Metaversatility and AMD bring us the AMD Summer Tech Mixer, an event on AMD's Dev Central island on Sunday the 29th from 1-4 PM. From the press release:

"The event will feature keynotes on AMD Careers, AMD's connectivity outreach initiative, 50×15, and a half hour panel discussion on open source coding and LibSL. The three hour mixer will be Dj'd and Mc'd by Doubledown Tandino featuring Slim Warrior so come out to AMD Dev Central for an afternoon of fun, swag, discussion, and music!"

The panel discussion will feature Marc Millar of AMD, John Hurliman of LibSL, and Jonathan Freedman of Pleiades. I know many of the people involved; go check this out!

(Thanks, Adri!)

There is a furore going on in the SL forums because libSL have produced a CopyBot which allows complete copying of prim objects with textures and animations, which makes the copier the creator of the object, and have seen fit to release this on the community.

The geeks of libSL react with surprise that anyone could think that this might be used for evil purposes, and helpfully suggest that a DMCA takedown notice will solve the problems it creates. libSL for those who haven't come across it before, is the Linden-supported project reverse engineering SL's code for the good of the community ... or so they would have us believe. In their words: libsecondlife is a open source software project to allow the creation of third-party Second Life applications. They have also been a haven for griefers and exploiters, and many of those have been banned.

As with previous copying devices, it doesn't seem to cross the feeble brains of these people that other people's livelihoods in RL might depend upon their SL income. Those people who are living the dream that is promoted in every article, of earning a RL income from SL creations, are now living a nightmare in which their source of income may soon be worthless.

I hope you all remember it's Wednesday. What's significant with Wednesdays? It's UPDATE day, of course! Torley reposted a warning in the forums about the coming update here. SL will be closed from 7am SLT to 12 midday SLT, that's 3pm to 8pm for fellow Brits.

Lots of people appear to have the lag that I have been experiencing in Nemesis. It's really weird, like a 2 or 3 second delay before something happens, even texturing etc. It has been quite frustrating, and I am hoping it will be fixed by this update.

Some people are reporting blurred faces and clothing. This isn't something I have experienced, don't know if it is widespread.

There was a panic about a new God Mode exploit yesterday. I considered blogging it, but thought it might do more harm than good, especially when the thread disappeared from the forums. It's back now, so I assume the Lindens have decided it is OK for this to be in the public domain. There is a rather nasty debate going on at present between people who support the libSL reverse engineering project and those who don't. Put your flame-proof suit on and visit it here if it interests you.

An angry granny reports on the SL Answers forum about having no joy from the technical support about her graphics problem. The reason she was having problems was that she needed to update her drivers. The point is, we do have to take some responsibility for the good order of our computers, and that is always going to be more efficient and be solved faster than bugging SL to diagnose it.

Here's my non-techie's problem-solving 101:

*try relogging. For good measure, click the button in preferences to clear your cache and log back in.

*check your preferences. If you are having problems, experiment with turning them all down, turning off inessential stuff until you have sorted out your problem. Look especially at draw distance if you have lag; avatar vertex if you have weird graphical effects on avatars.

*check you have the latest drivers

*check your firewall - there is information on the SL website to help.

*uninstall and reinstall SL

*If none of those work, collect data on your computer -- what model, graphics card etc, what you have done already, and consider posting on the forums for help. You will often get a fast answer and I have great faith in the expertise of our fellow residents.

Good Luck!