Articles by Ordinal Malaprop

I drag myself out of Aethernet Hibernation, prompted by a certain level of outrage. My preferred Cinema Hosting Site, Vimeo - a place that I have spent some time promoting, as it has always seemed to me a comfortable and technologically advanced place to host one’s Cinema - seems to have made an odd decision:

The Vimeo staff has decided that we are no longer going to allow gaming videos on Vimeo. Specifically, we are no longer going to allow game walk-throughs, game strategy videos, depictions of player vs player battles, raids, fraps, or any other video gaming videos that simply depict individuals playing a video game. Videos falling into this category will be subject to deletion as of September 1st; new videos of this type will be removed.

Of course, as a resident of Second Life one immediately says “and so how does this concern me? I am not playing any sort of ‘game’, in fact I have taken time from instructing my employees and dealing with clients and speaking to my latest beau just to read your rubbish, Ordinal, this had best be good”. But, and I hate to say this, in many quarters Second Life is considered a “game”. I know, improbably, but it is regularly placed alongside Chess and Poker and the World Of Warcraft and other Activities Which Actually Have A Point To Them. Certainly I am not at all confident that a proper distinction will be made here when it comes to removing old pieces of cinema (such as, well, all of mine).

Obviously it is, literally, the choice of the folk who own the particular Aethernet Site in question as to what they allow, but ethically speaking when one has a certain community which has served to promote the service one has built up, one has a certain responsibility to it. And regardless of that, good god, were I to upload an hour’s worth of my wandering around Caledon I cannot see how that could be termed as somehow less worthy than a video of myself wandering around London. Or playing with a Cat.

Speaking personally I find myself in a state of Flux now; I am not sure whether my Cinema will be determined as being “machinima” (Good Game - for the moment at least) or “depicting individuals playing a video game” (Bad Game naughty delete in September). I am terribly susceptible to Anxiety and thus may decide simply to remove everything and make it generally known that Vimeo is not a place for Cinematic Artists. However, I would advise anyone wishing to investigate these distinctions to join the folk on the Vimeo General Forum, or perhaps leave a comment on their Journal Entry announcing this. I am sure that Proper and Satisfactory Clarification will be received forthwith.

An actual product release for a change; yes, it is another pistol which may break down at a moment’s notice. Please see the following:

The Full Set Of Photographs

For the next few hours, available for half price from my Caledon shop! (That is, L$200.) (Not any longer.)

If you wish for more detailed Historical Information, please do read the following….
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I did wish to wait until Matters were Officially Recognised, but with reference to my previous Entry, it is now confirmed that the policy has been Changed and that those with Diminutive Avatars have been accepted with Child-Related Builds to Second Life’s Fifth Birthday. Which is of course all a good thing and deserving of lashings of ginger beer. Apart from the odd peculiar comment about nipples, it seems that sanity has prevailed, and I am sure that everyone would join me in celebrating this, as long as no chafing was involved.

(P.S.: Or Perhaps Actually There Are Still Restrictions)

I am concerned to read that the Second Life Fifth Birthday Celebrations (or SL5B for short - whilst long-winded I am rarely masochistic) may well be banning those with Child-Like Appearance from exhibiting. (See also here and further posts on that Publication, as well as many other places.)

Whilst I would be very pleased were this not to be an accurate portrayal of the situation I am of the opinion at this time, given numerous confirming sources, that it is quite true.

I penned a short missive of outrage to my brother Cardinal earlier this evening, being constantly in the hope of perhaps reforming him, which ran thusly:

Dearest Brother: whilst we have frequently been in Disagreement about many Matters, I would hope that you would be as outraged as I to see the latest suggestions that Linden Laboratory were prohibiting those who care to appear as Children upon the Grid from producing Exhibits, regardless of their content!

Surely this must contradict your oft-stated positions on the rights due to the Individual. There are clear Political Moves afoot by certain Politicians in the United States (as Mr Twain says, “the smallest minds and the selfishest souls and the cowardliest hearts that God makes”) to demonise anything on the Aethernet with any connection to Children, but certainly at this time to actually portray a child is not illegal or prohibited in any way, and it falls to all persons with any sense in their blasted heads to reject this sort of nonsense as far as is humanly possible - terrible rubbish that will do nothing to protect any actual Child and perhaps even put them in more danger by distorting the risks in the Public Mind.

I can see no reason whatsoever to kow-tow to the Prurience involved here, and indeed the fact that certain Political types and Journalists and suchlike cannot see the image of a Child engaged in Play and Enjoyment (or anything, really) without disgusting thoughts popping into their minds (such as they are) is really a matter that should be taken up with their Physicians, rather than indulged by the Legislature and Court of Public Opinion and certainly Linden Laboratory, a company composed of those whom I had thought to have more sense than this.

The recent clarification that Child-Like Avatars will be permitted attend, but not exhibit, makes the situation even more ridiculous. Clearly the Prurient will take this as confirmation that the Laboratory is quite happy to promote all of the things in their imaginings, and it will simultaneously serve to confirm to the Childrenish concerned that they are not considered worthwhile, and in the category of the Second Class in Second Life.

I popped this into the Shepherds Bush to Whitechapel pneumatic tube array at my local Sorting Office, and was surprised to receive a rapid reply. Alas, he has learnt nothing.

Dear Sister, I was not much surprised to receive your latest missive, as you yourself have yet to grow up in your attitudes to the Real World. Little wonder that you sympathise with these odd types.

Commerce and issues surrounding it are far more important than any of this nonsense about a few being told they cannot build their Fairgrounds or Candy-Floss Stands or whatever it is they do. Whilst it may be the case that there is no actual law involved, I fully support “LL”’s position here - they are taking the best decision to maximise their profits in the current political climate, and, to be quite frank, the group of folk concerned is negligible anyway.

Honestly. If he were not family. This, dear reader, is why I rarely speak to him, apart from his habit of frequently departing for foreign climes at odd hours of the night in order to avoid the Law.

My family correspondence aside, I really am rather perturbed by all this, and, if I did actually have a stake in the events, would be withdrawing it until such time as this were all straightened out. I do not, this year, but rest assured it will not be forgotten.

Additionally

• A statement from Everett Linden on the matter
• A JIRA issue to vote upon

I have noticed that there does still seem to be some Confusion amongst Residents as to precisely the relationships between Linden Laboratorye, the Grid itself, other Parts and also the Broader Aethernet, which does seem to be causing Misapprehensions as to the origins and behaviour of certain Aspects and Components.

I am always of a bent to properly Explain the Technical Nature of how these things operate, and for that purpose I have prepared a small diagram of the Cosmology of the Grid and Second Life, which I hope will prove useful. No doubt other Grid-Cosmological Types will have disagreements with the Details, but I believe that the basic structure is sound. Please excuse the poor handwriting.

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Not that I would wish, really, to discuss points of personal soreness with the crowd; but, heaven knows, this is some sort of historical document.

It all began with a missive from Soft Linden on the subject of things which might be included in the forthcoming 1.20 Release of the Client which enables us all to view the splendid Grid. Said missive included the forthcoming:

* DEV-4706 Make running more intuitive by double-tapping forward

Now, I consider that this would be a terrible thing; not at all instantly destructive of course, but at present, double-tapping has no meaning, thus there are scripts which attempt to use it for their own purposes - my own Dragonfly Wings, that Samurai Combat Island thing, all sorts. Adding client behaviour to that would disrupt that.

Thus, I made my objections known on said List, and was immediately directed towards the fabled JIRA, with the suggestion that I make complaint regarding an issue which did not at that time exist. Well. If instructed, so I shall do, and here it is: 1.20 source - “double-tap to run” should not be implemented. A minor contribution, I am sure you will agree (though please - do vote).

In the second comment, though, one encounters the following:

I have altered the title of this Jira. You should not petition for total removal of a feature if some will find it useful (and some will).

Instead, this feature should be a client option and should not be enabled by default.

The alteration referred to was to basically remove any reference to whatever the JIRA was about. So, “I should not petition for” something? Oh, dear sir, I dare say that I should and will.

With reference to my previous entry: an instance of a situation which has caused a significant person within SL to stop producing products has come to my attention.

Sculptypaint was a lovely little application written in the Java language, which enabled the production of all sorts of sculpted primitives. I have been known to refer to it as the “avimator of sculpts”, in that it allows those without the funds to purchase specialist software, and without the time to learn how to use it, the opportunity to access important features of Second Life.

Sculptypaint has now been discontinued by its author, with the following explanation:

I decided to take down Sculptypaint site for the next few days.

Why?

Well there are a number of reasons. I love to create, and write creation tools, that I offer free to download as well. Love the positive response of the majority of people, but the same time.

- People threatning me in real life, that I filed a DMCA complain against.

- I got serious hate mail, about my software thats free to download for everyone.

- The way Linden act on DMCA and copyright infrigment.
Like one person modified my artwork, removed my name and copyright, and have been selling my items for 6 months now.. Using an army of bots to get #1 in the search. I file a DMCA, wait 2 months, Linden removes the vendor boxes. And the next week the person is selling the same stuff again. I filed already 3 times in a row a DMCA takedown to this person, and still this person with ‘Payment info on file’ is running around in SL. Also selling other artist work.
Another person has a huge record on selling stolen goods in sl, created by me and other artist. Selling stolen items for the last 12 months now, all the DMCA takedowns he received he calls just a joke. and continues this ‘bussiness’. The person got ‘payment info on file’ and his own sim.

- Yesterday I learned about the ‘mental mentors’ group in Second Life. This group is for mentors in Second Life, who’s goal is to help Newbie`s, educate teach, lead, guide and so on. Great..
This group is rather big, about 800+ people/mentors.
I found out several of my sculptpacks I sell are offered as freebee`s by the leader(s) of this group. For several months now.
A ‘mentor starter pack’ is given out to all mentors, to help the helpless newbees in SL.
I released my latest SFT-pack around 14 februari 2008. Only a few days later, this pack I created was repackaged, my copyright notices and TOS removed, (all the sculpties clearly state not for individual resell/repackage). The whole pack was distributed as a freebee pack too about 800+ mentors in SL, to use and to give away ‘to help the newbees’.
If this group was called ‘robbers from SL’ I would not care a second, but from a mentor group.. Who`s goal to educate, teach, help and lead in SL?! unbelievable.

You must know, I only can continue developing Sculptypaint and other free creation tools by selling my work in SL.
No income - no time - no coding - no tools - simple as that.
I’m sick and tired about all this crap that sucks all the creative energy out of me, standing alone in the cold here for such a long time. So decided to put a statement here for the next few days. Hope you understand.

Have a nice day!

Elout de Kok - march 6, 2008
SL: Cel Edman

So - copyright breach, threats, lack of action by the Laboratory and (even worse) blatantly illegal redistribution by supposedly officially-sanctioned “mentor” groups has led to somebody of considerable imagination and skill being discouraged and deciding to give this project up, a project which was of great benefit to both the Lab and to residents. And who can blame him, to be honest?

I hope that this is temporary and that the tool re-appears - the author does say “this notice is up for the next few days”, we shall see what happens after that - but it seems a prime example of how breach causes discouragement and harms us all.

Incidentally, my God, if a “mentor” group has been shown to involve the redistribution of items and the deliberate removal of copyright notices, that group should be disbanded and the responsible parties banned permanently from ever stepping foot on the Grid again. I am aware of the debased nature of the “mentor” system in this day and age but this is really an appalling illustration.

Addenda:
1. Forum thread
2. “Mental Mentors” wiki page

Edit:
Since this has appeared, the “Mental Mentors” group has disappeared from within SL!

The group leader, Rails Bailey, despite having reference to the group still in his profile, somehow does not have the group itself listed at all. I am sure that I have managed to miss an important point here and it is not at all the case that the group has been hidden due to negative publicity. I would be very pleased to hear more information on this topic.

I have been approached a couple of times recently regarding an “issue” mentioned on the publication known as the “Second Life Herald”, on the subject of a “new copybot”. (I do not read this publication on a regular basis any more, on account of its tedious hagiography of groups of annoying children; an odd pursuit, not my part to judge I suppose but not in my interests to read, either.)

Let us be clear on a few details in this instance.

1. There is nothing at all new about any of this. The idea that with the initial outcry relating to “copybot”, the functions responsible and the use thereof went away, is simply nonsense. The prohibition was a socially-based one, making the possession or use of a copybot illegal, but the technology never disappeared. In fact, as far as I can see, this “copybot 2″ is just a simple modification of the “testclient” that is freely available. Anyone with any interest could make a similar product, we are not talking about Programming Genii here.

2. There are no physical countermeasures - at least, none which will prevent people from copying designs and textures as presented in SL. Anyone attempting to sell you an item which claims to “defend against copybot” is as much a fraudster as anyone duplicating your design and selling it. The entirety of SL depends on the “client” - that is, the thing that is running on your own Engine - receiving information as to what it should display, the exact geometry of every part, the textures, and so on and so on. No, this cannot be encrypted without utterly crippling the already tardy speeds at which SL operates, and being crackable in any case.

3. The only countermeasures, therefore, are social ones. There is the option of relying, instead of on simple product sales, on things which cannot be duplicated - services, customised versions, work on special and personalised products. (This may require some alteration of the expectations of purchasers on the Grid but to be quite frank, those expecting large amounts of time to be devoted to their whims are, at the moment, mostly extraordinary misers.)

   The other part of this is that the Gods of the World, the Blessed Lindens, must actively enforce matters of copyright and duplication, to a far greater degree than they do at the moment.

---

What if the latter does not happen? Well, industry will not vanish. Even if copies are easily made and resold, people will still have some loyalty and decency and wish to reward the original creators, particularly at the very low prices charged in general. Little-known designers will be too little-known for anyone to bother copy them; well-known designers will be able to play on their “brands”. Those between are in the most danger I would say, but still, they won’t lose too much in the way of sales.

But they will lose some. The idea of designing things within Second Life, in the knowledge that anyone can copy whatever it is you make and resell it for whatever price they feel like, will put people off bothering in the first place. The prospect of reward spurs people on to create - that is why we have copyright legislation in the first place, to encourage creative activity, with the underlying assumption that creative activity is a good thing for society in general (an assumption with which I would agree).

I would mention here that my own activities, and those of others who concentrate on providing Scripted Amusements, are less at threat, as Scripts currently exist only on the Grid, are not sent to Clients and are thus not Copiable. However, this is merely a coincidence. The issue of Content Duplication is no less important to me merely because it affects my fellows and not myself.

So - what happens if we have a “free-as-in-free-beer” Second Life, enforced by Code? Designing becomes less profitable. Some designers leave. (A number will stay on, certainly, but professionals, apart from the largest who can play on their brands, will be rarer.) The general level of design goes down. There are fewer products available, and fewer to be copied, with the copy-resellers being parasites on the skills of others.

---

There is a way around this, and that is as stated previously: the owners of the world, the blessed Laboratory, must enforce rules far more strictly. It is not a perfect solution, as clearly there are far more places than can be checked, but without it nothing will happen. Not just “DMCA” nonsense, which is just a mechanism for covering one’s bottom in the face of future legal action, but actively removing duplicated content.

There are all sorts of ways that this can be made easier - registers of content being uploaded, watermarks and so on - but in the end it is the will that is important, and that means governance, active enforcement of rules. Attack content-thieving accounts; delete them and their alts. Enforce DMCA takedowns properly, as rubbish as they might be.

Without that? Oh well, nothing terribly serious. Content creators will be discouraged from ever entering SL. Nobody will bother to learn the obscure, undocumented, ever-changing details of how the tools work - unless they already have a out-world patron, in which case they will rarely be putting anything on the open grid. Second Life will become less and less interesting. And the “Second Life Protocol” will become less and less relevant, and less and less likely to become the dominant virtual world protocol, and then it will be 2009 and we will all be speaking about SL as certain old-timers do about ActiveWorlds.

You know, nothing that anybody might care about.

I recently received a short missive from my errant brother, Cardinal, which I shall reproduce in its entirety here.

To tell the truth, I was too busy opening champagne to actually write anything myself.

(His last stanza, of course, is quite accurate; this is no panacea and doubtless there will be new methods of extortion and harassment arising, as well as issues as to the enforcement of this one, simply due to sheer volume. But please do allow me at least a short period of satisfaction.)

A brief note, but recent correspondence on the matter of fixing the seemingly terminally useless function llGetFreeMemory has led me to solidify Ordinal’s Laws of Changes to LSL Function Behaviour.

I did not really wish to make a fuss, or give the person concerned any more publicity than she deserves, but I think that it is reasonable to mention in the context of my previous entry regarding the Griefbuild Digest Flickr group that I have now been the victim of what is known as a “DMCA Takedown Notice” regarding some pictures of advertising builds by a Ms Cytherea Eagle. Only, well, I have been the victim, but almost entirely silently.

Having posted a piece on the Forums informing people of the existence of the group, I received a comedy legal threat on the matter from Ms Eagle, but I ignored that, given that no lawyer not drunken, drugged or disbarred would ever consider this anything but “fair use”. If it was not for Ms Wildefire Walcott’s kind mention in the Forums that she was unable to see anything owned by Ms Eagle in the group, I would have known nothing.

What has apparently happened - and I am extrapolating here, as I have been unable to obtain the actual details from Flickr, though it seems very likely - is that a DMCA notice was filed by Ms Eagle to Flickr alleging copyright infringement, and the company is then obliged to remove the article automatically.

What is then supposed to happen is that they tell the person whose pictures were removed (i.e. myself) in order that that person may file a DMCA counter-notice, and have the pictures replaced. And anything further must be decided by legal action, and I am, if not happy with that, at least confident that it holds no real danger for me, certainly given that (a) this really is the most obvious case of fair use and (b) I live in another country in any case.

Flickr did not do this. I am not sure when they removed the pictures originally, but after seeing Ms Walcott’s post I asked them for clarification on the 15th of January, received a rapid response saying that yes, the images “were removed for Copyright infringement” and that they would try to find out what had happened. Since then I have not been further informed.

As said I don’t really like to cause a fuss on my own account but given that the matter has been mentioned by Mr Rik Riel, Mr Prokofy Neva and Mr Hamlet Au already, I thought it a good idea to write a small something. I am quite capable of reposting the pictures concerned elsewhere of course, but what I am trying to do is get Flickr to reinstate the original pictures, to demonstrate that the DMCA cannot simply be used to remove anything that one doesn’t like. (I might add that Mr Riel posted a picture of the “advertisement” himself, if you wish to see it, and it can be found at Foxboro 102,39 should you wish to see it in person and, who knows, take a picture of your own.)

Should there be any further developments I will of course write here, and I hope that there will be soon. As for the morals displayed by Ms Eagle in both her business practices upon the Grid and her part in this matter, I shall say nothing and leave the reader to draw their own conclusions. (With a touch of irony I did note at the time that, despite their inherent nature and deliberately-lagging temp-rezzing behaviour, they were far less ugly than all of the other signs to be found in the region. Beauty is clearly prim-deep.)

P.S. As a final note, should there not be sufficient Links for a reader to Follow, above, there is also a thread in the Flickr forums on the matter.

I recently rediscovered a Flickr group that I created some time ago for the posting of pictures of the sort of harassing, usually advertising, builds that plague the Mainland and cause all sorts of heated discussion on the Official Forums. Given that I spent a little while writing a Description that supposedly sums up its nature and purpose, I shall simply repost it here:

Griefing builds in Second Life, designed to make neighbours give up and move elsewhere or give up and buy the plot to get rid of the horrible spinning thing. Usually advertising, though not always.

All screenshots should include location (doesn’t have to be exact, as long as somebody could find the plot again) and name of the item’s owner, ideally gained by taking a screenshot that includes the Edit window. This is to provide an undeniable record of the activity, though if it is a series of different pictures of the same piece of ad griefing, only one piece of evidence is required.

(You can use the PrintScreen button in Windows, or Shift+Cmd+4 on a Mac to include parts of the Second Life UI, or some other screenshot program. I use SnapzProX myself, and if you have FRAPS installed, that should work too.)

Due to the nature of the ad/griefing builds posted here, this can’t help but be an 18+ group, even if the actual content on them is at about a 14-year-old level of sophistication.

Lastly - this isn’t a group for just any ugly build. (One could find endless pictures from SL.) It is just for pictures of builds which are clearly being used for unwelcome advertising, to bring down land prices, force people to sell, annoy them enough that they buy the land, or just by cretinous advertising networks who don’t care how much they annoy neighbours. Pretty much anything that is on a 16m2 plot that’s been set for sale is going to fit in, I would think. Oh, and the ads should be long-term ones, not just temporary griefing objects left on somebody else’s land - while those are horrible enough, they don’t have the same motivations.

One can find the group at:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/slgriefbuild/

Please do join and post any horrible examples you wish to! As noted, the naming of names is strongly encouraged - if the owner disagrees that their build constitutes ad griefing or land spam, well, the evidence is there for anyone to inspect, and onlookers can decide for themselves.

I suspect that there might be quite some Drama involved should this become a popular group, but at the least, it will serve some purpose in cataloguing the dizzying variety of different aliases used by these scoundrels. If one sees one of the names mentioned around the Grid, and agrees that their build is indeed a griefing one, do not sell to or deal with that person or their group! And most certainly, do not sell them land, if that was not obvious.

I have been attempting to put together an entry on the recent Banking Regulational Activity from the Lab, but it is a complex issue - not “complex” in the fence-sitting, “on the one hand, on the other hand” way, but complex in that it takes quite a bit of work to say precisely what one means without simplifying economic issues in the way that the Toy Capitalists themselves do. Ad griefers, land spammers, polluters of the visual space, though, there is very little to be said apart from “these are the filthy swine concerned, avoid them at all costs and don’t give them any money”. It is certainly not worth bothering to reason with them, as almost universally they are proud of the fact that they can carry on their “business” safe in the knowledge that they are defended by physical law here, when in the Other World they would have their rubbish torn down in the middle of the night by outraged neighbours at the very least. There is little that one can do at the moment upon the Grid, but what can be done should.

My commentary regarding Banking shall be simply the following cheap piece of graffiti:

---

As a further note: a further entry on certain pictures having been Removed can be found here.

Far be it for me to make any sort of appalling “new year new product” sort of references, particularly given that there is no such thing, to be quite frank, as a “new” product from Ordinal Enterprises - every piece of frippery that you see emerging has usually been loitering unreleased in my mind and inventory for months and occasionally, for instance in the case of the Swordstick, for over a year. Though never over two years, I believe.

An Idea bubbles to the surface of the peculiar caffeinated swamp of my mind, there is a brief flurry of activity, it approaches finality: and then something or other intervenes, or I spend several months changing the colour of a texture between two imperceptibly different shades, or I set myself a necessary task for its improvement before release which I clearly do not have the time to do and thus can avoid without personal guilt (unless I look too hard into my own motivations). I am led to believe that I am not the only Artisan with these Issues, and I am engaging on a Scientific Regimen of Mental Exercise in an attempt to restrict it in the Future, or at least I will be once I create the proper Folder Structure to file my exercise notes in.

In the meantime, I do actually have a product that I would like to announce - the Ordinal Howdah Pistol - and as is common in this day and age, it has its own Demonstrative Cinema, though I shall place it in the Extended Portion of this journal entry since I dislike the aesthetic effect of numerous of the things on my Front Page.

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I began to write an entry on the following issue yesterday, but quickly found that it was degenerating into a number of personal anecdotes and supposedly-witty commentary when it should have been short and to the… oh stop it! You are doing the same thing again! *pulls self together* This is a New Feature Of The World of which you should be aware and for the fixing of which I suggest that you vote.

The issue is SVC-1125: Inter-sim teleports do not provide a red beacon unless made directly from the main map, so sims without point to point TP are disadvantaged (though there are other similar ones around) and the further description is pretty much, well, that. To sum the matter up, as I see it:

• Teleporting by any mechanism apart from clicking on the World Map to get a red circle and then going there, or by selecting “Show On Map” from a window before using it to teleport, does not provide a red beacon and arrow to the destination any more. This includes landmarks, SLURLs, the use of llMapDestination, secondlife:// links, and the New Search.

• People who teleport into an area which has a Landing Point set will still arrive at that point.

• But they will not have a beacon to their destination.

• Therefore they will not be able to find their destination easily. They would actually have to track it down by comparing the X, Y and Z co-ordinates of the landmark to their current ones, fly around aimlessly in the hope of seeing a sign, ask for directions, or, far more likely, go somewhere else. Experienced and dedicated visitors will likely find a way but even they may simply give up, and the casual browser or visitor will simply pop somewhere else if unable to find the spot that they came to see. (Customers would quite frequently ask how to find my shop with red beacons available.)

• This means that landmarks and SLURLs and so on are now pretty much useless in any region or parcel that has a landing point set. This is actually more places than one might think. Not only does it encompass many islands such as Caledon, Babbage and so on, it also affects such large parcelled establishments as malls and shopping centres upon the Mainland.

• The whole thing is therefore a serious matter for anyone who owns property in a region with a landing point and wishes others to find it - or for that matter wishes to be able to find it themselves.

This matter seems to affect the latest Client (1.18.5) and more recent Candidate Software; previous to that one still has the Beacon Capability, but one must always assume that the most recent release version is being used.

I am sure that this is a mere oversight that can be fixed with a miniscule tweaking of the underlying gears, and everyone can go happily home for tea and crumpets (perhaps to the bakery first, which they will be able to easily find). In the meantime though I would reiterate that it is worthwhile to vote for SVC-1125, to ensure that crumpets are forthcoming within a convenient length of time. That is SVC-1125, by the way.

Please do also see other appropriate pictures.

(L$200, nomod/copy/notrans though humbugs may be given away, if you are interested in such details)

* My Caledon Shop
* ShopOnRez
* SLX

It seems to me that I have been seeing more and more complaints along the lines of the following in forums recently, regarding errant and sometimes utterly fraudulent land-lords and -ladies - which is when one thinks about it peculiar, as it is not as if the official forums are more used these days, far from it. I recall a time when they were immensely busy but, after the “accident” that befell them (of which we will not speak, and merely nod in mutual agreement and recollection and move forward) they became far less popular. In fact, only those with verified payment details are permitted to use them, which would exclude more of those renting than those having “bought” land.

Now, this is not any sort of criticism of the general practice of land renting of course; given that I rent property in three different Sims, as well as owning a smallish plot, that would be somewhat hypocritical of me. It does, though, occur to me that this may be a result of rapid growth, in three ways.

Firstly, there is the simple fact that one rarely hears praise of a landlordlady but instances of dissatisfaction will be complained about. As the number of residents increases there will be a noticeable increase in the number of complaints but not in the amount of praise (perhaps two threads per year instead of one). I think that the rise is disproportionate even on this basis but it is something to bear in mind.

Secondly, it takes time and experience for a landlordlady to become at all good at their job. Some will obviously never become “good”, as they are crooks (well, they may perhaps be good at being crooks, but that is not really the sense in which I meant the word). But it takes some time to be aware of the market, the behaviour of tenants, the moments when one should show tolerance of mistakes and those when one must recognise them as fraud, that sort of thing. And rapid population expansion, when combined with the suggestion that land rental is a business opportunity and that one can and should take business opportunities within Second Life, will reasonably enough lead to more inexperienced landlordladies, and thus more confusion and dissatisfaction on the part of tenants.

(I am slightly suspicious, personally speaking, that an ideological concentration on individualistic profiteering as opposed to Commerce carried out to the mutual benefit of both parties may also influence the proportion of cheats and fraudsters, but really, I cannot honestly say that I have noticed the proportion of unprincipled and greedy residents increasing, so I will not put that forward as a reason.)

And thirdly, there is the matter of social circles. As I mentioned above, I rent property in three different sims - two sims in Caledon and one in New Babbage - but I am in the fortunate position of knowing the landlords in both cases well, and having in fact been there from the founding of both. My experience of renting is thus atypical; should I have an issue with the way something works I would be able to contact them personally to discuss it, and in fact talk to both regularly on all sorts of matters unconnected to property.

Now, the landowners in both cases are sound and reliable gents who are not the sort to evict someone on a whim or for the profit of a few Lindens anyway - I would not be friends with somebody who was - but even my choice of them as landlords comes from experience and connections. In the case of Caledon, I was not aware of Mr Shang beforehand - well, briefly, during the Tulip Hunt - but he was recommended to me via Professor Jefferson Gould, who clearly had trust in the man. Mr Sprocket, I have known for a considerable length of time.

The ability to pick landlordladies with this sort of proper background information is a privilege of age, to be frank. I am hardly the sort of Social Butterfly who has fingers, or probosces, in all sorts of social pies, or flowers; it is the fact that I grew up upon the Grid in a time when the social circle was considerably smaller that means that I Know People. I could hardly help but do so. I am privileged, I realise this.

The new resident has a lot more difficulty in this area than I ever did. They do not have access to proper information regarding all of the choices of landlordladies that they may encounter. The social circle of Second Life is far wider than before which makes it harder to meet the “right” folk. Furthermore there is no First Land any more, and whilst Mainland prices have been going down to sane levels recently, it was not so long ago that they were utterly ridiculous - these are things which encourage people to seek rental property.

~*~

Where is Ordinal going with this, one might well ask? Well, Ordinal is wondering whether we might not see a renaissance of mainland property ownership. Much as basing opinions on responses on the Forums is unreliable, it must be said that six months ago, everyone was saying “oh no, you want to find a nice landlordlady, don’t buy mainland” and now they are a lot more guarded.

The fact is that one’s property rights are always more secure when buying Mainland vs renting. (I utterly refuse to speak of “buying” from a private landlordlady - this is a legal fiction. Admittedly, Linden Laboratory is letting land to you rather than selling it, but “buying” from a landlordlady is merely being a sublet tenant - covenants mean absolutely nothing in terms of guarantees.) When buying Mainland one must accept the fact that the Lindens may throw one off for some odd reason, though this is almost unheard-of. When renting, one must accept the fact that the Lindens may throw one off, the landlordlady may not pay their tier and thus end up with you being thrown off regardless of how much you have paid them, or that they will throw you off for reasons entirely at their own discretion and without any possibility of you seeking redress, except perhaps if you are willing to launch an action in Court.

There are landowners whom one can recommend, but they tend to be older ones, and only have a limited amount of property to rent. Messrs Shang and Sprocket, as I have mentioned, I have personal experience of; there are others that I know by reputation - for instance, Mr Prokofy Neva, despite having many critics on account of his outspoken opinions, has in my knowledge never been criticised for his practice of the land rental business by even the fiercest opposition, and often praised. I am sure that readers will be able to suggest others.

But how is the New Resident to know? They will not know me, or my peers, or read this poor Journal. Most of the deals that they are offered or find via searching will be by people whom they will not be able to “google”, particularly given the prohibition on “naming names” in the Official Forums and the lack of meaningful third-party ones. To be quite frank, if I became amnesiac I would be very pushed to reliably identify a reliable landlordlady.

The logical course of action would thus be to find some Mainland plot with a reasonable price, ideally in a PG sim (which does reduce the amount of bother in my experience) and take the chance that the next neighbours might be frightfully tasteless boors or sell to a land-cutter. I can see this becoming a more popular option. To be quite frank I welcome it, too - I have a fondness for the Mainland and the way that one must deal with one’s neighbours no matter who they might be rather than live in a gated community, appealing to an Authority. I love the areas in which I live at the moment but it does sometimes make me feel rather detached.

The latest fashion amongst Diarists, I gather from chatter in the coffee shops and eating houses, is apparently to post eight things about themselves in some manner which were previously unknown, and, having done so, suggest to eight other Diarists that they should do the same. I confess that this does sound somewhat like a plan that my brother Cardinal came up with, except that he included a further instruction to send a shilling to the person from whom you received the initial request, which led to the drastic impoverishment of many Scribblers (and consequently, coffee shops) and a short stretch for my brother at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.

Given that there is no such instruction here and that I was “tagged” by the explorer Ms Bettina Tizzy I thought that I might partake on this uneventful Saturday evening. Here are eight Facts of Significant Import concerning myself.

1. I am allergic to Nickel. This causes occasional issues during my activities, but confined mostly to an occasional rash which is easily countered by the application of a medicinal cream.

2. I am the most appalling shot imaginable. During my earlier years, when my Father was instructing me in the handling of Firearms - I mean no disrespect clearly when I term him an eccentric man, who had ideas regarding the role of Woman in Society, and particularly his own daughter, that were distinctly out of step with those more generally held - he regularly despaired.

   “For G-d’s Sake, Ordinal!” he would cry out in the field next door to the Hertfordshire home where I spent my early years, scaring the crows far more than my awkward shots. “It is simple, hold your hand steadier girl, and do not spasmically yank at the trigger like that. And put that screwdriver away! That is a perfectly good revolver and needs no additional parts inserted.”

   I grew up entirely unthreatening to any targets, and it was only when one stray bullet aimed at an empty jar instead went through a hedge and into the wheel of a passing cart, causing its complete collapse, the spilling of its cargo of illicit whisky, and three unsavoury types to angrily leap the hedge and chase the pair of us to our very door, where they were only discouraged by the arrival of a shotgun in the hands of my papa, that he decided that perhaps it was not advisable that I continue in this particular mode of education. Instead, my mother forced me to read more Milton. In retrospect I have to say that the .455 calibre is not terribly suitable for eleven-year-old girls.

3. One thing in which I am skilled which surprises folk at times is that I can play the trombone. It was the opinion of my mother that every child should learn an instrument, for their own artistic pleasure in the future, though it is well known that children (except on very occasional occasions) have no interest in their own futures, or at least no interest in any future which requires music practice now.

   Given that I was forbidden from the piano after ruining it almost beyond repair - I merely wondered how it worked - an alternative had to be sought, and the only thing that was available in the locality was a trombone owned by a fellow from the North, who used to play in a colliery band. The poor chap had developed a lung condition from his exposure to coal dust but offered to instruct me in its use, and I surprised my parents by being particularly willing to visit him for lessons. Actually, I confess, I spent much of my time talking to him about mining machinery, but without some progress with the trombone I would not have been allowed to continue, thus it was necessary that I actually learn to play it.

   I dare say that the number of female trombonists in the world is fairly small, though I have not played for some decades and do not even own a trombone now.

4. Initially at University I had no interest in my current profession, but instead rejected it and chose to study Mathematics and Philosophy. Not only was this more approved of as something for a lady - well, certainly compared to engineering - but I had entered a regrettable adolescent phase of Romanticism, rejecting my earlier interests and instead dressing in the most terrible purple, mooning purposely after the most witless of fellow Romantics and composing the most awful poetry.

   I spent a couple of my undergraduate years studying the Classics of both fields and the work of more daring modern Logicians and Thinkers, before coming to the following conclusions:

   1. Mathematics is terribly difficult if one is to do any more than simply use it (I have heard vague references to some American thinker, “Malibu Stacy” I think, saying the same);
   2. Philosophy is all very well but often propounded by people who could not write, and should have been beaten harder;
   3. Philosophy is routinely studied by complete halfwits who would not recognise proper Thought if it were to insert itself into their skulls via a large syringe.

   These did discourage me and quite quickly I moved to the study of the Difference Engine, in which my College was internationally renowned, and discovered for myself that it was in fact much more the sort of thing that I had always wished to do. I am known to occasionally wear purple now but I do not write poetry, an activity which should only be attempted by those who are any good at it.

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The talented Mr Nicholaz Beresford has a critical and apropos response to his Majesty Philip’s recent missive, “Long Road Behind, Long Road Ahead“, in which he makes a telling point.

The other bit of irony in it is the title of the post: “Long Road Behind, Long Road Ahead.” Philip certainly is a visionary and his vision is surely what made SecondLife possible in the first place. But it occurred to me recently, that a lot of friction and frustration between Linden Lab and the SecondLife residents may be caused through a difference in focus.

I do not want to go into the spiritual or philosophical arena too much, but there are many schools of thought who are beginning to discover that happiness is rooted in the here and now while constant focus on the future or past tends to create angst, frustration and dissatisfaction.

SL Residents naturally are focusing on their experience right here right now. Personal tolerance levels obviously differ, but nobody can live on a vision of a better tomorrow if tomorrow never comes.

~*~

One of the things that I have learnt particularly from my experiences upon the Grid, as well as on the Aethernet in recent years, is the importance of actually having things that work, regardless of whether or not I have fixed it myself for my own purposes. In my previous employ I was somewhat separate from those who actually used the derivatives of the work that I was doing.

Within Second Life, I find that being a “Creator” focusses the mind wonderfully. Anyone who has a problem with something that I have developed may contact me whilst I am having a cup of tea and reading the paper to tell me that something is not working, and they are not impressed if I say “oh well, I have solved that problem, but I just have not gotten around to putting it on sale - I shall do at some point, really”. Similarly if they see that something does not work when used by another, they will simply not buy it. A Customer is far harder to fool than a Boss, who may be bamboozled with justifications, presentations and careful Passing of the Buck, and is already contracted to pay one in any case. A Customer looks at the final product and thinks either “this works, I will buy it” or “this does not work, I will not”.

As well as this, both upon the Grid and outside in the broader area of Modern Aethernet Services, a “Vaporous” product might as well not exist. Whilst quite a lot can be done with Hype and Spin, particularly in the case of the commercial world of Second Life, the products which exist are the ones which sell and which people are impressed by. One can see the importance of this by looking at the giant Entities of the Aethernet and the Difference Engine. Take, for example, the great and powerful Google, a firm of world-spanning importance and ability, which continually releases new Services, some of which may not work perfectly initially but which do actually exist. The concept of a “perpetual beta” is something of a running joke but it has the principle behind it that having something is better than not having something (unless that something is actually so catastrophically wrong that it makes one look like an incompetent fool).

~*~

So: apart from its obvious and highly convenient function of allowing me to pay my Rent and purchase sundry Hats, the running of Ordinal Enterprises has proved most beneficial in terms of Mental Discipline as well, teaching me as it has to concentrate on achieving goals that are tangible to others rather than faffing about with scripts to no real purpose. I certainly do faff about with scripts - I find it enjoyable, and it is “Blue Sky” research that often assists in the future and trains the mind - but without concentrating upon someone else’s eventual experience one really does not achieve much in the commercial world. Similarly if I fix a problem with a product I am now much more motivated to implement that fix in the released version of that product and get it out to Purchasers as soon as possible, since otherwise, the only person who is impressed is me myself, and whilst I can pay myself as much money as I like, that process is valuable only to Economists.

It seems to me peculiar, then, that in the case of Second Life development, we have many items upon the JIRA which clearly have fixes - and I am sure that they are very good fixes, I have great confidence in the skills of the Linden Demigods as they continue their Hephaestian toil, as well as those bold souls outside of Lindenage who contribute - but not actually a sniff of those fixes when it comes down to it. I am reminded of such issues as VWR-418 Particle burst quality fades - fixed months ago, yet apparently only to appear in the new Windlight viewer - or VWR-2046 Focus is sent to menu/money/notification window, which sounds innocuous but is a major component of Griefing Attacks.

I did post recently the meta-issue WEB-380 “Fixed Internally” should not appear as “Resolved” in JIRA; voting should continue, that issues on the JIRA should not be marked as “Resolved” when merely “Fixed Internally” rather than “Fixed”, on the basis that the issues were issues with the Viewer or the World, and thus until they were fixed in the Viewer or the World they were not actually resolved. This, though, would not necessarily increase the frequency of fixes finding their way into final Releases, it would just clarify their exact status.

The fact is that there simply is no Second Afterlife where one will receive one’s rewards for patience and piety. I hate to shatter any myths, but we must be hard-headed rational Folk of Science here - the neophyte will certainly not believe. I have great confidence in the skills and dedication of Laboratoire Linden, based on inductive reasoning and speaking to several, but the New Resident will not - and even I have doubts when it comes to issues which have not found their way into a Release. They may well do at some point but one cannot rely on that; cue the “when Havok n arrives” figure of speech, still applicable even now that a Havok 4 client exists. And regardless of whether people have confidence or not, they may not care if they find that their everyday experience is not being concentrated on, regardless of the Long View.

And it would be a great shame, because I do love the World, and the World is its People, and I wish to see the most People involved for both general benefit and for theirs. It is not for everyone, but it is not as if everyone who enters the Grid and says “this is not for me” would be better off buying appalling clothes in the World Of Kaneva or shooting people entirely un-ironically as part of America’s Army. The “road ahead” is all very well, but the immediate must be addressed.

The Ordinal Galvanic Swordstick from Ordinal Malaprop on Vimeo.

Goodness! Three of the things on one front page! Excessive, I would say.

A quick note to announce the current availability of, at long last, the Ordinal Galvanic Swordstick:

(this is the only video I have at the moment, but I shall be doing a proper one)

[draft] Recharge Galvanic Swordstick, zooming out from Ordinal Malaprop on Vimeo.

and also a little thing that I was working on recently, the Ordinal Automatic “Flick”-Knife:

The Ordinal Automatic “Flick”-Knife from Ordinal Malaprop on Vimeo.

Available from:

• My shop in Caledon
• ShopOnRez
• SLX

For the next few hours, the Swordstick will be available for L$50 less than usual (i.e. L$350 in total) in my Caledon shop, but I shall be changing this tomorrow morning, be warned. (Please ignore the price on the box there.) Edit: too late!

subtitled: “Part the Twenty-Somethingth of Ordinal’s Scripting Primer”

When selling Items, I believe that the importance of setting their Permissions is well-known, lest either customers be unable to use the things or able to sell them on willy-nilly, and part of this process is making sure that the contents of an Item also have the correct Permissions. There are numerous instances where this can cause a bother. For instance, a gun containing a No-Copy Transfer bullet will only be able to fire once (this caused me no end of grief a year or two back), and any inventory items inside an object set to Copy Transfer will be able to be extracted using the “Open” command and distributed and resold at will, regardless of whether the basic object itself is not transferrable or not copiable.

This is, I have found, particularly an issue when in an environment where one is working with different people on the same object. It is necessary to pass things back and forward for changes with the contents having full permissions set, but at the point of distribution or sale, these permissions must then be reset appropriately.

The fancy took me this evening to show a simple script that I occasionally use to check that the permissions of the inventory of an item are, in fact, what they should be. One may find the full script here:

Automatic Inventory Permissions Checker

The above may be informative for those wishing to explore the idea of scripts dealing with the inventory of the object they are in. Its behaviour is quite simple: when initially dropped into an item, and thereafter when the inventory changes, it runs through the entire contents and tells the owner which “next owner” permissions each of them has. (So as not to bother any purchaser if it is accidentally left in, it has a “delete self” function which activates when the owner changes.)

As it stands, the script does little else, but it could be modified to, for instance, delete any item upon owner change that was copy/trans, so as to utterly ensure the safety of one’s design - this would break the product itself most likely, but a new and corrected version could be distributed, providing that one has some sort of “updated version checker” in one’s products, which I’m sure everyone does. *ahem*

A small note to, well, note that I am appearing as a panelist in the “Identity Summit”, presented by the Communications Company, Orange, this coming Friday the Sixteenth of November.

What does - or does not - an avatar reveal about its owner? How does virtual identity become a brand? Is the humanoid form the best way to express our true selves?

Come find out with us on Friday, November 16, as Orange Island will be hosting a series of discussions by Second Life residents and community leaders on the nature of identity and avatars. This Identity Summit will address such topics as non-human avatars, avatars as personas, and avatars as personal brands.

One may read many more details and the full programme on the afore-linked page (a “distinguished speaker”? moi?) but I personally will be addressing the topic of “Persona and Identity Transparency in Business”, along with Mr Forseti Svarog, at 11am Second Life Time (or 7pm Greenwich Mean Time).

The whole business of identity and persona and where and when personae exist and are evident is something that I have always been keenly interested in, and I am most definitely looking forward to discussing the said matters with anyone who happens to be around at the time. I warn all readers that I am known for both going off on irrelevant tangents in such environments, and also for being rather difficult to shut up, but I am sure Mr Svarog will be talking far more sense than I. Other items on the agenda should also prove thought-provoking and entertaining, and for the show-offs amongst you there is a Contest for Unique and Interesting Avatars, though you should remember to register yourself the day before.

As an additional matter, it appears that Orange Island is not, thankfully, entirely orange, which would be rather hard on one’s eyes. Though parts of it are.

It was suggested today (in an entirely friendly and complimentary way, I might add) that I had ceased journalling altogether, and I was forced to admit that it might indeed appear so - simply, I had found little to actually write about recently, or rather had not had sufficient rigour and drive to go out and actively locate things regarding which to write.

In order to rectify this I shall now post a commercial announcement of interest to only a tiny number of people, as well as a script so that I might persuade myself this is an entry of note. I have recently been reminded by the gracious Firiel McGann that updated versions of the .45 Shansi and .455 Webley really are requiring of being released, if only that my automatic update script can be included in them to prevent the bother which I will now detail.

For the record, the changes apart from the inclusion of the updating system are that the Webley now can now be animatedly drawn and holstered, and the Shansi may be prevented from ejecting cartridges, which causes it to be prohibited from many “RP” sims, a crying shame. Ah yes, and they are both now copy no-trans rather than trans no-copy, a much safer arrangement in this day and age.

In any case, the problem arose of how to provide past customers, who had not purchased a version of the product concerned containing an updating script, with the latest version. I have some limited Transaction Records, but annoyingly they only record the name of the customer, not the key, the latter being necessary to send things by script, and for heaven’s sake I refuse to search for a good hundred and fifty Names them drag and drop items upon their Profiles. My devotion to customer service only goes so far.

The scripting solution to this is relatively simple - one must take a list of names, which should be contained in a notecard as they may exceed the paltry memory of an LSL Script, then look up the keys using a third-party service such as the W-Hat Name To Key Records, then send a message and the updated item to these folk. I include the script that I used herein as it may provide a convenient introduction to the sequential interaction of different data events, here http_response and dataserver, both essential for a scripter wishing to work with any quantity of data.

• Send a message and an object to a list of named residents

Some may say at this point “but Ordinal, could this not be used by Dubious Types engaged in the Unwanted Promotion of Commercial Services, in a manner redolent of Potted Meat?” The answer to that is: indeed yes, if they already possess a list of names to send to, but really, this is not a terribly complex script, I am not giving away any awful cosmic secrets that Residents Were Not Meant To Know here, and quite honestly anyone wishing to “spam” already has a million tools to do so - irritating announcements on Group Channels come to mind just for a start.

~*~

Oh, incidentally, I may add that undoubtedly a number of people were left out of this distribution. If you, dear reader, have either of these products, simply send me your copy and I shall return the new version forthwith.

One matter upon which I have been thinking recently is the matter of Authentication between Objects within Second Life.

For many systems it is necessary for them to be able to communicate with each other only if they share a common secret - a “password” is an example, and one used here. For instance, with a combat system, a cannonball should only be able to tell a ship that it has been struck and should take damage if it is part of the same “network”, or game (though clearly Piracy is Not A Game) as the ship itself.

In cases where all items are owned by the same person this is simple - one merely checks that the owner keys, which are I believe unforgeable, are the same, using some line such as if (llGetOwnerKey(id) != llGetOwner()) return; in one’s listen() event, when hearing a command. However, when objects may be owned by pretty much anyone, this will not work, and merely having the objects communicating on an unusual channel (-894029345, say) will not provide complete security, as listening devices exist which can scan for these things.

I was thinking of something a little more secure, yet remaining in-world and not requiring awkward and slow communication with, say, a server that keeps a record of permitted owners. To this end I created a small script this afternoon which demonstrates a challenge-response system between objects.

The basic functioning works thusly: each object holds a password, and when object A wishes to instruct object B to do something, B says “Hold on a second! I don’t know who you are. We must compare passwords. But clearly we cannot do so on an open channel - anyone might be listening. Here is a random integer for you as a challenge, to use as a salt in an MD5 function.”

A hears this integer and applies that salt to the password, then says the resulted salted password again. The important point about the function llMD5String and MD5 encryption in general is that, when a string is encrypted with a particular salt, there is no practical way to return to the original string given the result. So, even if someone is listening in and hears the salted password, it is of no use in determining the original password - but B can also salt the password with the same integer and compare the two to see if the original passwords were the same.

If B manages to do this it then says “right, you seem to know the password properly, I will allow you to instruct me” and, for the next minute, allows communications from that key to act on it. A then must repeat whatever command was issued.

The above may seem a little baffling if one has never heard of this sort of thing but I dare say examination of the script may make it clearer. Contrariwise, I confess that I really do not know an awful lot about this stuff compared to the experts and would welcome comments. I have posted the script on my Scripting Colloquium for simpler discussion, but here is as good a place as any too I suppose.

I was recently considering the matter of Otherworldly Voices. There was an immense kerfuffle about the introduction of Voices to the Grid - admittedly, there is an immense kerfuffle about any introduction or removal of anything whatsoever, but in this case it was a kerfuffle promulgated by many Leading Thinkers and Commentators, and also myself.

Some predicted that the presence of Voices would lead to the elimination of “Immersionists”, dinosaurs - all New Residents would expect Voices and would relegate the silent to the dusty library corridors to which they properly belong and where they can say “shhh” to each other in private. There was the prediction that Voices would cause awful discrimination between those wishing to use them and those not, and huge social divides would occur. Would shopkeepers be required to have Voices on their lands or face bankruptcy? How would facilities for New Residents cope with the flood of New Residents wishing to send Voices from outside?

Some months have now gone by, a reasonable period of time I feel, the kerfuffle has been de-fluffled and, I must say, the overwhelming attitude that I perceive to the matter is, well, neutrality, if not boredom. I am not a particular fan of the presence of Voices, I consider it an irritating intrusion and furthermore it does not agree with the Hardware of my own Engine, and I was concerned as to possible implications but really - I have not encountered a single person even suggesting that I send Voices, and while I did see a few people keen to experiment (and all power to the experimenters, say I) now it is all old hat.

In short, nothing much appears to have changed. New Residents to whom I have spoken since the introduction have expressed no great interest in using Voices - I was always sceptical that they would, as the majority of Non-Residents, residing in the Shadow World, seem quite happy with Electronic Letters and Short Message Services and such, and indeed many use them far more than Telephony. Older Residents in my experience find Voices at most occasionally useful but mostly irrelevant. It is for both groups a tool which they may use at times as matters arise but mostly will not, and no seismological social activity has taken place.

I suppose, really, that this is not a particularly productive Entry in that it is really saying that things have not actually changed significantly. I am certainly open to any alternative experiences, as clearly my own perception is not representative (given that I am a peculiar scripting hermit) but all that I have seen shows that there were a few incidents shortly after the introduction of Voices, when it was still novel and could reasonably be used as a tool of social discrimination - and goodness knows there are enough people out there in the world who will take any opportunity to belittle someone else. Now that it is, as I said, old hat, there is not even false superiority to be gained, and such behaviour has diminished.

Whilst somewhat re-enabled in Aethernet terms, I am still unable to enter the Grid itself, and have been attempting to ameliorate the symptoms of my withdrawal with such things as the Scripting Section of the Official Forums.

To tell the truth I have been there infrequently of late. Previously I would spend many hours bickering over semicolons, but I have found it drawing me less and less in recent months until I barely ever participate unless at an extremely loose end. I am not entirely sure what caused this change; perhaps it was the closure of many parts of it and the enforcement of apparently somewhat arbitary conditions, making the place far less welcoming as a whole, or perhaps there was some Social Shift, with either the tenor of new participants changing or the departure of those I previously enjoyed engaging with. Or, perhaps, it is entirely down to a change in my own character.

One thing that most definitely has put me off ever returning, or at least offering actual Script-Code Solutions, is the current impossibility of posting up any sort of Code in any sort of Legible Form. I fear that I became infuriated by this and vowed never to return, or at least never to attempt to put up examples again. This is yet another manifestation of the dread [#WEB-156] BBCode not working on official SL Forums, one the annoyance of which I had not fully appreciated (and believe me, I have been incredibly annoyed by it already). This one thing now makes the huge Scripting Library unreadable and greatly discourages any further contributions, as well as vastly increasing the effort required to actually help anyone with their own problems or post solutions. Short queries and functions and theoretical discussions are bearable, but the prospect of struggling through some poor novice’s hundred lines of unformatted code in order to chase down curly brackets is enough to make one simply not bother.

It all infuriates me even more as there are dozens of people eager to help with this, perhaps the most opaque skill within Second Life for a beginner or Non-Technical Sort to deal with, yet they face obstacles which even have the effect of making previous stored advice less valuable. A grid full of professional Old Resident engineers, lonely newer auto-didacts and terrible ancient scripts handed down from generation to generation due to the lack of anything more recent and efficient is not the sort of vision I have ever had, and discussion and mutual education at least goes some way to preventing this dystopia and helping the broadest group and greatest number of people. Even if one has no intention of dirtying one’s hands with any sort of Coding, one may still benefit from proper samples to be cut and pasted directly into an In-World Device.

As a small sticking-plaster I have now set up my own Scripting Colloquium, where one might post Code in a manner which can actually be Read (as well as Images and Links and Things In Italics and So On). These things rarely survive for more than a few weeks, and it may die an undignified death, but I would encourage anyone with scripts and questions about scripts who is put off discussion within the Official Forums by this or other matters to visit and participate. At the least it may build up some useable examples.

Tragically, circumstances have resulted in my opportunities to enter the Grid being somewhat curtailed. Well, in practice, almost completely curtailed. I fear that the Messages are building up and it may be some time before I am able to even answer them, let alone act upon any.

I must say that we have not had a Good, Old-Fashioned, Update-Related Scripting Function Break for some considerable length of time, and it is good to see that Tradition is re-establishing itself with the most recent “Rolling Restart”.

I had been considering the announcement of a small product that I had produced, a simpler variant of my as-yet-unreleased-and-generally-exceptionally-tardy Galvanic Swordstick designed for use with Rifkind Hapsburg’s “En Garde” game. Whilst I have been both busy and distracted recently, I was charmed by En Garde, which combines simplicity and depth most pleasingly. The game allows the use of alternative weaponry to the standard épée, more as an Especial Effect than anything else as they will only give one an advantage in terms of Fashion, and I tinkered with the Swordstick for a little while, adding a few animations and such for good effect, to make it compatible.

Whilst I was absent over the weekend of En Garde’s release (engaging in a business in Europe of which it is best not to speak) and was forced to rush the crafting somewhat, I put the En Garde Swordstick up for sale on ShopOnRez, and also in a little box at the main En Garde stadium, for L$50, with the promise of adding a few more features in future days and weeks.

Unfortunately I discover today that a particular, and at first glance minor, use of a particular scripting has been disabled - the ability to change the position of a linked avatar using llSetLinkPrimitiveParams. Reactions to that previous sentence I would suspect to be one of:

1. “Pardon?”
2. “Why would that matter?”
3. “OUTRAGEOUS! THIS IS AN UTTER DISGRACE AND I DEMAND SATISFACTION!”

For those responding in manner number One, I should explain that llSetLinkPrimitiveParams is a very useful little function allowing a script to change an awful lot of the details of a Prim that is linked into an Object - anything from its position through its type and sculpt texture to whether it emits light or not. In the past one was forced to use a subscript in that particular prim to change these things, and instruct it via a Link Message, but being able to do this from a central script is far more efficient and convenient.

For those responding in manner number Two, I should point out that, as most scripters will be aware, when an Avatar sits upon an Object, said Avatar is actually linked into that object much as any other prim and may be treated as one as far as Scripts are concerned - which is why the changed event triggers with CHANGED_LINK should someone sit on something, a Vehicle may only be 31 primitives including passengers, and so on. One may find the link number of the avatar (a simple loop through the prims suffices here, checking their names and keys) and then use llSetLinkPrimitiveParams to move them around, which otherwise is completely impossible. The use of llSitTarget defines where an Avatar first appears when initially sitting down on something, but changing it does not affect their position after that unless they stand up and sit down again.

(I will add a note of reassurance at this point that it is not possible to use said function to change other parameters of an avatar, merely its position. No script will be able to turn a hapless sitter into a torus.)

This function is widely used these days for all sorts of purposes. I myself have used it to adjust someone’s posed position when standing on a vehicle according to their height, so that their feet do not go through the floor and they do not appear to be hovering in mid-air; it is also used in different types of furniture, and in the case of Mr Habsburg’s En Garde, it is required to move the players back and forward as they engage in their swordplay. Clearly its removal is not cricket.

Why, though, one might ask, would this be removed at all? It appears that some sort of exploitable aspect existed which could be used to crash Sims, clearly something that no right-minded person would desire to remain. However, I wager that it is not at all impossible to restore the useful part of this function.

For those responding immediately in manner number Three, or those who have taken an interest on account of the preceding paragraphs, I humbly suggest that you visit the Jira Page “[#SVC-750] Avatar sitting on a prim no longer able to be manipulated with llSetLinkPrimitiveParams” and therein vote for the matter to be resolved. I am sure that it will be mere moments until we are all content once more; Mr or Ms Soft Linden has already stated that

There’s no plan for this to be permanent, and I’m asking for this functionality to be added to the test plan for future releases. (I’m bothered too - it broke some of my furniture!)

Well quite.

I should not finish this piece without at least mentioning that certain New And Improved Laws Of Physics are currently available for - and definitely requiring of - thorough testing within the parallel world known as the “Beta Grid”, but I dare not actually name them lest this cause them to disappear into the mists for another hundred years.

Well, I did say that I would release the thing, and so I have. In practice I decided to charge the princely sum of L$0 for it, including two sets of appropriate official flags; anyone wishing to leave a donation to offset my Uploading Charges is more than welcome, but I dare say they will not bankrupt me.

The Semaphore Animation Device is available from my Caledon shop of course, and also from ShopOnRez. (I am afraid that I do not have the patience these days to list items on SLExchange, certainly not ones from which I gain no monetary reward.)

A lengthy page of instructions is available for the benefit of insomniacs, and for those who are still not asleep, the main script itself is also viewable.

The item itself is not transferrable. Whilst regular readers will be aware that I am not the most assiduous in pursuing Resellers of my Free Items, counting it as one of the consequences of releasing items that are both Copiable and Transferrable, that is not to say that I like it when some reprobate grabs things which I set out and re-packages them as part of some godawful “Business In A Box”. In actual fact I do not object too much if a New Resident decides to scour the Grid for free items for which he or she may con some Even Newer Resident out of a few coppers - at least some effort goes into that practice, and it may be said that they perform a service - but the industrial reselling of Free Items is something which annoys me somewhat.

Furthermore, this morning, when I approached someone in their appallingly-textured shop and politely requested that they cease selling my Grid Crash Protection Box for monetary gain (I have no illusions that such action is technically punishable by what Laws of the Land exist, very little is, but as a Free Citizen I am quite at liberty to make that sort of request with ethical justification, particularly as there are clear notices indicating that these things are Not For Resale) I was treated to a dull little lecture about how “we don’t own anything therefore I can sell anything” and how I should read the Terms Of Service, as if I had not read them enough times to be able to repeat them verbatim.

This annoyed me, even though said seller did in the end remove my products - apparently customers had been complaining that the Grid Crash Protection Box did not actually protect them! perish the thought - and thus I am disinclined at this time to offer copiable and transferrable items, even though many fine folk would find this convenient.

I do apologise for this tangent.

Hello World - in Semaphore from Ordinal Malaprop on Vimeo.

Well, that is really just a title to grab Attention, but I have been this evening working on a script which translates Letters and Numbers into the waving of Semaphore Flags (in the above case, in the Oscar pattern). The message sent there should be fairly easily deciphered. I think that it is all correct, but to be quite frank, I cannot myself easily decipher Semaphore, thus I may have missed a detail.

The script, however, will interpret anything said on channel 9 into a series of such gestures, and one is advised to have Flags or Beacons or some such in hand so that onlookers may more easily receive the signal. Given sufficient time, I shall post the script here for general consumption. (I shall also provide a set of flags and the scripted attachment for sale at a very small cost, in order to recoup my uploading expenses for the Animations and such.)

Addition: Please see my following post for details of how to obtain the thing.