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10 2010
I shall find a suitable hat and a comfy chair!
I put up a multi-grid avatar drupal module thingamagig here: http://github.com/paul-m/metaverse
Hop on in. :-)
Do let us know when the end-of-the-grid parties are beginning. That might just be enough to make me dust off my own long-neglected presence.
09 2010
Indeed, the Chilbo Community has been very grateful for Ordinal's work. We modified the original open source script she provided to create public Twitter stations in our community and they worked like a charm until Twitter made its authentication change.
Just wanted to pipe in and give thanks for past use and if there is anything we can do to help support future development, we'd like to do so! It's really a fantastic tool and has helped keep our community informed of each others' activities.
Babbage, I think you've unfairly characterized Ordinal and her stance here in your comment.
Ordinal has provided twitterbox free for years as opensource as well.
She includes the middleware php code to run on a server of your own for the express purpose of letting you own both halves of twitterbox yourself.
And her LSL side script comments and online documentation describe the security issues quite clearly AND how to avoid giving your twitter login to her.
Her comment about understanding a script from first principles is a good one, and the LL Oauth library includes Sha1 hashing bits and other *nitpicky critical bits*.
I applaud Ordinal for being the kind of developer she is, especially for wanting to understand the dependencies, protocols, APIs, and assumptions first, rather than run off and code on ill-understood quicksand as so many others do.
As you well know, hashing and crypto functions have to be handled very carefully, and that's all she said she was doing. Don't take that as some misperceived criticism of the digital wizardry in LL Oauth. Its more wanting to understand the proper way to hold and aim the weapon before pulling the trigger on it.
Just my .02L$.
I am grateful to you BOTH for the coding you've done for everyone's benefit.
My comments here are to prevent misunderstanding from propagating becoming codified as "the truth" by appearing on the Internet for permanent archival in search engines and archive sites forevermore.
Way to stick in a sideways jab at one of SL's greatest citizens, Babbage. If you'd READ what Dame Ordinal wrote, you'd see that she's falling squarely on the side of customer support. Something the Lab could do well to learn from.
-iD
I do trust it; I just don't know how it works, and if somebody says to me "oh hello Ordinal why does your Twitterbox script do X", if there are components which I don't understand I will not necessarily be able to answer them. I don't even understand how OAuth works to be quite honest.
It might be that it is easiest to do everything in LSL with the libraries. I really don't know at this stage.
So, you've asked SL residents to trust you with their Twitter passwords for several years, but you don't trust an open source OAuth library written by the LSL community? That's some pretty asymmetric trust you've got going on there, Ordinal.
Using OAuth on the back end is going to require you to rewrite a bunch of the LSL that exists in the OAuth library to display authentication pages in SL, you should save yourself the time and use the LSL OAuth library: applications like Twitterbox are exactly what it was designed for. I'll give you a hand if you like.
08 2010
Oh well, at least I feel a little less dim now (and have re-corrected).
@Ordinal: I must confess that it was a clarification which we added to the FAQ after had first been published, likely after you had read it. (We are still in the process of adding and clarifying in response to questions and comments.) However, this username limitation had already been implemented.
Ah, obviously I did not read things properly on that point (it was something that really only occurred as I was writing and should have been researched before adding). I shall add a correction, thank you.
ordinalmalaprop and other usernames formed by concatenating existing SL names are explicitly blocked: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Display_Names#Are_there_any_rules_for_ch...
Underscores are not allowed either; the character set allowed for usernames is the same as currently allowed for first names.
@Watcha: Viewers that don't support Display Names will all display usernames. Most will display them as "$USERNAME Resident"
(Incidentally, I got this message when attempting to login with OpenID: The username yoz has not been activated or is blocked. However, I was using the OpenID already associated with that account. It was only by going through a password reset that I was able to authenticate. Furthermore, attempting to post or preview results in a CAPTCHA error, despite no CAPTCHA having been initially presented. I hope this report is useful.)
Let us hope that should this become Live, issues such as this will have been addressed first. (The "issues of import" part was I admit somewhat cheap - there is always something else needing doing after all, and it is far too easy a criticism.)
I think the new display name function is a key component of the new attempt to bring Second Life into the "mainstream", since it would allow representatives of educational institutions and businesses (not to mention the now heavily courted social networking crowd) to use their real life names. I am not an enthusiastic fan of this recent SL as social networking service trend in general, to say the least. But that's a discussion for another time. Obviously, roleplayers can get some use out of this functionality as well, but that's not really what's motivating the change. I don't think LL set out with the intent to cause headaches for their current customer base with this idea, but I don't see that they have fully considered how it would impact those users either. I looked over the FAQ much, much earlier today, and I was a little concerned that there were more hoops to jump through to see an avatar's uniquely assigned identifier than it would be likely for a newbie to navigate (or even think to look for). I'm not too terribly concerned about rank and file hobbyists being put out too much by this. It ought to be obvious enough to close friends and lindens following up on ARs who is who. But I do see one big problem with the system, particularly for especially well known residents. This would be a fantastic tool for scamming the uninitiated (i.e. those who haven't yet figured out the intricacies oh the display name system). Say, a scammer decides to use the name “Desmond Shang” and start taking deposits for land in Caledon from the unwary. That is going to cause huge headaches for Mr. Shang, the newb in question, and the Linden support team. There really does need to be some sort of extra layer of protection or support for large inworld business owners before this goes live. On the other hand, I've always regretted not choosing a more colorful name when I created my account. If they can address the potential for scamming in some meaningful way, then I look forward to a more colorful name in the near future.
While I have only been able to see what the Lindens have shown to us all, it occurred to me that being able to set the display name is a Viewer 2-only feature. Worse yet, it would seem the only way someone could confirm the actual "username" of an avatar would be to run Viewer 2. Versions 1.23 (and the third-party viewers based thereon) will not have a mechanism for "sanity checking" displayed names.
Perhaps I'm wrong. I hope I am wrong.
The feature sounds most useful - for legitimate purposes, anyway - for role-playing. At present, one has to either create an alt with the desired RP name or use one of those awkward signs above one's head that, while one's Linden-approved name might be "Ordinal Malaprop," one is known as "Lash LaRue" in this sim. (Or one can proclaim that one is "Reggie's Sex Toy" or other pieces of Too Much Information.) The latter solution certainly diminishes the immersive nature of the RP environment, while the former has its own drawbacks.
Still, I agree the whole thing seems both potentially awkward and not exactly a top priority.
I, too, am concerned about the dual levels of names. It seems like a gift to griefers if the real name is hidden behind a couple of clicks. As well, scripts will still refer to people by their "true" name.
All they had to do was come up with a mechanism, even a slow one, for correcting poorly-made name choices. Now we have layered names and difficulty knowing who we're even talking to.
The possibility for identity theft, as you alluded, is likely. How long until someone changes their "display" name to "Cubey Terra" and starts griefing sims?
"No, no, that's wasn't me!" I'll shout.
"Shut up, griefer. Banned."
07 2010
This ferret has a sad. But not enough words to properly express it.
Oh quite.
> one has to remember that actually quite a lot of the things that residents dislike about SL... came about during Mr Philip's reign
Also, SL Enterprise, the courting of government and business, Viewer 2 and the new orientation 'experience' all kicked off prior to M.
06 2010
Hmm. "We residents?" I'd been given to understand you'd left the sphere for other climes. How delightful to see you back!
I reserved judgement when M came onboard; it took a few months for me to determine that he was, in fact, decidedly NOT a positive addition. There was simply a sense of soullessness to the grid after that point. I am HOPING this reverses with the Return of The King, or Governor, at least, although again, time will tell.
I believe that in general, people are more relieved at seeing M depart than they are in seeing Philip return, and this gives them a reason to rejoice. That they ascribe their newfound joy to the return of Philip rather than the departure of M means that they might be deluding themselves.
There had been some Discussion in our household as to who might be Ideally Suited to getting things back on track.
Consternation ensued when we attempted to envision the sort of title the Individual in question might be given....
CatHerd Linden, CommonSense Linden, DameOrdinal Linden.....