The "Nicholaz Edition" of the Second Life Viewer

I have been using the Nicholaz viewer now for over a week, and must say I am very confident and happy about it. I don’t have more crashes, and when I crash, I can say that it is not due to this viewer.
What is the difference between the official Second Life viewer and the Nicholaz viewer?
The most important thing why I switched, was that I was not at all happy with the current big chat window. Your screen is almost filled, and if you have several IM’s you need to go from the left to the right side. And if you are lucky, you did not miss a message for a longer period of time, and your correspondent too, who is waiting for an answer.
The Nicholaz viewer gives your friends in a separate window, like it used to be in a previous Second Life viewer.
The IM window stays rather big, but I have the feeling that I can work easier with this viewer, than with the official one.

Here are a few details:

- new: detection for redmap situations (connection to sim lost)
 plus option (ctrl+alt+s) to enable/disable warning
- new: option (ctrl+alt+s) to suppress window for friends going
 online/offline

User Interface (saving screen space, reverting most of the voice
chatterbox):
- double click action for inventory items (wear, teleport)
- friend list as a separate window (and button in bottom toolbar)
- groups as a separate window as in pre-voice versions
- rearranged buttons in Group-IMs when is voice disabled (save
vertical space)
- allowing lesser minimum heights for IM view and chat history
- brought back the old "New IM" tab for the IM view
- "Near Me" hides chat entry when undocked and base-chat open
(optional)
- IM and active speakers hide voice controls when voice turned off
- rearranged Gestures box in "Near Me"
- swapped direction of "<<" and ">>" buttons for active speakers
- option to hide the "Release Keys" button (ctrl+alt+s)
- status buttons (stand up, release keys, etc.) and media buttons
  (master volume, play audio streams, etc) arranged differently

Should you be interested, you can always have a look or download the "Nicholaz edition" here.

Photoshoot Miss Second Life Belgium 2007-2008

Some time ago, Ninake Benelli won the Miss Belgium contest in Second Life for 2007-2008. Amongst the prizes, she won also a photoshoot. It took a while, but here it is, the exclusive photoshoot with the one and only Miss Belgium Second Life.

All pictures can be viewed in my flickr stream.

Second Life vendors file real-world lawsuit in New York

Is it a game, or is it RL? It does not stop, the file suits. This time not against Linden Lab, but against a 36 year old New Yorker, who claims not knowing of possible suing in a virtual world.

The lawsuit, filed last week in a federal court in Brooklyn, accuses the man of copycatting in Second life, according the New York Post.
The vendors suing the man say he violated copyright and trademark laws by duplicating their products. The lawsuit seeks damages equal to three times their lost profits, without specifying an amount.

Claims of product cloning in Second Life have already spawned at least one other lawsuit, filed in July in a federal court in Tampa, Florida. Other members also have sued Linden Lab over alleged seizures of their virtual property.

Than you have that other lawsuit of July, where Second Life adult goods magnate Alderman, known in the virtual world as Stroker Serpentine, sued an avatar named Volkov Catteneo for copyright infringement. Alderman claimed the avatar sold illicit copies of his SexGen Platinum bed, a piece of furniture for the virtual boudoir. Because Alderman didn’t know Catteneo’s real-life identity, the case was filed as Eros LLC v John Doe.
Now, after almost four months of searching, lawyers have identified a 19 year old man, of North Richland Hills, Tx., as Second Life avatar “Volkov Catteneo”, although this young man denies to be Volkov, according Second Life/Reuters.

We can say that Second Life is not just a game anymore, it never was. You have to be very careful of what you do in SL, but let's say, that the RL rules also exists in SL. Don't do anything that you wouldn't do in RL.

But for most of the avatars, Second life is just fun, it is an opportunity to meet, to explore the virtual world, without thinking of what consequences we can endure, by doing something that we would not do in RL.

Possible Fraud in Second Life !!!!!

It is communicated around that a serious fraud is in progress on Second Life: an invitation is sent with a link, if it is accepted your avatar is stolen. The people that take possession of the avatar take possession of all the powers and obviously also of the data of the credit card. (non confirmed info, but better pass it around)

A night to remember......

Saturday night in Second Life, was supposed to be a nice quiet evening. No jobs, no parties to attend, just an evening to get things straight and to relax.

It all started at my place, where I logged in. Usually I go through my messages, as I do in RL too when I start the day.;))
Then , the next question was, what am I going to do today? There were some Halloween parties going on, I could read in those messages. But to go there I needed at least a costume to wear, which I did not had, so, I went through “search”, looking for a store , where they sell Halloween stuff.
When I arrived at the place, it took me several minutes to rezz, but saw, almost immediately, a big box, which you should click upon, to went for a Halloween ride. So I did.
But that Halloween ride was very short, too short....I ended at the exit...without seeing anything..lol. At that time there was another avatar standing there, asking where that ride was....
We started to chat, and I noticed that, even she was on the grid from May, she reacted as she had only spend two days inworld. She told me about the episode, she saw on tv, about CSI, and was looking for the SIM, which I could not find immediately.
After a while I had a friend calling me. I ended our conversation, and went to the beautiful SIM of Midnight Reflection, where I was supposed to meet my friend.
To have a nice chat, we sat at a chunk of wood , next to a fire place, and started to talk. She was laying in my arms, and we were talking about things that happened lately on Second Life. Suddenly, without a warn, she disappeared. Nothing special, I hear you all say. But this was different. There was no lead for a crash, we sat quietly next to that fire, did not do anything, besides talking....well...chatting in IM.
I was confident that she would return, and stayed at the same spot, waiting....and waiting....and waiting.
Some avatars came by, looked at me, but did not say anything, until, a nice looking female avatar walked up to me, and asked if she may sit dawn. Yes, of course, I said, and thought she was going to take the spot that was free, in my arms, but she decided to take another spot next to the fireplace. We talked, and when she asked me, what I was doing there, and I explained that I was waiting for someone, she said goodnight and left instantly. I did not had the chance to thank her for the chat, lol.
And time went by......before I noticed there was another woman standing before me, totally naked, dancing. I don’t know how long she was doing that dance there, if she came with clothes on.....but when I spotted her...she stopped dancing and clicked the free pink ball to sit right in my arms. I must say, I was a bit surprised, and asked her what she was doing, but she did not say anything. She just sat there, without saying a word. After a few minutes she disappeared, without a sound, without a kick...
I was waiting on that same spot for about one hour, and decided to call it for the evening, as my friend was not returning. She had a total crash of her pc, so I found out later.
What was supposed to be a nice quiet night in SL, turned out to be a very interesting experience, when a guy is laying at a romantic place, alone....with free pink balls besides him....;))

Halloween Linden Lab joke

"Second Life will be unavailable for approximately 5 hours on Wednesday, October 31st. We will be adding additional hardware to our asset storage system to keep up with growth. No software upgrades are planned, no new viewers will be required after the downtime."
This was the text that we could read on the official blog some days ago. As many of us were asking themselves, what about Halloween? Did Linden Lab forgot this major annual event. Or was it a joke from Linden lab towards all residents? Normally it was not a problem for all the parties, but what if those 5 hours would become 6, or even 7 hours?
Finally, after tons of reactions , another prove was established that the Linden's are listening, and they apologized for not having thought about this before they scheduled the closing down of the grid.

"The planned service outage has been canceled. More time is needed to prepare the updates, and it may prove to be possible to do so without downtime for all of Second Life.And yes… the angry mob surrounding the castle with torches and pitchforks made its voice heard! I admit to being totally oblivious by scheduling an outage on the date of one of our favorite annual celebrations. Mea culpa! The shambling horror will slip back into the shadows… for now…"
This is the updated text on the official blog.
Thanks Joshua!

Eleven-cities tour in Second Life?

The Elfstedentocht, or Eleven-cities Tour is a speed skating competition and leisure skating tour held irregularly in the province of Friesland (Frisia), Netherlands.
The tour, almost 200 km in length, is conducted on frozen canals, rivers and lakes between the eleven Frisian cities. The tour is not held each year, mostly due to the fact that the Dutch winters do not permit skating on natural ice every year. Adding to that, the tour currently features about 15,000 amateur skaters taking part, putting high requirements on the quality of the ice. There is a stated regulatory requirement for the race to take place that the ice must be (and remain at) a minimum thickness of 15 centimetres along the entirety of the course.
Since 1909, the tour has been held 15 times. The often cold weather and harsh conditions have helped to make the race a major event in the Netherlands, where many will travel to Friesland to see the tour or watch the competition skaters on television.

For the start of the skate season, the island AEGON in Second Life, has created a big block of ice, with a natural skating rink and café where people can meet.
As it was from 1997 that the last "Elftsedentocht" was held, people can start dreaming about their virtual "Eleven-cities tour" in Second Life.;))
This island will mostly be visited by the Dutch, with their ice skate tradition, but nevertheless, it could be a great opportunity for all of us to have a wonderful experience on virtual ice.

Inventor Contest in Second Life

Get your invention ideas to Electrolux, because the deadline is November 1, and the contest was just announced on October 18, 2007! Your challenge is to create useful devices that solve specific challenges in Second Life. What's at stake is up to 100,000 Linden Dollars (L$s)!!!!
Electrolux is the global producer of household appliances, owner of brands as Frigidaire and Eureka and several other internationally marketed appliance brands.

If you have an idea in RL, but did not had the opportunity to develop, this SL contest could be your chance to get it all started.
Electrolux agrees that you hold all intellectual property rights and it will not disclose your product or concept without your permission. But check and double check the contest's rules and regulations before submitting.
You can submit a concept, you don't need to submit a finished product yet, so maybe, that could help to meet the timeline a bit easier.

Another company, finding its way through Second Life. Another marketing concept being exploited by a multinational enterprise.
Although the announcement came rather late, it is still not too late to submit your invention or idea and become a Linden millionaire.;))
It is amazing and I am glad to see, how many corporates are finding their way throughout the virtual world.
Are you aware that you are being part of something that will be a daily device in the future? The virtual world, where you will be able to do things, to buy things, to develop things etc........

"Electrolux Innovation Grant Program
Assignment:
Second Life residents will be encouraged to submit ideas for useful devices designed to solve a specific challenge. They can present ideas already in development or projects that are still in the concept phase. They can work either as a team or as an individual.
Electrolux will decide among the submissions which projects they deem worthwhile, feasible, and able to be completed. From the projects they select (a number at their discretion) they can then award them significant amounts of grant money in Linden dollars based on merit."

Blogger Party October 21st

Last Sunday, the monthly blogger party wad held at Codie's place. Code herself and Vint Falken were hosts. This month's theme was "Robots".
As soon as I arrived at Code's Lounge, on the top of the roof, one could already see what this month's theme was. Some of the colleague bloggers had really made some efforts for this occasion, as you can see in the snapshots, taken that evening. The party started with a little bad luck. On the very same SIM, there was another party going on, meaning that the SIM was full, at a certain moment. Luckily, it was a European party, on Sunday, so it did not last very long.
Some of us may have had some difficulties getting at the party, but eventually, I think everyone who intended to come was there.
Due to the extra long party hour, we only saw mot of the European Bloggers, and not all of the Americans, only the"die hards", because they would come a bit later, when the Europeans were already gone to bed.
Thanks Codie and Vint for this wonderful party.
You can see all the pictures of this blogger gathering in my flickr stream here.
Don't forget to surf to all other blogposts of this party, as there are Raul and Alysha

The End is Near.

As I told you last week, EagleWolf ran out of prims on Doornroosje in Second Life. And he still wanted to build. So, what would be the best solution to solve his hunger for building…..indeed, buy another place.
One day, he sent us an invitation to visit a place that he bought. Exactly like the previous time, he wanted to show us his latest buy. A small island it was, not so big as the other one, but I can assume, with much more prims…
The next time I visited the spot, there were some stones, just like those from Stonehenge. In the middle of these stones there was a campfire, with tree-trunks, to sit on, around it. At that time I had no clue what his intentions were, but I soon found out.
He started to built a whole new castle in the Second life sky at 300 m. And not just a normal castle, not at all the same as Doornroosje. When he started , together with another friend, Vera Leven, there was not much to see, except some walls and a labyrinth inside. I don’t remember how long they were working on that basic part, but I assume it has strong foundations.:))
Vera has built SUDOKU games in the labyrinth, something I never saw in SL before..., and from there they built their way up, in several floors. And on top of it, they made a gathering place, where there could be some performances on a stage, where you can drink Guinness draught, where you can have a laughter and dance. Indeed, it is not a Belgian pub Eagle made, but an Irish one, also with a juke box, full of Irish pipesongs.;))
Eagle and Vera have accomplished another piece of art, another building in Second Life, a place for friends to gather, to have fun, to dance, just like we used to do. Some of you have already visited the place and they can only confirm, even though they have seen it all yet.
You will be able to visit the place at Thorns, Eagles Nest & Wolf Henge 50.95.22. There you can find a kind of balloon. You right click your mouse, take a seat, right click again and touch. The balloon will take you on a short journey to the entrance of the Irish looking pub.
Soon, the place where that other castle, Doornroosje, is standing, Roses, will be sold. If you are interested to visit the place, you will not have to waste any time.
If you are interested to buy the place, please IM EagleWolf Kubrick inworld.

Picture of this new place will follow soon.