- On the one hand, and on the other hand
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- A Warning regarding Alpha and Release Candidates
- Self-Examination; or, Not Protest But Preservation
- Slight Return; thoughts on a Lightweight Interface to Drupal
- Rampant Traffic Bottery to be Eliminated? Perhaps, a Little.
- A Modification to the Twitterbox, such that it Works Once More
- A Movement Drupalwards
- An Inventory Permissions Checking Script
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A TwitterBox Suggestions Page
I would like to keep this particular entry for people using the TwitterBox to add any suggestions or hints they might have in the comments. So, really, this entry does not have a huge amount of content. I am sure though that there will be many terrific ideas which put me to shame emerging here.
Remember that the latest version of the Twitterbox can always be found at the main page:
http://ordinalmalaprop.com/twitter/
and that all posts relating to the TwitterBox can be found at
The one thing that concerns me is that eventually someone will stumble across the TwitterBox who does not immediately grasp the security implications. You are from all appearances a perfectly lovely person with a long history of ethical behavior - but with the intermediary server (which I understand perfectly well after having inspected the APIs is necessary), you're now in a position to collect Twitter passwords for anyone using the TwitterBox. So perhaps at the very least a cautionary note in the instructions reminding people that they ought not use the same password for multiple services is in order.
And of course at some point the traditional Evil Imitator could pack up a copy of the TwitterBox script, modified to point to their own intermediary server...for which I don't see a cure other than urging that people use only the original TwitterBox and Accept No Substitutes.
That is all true, and while clearly one's Twitter password is not the most important thing in the universe, there is a principle at stake. I shall add some data security warnings...
I'm not entirely sure what to do about the idea of someone creating and distributing a poisoned client, though. It being open-source, and with the permissions in SL as they are, without checking the script it is impossible to tell. I think at least I shall put a warning up on my Twitter page saying "check the server address, it should be XYZ, if it isn't there is something dubious going on".
A first draft here...
Dear Ordinal,
The first trick I've done to my version of twitterbox that I think it shouldn't be without is an error trapping feature. At the moment when it pings your server and anything goes wrong it sends the response straight to the chat history. As it keeps knocking on that door persistantly it can become quite annoying if repeated every few seconds during a lapse of service. I've changed it so it outputs just the error number eg.
TwitterBox v0.2 pavedit 2: Error 500 - (check log for more)
... and stores the actual html gunk after that in a variable.
Should one want to see the full text of the error one can simply press an "error log" button from the menu to see it printed to chat history.
Perhaps inelegant, but certainly polite.
Sincerely, Pavig.
Hi Ordinal,
I wonder if it would be possible to display my latest twits (using your Twitterbox) on a prim in my house in SL? Just like that box you can place on your website?
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
Yes, it would, and that's a good idea. I will see what I can do with that for the next update. Thanks for suggesting it!
Glad you liked my idea. When do you plan to release the next version?
Hi Ordinal,
So my idea was a bit too much for version 0.4? Do still plan to work on it?
Thanks and best regards,
Marcel
I did actually write up a script to do that, but I did not have time to actually test it yesterday. I am fairly sure it works, at least in basic form.
That is great. When do you have time to implement it?
...forgot something:
And what does it do exactly? Publish text on a screen or prim?
At the moment it just puts the latest few tweets for a particular person up as floating text, checking every now and then. The script should be fairly easy to change and customise, though. I have a specialised proxy which returns things nicely formatted in an appropriate way, to a given maximum of entries, letters or time.
Sorry to ask, but would anyone near see that floating text or just the person with the Twitterbox.
For my original idea I was thinking about the last few tweets shown on a prim or screen, refreshing upon incoming new tweets. Maybe I am stretching beyond SL possibilities now?
It isn't connected to the Twitterbox, it is entirely independent, so it can be put anywhere. There isn't a way to display tweets actually _on_ a prim though - well, all right, there is a way, but it isn't a very good one and I'm not planning to do it. Thus floating text will have to do for now.
Ok, that's clear then. When do you plan to release it?
[...] I would quickly like to note one more Twitter-related product - the Twitterbadge. This is a device, suggested by Mr Marcel Goodfellow, which allows one to display one’s own Twitterings, or, in fact, the public Twitterings of [...]
I must be drunk because I cannot seem to open Box v 0.4. Is it really me or is there some kind of security still attached?
ok I was drunk.....found it
I am just curious to know if it is me, the viewer or the new Havok4, but I am getting Stack-Heap Collision and Script run-time error from the Twitterbox every time I cross a sim border. Not to mention that tiny fact that it doesn't seem to work at all, neither sending nor receiving any tweets.
Are there any others experiencing the same problem?
I managed to get it working again by resetting all scripts.
However, I still have to reset the scripts after every time I log in. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. :)
Sorry, yes, there do seem to be some issues with the thing at the moment, and I need to investigate a bit - I have been putting it off repeatedly.
I'm also getting the Stack Heap error, but I haven't been able to pin exactly what causes it. Resetting the script gets it working again, but naturally the settings as far as making sounds publicly also get reset.
Maybe in the meantime, have those settings stored externally in a notecard?
It's running nicely for me, and thank you for this useful tool! I would like to report, though, that it does not appear on my HUD when mounted at top-right or bottom-right, though other locations seem to be fine. It would also be nice to be able to bring up the options menu verbally, which would make its appearance on the HUD a nonissue for me.
I am using Twitterbox in education - using the # tag to write stories - I would like an implementation that enables you to change emails ;) Brilliant app
Oh and I have created an in-world Twitterboxed group fro educators to share apps, mashups and hacks using twitterbox for use in education - if you're a teacher please join
this is brilliant!! quick note, the script still says "No email/password set - edit script and try again" even though they are set and tweets are working correctly. i'll investigate further to figure out why its doing so
Might I suggest that, just like other twitter appliances announce their usage like "from twhirl" or "from twitterfeed" or " from twitterrific" that twitterbox do the same by saying "from twitterbox" or "from second life via twitterbox". What do you think?
I think the solution is to see if we can replace the intermediary with an LSL script. It might even be worth working on.
In fact it probably is.
Whilst Twitter can provide JSON data, even that format can end up being far too long and awkward for LSL to receive and parse - the problem that I encountered when first writing the code. Even if the limit for HTTP responses was raised, string manipulation and so on in LSL is an absolute pig; a particularly slow and awkward pig in fact.
It is, though, quite possible to simply send updates directly to Twitter via LSL as one does not really care about the response in this case. The "twitterbox basic" script does this.
I am using Twitterbox in education - using the # tag to write stories808
"That is all true, and while clearly one's Twitter password is not the most important thing in the universe,"
It is pretty important for those who use the same password on their bank account. so they have one less to remember.
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