Glenys Bieler @GlenysBieler

Hi Pagane, thanks for your reply :) However as has been said before and reported as bugs by Jupitor and Austin. It seems to be related to the latest Firestorm viewer an OpenSim 0.9.2.1+. When it doesn't work - its not a case of it not saving the picks but a case of the picks page not loading. You dont even get the option to press the "new pick" button - its disabled until the tab loads (and it wont load).

Apparently its am accepted bug that has a hopeful fix in the next version of Firestorm.

It works find in Singularity.

Thanks Jupiter :)

Thanks so much for your reply. That does make sense - I was sure they worked before (on older Firestorm viewers). Interestingly it only seems to be the latest OS view - the SL viewer works fine with SL.

Now I know it's not just me - and is likely to be fixed next version I'm happy. Thanks again :)

Obviously.... you can do what you like on your own place, but just my 2p worth.... if avatars have to look like the're from 2004, does it matter that the "place" looks great if everyone visiting looks like that? System hair?? Shudders........

Great looking place - about everything here for taking great pictures. Will be back - there's no way I can see everything in just one or two visits!

I havent posted here since I "left" OS and SL about 5 months ago... I've been "lurking" a bit since and occasionally logged in - but still not really "here" much.

However, I do feel moved to comment here. If you knew much (or anything) about the BSDM community you would know that in fact there are very few communities that (with some exceptions) treat people with as much dignity as the BDSM community treats people.

Yes, some people portray themselves as submissive - they may even portray themselves as slaves (although in reality there is nothing non-concensual in OS as you can ALWAYS log out), and some portray themselves as dominant. However this doesn't mean that the dominant treats submissive persons without dignity. Usually the effort that is gone to to ensure that everything is done in a way that works for BOTH parties is fairly extensive. If you witness someone being "humuliated" for example, that will almost always be by mutual consent. Some people get their kicks by being humiliated in one way or another. What's most dignified, forbidding them to enjoy this, or denying them, telling them that its undignified for them to enjoy what they like? How is it dignified to deny people to enjoy themselves in the way that works for them? I would say hunan dignity is to allow them to do what works for them. If they were coming to your land and forcing that on you - that would be a different thing.

Lastly - I just want to comment on me previously saying "most of the time" or "almost always" when describing the effort that the BDSM community go to ensure everyone is happy........ The exceptions to this are those people who join the community with ideas thats its just a way to boss people around - to take and not give. These are the exception - and the ones that often spoil things for others. The community should not be judged based on the worst people there - but on the "usual". I think most people in the BDSM community would agree with me that dominants (Both Doms and Dommes) spend a lot of time and effort "looking after" their submissives. The person with the REAL power in such a power exchage is actualy the submissive..... as she or he has the power to "stop" submitting. It's a gift given to the dominant in a power "exchange" and can be taken away as well as given.

Not dignified? Sounds pretty dignified to me!

Other question would be "why not?" :D

Sorry... I know its not "playing the game" but I have an important question......... Where can I get that cup-cake?!

Es ist wahr, dass alle Audio-/Video-Sachen nur auf Apple-Computern gemacht wurden (nicht nur Mac, sondern sogar VOR Mac). Allerdings ist das jetzt weniger der Fall. Sicher, der Mac wird viel für diese Dinge verwendet, aber er ist nicht mehr EXKLUSIV. Zum Beispiel ist Cubase immer noch "eine der" Top-DAWs und kein exklusives Mac-Produkt. Der größte Unterschied besteht darin, dass der Mac mit einigen guten Tools geliefert wird, aber bei Windows-PCs sind dies immer Extras. Allerdings ist der Mac auch teurer - also seine "Schaukeln und Kreisverkehre"

Slight change to Jupiter's Tinies Invite:

Invite everyone to an event and stipulate that everyone wears a tiny avatar...... but have everyone under 1.6m immediately banned :P

I can pass you a diaper if that helps @KrisTina!

Sex in OS/SL: For some people not others - think it should be a live and let live tbh. In truth - its not the "nude mesh" thing - its more the RP. It's basically "sexting" with pixel images!

Never used it - but .... thanks for the heads up - much appreciated :)

I wondered what he was doing with his hands......

4th gear?

She doesn't need to log onto anyone's grid... She can just spin up a quick dreamgrid and log into her own grid and then HG wherever she wants. When she finds a badly configured region she can find somewhere it of the way to drop physical object bombs if someone had mistakenly left build on. (I did!). Of course on a 4x4 it's harder to physically see that someone had done this.

Agreed. The only thing of any value here is not paying for some uploads. If you upload a lot of textures for example it could be worth it. To be honest, generally it's not even worth paying for premium. Linden home is too limited do most people don't even use theirs. Stipend is really small, nothing much more worth it either in most cases. This "plus" is just posting more for more of the same that you won't use anyway.

Bear in mind: Changing your mac address on your end point machine (PC, Mac, Whatever) will not do anything at all - as in 99.9% of cases your end point machine is NOT accessible directly from outside as you get one IP address and that goes to your router. The only mac address they see is the router's. Or they would.... apart from the fact that MAC addresses are not routable across the Internet. No-one can access machines inside your network - unless they have already compromised your router, or through any ports you have forwarded to your end point machines. Machines behind the router - using private address space are simply invisible and inaccessible to the outside world. No, this isn't me being naive, this is simply how IPV4 was created (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_network). These addresses are unrouteable on the internet (core routers will not forward packets to/from them directly). Additionally its TCP/IP that's routed and exploited - not MAC addresses that cannot be seen outside your local area network (more later).

Obviously this doesn't mean that you are "safe" behind your router, but it does mean that they need to either find an exploit for that, OR you need to forward ports from it to your end point machine (and THEN that being unprotected is an attack vector), or as is the case in the majority of cases, your machine needs to initiate the conversation with the one trying to get into your systems. This is almost always via social engineering: An email saying something like "Your computer is infected with malware, click here to clean your computer" which of course if you fall for it, you INSTALL the malware yourself. The weakest part of any IT security is the users. It's far easier to socially engineer someone to do something "silly" than it is to break through a firewall.

For MOST actual vulnerabilities you actually need access to the network at some level already - and then escalate permissions via a bug. This is not always the case - but mostly true (many years ago there was a bug in the Linux kernel that if someone simply sent a sequence to the computer with no permissions - just exploiting a bug in the TCP/IP stack - it would open a root shell for them! I discovered a nice little rootkit on one of my servers around 15 years ago due to this!

Anyway... rambling aside..... While its always a good idea to use a VPN, it is at the end of the day just another NAT router. VERY useful for hiding where you are coming from but doesn't do anything more than your own router should do for protecting people from accessing your end point machine. Additionally MAC addresses are NOT routable or discoverable on the internet - they are at a totally different (lower) network layer to IP addresses and TCP/IP can't route them (https://www.networkstraining.com/differences-between-mac-a...). For a MAC address to mean anything at all to anyone, they need to be on your local area network to begin with - and if that is split up into vlans or any other segmentation then that means on the local subnet too. The only really good reason to change your MAC address is that if your router is connected via cable or ADSL to your ISP on a dynamic IP connection, then if you change your MAC address (depending in the setup) it may cause the provider to issue you a NEW IP address which CAN help protect you. Of course, if you run any type of server software (WebServer, OS Robust/Simulator) then changing your IP address throws out your DNS for people to find you and also throws out connections across hypergrid etc etc. Besides, if you are running services like that - then changing your IP and "hiding" yourself is counter-productive anyway as you are just going to go tell people where you are now.

EDIT: Just to say that running server software on one machine on your network thus changing your IP address being counterproductive, doesn't mean it's not worth running VPN software on other end point machines. It's also potentially a good way to test the security of your own setup - as you will not see your own network as if you were part of it - but as if you were coming from somewhere else (depending on setup - split routes etc). It's NOT a good idea to run a service like OS through a VPN though (many routers can connect to a VPN by default for ALL traffic if you configure this), as again this will mean a regularly changing IP address which is not good for servers.

Just remember, a VPN hides you.... but it doesnt PROTECT you. You need your firewall configured properly on your end for that, including not allowing ports open or worse - forwarded - you dont need.

As far as data is concerned... I'm not concerned about my assets in my grid.... in fact I've gone back to v1.0 HG to ditch the suitcase. Almost all my content has been picked up across the HG somewhere and anything I create myself - I would freely make available to copy anyway so I'm not really concerned about that.

However, I am to a degree concerned about what some grids may do as far as things like chat monitoring. I know grids CAN do this, I don't know which do, and it does make me uneasy sometimes that anything I may say can be recorded, distorted and turned round to bite me on the ass. Am I a little unnecessarily paranoid about that? Quite likely - and I do say only slightly concerned. It remains however a reason why I will always have my own grid whatever other grids I belong to because I know noone else is monitoring and recording chat history on my grid.

Of course, I am aware the LL can and do store chat history too. However, I am far less concerned about a large company like LL having my chat logs than a grid in OS. Even the most professional grids in OS are run by a relatively small number of employees (often very small) and some have demonstrated their ability to behave unprofessionally in the past, and I think most would agree here that there is a lot of "backbiting" goes on in OS. I would rather trust LL with my chat logs for example than say Ilan from Kitely, or Alex from AviTron, or Terry from Digiworldz. BTW I am not saying that any of these people DO unprofessional and unethical things with their data - just making a point that these are people I "know" - or at least have had dealings with in the past. They are not "faceless" entities that would never in a million years have any interest in my chat.

Not sure if I am explaining myself well - so I'll stop now lol. I guess I just trust mindless organisations more than "people I can put a face to a name", unless I have enough experience with that person to have developed trust in them. Large companies may sell data to advertisers... but while annoying - that's less of a problem for me, than someone potentially using my words against me.

I have to more or less agree here Han,

Many years ago a good friend of mine - both long term SL people but had played with OS too - were stuck between choosing SL or OS one time and we made a list of for and against for both of them. I won't go into all the details, but the biggest things OS had going to it were the ability to run your own DIY. The actual "DIY" part of it was mainly me, having had the server knowledge to do this quickly and with minimum fuss. The second part of this was simply the cost. I can host a LOT of "space" on just one single host with 8 cores and 32GB RAM. Currently running around 22 SL sim size and using between 5-10% of resources. The "freedom" in money and "DIY" are massive things for OS. Additionally OARs/IARs are a bit bonus - It's sooo easy for me to set up a base inventory for a new avatar and just "load it on" etc.

Running against that however, was to be honest just about everything else. SL has the people. The people that with the best will in the world - OS will NEVER have (and that's ok - not a criticism of OS just an observation). SL has all the latest "stuff". Sure it costs a lot more - and to be honest it doesnt really make a difference if SL has great stuff you cant afford to buy anyway! Its not "available" to you if you cant buy it. In all honesty, the only two downsides to SL are: You lose the DIY aspect - and I have to say I've had fun setting up my own little grids over the years and getting better at managing them, backups etc. Secondly, SL is expensive. INSANELY expensive to be honest. The prices of a single sim are out of the price range of most individuals.

Checking right now: Mainland $175 a month, Private $229, Reduced prim Homestead $109, and even more reduced prim OpenSpace, $60. This is apart from the "setup cost" which I "believe" was over $1000 at one point - cant see a list for it now. Compare that to around £30 a month inc VAT for a server that can easily run 50+ regions.

Grids like Zeta are sort of "middle of the road" between the two extremes. They are a commercial entity and like all commercial entities do things for protecting themselves from legal actions. They are in it (to a large degree) to make money. They sell regions etc. However they do so at a FAR lower price than SL. Their region prices are actually pretty good AND the allow self hosted regions to connect (which btw, does kind of destroy the argument that they don't like self hosted private grids to connect to their grid due to issues like dynamic dns and ips changing as its totally fine to connect regions to them from these!). They DO cripple self hosted regions however by removing all god tools from simulators you are actually hosting yourself - in a move to persuade you to buy regions from them instead (where apparently you CAN get god mode). However, while they could be likened to a "cheaper SL" they don't have the userbase and content base that SL has - so you get more commercially viable regions - maybe? But content is no better than anywhere else in OS. You still don't really get the benefit of SL with a commercial OS grid.

tl;dr If SL was a lot cheaper, I think many would forget about the DIY side and just go to SL where there are more people. Its the cost, and DIY aspect that attracts OS for many people. Personally I am still in both. I love having my own grid that I can keep running and dip into and update when I like, and its costing me nothing (I was already renting the bare metal server in France). I would go as far as to say that in my belief (totally fine if you believe differently) that apart from some niche situations, if SL was dramatically cheaper in all aspects, OS would pretty much never have taken off! Its the high cost of SL that keeps people away in most cases.

Personally.... I accept Zeta's right to do this - frustrating as it may be. I choose to run my own grid. It's not on a dynamic ip, and I am an IT professional with 30 years experience of Linux, however I don't have a website that maintains my contact details - so I "shouldn't" be able to connect to Zeta. I have before - but expect that will quickly be stopped now I have said this lol. So... frustrating - but its their right to maintain the restrictions they feel they have to. Only real solution is to not worry about it and bypass the place if I cant get to it. No point worrying about the things you can't change imo.

I am sure if you got 10 grid owners together with the idea of all agreeing on any standard to use (for anything) you would get 10 people who would be really willing to work together... if only the other 9 would do it they way THEY wanted to. That's often one of the problems with the idea of "getting people together to agree to something".