The Notice Board - Lacy Muircastle reporting...

Notice From: Hazardous Inc, Wendy Xeno

Hazardous closed at midnight SLT on Sunday the 7th of January 2018.

Wait, wait, before you get your knickers in a twist it will only for a couple of weeks!

During the time the [we’re CLOSED] store will remain open via [https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/140470 Marketplace].

ḎЇИḠѺ and Wendy hope to see you all return when they reopen at which time they will have a couple of little surprises for you. They will keep you posted on exactly what date that will be.

Notice From: Miss SL Organization, Marcusgay Lefevre

ONE WEEK LEFT TO APPLY

Are you fabulous enough and have what it takes to become the next MISS SL, MISS SL ♛ 2018?

The application for the MISS SL 2018 Pageant is open until January 14th! The most fabulous celebration of Beauty, Creativity and Talent continues!

🖅 Application:

https://www.missslorganization.net/application

🛈 Support:

https://support.missslorganization.net

Good Luck!

Marcus Lefevre
MISS SL Organization



Notice From: Kaiya Islands and Turtle Coast

After eleven years, Kaiya Manbi has closed down Kaiya Islands.  Turtle Coast, on the other hand, is not closed but is now owned by ZaBaby Sabra.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Spiced%20Romance/101/142/22

Kaiya is keeping her home design store open at The Bay -

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/The%20Bay/63/165/62

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We are four days into 2018, how are your New Years resolutions holding up?

A New Year's resolution is a worldwide tradition, in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behaviour, to accomplish a personal goal or otherwise improve their lives.  But you knew that right?

Tell us what your resolutions for 2018 are, we'd love to hear from you.

The SL Enquirer team wishes all our readers and advertisers a truly fabulous 2018.

Cheers

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SLartist@UWA Machinima Challenge - Lacy Muircastle Reporting...

If you've been procrastinating about entering, then the time is nigh as the competition closes in just over two weeks.

To remind you:

The theme of the SLartist@UWA Machinima Challenge (L$350,000 prize pool) is 'ART OF THE ARTISTS.' We are trying to encourage connections and collaborations between 3D artists and machinima makers. Any artworks that sit on the UWA Sims in Second Life, and these include artworks created when the sims themselves were created in 2009 can be selected to feature in your machinima. You may choose individual artworks OR a collection of artworks around which to weave a story. The artwork(s) need to be a relatively significant part of the story, and not merely something glimpsed in passing.

More information can be found here:  http://uwainsl.blogspot.co.za/2017/12/slartistuwa-machinima-challenge-tutsy.html

CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS 31 DEC 2017.


All entries can be seen at SLartist.  https://www.slartist.com/browse-slartist-at-uwa-videos-1-date.html

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Sansar goes into open beta - Lacy Muircastle reporting...

Any opinions stated in this article are mine and not that of the owners and publishers of the SL Enquirer.

Are those of us who enjoy dabbling in virtual worlds, with virtual lives and experiences just suckers for virtually nothing?

Virtual life is an escape from reality is it not?  It’s a way of taking your dreams and making something of them.  It’s about socialisation in an increasingly isolating real world.

More and more of us work from home these days, which means that more and more of us will want to find ways of integrating into society in alternative forms.  Enter Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other social media applications.  They serve the purpose of keeping us connected, but I don’t believe that it’s the same as socialising.  Before the appearance of social media, there was Second Life.

I read an article which said that SL died when social media hit the scene.  Maybe it stalled, but it didn’t die.  Second Life is very much alive and well.  The fluidity of those who are resident is a constant, but it continues to offer the platform to be who you want to be and to be able to do what you want to do.

All the world’s a stage, and that goes for virtual worlds too.  Linden Lab, the company behind the virtual world Second Life, launched its alternative platform Sansar into open beta on the 31 July 2017.  This iteration of a virtual world or should that be worlds is built for the VR era. VR as in affixing a headset to your face…  Supposedly the much vaunted Sansar takes a new approach to virtual worlds.

Whereas Second Life was built as one single world, Sansar’s architecture is more like a platform. On it, “creators” can host virtual worlds and experiences for others to visit.

The creations are not placed in one continuous virtual space; instead, they are individual experiences which can be accessed by browsing the Atlas. Each experience or virtual world in Sansar is also its own entry point into the platform.

Linden Lab’s business model for Sansar is to let people visit worlds on the platform for free, but charge creators who want to host more than three experiences (virtual worlds).  Creators too will have mechanisms available to “sell, rent, or charge for access” to earn from their creations. Though still in Beta, Linden Lab is already offering paid tiers for hosted experiences starting at $10/month for five hosted experiences.

That’s a significant shift from Second Life’s business model where users rent a virtual real estate in the virtual world, allowing them to build in that area of the map.

The main difference between the way Sansar will function versus how Second Life operates will be in how Sansar makes its money. In Second Life, the price of a sim tended to be far too pricey, running users more than $100 per month for a full-sized sim space, while sales on the Marketplace and in-world see very little tax. With Sansar, Linden Lab plans to flip this model – allowing users to acquire space at a more reasonable price and taking more of a cut for user sales.

In previous articles, Linden Lab CEO, Ebbe Altberg described Sansar as a bit like WordPress for virtual reality with the goal to make creation easy and for spaces to gain followings of their own. Platforms like Sansar are trending towards the future of VR – where virtual reality isn’t just for gameplay, but for social interaction and experiences. But… That must still be some way down the line.  Yes, I know it’s still in Beta, which means if you thought you would be getting the endless social VR experiences Linden Lab touted at the outset of the project you'd have to wait a little longer.

I have downloaded Sansar and have been in to see it for myself. It was an excruciating experience in frustration.  I checked that my computer could handle the download and that I had enough bandwidth, but wow, what a total pain in the neck the process was.  But it took many; many goes before it worked.

Eventually, I managed to log in to one of the Sansar Studio experiences (in desktop mode.  I don’t own a headset,) but then what.  I’m not a gamer, so I didn’t instinctively know how to look around, walk around, etc.  Thankfully there was someone there who helped me find my feet.

So for those of you going in to explore Sansar, I’ve included the control instructions (desktop mode) from their help page.  Good luck and have fun.

Controls for visiting an experience:

Avatar controls

Use these controls to move your avatar in desktop mode:

Arrow keys: Move your avatar forward, backwards, left, and right.

WASD: Move your avatar forward, backwards, left, and right.

F3: Toggle between first person and third person view.

Use these controls to move your avatar in desktop mode only:

Hold CTRL: Select a teleport destination. 

Click the left mouse button while holding CTRL: Teleports your avatar to the selected location.

Scroll the middle mouse button while holding CTRL (prior to teleporting): Choose the direction your avatar faces upon completing the teleport.

Camera controls

Use these controls to control camera movement in desktop mode:

Hold the right mouse button + drag: Rotate camera to look around the environment.

F4: Enter free camera mode when not using a VR headset.

Arrow keys: Move camera forward, backwards, left, and right (free-camera mode).

WASD: Move camera forward, backwards, left, and right (free-camera mode).

E, C: Move the camera up and down.

NUMPAD+: Increase camera movement speed.

NUMPAD-: Decrease camera movement speed.

F3: Exit free camera mode.

Note: An extended keyboard's numeric keypad is needed for the above NUMPAD (numeric keypad) shortcuts to increase/decrease camera movement speed. It won't work on a tenkeyless or other small-form-factor keyboard. An add-on USB numeric keypad should work.

Chat controls

Use these controls with text on the Chat app in desktop mode:

CTRL + X: Cut text.

CTRL + C: Copy text.

CTRL + V: Paste text.

CTRL + A: Select all text.

Controls for edit mode

Camera Controls

Use these controls when editing a scene in desktop mode:

Arrow keys: Move the camera forward, backwards, left, and right.

W, A, S, D: Move the camera forward, backwards, left, and right.

E, C: Move the camera up and down.

NUMPAD+ and NUMPAD-: Increase and decrease camera speed.

Hold left mouse button and drag: Move the camera left and right.

Hold right mouse button and drag: Rotate the camera up, down, left, and right.

F1: Toggle VR mode.

Action buttons

Use these controls when editing objects placed in a scene:

CTRL + Z: Undo

CTRL + Y: Redo

CTRL + D: Duplicate

Delete button: Delete

Controls for avatar customization

Action buttons

Use these controls when editing objects placed in a scene:

CTRL + Z: Undo

CTRL + Y: Redo

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SL14B - Lacy Muircastle reporting...

It's party time again in Second Life.  Okay, when is it not party time in SL, but you know what I mean.  It's that special time of year when the whole of the SL community can get together and celebrate our amazing virtual world.

If you want to hear what the Lindens have to say, see below for who's on and when.

Visit http://www.slcommunitycelebration.info/ for the daily events schedule.

Here are the main SLurls for the duration of the event:

SL14B Welcome Area

SL14B Welcome Area

Teleport area:
SL14B Teleport from Here!

SL14B Auditorium

SL14B Astound Auditorium

SL14B Cake Stage

SL14B Fascinate Cake Stage
SL14B Captivate Cake Stage
SL14b Stunning Cake Stage
SL14B Pizzazz Cake Stage

SL14B Live Stage

SL14B Incredible Live Stage

SL14B DJ Stage

SL14B Astonish DJ Stage

SL14B Stage Left

SL14B Stupendous Stage Left

Other infrastructure areas

SL14B Max Mystery Island
SL14B Max Mystery Island

SL14B Gift Areas
SL14B Electrify Gift Area
SL14B Spectacular Gift Area

SL14B Pod Tour
SL14B YavaScript Pod Exhibit

SL14B Linden Prize Givers
SL14B Electrify Linden Gift Area
SL14B Stupendous Linden Gift Area
SL14B Mesmerize Linden Gift Area
SL14B Stunning Linden Gift Area
SL14B Captivate Linden Gift Area
SL14B Dazzle Linden Gift Area
SL14B Incredible Linden Gift Area
SL14B Fascinate Linden Gift Area
SL14B Pizzazz Linden Gift Area
SL14B Spellbound Linden Gift Area
SL14B Astonish Linden Gift Area
SL14B Beguile Linden Gift Area
SL14B Wonderous Linden Gift Area
SL14B Impressive Linden Gift Area

Over and above the resident-led events and activities planned to mark SL’s 14th birthday, there are the 'Meet the Linden' sessions which are hosted at the SL14B Auditorium.

As with recent SLB events, Meet the Lindens comprises of one session a day, from Monday, June 19th through Thursday, June 23rd, and offer Second Life users the opportunity to hear from Linden Lab staff.

This year all of the Meet the Linden sessions will take place between 14:00 and 16:00 SLT (that’s a full two hours each), with the schedule lining up as follows.

Day (14:00 – 16:00 SLT)	Lindens
Monday 19th June	Patch Linden, Senior Manager, Product Operations, and Dee Linden, Land Product Specialist
Tuesday 21st June	Xiola Linden, Lead Community Manager
Wednesday 22nd, June	Landon Linden, VP of Operations and Platform Engineering; Oz Linden, Technical Director, Second Life
Thursday 23rd June	Oz Linden, Technical Director for Second Life and Grumpity Linden, Senior Producer at Linden Lab

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Second Time Around by Lacy Muircastle...

It’s finally done…  This manuscript took a long time to come to fruition but I’ve enjoyed the journey immensely, and I have Lanai Jarrico, she of the SL Enquirer, to thank for its existence.  

Out of curiosity, I joined Second Life, which was back in 2008.  What a mind bend it was.  The learning curve was incredible and coming to terms with the technical aspects of just moving around never mind making the avatar look halfway presentable was daunting.  But I persevered and with time things began to fall into place.

But now what?  I decided that if I were to remain in Second Life that I needed to do something constructive.  In Second Life you can do what you want, be what you want and as a creative platform, the options are many and varied. In 2000 I’d dabbled with the idea of writing, but I filed it away and didn’t think about it again till early 2009.  I’d come across several virtual publications in SL and decided that’s what I wanted to do.  Write.

I applied to two virtual newspapers, one of which I never heard back from and which subsequently closed and the other was the SL Enquirer.  Lanai Jarrico, the CEO, and publisher of SLE gave me a chance and now here I am.  She became a good friend and I will forever be in her debt.  Persia Bravin, another colleague at the SL Enquirer, showed me the ropes and with her encouragement, I was on my way.   

Lanai Jarrico

Back in real life, I came to the conclusion that I’d like to write a book.  Apparently, we all have one in us…  I took an online writing course offered by Get Smarter and facilitated by UCT lecturer Dr Ron Irwin.  Second Time Around was born.  My first draft was, well let’s just say not awfully good and I obviously needed to learn a whole lot more about the craft of writing.  Who knew just how difficult it was to write.

I rewrote my manuscript, several times... and along the way, I connected with All About Writing, run by Richard Beynon and Dr Jo-Anne Richards.  They coached and mentored me, and the final version of the book is the result of that collaboration.

To my friends, Persia, Maxes, Mal, Peny, Dallin, Nigal, Lowell, Craig, Giancarlo and IrishGent amongst others, thank you for being part of my journey.   And to all those avatars I’ve had the honour of interviewing over the years, I have enough material to write several Second Life related books…

Huckleberry Hax

A big thank you goes to Huckleberry Hax for allowing his character, Definitely Thursday, to have a cameo role in this book.  Definitely Thursday is one of the main protagonists from the Second Life based AFK series written by Huckleberry Hax.

links:   huckleberryhax.wordpress.com

Last but not least, thank you to Linden Lab for providing the platform for creativity in a virtual environment and to Philip Rosedale for coming up with the concept in the first place.

Second Time Around by Lacy Muircastle

A 21^st Century romance in which virtual life intertwines with real life

Sheridan King had it all and then she didn’t.  Her trust in men irrevocably shattered, or so she thought.

Luke Ashton, accomplished Ad man and artist, surfer and ladies’ man.  His pain and distrust of women run deep.

Having a Second Life© complicates matters even further.  What is real and what is imagined?

Josh Magic and Callista Hancroft

Second Time Around is available on Kindle by Amazon.

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It's carnival time

Our virtual world is turning 14.  Let's celebrate together as Second Life residents. It's your community, be involved.

To quote from the blog:

While much of the interest around virtual reality has shifted to singular experiences, largely fueled by the pursuit of headset-focused content, we want to remind you of the joy of hundreds of people from all over coming together in one place in celebration, and form a carnival-like atmosphere that you simply cannot achieve alone. Let’s challenge all the perceptions, break all the molds, and show everyone that we know how to celebrate.

For more information please go to:

http://www.slcommunitycelebration.info/

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Is your email address verified?

Making Email From Second Life (More) Reliable

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Entry posted by Linden Lab · April 19

9,921 views

There are lots of things in Second Life that send email, but as many of you have discovered, that email doesn't always get to the intended recipient. There are a lot of reasons for email from SL not being as reliable as we'd all like, and the Lab is working on fixing as many of those as we can, but some of them need your help.

One of the most important reasons mail doesn't get through is that many Second Life accounts have bad email addresses - when something in Second Life sends to one of those bad addresses, it generates errors. The number of those errors causes many network providers and spam detectors to block even perfectly good email if it comes from Second Life. To fix that, we need to cut down on the bad addresses, so…  over the next few months, we will be converting all the sources of email in Second Life to not even try to send to an address that has not been verified.

To check whether or not your address is verified, go to your Account -> Change Email page; look next to your current address there. You should see a green checkmark and tag: √ Verified. If you do, you're all set and none of our changes will affect you negatively.  If you don't, there will be a button you should use to send yourself a verification email; when you get the email, click on the link in the message to verify your address.  Changing your email address will automatically send a verification email.

If your address is verified, you should not have any problems with our changes to sending behavior - hopefully, you'll begin to see more reliable messages.

Unverified:

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All that matters is the music... an interview with AleyKat - Lacy Muircastle reporting...

It is said that music is perhaps the most powerful external influence that shapes who you are—how you think, how you feel, and who you become.  In fact, the very word music comes from the root word muse which literally means “to be absorbed in thought.” That’s what music does, it absorbs our conscious and subconscious mind and directs those thoughts.

“I feel so in the moment... like nothing else matters... all that matters is the music. It's exhilarating and freeing.” AleyKat.

I had the pleasure of interviewing AleyKat (Aleylia Resident), a relative newcomer to the SL music scene.  Although she’s been in SL for over six years, it’s been the last year that she’s found the destination of her journey… Music.

Like so many others before her, she was on a different website, and a friend of hers told her about Second Life and showed her the ropes... she was hooked instantly.

I asked her how her SL journey had been, she replied, “It's been a rollercoaster, to be honest. The personal friendships can sometimes be tricky to navigate but the creativity and almost unlimited possibilities are incredible to me.”

Aley said that somewhat amazingly she only discovered the live music scene in Second Life when she was about five years old... “I don't know how that happened! I fell in love with listening to all these wonderful performers and a friend of mine knew that I had a background IRL of singing and encouraged me to give it a go. I think it is an astonishing thing that you can sit in the comfort of your own home and listen LIVE to musicians basically free at the point of delivery. Some people who may not ever be able to access live music now have a chance to listen- I truly believe music enriches your life like almost nothing else.”

I asked her if she thought that SL was a valid platform for people to explore their creativity and did it translate to that creativity being transferred back into the real world?

She said, “I believe 100% that SL is a valid platform and it can be transferred into RL if desired. I don't know if it would personally help me transfer SL audience to RL audience numbers but it might help some with their confidence and in turn, then enable them to feel able to perform IRL if they wanted that.”

She’s involved in music in many different aspects in real life but LOVES being able to perform from the comfort of her own home and not have to stress about lugging equipment around.

Aley has tentatively begun to pen her own music.  She said, “I started recently but still I'm learning... I draw inspiration from RL.  It’s scary though because you're exposing yourself and putting yourself out there.  It makes you feel very vulnerable.”

Her role model in SL is one of her closest friends, Savannah Rain.  Aley said, “She works so hard, always has a kind word for her fans and time for them, and her heart is one of the best I know.

AleyKat said that after family and close friends, music means everything to her. She’s constantly grateful and amazed that she gets to sing in Second Life and people actually come and listen and support her. “I never take it for granted, ever,” she said.

She loves being able to share her passion for music with people and says it's an honour when people tell her she’s made them feel better or uplifted a rubbish day for them.  On the other hand, she said it’s hard if she’s had a really bad day and then has to try to put on a good performance.  She added, “Often though it cheers me up a lot to sing: D It's also a pain sometimes having to sing at 1am... 5 pm SLT... that sometimes makes me tired.”  Being from the UK, it requires some juggling with time zones.

As for critics of her music, she said, “Hey everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  As long as it's presented in a polite manner I have no problem with people that don't like what I do.”

I asked if I was to turn on her iPod right now, what five artists/songs would I see on her recently played list?

She replied. “Probably a song I'm learning as a request... a couple of hits from the musicals.... a song from Oh Wonder.... and some PMJ.”

She plans on singing for as long as people will come and listen.  She is the good hands of the team at Whispering Sands Live Promotions, and they will see to it that she does.  Badone was Aley’s first manager, but she joined WSLP for financial reasons.  She is very happy with their representation of her.  They are totally professional and have never let her down, what's more, she says that Jorr and Keileigh have become great friends of hers.

AleyKat’s sound in five words:

Unique, vintage, eclectic, passionate, emotional.

To catch the lovely AleyKat in action, check the Whispering Sands Live Promotions schedule, which is regularly updated right here in the SL Enquirer.

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