Exchange Herald

Okay, Linden Labs is buying XStreetSL and OnRez. Linden Labs will close OnRez soon, which is no big deal as not much happened there and the services are very similar.

So the only marketing for Second Life content will soon be SL itself and
XStreet, as the Lab announced. It no big deal for most users, not much will change right away. For those in the less than 1% of SL players who maintain a positive cash flow in SL, and the even smaller fraction that do so with a free account only,like me, it creates a bit of a problem, per the Acquisition FAQ: (If that link is busted, it's Knowledge Base Article 5809.)

I currently have a US dollar balance on Xstreet, what will happen to that balance?

For the time being, your US dollar balance will remain in Xstreet and you can manage it as part of your Xstreet account. Eventually, your US dollar balance will be combined directly with your Second Life account. At that time, you will be able to view and manage those funds when you sign into your Second Life account.

Thus, eventually, extracting Linden Dollars thru XStreet will be impossible unless one pays L Labs for a premium account. Free accounts cannot sell Linden Dollars. One can try a ticket:

Ticket Description
Summary: Requesting permission to sell Linden Dollars
Basic or Guest Access - only a few ticket types allowed: LindeX Tier Review
Contact Email address: arth.karas@gmail.com
Details: As a free account, I cannot sell Linden Dollars in LindeX. I was able to do so through XStreetSL, but that ability will disappear eventually, per the Acquisition FAQ.

I have been creating and selling virtual and real goods and services in SL to other residents. I have been making purchases in SL, but my SL income now far surpasses my SL needs. I would like the right to sell $300 USD per month.

Thank you, Arth.

We'll see how that goes. Since my personal quest is to do everything that can be done in SL WITHOUT buying a premium account, it poses an interesting challenge.

Love, Arth.

Heralding a Financial Thorem

Salary Theorem...

Dilbert's "Salary Theorem" states that "Engineers and scientists can never earn as much as business executives and sales people."

This theorem can now be supported by a mathematical equation based on the following two postulates:

As every engineer knows: Power = Work / Time

Since:
Knowledge = Power
Time = Money
Knowledge = Work / Money.

Solving for Money, we get:

Money = Work / Knowledge.

Thus, as Knowledge approaches zero, Money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.

Conclusion:

The less you know, the more you make.

Herald Terraforming

E-mail to arth.karas@gmail.com from the clear blue sky:

Arth,

I’m looking into buying a private island for my company and trying to see how much it costs to get a custom terraforming. I saw Neko has RAW files for 1000L but I think I need more land than the biggest has. Any information would be helpful.

Thanks, h

Greetings, h!

Thank you for writing to me. I'm not sure how you know of me, but I'll be happy to answer.

For custom terraforming rates, I googled "Second Life custom terraform" and found several vendors, technique patterns, prices and bids. xstreet lists several who are selling custom work search for terraforming from $32 USD to $106 USD. I do no know any of the work personally. MY SL Project was active for many months, and I saw similar bids for that work there.

You did not ask about the following, but consider these:

You can make your own RAW files. One tool is a freebie rawfile editor for Mac. More generally, Second Life itself is the simplest RAW file editor I know.

When you order your sim, the generic "flat 30m" on the order page fills the sim and works well if you plan no dramatic heights. A 100m flat might still be avaialable free from the Linden Labs concierge without a RAW file. It is the most versatile template, allowing dramatic island depressions to 0 (well below the standard water depth of 20 m) and heights of 200m without any special skill or outside technologies for terraforming.

To fulfill my SL Mentor duties, I direct you to the terrafroming tutorials here, here, and here, and the Second Life Knowledge Base articles #4060 and #4115

Personally, it takes me about 3 hours (I'd ask about $50 USD) to take design parameters and do a complex terraform by hand in SL. Simple ones take and cost much less time and money. (One simple full sim form took me 8 minutes from arrival to completion.) I normally teach the land manager or owner how to use the terraform tools with SL voice while doing so. Installing integrated water works, trails, walks, and such are separate projects, but I make placeholders for those projects while I am terraforming so that other builders and users can see the build progress and can coordinate efforts.

The sim owner can and should save any successful terraforms to his computer regularly via the land edit menu. Then the owner can easily revert the sim by uploading the saved file when accidents happen.

Yours,

--
Peace! Shalom! Namaste! Paix! Sére! Aloha!

Heralding Relationships

This is a large truth:

All relationships are eternal.

It does not seem so.
The world can only show us
that here and now are all there is,
that distance and difficulties are bigger than we,
that failure and misunderstanding are an end,
that withdrawal and death are permanent,
when they are not.

All relationships are eternal.

The form of relationships constantly change.
We prefer some forms of relationships.
We choose to try to make those.
We sometimes succeed.

All relationships are eternal.

What is here now will change later.
There is no hurry. All will be well.

All relationships are eternal.


Love, Arth.

P.S. Thank you for creating such a lovely one for us.

Herald's IQ

Free-IQTest.net - IQ Test

Don't bother to click. Four pages of test, maybe 40 questions, followed by ten pages of "free offers". And I get this little image that I could have made myself, including the link!

Herald Busy Ben's

Last week, I entered a Linden lottery for free display spaces. Today, IM from

Mia Linden: (Saved Mon Nov 17 14:52:08 2008) Congratulations on winning a space at Busy Ben's Vehicle Lot! This venue is exclusive to Vehicles Only. II am sending you your parcel info and will then invite you into the group. Please visit:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Winners_of_Linden_Lottery

That site says:

The lotteries for LUNA OAKS GALLERIA, BUSY BEN'S VEHICLE LOT and NEW PORT YACHT SALES is over! The winners have been selected. Now before you see the WINNERS LISTS please answer these few questions. AT THE END, you will find the LIST OF WINNERS for all three Lotteries.

If you are a winner please remember HAVE A GROUP SLOT OPEN as I will be sending the winners a group invite. Winners will also receive a notecard FROM MIA LINDEN, with the exact spot you won, a LANDMARK to that spot and the terms for the location.

followed by four pages of easy questions about what your history and intentions as a SL content seller, culminating with a long list of names with:

FLYING CRAFT/HOVERBOARDS: STALL 12 Arth Karas

Opening the notecard says:

Busy Ben's Vehicle Lot Tenant Information

Arth Karas

Section: Flying Craft / Hoverboards

Your Stall Lot #: 12

Prim Limit: 35

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Oak%20Grove/202/69/26

Current Leases will run from Midnight 15th November PST through to Midnight May 14th PST. Please do not move in to your location until AFTER Midnight, November 15th.

Congratulations on winning a rental spot at Busy Ben's Vehicle Lot! We hope your stay will be rewarding and beneficial.

followed by some fine print on what's allowed.

Hooray! Without delay, I scripted a demo version of Swan the Flying Pegasus (the demo disappears after a minute unless someone is riding her). Next, I construct a touch activated model of her as a black shiny statue in my parking-space sized lot with a few vendors for my pegasi.

Done.

Nearby is the Balance Sim vehicle rezzing area (being spammed by a panahandler named Dratis Aya) and Oak Grove classroom, (no Oaks and no class there, only cacti and desert rocks).

So, luck of the draw. Go visit. It's worth a moment of your time.

Heralding Personal Abuse

It's easy to click on a spam prim and anonymously report the abuse and delete the prim.

Insulting, intolerant personal chat is still a violation of Second Life's Terms of Service or Community Standards, but it is a harder to deal with. SL Mentors and Greeters are often trained to take the following tactics, in about this order:

~~Chat a comment. The offender may simply be clueless, so you are a teacher.
::You: Avatar, please don't use that rude word here.

~~IM a comment.
::You: Avatar, please don't use that rude word. It violates terms of service and can get you banned.

~~File an abuse report.
Using the Abuse Reporter tool located under the Help menu in the in-world tool bar. You might click the avatar and "more" until the "report Abuse" panel appears, but that option is not available on all viewers.
Every Abuse Report is individually investigated, and the identity of the reporter is kept strictly confidential. After you file an AR report, you get a confirming e-mail. The accused only finds out about it IF the report is complete and shows a real rule violation.
Encourage everyone present at a violation to file and Abuse Report - many reports for the same area generates faster action from the Lindens. Here is a walk through on filing an AR, with instructions for other actions, too.

~~Mute Avatar
~~Eject avatar from the area
~~Ban avatar from the area

Since mute, eject and ban is wholly voluntary, there is no repercussion other than the questions other residents of Second Life will ask. Go ahead an answer individuals, even write a note card explaining yourself, you might even get through to the avatar. But do not to publicly say why you are banning someone: your publishing that someone is "guilty" in any form (Group notices, for example) without solid evidence opens you to real civil charges of libel or slander.

I've heard it commonly held that "AR's do no good" Yes and no. Anyone can make a new avatar, and there are ways around Linden Lab's limits on avatar numbers, so griefers can simply return in another avatar. But AR after AR after AR (from many people) and eject after eject after eject (from YOUR area) and canceled avatar after canceled avatar after canceled avatar (from Linden Labs), the mischievous DO get the message and lose interest and take their abuse elsewhere.

Some avatars just need training and attention brought to the rules. Others, though, we can best hope that they take it elsewhere. Maybe some abusers might come to their senses and play nice.

Love, Arth