Kirsten's - S (20) Build (35) version of the SecondLife (R) Viewer2 "AWESOME !"

  I found myself spending a good portion of the weekend toying around with the Kirsten S(20) Build (34) version viewer based on the Linden Lab V2. I was very pleased with my findings, including but not limited to a new light blue color scheme skin. (Azure)

                  "Quite a bit more pleasant, and much easier on the eyes"

    I was just about to write a stellar review when I noticed Kirsten was on-line. I decided to say hello, and was told that Build(35) was just about ready to ship within the next hour or two. Several much desired changes had been added, one of them being a 5 to 10 FPS increase in the mid to high level graphics settings. Deciding it would be worth the wait, I checked my current FPS, and went off to run a few RL errands.
  After a brief and totally intelligent installation ( the install routine has been redone, and completely removes all traces of the previous installation ) "nice touch". I fired the new viewer up and immediately checked the FPS, sure enough there was definitely a 5 to 10 FPS increase. I started to poke around the menus, and was unable to locate the run Dual Threads check box. Kirsten was still on line so I asked if it had been moved to a a different area. Apparently there is no longer a need to manually check this option, as the code has been modified to properly detect your hardware and adjust itself accordingly "another nice touch"
  We chatted for a bit and was informed that this is a quick interim build, some enhancement's and bug fixes. . In the mean time however S(20)-(35) now includes, not only Hitomi Tiponi's StarLight enhancements, some open surce code by Katherine Berry ( AjaxLife programing fame ) has been added and Ana Lutetia with here renown  Photo WindLight settings as well.

This should  result in superior snapshot opportunities  for SL photographers. There is also a new feature allowing Machinima filmmakers to switch off script particles.

      I have been following the Kirsten viewer since long before I reinstated this Blog. The small amount of time between release's, is almost mind boggling. Kristen's S(20) series has somehow managed to take a ill conceived product that clearly never should have been released, and managed to transform it into a Viewer I finally  feel comfortable recommending to a number of friends and new acquaintances.
                        Even if I am not a full time V2 user :_)

I am looking forward to a full review of S(20)-(36) with the extra goodies real soon *grins*

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife (R) LordGregGreg Back ~ Release The Emergence Viewer

  If you are not familiar with LordGregGreg Back, he is one of the original founders of Emerald. I  believe it was called GreenLife at that time. At least it was when I first started using it. I'm not going to go into lengthy details, rather I feel is best that I just give the Web link to LGG's Blog below.
   Briefly this is a nearly  identical generic version of  the Emerald Viewer, with all the supposed bad stuff removed, and several nice improvements. The snapshot's below are of the standard SL Silver Skin. The default, uses a red and black color scheme, and at least a dozen others.
   I spent 8 hours using it today, working on my most current building project. It has all the bells & whistles I require in order to get my job done.
                              snapshot's, my latest build, a work in progress 

 

  The only three flaws I was able to find, is the version number displayed is one decimal point off. The other is very minor as well, my hands, arms do not move when I type. And my Viewer being used displays as Viewer 2 on other peoples screens. So if your an avid Emerald user, and have been turned off by all the negative things being said the past several weeks, I would just recommend, take a look at LordGregGreg's Blog.
                
                                 http://code.google.com/p/emergence-viewer/

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife (R) Emerald Viewer & the Drama Queens

  Ok I just have to say this, I have worked with computers on a daily basis since the Atari 800. There is no basis that I can find of malicious code, Mal ware, Trojans, Virus's. This is all nonsense. I use PC's Windows XP and & 7, Linux, several differnt flavors, Ubuntu, RedHat, Gentoo, Mac OSX..........

  I have been using Emerald, since it was first introduced, it's not going to eat your cat, starve your puppy, or do anything detrimental, to your files, or steal information from you, that is not already easily available to people foolish enough to do their banking online.

  This whole thing has become a weekday mid afternoon soap opera. When I want to build in SL, I use Emerald, or Imprudence ( see my review tomorrow ) When I just want to have fun, hang out with my partner Cathy, I use Kirsten's with Starlight.

   The entire thing, is just getting to the point of being childish, these people are very talented coders, with huge Ego's. And in this business, its common. Don't bash them, but also do not feed their Ego's. Simply use the SL viewer that you like, and have fun enjoying your SL

SecondLife (R) Kirstens S20(33)

   I'm back / Lol after a very hectic weekend, so I figured I may as well start out with a plug for Kirsten's newest build. My SL partner Cathy just loves it. Although I have not been able to get the linux version working, I am getting an amazing 25-35FPS average, on a 5 year old Dell P4 1 gig ram, with a Nvidia 8400GS 512mb video card, and Windows XP. The Starlight skin by Hitomi has also been added. Witch I prefer very much over the standard V2 color scheme. Nearly 0% packet loss. Sim Ping times of a relatively steady 130msec, overall this viewer runs extremely smooth on older hardware. The Camera controls are still too large for my tastes, but they are more transparent, and setting up your preferences is extremely intuitive.

  I'm not the biggest fan of Viewer 2. I'm trying to give it a fair chance, this is defiantly, in my opinion, worth a download.

SecondLife (R) Viewer 2 is a piece of S...

Sorry folk's, Viewer 2 is a piece of crap, Kirsten and Hitomi have done a great job at improving a horribly broken User Interface.


But I just cant deal with it any more. I'm going on a movie shoot RL for a few days.

SecondLife (R) Snowglobe Snowglobe 1.5.0 (3615) Aug 15 2010 15:06:18 (Snowglobe Test Build)

Well the problem with clothing seems to have been fixed.

I will be trying Kirsten and Hitomi's test build out later on today

SecondLife (R) SnowStorm Viewer, LGG leaves Emerald Dev Team, To much Drama ?

  I have been watching the SLCC video's on the web this weekend, some of it was very interesting. Especially the fact that a greater emphasis will be placed on better usability for disabled persons. This is great news for myself, and my SL partner Cathy, having survived a stroke, and severe closed head injury 5 years ago, and being home bound I was very happy to meet my long time SL partner (wife) , whom is also partially disabled. We both are very great-full for Linden Lab and their reorganization of how important it is to contribute to the mental well being of physically challenged people. I feel it will truly be will be a wonderful accomplishment, if they can pull it off. 

  In listening to Phillip and Oz Linden speak, I feel that they are sincere, and understand that virtual worlds in general can be extremely beneficial to someones being physically challenged  mental well being, the ability to make new friends, go out dancing, or shopping, at least in your  own imagination helped me greatly. I was also very happy to hear them both openly admit that Viewer 2, has not worked out very well, and it's official Viewer 1.23.xxxx will no longer be supported by LL, as far as development goes. It's full steam ahead with Viewer 2, lots of improvements, better communication with the open source developers, and weekly builds with a new project, code named "SnowStorm"


  Hey the Lab is reaching out to us, the user's, here is a link to the the LL inworld  office hours.
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Office_Hours

  If you really love SL, and the friends you have made here, I ask you to please attend, whenever you are able to do so.


  So now, on to the ongoing emerald Soap Opera, personally I say just blow the entire thing off. I have been a builder in SL for a long time, the Emerald viewer is well suited for my needs. This recent glitch associated with being partially unclothed, or worse yet, nude, when on your screen you appear fine, seems to have stemmed from the SnowGlobe project, which apparently is being shelved, and replaced with the merger of SnowBurst and Viewer 2.

  So in closeing, please continue to support my favorite SL Developers / Kirsten / Hitomi / McCabe / and the folks at Emerald / keep up the great work.

JayR Cela :_)

SpaceJunky Concert in SecondLife (R) Tonight 8:00pm SLT

Ok I got the location for tonight's concert. If you have not listened to this RL band perform in SL, ya really owe it to yourself to stop on over for a listen.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Burnott/12/243/34

Hope to see you there *bigg huggs*

JayR Cela :_)

Space Junky Returns to SecondLife (R) Tonight

Hi there everyone, I just got word that the famous RL band SpaceJunky, will be returning to SL tonight for a conncert. This band really rock's / I'll post a SLUR as soon as I can

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife ( R ) OZ Linden, a really great person

  Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting a new member of LL. Oz Linden, he is a a great person and seems to be very open to restoring  in world LL meetings.  According to Oz, Viewer 2 is here to stay, like it or not we are going to have to get used to this piece of crap.
  I am so fed up with trying to sponsor V2, I'm not sure if I can do it any longer. The UI is unintuitive, and I believe LL is on a path of self destruction. I very much hope this is not the case. But give it up, Viewer 2 needs so much work, its not even funny anymore.
  Kirsten and Hitomi are the only people that seem to get it. This Official SL Viewer is horrible, and I believe because of the Labs ignorance, I will be moving on to OsGrid.
  Byeee LL, may you rest in piece. You not getting any more of my $

JayR Cela :(

SecondLife (R) New Beta and Un-Installing the Previous Version

  Well, a new Beta Viewer 2 was released. I may have missed something, but the date seems to be incorrect, as the download was only available as of  yesterday.
  Second Life 2.1.1 (207725) Aug  3 2010 22:10:27 (Second Life Beta Viewer)

  Seems for one reason or another, it was quickly pulled and replaced with Second_Life_2-1-1-207998 as I got the log-in message that I must install the update in order to proceed.
  I don't know about your past experiences with letting the Lab do an automatic update on  your computer, but I have found their uninstall routine to be full of holes, leaving errant Registry entries, and no longer needed files on my hard drive.
  Now I am referring to Windows users only, I'm a died in the wool Ubuntu Linux person, so I don't usually have this problem, and I do use Macs for my work, don't care for them much, but they do the job, and I have no desire to dig under the hood of that mess.
  I guess the point I am trying to make here, is that if your a Windows user, you really need a good registry cleaner, and system tuner. No need to fret, their are 2 excellent freeware programs available. I have mentioned them before in a previous post. Glary Utilities http://www.glaryutilities.com/ and IOBit Software's, Advanced System Care Free http://www.iobit.com/allproducts.html
  If you are experiencing odd problems wit SL, or any other programs, give these 2 programs a try, oh by the way the free versions seem to work just as good as the pay for ones

  Enjoy your SecondLife

JayR Cela :_)

What do the 'listing' and 'let search engines find your blog' settings do?

What do the 'listing' and 'let search engines find your blog' settings do?

SecondLife ( R ) I'm back in the AWG

  Yep I'm back, gonna hang out with the movers and shakers in SL again. I think I'll just post todays meeting transcript, and let you be the judge.

  I'm using the Imprudence latest weekly build, lets test it out as avatars start to arive.

Wow 21 FPS on my old P4
here's the specs

Imprudence 1.3.0 Weekly: 2010-08-07 / Second Life 1.23.5 (136262), Aug  7 2010 09:34:11
Release Notes

Grid: Second Life (secondlife)

Built with MSVC version 1400

You are at 233373.1, 260992.3, 22.0 in ThorneBridgeTown located at sim20346.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.27.121:13000)
Second Life Server 1.40.4.207155
Release Notes

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 (Unknown model) (3391 MHz)
Memory: 1023 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 (Build 2600)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 8400 GS/PCI/SSE2
Windows Graphics Driver Version: 6.14.0012.5896
OpenGL Version: 3.3.0

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.18.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8j zlib/1.2.3
J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.4.0.565, Runtime: 1.4.0.565
Audio Driver Version: OpenAL, version 1.1 ALSOFT 1.6.372 / OpenAL Community / OpenAL Soft: DirectSound Software
GStreamer Version: 0.10.20.1
LLMozLib Version: [LLMediaImplLLMozLib] - 2.01.34769 (Mozilla GRE version 1.8.1.21_0000000000)
Packets Lost: 213/264247 (0.1%)
 
the meeting will be starting soon, I'm just dying to see what happens, I may even try logging in with Kirstens S(20) :_)

  I'm guessing this particular sim is running on a newer class 5 server

Ok here is the transcript from the AWG meeting today, if they dont like me posting it here then Sue me. And I dont get along very well with one of the founding members. 

[09:10 AM]  JayR Cela: wow this simm is really running great my FPS is high and my bandwith is the best I have ever seen
[09:10 AM]  Dzonatas Sol: Some events yesterday happened quicker than I thought... or mapped their possibility to happen. =)
[09:18 AM]  ninjaxs Nider is Offline
[09:19 AM]  Austina Magic is Online
[09:23 AM]  Tommy Parrott is Offline
[09:25 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: someone's VISTA AO is missing lot's of animations
[09:26 AM]  Identity Euler: hi ㋡
[09:26 AM]  JayR Cela: on a Vista box ?/ may have to try running SL in XP compatibility mode
[09:26 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: hi
[09:26 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: lol Jay
[09:27 AM]  JayR Cela: lol / well it worked for me / same with Win 7
[09:27 AM]  JayR Cela: hi Morgaine
[09:29 AM]  Malburns Writer is Online
[09:29 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: Greetings
[09:29 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: hi
[09:30 AM]  JayR Cela: howdy XL
[09:30 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: running somekind shield, XL?
[09:31 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: yes Bye Bye Copybot
[09:31 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: pfft
[09:31 AM]  Latif Khalifa: lol
[09:31 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: dont know if it works
[09:31 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: how much did you paid?
[09:31 AM]  Latif Khalifa: i should copybot him just to show him just how silly he is :P
[09:31 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: Freebie
[09:32 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: Latif no
[09:32 AM]  Latif Khalifa: no what?
[09:32 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: No Show me
[09:32 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: I want to feel somewhat secure
[09:32 AM]  Latif Khalifa: lol
[09:33 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: lol
[09:33 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: Apperently if a copybotter right clicks me they crash
[09:33 AM]  Latif Khalifa: lol
[09:34 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: ooookay :P
[09:34 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: Its from Phox from Emerald
[09:34 AM]  JayR Cela: Emeradl is a dead issue
[09:34 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: why is that Jay
[09:35 AM]  Malburns Writer is Offline
[09:35 AM]  JayR Cela: several devs left
[09:35 AM]  Imaze Rhiano sighs...
[09:35 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: oh no
[09:36 AM]  JayR Cela: and i got tired of showing up naked in clubs / when on my screen i looked fine / even pictures i took showed me as being fully clothed / other people took pictures and i was naked
[09:37 AM]  Malburns Writer is Online
[09:37 AM]  Rex Cronon is Online
[09:37 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: Oh man do I have any clothes on
[09:37 AM]  JayR Cela: you look ok on my screen XL
[09:38 AM]  Mojito Sorbet: So is trying to convince somebody that they are naked, when in fact they are not, is a form of griefing? :)
[09:38 AM]  Razitra Artizar is Offline
[09:38 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: I did hear Morgaine's comments yesterday at Triage about Emerald
[09:39 AM]  Pinksurfer Mistwalker is Online
[09:39 AM]  Mojito Sorbet: heh. is that logged?
[09:39 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Soft didn't say when LL's deadline to Emerald expires. When it does, presumably Emerald are off the TPV Directory.
[09:40 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: That will be a huge kick in the head
[09:40 AM]  Mojito Sorbet: WHat deadline is this?
[09:40 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: Do I have clothes on?
[09:41 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: I expect they'll comply. Their profits stem from having good PR, they hide behind that, so wouldn't want to lose it.
[09:41 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: No transcript yet
[09:41 AM]  JayR Cela: Morgaine why wont you talk to me ?
[09:41 AM]  Mojito Sorbet: WHat is the deadline for?
[09:42 AM]  JayR Cela: did i accidently mute you ?
[09:42 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Mojito: Emerald's revealing of people's home directories was "totally unacceptable" according to Soft. He passed the full details up the management chain, and apparently Emerald have been given a deadline. Beyond that, we don't know anything.
[09:42 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: I see some clothes on you Imaze
[09:42 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: she would be gray for you if you did mute her
[09:42 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: "some clothes" ?
[09:43 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: •´¨*•.¸. HahahaA •´¨*•.¸.
[09:43 AM]  JayR Cela: well i must of pissed her off
[09:43 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: JayR: got an interesting question?
[09:43 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: revealing other people's directories?
[09:44 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: I have what was said
[09:44 AM]  JayR Cela: ok Morgaine / whats your question ?
[09:44 AM]  Rex Cronon is Online
[09:44 AM]  JayR Cela: I'm waiting / coff it up
[09:45 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Imaze: they encode people's home directory pathnames in bake images, available to anyone who wants to look.
[09:45 AM]  PrettyB Durant is Online
[09:45 AM]  Mojito Sorbet: So I can see you are really /home/MargaretThatcher
[09:45 AM]  Latif Khalifa: lolol
[09:46 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: nice one
[09:46 AM]  Arkal Eisbar is Online
[09:46 AM]  Mojito Sorbet: Quick, everyone rename their home directory to a hash of their real name...
[09:46 AM]  Rex Cronon: hello everybody
[09:46 AM]  JayR Cela: Morgaine I still waiting for your question
[09:47 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: hi :)
[09:47 AM]  Latif Khalifa: hey Dahlia :)
[09:47 AM]  JayR Cela: hi there Rex *bigg huggs*
[09:47 AM]  Rex Cronon: hi jayr, dahlia
[09:48 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: any word from Zha?
[09:48 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Not heard from Zha
[09:48 AM]  Mojito Sorbet: Wasn't Zha going to Boston for SLCC?
[09:49 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: last I heard they were taking her father to the hospital
[09:49 AM]  Mojito Sorbet: oops
[09:49 AM]  JayR Cela: i dont know what your problem is Morgaine / but you pissing me off / ask your question or shut the hell up
[09:49 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: o.0
[09:49 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: it just matter if you installed your emerald to home directory - http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/46921-emerald-caught-another-tvp-violation.html
[09:51 AM]  Allan Sixpence is Online
[09:51 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Anyone got any good topics, in the absence of Zha? :-)
[09:51 AM]  JayR Cela: yeah I do ......
[09:51 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Has anyone tried the LightShare thing for Opensim + Imprudence?
[09:51 AM]  Rex Cronon: what if sombody had the user name on their computer bill gates:)
[09:52 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: I doubt that billy is running Linux or Mac
[09:52 AM]  JayR Cela: Kirstens Viewer 2 S(20) build (31) is very good
[09:52 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: LOL
[09:52 AM]  JayR Cela: and so is the latest weekly Imprudence build
[09:52 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: I dont see any directory info in the Client column
[09:53 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: didn't like from Kirsten - it didn't load all textures for me :(
[09:53 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: I am on 2439
[09:53 AM]  JayR Cela: you can check my blogg
[09:53 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: and didn't like from UI either :(
[09:53 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: I'm using V2.1 right now, with the transparency mod it's tolerable as long as I dont try to do any building or scripting
[09:53 AM]  Malburns Writer is Offline
[09:53 AM]  JayR Cela: http://jayrcelasecondlifetechnologist.blogspot.com/
[09:53 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: tolerable, but not optimal
[09:53 AM]  xstorm Radek: sorry if i have bump in to any one
[09:54 AM]  Dale Innis is Offline
[09:54 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: Hi xstorm
[09:54 AM]  xstorm Radek: i have some one been living on the Aditi test server
[09:54 AM]  Rex Cronon: is not like these aves r made of rose petals, xstorm:)
[09:54 AM]  JayR Cela: well i think V2 is still a disaster / but Kirsten has managed to make it very usable
[09:55 AM]  KAYDEN Colman is Online
[09:55 AM]  Honour McMillan: speak for yourself Rex :)
[09:55 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: kirsten has some nice improvements
[09:55 AM]  Rex Cronon: u r so fragile?
[09:55 AM]  Honour McMillan: although Xstorm isn't on top of anybody I can see
[09:55 AM]  Honour McMillan: I'm a dainty little thing :)
[09:55 AM]  xstorm Radek: i have found some problems that may effect opensim and agni servers and any others linking them to each other
[09:55 AM]  Rex Cronon: shall i wisheper? i don't really want to break u:)
[09:55 AM]  PrettyB Durant is Offline
[09:55 AM]  Honour McMillan: lol
[09:55 AM]  Rex Cronon: wisper*
[09:56 AM]  Honour McMillan: sorry Xstorm - what have you found?
[09:56 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: opensim and agni servers linked?
[09:56 AM]  Sunset Pevensey is Online
[09:56 AM]  JayR Cela: xstorm / oh???? explain further please
[09:56 AM]  xstorm Radek: it looks like data from one server to another can happen do to a lack of any filters to stop it
[09:57 AM]  Rex Cronon: AFK...............................
[09:57 AM]  Rex Cronon: i will be afk for a while
[09:57 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: I'm on the latest Imprudence weekly, which has Robin's patches for HTTP Textures applied. Yet, I'm not getting the flakiness that Robin and Latif experienced with Snowglobe. It's a bit odd, should be same code.
[09:57 AM]  Pinksurfer Mistwalker is Offline
[09:57 AM]  Honour McMillan: data as in any data? account data?
[09:57 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: I was using imprudence but I couldnt get sound to work and I was missing too many IMs
[09:57 AM]  JayR Cela: Imprudence is working pretty good for me
[09:58 AM]  Hinamori Burleigh is Online
[09:58 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: imprudence is pretty nice otherwise
[09:58 AM]  Simonie Swain is Offline
[09:58 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Dahlia: "missing IMs" how?
[09:58 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: dont hear the beep when I get new ones
[09:58 AM]  Latif Khalifa: i can't stand vertical im tabs in "improved" profile in imprudence
[09:58 AM]  JayR Cela: i dont seem to be missing any IM's
[09:59 AM]  Hinamori Burleigh is Offline
[09:59 AM]  xstorm Radek: to help people understand better lets say user A buys some thing on one server and that information is cache then they go to another server and that information and item can end up on that server
[09:59 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: I also didnt like the new mini map in imprusdence, cant see the region boundaries anymore and its too big
[10:00 AM]  Hinamori Burleigh is Online
[10:00 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Latif: I didn't realize there was more than one option on vertical tabs. What's the one you don't like?
[10:01 AM]  xstorm Radek: so if the maker of the venders do not restric and define the server the item is to me one then this can happen
[10:01 AM]  xstorm Radek: be
[10:01 AM]  xstorm Radek: on
[10:01 AM]  Latif Khalifa: I don't want vertical tabs at all, i want them like in the regular 1.23.5 below the IM
[10:01 AM]  Simonie Swain is Online
[10:01 AM]  Latif Khalifa: not on the side taking space
[10:01 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Dahlia: yeah, there's something I'm not keep on with the minimap. Haven't really thought about it much, but something's wonky about it.
[10:01 AM]  PrettyB Durant is Online
[10:01 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: keen*
[10:02 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: the new radar is nice but it needs works
[10:02 AM]  xstorm Radek: i have been testing this and now will have to report my findings
[10:02 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: *work
[10:03 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: I like from Imprudence radar/minimap
[10:03 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Latif: well horizontal tabs are always available, aren't they? I can't use them because the tabs go right off the screen, and I'm on 1920x1200 with 0.850 UIScale.
[10:03 AM]  xstorm Radek: but it be nice if others can test this too on agni and aditi and see if information text and objects do this for them too
[10:03 AM]  redd Jimador is Online
[10:04 AM]  Honour McMillan: don't stop working this Xstorm - if I had the technical ability I would test as well
[10:04 AM]  Latif Khalifa: Morgaine, if they are, I couldn't find the switch to display them in standard 1.23.5 mode
[10:04 AM]  xstorm Radek: can any one test it on open sim ?
[10:04 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: xstorm, you mean it's not working?
[10:04 AM]  Hinamori Burleigh is Offline
[10:04 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Latif: if I find the switch, I'll poke you
[10:04 AM]  Hinamori Burleigh is Online
[10:05 AM]  xstorm Radek: problem is data leak from one server to another can make problems
[10:05 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: what kind of data?
[10:05 AM]  xstorm Radek: and if its the viewer cache doing this it needs to be fix
[10:05 AM]  xstorm Radek: objects and text
[10:05 AM]  xstorm Radek: plus settings
[10:06 AM]  Kendra Ling is Online
[10:06 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: text? like floating text?
[10:06 AM]  xstorm Radek: no
[10:06 AM]  xstorm Radek: messages and real objects such as things you buy
[10:06 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: email?
[10:07 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Latif: Prefs->Communication->Vertical IM tabs (requires restart)
[10:07 AM]  xstorm Radek: no
[10:07 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: I dont understand at all
[10:07 AM]  Latif Khalifa: Morgaine, cool thanks
[10:07 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: I use Vertical tabs and really like them
[10:07 AM]  xstorm Radek: IM's , error messages , system restarts and other data
[10:08 AM]  Latif Khalifa: they have the latest build with http texture fixes in bindary build for windows?
[10:08 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: you mean you're able to see data that shouldnt be visible?
[10:09 AM]  xstorm Radek: i thing Morgaine is more then right when she did say there is a problem with the cache system
[10:09 AM]  Imaze Rhiano: You mean that you bought item from GRID X - then moved to GRID Y - and item moved to GRID Y, because it was cached to viewer cache?
[10:09 AM]  Simonie Swain is Offline
[10:10 AM]  xstorm Radek: its holding information from one server such as Aditi andmoving it to Agni
[10:10 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: oh.... the object cache?
[10:10 AM]  xstorm Radek: this can make problems on the server
[10:10 AM]  xstorm Radek: yes
[10:10 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: ah sure I see a potential problem
[10:10 AM]  xstorm Radek: buy information was mirror
[10:11 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Latif: McCabe said this morning that the latest weekly has Robin's HTTP Texture patches. I'm running it right not, seems fine. That said, Robin's been making patches continuously I think, and the weekly is dated Aug 07, so it can't have all the patches. If I have trouble I'll look for McCabe's bleeding edge branch.
[10:11 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: now*
[10:11 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: the object cacne is indexed by region coordinates on the grid?
[10:11 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: so different grids with the same coordinates, could cause a conflict
[10:11 AM]  JayR Cela: yep Imprudence is working great for me
[10:12 AM]  xstorm Radek: seems not to be it looks like LL forgot to put what server the cache did come from
[10:12 AM]  Latif Khalifa: Dahlia, the conflict will not do anything bad since each prim's CRC is checked
[10:12 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: or what grid
[10:12 AM]  xstorm Radek: thats right
[10:12 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: depends on how complete the crc is?
[10:12 AM]  Latif Khalifa: brb, checking out imprudence weekly
[10:13 AM]  xstorm Radek: this is going to make a bad Jira i will have to file
[10:13 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Jiras are like /dev/null currently.
[10:14 AM]  Latif Khalifa: ugh, ugly fonts
[10:14 AM]  xstorm Radek: greetings Mel
[10:14 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: I dont believe OpenSim uses the object cache
[10:14 AM]  Melchizedek Blauvelt: hi X, all
[10:14 AM]  XLR8RRICK Hudson: Hi Mel
[10:14 AM]  xstorm Radek: problem is opensim use cache too
[10:15 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: I dont think it knows it's there
[10:15 AM]  xstorm Radek: as long as it use the same user viewer
[10:15 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Dahlia, you're right, but I asked at last week's OSgrid meeting, and a person said they almost had it fixed.
[10:15 AM]  Latif Khalifa: why do imprudence people "fix" things that need no fixing lol
[10:15 AM]  Pinksurfer Mistwalker is Online
[10:15 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Dahlia: think it was "Reverand" something, ring a bell?
[10:15 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: had the cache fixed?
[10:16 AM]  xstorm Radek: cache needs more then to be fix
[10:16 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: rings a bell...
[10:16 AM]  Morgaine Dinova: Yeah, he said there were a few bits that needed change, not just the CRC
[10:16 AM]  xstorm Radek: if this happens with user data in SL then it can happen with any system that use a cache based system
[10:16 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: I dont think OpenSim sends anything to the viewer to tell it to pull stuff from the cache
[10:17 AM]  Dahlia Trimble: whatever teh viewer stores in it is out of the sim's control
[10:17 AM]  JayR Cela: well I'm fed up with lil ms. know it all, see ya around Morgaine
[10:17 AM]  Latif Khalifa: bah
[10:17 AM]  xstorm Radek: and for people that work with metadata this is not at all good
[10:17 AM]  xstorm Radek: its dirty programing


  As you can see this group is a whole lot of talk, but that's about it.

SecondLife (R) Imprudence Weekly Build 08-07-2010

  Ok last week I reported on the Imprudence 1.3.xx RC having stuttering problems on 2 different computers and 2 operating systems. Windows XP Home SP3 and Umbuntu 10.04. Now I seem to be torn between the available SL viewers. For some reason I just cant seem to fully embrace Viewer 2 yet, Kirsten and Hitomi have made vast and wide ranging improvements. And if you are a V2 user I highly recommend both. Maybe I just don't like change very much. reminds me of politicians, that say we need change in government, we elect them and everything stays the same, the lobbyist's still run the show.
  So I guess all I can say, is that I will wait for V2 to mature to the point that V1 has. If your looking for the best V1 viewer out there, then Imprudence is definitely worth a download, it run on Windows 7 ( you may need to set compatibility mode to Vista ) Mac OSX, and all versions of Linux 32, and 64 bit ( 64 bit may give you some problems with audio ) ( and I have never been able to get in world TV viewing to work on any Linux build )   Lol, that being said, if i want to watch TV, I certainly not going to do it in SL, besides the Treet TV fashion channel I find watching TV in SL to be a total waste of time.
  So lets digg down into this newest Imprudence build. I was just talking with McCabe and he was saying that they are using the latest SnowGlobe 1.5 libs, or rendering engine. I think it may be time for LL to either abandon Viewer 2, or fire the V2 development staff, and get back on track with Philips vision / SnowGlobe.
           [06:41 AM]  JayR Cela: hi there McCabe / i been using your latest weekly build the stuttering problem is gone now
[06:41 AM]  McCabe Maxsted: woo!
[06:41 AM]  McCabe Maxsted: good to know the cause then :)
[06:41 AM]  McCabe Maxsted: I did some different build trickery with the weekly this time
[06:42 AM]  JayR Cela: well it worked
[06:43 AM]  JayR Cela: i been bounceing around between Kirstens and your's / and as much as I would like to imbrace Viewer 2 / I still dont care for it very much........
[06:43 AM]  JayR Cela: i see your still on 1.23.5.xx code base .........
[06:44 AM]  JayR Cela: any plans to migrate to SnowGlobe 1.4 ?
[06:48 AM]  McCabe Maxsted: we're already using snowglobe 1.5's rendering engine
[06:48 AM]  McCabe Maxsted: and most of the patches from SG
[06:49 AM]  JayR Cela: oh really / may I qoute you on this in my Blog please ?
[06:52 AM]  JayR Cela: regardless / i am preparing a review of this viewer today / and its all good / on a 10 star rating i'm giving it a 9
[06:53 AM]  McCabe Maxsted: \o/ :)!
[06:53 AM]  McCabe Maxsted: and sure go for it
[06:53 AM]  JayR Cela: yep check it out later on this afternoon

  For my old Dell p4 I'm getting a really decent FPS of 10 to18, my p3 is averaging around 6 to 10, I

understand that the people out there with newer computers may find this funny, but SL is perfectly usable at 10 FPS depending on the Sim you are in.
  So in all fairness to V2 fans I have to say, use what you prefer, if your a fashionista, you simply cannot beat V2 for the outfit feature, my partner Cathy loves Kirstens. If your a builder I think Emerald is a dead issue, and I am recommending Imprudence,

SecondLife ( R ) GenderBending & Cross Species Avatars

  Well I guess I'm running out of SL viewers to review, I am really looking forward to Hitomi's newest V2 skin. Hi there Hitomi *waves* lol. So I guess I'll just say something a lil bit different today, that has been getting on my nerves.

 
  "In SL we are all just pixels on a screen" This is true, but there is an actual person behind those pixels, if he or she chooses to be a member of the Opposite Sex, or a Furry, a Dragon, or a Cardboard Box, so what !
  Who are we to judge. If you have nothing good to say, perhaps is best to say nothing at all.


JayR Cela
 

SecondLife (R) Imprudence Weekly Build 8-07-2010

  The other day I reported, the Imprudence 1.3.0 RC was giving me problems with severe stuttering, on both Windows and Linux. Today I am very happy to announce the latest weekly build from the Imprudence team, and it kicks butt big time ! I'm getting  an easy 12 to 18 FPS on my P4,however I don't seem to be able to get it to run on my  P3  with Windows or Linux, and this is odd, because RC1 and the previous weekly build were able to load and run on both box's. 
  I'm not a coder, so I can only make assumptions, that some Lib's are out of whack. Sad state of affairs because this is a really great SL viewer.

SecondLife (R) What about Emerald ?

  Ok I back for a rant, I  believe this really needs to be said, Ive been a die-hard Emerald user for about a year now. However recently I have had numerous problems with this viewer, heres the kicker. I log in, and on my computer screen I appear fine, I can take a picture of myself, and  look normal, I goto a club and get ejected, for being naked. This is not only embarrassing, but is also a real pain in the ass, trying to explain my situation to the club owners, or hostess.
  And to top it off, the folks at Modular are completely silent, rumors have it that some of the devs have parted ways. This is a really sad state of affairs, I'm a builder in SL, and the Emerald viewer rocks for building. But I can not afford to ruin my reputation, being seen as running around naked in SL
  For now I'm sticking with Kirsten's viewer, and looking forward to Hitomi's upcoming new version of StarLight.
  Please give them both, your full support, and post here, any suggestions, idea's, whatever you can think of, lets keep it positive, both Kirsten and Hitomi are really dedicated, wonderful people. We need to stand behind them 110%

JayR Cela :_)

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife (R) Viewer 2 / Kirstens S(20) Build (31) I'm in Love :_)

  Hi again, I'm back to say the more I use Kirstens viewer the more I just love it, i have permanently put Emerald on the back burner, way to many problems with my Avatar showing up as a cloud, or naked on other people's  screens, while on my screen, I look fine. I have even compared snapshots with friends, and on my screen I look OK and the snapshot's I take too, but on my friends screen I'm wearing my birthday suit ( naked )
  Hell last week I was ejected from a well known SL blues - jazz club for being naked. But on my screen I was fully clothed, and so was my picture i took, the club owner took a picture and sure enough I was naked, and  I just heard a rumor that several Emerald dev's have left the project, perhaps this is some sort of cruel childish prank or joke. What ever the case may be I'm sticking with Kirstens viewer. It's rock solid, fast and the best SL viewer out there. !!

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife (R) OMG !!! my L$ are missing :(

  Ok, I just have to address this problem that seems to be rather frequent lately, its happened to me twice in the past 2 weeks and my partner Cathy once. You log into SL and a large portion of your L$ are gone, or you get the dreaded loading message.  Don't Panic, they are still there, it seems to be a glitch with Viewer 2 and switching back and forth from different viewers. 
  Just ask someone, a friend to pay you 1L$, and whaa-laaa, your L$ will be back to normal :_)

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife (R) My latest Build

  Ok, I'm gonna pat myself on the back here, ans showcase my latest SL build. Yes I do other things, besides, track down SL client software, my real passion is building. I love it, and I'm very lucky to have friends that donate spare land to me.
  So here are some pictures of my latest Ultra Modern Goth Home.Well I just had to get that out of my system. / LOL :_)

a

SecondLife (R) Kirstens & Starlight Combined ? Can the Camera control be fixed?

   I was talking with Hitomi ( Starlight Skin ) & Kirsten today, apparently the two of them are about to work together on a new version of  SL Viewer 2. From what I can gather, their are a number of major obstacles that need to be resolved. Personally I would like to see the camera control feature reverted back to the 1.25.3.xxx style, and the profile design as well. Currently both are a complete disaster

SecondLife (R)Viewer 2 Kirstens S(20) Build(31)

  Hello everyone, I just finished talking with Kirsten about her new version of Viewer 2, Kirstens S(20) (31)

  She was explaining to me that, this is not only just re-skin of Viewer 2, but an actual tightening up of the code.

  All I can say is WOW !!

  If you have been following my post's, her previous build (30) was running at about an average 5 or 6 FPS in my static tests. This new build (31) is pulling an easy 6 to 9 FPS with an average of about 8, please remember this is using very old hardware and a crappy ISP. I don't know how she does it, but if you are a SL Viewer 2 user, you owe it to yourself to download and install.

   This SL Client ROCK's Big Time :_)

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife (R) Jira 4

http://blogs.atlassian.com/jira/2009/10/jira-4-now-available.html  Ok, I said I would look into this new Jira 4 issue. As you may already know the Jira is a bug tracking tool that LL uses to assist in correcting problems that it's customer's ( residents ) report to them. I don't know about you, but I have found the Jira to be completely worthless, way to many times issues that need to be fixed, languish in utter limbo for a year or more, unassigned, or simply swept under the rug. Inworld Linden office hours can be found here http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Office_Hours this is another way to find out what is going on in LL world. I have attended many meetings, but considering the recent turnover of employee's at the Lab, who knows what the heck is happening anymore.
  If you have ever tried to use Jira, you may find it to be a convoluted, confusing mess, nearly impossible to navigate, or make head from tails, as to what the hell is going on or how to use it properly. Well supposedly this is about to change. If the rumors are correct, LL will be updating the current Jira to a new version Jira 4 http://blogs.atlassian.com/jira/2009/10/jira-4-now-available.html
  Now there is also the matter of the pJira, what ever the hell that is, ya got me, is supposed to be an advanced bug tracking tool. My personal feelings are both tools are completely worthless, because simply put LL just does either, not listen, or does not care. Sorry if I come across as a bit jaded, but I have attended numerous Office Hour Meetings, posted bugs on the Jira, and its all pretty much a waste of time. The lab needs to take their head out of the sand and start listening to the customers ( residents ) 
  Will Jira 4 save us? Will LL wake up? Will LL and SecondLife survive. I certainly hope so. Time will tell.

JayR Cela :_)

SeconLife (R) Avatar not Loading / An Easy Fix

This Article May Still Apply But Has Been Superseded By November 1 2011 Post : AVATAR NOT LOADING AN EASY FIX : REVISITED 


  The past several weeks I see an alarming increase in the SL forums, from Customers (residents) asking for help because their Avatar refuses to load. I have experienced this first hand, and several other odd issues as well.
  #1 Unable to get out of poof ball cloud mode
  #2 My Avatar looking fine on my screen, but appears to be naked on other peoples screens
  #3 My Avatar being squished up ( Ruthed ) ( dam, I thought we go rid of this problem )
  #4 My Avatar has no hair on other peoples screens ( another old bug, back from the dead )

  Fortunately these problems are relatively easy to fix. You need access to the Advanced Menu options in SL . Press ( Ctrl+Alt+D ) ( Cmd-orApple key+Alt+D ) for Mac users, this will place a new menu option ( Advanced ) on your upper bar.

Next open the Advanced Menu and click on Debug
                                                                                       

For a better view of these screen shots, just double click.




Scroll down to ( renderunloadedavatar ) and click on it

 And select True

  This will load a basic Avatar shape, however you will more and likely be Ruthed, again this is not hard to fix. Open your Inventory and locate your Shape and wear it, next locate your Skin and wear it ****( note your Avatar's Shape and Skin are separate items ) and wha-laa ! you should be back to normal :_)
  Next problem, your hair is missing, or you look just fine on your screen, but other people see you with no hair or partially naked, another easy problem to fix. Open your inventory and remove or detach the article of clothing or prim, and put it back on or attach it again. As a side note, if you happen to be in a very busy Sim, this may take a while, or not work at all. If its not working TP to an empty nearby region, and do it there.
  There seems to be several reason's why this Old Bug has reared its ugly head again, in part it is due to the Lab rolling out new Server Code, that is not the whole story however, the increasing amount of TPV's available and how they deal with the SL inventory Cache. It is imperative that you create a separate Cache for each viewer * please see my post from July 31 Installing LL Viewer2 first things first *
  If you are still having problems, I am inworld quite often, feel free to contact me. If I can help you out, I will be happy to do so :_)

JayR Cela :_) 

SrcondLife (R) Imprudence Release Candidate Review on Hold

  Good morning, after some testing and careful thought, I will postpone my review of the Imprudence 1.3.0 RC until the finished product arrives.  My reason for this is, a severe stuttering problem with this viewer, both on Linux and Windows, and on 2 different computers. When walking, my Avatar suddenly freezes up for a second or two, then starts moving again from the position I should have already walked to, same thing when using IM chat. I would Imagine there is a simple fix for this somewhere in the Debug settings menu. So in all fairness to the Imprudence team, I will hold off for now, and I am looking forward to the final 1.3.0 release soon.
 P.S. If any one knows of a debug setting fix for this, please post it here, thanks :_)


JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife (R) The new Imprudence 1.3.0 Release Canidate 1 Teaser

  LOL / I have heard from several friends that the new Imprudence RC really Rock's. It is based on SL Viewer code 1.23.5.xxx, and I know this kinda veers of the Viewer 2 track of this Blog. However I have been following the Imprudence TPV since it's inception, McCabe Maxsted and the other Imprudence team members are extremely devoted to this project. And I honestly believe this viewer is worth high praises. This post is only meant to be a teaser for a full review tomorrow, here are the specs for the review test rig.

Imprudence 1.3.0 RC1 / Second Life 1.23.5 (136262), Aug  2 2010 00:48:08
Release Notes

Grid: Second Life (secondlife)

Built with GCC version 40304

You are at 293329.9, 280717.4, 52.3 in Mena Serena located at sim9830.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.45.164:13005)
Second Life Server 1.40.4.207155
Release Notes

CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.40GHz
Memory: 1000 MB
OS Version: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic #38-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jul 5 09:22:14 UTC 2010 i686
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce 8400 GS/PCI/SSE2
OpenGL Version: 3.2.0 NVIDIA 195.36.24

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.16.4 OpenSSL/0.9.7c zlib/1.2.3 c-ares/1.4.0
J2C Decoder Version: OpenJPEG: 1.4.0.565, Runtime: 1.4.0.565
Audio Driver Version: OpenAL, version 1.1 ALSOFT 1.11.753 / OpenAL Community / OpenAL Soft: ALSA Software
GStreamer Version: 0.10.24.0
LLMozLib Version: [LLMediaImplLLMozLib] - 2.01.34631 (Mozilla GRE version 1.8.1.18_0000000000)

Stop on back by for a read tomorrow, I'll be taking this baby for a full blown spin around the block tonight :_)

JayR :_)

SecondLife (R) Jira Mess & The Rumered New Jira 4 ?

   Ok breaking news from the front lines of the AWG ( AW Groupies ) Architecture Working Group officially sanctioned by LL as a steering committee for the future of SL.
  As I have noted in my profile, at one Time I was an active member of the AWG, when M linden came aboard as CEO, I threw in the towel, and said the hell with it ! 
  I just had a conversation with one of my former colleagues, from the AWG and he has graciously allowed me to post our conversation in regards to the new upcoming Jira 4. 
  In case you are unfamiliar with the Jira, it is a means of supplying LL with information about Bugs in the SL client and server software. The only problem has been, it is incredibly difficult for the average person to comprehend, or use. Add to the fact of the ridiculous complexity, many valid complaints, items, seem to languish in limbo for a year or more, until they eventually, and conveniently get swept under the rug.
   I'm not able to go into detail on Jira 4, because frankly, this is the first I have heard of it. I am however asking for help from readers of this Blog. If you have information, you would like to share, or would like an Editorial collum on this subject, I will be more that happy to oblige.
  The following is my conversation with Rex Cronon, long time AWG member and contributer.

[12:45 PM]  Rex Cronon: here is a possible topic for u:  what will happen with the existing jiras when jira4 is here:)

[12:49 PM]  JayR Cela: this is an important issue / the current state of the Jira is a complete joke
[12:50 PM]  JayR Cela: there are items sitting in there from a year ago / and besides that its way to difficult for the average person to use
[12:50 PM]  Rex Cronon: u r right
[12:50 PM]  JayR Cela: I gave up on it 2 years ago
[12:54 PM]  JayR Cela: so what is Jira 4 ?
[12:54 PM]  Rex Cronon: from what i heard the new and improved version of current jira
[12:54 PM]  Rex Cronon: there is one little problem though
[12:55 PM]  Rex Cronon: nobody knows for sure how will the current jiras be transffered
[12:55 PM]  Rex Cronon: either manually or automatically
[12:55 PM]  JayR Cela: ahhhhh ..........
[12:55 PM]  JayR Cela: sweep all the old issue's under the table
[12:56 PM]  Rex Cronon: so is possible that not all existing jiras will make it
[12:56 PM]  Rex Cronon: yes u r right
[12:57 PM]  Rex Cronon: is like comics joke i saw. on panel one u have a suggestion box overfilled, on panel two us see the suggestions being dumped in the trash can:(
[12:57 PM]  JayR Cela: sounds about typical for LL
[12:57 PM]  Rex Cronon: i hope things will be better
[12:58 PM]  JayR Cela: I would just like to be able to go sail boating across sim borders / without loosing my boat or ending up in the drink...........
[12:59 PM]  JayR Cela: how many years people been complaining about this issue
[12:59 PM]  Rex Cronon: i don't think u r the only one:)
[12:59 PM]  JayR Cela: mind if I quote you in this post ?
[01:00 PM]  Rex Cronon: ok
[01:00 PM]  JayR Cela: kool
[01:00 PM]  JayR Cela: check back in about an hour / i'm gonna jump on this
[01:00 PM]  Rex Cronon: please do add that i heard about this at a office hour.

  Well there ya have it folks, is Philips return as CEO, the best thing to happen to SL in the past two years, or will it be more of the same ? 
  I'm a lil busy concentrating on TPV's right  now, but I do intend to follow through on this subject. Any help or information someone can supply, I will be more than happy to give you all the assistance I can.

JayR :_) 

SecondLife (R) Viewer 2 & the StarLight Skin Modd + Debug Settings

  Well I'm back again today, to tell you about a wonderful UI skin available for SL Viewer 2. It's called StarLight, brought to us by " hitomi tiponi " one of this blogs readers. If you have just started reading this resurrected Blog, please refer back to July 31, these post's will be primarily devoted to TPV developers and the new Viewer 2. 
  As soon as I loaded this skin, and fired it up, I immediately  liked it. Gone were the ugly dark murky green on black menu's, replaced with an easy on the eye's light brown. I'm sure this color scheme would be easy enough to change to just about any color someone could wish for, blue, grey.... Also easy access to the draw distance slider function, easy to customize bottom pane menu.I added some buttons I wanted and removed two that I never use.

  I did a little digging around in the Debug menu and managed to tweak a bit further, added location coordinates, animated tree's, and a number of other minor but kool features. The StarLight Skin Mod is incredibly easy to install on both Windows and Linux, and is a great place to use as a starting point for learning how to tweak Viewer 2 to your liking via the Debug menu. If you are the sort of person that enjoys tinkering around with things, and would like to just have some real fun, I highly recommend downloading this file and give it a try. You can download it from this link : http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Viewer_Skins/Starlight

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife(R) Viewer 2 Open Source Alternative Kirstens S(20) Build(30)

  Well I have spent the past hour or so, toying around with Kirstens version of Viewer 2, and I can say WOW !!! I've never seen such a well designed layout, having never been very fond of V2, until now, this viewer is defiantly a game changer. I only have 2 minor criticisms, the green and black color scheme, and a smaller camera control like the 1.23.5.xxx viewer, and oh yes, I have not figured out how to get my radio working yet / LOL / I'm sure  its something minor. I'm not sure whether to write about it or just take a bunch of snapshots. What really impresses me the most is the level of customization available. Kirstens version of V2 can truly be Fast, Easy and Fun, or incredibly robust. It has to be seen to be believed.

  LOL / forgive my haphazard photo arraignment I'm still learning how to use this blogging software:_) You really have to experience this viewer to see how well done it is, my long time SL partner Cathy, who is a fashionista absolutely Loves it ! 
  Although I will continue to use Emerald for my building projects this viewer has definitely earned a permanent spot on my hard drive. Using a 10 star rating system I  give it 8-1/2 there is a link to Kirstens Blog here on the right side of this page

SecondLife(R) SnowGlobe Test Build v.2.1.0.3587 / No Comment

Ok , I took a quick look, and this is a test build, so I have nothing to say. However tomorrow I will be giving Kirsten's viewer a close look. My future plans include a head to head comparison of Imprudence and Emerald, I also want to check out the StarLight skin for Viewer 2, and a trip on over to the InWorldz Grid,www.inworldz.com, and a ton of other things. If any one out there wants to use this Blog to write an article, or express opinions, just let me know.


Thanks c-ya 2mrw


JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife(R) SnowGlobe Viewer v. 2.0.2.3576 User Interface

  I'm back, after my nauseating dive into the official LL SL V2 cesspool of black and green oblivion. I will now give the latest stable release of the SnowGlobe viewer a try. For those of you unfamiliar with the SnowGlobe project, a brief rundown.
  Shorty before Philip stepped aside as CEO of LL, he started  an officially sanctioned Open Source fork of the viewer code, hence SnowGlobe was born. I'll compare it to the AWG or Advanced Architecture Working Group, another great idea that was supposed to bring wonderful bliss to all of SL. HyperGrid protocol, HTTP textures, C++ scripting capabilities, ( which eventually devolved into Mono scripting ) ( we all know how successful Mono has been ) ( yeah lets take an interpreted computer language, LSL, and run it through another interpreted computer language, Mono, and see what happens )   
  If you have been following my posts on Viewer 2, started July 31, you will know I have only been concerned with performance comparisons so far. I think that the underlying code base for Viewer 2 has fantastic potential, it is just that the UI is a complete joke, and a bad one at that. Yes I have a crass, sarcastic sense of humor, and LL can sue the hell out of me if they like, ( i'm 2 steps away from the poor house as it is now, so they wont get much. ) And I'm gonna speak my mind. I love SL, and I want to see it succeed, and I want Viewer 2 to be kick ass. All V2 needs is a totally awesome UI, 2 or 3 skin levels / beginner / intermediate / power user / Hell, WinAmp ( the most popular music jukebox for Windows computers ) has doing this for at least a decade. ( by the way I suggested this concept 3 years ago at an AWG meeting, I used to be a member ) So now that I have blown off some more steam, I will take a look at this  V2 SnowGlobe  version.
  OK I'm done, nothing new here, just the same old crap, with sluggish performance. See my previous post on FPS. I will now take a look at the the experimental  test build.

Linden Lab(R) SecondLife Viewer 2 User Interface

  Today I will begin exploring the UI of the 4 different SL clients, reviewed in the previous post's beginning on July 31. I am going to start off with the official Second Life Viewer 2 v. 2.1.0.207030

  This will be the first time I have ever attempted to do anything like this, so please bear with me. Since Philip's return to LL as CEO, and his honest admittance, that the UI for Viewer 2 is less than Ideal, and him asking the SL Customer and Developer base for help, I have decided to pitch in as best I can. Now I must admit, I have never been a fan of Viewer 2, so my experience is very limited. However I do recognize the potential possibilities this new platform is capable of with help from the Open Source community. And I am bound and determined to pitch in, with the goal to make Viewer 2 the most robust, easy to use, yet powerful SL client yet. So before I get started, I need to rant a bit.
  I'm going to go back a to the first time I opened up this new client, it was a less than ideal experience. I rezzed as a poof ball, after about 5 minutes and still no change, I activated the Advanced menu ( ctrl+alt+d) and selected Rebake Textures. This did not work, so I opened the Debug dialog box, and navigated down to (renderunloadedavatar) and set the value to True. This solved that problem, but my Avi was all mushed up ( Ruthed ) and I was wearing an outfit from 2 months earlier ( the last time I had tried Viewer 2 ). Now right here I have to say this has been a well known bug since the Alpha development stage of Viewer 2, hardly an ideal environment to thrust upon a new customer. Since this is supposedly what V2 was designed to do, is attract and retain new SL customers, you would think the Lab would have made this a top issue to be fixed. No problem, once my inventory had loaded, I located my shape and skin, and I was back to normal. Next, one of my Hud's,  normally located at the top center of my screen was out of whack. It is now almost dead center in the middle. Another well documented bug from the Alpha stage of development. So far things are not looking so good, but there's more. I notice 960L$ were missing from my account balance, my last log out showed 980L$, now there are only 20L$. Thankfully this is an easy fix. I IM a friend and asked her to pay me 1L$, this brings my account to 981L$, need I mention this is yet another bug LL has been well aware of with Viewer 2 for a long time now. How on earth a company can release a product with so many well documented flaws is beyond me. I guess I will blame it all on former CEO M. Linden ( I am so glad he is gone and Philip is back in charge )  Ok I got that out of my system, ready to start the review :_)

  I log in and, my god this interface is so ugly and crowded, right off the bat I hate it.
I click on the side bar and watch in horror as my screen shifts to the left.  

  Next I access the camera controls which have an opaque black background. I am about to get ill. I'll play around with preferences, figured out how to stop the screen from shifting to the left when side bar is opened, Wow that's real progress! How many months did it take the Lab to figure that one out ? Oh cool I found the mini map, and it can't be re sized. I have no location coordinates displayed on the top bar, no fly button, no build button, the local chat area is way to small to carry on a conversation, and is not detachable. Oh and now, I am receiving group messages in huge ugly opaque black box on bottom right hand corner of screen. I cant build anything until I clear up the screen and maneuver the way to big camera controls into a better area of my screen, so i can actually see what I am doing.
  I have stepped away from the keyboard for to long and my avatar is now sleeping with the away indicator floating above my head, unable to locate the setting to turn this off feature off. ( have you ever been ejected from a place or logged out of SL because of inactivity ? )      
  Located the search feature, OMG what the hell is this mess? I continue to open menu's and press buttons, seems like most of the features I use on a daily basis are gone, or buried in the debug menu now. Say! This is Fast, Easy and Fun !
  I said this month's ago and I'll say it again, this UI looks like a 10th grade Computers 101, High School Class developed it. I'm done, this is a piece of crap, and totally unusable.
  In all fairness, if you have read my previous post on performance, this viewer is fast, just a tad behind Emerald 1.23.5.136, so I know the potential is there. I'll take a look at the stable Snow Globe viewer next.