Discussion About The Bright Canopy Viewer

By Bixyl Shuftan

On Saturday September 5, the creators of the Bright Canopy Viewer, designed to bring the Second Life experience to tablets and improve it on older computers like the defunct SL Go service, held a conference in Second Life to discuss recent events and developments. The sim was at an auditorium at a sim named after the product: Bright Canopy. Founder Bill Glover, known in Second Life as Chaos Priestman, did most of the speaking. Those with questions were asked to IM Jerri Glover, who was Bethsael Robbiani (Beth) inworld.

"Hello, and welcome," Chaos greeted the audience, "We're here today (to) talk about this last week and the future of Bright Canopy. We want to answer your questions, but we want to get to everyone, so if you have a question, please IM our Community Coordinator Bethsael Robbiani. We also have some questions sent in by email and we will be answering those too."

"Bright Canopy started a few months ago as a project to help people get the best out of Second Life and Open Sim without having to buy the latest hardware and eventually to be able to use mobile as well. We built a beta and it worked well and there was a lot of interest, so we moved on to pre launch and worked on billing and getting the last bugs ironed out. That also went well, and there was even more interest, so we planned a launch. We did the numbers and with the cost of goods on the back end we had a plan that we believed would break even and even make some money to fund new development and hiring support people."

Chaos described their business model was "Amazon Spot instance prices," and besides the costs of the instances, there was "the waste inherent in swapping people on and off those servers." And unfortunately, the price of the instances spiked starting in the first week of August, "What had been $0.12 was now over $1.00 and sometimes almost $8.00. This broke our business model, but it looked like a temporary spike. We decided to continue with the planned launch, We believed the prices would come back down. In the meantime, we moved to on-demand instances at $0.80 and that allowed us to continue. An $0.80 instance price meant we were losing money on every minute of user activity, but we hoped that usage would even out in such a way that we would lose money slowly enough to maintain our course until we could build out a solution that cost less on the back end. In the meantime we also hoped the spot prices would come back down and give us some relief."

 They launched on August 29, and realized things were not going as planned, "We had a good look at the usage with more people, and it became clear that we could not sustain the losses. Usage was just not the same as we had seen in Pre Release. We expected a difference, but we didn't expect such a huge difference. We agreed to pull the plug and rethink things. Now, as the dust has settled, prices have come back down in California and Virginia, but not in Ireland. And there's no guarantee they will remain low. Also, now that we've seen more of people's usage patterns we know that even the pre launch prices ... won't be profitable. At best we may break-even. It's probably a few months out before we could reduce cost enough (by splitting servers) to make it sustainable."

Chaos went on to say "This has never been about making alot of money. So far, no one but Amazon has made anything at all. Frame has offered a tremendous amount of support because they believe it’s important and could eventually be a sustainable business, and Jerri and I have volunteered our time and invested our savings. We did it because we believed it was important, and we still do." They were working with Frame witha proposal, which would help pay for expenses, "and hopefully for some of Frame's time."

For now, they would "have to back-off from 24/7 support to answers within 24 hours. I know there’s alot of disappointment, and we all share it. We want this to be easier for everyone, but for now, this is just a small flame that we will have to tend carefully if we want to keep it alive."

Chaos then opened the discussions to questions from the audience.

Several people asked, "Doesn't having more users make it cheaper for you?" Chaos answered, "I understand where this is coming from. We often see volume discounts when we buy things and in a sense it's true over the long term. But as I described, that's not the case right now. We actually lose a little money on each user until we have a less expensive way of sharing instances."

"Is there a business model in which a user could buy and pay up front for server time at particular times/days thus getting chaper access to the hardware?" Chaos answered, "That's an interesting idea. To make it work we would have to be able to get that time cheaper ourselves or utilize what we have more efficiently. We can look at that, but I'm not sure I see a way to do it off the top of my head. Thanks for that suggestion. Who was that from? ... Thanks, Lynxx."

"What has the reaction by Linden Lab been to Bright Canopy?" Chaos answered, "Linden Lab has been very supportive."

"Other services like Kitely have found ways to go to a monthly plan, can't you just do what they did?" Chaos respinded, "I want to explain, that running sims requires different sorts of servers. We use servers that have a GPU card, and special support for streaming. That's a relatively rare beast at the moment. But we expect to see other providers stepping up soon, and Amazon is likely to provide more, just based on the demand we've seen. No one has ever pulled this off. We're still hoping to be the first to make this work in a sustainable way."

Beth then spoke up, "We have several of a similar style, so I am going to paraphrase a bit. 'We have questions about the feasibility of using other servers or even our own servers to provide the service at a more affordable rate? Alternatives to the Spot instances and so on.' " Chaos spoke, "There aren't alot of providers what we need right now. There will be in 2016, I would expect. We could begin buying servers and configuring them and over the long term that might be less expensive, but it's a huge upfront capital cost.  We don't have funding for that, but it is a possibility."

"Is Linden Lab offering any support other than advertising the service?" Chaos answered, "They've been open to talk about other support. We haven't talked about anything specific."

"what server used SL GO ?" Chaos informed, "SLGo built out their own servers, originally for another purpose."

"What is the feasibility of a kickstarter for upfront costs for servers, or would it simply be too prohibitive?" Chaos responded, "That's  a topic that has come up a couple of times. It's not out of the question, but there's more than servers. We would want all of the platform that Frame provides, so it would be a discussion about setting up a self-hosted option with Frame I would think."

"Do we have an estimate on when we may be accepting new subscribers? Or are we in a holding/wait pattern." Chaos answered, "Yes, I'd say a holding pattern is the best way to put it. We mentioned that Monday would be the earliest we could come back up, but we are not ready to do that yet. We want to make sure when we do, we have something that will last."

"Also, asking for clarification from 'Other Support' from SL – are we talking financial support? Wouldn’t it be to their financial advantage to build the customer base or are they more into the new platform now?" Chaos spoke, "I can’t speak for Linden Lab. But I can say our core mission is to bring as many people to this and opensim worlds as we can."

"Does LL realize that services like this are the way forward not everyone can afford to upgrade on a regular basis . Soon they will have a platform that is unusable by the majority?" Chaos responded, "I can’t speak for LL, as I said. But I think everyone understands how important this service is. We just have to find a way to offer it that will stand on it’s own two feet."

That was the last of the questions. Several people in the audience thanked Chaos and Beth for their efforts, "We hope you get it there, you all seem like a passionate and great bunch of people, and it's a great idea." "Thanks for the info, good luck ..." "hank you for inviting us." Chaos told the crowd, "Thank you all for coming. ... We will continue to provide updates through our twitter @BrightCanopyApp and through the Bright Canopy group."

For more information, one can check the Bright Canopy Blog, which also published a transcript of the event.  Inara Pey, whom Chaos credited with helping him get the idea to create Bright Canopy, also wrote on the event. New World Notes brought up a Reddit thread which suggested a somewhat mixed reception to Bright Canopy, some users enjoying it, others feeling it could be better.

Bixyl Shuftan

Reflect the Light

By Gemma Cleanslate

When I was visiting Art Farm at LEA, I noticed another region was opening, though maybe still being installed, So I went off to visit it on the next week. "Reflect the Light" is in LEA 18, and I loved it. 

Kiesta Aljon is a real-life photographer and has been making art in Second Life for three years and has created this for the region.  The entrance is through a long hallway with the message “I am not the light or the source of the light But I can reflect the light into the dark hearts of men.“ I then descended a ramp , passing figures that lit the way along a path of the dark Hearts of Man and the reasons .. loneliness and isolation, our personal prisons, loss of faith and hope- the dark night of the soul. 

I arrived at a circle where I picked up an information card that tells you background about the artist’s inspiration for the installation. Four doors that open to the parts of the exhibit, black , blue and red will lead to more levels , each lovelier than the other and then you realize how the dark hearts can become lighter. The black door gives you access to dancing within sparkling art and being part of the works. The blue takes you to beautiful moving art pieces and the third red door lands you at a gallery containing works or real life and Second Life art pieces on the walls. 

There is the last door which is a checkered door that swirls you into a checkered world. The walls and floor are checkered and there are checkered blocks and balls all around the floor that I found I could push.It was fun! Pushing the balls around the floor and away from the walls.  Some balls are floating off into the open sky above, perhaps released from their dark night . 

It is a exhibit you will want to experience so take a trip and reflect your light. One piece that I enjoyed most was the small globes at the entrance to each level on each  side of the door. From the entrance to the checkered room it is all an wonderful experience .You can also pick up a landmark for her sl gallery, Sacred Art and see other works .
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA18/136/53/998

Gemma Cleanslate

The “Wingless” Free Avatars (2009)

The following first appeared in Second Life Newspaper in August 19, 2009

*  *  *  *  *

By Bixyl Shuftan

When I first came to SL, alongside the newbie human avatars as choices for one’s first look was one nonhuman, the old ringtail avatar Luskwood donated to Linden Labs. I did find a few free furred avatars in my newcomer period, but aside from the purple kitty avie, nothing seemed an improvement until I had the cash to buy a better avatar.

 Later, I heard the newbie ringtail had been done away with as an option. So where could a newcomer go to get a furred av, particularly one with a quality look?

It was about that time I found out an answer: the Wingless Avatar package, a collection of quality avatars once sold, now free for the asking.

The Wingless Avatar package is a gift to the residents of SL from the avatar designer Wingless Emoto. He once sold his avatars through a retailer, but a dispute occurred and the business partnership dissolved. Unfortunately for Wingless, the contract signed stated he could not sell the avatars in the deals w ith him through anyone else. So Wingless decided to make them freely available, people able to grab a package at locations, or transferable from person to person. Some carry them not to wear, but to pass to newcomers to SL or those around for a while curious about furry avatars or wanting a different look. Some locations have individual Wingless avatars up for sale for 10L. But this is against the wishes of Wingless.

And the package has an impressive variety of avatars. There are many varieties of both wolf and fox-type avatars, cannids being a popular furred av in SL. There are also a few hyena and horse avs in the package. Rezzing the box on a sandbox and unpacking it, one gets a folder filled with each avatar, boxed. One has to rezz and unpack each avatar.

The avs come in both male and female skins. Highly modifiable, each av offers a choice of either plantigrade (walk on the heel like a normal human foot) or digitgrade (walk on the ball on the foot) lower legs. The latter looks more exotic, though someti ¥mes one can see the shadow of the invisiprims, and long pants worn end up looking cut off with a ring of fabric around the ankles. There is an option for small or large hands/paws. For the wolf avs, A Customization HUD gives you the option of showing canine teeth or not, and choosing the color of eyes, paws, claws, and the inside of ears. Another HUD, “Control,” allows for options for twitching ears, wagging tails, blinking eyes, and blushing.

It should be noted one doesn’t *have* to wear the whole avatar. I have seen some kitsune-style nekos who told me their ears and tails came from Wingless avatar parts. As there are several styles of hair that come with the av, this means a few
free hairpieces. A good place to look if you need one in a hurry upon getting a av with no hair.

The Wingless Avatar Package can be found in some freebie locations, though in any place in SL with some furs, it shouldn’t take long to find someone who has it and get a copy.

A truly great package of free avatars.

* * * * *

Six years later, the Wingless avatars are still around. Despite that they're free, they're not worn as often as before. It seems most residents who prefer a nonhuman look whom get a set of them replace them with a more recent avatar as soon as they have the Lindens. There are also other avatars available as freebies, either legitimately such as the AX avatars at Northstar, or copied without their creators' permission and made available as free packages, such as Avenity.  Still, the avatar does have it's place in Second Life. It comes in a variety of colors that remain unmatched by some other lines of avatar. Plus with some clubs having script limits, some residents will find their favorite avatars will have problems getting them in. But with it's smaller number of scripts, the Wingless will have less trouble doing so. And if one runs across a resident interested in a nonhuman look but doesn't know where to go, one can just hand over a package of Wingless avatars.

*Addition* With the InWorldz grid becoming increasingly popular, a collection of Wingless Avatars was imported there as well. So now the avatars are available now in two grids. 

Bixyl Shuftan

The Art Farm

By Gemma Cleanslate

When I stopped by the LEA welcome center to see if anything new was going on I found a billboard for the ‘Art Farm.’ The name was intriguing so I hopped over to the region to see what it is. I found the sim divided into four areas with eclectic installations in each. I was happy to run into an artist working on her gallery, Elle Thorkveld. She filled me in on what she was doing and gave me information to help me understand the concept of the region. This is a coop art project involving all the group members of the Vaneeessa Blaylock group, (anyone can join) VB Friends. I would call it a work in progress for sure . It will be evolving and changing all the time for the next 6 weeks.

 There are four “lands” in which to play, they say. 

“MUGA - Medici University Gallery of Art - Exhibits & Classes. There are some galleries there to visit with many lovely pieces of art to view. I spent some time going through them . Director - Myra Wildmist and Jade Ravenheart (Cynn Blackrain)

WARD81 -WARD 81 is the studio space for artists with places to hang out / documentary photo Director - Oona Nostra (msbluerasp)

BABEL INFCALYPSE -Babel is the sandbox for all the artists to use and create. Director- Neeva Torok
 
LOW FIDELITY - Low Fidelity is for machinima and virtual performance art. Director - Newton (Lex Perdide)

Ward81 is a tribute to Mary EllenMark who passed away in the spring. and the artists are invited to live or hang out there and create as they wish. You will find tower in Babel and if you are into machinima, or art performances, you might like this area Low Fidelity. In Muga if you like to teach or learn go there. Stop and try the tai chi while you are roaming... very relaxing. For me, it brought back memories of my early days in Second Life when I went to do it at  Hosoi and Apollo. Sigh. I stood and watched Gwynie Beaumont (Gwynach) work for a while with her sculptures in front of her gallery. 

This creative activity rose out of a past work that I somehow missed. I spent some time talking to another artist that I had met in the past at Burn2, Veyot.  She explained it all to me and told me that it came from the Medici University ,  http://mediciuniversity.co.uk/  . This was new to me also , which appears to be an online university for arts and more. Edie1943 made the proposal to Medici University to use the region for this purpose. I found the proposal on the website and you can read it all there.  It all looks like so much fun and sharing for anyone who joins the group. If I could  build I might be tempted . If you can , why not try it all out and see what LEA provides for creative residents. “Come Play!" they say and mean it !Myra Wildmist was also very helpful in sorting me out with the directors names and checking my backstory. Check it out! 

I took a tour of the whole four areas on my segway to see what is there now. Veyot told me that some artists would be creating items short term during the whole exhibit so I plan to go visit often during the next six weeks to see the changes. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA28/108/119/22  is a starting point near the galleries. a good place to begin your tour.

Gemma Cleanslate 

Edit: we goofed and accidentally titled it "Ant Farm" at first. 

Review of PaleoQuest

By Gemma Cleanslate

 The evil Dr Talpa is on the move again to destroy the grid and Magellan Linden needs our help. That is the billing for the new inworld game called "Paleoquest." I enjoyed the Magellan quest a few years ago,  the Linden Realms, the Cornfield, earlier inworld games that I still visit occasionally so was quite interested in trying this one. 

The entrance is at the Portal Park 1 where I ran into a few friends immediately as I landed. Kiera Linden was coming to try it and Marianne McCann and Uccie Poultry, both of whom were there yesterday already. The entrance path, lined with prehistoric ferns and other lush foliage leads to a tall golden entrance where my window donned a hud I and teleported to the visitor center. As I approached I was graced with the voice of Magellan welcoming me with a thank you for coming. There is a background video to bring you up to date on why you are here and a tutorial video for help, and an information card to pick up. And then, you climb the stairs to catch the monorail that circles the entire region with stops at the each quest location. If I waited to write this until I did the whole sim you might never hear from me again! 

Be prepared! There is danger everywhere you go from the volcanoes, falls off the mountain, holes in the rope bridges, and from above the flying dinosaur who is protecting her nests in one of which sits the prize. Any one of the obstacles can kill you! Along the way I collected dinosaur eggs that were added to my hud. None of this is easy and I died and resurrected six times and lost all my eggs !!! 
 
I am sitting at the resurrection platform now to tell you my story.  I thought it would be better if I told you all this now so you can begin your quest if you like! So many dangers and I have so much to do!!! if you see me along the way say hello! I was going to stop there but after I sat for a while I went to bring back the prize and made it. I entered the pyramid, made my way through the dangers and returned the prize to the rightful owner !! I have no eggs but can go back for more later. 

Now I am off to the monorail to get to the second quest which I understand involves toxic water and other goodies .  All these collections involve prizes and Lindens at the payout stations at the visitor center so it is not just for nothing! Read the notecard . 

 I will let you know if I ever complete the game or perhaps if some part of it is so interesting I need to tell you more. Beware! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Portal%20Park%201/136/136/23

Gemma Cleanslate

Two New LEA Exhibitions

By Gemma Cleanslate

Two new exciting installations at the Linden Endowment of the Arts sims.( LEA) drew me over to the region.I was so busy at the Relay last weekend I did not have much time to visit but made time this week to get to both and the time was well worth it. 

 

Cica Ghost has been doing her magic in Second Life since 2010 and is a real life artist from Serbia.I love her art and have wandered through her works at many galleries and previous ones at LEA. 

This one is once again lovely and fun. The land area is worth exploring to see the delightful pieces set among the trees and under a lovely sky, all near the shore of the ocean. But in one area you will find a group of “heads” gazing upward to the sky. They are dreamers. To visit their dreams click a head ( not all of them are dreaming )  and you will be transported into their private dreams and become a part of them by interacting. Roam each area to discover what the dreamer is trying to enjoy. I found some of Cica’s cute representations that I have experienced before but all this is new.  Each one is different and enjoyable. It take more than one trip to experience it fully. Don’t miss it!  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA24/118/3/49

 

 My next visit was to  the installation  of ‘The Egg’ "You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs" = "you can't can't create (or reproduce) without breaking eggs" (either a "great egg" of creation, or to fertilize eggs) -Inara said is the land description. Livio Korobase is the creator of this fascinating exhibit and I think he is still working and adding bits and pieces.

Wander under the scaffolding,visiting the many separate islands here to see pieces on each. There is so much to see do. There are familiar scenes here that need to be coordinated in our minds . Climb the scaffolding and take a look down from above. I enjoyed just walking along the scaffold paths and viewing the islands from a distance. Finally, I entered The Egg itself to realize that all here came from the glowing center.  I remember his other exhibits here that I liked so much too. Again this is not a place to come when you have 5 minutes. It requires time to see and interact with all the parts but don’t miss it! http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA19/110/52/22

 

Both installations will stay in the LEA regions for several months. If you would like to keep up with what is going on these regions visit the website and see how it all works.The regions are always changing throughout the year with new and old Second Life artists building and installing installations . There are other regions under construction and I will be visiting them as time passes. To find out more information visit this  welcome area here . http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA3/128/127/22

 

Gemma Cleanslate 

HuMaNoiD Resurrection

By Gemma Cleanslate

There once was a region that was owned by Dirk Talamesca. Dirk passed away in March of 2014 and the sim was closed . It was a loss not only of the sim. Wendy Xeno had placed her popular installation, HuMaNoiDs, there. Now she has resurrected many of the sim artifacts and scenes in Lea6 that will be open until the end of July.

I have memories of going through the doors and experiencing the fun in the old sim and was happy to see the doors when I arrived. Each door is a transport to a scene but I love the ground level as much as going through the doors so I enjoyed those areas first. I sat and played the cello by the doors and then wandered around the tiny isles .I saw some new additions and missed some that were there before but the Owl was there sitting on his log and next to him the Great Blue Heron. I took a ride on the swing, and climbed into the boat to relax . It was poignant to recall my last visit to HuMaNoiD with my partner. 

Many memories flooded my mind as I wandered. There were empty picture frames leaning against several art pieces on one isle.I wonder of those empty frames would hold photos of rhe parts that are gone.  On another I found a camp with a fire and comfortable lounges . A quaint camping tent with vases and relaxing pillows graced the next isle. The trees and foliage look almost ethereal in the foggy light. The waters between the islands glistened and rippled as I crossed them. Huge surreal insects with gossamer wings stood on long legs in the waters and I sat on one to become part of it.  There were many others visiting while I was there . Etched in the waters by the doors there is the saying “We never touch anyone so lightly that we do not leave a trace.” More memories ....

I opened the doors one by one and visited the scenes on the other side. Each venue is delightful. I will let you see for yourself.   I recommend visiting with a friend or your honey to take part in the interactive  parts of the installation , on the ground and in the lovely scenes. It was a pleasure to revisit HuMaNoiD and I thanks Wendy Xeno for resurrecting it for all or us to experience once again and for those who never has the pleasure before. I will go back to see the lovely sights and experience it once again.  

Here is the entrance near the doors. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA6/59/111/21

Gemma Cleanslate 

*Edited July 4*