An exercise in miracles

Talking to people in world about the crash it becomes clear to me that people don't really understand how much of a miracle Second Life actually is.

A common thing I'm finding is that people are comparing SL (unfavourably) with other programs like World of Warcraft. The reasoning generally runs that SL claims to have 2 million subscribers, of which up to 20,000 (a new milestone claimed today) are online at any one time, whereas WoW has 6.9 million subscribers, and is reckoned to have between 90,000 and 150,000 online at any one time. The general argument is that if WoW can do it, why can't SL? What are Linden Labs doing with all our money that they can't guarantee stability on a level with Blizzard?

Well, the major difference between the two systems is the content. In World of Warcraft, the game world sits on your hard drive. It doesn't change in-game. You can even download programs that will allow you to experience the gameworld without ever going online. Here is where the approaches tell - World of Warcraft only needs to exchange data with the server about what is in the characters immediate vicinity, and what it's doing. This is further limited in required scope by the fact that all the models for all the monsters etc are also stored on the customers own hard drive. All the server has to say is "There's a level 30 murloch standing 20 feet north of you" and the client computer knows what a murloch is and what it looks like, and drops the model into the game world at the requested location for the player to interact with.

Second Life, on the other hand, is completely different. All the viewer has is basic terrain textures that are stored locally. EVERYTHING else has to come from the server. In our example, say someone created a murloch (for arguments sake) in Second Life and it was standing 20 feet north of the player - well, the players computer would NOT know what a murloch is or was, wouldn't know how it was textured, what size it was, what it looked like, how it moved... all this data has to be sent from the Second Life server, rapidly interpreted on the fly by the client computer and then rendered in game. Even a simple shape like a cube has to be described sizewise, how far off the "ground" it is, what sides the client can see and what textures are on those sides. Until the client receives every single scrap of information, it renders the cube as a grey item.

When you consider all this, it's a miracle Second Life works as well as it does, particularly when you factor in that Linden Labs have created this environment you can "live" in completely from scratch. This approach is ALWAYS going to be slower than having the complete gameworld downloaded from a DVD on your local system, but makes for unrivalled flexibility in how the resident can interact with the world.

So yes. Second Life does have it's problems. Try and put too much load on it and it starts creaking at the seams. Put much more load on it and it does - still - collapse. But don't forget this is pioneering technology. Nobody has done this before (successfully - some have tried and failed).

In closing, I'd add that I recon I know where a lot of the subscription money goes - on Bandwidth. Imagine describing EVERY single detail of a virtual world to sixteen thousand people simultaneously. That's a LOT of bandwidth, and bandwidth costs money. Most of the money Linden Labs get likely goes to paying for the huge amount of bandwidth they use piping all that data to you.

So sometimes it won't work. Sometimes it will fall flat. When it does, we should not be lining Lindens up against the wall, we should remind ourselves that without their pioneering work in creating Second Life from the ground upwards (literally) that addictive world we all love (to hate) wouldn't exist in the first place.

Stay safe.

Login issues

Second life crashed. Spectacularly. So spectacularly they had to close the grid for a while. While it was down I noticed something which they REALLY need to work on as a matter of high priority. While the status page said "Grid Offline" the client was still happily saying "Grid Online" and giving logged in numbers. Something isn't right here. The blog said that everyone was logged out when the asset server issues became serious, yet as you can see from this quick movie I made the client failed to notice the entire grid was down for almost 12 minutes after it went down.

Because I'd been online at the time the grid crashed, I knew it wasn't online, but really this does surprise me that there should be such a long discrepancy between the client and the actual status. I'd have thought that would be high priority to try and correct... maybe that's just me thinking too logically again.

Yeah, I'm a Buddhist and I'm SEXAY!

The Noble Eightfold Path as told by Wikipedia:

Sila is morality—abstaining from unwholesome deeds of body and speech. Within the division of sila are three parts of the Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Right Speech - One speaks in a non hurtful, not exaggerated, truthful way (samyag-vāc, sammā-vācā)
2. Right Actions - Wholesome action, avoiding action that would do harm (samyak-karmānta, sammā-kammanta)
3. Right Livelihood - One's way of livelihood does not harm in any way oneself or others; directly or indirectly (samyag-ājīva, sammā-ājīva)

Samadhi is developing mastery over one’s own mind. Within this division are another three parts of the Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Right Effort/Exercise - One makes an effort to improve (samyag-vyāyāma, sammā-vāyāma)
2. Right Mindfulness/Awareness - Mental ability to see things for what they are with clear consciousness (samyak-smṛti, sammā-sati)
3. Right Concentration - Being aware of the present reality within oneself, without any craving or aversion. (samyak-samādhi, sammā-samādhi)

Panna is the wisdom which purifies the mind. Within this division fall two more parts of the Noble Eightfold Path:

1. Right Thoughts - Change in the pattern of thinking. (samyak-saṃkalpa, sammā-saṅkappa)
2. Right Understanding - Understanding reality as it is, not just as it appears to be. (samyag-dṛṣṭi, sammā-diṭṭhi)

So, where does this leave some of the "Buddhists" I keep meeting in Second Life? Well, for a start I do have my doubts about people who where a tag saying "Buddhist of SL" and yet have a profile flaunting - somewhat immodestly - how sexy they are. I've also met one or two very outspoken Buddhists, one of whom got very very cross in a highly unbuddhist manner when I dared to suggest that perhaps he'd deviated from the path somewhat.

One of the reasons I founded "Listening Ear" is my personal desire to follow the lines in the Wiccan Rede which say "Soft of eye and Light of touch - Speak ye little; listen much" Now there are times when I'm outspoken, and I don't deny I get cross from time to time - but, as Foamy says, there is no point in trying to pretend you are something that you're not. The point is, I don't CLAIM to follow a religion that teaches humility.

It really does give Buddhists in general a bad name to see people going around paying lip service and wearing the tag, when they obviously don't give a damn for the tenets of the religion.

Welcome Area Thoughts

There are two main questions that I get asked when I'm standing in the welcome area and have my "I help people - let me know if I can help" tag on. The first of which is "Where can I go to grief?" (although it's never quite put that way - it's always termed 'shoot people/throw bombs/kill people/fight') and the second of which, from those on free accounts, is "How can I get money?"

With regards to the first question, I generally refuse to offer any suggestions. I tell them that Second Life isn't about killing people and blowing things up. Normally they either become abusive (and get reported for it) or just ignore me.

With regards to the second question, I tell people about camping. Camping, for those new to second life, involves going to an area where the owner has set up special scripted chairs. These are normally casinos or clubs. For sitting in the camping chairs you can get paid an average of 3 lindens per 10 minutes. Yes, it's not much - but what do you expect for nothing? If you're on a paid (or 'premium' account) you get pocket money every week; several hundred Lindens - but if you choose a free account, and don't put any "real money in" then you don't get simply given any free in-game currency. You have to earn it or be given it by other residents, or buy it yourself (free accounts can still buy Linden Dollars using a number of different methods, credit or debit cards or even paypal.

The internet is a fascinating place. I think people get to used to having something for nothing, particularly those who've grown up used to being able to download music and films for free. I'm not in favour of banning free accounts in Second Life, but it is important that those who use them recognise they don't have an automatic entitlement to either the free account or to be given in-game currency. It's particularly upsetting to either see people begging in the welcome area, or to get a mouthful of abuse because you won't give people lots of game currency.

Heh... just wanted to kick this blog off gently. Next tuesday I'm in the Metaverse Messenger newspaper having a rant about Support, of which I'll say more in a future post. In the meantime, welcome to my ramblings.