Second Life Herald

Peace March Saturday

straight talk about violence

by Jessica Holyoke

Drive By Agony along with The Blue Angel Police and Firefighters Memorial, victims of crime and concerned SL citizens, will hold a March for Peace  in SL April 19th at 1pm by marching on the Virtual Capitol Hill   http://slurl.com/secondlife/Capitol%20Hill%201/129/1/32 .  In conjunction with the march, a live music festival for peace will be held from Noon to 6pm SLT.  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oleander/197/230/22

Carmen Gray organized Drive by Agony, an anti-violence group that started in the 1990's in Los Angeles.  Drive By Agony is a RL non-profit organization, that has helped over 75,000 youth since 1988.  Having offered anti-violence training to over 50,000 LA youth alone, she is fighting for Congressional Legislation to expand anti-violence training nationwide and worldwide, starting in SL.

Carmen Gray decided to bring her passion of educating the public about the affects violence has on communities, the health care system and victims of crime, and also to allow people that have been a victim or lost someone to violence the opportunity to talk about their feelings and share in a safe and friendly atmosphere and share with others that have gone through the same thing.  Many people have lost children in America to gun and other types of violence and this is also a way in which they can honor their child's memory.  I had two innocent son's murdered one in 1988 and another in 1992. Her real life name is Lorna Hawkins and her story has appeared in many media outlets.  She hopes to bring awareness about HR 3826 sponsored by Congressman Robert (Bobby) Scott from Virginia. The Youth Promise Act looks to reduce crime before it happens by investing in research based programs in the United States.  By holding the March for Peace in the Second Life world, she hopes to encourage people to write and call their Representatives in support of this bill.

'Cos I Am Beautiful

How to win friends and influence avatars

by Aloe Stradling

Okay, you're new in SL, and hot to trot. You explored around a bit, mastered the controls, and are ready to find a date. Or maybe just a playmate. You wander from sim to sim, wading through crowds of people, until someone catches your eye. Gasp of shock and awe! He or she is beautiful! Perfect hair, sexy eyes, clad in a hot fashion, just generally gets the juices flowing, and the mind turning to thoughts of.... interaction.

Your approach is friendly and polite, not acting like an overeager horny noob, You tell them how attractive they are, make small talk, and move in for the kill.....only to be shot down. Maybe they're nice about it, maybe they're rude, but, the end result is the same -- rejection. They stroll off, possibly saying something like 'Not into noob look', leaving you hurt and neglected, and wondering what was up. You're smart, witty, friendly, and all around charismatic. You weren't rude or obnoxious, and your pickup lines were flawless. You've been snubbed, all because they had to be a self absorbed egotist! Lousy rotten vain shallow....

But wait! Hold it right there, new SL denizen! There is a double standard at work here. Settle down and think a moment, about why you approached that one in the first place. Yeah. Because they looked just right. Because they stood out in the sea of sameness. Remember. You are a special and unique individual with many shining qualities. You are spectacular, never forget that. But, to that person who was so blind to all your charms - well, you were just another noob in the starter T-shirt and jeans. Before you run off to cut yourself, listen to Linken Park, and write about that horrible person in your blog, stop and think. That person invested some time into looking the way they do. Can you really blame them for expecting the same in turn?

The Fashionista's Guide to IP Anonymizers

Fashionista drama means everyone can take hints from the goons and griefers

by Tenshi Vielle

When one is browsing the web and doing nefarious things, wouldn't you just hate to leave a trail of IP address footprints that will show up if, say, you were dumb enough to post on a website as both your main and your alt account? Most websites instantly log IP addresses, leaving the next best thing to a unique ID with your comments - your IP footprints! Just changing your screen name isn't enough to hide yourself.

Thinks about it. Wouldn't it SUCK to finally have someone be able to identify your alts if you were faking an identity with a screen name? In an effort to reduce the drama in the SL fashion world, here is a protip: if you simply must attack other people with sockpuppets, use an IP Anonymizer. "But Tenshi," you may ask, "How on earth does that work? I can barely work prims!"

Oh, dear, sweet reader. It's really quite simple! IP anonymizers are all about bouncing through a proxy to hide your real IP. Downloadable programs are available to assist you in this process. You might say, "Uh, duh, I can do (insert task here), and have a new IP address." Sure, but not quite - you need to have a really different IP address. If someone was interested in tracking you, the difference between 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 is only one number. You're still not invisible. IP addresses are assigned by your internet service provider in easily guessed blocks. Even if you can force a change (i.e, restarting your modem) your address is probably similar enough and will resolve to a close enough location via a trace.

Does Autism Speak in SL?

Metaverse is a battleground for Autism Speaks and Autism Speaks Doesn’t Speak For Me groups

by Violet McGinnis

There are two sides to every coin. Granted, you won’t often find the tails side of a coin loudly denouncing the actions of the head side; that’s where the analogy rings untrue, especially in the case of the heated battle between one national organization and it’s greatest detractor in Second Life.

Autism Speaks is an organization that supports research into the causes and treatments of autism, as well as finding a cure for autism. They’ve merged several autism organizations from all over the country and are heading up several projects. Some such projects are the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange, a DNA repository and family registry of genetic information, as well as the Autism Tissue Program, a network of researchers that studies brain tissue donated for autistic research.

Autism Speaks Doesn’t Speak For Me is an organization that believes that autism is not negative and not necessarily a disability. They state:

We know that autism is not a disease, and we oppose any attempts to "cure" someone of an autism spectrum condition, or any attempts to make them 'normal' against their will.

The autism spectrum they refer to ranges from high-functioning autistics (such as those with Asperger’s) to the lowest-functioning types at the other end.

Big Game Hunting in SL

Using elephant guns and rocket powered Hummer H1s to hunt virtual kangaroo

by Bawana Bill and Lady Questi

off-road and 649 meters straight up

Greetings big game hunters! Ever wondered about the game here in SL? Well, Lady Questi and I have put together a series of articles on hunting big game here in SL, where we will be showing you the places to bag the big ones!

First we needed the proper equipment. So over to the Black & White sim we went, where we purchased our elephant guns, back packs and pith helmets. For the lady huntress, boots and bag from Box, hair from Mystikal; some old boots for me from Shiny Things, a safari jacket for both of us from Head - TOE Mens' Wear, and a matching pair of pants I made myself and we were almost ready to go...all we needed was a suitable vehicle for our adventure...something with a classic look, yet able to get us out of (and into) difficult situations.

So over to Domus Cars we went where we purchased a Hummer H1 for $1,500 lindens, which had the ability to fly besides travel on rough terrain. This prepared us for our first game outing....to hunt the dangerous and wiley kangaroos at Sanctuary Bay.

SL Laser Eyes Worth Looking Into

More residents improve vision with heat, X-ray, and lasers

by Siobhan McCallen, metaverse weapons expert

Coherent light leaves Macbeth Shostakovich with a burning sensation

Remember how Superman had that great heat vision, and could just squint a little and turn a bad guy's gun into a puddle of molten steel, or slice Braniac's spaceship into pieces with these long, red beams from his baby-blues? I don't know about you, but that always made me get all quivery inside. I wanted to DO that! I wanted to be able to blast things with my eyes, burn down trees with a hot, seething glance, cut through a steel door with laser-like precision.

Cyclops from the X-Men was pretty good too, but with him it was more of a curse, because he couldn't open his eyes without blasting away. He had to wear special glasses or goggles to keep from cutting apart homes, furniture, cars, and family pets. Still, it would be neat to be able to flip up your fashionable dark glasses and blow away the bad guys, right?

I looked into whether my dream could come true, and sure enough, you can trot down to your local goodie shop and buy yourself some heat vision. It comes in some interesting varieties, some of it hot and burny, some of it with more of a kick in the teeth sort of punch.

For this little endeavor, I needed to enlist some aid. Shooting at targets is all well and good, but sometimes you just need a willing conspirator to let you blow them away. Hence, my friend and all-around Good Sport, Macbeth Shostakovich, who has agreed to be my crash-test dummy for this and other weapon tests. Say hi, Buster!

Red Light Center Exposed -- Part 2: Vanilla

Sex with robots - while keeping your shoes on -- the discrete charm of a Red Light Center VIP account
The Herald explores worlds beyond Second Life

by Jessica Holyoke, virtual world explorer

heading to the space bedroom

Eventually, I discovered what I could about Red Light Center (RLC) as a basic member and it was time to open more doors so to speak. I bought a VIP membership and started exploring the non-kink side of things.

VIP membership costs $20 US per month and it allows for age verification. Not only are you allowed into the adult areas of the RLC grid, you are allowed into the adult areas of everyone’s profiles. On the profiles, you find that people sometimes like showing off their Real Life naked bodies as well as what they’ve done as avatars.

But there was exploring to do. There were a few adult theatres where if you go in and click, you’ll find pornographic movies that will open up in your web browser. If you are concerned about cost and you pay for porn as well, this might be the economic option for you.

Red Light Center Exposed -- Part 1

Free basic account for clothed platonic friendship - VIP accounts for naked pixel-sex
The Herald explores worlds beyond Second Life

by Jessica Holyoke, virtual world explorer

Red Light Center (RLC) is a virtual world that touts itself as a socialized meeting place where you can make friends and even have sex with them. Because some residents would like to see the lascivious go there, because they are not welcome here or There, I decided to check it out.

Accounts come in Basic or VIP. Basic accounts are free to play but you cannot have sex, and therefore, you don’t know what you look like naked. VIP accounts cost $20 US per month and allows for fuller access. I started with a basic account as Jessi_angel.

In opening an account, you have two things to create. One is your avatar. The customization is limited to either what RLC gives you or what you can download onto your PC. Downloaded textures can change your avatar's clothing or tattoos. No one else can see these textures unless they also download those textures into their PC.

One way to get those custom avatar textures is off a person’s web based profile. When you click on a RLC avatar for their profile, the program opens up your web browser and gives you a MySpace like web layout for that resident. This profile is customizable to the same extent as a MySpace page, except you can include pornographic pictures of yourself and others. The age verification comes by having certain pictures viewable only by VIPs or by your friends.

The use of the web browser is frequent as any tips or special rules are opened in an outside web browser and not in the game itself. FAQ’s, as limited as they are, open outside of the game. If more in depth help is needed, one either learns from others or goes onto the RLC forums which are linked to the profile system.

Intellectual Property Party With FlipperPA Peregrine!

Lawyers, content creators spend night together - discussing DMCA takedown notices

by Jessica Holyoke

Firday night party at the Peregrine pay-per-view salon

Friday night, FlipperPA Peregrine hosted an event to discuss in-world intellectual property protection with attorney Extinct Darwin. In real life, Extinct Darwin is Frank Taney from Buchannon, Ingersoll & Rooney - the firm currently providing counsel to metaverse clients such as the Electric Sheep Company and Stroker Serpentine. Second Life content creators showed up including Calico Ingmann, Nyte Caligari and pup Witherspoon.

Mr. Extinct Darwin started by discussing the four types of intellectual property - copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets -- and how they relate to SL. While waiting for resident questions, he talked about how the Digital Copyright Millennium Act (DMCA) works to protect copyright. Extinct discussed how you do not need to formally register a copyright in order to use the DMCA take down procedure.

Nyte Caligari asked why the Lab only takes down content seen on the Grid and not from the inventory of the offending resident. In contrast, if you upload copyrighted material onto MySpace, you are warned that MySpace may delete your account. In Second Life, the offending material is removed from the world, not from the resident’s inventory, so it can be taken back out of your inventory and put back in-world immediately. Extinct agrees with the proposition that the Lindens have not gone into inventory and that he doesn't think that is living up to the requirements of the DMCA. He continues that the Lindens only remove an offending resident after repeated violations of someone else’s copyright.

Expensive SL Classified Ads Ineffective - Save Your Money

Scientific Metamorph Sky Shop experiment shows increased traffic without matching sales

by Michelle Morphett

THE QUESTION:

As the proprietor of the successful Metamorph Sky Shop retail store, I've always been curious about how Second Life's search engine affects my business. Does paying for an expensive classified ad increase teleports from it, and does it increase my in-world shop and SL Exchange sales?

THE METHODOLOGY:

In addition to my regular $L76 Metamorph Sky Shop ad ($.28 US), I placed a duplicate ad for $L1002 ($3.71 US) to run at the same time, from Friday 12/28/07 at 9 pm PST to Friday 1/4/07 at 9 pm PST. This timeframe should be a fairly busy period, since people are still on holiday break but generally back home from visiting family, and have Christmas money in their pockets.

The $L1002 figure was chosen because it places the expensive ad a little above halfway up the first page in a search for "skybox" in the old classifieds search under the "Shopping" category, with "include Mature content" unchecked. Search engine studies have shown that "about 90 percent of searchers looking to shop rarely venture past the first page" (http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/03/66893). The same search brings the cheap ad up on the second page, about 2/3 of the way down. The new search in the "Classifieds" category doesn't show either ad in the first five pages, which is the most results possible currently.

The SL Christmas List

Gifts fit for a queen - or a porn star

by Wendell Holmer

Second Life is brimming with choices. There is so much content, expanding all the time, that no single person can adequately sift through it and pick out the best offerings. We need your help. This month the Herald begins a new feature—The List. We pick a subject and start ticking off examples recommended by people who should know. Then you take over. Use the Comments at the end to complain share the great things you’ve discovered.

In December, we were looking for romantic holiday gifts. We mainly went to merchants and asked them to make choices from their own inventory. Here are some of their picks.

---

The Hostess

---

Sky's scene

Whenever I go to Sky Everett’s place, I’m bound to meet somebody interesting, and this party was no exception. Sky Designs has a wide range of contemporary and Moroccan influenced furniture—the wood textures are really remarkable—but when I mentioned romance, she grabbed me by the collar and dragged me over to the BDSM section. The SevereReign trompe l’oeil (L1150) accommodates seven women and two men, when you add the optional overseer throne (L495). For a festive touch, Sky placed two candles (L50 each). They let me sit on the throne for the shot—since it’s designed for a man—and I’m wearing RFyre Pretense. Sky, standing, wore Gisacaci. At my feet is fashion writer and photographer Harper Beresford in Solstice by RFyre. Fashion model Shelby Robbiani, reclining, wore the Entwine Gown by Blaze. I suggested that the four of us might try some of the more interesting poses, but the girls pled urgent appointments and disappeared as soon as the shoot was over. Photo: Harper Beresford.