Spamming Howlers!

WTF is the deal with these retard assholes doing V^v^.:HowwwlzzZ:.^v^V spamming adnauseam over and over. Then you get a dozen of these fucktards doing this, it gets really irritating. Some clubs used to do this back in the good old days of vamps and goth groups, but now fucking every party does this, It’s SOOOOO fucking annoying and OLDER than dirt. SHUT THE FUCK UP PEOPLE!

The new SL Status Quo: SNAFU

I find it hillarious how they mention that all these diffrent database issues are NOT related to each other. How the hell can they NOT be? All morning they had a hard drive in thier array go bad, makes me wonder how old thier array is? How often are they failing? It seem the majority of thier problems is when there are too many “things” going on in world. Be it 20,000 users logged in at once, 2 million accounts created. Or waiting hours for the grid to comeback online so those 20k users can flood the grid again. Not supprising a hardware failure would be due to all these users getting on trying to do the same thing (like.. um.. WALKING.)

I’m not going to pretend I know what they are doing, and how they are running it. From a end users perspective it’s just getting worse. Status Quo is “Database problems.” This is what SNAFU really means. Most people use “snafu” to refer to a mistake, a one time thing that dosen’t always happen. However the letters stand for “Situation Normal, All Fucked Up” which implies it’s always “fucked up” in it’s normal state of existance; i.e. status quo. It’s not a random thing, SL is always laggy, slow, things don’t rez. Teleports work half the time. Can’t walk strait, building/editing object won’t “keep.” This is SL’s status quo to be fucked up.

Constant crashing

Every time I hear my hard drive “thrashing” I know I’m about to crash.  99% of the time I hear SL trying to access it’s cache file, so it can load up textures, or whatever it needs to load up, it crashes.  Why does my hard drive have to “thrash” for this shit?  I even does this when I load up someone’s profile, and it used to crash doing that a couple months ago.  Is the SL Viewer’s cache system fucked up, or what?

Every time I want to look around using my free camera controls, it lags, frame rate goes to shit, and sure enough the sound of my hard drive “thrashing” and boom, crash report dialog comes up. On slower machines (or when I’m doing stuff in the background) this gets worse and crashes are more frequent.

There’s talk on the SL blog about changing how the client and grid communicate. “this project enables the simulator and viewer to communicate using a collection of standard technologies: TCP, HTTP, SSL/TLS and XML“  So this means they were using non-standard protocols communicating over the Internet? What the FUCK was it using before, carrier pigeons? I mean seriously there’s only two ways to send data packets over the Internet; TCP and UDP.  Everything else is enclosed into those protocols packets.

The crashing problem seems to be with the viewer it self.  Maybe my windows cache file is getting filled up, but I clear out SL’s cache often.  Also I’m still having problems with my connections just DYING after my system goes idle for a while (like after logging off SL, or closing my BT client)… DNS just fails left and right.  Some times firing up another Internet app seems to wake it up.  Don’t know if any of these problems are related at all.  Ah well.

SL killed my internet

Seems like every time I log out of SL, in about 5-10 minutes all my Internet connectivity just DIES. I can’t connect to any websites, my e-mail won’t download, Yahoo times out and tries to relog every so often. It acts like I can’t resolve any domain names (no DNS). While I can still connect to websites if I know the direct IP address, or at least ping them, I’m just not able to resolve any URLs. I have to reboot, but that dosen’t always fix it.

It just seems to be the main PC I use, none of the other PCs I have are effected. I can jump on the web on my other PCs that are behind my firewall. So this is definitely some weird issue with my primary PC, so I might be due for another system wipe and reinstall, and start over. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve built this PC so it’s probably due for lube job. I may also get a CPU upgrade and more RAM too while I’m at this.

But why is SL messing up my Internet connection so badly?

Basic camera tips for newbies!

__ Free Cam controls
Your view of the world is not locked down from the position of your avatar like it is with other games you may have played. You can move your view a considerable distance away from your avatar position; look though walls, and track objects and other avatars as they move around.

__ Cam control panel
There are two ways to control your camera position and view. Click on “View” then “Camera Controls.” This brings up clickable panel with arrows you can use to control your camera view which can be moved a good distance away from where your avatar is. However using these controls can be rather cumbersome and slow.

__ Keyboard and mouse control
The advanced way to control your camera view is with your mouse and keyboard. Holding down the ALT-key will change your mouse cursor into a square magnifying glass with a + symbol on it. Now left-click on any object (or your avatar) and your view will center onto that object. With both the ALT-key and mouse button still held down, move your mouse around to “orbit” your camera view around the object, and to pan in and out.

Keep in mind that you’re not really “zooming” into the object when you move your mouse up and down, you’re merely moving your camera position closer (or away from) to the object you have centered. Zooming is a different function I’ll explain later.

Also notice on your mini map as you use your free camera. You’ll see a white “wedge” that represents your view of the word in reference to where your camera is in the simulator, NOT your avatar which is represented by a large yellow and white dot. The point of this wedge is the position of your camera, and you’ll see it move around on the mini map as you use your free camera view.

__ Transparent objects
When you’re doing this and clicking on various objects you see, be wary of transparent object that might be in your view. You’ll focus on these transparent objects when the object you want to examine might be behind that. Press CTRL-ALT-T to highlight transparent object so you can try to get around them. Press those same keys again to turn this function off.

__ Tilt viewing
With the ALT-key and mouse button held down, also hold down the CTRL-key and you’ll be able to move the angle of your view up and down as you move your mouse up and down. This will let you look at objects above and below, unless the object is on the simulator’s ground, you can’t move your view below that, but you CAN move your view though other objects.

__ Panning
Also if you hold down SHIFT with all the other keys pressed, you’ll be able to PAN your camera up and down, left and right with the mouse. Yeah it seems rather cumbersome pressing all these keys down but it won’t take too long when using these keys becomes second nature, and you’ll barely remember a time when you didn’t know how to do this.

__ Zooming
To zoom in and out on an object, with NO other keys or buttons pressed, hold the CTRL-key down while tapping on the number keys [8], [9] and [0] (at the top of your keyboard, not numpad). The [8] key will zoom out, the [0] key zooms in, and the [9] key resets the zoom to normal. As you zoom in and out, you’ll notice the white transparent “wedge” on the mini map will narrow or widen.

__ Follow Cam
Another camera trick is to ALT-click on any avatar you see, and your camera view will automatically follow the avatar like a guided missile. If the avatar moves/flies too far away your camera will still keep the avatar centered but it will appear smaller the further away they go. If they move too far away, or they teleport away, your view will just sit there static. This also works with any moving object, not just avatars.

__ Resetting your Cam
At any time your view goes weird, or you just want to stop looking at whatever you’re looking at, or you’re lost. Pressing ESC twice will reset your camera view to where you are. Also if you’re not sitting anywhere you can simply use your arrow keys to walk a step and your view will reset that way also. But to avoid bumping into anyone, it’s best if you pressed ESC twice. Also keep in mind pressing ESC twice remove the chat bar at the bottom of your screen, so press ENTER to bring that back, or click the “chat” button.

__ First Person
You can also go into a First Person view, called mouselook. Easiest way to do this is to spin your mouse wheel forward (up) and you should snap into a first person view with a small square as a reticle. If moving your mouse wheel up doesn’t put you into mouselook view, press ESC twice to reset your view properly on your avatar, and try it again.

Hope this information is useful for you!

You should know that your character is called an “Avatar” (ave-ah-tar) which is what represents you in world. It’s also called an “avi” (Ave-e) for sort, not to be confused with video .avi files! You can change your looks at will, even sex, and you aren’t limited to just appearing human.

Keep in mind most people do not consider Second Life a “game” like other MMOs are. There are no goals to quests nor skills to acquire, or XP to earn for your character. It’s a social environment where you make friends, enemies, and can basically do anything you want. You can make up your own goals to achieve, create your own games (using the SLS script language) and build your own world as you see fit, and make money doing it if you know how.

__ HUGSaLOT Valkyrie

Public service announcement for RETARDS

I still don’t understand why idiots continue to remain idiots while using online services like Second Life. You are obviously sitting in front of a computer connected to the Internet which is the largest repository of news and information from around the world. USE IT YOU FUCKTARDS!

For those vocabulary challenged, as well as spelling challenged, use: http://dictionary.reference.com
Type in any word you don’t know what it means and it will give you a definition. If it’s a word you don’t know how to spell then try a phonetic spelling of it, and it will suggest what word you were trying to guess at. Also Google does the same thing with misspellings when doing a search.

If you want more in depth information about a topic or phrase you’ve heard all your life but never KNEW what it was or what it means, then there’s always http://www.wikipedia.org/ that has the most comprehensive set of information for EVERYTHING you can think of.

Lastly there’s also http://www.google.com for just about everything else you want to find out on. Product information, recipe downloads, whatever.

So please, stop being a dumbass online, USE the tools the internet provides you, and it’s FREE for Gods sake!

Shemale stereotypes

Why is it nearly every image of a shemale is shown as some kina dommie bitch? The first time we I ever joined into any semi-organized shemale group in Second Life, it was just a bunch of PVC strapped pale goths and overly tall high healed dominant whores with a really BITCHY attitudes, and have a leashed subordinate male pets tagging along.

Even some imagery I see in game be it a photo or an artist rendering. They will have the most hottest and cutest looking shemale, but OH she’s holding a crop in her hand. sigh. When can we get over this bullshit?

Where are all the cute and darling ones I’m attracted too? I can’t be the only one. Why does every shemale have to be some fucking goth vamp wannabe? I’m tired of it.

Now I do like having pets, but I’m not an over-bearing mean pissed off dommie bitch about it. I like giving orders and having my pets fuck or get fuck on command but PLEASE save the goth bullshit and whips to your self.

List o’ bugs

Here’s a list of crap I’m seeing since the update last wednesday.

Lag
Can’t move, frame rate drops to zero for a moment
Corupted note cards
unable to teleport
Unable to offer teleports
Incorrect online status for friends
Chat lag, where the order of the messages you type appear at random delayed times
Classified searching only does matches on the first word of the title
HUD attachments always re-loading thier textures when it WAS already fully rezed and looked fine.
not able to give nor get L$ payments
Places search is broke (dissabled)

I’m sick

I got a cold in my nose.  Congested, snot slobbering, stuffy.  what I hate the most is when I lay down my nose is totally stuffed up and I can’t breath.  I have to sit up to have at least one nostril opened to breath.   Why the fuck does the body do this to it self, when it needs to breath, yet for some reason my sinuses have to swell up?  WTF is the point of that?

Situation Normal, All Fucked Up!

Since the last update to SL, everything hasn’t been right. Issues with the database server is causing normal function of SL to not work. You can’t buy anything, sell anything, teleporting is flaky. I haven’t had any business since the update because just giving someone money isn’t working. I can’t even drop 10L into a slot machine to gamble half the time.

This seems to be the new status quo of things half-working, extended periods of logging in, and sim crashing. Now we add in what I mentioned above and we have a new low in service performance. And I just love how the Lindens make announcements that everything is fix, except for areas that are still experiencing it.

Why do the Lindens have to make announcements that so fucking obvious to everyone. Hours after any problems arise they popup a blue message telling you what you already fucking know. By then you’re fed up, and log out.

This is the main reason why I haven’t made in any money. Besides the technical reason why I can’t make money (since no one can GIVE me any) people are fed up with the bullshit and don’t login. It’s getting fucking BORING out there. No one to talk too.. no one to hire me.. no one to tip me… no one to even TALK to.

So fuck it.. I’m gonna take a nap, besides I have a bit of a flu bug anyway.

Small update to this on going problem.  Note cards are getting corrupted.  At least the ones I use in my escort adverts that have pictures, landmarks, and other notecard links embedded into the notecard you get from the advert.

What’s worse, when I saw this problem I decided to re-do it all last night.  I even reorganized my inventory and made so-called “master copies” of my documents even putting dates on them, and clicking SAVE, and my client just POOFED.   It crashed with no fan-fair. I clicked the save button on my note card document I was proof reading for the umpteeth time, and a moment later I was staring at Firefox that I had running in the background.  I didn’t touch anything, no error dialog boxes came up, no sounds were played, nada.  After running SL again it then came up with the crash logger, and I sent in the report.

So when I got back on, all the changes I did to the notes I made, and even the changes I made to my inventory didn’t keep at all.  ARG!