Recently someone asked me how to get rid of a tracker (a scripted wearable that tells you who is near you) they got in a new residents' package. They had removed every attachment they were wearing, and they still were getting messages from the tracker. However, they were only getting the messages when they were at home. I tried out the tracker myself, and it was easy to remove. Plus, once it was removed, it quit talking, so I was pretty sure they were not still wearing the tracker. The fact that they were only seeing messages from the tracker when they were at home gave me the idea that they had accidentally dropped the tracker on the floor, instead of wearing it. Here are the two suggestions I made: 1) Turn on Highlight Transparent (CTRL-ALT-T or Edit, View, Highlight Transparent from the Menus). You might be able to see the item that way. 2) Use a primfinder (I use one from Argent Stonecutter called "Detect My Stuff"
It turned out that the tracker was too small to see using Highlight Transparent, but when they used the primfinder, they were able to find and delete it. Here's how Argent Stonecutter's primfinder works. You set it down, and it points a laser light at things you own within its radius. Each time it finds one, it tells you the name of the item and its location. Combined with Highlight Transparent, a primfinder will help you to get rid of many pesky and hard to find prims you may drop and lose, as long as you own the prim.
Argent Stonecutter's Store is at:http://slurl.com/secondlife/Noonkkot/59/12/49
Another annoying thing is trying to find particle emitters and other items that may have rolled into a spot you can't grab, even with your primfinder to help you. This happened to me one time with a rolling particle emitter I got in a free store. I put it on the ground underwater, and it immediately rolled into a crack in the ground! Purple poofing particles were popping into my house day and night, and I couldn't get at the danged thing to delete it. I was ready to return every object on my land to get rid of that particle emitter, until I ran across this tip.
You can remove the "surface patch" from view on your screen (along with water and any other type of image on your land) from the Advanced tab on your top of the screen menu. If you don't see an Advanced tab, you can invoke it by pressing CTRL-ALT-D. Click on Advanced, then Rendering, then Types. Here's a picture:
Click on Ground, Surface Patch, Water or whatever other substance is keeping you from seeing the item you are trying to grab. You may have to pick more than one. I had to pick all three to get at the particle emitter I had dropped on the ground under the water on my land. Once you've nabbed the offending item, you can reverse the process to get your land, water, and surface patch back in place.
Here's another tip that little adventure taught me. If you aren't sure what form an item takes, open drag it onto the ground somewhere your items will be returned (like a Sandbox) or wear/attach it. That way you can get a look at it before it gets loose!
Still another annoyance I've had to deal with was a chronic sound that I kept hearing on a particular parcel of land I owned. It sounded like a squeaky toy. In that case, it was not something I owned, so the primfinder couldn't help me. It was also not on my land, so I couldn't find it using the Advanced features. I finally found it one night on a neighbor's land. It was someone's idea of a toy or joke, and had probably been sitting there for years. When I finally found it--I muted it, so I could no longer hear it (clicked on the item then clicked mute on the piechart), but in order to get rid of it for good, I sent my neighbor an IM and notecard asking them to turn on their auto-return or delete the item. Since my neighbor owned the land, and was not renting, they could also have gone into About Land, Options, and clicked on Refresh List to see any items on the land that were not owned by people they knew, and then returned it to its owner.
