Building Tutorials

I'll be posting building tutorials from time to time during 2009. I made the first and most basic one today while the OLG went through major update. True, it was NOT Made On the OLG, but I suspect the budding builders will forgive me. It was photographed on Phil's beta grid where it is often so calm and peaceful.

I made a new blog for the tutorials as I am guessing many of you wouldn't care about them at all and shouldn't have to scroll through them to get to what you did want to read. So I will post the links here and they will link to the tutorial site. I think that should work well.

I'll be reposting this again tomorrow so that it will show up in 2009, but since I made it this eve, I figured for history's sake, I'd put this up now.

Building 101: Photo Frame

Happy New Year!!!

Endings and Beginnings - Inventory Loss

Much of life is about ending and beginnings.

I went over to Gembong in Phil's domain today to delete my buildings -- and turn those damn tier post to mute. I had NINE of them writing me once each day with messages both in world and in email. That was definitely too much information even when I was there -- let alone after I had gone. I left a Peace on Earth poster and hunt globe there for the last of the thousands of hunters, but deleted everything else.

It was an eery feeling, that emptiness. I was the second person to buy on this sim well over two years ago. It was empty then too, but empty with promise. Now it may have a second chance at a new beginning, but it may just as easily disappear into the ethers. Only time will tell.

So I am firmly footed in my new world. All bridges burned behind me; a tiny 512 foothold to call home when I am there sorting through textures and scripts and things that might be useful in my new land.

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Things were smoother in Openlife today. No new inventory appeared so I started uploading once again some textures I knew had vanished.

BUILDING TIP:

For those of you that have never lost a bunch of inventory, including textures, the results are odd. Certainly you realize that things are missing, but in the case of textures, it's hard to tell as we usually have hundreds if not more.

Here's what happens. You click on an object you have made -- looking at the texture tab. You might want to change the texture or simply find out what texture was used so you can use it again. Even though you are LOOKING at the object you made WITH the texture on it, the building tool cannot figure out what the texture is because it is no longer in your inventory. The eyedropper will not work either.

If you recognize the texture and have a copy of it on your hard drive -- assuming it wasn't SO long ago that that computer has gone into the recycle system -- you can upload the texture again. BUT, clicking on the same object will still not show you the texture as the original texture on the object was uploaded at a different time and has a different UUID. So, if you want to try and keep consistent and if you believe that the inventory loss won't happen again (wink) you can retexture with the newly uploaded graphic.

In many ways I am lucky. While I lost a lot of textures, they are all on my hard drive as I had JUST uploaded them. I may end up with copies in some cases, but since uploading is free and I am slightly p*ssed (American not Canadian version of the term), I really couldn't care less. I plan to upload new files and ones I have lost. If they miraculously appear in another week or a month, I'll have copies. It is too hard to work without the tools you need.

Strangely enough -- and I am surprised -- there are very few comments about our still lost inventory on the boards and forums. I can't be the only one missing things. I can't be the only one keeping track of what they uploaded, so why isn't there a bit more frenzy? There was plenty last week and now it is all quiet. That puzzles me in a sociological way and puzzles are good. They keep us thinking.

I did do some building today and will share that along with a project very soon -- tomorrow maybe. But its past my beauty sleep hour and time to retire.

I wish you all sweet dreams.

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.

All in the Details

I'm a big believer in details. A great mountain cabin is a lovely thing, but without that bearskin (fake of course) rug, cozy plaid couch and hot steaming coffee, it is just a building.

So after finishing up the sectionals today and making a few more animations, I decided to work on some details for the decor - accessories shop and of course for ME.

I love magazines as accessories, but most of the ones floating around Phil's were VERY much copyright infringement. I mean you can't just grab a copy of a cover of "Sunset" or "Sailing" or "Cooking Light" and put it on a prim. A no-no for sure. AND, this is a virtual world so we need virtual magazines :D

So, when my DSL folks called to say they were turning me off for a bit too see if they could really get my speed up to the 13mps they promised, I opened up my graphics program and went to work. I got permission from one of my iheartsl.com sisters and took some pics from her prolific blog and made them into magazine covers. So, no, they aren't really OL magazines. That will come later, but they ARE virtual and they are legal. Both things count in my book. They also have very nice back covers if you flip them over and appropriate spines.

So that's the news of today.

In the Hood

I SO broke my pretty pictures and short text rule in that last post, that while it is important to Openlife residents, I just had to post something short and with a picture or two. So here it is.

What's up in the hood? The hood being my lovely sim of Fantastic :D

I've been working on jewelry the for a couple of days and have a nice assortment in my (Sam's) style. It may be sold someday. It may not, but I'll be well dressed anyway - LOL. That makes four stores in the village with goods. I have a friend who may fill a couple of shops so that will be good.



Also, this week, I have been working on a giant set of sectional pieces. They are made with sculpties and have a large assortment of animations (I so love making those) to choose from. It may look like a movie theater but those are the different pieces that people could mix and match to make a seating area of their choice. They can pick out the animations that work for their size of avatar. There are male, female and unisex animations. Many are subtle as I have found that having too many busy animations in one piece of furniture can be distracting. It works fine if it is just one or two people and you pick the animations to fit your mood, but for a big group, simpler is better.


And this morning I made a lounge on the art gallery rooftop. I had made the rooftop usable all along but had no plans for it until I saw that Debbie T was giving away dance machines to club owners. I am guessing that a lounge will qualify. I hope to add a piano with animation and some fairy type particles in the trees sometime soon. I am not a big party girl but its nice to have a fun place to hang out with friends and other folks that stop by.

And that's what's been happening in the hood.

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.

Community

I just wanted to make a quick post this evening. People often ask what the difference is on the Openlife grid. Why should they come? What is better than some other grids? You get the idea.

The BIG answer is that the Openlife isn't for everyone. It is new, it is buggy, it is an adventure and you are often ecstatic if you can log in and doubly so if your script engine is actually working.

What is DOES have -- for better or worse -- is a fairly close knit community. It is much like living in a small town. I've always liked small towns and I live in one now. Really small :D What comes along with that is recognizing names from the forums, meetings and casual get togethersl; running into the same people on the sandbox whether you were PLANNING on going to the sandbox or orientation island or not (wink), and knowing your neighbors.

Today I was having trouble with the script engine being down again. This is an ongoing problem for me and Sakai wrote to validate my suspicion that it was "my neighbor". Now I have no idea who that neighbor is, but I know which ones it isn't as their sims stay up when mine crashes - LOL.

The whole script engine scenario doesn't matter all that much. What matters was that the head of the company actually wrote to me. This is not the first time that has happened. While communications are still a problem, there is definitely a more intimate sense of connection to the powers that be and the tech team.

And THAT is one reason why the Openlife is "better".