Viewers

Not much has changed since week 21… said Oz as he listed off these changes…

There is a new AssetHTTP version. It is doing reasonably well and Oz Linden thinks it likely to promote to the default viewer.

A new Voice RC is out but, it is too new for the Lab to know much about how it is doing.

Also, a new maintenance viewer is out and it too is too new to say much about performance-wise.

Alex Ivy, the 64-bit version of the Linden project viewer, has been updated. A RC version of it is in QA. The RC is likely to release in week 22.

The Lindens are changing the server side support for viewer update process. This is the process that decides if you should run a 32 or 64-bit version of the viewer. The update process is taking a fair amount of effort. A couple of easier said than done things weren’t anticipated that are being resolved.

It is something about telling people to change versions. I didn’t get it. But, the RC version and server changes should be ready early next week. The RC viewer will likely go to QA in week 22. Meanwhile, the project version will exercise the server changes, probably in an RC channel.

The Lab will continue to support the 32-bit Windows version of their viewer.

BUT…

If you run the 32-bit viewer, know it crashes WAY more, ENORMOUSLY more, stupendously more than the 64-bit version. If you can change over, do. You will be soooo happy you did. Other than knowing you are running a 64-bit viewer and crashing WAY, WAY, W A Y  less, there is no difference.

Well… I think the 64-bit is faster too. But, no one has published objective benchmarks. I’ve published some “this-is-my-experience” comparisons. But, none of the tedious scientific benchmarks.

Once Alex Ivy is out the wiki will update with new build instructions.

The 360-viewer is moving along. There is a little problem on Mac build. Once resolved we will see a new Project Viewer.

The zip file the 360 builds now will be gone and a single metadata rich, stitched together image file will be saved. There are a few functional things left to do. But, next week should see an update out.

Hot Topic of the Day… OTR Viewer

OTR is Off The Record. It is about encrypted chat. We once had this in Second Life. Then it went away.

The question is, will the Lab allow a third-party viewer with encrypted chat? Answer: Oz is strongly discouraging it.

When there was encrypted chat, the Lab never attempted to defeat or block it. BUT… it caused lots of problems for users and headaches from Lab. So, it is not something the Lab would look forward to.

The problems start with abuse reports, phishing, harassment, ID theft… The verify a complaint the Lab goes to the Chat logs they keep. (Under strict internal security.) They review those logs to see if people really said what the abuse report says. However, if chat is encrypted, the Lab is unable to act because they can’t read the encrypted chat dropped into the logs. They cannot prove what happened in chat. Then people get angry because Lab doesn’t do anything.

OTR was an all-around bad thing and bad PR.

The Lab does secure the chat logs. Even Oz Linden cannot read the chat logs.

Lab only reads chat logs if there is a reason to… an automated trigger for fraud alert goes off, some files an abuse report, a ToS violation pops… When Lab gets such a complaint/warning, a vetted support person goes to look at the log.

The system only shows a small slice of the log around the time requested. The request to retrieve anything from the chat log is itself logged. With the request, a reason is required.

Company policy practically makes it a felony to reveal anything in the chat logs, beyond what is required work-wise to handle the current problem. Leaking any of the information will limit career opportunities.

So, at the Lab chat logs are a BIG privacy deal.

Oz pointed out that telling users that they can’t get abuse-support if they use encrypted chat, doesn’t work. Didn’t last time. People just got pissed the Lab appeared to do nothing about the abusers.

Oz was not willing to discuss the issue of a court subpoena with encrypted chat He felt that is far beyond his expertise. The Lab has attorneys for that.

Other companies do provide secure chat. The Lab is not in that business and they do not intend to provide the service. Oz won’t say the Lab will forbid it, but they will not look favorably on any viewer that implements encrypt chat. It creates too many problems and PR issues for the Lab.

Next

Another current problem biting some is Missing Offline Group Notice (Unreliable Delivery)… This is not something the Lab is looking at, but they are aware of the problem. For now, the plan is to look at when they get the email system revamped, meaning email address quality. Remember the Verify your Email thing? That is still in progress and they are moving forward on it.

However, if you can give them a precise time of a failure, they would like that and take a look at that occurrence.

Next

Will there be a physics limitations increase… Oz says they are working on infrastructure and performance things in general. Once that work is done they will look at most limits to see what might be increased. There is no plan just now to increase the physics limits. However, I say there is a possibility. We just have to wait to see how much the current round of infrastructure changes improves things.

Next

You may notice some DJ boards broke on the Magnum RC server channel – User agent blocking…

These DJ boards use a hack. Not unusual in Second Life. Oz says the hack never should have worked. So, server testing will be added to stop it… BUT, they will build away for something similar to work. But, it will change.

There will be documentation on how to change DJ scripts. But, we may hear some screams from this one.

Next

There are rumors that TP hammers will stop working. These are the HUD’s some use to get into events. Tell the HUD where you want to go and it REPEATEDLY tries to TP you there. Cycling faster than… a mere human.

These HUD’s throw a load on the destination server. The Lab is working to change that and make for faster, less work to reach the point the server can say, No Entry, Full.

In the meantime, the frequency of TP requests has been throttled. You are not likely to notice any difference in you manually triggered teleports. However, while TP hammer HUD’s will continue to work, they will be slower.

Of course, if you are a premium member, you’ll almost always get in ahead of the TP hammers. At least I’m getting in all the crowded places I try to go.

Firestorm

The word from Jessica is Firestorm is expecting to release a new version 6/19 Monday, week 24, 2 weeks away.

Next

There is a weird thing happening with group bans. It seems there is a way for the ‘banned’ to find out who banned them. They then attack that person. It gets ugly.

A solution is to use bots to ban people from groups. I don’t mean a real AI bot, just an account bot. Avoid the problem of someone being targeted.

Griefers are spamming the people in the group the bot is administrating. JIRA? One is being filed.

The Lab is asking for those dealing with this problem to describe how they would like to resolve it.

Next

The JIRA’s software is likely to update ‘real soon now’. One of the changes is Voting will disappear. If you have read me for anytime you know I encourage people to click WATCH and forget VOTE.  The Lab does not pay attention to votes. They are interested in how many people watch an issue.