Socially|Mundane

If someone is murdered, which did the murdering: the gun that shot the bullet, or the person pulling the trigger?

A gun is just a tool. A means to an end. The fact is if someone is intent on the end and one means is removed, for example the gun, they will find another means to that same end. Thus, in this context the gun is no more dangerous than a steak-knife, a hammer or even a fist-size rock.

Fortunately, Linden Lab always errs on the side of caution. Yes, even an "under-age" abuse report causing an immediate ban is erring on the side of caution. Granted, there should be some kind of "flag" in the system that once the accused verifies themselves, all subsequent 'under-age' A.R.'s are automatically moot and tossed aside. Hopefully Linden Lab will get to working on a feature such as this. But I digress.

I am going to tell you a tale of two... er, tales. However, the two thus will merge into the point that the Neillife viewer can be detected on the grid (albeit in an inconvenient and rather sloppy way that still leaves some doubt.) I discovered this through a rather frustrating process, accidentally - and through continuing tests, is an accurate method of "detection".

However, speaking to one of the development team for the GreenLife Emerald viewer proper early this morning, I now have an understanding of why this happens and how the Neillife viewer is being "detected", thus it is an unfortunately trivial effort to "fix" the viewer.

Also please note: most of this is written before I spoke with the member of the Emerald developer team (early this morning) and so I want to be clear: because I now know the Emerald viewer proper does include the creator tools I speak-of in the Neallife viewer, (but wasn't aware because I'm on an older version,) there is no reason or purpose for using the Neillife viewer except for thieving. Most of this post is written before I was made aware of the newer Emerald features.

It gives me pause as to whether I should make my findings public or not, as the author of the Neillife viewer will know instantly what to change to cause this 'detection' to fail. But I've decided it is better to simply tell-all because the benefit to you, dear reader at large is the greater and better of the consequence, even if only temporary.



I won't force you to read my entire diatribe (some would think I'm that evil, but I am in a good mood with news that Emerald proper will be all I need, so here is the answer): Place any physics-based vehicle... sailboat, motorcycle, car, whatever and try to drive it. If it refuses to budge and just won't go, it is extremely likely someone on your simulator is using, (not necessarily abusing,) the Neillife viewer. I explain how I found this below.

The problem, I fear, is that you might instantly accuse someone of abusing the abilities of the Neil viewer to steal content from you or others when they may not be doing that at all. I know, I know: that viewer is eeeeveeeellll. Well, not really. The human being using it might be evil. But they also could be someone like myself who simply enjoys the abilities of this viewer as it relates to the ease and reliability of backing-up my own creations to my own computer for safe-keeping and archiving.

But I'm one of the honest ones (and too much to risk by being dishonest as well.) Unfortunately the viewer makes it far too easy to steal other content right off other avatars - literally the shirt off your back. This is enough to turn most honest people dishonest if even only for a fleeting moment. That is why this viewer should not get mass distribution - but it will become distributed - it's just way too easy to find. Until development stops and the grid technology changes enough to break it, it always will be here. So get used to it.

Added: I won't redact the above because it adds context to the rest of my story and my own mindset when I wrote it. But I will say that the 'need' for Neillife as I describe it as a creator's tool is now moot as I was just this morning enlightened about the current version of Emerald proper. Thus, there is no "need" for Neillife whatsoever by any ethical person. When inquiring about these creator tools being implemented into Emerald, I am told it's already there. /me groans... (face-palms himself.) Please keep this paragraph in mind as you read-on.

Part one: I have recently downloaded every 'alternate' grid viewer I could find for the purpose of finding the "better viewer" as it relates to performance-to-features ratio and posted my findings previously (I won't bother to link as it's mostly out-of-date by now.) This includes Kirsten's, Greenlife Emerald, Cool Viewer, Meerkat, and a bunch of others, including those from Linden Lab. I have more than a half-dozen grid viewers on my system and I haven't bothered "uninstalling" them. I decide to cruise the grid alternating between Snowglobe and the GreenLife Emerald for the last couple months.

Now with the current hysterical paranoia spreading through the SLogosphere like a plague about the "new copybot viewers', I decided (after yawning and rolling my eyes) to research these for the purpose of blog-fodder.

Among those I have played with is the Neillife viewer and I must admit the "tools" to "rip" content are a stunning Godsend with regard to being a creator and being able to easily and conveniently backup my own creations - all of them to my local hard disk and also reliably restore them to the grid when desired or needed (I have problems getting Meerkat to restore reliably). Yes, I said stunning.

Added: reminder that as of this morning I am now enlightened that the current version of Emerald proper has this - so Neillife will be chucked as soon as I get home. Yes. Really. Not worth the risk of some false abuse report if I were to accidentally fire it up. Accidentally? Yes, please indulge me here.

Thus, knowing that Linden Lab does not drop the hammer on people based on the software they are using, but rather on the activity they are engaging in, I decided to also leave it on my hard disk drive with the intent to spend a few hours one weekend backing-up all my stuff. However, as an all-time-use viewer, it has some quirks that annoy me and the performance isn't what I have become accustomed to with Snowglobe and Emerald proper.

Why am I referring to GreenLife Emerald as "proper"?

When I first downloaded the Neil viewer and fired it up, there was something wrong. The desktop shortcut I created kept opening the Emerald viewer instead. So I went directly to the .EXE file and still the Emerald viewer came-up. I whacked that folder from my computer and re-downloaded. But the same thing kept happening. I finally decided screw-it and logged into the grid.

After sim-hopping for a half-hour or so whatever wasn't right was really bothering me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Then it hit me: there is an additional menu in the menu-bar called Neillife...something. Then the epiphany and light-bulbs went-off like camera flash units.

I was actually using the Neillife viewer, but in every single way it was the Emerald viewer, except for the one extra menu. It's a 'hacked' version of the Emerald proper.

I won't go into detail, but needless to say after experimenting on my (Group-manager bot) alt account, I have discovered what this thing is capable of. As a creator with regard to my own creations: I was stunned and thrilled at the same time. However, in a moral and ethical sense - (20-years in the military can do that to you) - I also was taken aback at how this thing can so easily be abused to steal content.

Since I am so well established in SL, lots of real money invested, a highly successful business and respected as a creator (even if not on a personal level - LOL) - I decided this is great tool but should only be used when the tools are desired. It's way too much risk to go around using this thing all the time, no matter how much Linden Lab errs on the "safe side". So thus I tucked it away and went back to my alternating use of Snowglobe and Emerald proper.

Shifting gears now...

Three years on the grid has rubbed the shininess of it down to a dull drab. I am not one for poseball-bumping and "clubs" just don't do it for me as I keep music streams and voice turned-off because I don't want to waste the bandwidth. So I run around to role-playing sims which offer a bit more variety in activities.

Tried the fantasy thing - you know: medieval with fae and dragons and goblins and all that...shiny wore down eventually. Did the Gorean thing off-and-on and most recently for a full continuous year. But again, drama of it has worn me down. The Kingdom-of-Sand sim is exciting, but it's all World-of-Warcraft-like. Role-play is practically non-existent, though you simply must visit the sim for the build alone: it is awe-striking.(Adult-rated SLURL)

The grid goes dim and dull for me. First life becomes busier and I find I am spending less and less time in-world. I might even just fade-away quietly and no one would be the wiser. (I mention this so you know why I have become complacent in keeping my viewers up-to-date - SL has become seriously ho-hum for me - so no reason to update viewers every month.)

Then I discover a newer role-play sim called the "Barbary Coast - Port of Korat" (yes, that Barbary Coast, as in real world history - hence: seriously adult-themes if you choose to check-it-out (Adult-rated SLURL), and if you are inclined to "Kingdom-of-Sand meets Gor" - it's a must-visit.)



Something interesting for me again, so I sign-up to be a pirate. Yes, one of those pirates, as in 16th to 17th century historical earth pirate. I do some shopping to gear-up. You know, the whole cliche pirate outfit and accoutrements, but, I also need a pirate ship. One I can actually drive around. yes, I know: "landlubber, it's called sail about". I've known SL sailing is among the most popular activities on the grid, but I have never done it myself.

The grid is exciting for me again!

I go shopping for a pirate ship and find awesome builds from TSS (have a look here at XSL) created by Martina Lewsey . These are beautiful builds and I have a hard time deciding on which ship or boat to go with! (The captain of the Lady Washington told me she is a "boat" for having only two masts and tall-ships must have three or more to be considered a "ship" - there's some useless information for you.)

Picture: the Lady Washington, an historical tall-boat based in Washington State that is a kick-ass ride.

So I eagerly un-box my new TSS Shebec boat (two masts, woot!) and plop her into the nearest Linden sea. Raise them sails and brace myself for an exciting new SL experience. And... away we go!

Away!

...Go...

GO, dammit!

The damned thing won't budge.

I double-check all the notecards, reread everything, do the trouble-shooting, blah, blah. Those goddamned Lindens went and changed the simulator server code and broke something, dammit!

So I send an offline IM to Martina.

Martina is gracious, kind and incredibly accommodating, teleports me to her and we spend a couple hours trouble-shooting. This time is involves her rezzing her own copies of different ships, even a land trike - the vehicles aren't working. Nothing is moving. We sim-hop to other places on the grid. All broken. Other sailing buddies of Martina's show-up to help-out... they aren't moving either. Linden Lab must have done something big to beak all these vehicle scripts. Ships and vehicles from other creators are tried - all broken.

I am in SL three years. I'm patient. I can wait until the problem is solved, no big deal. Martina and friends continue as I logout to first life work. Then there's an offline from Martina - which was peculiar. She said that after I left and they continued to trouble-shoot... everything started working again.

This is what I call a "whoa!" moment.

I was quickly able to reason that my viewer was causing the problem. But when did Emerald ever start doing this? How bizarre is this? Well, I haven't sailed before - so I guess sailing will have to be done in Snowglobe. But it still doesn't make sense. What about everyone else who sails?

I get home, check my system... the mess of viewers scattered on my hard disk, all the shortcuts (aliases) on the desktop... then it hit me: there are two icons that look identical: the GreenLife Emerald proper and the Neillife.

I fire-up the Emerald proper and plunk my boat into the water... and she is quickly under way and I am enjoying it with a serious sh*t-eating grin. Yes, SL is exciting again!

So I force myself to stop sailing, fire-up the Neillife and plop another pirate boat, weigh anchor and raise sails and... plonk. Turns out I was in the Neillife viewer during all the hullabaloo and didn't even realize it.

I confirm that the Neillife viewer "breaks" the sim's physical vehicle attributes in the Havok engine as it pertains to vehicle movement scripts - everything else works fine.

I have continued discussions with Martina (wonderfully sweet lady, by the way - go buy all her stuff, right now,) and asked her if she could find a way to convert or adapt her sailboat scripts into some kind of "detector" that would indicate when this was happening, thus indicate if someone on the sim is using this viewer.

She believes she could, but (we both agree) it is such a simple "fix" to the viewer that as soon as the author gets wind of this, it will likely be "corrected". Even so, most who use it might be like me: complacent in maintaining the latest updates, thus continuing to use the older version that will cause this issue.

Unfortunately it might be kind of an inconvenience to "check" for this on your sim.

But if you drop a physics-based vehicle and it doesn't budge when you try to drive it: chances are ridiculously high that someone on the sim is using the Neillife viewer. It doesn't mean they are abusing it per-se, but they are using it.

So, if you are one of those paranoid types and get overly suspicious as you watch people on your sim like a hawk while they meander about, drop your tricycle and try going for a spin. If the squeaky wheels turn regardless if you can pull 'wheelies' or not, the coast is all clear.

Otherwise, hit the eject-all, ban-hammer switch, restart the sim and run quickly to your medicine cabinet to get a double-dose of that Pepto-Bismol stuff.

How long will this "test" keep working? Probably not long as I'm sure the Neillife author will "fix" his viewer. But for now, for today, it's a little something you can count-on.

And as a footnote, I (along with all ethical people) utterly cheer Linden Lab on for their sting-operation regarding confirmed abusers of the Neillife viewer!

art: Pytnik; Deby Dixon