The title of this entry looks more hostile than this post is meant to be, so before I begin let me just get that out of the way. It's meant to convey what something actually is, and really, there's no "diplomatic" way to describe it without offending. In that way it's a lot like describing certain politicians and political movements. Some people get upset when you call something what it is, and more because the notion that what you're describing really is exactly what you call it is just too disturbing to contemplate.
But I digress. Recently someone I respect posted a blog entry complaining about another group doing a tribute event in memory of a particular person who passed away from cancer. Because this person I respect considers the other group as rivals, he thinks it's in poor taste and was a deliberate attempt to use a dead person in order to steal traffic away from another club.
The problem with this is that no evidence is offered to prove that this was the case and not the alleged rival group genuinely wanting to do tribute to someone they knew and respected. And that brought up memories of an incident from earlier this year involving yours truly, in which this someone leaped to conclusions that had no basis in fact.
At the beginning of this year I decided to get actively involved in a Relay For Life team. Since I didn't have the desire or the time to be a team leader, I thought it would be better to join an existing team. So I joined a group that was owned by this certain someone.
Here's where things went wrong: I had an off-season donation kiosk rezzed from last year in New London. It had been in the sim, literally, for months. I wanted to set the kiosk so it would register donations for the RFL team I'd just joined but didn't know how to do it. And as it turns out, it couldn't be done anyway, but at the time I didn't know that. So I asked in the RFL team's group chat how to set the kiosk. Seems reasonable, right?
The reaction was anything but reasonable. The group owner accused me of causing drama and ejected me from the group. He also proceeded to eject a friend of mine whom I'd convinced to get involved and accused him of being an alt. All this was without any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of either of us — my only "crime" was in asking how to set a kiosk that had already been rezzed for a year. This group owner now claims I was trying to hack the kiosk, which is ridiculous. The whole time I got the impression that the real reason for this extreme behavior had to do with control, that is, the group owner went apes*it at any action — no matter how small — taken without his foreknowledge and consent.
It's understandable to enforce discipline as leader of a group. That's how successful groups operate. But it's another thing entirely to micromanage things to the point where even asking an innocent question relating to the group's purpose is considered grounds for ejection and false accusations.
That's when I formed my own RFL team. We weren't able to raise much, but we raised enough that our efforts were recognized by RFL. I hope that next year we can raise more in the fight against cancer.
The saddest part of all this is that none of it needed to happen. The team leader I'm writing about never had to do anything except simply answer the question I asked by pointing out that off-season kiosks can't be set to record information for a team. If he'd just done that I'd have accepted it and none of what took place after would have occurred. I'd have happily kept working within his group to help raise money for RFL.
But what I've come to realize about this person is that while he claims to dislike drama, he is very often the initiator of it. There's a "holier-than-thou" attitude at work combined with an extreme need to control everything down to the smallest matter, the latter of which I've seen present in enough members of my own family not to tolerate it. Again, I actually respect this person because for all the drama he likes to create and blame others for, he seems like someone who genuinely believes in doing what's right and for the right reasons. But his ego drives him to make everything revolve around himself and he can't go without finding fault in what other people do, no matter how innocent or well intended.
Relay For Life shouldn't be about feeding egos or claiming bragging rights. It also shouldn't be used to press grudges against others. RFL is a charity organization for raising money toward cancer research in hopes of finding a cure. That is how it should be treated. It shouldn't be misused, whether by assholes with malicious intent or by misguided but otherwise good folk. I hope the person I'm writing about understands and accepts this, and accepts that not everything revolves around him.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Monday, September 17, 2012
Ya know what? Sometimes I can be really stupid: My Apology to Hamlet Au
In my last post I wrote about how Hamlet Au compared SL and EVE Online users to Libyan extremists in one of his posts from last week. Well, as it turns out, he didn't. I failed to click the link he provided and completely misinterpreted what he'd written. What he actually meant to convey was that, just as with EVE Online residents who put on a virtual-environment memorial in honor of a slain fellow player, SL users are just as quick to do likewise within their own sub-communities as well as the larger grid.
But no, I had to go off and leap to conclusions, having failed to click the damn link. So you know what? Hamlet, if you're reading this (not sure why you would, but on the off chance that you do...), please accept my apologies. I'm sorry for what I wrote earlier, both on this blog and in comments on yours.
Forgive, please?
But no, I had to go off and leap to conclusions, having failed to click the damn link. So you know what? Hamlet, if you're reading this (not sure why you would, but on the off chance that you do...), please accept my apologies. I'm sorry for what I wrote earlier, both on this blog and in comments on yours.
Forgive, please?
Hamlet Au Goes Off the Deep End
Maybe he was having a hissy fit because no one was buying his bullshit argument that lowering land tier prices in SL wouldn't attract new and returning users. Maybe he forgot to take his medication. Or maybe he's just an asshole, and a truly evil one at that. But Hamlet Au of New World Notes posted a blog entry comparing SLers and users of Eve Online to the Libyans who stormed the U.S. embassy last week and killed several Americans. Below are two screen captures, the first showing the post itself, and the second showing a comment I made (an earlier one was deleted without explanation).
Clearly, Hamlet has gone off the deep end. I get that he wants Second Life to become a gamers' haven like Steam and run stuff similar to World of Warcraft and War of the Immortals. That's his desire as a gamer who enjoys Second Life and sees its potential as a 3D gaming platform. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Hamlet on Second Life and what direction it should go in, he has a legitimate opinion and every right to express it as he sees fit. One can also point out that Linden Lab's prices are too high and that it has not developed and is not developing the tools necessary to transform Second Life into a gaming platform. These, too, are legitimate opinions, albeit ones based on the realities of Second Life and a good understanding of basic economics.
What is not legitimate is the comparison of SLers and Eve Online users to those who have committed acts of violence and murder — no matter how those acts may or may not be justified by the illegal, brutal invasions, bombing campaigns, occupations of, and the propping up of savage dictatorships in, Middle Eastern and African nations carried out by the United States. That is far beyond the boundaries of taste. And what is not mere opinion, but demonstrable fact, is that Hamlet Au is deeply disturbed individual, for one really has to be in order to make such a comparison and see nothing wrong with it.
Hamlet, you just lost any and all remaining shreds of credibility with this post of yours.
Clearly, Hamlet has gone off the deep end. I get that he wants Second Life to become a gamers' haven like Steam and run stuff similar to World of Warcraft and War of the Immortals. That's his desire as a gamer who enjoys Second Life and sees its potential as a 3D gaming platform. Whether one agrees or disagrees with Hamlet on Second Life and what direction it should go in, he has a legitimate opinion and every right to express it as he sees fit. One can also point out that Linden Lab's prices are too high and that it has not developed and is not developing the tools necessary to transform Second Life into a gaming platform. These, too, are legitimate opinions, albeit ones based on the realities of Second Life and a good understanding of basic economics.
What is not legitimate is the comparison of SLers and Eve Online users to those who have committed acts of violence and murder — no matter how those acts may or may not be justified by the illegal, brutal invasions, bombing campaigns, occupations of, and the propping up of savage dictatorships in, Middle Eastern and African nations carried out by the United States. That is far beyond the boundaries of taste. And what is not mere opinion, but demonstrable fact, is that Hamlet Au is deeply disturbed individual, for one really has to be in order to make such a comparison and see nothing wrong with it.
Hamlet, you just lost any and all remaining shreds of credibility with this post of yours.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Slow, Crashtastic Firestorm Now "#1" Viewer On the Grid—Or So Firestorm Liars SAY.
So, Jessica Lyin' is boasting that Firestorm is now the #1 viewer on the SL grid. According to her, it's the most stable one out there. So I guess now Jessica Lyin', her lap dog Tonya Souther, and the other viewer elitists can finally stop offering updates to Phoenix, right? Let's read some reviews from commentors on just how splenderrific Firestorm is.
June5 September 2012 11:08
Well from this latest release of Firestorm
I have gone BACK to Phoenix as Firestorm is now 25% fps slower than Phoenix.
The reason why I use Firestorm and not
Phoenix is not because I like it. In my view, Firestorm is an unfortunate step
back from Phoenix towards ugly LL Viewer. The reason I have to use Firestorm is
because the latest version of Phoenix with mesh support crashes on my Mac Book
Pro.
So I do not see much of a reason to be so cheerful about Firestorm.
So I do not see much of a reason to be so cheerful about Firestorm.
I would love to use Firestorm... But
unfortunately I can't because the FPS is so low on my system even when setting
all the graphics options to their lowest. On Phoenix viewer I can easily get 30
FPS and higher with graphics on Ultra. I can even throw in a little AA (up to
8x) and enable shadows and still get decent performance (at least 20 FPS). On
Firestorm I can barely manage 10 FPS even with all the graphics setting set to
their lowest =( (Yes I checked that AA is off and anisotropic filtering is off)
I have done nothing but get logged off
time and time and time again, any time I am not on my own land. This update for
me has been an utter disaster.
Firestorm beat Phoenix ?
Normal, you don't do any support for Phoenix, and Phoenix crash all times.
It's not a nice way to force the user to switch like that.
Now I use singularity, it's like Phoenix, with less crash.
Normal, you don't do any support for Phoenix, and Phoenix crash all times.
It's not a nice way to force the user to switch like that.
Now I use singularity, it's like Phoenix, with less crash.
Singularity ? I will check it out. Thanks
for the lead !
I'm having the worst crash rate ever with
the new Firestorm. But I am not sure if it's the viewer or Second Life issues.
Is anyone else having problems editing/building? SL is constantly freezing up
with I am in edit mode, often crashing, but sometimes fixing itself.
I at first thought this was a great
release.. and for uh, performance.. i suppose it still is however, there has
been issues with taking photos.
HUGE black lines in the photos..
not like the bug that adds tiny 1 or 2 pixel lines to photos that have shadow enabled.. i mean big fugly lines in low and high res without the shadows enabled.
i "upgraded" to the previous viewer then all those issues disappeared..
I don't know what is causing it but, i have asked for advice from others and they said to add a qn here.
also.. happy anniversary..
this is the viewer i recommend to friends.
HUGE black lines in the photos..
not like the bug that adds tiny 1 or 2 pixel lines to photos that have shadow enabled.. i mean big fugly lines in low and high res without the shadows enabled.
i "upgraded" to the previous viewer then all those issues disappeared..
I don't know what is causing it but, i have asked for advice from others and they said to add a qn here.
also.. happy anniversary..
this is the viewer i recommend to friends.
This is a final user's opinion and
absolutely not meant as trolling but, I really do not see a reason to
congratulate that much since this very last update has really ruined my SL
experience. Ever since I updated it, Changing outfits is a real pain since it
just won't do it properly, it will overlap clothing objects and won't save it as
I see it. rezzing objects is also another issue among others. I have tried other
viewers and they seem to work just fine. I really think it's a shame this is
happening and I reallly hope you do something about it because I love Firestorm
and want to go back to using it and really believe what this post claims.
Phoenix_Firestorm-Release_i686_4.1.1.28744
was the most stable version on my system. I use Fedora 17.
The crash rate has gone up for me. I crash at least once per session.
I have submitted crash dumps. I hope it helps.
I am aware that you have added new code, and that's great. I am very happy with Firestorm overall and I'm grateful to everyone involved in making Firestorm. Now that the new code has been added, please if you would, please work on making FS more stable and please ask LL to tackle the crash on snapshot bug. Thank you.
The crash rate has gone up for me. I crash at least once per session.
I have submitted crash dumps. I hope it helps.
I am aware that you have added new code, and that's great. I am very happy with Firestorm overall and I'm grateful to everyone involved in making Firestorm. Now that the new code has been added, please if you would, please work on making FS more stable and please ask LL to tackle the crash on snapshot bug. Thank you.
Wrong, Firestorm is the biggest crash rate
it crashes my computer so much its rediculous.. causes graphical glitches too.
If the point of their latest liefest was to increase support for Firestorm, they failed.
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