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I'd like to call for a brief moment of silence in the virtual worlds community to commemorate the passing of 'Ruth' -- the prototypic SL loading avatar. A bit of history for those for whom the term 'Ruthed' has no resonance: In Second Life, when you enter a sim via teleport or by logging in, the sim needs to assemble your avatar for display -- in the process, accessing and applying your shape (followed by other worn inventory: skin, clothing, hair, attachments) -- the stuff and parameters that make you uniquely you. Without your shape, you're Ruth: the prototypic avatar, a medium-height, mesomorphic female with a brown mullet. Ideally, nobody was ever supposed to see Ruth. But in practice, SL folks saw her pretty often. There's be some rez or teleport-landing flakeout, shape application would lag, and there you'd be: a short, small-breasted, bad-haired, dwarf version of yourself, wearing your primo skin and high-fashion clothing. Usually, the system would fix you after a while -- you'd suddenly inflate to full size and pulchritude. Sometimes you'd have to give the system a kick by clicking Appearance, forcing it to apply your shape. And sometimes, there was just no cure -- you were trapped as Ruth for hours, perhaps through relog after relog. The most uncanny Ruth scenarios involved failures preventing _other_ avatars from caching your shape. So you'd look normal to yourself, but be Ruthed to other people until _they_ relogged. Now, as of SL 1.20, Ruth has been replaced (as a default, anyway) by a glowing particle mist. Which is a terrific solution (go Brent Linden!) But I do find myself happy that, under Character controls, they've preserved an avenue back to Ruth for those that want or need it. I strongly suspect the reason for this has nothing to do with nostalgia -- the 1.20 client is probably doing some sleight-of-hand to make Ruth inviso, and swapping in the particle mist as it would an inbound TP 'poofer.' But if something fouls up, the mist gives no indication of what's going on ... it's not your avatar, it's just _there_ until your shape hits and the sim thinks you're fit to show. So there are good debugging reasons for keeping plain old Ruth (and she _is_ plain) in reserve. Long may she wave. Those wishing a dose of (hysterical) nostalgia may want to look at this Flickr photostream of Ruth pics. Meanwhile, 1.20 has also given us lip-sync -- so now our lips move when we use SL voice. This is actually pretty good -- it's going to make presenting somewhat more appealing, and may hugely inflect the usability of avatar video, which (with unmoving avatar faces) was death to watch.
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Animula, vagula, blandula
Hospes comesque corporis!
Quae nunc abibis in loca,
Pallidula, frigida nudula
Nec ut soles dabis joca?
Ubi avatarius tibi lepus minimus?
"Little soul, fleeting, gentle - guest and friend of the body, where goest thou: tiny pale one, cold and naked, laughing not as of old? Where is thy tiny bunny av?"