Going through the SL5B Exhibits

It's not every day SL has a birthday celebration, so I thought looking around at the exhibits might be nice. And where to start? My newspaper's own was as good a place as any. Modeled after our red newspaper box, it stood out from the others. Inside, one could see on the media screen what was on the front page, which on Monday was my cartoon for the day. Heh. The following day, it was even taller, with the nameplates of various reporters along up the winding path.

But there was much more than our own. Just across the sidewalk was a series of gears, a "gear train." The lady there, Emilin Nakamoi, explained this was a mechanical engine that turned not by scripts, but by the motion of the gear on one end, "This machine works with the SL environment as an environment, instead of as a computer program as scripts do." The problem was, in places with a number of people and lag, it often had trouble.

Walking along, I found others by various sponsors, Alcoholics Anonymous was here as was another group for autism. I found a Florida exhibit that looked nice, with the various critters around. The Red Mesa exhibit also stood out with it's rocky hills and Native American object designs.

As I was going on, I got in contact with my friend Kanashi, and hearing where I was she asked for a teleport. I wondered what was up when it was taking a while to rez, then I saw her appear, as a fifty foot macro. We walked for a while longer, then she spotted an exhibit that was also a dance area for an elven group, Elf Circle. Walking over, her huge stature made our winged friends look more elven than ever, indirectly adding to the element of the place. Her size made her unable to dance with that low ceiling, so she just sat down as the elvenfolk greeted her, or tickled her outstretched feet. It was clearly a friendly meeting.

"Come back again. We elves are notorious dancers."

Bixyl Shuftan

SL5B opens with speeches from Phillip Linden and M

Philip Linden opened the birthday celebrations with a speech that reflected on his amazement at how much secondlife has grown:

"I feel I have lived a lifetime in that 5 years, it feels almost like 50 years"

He also surprisingly addressed the problems surrounding the celebration itself:
"I know there has been tension, protest and stress around this event and I think its great, its emblematic of what secondlife is all about and why it's special. To attempt to make a celebration of what secondlife is about is bound to fail"

I wonder if those excluded think its 'great'?

He goes on to talk about the progress that has been made on the grid itself and notes that Linden Lab are 'working hard on stability' thats it is a 'big focus' for LL to work towards.

M(ark) Linden also touched on a tender subject that of IP rights:

"One of the fundamental elements is on IP rights. Its really really important that people who create great content are able to enjoy it and protect it, its one of the things philip put in place and which has underpinned the economy today."

But although he did mention the topic and admit that creative content is the backbone of the economy there were no answers as to how this was to be achieved or even if Linden Lab were doing anything about content theft.
There was a lot of corporate bolstering and obviously the speeches were tailored to boost that image but on the whole I felt the speeches were aimed at the residents without actually solving any of the present resident concerns, both speeches taken together did acknowledge those issues exist and let everyone know that Lindenn Lab have been listening and they are aware of the problems facing ordinary residents.
I can't say there was any reassurance that these issues would be fixed, just that the Lab is aware. To me that was a reassurance in itself an acknowledgement of the work they still need to do.
The speeches felt to me like a placification for those that have issues and concentrated on the creative content to be seen over the 20 sim exhibition.
There is some incredible content to be seen over there and I urge everyone to take the time to 'wade through the honey', as the lag has been labled, and have a look at what is now possible in Secondlife.
I hope there are some hair displays around too as M pointed out to Philip 'its been 4 years since his avatar was updated and although his hair is the best in SL it is also the oldest' showing perhaps the human side of the Lab. I wonder if some of the hair creators out there could send him some prim hair based on the newbie style he is wont to use.
M Linden himself has obviously been shopping and looks a good deal better than his newbie CEO pictures :)
Happy Birthday Secondlife

If you want to watch the entire speech see the blog HERE

Eye on the blog - Lindens admit mistake over DMCA:

Responding to Questions about the DMCA Process

Linden Lab inadvertently disabled some inworld content this past weekend.
The problem should be fixed now, and we apologize for the inconvenience it caused. If you believe your content was inadvertently disabled, please try re-rezzing it.
If that doesn’t work, please contact Support at http://secondlife.com/support.

Linden Lab has not changed its DMCA policy. For privacy reasons, we don’t discuss the specifics of DMCA notifications with third parties. However, when we receive a valid DMCA notification, we send affected Residents email notice so they aren’t surprised when we remove content from their inventory and inworld locations.
The email notice explains how to submit a DMCA counter-notification to seek restoration of the removed content. Be sure to keep your email address current and make lindenlab.com an exception in your spam filter so you receive notices from Linden Lab.

We’ve received questions about removing infringing items from Residents’ inventory when an inworld location (a region name and coordinates) can’t be provided.
Inventory items may be subject to DMCA claims when the items are sufficiently identified. For example, if you can’t provide an inworld location, provide the names of the allegedly infringing items and avatars.

Linden Lab will conduct a reasonable search for the identified items.

Also be aware that persons who materially misrepresent copyright infringement in DMCA claims may be liable for damages, including attorneys’ fees and costs.
In one case, a company that sought removal of content protected by the fair use doctrine paid over $100,000 USD.
For more on this, see here.
If you’re unsure whether certain content infringes your copyright, we suggest speaking to an attorney before submitting a DMCA claim.
More information about Linden Lab’s DMCA process can be found on our DMCA policy page and in our recent blog post on Protecting Your Copyrighted Content.

Linden Lab’s DMCA policy has not changed, and this information is up-to-date.

DV

Cartoon of the Day

Click for full size

Photo by JamesT Juno

Text from Chat Logs

Griefing at Woodbury

'The particle spam you see is from objects owned by Furnation owner Corsi Mousehold
she has been attacking these sims for the past three days
crashing them
lagging them up with particle spam
Harry Linden, head of the g-team has been ignoring abuse reports filed against her'
So our informant told us as we TP'd in to the loudest noise you ever wish to hear honestly I had to remove my headset!
We asked about to try to find out what was happening :
[14:39] zomg Babii: its a mario moshpit, a old PN particle spammer [14:40] JamesT Juno: who - why - what
[14:40] zomg Babii: corsi mousehold, i spoke with her 2 days ago and he threatened the sim
then i found this stash of modules
[14:40] JamesT Juno: and what was going on
[14:41] zomg Babii: it seems that a troll attacked the ark a few days ago, this appears to be a retaliation, pointed in the wrong direction, yes you can quote me
[14:42] zomg Babii: a number of furnation members and furries have also been caught griefing the woodbury sims
[14:42] JamesT Juno: okay - anything you want to add to this ?
[14:43] zomg Babii: the animosity between our two groups is unwanted by woodbury univeristy, as said by our leader
[14:43] zomg Babii: but it seems the furries wish to start fights
[14:44] JamesT Juno: thankyou
_______________________________
[14:34] **** (anonymous): Harry Linden of the g-team wants a grid war and the furries miss the attention
[14:44] JamesT Juno: proof ?
[14:44] ****: Harry Linden and Plexus linden falsely accused me of copybotting a megaprim owned by michael linden
[14:44] ****: michael has never used a megaprim in his life, is opposed to them, harry has been banning the accounts of reformed former griefers trying to harass them into rejoining the PN
Harry needs to impress the new CEO of LL showing his dept needs resources with griefing dying out, his job is less necessary he may have to do real work for a change
______________________________
[14:46] Madelena Rossini: Basically the first I heard of all this was when I got back from dinner in San Francisco on Saturday to be told that the sims had been attacked and that the folks from Furnation were responsible.
Never being one to jump to conclusions I contacted the leader of Furnation, Corsi Mousehold to try and peacefully resolve it.
What I got in response was a torrent of abuse and a promise that our sims would be taken down permanently. He also made death threats against others. I have just come online now to this, so am not fully in the loop.
Madelena Rossini: He also told me to kill myself
__________________________________

Not long after this Corsi Mousehold showed up and and deleted the spamming objects (a huge relief to my ears)
Unfortunately she refused to answer any questions directed towards her and seemed surprised the objects had her name on them as owner :
Corsi Mousehold: I'll be damned. It is listing me as the owner.
[2008/06/16 15:11] Corsi Mousehold: Scout ... Madelena ... I will speak with you alone. Everyone else in this area is now muted.
_______________________________

UPDATE
I just recieved this in my IM:
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: I Did not build thoise. I did not rez them.
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: I have been shit on all weekend from Woodbury.
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: My stress level is through the roof and my blood pressure is likely to put me in the F****** HOSPITAL at this point.
[15:36] Corsi Mousehold: Woodbury is known .. WELLL known to harbor the B-tards ... Where the Patriotic Nigras got their founding in Second Life.
[15:37] Corsi Mousehold: All a Patriotic Nigra is, is a B-Tard that wants to take shit personally.
[15:38] Corsi Mousehold: Did you get all that?[15:38] Corsi Mousehold:
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: I Did not build thoise. I did not rez them.
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: I have been shit on all weekend from Woodbury.
[15:35] Corsi Mousehold: My stress level is through the roof and my blood pressure is likely to put me in the FUCKING HOSPITAL at this point.
[15:36] Corsi Mousehold: Woodbury is known .. WELLL known to harbor the B-tards ... Where the Patriotic Nigras got their founding in Second Life.
[15:37] Corsi Mousehold: All a Patriotic Nigra is, is a B-Tard that wants to take shit personally.
[15:38] Corsi Mousehold: Repost just in case.

DV