It's all in the wrist..

FIRST 503 ERROR I'VE EVER GOTTEN @ AU!

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:10:39 -0700

Here we go! LL announces the acquisition of Avatars United and BOOM! The very first 503 error yet..

I know, 503 errors aren't the end of the world.. or are they? I dunno, I just know this is the first time since I joined 4 months ago that I can't actually get to the AU site. Since Linden Lab just announced their acquisition of AU, I simply can't help but place the blame there, since the only other site I ever really get 503s from is

(drumroll please..)

You guessed it! Second Life! Oh well..it's all in the wrist

Avatars United now Linden Lab? WTF!

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:49:04 -0700

So I just found AU about 4 months ago, and haven't really done much with it yet, because I've been busy with some other projects. Now, LL has bought it! To be honest, I'm tired of Lindens phucking up everything that SHOULD be decent, it's the whole reason I joined AU in the first place!

To be honest, if the Lindens are going to go snatching up everything that has some connection to avatars, there's a real possibility I'll leave VWs altogether. I've just taken a complete MONTH off from SL just because I'm tired of LL..

Those of you who JUST received my acceptances as 'friends' at AU, don't be confused or upset if I should simply disappear from your list. I may not remain at AU now that it's destined to be a complete phuckup.

Remember, it's all in the wrist..

Is Vermont the new Delaware?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:39:41 -0700

Wow, I've been asleep at the wheel for a while, I guess! I just read this on the Pixels and Policy blog, I hadn't seen this information yet, and found it interesting, particularly since it was passed in JUNE!

Apparently, businesses are beginning to move to virtual settings such as SL and fully web-based business models - no surprise there. The surprise, to me anyway, is that Vermont is now the up and coming 'Delaware' in virtual corporations. Good for them! Read it at Pixels and Policy.

Simple desktop HTTP-In

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:56:13 -0700

Here's a tutorial that will help show how a simple html form can be used, straight from the desktop, to communicate with your LSL scripts ;o)

First, you'll need a prim.

In this prim use this script - alter it how you want, it's pretty simple and it's mostly the script for http-in we've all seen a hundred times. If you are old like me, you may have to use Ctrl-(+) to increase the text size so you can actually read it on here.

key requestURL; default{     touch_start(integer num_detected) {        requestURL = llRequestURL();     // Request that an URL be assigned to me.    }     http_request(key id, string method, string body) {         if ((method == URL_REQUEST_GRANTED) && (id == requestURL)) {            // An URL has been assigned to me.            llOwnerSay(body);            llOwnerSay("Copy and paste the above url into your html form action.");        }                else if ((method == URL_REQUEST_DENIED) && (id == requestURL)) {            // I could not obtain a URL            llOwnerSay("ERROR: " + body);            requestURL = NULL_KEY;        }        else if (method == "POST") {           llOwnerSay(body);                      llHTTPResponse(id,200,"Baddabean!");        }                else {            // An incoming message has come in using a method that has not been anticipated.            llHTTPResponse(id,405,"Unsupported Method");        }    }    //use this if you have a way to update the prim url, such as an offworld file or db    //changed(integer change) {        //if(change &amp; CHANGED_REGION_START) llResetScript();       //}}

As you can see, when it receives a POST, it will llOwnerSay the posted message to you and then respond with 'Baddabean!' Now, it's time to minimize SL and open Notepad or whatever plain text writer you have.

In your text file, you're going to create an html page like so:

<html><head><title>Testing 1-2-3</title></head><body><form name="frmTest" method="POST" action="">Ask this inworld: <input type="text" size="40" name="question" value="What bean won't give you gas?" /><br /><input type="submit" value="Ask"></form></body></html>

Here, you can see it's a simple html form. First thing you'll notice is that the action is empty in the form tag. Switch back to SL, and touch your prim. You should get the prim's URL in chat. Copy the URL from chat history, jump back over to your text file and paste the URL between the quotation marks for the form action tag. Save your text file with an html extension.

Now, just open your new html page in your browser (double click for most) and press the submit button. You should immediately go to a page with the response 'Baddabean!' or whatever you made your script say. Jump over to SL and look in chat - you'll see the question sent from your desktop!

Have fun and remember, it's all in the wrist..

Lindens Discuss 3rd Party Viewers

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:55:24 -0700
I know, It's been forever since I blogged on anything! But today was the first 'brown bag' meeting the Lindens are holding to discuss their plans on the 3rd party viewer registry. I found it quite informative.
What viewer you use can make a huge difference in your Second Life experience. There are features that all viewers have, features that some viewers have, and some viewers have features specific to themselves. 3rd party viewers are getting a bad rap lately because people want to blame somebody for all the content theft that's been going on. The fact is, the viewers aren't to blame, the people using them in illegal ways are to blame.

Anyway, the Lindens have a plan to create a registry by which they can approve of viewers which are safe to download and use to connect with the Second Life grid. They are working on requirements for approval, and asking for ideas from the community in this regard. Jeska began by asking about features which those who use other viewers require in their viewer of choice. OTR (encrypted Instant Messages) was brought up and discussed, the usual suspects were also brought up (ie Avatar Radar, In-client AO, Import/Export, Temporary Texture upload..), all great features and very useful. A case was even made for bouncing bewbies and it actually made sense! lol

The discussion then moved on to some of the Lindens' plans concerning a registry, and they asked what requirements should be met to make each of us feel comfortable downloading and connecting with another viewer. There was discussion of meeting GPL requirements such as available code, approval based on review by Linden Lab, User review/ratings system, code signing by developers, review based on inspection with a mind to ToS, and much more.

When asked for questions, the start was slow, I think because we all waited until the last minute to type our questions into Blondin's IM box. Once we got going, though, there were good questions asked. It was asked if the registry would herald greater enforcement of the GPL to which the reply was yes. The largest concern from the general public seems to be viewers with more capability than is acceptable, allowing unscrupulous persons to violate TOS. This was discussed at length, with the natural outcome that these features would need to be investigated in terms of legitimate use, and TOS violators dealt with individually.

I asked the question on the other end of the spectrum, where would viewers with limited capabilities fit into the scheme of the registry, such as viewers specific to inworld games and such. The Lindens seemed very much in favor of these and placed them in the same category as the text viewers and screen readers and accessibility viewers currently available and under development. The registry will consider these for approval along with any others.

Discussion then turned to bots, and the new initiative to flag them as bots. The clients used for bots will be considered and approved in the registry along with all other clients. Moving on to content copying, Marty was very clear that import/export is not a violation when the permissions system is adhered to. Features which specifically ignore the permissions system will not be acceptable in any case.

All in all, I enjoyed the meeting and learned quite a bit more about the Linden's registry plans than I did from the entire 90 page blogrum that deteriorated very quickly into what seemed like the transcript of a 3rd grade recess squabble. I'm not sure how helpful I was on this issue, but I found it educational and interesting.

GAX Working World Virtual Job Fair

Fri, 29 May 2009 06:51:49 -0700
I attended the GAX Virtual Job Fair yesterday, and I'm not sure what I was expecting. I just wanted to check it out. In fact, it was quite nice - and a great way to make contacts and get information about current opportunities. I was very happy with the experience, and it's great to see so many companies looking towards virtual worlds for business solutions.
I met some really interesting people, both job-seekers and company representatives. Yesterday's fair was focused on Luxembourg, but information on other locations was available for the asking. The representatives were very informed and eager to help. GAXManager Ewing was very busy, but still took the time to talk for a minute. Hmm..I still owe Jeffronius Batra my resume too lol. I have to get to that some time today.
I did wait a long time, hours in fact, to speak with the Manpower representative but by the time I had to leave they hadn't shown up yet. All in all, it was a very satisfying experience.
Those of you who know me know that I am very deeply interested in the integration of virtual worlds, web 2.0, and business..not to mention everyday life. I'm working on projects which incorporate all of these resources into a cohesive foundation for business and work tools - applications - to further the integration of virtual technologies into daily life. A friend of mine calls me Big Brother lol. But in all honesty, this is what the job fairs that are going on in virtual worlds mean to me. They represent the idea that business and the working world is ready to meet us on our turf. I like that.
Remember, it's all in the wrist..

~ELQ

Couple neat things the last few days

Fri, 22 May 2009 08:15:21 -0700
LSL is fun! Sometimes we forget that as we plug through things to try to get something done, but if it wasn't fun, why would we do it? When it actually stops being fun, I'll be moving on, but for now, I don't think that'll be anytime soon.
So let's see, the last few days I've just been playing in LSL, I have been working on some projects, but I keep stopping to do something weird just to do it LOL..like, I sent some text messages straight out of SL..I also made a little site monitor to monitor websites from SL and it will email a status report twice a day or text an alert if a site goes down for more than 3 minutes. LOL what??! That's a very useful thing, it's an idea I had because I have a site monitor now that's on my desktop, so my desktop has to be on ALL the time, and it's a Windoze box so it runs out of resources..I have another that I could run just the monitor on but it's a PITA, so I came up with doin it from SL..why not? I have it running now, I'm letting it run about a week and make sure it's okay before I release it, then I'll post the code here, it's pretty simple stuff, but a neat application of LSL I thought.
Also, I'm working on an idea for some multi-level script structure..something to help with when the per-parcel script limits hit the streets of SL..not going to say more about it right now though because for all I know it could take down the sim lol..we'll see.
Maybe one day I'll have something profound to say and both of you will be the ones to see it! LOL..till then, remember it's all in the wrist..
~ELQ

Sneaky with the Profile changes, Lindens!

Fri, 01 May 2009 01:07:27 -0700
In SL™, profiles were changed in a sneaky way, they're keeping content ratings from preferences in the coding of your profile..
I say sneaky because you can't see it, it's in the code, but it's not visible in the profile page, only in the code. Some would wonder what it's doing there, then ;o) Maybe they are beginning to rate avatars as content? lol I don't think so, it's probably because they have the same problems with data persistence as we do as scripters in SL!
This is obviously where they get the information so they know what they can and can't show in Search and Events, as well as allowing regional access. However it is fun when talking to people about it and they get all paranoid wondering why it's there lol
I understand it, and it really does make sense, but I hate the fact that it's there, right in the middle, where those of us with scripts which read that code need to be. It took forever to fix that Kudos script today - all day! I just started sending out the fix an hour ago.
Anyway, I guess I know what I'll be spending tomorrow doing. I'm off to bed. Remember, it's all in the wrist..

~ELQ

Recent Profile Changes

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:34:00 -0700

Polar ice is melting and my concern this morning while drinking my coffee is SL Profiles have changed and I now have to rescript Kudos.. still, all that ice just makes me wish for a really big bottle of decent Scotch lol
Profiles - there's a hot topic. My customers all seem to love the Kudos Profile Picture Viewer at H&S Originals (shameless plug, wth) but not this week! The Lindens apparently moved all the profiles after dicking around with them over the whole content rating mess, and everybody's profile-dependent scripts went bye-bye. I reacted accordingly, changed my scripts, sent out notices and started swapping out the roughly thousand plus Kudos I have floating out there..
Lo and behold We hear from the Lindens, "We screwed up! We're moving them back!" Gee...thanks?
Yanno, that info is great, and any info is really nice to have, but the info I really would have liked at the same moment I found out you guys were moving the profiles yet again is that "oh yeah..we've changed the content of them!" LOL...I mean, gods almighty, now I have to REALLY rescript it, not just change a URL, but I've got to go in and do all that string manipulation again...we all know that the only thing more fun than string manipulation in LSL is calculus, right?
Oh well, I'm off to do some serious string things, instead of working on the website that's WAY overdue..remember, it's all in the wrist ;o)

~ELQ

Virtual World Banking!

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:40:28 -0700

Apparently there's a new bank in town, and it's in a Virtual World! So I was over at the AVW Association of Virtual Worlds and saw on the news widget they have there that a Virtual World has gained banking status. Well hey, I just had to click it. That took me to a link on somebody's AVW page, which took me to the article at http://www.tothport.nl/?p=107.
Very nice! I can see it now, guys, it's not gonna be long for us! Wow, can you imagine what we're gonna have to do though, doing banking software in LSL™? LMAO I know it's been done before, but damn I don't think I wanna try it just yet. Man, I hope we get some support for other programming languages soon..
Until then, it's all in the wrist..
~ELQ