Power, the community, and Linden Lab.

Nonsense, Chip. Don't be ridiculous.

If that were the case, someone posting several times a day about the evils of the FIC would end up permanently banned from the forums. Surely that has yet to happen.

Oh, wait.

We are all so enamored with how special we are. People just "don't get me"! I'm a shining light in a cesspool of lunatics.

blaze, whatever your intention (I care not), you appear to be consumed with defending yourself from " the attack of the man". It brings down your own discussion topics as much as The Others do who are bent on reducing your input through pointing out perceived shortcomings of the poster.

I agree with you, blaze, you are gleefully devious and misunderstood, while your discussion points exemplify that you are, none-the-less, sharp as a tack. Your logic is impeccable. Does that give you the warm fuzzy you need?



Watch out!

Well, there are people who are consistently friendly with LL and never seem to express ideas which contravene LL's perspective, even though it's rather obvious to anyone that LL isn't always right.

Perhaps FIC isn't a super productive label in your eyes, but what would you call them? I like the terminology because it undermines (at least in my eyes) their and their leaders authority which, as I said above, is potentially self-destructive.

With all due respect to everyone, I am dizzily confused.

What is this thread about, specifically?

I have no agenda for or against anyone here... perhaps... I just haven't been around long enough to understand this.

I liked where you were going with the first paragraph (uh oh ).

However, the consistent use of the term FIC does just as much to undermine your "authori-tay!". Particularly when used in what had begun as serious discussion. In the mind of many, it reduces a post instantly to the land of parody. Similarly, it confuses those unfamiliar with the term, resulting in a lengthy side discussion on the FIC drama itself. This, once again, has the result of derailing your own thread. I know you are aware of this.

"The Star Chamber", (c) 2005 Magnum Serpentine.

That's much more snazzy and effective!

No, you appear to have a firm grasp on what is going on here.

Why would it be productive for everyone to do as you, and constantly be antagonistic and contra to LL's business model?

Why is it "wrong" to agree with their vision? I mean for God's sake, I pick the auto dealer I like, The shoe store I like, the food market I like. Why should I not pick the 3d space that my philosophy jives with? What possibly keeps people here who obviously think they know how to run the place better, and have constant issues with the way LL runs things?

Tell me blaze - you run a business right? Who would you be more willing to listen to - the customer that bitches non-stop, everyday of the year, or the one who is at least somewhat satisfied?

You seem to think that the people you like to pigeon-hole as "FIC" have only 100% praise for LL. They don't. I can name several right off the top of my head that you crybabies consider "FIC", who have been vocal about many issues. There is a way to do it with tact, and then there is coming off as an arrogant know-it-all who likes to think their oh-so-clever cat and mouse games have some profound meaning, and that being contrary for the sake of being contrary makes then wiser than the "stupid people" in the "herd". You won't get what you want by being antagonistic and playing mind games. That is basic human nature, and if you don't like that, you have a long hard road ahead of you bud.

First of all, your method of perceiving things does not guarantee that you are correct in your assessments. Secondly, what *I* view as being not "super productive" is a non-stop campaign of demagoguery and finger point because of subjectively perceived "problems".

A question blaze - it's pretty obvious to me you think LL is stupid, and that a clique of "cool kids" is running the show. Why do you stay? I just don't get it, unless you're simply wholly disingenuous and just like to stir shit? If I thought any of the other companies that provide products which I consume were treating me differently than other customers, I would go somewhere else and never, ever look back. So tell me, why do you stay, when you're so outwardly unhappy?

In a few years

we will have

a much larger

concern about "Power"

Unless world leaders moderate consumption

nope... not a power mongerer.. an attention whore

Well, I think the issue here isn't really about me, but rather that in order for LL to act rationally (and not simply drunken with grid power), they need to realise that they are powerless.

Once they realise they are powerless then they can start building the metaverse correctly.

When they add or change a feature - it has to be about how it delights their customer base and not how it satisfies some queer concept that some dev at LL might have.

Unfortunately, when you're in this kind of close contact with your customer base and you surround yourself with a bunch of yesmen (and women) you tend to start to believe your own press and don't realise exactly how powerless you really are, or I guess I should say, how self-destructive your limited power is.


I think two of their best ideas:

HUD and P2P are born of their realisation how powerless they are.

Linden Lab has the power to do pretty much whatever they want to do with Second Life. There decisions may not take it in a direction that makes sense to you, but they own it and at best you can try to influence the course of their decisions by:

(1) ranting a lot

OR

(2) present well-reasoned and well-supported persuasive arguments as to why it would benefit LL's purposes and goals to adopt your particular hobbyhorse.

*Claps*

Well said. There is an awesome old adage that addresses this. Something about catching flies and eating them with honey.....mmmm, I'm hungry.

Well, it's exactly that mentality that will get them into trouble.

I misinterpreted the thread and thought we were talking about you. The best way to break their grid mindedness is for them to shrinkwrap the software and let us build us build our own grids.

I've never thought of myself as a yesman. Do I get a badge? I think a month's free tier might be fair compensation for having rubber stamped all their decisions over the past two years. Do you think an actual client API might be their next brilliant idea to demostrate how powerless they are?

This thread will ultimately be locked too. blaze hides behind an alt, so nobody can attack his credibility, whilst criticising everyone elses. blaze's threads don't stimulate discussion, they are veiled attacks on the company and community who provides his entertainment.

I got news for you blaze, you are not smarter than LL staff. You are like the neighbors poodle, that doesn't stop yapping, yet stands just far enough away from getting a boot in the ass.

Yep. It's pure example of how the best thing they can do is letting go.



This ain't about you either..



I think HUD is a client API. What would you like to be able to do?

Well stomp my little green foot and slap me sideways 'cross the jawbone. You done put me in my place; that's for sure.

HUD is an inworld attachement visible throught the client. An API allows us to mod the client with external plugins that can be linked to external data sources not hosted by Linden Lab. An API allows us to communicate with the client through externally generated buttons, drop menus and text boxes. An API allows me to view the world on my own terms by feeding my client data streams directly rather than through The Central Grid All Hail The Central Grid.

It wholly destroys the concept of geography and continuity of community perception et cetera et cetera. It allows me to build my world and share that selectively (you're so glad I said that) with others that will download the plugins and tap the same resources. But frankly, I don't care if you prefer to be looking at blue water everywhere you go. I won't insist that yours should look green just because I've instructed my client to represent it that way.

Also, the use of capital letters indicates it's not "blaze" posting.

I think Natalie Portman wants to jump my bone, but that doesn't make it true.

You can do so much with the HUD, it's just crazy.

llEmail gives you access to effecting the outside world.

I mean, it almost boggles the mind how much you can do with HUD, and how safe and secure HUD apps are compared to typical client API apps on other platforms.

I'm sorry, I'm as cynical as the next guy, but I don't let it blind me to the obvious - HUD is a huge and fundamental step forward in configuring the SL client, and done in a way that was (I feel) pure brilliance.

Plus, you guys need to look at all the HUDs that are coming out and what they are already doing with them. They're amazing.

What I'd like to do is a bit more LSL client access to the client, but there is still so much to be done with what we already have to really wory about that just yet.

Can I browse the web with a HUD? Can I connect to IRC, AIM, or another instant messenger and have private chats with friends using a HUD? Will a HUD display a GoogleMap, grab the image, and let me hand that to a friend so we can meet-up IRL? Will a HUD allow me to give it a credit card number on a secure channel -- as secure as from my keyboard to the 1024-bit encrypted browser I normally use? Can a HUD browse through my hard drive? Can a HUD make HTTP requests to the Internet? Can a HUD control iTunes through a COM interface? Can I use a HUD to view Flickr galleries, check my email, or post more than 255 characters to my blog at a time?

Answer yes to any two of those, and I'll agree with you. Until then, I'm not going to let myself be blinded by your vaporware promises and ignorant double-talk.

Well, you need to appreciate the debugging and security nightmare that all of those features would require.

I think in terms of developmental / security / stability tradeoff, HUD is amazing.

Anyways, imagine one lsl command called

llDropTextIntoFile("<text>";

Which drops a text string into predetermined file in the secondlife install directory.

And then you can do quite a number of the things you suggested.

Yes, and if we had A CLIENT API they would be the client-plug-in developers debugging and security nightmare. The things I'm talking about: there are no security nightmares. Unless Second Life's client is full of more bugs than we realize -- which, maybe it is, since we know they used to base superuser access on a client-side key -- then giving the client an API akin to the World of Warcraft client API would mean that the responsibility of creating things like Find and the Classifieds could be taken off the backs of Linden developers and given to willing, user developers.

I think the fact people think it's amazing is silly. It's cute, sure, but there's not one thing a HUD prim can do that a Konfabulator widget can't do ten times better. Although, given both the proliferation of Moneychairs and Dance-O-Matics, maybe I'm wasting my breath arguing that Second Life should be better than IRC and a lobotomized Konfabulator. If people are happy just text chatting and Linden developers are content using IRC, who am I to think Second Life should be better...

I sure hope you're pretty, because you're a dumb as a sack of dead puppies. You praise the HUD because it's wonderfully secure, yet you're in favor of an LSL command that would allow strangers to write files to my computer? Hahahahaha...

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

HA HA HA HA HA!

That's not fair. Now I'm laughing too hard to argue. Hahahahaha.

I've got an idea!

llNigerianPrince();

It can be a command that mass emails the credit card number for my account to scammers around the world.