Legal battle over virtual critters in Second Life!

Came across this article via Tweet from @SlashMorgath.

You Can Lead a Virtual Horse to Water, But You Might Get Sued Along the Way

It's timely cuz I recently found out that a longtime friend of mine in Second Life is really, really into Amaretto Ranch Breedables. She did the Ozimals bunnehs for a while (and they are too cute for words) but moved to horses when they came out. I have to say, from seeing them in virtual person, they are very cool. Being ridable makes them even better.

The concept of virtual pets that you have to feed and maintain has been around forever (I have a hamster on my iGoogle page) so I don't see what Ozimals original complaint was all about. Which I guess is the point of Amaretto's countersuit.


Blech.

One pair of shoes, many looks

When I came across this article, I immediately thought how close the concept is to "Second Life".

http://designtaxi.com/news/35250/One-Pair-of-Shoes-Many-Looks/

My guess is that the cost of just the basic foundation is going to be more than buying each as a separate style but it is creative! What next? Color changing prims?

Amazing $1L jewelry!

By now most of you know I'm a big fan of Inga Wind's fashion designs. What I did NOT realize is that her business partner, Derek Sienkiewicz, is a very accomplished jewelry designer. What's even cooler is that most of his work is available at Inga's main store for only $1L per set. Yep, that's $1L for complete matching sets that include earrings and necklace but often go further with bracelets and belly chains.

Look at the details in these two pieces from the Abigail set by ~~DS~~. Not only are the prims perfect, but the heart is point-and-click color change. I like red but blue, green, gold, silver and others are options as well.

There are about 20 different sets available inside the main entrance to Wind on the wall to your left as you walk in. Believe me, they are all as nice as the ones shown above. My only caution is that right now, the sim at Pitreavie is really laggy. So set your draw distance wayyyy down and have patience while things rez -- or find an off-peak hour to visit.

Inga Wind - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pitreavie/195/249/375

Prims and other items lose creator name

A few days ago, one of my old shapes I created from scratch and use constantly suddenly started giving a "Failed to find body part in database" error when I tried to wear it. Fortunately, my backup alt had a copy which I was able to use. HOWEVER, I noticed on both copies in inventory, that the creator was listed as Uknown. Wearing the backup shape (full perms to me), did nothing. Using Imprudence, I should have been able to export it. No luck.

In checking other shapes (most derivative of my original one) ALL of them are now creator unknown. In fact, when I mentioned the issue in the SL Merchants group in-world, several others suddenly found their prims had changed from themselves as creator to Unknown.

As a merchant, this causes several major problems. One, it appears that I really didn't make the items when in fact I did. Two, people who might want to refer a friend to something I created will not have that information in their version of the item, And finally, I cannot export the item using an inventory backup tool (ie. as in Imprudence) because I am no longer the creator.

So, I opened a JIRA on it. Please check your own creations for this glitch and if you find them, let LL know in the JIRA and/or via support ticket.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7123

No pseudonyms in Google+?

Is Google Plus's real name policy a good idea? See what ReadWriteWeb
has to say. http://rww.to/qK27Ru

As someone who would like to use only her Second Life identity with the service, I agree with RWW's take. Lord knows we don't need another Facebook.

Hair Fair -- A Charity Affair

My friend Jim Alphabeta just reminded me that the Second Life Hair Fair is still going on and the proceeds all go to a very worthy cause -- Wigs for Kids -- which provides wigs for children going through chemo and other issues where they lose their precious locks.

In spite of my usual reservations about the lag, Jim says it wasn't bad at all. So here's the linky to the list of exhibitors.

http://fabfree.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/hair-fair-2011/

There are lots of freebies to be found but make sure you buy SOMETHING since the cause really is a good one. Ends on 7/15.