I just discovered that I had swapped the IDs for the Heavy Metal Tall and Heavy Metal Slim Collars. So nobody could update having those two models :(  I’m not sure how long this has been going on, but if you have tried to update in the past, and couldn’t get it to start, I apologize.  This problem has been resolved, and you should try updating again.  

Note this is only for the two models mentioned, Heavy Metal Tall and Heavy Metal Slim Collars.

I read a lot of forums, blogs, and news sources associated with Second Life and virtual worlds, far more than I participate in. And lately I notice a trend that i find worthy of concern. It’s what I would call a disintegration of the very cohesive aspects which make Second Life a world. There is no one defining factor, but when looking at the big picture, a pattern emerges:

• Individuals who want to break sensors so they can be ‘invisible’ while in world, basically as the Lindens are. There’s no consideration for the fact this will break many features people have come to depend on, they simply want to be in world-but not have anyone know it.
• The AWG (Architecture Working Group) has proposed separating the Agent from the Avatar. That is to say, you could log in, read IMs and notices, manage inventory, etc, without actually having a visible avatar present in world. Basically this would be similar to above, you would be logged in, but for many intents and purposes, invisible.
• Stand-Alone Sims, OpenSims run on your local computer, so people can do their own thing, free from having to be ‘bothered’ by people in world. People seem intrigued of the idea of doing all their building, texturing and everything else offline, and just connecting long enough to dump their creations in world so it can be admired and maybe sold, so they can get back to their solitary little sim.

So that leads to the question, is this what everyone really wants? A world where they are off by themselves, out of contact with everyone, isolated in their own virtual pocket?

Would things end up where the grid is just a virtual museum, filled with the creations of a multitude of creators churning out things in their own private grids, but nobody actually there to use and admire them? Sounds like a horrific direction to be heading. But I doubt it will ever reach those depths.

I can perhaps see why some like the idea. You can do what you like, you don’t have to consider the needs or feelings of others, or worry about breaking some rule or Term of Service. And egotist’s dream.

But I have to wonder how long before these people miss what makes worlds like Second Life so Intriguing, the ‘everyone else’ out there. All the world may be a stage, but an actor is hard pressed to perform without an audience. Everyone needs some private time now and then, but you *can* have too much of a good thing.

Some people can be very uncooperative in SL. What do you think of this person?

Nasty Umanof: darien, i just bought a collar script and it disappeared from inventory
 Darien Caldwell: what do you mean disappears?
 Nasty Umanof: i started to put it into a neckring ring
 Darien Caldwell: well i don’t know what you mean disappears
 Darien Caldwell: the box was delivered, then you accepted it
 Darien Caldwell: then it just vanished?
 Nasty Umanof: it is gone from my inventtory and is not in my neckring
 Nasty Umanof: thus gone
 Darien Caldwell: did you follow all of the instructions?
 Darien Caldwell: setting the descriptions, placing the PIN scripts, etc?
 Nasty Umanof: forget it
 Nasty Umanof: i will buy another
 Nasty Umanof: thank you
 Darien Caldwell: well hun, if you don’t follow the instructions, it will just happen again
 Nasty Umanof: i wont be buying it from you
 Nasty Umanof: i will to excite or sensations
 Nasty Umanof: thanks
 Darien Caldwell: lol ok
 Nasty Umanof: last time i spend my money here
 Darien Caldwell: fine hun. sorry you can’t read instructions
 Nasty Umanof: drop 400 and you dont give a shit
 Darien Caldwell: i do
 Darien Caldwell: but you wont’ answer my questions
 Darien Caldwell: so I can’t help you
 Nasty Umanof: i lose the script and tough shit
 Darien Caldwell: i ddin’t say that
 Nasty Umanof: you could send another
 Darien Caldwell: but I have to understand what you did
 Nasty Umanof: i just bought it
 Darien Caldwell: or I could be doing this all day
 Darien Caldwell: if you aren’t installing it right, it will keep happening
 Nasty Umanof: iunderstand
 Nasty Umanof: good god
 Nasty Umanof: forget
 Nasty Umanof: it
 Darien Caldwell: ok bye
 Nasty Umanof: i will buy a KAS neck corset
 Nasty Umanof: idiot
 Darien Caldwell: banned and muted

Ah well…  :\

The collar update 1.11 is in the updaters.  Fixes, addtions, and tweaks are as follows:

v1.11
[BUGS]
 - Fixed an issue with the main menu and the back button, in some rare instances it could fail to work.
 - Fixed a problem where removing an owner did not remove their lock on the collar.
 - Fixed an issue where you couldn’t take off people’s undergarments with RLV (the horror! O.o)
 - Fixed an issue where the lock would be shown while the collar was hidden.
 - Fixed an annoying message when leaving the timer menu while a timer was running.
 
[ADJUSTMENTS]
 - Documented some chat commands which have always been around but never mentioned (channel/listen/ignore).
 - Removing/Hiding the collar is now permitted while locked, however will still not function in this state. Any timelock wil be paused while removed, and resume when Inserted/shown..
 - When owned and the collar is locked by an owner, the wearer can now no longer access timer settings. Only the owners can access them while the collar is locked.
 - Removed some debug messages accidentally left in the collar (sorry :p)
 
 [FEATURES]
  - Added initial support for multiple bell sounds. [prefix]bell next will cycle through any available bell sounds (currently only two).  (contact me if you have any you would like added)
  - Added support for restricting the ability to touch objects farther than 1.5 meters away under RLV (FarTouch)
  - Added support for shared folders under RLV.
  - Added support for public leashing. toggled by chat command [prefix]publicleash <yes/no> to allow anyone to use the leashing features (chat commands only). Does not grant access to anything else.  Can only be changed while the collar is unlocked. Thanks to Bina Mayo for the suggestion.
  - Leashing, Posting, or Linking collars now results in all forms of teleporting being disabled if RLV is enabled.  Removing the leash/post/link, unlocking the collar, or turning off RLV will restore Teleport ability.

Head on over and update.

In addtion,  the above pictured 5 styles are also released. All beautiful pieces of work. I hope you enjoy them. 

And Finally, the Slut Collar has been updated to have a scripted label instead of a non-modifiable textured label. For a limited time I’ll accept trade-ins if you want to swap your current Slut collar for this one. There are no other differences. 

                                                            -Dari

It hasn’t been widely publicised, but there is a group of people who have been working with both Linden Lab and IBM on a project of Interoperability, or in simpler terms, creating bridges between various virtual worlds. The ultimate goal is to grow Second Life, and other virtual worlds like it (OpenSim, HipHi, WoW, etc) into a entity as large as the Internet itself. Of course if this mass was ever reached, then Virtual worlds would absorb their host, and become the replacement for the Internet. I have been following these goings-on and attempting to discern the hows, whys and whens of all of this.

Just recently, last week, the first teleport from a Sim in SL to a sim in OpenSim was accomplished, although very crudely. It earmarks the first step toward this goal of a ‘global grid’. There is still a long road ahead before these dreams of the AWG (Architecture Working Group), LL, and IBM are realized. Which may lead you to ask that question, why? Why is putting all this effort in important, why does IBM care, and what does it mean for you and I in the future? Well, since LL and IBM aren’t talking, I can only give you some of my theories based on what I know, what I’ve experienced as a Technical Professional in real life, and past history of technical advances.

First of all, Linden Lab has little choice but to go along with this plan. The realistic fact is, The grid simply can’t grow much larger than it already is. You may know that Virtual worlds like WoW are sharded, in that there are multiple copies of the same world on multiple servers, each handling their share of users. The same concept must come to Virtual worlds, only in a more connected way, each ’shard’ hosting thousands of sims with tens of thousands of users. Its the only way to realistically scale.

Secondly, there is the money factor. Grow the world, grow your profits, i don’t think that needs much explaining. If LL can offer code/support/services to other grids, all the better. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind getting that 3.5% charge on Lindex transactions from a multitude of worlds. By doing everything first, they hope to become the standard, and secure their place in the Virtual Universe that will come. For IBM, the opportunity is vast. Just imagine all those servers that will be needed by all the various virtual worlds which are yet to come. And if they come pre-configured with the server code needed to run a Sim? even better. It remains to be seen if LL every released the server code open source, I will be surprised if they do. The viewer? Sure, that’s the free printer. The money’s in the server, or the ‘ink’ in this analogy.

Thirdly, is control. The whole idea for this virtual world Internet has centered around everything being accessed by one login. Imagine if the Internet worked like that now. Can you say ‘banned from the internet’? Seems like a joke now, but if all this comes to pass, it would not only be possible, but likely commonplace. One thing that has always bothered Businesses is the freedom and anonymity of the Internet. With this one login scenario, anonymity would become a thing of the past, and if your posts, opinions, content, or creations don’t jive with the powers that be, you could be removed from the ‘Information Superhighway’ with the click of a mouse. A huge step backward for personal freedoms, and freedom of information in general.

It is this last point that concerns me the most. Who will oversee this one login, and what will be in place to ensure access is not removed for the wrong reasons? And can LL or IBM really believe this type of situation would be allowed, given the anti-trust laws which are currently on the books? No, I think this part is just a pipe dream, at least I hope. The Internet, and any future incarnation of it has become too important to be placed in the hands of just one, or even two companies. Much like Electricity or the Telephone, the Internet is becoming more and more something considered a Utility by the people of the world, a basic service. Access to such services should be protected.

So where do users, and content creators fit into all of this? That’s still not clear. AWG, is mostly concerned with the how at this point. Nobody has really said why a bunch of crap loaded sims on another grid would be any more compelling than the crap loaded sims here, but I don’t think that’s a question anyone has even considered. Linden Lab, IBM and the AWG have all stated that they care about creators, acknowledging that content is what makes virtual worlds compelling. However It’s too early to say how far they will bow to the vocal minority that insist everything on the grid should be a homogeneous layer of free, full perms content. Only time will tell. And if there are any major developments, you can be sure I’ll let my readers know.

As some are probably aware, over the last year i’ve been running my own rental estate, Caldwell Estates.  I have never really promoted it much, relying on word of mouth to draw in the ‘right crowd’ that I wished to cater to. In truth it was my biggest pride, I was happy to provide a comfortable place for so many (at peak, over 70 residences and businesses).  However, things change, as they often do.

Several land policy changes, coupled with the expansive growth of my business, forced me to make some hard choices.  While the Estate was profitable and ‘in the black’ as it were, the amount of time devoted to it was huge, and i could only see that growing in the future. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, especially as I knew I would be displacing so many. But finally, during a lull in the season, I felt it was the best time to make the announcement. For the most part, everyone has been supportive of the decision, and my reasons for deciding to close.

The first month of the two month notice I gave residents will be up soon, but as sims have started to empty, I’ve already began selling the sims. The first one transferred yesterday, a second today. It may seem silly to be nostalgic over a hunk of server space, but i guess i’ve always been a bit sappy like that.  I’ll miss the estate and all the renters I’ve served over the last year.

On the bright side, I’ll now have more time to focus on my store, and other various projects yet to be announced.  Onward and upward, the adventures continue a little farther down the path.  After all there really are no ends to the roads in life, just detours.  Goodbye Caldwell Estates, we had some good times.

Update: It seems the site was Hacked by some nasty hackers, as Yahoo has reported. Link

The article has one glaring error, it says users of outlook could still get their mail, WRONG. :p The domain was diverted, so any requests to that domain would have went to the hacker’s website. Hmm. Better change my email passwords. :\ In any event, things are back to normal.

My Internet provider has had some kind of catastsrophic failure of their web services, I can not reach my email at this time. Please send Notecards for all correspondence. If you dont’ hear back within 24hrs, try again.

I’m highly dependent upon offline Email to conduct my business in world at the high level of service I provide. I apologize in advance for any difficulties this may cause.

Yes, at last. I know i’ve been promising this for a long time. Sorry for the delays, but at last, it’s here.

I hope you enjoy it.

Head over to my main store to see it on the holovendor.

The title says it all.  5 new styles from Ciphertazi Wandin of Red Queen, and proud to announce that Sascha VanDyke and Roxanne Hynes of Devil’s Dare Design and I have brokered a deal, I’ll start releasing their collars under my label :)  We start out with 3 styles I particularly like. Come pick your new favorite.

Dari’s Haus is proud to announce a major update to the line of scripted collars. After months of feedback from customers, and months of work, we have moved our collars forward to a new level of stability, ease of use, and flexibility.

All owners of Dari’s Haus, Fancy Schmancy, Red Queen, or any other collar using the Dari’s Haus collar scripts are urged to update. There are over 40 features, bug fixes, and tweaks to make this one of the best collars in Second Life that anyone could hope to have. Backed by own unique style of customer service.

The change list is long. Take a look, then come down and update, or get yours if you by some chance don’t have one!

v1.10
[BUGS]
  - Fixed a bug with texture/color changing on the Heavy Metal Collars.
  - Fixed problem with commands that start with the same two letters as the prefix not executing.  (Thanks Chorazin Allen)
  - Resolved a crash issue which could occur when issuing the “commands” command after adding large numbers of animations to the collar.
  - Fixed a bug with the Restrict Owner option which would still allow previous owners access to some features.
  - Fixed a bug with the Restrict Owner option which would not turn off restrict if all owners were cleared from the collar.
  - Fixed an Issue where one couldn’t click on clickable items while in mouselook.  Thanks to Mini Pinion  for the report.
  - The beckon chat command was left out of the documentation, added it.
  - Fixed an issue where a Public collar could be unlocked by anyone.
  - Fixed a problem with transitioning to menu from a chat command. (using …Back)
  - Fixed an issue where submenus could end up with more than 12 entries.
  - Fixed a source of script crash due to excessively long commands.
  - Fixed an issue where logging out (or crashing) while sitting on certain objects could cause the AO to stop functioning.
  - Fixed an issue where the menu could corrupt if you were on a menu page that disappeared due to dynamic alterations.

[ADJUSTMENTS]
  - Made adjustments to the leash/stay/beckon and Hug/Kiss features to compensate for Havok 4 differences.
  - Removed an errant debug message about menu length which tended to just be annoying.
  - Reworked the collar listener to accept commands from HUDs…
  - the RL command has been changed to the RLV command for clarity and consistency .  Command is also now on the menu, no longer chat only.
  - Animations are no longer released on Teleport. Only the Stay portion is released for safety reasons.
  - Added two new default poses,  naduwide, and towerg.  Thanks to Jinx Meili for supplying these quality animations!
  - Not specifying a value for the shocker dosage, leash length, or chat channel when issuing a chat command ([prefix]shock / [prefix]length/ [prefix]channel) now brings up  a menu of selections instead of scolding you for not providing one.
  - Updated the Shock Particles to something a little more realistic.
  - A message is now sent not only when the collar is removed, but when put back on while locked.
  - Collar can now handle Animations with unnecessary Capitalization. 
  - Removed the Reset button from the AO menu. The AO will now reload any time the AO notecards are modified (or anything else is modified for that matter). See below on Dynamic Reconfiguration.
  - Squished the AO code down, giving it more room for animations.  Please try to keep animation names as short as possible! 
  - When unauthorized/unlicensed scripts are put into the collar, it now tells you which script it is by name.
  - AO now overrides with Collar animations intelligently. (allowing walk, ignoring stands while posed). Thanks to all the ppl who bugged me about this.

[FEATURES]
  - Added 3rd party plugin support for addons by Chorazin Allen.
  - NEW FEATURE: Added a cage function generously created and provided by Chorazin Allen. Thanks Chorazin!
  - NEW FEATURE: Added a function to store multiple attach positions. If you accidentally attach to the wrong position, it will warn you, and remember the previous position at the correct attach point.  No More Messed-up Attachments!  (Thanks Innula Zenovka)
  - NEW FEATURE: Floating title text can now be multiple lines.  Just put a \n between each line. Example:   dctitletext This is line one.\nThis is line two.  Thanks to Lex Zhaoying for the suggestion.
  - NEW FEATURE: added Restrict/Unrestrict buttons to the Owner Menu for the Primary (First) Owner.
  - NEW FEATURE: Notecard specified messages can be disabled by deleting the associated notecards, and allowing the collar to Dynamically Reconfigure.  Example: to disable the collar touch messages, delete the notecards in the collar that start with ‘Tch=’ and ‘TTch’.
  - NEW FEATURE: Dynamic Reconfiguration. Changes to the collar configuration are now dynamically recognized (such as changing notecard specified messages, adding plugins, animations, or changing the AO config).  The collar will detect you are changing it’s contents, and wait 30 seconds past when it detects no further changes.  Or you can just say ‘done’ to make it reload without waiting. No need to reset the collar any longer to do this.
  - NEW FEATURE: Leash handles, Anchor, and a new lower prim Anchor can now be given from the collar.  Use the Giveme command on the menu, or [prefix]giveme command to select what to receive.
  - NEW FEATURE: Configurable Partners Animations. The Hug…, Kiss…, and Footkiss… buttons have been moved to their own menu, Partners… ,  along with settings for them. (talked about below).   Partners animations are now configured in a notecard in the collar’s inventory, ‘!Partner Anims’ , Which allows custom animation sets to be added. More details in that notecard, and in the instruction card.
  - NEW FEATURE: Added a Subhug and a Subpet to the new Partners menu.
  - NEW FEATURE: Duration of Partners Animations is now configurable.  Either by going to the Partners… menu, and entering the Timing menu, or from the chat command [prefix]hugtime <x> , where <x> is the time in seconds, from 5 to 300 seconds.  This will become the new default.
  - NEW FEATURE: Chat command override of Partners Animation Duration. If you want to use a custom duration for the current Hug/Kiss/etc, put a time in seconds on the end of the chat command. This time will be used once, and the default will not be changed.  Example: [prefix]hug 20 would hug the person picked from the target menu for 20 seconds.  [prefix]kiss Caete 40  would kiss Caete for 40 seconds.    [prefix]hug Kate Winsome 10  would hug Kate for 10 seconds.
 - NEW FEATURE: greatly expanded RestrainedLife functionality.  try [prefix]rlv on/off or [prefix]rlv menu to see.
 - NEW FEATURE: The Timer now supports lifting all RLV restrictions after a set amount of time. this is independent of the lock, and is only a temporary lift. Next time you log in or take off/wear the collar, the restrictions will be reinstated. However, only if the collar is locked. Unlocking the collar also lifts all restrictions, naturally.