Latif Khalifa has passed away

Latif Khalifa

I was just going through my Twitter feed when I came across a tweet I'd missed from Johann Neddings (https://twitter.com/neddings) announcing that Latif had passed away. For those that don't know, Latif was the heart & soul behind LibOpenMetaverse and the lightweight viewer, Radegast. As a long time user and supporter of Radegast as well as someone who sent Latif ideas and suggestions, I am really saddened by this. He was opinionated and direct, but if you made a good case, willing to listen.

Latif wasn't in the best of health, but the last time I exchanged emails with him, he seemed to be a little better.

Here's hoping some of the devs that recently backed up the source to Radegast will carry on.

To Latif's family and friends in real life and Second Life, my deepest sympathies and condolences.

Today is fashion complaint day

I don't usually complain about things in Second Life. I mean I've been in this silly world since 2007 so I've seen it, done it, bought the shoes, etc. However, just recently two designers have really ticked me off. 

Complaint #1 - Karu Karu - Failure to respond

First up is Karu Karu. Now in case you don't know, Karu Karu is mostly a purveyor of latex and fetish clothing. OK, I'm not really into that stuff BUT, I do like catsuits for my occasional ventures into spy girl roleplay or off-the-wall club contests and the like. Karu Karu makes some fairly nice applier outfits that work well with my Maitreya Lara body. I own maybe 6 or 7 of their outfits.

So I saw a group notice from Karu Karu for a $99L 3-pack ("Popular Pack") of catsuits that I thought would be perfect for my spy girl look! I went to the store, saw the outfit on the wall as a promotion, clicked buy and whoops! It charged me $399L, not $99L. Ick. OK I realized I wasn't wearing my group tag and maybe that did it.

So I immediately sent the creator, Chane Karu, an IM. I asked what happened, could I possibly get a refund on the balance or at least a store credit. 3 days go by and no reply. OK, so I send another IM and I send a very nicely worded notecard since I know store owners often get blasted on IMs.

5 days go by and still no reply. OK, I've designed clothes, owned a store, I still do. I answer all my customer inquiries even if I have to give them bad news (which I rarely do). And I know Chane has been online because I am in her group ya know. But sadly now, not for long.

Vendome by Hypnose

Complaint #2 - Hypnose - Bad Demo 

I've NEVER had a mesh demo outfit crash my viewer and completely blow me out to Windows. But the "Vendome" Maitreya demo from Hypnose did exactly that. I put it on and my usually reliable viewer (Cool VL Viewer) simply disappears and I'm looking at my Windows desktop.

So, after saying WTF to myself, I log back in, put the demo back on and five minutes later, I'm in public naked. WTF seriously? I put it back on and it now it just poofs off immediately. I suspect both the crash and the auto-poofing are due to some sort of auto-detach script in the demo. That is just oh so very uncool to do. No warning, no notecard that says it will happen, the dress just poofs off.

Once it poofs, you can't wear it again. So if I wanted to take some time to adjust my shape to tweak the fit and see how it really works, no chance. It's gone. I'm sorry Hypnose, but five minutes is just about long enough for me to answer an IM and maybe change shoes. It's not long enough for me to see if I really want to buy your st00pid dress based on your st00pid auto-poofing demo. I would much rather wear a "DEMO" sign over my head or deal with DEMO across the textures than this idiocy. "Warning, dress falls off in 5 minutes. Prepare to be nakey."

Finally, for $399, I expect a mesh dress to be rigged. But Vendome is not so your legs just walk right through it when you move. That looks horrible with this style. So at least I got to wear the demo on long enough to know that I wouldn't buy it anyway due to that.

OK that's the end of my whining for the day.

Midnight Madness Find from Salt & Pepper

I haven't been out on a Midnight Madness event in like forever so when my friend (and queen of our Tiny Empires realm, Hirilorn), Aabbi Rhode, mentioned that she was staying up late for a MM freebie event, I thought hmmmmmm. She almost NEVER stays up late so they must have some good stuff.

After looking at the previews, I immediately totally wanted a particular mesh outfit from Salt & Pepper and WTG me! I scored both the "Midnight" and "Dawn" versions of Audrey!

So here's the "Dawn" color way on my Maitreya Lara body. Audrey sort of has a bit of a 1930's feel to it and evokes a sparkly, sequined look which is hard to do in Second Life due to all the texture stretching that goes on.

This is all one mesh (no separate top/bottom) and the Maitreya version does the auto-alpha thing appropriately. No random spots showing through.

Excellence in a freebie and well worth staying up past my bedtime too! I got a few other goodies too that I'll try to post when I get the time.

While Midnight Madness is over, here's the SLURL to Salt & Pepper's store:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sand%20Dunes/106/188/24

Amazing heels from KC & retro-cuteness from PIXY

It's been awhile since I've had the chance to blog. Did you miss me? Probably not but oh well. Here goes today's finds.

First up are Boston Heels from -KC- Couture. I can't stress how freaking AMAZING these look. Even up close they look completely realistic have that "wow" factor that leaves me almost speechless! Shown here with Maitreya Lara high feet & Lumae Amelia skin. I really tried with local lighting in SL to capture how these really look. No photoshopping here.

The incredible thing is that KC offered these up on the SL Marketplace for only $79L. I have no idea what the price will be afterwards but I snapped them up the moment I saw the photo. These come in versions for SLINK, Belleza, TMP, Maitreya and Eve and they are HUD driven so you can change strap, base & other colors.

Here's the linkie to Boston Heels on SLM. Only 100 pairs will be available here so when they are gone, they go to full price.

Next up on the list is Forever Yours from PIXY. It's a cute semi-retro look dress that comes in 10 color ways. I say semi-retro because the bottoms of your girls do show a bit. Shown here is Pink Kitten. Available as system outfit with mesh panel and as Omega and TMP appliers.

The full fat pack is $599 while each color is $99L. Available for a limited time at Bewbalapooza.

SLURL to KC inworld.

SLURL to PIXY inworld.

Chrome re-bar stilettos

I don't know what to make of these. I was shopping at Tres Chic today and saw these for sale. Stiletto sandals with chrome re-bar looking heels and puff-balls over the arch. Hmmmmm. Not my style. Maybe for a fashion show at your local construction site? Doesn't say what sort of feet they fit but a demo is available. The photo is taken from the display picture.

SuperModel Kendel from BSD DesignStudio. $288L.

SLURL to venue: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Frederika/67/65/2502

"Skinclinging" dress for mesh bodies from Vale Koer

Hello again! It's been over a month since my last bloggie (I've been super busy in RL) so I finally sat my tush down to write this one.

First, "Skinclinging" really is the name of this dress from Vale Koer (or is it VALEKOER?). Awkward to say but the dress is not awkward in the least. In fact, it is amazing and my photo doesn't do it justice. It's 100% glam with just the right touch of slutty. Perfect for wearing to the Grammy's! (Anyone have an invite? I'll cling to you.)

Skinclinging dress from VALE KOER

I first heard about the dress via the Maitreya Lara Friends group in SL. There was lots of buzz about it since it was being featured at Kustom9 for only $249L. Naturally I had to check it out since I love a bargain. Since K9 is usually packed, you can either shop off-hours or you can TP to TMD (The Men's Department) in the next sim over and shop using your camera (constraints off).

And OMG, Skinclinging is exactly how mesh on mesh should look. Folds are really folds and not just painted on and everything form fits right down to your last little or big curve. Yes it still has that elastic look when you move but unless dresses and SL get sophisticated enough to constrain your movement to the dress shell, that will never change.

I picked out the yellow/gold color but it also comes in several others including black, red, blue & dark pink. You get three forms, one for Maitreya Lara, one for Slink Physique and one for Slink Hourglass. I have the Lara mesh so that's what you're seeing here. There is a HUD included that lets you change the base texture for the dress to include a more heavily folded look as well as a polkadot version. The HUD also lets you turn various parts of the dress off & on but I'm not sure why you would do this.

You may have to create your own alpha in the Lara HUD (don't know about the Slink versions) from below the breasts to about the knee since there is some bleed through. But other than that, this really is a wonderful outfit.

Complete outfit as shown features skin by Aeva / Amelia - Tone 4 - Summer Days, Anasazi heels from DV8, Svety hair by Damselfly, jewelry by Milady and Bijoux Or plus my own very custom shape. Lara mesh body of course by Maitreya.

SLURL to Kustom9: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/kustom9/115/62/23

New Linden Lab Terms of Service for Second Life

Well in case you haven't logged in lately, you'll be greeted with a new Terms of Service for Second Life today. Here's the summary from the top:

Linden Lab’s Terms of Service were updated on December 1, 2015 to:

• remove outdated references to Desura and Authorized Resellers;
• explicitly address our intolerance of harassment of Linden Lab employees; and
• clarify the arbitration provision in accordance with applicable law.

The part that causes me no end of giggles is "intolerance of harassment of Linden Lab employees." I'm thinking to myself, well if only you ran a better show and fixed things that are broken, maybe you wouldn't get "harassed" (whatever that even means).

I mean seriously, maybe a few Lab employees should try working for a cable company in phone support for a day or two. Or dare I say try being a woman in a totally male dominated workplace. THEN you'd know what real harassment is like. Seriously, that line just comes across as whiny and overly sensitive. You're in a customer facing business. Deal with it. Grrrr.

Link to full TOS here: http://www.lindenlab.com/tos