Your2ndPlace

Today Day Oh released new mega prims. These are not the cut and hacked ones, they are newly created! The first set the .5 series is perfect for those parcel sized builds like in Fermi Sandbox. They are free, and over 2000 in the first box are available here http://slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=685589

This is huge, and was first reported by Lillie Yifu.

Well someone had to mention them, my sister scarred me for life! Via the official blog Bay City is up and running.

The work of the LDPW, a cityscape, a cinema, a lighthouse, a trolley bus, bowling, ballon trips and probably much much more.

No terraform, no subdivide, no join, no messing around with the builds. Auctions start next week and to those of you who claim this is just a hosting service, let's see what value people place on these parcels.

Aided and abetted by Katt Linden, who not only told me Bay City was south of City Haven, she also told me which direction south was (Thanks Miss Communication ;) ).

I took a stroll around to capture the new sights.

This is a bowling alley, honest!

A lighthouse always works.

I didn't see the water trolley, maybe I was looking in the wrong places.

Canals but I didn't see any gondolas.

The inside of the cinema, it's great being able to go to the pictures..not sure what the main feature is and they're optimistic with that many seats!

The outside of the cinema, traditional looking but alas no circle or stalls...I'm not the only one who remembers the circle and the stalls am I?

Via this announcement:

There will be a shareholder's meeting on Monday May 12 at 5pm SLT and Tuesday May 13 (for the Euro investors) at 12pm SLT.

The meeting will be held on the sim Treasury Cove in the soon to be new location for SLCapex:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Treasure%20Cove/128/141/38

It is expected to be an interesting meeting.

Real life is still happening all around me at a frantic pace, so I haven't been able to do as much as I would want within Second Life. Ciaran Laval notes the unfair marketplace practices, which is true on the Linden Lab side of things - but 2 things, as noted in the title, are quite simply not happening.

First of all, WSE remains closed - now for 4 months despite promises and platitudes. I'm fairly certain that the only people surprised at this point are a minority that LukeConnell Vandeverre has assuaged into staying or threatened with having them lose their work (or something in the middle?). However that works, it quite simply doesn't look too awfully good.

And SLCapEx's SL Wallet is beginning to be doubted severely, with prices dropping despite 2 buybacks in the past. Arbitrage Wise posted that a shareholders meeting is supposed to happen this week, but I strongly suspect more people are wondering about the buyback. Full disclosure: I've got shares there, trying to compensate for my losses when JT Financial became SLWallet. However, I am not day trading - I am being bullish with spare change.

It begins to be a little disturbing when I mention WSE and SLWallet in the same breath, but there it is. There is absolutely no evidence to support SLWallet at this time, and even with promises of a shareholder meeting... things do not look well right now for WSE Live and SLWallet.

Early reports are filtering back from the traffic meeting with the underlying message that they are a waste of time. I'll hold judgement on that until I attend one, I think I'm booked in for Thursday.

However one issue that is related is the showcase and I'm having a hard time not finding it unethical in a world where we're supposed to have a marketplace. I'm simply uncomfortable about the idea of stores being promoted in this way. I wouldn't find it so objectionable if places with stores were being promoted, but highlighting a particular store makes me a tad uncomfortable.

The first thing that should be made transparent about this, the very first step to retaining business credibility, should be that no Linden Lab employees, their family members or their close personal friends are promoted via this process. The sort of thing that happens when companies run competitions, employees not allowed.

Personally I'd prefer them to have awards and the winners showcased, that would have more of an ethical feel about it. The winner of the best building designer for whatever period, a month, a quarter or even a year, gets a showcase spot. The winners would have course have to be picked and probably by the very people making the picks now, but the whole process would appear to be more ethical, and maintaining standards is a very important issue in a business environment.

I wouldn't even mind if the showcase featured those paying the most for their adverts, I know some don't consider that fair, but it's a metric that's hard to dispute and I don't object to those who pay more, getting greater exposure.

Places, I don't mind them picking their favourite places, as long as they have the heart and will to follow it through. So many times we see Linden Lab rolling out the bold new frontier only to see the solution to be half assed.

change your pose there's nothing to it.

That's one thing I've really liked about Madonna, she's sure knows what works. What is it now 25 years now of re-inventing, self-fashioning herself ? Doesn't matter much whether you like her or not, she's been pretty much been making news, staying current and most of all interesting to follow. I always liked her and she's always known how to stay interesting. If you get too dull you loose them , too out there and, well that's sooo tired !!! What ever happened to Andrew Dice Clay, who cares anyway's right ?

It's time for a little re-inventing for me as well. I'm not sure I'm quite the right fit here anymore, nor this post, as I've wanted to branch out for quite a long time and write about other things I find interesting as well...

Avatar rendering cost, as blogged yesterday by Pastrami Linden in his own stylish way is a good move in my opinion. Inevitably a Linden blog has rubbed some people up the wrong way and some of the wording isn't exactly tactful but in the wider scheme of things, the underlying message is a good one.

People have mentioned before that residents should take some responsibly for issues in Second Life, back in early february Dandellion Kimban urged people to reduce the clutter from their inventories to reduce load on the asset servers, an ecology drive it was described as, but the message was similar to the one Linden Lab are encouraging.

After that I attended an office hour with CG Linden where the issue of alpha textures was raised, with a sigh, that too many people employed them. My point then, which is the same view I hold now, was that education was required. Many photoshop tutorials mention alpha textures and many people therefore believe they must be included. I'm not a clothing designer myself, but I do believe there's an issue with a white chalk line feature if alpha textures aren't included, but I'm not sure exactly what the issue is, hopefully one of you bright readers can help me out on that issue.

The blog by Pastrami is a step in the direction of education and it should be welcomed. I know there's an impression of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted and I don't think implying that residents will be able to restrict visitors using this scoring method is helpful for the community at this point in time, but educating the community regarding the implications of their creations is important.