Second Life is a fun and social space, so meeting and making friends is easier when you understand the basic controls and options for chat. Learn about the text and voice chat features that can help you meet and make friends in Second Life in our latest QuickTips video tutorial.

Watch the QuickTips video tutorial here.

Learn even more in about Second Life communication in our Knowledgebase:

• Text chat and instant messages
• Using voice chat

Did you miss our previous QuickTips videos? Check ‘em out!

• Customizing your Appearance

• Shopping in Second Life

• Getting & Spending Linden Dollars

• Connecting with Second Life Communities

• Finding Interesting Places

• Getting a Home in Second Life

• Getting Help

Heya ZoHa Islands!

The weekend is near!  Time for my weekly dose of making your SLife easier.  Since we dont all have cool keyboards like the one below…LOL.

This week we have a wonderful list of keyboard shortcuts.  Some make navigating SL a breeze…others make photo taking and snapshot captures less crowded (i.e. the hide all HUDS option).  Having trouble getting the LM out of a Notecard?  Try the Control M function – pop up your map – type in the sim name and go :).  These shortcuts really come in handy in your daily Second Life.

There is a more comprehensive list on the SL wiki which is worth looking at.

For UI developers visit this page which is based on operating systems.

User Interface
Ctrl-F Search (previously called Find, hence the shortcut key F)
Ctrl-G Gestures
Ctrl-H Chat History
Ctrl-I Inventory
Ctrl-L Link (selected objects in edit)
Ctrl-M World Map
Ctrl-P Preferences
Ctrl-Q Quit the Second Life viewer
Ctrl-R Run Mode (toggle switch)
Ctrl-T Instant Message open/close
Ctrl-W close current Window (or IM tab page )
Ctrl-Shift-W close all Windows
Ctrl-U Upload Image
Ctrl-Z Undo (once while in edit – chat window off)

Edit
Ctrl-1 Focus
Ctrl-2 Move
Ctrl-3 Edit
Ctrl-4 Create
Ctrl-5 Land

Script Editor
Ctrl-F Find/Replace dialog

Client
Ctrl-Alt-C disable Camera Contraints (Client->Disable Camera Contstraints)
Ctrl-Alt-D Open/Close Debug menu (some systems require Ctrl-Shift-Alt-D)
Ctrl-Alt-M Mouse Moves Sun (requires Debug menu on)
Ctrl-Alt-R Rebake Textures (Client->Character->Rebake Textures)
Ctrl-Alt-T Highlight Transparent
Ctrl-Alt-1 Hide/Show UI
Ctrl-Alt-6 All Fog Off (Fog is SL default…no fog must be reset every log in)
Ctrl-Alt-A Toggle Animate Textures On/Off
Ctrl-Shift-A Start/Stop Movie to Disk
Ctrl-Shift-L Unlink (selected objects in edit)
Ctrl-Shift-M MiniMap
Ctrl-Shift-N Force Sunset
Ctrl-Shift-S Snapshots
Ctrl-Shift-1 Sim Stats (you will need to turn off or move the minimap to view the full stats page)
Ctrl-Shift-3 Texture Console (to view textures on a particular object right click and go into
edit and then press ALT 3 , the textures for all sides of that object will be highlighted in yellow)

Rendering
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-= Turn particle effects on/off.
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-3 Remove all Linden trees. This is a toggle… press again to turn trees back on.
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-5 Remove ground cover. This is a toggle… press again to turn ground cover back on.
Shift and Drag Copy object in edit

To pan around an object hold down the Alt key and left-click an object or avatar then use the left and right arrows to pan around (this function goes circular around an object) & page up and page down to move closer or further away. To change the zoom, you have to use the following keys:

Ctrl-8 Zoom out
Ctrl-9 Reset zoom
Ctrl-0 Zoom in

Strafe Camera
Hold down Ctrl-Alt-Shift and left-click an object or avatar then use the arrow keys to strafe left right up or down. (this goes vertical and horizontal on an object view).

Do you know how Market Sell vs. Limit Sell differs? If you don’t, you’re losing money every time you cash out your Lindens. I discovered back in 2007 after selling Lindens a few times, that I could set a better rate than what’s offered by default on the Linden Dollar Exchange.

First, go to L$ Exchange Settings in your SecondLife.com dashboard and change the Interface Mode from Basic -> to Advanced.

Then go to the Sell L$ page and look at the Open Sell Orders at the Best 20 Rates, and decide what Exchange Rate you want to sell at. I typically sell at L$248/$1.00US (sells almost instantly, if there’s less than a million Lindens listed already), or some people sell at L$247/$1.00US and the wait may be a few hours to a few days. Any exchange rate higher than the usual lowest rate or not listed there, will sell instantly.

For example, in the picture below, you’ll see that there’s L$330,736 listed for the L$253/US$100 rate, and that person could have listed for $248 and sell instantly, but for some reason they didn’t (and losing money in the process).

As a seller, you want to exchange the least number of Lindens for $1USD. The same concept can be applied to Buy orders, except in the reverse. You’d want the most Lindens for your $1USD if you’re buying.

Here’s an example of how much money you’d lose selling at Market Sell (the rate determined by the Linden Dollar Exchange vs. Limit Sell (the rate set by you).

$10,000L @ Market Sell = $37.51US proceeds
$10,000L @ Limit Sell = $38.87US proceeds
Difference = $1.36US

That’s not much of a difference, but what if you’re selling hundreds or thousands of Lindens per month?

$80,000L @ Market Sell = $300.00US proceeds
$80,000L @ Limit Sell = $310.89US proceeds
Difference = $10.89US

Hello ZoHa Islands –

Occasionally a problem occurs that the lovely staff at ZoHa Islands cannot help with…. so this nifty new Linden Labs Quick Tips video is an informative look at navigating the Support Portal and filing Abuse Reports.

Second Life is fun — but sometimes you might encounter a problem inworld.

Have a billing question? We want to help you make the most of your Second Life. This week’s QuickTips video tutorial walks you through the many support options available to both basic and premium Second Life users.

Learn more about our Knowledge Base and Support Portal, as well as Abuse Report options and more.

Watch the QuickTips video tutorial.

Repost from Firestorm Blog.

Don’t be a victim, be informed! (re-post from April 2, 2012)

Phishing scams in Second Life.

There has been an increase in Phishing attempts in the last couple weeks and a lot of people have fallen for them and lost their Second Life Accounts.

Phishing in SL is mainly the act of tricking a user into giving their login and password information through fake yet convincing Second Life login webpages.

Here is how it works. 
– Someone posts a link and sometimes text to entice you to click it, sometimes this can be a friend or someone you know (because they’ve already had their accounts hacked).
– You click the link and it takes you to what looks like a Second Life Login screen.
– You log in using your SL Username and PW.
– You’ve just been Phished and given someone your SL Login information. They can now log into your SL account, take your money, destroy your SL Property, delete your inventory.. etc etc etc.

How to avoid being Phished

If you have clicked a link, and it takes you to a login page of some kind, no matter how much it looks real… DO NOT LOG INTO IT YET!

FIRST, look at the URL very carefully. The real Linden Lab Login URL starts with
https://id.secondlife.com/….
If it does NOT start with https://id.secondlife.com/, then it is not a real Second Life login web page. Do not log into it, and DO file an abuse report on the person who sent the link. From the Help menu,  Report Abuse.

If you are unsure, go to http://secondlife.com and click on the “LOGIN” at the top right. That will take you to the legit login page which starts with https://id.secondlife.com/… Log into that page, then follow the link. If the link still takes you to a log in widget.. it’s totally a scam.

If you’ve already been Phished

Immediately

– Go to http://secondlife.com
– Click the LOGIN link at the top right and enter your login information.
– On the right is a link called “Account” click it!
– Then click “Change Password” and change your password right away.

Please, protect your accounts. Think 3 times before entering your login information. Always check the URL.

Sincerely,

Jessica Lyon and the Phoenix/Firestorm Team