Sorry Phoenix-Firestorm, But You're Fired

That's right, I'm finished using Firestorm.  Phoenix used to be my go to after Emerald folded due to their mismanagement, and I looked forward to seeing what the Phoenix team could do.  And there were some decent things about Phoenix, and I even liked some things about Firestorm. However, since January, I've become increasingly annoyed at their decision to cancel support for the viewer that got them where they are now, and becoming overly obsessed with server side baking - especially how they made themselves sound like the only crew out there among the third party viewers doing it.

Well, I have an answer for that: Singularity 1.8.0.

That's right, Ms. Jessica Lyon, while you and the Firestorm crew were all out there calling that the sky is falling, and that 1.23 type viewers are completely incompatible with Server Side Appearance (or Server Side Baking, as you've been touting it), Siana Gearz and her crew at Singularity have been working diligently (and silently, I might add!) to ensure that Singularity would not be one of the Third Party Viewers left behind when SL flips the switch to server side baking.  More so, they added mesh upload and some pathfinding goodies for SL, as well as a sure to be great asset in OpenSim with the export permissions tab and and the ability for grids to add custom menu items. All this and more on a 1.23 client!

I'm sorry Ms. Lyons and the Phoenix-Firestorm team, but you've made it clear that you don't give a hoot about Phoenix, which is the very client that initially made it possible for Firestorm to be around today.  I'm also sorry that you had to use belittling of people still using a 1.23 client as too retrograde for you and your team. And I'm especially sorry that you chose to scare people into switching to Firestorm because you made it sound like you were the only viewer that was working on Server Side Appearance, and even making people choose whether to use the SL version of the client over the OpenSim one, because you couldn't make it possible to flip a switch internally in your viewer.

But, you said it yourself quite well, Ms. Lyons, about why one should part ways, so I'll take your advice and  let everyone know of the third party options, like Singularity. For I have done everything I can think of to be supportive of Firestorm, and even thought that the OpenSim version was a good idea.  But I have decided to move on to Singularity, and wish you the best, while I find enjoyment in Singularity and it's continued support of v1.23 technology, as well as working to keep it relevant in the current versions of both SL and OpenSim.

JC Compositions (playlist)

So yeah, I have a fancy-schmansy playlist for my music compositions.  Not so much a Ioh Acta update as just a general one.  If you like music, and want to check them out, feel free. And if you happen to like any of them, feel free to like and share!

Grid Places Review: Garden Cafe at Haven Your World

Every now and then, I have highlighted places of interest to me in the various grids Ioh has traveled to.  This is one of them, particularly from my home grid, Haven Your World.

Little Sheffield in Haven Your World has grown quite a bit since I last posted about it. A particular highlight for today is the Garden Cafe. It's a bio dome sort of greenhouse build that has a nice and cozy environment for a cup of tea or coffee in the morning. Or maybe a gathering for some sort event with live music would also be interesting. I a DJ or some other live performer helping to provide additional atmosphere to an already wonderful environment.

Original photo found on Flickr.

Here I am inside the Garden Cafe enjoying a quick cup of coffee in the afternoon.

Original photo found on Flickr.

Original photo found on Flickr.

A wonderful, picturesque display of part of the garden environment that can be found inside the Garden Cafe.

Original photo found on Flickr.

If you like what you see so far, the Garden Cafe can be found in Haven Your World.

All photos were taken at Garden Cafe, Little Sheffield (153, 105, 22).

I Bought It On SL, I Can Use It Anywhere! Right?

If I bought something in SL, I can use it however I want, right? Not exactly. There are some things on SL that you can buy and export, and some things that you cannot. Knowing which ones are which is important. People seem to think that if they got it as a freebie, or bought a full perm item in SL that doing so means such things automatically are ok to try and export into another grid. I'm sorry for the freebie and 'I bought it, I own it!' crowd, but what you want from SL is just simply not there.

That is not to say you can't take freebies that you got from SL and export them out to use in another grid, but that it depends on the permissions that the owner gives. Likewise for stuff you buy on SL that may be full permissions in regards to usage in SL. That doesn't mean that the item is set to be full permissions anywhere you want to use them, and however you like.

As it is, and despite how much I agree that tier for land in SL is expensive, that the upload cost is a pain, that SL lag is a pain, that OpenSim grids can be a good place to start up a new business (depending on certain factors, such as if hypergrid enabled or not) , the one thing that I do not complain about is the fact that SL has permissions rights for content creators, and that both SL and content creators have a right to use and enforce them. If anything, copybots and when permissions are compromised are more reasons for why businesses would leave SL than to stay. So certainly SL would do wise to protect the content made in SL and do their best to give content creators a reasonable amount of security and ability to choose what permissions they give out for their products. The freebie nation and 'I bought it, I own it!' crowd just don't get it, and, because of that, it's no wonder people don't trust them. For who would you trust your property irl to: Peter, who seeks to protect and secure it, or the guy who steals from Peter to give to Paul?

The freebie nation crowd are essentially techie communists who think that the internet simply fell out of the sky, and that no one should be charged to use it. Never mind that people have to pay for the technology that uses the internet, as well as the technology that gets you on the internet. Never mind that you also have to pay for servers, and the services of internet companies that give you things like an internet domain, and other type of storage space and service to be able to have a presence online. Never mind that, even while Facebook and the various Google applications for media are free, they also have to monetize by giving ad space to companies to help keep it free. Never mind that they also push programs to get you to monetize your internet presence with them so that you get a little from the ad space, and they get a little for being able to get you to sign on to use your personal internet space for advertising. Yet, the internet should be free, but it isn't. For if it isn't to pay for services yourself, then it also isn't 'free' due to monetizing and other means of pushing advertising that takes away, that is, that cost you a certain amount of virtual space, or make you take up time in virtual labor that doesn't get much, if any returns back for those hours. And here's the thing about people that hold onto their tiers in SL. They likely have jobs. I don't mean that they strip or escort in SL on the side. But RL jobs that pay well enough for them to have those sims.  

The point is that there is nothing completely for free in SL, and nor is there in OpenSim. Yes, you can download the software for OpenSim for free, and you don't even need Sim on A Stick to do it. Also, it should be noted if you do indeed want your Sim on a Stick to be on a stick, you have to pay for a USB 2.0 or 3.0 stick, which Ener Hax is more than happy to link readers of her site to Amazon to get one, which could range anywhere from $14 for the least expensive (and least amount of memory available), to a bit over $40.00 for the higher end (and higher amount of memory).

Plus, if you were to want to get your standalone connected online, you are still going to have to pay to do that. Kitely has fixed monthly prices for 1 region at $40 per month,4 regions for $60 per month, 9 regions for $80 per month, and 16 Regions for $100 per month. Or, you can pay as you go with a free region, and it would be $1 per month for an extra region. The free plan gives you 2 hours free with 1 free region. You can also get a Bronze Plan at $5 for 30 hours and 2 free regions, the Silver at $20 for 120 hours and 10 free region, and, the Gold Plan is at $35 for Unlimited time and 20 free regions. You might wonder why the pay as you go is less expensive. It's because in the pay as you go, you the owner of the regions, does not pay for the access of users that enter your regions. However, if you pay for the fixed rate, you are paying so others do not have to.

But that's the thing, you have to pay for the purchase and maintenance of a PC, laptop, tablet, or whatever you access your virtual world grid(s) on. You then have to pay for internet service – regardless on if you do so by getting your own internet connection, or go to a coffee shop and pay for the drinks needed to legitimately be there – in order to download the software of OpenSim, and the viewers that connect you to OpenSim grids and SL. If you don't want to pay tier for SL region, you have to pay for service providers like Kitely to pay their tiers for your personal grid to be online. So, no matter what, you are going to have to pay for access and services to be online and to have a grid up. It might seem cost effective to DIY and make your own grid, but remember that where you can buy region space for less than tier of a SL sim, you are now responsible for your own grid. You can't complain to SL any more about mistakes that you make. If you screw up your grid, if you screw over your visitors to your grid, and if you frankly can't manage a grid on your own, then the problems are on you. And to get people to come to your region or grid, you have to do your own outreach, or hire people to do it and compensate them in some manner – be it monetary, or in other ways, such as through giving them space to on your grid for their own personal use. The internet is not air, it is not something absolutely necessary for survival. We just put a lot of value on it in this modern world because access to it is something we want, that we demand, but not something essential to living.

So nope, things are not as free online as one might think. Nor can you use what you have bought for any and all desires you want. There are limits to the freedoms, and the stipulations are generally found in the ToS. SL has a ToS, OpenSim has a TOS, pretty much all grids have their respective ToSes. And the service providers that make it possible to be online have TOS. Content creators tend to have copyright licenses or creative commons to lay claim to their creation as their property, and the terms for use of the property by others. So, even while you may own a copy of the digital item, that in no way means that you have complete control and use of it.

Interestingly enough, our current election in the US showed how this works with the rights and royalties of music. One infamous trumps of a content creator being able to call for the cease and desist of their content not being used in public for the advancement of a public figure is Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister saying he won't take Paul Ryan using the song “We're Not Going To Take It” to be used as part of Paul Ryan's campaign songs. Now, if I 'I bought it, I own it!' was truly the way things worked, Paul Ryan wouldn't have to give in to Dee Snyder's protest for using the Twisted Sister song.

I think the point is clear that, even if you own a copy of a creation made by someone else, it doesn't automatically grant you the ability to use that creation for any and all reasons that you desire to. Now, the reasons why people irl can push the enforcement of this easier than SL and OpenSim is because the cost of litigation makes it difficult for most and so that the cons of trying to go after illegitimately got content outweigh the pros of doing so. So thus, the closed commercial grids seem to be safe havens for content creators.

Nothing is really for free, and you can't expect that everything you buy is yours to use however you want.

Virtual Highways - IC Designs Virtual Studio

This is the build setup for my photo studio on the Virtual Highways grid.

Taken from my Flickr photostream Iohannes Crispien II. 

Since they're all my prims, I don't have to bother with worrying about adding backgrounds.  If I want/need a background, I can either upload a texture and replace the green screen with the texture.  Or, I can filter out the green screen in Paint.Net and add a background layering that way.

For poses, I'm going to use a generic pose ball, and just shuffle through animations in inventory.  This is simple enough, and also cuts down on a need for a menu.  If I do ever put a menu in, I'd probably just have a pad in front of the green screen and add to the menu accordingly.  Beyond that, I just really don't see a reason for a whole lot of applications. The less gadgetry in a studio, the less lag. I'm fairly minimalist and prefer function over form, and functionality over applicability.

But the thing I really like is that I was able to customize it to fit my tree house studio.  This is what really makes it fun and worthwhile to do it yourself and work on your own builds, is so that you can put together and see the fruits of your own labor.  Sure, this is a simple photo studio, but it's one I created and designed to work for what I want it to do. So it's not only customized, it's personalized for both my style and needs. If I need anything else, I can always add on later.

At any rate, for those interested in seeing the studio up close, or to actually pay me a visit some time, the best way to do so is to sign up at Virtual Highways.  Once signed up, you'll want to download, if you haven't already, an OpenSim compatible viewer, and follow the directions on the Viewer Instructions page.  I personally prefer Singularity Viewer because it functions better for me in OpenSim grids, particularly with the large grid map and being able to use the old search since most OpenSim grids do not use the newer search found in the current SL viewer. Plus, Singularity has mesh support, which will be needed to see things properly on my land.  If you prefer Firestorm, remember that you have to download the OpenSim build, otherwise the grid manager won't work. For a nice, more lightweight alternative to Firestorm, I would go with ArminW's Teapot viewer. It may not be updated very often, but it has most all the things necessary, minus pathfinder for SL, and you have to go into the World tab in the upper left to edit and change windlight settings.  But it does have a nice, easy to use grid manager that actually searches out new grids and updates your current list.

Once you have selected your viewer, followed the viewer instructions, or otherwise found out how to plug in the grid settings for Virtual Highways, then all you have to do is log in, copy-paste the slurl below, and teleport on over to my land.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Valhalla%20East/147/107/19

Once there, have fun looking around my little piece of land, and feel free to explore the rest of what Virtual Highways has to offer!

Hypergrid Permissions

So I was checking out Avination's announcement of Hypergrid export permissions. They are working with Singularity Viewer to develop a way to allow or prohibit created content from being shared between hypergrid links.

Personally, I see this as a step in the right direction.  For creators, to be able to choose whether they want their items to be used through the hypergrid or not adds a bit of security that had yet been put into hypergrid capable grids.  This is at least a patch to help fix the current issues that people have with hypergrid, since you can have the grid enabled, yet creators can have some control on on their end on whether their products leave the grid or not.

However, while this is a good step forward, there are still some things that could be done that would open grids to being hypergate capable. For instance, one next step that could be taken would be in securing a way that the ownership and other content information that the creator sets is transferred when crossing grids.The more that the capacity of grid hopping through the hypergate can be streamlined in this area would ease security concerns even more.

Even still,  the greatest achievement for Opensim would be streamlining it so that crossing and teleporting among grids is as smooth as crossing and teleporting among sims in a grid.  When that time comes, the necessity of signing up to different grids would be more a matter of formalities, be it that particular grid being the home grid that they sign into the metaverse on, a matter of access for premium grid products, such as owning a sim on a particular grid, or to be a method of security for businesses so that only those that are signed up in the grid can do business in the grid, and only those that want to legitimately buy virtual goods can, as long as they sign up and agree to the particular terms and conditions of the grid and it's business model.  Grid registration can also be used as a matter of registering freebies, so that people can keep track of them, and know who has the freebies, where they got them from, and where the person who obtained the freebies comes from, grid-wise.

Not saying these things would make for a perfect metaverse, but they would help improve it in some ways, and make hypergrid more attractive the more it deals with concerns in the metaverse community about its security issues.  For once they are addressed and taken care of in a manner that respects the capital and ownership of the content creators, the content creators, and the grids they are in, might be more willing to open up to Opensim and a free and open metaverse in general.

Haven Your World: Mainland Community Living

This blog was started and is and adaption of a series of pics on my Flickr blog for Ioh.  If you want to see the larger pics, feel free to check out my Flickr stream for Ioh here, starting with the first pic in the series.

Hello everyone!

After taking a much needed cat nap earlier in the late morning for me, I decided I've rested long enough, and ought to do something that is long over due. That is, to give a basic overview of the Haven Your World Mainland Community Living sim.

The name for the mainland region is Little Sheffield. It has been parceled out into 16 rental units. As the left wing of the board that you are greeted with tells you, each parcel is 3,136 square meters in size, a 717 prim allotment, and costs H$125 per week, with an initial H$1 setup to claim ownership of the parcel.

The center of the board piece, which might grab your attention first, welcomes you to "Be part of the community!" It then states, "New to Haven Your World: Mainland Community Living." This area is relatively new still, as the region was first introduced a little over a month ago on November 13th. I had visited Cheryl as she was working on the place a few days to a week prior, and was impressed by what she had already laid out.

Clicking the board gives you three items:

1. a landmark to the Little Sheffield sim that the mainland community rentals is in,

2. a notecard for the Residential Covenant, and

3. a landmark to the Haven Your World Welcome Center and freebie mall.

The right wing of the board lets you know that you are choosing your own home here and that you can either keep the current standard housing that is on the parcel by buying it for H$0, or can return the house and put up one of your own that you have bought or wish to create. There is also an important note to purchase the house, if you wish to keep it, before setting your land to group or turning on auto-return.

So, the process is pretty self-explanatory, with a very quick and easy setup. This, I feel, would make the Community living experience appealing, since there is no waiting period for an island to be processed and to appear. Instead, you're just a few clicks away to be ready to go. The prim allotment, and space, although less than your basic island, is reasonable for both price and purpose. For I would gather that the community rentals would appeal to those seeking a low maintenance home with a quick start up for ownership and usability. That, and it's a wonderful area to form a community. For the drawbacks of the islands are that they are not set up for as easy an access, and some are there more to be a private region for friends to visit on occasion. With the community rentals, in contrast, you have neighbors next to each other that you can interact with and create a close knit community with.

So, for today, we'll showcase Rental 6, and just give a quick look from the out and inside.

So here is the overhead look of rental parcel no. 6. Up ahead, the black building off in the distance is Jilly's Nest, owned and run by Jillytopaz Wasp. She is a wonderful designer of fashionable clothes and good looking human skins, both for men and women. I hope to cover more on her store in a later article on the commercial sim. But for now, I make mention of it to show that you can get a full community experience with both a residential area and commercial area within walking distance of each other. Again, this is perfect for both quick and easy setup and to enhance the user experience for both residents and shop owners, who might per chance want to have a shop as well as a place to live next to each other so they can interact with other residents and shop owners in a virtual community immersion similar to what you get in a real life community. Of course, you'll only see my spots, ears and tail in the virtual community. =~.^=

To the far right corner, you will find Cheryl's house. It is somewhat different from the others, as it has her own build with her particular personal touch and texturing. If you get a chance while in world, I would encourage you to stop by and pay her a visit. She is quite personable and friendly, ;)

This is the ground level floor inside the basic rental housing. I would estimate the area to be about 20 meters in width and 40 meters in length, so giving roughly about 800 square meters of space to portion out your ground floor in however manner you wish. I'm certain you could put in extra walls in order to partition out the area even more, either to provide some privacy or more visibly defined borders between a living room, dining room, and kitchen, if you would like. Otherwise, you can enjoy a nice open living environment to entertain guests in. I put Ioh at the opposite end of the build so that one can get a certain perspective of how much space there is.

The basic way to get to the second floor is by way of the spiral staircase. I rather enjoy this mode since it gives the upper and lower levels of the house a sense of connection between one another. You can, though have put in a teleporter, if that's your preferred method of transportation.

Up above, you'll find that the second level has been partitioned into a hallway of 5 meters in width and 40 meters in length, with two 15 x 20 meter rooms. You could make either two bedrooms, a bedroom and a bathroom, or even make your own partition of two bedrooms with their own inner bathrooms, depending on how much space you want and require. Being that the basic area is about 800 square meters, between the two levels of the house, you essentially have 1,600 square meters. of course, if you want to add on space for the roof, your basic living space for the starter house that comes with your home parcel is about 2,400 square meters. So, consider that your basic land parcel on its own is 3,136 square meters. Your starter house already rezzed on the house takes up 800 square meters, but can have up to 1,600 squared meters on top of the land, if you use both the second floor and the rooftop as part of your housing space. Therefore, in a sense, you actually have 4,736 square meters of space on your land as part of your basic package. Of course, if you use or create a larger build, you can gain more space. Just remember your prim allotment, as well as keep in mind terms of building and conduct found in the Residential Covenant. As noted in the Covenant the mainland community wants to maintain the character of the estate, which is assumed why residents choose to live on the estate in the first place. So yes, there are more limits for living in a residential area. If these limits do not suit what you would like for a user experience on the Haven Your World grid, you are more than welcome to look into what land package would fit you better on the Own Land section of the Haven Your World website.

Otherwise, if you're happy with just a residential space, and can adhere to the covenant, then the Mainland Community rentals just might be the place for you.

So, that pretty much does it for my overview of the Haven Your World Mainland Community Living region. It's a nice residential area. If you like having the community, the quick and easy start up, and can live with the residential covenant for the estate, then by all means, go ahead and check out and purchase a parcel. As stated previously, each parcel is 3,136 square meters in size, has a 717 prim allotment, and costs H$125 per week, with an initial H$1 setup to claim ownership of the parcel. Exchange rate is £1 = H$200 (or about US$1.63 = H$200). So, at H$125 per week, you're paying less than a dollar per week. Therefore, in about a 4 week's span, you are paying H$500, or about £2.5 (about US$4.07) for the Mainland community experience.

In comparison, your basic Home Region is H$600 a month - that is £3 (or US$4.88) per month. With a basic home region, you get the full region 65,536 square meters of land to work with. The base region does only come with 937 prim allotment, as well as a max limit of 10 avatars that can be in the region. But it is a private home with much more space and 220 more prims to work with compared to a Mainland house. Not to mention, there are less building restraints.

But of course, the value depends on you and what you want. If you want the community experience and really don't want to deal with all that comes with owning a full region, then Mainland Living housing on Sheffield is the way to go. Otherwise, if you want more room, more space, and less restraints, looking into owning your own region might be the better way to go. So it depends on your purpose and what you see as your priorities and standards for living in a virtual life.

* Haven shut down in January of 2014. As great as it was, I found a new place where, for a full sim, I pay US $20/mo and have 20,000 prims to play with.  If you're not ready to invest just yet in a full sim, you can get a shop for free and/or an apartment for T$1 (1/4 a US penny).

You can also check out my current project (5/25/2014), on Tangle Grid at Ioh Haven sim here:

tangle_grid/region/Ioh%20Haven/55/112/33

Can also see this and other pics on Facebook.