A little bit of naive fun

I've been alone during the weekend and, of course, the fun happens when I'm the only one around to see it. I've even had a dedicated griefer! I feel so flattered for all the attention. Thank you! (I have to add, though, that all my offlines go to my e-mail, so your attempt to make me lose messages by capping has been a failure, but please do keep trying!)

So, while others were obviously very, very bored, I've been busy in working in advance for the next weekend, and I've also had some time for a little bit of silly, naive fun. I know that many will not find it amusing at all, but now it's raining on the store's sim. And randomly, there are thunders and lightnings.

"WTH Auryn, and you talk about others being bored?"

Bored? It is months since I wanted to do this.

Don't forget your umbrella if you stop by and visit. The Autumn has come to "Black Tulip"!

Twisted Hunt: My hints

(once they are valid no more)

As I've mentioned in the store blog, I've been accepted as a merchant for the Twisted Hunt, which started yesterday.

Like I've said there, I'm already dressing the store for the event, so expect it to be changing during the month. And more important: Expect also the boxes to be changing location during this time.

Something else I said is that once the current hint is not useful anymore, I will publish it together with the location the gift was in. That means, when you see a hint published here... I've moved the gift. But I've had second thoughts about publishing the previous location. I'm not doing it. Just the hint.

Something I have seen in my own eyes is a couple of avatars arriving and going directly to the location where the petite gift was, without even clicking the hint giver. It was obvious that they were following a cheat sheet, so while they were grabbing that one and feeling smart, I've moved the other gift. I've had them running along the sim chasing the moving gift for about ten minutes, until I've got bored.

Good that this is allowed by the rules! It's been fun to have one of them find the gift and stand to say the other in IM "it's here!" and then move it again, frustrating the other, and moving it once again and again as the girl was running after it.

And here it comes the hint list :-)

September 1st

Alice came to a fork in the road.
«Which road do I take?,» she asked.
«Where do you want to go?,» responded the Cheshire cat.
«I don't know,» Alice answered.
«Then,» said the cat, «it doesn't matter.»

September 2nd

The King said,
«Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.»

September 3rd

«Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast»

September 5th

Regular

«You've got no right to grow here,» the Dormouse said.
«Don't talk nonsense.» Replied Alice. «You know you're growing too.»
«Yes, but I grow at a reasonable pace, not in that ridiculous fashion.»

Petite

The Doorknob said,
«Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.»

September 9th

Regular

«But I'm NOT a serpent,» Alice said, «I tell you! I'm a... I'm a...»
«Well! WHAT are you?» the pigeon replied. «I can see you're trying to invent something!»
«I... I'm a little girl.» she replied.
«A likely story indeed! I've seen a good many little girls in my time, but never ONE with such a neck as that! No, no! You're a serpent; and there's no use denying it. I suppose you'll be telling me next that you never tasted an egg!» the pigeon added.

Petite

The Doorknob said,
«Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.»

September 19th

Regular

«It would be so nice if something made sense for a change,» Alice said.

Petite

«Keep calm and drink me.»

Check this blog post for updates... and have fun with the hunt!

Why RP doesn't belong to business

SL is sure a big place, and in it, you can roleplay as many roles as you wish to try. But when it comes to business, RP should be set aside. Business belongs to "being serious for we want our purchases working."

I bet that no roleplayer would accept as a valid reply from me "your purchase may very well roleplay that it is not giving issues to you" when they need my help. Then why don't they do the first step, and talk to me as a merchant, instead of talking to me as someone involved in their RP? (To begin with... why they assume that I want to be involved in such RP?)

Otherwise, things like this happens:

I get an IM saying (literally, and only that):

tan ewe helps me

I was AFK when this IM came. I've been back five hours after. I read it and understand nothing, but feel happy that whoever Tan Ewe is, is helping the person that IM'd me. Good boy, Tan Ewe! I open the profile of the person IM'ing me, see no groups in common, and wonder how the heck my profile has been accessible, but the "wrong window" explanation still explains this. I close the IM window and continue reviewing what else happened when I've been AFK.

But then I begin reviewing the transaction records, and I find out that this person has bought one of my scripts!

I open the profile of the person IM'ing me again, paying attention this time to what all the groups (and profile picture) are about, see lots of child things related, and everything falls into place.

"tan ewe helps me" meant "Can you help me?"

And now you know why RP doesn't belong to business.

Virus Alert? Please read twice!

These days, a new hoax is doing the rounds. You probably have received a message coming from someone in your contact list, or from the group chats you belong to, along the following lines:

OK..here's the scoop from the horses mouth. DO NOT accept the ExDepart gift package 2012. If you rez it out, you don't see anything, but it rezzes at 4000 meters and proceeds to send copies of itself to your friends list. We are dealing with the second one in the estate I'm an admin in.
http://jayrcelasecondlifetechnologist.blogspot.dk/2012/07/virus-alert-more-viral-than-virus.html

Even, in Spanish:

Hola a todos!!! Un objeto llamado ExDepart Gift Packege 2012 esta siendo enviado a todas la personas, por favor no lo reciban, es un virus, y les pueden robar la cuenta.porfavor pasenlo a todo el mundo gracias.

(Basically, that message above says that the object is a virus and will steal your account... and fun thing to check, that the claims about what this object can do, are different depending on the person that spreads this bit of misinformation!)

I've had several persons asking me about this, today, so I've considered it was a good idea to write a bit about, and help people to calm down.

First... Anybody receiving a message like the first one, has actually READ that link? It's not certifying that a virus is being spread! No! Quite the contrary!

Let's read the title of such post carefully: "Virus Alert... More Viral Than Virus"

When one reads that post, something should be clear: it's not talking about ANY virus being spread across SL! The post talks about how an unverified hoax about a virus alert is quickly spread... which is the actual viral effect!

So let's read and understand that blog post in the first place. Once you've read it, come back, and let's clarify some more bits.

Virus can't be spread across SL. In general lines, for a virus to access your computer, two things should happen: one, it has to be executed on your machine (so, somehow, downloaded and installed there), two, it has to be compiled for your machine and operating system!

From all the assets in your inventory, SL allows you to save ONLY textures. So, for sure, nothing that could be executed on your machine. But then... SL works under three different operating systems! Chances are, the virus, even if it was possible to be saved from your inventory (which is not possible)... would work only under Windows! (sorry Windows users, you make it easy for virus developers to choose a target.) Linux and Mac users would be safe. But Windows users are safe too... because you can't save anything other than textures from your inventory.

Can this object steal your account? Unless it reads minds as to find where in yours, you've memorized your password, nothing and nobody can't steal your account unless you tell them your password!

Refer to this I wrote time ago about this kind of happenings: Phishing? No thanks!

Can this object steal your money? If it asks you to grant permission debit... and you grant it... well, it could. But you read those huge pop ups and make sure you know the source of the object before granting... Yes?

Please refer to this I wrote time ago about granting permission debit: Granting Permission Debit? Know some facts!

So once again... When you get an alert because the Sky is Falling (TM) and it urges you to warn everybody about the Apocalypse... Read twice, read slowly, and think about what you've just read. Information will be always your safe bet.

Take care all :-)

Phishing? No, thanks

Copied from the group notice I've sent to the Builder's Brewery group:

PHISHING? NO, THANKS

So, what is "phishing"? It is just another way for scammers and other, say... "lazy people" to get your login data and, from that moment, take over your account and use it for their own benefit (usually, monetary, but also impersonating you... or even asking for it to be canceled after it!)

It consists in showing you a link to click (or creatively making it look like an official one - read more below,) very similar to the service you have an account in, usually offering discounts, bargains... and when you click them, they redirect you to a page that can even look the same as the login page (from Second Life, this time.)

So we feel safe, enter our login and password, and bam! We're busted. The scammer now has our login data, and they can very quickly log into the SL website, change our password, change the confirmation e-mail and, of course, log inworld, impersonate us, spend the money, use our credit card if we have associated payment info on file (or spend until the last of our L$ if we don't have this payment info...)

If we copy a link, paste it, and notice that the domain name does not finish in .secondlife.com, we can be sure that the website is trying to get our login data.

So, an example:

http://secondlife.marketp.com/	This for sure does NOT come from the official SL web: Don't trust it
http://id.secondlife.com/	It finishes in .secondlife.com: It comes from the official SL web (note the DOT before secondlife.com! http://my_secondlife.com/ is NOT an official SL web!)

There are other ways for scammers to hide the real Internet address so we click in a link and then input our loging data.
The following page: http://www.arb.ca.gov/html/spoof/spot.htm explains some tips to recognize these attempts of phising.

IMPORTANT - The official link to login into our account via the web is very similar to the following (being the most important how it *begins*):

https://id.secondlife.com/openid/login?return_to=https%3A%2F%2Fsecondlife.com%2Fauth%2Foid_return.php%3Fredirect%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fsecondlife.com%252Findex.php&language=en-US

Notice how the link begins:

https://id.secondlife.com/

Here we can read:

https	We're login through the Secure HTTP protocol
id.secondlife.com	The domain name finishes in .secondlife.com (again, note the DOT before secondlife.com)

Read here about a recent case: http://shoppingcartdisco.com/gossip/phishing-scams-popping-up-in-second-life-are-you-next/
This can happen to any of us. It only takes a moment of tiredness to put our login data in the wrong place.

Please, share this notecard: protect yourself by being informed, and protect others by helping them in being informed.

Information is always our best defense against scams.

Take care all,

-- Auryn Beorn

Christmas Challenge and Winners

Thursday 15th, December, I made again a special class for Christmas. This time, it was a challenge and as such was announced:

REDHEAD CHRISTMAS: ARE YOU READY FOR A TEST FROM AURYN BEORN?
Everybody is welcome to stay and watch! But...

PREREQUISITES: (Hold your breath!)

• Building LVL 2
• Basic Scripting for Builders
• QAvimator (poses)
• Sit Target Helper
• Animated Textures
• Particles
• Music!
• Rokuro & Tokoroten
• SculptCrafter (the demo will be enough if you don't own a full version)
• ... and your imagination!

(Students from "Speaking LSL" might have an extra challenge)

Christmas is here! And the naughty elves from North Pole have stolen ALL the supplies from this class! Help Auryn Beorn to recreate all the supplies and remember which were the parameters for her prims!

She only remembers some riddles and is trying to tread a story to recover her memories.

Can you help Auryn in this?
Then join this multidisciplinary class, where you'll learn how to put together all your skills when it comes to develop a real project.

Those who will complete the whole project without assistance and being lag-wise will get a special prize.

The challenge was to build this:


and yes, students had to make everything: the sculpties, the poses, the effects, the scripts (and modify other). Everything.

Students started building the snowglobe. Some sculpted the base, others used regular prims for it.


Then, they started building the log cabin that later had to be sculpted and shrunk, to fit within the snowglobe.


Different tools were used here, from the proposed SculptCrafter to Prim Generator... And even Blender! (first winner used Blender to make it sculpted and still she made the prim version.)




Houses! Many got this done and didn't continue.


Then the fountain, the effects... Last part finally arrived, when students had to create the six poses I was showing.


Few students got to the last part, creating and setting the poses!


It was an exhausting challenge that lasted more than five hours! That's one more reason to be proud of those who endured until the end.

My ISP kicking me for hours from this, 15 minutes before the time was over, didn't prevent that I could evaluate the builds from those who achieved to make it all.

And these are the winners, in order:

eithne Blaylock


(her scripting was minimal and her house is awesome!, only five prims, way to go!)

Elisaveta Vasser



Well done!

I'm very proud of the two of you by having finished it, accomplishing all the goals that were said at class. Low prim, low script, full of details and effects.

Then I've received one more submission, and although the creator didn't meet all the prerequisites, she for sure struggled to do her best with the knowledge she currently has. It's for this reason, for she not giving up and doing her best, why I'm also giving credit to the work from Lita Christenson. Good work!


And, as it was promised, they have received a gift!

I got ready this:


Choose among three poses, and the ballerina will mirror you.

I think I might continue working in this item, adding more poses to it, in the future. This one won't be for sale: it's an exclusive gift for my students, able of finishing the whole challenge, or struggling to do their best with the knowledge they have. Thank you for having made this possible.

And now they want more challenges! This can be FUN!

Second Libations - Revisited

As I was telling here, "Second Libations" is the sim exhibition at LEA from Haveit Neox, an artist that I've had the privilege to meet while teaching.

I've had time for a second visit, and now I have more pictures from it! \o/

View from one of the main builds:


Neat effect to make appear a reflection in a mirror as you approach and move:


The siren, reflected:


In the Lybrarinth:


Centaur waiting for us going down the water:


The sirens show you the way:


And under the water, this is what is waiting for you:






This second visit inspired me to write a little story that I sent to Haveit and is now also a part of this exhibit, wow!



Really, don't miss it! December will be gone before we realize, and you'll hate having missed this one!





An interview with Haveit in PrimPerfect