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If you build, create, purchase or wear anything that contains scripts, you need the Rescale, a single-script tool for customizing no-modify attachments and other objects through menus.
Why one script?
Because of the new scripting tools in simulator 1.38, there is now a DRASTIC REDUCTION IN RESIZE TIME!
The entire goal of Rescale is to cut down on the amount of scripts that must be worn per attachment, thus preventing lag.
For very primmy objects, for example more than 128 prims, the simple method would be to keep a script in each prim.
This means 128 or more scripts just to resize such an object, which means 2MB or more of simulator memory will be in use (A LOT for one object).
Having several such objects worn or rezzed piles on yet more memory usage.
Not only does this degrade sim performance in general, it is particularly destructive during teleports.
Teleports must transfer each script’s state to another sim, and transferring all those scripts causes a large delay in some cases.
This delay is extremely noticeable, and often painfully so.
Avatars wearing hundreds of scripts can cause a sim to hang for even as much as 10 seconds when they teleport in or out of the sim.
To avoid all of this, Rescale can replace hundreds of resize scripts by having one per whole object rather than one per prim.
In other words, there is now absolutely no reason to accept anything but the best of both worlds.
The solution is finally here — no sim lag, and no minutes-long waits for resizes.
Features
Resize a whole object
Resize a single prim on all axes at once, or in a single dimension
Move individual prims
Restore the whole object to its original state
Restore individual prims to their original state
Coordinate multiple, separate objects to resize or restore all prims simultaneously
One script
Highly reliable
Extremely sim-friendly
Free support and updates for life
You can get this in world here
and on marketplace here
All enquiries to Nicocci Denfu or Discrete Dreamscape in world.
![[Emerald] 1626 Release Candidate](https://i0.wp.com/farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4369424305_d8385d80fd.jpg)
There’s been a number of activities in recent days to fill you in on. Some very positive, some a little sad.
* A short time ago, I wrote about the departure of an Emerald Dev here, and assured all readers that Emerald would continue to provide you the user with the best possible viewer we could make.
Overnight, another dev has decided to leave the team. This was because of his dissatisfaction with the consensus of the majority of the team, and his inability to accept that consensus. Unfortunately, he did this in a way to deliberately try to bring the Team’s reputation into disrepute, by posting private conversations and drawing incorrect conclusions.
You can be assured that Emerald will maintain it’s high standard of integrity, honesty and ethics that have contributed to it’s development thus far. Alas, part of being a success is having detractors, however we wish him well on his next legitimate venture.
* The good news is, a new beta version will be available to download very soon. Please be assured the Emerald Team is alive and thriving, and will continue in this way.
* Emerald will be appearing on Treet.TV on 22nd August. Stay tuned for more info!
* The Emerald Team is excited at the prospect of a new high profile developer joining us. More details to come!
You can also read this at Modular Systems
In recent weeks, there has been an ever increasing level of hysteria deliberately generated to instill worry and concern into the day to day lives of SL residents. This has involved a concerted effort to confuse the various applications undergoing development, namely the Emerald viewer and Modular Systems projects.
The purposes for this seething hysteria have also been deliberately clouded, however it is my conclusion that all purposes lead to only one eventuality, namely clearing the decks once again for open slather on content theft. You see, Modular Systems is in the process of developing and testing a tool capabale of identifying stolen content – to combat rampant theft and prevent the wholesale copying of creations that has gone on for such a long time. So, to quote directly from Modular Systems:
“There has been confusion and questions recently about a new initiative some of us are taking part in, that is, the appearance of bots named “Onyx” with the ModularSystems last name.
We’ve been silent up until now about these bots, their function, and our goals, because they are still in the development and beta testing stages; however with the flurry of misinformation circulating, we feel it is important to explain what they are for.
The purpose of these “OnyxBots” as people like to call them is to identify stolen content much in the same way that users do via the inspect tool. When stolen content is spotted, the time and location, as well an identifier for the content is stored. These are then provided to the content creator who’s work has been copied by email or through a convenient web interface.
If no stolen content is identified, absolutely no information is stored. These bots do not record any avatar information, except the avatar key if the copied content in question happens to be an attachment.
To clarify some important points:
* The bots would only be comparing content to items that had already been opted in by their creators.
* In the event of a detection the creator is notified.
* If content was somehow incorrectly detected it would be obvious to the creator who submitted it.
* To reiterate: contrary to some rumors, there would not be any ban lists at all, much less global ones.
Should you need to contact someone regarding the Onyx project, the three avatars below are in-world points of contact:
Fractured Crystal
Phox ModularSystems
Skills Hak
Do not contact any other Emerald developers about the bots or any other portion of the Onyx project, as they will likely be unable to answer your questions. All inquiries should be directed at the three avatars above or to onyx@modularsystems.sl”
There has also been a series of discussions in forums and blogs, again making wild accusations as to the capabilities, history and intentions of various projects linked to both Modular Systems and Emerald. Quoting again from the Modular Systems website:
“This post is to address recent blog posts and articles that have appeared concerning the illegal theft and subsequent leak of a database containing some information about Second Life users.
In early April, our web server was compromised by a (now banned) malicious viewer developer and several of our server’s databases were stolen. The server in question has been secured and the data loss was for the most part not important. However, there was one database that contained information that these malicious individuals felt it was necessary to distribute, despite privacy concerns.
“Datamine” (named such in humor) was a database that was initially created to correlate the IP addresses of visitors to the Emerald Point simulator after several instances of chain-alt griefing.
These correlations were created through the use of the standard land media functionality in any viewer. The database allowed administrators to quickly determine if a new account was an alt account of a griefer that had previously attacked the sim.
This was originally conceived as a prototype to a now defunct system named ModLink; this system would have allowed Estate Owners greater flexibility in dealing with repeat griefers, most importantly by allowing them to IP ban offenders.
After it was demonstrated that this was a effective solution to the problem, several nodes were placed in a few other sims at the request of the owner during a short beta testing period. These nodes were eventually removed, with the last node in Emerald Point removed over a month ago and the database deleted entirely.
This situation was the result of a failure on our part to take into consideration that there are really malicious individuals out there, and while the fault is on them for the distribution of semi-sensitive information about other residents without taking into account the effect it could have on those people, the fault is also on us for allowing our security to be compromised.
To clarify: All of the data gathered was acquired through the use of land media, there is no relation whatsoever to the Emerald Viewer. Passwords are never sent to our server, they go directly to Linden Lab, and therefore there is no chance that any user passwords could have been compromised.
To reiterate:
The database contained only avatar names, IPs, UUIDs, and timestamps
The data was recorded through land media in Emerald Point etc and on our registration portal.
The database and associated nodes were removed in April.
This system was specific to the sim management by our server’s owner and was not related to Emerald, Onyx, or any other project.
This system was created and maintained by a single person.
Our copy of the database has been deleted; we unfortunately have no control over the leaked copies, the data was illegally stolen and is being distributed by malicious individuals.”
Please, read this at the source here before believing sensationalised articles put about by dunderheaded buffoons.
If you build, create, purchase or wear anything that contains scripts, you need the Rescale, a single-script tool for customizing no-modify attachments and other objects through menus.
Why one script?
Because of the new scripting tools in simulator 1.38, there is now a DRASTIC REDUCTION IN RESIZE TIME!
The entire goal of Rescale is to cut down on the amount of scripts that must be worn per attachment, thus preventing lag.
For very primmy objects, for example more than 128 prims, the simple method would be to keep a script in each prim.
This means 128 or more scripts just to resize such an object, which means 2MB or more of simulator memory will be in use (A LOT for one object).
Having several such objects worn or rezzed piles on yet more memory usage.
Not only does this degrade sim performance in general, it is particularly destructive during teleports.
Teleports must transfer each script’s state to another sim, and transferring all those scripts causes a large delay in some cases.
This delay is extremely noticeable, and often painfully so.
Avatars wearing hundreds of scripts can cause a sim to hang for even as much as 10 seconds when they teleport in or out of the sim.
To avoid all of this, Rescale can replace hundreds of resize scripts by having one per whole object rather than one per prim.
In other words, there is now absolutely no reason to accept anything but the best of both worlds.
The solution is finally here — no sim lag, and no minutes-long waits for resizes.
Features
Resize a whole object
Resize a single prim on all axes at once, or in a single dimension
Move individual prims
Restore the whole object to its original state
Restore individual prims to their original state
Coordinate multiple, separate objects to resize or restore all prims simultaneously
One script
Highly reliable
Extremely sim-friendly
Free support and updates for life
You can get this in world here
and on marketplace here
Emerald is, as of today, formally accepted into the Linden Lab Third Party Viewer directory. According to Linden Lab:-
“The Third-Party Viewer Directory
To be listed in the Viewer Directory, a software developer must self-certify that it complies with Linden Lab policies. Beware of third-party viewers that are not in the Viewer Directory – they have either declined to self-certify or been refused for noncompliance with our policies”
So, use the Emerald Viewer with absolute confidence.
More info here
Modular Systems here
Download Compliant 3rd party Emerald viewer here
Some time today, according to Tizzy Teardrop:
“Linden Lab decided it would be a good idea to completely wipe everything Woodbury related from the grid this morning including our group, all of our sims, and all of our upper management.”
These are the Woodbury University sims, shown as offline. My understanding is that the group has also been disbanded and many accounts perma banned.
Further info here
Uniform issues, please direct to me
Or, all You Wanted To Know About Malicious Viewers
The Onyx Project exists to educate those people who care to know, of known malicious third party viewers that either have been, or are being used on a daily basis within the Secondlife environment. I am a firm believer in sharing knowledge – it is up to you the reader to determine what you can do with it. Please be aware that when these viewers are detected in world, the users are banned by CDS owners and often finish up with accounts terminated by Lindenlab. Please do not use this list as a reference to ‘try out’ a malicious viewer – this is not the intention of this post.
To this end, a comprehensive list has been compiled to show you the commonly used name of these viewers and their various capabilities. To quote the project developers:
Various recent events have stirred up yet another storm of misinformation and rumor about certain third party viewers; this has once again brought to light the fact that most people know little about most of the harmful viewers in circulation; the viewers that violate licensing agreements to stay closed source, the ones equipped with content theft tools and weapons designed to intentionally crash other viewers and sims, or otherwise ruin Second Life for others. These viewers generally remain private, closely guarded and shared either with close friends or for a significant fee, the reason being that exploits are quickly identified and neutralized when released in a public manner.
The result of this is that nobody can be sure of the capabilities of these viewers, information posted on blogs and forums is woefully inaccurate at the best of times, and even more often misinformation spread by those who want the public to remain in the dark. We spent a long time discussing this, and we’ve come to the conclusion that sharing the information that we’ve gathered and independently confirmed about these viewers is the right decision, as it will give people the answers they need to make informed decisions on how to protect their content.
This is why we have chosen to make public the Onyx project here at Modular Systems.
Further reading can be found at Modular Systems
or go directly to The List . I suggest you bookmark it to check back on updates.
A few days ago I wrote here about the new system developed by Gemini Cybernetics, enabling land owners, content creators, estate managers and in fact anyone, to at last acquire a reasonable method of protecting their content by detecting the use of malicious viewers.
Many will be pleased to know today of the release of an update and publication of FAQs.
First of all, the FAQs
GEMINI Industries’ CDS FAQ
“Why did I get banned for using the official LL viewer/Emerald/Imprudence/etc?”
During the first months of beta testing, avatars using flagged viewers were added to the database. Upon the GEMINI CDS’ official release, the auto-ban feature was implemented and flagged avatars found themselves banned and ejected regardless of the viewer in use at the time. While there has not been a case of a false-positive, there have been a handful of situations where an avatar was accessed by someone else (i.e. “my friends have my passordw” and “my little sister wanted to try Cryo”).
In these cases, the best course of action is to file an appeal.
Appeals will be first reviewed by the GEMINI team, acted upon in a way that best protects the effectiveness of the CDS, and ultimately left in the hands of the parcel owner.
“What are the right and wrong viewers to use?”
As a rule, any viewer that has the capabilities to go around the permissions systems set out by Linden Labs will be targeted by the GEMINI CDS.
Please refer to Linden Lab’s Policy on Third-Party Viewers.
“How does it work?”
When an avatar passes through the region, the CDS looks for signs someone is using or has used a flagged viewer. That information is processed and the avatar may be banned from the parcel, teleported home, or both. In the case of a ban, it is a temporary ban precautionary to ban lists filling up. In all cases, the flagged avatar is added to the database shared with all CDS devices identifying the avatar as a potential threat. The CDS ships with bans and kicks disabled by default. Local unbanning is an upcoming feature.
“What data are you storing?”
The specifics of the data cannot be disclosed. However, no MAC or IP addresses are stored, nor any other sensitive data. The most personal data is the avatar key and which viewer was used. This data is continuously monitored and updated.
“Does the CDS use the same methods of detection as the Emerald Viewer?”
While the Skill Hak is on the Emerald development team, the GEMINI CDS is not affiliated with Modular Systems, and the detection methods are completely different and updated as necessary.
“It works this way and here’s how to get around it.”
There are multiple methods of detection, none of which involve an avatar’s IP or MAC addesses. The effectiveness of the CDS relies on keeping the details of its operation discrete. There are occasional lapses in service whiel the Gemini team updates the system. During this time, detection continues without banning or kicking. This slows the success of potentially harmful viewers bypassing the system, allows GEMINI to monitor their progress and continue updating the methods of detection, and increases the longevity of the CDS as a copybot deterrent.
“Do we disclose any information to outside parties?”
We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety.
“The CDS is only active for 25 days and not a month as advertised.”
This is a very rare bug and has since been fixed.
“Is there a list of GEMINI CDS owners?”
The choice in advertising the presence of the CDS is left with the end-user.
“Skills Hak is also Skills Hax!!!!! Scroll to the bottom of this site here!!”
From: Skills Hak
re: Copybot allegations
“The drama is years old and I couldn’t care less which side you believe.”
you can read it yourself here
The updated version will be available on Xstreetsl in a few hours time.
***LATEST***
CDS now available here
From Lindenlab….
Today, in addition to the Viewer 2 Beta, we are announcing the launch of the Third-Party Viewer Directory and the Third Party Viewer Policy governing third-party viewers in general. Last year, we announced these efforts in blog posts on Our Content Management Road Map and Upcoming Third-Party Viewer Policy. Since then we have collected a great deal of important feedback from Residents, merchants, and third-party developers alike, all of which has helped guide our development and decisions on the new Third-Party Viewer Directory and Policy.
The goals of the policy and program are to:
* Prevent Residents’ passwords from being stolen
* Protect Residents from griefing and other harmful conduct
* Guard against intellectual property infringement
* Preserve our ability to provide you with high-quality service
* Involve the community in evaluating third-party viewers
* Create a visible repository for alternative viewers with novel and interesting applications
Read it all here
Arabella's Amblings 