Reading Radar

I posted about my tests with SLim a couple posts ago. Testing again today, I’m seeing that if I IM my alt from SLim, the alt’s name disappears and I get a message that he’s temporarily unavailable. Then his name reappears on the list.

If I IM from in-world to the account logged into SLim, however, it works fine.

Anyone else seeing this with SLim right now?

Best last line regarding the openspace sim controversy:

From Wagner James Au on Gigaom:

“Still, one thing remains clear: “I’m moving to OpenSim!” has already become the metaverse version of the “I’m moving to Canada!” threat we hear every U.S. Presidential election.”

Does this make the protesters the Alec Baldwins and Susan Sarandons of SL?

A funny story on the protest from Itazura Radio coming up in the next podcast.

Reading the comments on Jack’s most recent post about openspace sims makes me think Stuart is right. After LL shifts policy, which we know they will do, the furor will eventually die down and people will move on. It happens OVER and OVER and OVER in SL.

Unfortunately that fact also points out the LL does do things haphazardly and then has to change positions. That’s a pattern too. They really need to clearly think about their policies and how they impact people, and how people are going to interpret and use (sometimes misuse) them before they make a policy or policy change.

I see both sides on this. I am tired of the whining and the comments that “you WANTED us to load them down,” but at the same time LL did increase the prim count, etc. I find it odd that people are so naive as to think that if there were issues, LL was not going to point back to the fact that they are intended for use as open waterways and mostly empty land, etc, but there you go. A lot of these same people keep touting their business credentials, but I know in my company, if something bad happens, and you’ve been told something might not work, it doesn’t matter how much it seemed to work before it went bad, the end result was because of your decision. A lot of these self-proclaimed professionals aren’t very professional based on their comments is what I’m saying. They don’t acknowledge that LL stated the purpose the sims were for. Both sides erred, IMO.

People can’t really afford higher tier on any sims right now, I don’t think. I have no figures to back it up, but I think people are having a harder time making consistent sales in SL right now except for big names and really popular content creators. Maybe I’m wrong on that, and it’s something I need to study, but that’s my initial impression. I don’t think a lot of people have money to spend on tier on sims right now. Raising the prices on Openspace sims will never help that.

It’s sad that we have to keep having this cycle of ill designed policy, reaction and threats of leaving for a younger, more attractive VW that doesn’t even have an economy, voice chat, or reliable prim behavior yet, and then everyone calms down and moves on to the next tragedy. LL should learn how in the name of all that’s virtual to make and enforce good policies, and the residents should learn to use their heads a little and quit stamping their feet like little babies every time something happens.

Hopefully I’ve insulted everyone, LL will resolve this soon, and everyone will quit whining into their blogs about how unfair the universe is and how they’re all going to quit, because they aren’t.

Last post I complained about how testing the SLim client would be hard with no one using it yet, then I woke up and created a SLim account for an alt that I use for building/scripting and getting stuff done (hence the blurred name in the picture below) and IM’d my Radar account while logged into SL as Radar, and into SLim client as the alt.

It worked really well for text IM, obviously I wasn’t going to be trying out the voice capabilities though. But for IM it was instant back and forth.

Then I noticed that Dedric Mauriac, while not logged into SL, was logged into SLim. I knew because of the icon next to his name in my friends list.

I IM’d him but got no response, so either he’s sleeping, wishing I was under the wheels of a bus, or SLim really only works to communicate with your alts. Hmmmm…..

Right now the downsides are still the requirement of a special client to use it, which 99.999% of the people won’t download, having to create an account with Vivox, which 99.999% of the people will find annoying, and all the normal considerations of the SL client, namely, I don’t think this will be an option for people who can’t have SL on a particular computer or need to get around firewalls that SL can’t. I think it’s useful if you aren’t logged into SL and don’t want to, but need to communicate with someone real quick, or if they aren’t, but are using SLim. I think it’s a nice to have, and I think for a few people, I may use it quite a bit. It would be nice to only have to deal with an IM window in-world, for example, than to deal with skype and in-world SL IM’s at once.

We shall see…. oh, yeah, the locals are still angry at the Lindens anyway, so they’re all claiming lack of interest in SLim based on that perspective too.

UPDATE:

I tried out the voice with Stuart Warf this morning while we were both out of world, logged into SLim. Once I pointed it to the correct audio devices, all was well and it worked fine. Sound quality was about what you’d expect from the Vivox/SL voice experience - not great. Vivox seems to be synonymous with “noise generator” in my experience, although in recent months it’s always worked well for conversations in SL. It’s nasty to record for podcasts though.

Also, SLim keeps wanting to default to the first account I logged into the IM client with rather than the last one. That’s annoying. Couple other annoyances with it not keeping my preferences saved, which I assume will get fixed over time.

I agree with Jane’s comment on this post, LL needs to make sure that the barrier of entry is low for people to use this. Obviously right now it’s only first look, but LL tend to gravitate towards complexity. Then again, the SL experience in general is pretty smooth compared to the Openlife Grid’s website and information for new users.

Ok, the SLim IM client thingy is out in first look form, as announced in the SL blog, but I can’t really comment on how well it works for a simple reason. In order for you to voice or text IM others using it, they also have to be using either SLim or else the new SLim compatible SL client for you to reach them. And in order for them to use the SLim client they have to already be using the SLim compatible SL client… confused yet?

It’s actually pretty simple, just not so great for getting initial impressions. To use the SLim client, you need a new version of the SL viewer. That allows interaction between the two. You need an account through Vivox to make the SLim client work. And then you need the SLim client itself.

Even though it’s really not a difficult process, it’s just difficult and annoying enough that all the people already fed up with LL (rightly or wrongly) aren’t going to be bothered to try it out. And that means no one to test it with, and that means no first impressions. At least until Saturday, which will be the first day I’ll be home and online at the same time as some people who maybe ARE trying it out.

It’s too bad the process isn’t a little more streamlined. Once it’s built into a mainstream viewer, if LL and Vivox can get the account thing ironed out so you do not have to create a separate one on Vivox, then maybe more people will use it. Right now I’m not sure how many people will.

I like the concept. I wish I knew if I liked the actual function.

BTW, can LL write even ONE blog post without people whining about “ok, that’s nice, now get back to stability” or “does vivox know that everyone is leaving SL anyway?” etc, etc? I get that you’re disgruntled. Posting OT on the blog isn’t going to fix it. Stick to the fucking topic. There’s plenty of ON topic places to post your anger that openspaces weren’t actually meant for your blinged out hair stores. I mean, I agree the price hike was bad, but I’m starting to feel a lot less sorry for the openspace abusers the more they open their mouths.

A lot of different blogs, a lot of comments on the openspace rate increase. And so many of them are outraged and blaming LL for their use of openspace sims as residential or business locations based on the fact that LL double the prim quota on openspaces. “Clearly they MUST have wanted me to use this for my booming business!” goes the argument.

I remember a few years ago, a friend of mine and his wife bought a steam cleaner. They took it home, cleaned all their carpets, then returned it. I asked what was wrong with it. “Nothing,” was the answer. “We never meant to keep it. They have a great return policy and they don’t ask questions.” Saying that clearly LL wanted you to load the openspace sims with tons of prims, scripts, and avatars because of their higher prim counts is like saying clearly retailer X wants you to buy steam cleaners, clean the whole house, and then return them because they have a good return policy. Both are unethical and at best naive, at worst totally dishonest.

I don’t think the rate hike is a good thing either, and I don’t think it’s the way to deal with overloaded openspace sims. But come on, people, at least be honest about this, if you’re going to complain and leave SL in droves (which is doubtful, but we’ll see). Don’t make stuff up just because it suits your cause. If you really believe LL encouraged you to use these for other than the clearly specified purpose, you’re just engaging in a predisposition to see it that way to justify your use of it as such.

Ok, the next episode of the podcast already has a theme, but Bettina Tizzy’s post on the Openspace price hike and the comments on options for metaverse party time got me thinking. How about a future episode on the various metaversions, as investigated/reported by some of the SL types I know?

Who wants in? IM me, email me, send up smoke signals. Windows, Mac, and Linux users all welcome. I’ll for sure need some windows types to help out as a few of the metaversional sons of bitches only offer windows clients and access. Guess how I’ll personally rate those bastards? Openlife Grid will be one of the ones we’ll test, since they’ve been making such a huge pitch for SL’ers unhappy with SL at the moment.

Lemme know. Only requirements are you can record your voice in decent quality and export to mp3 or aac or something similar. And use email. Once I get some volunteers we’ll make a list of metaversions and divide and conquer. And pull no punches.

Let’s see if there really will be designers, etc, pouring out of SL in droves anytime soon for alternative worlds.

Well, LL’s new policy on Openspace sims certainly has people up in arms. And while I can agree that throwing more money at misuse of resources won’t help, I have to feel that most people overloading openspace sims knew what they were doing. I’ve seen it all over the place - estate owners selling “half-prim sims” to people, which are really nothing more than openspace sims, and not warning them about performance issues or overloading concerns. For that reason I do like the part in the new policy that the sim owner can’t be changed to anyone but the real owner of the thing.

I don’t think Openspace sims were ever publicized by LL as for being for us as anything OTHER than.. well, open spaces. Waterways, empty buffer areas for putting next to your sim, etc. That’s the whole point of them, as they’re shared four to a cpu on the servers.

I’ve been told by one particular Linden that they’re constantly getting support calls on these things by people who have them loaded to the gills with scripts and junk and wondering why things go wonky, or when they’re using them as residential or commercial sims and the other openspaces on the server are bogging them down and they aren’t getting the performance they want for their activities.

It does seem like raising rates will hurt people who are using openspace sims correctly, and I have to say if you’re running a water or other almost empty buffer sim, $125/mo is kind of hard to swallow. I mean, honestly, the prices per month for sim tier are a little high anyway, IMO. On the other hand, dedicated servers in the web hosting business are all over the map on price, and can go up to $500/mo or more, depending on if they are truly dedicated, virtual servers, how much support is included, etc.

Bottom line: The tier increase sucks, there should be a better way. But every time an estate owner has sold one as a residential island, or someone’s used it for educational or commercial “heavier duty than intended” use, they’ve been bending all the other openspace owners over and making them fall for the banana in the tailpipe. And now none of them like the consequences. For those who haven’t used them in ways they knew they weren’t intended for, it’s a huge shame you now have to pay more (or more likely, NOT pay more but not own them anymore), and for the rest of you, quit trying to get away with stupid, selfish, and sometimes unethical behavior you know isn’t really supported.

The way I waffled over quitting the podcast and then decided to keep it going, but open it up to other content creators who didn’t necessarily want to have their own podcast got me thinking…

Is it really burnout when you only have so much time and a lot of things you want to do, learn, and accomplish? Or is it just being a normal, non-boring adult who wants to build on skills and learn new ones? I know it was taken as burnout that I wanted to quit the podcast, but it was really more about the fact I only have finite time, and a lot of stuff I want to do. Instead of getting upset about it, people should be able to empathize with it. People who don’t have more interests than time need to learn to look around more (I had to offend someone, or I wouldn’t feel right about this blog post).

Anyway, #40 is in the works with the call out to a few people on a specific theme, if you can record yourself in decent quality and are so inclined, contact me and let me know if you’re interested and I haven’t dropped a notecard on you yet. I’ll send the details and you can read Dr. Seuss into a microphone, and we’ll call it good.

Arminasx keeps coming up with really interesting particle effects. Now he’s got one called “Paint Drips” that emits paint drops. Included are paint splat textures for the ground.

The drip rate, color and size varies as they fall.

Check it out at his store, Electric Pixels.