Mindjunk is exactly what it sounds like: mental clutter that sits in your head and makes you more anxious and fearful, taking up space without doing anything effective for your life — or Second Life. It sells papers (or their virtual equivalent), but it isn't true.
Alas, while I mostly enjoy Hamlet Au's New World Notes, I'm not happy with repeated mindjunk like this:
As with WindLight, it's likely that dynamic shadows will only display optimally on the most powerful (and expensive) computers, threatening another balkanization of the SL experience. (Not to mention frustrating builders who've spent so much time figuring out how to add artificial shadows to their work.)
No.
- A computer that exceeds Second Life's System Recommendations can be bought for under US$500. Take any fair setup optimized for gaming/multimedia — glean knowledge here — and make sure it has a beefy enough CPU and RAM. An 8800GT, which is more than enough to run Second Life and many top-notch games on the market, can be had for under US$150, and even less if you shop around. And even then, there are cards under US$50 that will still show off atmospheric shaders (WindLight) in all their glory.
- "Balkanization" is also grossly inaccurate. Even though I appreciate colorful analogies, it isn't as easy to unite countries involved in political bloodshed as it is to click your mouse and toggle graphics options. This is no different from the many games and 3D modelers on the market that allow you to turn off higher-quality graphics in favor of increased speed. Second Life's not unique here — similar concerns were raised about BioShock, which has higher min. requirements than SL.
- "Frustrating builders" is entirely speculative at this point, and injects artificial fear into an experimental feature which is awesome to preview but clearly isn't intended for widespread release yet. Talk about wild analogies: do you scream at your baby for not being able to walk out of your womb or nurture it and encourage healthy development? And what about the upsides, like "freeing builders from the worry of painstakingly crafting fake shadows"?
Related, see "Lessons learned from WindLight".
Whenever something remarkable leaks, whether unwanted or deliberately, people talk about it. They can't help but react, and that's part of being human.
The great part: it builds buzz.
Teh suck: there are a lot of armchair critics who add to the noise, but don't contribute anything useful.
What I say isn't exclusive of problems. But it certainly is inclusive of what isn't being talked about enough.
If you've got an opportunity to speak up and make a difference about ongoing issues, no matter how controversial — or protroversial they may be: don't be a community bleeder, be a community leader.
