)

The former mentions residents RC MARS and Jade Lily while latter mentions a RL person :

Randal Moss
American Cancer Society
Futuring and Innovation Center
randal.moss@cancer.org

So now, there is a 2006 mention of one of the people involved with the Second Life Relay For Life organization.

Legit? Scraping from the top? It is very hard to tell without the accountability of donations being directly funneled to the American Cancer Society, especially with the individual involved NOT being directly involved with the organization.

EDIT:

Per the comments below from presumably Jade Lily herself, the SecondLife Relay for Life is, in fact, a legit operation. Jade Lily is currently affiliated with the Electric Sheep Company which is quite involved with the evolution and quality development within SecondLife.

Second Life - Magazines / Rags

While shopping today, I found several news papers and magazines around the shopping areas. Some are well made and worth checking out and some haven't been updated since the last major holiday. Some of them even offer an equivalent magazine in the user realm as a "PDF Document".




Here is a brief list of magazines I've discovered. Please seek them out and flip though them.

PWND Magazine by Saeya Nyanda
Second Style Magazine by Josie Hamilton
SL Scene Magazineaaa
ASpiRE! Magazine by Bianca Darling


Most of the magazines are using the THiNC Book v2.0 by Toneless Tomba. Visit THiNC Publications at THiNC SL - Lota (10,15,278).

If you are thinking of starting your own magazine publication using the THiNC Book, here is the publication breakdown process:

Purchase a THiNC book and configure as a stand alone publication.

Costs: L$75 Plus your images imported at L$10/each, per page.
Example: Book at 80 pages. L$75 + ( L$10 * 80 pages ) == L$155.

Purchase a THiNC Printing Press and duplicate your THiNC book for publication. This is a one time cost and can be reused for every publication you release.

Costs: L$895

Total costs for your first publication: L$1050
Each additional publication: L$ 155

Of course, just having a publication will not give you circulation. You'll have to "pound ground" and visit various malls, shops and clubs and politely ask the management if they would provide a little space for your magazine. You'll probably have to build a simple display rack that gives out the publication if/when touched.

Prim Hair

Why did the linden gods curse me with simplistic hair that is unaffected by the wind? Although I can seemingly customize it at will, it still looks so ... static.

Some residents here have a solution, prim hair. Yep, they make semi-realistic hair out of the same prims I can create and attach it to their heads. I found there are quite a few design studios committed to hair styles.

Calla - Callatropia 124,194,24
ETD - ETD Isle (208,211,26)

Some of them even have freebees for new residents, so run there now and get your hair before you "age" to much.

Marriage means nothing...

In this world, marriage is nothing but an association between to people. My wife, Hazar Oyen, and I can not share the land I purchased nor can she build on it.

It turns out I had to create a group (which currently costs L$100), add her to my group and set the group in the land properties. She then had to "activate" her group so she could freely build on the land.

My user provided the following information for all users in his world:

How to give people permission to build on your land via a group in Second Life.

Creating a group in Second Life is simple and easy, but will currently cost you L$100 ( $0.68 USD ).

1. Right click your avatar and select "Groups..." or select "Edit -> Groups..." from the menu.

2. On the Groups window, select "Create".

3. Fill in the name and fill in the charter for the group in the "Group Information" window. The other tabs and options will remain unavailable until you create the group. If you have a group/family picture, you can associate it to the group either now or later.

4. Once all the information has been filled in, select "Ok" or "Apply". You will be presented with a dialog box asking if you want to spend the L$100 to create a group.

5. You should now have your "Group Information" window with the tabs and options unlocked and the "Members & Roles" tab selected. Select "Roles". Select "Officers" and select "Delete Role", we do not need this role. Select "Create new role" and enter Wife/Husband/Partner, for this tutorial I will use "wife". Under "Allowed Abilities", give your partner all the "Parcel Powers", "Parcel Access" and "Parcel Content". Also select "Manipulate" under "Object Management" to give them permissions to move things around on the land. Select "Apply"

6. Select "Members" and select "Invite New Person..." for the "Group Invitation" window.

7. Select "Open Person Chooser" and select your partner. Select the "wife" role down near the bottom and select "Send Invitations".

8. Now right click your land and select "About Land..." or select "World -> About Land..." from the menu.

9. In the General tab, select "Set..." next to Group: option.

10. In the Options tab, uncheck "All Residents" and check "Group" for "Create Objects", "Object Entry" and "Run Scripts".

That's it, your partner in Second Life should now be able to create prims on your land without any problems. Repeat the above steps 6-8 to make a role and assignments for "Friends" or "children".