Links. Scam, or legit?

This article was published in Fusion Magazine, January 2014. Click for the magazine!

Greetings everybody! The rise in incidents of stealing accounts by spreading misleading links has made many people become so scared of links, that they refuse to click any of them. This may cause us to reject valid, beneficial links, because we systematically reject links without understanding why. This article's goal is to explain how web addresses are built, so we can understand what makes a link valid, or not.

In a nutshell, a link consists of three main parts:

Protocol://Server/Page
Protocol specifies technical details about how the information is transferred. We don't need to know the details, but at least recognize the most used ones: http and https.

After Protocol, we always find the characters :// together. What comes next, before the next / character, is the server. Then, after the following / character, what we find is the specific page within the server (which may be located under a certain folder, so we may find several / characters).

The important thing for us is to learn how the server name is built.

First: Server names are built of two or more parts. Parts are always separated by a dot . character.
Second: At a minimum, there's first a domain name, and following that, a top level domain (TLD) like com, com.es, gov, co.uk, etc.

For example:

http://secondlife.com/
The Server is secondlife.com. The domain name is secondlife. The TLD is com.

Then, there may be at least a subdomain name preceding the domain name. It will also be separated by a dot from the domain name. For example:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/
This link is the wiki subdomain within the secondlife domain, TLD being com.

Official links from SL will always have secondlife as domain, com as TLD.

Phishing links are built by creating domain names that resemble to the original names, to trick us.

Now we can understand why the following links are not valid SL links:

http://market.secondlifecom.com/
(Domain name is... secondlifecom? That's not secondlife!)

http://altervista.secondlifemarket.co.uk/
(Again, domain name is not secondlife)

http://marketplace.seconlife.com/
(Double check domain names for spelling! This one says seconlife, that's not secondlife!)

and why the following links are valid:

https://id.secondlife.com/
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/

Remember before entering any login and password data to check in your browser bar the web address. If it does not conform to the rules explained, then do not enter any data.

Stay safe. Enjoy your SL.

Surreal Complex: Dreams

There's an event starting February first called Surreal Complex. It offered three categories to choose among, and I decided to apply for "Dreams". In the word dreaming I found the idea of what to do: a photo prop per letter, each letter starting a word or short phrase, related to what dreaming means.

Work is now about 75% done. I have to complete the models of a couple of props, finish the textures, ads, and then it's all ready to go. The event will open February 1st, at the same time that the Tainted Love Hunt.

Sneak peak of the two first letters:

«Daydreaming. Paint a world of hopes, people and places where you want to be.»

«Resolve elusive problems. At times, our mind may surprise us by solving a problem within our dreams. Learn to read your own signs.»

The rest of letters, Saturday the latest :o)

Your HUDs are hiding, no matter what?

At times, when we attach a HUD, it may happen that it's out of our screen, and so it doesn't show. In these cases, something we can do is right click on the HUD in inventory, edit, and that gives us access to zoom out in the HUD area, the ability of repositioning the HUD, etc. (All viewers have the Current Outfit folder for direct access to what we're currently wearing. Then also, some third party viewers give us a Worn Items tab.)

But at times, it may happen that our HUD is within the HUD area... yet we cannot see it! What happened here?

Panic not. What happened, most likely, is having mistaken the shortcut to teleport back home, which is CTRL SHIFT H, with a newer shortcut, ALT SHIFT H, which allows to... show/hide the items on your HUD screen :-)

If you check your viewer's menu, notice that under the Me menu (official viewer; Avatar in other third party viewers), there's an option to the bottom that says... Show HUD Attachments (with the shortcut indicated next to it). If the option is ticked, the HUDs show in your screen. If it doesn't, the HUDs don't show, and that would explain why they don't show... even though you know they are there!

That's it for this mini-tip :o)
Enjoy!

Other related posts on HUDs in this blog: Creator Resource: Creating HUDs - The builder's part

"If I do, it's cool. If you do, it's wrong."

Likely, that's the very foundation of hypocrisy. Things are okay when it's us, or our closest ones, who do them. But when others do the same things (specially, others we don't like), it's like if life has suddenly lost its charm and we start singing the "it's all about me, you ruined my fun" song.

I confess, I enjoy when someone tries to rationalize this behaviour. For example, when following a trend. It's entertaining to read the list of reasons why they are right in following a trend, continuing with the list of reasons that attempts to portray as stupid sheep others that are following the same trend. It's a plus when they explain, how the fact that others following the same trend has completely ruined their experience. Mini point if they add, or imply, "and they sure have done it on purpose."

Just have fun. Perhaps you don't know it, but the world doesn't turn around your navel. Others may like having fun the same way you do, and that has absolutely nothing to do with you. Others may not even know about you when they're having fun the same way you do. Call them sheep if you wish, but remember: it's not about you.

Creator resource - When your object is a trash can, and you don't know

This tutorial is available at Creator resource - When your object is a trash can, and you don't know.

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I was sorting inventory a couple of days ago, and rezzed one of the items to see what it contained (oldies from when I was a newbie, that were still hiding). The box had hover text and, as usual, the hover text script was left inside the object (You can safely delete that script! Read here for all the information. Help reducing SL's lag provoked by scripts :-))

The script had the following code:

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        llAllowInventoryDrop(TRUE);
        llSetText("FREE eyes!!!", <1,1,1>, 1.5);
    }
}

On a picky note, it's worth noting that llSetText will ignore any value greater than one that we pass to the function as a last parameter. In less cryptic words, that means the last 1.5 isn't correct. It should be a number between 0 and 1, although typing a number outside from the range will not make the script to scream.

Anyway, the relevant is the line above llSetText: llAllowInventoryDrop(TRUE);

We don't need that line to have our prim showing floating text. But if we keep the script inside our prim, we are allowing something else: that residents have the ability of dropping assets inside the prim! Which, in practical terms, means that we've made a public trash can of sorts of our prim :-) (Here for all the technical notes on the llAllowInventoryDrop function.)

A script like that would allow you to offer a very simple mailbox (and I believe that's the origin of the "floating text" script I found), but if you only want to show floating text, as it was the case, you really don't need the other line :-) (Even more, as noted at the beginning... You don't even need the script in the prim, once the floating text shows as you want!)

So, what to do?

Easy solution: Simply, delete the script from the prim. You will see that the floating text remains, and your prim is no longer a trash can of sorts.

If you feel insecure that you may have activated any strange property that will make the prim to continue being said trash can, then copy the following text and paste it in a new script in SL, save it, and drop the script in the prim:

default
{
    state_entry()
    {
        llAllowInventoryDrop(FALSE);
        llRemoveInventory(llGetScriptName());
    }
}

You will see the script self deleting: I've included that line so you don't accidentally forget the script inside the prim. Once the script has done its job, you no longer need it inside the prim. In those cases, I make my scripts to self delete :-)

And that's it! Check the prims you have out with floating text, delete the hover text script from them, and if it makes you feel more sure, then drop the deactivate propertie + self delete script. Before deleting the hover text script, make sure it's a very simple script as the one I've shown! Do not delete more complex scripts, they may be doing other tasks you need :-)

Have a great day!