A Second Life Shopping Spree

Maker's package

I needed a break in RL so I jumped onto Second Life and decided to what any fashion grrl would do. I went shopping!! My first stop was at a new shop called Ella Onda Fashion. I was "suckered" in with a notice from one of the SL fashion groups I belong to. It promised new designs and the prices were pretty low (about $60 - $90L). So off I went.

I looked carefully at the package photos but couldn't tell much from them since the sizes were all fairly small and the resolution seemed like it was at 256x256 or something. I finally found an outfit that looked  cute and bought it for $99 (see Gina at right)

What a disappointment! While the texturing was OK in most places, the straps and side panels looked very painted on. Plus the outfit (in two colors black & red) was only supplied on pants/jacket layer with very simple and not quite matching miniskirt prim inserts for the crotch area. Blah. (Thanks to Lalo Telling for pointing out, obliquely, that I really needed my own photo of the outfit to show the problems. Click on any of the images to see in original size.)

Close-up of Gina Outfit

In looking at their other items, I recognized a few template store-in-a-box type outfits including a retextured version of those tired old lace up booty shorts. Feh! What can you say -- the price is right. Sort of.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Tuscarora/77/139/23 <-- Ella Onda if you dare

Bare Rose - Quality at a Great Price

Now I was in need of a real fashion fix. Feeling a bit frisky, I decided to head for Bare Rose having not visited there for at least 6 months. And OMG, I went crazy and bought 5 outfits including a very wild one I didn't really pay close attention to. More on that in a sec...

For the price, I don't think anyone can touch Bare Rose for quality, style and a totally unique look.

TongPu in Pink (at left) is total Japanese Kawaii-style (cuteness) at its best. I am a sucker for pink (Hello Kitty) and this outfit about made me wet myself! The texturing is phenomenal, the prim parts fit and match perfectly AND it comes in red along with the pink in the box!!! The hair poofies are to die for and the upright collar ads a touch of aggressiveness than goes beyond simply cute.

All for only $160L. (The shoes are color-changing platforms from HOC.)

So, this just puts that $99L outfit all to shame doesn't it?

Now continuing on with my B@R spree, here's the funny one.

Another pink outfit caught my eye and without batting a virtual lash, I bought it. Only when I tried it on at home did I realise it was a bit more risque than my usual fare.

It's called Deka Ribbon and it's supplied in black and pink. Naturally, I'm showing you the pink. And you'll notice I'm wearing the strategic nipple covers because I'm usually a very modest kitty and this outfit is really designed to be worn bare breasted. :P

Hopefully I'll find a matching lace bra or something for it but for now, what you see is what you get.

Bare Rose really has a way with unique prims. From the hair flirts to the ribbons, collar and cuffs, it all makes for one very smashing outfit. Price is, once again, only $160L and includes both pink and black versions.

When I get time, I'll post up the other outfits I bought.

In the meantime, if you haven't visited for awhile, stop by Bare Rose!

Bare Rose Tokyo -- Bare Rose

New Dresses from Inga Wind - Keisy

Inga Wind has just released her Keisy complete outfit in 4 new colors -- blue, silver, sand and my fave color PINK!!! Yay!!! What I really like about Keisy is that even though there is a lace texture layer on top and bottom of the skirt & dress prims, they don't compete with the main prims for attention in SL.

You really have to see this outfit in-world to appreciate the details. It's an embroidery festival! And did I mention I love pink??

Keisy comes with both cocktail and formal lengths as shown plus basic matching heels and a cute little hairpiece. Price is normally $1250L but Inga's group member price is $650L.

Hair is Pya by Damselfly, skin and shape are by me. :)

Inga Wind Clothing SLURL

The Redzone Saga

For the past month, like the guy in the Geico commercial, I've lived under a rock -- at least as far as Second LIfe is concerned. I won't bore you with all the reasons but it's mostly due to my interests in Second Life shifting from content creation to just enjoying and being with friends. It's also because I'm more caught up in real life (as we all should be).

Anyway, today when I logged in, several of the merchant and fashion groups were literally buzzing with chatter around "Redzone" and the banning of it and its creator, zFire Xue (and his alt TheBoris Gothly)
from Second Life. Normally these groups are slow (ok they're dead Jim), but today it was like a non-stop stream of consciousness flow. Yikes!

I've been marginally aware that Redzone is/was a product supposedly designed to prevent copybotting and that many merchants in SL used it or CDS to patrol their stores. But as I started reading the group chatter, the terms "password theft", alt exposure, privacy violations, etc. kept showing up and it all started sounding very spooky.

Being a curious kitty, I did a little research. All I can say is OMG! It's like a geek version of the Sopranos.

It turns out Redzone was probably little more than an elaborate scheme to facilitate password theft, griefing, alt exposure (and maybe blackmail), credit card theft and data mining. According to several blogs and forums, zFire Xue is a convicted felon in real life.

Today, after being presented with all the evidence by a very activist anti-Redzone crowd, Soft Linden and Linden Labs stepped in with a modified Terms of Service to make sharing alt information without consent a violation, banned zFire and his products, and shut down the sim they were on.

Sadly, as Theia Magic points out in her blog, this won't end the problem because the very thing that makes programs like Redzone work exploits flaws in how Second Life handles streaming media and audio. Those flaws aren't likely to be fixed any time soon meaning anyone with mad skillz can make their own Redzone. Plus, the idea that copybotting can be solved through the methods supposedly used by Redzone and others is just silly. Anything that must be rendered on the local PC can be captured and copied. Deal with it.

Anyway, it all makes for interesting and distracting reading. For an incredibly detailed summary of issues, events and stuff, read the SLUniverse summary thread here. It will turn your brain into cottage cheese.