SecondLife - How To Make Money In Second Life

Filed under: News, Updates

Linden Lab have just run a rolling restart fixing a number of bugs and glitches. The restart commenced at 10:55am SLT (US Pacific) and ran to 1:30pm. This bundle fixes quite a few general irritants that have been affecting users in the last little while. Here’s the list of changes/fixes that were provided:

• VWR-796: llStopSound() not working
• SVC-21: Request for making identification of llOwnerSay messages possible
• VWR-1101: Active Gestures > New button doesn’t auto-open gesture
• Estate owners can now postpone a rolling restart for an hour
• SVC-242: Copyable objects are not appearing in inventory after being taken, are remaining, invisible, in world
• SVC-52: UTF-8 characters read from notecards are lost
• SVC-248: Viewer crash: Server sends malformed DeRezAck Packet (see VWR-176)
• A few simulator crash fixes

Fingers crossed that the grid continues to run smoothly through the afternoon.

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Filed under: News, Linden Lab

The Linden Lab Land and Concierge staff have announced the opening of their new office inworld. They hasten to point out that it is not for support, but within a half hour of the announcement, the island was already busy with curious onlookers, some of whom were hoping to get a hold of a Linden Lab staffer. Within 45 minutes, at least one Resident was asking Jack Linden land support questions. I fielded a few of the more technical questions for Jack, but the place is getting busier and busier.

It will be interesting to see how this works out for the Concierge/Land Team, whether this ends up providing a useful resource for Lindens and Residents, or if it’s a place the Linden team will want to avoid.

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Filed under: Stories, Linden Lab

A number of Second Lifers have been getting emails that purport to be from Linden Lab (one is reproduced below the fold). They may well be (and I believe they are) official Linden Lab communications, but a lot of folks believe that they are scam or phishing emails for several reasons.

First, the emails come from vresp.com, whom many users will not have heard of. The vresp.com website is very simple and resembles the websites used by some unsolicited or phishing emails. When you attempt to access more information on their policies, non-javascript users (that’s all of you who are practising safe-surfing) will get a File Not Found error. If you were to look around the Second Life or Linden Lab websites, you wouldn’t find anything stating that official Linden Lab communications might come via vresp.com.

Second, there are minor discrepancies. Users are being asked to select the “upgrade payment method” link; the actual link is “update payment method” … sure it’s a small thing, but that’s the sort of thing that sets of people’s fraud detectors.

Third, these are being received by people with free accounts, and threatening termination of the account if sums due are not paid.

Fourth, the receiver can opt out! The email says you’re an opt-in subscriber, which (obviously) you aren’t. One little click and all of these official communications theoretically cease to exist.

Below is one of the emails being sent:

From: Linden Lab <Linden_Lab@mail.vresp.com>
Subject: Important Billing Update from Linden Lab
To: [elided]

An upgrade of our billing system recently revealed minor discrepancies
in your billing information. To get everyone back on track we are
asking that you update your payment method via the website as soon as
possible. If you have a balance due it will be billed to your account
within 24 hours of your update. If you do not update your information
and you have a balance due when we bill, your account will go
delinquent. As always with delinquencies, you will then have 7 days to
pay your balance. After 7 days the account will go on hold and you
will not be able to login without clearing your balance. After 30 days
your account will go defunct and you will lose any inventory, land and
L$ associated with the account.
To upgrade your payment information:
1) Go to secondlife dot com
2) Login to your account
3) Click upgrade payment method
4) Upgrade with either credit card or Paypal, your choice
5) Follow instructions
6) You’re done!

If you have any questions regarding your account status, or have
difficulty making changes to your account, please contact billing
through the support portal:
[A link to the VRESP.COM website]

Thank you!
Linden Lab

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this
message with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line or simply click on the
following link:
[A link to the VRESP.COM website]

This message was sent by Linden Lab
LindenLab
1100 Sansome Street
San Francisco, California 94111

Most Second Life users would be forgiven for consigning these straight to the spam folder. In fact many apparently are caught and junked automatically.

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Filed under: Shopping, Linden Lab, Mixed Reality

As a fan of trinkets and memorabilia, I was thrilled when I saw someone wearing a pewter pendant of the Second Life logo. According to lore, LL hands these out to their new employees, as well as special visitors to the Lab, such as Views attendees. They’re worn out in just the right places, with a string I can only describe as possibly plastic looped through it. They seem to carry a special meaning for their owners.

That’s why I’m a little put off by First Bling and their replicas of this necklace. I’m sure it will be wildly popular among the SL crowd, but it just doesn’t have that old feel to me. They’re shiny and new, like many of the residents. I once saw someone trying to hawk their necklace on a website for 80 USD, and wondered how it could possibly sell, because it mostly holds priceless sentimental value.

What can you get for your money there? For $25, you’ll get a sterling silver pendant that appears to be the size of the LL version. If you want the larger one, it’ll be $35. Not a fan of sterling silver? For $135, or $220, you’ll get a large or small gold, or white gold pendant. That’s not L, folks.

Read on to find out about their shipping and payment policies …

If you’ve gotten this far, you might be interested in purchasing one of these bad boys. You’d better order now, though, because IF the item is in stock, it takes 7-10 days to process. If it’s not in stock, well, it could take 15 days ON TOP of the 7-10. After that, you’ll have to wait 7 business days to receive it. With SLCC just around the corner, you’d have to order as soon as possible in hopes of getting it in time.

At this time, they’re only shipping to customers in the United States. With Americans being the minority in Second Life these days, they are losing out on a lot of potential business from overseas residents. They do offer an email address to inquire about overseas orders, though.

Thinking about paying for your purchase in Lindens? They don’t accept them! They do, however, accept all major credit cards. The Style & News page shows an avatar wearing a set of chains, but it looks like the real thing photoshopped on. Are they even IN Second Life? Surely they would accept L if they were, seeing how it’s the universal currency among all the residents.

Furthermore, according to the Contact page, which appears to house the FAQ, they suggest you send in a picture of your avatar wearing the pendant. However, I do not see where they offer a location to buy the jewelry in-world. Are they hinting that you should photoshop the necklace on your avatar? What gives?

On the About page, the creator tells of how they met Philip Rosedale at a media business conference. They’d always been a fan of talismans, therefore they were intrigued by the logo. They never once state that they are a resident of Second Life. The author merely notes that they had the idea to bring the logo to the real world, where they could let others know they are part of a “secret society” as they call it. According to them, Philip, Jeska, and Catherine Linden even support the project!

Do any of you have an original pewter pendant? How do you feel about the knockoffs? Leave a comment and let us know!

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