New World Notes

Reader Says He Can Run Second Life for Linux on a $250 Tablet!

Update, October 18: Many more details from Thor in Comments below. 

Replying to our open forum call for tablets that can run Second Life, Andabata Thor sent along this screenshot with details:

"I am often on SL by tablet CHUWI Hi10X 10.1 inch. 1200x1920 and Clear Linux OS. I think that for a senior like me it is not a bad experience..."

I believe he's referring to this tablet which is currently selling for under $250, but buyer beware. Hopefully Thor comes along with more details and tips because his setup sounds fairly unique.

Top Posts Last Week Including an Internal Survey of Facebook Employee Dissension, and Second Life's Mysterious Concurrency Plateau

• New World Notes Newsfeed: Metaverse Content I’m Currently Consuming
• The Mysterious 40,000 People Plateau Of Second Life User Concurrency
• Facebook Internal Survey: 1 In 4 Not Convinced By Zuckerberg's Defense Against Whistleblower Allegations -- Nearly Half Want Government Regulation
• Open Forum Question: Could Second Life Work On A Touch Screen / Tablet Optimized For Seniors?

Starting This Weekend in Second Life: Halloween Fun Fundraiser to Benefit the American Diabetes Association!

Click here to teleport into a Second Life event with some Halloween month thrills for a great real world cause: Helping people with diabetes. More info and events on the Scare Me Silly site:

The 6th Annual Scare Me Silly Event in support of Team Diabetes of Second Life will take place October 15 to 22, 2021 and will feature shopping, a hunt, art, live music, contests, giveaways, tricks, treats, & more!!

100% of the funds raised during the extravaganza, Team Diabetes of SL Marketing Coordinator Jessii Warrhol tells me, go directly to the American Diabetes Association: "Funds are donated via an official avatar to our online donation and authorization page." That page is here.

Sumptuous Virtual Home Décor Shopping Ideas From Forever Friday SL

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

“Forever Friday SL” is a blog by Malayaa Morningstar that has a strong focus on home decor, though there is some fashion mixed in. She posted Waking Up to Autumn on Monday. I love the coziness that is not one bit overstuffed with bric-a-brac. I love the curtains hiding the area under the bench. I imagine it is packed with shoe boxes. The nightstands are adorable, too. 

• MYSA [Dema Fairport] – Vila Collection Bed with Headboard (Fameshed ends October 27th)
• Dust Bunny [Noel Bunny] & Consignment [ValiantCo] Florence Bedroom nightstand & rug
• Llorisen [Elsa Wellesley} – Rosalyn – repurposed bench and discarded shutters

To see the house itself, click here:

Fantastic Photographs Featuring Second Life's Dark Fantasy, Cyberpunk, and Weird West Roleplay Communities

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

HotDog has a photostream full of ghoulish fun. I love his macabre pictures. Most of his work is for vendor pics for his eponymous store, but he also includes a few wonderful story-telling scenes. For example, “This way or that way?” suggests the meeting of two opposites on a road. He is an extreme ectomorph and she is an endomorph, he is formally dressed and she is anything but formal, a regular Jack Sprat and partner, but a picture that seems to be taken by someone who likes them both. There is a fondness for the people that comes through. 

For more, click here:

The Mysterious 40,000 People Plateau of Second Life User Concurrency

Second Life concurrency data courtesy since 2009 by Tyche Shepherd's Grid Survey

Here's the latest Second Life concurrency stats direct from Tyche, the woman who knows more about them than anyone outside Linden Lab (and possibly even more than anyone still at the actual company):

"The trend in maximum daily concurrency is pretty flat for the past 3 months or so [see chart here], the same with Median and Mean Daily. It is down on from what we were seeing in the Spring but still above pre-Covid levels."

The COVID "spike", however, was just a few thousand more active users, and most of them were existing SL accounts coming back during the quarantine.

Which leads to the mysterious plateau of Second Life user concurrency. My takeaway from what Tyche tells me next:

Today's SL Flickr Pick: Fashion & Flights of Fancy from Anja Mexicola

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Anja Mexicola’s “Bouquet” is a lovely romantic picture. The background is one at the Backdrop Photo Dome, a place often used by bloggers who can use the backgrounds rezzed there but she did a great job using a filter to give the entire picture the feeling of being hand-painted. I love that she was not tempted to be too symmetrical placing the flowers and birds. She is not symmetrical either, her left arm and hand are visible with a billowing eyelet lace sleeve. One the one hand, it is exuberant with so many flowers and the birds, but then there is restraint in her colors. She’s smart in her choices. 

If you want to know why you should never have a mermaid roommate, click here:

Facebook Internal Survey: 1 in 4 Not Convinced By Zuckerberg's Defense Against Whistleblower Allegations -- Nearly Half Want Government Regulation

As promised last week, here's the results of a survey conducted last weekend by staff at Blind, an anonymous messaging/virtual community app for employees, asking users their opinions on the recent whistleblower allegations made against Facebook. About 5,000 responded across many social media companies, with nearly 10% of them (482) staff members at Facebook itself.

Courtesy Team Blind, here's the survey results from Facebook employees only, starting with the question, "Are you convinced by Facebook’s defense to the whistleblower’s allegations?"

Here's how Facebook staffers answered:

Notably, a significant minority of Facebook employees (1 in 4) did not find their own company's defense against the allegations to be credible. 

There was a similar result to another question: "Do you believe Facebook puts profits over user safety?"

Here's how Facebook employees who took the survey replied:

Open Forum Question: Could Second Life Work on a Touch Screen / Tablet Optimized for Seniors?

We know that many seniors like the late Fran Serenade (above) have found great value in using Second Life, both as a social/creative platform and (as in Fran's case) even finding therapeutic value in them. However, many seniors have difficulty learning or using the SL viewer for Mac/PC.

But what if the virtual world was accessible via a touchscreen? 

Caltech astronomy professor George Djorgovski, director of the university's Virtech campus in Second Life, recently put it to me this way:

Many seniors who would benefit from the social opportunities in SL are not very computer-savvy.

They may be comfortable with an iPad, but not a standard laptop/desktop. iPads and similar devices simply do not have the hardware power to deal with something like SL, and whatever apps do exist (and are still available or maintained) are little more than messaging apps.

There are, however, notebook/laptop machines that have a touch screen, which someone who is used to a tablet may find easier to use than a laptop proper. Also, I know that it is possible to boot Linux on at least some Chromebooks, and use a Linux SL client, but I don’t know about the performance thereof. Any experiences or recommendations along these lines would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, George and I discussed the late-lamented Lumia app for Android devices, but that's no longer officially supported (far as I can tell), and as great as it is for established SLers, wouldn't work well for the target audience he's talking about:

Vivien DeLancoure's Vivid Goth / Dark Fantasy Avatar Portraits

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Vivien DeLancoure’s “Sometimes time doesn’t heal wounds” brings together two very different aesthetics into a glorious union. On the one hand there is the baroque delicacy of the filigreed bird cages. Then there is the Steampunk/Goth fight-ready toughness of her boots and gloves, but she is not without her own baroque ornamentation as you can see in her corset. The contrasts are balanced and work so well. The birdcages are all empty suggesting several wounds that are still unhealed. I love the careful balance between the industrial elements and the baroque elements. It’s beautiful and her cast-down eyes create the emotional effect she intends. She also blogs and these items were the Engine Room event that ends October 20th.

To see extraordinary Dark Fantasy pics, click here: