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31 December 2009

 
Enj popped in and we ran around. Here are two looks - I liked the bottom one best but someone changed me, unfortunately. Look at the snow!

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No one to share the magic with :-(((((((((

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The light of 2009 fades away...


 
I'm blown away by the bravery of this man who went undercover into a psychiatric hospital.


 
It's supposed to be a blue moon, an eclipse, and New Year's Eve all at one time:

"Once in a blue moon, as the saying goes, there are two full moons in a single calendar month, which NASA says actually happens every 2.5 years. A blue moon on New Year's Eve is much rarer, last happening in 1990. Even rarer, though, is the lunar eclipse that will accompany the blue moon."

Of course, I woke up this morning thinking it was 2010 for some reason (I TELL you I'm not calendar-based haha), so does it matter to me? Of course - because it's cool! Although I can't see the eclipse Luceh, Anj, Karuna, and others I know are at least at the edge of the viewing region, so maybe they'll see it.

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From someone who owns one of my self-portraits:

"I think of you almost every day. I practically have to. Your big mug is beaming down over our dining room table!"

Bwahahaha! Sekret artist weapon!!

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30 December 2009

 
Clothier

Surprisingly, considering that I was burnt out by clothing design years ago, hardly marketed* my things even when I did them (although I had lots of fans), and haven't done a damned thing about selling things since I threw up my hands absolutely ages and ages ago after determining that it was imposible to not have things be stolen and that it bothered me enough that I didn't want to go there, I STILL had someone track me down the other day, requesting something I don't even have for sale any more, and clumping me on the head and telling me to put them out. I should update things and put them out... will I? I get queasy just opening a clothing file, still.

Last week someone IMed me about the outfit I often wear, which was a commission I did for a man who was living in Korea at the time and who played a gamelan for fun (he wasn't Korean, I don't know what he was). It's based on Cambodian temple dancer pictures he sent me, but completely drawn by me from scratch. It's just interesting enough for me to want to preserve as my unique suit of clothes. I get IMs about it every so often.

It's nice to have a few no-brainer outfits as I really don't have much interest in dressing up.

* Deliberately, for whatever reason - I refused to have a logo or even a sign or shop name. I R multi-talented when it comes to hiding my light under a bushel.


 
Highly Amusing
or something

The Other Art the Plumber was supposed to come by this afternoon to look at the boiler. He's Level 2 on the Art-the-Plumber hierarchy, which seems to be like nesting dolls. I don't know if he did or not, but certainly there is still a complete lack of boiling in the boiler, and of course the hardly-any-hot-water continues, and a newly discovered woe - my oven is not behaving. Jessica's oven has not been behaving for weeks if not longer, however mine seemed fine to me.

I was attempting to cook something today, however, and the oven was barely warm, and after an hour or so at 400 degrees, supposedly, the outside of the oven door was completely cold, bwahahaha! I was wanting to make the world's tiniest roast beef with a doll's Yorkshire pudding, but one is not quite able to do that at 150 degrees haha!

I hardly eat meat at all, and I have to prod myself to eat red meat, which one really should do once in a while. If I were rich I'd just hire an almost-vegetarian cook and not worry about it, but it really takes some thought to be a vegetarian (which I know I won't do). It isn't that I don't like meat (a bit, anyway), it's just that I don't mind eating things that had a decent life and were killed decently, but most things weren't, and the idea of ingesting all that (fear, antibiotics, filth, hormones, cruelty, genetic modification) is too horrible. I'm not sure I'd be too happy with witchetty grubs, either, though.

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*Dashes in from the warmth and reads Eskil's thoughtful blogpost about decades then starts freezing and needs to dash back*

For the record, it's Motown, as in motor city Detroit, not "Mowtown," but that's not important.


 

This is what I see if I look up from the monitor. The lake side is all glass sliding doors, and I'm computerating on a table in front of two glass sliding doors - so essentially four huge windows. Another one is to my right (with a falling-apart CD tower to its left and a table for mailing Combat Cards to its right). I slide a door open, stagger out, and take pictures - usually with the camera upside down as it's easier to press the shutter button that way.

The house is bizarre and problematic in many ways, but I need a view of some kind, and I need great bodies of water, so I'm willing to overlook a lot. Like the water coming directly from a pipe in the lake ===:O And bits falling off it. And the electricity is funny, both in the house (jiggle the plug) and the area (trees fall on the wires and take the power out). And the boiler, which has a picture of a rabbit on it, has not worked consistently and without fail for even one full year.

One sets one's priorities, and mine are visual.

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29 December 2009

 
No heat, so freezerating at the moment. It went out last night (and I couldn't sleep for the cold and finally just took an imbuprophen-ish PM type thing at 3 or 4 and got a couple of hours sleep).

Update: brrrrrrrrrrr
Art the Plumber sidled in, but didn't fix anything, saying to Jess that "it isn't broken in the usual way" or something less than confidence-inspiring like that. We already disdn't have much hot water, so now no heat, very little warm water, and the prospect of a few days of it. /me sets fire to the house. If I stay holed up in the kitchen (which can't be separated really as there are no doors between this and the lower floors) and keep the stove on and keep out of the livingroom (in other words stay off the puter and just read my book), I'll survive (it's making my bug come back, though). It's supposed to warm up tomorrow, I think; today was mid/low 30s.


 


District 9 is the story of a man engaged in the eviction and relocation of a vast number of slum-dwelling aliens who had been stranded on Earth a few decades before when their ship ran aground, so to speak, in Johannesburg. Very good.

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28 December 2009

 
Golden DawnGrey Midday

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Ningspammination

"HELLO
My name is miss Rose i saw your profile today at(slconvention.ning.com) and fund you worthy to be mine as some one whom i can lay on his arms as long as love is concern..."

================:o

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Old Clothing

The comments to my freefall post made me consider the contents of my closet, which are in some cases due to inertia and others sentimentality. I have a couple of tiny ratcatcher shirts from when I was about eight. I can remember well ironing them; I was too young to be able to iron the arms so I just left them (as I'd be wearing a jacket anyway) wrinkled.

I have a hand-painted silk artist-made floaty shirt that my ill-fated husband gave me. I wear it once every so often, and since it was never in fashion it can't very well go out. It has big snakes all over it. He caught sight of it near Pike Place one day, and decided it was me, which sentiment I chose not to examine closely.

I have the remnants of a billion T shirts designed and/or silkscreened by my students. I'm in the process of throwing them away, as they are somewhat hoary. And a lot of old band T shirts, that are hard to ditch (I love my Love Battery shirt!). I think I threw all my old opera Ts out already as I never liked the Seattle opera T shirt designs to begin with.

I went through a phase when I bought any green socks I saw, and low and behold in the garage the other day I stumbled across a bag of green socks. I threw most of them away, but am auditioning a few pairs; if they don't please out they'll go.

Sometimes I lament the fact that things like my brother's christening* gown, sumptuous in lily-of-the-valley lace, went who-knows-where after my mother died, but mostly I try not to think about it. There's no point, really, although the pointless things are certainly capable of poking holes in one just as if they had points.


* Never mind the fact that he wasn't christened as a baby, and only wound up passing that hurdle before his marriage in New Zealand. After all, I have a silver christening mug, and I've never been christened. My sisters were, though. I think.



26 December 2009

 
I like Experimenting

I've been free-falling backwards through my closet for the past eight or nine months. Has been interesting.


 

Postcard from Second Life.
Originally uploaded by Vivian Oblivion

Exploring with Neal Lyle.



 
Anyone else used to make a teeny-tiny chain by stapling staples to each other when you were a child? I wonder why there isn't a big version for making faux chainmail and things using something akin to pull rings on drink cans.

/me goes off the track. Once when I was married and the camelias were in bloom I tried stitching them together to make a bikini to wear to greet my husband when he got home ;-D It worked but I ran out of time so ended up making a hat.


 
From Wired, as pointed out at SCII by Strahlol Parxol:
"Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke"



25 December 2009

 
Alpha Auer has written a great post about Christmas in Turkey - it made me laugh - especially the red knickers.


 
Xmas
Sunny and clear, which means cold, here. I spent a bit of time in SL figuring out a script for some dood on the forum who wanted to "cruise around with a bunch of murdered hookers in my trunk." Mission acomplished! I am vaguely interested in vehicle scripts as every six months or so I do five minutes work moving towards making a strongman vehicle. I'm not interested in vehicles as vehicles, though, although I am fond of the Space Bug.

I should do some tidying up as the place is a mess, but so far I've just been poking around at old video tapes and not been motivated. /me takes her pulse. No, still not motivated in that direction.



24 December 2009

 
Ranty Clause

I hate having only one firewire port. What is this - the Dark Ages? *shakes fist*

And I've never understood why computer cases aren't in various shapes, especially like a table with a lid that flips open like an old school desk to reveal all the computer parts. I don't get why they are shaped the arbitrary, intrusive, and ugly way they are. Why aren't they just a flat thing like a thin cupboard that hangs on the wall, or shaped like a bookcase but with a slide-out-the-side panel like a pocket door or gallery storage racks or those sliding pantries in kitchens.

And I wonder why I've never seen a (working) computer case built of Legos. I'm not of a Lego generation, but everything has been translated into Legos except computer cases (at least I've never seen one).


 
Wonderful film :-D

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Official event for the Combat Cards 2.1 Release

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Candide finds the best things:

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23 December 2009

 
Floopies

[11:37] Andrew Linden: Flexies look cool, but the feature was written by a "hacker artist" -- he had a lot of vision and knew what looked cool
[11:38] Andrew Linden: however he didn't know how to abstract out the physics and make the simulation resistant to changes in FPS
[11:43] Andrew Linden: if I had unlimited money, time, and resources I'd do the following:
[11:43] Andrew Linden: (1) Get the artist hacker back at Linden Lab
[11:44] Andrew Linden: (2) Give him a team of physicist coders to do his bidding
[11:44] Andrew Linden: (3) Tell them all to rewrite the flexi code

Oh, me, too. I was really, really sad when he left. :(



 

Xmas card from Con:
"Remember the night this photo was taken? I did your hair and you did mine! I love you!"


 
Fysyx
A bit of excitement in JLI today: I was visiting someone's beach and for who knows what reason decided to reset all objects, whereupon a barrel exploded and a number of bots in the water began twirling around. Oly popped in and I asked him about it - he obviously wasn't seeing it so I said, "Reset objects," and then he was amazed and said he'd never seen the effect before. Obviously the space owner had set it up for that effect - which must only work in the water. JLI has very interesting physics.

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22 December 2009

 
On the good side of the solstice

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21 December 2009

 
Metaplace is closing.
It had a lot to it, almost none of which I explored due to my own quirky dislike of orthogonality, which is my loss, in a way. I think it provided many of the same abilities we enjoy in SL, translated into the more cartoonish 2.5D series of spaces. It was beyond me, but I saw people scripting interesting things. I'm sure Raph will come up with something new to amaze us, and next time perhaps he'll achieve the desired traction.



20 December 2009

 

Postcard from Second Life.
Originally uploaded by Vivian Oblivion

Getting my picture tooken at Spaceport.



 
My fave:

He's not just a fabulous singer, he's a nice man, too.

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Thank G'al Marelle doesn't read Ivka's journal.

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I hate hyenas. I think they are just about the only thing I hate.

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Paper Batteries


 

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19 December 2009

 
RELEASE EVENT:
1PM slt 27 Dec @ Spaceport
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport/219/88/20/
Combat Cards 2.1 disturbs the fabric of the universe with its far-reaching changes.

Demo decks, empty decks, arenas, and beta cards are free - just touch any arena or check out XSTSL.
Fight free in Demo, or construct a killer deck using any of the cards sold individually or by the series.
http:www.combatcards.co.uk
Arenas and vendors in Europa and Spaceport.

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Nextdoor asked to use my telephone and I handed it out to him, explaining I didn't want him to get this bug. ZOMG he has a beautiful dog named Trixie, which looks very similar to my beloved yellow dog Aurens, of a hundred years ago. Aurens was devastatingly intelligent. I think he was of the "yellow dog" canine subset*. I stole him from someone who kept him chained up :-D

Trixie is brown, but reminded me of him so much so that I told the man three times how fabulous his dog is. I bet he doesn't hear that often, as she's more a "Beautiful Joe" type than a Fifi.

* Third from the right in that picture is a dead ringer for Aurens.


 
Somehow have a headache the includes my entire upper body. Feels like it may have a migraininess but I hope not. Swollen throat again. Dreamt about sunrays illuminating birds swimming on the lake, or else was a bit delirious and woke up at sunrise :-D

Update: massively sick :(



18 December 2009

 
Big, Huge, Jumbo, Massive
Doc and I have been slogging away on a massive Combat Cards update. We are close enough to set a date, but there remains a ton of work to be done. I spent ages cleaning up my inventory today as it had become a black hole of bazillions of decks, scripts, and arenas all jumbled up with nothing to tell the brilliant newest from the hopelessly borked of five minutes ago. I'm not in very good form right now for keeping track of things, especially when I can't tell them apart.

I also have had to shift cards around from deck to deck (whatever was currently being tested and/or Tiny then back to .6 for events), so it's all just a heap at the moment. Generally if I can spend ten minutes making a deck it plays ok, but mostly I just chuck a handful into a deck and go, as I'm not really trying to win anyway.

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17 December 2009

 
Pictures from La Performance
Alazi is in that group.

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15 December 2009

 
From The Guardian:
"The British production house Future Films has announced it is about to start work on Callas, a feature film with a screenplay based on the best-selling Callas biography So Proud, So Fragile, by the Italian author Alfonso Signorini. A-list stars Anne Hathaway and Penélope Cruz are rumoured to be in talks about taking the lead role in a joint British and Italian venture that will focus on the singer's tempestuous relationship with the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. The screenplay has been written by Niall Johnson, who wrote the 2005 Rowan Atkinson comedy Keeping Mum, and it has been delivered to the film-makers in the past few days."


One of the few mezzo roles that has star quality: Carmen.
Here's a clip from the movie* I mentioned:
* From Comments: There was a great movie made of Carmen years ago - wonderful cast - Julia Migenes-Johnson, another soprano but singing way out of her range, my heartthrob Ruggiero Raimondi, and Placido Domingo. That movie sticks with one.

And here's another movie version with Grace Bumbry, a real mezzo:

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sux
Woke up with a swollen throat, etc.



14 December 2009

 
Emergency Server Update Deployment
"Due to a content-threatening bug, we're going to be doing a full grid deploy tomorrow. My goal is to hit the majority before noon. Whatever remains will be continued after 5pm."

1.34.1.141394 (2009-12-14)
  • Important security fix
  • Simulator freeze fix



13 December 2009

 
Pile-On on Aditi to Test Changes to Mono Handling
Dilbert didn't get enough people, really, at just 31 or 32. I hope he does it again as anything we can do to help along positive changes in how mono affects us are high on my list of priorities. The bad effect has been pretty awful, so I'm more than happy to do anything I can (although I would like to be given a n/c listing things they want/don't want us to do).
My thoughts:
  1. Have additional tests, don't stop here.
  2. Have a n/c of instructions including directions to get into Aditi for noobs.
  3. Hold the same test on Agni - either by making everyone move to Agni or by having the same number of people there
Basic directions:
On the login screen do Control-Shift-G to get a grid menu.
Choose Aditi.
If it's your first time list a start location like Ahern or Sweethearts.
The snapshot is 2-3 months old, so you may need to use an older password than on Agni.


 
Ugh.
It's about 28 or 29 degrees, and darkish as there's a thick layer of cloud. It may snow, they say, but I hope it doesn't, now, as I need to be out early tomorrow. The boiler in this house has been limping along semi-busticated for weeks, with the result that it's cold, we have barely enough hot water to shower, and the dishwasher doesn't actually wash the dishes.

The landlord is loathe to have a workman attempt a fix now as it means taking the thing apart and leaving us bereft for the duration as he figures out what's wrong and orders parts, so on we limp.

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12 December 2009

 

For particulars of this geiger counter story..."

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Kookaburras and magpies, mostly, but there's a honeyeater at the end. That was my last trip (at my brother's house). My brother has since moved. I'm sucking all the videos of people onto the puter and sending them in chunks to Anj, as they have attained a certain Historical Interest through being so hoary.
My brother took the kookaburra footage and I took the magpie footage.*

Although one doesn't hear it often, ordinary old crows can make that doodly-doodly-doo noise that the magpies were making. The crow that fell in love with me used to sing to me once in a while. That's the one that spontaneously began following me around and landing on my car, and hanging about next to me, and peering in through the windows (and would leg-it up to the screen door and shout CAW! and make me jump out of my skin). My friend Hammer (I used to call him Hammer of the Tots as he was a kindergarten teacher) said that when he had long black hair crowss LOATHED him and would attack his head, possibly thinking it was a strange crow.

* The paintings were by Daddy Frank, and I made the deerskin drum. The photo is Mummy Barbara and Daddy Frank.

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Might snow a bit, but in any case is due to warm up, thank G'al.
I had visitors Thursday and Friday so I'm just dead right now.

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11 December 2009

 
Got this in the mail today:

This weekend the NIMk organises a real life event about
the future of mass media, in Amsterdam.

For this, I was asked to produce a one hour television compilation of mayor art machinima. Not an easy task, as there are so many. The tape will be broadcasted on TV, and it was suggested that I will be organising this as a monthly event. Exciting as this is my main goal: to bring machinima to the world so it can be recognised for what it is: the future of mass media.

Some of the artists names: Cisko Vandeverre, ColeMarie Soleil, Tom Jantol, Lainy Voom, Osprey Therian, Fau Ferdinand, Arthole, Second Front, Philip Rice, Richard Grove, Bryn Oh, and the MMIF compilation as showed in SLCC 2009...The best of ART Machinima, compiled by Peter Krapp (us) and Chantal Harvey (NL)

Lets talk machinima! The word MACHINIMA is a combination of 2 words: cinema and machine. Basically, it is making movies in virtual platforms like Second Life, World of Warcraft, Moviestorm, Sims, Halflife, Google Earth. 3 D-filmmaking techniques are applied within computer generated games. Machinima works have already been recognized at Cannes and other big international festivals.

This is the link to the full announcement (updated):

The Netherlands Media Art Institute
http://www.montevideo.nl/en/agenda/detail_agenda.php?id=330&archief=



 
Weather I'm Right, or Weather I'm Wrong
How wrong can it be?
I have one of those Google weather widgets on my homepage showing places family live, and right now it's showing 18F and snowing in Brisbane, with snow every upcoming day in the forcast. Heh.
(Maybe it got confused between F and C.)

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Small Man On Spring-Loaded Bin



10 December 2009

 
Merry Christmas, Second Life!


 


Elling
This is really good.
Really, really good.

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09 December 2009

 
100 Eleventh Avenue
Brilliant building by Jean Nouvel.



08 December 2009

 

Custom Tournament match 1
Originally uploaded by Vivian Oblivion

Candide enjoying himself at Spaceport's Combat Card event on Sunday.



 
Time Travel

Hamlet: Comments were down yesterday but should be up again now.
Me: ???
Zayn: WOW the SL grids really getting silly now. I just received an IM from you that you sent over 3 weeks ago
Me: That explains why I just received a reply from someone to an IM I sent weeks/months ago!

Update: "We have had reports of old IMs, some as old as 2 months, reappearing in chat as if they were just resent. We want to assure residents we believe this is a technical problem and not associated with anything intentional or malicious. We are investigating the cause and if you wish to send in a support ticket with your experience we will pass that information on to the investigative team."

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According to the computer it was 6 F (for Candide that's -21C) just now - eep. Very dry. I put a kettle on a bit ago to inject some moisture into the air. I haz a new fluffy hairstyle and I didn't even need to put my finger in a socket ;-D


 





29 years



07 December 2009

 
Weather Report
It never made it above freezing today, and may be single digits tonight (according to the radio). There was a heavy hoarfrost last night and the roads around here are a wee bit slippery. The wind died down last night, though, so it isn't as cold in the house as it was yesterday.

It was sunny and nice, which is good. I went groceterialisationing briefly and forgot to get coffee, which blows as I B out.



06 December 2009

 

Original:


 
Ugh, freezing cold :(



05 December 2009

 



Today in Pictures

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News From My Cousin Janet
She said (amongst other things):
My Auntie Anne had her 95th birthday goodbye in Southport then moved down south to be near the family.
My cousin's youngest daughter is in the production of Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.



04 December 2009

 
[20:17] Fau Ferdinand: os ?
[20:17] Osprey Therian: hi fau
[20:17] Fau Ferdinand: therapy and losin it
[20:17] Fau Ferdinand: 11 on amsterdam local tv channel
[20:17] Fau Ferdinand: 11th
[20:18] Osprey Therian: W00T!!
[20:18] Fau Ferdinand: :))))


 
Now it looks this way.

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Dunno why, but I like it when it's like this.


 
w00t w00t
The new server version 1.34 being deployed next week fixes an issue which has caused me a bit of hair-pulling-out lately:
SVC-5025[c]: When taking copies of groups of prims for a coalesced item, if any prim is named "Object," the whole coalesced item will be called "Object" in inventory, even if the last prim selected has a different name.



03 December 2009

 
removals @ lindenlab.com

This is not very nice:

O.P.

"I bought an AO hud on Xstreet ( a freebee to be sure) and the next thing that I know, LL is theatening me.

Dear X: Linden Lab has received notification from a copyright owner, or its authorized agent, that you have infringed one or more copyrighted works in the Second Life environment.

The notification identified the following allegedly infringing work(s):
Description of Work(s):[FhangV] AO collection (and all animations within)
Location of Work(s):Your Inventory

Linden Lab respects the rights of both Second Life residents and copyright owners. In compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), 17 U.S.C. § 512, we ask that you remove or disable access to the above-identified work(s) from all locations including your inventory. If you do not do so within two business days, please be aware that Linden Lab intends to expeditiously remove, or disable access to, the allegedly infringing work(s).

If you believe that you did not infringe another’s copyright, or that removal of the above-identified work(s) was by mistake or misidentification, you may have the work(s) reinstated by submitting a sworn counter-notification. To be effective, a counter-notification must be in writing and contain the information identified in our DMCA Policy under the heading “To File A Counter-Notification,” located at [url]http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php[/url].

Please be aware that if you submit a counter-notification containing the required information, Linden Lab will forward your counter-notification, including your name, address, telephone number, and any other contact information that you provide, to the copyright claimant. We will also advise the claimant that we will reinstate the removed work(s) in ten (10) business days unless we receive notice that the claimant has filed a court action seeking an order to restrain you from engaging in infringing activity related to the work(s).

Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in this matter. Sincerely, Linden Lab

OK, I deleted the content. My problem is that I bought the damned thing from the "official" online store of Linden Labs. Instead of a threat, perhaps an apology for passing me stolen content would have been more appropriate."

Second Person

"Shouldn't it be as simple as:

1. DMCA filed
2. LL identifies UUID
3. LL deletes all instances of UUID, making a back-up first of all residents with UUID in their inventory with a specific case number as a reference.
4. LL sends email to all residents with UUID in their inventories explaining that the content had to be removed to comply with a DMCA.

Then, depending on the situation:
5a. DMCA is challenged and LL is quickly able to restore the content.
5b. DMCA moves forward and all instances of the UUID are absolutely removed from the grid. You know, the way it's suposed to be.
5c. DMCA is challenged, UUID restored, and later proven; at which time the UUID can be removed again.
5d. DMCA is resolved in the favor of the accused and the content is restored.

LL shouldn't really have any more involvement then that, should they?"

O.P.
"As was pointed out, it cost me nothing as well. However, if the item did cost a substantial amount of $L, it is my understanding that LL would take a percentage for the sale via Xstreet. In cases like this, what do they do with their profits gained through the sale of stolen content?"

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Luceh, over on Sits Up and Looks Around, related this brilliant idea her friend had about gift-giving and the wise way she herself responded:

"a friend and i have exchanged many gifts over the years.
a few years ago she said "how about if we give each other back gifts we didn't really like?"
she said "the person who got it for the other, REALLY liked it, thought it was special, and would probably appreciate it!"
hmmmm

this seemed quite sensible at the time.
i was fascinated by my reaction when she returned one of my gifts!
i thought "this? she didn't like THIS? this is so wonderful!" and i felt a little hurt.
then i thought "i REALLY like this! i'm glad she gave it back to me instead of giving it to the thrift shop."
and i treasure it still."



02 December 2009

 


Ink

A low-budget, independent science fiction film from 2009, Ink reveals a world of good and evil beings unseen by the humans whose lives they affect. This film is somewhat worth seeing, although I felt the plot was not very interesting. More interesting is the way the filmmakers "embraced the piracy" after the film, released only on disk, was torrented a billion times leading to higher DVD sales.

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From Molly comes this clip from Chinese television that uses 3d animation:




01 December 2009

 
I just noticed the Nurien people are listing their projects as MStar ("Advanced casual game"), and sfoon ("social feed organisation and and optimisation engine"). Have they shelved Nurien? I couldn't get to MStar. Is MStar what I think of as Nurien? The screenshot looks decidedly less advanced than things I've seen before. I don't read Korean so couldn't tell what's going on in News, but the last listing isn't old.

I was moved to go to the Nurien site because I have PhysX and Nurien (the PhysX site says, calling it that name) uses PhysX. Candide and I were poking it a couple of weeks ago as he was wondering what the state of avatar interaction was in new tech, but it seems to be moribund.

Also, "Nurien" just makes me think of durien.


 
*Suddenly realises why the house is cold.*

/me turns the heat on.


 
Teef
I went to the dentist today all unexpected-like as the receptionist rang and asked me if I would. I like sneak dental appointments so I said yes. I laughed so hard the entire time that I almost got speared on one of those diabolical-looking implements. I must've been in a good mood :-D

I haven't seen Frank lately as he has had a cold (which meant I never left the house and didn't go shopping for food, which led to some interesting meals especially since the power being out the other day made refrigerated things rot), but I have an appointment tomorrow. Then Con is due Thursday for her yearly trek to see me - busy week for me.

I've been using Google Voice lately as I've needed to call Montana a couple of times. It's convenient for me (wouldn't be for many others I know) - it's nice that there are lots of ways of using telephony, although I still hate telephones.


 
More Will Be Revealed*
My friend Alicia sent me an article about a possible breakthrough in multiple sclerosis knowledge and treatment. It sounds interesting, although things don't usually pan out. Right now there's nothing for the type of m.s. I have (PPMS), which is ok, given that the treatments don't work and I couldn't afford them anyway, but this one, called CCSVI - chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, is at least not limited to relapsing-remitting (the usual type of m.s. that sissies have ;-D).

A different article says, "Another important observation made by Zamboni's team is that the pattern of reflux, that is, the specific pathway the blood uses to flow back to the brain, showed a strong correlation to the type of MS. Persons with PPMS had a different reflux pattern that those with RRMS and SPMS. Furthermore, the PPMS reflux pattern provided a good explanation why this form of MS is more aggressive and problematic."

* As Marilee always says.

 

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I want to ask for thoughts about improving the world -- what do people need? How can things be organised?