Through process of elimination, teens discovered that if they built a rocket that launched them far enough into the air, they would penetrate the wall of the Main Grid. This has since been repaired, but for a time, it actually worked. On a recent visit, I was loaded into the rocket for my inaugural mission, but alas, it failed. There's always next time!

Teen Gridders don't have many options as far as programs go. They don't have the money to invest in Maya. Their economy is ruled by very few who earn as much as 40-50 USD per day. They do know how to manipulate prims, though, and that is why sculpties make them mad as hell.

In the picture above, Jay Clostermann is showing Machinima Guru a picture of the protest sign (since I can't teleport), made by Ryou Debs, that is currently on display in Andretti. Instead of carefully building something through primwork, there will be people using objects made by others. They fear that primming will be abandoned for this new art and their little spending money will dwindle, along with the creativity of the residents.

What do YOU think about sculpties? Do you think they will affect your prim business in the long run?

Read on to find out what the sign says ...

I've previously mentioned how depressed the economy is on the Teen Grid. They create content for essentially peanuts. Their lindens cost the same as ours, but they can purchase three times the amount of items. Some innovative teens are working to change that, though.

Digital Refinery, the brainchild of Reallife Orca, is a teen-run content company with some of the finest content creators on the grid. They realized that Main Grid content companies had clients that weren't able to target their main market. Designers such as Ryan Dayton, Nikolai Althouse, and Brooke Barmy will be working with clients to show off their work.

Now that it's summer, concurrency will more than double, to a whopping 500 residents on at a time. Hopefully this will call attention to the Teen Grid and bring in more residents. If you are a Main Grid content company interested in putting your work on TG, please contact them. As long as none of them turn 18, I think Digital Refinery has a bright future!

Linden Lab tells us that Second Life will be taken offline for an update on Wednesday, 6 June. The grid is going down from 6am to noon SLT (US Pacific) for an update to 1.17.0. So ... what are we getting?

That's a little harder to say. The notice begged off giving any actual information until Tuesday, however, the beta grid (Aditi) has been updated with 1.17.0 and the release notes for that are available.

1.17.0 contains your recommended fortnightly intake of bugfixes, plumbing for assorted memory leaks, and the beta version contains expanded voice systems - which will not be a part of the version rolled out onto the main grid on 6 June.

The teens haven't had many options for Machinima tools. Most of the tools have been brought over from the Main Grid. One of the earlier options, the Alt-Zoom camera, had a steep learning curve. Even after being explained by Eric Linden, many teens were unable to grasp the concept of it. I know all about this from my work on the Main Grid.

Global Kids, in collaboration with Filming Path creator Geuis Dassin, recently brought over the Filming Path Camera HUD at a reduced price from the Main Grid. Cost, however, still appeared to be a prohibiting factor in their purchase of the tool. I am pleased to announce that Geuis recently made the tool FREE for the teens!

This is a big step in the right direction for Machinima on the Teen Grid. With the Joystick Flycam still in beta, not to mention the required USB adapter and joystick, the FP HUD will offer them a free, easy alternative for dolly shots. Thank you for your generous contribution, Geuis!

At approximately 10:50ish PM PDT, my Second Life client randomly shut down. Eager to get back to my shopping, I tried to log back in, only to see the message "Performing account maintenance" above the grow bar and something like "Transferring inventory to another server" below it. It told me to wait until about 10:58PM PDT to log back in. I waited and logged back in at the appropriate time. This is where things got ugly ...

Upon re-entry, I was asked whether I would like to be male or female. Puzzled, I chose female. On my screen was a completely new avatar. I decided to check my inventory and noticed that over 17,000 items were gone! My inventory was totally wiped! An inquiry into Live Help produced Nicole Linden, who asked me what happened. She then told me they were working on it and to re-log in 10 minutes.

15 minutes went by and it was time to log out, but when I came back in, nothing had changed. I had a friend check in the Mentor group and it appeared that others were having this problem as well. After another inquiry with Live Help, Nicole Linden said that the problem had been fixed, but they were waiting for it to kick in. There was no estimated time for this change, but it has been over an hour. As of this writing, another person came forth stating that their account was undergoing maintenance and that they would be locked out for *6* hours!

Has anyone else recently suffered the loss of their inventory?

* It should be noted that my friends list, groups, and money are still intact. The only thing missing is my entire inventory.

* It's now 3:00AM PDT and my inventory is STILL gone. Nicole Linden stated that the problem they were having has been fixed, but there are still "lingering issues". Thanks to everyone that has messaged me so far with their moral support!

Since there aren't many teens on the Teen Grid, most of them will have recurring roles in the tales of my work there. One of the teens previously mentioned, Kit Axon, turned 18 on the day that I arrived. A frantic Wicked Loudon, a triple threat known for his skins, hair, and Machinima, was eager to continue filming his video memorial to her, so our conversation was cut short. I somehow stumbled upon his Machinima a few days later and, reader be warned, it still makes me cry every time.

It may seem like any other Machinima to the naked eye, but I'm going to provide the necessary insight for you to see what made me emotional. Kit Axon, a resident of the Teen Grid from November 8th, 2005 to March 31st, 2007, was a beloved resident, a social butterfly, and pose maker. She left behind her best friend, Lucky Figtree, whom still has over two years before she arrives on the Main Grid. Together they cried on Skype, as her time was slipping away. If she were to lose connection, she'd be gone forever.

In his film, Wicked captured some of his favorite moments with Kit, which also give us another peek at what islands look like on the Teen Grid. They can be seen water skiing, dancing, hugging, and crying together throughout various parts of the grid. I'm even in a few fade shots in my tiny cow avatar! The part that REALLY gets me is at the very end. I don't want to spoil it for you, but have your tissues ready. If you are as touched by Wicked's Machinima as I was, leave a comment on his YouTube page!

Oh, Machinima, how I've missed thee! Some people say that you can never have too much of a good thing, but they were wrong. After working on The Grid Review, I haven't been able to open up an editing program and dig into Machinima for about two months.

The Teen Grid, however, inspired me. Most of the content on the islands is teen created. For example, for the one year birthday of Global Kids, they held a contest where you could win 1000L for designing the best birthday cake. Ryan Dayton actually made a surprising amount of the content, so I definitely look forward to seeing what he can do on the Main Grid.

Until I can get some of the teens to create their own Machinima or find those that already have, I can only offer you my look at the three islands owned by Global Kids. The main island is in the middle and there are islands for gaming and Machinima on either side of it. If you are a teen that has made Machinima, please send Machinima Guru a link on the Teen Grid!

I had a bit of a surreal moment on my first day of visiting the Teen Grid. I was flying around when I spotted Kit Axon, a teen I recognized from her pictures on Snapzilla. She was gathered with a group of friends and they were all in a somber mood. Kit turned 18 that day, which should have been a celebration, but instead, meant that she would be torn away from all of her friends. She stayed logged on to TG for as long as she could, but knew it was time to let go after saying her tearful goodbyes. Once she logged off, there would be no going back.

Several hours later, I was messaged by Kit on the Main Grid. The area she'd first ended up in was not only Mature, but left her standing next to a naked statue. This was a bit of a shock for her, as transferring could be compared to having tea parties all of your life and ending up at a strip club. I tried my best to show her the wonders of the grid, from Baku to ETD. I think that she'll survive the transition just fine, but what about the others that arrived before her and will arrive after her? The Main Grid is a scary enough place for new adults.

Are you a former Teen Gridder? Leave a comment or IM me in-world about what your experience was like. In the future, I'd like to feature new transfers so that readers can get to know a little bit more about their new fellow residents. Please contact me if you're interested.

I arrived during a live stream of a Youth Conference, so there were a number of teens on Global Kids island. It was almost a surreal experience as I could not build, didn't know where anything was, and was afraid to do anything for fear of offending others. After the initial shock wore off, I had the chance to speak with some of the teens and let them sound off about the issues with their grid. I'll be blogging about my experiences here, as well as giving the teens a voice on Second Life Insider. If there's anything that you're dying to know, leave a comment!

The bug-fixes have been coming through pretty much daily on the beta grid, and the final testing preparatory to wrapping it up and deploying it on the main grid is starting. It's not yet been announced, but it's likely that next Wednesday, the 14th will be the day.

Perhaps the update will include the maintenance work that was supposed to happen to improve load-handling and stability. It's unclear how the various maintenance teams go about their tasks during an update. Perhaps Linden Lab will publish a bit of an essay on the process at some point.

When I started blogging for Second Life Insider earlier this month, I mentioned that I was hoping to bridge the gap between the Main Grid and the Teen Grid. At that time, I had submitted my application for a background check and was anxiously awaiting the results. They came back and I received a clean bill of health. In other words, I'm not a felon!

The time has come for my alt, Machinima Guru, to head on over to the Teen Grid. I've learned quite a bit about what you can't do over there. For example, you can't give or receive inventory, or teleport freely around the grid. I'll be relegated to GK Machinima Island, where I'll be working with the teens on Machinima.

In preparation for my move, I've raided moo's inventory for some cute, yet conservative clothing, headed over to ETD for some newbie friendly hair, purchased eyes and eyelashes from Sin Skins, and chose a nice light, freckled Fevrier skin from Tete a Pied. I also grabbed a MystiTool, which I absolutely can't live without, and a tiny cow avatar from Wynx Whiplash. See, one other thing I learned is that I can't shop over there. I'm a major shopaholic, so the idea of not being able to support their economy devastates me.

Soon, I'll be bringing my stories of life on the Teen Grid to Second Life Insider. I'll also have the chance to chat with the teens in their native environment and find out their opinion on things. I hope that you'll enjoy these experiences as much as I will!

My name is moo Money. While I'm no stranger to blogging on a personal blog, this is my first time doing it in a professional manner, so bear with me. I found out about Second Life in January of 2003 when I was managing the news for TSO Stratics. I wasn't feeling very creative at the time, so I didn't stay for very long in SL.

I returned in December of 2005 after reading an article about Second Life somewhere. It was a wondrous, magical place and I couldn't wait to get started on my new virtual life. I eventually found my niche in May of 2006 at which point I was hired by BuhBuhCuh Fairchild to promote Machinima. I've accomplished a lot since then ...

The next release of the Second Life viewer/grid software is scheduled for Wednesday December 13, in the usual 7am - Noon SLT (Second Life Time) timeslot. You can try it out by getting the viewer from the usual place (noting, that Linden Lab forgot to update the Beta Grid release notes there). Short of emergency fixes, it's likely that this is the last major update for 2006.

As with every update for most of 2006, this one is comprised almost entirely of bug-fixes, with a very few alterations or enhancements. Interested residents should get in there and hammer it. I don't recall ever logging on to the beta grid and not finding four or five things to bug report in the first ten minutes.

If nothing else, it's a chance to find out if Linden Lab accidentally broke your stuff, and a chance to let them know in time to unbreak it before it all hits the Main Grid, with a soggy thump. Some of you don't want to do Linden Lab any favors, but think about doing yourselves one.

Try it. If it breaks your stuff, eats your data, causes hairloss and albinism in pets and the elderly, now is a good time to raise your voice and say 'WTF?' -- because if you wait until Monday, that might just be too late.

Search > Places is back. Well, sort of back. Mostly back. Reasonably back. Okay, so there's still an issue.

At 2:55PM SLT (Second Life Time) on Friday, Search > Places was finally restored to service, after essentially a full week of downtime. By 18:00 SLT, it had become apparent that there was still one or more problems, and by 18:22 SLT, it was apparent that the problem was 'estates'. Basically, you can't seem to find things that are in another estate.

Most Second Lifers don't really know what a Second Life 'Estate' actually is, beyond the common-coin term in the English language (whichever dialect of it you choose to speak or mangle, or stoically persevere with as a second or third language), so a little background on estates is probably in order.