Just for something different, some residents are experiencing login issues again. As mentioned on the weekend, we can only hope this constant problem gets better.
It could be a special Xmas present from Linden Lab.
Popularity: 4% [?]
A horror week for stability
November 18, 2007 By
The latest blog post by Linden Lab tops off a horror week for Second Life stability. Combine that with the ever-present lag and usability remains the chestnut issue for Second Life.
If the rumours are true about Australian-based SL servers finally arriving, then part of the significant frustration with the Second Life experience will be remedied. The roll-out of improved broadband in Australia is likely to occur no matter who wins next week’s election, but it’s still a while off. None of it will remediate the enormous logistical task of keeping a virtual world running across thousands of servers – that’s something that can at best be minimised as a performance issue.
We’d be interested in your experiences with lag – has it been around the same for you, better or worse?
Popularity: 4% [?]
New search functionality has promise
October 30, 2007 By
I’m encouraged by the work being done on an improved search interface in Second Life.
I’ve always believed one of the biggest causes of users giving up on SL is the hassle in finding anything in-world. Between Linden’s work and the ever-growing list of third-party SL viewers, there’s a chance SL may be user-friendly. I kid you not.
Are there additions to the search functionality you’d like to see?
Popularity: 11% [?]
Aussie population update – 15K and rising
August 31, 2007 By
Linden Lab have released the metrics for July 2007 and the rate of growth is slow but steady.
The active Australian population is cited as 14,832, up from the 12,910 reported last month. Australia is back to 11th place overall.
One of the interesting new metrics released was number of SL sessions that ended abnormally i.e. crashes. Since January 2007, around a quarter of sessions ended in a crash. That’s an astounding level – imagine any established software vendor trying to sell a product that only works correctly three out of four times. That said, it illustrates just how committed Linden Lab are to transaparency that they even publish figures showing their key weaknesses.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Linden Lab CEO: ‘We’ve got to increase the quality’
August 26, 2007 By
Reuters have published an interview with Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale from this weekend’s SLCC. Most of the interview is fairly predictable but it’s encouraging to see the acknowledgement of quality as the key driver into the future:
“We’re at a place where we’ve demonstrated that the virtual world can exist. Now we need to make it high quality so it does continuously support the activities and desires of the people who are using it. That’s what we’ve learned by listening for the last couple of quarters. We’ve got to increase the quality.”
Of course, I’d deluded myself that some mention may be made of further internationalisation of the servers but the only allusion to that came from Rosedale’s thoughts on open-sourcing:
“If you’re an entrepreneur, wanting to enter the virtual world and sell stuff to people, you’re going to want to find the largest possible audience. So you’ll be strongly drawn to set up your shop on the system with the largest number of people using it. There will be a tremendous desire by people to link those servers together and be on our network so they can have access to the largest base of people.”
Finally, on the legal issues around ageplay and gambling, he summarised Linden Lab’s intent to tie restrictions to avatars through verification of that avatar’s RL location. That seems the most sensible way of not forcing the whole grid into a universal lockdown in a range of sensitive areas.
If Linden Lab are planning some incredible revolutionary step in SL’s development, it’s certainly not apparent in Philip Rosedale’s thoughts. What would you have liked to have seen asked of him in the interview?
Popularity: 9% [?]
Ongoing grid issues – how geography bites
August 12, 2007 By
The explanation by Linden Lab of ongoing grid stability this week is fairly technical but it once again illustrates the significant technical hurdles Second Life has to jump over just to function normally. Add to that the geographical distance and sub-par broadband in Australia and it’s not hard to see why we’re a frustrated bunch at times.
At a forum in May this year, we were told international servers would occur “real soon now” by expatriate Linden, Chris Collins. Here’s hoping “soon” involves the year 2007 – as voice in SL increases in popularity, the issues are only likely to exacerbate.
How have you found stability over recent weeks – worse or about the same?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Griefers cause of grid problems?
July 30, 2007 By
Fellow Aussie SL blogger Tateru Nino is alleging that foul play is behind the past few days’ glitchiness in SL.
Whatever it is, it’s intermittent and causing a lot of frustration. I attempted twice over the weekend to complete a full lap on the Relay for Life and both times my browser crashed. Has your time in SL been affected by the glitches?
Popularity: 7% [?]
Recent Discussion