Second Life

Not invited to the March 15 Linden Lab party? Blame it on the Valentines Day party.

Half pony, half snake Kayi Laa prepares to kiss Amber Linden on Valentines day

While some believe the Lab is limiting saturday’s party to concierge-level residents because the Lindens love virtual land high rollers, the motivations behind the Linden’s party plans are much more complex — a story only the Herald could bring to light.

On Valentine’s day, the Lab had a party open to all residents, celebrating how much we all love the free labor volunteers that selflessly assist the venture capitalists starving waifs who bankroll Philip Linden’s dream. Yes, we all

As I arrived at the party, a disheveled Moo Money wandered past me muttering something about “ewwww… he was all hands”. This may partly explain Ms. Money’s recent virtual marriage to Ms. Molley Mayflower - some stability in e-relationships is a worthwhile goal.

Moo Money is now in a stable e-relationship with Molley Mayflower

After the obligatory crash and re-log the scene finally rezzed, and I walked over to the kissing booth where Amber Linden was holding court in her best party dress. Jimbo Quality really missed out this time - he has had a HUGE crush on Amber since she danced with him last fall - but perhaps the prospect of Amber kissing pretty much any avatar who wandered by was a bit much for Jimbo’s delicate nature.

I chatted for a few minutes with Shaun Altman - Shaun didn’t want a kiss from the Lindens or their volunteers - I think he was wondering how to finally close out the Ginko affair. Or maybe he was looking into selling toad and frog futures - something about valentine’s day kissing booths seemed to bring out a strong representation of amphibious avatars, a few of which morphed into princes after a Linden peck on the cheek. So as a procession of starstruck fanboys and fangirls queued up for a discrete Linden kiss I wondered why I bothered coming to this event. Then my prayers were answered and something interesting happened.

the author, Shaun Altmen, and Kayi Laa

Like many of the Herald readers, I’ve always dreamed of being embraced by a buxom half snake, half pony - and on valentines day, my dreams came true. Kayi Laa slithered into the scene and… time stood still. We seemed to hit it off, and within minutes I was offered a big hug and kiss - which I eagerly accepted. The experience itself was unique. One of the bystanders said, “Pixeleen’s going to get Griffined”, but as Kayi coiled around me it was not like that - this was a PG sim after all, and we were not trying to make baby unicorns.

I get a hug and a kiss

After we untangled, SL crashed for me right on cue - it had been almost 15 minutes - and I went through the usual restart the computer and relog exercise that has become an integral part of the SL experience. By the time I got back online Kayi was next in line for Amber Linden’s attention.

Amber was less adventurous than I, and used her own kiss animation. I suspect Kayi got a bit of tongue in anyway - those snake tongues are tricky to avoid.

anticipation builds

Amber melts

it was so wrong - but it felt soooo good

But what does this have to do with Saturday’s exclusive concierge party? Unverified Linden tells me that the Lindens hope to party with a better class of resident who will play by the Lab’s unspoken party rules. By limiting the party to the rich landowners, the odds of being pony snakekissed go down significantly. The real issue? After loving a pony naga, it can be hard to go back. Amber may now be a ruined woman, and the Lab needs all the help it can get.

What LL had in mind: Tenshi Vielle and Intlibber Brautigan share a tentative smooch on Valentines day

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GiftNet Gift Card System also sells transferable and fully automated gift cards

Today Polimio Enterprises is announcing the release of a revolutionary new gift card vendor system, the first one to be integrated with the FirstMeta MetaCard API.

The vendor is desgined to sell objects like any other vendor, but thats were the similarities stop. GiftNet Gift Card System also sells transferable and fully automated gift cards - owners no longer have to manually redeem gift certificates it is all done securely through this new system.

After weeks of extensive testing and bugfixes we are finally prepared to announce that GiftNet is now commercially available to the residents of Second Life!

FirstMeta, the company that created Second Life’s first in-world credit card system, worked closely with us during the development process designing the button with the First Meta logo displayed and supplying the Metacard API.

Our system is highly flexibile, allowing owners to configure gift card prices, values, associate textures with objects being sold,etc,etc. Any product stored inside these vendors can be purchased or discounted with a gift card. Merchants can optionally share access codes to make their systems compatible with one another. In addition to that these vendors will take both cash payments and metacard payments. In order to use MetaCard functionality merchants must acquire a merchant account at http://www.firstmeta.com. The process is painless and you are always approved as long as you have a real business location within second life.

Dozens of residents have been awaiting the release of this new system since it’s development was announced on slexchange in mid february when Polimio Enterprises began recruiting beta testers. We kept details about our integration with First Meta secret, however, until the very moment that the product was released.

While there are about a dozen other known gift card systems in second life this new system offers many features others do not - besides the MetaCard integration, GiftNet is extremely easy to configure compared to other systems and priced competitively to boot. For a mere 650 Lindens anyone can acquire this new system to use in their place of business.

Here is a list of product features:

This Vendor is EASILY the most advanced gift card vendor in SL with a plethora of security features, and other nifty features designs to make it EXTREMELY EASY to use. FirstMeta officially granted us their permission to use their logo on our machines!

It is also important to set the config notecard to nocopy/nomod.

Currently if the gift card balance is insufficient customer can pay the difference in lindens but not metacard.
If a customer wants to pay with metacard they can by simply clicking on the vendor which will bring up a dialog asking them to approve the charge. When paying with metacard customers cannot split the transaction between lindens and metacard or gift cards and metacard.

Vendor works with up to 30 objects with metacard enabled or 45 objects with metacard disabled. The system is copyable so you can make unlimited copies for personal use!!

NOTE: This vendor DOES request debit permissions. However you may refuse them if you are uncomfortable and the vendor will still operate. Debit permissions are only required if you want the vendor to be able to automatically refund customer if they pay too much or too little

GiftNet vendor is currently available at:
http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=571473http://shop.onrez.com/item/529241

our offices are at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Schreckhorn/171/37/42/

and see more of our products here: http://shop.onrez.com/Adromor_Wierwight

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[Note from Justine- Occasionally a model pops into view for her Post 6 Grrrl interview and takes my breath away. Terra Ellison is one such model. With great pleasure I present Terra Ellison, Post 6 Grrrl].

Hello there,

Yet another Post6 Grrrl presented to the readers of the infamous SL Herald. Usually this would be the point to state how one joined Second Life and most of all why they did. It hasn’t been that long for me, just about 1 1/2 years yet I fail to remember why exactly. A friend of mine probably introduced me to it. Then again, memory is the thing you forget with.

At the beginning of my second life, I must admit I was a wee bit overwhelmed with it. And in some places I still am, though not as much as I used to. My first days were marked by wandering around, trying not be too much of a newbie. Fortunately, I met quite a few helpful people who I still meet every now and then. After that initial stage, I started going to clubs, beaches, museums, galleries etc. Closely followed by first humble attempts to build. But I quickly realized two things: (1) The true nature of my talents (should there be any worth mentioning) must something different. I’m optimistic that I will find out eventually. (2) I lack the interest and determination to make up for the absence.

To cut the story short, I never got beyond the most simple pieces of furniture.

To embody the cliche of a female university student, I soon discovered a huge interest in shopping but a low budget kept me from developing an addiction to it. As you might have guessed already, even a low budget needs some kind of source of Lindens. You have probably guessed as well, that with a lack of talent in the field of building, scripting isn’t exactly my strength either. So what field was left to raise some quid? Uh huh, I began working at a club. Of course, working there came along with stripping on stage. (I don’t think I’d do that in real life, on the other hand I doubt anyone would want to pay to view that in reality).

Unfortunately I had to stop working there, classes and upcoming exams made it necessary to spend more time reading books. So currently my second life mainly consist of traveling again, trying to find interesting places and activities. Even though I prefer smaller and less crowded places now. I’ve grown accustomed to them, either to just slip into my baffies and hang out or to listen to music and join a party with friends. A supplement for real life? Nah, I doubt it.

So much for my Second Life biography for now. Well I could add that I met quite a few friends, had a good time (except for the occasional griefer, c’est la vie) and seen many interesting spots in that universe. So the next step would be to become more than the average user and start contributing. I’ve been searching lately and I have even found a thing or two. Time will tell.

I’m quite sure at least a few who’ve had a look at the pictures immediately though “Oh great another blonde numpty, haven’t we see enough of them yet?”. As much as I’d love to speak up and prove them wrong, looking my avatar I must admit there’s truth to that opinion.
And why haven’t I changed it then? Perhaps because I haven’t had the time yet (excellent excuse, huh?), or because I cannae be bothered to. I’m used to these looks and I will only change them bit by bit. At least I hope than I can pull myself out of the bimbo pit using my personality. Yes, I think I do have some of that.

If you have read until here, you’ve almost made it. The end is near. Soon you can leave a comment if you want to. I figure that if I can write about myself, without any life changing points, people can comment in any way they like. I’ve been warned after all.
And hey , it might distract yourself from the latest copybot episodes for a few moments. Which would be better than nothing at all.

I have to read up on media economics now, I hope your plans are more exciting.

Mar sin leat!

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by Jessica Holyoke

I was reading on the BLT, the Blog of the Legal Times, about a mainland Chinese human rights lawyer who was beaten by police due to his advocacy for residents campaigning against a high tech railroad that would cut through middle class areas. In reading about Zheng Enchong, I was reminded about the ongoing struggles around me regarding what to do to help Chinese dissidents.

Back in August, Prokofy Neva reported in these pages that he attempted to persuade Phillip Rosedale to never turn over dissident information. Rosedale waffled on that point and did not make a commitment. There was an ensuing forum war mostly between myself and Prokofy regarding what should a corporation do in case of being requested to turn over dissident information.

The most public example of an internet company turning over dissident information is Yahoo in the case of Xiaoning et al v. Yahoo! Inc. et al. . Filed in Federal court in the Northern District of California, Wang Xiaoning, his wife and another journalist sued Yahoo because the Yahoo subsidiary based in Hong Kong turned over that information. After court documents were filed and Congressional hearings were held in Washington, D.C., where Yahoo’s President and General Counsel were made to apologize to the Plaintiffs, Yahoo settled the case. But after all that happened, only 20% of Yahoo’s shareholders voted to change Yahoo’s policy so that this never happens again.

Now of course, Yahoo had offices located in Hong Kong, where people like law professor Don Clarke have stated that mainland China has no jurisdiction, even though Yahoo HK had offices in Beijing. And its not like the Lindens have an office in Beijing (RedlineChina states that they have a Beijing office. There is nothing definite at the Linden Lab website. RTMAsia is helping to advertise Second Life more in China, or at least they were back in November.)

Talking to people about the problem, you see the conversation always turn to the dissidents. In fact, when I proposed a symposium to the Second Life Bar Association in order to raise the question, the push back I got was that only Human Rights Groups or only Chinese dissident groups need to be represented on the panels. However, the dissidents are the third parties in this arrangement. The true beneficiary of the symposium is the company being asked to turn over the information. When asked why am I not siding with the dissidents, the accusation is always that I’m siding with the PRC, and never for the company being imposed upon. I have yet to see a Human Rights Watch or a Reporters without Borders state that they would have helped Yahoo in their defense if they were attacked or retaliated against by China for defending Xiaoning.

While I’m not sure about the legal reason why Yahoo and Linden Lab have so far refused to state a policy to never turn over dissident information, or at least Google and Microsoft said that they would turn over dissident information so long as the PRC goes through a US court, the business reason is fairly clear.

Because I’ve been noticing things like Lonely Planet being boycotted for publishing a tourism guide of Burma, but not for taking out information regarding China. I’ve noticed Rupert Murdoch pleading with the PRC government to be allowed to operate in China. But the one thing I haven’t noticed is a boycott of Yahoo over their policy.

In the US right now, you can’t avoid China made products. But even the most ardent of Human Rights supporters have yet to give up their Yahoo accounts based on their beliefs. That’s the business reason. Turn over the dissident, you might pay some damages but business continues as usual. Do not turn over the dissident, you might lose access to 110 million users. Even with the Great Firewall of China, if the point of the internet is ease of use, then why figure out ways to go around the firewall and risk getting accused of wrong doing if you could use Hipipihi, the new virtual world, or Baidu, the main Chinese search engine instead?

If you look at the past and how Soviet dissidents were treated or how boycotts helped end apartheid, you notice that in neither of those two cases were the media partially controlled by outside sources and nor was Most Favored Nation trading status given to the countries we wanted to change. China is different than what has gone before. We aren’t isolating them. We are actively engaging them, giving them business and the US government is borrowing money from them. What has gone before is not going to work again.

Which brings us back around to the Congressional Hearings and why they are a good thing. If Legislation gets past both the Chinese lobbyists and the Business lobbyists, then forcing a company to not do business with a Human Rights abuser or simply making it more worthwhile for businesses to lobby for Human Rights changes are good things. A corporation is an amoral legal entity whose sole purpose is to make money. Right now, campaigning for Human Rights, unless they donate to a charitable group, does not make them money. If, in order to follow the law, they have to campaign for Human Rights, that’s a good thing.

So while I’m still advocating for the SLBA symposium to either show that there is no legal consequence for not following a foreign country’s laws - hello VAT - or that there are ways to defend against how a foreign country’s law applies - welcome back Free Speech - the other reason, the business reason is important to keep in mind.

If you feel strongly about the turning over of dissident information by any service provider, then you need to let that provider know that you are unwilling to continue to use their service. Hitting the provider where it counts is more important to change their ways than it is to hit the foreign country. But that’s the true question, what are you willing to give up for your beliefs? Are you willing to kill your Second Life so that someone else might live?

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by d3adlyc0d3c, ex-griefer

For awhile now rumors have been circulating that Linden Labs has been considering open sourcing their server/grid code, a welcome idea for many. While some residents see this as an opportunity for freedom, to break away from the ‘establishment’, I see this very differently.

Releasing the server code will result in a final blow to the in-world economy. This act will lead to certain individuals finding even more ways to circumvent digital rights management and permissions system including stealing scripts - something residents have not had to worry about for the most part.

Individuals could log conversations of enemies that are connected to their server and use this information against them. This is a grave threat to privacy and security across the metaverse.

Had it not been for the fact that the client code was released I would never have found the security holes that I found shortly after leaving the PN. I fear that many people will find similar holes, some of even greater magnitude, if the server code is made public.

Open source is NOT the way to go if you’re are running a business for profit. Open sourcing LL server’s will result in malicious individuals all over Second Life devising new methods to DDoS the grid and wreak havoc on a whole new level. I ask that residents that share my views contact every Linden they can and make it clear what this means.

2007 has been the worst year SL has ever seen. Content theft is rampant, this past year ushered in a griefing problem of greater magnitude than we have ever seen before (which I, regrettably, contributed to), problems with the asset servers, etc, etc.

Let’s make 2008 a better year by keeping the server code where it belongs - in the hands of LL. There is just too steep a price to pay, even if LL misses the opportunity to fix some bugs sooner because they were unable to collaborate with other developers. It would be well worth it for us to suffer longer compared to the disasters that will befall us if this code is released.

Mark my words, SL will whither and die if server code is made available to the masses. It may not happen immediately, but guaranteed, it WILL happen.

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Remote-controlled bot copies prims, linksets, textures, clones avatar profiles and outfits & saves copies to the user’s hard drive

by Proper Prim

click to enlarge slexchange sreenshot

In partnership with d3adlyc0d3c, last week I began conducting an investigation into reports of rampant content theft across Second Life. Some of these claims included allegations that Copybot was being used- allegations that many of us did not believe initially.

Unfortunately for content creators in Second Life, Copybot DOES still exist and is more advanced than ever. Several sources have told the Herald that Copybot had never left SL in the first place as many had hoped - instead, copybot engineers concentrated on a series of improvements to the original model.

>>>>

‘Not only did Copybot continue to function and evolve in SL over the course of the past year, but trying to break it is a futile excercise as it is entirely impossible for Linden Labs to ever prevent individuals from being able to use this or similar functionality’ our source told us Thursday afternoon.

After the initial interviews, d3adlyc0d3c was able to acquire a copybot from certain SL ‘underground’ contacts - he then used the bot to create a youtube video demonstrating some of the capabilities of this software. In the video, we copy one of Apotheus Silverman’s large complex builds. After the video was done, we threw the copy away, Apotheus - honest.

Not only does the new copybot copy prims, complicated linksets, and textures like it always did, but it now has the ability to clone profiles, copy nearby avatar’s outfits and save all of this information to the user’s hard drive just like software such as Second Inventory - and perhaps even more effectively.

The new copybot is controlled entirely via IM, and you can make it Instant Message people, make it shout, it can reverse engineer particle scripts without any permissions, can be commanded to follow an avatar around and is programmed to automatically accept teleport requests from it’s master.

In the interests of responsible journalism, d3adlyc0d3c, Pixeleen and I debated at length whether or not it was a good idea to publish this article after the widespread panic Copybot publicity caused when the first version was circulating. We believe that the situation is very different now than it was when Copybot debuted - this new version is not easy at all to get and the people using it are as secretive as ever. It is doubtful that we in SL will ever see an open market of people distributing Copybot - in fact, limited the number of Copybots may be in the bot creators’ interest as long as some crooks residents see a way to profit by distributing cheap reproductions of other’s works.

In the meantime, rumors will continue to circulate that ‘Testclient’ is copybot -these rumors are only partially true at best.

Testclient is very easy to acquire, but it is missing some functionality that copybot has. Import/Export commands are ‘Under Construction’ (meaning you cannot copy anything, not even prims you own) and have been for the last few releases. In addition there is code in place that checks permissions before calling the unfinished function that may at some point do the prim copying. While admittedly, the last hurdle would be easy for a person with even the most basic programming knowledge to circumvent only a small percentage have even that knowledge and of those that do only a small percentage of the unscrupulous ones would have the know-how to fix the export or import commands.

Some suspect that the Libsecondlife crowd removed these commands intentionally in order to prevent widespread abuse - a step in the right direction as far as many are concerned.

HELP

Client accept teleport lures from master and group members.

* goto - Teleport to a location (e.g. “goto Hooper/100/100/30″)
* say - Say something. (usage: say (optional channel) whatever)
* appearance - Set your current appearance to your last saved appearance
* gohome - Teleports home
* shout - Shout something.
* tree - Rez a tree.
* login - Logs in another avatar
* exportparticles - Reverse engineers a prim with a particle system to an LSL script. Usage: exportscript [prim-uuid]
* mangleprim - Modifies the TextureEntry of a prim to allow extended fields to be inserted. Usage: mangleprim [prim-uuid] [face-index] [texture-uuid]
* export - Exports an object to an xml file. Usage: export uuid outputfile.xml
* importoutfit - Imports an appearance from an xml file. Usage: importoutfit inputfile.xml
* setMasterKey - Sets the key of the master user. The master user can IM to run commands.
* setmaster - Sets the user name of the master user. The master user can IM to run commands. Usage: setmaster name
* quit - Log all avatars out and shut down
* wear - Wear an outfit folder from inventory. Usage: wear [outfit name]
* stats - Provide connection figures and statistics
* sethome - Sets home to the current location.
* goto_landmark - Teleports to a Landmark. Usage: goto_landmark [UUID]
* uptime - Shows the login name, login time and length of time logged on.
* whisper - Whisper something.
* findtexture - Checks if a specified texture is currently visible on a specified face. Usage: findtexture [face-index] [texture-uuid]
* moveto - Moves the avatar to the specified global position using simulator autopilot.
* packetlog - Logs a given number of packets to an xml file. Usage: packetlog 10 tenpackets.xml
* md5 - Creates an MD5 hash from a given password. Usage: md5 [password]
* dumpoutfit - Dumps all of the textures from an avatars outfit to the hard drive. Usage: dumpoutfit [avatar-uuid]
* logout - Log this avatar out
* balance - Shows the amount of L$.
* priminfo - Dumps information about a specified prim. Usage: priminfo [prim-uuid]
* deleteFolder - Deletes a folder from inventory.
* backuptext - Backup inventory to a folder on your hard drive. Usage: backuptext [to ] | [abort] | [status]
* who - Lists seen avatars.
* help - Lists available commands.
* regioninfo - Prints out info about all the current region
* follow - Follow another avatar. (usage: follow [FirstName LastName]) If no target is set then will follow master.
* i - Prints out inventory.
* touch - Attempt to touch a prim with specified UUID
* import - Import prims from an exported xml file. Usage: import inputfile.xml
* location - Show the location.
* parcelinfo - Prints out info about all the parcels in this simulator
* showeffects - Prints out information for every viewer effect that is received. Usage: showeffects [on/off]
* debug - Turn debug messages on or off. Usage: debug [on/off]
* findsim - Searches for a simulator and returns information about it. Usage: findsim [Simulator Name]
* giveAll - Gives you all it’s money.
* cloneprofile - Clones another avatars profile as closely as possible. WARNING: This command will destroy your existing profile! Usage: cloneprofile [targetuuid]
* siton - Attempt to sit on a particular prim, with specified UUID
* jump - Teleports to the specified height. (e.g. “jump 1000″)
* primcount - Shows the number of objects currently being tracked.
* exportoutfit - Exports an avatars outfit to an xml file. Usage: exportoutfit avataruuid outputfile.xml
* im - Instant message someone. Usage: im [firstname] [lastname] [message]
* echoMaster - Repeat everything that master says.
* load - Loads commands from a dll. (Usage: load AssemblyNameWithoutExtension)
* dilation - Shows time dilation for current sim.
* stand - Stand
* sit - Attempt to sit on the closest prim

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News from the Beijing 2008 Olympics

DATELINE: Oriental Express, Second Life (194, 235, 24)

Exclusive video coverage of the dissident run-for-your-life competition is now available from our friends at the Subrealism Action Group. Once again, Keiko Ketsugo and the PrimTime news team whips the news into shape with a story that has not even happened yet.

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