Sidewinder Linden has updated us on the status of the Havok 4.6 physics test on the Second Life Beta Grid (Aditi). Included is the news that Aditi has been updated today with a fresh code drop.

We've listed the changes below the fold, linked to their JIRA entries, where possible. The public JIRA has been having some difficulties this evening, however, so be prepared to be patient.

Today's release candidate doesn't seem to be winning a lot of hearts and minds out there today. The public JIRA issue tracker is accumulating problem reports, many of which seem - just darn peculiar.

Aside from crashes, virtually all of them seem to be related to the user-interface, and new ways in which it behaves (or misbehaves). On the Second Life development mailing list of late, there has increasing discussion of scrapping the existing user-interface code (which is tangled up in, well, everything) and changing to something more modular and discrete.

At present, as the complaints go, the user-interface code and some of the back-end code have become such an organic tangle that it is difficult to change one without affecting the other, and that some theoretically simple user-facing changes have become monstrously involved.

That appears to be the sort of thing we are seeing here. Changes that should be quite straightforward causing an extensive tangle of dependencies and concomitant unexpected issues.

Over on the official blog is a long, and rather confusing, post about the new release candidate and the new search it is starting to build up.

Search is well and truly borked of course, and this new system should give a better set of search results.

However, when it talks about new checkboxes it doesn't mean in preferences or in search - they're scattered around - there's one in the Edit>General tab, there's one in your profile, one in groups, and probably more. These will lead to things being included in the search tool, and, according to the pictures on the blog a much nicer set of search results to come (once it's all been ironed out and implemented).

There is also a new lag-meter. It flicks rather randomly - my client seems to drop into the amber when I'm sitting still in a skybox with nothing else running - ping times across the Atlantic to the West Coast obviously flick into danger warning territory, but it's a nice touch if in need of some fine tuning.

Builders will also note the new layout of both the general tab and the top part of the edit window... bit sure why it's been looked at, but I think this bit will grow on me.

With the upcoming OS X release called Leopard, Mac users like myself are getting all revved up to install the latest iteration of the lovely kitty. To whet our appetites even further, Apple's released a Guided Tour, available here. I downloaded it and began drooling almost immediately, but I stopped long enough to notice something when the presented demoed Stacks.

Take another look at what's in that folder: it's the SecondLife.pkg! I'm enough of a freak to begin speculating immediately. Will Apple and LL announce some sort of partnership soon? Will we get some nice new OpenGL drivers to fix the horrible stuttery framerates? Will Steve-O finally put an Apple Store in SL? Write in with your wild ideas!

Attentive reader gschultz (which in my mind sounds like a sneeze) sends in this rather more neutral, or possibly even positive take on SL from Diesel Sweeties.

I do like the idea that she'll be in SL with her last breath, alternately blogging on the bog and dancing in some club somewhere. And by 'dancing', I mean ... well, regular readers of Diesel Sweeties know what Maura usually gets up to. Actually, this is probably more mudslinging, come to think of it. DS is thick with irony and scorn. And we wouldn't have it any other way.

(Thanks, gschultz!)

Yesterday, some discussion sprang up on the metered vs unmetered status of Second Life bandwidth to Big Pond users. Telstra/BigPond is Australia's largest ISP, and for a variety of largely historical and political reasons, bandwidth in Australia is metered - essentially charged by the number of bytes received (this is the case in more countries than not). That makes any site or service that is unmetered unbearably attractive to local Internet users.

Due to some confusion with conflicting statements on the Big Pond website about what is and is not metered bandwith insofar as Second Life is concerned, we contacted the Big Pond staff to get a definitive answer, and got one quite promptly.

This might be of peripheral interest to most of you, for which I'm sorry. However, for those of you that use ambient sound effects, it just might be a godsend. Soundsnap offer a range of sound effects and loops for you to freely use including in commercial ventures - the sound effects and loops personally recorded by the contributer and added to the library - and they offer you the chance to do the same.

I've had a bit of a dig through, and there's quite a range of effects there. Being hard of hearing I'm not always the best placed person to judge quality, and in this case the aesthetics are in the ear of the beholder of course, but there are some things I can hear and they sound pretty good to me - they should, as many are recorded by film and TV audio engineers.

(Thanks to John from Soundsnap for the tip.)

Sharp-eyed reader KMeist Hax has spotted a grid of telehubs far to the north of everything. When selected, the text reads 'CSINY Orientation Island East, with coordinates. It's all there for you to see, but teleports are blocked, of course. Are you excited yet?

While I missed Mr. Zuiker's keynote speech at the Virtual Worlds Conference in San Jose, I have to say I was impressed with the short clip that I saw. At least one of the characters of the show is willing to defend SL, when so many other shows denigrate it. Mr. Zuiker also has had a hand in the experience awaiting us all on the CSI sim, which sounds as though you'll be helping the characters in the show track down the killer. I'm willing to believe. Let's keep our eyes open.

(Thanks, KMeist!)

Yesterday in Second Life we:

• Spent US$1,073,000 at an exchange rate of L$268.5 to US$1
• Exchanged US$222,000 at an average of US$9,300.0 per hour.
• Market buys were US$139,000
• Market sales were US$82,000
• Limit-limit buys were US$1,900
• The busiest time was at 6pm when about US$23,000 was exchanged.
• The quietest time was 7am when about US$0 was exchanged.

Again with the 7am glitch...

Today in Second Life we had:

• 22,582 new signups bringing us to 10,156,250 signups total.
• A peak concurrency of 46,986 at 1:35PM, and a minimum concurrency of 27,357 at 1:25AM. Median concurrency for the day was 37,520.
• The Grid Stability Index for the day was 1.34 (lower is better).
• Benjamin Duranske discovered some concerning issues in the Movable Life Terms of Service.
• The Second Life Support Portal was unavailable for approximately an hour due to authentication issues.
• Telstra/BigPond expanded operations in Second Life.
• A new Second Life site for the book/film Thursday's Fictions.
• Maybe Diesel Sweeties loves Second Life. Or maybe they're being ironic. Who can tell?
• Some minor asset server confusions late last night and this-morning, along with some Lindex woes.

Benjamin Duranske of Virtually Blind has drilled down on the Movable Life client's Terms of Service. We gave an overview of the Movable Life client here. Duranske observes that the Terms of Service for Movable Life appear to have some problematic terms with respect to intellectual property.

6.2 Intellectual Property Rights. You acknowledge and agree that 3Di and/or its Affiliates retain the sole and exclusive right, title, and interest in and to the Intellectual Property Rights in this Site, the Movable Life Services, Site Code and Site Contents and all copies thereof, in whole and in part. All ideas, techniques, inventions, systems, formulae, discoveries, technical information, programs, prototypes, and similar developments (the "Developments") developed, created, discovered, made, written, or obtained by you in the course of or as a direct or indirect result of accessing or using this Site and/or Movable Life Services, and all related industrial property, copyrights, patent rights, trade secrets, and other forms of protection thereof, shall be and remain the property of 3Di, and/or its Affiliates. You agree to execute or cause to be executed such assignments and applications, registrations, and other documents and to take such other action as may be requested by 3Di and/or its Affiliate to enable them to protect their rights to any such Developments. [Emphasis by Duranske]

It's the sort of boilerplate you find forgotten in many contracts - but it is a nasty surprise to find it there - Concievably it might not be intentional, though if it is that would be quite rude. Go check out what Duranske has to say on the matter.

Always read the fine print.

Linden Lab's third-party enabled Support Portal failed, by all reports at approximately 8:35PM SLT (US Pacific time). It is not allowing users to authenticate to lodge or submit support tickets. Only the Guest Login option seems to be working and that has very limited access.

No response from Linden Lab acknowledging the problem at this time.

[Update: 9:05PM - Linden Lab acknowledges the problem]

[Update: 9:45PM - The Support Portal appears to be working again]

Major Australian Internet Service Provider Telstra/Bigpond has expanded their already large Second Life presence, The Pond. Formerly weighing in at 11 sims, The Pond has expanded to 13, adding Pondagon and Pondi Beach.

Pondagon is designated for residential rentals (since The Pond opened up a rentals program a few months ago, it has proven to be very successful). Approximately half the lots in Pondagon were leased in the first 12 hours. Currently rentals in Pondagon are only open to members of the Friends of The Pond group, but that will open up shortly.

The Pond's three orientation sims have been converted to also support some rental-commercial plots, although at a slightly higher cost than residential.

Pondi Beach doesn't officially open until the beginning of December, so we'll be hearing more about that soon, along with additional plans for expansion.

When a woman named Thursday finds out she is going to be reincarnated as Tuesday, her attempt to cheat the cycle of reincarnation unleashes a terrible beauty that leaves the other days of the week in turmoil.

Thursday's Fictions, a 52 minute surreal dance fantasy film with Edwardian Gothic stylings, has won three awards, has been a finalist for four more (and the book for the Kenneth Slessor Prize), and is tonight a finalist for "Best Experimental" at the 2007 Enhance TV ATOM Awards, taking place in the Plaza Ballroom, Regent Theatre, Collins St in Melbourne, Australia.

Thursday's Fictions is not only available on DVD (USA, Australia/NZ, UK/Europe/Asia) - you can experience some of the magic in Second Life as well, as constructed by The Project Factory's Gary Hazlitt. There is also a trailer to whet your appetite for the experience, though it may not be suitable for work, including artistically contextualised partial nudity.

The still image you see above doesn't do the place justice. Turn the sound on, and walk through the place. Experience it first-hand and in motion.