I never lost a sock in Second Life

It happens to me in RL all in a while.

A sock vanishes to somewhere in a rift in time and space.

While investigating my most recent loss in this regard (if you see
a black sock with a red “WALK!” written on the side on a rampage : email me)
I wiggled out the fact, that I never happened to loose a sock in Second Life.

I have lost many things:

- Some paintings through asset server issues.
- Some building designs by sheer stupidity.
- Lots of L$ when the bank ban broke loose a stampede.
- Minor stuff from my inventory.

But miraculously, I never lost one of my three pairs of socks.

I would either claim the reason behind this to be pure logic or
the to the limits of simulation.

Pure logic would demand that you can not loose single socks where
in SL they always come in pairs. I accept that this has its points, at least unless I interrogated people who use prim socks and testify that they lost one of those.

The more appealing reason is simulation limits:
LL did manage to create a world if not even a galaxy where nearly everything is possible. Flight, creation, love, game, communication.

But they did not manage to create the same “background-galaxies” that RL offers.
In this case, they did not manage to create the sock-galaxy, where socks could go to when they are lost.

So with no place to go… they stay.

Now if anyone opens a sim dedicated to socks only, I bet a L§ for a hundred LL-Pinetrees, it would be packed within seconds and crash due to millions of socks, which have now have found their escape-spot.

A dream in green

I have to admit it. I like steel and rust more than shiny pipes and black and white modern design. Thus being so, I grabbed some buckets of rivets and my famous rusty steel and green glass textures.
 
What I wrenched out of my head after 4 days of building was my new headquarter in a 140m diameter cogwheel.

Now, after the rivets have cooled down, I decided to pack that up for sale in a while.

I was asked why I would be not selling it right away.

The answer is fairly easy:
To show off a bit. I behold it to be a somewhat unique structure in SL (yes I know well that there are probably a million unique structures around – but this is my personal-lookwhat-I’ve-done-now-structure ).

But to offer some solace to the people who already asked me about it because of the looks and the somewhat nifty gate-construction, I took the vastly huge entrance hall and converted it into a separate structure, which I called “The Greenhouse”. This is going to be the first prefab of a new line of products, I call Steelworks

The Greenhouse offers a spacious hall, ideally suited as a workshop,
a store, a gallery or simply a stylish home.

The innovative entrance doors open automaticly and with a massive sound to let you in while the external lanterns allow you to set your entrance to the right light. The lanterns detect nighttime and switch on automaticly as soon as your sim turns dark.

————————————————-
Technical Data
————————————————–
Footprint: 36 x 36 meter
Height: about 18 meter
Prims: 223
- Building: 194
- Lamps and lightswitch: 39

Permissions:
Mod/Copy/No Transfer
(Except for the scripts which are no mod)

Price: 1999 L$

See it on SLX: http://xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1248154

Or look for it in my mainstore: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dhaulagiri/223/151/56

What exactly is a microparcel?

LL just released its new policy regarding dividing mainland.

See it here

 

Now, since the casino-ban, the bank-ban and the policy change on open sims, I was always having a sharp eye on LL in view to any new regulations they come up with.

 

Those policies caught users mostly by surprise and seemed unthought, highly unjust and in all of the cases unconsulted.

Means there was not even a hint on what was coming up to the users. In comparison, LL did a leap in communications already by having the topic on the blog discussion and giving netizens the impression their voice is heard.

However, what LL missed again is to set a clear wording in terms of where a microparcel starts. 16 squaremeter or 511 squaremeter? Or in between?

In law this would strongly require a layout of terms. But due to LL is no parliament they could have been more specific in what they rule out.

As a landlord in SL all the rumors about what coming where’nt too nice to hear and ponder about. And while the actual policy is a general relief, it leaves enough uncertainty to look back over the shoulder.

But, even though undefined , I have to agree that this will be helping the mainlands attractivity in my eyes.

Let us hope for the best:)

 

Hammerwielder goes high…

No! this isnt about drugs After renting out mainland for quite a
while now to cover parts of my tier, I decided to expand that
area of business and aim for high targets.

Well, basicly that means, I from now on also offer skybox rentals
for people with a slim moneyclip.

I just placed about 25 cosy furnished skyboxes at Dhaulagiri which start
from 150 L$ per week with 30 prims (See picture).

This allows tenants to place some personal things in there and make
it “theirs”. More prims are available on request at a rate of 2.5 L$/prim/week.

Soon we will also set up some more luxury skybox models.

So if you know somebody, who looks for an affordable home in SL -
send them to Dhaulagiri..

The Yardsale Avatar

On a wild party a few people discussed about strange avatars. Then we came to moving shops … suddenly somebody uttered the thought that if youd had to carry all that stuff from one shop to the other, you’d look like a moving yardsale … a big pile of rubbish.

The natural thought to follow while dancing was to try that and hang all kinds of queer stuff on every single attacmentpoint to get and keep on spinning in dancing.

Ta DAHHHH!:) Everyone kept laughing for half an hour and it was decided that the Outfit should be remembered and offered as an Avatar.

Be sure to be remembered when wearing this!

Photos can not completely show the hilarous effect, so i turned up a little video:

Back to (Second) Life

Oh dear, what a year.

After finishing my diploma and acquiring a new post in RL I had to settle in there. After did that, my bosses at the city administration  decided that they’d need me to hop into the local animal asylum as an emergency manager to streighten things until a regular manager is hired. Intriguing.

Now … after I passed that job to the new manager, I am finally free again to return to the net for longer than 15 minutes per day and do things, I like to do like buildingand straightening out my own shop:)

It’s high time to buld something and pack up those Boulevard – Segment shop project, I have in my pocket for ages.:()

Witchhunt View on Second Life

Soda Domela was just so kind to to report me to LL for unsolicited promotion for passing on a notecard to invite her to associate with my prefab shop business.

Allow me to quote our little communication for your amusement:

(I have’nt found a way to turn of the smileys on these posts, so be assured there have been no smileays on Miss Domela’s side

Soda Domela: (Saved Wed Jul 02 01:50:29 2008) do i know you?
Soda Domela: (Saved Wed Jul 02 01:51:48 2008) why have you sent me this notecard?

Calixus Voom: Hello there:) I just dropped you the notecard because I look for some classy shops to associate in the shops in my showrooms. I want to present my prefab shop designs “in action” and did spread the notecards to shops, I looked upon and saw good style in:)
[7:30]  Soda Domela: (Saved Fri Jul 04 02:14:46 2008) I ADHERE TO TOS AND REPORT ALL SOLICITATIONS.  BUSINESS IS BUSINESS and constant solicitations are an interuption, and block important messages.   TOS POLICY: 5.1 Participant Conduct. In addition to abiding at all times by the Community Standards, you agree that you shall not:  (vii) upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or any other form of solicitation;
[7:30]  Soda Domela: (Saved Fri Jul 04 02:15:32 2008) it is your responsiblity to read and follow Second Life Terms of Service,  the above is directly from my profile.  Your account can now be suspended,  good luck to you
[7:30]  Soda Domela: (Saved Fri Jul 04 02:16:06 2008) every mall here wants “classy shops” it doesnt mean that you can solicit people
[7:35]  Calixus Voom: Very well. I thank you for kindly taking some more of your doubtlessly valuable time to inform me and wish you a nice day:)

Well, so far so good. I am not really worried about a report to LL for sending a notecard to a a businesskeeper in SL to invite him to associate which is set in a decent language and offers the reciever the chance to read the headline and decide to accept or decline (is it a strange thought to think that his/her AV would be set to ‘busy’ if he is in a workflow, allergic to notes and wants to be left alone?).

What indeed worries me in this case is, that SL features individuals -businesspeople or not – which act as they where simply too important to take a glimpse on an incoming notecard report and press the accept/deny button on notecards, but on the other hand take the time file a report to LL,  copy a quote from TOS to you and wish you good luck with it.   

On this behalf I want to make a point clear to everyone, who intents to speak to me on any matter, pass on a note regarding business or having for any kind of communication which is articulated in a decent manner  and above the level of  “HEY YOU XXX FOR LOW MONEY!”:

I will be open for your communication and talk to you if my time allows it  and will at least take the time to read the title of your notecards before I decide to not accept it. I always tried to be a communicative person in SL for this is what makes the whole envivroment a much better place: the chance to meet new people.

Although I run a business in here for about a year now as a hobby, I always tried to be open to any chance to converse and also to look friendly on any business-related-communication that offers anything.

While some people seem to see freedom in SL in being the freedom to be left alone, I see it as my freedom to decide to be an open individual who looks at everything and replies to what he deems worthwhile.

Let the summer begin…

Its grand old holiday time for the next two weeks in old RL, which basicly means that I have more time for inworld matters:) For that reason, I am in the lucky position to complete some designs and wrap them up.:)

Besides that, I fiddled myself into GIMP, my mysterious graphics program, with the effect, that I now strive to improve the design of my product-posters.

Here is my first result …. well as the creator, I will naturally think it’s great …what would you think?

Oh btw thats a new product too, of course:)

 

New Product: Ventriloq – Personal Greeter HUD

As a shopkeeper in Second Life ™, you normally have to repeat certain welcomings or product-related phrases to point out this or that over and over. That is, if you happen to be a shopkeeper who seeks ‘face-toface’-contact with customers or have employees for giving personal service.

Examples:
“Greetings. Welcome at SLCME headquarters. How may I help you?”
“Please remark that, if our products get utterly destroyed because of a malfunctioning prim, we will of course redeliver a fresh copy of the respective prim.”

Quite some typing for business-conversation, you have to do multiple times, isn’t it?

Due to this, a gadget, worn as a HUD that makes your avatar actually say whatever phrases you preset with a simple click, would defenitely save you some typing time.

Find it at The Hammerwielder Store Shop, on Second Life(tm) Exchange or on my onrez-site and take a look on a way to make serving customers a tad easier.

View on the weather

Having no idea if the term is still up to date, “net-weather” today again became intereresting for me again.

While in RL, I look in my homes garden and see the brightest monday since months (and a holiday with that), I see sheer blackness while looking at my SL client, which tells me that there is no login due to asset server probs. Furthermore a shy look a the blog tells me that today net weather seemed to be on blizzard with several outages.

Unfortunately, that isn’t really new there. Since the upgrade to the new windlight-included client, things go worse. Sales drop, network jams, network brown-or blackouts.

And more and more often, I get to the point to think about blowing the whole show, revoke my premium account and simply sit and wait until any other massive envivroment comes up which allows creation and sale of own content to brighten its atmosphere.

It is not yet that I feel that LL abandoned their baby, but for considerably sure, they neglect it. There is about 60000 users max, I see to be online simultaniously (How many of them bots? Who knows.). And not one day passes, in which the grid breaks down like a old-age-wrecked railroad with a serious pneumonia.

This would be perfectly alright, if this would be an experimantel envivroment for a bunch of merry but unhappy students or beta-testers. Fact is, it is not.

The fabulous thing, LL’s vision had coming here is a grand thing, paid for by people who only want to have fun and can not because their inventory vanishes, they cannot move or simply are denied access by grid overload. Plus it is paid for by people who run a business and try to sell things they deem either nice or usefull to other people .

Now the problem with selling or even having customer relation is that you can not, if nobody can log in.

You can not have them, if nobody can teleport and follow your landmarks.

You can not have them, if nobody is able to see your shop because rezzing the surrounding on the new sim after TP takes ages for the customer so he becomes frustrated and leaves.

You can not if the customer buys anything from you and either the payment is going stale or the item is never delivered because of malfunctioning asset-servers.

I am sure, I would be able to talk about this kind of stormy net-weather all day. When you pay 125 US$ Tier per month (not to talk about an additional 19% VAT, my government never asked me for) plus the 6 US$ for a yearly premium account, you are surely not a big fish in the business, I know that very well.

But it’s the medium and small fishes that fill the net.

I find it hard to cope with the fact that coverage of the costs I have dropped from 100% with a little surplus now and then to about 20 to 50% because customers do not appear, are not able to see my shop in time or even cannot enter the whole grid. When you sell prefabs you are clearly at the end of the chain.

People have no sufficient net-weather, people buy or rent no land to place a home or business. Now if they don’t, they for sure buy no prefabs.

The sum of it is:

Even if you look at bright sunshine through your window, weather can be still stormy and clouded in  another life.