June Road Trip: Bumps & Surprises

Location: Southern Continent

I'd found that Linden Lab has been grading and paving the loop road in my part of the continent, so with the new laptop's SL problem solved, I set out to drive--at speed when I could--to complete the loop.

Mostly the Dominus outpaced the draw-distance set for the road. Unlike my trips in the 59 Caddy, which cruises and does not race, even with changes to the graphics settings, bandwidth, and more, driving the Dominus at high speed involved a good deal of guesswork as to where the road should be. The area was sparse with residents, so landing once in someone's roadside house did not result in a ban or Abuse Report.


Unlike the drunken ape on my T-shirt, I was not drinking in real life, a fun element to add to SL road trips. Thus I did manage to avoid a guy on a motorcycle and an avatar just standing in the road. He didn't answer me when I said hello. But then, in real life, who would expect that greeting after a random motorist passes and shouts out the window?

A few spots of interest, like this motorcycle shop, caught my eye. I've wanted a replica of a classic bike, so I may have to get one for next month's trip.


I pressed on, until technical issues forced me to quit. Somehow the camera position was stuck to slightly in front and to the right of me, making it impossible to see the road clearly when driving.

This sort of issue can be remedied quickly, but can other problems I cannot control and that threaten any attempts by Linden Lab to gain some renewed respect with business and education users?


Despite the new land ratings that should ban sexual pose-balls in public areas not zoned Adult, I saw this pool table when I paused beside an empty dance club / bar. I will spare readers the descriptions of the sexual positions possible; suffice to say that these were not for playing eight-ball.

I'm no prude and no tattle-tail, so I did not report the club. Had students been doing work nearby, I would have done so. The recent layoffs at Linden Lab, reported by Tateru Nino, do not bode well for their being able to provide more than haphazard enforcement of their own policies.


Linden Lab clearly is chasing social users with its road-building, signage, and other in-world infrastructure improvements. I hope this does not chase away other sorts of users who already look to OpenSim or the potentials of the Web-based Unity viewer for immersive 3D experiences.