What is the Birthday Announcement?!

By Guest Author, Dr. Meridian Maginot, Clairvoyant

Some months ago, when speculation abounded around Philip's stepping down from the CEO position and a possible IPO or something from Linden Lab, I went to the various oracles and other devices which -- as I conceive of it -- don't so much see into the future, as pay very, very close attention to the present. (A lot of what passes for "the future" is merely the present unfolding or manifesting).

The fortunes told weren't so helpful -- see what you think:

The Oracle of The Past whispers: The sun near signifies happiness and popularity. Near snakes, mice and dark side of clouds presages vexation.
The Oracle of The Present whispers: Roses indicate beauty and rugged health.
The Oracle of The Future whispers: Wine is the symbol of cheerfulness and gaiety.

No snakes nearby that I could see -- so far so good, but what did it mean?

But is LL going to IPO or sell SL or something?

Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: angry
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: i see a dull-witted person
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: i see a place of destitution
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: i see something sharp
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: 7
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: indeed
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: romance is yet to come

Indeed, but..."romance is yet to come".

Off I went on my clues of "sharp" and "7" which took me on a harrowing journey about which I can barely speak. I wound up at a warlock's cave, and saw a fantastic vision: a giant volcano spewing out many little balls of fire.

By this, I could conceive that Linden Lab meant to open source and keep lots of little hosted servers hooked up to the mainland but...hmm...it was literally flaming and burning...I had to get out of there -- and I passed out from the smoke before I could discover more.

With a few weeks past to clear again, I tried honing in a little more closer: What will the birthday announcement BE, dammit! I like to know these things in advance, don't you, just in time to sell my Lindens -- or my land -- or hey, remove all traces of Second Life from my hard drive in case it's under a federal probe...

Of course, the oracles never like to be pushed; they love yes/no questions; they hate telling you stuff, especially because when they told you before, you never got it, you never believed, you didn't see what was right there in front of you, so the hell with you...

Still, I persisted, and here's what I got -- and with none of the bad-number proximity:

The Oracle of The Past whispers: The rider is a sure sign of good news, unless alongside of 6, 8, 11, or 13.
The Oracle of The Present whispers: The railroad forecasts a long journey; if near 44, a serious accident, if near 9, a robbery.
The Oracle of The Future whispers: The cat indicates flatter; if near 6, foretells personal injury. Near 29 and 30 it denotes strife.

"Rider" and "railroad" suggests "common carrier"...connections...the Internet...I think we are looking at open source, yes, especially since it's Mitch Kapor doing the announcement.

And yet, there seemed to be such mists swirling...such reluctance...something....I tried the runes:

Overview of the Situation: Laguz - Keywords: Flow, Water, Cleansing, Realigning
Overview of the Situation: This rune represents water and thus, the psyche and emotions. It denotes an open frame of mind, or can imply that the querent is too open to others and needs to listen more to his/her intuition.
Challenge: Ansuz Reversed - Keywords: Signals, Source of Divine Messages, Messenger
Challenge: Ansuz reversed signifies bad advice. It cautions objectivity.
Course of Action Called For: Othila - Keywords: Separation, Inherited Property, Native Land, Home
Course of Action Called For: This Rune represents possessions and the home. It is a symbol of ancestry and also signifies inheritance, materialistic and especially ancestral traditions and traits that help shape the Self.
Sacrifice: Mannaz Reversed - Keywords: The Self, Man, Woman, The Human Race
Sacrifice: A reversed Mannaz can indicate that the querents plans are obstructed either by people who may be standing in the way, or by the querents own negative attitude and refusal to cooperate with others.
New Situation Evolving: Wunjo Reversed - Keywords: Joy, Absence of Suffering, Light
New Situation Evolving: Wunjo reversed indicates that challenges will not be met. Caution should be exercised to avoid problems.

Hmm. "Too open". I'll say! I think open-sourcing is a bad idea, but then, they never listen to me, even when I came barrelling into SL on February 15 or so filled with apprehension that something big was going to be happening to Philip...

The "Divine Messenger" is naturally Mitch Kapor, as he is descending from the Game God Olympus, and yeah, bad advice is exactly what he'd be giving on open source -- and who knows, maybe it's "open source, but..." or "open source only this, but not that".

"Separation" and "inherited property" sounds to me that our concerns about protection of intellectual property are...probably not going to be addressed.

Refusal to cooperate with others. Lack of interoperability?

Hmmm....

Up I go to the Avataric Healing Centre and cast the dice to read the Magic Compass. BTW, to read Second Life's fortune, I used the Resident Store Kit to serve as SL's avatar hearing the fortune, placing out the box nearby.

First, I rolled East, the Bed. This can signify a number of things but I felt that today it was speaking of "lying" and sluggishness. Recalcitrance. Something not getting out of bed. That is the present state.

To see the bridge to the future, I rolled for the next round, and got South, the Lonely Chair. That signified, I saw, that the new chairman of Linden Lab will be taking action, but that it will not be a popular course.

And for the future, I rolled West, which is the Torch. Here, again, it was unmistakeable: somebody was to get burned and flamed.

Let us hope it is not you or me...but what the HELL are they going to do?!

Of course, ideally, I'd have Governor Linden present to me to read the fortune best, but I had to make do with channelling the next part myself, which is always inferior.

Looking at my current objects folder, sorted by date, to determine what my tool to move toward the future must be, I saw 7Seas Rare Salvage Captain's Log. Being in SL is definitely a fishing expedition! I better go re-read the new CEO's blogs and look at that video somebody told me to watch of his for clues...

To see what my lost heart's desire was that I must recover, I had to check Lost and Found -- and sure enough, the Resident Store Kit was already there because I had forgotten to set it to group. Drat. And SO telling!

To see what I must discard on the journey, I checked trash -- and after removing the Slave Die, which don't count, I could see Palm Tree 1. This tells me grandfathered island tier might be raising...or something.

Next, the Avatar of Changes Oracle said very clearly something about "staying seated" because of change.

Very hazy, so off I went to the Crystal Ball in Memory Bazaar, which tells you the mood, thing, place, number, fortune, etc.:

Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: satisfied
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: i see a girl
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: i see a place of romance
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: i see a house
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: 56
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: doubtful
Crystal Ball - Free To Use whispers: there is a need for a release

Er, LL will keep selling open space sims? -- And here *this* ball is telling me open-source is "doubtful".

Is it possible there could be open-source for some and not others lol? I.e. licensing for those willing to pay a few or make some barter deal.

Awfully vexing, so I had to go still to Madame Zola in Baileya. She told me, after about 6 tries where I paid her and she said nothing and gave me no card (!):

"Be nice to Your enemies, It drives Them nuts."

Er, open source, yes?

OK, let's really get the story here from the crystal ball at the Hidden Lakes office:

What is the special birthday announcement?
"Crystal Ball: The outlook is not good."

Oops! Forgot to ask yes/no.

"Will LL open source SL?"
Crystal Ball: Yes.

"Will LL close the mainland?"
"Crystal Ball: It is not for you to know yet. Other things must transpire before the answer can be revealed."

"Will LL flatten tier?"
Crystal Ball: There is no chance.
If you're like me, and you keep getting answers you don't like, you get a new fortune teller : )

Comments

[Meridian Maginot]

Meh, Madame Zola, such a character! I log off, and later finds she sends me two more cards, begrudgingly, but here they are:

"Madame Zola's Fortune Card: Following inner prompting brings quiet accomplishment.
Madame Zola's Fortune Card: Optimization hinders evolution."

[Maggie Darwin]

Anybody using 1.20 viewer knows there's "a need for a release"....hopefully one that doesn't hard-crash your OS and fixes VWR-3000.

I need a server-side release that fixes SVC-22 and SVC-2511 too... :-)

[Ann Otoole]

With the current track record of LL ... any announcement has to smell like bamboo bongs and LSD spiked watermelon right?

I guess we will see but something gives me the icky feeling that the logic frameworks that run LL are unlikely to render anything seriously good for SL. Hope it is something good but I am not holding my breath and have pretty much halted investing any more time in any content development until the "Big Deal" is announced and analyzed.

[Gigs Taggart]

"A lot of what passes for "the future" is merely the present unfolding or manifesting"

I like that one. Adding to my quote file.

[Crap Mariner]

I don't think it will be an announcement, per se, as much as Mitch going into detail about his change of role at LL when he shifts into non-chair board member role and where he sees things heading.

[Prokofy Neva]

Crap, but they said "announcement".

[Meridian Maginot]

Naturally I'm kicking myself now because it was so clear the oracles were saying, "Mitch will announce a $10,000 prize for the person who is most disruptive with technology" -- and I missed it.

Wait. Did I get that right?