Why persecute the truthful?

OK my friend....lets take the gloves off.....


I think a really good sign of good faith would be to freeze the auction right now. It's immensely annoying to me that I see some things on there I need to try to bid on but I can't be sure of what they are because I can't get in world to see them, and I can't be sure that if I buy money for my character, that it will be in his account such that I can then bid on the auction for the item in Linden dollars. I guess I'll just have to try it.

I have considerably more invested in this game than you, and I"ve generally remained a hardy soul about it, not complaining about the technical down-times, but complaining more about the social engineering (and I wouldn't be so hasty in leaving the social engineering to players, cuz there's PLENTY to complain about there and PLENTY that needs a weather eye there, too).

And I have to say that lately, I've begun to notice some really annoying losses due to poor game performance that affect my bottom line. It's really quite noticeable in the last month, where it hasn't been before. Maybe it's because I've put more into it and expect more, but I think there are just some plain serious technical problems that hurt business:

1. I lose tenants because they can't log in. I have quite a few notes from people just explaining that they can't log on to pay their rent, and they hope I give them a grace period. Of course I do. But some never ever log in again, I see.

2. I can't finish building projects because I keep crashing when picking textures, or crashing for other unknown reasons, even with shadows clicked off blah blah.

3. I'm spending way way too much time trying to get video players to work on group land for people. They keep having problems, and they assign these problems to me since I have to deed the object to the group. But sometimes the problem is just that video doesn't really stream for some people and for the game on some sims -- and it's just not working at full tilt yet. We're told that the whole video thing was a kind of consultant exercise, where somebody who seems like a resume-polisher was brought in to kind of use SL as a guinea pig to test this out and is realizing some things he needs to change now. [Thats's my highly jaundiced take on it, anyway -- draw your own conclusions.] That troubles me -- that they'd think of some top-of-the-line bell and whistle to add, but then low-ball on the support for it.

4. People who were supposed to be buying land don't buy it because they fear a bug or a lag that is happening where payments aren't going through, and they look like they don't own the land, even though payments have left their inventory. Usually Lindens handle this and fix it up, but it only takes one of those things happening once to burn a person for a good long while.

5. When vendors can't log in to service their vendors, or when their customers can't come to buy stuff, they can't justify renting.

6. I've purchased land on the auction that turned out to be a total liability. For various odd reasons, I simply couldn't fly there. Now, Jauani Wu thinks he has "taught me to fly" but of course, me "not knowing how to fly" isn't the issue. The problem is just that new sim or sims area has a bad sim-seam problem. Both me and my various would-be builders and would-be tenants try to fly to this sim, then give up. I've got one fortunate tenant who managed to get out there and set himself to home so he doesn't have to think about flying. I kept trying and trying using all the methods, i.e. removal all attachments, use flight-balls for speed, stay away from sim corners, dog-leg around sim seams etc etc. -- nothing works. In the end, I sold part of the land to someone who lived there and already had "set home to here" fixed for herself, too.

Honestly, you buy something on the auction and you can't use it because you can't fly to it????? How bad is that???

7. Various people doing projects, i.e. builders or events hosts or whatever, can't log in and can't get things done with me, so all of us suffer, their business and mine.

8. I keep trying to log in at all hours of the day and night because I'm well aware of my CS backlog. I know that when I do log in I'll be facing a wall of urgent requests. And at least some people will blame me for what is happening to their game because either they don't know better or because I'm merely the closest dog to kick.

All around, it's not good for business. In my six months here, I'd have to say it's not ready for serious investment not only due to performance problems but due to a persistent anti-business climate among a certain player base and tacitly, at least, from the company.

Still, I actually don't care about all this. I'm not fussy. I'm here to play a game, and play store, and learn about it all. I make some money, I have fun.

Other games have endless boring sim skilling or levelling up beating bosses.

This game has endless re-tries at the log-in screen while you work in the other level, and has beating the odds on things like being the first to get logged in, get your Linden dollars, and get the auction land you want next to your existing land before an ugly box builder or laggy club gets it LOL. Some games have dragons. This game has lag monsters.


I think a really good sign of good faith would be to freeze the auction right now. It's immensely annoying to me that I see some things on there I need to try to bid on but I can't be sure of what they are because I can't get in world to see them, and I can't be sure that if I buy money for my character, that it will be in his account such that I can then bid on the auction for the item in Linden dollars. I guess I'll just have to try it.

I have considerably more invested in this game than you, and I"ve generally remained a hardy soul about it, not complaining about the technical down-times, but complaining more about the social engineering (and I wouldn't be so hasty in leaving the social engineering to players, cuz there's PLENTY to complain about there and PLENTY that needs a weather eye there, too).

And I have to say that lately, I've begun to notice some really annoying losses due to poor game performance that affect my bottom line. It's really quite noticeable in the last month, where it hasn't been before. Maybe it's because I've put more into it and expect more, but I think there are just some plain serious technical problems that hurt business:

1. I lose tenants because they can't log in. I have quite a few notes from people just explaining that they can't log on to pay their rent, and they hope I give them a grace period. Of course I do. But some never ever log in again, I see.

2. I can't finish building projects because I keep crashing when picking textures, or crashing for other unknown reasons, even with shadows clicked off blah blah.

3. I'm spending way way too much time trying to get video players to work on group land for people. They keep having problems, and they assign these problems to me since I have to deed the object to the group. But sometimes the problem is just that video doesn't really stream for some people and for the game on some sims -- and it's just not working at full tilt yet. We're told that the whole video thing was a kind of consultant exercise, where somebody who seems like a resume-polisher was brought in to kind of use SL as a guinea pig to test this out and is realizing some things he needs to change now. [Thats's my highly jaundiced take on it, anyway -- draw your own conclusions.] That troubles me -- that they'd think of some top-of-the-line bell and whistle to add, but then low-ball on the support for it.

4. People who were supposed to be buying land don't buy it because they fear a bug or a lag that is happening where payments aren't going through, and they look like they don't own the land, even though payments have left their inventory. Usually Lindens handle this and fix it up, but it only takes one of those things happening once to burn a person for a good long while.

5. When vendors can't log in to service their vendors, or when their customers can't come to buy stuff, they can't justify renting.

6. I've purchased land on the auction that turned out to be a total liability. For various odd reasons, I simply couldn't fly there. Now, Jauani Wu thinks he has "taught me to fly" but of course, me "not knowing how to fly" isn't the issue. The problem is just that new sim or sims area has a bad sim-seam problem. Both me and my various would-be builders and would-be tenants try to fly to this sim, then give up. I've got one fortunate tenant who managed to get out there and set himself to home so he doesn't have to think about flying. I kept trying and trying using all the methods, i.e. removal all attachments, use flight-balls for speed, stay away from sim corners, dog-leg around sim seams etc etc. -- nothing works. In the end, I sold part of the land to someone who lived there and already had "set home to here" fixed for herself, too.

Honestly, you buy something on the auction and you can't use it because you can't fly to it????? How bad is that???

7. Various people doing projects, i.e. builders or events hosts or whatever, can't log in and can't get things done with me, so all of us suffer, their business and mine.

8. I keep trying to log in at all hours of the day and night because I'm well aware of my CS backlog. I know that when I do log in I'll be facing a wall of urgent requests. And at least some people will blame me for what is happening to their game because either they don't know better or because I'm merely the closest dog to kick.

All around, it's not good for business. In my six months here, I'd have to say it's not ready for serious investment not only due to performance problems but due to a persistent anti-business climate among a certain player base and tacitly, at least, from the company.

Still, I actually don't care about all this. I'm not fussy. I'm here to play a game, and play store, and learn about it all. I make some money, I have fun.

Other games have endless boring sim skilling or levelling up beating bosses.

This game has endless re-tries at the log-in screen while you work in the other level, and has beating the odds on things like being the first to get logged in, get your Linden dollars, and get the auction land you want next to your existing land before an ugly box builder or laggy club gets it LOL. Some games have dragons. This game has lag monsters.

as much as i dislike prokofy neva... that parody is reprehensible

Can we perhaps limit the length of posts a bit? To like, a single 1024x768 filled screen or so?

In case any of you missed it, here's the FRONT PAGE OF SLASHDOT!

Linux: Playing with Sony's Linux-Based Networked Media Player


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @09:50PM
from the practical-application dept.
ZorinLynx writes "A while back, Sony released the NSP-1, a 'Network Storage Player.' It is intended to be a source of video for signage, such as plasma displays in banks, airports, and so on. I got a chance to play with one today. It's Red Hat Linux-based, which seems unusual for Sony! Though pricey at $1995, it's an interesting use of Linux, and could probably be hacked into a nice set-top video jukebox. It has a nice small form factor, as well as ethernet, USB, and video output in various formats, and a PCMCIA slot for removable media."


( Read More... | 32 of 44 comments | linux.slashdot.org )

NY Times Op-Ed Page Goes Subscriber-Only


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @08:50PM
from the salaries-to-pay dept.
kevinatilusa writes "The New York Times has announced an expanded subscription service to be launched this September. Subscriptions will cost $49.95 per year and include access to both the Times archives (currently available on a pay-by-the-article basis) and to the paper's op-ed columnists (currently available for free, but probably not for long). The Times also posted a more detailed explanation (registration required) for their decision."

( Read More... | 112 of 193 comments )

New Lucas Headquarters To Open in San Francisco


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @07:57PM
from the empire-building dept.
Afroloop writes "This article (with pics) in the SFGate covers the opening of the new Lucas Headquarters in San Francisco's famous Presidio. It will house up to 1,500 employees by next fall. From the article: 'The Presidio will feature 600 miles of fiber-optic cable. 4,000 processors and 150 terabytes of storage -- massive computing power and speed, with the ability to work 10 times faster than they can today.'"

( Read More... | 91 of 179 comments )

BPL: The Internet's Fool's Gold


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @07:02PM
from the hand-meet-other-hand dept.
Joe Barr writes "One of the more fascinating tidbits of information I came across while researching this story on NewsForge about BPL, the fatally flawed wannabe-broadband-provider technology, was that at the very same time the FCC was downplaying the threat of the interference BPL creates, the FCC's very own test results were showing just the opposite."

( Read More... | 132 of 195 comments )

Your Rights Online: Washington State Outlaws Spyware


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @06:11PM
from the good-luck-with-all-that dept.
An anonymous reader submits "Today, the Governor of Washington signs a a bill outlawing spyware (bill history) which imposes penalties of $100,000 per violation. Spyware is broadly defined. It includes everything from changing a browser's bookmarks or homepage settings, "Opening multiple, sequential, stand-alone advertisements in the owner or operator's internet browser", keystroke-logging, taking over control of the computer, modify its security settings, and even "Falsely representing that computer software has been disabled." But here is my favorite: "Prevent, through intentionally deceptive means, an owner or operator's reasonable efforts to block the installation or execution of, or to disable, computer software by causing the software that the owner or operator has properly removed or disabled automatically to reinstall or reactivate on the computer." Microsoft and Ebay both testified in support of the bill. On May 10th, a similar law banning Internet and email phishing was also passed."

( Read More... | 163 of 233 comments | yro.slashdot.org )

Hardware: 512MB GeForce 6800 Ultra Reviewed


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @05:41PM
from the conspicuous-consumption dept.
Timmus writes "If you thought the $500 GeForce 6800 Ultra and $550 Radeon X850 XT PE were excessive, wait until you see nVidia's GeForce 6800 Ultra 512MB: it officially retails for $999.99! Firingsquad has a review of the card manufactured by BFG. They ran tests with 6 different configurations (including a pair of 512MB cards running in SLI) with widescreen benchmarks at 1980x1200 as well."

( Read More... | 219 of 329 comments | hardware.slashdot.org )

Book Reviews: Web Designer's Reference


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @05:00PM
from the crazy-code-everywhere dept.
jsuda (John Suda) writes "It seems as if everyone and his brother is writing books supporting standards-compliant Web design with XHTML and CSS. I have read and reviewed a half dozen this year alone. People are obviously trying to tell us something - plain HTML has to go! Web Designers' Reference: An Integrated Approach to Web Design with XHTML and CSS, by Craig Grannell, is the latest of these pronouncements." Read on for the rest of Suda's review.

( Read More... | 5518 bytes in body | 170 of 261 comments | books.slashdot.org )

IT: Selling Your Attention to Spammers


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @04:14PM
from the sounds-fair-to-me dept.
Dotnaught writes "Can the free market stop spam where technology has failed? As described in InformationWeek, Professor Marshall Van Alstyne of Boston University School of Management has co-authored a soon-to-be-published paper that proposes an "attention bond" -- money put up by email senders that recipients collect only if they consider the message a waste of time. Supposedly, this market-based filter performs better than a perfect technology-based solution, with no false positives or negatives. A company called Vanquish already has a working model. Is selling one's attention the answer to spam?"

( Read More... | 188 of 240 comments | it.slashdot.org )

Your Rights Online: Cuban Says RIAA Damages Should be $5 Per Month


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @03:30PM
from the simplistic-but-cute-and-vice-versa dept.
Thomas Hawk writes "Mark Cuban is arguing over at Blog Maverick that with the introduction of Yahoo!'s new $5 per month music service that this needs to become the new de facto 'damages' that the RIAA ought to be able to claim when suing kids. After all, when the kids could have paid for the music via Yahoo! for $5 a month it makes it hard to say the music loss is worth more than that. 'The RIAA can no longer claim that students who are downloading music are costing them thousands of dollars each. They cant claim much of anything actually. In essence, Yahoo just turned possession of a controlled music substance into a misdemeanor. Payable by a $5 per month fine.'"

( Read More... | 428 of 561 comments | yro.slashdot.org )

Hardware: Vonage Testing Mobile VoIP Service Routers


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @02:41PM
from the can-you-here-me-there dept.
kamikaze-Tech writes "In a Vonage VoIP Forum article titled Vonage Testing Mobile VoIP Service Routers we learn that Vonage is doing customer trials involving a new Linksys Wi-Fi mobile service router. From the article comes the claim: "With the special router and handset, individual customers would be free to roam about their home or office, untethered from a modem or phone jack and without a connection to a laptop or desktop computer." Suggesting the new routers are geared for installation in Wi-Fi hot spots: "In theory, someone should be able to walk into a Wi-Fi-enabled cafe, fire up a laptop, log on to the Internet and start dialing. But that now requires technical know-how and configuration hassles that most consumers don't want to deal with. The new routers are designed to do most of the heavy lifting.""

( Read More... | 62 of 88 comments | hardware.slashdot.org )

Ask Slashdot: High-Definition PC Video Conferencing?


Posted by Cliff on Tuesday May 17, @01:55PM
from the don't-cross-out-the-travel-budget-just-yet dept.
dsginter asks: "This year's spring Networld+Interop has ended with little fanfare. However, I noticed that a small nugget slipped between the cracks - HD video-conferencing. Two different manufacturers demonstrated such products which means that we'll probably have interoperability soon. After seeing the massive pricing estimates for such products, I couldn't help but think that I should try my hand at my own HD product (a Mac Mini, some H.264, a pinch of AAC and the glue that is H.323 or SIP). However, I'm missing one piece - a small, 720P camera for video acquisition. I've scoured Google but can't come up with anything suitable. Is there an answer? HD video-conferencing is an important step in complete communication between remote parties. While there will be those that joke about the possibilities, it is important to remember that the bulk of business travel still happens for the sake of face-to-face communication. HD video-conferencing might prove to be a panacea."

( Read More... | 150 of 192 comments | ask.slashdot.org )

IT: Before You Fire the Company Geek


Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 17, @01:14PM
from the check-his-pockets-on-the-way-out dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A new 'insider threat' survey by the US Secret Service and Carnegie Mellon University finds that 82 percent of people who hack their company 'exhibited unusual behavior in the workplace prior to carrying out their activities.' A somewhat amusing writeup at washingtonpost.com points to a bunch of more interesting gems hidden deep in the study, including: 'Almost all - 96 pecent - of the insiders were men, and 30 percent of them had previously been arrested, including arrests for violent offenses (18 percent), alcohol or drug-related offenses (11 percent), and non-financial-fraud related theft offenses (11 percent).' The blog post also notes that 86 percent held technical positions at the companies: '...if you're going to fire someone (particularly company geeks who have the motive, means and access to inflict pain on your computer systems) make double sure you cut off their e-mail and network access at the same time you hand them their walking papers.'

( Read More... | 390 of 543 comments | it.slashdot.org )

Linux: Dvorak on the LinuxWorld Fracas


Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 17, @12:32PM
from the fuel-on-the-fire dept.
An anonymous reader writes "John C. Dvorak has entered the fray, offering his opinion on the O'Gara LinuxWorld flap. From the article: '...the Linux community is slowly evolving into a state of mob rule, with the cheerleaders being paranoid crackpot leftovers from the waning days of Amiga.' "

( Read More... | 412 of 609 comments | linux.slashdot.org )

Microsoft Finalizes Its Desktop Search Software


Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 17, @11:50AM
from the nope-no-influences-here-none-at-all dept.
Smelly Toejam writes "After a five month testing phase, Microsoft has released a final version of its much hyped desktop-search software. Major updates cited include the ability to pick and choose which files to index, and how often." From the article: "Microsoft is vying for new credibility in the multibillion-dollar Web search market dominated by Google and Yahoo--and central to its campaign is the desktop. With its Longhorn launch slated for next year, Microsoft is developing enhanced search software that combines navigation for Web and desktop files straight from the operating system. The toolbar is a step toward that goal."

( Read More... | 173 of 228 comments )

Science: ISS Oxygen Generator Fails for Good


Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 17, @11:14AM
from the totally-not-worried-at-all-nope-uh-uh dept.
billyj4 writes "A balky Russian oxygen generator broke down on the International Space Station, but its two-man crew has a reserve air supply that would last about five months, NASA officials said Friday. The station's primary generator, which has been operating in an on-again, off-again fashion for months, stopped working last week and the station's crew has not been able to fix it. Mission managers say the unit has failed for good. Consequently, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev and U.S. astronaut John Phillips will be relying on reserves until replacement parts arrive at the station in late August."

( Read More... | 241 of 363 comments | science.slashdot.org )

Your Rights Online: BBC Trial of TV Show Download Service


Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 17, @10:31AM
from the working-for-the-viewers dept.
Little Hamster writes "Five thousand households with broadband access has been selected for a trial of the BBC's new interactive Media Player. The trial will run from September to December, and users can 'time shift' and download selected BBC TV shows, radio programmes, regional programming and feature films. After seven days, the content will be automatically deleted from the user's computers. BBC will use this trial to iron out any outstanding rights issues and resolve teething difficulties with the technology ahead of a full launch next year." The BBC Press Office has a release about this as well.

( Read More... | 177 of 238 comments | yro.slashdot.org )

Games: Xbox 360 Gets Backwards Compatible, Final Fantasy


Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 17, @09:55AM
from the it's-raining-good-news dept.
databeam writes "The official Xbox 360 press conference was Monday evening, and an AP article has news that the 360 is backwards compatible, and that Square Enix will be releasing Final Fantasy XI for the console." Coverage also available at Gamespot. From the article: "Along with a firm release date and price point, the other big question surrounding the 360 was backward compatibility with the library of games from the original Xbox. Robbie Bach, senior vice president and chief Xbox officer in the Home and Entertainment Division at Microsoft, made Xbox fans around the world happy when he announced that the 360 will indeed play Xbox games." Mostly. Gamasutra points out that backwards compatibility will be selective, with most but not all of the top selling games supported. Kotaku and the Guardian Gamesblog have firsthand accounts from the event, and to watch the conference for yourself Xbox.com has the footage.

( Read More... | 312 of 425 comments | games.slashdot.org )

Games: PlayStation 3 Unveiled


Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 17, @09:05AM
from the psp-and-bluetooth-and-boomerangs-oh-my! dept.
The PlayStation 3 was unveiled yesterday afternoon in a press conference at Sony Pictures Studio. The event was full of beautiful demonstrations, specifications, and talk of the games of tomorrow. The machine is certainly impressive, with backwards compatibility, support for up to seven Bluetooth controllers, multiple HD signals, and intimate interactions with the PSP. Coverage, screenshots, and specs available from 1up.com, Gamespot, Joystiq, NYT, Voodoo Extreme, Gamespy, BBC, GamesIndustry.biz, Engadget, Anandtech, Kotaku, Gamasutra, and CNN Money. The only downside I see so far? The controller.

( Read More... | 644 of 843 comments | games.slashdot.org )

IE7 Will Have Tabbed Browsing


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @08:51AM
from the sir-your-numbers-are-slipping dept.
loconet writes that early yesterday morning, "Dean Hachamovitch, IE product unit manager, confirmed that IE7, like Opera and Firefox first did years ago, will have tabbed browsing as one of its new features. Asa Dotzler,from Mozilla, points out that Dean reminds IE users who have not upgraded to XP that tabbed browsing can be added to IE through 3rd-party add-ons." cryptoz adds a link to this InformationWeek story which says that the tabs will be very "'basic' due to fears from Microsoft that tabbed browsing might scare off too many users. The feature is only being included because IE is slipping in the browser share market."

( Read More... | 527 of 701 comments )

Hardware: Apple's First Flops


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @06:32AM
from the what-might-have-been dept.
Sabah Arif writes "Apple began the eighties with two major flops under its belt: the Apple III and the LISA. Both machines were attempts at breaking into the business market. They were technologically advanced, but major flaws prevented their success."

( Read More... | 267 of 373 comments | hardware.slashdot.org )

Science: A Step Toward the Diamond Age


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @03:52AM
from the blazing-8-mm-per-day dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Carnegie Institution researchers have learned to produce 10-carat, half-inch thick diamonds at rates of about 100 micrometers per hour, which in the diamond biz is blazingly fast. And these aren't cruddy, yellow diamonds either, but gem-quality stones. The goal: A 300 carat beast in whatever shape they want."

( Read More... | 478 of 627 comments | science.slashdot.org )

Hardware: Unmanned Aircraft Clustered via Bluetooth


Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 17, @01:12AM
from the zip-around-the-room dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Essex are using Linux and tiny embedded computer modules to build fleets of unmanned aircraft that fly in flocking formations like birds, while performing parallel, distributed computing tasks using Bluetooth-connected Linux clustering software. The Gridswarm project includes model trainers that can fly 120mph, while a parallel Ultraswarm project uses co-axial helicopters. A prototype of the later is believed to the world's smallest flying web server. The aircraft will run Linux on embedded computing modules from Gumstix."

Actually, I'm beginning to think it is not a parody at all. Guess we'll see when the mods get their hands on it.

it's a bunch of copy paste of prokofy posts.

I doubt this is Prokofy. The writing style is more immature, although the content is just as meaningless.

Although I've found Prokofy's behaviour in the forums reprehensible, this impersonation is in extremely poor taste. Whoever's doing it should have that account banned.

it's a bunch of copy paste of prokofy posts.

If it is Prokofy, flaunting the circumvention of suspension of the main account needs to be dealt with swiftly.

Either way, imposter or not, has anyone submitted it for moderator review?

$50 says its Philip.

$50 says its Philip.