Downtime

Going to be a LOT busier these next few days starting today. I've set up no-build and/or autoreturns on all of my holdings in Second Life - please don't think you can do anything funny while my back is turned, the lot of you.

Okay?

Post #25: Less than 60 minutes to go...

Ever since I could recall, I enjoyed the possibility of helping out in Second Life as a volunteer. When I applied though, times were tumultous - the programme was undergoing a revamp, the full effects of which weren't obvious then, and even now. I'd heard horror stories about how the average volunteer could expect to wait several months on top of their usual required SL experience before they could tag up and join the legions of Mentors and Live Help. I was very surprised when a whole month of intensive 8 hour days in SL turned into a invite to join in late January.

There are others who have helped longer than me. Hell, there are people who are more passionate than me (yes, you there in the back row, stop laughing on the latter). It has been a swell 2 to three months. I've made my mistakes, but out of little more than misguided stupidity or unawareness about the way things work in any world.

As I type this, SL is beginning to wind down Help Request in world. In its place will come a structure that follows the simplest and yet hardiest of mantras any metaversal explorer could have, whether it is mere HTML or all-singing, all dancing primmage:

HELP THYSELF

There have been postings on the forums and in the offiical blog about the changes to be wrought: a gradual shift from Linden Labs as a mere San Franciso startup/upstart to a full 24/7 service on most, if not all, matters, the reworking of pull channels for knowledge such as the Knowledge Base and SL wiki, the introduction of a actual 'system is down' report to alert gridmonkeys more directly to unwanted griddeath.

And the usual 'the end is nigh' BS. I need to reiterate this since it seems to have gotten lost despite repeats:

Live Help is not going away totally.

Blue Linden has noted in meetings about this sea change in how we help Residents make sense of Agni that there will always be room for people to help each other, and the death of Help Request is not going to mean he becomes less busy. Far from it - one of the new priorities in SL now is to find ways to help Residents help each other better, to help themselves better. I fail to see exactly how that is a bad thing.

Well, maybe I do... I for one am going to miss dispensing advice and sweetness (and the occasional foambatting) to people who need it, anywhere within SL's 70,000+ regions.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Ahhboxes self-replicating in sandboxes like rabbits on heat. I've watched Lindens bling in the sunlight near the Tenera Train Station. All those moments will be lost in time, like cache losses on crashing regions. Time to concentrate on Real Life for a while.

...

I'll see you guys on the other side. Don't forget to send me a private IM when I'm on if you need help, okay?

Post #20 - Quiet in DarkLife Sim

So the Navora sim was hacked today... to the tune of US$400 in losses.

The sim has become significantly quieter in the past few hours, as I carry out the motions of kicking undead ass.

....

I do hope it's not permanent



Patchyoulli Woolluhraa

[UPDATE: The sim has been reopened on a partial basis. In a way, the hack attack could be considered partially a sort of blessing: it has accelerated development of the new upgrade of Darklife 2, and given the developers a chance to clear out deadwood and find out exactly who their friends are. Entry into Navora is currently restricted to current players and carefully vetted friends and invitees on the offchance that further hacks into the system haven't been found yet. If you're a prior Darklife Player and wish to get back in the game, please send an in-world IM to your previous groupmates and/or the moderators for an invite.]

Post #11 - Viewer update called on account of bugs

And for those people who claim Linden Labs doesn't do enough testing:

the 1.13.2 viewer update has been scrubbed today in favor of server patches only. Apparently, the new viewer creates bigger problems with region crossings and attachments than the problems it seeks to solve... Considering how important it is for many people to cross regions, or wear attachments, or cross regions while attachments, this move is to be applauded.

The update will still take five hours. These are five hours you've never had to schedule anything SL related in unless they said there was no update, so it's no big loss. I'd like to know what you're doing while waiting for this stuff to happen, and will be in the SLUniverse Chatrooms as always!

Post #8: Less of that, more of this!

In honor of Tateru's post begging for less penis in Second Life:

http://dwellonit.blogspot.com/2007/01/give-me-less-of-this.html

I'd like to give you some ideas for gooing up Second Life that are more creative:

1. Self-replicating teddy bears
2. Self-replicating Abuse Reports
3. Self-replicating hypercubes
4. Self-replicating Yellow Lanterns
5. Self-replicating fruit that goes "Mmm, delicious." - bonus points for watermelons. or pears
6. Buying four chibibotfoxes, sitting them down with pen and paper, then asking them to ghostwrite a New World Notes column.
   
7. Actually using your main account for once and be counted
8. Buying your own private island and spending lots of your own time crashing the grid repeatedly.

(I was bored by the Texas Outage. can't you tell?)

Patchouli (the griefer one)

Post #4: Emergency Chat now in session!

If anyone wants to discuss or shoot the breeze while SL is down, I will be starting a public chatroom on SLUniverse shortly. No password or registration is required, but I humbly ask that you log in using your SL name or a close derivative when you join in...

Look for 'Aoi Neko Emergency Chat' as you come in through the door. Looking forward to seeing what happens in the next four hours...

[UPDATE: Closng the doors on account of Second Life coming back to life. I'll check things for a bit, then go to sleep if nothing major needs fixing

Post #2:GridMonkeys Run Amok again - Asset Server misbehaves again!

(Image cribbed from the Official Second Life Homepage - "The Grid Is Down While We Bang on Things" - accessible only during downtimes. Copyright of this image rests with Linden Labs and its use on this blog is a form of tribute, not an attempt to infringe on said copyrights. Those responsible for providing the hardware causing the problems have been interrogated in GridMonkey OOK and subsequently bashed in the head with a really big bone.)

Oh noes, here we go again... from 7am to 8am today, the Agni grid was brought down for a moment of solitude in which Lindens could work on the asset server without the millions of transactions that happen every waking moment on the grid. Once brought up, things certainly seemed hunky dory for the most part.

Less than 24 hours later, the asset server falls over again.

Symptoms occuring prior to the crash included a strange reluctance by the asset server to take in perfectly compiled LSL, refusal to open LSL scripts previously saved, and a odd tendency (as reported by TUi Neophytes Lecturer Compulov Weeks and several NCi members) of things refusing 'take copy' requests or taking a looong time to get them across.

Add to that the currently occurring issue and things look per-eeety stunted.

It happened at a pretty bad time too. True Lock, if you're reading this, IM me the next time both of us are online and we'll continue modding that Gorean Observer Tag into that technicolor titler you wanted.

Otherwise, excuse me. I have a beef stew that needs stewing while the grid is dead in the water. Beef, not Linden - although given this slip up, a lesser furry vore could be forgiven for indulging in that sort of fantasy.