A New Computer

By Bixyl Shuftan

Yours truly recently got a new computer, the fourth I've used to get on Second Life. When I first logged on Second Life in December 2006, it was with a PC I'd gotten used a few years earlier. Getting on Second Life and the games I was playing at the time was slow. So I decided to try to add some memory to it, and ended up frying the machine. So like it or not, time to get a new machine. As computers at the time were not being sold with the reliable version of Windows I knew but Vista, which was getting friends and family alike frustrated, it was time to go "back to Mac." So I got an iMac, and that was the computer I would get to know Second Life with, and experience to about November 2013.

As time went on, Second Life would be updated again and again. And my viewer began to slow down and freeze a bit. By Fall 2013, things were getting to the point the viewer would pause in the middle of my typing a sentence. So I began looking for a new computer. As Macs were more expensive and Vista had long been replaced by more reliable versions of Windows, in this case Windows 7, I decided to look for a PC, one with a good graphics card. Windows 8 was coming out, but someone I knew whose machine ran on it was having trouble to the point the computer froze up and couldn't be saved. So when I found one, a Cybertron Power PC, I made sure it had Windows 7 installed. The machine arrived in November, and my Second Life experience was back to normal. I could also start playing more of the games my Second Life friends were playing.

All was mostly well for a while, aside from the computer needing to be taken to the shop a few times, and once my screenshots vanishing (later recovered them). Then late one evening in early August, the computer finally died. There wasn't much of a warning other than the viewer acting slower and crashing more, though it wasn't nearly as slow as the last couple months I was using the Mac. Fortunately, the hard drive was still good (I had backed up my most important files anyway). Also, with Microsoft about to abandon support for Windows 7, I had been giving some thought to getting a new machine soon anyway. But like it or now, I needed to get one now.

What I wanted was another machine that would serve me well for years. I recalled a friend who got a new machine, only to find Second Life actually ran *slower* on it than her computer that was several years old. So I talked to a few friends as well as checking the recommended system requirements on secondlife.com. I soon came across a Dell Inspiron Gaming Desktop. What got my attention was the NVIDIA GTX graphics card and 8 gigabytes of RAM to cut down on the lag. Plus it was on sale. I ordered it, and after several days it was ready to pickup.

I was soon back in business, and my Firestorm viewer was running much faster than on my old machine. Maxing out my viewing distance at 1064m, I didn't have to wait nearly as long as before to wait for everything to rezz. Highly complex avatars nearby didn't slow me down like they had been recently. I've enabled shadows to appear in my screenshots, at least for now. As for games, they load faster, and I'm able to play at better resolutions. I should note I still crash occasionally, and TP fails seem to be occurring a bit more than usual, though the latter could just be SL being a bit buggier than usual with the latter.

So here's to more years of going about Second Life and occasional gaming. Hopefully I won't need another machine for a very long time.

Bixyl Shuftan

Commentary: "Second Rife"

From Becky Shamen

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sunweaver%20Bay/69/119/32

On Saturday, March 1st, Josh attended the SL Newser's staff meeting and announced that he and Sha had discovered a grand new adventure, a "mission impossible", as they say, and they had accepted it as their new course. We were given Hobdon's choice. For years, we had said, "Heaven is for Heroes", so when we saw the line drawn in the sand, we put on our armor and stepped over.

The History
Few people in SL know that the man behind Josh and Sha is, in RL, a well known Scientist/Philosopher, with over 40 years of hands on experience with technologies, which even today are only guessed at by the majority of the world. I can't tell you what things I know, but if you knew what those things were, you would understand why, even my own family does not know the extent of it. Now, at this point, you might be thinking that I'm just writing science fiction, to sell more newspapers, and that's OK with me, because, well, that's my job. Keep reading.

Return with us now, to the 1930's. There were no personal computers or calculators. If you wanted to crunch some numbers, you either used a pencil and paper, a slide rule or an adding machine, that had gears inside and a hand crank, like a slot machine. The most powerful optical microscopes could not see a virus, unless it was killed and stained.

Then, along comes;

Royal Raymond Rife

 

 (from Wikipedia) Royal Raymond Rife (May 16, 1888 – August 5, 1971) was an American inventor and early exponent of high-magnification time-lapse cine-micrography. In the 1930s, he claimed that by using a specially designed optical microscope, he could observe microbes which were too small to visualize with previously existing technology. Rife also reported that a 'beam ray' device of his invention could weaken or destroy the pathogens by energetically exciting destructive resonances in their constituent chemicals.

Rife's claims could not be independently replicated, and were ultimately discredited by the medical profession in the 1950s. Rife blamed the scientific rejection of his claims on a conspiracy involving the American Medical Association (AMA), the Department of Public Health, and other elements of "organized medicine", which had "brainwashed" potential supporters of his devices.

Interest in Rife's claims was revived in some alternative medical circles by the 1987 book The Cancer Cure That Worked, which claimed that Rife had succeeded in curing cancer, but that his work was suppressed by a powerful conspiracy headed by the AMA. After this book's publication, a variety of devices bearing Rife's name were marketed as cures for diverse diseases such as cancer and AIDS. An analysis by Electronics Australia found that a typical 'Rife device' consisted of a nine-volt battery, wiring, a switch, a timer and two short lengths of copper tubing, which delivered an "almost undetectable" current unlikely to penetrate the skin. Several marketers of other 'Rife devices' have been convicted for health fraud, and in some cases cancer patients who used these devices as a replacement for medical therapy have died. Rife devices are currently classified as a subset of radionics devices, which are generally viewed as pseudomedicine by mainstream experts.

 

 Our stand on this is that we want to know the truth. When two parties give opposite reports of what is the truth, it's a safe bet that one, or both, are not telling the truth. We want to know the truth and will not blindly follow what either side presents. You cannot give knowledge. It must be gained, on an individual level, by creating a hypothesis and testing it for yourself, When the homework is done, then and only then, you can say you KNOW the truth.

We know, from experience, that a single seeker will often have obstacles thrown in their path, by those that don't want the truth known. There is safety in numbers and there are many in SL that would like to see an end to cancer and other diseases. With this in mind, we have started a new SL group, called "Second Rife". The motto of the group is, "There is a cure'. This does not mean we have or know the cure, only that we think it possible that Rife's theories might be something worth experimenting with. The group and it's members seek to [1] learn all we can about the theory and tests done by others, [2] buy or build Rife machines, to conduct our own tests and [3] inform the public of our findings, so they might become interested and add their own research to the mix.

 

We began by finding out how to start a new group in SL. Then Josh created the group and invited Sha in, as a co-founder. The two then began sending group invites to their friends.

For the last few months, Due to a growing lag problem at ground level, our home had been moved to a skybox, above the property Sha rents on Sunweaver Bay. To help make the project more public, she put her house back on the hill top, leaving only a small platform 1000 meter above it, which we both set as "home".

 

Josh created a group logo and began reading everything he could find on the internet. Sha bought a group joiner and donations kiosk and began furnishing the house to make it a good place for people to gather and chat. This project will take her a few more weeks, the end result being a peaceful environment, conducive to creative thinking. The house is opened to the public.

 

Becky "Sha" Shamen

 

Disclaimer: Rife's machines have not been documented to work by any mainstream publication.

A New Computer

By Bixyl Shuftan

In Spring 2007, shortly before I began going to Second Life on a regular basis, I was in need of a new machine. At the time, new PCs were coming with not the fairly reliable version of Windows at the time, but Vista. I'd knew it both by it's reputation, in addition to someone I knew who had the misfortune of getting the relatively new system. And it was buggy as heck. It was clearly released before the bugs were worked out, resulting in the joke of early users being known as "gamma testers."

"Vista is the best advertising Mac has," people joked. And it was more than just a joke. I'd grown up with an Apple 2 in the house, and with "Beastia" making computer users tear their hair out, it was time to go "back to Mac." So going to the local Apple place, got an iMac. It was faster than the PC I'd been using, both on World of Warcraft and Second Life. And this was the machine that I began as a reporter inworld, and then editor.

But over time, Second Life was updated, as well as other things across the Internet. The new kind of official viewers didn't work so well, and neither did the later versions of Phoenix and then Firestorm. And after server-side baking, things began to slow up more. I was eventually at the point the viewer would freeze momentarily in the middle of me typing a sentence.

So after more than six years, it was becoming clear I was in need of a new computer if I wanted to go about inworld without trouble. So over time, I began saving up for one, one with a better graphics card so lag would be less of a problem. In short, I needed a "gamer PC," which would cost more. And as a blue-collar worker in real life with a mortgage, getting the money would take time. It's no wonder to me why many Second Life users continue to cling to old machines rather than get something new.

One catch, I'd need to have the old Windows 7 installed as Windows 8 was having problems not unlike Vista. The person who'd talked to me about his seemingly endless problems with "Beastia" some years before had recently gotten a computer with the new Windows. And once again, he'd gotten burned. After a few months of use, the machine locked up, and the local computer shop couldn't save it. He had to get another.

It took some time to save the money, but eventually, I got my new computer. My celebration had to wait though as the first one I got didn't work. Sending it back to get a new one would take about a week and a half. But once the new machine was hooked up to the Internet, I was in business.

I'd had experience with using PCs at the workplace, plus when I owned one a few years before. So I didn't have as much of a "culture shock" as a Mac owner. Connecting into Second Life, the results were a big improvement. The annoying "chat lag" was gone, at least the other kind I was getting. And the scenery loaded faster. For instance, when dropping by at Luskwood on the older computer, the appearance of the place and avatars could take twenty minutes to load. Dropping by on the new one, everything and everyone could be clearly seen less than five minutes. World of Warcraft also ran a bit faster, though not as big a difference. As time went on, the differences weren't always as big as my first look at Luskwood with the Gamer PC, but they remained better.

So my Second Life experience was saved. Not sure how much longer it could have gone on with the older machine. A number of friends have taken an interest in Inworldz, which happens to have less of a lag problem than Second Life, and my older computer can handle the place okay. So it's possible I'd end up spending more time there.

And since it's a PC, some of my virtual neighbors have been asking me to join them in "World of Tanks," "War Thunder," and other MMOs that require a machine with Windows to run. So will be joining them some, and I just might write a review on a few.

It's not completely without problems. I'll still crash with it once in a while. Curiously, I'll crash while going about on InWorldz with it, while on the Mac I seldom do. Some friends tell me unless the graphics card is just right, Second Life may have some issues with it. Guess you can't win them all.

As for the iMac, I'll still be using it. It's better with editing screenshots than the PC is, such as lightening up a screenshot that's too dark, or cropping someone's text. And as I mentioned, it can handle Inworldz just fine. So I'll still be using it. Although it can't run Second Life without stalling from lag, the old machine still has plenty of life left. But unless the PC is down for a few days with a problem, chances are when you see me, I'll be using the new PC.

Bixyl Shuftan