dazzle
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Student thwarts face detection software with 'CV Dazzle' makeup
Not interested in having yourself automatically identified in photos across the internet? Then you might want to take a cue from Adam Ant (or Blade Runner's Pris, if you prefer), as Adam Harvey, a student in NYU's Interactive Telecommunication Program, has discovered that some over the top face makeup applied in just the right way can thwart most facial recognition software. Dubbed CV Dazzle (after the Dazzle camouflage used in World War I), the makeup works simply by enhancing areas of the face that you otherwise wouldn't ordinarily enhance -- so instead of applying the makeup around your eyes, you'd apply some on your cheeks and effectively "invert" that area. According to Harvey, that method is effective at blocking the face recognition used by Facebook, Picasa and Flickr -- and it doesn't simply cause some mild confusion, it actually prevents the software from detecting any face at all. Head on past the break for a quick video.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC14)
Linden Lab has released the fifteenth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This release looks like the final release in this cycle, unless something quite nasty appears. Mono is expected in viewer 1.21, and SLS1.24 (SLS1.23 is deploying this week) -- thus, there is nothing particularly earth-shattering in this release.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC13)
Linden Lab has released the fourteenth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. If an overall 50% lower crash rate, measured across-the-board doesn't appeal to you, or improved quality texture decoding, how about the fact that the silver skin can now be disabled and replaced with an original recipe UI schema. Okay, so there's still a couple little glitches with that, but you can do it. Also it defaults to the familiar blue UI, which will please a lot of users. Linden Lab are watching your choices as well. The viewer now reports which skin you have loaded so that information can be pulled out of log-files (or, so a web-site or web-service used by the viewer can offer you HTML skinned in a compatible set of colors) -- We think it's more the latter than the former, but it'd be silly not to gather usage data on skins.
1.20(RC11): Extended RC cycle, skinning moved up
Linden Lab has released the twelfth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. Linden Lab says this release candidate cycle will be extended, and some of the skinning project that was slated to come after 1.20 is being moved up, so that users will be able to switch the UI skin before this becomes the official viewer, rather than in some unspecified future release. So, there will be a couple more release candidates before 1.20 becomes official, and it is pitched to take a bit longer between them. This edition fixes some more crashes and freezes, but still has that nasty buffer-rendering offset glitch that afflicts snapshots, among other things.
Dazzle: The slippery eye
While there were many complaints that the new communication window in the Second Life viewer obscured and drew the eye away from the 3D scene which represented the virtual world and its contents, Dazzle seems to fix that particular sore point in unexpected ways. Specifically, the eye is more sensitive to blue than to any other color, but capable of discerning less actual detail of blue things, particularly the brighter blues. For most of us, the eye tends to slide off and away from brighter blues and blues that are closer to gray and sliver.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC7)
Linden Lab has released the eighth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. For those of you worried about the Dazzle UI being hard on the eyes (around two thirds of you), 'We plan to release Skinning Phase 1 (which will allow residents to install custom skins and switch between them, e.g. switch to a "classic" skin) before we make 1.20 mandatory,' says Steve Linden, '(hopefully well before-- we are trying to keep mandatory updates to a minimum), so we will support switching skins before imposing this release on everyone. However, this is the look we are planning to support going forward.' Note that that does not mean that Viewer 1.20 will contain it (skin switching) at release, or necessarily that it will appear in viewer 1.21 or 1.22 -- we're only promised that it will appear before support for 1.19 is dropped. This release-candidate (which is not intended to be final, so really, there should be a less confusing name for it) contains 46 assorted fixes, plus other changes -- and a few known bugs. There's also user-contributed lip-synching for voice, and what appears to be the new Ruth in there. Bonus: The vanishing skirts problem finally seems to be fixed, and users are automatically unmuted if you interact with them (pay them or their objects, send an IM or inventory to them). If you use a Mighty Mouse or 3DConnexion Space Navigator, apparently 1.20 will continue to make your life unpleasant.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC6)
Linden Lab has released the seventh 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This is accompanied by a new download page for all versions which appears to be designed to make Mac and Linux users feel like poor cousins. Mighty Mouse users, while we were told that your problem was fixed in the last release candidate, it appears to be an open issue again. Perhaps it wasn't fixed at all. The nasty message from the smartheap library are supposed to be gone, and the way property lines have been glowing through objects has been changed. (There doesn't seem to be any indication that the vanishing skirt issue has been fixed -- April Fools' Day is long past, boys)
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC5)
Linden Lab has released the sixth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. Mighty Mouse users, rejoice. We're told that this release fixes your problems using this release with the device. As for everyone else, 8 specific crash fixes and a fixed problem that caused serious problems with some nVidia drivers -- well, that should raise a few smiles!
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC4)
Linden Lab has released the fifth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This is a rush-release, as you might notice that the previous RC3 was released only yesterday (Wednesday). Apparently attempting to enter the appearance editor caused an instant crash. Oops. So much for QA. There isn't a lot else new to speak of in this viewer, except a known issue with terrain textures on MacBook Air notebooks, and that llLoadURL opens in the external web-browser by default, instead of the internal web-browser.
Studio Shiny's Q2 viewer roadmap
Steve Linden, director of Linden Lab's 'Studio Shiny' development group has weighed in with the plans for the Second Life viewer for Q2 2008. Everything planned focuses on one (or both) of two goals: Making the viewer more stable, and making the viewer more usable. Most Second Life users can agree that these two goals are quite laudable.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC3)
Linden Lab has released the fourth 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. Apparently we're back onto one-release-candidate-per-week, which will no-doubt please some and irritate others. Each new release candidate is a mandatory update from the previous release candidate. Most of the fixes in this look relatively minor, though apparently there might be some issues with the voice component. Issues with UI window sizes after startup appear to have been fixes, and some lossless texture-compression bugs, among others.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC2)
Linden Lab has released the third 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This release candidate fixes the instant crash for most Linux users, but it is still very crashy for all platforms if the graphic settings are turned up. Likewise a crash bug has been fixed that was specific to German, Korean and Japanese viewers. We're not noticing skirts vanishing so frequently in this version (hooray!), but this still feels more like an early beta-candidate than a release candidate. Unless you're feeling particularly adventurous, you might want to give this series of release-candidates a miss for the time being.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC1)
Linden Lab has released the second 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. Release candidates start counting from zero, so the first one in the series is RC0. This release candidate restores the Friends dropdown on the map, disables avatar imposters -- as they're a suspected cause of crashes on nVidia hardware/drivers, fixes SLURLs which were bollixed up, fixes two crash bugs and adds a crash-on-startup bug for Linux users. Linux users should NOT get this version. To avoid getting a forced upgrade, add --channel skipRC1 to your viewer startup parameters.
New Second Life release candidate viewer: 1.20(RC0)
Linden Lab has released the first 1.20 Second Life release candidate viewer. The numbering scheme is changing - the least significant digits groupis being dropped from version numbering, so the next release will be 1.21. This release candidate contains Windlight, Dazzle, the default Dazzle skin (which we don't care for so much) and the Tools menu handily only appears when the edit floater is open (this is one change we heartily approve of!). There's improved joystick/3D mouse support in this release, and support for high altitude building.
New Second Life Dazzle release: 1.19.0(80267)
Dazzle (the Linden Lab project for updating the appearance of the Second Life viewer, and not the fashion brand) has made it into a separate First Look preview viewer, rather than being a manual download and install. Linden Lab's Dazzle project serves two purposes; one being a graphical overhaul of the Second Life user-interface, and the other being to further develop the interfaces that allow the user-interface to be reworked, reskinned and customized.
Dazzle preview updated
Dazzle (the Linden Lab project for updating the appearance of the Second Life viewer, and not the fashion brand) just got a fresh update, minutes ago. Benjamin Linden has just announced that fresh preview files are now available, and that they are looking for additional feedback on the proposed changes in progress. A description of the project, links to the preview files and so forth can be found on the Second Life wiki, along with a space for feedback on the visual update.
In memory of Ginny Talamasca
It's amazing how much one can be affected by virtual friendship. I remember first meeting Ginny Talamasca when I was a wee newb. My friends were raving about her store, Dazzle Haute Couture, where she mostly sold formal wear. From that moment on, I was addicted to her clothing. I literally bought 99% of what she made. Given the amount of real money I spent keeping up with her heavy production of attire, I soon needed a Second Life job to support my habit. That's how I got into Machinima.When I first discovered this new method of expressing myself, I went wild with filming. Then I discovered that I could make my avatar lipsync what I was saying. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I was going to create a Machinima declaring how great I thought Ginny was as a friend, a designer, and an inspiration to the community. I would invite her friends to say kind words about her and I would animate them. The project never ended up getting very far off the ground, but as a filmmaker is often married to their footage, most of it was saved. Upon hearing of his (she would later be revealed as a man in real life) death, I unearthed some of this footage.Read on for more memories of Ginny ...
Omni Group introduces OmniDazzle - "mesmerizing mouse movements"
After weeks of ambiguous hints and torturous teasing, The Omni Group has unveiled their newest product, and it definitely isn't a Sweedish meatball maker. Introducing: OmniDazzle, a "set of fun and useful enhancements that help you track the location of your mouse pointer and provide options for highlighting certain areas of your screen". Basically, it's like one of those mouse-trailing toys tools with some actually useful goodness baked in. For example, OmniDazzle can place a spotlight on your mouse, dimming the background and helping you or your audience focus on what's important. It offers other interesting tools for pinpointing your mouse and even drawing on screen for those times when crayons just won't do. In fact, there's a lot of quirky (and handy) stuff OmniDazzle is capable of, so why not check it out while it's in beta?
