Strict No Machinima Policy Eyed By City Council

Mayor supports new privacy laws.

The Bay City council has been discussing the current machinima policy that allows people to create machinima in our Fine City. After several video directors created machinima in our Fine City there has been a call from fractions to tighten the current policy only allowing to make machinima after consent from the land owners.

They motivate this policy change with the argument that machinima can invade the privacy of people and homes and that machinima creators make profits from house and landowners.

They proposed a contract between the citizen and the machinima creator before machinima is made. In that contract it should be made clear what percentage of profit will flow towards the citizen.

Without a contract machinima creators should defer making machinima at that place.

As expected the Mayor supports the implementation of such strict rules.

During the discussions between the different fractions it became clear that a policy change is only possible after implementing a city wide covenant for all the regions with the help and support of city workers.

After long lasting elaborations it was decided not to change the current policy. To change it would be nearly impossible.

Right after the council meeting the mayor was asked what the consequences would be.

"I'll have to remove my toys" was the reply as the mayor quickly moved away from the microphone.

Shortly after this explosions were heard.

More information about the machinima policy can be found here.

This article might have been inspired by the image of the Bay City Post in one of Draxtor his videos.

Reporter Vick Forcella

20200708

Police and Fire Blotter

June 12th

Bay City Police and Fire responded to reports of an accident along Route 66 after traffic was backed up for regions. After arriving on scene, the First Responders discovered the backup to be caused by a massive flock of seagulls. Police discovered that a resident had mistakenly tried to feed a single seagull, and was not prepared for the onslaught of the rest of the flock from the Bay.

June 20th

A team from the Sansara National Guard was seen inspecting the Lollercoaster at the Hairy Hippo Fun Land after receiving reports of the ride being dangerous. City officials declined to comment, though an anonymous source cited regular testing using Moles.

June 27th

Bay City Police encountered several individuals who were seen impersonating police officers. An undercover BCPD officer followed the suspects from a distance, though lost track of them when they crossed into Nova Albion. It is believed that the suspects may be related to the incident with another impersonator during the Bay City Anniversary. The investigation is still ongoing.

June 27th

During a routine patrol, a Bay City Coast Guard helicopter experienced engine trouble. The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing at the Bay City Municipal Aeroport. The Bay City Fire Department quickly responded, and was able to extinguish the engine fire before any avatars were harmed. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

BCCG helicopter on fire after emergency landing

 

Reporter Thomas Hooker

20200708

Our Emperor Needs A Face

Michael the First, Emperor of Bay City, also known as Emperor Michael, also known as Michael the Moleman, also known as Your Highness, has so far shown that his heart is in the right place with his statements and proclamations.

Since his crowning he has called for the abolishment of security orbs and ban lines, he ordered the installation of public safety shelters, he reached out to the city workers Xiola and Strawberry, he shared his worry about the Arch District, he expressed his care about the Bellisseria community and he loudly requested (nearly demanded) to receive a Bellisseria content pack.

I have yet to meet a citizen of our Fine City that doesn't have feelings about Emperor Michael I. Most have met this scruffy man with his feathered hat, scribbling his lists, listening to upset citizens, selling prim boxes, smelling like an open sewer.

Despite him being well known he manages to evade the equipment to make snapshots. Even distant methods to make a snapshots have so far been unsuccessful.
No idea how he does that.

Since so many have seen him, since we have in our Fine City so many talented creators, I call upon the citizens to send me an artist impression of Emperor Michael the First.

Your sketch/ painting/ drawing will be used for future publications about Emperor Michael the First in your favourite newspaper, the Bay City Post.

Since it is quite hard to motivate volunteers to do something I (Vick) will personally donate L$10.000 to Child's Play (through our local Bay Resident) in the name of the artist that makes the best impression of Emperor Michael the First.

Send me your artwork! vickforcella (at) gmail -dot- com

If your artwork is chosen you will receive eternal bragging rights and will become absolutely famous, since it will appear here in your newspaper with almost each publication about Michael I.
Small print. If you send your artwork you know the above and agree with it.

Send in your artwork! Give Michael I a face.

Reporter Vick Forcella

20200708

Bay City Cruis'n

Some days I think to myself, "I need a new car."

Which is usually followed by, "I need a new car?"

After a bit of back and forth in this manner I typically give in and wander about "window shopping" to see what is available.

What's on the other side of these windows?

Who: sumire Papp
What: SUMI Vehicles
Where: Bay City - Mashpee
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bay%20City%20-%20Mashpee/74/123/25

Two wheels. Three wheels. Four wheels. Amphibious. Somewhat military. I like the Boogie Buggy the most.

The manufacturer promises high quality, low land impact and smooth cross-border performance.

And there's a rezzer for test drives, along with a small cafe in the back so you can have a place to calmly decide which vehicle suits you.

The SUMI Vehicles cafe provides mostly donuts. However, I was looking for something else to help my thought process. What's this nearby? Ah, just the thing!

Who: Naughty Mole
What: Talpa's Ice Creams
Where: Bay City - Mashpee
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bay%20City%20-%20Mashpee/73/154/25

This is an LDPW (Linden Department of Public Works) municipal structure, providing vital services to our fair city.

Vital ... I could not agree more ... Banana Sundae, Raspberry Ripple, Strawberry Surprise ... Mint Chocolate Chip. Sold!

That's it for this cruise through Bay City.

I hope to see you on the road. Happy motoring!

Reporter Dakota Schwade

20200708

CEF, New Media, and Old Videos

Recently (June 23rd), the Linden viewer released with an important update to "CEF" - the Chromium Embedded Framework that's used for viewing web pages and -- crucially -- media. At the time of writing, only the Linden viewer has this support, but third party viewers will likely adopt this feature very soon.

Support for the new CEF version first surfaced in a project viewer that used streaming media for the Adult Swim "The Shivering Truth" event, in May.

But there are broader benefits of the enhanced media support. Notably, other video services and formats are now supported that before would give a blank screen (at best). One such service is Vimeo, fairly widely used in entertainment and, specific to SL, the home of an exhaustive archive of old Designing Worlds videos that were once hosted by Treet TV.

Unlocking these Vimeo-based archives needs a bit of tweaking on in-world video players. It's actually possible to play these videos on either "Shared Media" surfaces (aka "Media on a Prim") or Parcel Media. Both will use a custom URL that embeds Vimeo's proprietary streaming player to see the video directly instead of a web page surrounding the player. The basic player URL is offered as a way to "Share" the video from the regular Vimeo web page, but there are a lot of confusing options. What I've found to work best is to copy the number in the Vimeo webpage URL (call that VIMEO_NUMBER), and splice it into an address as follows:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/VIMEO_NUMBER?autoplay=1&loop=1

which sets it to autoplay and loop by default. (Note the "player" in that address.)

Both Shared and Parcel media also face a quirk of the Vimeo player: it displays the video in the center 56.25% of the vertical surface texture - a huge "letterbox" effect. To get around this, a script can scale the texture to stretch out that strip to span the whole height of the surface, or you can do this manually in the editor. (To get a black letterbox, include "&transparent=0" in the URL.)

When presented in Shared Media, the user can interact directly with the viewer by clicking on it (or using the keyboard with the surface selected), so you'll likely want to turn off the Shared Media control options that hover above the display. Unlike Shared Media, Parcel media has no means of interacting directly with the viewer, so using "&controls=0" will hide the Vimeo player scrollbars, etc. (Some Parcel media players have their own controls, *some* of which will operate the Vimeo player stream.)

Here's a little script that does what's described here for both Shared and Parcel media, using a couple different Designing Worlds episodes of personal interest.

==================

Vimeo Media Script

==================

string VIMEO_NUMBER = "427716338";
integer MEDIA_FACE = 1;
mediaError(integer num)
{
list MEDIA_ERRORS =
[ STATUS_MALFORMED_PARAMS, "Function was called with malformed parameters"
, STATUS_TYPE_MISMATCH, "Argument(s) passed to function had a type mismatch"
, STATUS_BOUNDS_ERROR, "Argument(s) passed to function had a bounds error"
, STATUS_NOT_FOUND, "Object or other item was not found"
, STATUS_NOT_SUPPORTED, "Feature not supported"
, STATUS_INTERNAL_ERROR, "An internal error occurred"
, STATUS_WHITELIST_FAILED, "Whitelist Failed"
];
llWhisper(DEBUG_CHANNEL, "Shared media error encountered: "
+ llList2String(MEDIA_ERRORS, llListFindList(MEDIA_ERRORS, [num])+1));
}
default
{
state_entry()
{
integer errNum = llClearLinkMedia(LINK_THIS, MEDIA_FACE);
if (errNum)
{
mediaError(errNum);
return;
}
string html = "https://player.vimeo.com/video/"
+ VIMEO_NUMBER
+ "?autoplay=1&loop=1";?
llScaleTexture(1.0, 0.5625, MEDIA_FACE);
errNum = llSetLinkMedia(LINK_THIS, MEDIA_FACE,
[ PRIM_MEDIA_AUTO_PLAY, TRUE
, PRIM_MEDIA_CURRENT_URL, html
, PRIM_MEDIA_HOME_URL, html
, PRIM_MEDIA_PERMS_CONTROL, PRIM_MEDIA_PERM_NONE
]);
if (errNum)
mediaError(errNum);
// parcel
// return; // to prevent setting PARCEL media
html = "https://player.vimeo.com/video/"
+ "375405889"
+ "?autoplay=1&loop=1&controls=0&transparent=0";
llParcelMediaCommandList([ PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_STOP]);
llParcelMediaCommandList([ PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_UNLOAD]);
llParcelMediaCommandList(
[ PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_URL, html
, PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_TYPE, "text/html"
]);
llParcelMediaCommandList([ PARCEL_MEDIA_COMMAND_PLAY]);
}
}

==================

All the scripted operations can be done manually, too, and may work in existing in-world media players. Note that a parcel media script must be owned by the landowner, so on group owned land it must be deeded to the group. And remember that you'll need a viewer supporting the CEF updates to actually watch the videos.

Reporter Qie Niangao

20200708

SL17B Bay City

Vacationland: Bay City
Your destination for fun, community, exploration, shopping, role-play. Come see what the Best City by the Bay has to offer!
Dedicated to the memory of Uccello Poultry, forEver.
Created by Pygar Bu and Marianne McCann
with contributions by various residents of Bay City (see images).

Bay City is represented by a bus station, as the beginning of a journey towards Bay City. Residents describe the reasons why people must/ should visit Bay City.

You can read about the SL16B contribution here.

Reporter Vick Forcella

20200708

SL17B Virtual Escape

Virtual Escape
SL is a getaway to meet up with friends or make new friends from around the world. At times like this, we are bombarded daily with stress and bad news.
Choose positivity ~ choose SecondLife
Created by Aurie Elton

Aurie gives a personal description of what Second Life does to her.
Shown is a generic house, transparent, we can look inside.
There stands a TV showing pictures of the confused world of today. Dark thoughts hover, in a random way, around the TV in the form of spheres.
dark, stress, loneliness, despair, fear, anxiety, bullying, illness, poverty

Next is a computer running Second Life.
On an even pane coloured thoughts hover around it
colours, togetherness, diversity, creativity, humour, love, friendship, hope, respect of the earth

From the computer comes a strong beam ending in two arms and hands that hold the world that emits a rainbow.

Reporter Vick Forcella

20200708

SL17B Rocket City

Rocket City
Rocket City is a G-rated community that's safe and welcoming to everyone. It's run by a group of furries, but it's welcome to anyone and everyone.
Created by Bunny Mickley (Bunny Halberd) and Erika Fuzzbottom (Erika Wemyss)

We have seen Rocket City last year at SL16B.
This year the contribution of Rocket City is more laid back. A campfire and some logs around it. Oh, and a rocket.
Beware, there can be dragons! (friendly beasts)

Reporter Vick Forcella

20200708

Where Could Dakota Be?

The question is easy!

Where could Dakota be?

Send your answers and bribes to the usual addresses.

Last time we asked this question there was only one good answer and one that is also good...

Who: Ben Linden, Glamorous Mole, Michael Linden, Smokey Mole
What: Bay City Municipal Wading Pool
Where: Bay City - Morton
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bay%20City%20-%20Morton/201/196/25

Where: Bay City - Maddequet
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bay%20City%20-%20Maddequet/201/196/25

Two locations, the result of the 2011 merger of Bay City with the Teen Grid version of Bay City.

Courtesy of the Linden Department of Public Works. Ahoy there!

The slightly more correct answer, by a few inch, the placing of the tube, was Morton as identified by our sleuth Tish.

The tubes were placed on request by Uccie many moons ago.

Reporter Dakota Schwade

20200708

Epilogue

If you talk about Bellisseria the discussion often moves towards mainland and the (lack of) attention it receives from Linden Lab.
After a number of discussions about this it becomes time to say it out loud.

Linden Lab has stopped caring for the mainland.

In the olden days, not so long ago, moles were working on improving the mainland in various ways.

They dived into the deep seas to plant weeds and set free fish. They set out routes and build an infra-structure increasing the value of the attached land. Regions appeared at places where SL sailing was difficult.

What's that with mainland?

Mainland *is* Second Life!

Mainland makes from Second Life a World! A world to explore and discover. It gives dimension, width and length. It allows people to own part of the world by buying a plot of land. It is a place to meet random people. 

Mainland can be explored, by boat, car or airplane. Try doing that on a sim.

Linden Lab and the moles used to improve things. fill a void, make it better. Make it worth exploring.

The emptiness of mainland is probably because Linden Lab has forgotten about it. They want the BIG spenders that want an expensive sim and if you can't afford a sim you have to go to Bellisseria, the poor peoples refuge.

It appears as if Linden Lab wants people to move out of mainland and move them to Bellisseria, since that is what is happening. Mainland becomes more and more a wasteland. Empty. Home for grievers.

I bet there are hundreds of completely empty mainland regions. Completely empty. Not a single prim.
Empty is empty is dead.

Long time ago at a beach I knew well, there suddenly were beach chairs, a surfboard, and a cooler with drinks. Oh, and a rezzone. Just like that. Nobody asked for it but it was suddenly there. Making that beach alive.

Editor Vick Forcella

Mainland is loved by so many, except by Linden Lab and I am so sad about that.

It is even so that some fear to talk about this. They feel forced to cheer and applaud the moles and Linden Lab.Fear to express critique about mainland.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Bellisseria, I love it. But mainland is ignored and forgotten by the moles and Linden Lab. Those that claim that Bellisseria is mainland, try and buy land at Bellisseria and build a house there.

Now that I have this heavy load of my chest, thank you for reading the Bay City Post.
Send your love towards your reporters that made it possible, Thomas, Dakota, Qie and Marianne. Some love for me would be nice too. Thank you.

Editor Vick Forcella

20200708