Rumor has is that Linden Labs is trying to fix an old exploit in the grid that is being, well, exploited. And that is what is going on with the current grid instability we have all been feeling for the last week or so. It’s good that LL can fix a security bug within 18 months and keep everyone informed of why the grid is going down the toilet….

-Veyron

I’ve dealt with griefers before, but I decided to pop in on an NCI class on them tonight.

I picked up one tip that was too good not to pass along. If you get a particle attack or something is driving you nuts with particles at a club or similar, you can turn it off really quick.

Toggles particles on and off. Not sure what it is on a Mac, but probably something similar.

-Veyron

Last post was about my favorite shield, the proTEC from AubreTec. The obvious flip side to that is an offensive weapon. I don’t always have it on, but the psiTEC II from AubreTec is a great device to have. The weapon (it’s not really a gun) is designed to attach into your head… yes, in your head. It then can (and usually does) hide inside your head. This way you do not look armed and there is no overt weaponry being displayed. It is also very difficult to see with show transparent, especially if you have a head full of prim hair on.

It has a whole range of attack options, but do not use it for forms of evil (i.e. griefing):

1. KILL - Slicing through shields like butter, this weapon has caused almost instant death through every shield we’ve tested, including the most high-end shielding systems in SL.

2. ORBIT - Launch your opponent straight up to the tune of 35-80 MILLION meters*. This amount of force will distort your opponent’s av (no, really - see the pics).

3. PULSE - Even stronger than ORBIT, this attack offers the strongest push available in SL, typically launching your enemies so high that SL can no longer calculate altitude.

4. DISRUPT - Launch bots, vehicles - nearly any active physical object - off-world. See the look on your opponent’s face (rhetorical) when his $700L attack bot ends up back in his lost and found.

5. BLITZ - This attack uses unstable physics to disrupt your target. Because of the nature of this attack, we cannot guarantee results, unfortunately, as they depend on a number of variables, but effects can include death, bizarre relocations, or incredible push, even on push-restricted parcels.

6. TRAP - Can’t sit on it to get out. Can’t sit on anything outside of it to get out, either. Our smart trap is one of the most irritating traps in SL.

7. BURN - This tracking flame does a constant stream of adjustable damage to your enemy. A popular aubreTEC favorite, Burn has been souped up with a new blazing-fast movement engine.

8. SMOKE - This cloud of smoke follows your target, obscuring their vision and making their position constantly apparent.

9. IMITATE - Once a popular plug-in, IMITATE now comes included in every psiTEC. This gag allows you to imitate your target by creating an object that allows you to speak using their name.

10. TELEPATHY - Want to listen to your far-away friends? Zoom in on a conversation with your camera and hear from afar. Try not to use this to invade privacy, okay?

11. TRACE - These creates a tracking stream of particles above your target’s avatar, enabling you to follow their movements without giving away your own position.

12. HUNT - Keep yourself out of range while still attacking your enemy with this sim-scouring hunter. This attack will search the entire sim (up to 768m) for your target and BLITZ ‘em long-distance.

13. SHOCKWAVE - Need some breathing room in combat? Push & damage everybody in a 20m radius.

14. BERSERK - Instantly attack everybody (except your friends) within a 96m radius.

The best part is it interfaces with the proTEC and can tell you who is attacking you and optionally attack back. It’s easy to use and not too complicated. It has some other nice features, such as being able to rez objects out of your inventory. One built in item is a work light that hovers over you, you can rez and de-rez it on command.

It’s a handy weapon to have for certain situations.

Okay, I admit it. I’m armed. Well, sometimes. I think Zoe has better weapons than I do….

No, I’m not a griefer, but a couple of times I was harassed by griefers and given a pretty hard time. So, this girl got armed quite some time ago. Before we talk about weapons, I thought I’d mention shielding.

My favorite, and only, shield in Second Life is the Aubretec proTEC HUD Shield. The shield is about as good as they come, with quite a few options and features:

Inner Shield - a tight-fitting shield that deflects bullets and other attacks.

Outer Shield - a 10m radius shield that only activates when penetrated.

Interceptors - Rezzes plates between you and bullets to deflect objects that pose a threat to you.

Neutralizer - let your shield scan for oncoming objects, such as bullets, and shove them away from you.

Movelock - the standard anti-push measure for light to moderate push scripts.

Cloaking - render your avatar partially invisible, to make yourself a more difficult visual target.

Non-Phys - an invisible personal “vehicle” that uses smooth, non-physical movement - preventing you from being pushed by anything, ever. This also allows you to travel through solid objects and offers protection against non-physical bullets. While in the Non-Phys shield, you will look as though your av is flying (complete with hover up and hover down anims), so people never need know you’re using it.

OS (”Oh, Shit!”) Shield - in trouble? Click the OS button and you’ll be instantly lifted 300m, and a huge, solid, THICK prim shield will rez around you for the most solid prim protection SL can offer. Arm the shield, and it will automatically push anything that touches it - except you and your stuff, that is - hard.

It is a low lag device and I have never had any problems with it. You just wear it as a HUD and then it will make itself mostly invisible.

An interesting thing about it is when the Interceptors rez to intercept an incoming bullet, a semi-circle shield rezes in front of the bullet and will glow with a color you define.

While Vint was taking this picture of Vincent and myself someone was driving around and shooting people. I could see the shield rezzing in front of me (and Vincent).

-Veyron

There’s an interesting new service out there for owners of land that have griefing problems - Banlink. It is sort of a group ban list that can be shared between other groups. It’s probably a good idea, but there are the usual concerns about who is banning who and if you get banned from one place, you might find yourself banned from a lot of places.

It is interesting that you can lookup your avatars’ “rap sheet” on the site. Some places on the grid are already using Banlink. Even the griefers do not seem to be happy about it, which is probably a good thing. My only concern is how you might appeal any sort of banning that might happen. The grid is pretty large now and it gives griefers lots of targets to work on before they get banned from SL (if ever). The positive part of it is that griefers may not be able to escape generating a rap sheet that other land owners can use.

Rumor has it that since ratings have been removed that Banlink or some sort of API for it to use will be intergrated into the Second Life client in the near future.

As anticipated, the old Second Life rating system is now gone from the latest client. This new client and server upgrade has a number of new “features” we all really love, but rather than start ranting about that, I’ve been looking into a replacement for the rating system. I decided to give TrustNet a try. Its cost is low, I like how the logic of it works and it has what I would consider to be a useful HUD. You can get the HUD in world in the Sprawler Sim. The cost is free. It appears to be subscription based, but it’s not very clear on that upfront. It looks to be L$50 a month, with is pretty cheap.

TrustNet has a web site for your account to manage your ratings and you can rate other skills than just behavior of an avatar, such as building, appearance, scripting, buying and selling.

They are also promising a security orb that uses the TrustNet data. This might be very useful. I use a Home Security Orb by Psyke’s Defense Systems, which I have found to be very useful, but this may be more useful, as it could be self-maintaining in the list of people who get access. It appears to have most of the features of Psyke’s Security Orb.

Maybe it might be a good idea to get together in world and start to build up a trust net?

-Veyron.

There has been a lot of discussion since Linden Labs announced that voice will be added to Second Life. Akela Talamasca made some interesting points about that person didn’t sound like I expected them to. There is of course the point about the handicapped or the socially challenged having issues with voice. What I think it will really come down to is two major points, at least for me. Privacy and usability.

Information can not be un-given. Once it’s out, it cannot be taken back. Text is text, my voice is my voice and distinctly my voice. I don’t want to have what I say used against me sometime in the future, perhaps far in the future, when I’m not an being an avatar. I’ve considered using some voice cloaking software, but that seems extreme. I’d more inclined to use it if a voice was a generated part of the avatar. Makes sense, everything else on an avatar is an artificial computer construct, except who is behind it controlling the avatar. And that follows into the my next thinking.

Usability. When you’re talking with someone you are either talking or waiting to talk. Unless your trying to talk over someone, only one person can talk at a time. When texting is going on, there are multiple conversations going on at the same time. I can actually queue up what I am going to say, and I get the great advantage of being able to have a moment to reflect on what I am about to “text” before I hit enter. It’s pretty hard to remove your foot from your mouth once you have planted it firmly between your teeth.

You can also be IM’ing people left and right while chatting. We all do it. You can usually tell when someone is doing it. This would be something very hard, if not impossible to do with voice.

Oh, and let’s not forget about the possible annoyance factor…. I have not seen any real comments about how annoying voice could actually be. Think about how annoying howling and yowling in a club is as text and some basic audio is now, can you hardly wait for it to come live over streaming audio? Oh, and let’s not consider the possibilities for griefing. I will make a prognostication right here, right now. Some griefer will figure out a way to blow a 90+ decibel sound through the system and right into the headphones people are wearing. I can hardly wait for the news flash on that one.

Audio spamming, err, advertising. You think ugly spinning billboards are a problem now? Wait until they start yelling at you at 90 decibels. Buy my 16m lot next to yours for an extortionists price to stop the screaming…. I’m not naive enough to think that this will not happen. I’m sure Linden Labs has some smug plan to prevent this from happening and will be shocked when someone smarter than they are figures away around them. Or worse they have taken on the usual laissez-faire attitude and stuck their head in sand pretending that none of this will actually happen.

Lastly, two other minor points for me. I spend all day at work talking to people. When I get home to play on Second Life, the last thing I want to do is keep on talking. I also rarely turn on the steaming audio in Second Life. I like the peace and quiet at home.

Finally, I feel the immersion factor of Second Life I so enjoy might be ruined with voice. The people’s avatars I see and meet I feel are real to me. Just like the places. I feel voice might break the spell.

Within a year or so once the voice option is mainline in the Second Life software, I expect their to be a bifurcation of the user base. The percentage, and probably large at that, of older avatars will not be using voice, while the newer avatars, not knowing anything else, will be yammering away with voice. The two groups will look at each other with puzzlement…. Then the next wave will be live streaming video, but then at that point, what is Second Life? Skype?

Call me a Luddite, but text it to me baby….

-Veyron