As an aside: every now and then I’ll poke someone I know to ask what little things they didn’t/don’t like about 2.0 or what feature(s) they’re missing from 1.23 but surprisingly very few ever seem to really have usuable feedback so since I can’t release I’ll open the door for suggestions on what to do while I/we wait for a stable 2.1 to release

So I sat down and thought about this some…

The biggest thing that I really find distressing about 2.0 is the sidebar. I hated them when web browsers did them, and I hate them in 2.0. It’s just not enough space for many of the panels they try to cram into it. And it only lets you look at one thing at a time, which for much of that information is just completely unacceptable. I’m not opposed to having it in the viewer, I just want it optional, like say, Firefox and it’s sidebar.

And by optional, I mean, everything in the sidebar can also be viewed as separate windows… not a floating window that contains what’s in the sidebar, but actual separate windows for each type of thing it encapsulates. I want multiple profile windows open at once, for instance.

I’m also not too fond of not being able to dock local chat in with my IMs. And the local chat text entry box is way too small (though that wouldn’t matter if I could dock chat with my IM window).

Still, as irritating as I find the sidebar, I’d use 2.0 for Shared Media in spite of it, if it weren’t for the the features from third party viewers that I’ve come to rely on, the biggest being “always rez in land group,” followed up by lesser things like double-click-to-top and client side radar (that can feed in world objects). And less so, ground-sit anywhere, no tp-progress screens (though really I’d like to have this only be for in-sim tps) and shadows.

Without “always rez in the land group” as an option, I’m not gonna be using a viewer for real work. That one is non-negotiable. The other stuff is mostly about helping the viewer get out of your way and fade into the background.

PS Summer correctly points out that temporary textures are pretty critical to building. And bulk temporary textures would be a huge win for sculpty makers like her.

Kitty followed up in SecondLife on Fri Jun 25 2010:

[6:22:26] Kitty Barnett waves.. just wanted to say thankies for your comment :) the sidebar is kind of a huge thing to get rid off though so nothing I can take on and maintain in addition to everything else :| I’ve tried some things like specifying which tabs should auto-hide when the mouse isn’t over it, etc but that doesn’t involve doing a complete UI rewrite :|
[6:22:27] Kitty Barnett: double-click tp and “ground sit anywhere” are Snowglobe features now so any viewer based off of snowglobe will always have it btw :)

And I replied:

[9:24:09] Winter Seale: Hi hi =) Yeah, the sidebar is a huge huge task, and I’m sure will be the focus of many a third party viewer mod (Kirstin’s is already going down that road), so I don’t blame you at all for not tackling that. If you added rez-as-land-group though, I’d love you forever. =)
[9:32:33] Winter Seale: oh lol, and Summer reminds me, Temp Textures are critical too, and if you were to add Temp Texture support to batch upload then she would love you forver too, lol.

So I’ve started tweeting in detail what I’m doing in SL, as far as scripting and product development go.  (I’m not much of a life blogger, so don’t expect to hear too much about my personal life.  Complicated as it is, I’m just not the type to share it with the world.)

You can see it here: Twitter- winterseale #labnotes

Anyway, it’s part of my larger goal of trying to make scripting in the virtual world more transparent, like non-sculpty building has always been.  And maybe so I look a bit less like I’m just sitting around quietly for hours on end. =p  I went and picked up Twitter Wall, which was a bit pricey but did exactly what I wanted.  So now I have my latest labnotes on on a prim in my devel platform.

The plan for the future is to build out a clockpunk/steampunk type laboratory to keep all the stuff I’m working on there.  So that’s kinda where the labnotes name comes from.  It’ll all be semi-public and part of the sim that people visiting our store can explore.  I’ll post a slurl once something’s ready.

These actions require an RLV capable viewer to function and will be disabled if you are not in an RLV capable viewer. Other actions are enhanced with RLV, but will continue to function without it.

Now only L$450, get it today! In world at Summer/54/32/1001,  in the naughty section.  Or on Xstreet under Hair Accessories.

Posted to the forums here.

First we’ll define the terms and talk a bit about them.

Ratings: PG / Mature / Adult

These are set region wide. It is set by going to World->Region/Estate->Region->Rating and selecting from a drop down box. You can not set these on a per parcel basis. These are intended as a tool for the general population, not land owners.  They’re intended to be used to ensure informed consent to the sorts of activities they’re likely to encounter when entering an unknown region.  That is, it is intended to protect residents.  They allow for a more predictable and consistent Second Life experience.  While there are restrictions on who can enter an Adult region, that is not it’s primary purpose.

Adult regions can only be entered by avatars that either have given payment information to LL, or have gone successfully gone through the age verification process.

Parcel Restrictions: Age Verified / Payment Info on Record

These are set on a per-parcel or per-estate basis by going to World->About Land->Access->Block Access By or  World->Region/Estate->Estate->Restrict Access To and checking either Residents who have not given payment info to Linden Lab or Residents who are not age verified adults. These are intended to allow the parcel owner to keep out people they view as undesirable.  These exist to protect land owners, not residents.  There are no circumstances under which either of these ever must be set.  They are entirely optional.  If you use either of these, you will be cutting off a significant percentage of the SL population.

Land Options: Mature Content

And to add to the confusion there’s also a “Mature Content” land option, that’s independent of all of these.  It’s in World->About Land->Options->Land Options->Mature Content. The wiki has this to say about it: One of the region maturity ratings is “Mature”, but parcels are not required to have mature content on Mature rated land. This item is intended to indicate that there is mature content on the parcel. Further, the knowledge base has this to say: If your Region is listed as Mature and you would like to show mature objects in search, check the Mature Content box in the About Land window’s Options tab.

LAND OWNER FAQ

Q. My region is rated Mature but my parcel has Adult content. Can my parcel be rated as Adult without effecting the rest of the region?
A. No. You’ll either have to get the region’s rated as Adult, or you’ll have to move to a different region (or the new Adult mainland, Zindra). (Or of course, you can drop your Adult content.)

Q. My parcel is on a Mature island but has Adult content, but that’s ok if I restrict the parcel to age-verified only right?

A. No, that’s wrong. Adult content can only be on land that is rated as Adult not Mature. This means either the entire island is Adult, or you’re on Zindra, the Adult mainland. Simply restricting access to your parcel does not meet the Linden Labs requirements.

Q. My region is marked as Adult, I also have to flag my parcel as age-verified if I want to allow explicit sexual activity on it, right?

A. No, you are never required to restrict your parcel to requiring either age verification or payment info. Those are entirely optional and left to your own discretion. They’re intended to allow you to exclude people you view as undesirable. Remember that many people outside the US (and even inside the US) can’t use the age verification services as they either don’t work with international credentials or are incomplete or incorrect regarding even US credentials.

Q. My parcel sells primarily non-adult items, but does sell some adult items as well.  Am I required to be in an Adult region?

A. No, you are only required to not have any Adult search terms in your parcel descriptions, or the items flagged as showing up in search (or in your classifieds).  If you’ve received a “your land has Adult keywords” mail from LL, look for objects that are set to be indexed by the search engine.  It’s easy miss some of these.

Q. My home is on Mature land but I have a sex bed inside, do I have to move to Adult land?

A. No, you only have to move to Adult land if your activities are in public or are publicly promoted.  What you do privately with someone (or someones) close to you is your own business (unless you make your walls transparent =p).

RESIDENT FAQ

Q. How do I become “adult verified” and gain access to regions that are rated Adult?

A. If it works for you, the easiest way is to age verify.  However, a significant minority in the US and many many people in other countries can not use this method due to the service provider’s database being incomplete or incorrect.  The other option is to add payment information to your account.  Please note that there is no need to actually spend any money.  Either you can add a debit or credit card to your account.  Or, if you have a verified PayPal account (this means you’ve associated a bank account or a credit card with the paypal account), you can use that as well.  I suggest you read the LL Article on this.

Q. I’ve been told that if I don’t become age verified that I won’t be able to access Adult rated content, is that true?

A. No, you only need to have payment information on file.  Some parcels do restrict access to people who aren’t age verified, but this has nothing to do with the mandatory Adult rating and has nothing to do with LL’s policies.  This is a restriction that is entirely the doing of the land owner.  The land owner may believe they had to, in which case I encourage you to point them at this FAQ.

Q. I can’t age verify or put payment info on file, what about me?

A. You’ll be stuck to Mature and PG regions then.  This certainly isn’t much of an excuse for anyone in the US, as age verification works for most people, and it’s hard to imagine a Second Life user who doesn’t have at least a bank account.  You may not feel comfortable giving your info to PayPal or Linden Labs, but that’s a “won’t” not a “can’t” issue.  You’ll have to balance your desire to have access to Adult regions against your distrust of these institutions.

[Edit: The Second Life Wiki has a good article with further details.  Help save more people the same confusion, vote for the jira ticket to remove the age-verified restriction on access. I also posted this to the official forums. Added discussion of the Mature Content flag. Put September 15th in the past.]

Summer rendered up a breathtakingly beautiful set of prim clothing. The whole set is color change, switching from gold to silver and back. From the really great sculpted boots to the gorgeous prim top and matching belt. The top can reveal your breasts and when doing so, can show sculpted prim nipples (made for our nipple clamps originally) if you choose.

The whole set can be swapped between glinting warm gold or cool soft silver, either per-piece via menus or for the whole set using a chat command.

What’s more it comes with delicate arm, wrist and ankle cuffs scripted for LockMeister and LockGuard, and a pretty jeweled collar in decorative and scripted (Open Collar) versions. And because we wear our clothes ourselves, when you’re wearing the boots (which can’t be worn with the ankle cuffs), you’ll find that the boots are also coded for LockGuard and LockMeister.

And while you’re visiting make sure you get one of the free belly jewels that match the rest of the set. They’ve got a fun little poofer and nicely accent your look.

Get it today from the naughty section of Summer Sim.

Summer and I have put together a fantastic set of nipple clamps. As you can see they look great, and have everything you’d expect from a nice scripted clamped nipples. This is what Summer wrote for our README:

Modeled after real clamps with photoreal textures and shadowing, these clamps were lovingly (and fearfully) crafted to be something for every day use.

There are a ton of options, so please read the notecard carefully (although they are all extremely simple and fast to use):

It comes with a couple of things beyond just the Nipple Clamps:

• Black and White handles. These are copy/trans so feel free to hand them out to anyone you might want to drag you around.
• A Leash Anywhere script that you can put in your own handle, or in posts or other things you want to be able to easily be chained to.

Just click your Nipple Clamps to bring up a menu.

• Options…
  • Only you can see your options.
  • Turn Off and Turn On access to your clamp. While access is off, only you will get a menu clicking on it.
  • Lighten and Darken the color of your nipples. By default it’s very very light, so darkening is probably a good idea.
  • Hide and Show Nipples, which will hide and show the nipples and the clamps, for those times you want to be a little more discreet.
  • Hide and Show Clamps, which will hide and show just the clamps.
• Chain…
  • If you’re wearing a LockMeister compatible handle, such as ours, or you’ve dropped our Leash Anywhere script into your own handle then the first option will be to be “Take Leash” which will attach it to your leash handle.
  • Next will be “Attach To…” which will let you leash to a nearby object with a Leash Anywhere script, or other Seale Sisters clamped nipples, clits or other products.
  • And finally there’ll be all the remaining nearby objects that have scripts in them. This let’s you be leashed to, for instance, objects with Xcite’s ChainAnywhere scripts or OpenCollar’s Leash Post script. This list can be quite long… use Next –> and <– Prev to move through it.
  • Our chain currently limits you to straying no more then five meters from what you’re chained to.
• Clamp, Soothe, Jiggle, etc
  These are some built in emotes that you and others can use.

Buy yourself a set at Summer Sim.

After much too much time, I’ve finally released by addon for poseballs, bondage equipment or anything else you sit on. It’s a little force-sitter script. Yes, there are some things like this out there already but this one is superior in a number of ways.

• This one is copy/notrans, which means with this single purchase you can setup all your stuff. The only other script based solution is nocopy/trans.
• This is a script, not a prim you plop down next your bondage equipment. Why does this matter? When your equipment has more then one thing for you to sit on, non-script solutions can’t help you.
• Money back, satisfaction guarantee– so it’s risk free to try and you know I’ll do what it takes to make things work for you.

You can pick one up today off of Xstreet SL or from the naughty spot on Summer Sim.

Just for fun, here’s my compitition, at least, that I’m aware of, and why I think I’m better then them:

• Restrained Life Adapter Script (force sit for furniture and toys) by Da5id Weatherwax.  He actually has two scripts, one with a touch menu, one that listens on /1 for the name of the object.  Both are nocopy/trans.  My scripts provide a handful of advantages.  First, they have support for both touch for menu and chat command for menu, just by changing their config.  Second, the menus I present show ONLY people with RLV.  His show everyone, making it hard to know if they’ll work at all.  His only force sit and keep you seated.  Mine can do anything RLV can do.
  His are only L$25, but you have to buy one for every poseball or prim you want to add RLV to suppor to, which can add up pretty quick. 
• Restrained life poseball RLV by Chucky Takacs.  It’s nocopy/trans, so again you have to buy one for every piece of bondage gear you want to setup.  It’s provided as a poseball that you can add an animation to and/or link into an existing piece of furniture.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t have raw animations lieing around, so it wasn’t that appealing to me.  What’s more, it puts more restrictions on then I would want, with no way to change them.  It stops you from getting away, yes, but it also blocks your inventory.  It’s advantages are owner lists and timers.  But the owner lists are per poseball so if you’re equipping a dungeon… and at L$299 it’s pretty pricy for single use.  I’ve not tried this so I can’t speak for if it lists only RLV capable victims or not.
• Dominatech RLV Controller 1.1.3 by Julia Banshee. This is a big ugly tower that you set near your prims.  It is, however, mod, so you can fix that.  it comes in a no-copy version for L$299 and a copy/no-trans version for L$899.  It’s menus show everyone and it can’t sit you on secondary sit targets, it can only put you on the root prim.
• NS Force Sitter 1.3 by Nano Siemens. This is a green button that functions like the Dominatech. It has some nice options for what conditions restrictions are released under.  However, it’s again can only sit people on the root prim.

So me and my online-sis Summer did our first joint project together.  She rendered a very good looking clit and a very mean looking clamp and I wrote a bunch of scripts to put it all together.  The result is, to the best of knowledge, the first clit clamp of its kind in SL.  We’re really excited both by how well the product came out and to be doing our first joint project together.  We expect to have many more. =) 

Come on over to Summer’s unbelievably cool Summer Sim and get one for yourself or your friends. =p  While you’re there, join our Hippogroup to learn about future stuff in this product line. =)

Or, if you’d rather, you can get it off of Xstreet SL née SLX.

I scripted most of it in a day, but it took a week to get all the kinks and final details worked out of it.  Making a dialog based menu system that supports any number of pages turns out to be a real pain in the butt. =p  But I’ve got one now and can pretty painlessly use it wherever I want. =)  What’s more, this finally made me actually go and implement LockGuard and LockMeister support for the first time.  Not something that’s very hard, but good to have done.