My new favorite LSL function just popped up on the preview grid yesterday and I’ve been going nuts with it. I’ve already worked out the basics of a nice request handler class for PHP 5 to simplify service creation, a bit similar to how xajax handles itself. And it’s a bit more robust, falling back on email when the web response would be too long. Since 1) UTF-8 can be pretty hard to predict byte-wise, and 2) there’s a 2kb limit on http responses, it’ll try to convert the response to UTF-8 first and gauge whether to send via the response (under 2kb), or chop it up into object emails (a 1000 char limit) and only send a flag & the number of mails being sent over http. Theoretically, it’ll take size limitations completely out of the picture.

Haven’t fully tested it yet, but so far, it’s aces - extend the base class with a new method, pass a “method” parameter via the POST with it’s name, along with any parameters, and then it’s 2 lines of code to shoot it off. Rewriting my Eldora dilation tracker with this already, and have several other test scripts in my preview AVs inventory. Soon as it gets tuned up a bit (and i learn more details of in-world usage restrictions - # of requests per minute, caching, etc.), it’ll be released public. It’s strictly PHP5, but shouldn’t take much to work into PHP4 (might already work, but I don’t use PHP4 anymore to test).

As for the LSL side of things, there’s a lot to tweak. Handling multiple emails from a particularly large response in particular - so far, everything’s come back in order, but I expect it’s very possible to receive the emails out of order, and there’s no checking to make sure everything’s reassembled proper.

This stuff (web connectivity) is what drew me into SL, and it’s already changing everything. I can get to my world (which may or may not be a mysql database) from SL directly now through these little pseudo-services, not just over passive email. Keep a central store of item prices and have my vendors load them on_rez, or periodically update; have a prim check my RSS feeds for new posts; implement my own llName2Key() function; do some heavy string parsing or use real arrays and more than 16kb of memory space… There’s a whole lot in LSL that I just don’t bother with due to it’s limitations and, while will surely have it’s own limitations, it’ll be more controllable than a mess of laggy in-world scripts trying to fake it.

Anyway. Hopefully I’ll have this framework done by the time 1.9.1 hits the main grid. Expect it’ll be freely available here & in-world (maybe L$1 for metrics’ sake) around then.

Totally psyched.

Too much time spent:
1) playing with the awesome things in Suffugium (open soon)
2) playing with the awesome things in 1.9.1 Preview (llHTTPRequest()ing my floppy witches hat off under nice lights)
3) playing with Avimator, one of the best things to happen to SL

to have gotten anything *too* useful done. Currently rebuilding the junk shop in Eldora, going for a fitting car trunk shop. Getting a preliminary start on the SL “service” library in php5 mentioned previously, and then deciding it’d be better to wait out any major changes (and there’s no emailing from the preview grid, bit of a damper). Changing my dilation tracker to work for any sim i can drop an antenna in, and thusly breaking it. Generally just picking at things and drooling at others.

So here, I’ve cut you some (of my) slack:

(Just testing video, really. But on the off chance you’re all “GIMME CHAIR NOW,” they’re available in the Pp shops hidden in Eldora & Suffugium).

I’ve also made a set of blingy silver teeth caps, done up as a scripted gesture with a gang sign animation. I should probably be ashamed, but it really was funny the first few times. And that’s what it’s all a-bout, dih-din.

1) Heartful shoutings-out to Torley Linden for her oh-crap-that’s-me review of Suffugium. Which is now (mostly) open to the public, so everyone in SL can now scooch their avatar butts across my favorite giraffe.

2) Aaand, in reply to Torley’s comment on a past post: The demo is pretty lame, actually a prototype version that i was just messing with a few months back, trying to think up a better way to get one of my songs playable in-world (i can’t stand jukebox scripts). My main HQ being in Eldora, which probably sees more active scripts running per second than avatars in a week, I didn’t want to lag it up with an anyone-accessible copy of reloop (it’s owner-only for a reason :O).

So, in lieu of destroying poor Eldora with more buttons to push, I made a video of myself pushing the buttons. Mind the volume, and the promo fodder at the end. Still not comfy with the whole promotional stuff, it’s still just stuff i make for me. But anyway:

Song by me, and named “cartridge 001″ in the box of junk. Still probably (maybe sadly) the best of the bunch. Here’s hoping someone with better ears will do better :)

(edit: better syntax highlighting. it’s good things.)

I’ve gotten a few questions regarding my sim monitor doodad from folks trying to track their own, so I figure it’s useful enough to show off. First, PHP5 and mySQL are necessary, along with an email address you can push to a PHP script (via .forward or whatever mail pipe your system allows) and access to crontab (you can skip this one, but it’s handy). Also: this hasn’t been tested on Windows type setups at all, I trust them as far as I can crash them.

1) It’ll use email. HTTPRequest is awesome and would be near real-time, but I’m after a statistical history & low overhead. If you want real-time, go stand in the sim with the sim stats open & save your requests for something more useful :p
2) I like having only one email address piped to a script, but have multiple things going on. So we’ll set up a message queue as well, using cron to get all the messages to their proper handlers.
3) We’re only tracking dilation. Easy to get to via LSL, nice & simple. Not too tough to extend to tracking wind speeds, or whatever. Sim Dilation is more useful to me though.

(more…)

I somehow got a wacky, unexpected writeup in NWN of me playing the reloop doohickey (eek). I swear it’s not half that cool or innovative or anything, but still - holyawesome :)

So, blatant abuse of traffic. Anyone popping in from there, here’s some actually wonderful things that i think deserve credit more than me. Not trying to discredit or one-up Hamlet or anything, these are just my personal favorite things of-the-moment (and a maybe unsubtle way to point any spotlights away from me. i burn easily :p).

1. Stella Costello’s Camping for Creativity at the Bear infohub. Sit around the fire for a couple minutes, and get a nice notecard with tips on how to overcome creative blocks, tips on building, texturing, and so on. The infohub itself is inspiring enough, with all the awesome bear statues and general comfy feel. Go there, get inspired, and submit your own tips. I’m trying to think up some of my own to submit too.

   This, along with generally being awesome, is why she is Stella #1.

2. Gerami Fizz (FizzWorks)’s playable instruments. He might’ve been beaten to the punch by Robbie Dingo’s Hyperflute (not trying to contribute to silly competitiveness, both are darn nice), but there’s also a trumpet, clarinet, trombone, and possibly a harmonica floating around as well. Amazing modelling, great samples, playable via keyboard HUD or movement controls, great syntax for notecard songs, etc. Plenty fun, too. Only thing it’s missing is a particle effect on the spit valves :p Find FizzWorks in Caledon, or i think there’s a vendor in the Suffugium flea market right now too (until we get a proper shop set up for him :D).

   (Disclaimer: G Fizzle has recently been swallowed by the Squid(soft) for his coolness. I’m pretty biased.)

3. Trep Cosmo’s tables. Someone else made similar too, but I knew of Trep’s first. One table with one chair. Sit on it, and it’ll make room for & rez another chair. And then another. And so on, until it can’t rez any more. This is one of the most SL-ish things I’ve seen - easy on prims, socially inclusive (always room for everyone, long as the table’s big enough), and makes a great “foop” sound.

   Sadly, Treppy’s currently on vacation from SL due to hardware problems (if i remember right). But check the barstools & tables in the Cabaret (commercial district) and at the counter of the Blue Arrow (slum district, which is now open to the public) in Suffugium - those are a straightened-out version of Trep’s chairs.

4. Suffugium. I feel okay hyping this, since I’m only associated with the folks who really build/built it, and add only a little bit to it myself. I’ve seen it go from plywood model & junk laying around the Squidsoft yard to what it is now, and it floors me. I almost wish I hadn’t been involved in it, so I could explore it objectively - so many neat little things all over. The automatons, the little in-jokes, the hidden bits scattered all over, the general theme & consistency throughout… stuff that I’d never seen anywhere else in SL, or at least not to this degree. Not that Nexus Prime & similar places aren’t the same… just there’s something in Suffugium that really clicks.

   I’m gonna go out on a limb & say that something is probably the Squidsoft Collective. Binne, Kaeli, Lex, Aliasi, Chiri, and everyone else that’s thrown down their stuff in Suffugium. Every prim & texture & script in that sim has been placed & tweaked with so much heart that it can’t help but show through. Nobody’s been hired or paid to build anything in there. No Squid gets squidded because they’re good at building or whatever - it’s more because they’re good at being fun & generally cool folks. And now we’ve got ourselves a nice hideout that fits too.

   (when a Linden drags in other Lindens to show it off, and those Lindens start bringing their friends there to show it off, I think it’s safe to be all “man, this really is awesome” :p)

(i’ll try to add slurls to that stuff later, when i’m a little less at-work and more in-world. find->places in the meantime, lazybutts.)