Made in the OLG upload

I hadn't planned to continue this blog, but something happened today that seemed to belong here -- and so the saga continues.

I've been gone from Openlife for awhile now. First in spirit and then in practice. Too many dramas, too much back stabbing. The fun had left the building. I am hoping it will return. But whether it does or it doesn't --- today was special for me.

Here's the skinny. Currency is "almost" a part of Openlife. The mechanics are in place, but no one can buy credits yet. As I understand it, a few folks had a few credits each by mistake or who knows why. They pooled their Credits here and there to make up the 20 needed to upload. And my Made in the OLG logo "appears" to be the first paid for texture on the grid. Thanks to Digi who uploaded and Mac who let me know.

It really is very important to me. I've always believed in making it new, making it different. I've taken a lot of abuse for that. So, it's good to see that someone sometime may actually use the logo I made. More importantly, they may actually believe that making goods from scratch are better than bringing in old stuff from another grid (wink).

So that's a little bit of history I thought should be accounted for.

(Photo by Digi from the forums.)

Performance Art

I've been building full time in Openlife for almost three months now and I find myself at a stopping point. I've always said that I didn't know if I was making product or props -- and I still don't know. What I do understand it that it is time to let the world catch up to me.

This isn't an unusual scenario in my life, I am almost always ahead of my time. So, I am going into storage for awhile. There is really no point in paying for a sim I won't be using. I've had a glorious time rediscovering my passion for building -- watching a new world unfold. And I have a chronicle of it all which was much of the point of being here.

Artists have a saying, "It's the process that counts". That has always been true for me. Results are good, but the journey is the important part. The trip with its twists and turns and surprises is what we learn from and what we remember.

I'll still be around from time to time, much like Samara on her 512 that checks in to see what's up in Phil's world. I haven't left the building, I've just gone off to another performance.

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I wrote the post above over a week ago. Since then the smoke and mirrors show has gone into full swing, more friends are leaving, the word elitist would show up in HUGE letters in Wordpress if it was hosting the forums. Some official forum threads are open to only group members (yes the groups are "open" but that isn't going over well with some). Posts are being deleted -- either by a moderator we don't know we have or some odd fluke of the forum coding. People are in hiding as the venom is flying in the forums which is really our only way of group communication.

The world is emptier for sure -- hence stability is up. There are lots of NEW issues however such as a first time occurrence (at least in the three months I have been there) of rezzed prims disappearing from in world. Prims don't always rez - they just fizzle, more inventory loss, prims rezzing 15 meters away and 5 meters up or so from where you told that pesky wand to put it, textures not showing up in inventory or rezzed prims. The list goes on.

There are no pokes and I have sent in NUMEROUS restart requests that somehow never get answered. Sakai is in the US for over a week and the devs are on Chinese New Years holiday it seems. Still the party line is that stability reigns and there have been very few restart requests.

So, I am packing up with a much heavier heart than I would have been true a week ago. Timing is everything and mine is usually pretty good, but I was a bit late on the get go this time. I wanted to believe. Like so many others I needed to believe. The people I trusted the most have left the building or are on their way out.

It's difficult today to tell who is who in the war we seem to be having. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend? Or is it an alt that my enemy made to seduce me into friendship? The Machiavellian dramas are so entrenched in Openlife that there is almost no room for real communication.

I still have hopes that the Phoenix can rise from the ashes. I'll be watching and checking in from time to time as I have observed other "oldtimers" doing. And I'm not sorry I came. It wasn't what I planned, but I can certainly say I was there in the beginning.

The landscape is getting barren with abandoned regions that still hold the names of the departed. It is an odd epitaph -- that empty rolling landscape.

Progress, Promises and Pipe Dreams

I'm busy getting my ducks in a row for a new chapter -- some of you know that. Beginnings oftentimes come with reflections attached and so it is with this one. I've been looking back as well as ahead and then of course there is the middle.

What progress has been made in the three months I have been in Fantastic?

We can now usually log into to world -- sometimes even to the region we are aiming for -- without having to spend a lot of time in the chat room asking which regions are up. We even sometimes get shuttled to an alternate region if the one we are trying to reach is down.

After two plus months, the new forums have been introduced to the website. True, rich text editing isn't there yet and we have lost the ability -- so far -- to send personal messages to each other using the forum interface.

The world is more stable -- at least it seems so from the layman's perspective. We often walk with our feet in the correct angle and on terra firma, on a good day we can get up from our couch (if the script engine is working) and not fly into the ethers.

We have an updated viewer with less intrusiveness and more security.

All good.

A lot of "promises" haven't come to pass.

The Foundation Residents meetings which have been going on since the beginning of Openlife and will continue -- have not. Four no shows in a row by Sakai was enough for some people to leave the world. There have been hastily called "casual meetups" and a few spur of the moment (???) group meetings, but those that chose sims on the mainland especially to be a part of this long time process are still waiting for it to resume. Instead we have P.O.O.L (People of OpenLife) which DOES manage to have two meetings a week. Is it the same? No. But for some people it works.

Currency, groups and permissions -- all to be fixed "soon" are not implemented. Indeed, they seem further away than when I moved to Fantastic -- or that may just be my more realistic point of view. We were told in November that currency would be online and functional around mid December. It is now the end of January and the next scheduled roll-out is for the end of February ( See this article. )

The article states in part: Steve says that this was decided after a careful consideration: “We found the general consensus amongst users is they didn’t want the implementation of credits to affect the goodwill amongst the grid. One of the mechanisms in place to keep the balance will be the exchange of credits for real dollars only being available to region owners.”

I guess I've missed something along they way or this decision was made long before I came, but there has been a lot of discussion -- as early as November -- about the landowner only clause. I can't say I felt it was "a general consensus" by any means.

It doesn't take too long a stay in Openlife to become aware that things simply don't move as fast as planned / promised / possible. So most of us aren't expecting the currency, groups and permissions to be functional by this next announced target date.

All that is really OK. Those of us here understand it. But what about the people newly joining?


When I came during the first rush ( late October - early November), it took a few days to a few weeks to get your mainland or private cluster land. Most of us assumed the delay was because of the huge influx of people. Hence that 24 hours after set up confirmation note was not correct.

Note: I had a screenshot here, but decided it might be against the TOU to use it, so your just going to have to trust me on this one or go to THIS page.

PCs are still often taking a month to deliver (this from numerous forum posts). 24 hours in indeed a pipe dream. People ARE willing to wait patiently, but not when they are given incorrect information. I can't tell you how many times I have answered a query with the theme of "so sorry but that 24 hours still on the website is incorrect and it is taking up to a month. Please be patient. Yes, they need to change that graphic."

Some people came to Openlife because of the 3D mesh avatars that will supposedly be integrated. That keeps getting pushed back also. There are a lot of things that need to be worked on. There is only so much time in a day and so much knowledge in a mind. There are new devs in the new China office now and hopefully that will spur thing along.

Meanwhile it is good to remember that things move more slowly than "promised", so adjusting your plans with that in mind will lead to YOUR greater stability :D

No Guarantees

The big news on the street is that Linden Labs bought both OnRez and XStreetSL -- the two online shopping experiences for Phil's place. Samara at Phil's will have one new prim for her 512 soon as OnRez will be closing down and her OnRez box can be deleted.

So what does this have to do with Openlife? Maybe not much. Maybe a lot. People are wondering if Linden Labs might buy out Openlife to stop any future competition. Is this a possibility? Hard to say. Would it be a bad thing? For all the folks coming to Openlife to get away from "Linden control" it certainly would be.

If we spin out some possible scenarios we see that this certainly could happen. We have no TOS in Openlife -- a topic I covered with way too much text and an absence of pretty pictures some time ago. The TOS question is being revisited on the blogs and forums. So, there is no "I promise not to sell out" clause anywhere (wink). People who have purchased clusters at a fair number of dollars are the ones with the most to lose of course. And if Linden Labs decided to make Openlife just like SL(R) -- not a stretch by any means -- they could reinforce those nasty prim size limits. If they did that most all of my builds might fall apart or disappear. So content creators could at risk also.

We have no reason to believe a buyout is in the future. We also have no reason to believe it is not. Anything can happen and small companies get swallowed up by big ones every day. In some cases that was the whole point of making the small company in the first place :D

Some folks are a bit trepidacious with this news following on the heels of the 16.2 viewer mandate and the locking down of the grid from Second Inventory. Add to that the vicious personal attacks still going on in the official forums and the atmosphere is a bit grim. Some people still have faith it will all work out -- and it certainly may.

But again, there are no guarantees -- or TOS.

No More Second Inventory in OL

The word on the official forum is that Second Inventory no longer works in Openlife.

There were a lot of problems over the weekend including teleports from landmarks crashing sims (reportedly fixed and speedily). Add to that the many versions of viewers that can access the Openlife grid and stability issues went ballistic.

There was even word of Second Inventory crashing sims. Since this isn't a new concept, it is likely so. Perhaps all the new folks coming in this weekend -- and I met some of them on Orientation Island -- were testing the ability of SI to upload. Who knows?

So the Powers That Be have made the choice to only let the newest OL viewers access the grid. This apparently cuts out the ability to upload items using Second Inventory -- the primary way people have been decorating the Openlife landscape :D

This was ALWAYS the plan. It was mentioned in a weekend meeting in November. It is just now coming into fruition. Sakai has stated that he believes in making new goods. He has many plans to further that ideal.

It is a long road to originally designed goods for the OLG. But this was a good first step.

Earthy Art

When my frustration level gets too high, art is a good way for me to unwind. So while waiting for Fantastic to come back online today, I started a new series of 2D art to go with a large sculpture I did some time ago. The new series is called "Earthscapes" and will be in these same colors.

Always good to create in a different way.

Losses in Space and Time

So we have established by now that I like obtuse titles for my posts (wink). They DO make sense eventually. You just have to get to the end of the story.

The official Openlife Forums are back up after a week or so of "coming tomorrows". People seem to be happy they have returned. It is one way of keeping connected with those not in your time zone.

I did note that while the old posts are still available, they are NOT a part of the new system. This most likely has a technical reason or two. I can think of several. We also lost three or four days of posts, however and that seems a bit odd. Amidst these posts (and some of the last on the old forum) were ones about inventory and texture losses and permissions that still weren't working even though the rumor mill had them fixed. In my personally prescribed role as record keeper of both the positive and negative growing pains, I find it a bit odd. Just something for thought.

The new forum style is clean and there are certainly some pluses. We have lost rich HTML, links, pics and lots of features however and posting is not at all friendly in Firefox; the code is asp so that figures. Anyway, I will adjust but may not be there as much. After 220 posts in two months on the old board, I have no giant desire to start over. Still, that super-helpful part of me will no doubt kick in and I'll probably be back sometime soon.

I have no intention in playing the "I can post more than you" game though. I've already be queen of some boards. The first time is always the best? Well maybe the most memorable anyway - LOL

Dancin on the Rooftop

I added a dance floor to the lounge this morning along with more trees and some couple's seating.


It will be fun to make some new dances for Debbie's dance machine. On my list but not too close to the top. I need to get my music working. Since the same settings that were working at Phil's are no longer working there either, I am guessing that the web server is down. Hope that is it. You could actually have several machines with different dances for alternate genres of music. What fun.

This was a good break in the project list of the day! I'll probably add some fantasy lights and more details soon, but this works for now.

NEW + FREE + STUFF

click for a larger picture

So a LOT of things happened today on my two month anniversary at Fantastic. Long stories are simply long, and I don't really need to remember all the details (mostly I'm just tired and don't want to type forever :D) but the bottom line is that while I will continue NOT to sell things yet in OL no matter how many people would like me too :D -- I am going to give away clothes for gals.

Partly this is because I DO understand how frustrating it can be not to have anything you want to wear. Partly it is because that with permissions still not right and so many things moving so slowly, clothes may not be a product by the time we HAVE products.

Anyway, I've put some of my "second line" goods out for free. These are transfer only. Not my first choice in many ways, but what I decided on in the end. So feel free to stop by -- gals only -- although guys are certainly welcome to come visit.

I do realize that for all practical purposes I have made these almost full perm items. I decided that I can live with that. Don't expect any exclusivity in your apparel -- just a widening of choices. It's been a very long week for most of us on the OLG and some good news and good deeds will brighten the mood a bit. I'm hoping so anyway.

And "D" -- our conversation had a LOT to do with this decision, so I hope you find something you will feel comfortable in. No latex or corsets here :D Go girl!

PS. Please let me know if any items revert back to "New Shirt" form. That happens a lot and certainly NOT my intention.

A Sea of Calm

It is day three or so of the Openlife Grid being down for update. Our last poke (status) message was a day ago or so. Sakai is listed on chat so he is-- in theory-- still in the building :D

What amazes me about all this is how calm everyone seems to be. Me included. A couple of weeks ago we had a similar downtime. It wasn't as long and there was a loud outcry -- many outcries. The bottom line was a need for better communication and we seem to have that. There were many announcements about the coming update and until yesterday there were poke notices every now and then so the populous new what was going on.

So we asked for better communication, we got it, and we seem to be getting gold stars for patience. Who'd a thunk it? :D

My next tutorial concerns textures so I don't want to do it at Phil's. I'll wait until the grid is up. Meanwhile, it looks like a good day to work on animations maybe.

State of the OLG - End of December

It's been almost two months since I joined the Openlife grid. Much has improved. Much is still problematic. I wanted to keep a record of the trials and tribulations and the gains. It is the day to day events that become a blur as history moves into the future.

On the plus side:

• We can now log in most of the time rather than typing in a huge number of sims trying to get into world -- let alone our sim. A big plus.
• The viewer and website are now all on UTC time and there is even a clock on the Poke (status) page so we can see what is going on easily and don't have to convert that time if we don't happen to live naturally on the UTC meridian.
• We can IM between sims I am told (I haven't tried this) and we can see if friends are online as long as they are NEW friends (since the implementation) or if we defriended and refriended them :D
• We have events on the website.
• I'm sure there are other goodies I have forgotten.

On the not so good side:

• The lost inventory hasn't all reappeared yet after about a week and a half. Some of mine has however and that is a hopeful sign.
• Physics have been iffy again but seem better this eve so keeping fingers crossed.
• Asset server issues popped up again today. This will most likely be an ongoing battle. Lots of textures were GRAY, I ended up as a cloud for awhile and inventory items of even yesterday would not rez. Again, more or less OK at the moment. The world is in flux and we are riding the maelstrom.
• We don't seem to have an actual Terms of Service and that is still a bit bothersome to me.
• Communication is getting better but meetings have been missed, spur of the moment meetings called and generally a blur of what on earth is going on.
• EDIT: Much (or at least some) of these problems appear to have been from a faulty server which was replaced the evening of this post and things are much better. I now also know that I am region #163. I am SO proud :D
  

In world issues:

• One of the biggest current problems seems to be that anyone TPing to a sim that happens to be down will most often crash the sim they are in. Since many of the new folks as well as the old don't know this, your region is always in jeopardy of crashing.
• Permission problems are still very evident and perhaps more involved that laymen can understand.
• Money appears to be down the road as the permissions problems need to be solved before currency (credits) are implimented.

TOS and the LCO Drama

I guess I went over to the that double Aquarian anarchist place tonight. I read on the Lindenland fashion feed about Legend City Online stealing a bunch of content and that didn't sit well for me. So I posted the question about Openlife Terms of Service (which seemed lacking and which people had asked about before on different posts and blogs) on the official forum. Luckily, Sakai answered right away and of course I replied to his answer. Here is the reply.

If nothing else, I learned a lot including that no one that was complaining about LL losing ALL OUR STUFF in the inventory had any right to complain as we had somewhere along the line click through on a new TOS (oh my I am guilty too) LOL. So THAT was good to know and I'll pass that along.

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Sakai Openlife wrote: Actually Terms for the use of the Openlifegrid.com WebSite & Virtual World have been available since conception and can be found at the footer of every page of this site. (see down the bottom click terms.) or if you feel like being scrolless ->http://openlifegrid.com/Main/tabid/36/ctl/Terms/Default.aspx

Thanks oh great leader but aren't those mostly the terms of USE for the webpage? I did find those as mentioned above. That looks very much like the "standard" webpage terms of use and it doesn't say anything about Terms of Service which is confusing to a lot of folks and was not where I was sent a month or so ago :D (That could have been in error of course). There is one section that seems to relate to what people are asking about.

Here is the part that seems to relate to the grid and content creator rights if I am correct: (my bold)

MATERIALS PROVIDED TO Openlife Grid OR POSTED AT ANY Openlife Grid WEB SITE & VIRTUAL WORLD

Openlife Grid does not claim ownership of the materials you provide to Openlife Grid (including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit to any Openlife Grid Web Site & Virtual World or its associated services (collectively "Submissions"). However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you are granting Openlife Grid, its affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses including, without limitation, the rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Submission; and to publish your name in connection with your Submission.

No compensation will be paid with respect to the use of your Submission, as provided herein. Openlife Grid is under no obligation to post or use any Submission you may provide and may remove any Submission at any time in Openlife Grid's sole discretion.

By posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you warrant and represent that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to your Submission as described in this section including, without limitation, all the rights necessary for you to provide, post, upload, input or submit the Submissions

If in fact those are the Terms of Services, doesn't it say that you (company) can "take our stuff" which is pretty much what people are worried about ? :D

However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you are granting Openlife Grid, its affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses including, without limitation, the rights to:

copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce ...

I am just the designated messenger. People are asking these questions.

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This is the VERY disturbing text from LCO:

b ) You agree that any content downloaded into or created items in world give Legend City Online automatic rights to use, produce, and or distribute within our services and this content is royalty free, worldwide and carries no balance for fee. Furthermore, you agree that you have the right and are authorized to grant us such content under these conditions).

I think it would be a good idea (IMHO) to have a Terms of SERVICE page separately and, if it still isn't working, to get the link you click on when signing up to go to the appropriate page and not a 404.

I'm not sure that I personally feel a whole lot better after reading that statement. No reflection on you, personally, of course.

Thanks for the superquick reply :D

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OK. In the interest of really doing my homework (which I try to do), I went back over to Phil's and looked through there PAGES of TOS. Along with a very disturbing paragraph that says, "we can delete you stuff and any time -- HOHO with no recourse by you" (paraphrased), I found THIS:

3.2 You retain copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to Content you create in Second Life, to the extent that you have such rights under applicable law. However, you must make certain representations and warranties, and provide certain license rights, forbearances and indemnification, to Linden Lab and to other users of Second Life.

Users of the Service can create Content on Linden Lab's servers in various forms. Linden Lab acknowledges and agrees that, subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you will retain any and all applicable copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to any Content you create using the Service, to the extent you have such rights under applicable law.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, you understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the service, you automatically grant (and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant) to Linden Lab: (a) a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to (i) use, reproduce and distribute your Content within the Service as permitted by you through your interactions on the Service, and (ii) use and reproduce (and to authorize third parties to use and reproduce) any of your Content in any or all media for marketing and/or promotional purposes in connection with the Service, provided that in the event that your Content appears publicly in material under the control of Linden Lab, and you provide written notice to Linden Lab of your desire to discontinue the distribution of such Content in such material (with sufficient specificity to allow Linden Lab, in its sole discretion, to identify the relevant Content and materials), Linden Lab will make commercially reasonable efforts to cease its distribution of such Content following the receipt of such notice, although Linden Lab cannot provide any assurances regarding materials produced or distributed prior to the receipt of such notice; (b) the perpetual and irrevocable right to delete any or all of your Content from Linden Lab's servers and from the Service, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and for any reason or no reason, without any liability of any kind to you or any other party; and (c) a royalty- free, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to copy, analyze and use any of your Content as Linden Lab may deem necessary or desirable for purposes of debugging, testing and/or providing support services in connection with the Service. Further, you agree to grant to Linden Lab a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, sublicensable right and license to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights you have in your account information, including any data or other information generated by your account activity, in any media now known or not currently known, in accordance with our privacy policy as set forth below, including the incorporation by reference of terms posted at http://secondlife.com/corporate/privacy.php.

You also understand and agree that by submitting your Content to any area of the Service, you automatically grant (or you warrant that the owner of such Content has expressly granted) to Linden Lab and to all other users of the Service a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual License, under any and all patent rights you may have or obtain with respect to your Content, to use your Content for all purposes within the Service. You further agree that you will not make any claims against Linden Lab or against other users of the Service based on any allegations that any activities by either of the foregoing within the Service infringe your (or anyone else's) patent rights.

You further understand and agree that: (i) you are solely responsible for understanding all copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property or other laws that may apply to your Content hereunder; (ii) you are solely responsible for, and Linden Lab will have no liability in connection with, the legal consequences of any actions or failures to act on your part while using the Service, including without limitation any legal consequences relating to your intellectual property rights; and (iii) Linden Lab's acknowledgement hereunder of your intellectual property rights in your Content does not constitute a legal opinion or legal advice, but is intended solely as an expression of Linden Lab's intention not to require users of the Service to forego certain intellectual property rights with respect to Content they create using the Service, subject to the terms of this Agreement.

We all know I'm not in the Phil camp. I closed my half sim main store and sattelites there last week. Their text does seem to be a bit -- clearer?. It is very interesting to note that is says in here too, that if they loose things, too bad. So the people complaining can't really complain as loudly I guess. :D I simply left! LOL

Smiles.

EDIT: Here is the reply to my reply which happened while I was posting this:

i perhaps a little plain english can help here.

Obviously even more than the just the text above the example will be how the provider uses such a disclaimer and that's most likely the real proof in the pudding so to speak.

Openlife Grid does not claim ownership of the materials you provide to Openlife Grid (including feedback and suggestions) or post, upload, input or submit to any Openlife Grid Web Site & Virtual World or its associated services (collectively "Submissions"). However, by posting, uploading, inputting, providing or submitting your Submission you are granting Openlife Grid, its affiliated companies and necessary sublicensees permission to use your Submission in connection with the operation of their Internet businesses including, without limitation, the rights to: copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Submission; and to publish your name in connection with your Submission.

I think from the above statement it's important to note the first opener 'we do not claim ownership of the materials you provide'... This is important it's user generated content and needs to be received in that context, including to a non creator.

The second half about things you input or submit let's take the example of a texture is also important... 'copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, translate and reformat your Submission'...

Because we need to retransmit this data to other users, ie someone comes into your region and views a texture. First you uploaded it, at that point we did the 'reformat' part of the statement, and stored it in our database, without the other mentions just listed we wouldn't be able to provide it to other users.

I hope that information helps, basically our Terms of Use are pretty vanilla and nothing out of the ordinary, including when compared to almost every website you visit on the web today. We haven't asked for a 3rd mortgage or your 2nd child, just to be able to conduct the world in safe & legal manner.

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I did get a laugh out of that which was good. Do I feel "safe and secure"? Not so much. This isn't a safe a secure world after all, but it was good to bring it all up and see where things landed. We have it for posterity now. Let's hope it holds.

At the Top - Woot!

Just a quick note of thanks to all my Openlife supporters -- those that have linked to this blog, those who have RSS feeds of my blog on theirs, those who have sent me personal notes of encouragement and those who have laughed and shaken heads over the virtual dramas and the egos of our fellow avatars.

I never really expected so many people to be reading these words. The posts started primarily as a record so that I could look back in a year or two and remember how things were.

SL2OL has been the number one Openlife blog on Google for two weeks now -- at least every time I checked and that was more often than I would like to admit - LOL. I am sure it won't be number one forever, the web is a fickle place. Still, I will continue to do my best to keep you entertained and I just wanted to take a moment to recognize that you, my readers, are in part responsible for its success.

"Simplifying Location 2 OpenLife" means just that -- if I can give you some hints to make it easier, I will. You can accept them or discard them as you like :D. That is what freely given information is all about.

Look for a new section coming soon.

Inventory Blues - Take 2

It's been a tough weekend in Openlife. The grid has been down a lot and inventories are rolled back to somewhere around two weeks ago except for textures you were wearing. At least that is how it affected my inventory and those of some folks I checked with. I have lots and lots of newish empty folders, missing textures and the like. In theory it should all be returned in a few days.

Since I still have that very bad taste in my mouth from the inventory purge at Phil's where we all seemed to lose OLDER items, I am keeping my fingers crossed. Meanwhile I can upload again and I have done that already with some things. I do NOT want to have to make that SKIRT over again though and it, of course is gone as it is new.

So.

So.

So.

:D

So what can I (and you) learn from this? One thing that has held through from the other grid is that items rezzed in world were "safer". I have a nice daybed that is named Daybed with Three Animations from Sam's Place. Guess what? It now only has one animation which was the FIRST animation I added. That post link is from the 8th so we have some clue as to the the timing of the meltdown as I added new animations to the daybed the next day. That is about the only thing I found actually wrong of the items in world. So, they definitely did better than my inventory.

Long ago and far away at Phil's, I placed copies of all my worldly goods as well as textures etc in safekeeping objects. This, I think, was a fairly good idea. What I DIDN'T understand was that the database would replace my new and improved objects (say a book I had made earlier and then filled with goodies) with the original book - an EMPTY one. So that didn't work there. What I did discover is that on the one safe-keeper object I made NEW, the objects remained.

Building tip:

So my new plan which may again do me no good in the end is to place my backups in brand new just created boxes rezzed one at a time. I can't see any better plan. Objects gone from my database at Phil's (and here so far) are the same objects missing in friends inventories. So my best guess is that my menorahs for example have left Phil's forever and are not to be seen again unless someone had a copy out on a shelf in October. Ya never know.

On the plus side (and there usually is one if you look hard enough for it) I had all my new boots out on stands in the shoe store. So I HAD them. They unfortunately are no longer "wear to fit" and so they had to be refitted. The invisiprims also mysteriously shrank in width so didn't cover the whole shoe. Have NO clue there and will need to check all the others when (oh please) they come back.

So not a fun weekend here on the frontier but hopefully it will all be a faint memory soon and our inventories will be returned in good shape. We can only hope.

I'd really like my updated hair back. It took me a LONG time :D

The Art of Listening

I've always been a believer in listening to the hints of the Universe -- those quiet whispers that send you along a new path, through a new landscape. I've always believed that if you are careless and don't listen to the subtle song, a louder one appears. Still don't listen? I, personally, have always thought of the occurrence as the Universal Mallet -- somewhat like that famous computer cartoon with the duck beating his computer to death.

Well I obviously have failed to listen to the muses as that damn mallet appeared a few times over the last few days. Way too much drama for the trinity I try to keep together -- body, mind and spirit. Details don't matter. They rarely are the important part of the story. The END result is that I have abandoned my altruistic plan of free spaces. I will share with the people I know, love or at least trust :D and give up any Utopian ideals -- sadly but wisely.

So, this leaves me with many prims to use up on my own -- a daunting but not troublesome concept. It also leaves me with a fairly empty gallery. I have some more friends that may come over sometime soon, but OL hasn't made it far enough on their personal primetime meters. So until then, the Art Experience is mostly mine to fill.

The rest of the story is that yesterday, after more drama and frustration, I went to my graphics program and made some "art". Now only of few of my readers -- those who know who I really am -- are aware that long ago and far away in a land called the Real World, I was a fairly prominent and well respected artist. I gave that up almost a decade ago, not really by plan, but because of a lack of inspiration. So sitting down -- even at the computer -- to make virtual art was a fairly big step for me. One I never really expected to revisit.

It started slowly with an echo of some of my older works and by the time I finished the last piece in the series, I was actually happy with what I had created. I added a poetic artist's statement -- also an echo of other times.

So thank you Universe for bringing out the big guns. I appreciate it.

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My new plan (assuming the Universe is in agreement) is to bypass the drama and the politics in OL much as I do in RL, to build with abandon and joy, to not worry about currency, platforms, mesh avatars and what may or may not be coming down the road. As I told my OL neighbor this morning, even if things never go anywhere, $60 a month is pretty cheap enjoyment.

Loop Rez - Where ARE You?

It's the day after the update and some things are OK and others? Not so much. We'll see what we see. My script engine is still down. Seems like many are so most likely they all need to be fixed. I lost one texture on one prim which I fixed but no other major damage that I can see. My ugly fall trees came back AGAIN and I deleted them from the trash this time. Eventually I'll get rid of them I guess.

The borders are a bit spongy -- not dropping down but walking into jello spongy. Thing seem to be loading slower but that could be a cache issue. We'll see when I return. MEANWHILE, it's been a busy day.


I tackled prims skirts today. I've been dreading it, but it had to be done -- or rephotograph a lot of vendors and that wasn't high on my priority list either. So I got Samara high in the air in Gembong and Sam high in the air in Fantastic and they remade a skirt.

Now for some reason I thought that being at 100 X, Y an Z would make things easier. It didn't. So all you really need to do when copying over something complex is be at the SAME coordinates in both worlds. It all worked fine and honestly since it took me forever to get the Loop Rez skirt in the first place I actually took less time with this I think :D

Building Tip:

When copying over a complex object that has to be EXACT from one world to another, simply go to the same x,y,z positions in a sim (sandboxes on either end or both would work fine) and make the item over piece by piece matching ALL the fields. Linking with the same root prim is probably optional but in the case of a skirt, important as the root prim has to do with alignment when fitting.

And SO, Sam (and Samara) now have skirts! Well honestly they probably don't care much as neither are skirt gals.


I also made two basic (no scripts) photo studios and put them in the animations shop. And I made the first vendor for the poses. Since I'm working with the "less scripting is better" ethic, I have named each pose by number and people will be able to purchase from a numbered vendor. This of course assumes that script engines are up so that they can cycle through the poses.

I just couldn't make myself do the posters with ALL the poses in one. They always have seemed distracting to me -- too much on one poster. So my plan is to pick out a couple of my favorites from the set and highlight those. We'll see if that is practical.

Anyway I'm happy with how all of today's projects turned out.

I also dismantled my skybox in Gembong and took most of my personal items back into inventory. So moving on is definitely in the wind.

Update Blues

The Openlife major update has been going on what seems like forever, but I think is has only been three days. Three days -- if we look at the day / night cycles of virtual worlds -- can be closer to 18 in "real" time. Well, maybe not, but it sometimes it seems that way. Time definitely moves at a different rate.

I was lucky in many respects as my sim was up until yesterday afternoon. It came back online this evening. So gone for over a day. Still, I got onto the sandbox a few times and made some outdoor furniture (all but the scripts), an upgrade to my hair (yeah), some animations and the start of a fantasy lounger that is very popular at Phil's place. So I've done enough for the day.

The frustration level is very high. Not so much with me as I have been busy closing down my shop at Phil's and doing those bits and pieces of building when I could get into Openlife, but for people who I expect are firmly entrenched in business in their physical worlds. They believe that OLG is commercial -- and it is. But it is an organization that is stretched and working hard to keep the priority list at bay. It doesn't take a seer to figure that out.

So a lot of fist shaking is going on. I can't imagine it will do any good. If I was on the other side of the computer screen (and world) I wouldn't be worrying too much about the people who can't buy into the ideology of patience -- especially when there is an overabundance of others waiting to take any vacated places. The people that can cope, breathe deeply, relax rather than rant, will be the ones to make it through the transitions of the next year. The others will most likely disappear with their fists in the air -- puzzled that their complaints and demands didn't get them very far.

There is a lot of speculation about what will happen when the next wave of "SL refugees" come to the OLG. The grid isn't ready for more folks. I think most people would agree with that statement. There are still plenty of people waiting for their clusters to emerge from the endless depths of blue. Still, the new people will come, unprepared for life on the frontier.

It should be interesting.

Beauty of Art

It was a slooooooow day in OL for me. Fantastic was unavailable for 18 hours (yes, I WAS counting) -- the first time that had happened in over a week. I did put some clothes together, hence my new garb. You can do that anywhere, but it is so boring. Alright, necessary, but STILL boring.

As I got toward my personal dinner hour, the way was made clear (yeah) and I got the rest of Charlie's work placed in the gallery. Charles is primarily a sculptor, but he didn't get any work accomplished today either, so those works will get added in the near future. There is another person joining soon and yes, of course there is still LOTS of free art space available. It will remain free until after both Groups and Currency are available, so if you are an artist in need of a venue, see this updated post at OLX with the newest info.

PS. While I absolutely admire Charles, the main reason I am sitting on the ground and looking up adoringly is that my feet were a foot or more above the floor while his were IN it. Not a good photo op - LOL.

Drama Be Damned :D

So, I finally hit a wall over all the complaining of the SL folks that are joining Openlife and I wrote this post as an answer to people who somehow seemed to believe we, in Openlife, should be on SL time. I will either be hated or applauded for this, and honestly I don't care. It amazes me sometimes that people just don't seem to "get it". Sure that is MY perspective. Doesn't need to be yours. Here is my reply:

OK. I'm going to play "devil's advocate" here simply because I seem to be in a feisty mood this eve and also because people stop by my sim and seem to think I SHOULD say what I think _ LOL. So, here it is. No apologies.

WHY should we think that the folks on the OpenlifeGrid actually WANT us SL folks? I am THRILLED they took me. I am HAPPY I got here before the real rush. I am GRATEFUL to be here at the beginning when things are happening and history is beging made.

WHY CAN'T WE JUST LET THINGS HAPPEN AND BE HAPPY WITH THAT?!?!? Yes, I know I am yelling. I honestly get pretty tired of SL people (and yes I am one in practice if not in spirit) giving their lists of wants/needs/must haves/demands. This was NOT our world from the beginning. WE JOINED IT! We can make a difference, certainly, but the world doesn't need to CHANGE for us -- we should adapt to it.

That's my belief. Others can have their own. Those who stay will make the difference.

Meet Samara

This is Samara. Some of you may already know her, and others of you may get a chance to meet her soon. While I had no intention to have BOTH Sam and Samara in Openlife when I joined, the idea is growing on me. I am wondering just how different they are -- and I suspect that there actually ARE a few differences.

Sam didn't have a lot of time in OL today but she did manage to get some new animations made and inserted into the daybed.

BUILDING HINT: She also figured out that the sit scripts without pose balls that include rotations seem MUCH harder on the sim than the one she adjusted from Mac's code (without rotation). Part of Fantastic's "mission statement" will concern low impact living on the OLG which means -- to me -- that if a script is obviously problematic, it get's tossed. I would rather have the sim up and running (and it has been consistantly for over a week - yeah ) than have all the bells and whistles of Phil's.

SAMARA took over the computer looking for a new 512 lot for her soon to be "minimal" life at Phil's. She is vacating her old digs and moving away and onward in most respects, but will keep her free land for herself and her homeless buddies.

Expect to see her soon with her twin on the OLG. This should be fun.