... since it is unusual for me to leave more than forty-eight hours between blog entries.
Unfortunately, real life has rather intervened, in the form of a blazing row with my mother, over the merits of me spending time on the computer. (Which, since both my social and my work life rather revolve around the Net, is a bit of a problem.) My mother has reached that time in life when she disapproves of everything but the Royal Family and the Antiques Roadshow, and the Internet falls under neither heading.
It'll blow over - but I am keeping my head down until it does. Sadly, I have to live with my mother. Or, at least, someone has to, and there aren't any other volunteers.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
The sincerest form of flattery
There has been, it seems, a sudden outbreak of copybotting, to which I was alerted by no less a presence than the august Dean of Caledon Oxbridge, Martini Discovolante, who was gratified to hear a newcomer compliment her appearance - and then mortified to see said newcomer assume it, instantly....
This is, of course, nothing new, and it's not easy to prevent. The simple truth is, if you are going to appear on other people's viewers, the information needed to construct your appearance has to be sent to their computers - and it is not at all difficult to intercept and record that information. All it took was one person malicious or clueless enough to write and release a tool for doing this, and imagination- and morality-challenged people everywhere could take advantage of it.
There are limitations, of course - copybotters can't duplicate content that's shared only between your client and LL's servers, so things like your inventory, and the contents of your items, are safe enough. And I'm inclined to wonder if the upcoming changes to the rendering pipeline will make life harder for the copyers; if your skin and clothing textures are pre-baked on the server side, it's not going to be easy to separate the layers out in someone else's client. I hope.
And, of course, copybotting is a violation of the Terms of Service and merits an immediate abuse report if you see it... not to mention, if it's content you've made being copied, the authority of the DMCA behind the complaint. LL can, and do, remove ripped-off content, replacing it with "generic" items of the same basic type.
Which is all to the good.... I am not a fan of the more strident interpretations of copyright law and intellectual property rights, but the basic principle is sound: people who create things have the right to distribute it the way they choose to, and to get paid for what they do. I may choose to give stuff away - I have, on some occasions - but it's my stuff, and I get to choose when and how I do it. I may be a techno-commie, and even a pixel-stained technopeasant wretch, but I draw the line at simply leeching off other people's creativity. And I hope all my readers do too!
This is, of course, nothing new, and it's not easy to prevent. The simple truth is, if you are going to appear on other people's viewers, the information needed to construct your appearance has to be sent to their computers - and it is not at all difficult to intercept and record that information. All it took was one person malicious or clueless enough to write and release a tool for doing this, and imagination- and morality-challenged people everywhere could take advantage of it.
There are limitations, of course - copybotters can't duplicate content that's shared only between your client and LL's servers, so things like your inventory, and the contents of your items, are safe enough. And I'm inclined to wonder if the upcoming changes to the rendering pipeline will make life harder for the copyers; if your skin and clothing textures are pre-baked on the server side, it's not going to be easy to separate the layers out in someone else's client. I hope.
And, of course, copybotting is a violation of the Terms of Service and merits an immediate abuse report if you see it... not to mention, if it's content you've made being copied, the authority of the DMCA behind the complaint. LL can, and do, remove ripped-off content, replacing it with "generic" items of the same basic type.
Which is all to the good.... I am not a fan of the more strident interpretations of copyright law and intellectual property rights, but the basic principle is sound: people who create things have the right to distribute it the way they choose to, and to get paid for what they do. I may choose to give stuff away - I have, on some occasions - but it's my stuff, and I get to choose when and how I do it. I may be a techno-commie, and even a pixel-stained technopeasant wretch, but I draw the line at simply leeching off other people's creativity. And I hope all my readers do too!
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Not all that proud
I went out to see the Second Pride sims - six of them, celebrating LGBT pride and culture in Second Life. A good thing, to be sure.
After Fantasy Faire, and SL9B, I was expecting something rather fun, though. Unfortunately, it's six rather empty sims, of rather bland builds. There is a funfair, which looks vaguely fun. There are important things, like memorials, and art galleries, and a museum of the struggle (still ongoing, alas) for gay rights. It's all very worthy and not very interesting....
Also, I am minded to gripe on a personal level; last I heard, there was an L in LGBT. But you wouldn't think it to see most of this place. So far, I have found a stall for SL's "Oh Boi" lesbian magazine, and that is all I've found. I suppose I shouldn't grumble; in the world of Second Pride, that seems to put us about equal with the Goreans, and we get nearly twice as much space as the Amaretto breedable horses.
Perhaps lesbian groups were approached, but chose - for whatever reason - not to participate? Or perhaps it's that famous lesbian invisibility, that we hear so much about. Anyway. For me, this festival is something of a disappointment. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
After Fantasy Faire, and SL9B, I was expecting something rather fun, though. Unfortunately, it's six rather empty sims, of rather bland builds. There is a funfair, which looks vaguely fun. There are important things, like memorials, and art galleries, and a museum of the struggle (still ongoing, alas) for gay rights. It's all very worthy and not very interesting....
Also, I am minded to gripe on a personal level; last I heard, there was an L in LGBT. But you wouldn't think it to see most of this place. So far, I have found a stall for SL's "Oh Boi" lesbian magazine, and that is all I've found. I suppose I shouldn't grumble; in the world of Second Pride, that seems to put us about equal with the Goreans, and we get nearly twice as much space as the Amaretto breedable horses.
Perhaps lesbian groups were approached, but chose - for whatever reason - not to participate? Or perhaps it's that famous lesbian invisibility, that we hear so much about. Anyway. For me, this festival is something of a disappointment. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Scammers live in vain
Much annoyance in RL, from a spate of phone calls of late. This is that scam where someone (usually with a very thick Indian accent) phones up claiming to be from"technical support department of Windows", tells you that your computer is generating error messages all across the Internet, and offers you assistance in fixing the problem. Actually accepting such an offer - not that I have ever done so, myself - is pretty much guaranteed to sign you up for new exciting experiences in the area of identity theft and malware installation. You too can be part of the thrilling new botnet everyone is talking about!
After a lengthy argument with our telecoms provider, we got a four digit code to punch into the phone, to flag these up as fraudulent calls - probably useless, since the scammers behind these things just buy time at a new call centre every so often; the hapless drones in Kolkata are reading off the scripts that are given them.
Needless to say, it is a scam, absolutely and completely - Microsoft do not make, or authorize anybody to make, unsolicited phone calls of this nature, and in any case the idea of my lone laptop ringing alarm bells across the globe is patently ridiculous. If I'm in a bad mood, my response to these people is along the lines of quoting the Computer Misuse Act at them and advising them to get an honest job. And, I have to admit, increasingly I am in a bad mood with these people. I've had four of these calls in the past three days, now, and I am quite a cross Glorf about it.
Exercise for the alert student: given that I'm on a dynamically allocated IP address, how much work would you have to go to, in order to establish that a series of error messages all originated on my PC? Answers on a postcard please.
After a lengthy argument with our telecoms provider, we got a four digit code to punch into the phone, to flag these up as fraudulent calls - probably useless, since the scammers behind these things just buy time at a new call centre every so often; the hapless drones in Kolkata are reading off the scripts that are given them.
Needless to say, it is a scam, absolutely and completely - Microsoft do not make, or authorize anybody to make, unsolicited phone calls of this nature, and in any case the idea of my lone laptop ringing alarm bells across the globe is patently ridiculous. If I'm in a bad mood, my response to these people is along the lines of quoting the Computer Misuse Act at them and advising them to get an honest job. And, I have to admit, increasingly I am in a bad mood with these people. I've had four of these calls in the past three days, now, and I am quite a cross Glorf about it.
Exercise for the alert student: given that I'm on a dynamically allocated IP address, how much work would you have to go to, in order to establish that a series of error messages all originated on my PC? Answers on a postcard please.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
A hurried note
... as my inworld time has been taken over, through my own dreadful weakness of will; I started doing the Sinister Steampunk Hunt.
This is smaller that Steam Hunt or Silk Road - fifty-two shops listed, but some have dropped out (one, rather alarmingly, has disappeared completely). So far, I'm about half way. There are some familiar names on the list, but there are enough new-to-me stores to keep me on my toes! There may or may not be a report on the goodies on offer; the Hunt's blog seems to be displaying those fairly effectively, though.
This is smaller that Steam Hunt or Silk Road - fifty-two shops listed, but some have dropped out (one, rather alarmingly, has disappeared completely). So far, I'm about half way. There are some familiar names on the list, but there are enough new-to-me stores to keep me on my toes! There may or may not be a report on the goodies on offer; the Hunt's blog seems to be displaying those fairly effectively, though.
Monday, July 2, 2012
The play's the thing
So, there I was at home in Kuhrang, when I received a message from the estimable Mr Perryn Peterson; he was about to appear in a play, would I care to come and watch?
Shortly thereafter, there I was in Piedmont Landing, at the Jewell Theater high in the air, watching "The Ost", a Gorean-themed play in which Perryn was playing a two-timing guy who gets rather more than he bargained for, in a distinctly Gorean sort of style.
I have to admit, my own style wasn't particularly Gorean, since I was still baking a rather nice modern outfit from Ydea at the time... still, there were a couple of other conventional Earth people around, among all the silks and the slaves, so I sat quiet and said nothing and absorbed this little tale from a culture that is, to be honest, pretty much alien to me. (I read a Gor book, once, about twenty-five years ago; neither John Norman's writing style nor his sexual politics impressed me very much.)
The play was one of those areas where SL shows its... differences... from RL. On the one hand, fantastically detailed sets and costumes were rezzed in the blink of an eye, technology Shakespeare would have given his eye teeth for. On the other, the dialogue was exclusively in chat, so no intonation, no expression, there; and though the actors were perfectly choreographed, there is a limit to what they can do, too, with animations and precisely timed movement.
The subject matter, Perryn (quite correctly) assured me, was universal, but I kept looking about for the Gorean twists - the attitudes, and the resolution of the central situation, that were appropriate to the Gorean culture. (I commented to Perryn, afterwards, how different things might have been in other constructed cultures - citing as an example one of M.A.R. Barker's Tékumel stories, where the love triangle is resolved quite neatly by the hero marrying both the girls. But this isn't possible in a Gorean setting, apparently.) Anyway, it kept my interest, all the way through.
Must admit, though, the one thing that really threw me was the attitude of the audience, who were heckling loudly and commenting on the action all the way through.... Now, this might just be my cultural prejudices coming through, of course. My upbringing makes me think it's only a courtesy to the performers to keep my mouth shut and let them get on with the show - perhaps I am old-fashioned; perhaps it is different in Gor; or perhaps I'm not old-fashioned enough - Shakespeare's audiences at the Globe could cut up pretty rough, by all accounts. But I found it distracting, enough so to do a surreptitious mute on a couple of the most talkative (including one person whose open mic was delivering snatches of the Euro 2012 cup final along the way).
Anyway - it was definitely an interesting experience.... Of course, it occurs to me that I was present in my SL identity watching a bunch of other SL people assume the roles of yet other people in an invented society, thereby achieving such a level of "meta" that I'm not even sure I'm typing this. But it was certainly an interesting event.
Shortly thereafter, there I was in Piedmont Landing, at the Jewell Theater high in the air, watching "The Ost", a Gorean-themed play in which Perryn was playing a two-timing guy who gets rather more than he bargained for, in a distinctly Gorean sort of style.
I have to admit, my own style wasn't particularly Gorean, since I was still baking a rather nice modern outfit from Ydea at the time... still, there were a couple of other conventional Earth people around, among all the silks and the slaves, so I sat quiet and said nothing and absorbed this little tale from a culture that is, to be honest, pretty much alien to me. (I read a Gor book, once, about twenty-five years ago; neither John Norman's writing style nor his sexual politics impressed me very much.)
The play was one of those areas where SL shows its... differences... from RL. On the one hand, fantastically detailed sets and costumes were rezzed in the blink of an eye, technology Shakespeare would have given his eye teeth for. On the other, the dialogue was exclusively in chat, so no intonation, no expression, there; and though the actors were perfectly choreographed, there is a limit to what they can do, too, with animations and precisely timed movement.
The subject matter, Perryn (quite correctly) assured me, was universal, but I kept looking about for the Gorean twists - the attitudes, and the resolution of the central situation, that were appropriate to the Gorean culture. (I commented to Perryn, afterwards, how different things might have been in other constructed cultures - citing as an example one of M.A.R. Barker's Tékumel stories, where the love triangle is resolved quite neatly by the hero marrying both the girls. But this isn't possible in a Gorean setting, apparently.) Anyway, it kept my interest, all the way through.
Must admit, though, the one thing that really threw me was the attitude of the audience, who were heckling loudly and commenting on the action all the way through.... Now, this might just be my cultural prejudices coming through, of course. My upbringing makes me think it's only a courtesy to the performers to keep my mouth shut and let them get on with the show - perhaps I am old-fashioned; perhaps it is different in Gor; or perhaps I'm not old-fashioned enough - Shakespeare's audiences at the Globe could cut up pretty rough, by all accounts. But I found it distracting, enough so to do a surreptitious mute on a couple of the most talkative (including one person whose open mic was delivering snatches of the Euro 2012 cup final along the way).
Anyway - it was definitely an interesting experience.... Of course, it occurs to me that I was present in my SL identity watching a bunch of other SL people assume the roles of yet other people in an invented society, thereby achieving such a level of "meta" that I'm not even sure I'm typing this. But it was certainly an interesting event.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Blingons on the starboard bow!
One thing I missed, apparently, at SL9B was the sign at the Bay City exhibit telling its denizenscitizens to beware of the "Steam Menace". An absurd suggestion! As if the genteel and urbane inhabitants of Caledon presented any sort of menace to anyone.
But, of course, this means the people of Bay City are bound to be on their guard. It would be almost impossible, then, to - as a random example - sneak steam grenades into the Bay City Municipal Airport.
But, of course, this means the people of Bay City are bound to be on their guard. It would be almost impossible, then, to - as a random example - sneak steam grenades into the Bay City Municipal Airport.
Not much sneaking going on, in fact
And, what with the rigorous security checks in place, it'd be almost impossible for a Caledonian agent to infiltrate undetected.
Harmless though that would be - I mean, could anyone see any malign intent in this?
Indeed, you would need to be particularly subtle, sneaky, and generally non-obvious to penetrate the elaborate layers of Bay City security.
Almost undetectable
Yes, the people of Bay City can certainly rest easy in their beds, knowing how vigilantly their municipal authorities protect them from the "Steam Menace"!
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