Site Changes

Let me know if you start having problems with this site. I have been upgrading the security. About 2 or 3 PM each day I see the site slammed by remote sites sucking gigabytes of content out of my site. I’m not sure why they would want it. Nor do I mind that they take it. I do mind that they overload the web server I use and make the site way slow. So, I come in each day and disconnect those that are behaving like bots… continuous dozens-of-requests per second.

On The Sunny Side of the Street
On The Sunny Side of the Street

I’ve been changing robots.txt and adding ‘slow down’ instructions for search engines. That helps with the big well mannered engines. But, not the problem bots that have been hitting.

I’ve been blocking the networks the most abusive bots use. But, doing that without restricting legitimate users is complicated. So, it isn’t a good solution. Neither is blocking individual IP addresses. The bad guys just change IP.

So, now I am trying some new software. It is in learning mode. So, I’m ‘completely’ sure what all it will decide to do.

ODD: Intel Developers to use Second Life?

In my reading I came across this article on the Intel Developer site: Unity Tip: Using Second Life As A 3D Modeling Package.

Quoting:

You may need to use 3D modeling to create objects for your project but do not have the technical experience yet to do so, or find that your package of choice does not provide the feature that you need (for example, creating spheres in SketchUp is very difficult).  There is an alternative, user-friendly solution though.  You can create your objects in the online virtual reality world Second Life

I think that is pretty interesting…

Even more interesting is they promote the Firestorm Viewer as the viewer of choice. Their reason for recommending Firestorm is the Collada export feature found in Firestorm.

The article provides a tutorial on how to export 3D items from Second Life™ using the Firestorm viewer.

Second Life: Aditi Inventory Problem

A couple of weeks ago I wrote Second Life: Aditi Inventory. This is about a problem those of us that use the Preview Grid, ADITI, have.

'Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain... and most fools do..'
‘Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain… and most fools do..’

The original problem was passwords were not updating and there were problems with inventory in ADITI. The Lindens have been in the process of fixing those problems. In the process they ran into a new problem. The fix came from trying to synchronize your main grid’s (AGNI) inventory with your ADITI inventory. In the previous update process the ADITI inventory was just replaced with the AGNI inventory. Sync’ing is way better. 

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Obduction Coming in June

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1INKH_iBak8&feature=youtu.be

Quoting: Welcome to Obduction, Cyan’s highly anticipated spiritual successor to Myst. This teaser trailer finally pulls back the curtain for a sneak peek of what to expect. Obduction is scheduled for release in June 2016.

A couple of months and I’ll have a copy…

Second Life News Week 15

Servers

There was a server roll to the main channel. This package has a fix for BUG-11163 llHTTPRequest – returns 400 from some sims and not others and minor internal improvements.

There is no new package for the RC channels. They are running the same package as the main channel.

No word on whether we will have a new package rolling to the RC channels next week.

Viewers

In the article on news from the Third Party Viewer Dev’s meeting I mentioned the current viewer versions. Nothing has changed since yesterday. See: Second Life Third Party Viewer Meeting 4/8.

Second Life Third Party Viewer Meeting 4/8

The HTTP/Co-routines RC viewer promoted to the main viewer 4.0.3-312816

The RC HTTP viewer has a bunch of voice fixes too. The Vivox people say considering how their software interacts with SL voice processes, the new Vivox code should just be a drop in update for older viewers.

The successful warrior is the average man, but with great focus.
The successful warrior is the average man, but with great focus.

There are a number of robustness fixes in voice. But, this update won’t fix the big drop outs we are seeing. Those are from DoS attacks on the Vivox servers.

Vivox and the Lab are working on a feature to restore service when voice drops… Those will be in the next round of improvements. Other coming updates provide better voice privacy and better security. 

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