Useful

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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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.

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.

“Frustration” by Sally Dunham

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.

I feel obliged to mention the existence of a new version of one of the Free Devices that I provide which has proven to be of Enormous Popularity. Really, it is not a complex thing, but may be of use to some.

Upon the suggestion of Ms Ariel Miranda, I added the ability for the “Freebie Giver” to display an Illustration of the particular “Freebie” that is being dispensed. This is very easy to manage - one simply puts a texture into the thing with the same name as the free item, only with ” pic” appended to it. Thus if I wished to have an illustration for an object known as “Wallflower”, I would also place into the dispenser a texture called “Wallflower pic”.

This texture will not be dispensed individually, but other textures can be. In fact one can have a preview texture for another texture. If there are no appropriate textures in the item, a default one is displayed, the exact identity of which may be Re-Configured fairly simply.

Oh - as well as this, any actual textures in the giver will now appear on the front face as well when selected, so that folk might see what exactly it is they might obtain for free.

A basic effort, but perhaps of interest to those learning the Scripting Arts, in any case. The item may be obtained from ShopOnRez, and it will shortly be in my Caledon Shop. You may see the script directly here.