Tag Archives: Linden Lab

Snowball Warzone Showdown 2015!

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Snowball Warzone Showdown THe 2015 Snowball Warzone Showdown is happening this Friday, February 6th from 10:00 a.m. SLT to Noon SLT.

I just heard about this today and thought it would be worth posting, in case some of you can make it, despite the late notice. Unfortunately, I cannot attend because I am at RL work at that time. Should be a blast! Click on this link for the Facebook Page: Snowball Warzone Showdown.

“Come pelt some Lindens and fellow Residents with snowballs in a frozen field free-for-all at Winter Wonderland. That’s right – between 10 AM SLT and noon SLT on Friday, February 6th, we’re holding a meetup inworld at the Snowball Warzone. Get your free snow launching weapon, gather your posse, and prepare to say hello to some Linden friends for a full on flurry of snow-slinging fun.”

Click here for the SLURL: Winter Wonderland, home of Snowball Warzone Showdown!

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media

Captain Oculus Tests Oculus Rift in Second Life

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As Oculus Rift continues to grow and develop, it is interesting to hear about experiences people are having with it in Second Life. Kate Bergdorf, who has a blog called “The Bergdorf Reports” recently had a fascinating guest blogger who posted about his experiences with Oculus Rift in SL.

Recently, Kate bumped into a noob named Captain Oculus, and ended up having a discussion with him about Oculus Rift. Captain Oculus commented to Kate that he had just about run out of places to visit to test Oculus Rift. Kate gave him a list of places, and he agreed to do a post about it for her blog.

As Captain Oculus states in his opening paragraph, “My Second Life name is Captain Oculus and I am a Software Developer who spends free time in Second Life with the Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 (DK2). I am not affiliated with Oculus, Facebook, or Linden Labs in any way, and merely provide a third party opinion about various things in the virtual reality.”

Since Captain Oculus apparently has no agenda to promote, his observations and experiences can presume to be unbiased as far as a corporate affiliation. Obviously no one is completely unbiased; we all come to the table with our own life experiences and thoughts and feelings, but Captain Oculus does an excellent job. He writes about his own personal experiences in SL using Oculus Rift, and he describes his experiences in depth and detail. It is well worth the read to learn more about Oculus Rift and this fascinating way of interacting with a virtual world.

His post can be found by clicking this link: The Experience of Oculus Rift.

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Social Media

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About ZoHa Islands, But Were Afraid to Ask

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Did you know . . .

• There are two places to pay your tier.
1) ZoHa Islands Main Office: SLURL: ZoHa Islands Main Office
2) ZoHa Islands Sales Office in the Business District: SLURL: Business District Office

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• ZoHa Islands is an Authorized Linden Dollar Reseller. You can buy Linden Dollars from ZoHa Islands in a safe way. You can use PayPal, or you can use most debit and credit cards, such as VISA, American Express, MasterCard, Discover, etc. If you are not in the US, there may be other payment options such as bank transfers. Payments can be done with USD, EURO, AUD, CAD, CHF, GBP & JPY. The steps for buying lindens can be found here by clicking on this link: ZoHa Islands: Buy Linden Dollars

• Help and support at ZoHa Islands is only a click away. The best and fastest way to get immediate help is to open the group chat for ZoHa Islands residents and ask for assistance. One of our friendly sales associates or estate managers will respond quickly. Generally we have coverage 24 hours a day, so someone should be available to answer your questions or help with a problem. You can also go to our main sales office (slurl: ZoHa Islands Sales Office) and see who is online, and hit their board. Additionally, we have a support ticket system on our website. You can find it by clicking on this link: Zoha Islands – Request Form.

• You can upgrade or downgrade your land at any time by simply using one of the methods above to ask for help and one of our friendly sales agents will be happy to help you with that. An “upgrade” simply means that you are moving to a larger parcel than the one you are currently renting. A “downgrade” is simply moving from a parcel smaller than the one you’re currently renting. In addition, if you wanted to rent an additional sim or parcel in addition to what you are currently renting, of course we would be happy to assist with that, as well. Don’t forget, if you’re thinking about starting a business in SL, or you currently have one and are looking for some great space, ZoHa Islands offers a multi-sim business district at reasonable prices. You can find out more by going to our Business District Sales Office (SLURL: Business District Office). Our business district offers many perks to business owners. Please contact Deelish Wishbringer, Commercial Manager, for more information.

• Raw Terrain Files: If you rent a full sim (full prim or homestead) you can request that a raw terrain file be uploaded to your sim. Please contact one of our friendly Estate Managers for assistance. You can see the raw terrain files that we offer at our main office here: SLURL: ZoHa Islands Main Office

• ZoHa Islands has a sandbox available for residents and their friends to use. This sandbox can be accessed only with a ZI Sandbox group tag. Please ask for an invitation by asking for help in ZoHa Islands group chat. This is a great sandbox for building, as it is quiet and lag-free. It is cleaned regularly, has lots of space for your builds. You are welcome to leave your build out while in progress. Just realize that notifications of a sandbox wipe go out in group chat, so please save your builds regularly in case a wipe happens while you’re offline. The SLURL to the Sandbox is found by clicking here: ZoHa Islands Sandbox

I hope you find this information helpful and makes your experience at ZoHa Islands smooth and carefree. We strive to ensure that residents’ needs are handled as quickly and courteously as possible. Just remember that yelling at our staff does not make things happen faster. We realize that things get frustrating really quickly, so if everyone remains calm, we hope to resolve any issues as quickly and quietly as possible.

If for some reason you decide to leave us, we would appreciate your comments and feedback as to the reasons why you are leaving. Was something not to your satisfaction? How could we have helped you better? Would you recommend us to your friends? If you are leaving SL completely for awhile, would you consider returning to ZoHa Islands when you come back? This is helps ZoHa Islands management with quality control, as we strive to be the best SL has to offer in the real estate business. We would very much appreciate it if you would be willing to share this information with us before you go.

Late rents: If you are going to be late on your rent, please contact a member of our team immediately. We want to work with you and make arrangements to help you get caught up. We understand that sometimes issues come up. We are willing to help as much as we can, within reason. Keep in mind, ZoHa Islands is a business and we have tier due to Linden Lab, as well. But we are not all about that, we are also a community!

And last but not least, thank you! Without our residents, ZoHa Islands would not exist. We wanted to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for trusting ZoHa Islands with your Second Life land and business needs.

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZoHa Islands Social Media Manager

Update: AMD/ATI Graphics Card Fix for Firestorm Users

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A quick update for Firestorm Users. Firestorm’s staff have posted in their Wiki their recommendation on how to fix the various issues caused by driver updates for those graphics cards. If you have an AMD/ATI graphics card then you may need to do these steps (ATI drivers don’t seem to support OpenGL graphics very well, and SL viewers use OpenGL, as opposed to DirectX). Residents are reporting issues such as rigged mesh not showing up, the world is pink, everything goes black, repeated crashing, etc.

If you are a Firestorm viewer user and are experiencing these issues, please take a look at the following article (this is a clickable link to the Firestorm Wiki): AMD/ATI Worn Rigged Mesh Goes Invisible.

I hope you are finding these tips helpful!

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media

PUPs Aren’t Always Cute

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Computer virusThere is a great article on Ask Bob Rankin’s blog (that’s a clickable link there) about unwanted software that is installed on your computer. Bob Rankin describes it as “‘PUP’ [Potentially Unwanted Program] means malware; it’s software that I never wanted, didn’t deliberately install, and that makes my life more difficult.”

Bob goes on to say, “The consensus among definitions of ‘PUPs’ is that they sneak into your system; they ride on the coattails of legitimate programs, or pretend to be something they are not, or don’t fully disclose some of the things they’re going to do. Dirty-underhandedness is the hallmark of a PUP. There is no “potential” about its undesirability; I don’t want sneaky software on my machine, period.”

Apparently political correctness has extended into the software developer world, as Bob mentions that the term PUP, or Potentially Unwanted Program was invented to avoid offending their creators. Bob states that its true name is “malware” — which by definition is a term for “malicious software,” and which refers to software programs designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. While not all PUPs are developed for malicious purposes, they are often there to perform unwanted, even if benign, actions on your computer.

This makes me think of when I do updates for Adobe Flash Player or other such programs on my computer. I tend to click quickly through all the “do you agree”s in order to just get it done, but the Adobe Flash Player surreptitiously has the box pre-checked for “Yes I want to download and install this MacAfee Security Plus program” and if you click too fast, you’ll get that program installed on your computer. I think that the PUPs that Bob is referring to in this article are more insidious than that, but it is a program that is unwanted by me, which I then immediately delete. Caveat emptor when downloading updates.

In this lengthy but well worth reading article, Bob talks about PUPs, their purpose and how to avoid these relatively harmless but annoying software being downloaded onto your computer, and how to get rid of them if they are there.

You can find the article in full, click on this link: Alert: Potentially Unwanted Software

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media

“Phaze”ing Out of Second Life

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Phaze_011One thing you quickly learn about Second Life, is that nothing is forever. Our favorite stores, designers or builders come and go, leaving behind heartbroken residents. Running a business in Second Life is expensive and time consuming, not to mention the hassles and grief you get from disgruntled, drama-prone customers. Creating can be rewarding and fulfilling, but not always easy.

One such business that is moving away from Second Life is Phaze Demesnes, a unique collection of creations that include amazing flocks of low-lag birds, the owl that hunts rabbits; untold numbers of dragons, horses, and unicorns; the unusual avatars like goats, elephants, and a tiny dragon; and all the geeky toys like the Einstein Eye that watches avatars; not to mention the masterwork, the Universal Translator that works in SL in any language, and so forth.

Phaze_001A sad story with a silver lining during the Second Life holidays this year: even though the Phaze Demesnes sim is closing down at the end of the year, its creators, Fred Beckhusen (Ferd Frederix) and Debbie Edwards (Wavingirlsav Voom) are giving away all their creations free at Phaze inworld in Second Life through the end of the year. (The orange words are a clickable link to the inworld location.)

Phaze has been in Second Life for 5 years and was featured in the Destination Guide with this description: Phaze is a magic land of water, dragons, fairies, demons, unicorns and robots. Follow the paths that lead to dozens of quiet, romantic spots in a colorful and relaxing landscape. Find the dragons to ride and the demons to fight in the arena. Chat with the animated talking trees, statues and paintings.”

However, Phaze is not disappearing completely. Ferd and Wavy are taking their generosity, humor, and creativity into their own grid Outworldz, an opensim, at the end of the year.

Phaze_010You can contact Fred and Debbie through their website for directions how to get there. You can also keep up on Phase Demesnes’ future on its Google Plus page. as well as @Ferd_Frederix on Twitter, Fred Beckhusen on Facebook, and Fred Beckhusen on YouTube.

(Credit: Second Living: Baysweetwater @ Home blog for information in this article)

Please keep in mind that anything in orange is a clickable link!

Hurry, before the end of the year! You only have a few days left before Phaze is . . . well . . . Phazed out.

I remain respectfully yours,
~ Suzanne Piers, ZI Social Media