Business Guide for Second Life: Tip #1 To Increase Your Bottom Line

Beauty Sells

Beauty matters, it is unfortunate but it does matter. We are hardwired to admire beauty, this is why we are bombarded daily by ads with very attractive models. Have you ever seen an unattractive Victoria's Secret model for example? The answer is probably not. By purchasing a Victoria's Secret item you will not magically transform into the attractive model, but there is a certain perception that such ads create in our minds that we will indeed look that way if we wear the same thing the attractive model is wearing.

The above holds true even in the virtual world, there is just no denying that using an attractive avatar to market your products makes a huge difference in your bottom line. Keep this in mind when taking a picture of your product. Invest time, effort and money in making your avatar as attractive as possible, this includes finding the perfect skin, hair, and even the poses you will use. Sure you can argue that beauty is subjective, however trust me on this one, putting a little effort on the look of your models will help you increase your bottom line.

Store names blurred

Store names blurred

For example both ads above are of similar products one priced higher than the other. Of the two which one are you more likely to purchase? Probably the higher priced one. This is for two reasons, for one because you are human, there is the perception that because the model in the picture looks attractive in the clothes you will also look attractive in them. Secondly, and this is Second Life specific, by using an unattractive avatar you have created the perception that your items are of poor quality. While your creation may very well be of high quality one tends to believe that if you have taken very little time to improve the quality of your avatar then chances are that you have also put very little effort on your creations.

Likewise if you are a child avatar clothing creator, keep in mind that "cute and adorable" sells. I cannot begin to tell you how many listings I have seen on the Marketplace where the supposed child avatar looks nothing like a child but a badly made 60 year old midget from 1800's.

As shallow as all this sounds, if you are looking to increase profits keep this tip in mind when preparing the avatar that will model your creations.

If you don't have the money to put into your avatar then hire a friend whom you have always thought is attractive. Offer them the product they will model for free as payment or offer them a few lindens for their time. This small investment will prove to make a huge difference in your favor.

Skype For Linux Gets Update: Includes Windows Live Messenger

Here we were last year feeling like we had been forgotten by the Skype devs and then came news that Microsoft had purchased Skype. I for one believed that it would be the end of Skype for Linux. To my surprise Skype for Linux has had more updates over the last year than it ever did before Microsoft took it over.

Yesterday, although still labeled as beta, Skype had another major update for the Linux platform. If you ever wondered if there would ever be an official native linux version of Windows Live Messenger then you are in for a surprise. The newest version of Skype for Linux brings with it the ability to log in using your Windows Live account so you can chat with your messenger friends. Perhaps Microsoft has decided to troll us, seeing as Windows Live Messenger will be on its way out later next year.

Continue reading the full story on my blog post at OMG! Linux.

Introducing OMG! Linux: A Linux User Community

It has been a while since I have posted anything on this blog so it is long overdue that I make some time and come here to my blog.

Today I want to introduce a website I have been working on with a friend. OMG! Linux is a Linux user community dedicated to welcoming and helping new Linux users find answers to common questions.

At omglinux.com new users will be able to find vast amounts of resources and linux related news. A question and answer section and a site forum will enable linux newcomers find quick answers when they feel stuck and overwhelmed.

I will also be blogging on that website so be sure to join. I encourage any Linux user to visit the site often and help promote the use of Linux operating systems so that the user base can grow and succeed.

Hope to see you all there.

Neo OS 1 "Unnamed" Coming soon

Neo OS 1 "Unnamed"

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS based remix Neo OS 1 is coming soon. This custom Ubuntu Linux remix comes with Cinnamon 1.4 as default desktop manager, no Unity. The latest Firefox, the latest Chrome, the latest Gimp and the latest blender preinstalled. It is Ubuntu the way Ubuntu should have always been, beautiful and easy to use.

Name ideas now being taken. Since this remix uses Ubuntu with little changes to its core and mixes in the Linux Mint DE, I want to use a mixture of their naming conventions so maybe humorous female names? Any and all ideas are welcomed, use the comments on this blog to submit your ideas for Neo OS 1 A..... A.....

How To Replace Unity with Cinnamon 1.4 in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise"

 *UPDATE 5/25/2012* Cinnamon has now been updated and stability problems with Ubuntu 12.4 LTS has now been fixed.

You have installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise" but you don't like the default Unity interface and you wish to trash it and replace it with another desktop environment (DE). This tutorial will walk you through step by step to removing Unity and replacing it with Cinnamon 1.4 which is my preferred DE at the moment. Warning: Cinnamon 1.4 in its current state is still unstable with Ubuntu 12.04, however you can use this tutorial to install another DE or if you don't mind the minor crashes (which doesn't happen to some) then stick to Cinnamon you will not be disappointed.

The default Unity desktop looks like this:

Default Unity Desktop

After this tutorial it will look like this:

Default Cinnamon Theme

You will notice that after you install Ubuntu 12.04 you only have the option to use Unity and Unity 2D.

So first thing we need to do is log in to Ubuntu in either 3D or 2D it does not matter.

Now fire up the terminal and type the following

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwendal-lebihan-dev/cinnamon-stable

Click ENTER when asked.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon

Now just wait for the process to finish.

Once finished, you can reboot your system and now on the login screen you will see Cinnamon, Gnome Classic and Gnome Classic (No Effects) have been added as optional DE this is for fallback in case Cinnamon fails to start.

Cinnamon successfully installed

Log in either with Cinnamon, Gnome Classic  or Gnome Classic (No Effects).


If you logged in with cinnamon this is what you will see.

Now we want to trash Unity for good.

Open up the terminal and type the following

sudo apt-get remove gir1.2-unity-5.0 indicator-application indicator-appmenu indicator-datetime indicator-messages indicator-power indicator-sound libindicator7 libnux-2.0-0 libunity-2d-private0 unity unity-2d unity-2d-launcher unity-2d-panel unity-2d-places unity-2d-shell unity-2d-spread unity-asset-pool unity-common unity-lens-applications unity-lens-files unity-lens-music unity-lens-video unity-place-applications unity-scope-musicstores unity-scope-video-remote unity-services

Wait for the process to finish and logout.

If successful you should no longer see Unity and Unity 2D as options.

Congratulations! You have replaced Unity with Cinnamon. If you prefer to use another DE you can use this tutorial but instead of installing Cinnamon install the one you prefer.

Next tutorial I will show you how to do more customizations. If you liked this tutorial please share it.

How Linux and Open Source Can Help Your Business:

So you have decided to start your own business. You have purchased brand new computers for every office and cubicle in your business headquarters. Now you realize that the new PCs you just purchased need software which is critical for your business such as word processors, email clients, accounting software and other software you need to run your business. Depending on the size of your business you have just spent thousands if not millions, that is a huge chunk off your bottom line. Because technology moves so fast two years later all the proprietary software you have purchased needs to be upgraded if you don't want your business to stay behind and you must spend again.

Unfortunately this scenario does happen quite. Many businesses must face the question whether to upgrade and lose a huge chunk off their bottom line, or stay behind the pack with outdated software that no longer has any support which in the long run may cost you more.

Fortunately Free Open Source Software (FOSS) can help businesses of any size keep up with technology at little to no cost. The following is a list of proprietary software and its Free Open Source counterparts.

Microsoft Windows – Cost to upgrade to Windows 7 starts at $119.99 according to their website. A Linux OS will cost you nothing. Ubuntu and Linux Mint are perfect for daily business use and are also good for those making the switch from Windows.

Microsoft Office – Cost to upgrade starts at $119.99 for 1 PC. LibreOffice on the other hand will cost you nothing and you can install it on as many PCs as you like. LibreOffice offers the same productivity tools offered by Microsoft Office. It includes a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a multimedia presentation program and more. Documents and work you create using the LibreOffice products can be saved in the format of its MS Office counterpart for easy sharing and compatibility.

MS Outlook – You must own MS Office Home & Business or better to get it. Mozilla's Thunderbird is free and Open Source. With the help of some useful add-ons you will be able to do almost if not all the things you now do with MS Outlook.

QuickBooks – Starts at $183.95 to upgrade. GnuCash is free and Open Source and can handle most of your business's daily accounting tasks.

Although these are just four of the most basic needs of any business, you can find an Open Source alternative to just about any proprietary software out there.

Open Source software can also help your business achieve a more professional look. Imagine you wanted to brand all software used within your company with your business's logo, good luck doing that with any Microsoft products. Because Open Source software allows you to modify it to fit your business needs you can add your company's brand so that each time your employees open up any software they will be reminded that they are part of a stable and professional company. You can even modify a Linux distro like Ubuntu, with your brand and configure it to fit your needs, you just cannot do that with any proprietary operating systems.

Open Source software is community driven. Because the source code is open to the scrutiny of the demanding eyes of its users, bugs and security vulnerabilities are quickly discovered and patched while with proprietary software you just have to hope that things get fixed or even noticed. As a business you want software that is secure, reliable and cost you as little as possible. This is what makes the use of Free and Open Source Software a good idea for your business.

LL Viewer 3.2.x Many UI Improvements, Moving Forward.

When Linden Lab released their Viewer 2.0 last year it was not well received by the majority of SL users. I personally did not mind it, while yes it lacked the features and ease of use of the Phoenix Viewer, I found it slick, innovative and fun to use. I will admit though that I rarely use LL official viewers as I find them to always be unstable and always very buggy. I have preferred the likes of Firestorm, Dolphin, and the now on hiatus Kirsten's Viewer.

If you are a viewer freak like me and follow everything viewer related (yes I have 6 different viewers installed), you are aware of LL's development viewer which you can download from here.

I am pleased to see LL finally listening to what the users want and are finally working to improve the viewer UI. Here is a short walk through of what you will find.

After downloading and installing the fun will begin.

The first thing you will notice is that there no longer is an option to log in on a dumbed down "basic" mode. This is good because I always found it to be idiotic and it confused the noobs more than it helped them.

Here is where the major changes have taken place. Immediately you will notice that the sidebar is gone and has been replaced by toolbars. The toolbars are on the bottom, and left and right sides. The toolbars are configurable and I will show you how. The next thing you will notice is that the favorites toolbar has been moved and merged with with the navigation bar and thus taking less space than it used to. Another chance is the position of the chat window pop ups that have now been moved to the top right of the screen. This layout makes a lot more sense to me and seems to unclutter the screen.

When you click and drag one of the toolbar buttons you will see the toolbars highlighted in blue, this is where you can drop your buttons.

Con: Although you can drag and place each button in the position you want them the size and position of the toolbar is not configurable. I guess I am too used to Linux and like my panels which are completely configurable, I would like to have full control of these toolbars as well. Like I would like to be able to change the size, and location of them, but I guess this is a start. However the buttons are themselves configurable. You can choose which buttons to display and also whether you want a label on them or just the icon.

Choose buttons will open the following window:

Simply drag buttons to and from this window onto your toolbar. Then you may also decide to display icons only.

This is how my setup looks.

The bad, The ugly, The Uggh Why Can't They Fix This:

The People window is still huge. I would like to be able to change the width and length of it not just the length. I also do not need the idiotic recent tab, it is only taking up space. On the nearby tab I would love to see what Firestorm and Kirsten's has and that is the range in meters of the people on the list. If i cannot tell how far the nearby people are from me then this window is of no use at all to me. 

I should also mention that on the inventory window there is a new item called Received Items. I am assuming this will be for the new direct delivery think they are trying out. I hope this is properly implemented when it finally makes its way to the grid.

So if you have been waiting for a better viewer from the Lab, I recommend that you give this one a try, you might like it.