LSL control of materials available for beta testing

Things moved faster than I expected. So, Maestro Linden announced in last night’s Server Beta meeting that Simon Linden’s work for LSL control of materials (normal and specular maps) is now available for testing on Aditi (the beta grid). The regions allocated for testing are roller-test102 and roller-test103, both on channel DRTSIM-253. They both have the server-side scripting support. I will remind you again that the SLurls are on Aditi. Of course, this is all a beta testing stage, so everything is work-in-progress, and the Lab itself is testing these new capabilities.

Liara Okiddo’s “The Botanique”. Observe the raindrops on the stone pavement; normal maps are used, besides the diffuse (texture) maps, and they are animated for a truly exquisite effect – provided, of course, that your graphics card can handle it. Click on the image for a larger version. Original image by Liara Okiddo.

You can find more information on the Wiki page of the Server Beta User Group. I provide the details below as well.

LSL control of materials on its way

UPDATE: Inara Pey reported that Maestro Linden announced the availability of Simon Linden’s work for LSL control of materials on Aditi (the Beta grid). Things have indeed moved faster than I expected, so I’m updating the post accordingly. Anyway, the regions available for testing are roller-test102 and roller-test103, both on channel DRTSIM-253. For more information on testing these capabilities, which are still under development, as well as information on known issues, please read Inara’s post.

This is hardly breaking news, as Inara Pey has already covered the recent developments in her blog; I wanted to post about this, but I was really swamped with RL and this kept me. At any rate, here’s the (belated) low-down.

On Intellectual Property, Stupidity and Paranoia

In Real Life, we have all witnessed the paranoia and even maliciousness of the corporations that “create content”: from the likes of Kluwer and Elsevier to the companies behind such organizations as the RIAA, the IFPI and the MPAA, they have all been going on about how “piracy kills music”, about how even a single photocopy that a student might make of a single page of a scientific book “hurts their business” and “deters innovation” and such.

Of course, as proven multiple times by such great resources as TechDirt and Ars Technica, this is all bullshit. Pure and utter bullshit. First of all, the RIAA has been proven to be lying off its teeth about the supposed impact of piracy. Matthew Lasar of Ars Technica called the RIAA on its lies here. TechDirt debunked the bogus data of the US Chamber of Commerce (fabricated at the request of the “content industry”) here. Even the (overly) conservative Cato Institute called the copyright industry on its bullshit, in a seminal article titled “How Copyright Industries Con Congress“.