SHOCK! Banned Griefer’s Tarp Covers IBM Theatres
by Pixeleen Mistral on 15/12/06 at 4:32 am
LL’s database and asset server left uncovered outside
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
Gene Replacement created IBM’s roofing material
The metaverse reeled today as investigators claim to have discovered the source of the persistent database and asset server problems in Second Life – and why computer giant IBM’s theaters in Second Life use building materials from the notorious Gene Replacement.
The problems appear to have started with an overloaded server room at the Linden Lab colocation facilities – resulting in serious overheating and power problems. After consulting the Love Machine project management system, Linden Lab technicians decided to move the database machine for the entire metaverse outdoors onto the lawn – without even a tent to protect it from the elements! I went to investigate these outrageous claims and confirmed that there is a mainframe on the lawn in the IBM islands – and a surprise over the theaters.
The assert/database server – an aging IBM System 360 with several tape drives – was moved onto the lawn in the IBM islands where Unverified Linden had promised to cover it with a tarp. However, it was found that the bulky mainframe was far too large to cover with a 10 x 10 flexi prim, so Unverified turned to a clever hack on the metaverse – Gene Replacement’s megaprims – which exceed the official Linden-blessed object size limits but are somehow still OK to use anyway. Herald readers may recall Gene as one of those involved in covering Satyr sim with something awful – skywriting of questionable taste.
Your SL assets are stored here
While Unverified Linden swears he really did cover the asset server with a megaprim tarp, his work was soon undone by builder Jessica Qin when she needed a tent to cover IBM’s enormous outdoor theaters – and used the megaprim tarps as impromptu roofing material. This accounts for the interesting sight of a corporate giant’s theatre roofed with building materials created by Gene Replacement – a notorious and permabanned – griefer.
But what of the asset server? To date, it has not rained on IBM island, so although resident’s inventory is sometimes lost due to tape errors, the metaverse chugs along. Evidence that Lindens are serious about fixing problems in the search places functions of our world are clear. I spotted a flow charting tool, and some cobol coding forms on the desk by the asset servers front panel, and Unverified Lindens initials in the margins. As long it it never rains, everything will be fine.
LL developers use state of the art tools
Thoughtful newbie
Dec 15th, 2006
The lords of cobol may help us!
And I always though LL would be advanced enough to use ADA.
Urizenus
Dec 15th, 2006
wow, where do they keep the slide rules?
Pix, you neglected to mention that Gene Replacement is none other than Plastic Duck — 3rd place in our Avi of the year awards last year!
Here is a post announcing his big award: http://www.dragonscoveherald.com/blog/index.php?p=1063
And here is an oddly compelling interview with Plastic/Gene from the Blingsider (no surprise it’s by Tateru, who actually can write if he doesn’t run out of Jolt Cola):
http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2006/11/10/interview-plastic-duck-gene-replacement/
Just a thought
Dec 15th, 2006
Hmm, the upper structure in the first picture is identical to the one out on Help Island.
Now, if they ddin’t have the time or the patience to build that prim by prim …. who cares?
as to the rest, most amusing …… Let’s hope it doesn’t rain anytime soon.
Prokofy Neva
Dec 15th, 2006
I’m concerned about the Herald’s decisions to give ink to terrorist and destructive forces like Plastic Duck/Gene Replacement/NotPlastic Newell (or whoever he is right this minute).
IBM needs to do the right thing and delete this giant prim from Gene Replacement, who was responsible for crashing the grid and many other harmful griefing operations against residents, including me and my tenants. I’m going to be all over this like a cheap suit.
It’s bad enough that IBM has sided with militarized groups that have suppressed the people’s access to tubing in Tethys, now they are winking and nodding and finding shelter under a terrorist’s giant awning.
I knew this Big Business stuff would end badly : (
Inigo Chamerberlin
Dec 15th, 2006
LOL – It didn’t exactly begin well, did it?
Patchouli Woollahra
Dec 16th, 2006
Oy, get off the poor guy’s case. Deployed properly, megaprims can significantly save on prim counts in cases where you can tolerate measurements being locked to certain oversized dimensions as hacked out by the defunct Satyr goons.
I’m not a lover of some of the asshattery that Satyr and Baku are capable of, but if they’re prepared to contribute something that benefits the grid, I see no reason why nobody should avail themselves of it.
It’s simply a matter of realising that these megaprims do NOT play nice with physics, and collision detection is a little wonky (they don’t seem to reflect any hollowing done on them).
In fact, most deployments of megaprims I’ve seen to date are more often than not phantom and heavily hollowed out: the problem with owning mainland sims is that you don’t have access to the estate tools that lock down the way the sky looks server-side. A skydome with a sky texture wrapped all over is a kludge fix, but then, there isn’t an alternative short of buying an island. Not all of us can afford that, really…
Jessica Qin
Dec 16th, 2006
So I stand charged with the crime of using Politically Incorrect Prims, is that it?
As the lead architect on the IBM build, I’d like to respond with, well pretty much what Patchouli Woollahra said above. Aside from the prim count savings I found that the megas simply *rendered* much better and faster than an identical structure composed by (say) ShapeMaker. In the end I used the megas because they were available and they did the job best out of all of the alternatives I investigated.
So I put a lot of considered thought into whether or not to use megas but golly: “are my prims Politically Correct?” Ya got me there.
For the record, there’s no love lost between myself and GR. But there’s gotta be a latin name for the logical fallacy that maintains “you can’t use those prims because a bad man made them.” I mean: by all reports, Isaac Newton was a big jerk. We still use Calculus.
> Hmm, the upper structure in the first picture is identical
> to the one out on Help Island.
I had not seen this, so I went out and took a look. I see the similarity, but I think if you came out to IBM you’d see that ours is just a tad “different”
FINALLY: I urge everyone to go to the IBM cluster and see for themselves, it’s a very beautiful place that is the collaborative result of many builders and scripters from all over the world. Parts of it are private, but most is public, and we hope to have a steady stream of interesting displays, demos, and events going on over the next months. And it is a testamonial to this technology that a team such as this could assemble and collaborate to put all of it together.
Just do a Map search on the region called IBM and you’ll find it.
Urizenus
Dec 16th, 2006
>by all reports, Isaac Newton was a big jerk. We still use Calculus.
That’s why *I* use Leibniz’s version of the Calculus and was oh so ready to jump on board with general relativity.
Newton…
::spits::
epredator potato
Dec 16th, 2006
Well I guess we cant please everyone
I have been so amazed at all the work the crew have done.
IBM is serious about this business, and about the integrity of the community we work in.
Virtual Worlds are now taking off. The more people that get involved, the more companies that get involved the richer the experience will become for everyone.
Jesse Malthus
Dec 16th, 2006
Another wonderful acomplishment for the Tekkiwikinistas and a victory for libsecondlife.
Prokofy Neva
Dec 16th, 2006
Patchouli, excuse me, but the jury is definitely still out on whether these jumbo prims strain the servers and ruin performance and cause crashing. Even Lindens disagree on this.
“Deployed properly, megaprims can significantly save on prim counts in cases where you can tolerate measurements being locked to certain oversized dimensions as hacked out by the defunct Satyr goons.”
They are not defunct, but roam around on alts, and let’s note here for the record that these mega-prims were created for the library of libsecondlife and represent yet another one of their More Science products that in fact were most used by griefers, and which are still associated with griefing and a potential for griefing.
The point is, this IS an island, so the idea that any sort of kludge-fix is even necessary is all wet.
And yes, Jessica, you stand charged with using not merely “politically incorrect” prims, but the prims of a man [elided by Uri].
Honestly, it’s as if *your* grid wasn’t crashed, too? Or you think grid-crashing is just like the rain, take out your umbrella?
And Jesse Malthus’ sordid little victory-dancing here lets us know exactly the gloating, vindictive spirit of libsecondlife, and why any respectable and serious people should not only disassociate themselves from that group but leave it completely. They are contributors to griefing, if not in fact griefers themselves by constantly apologizing for griefers and allowing them to run roughshod over SL. Jessica is celebrating griefers. IBM, under the guise of supporting this as a “rich experience” is also winking and nodding at griefers, bleh — epredator potato, shame on you for thinking you can mouth platitudes about “the integrity of the community” and support grid-crashers.
And yes, there is a Latin word for using a bad man’s prims: male fides.
I’m totally unimpressed.
I really view this sort of shit as so similar to the radical chic of loving up the violent Black Panthers and not only condoning but celebrating violent revolutionary tactics.
Jesse Malthus
Dec 16th, 2006
It’s a Prim Revolution!
What else would I be if it wasn’t “radical chic”? I can definitly thank Prokofy Neva for driving me towards it.
Jack Mason
Dec 23rd, 2006
Prokofy
Our virtual IBM complex was the product of a real explosion of interest and expertise across hundreds, and now more than 1,000, IBMers. And if anything defines the rich collaboration that our build entailed, I can see without question it was “good faith.”
Many of us didn’t even know each other before the virtual frontier brought us together, and already, our interactions with other people in SL have been very enriching for us all.
We want to be responsible and productive members of the community of virtual world innovators. And your issues with the megaprims’ origins are understandable, but let me be clear: choosing to use megaprims is in no way a wink or a nod to griefers. It was merely a practical choice for the set of sims we wanted to build.
Wowie Zowie
Mar 26th, 2007
“any respectable and serious people should not only disassociate themselves from that group but leave it completely”Good thing I have never been accused of either, lol. You, however, Prokofy, need to switch to decaf.
If we did not have people breaking the system, it would never get stronger. Period. Your argument lacks logical merit on too many counts to deal with, but mostly, you are just way to bunged up about it all. It’s almost as if this weren’t about what it’s about, but rather you being on some sort of personal vendetta. Isn’t that Latin too?