Telegram

There are many many things I want to say, and not that much time. My mental list of "things to blog", each promising an huge post, makes me think that maybe -- just maybe -- most of those blog posts are never going to be written. So, for now, I'm writing you a little telegram, telling only some things, and quickly.

The first, and obvious, is to tell you I'm going to marry soon. That's right: we knew we would going to do it for a long time, but it was only while celebrating her birthday that I did the actual move of asking her. As my friendfeed followers noticed, or her blog readers, she said "Yes". I'm really happy, but there are lots of things to do now: people still don't get married over the Internet, at least in Portugal ;-) Thanks a lot to those who gave us "congratulations" messages, I know I didn't replied to most of you... bear with me.

After a quick talk on Friendfeed between me and Melo, he decided to write Rasputine. Rasputine (or Ras, as Corto Maltese called him) is a generic Moo/MUD/Talker-to-XMPP gateway. You add a buddy to your roster and then you can use it to connect to that world. That means that now, a couple of days later, you can use Jabber to connect to several services, including Selva (add selva@rasputine.simplicidade.org, Second Life (via SLTalker, add sltalker@rasputine.simplicidade.org), Portugal Virtual (add pv@rasputine.simplicidade.org) or MOOsaico (add moosaico@rasputine.simplicidade.org). This also means that I'm now feeling back the urge to make SLTalker a lot more useful (and less buggy) than it is at the moment. It is being completely rewritten, using now libsecondlife 0.5.0.

I'm returning to have a good reading rhythm. So, I've been reading Cory Doctorow's books (he's also now freshly married, congratulations!), finaly got into the mood of getting and reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon (you know when you know that you will read and like a book, and you're so certain of it that you just keep postponing it? I've been doing that with this book for years...), Satrapi's Embroideries, some more SciFi, some Fantasy, some Manga, some essays... Well, a lot of stuff, but still not as much as I wanted to. Regarding to Cory's books, I have a funny thing to tell: despite all his books being freely available to download on his website, with a Creative Commons license, I've been buying and reading them in the physical book format (and reading a lot of his not-in-books essays in my mobile phone). Well, with "Overclocked" I stumbled into a problem: the book had 16 pages missing!. Frustrating, huh? Well, not that much: thanks to Creative Commons, I just picked up my cellphone and in less than two minutes I was reading what was supposed to be in those 16 pages. See one more case on which Creative Commons is a good idea? ;-)

Oh, speaking of Creative Commons: to celebrate their fund-raising campaign, Creative Commons has released "A Shared Culture", a cool short video by renowned filmmaker Jesse Dylan, explaining very well why Creative Commons is important. Since it is in English, without translations, and I wanted to write about Creative Commons in one of my twice-a-week column at "Programas Livres", a Portuguese web publication, I ended up doing a free translation and adaptation, in both text and audio formats.

And... well, I told you, I have lot's of stuff to talk about, but for now, this is it. If you want to keep more updated than this, consider following my Friendfeed.

Connecting to SLTalker via SSL

I've missed the opportunity to see Wong Kar Wai's latest movie this evening, so instead, I kept the ride of "coding for talkers" from this morning, when I made a Twitter reader for Selva, and decided to finaly implement SSL for SLTalker. For those that do not know, SLTalker is a personal project of mine of implementing a talker-like interface for Second Life.

So, how to connect via telnet over SSL? Easy: the host is portugal-virtual.org and the port is 123. If you're in GNU/Linux or any *nix-like environment you can try

telnet -z ssl portugal-virtual.org 123

If you get an error saying that the -z option isn't available is because you don't have netkit's telnet-ssl package installed. Another option (bad choice in terms of usability, but this one works also on Windows) is to use OpenSSL and try:

openssl s_client -host portugal-virtual.org -port 123

Now, if you want a decent client, I recommend you to try out the popular TinyFugue (best known as tf), that already has SSL support in it's 5.0 version (still in beta). This is the only alternative I know to OpenSSL for Windows.

If you try this and have some feedback. please leave a comment. And yes, I know you're waiting for new features, bugs fixed and more usability: I'm working on that, but I'm yet far from ready to a new (and quite different) release. Bare with me...

About SLTalker

For those wondering why there's no signs of evolution on SLTalker [1], basicly I intend to make it extremely flexible and modular, and for that purpose I reached into the conclusion yesterday that SLTalker must be rewritten - more news about that soon.

BTW, if you know IronPython and you're interested in helping me out, drop me a line. I'm studying the chance of using it, 'cause coding in C# just pisses me off.

[1] - http://noori.abismo.org/sltalker

SLTalker is out now!

One thing I've decided to this weekend was that I wouldn't have "dead times", so everytime when the presentations were not that interesting, or if I thought I could listen to it and do something at the same time I was with my laptop managing some stuff or coding on SLTalker, my project that aimed to create a talker interface for Second Life. When I realized that there were so many talks to be done that there would be no time to do the Hack Hour activity I was hoping to see there, and since, unfortunately, the rooms where presentations were given were really hot, I also skipped some presentations, giving me the time to finish SLTalker's "first release", meaning that nowadays you can actually connect into SLTalker.

So, that's it - enjoy, and remember you can allways chat with me there (.tell Noori Foss hi there!), and please report any bug that you find.

Next step, besides fixing SLTalker bugs, is trying to close these bugs on Debian, which will greatly help me to enhance SLTalker.

Oh, and please go easy on the server, SLTalker uses lots of resources and the server where I'm running this is quite slow for the job... Of course you can allways offer me a better place to host SLTalker, but I would need to have root access to it and it must be a Debian box, so I don't really think that there's someone willing to provide me a better host than this one :-)

SLTalker - bug tracking system

Hi there,

This quick post is just to tell you that SLTalker already have a bugs page, so, as you can imagine, the release is going to be soon. BTW, the BTS I'm using is 16bugs, which is a preety nice service for those that just want a simple bug tracking system without the fuss of having to host one.

What to expect from SLTalker

Some people started to ask me about what should they expect from SLTalker's first public release. Here are some hints:

• SLTalker will release soon. Soon means that it will have lot's of bugs, and few functionality: both implemented stuff needs to get better and there's a lot left to implement. Soon also means that I want to get this thing done because I'm lacking time in the next couple of weeks, and that I'm going to stop coding so much on it in the next month or so.


• SLTalker is a talker, but it might not seem like one. This means that if you're willing to try out SLTalker, maybe you should start by knowing your way in a regular talker. If you're Portuguese I recommend Selva, if you're nor I recommend EUTS. You might even end up realizing that talkers are funnier then Second Life O;-)


• SLTalker is a service, which means that, while I intend to Open Source the client (and I know you're willing to fiddle with it to create your money-making bots, right?), the first "public release" is not going to be a "code release" but a "service release". You'll be able to log on into Second Life by telnet'ing a server somewhere.


• SLTalker needs some care, you know? There are four urgent things to do with it that I only expect to do after the release:
  
  • nowadays if you get a teleport request you automagicly accept it
  
  
  • If you .tell something to someone who's not online, the message is going to be queued for delivery, but you'll think that the avatar is online and read your message
  
  
  • I have some urgent interface changes to make
  
  
• SLTalker is beta, so I take no responsability for what happens to your stuff. I'm going to take off for now all "dangerous commands" to stop you from giving away all your possessions of giving away your money while using SLTalker, but you'll never now


• SLTalker is not secure, since that you have to trust me your credentials (I'm not logging them, really, but I could...) and for now the only log in interface is going to be via telnet (unencrypted)


• SLTalker needs you to test and leave your comments. I really hope you'll enjoy it.


• SLTalker is lacking functionality, and I might talk a little about what will you be able to do with it even before the release, but yet keep in mind that you'll be able to chat with others, but I doubt that you'll manage to have avatars sex with it :-P

Lately, on Second Life

Second Life is so hyped that it's no surprise to know that everyday someone is writting about it. But lately some nice writting appeared about it, so here's a small round of links for those interested in the matter. Freelance Samurai started playing with Second Life only recently, and three days after his first experience he was addicted. In his article he explains what is that he finds interesting in Second Life, in a "games perspective", considereing Second Life (or, I assume, these kinds of virtual worlds) a next-gen gaming experience. The article is not only interesting, but raised some nice comments, including one that reminded me that I need to write more about "centralized vs. de-centralized virtual worlds":

That's what's so cool about the 'net, and maybe before that BBSs - because it's here, and it makes sense TODAY. SL does not - it's controlled by a single company (if the 'net was like that, we'd have thousands of little 'internets' and would be stuck with paying tolls between them). It's not open, so security fears are a must. It?s too plastic! 'Cool, I'm doing the Travolta with my awesome textured suit and'*CRAP* my mouse's batteries are dead. shit, did I buy new ones?

While I don't think that this is the sollution, seems that the virtual worlds industry is starting talking more about intercommunications between virtual worlds, which will help solving these issues. OK, it's nothing like the web, but it might end being a usefull enough communication system between VW's as Fidonet was to BBS's: HiPiHi is aiming to establish "3D virtual world standards", which, I hope, can be combined to the old news from Linden Labs wanting to open their grid... While some people are starting to understand the potential in Virtual Worlds, and using Second Life in the propper way to achieve that, like helping deaf people or doing simple interfaces that can be used, for instance, by blind people, others just don't understand the concept behind virtual worlds, even if there are companies aiming to help you create a virtual shop, since the real issue here is that, as Paula said,

If you want to sell your product in SL, the best way to do it is to create a community around your product. Because SL is about communities, not about buildings.

Of course that others might be successful: for instance Thinkgeek has a virtual store in SL, and while I stopped buying from them IRL (issues with customs), I might end spending some linden dollars with virtual clothing from their store. Let me give you more examples: new forms of education are appearing there, aiming for a nieche market, but aiming directly for avatars, and succeeding. On the other hand, WWF didn't know how to play their game, while others succeded in getting environment consiousness in VW's.

Finaly Branding in Second Life matters, and don't forget to check out Second Life Insider if you want regular news about Second Life.

SLTalker website

I finally decided to create a quick site for SLTalker, so fell free to check it out. For those not knowing SLTalker is a project of mine that aims to create a talker-like interface for Second Life. The development itself is going quite well actually, if you take into consideration that I've been wildly busy, with the new home and all. Until now only two persons saw it in action, and there's quite a few things to do until I can think into turning the whole thing (2.2M gzip'ed code ATM, but most is junk) into a talker. Before that you might read a rand on how much I have C#.

SLTalker - FAQ

SLTalker is a new personal project of mine. This blog post is my way of presenting it to the world, in the form of a FAQ. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

What is SLTalker?

"SLTalker" stands for "Second Life talker", and is a Second Life client that aims to give you the same interface and user experience as the one you have in a Talker.

What is a Talker?

A talker is one kind of MUD. You can try to know a more complete definition by reading what Wikipedia says about it, but I guess that the best way to know is simply visiting one. If you're a Portuguese speaker, I recommend Selva; if you prefer an english-speaking Talker you might want to try Enchantement Under the Sea.

What is SLTalker for?

SLTalker is basicly for those that want to go into Second Life but that, for any reason, prefer a text interface. Usual reasons for it are the fact that talkers are considered "work-safe", "blind-friendly", quicker interactivity, among others. My personal reasons as of why I prefer this kind of interfaces were written countless times here and there, but I guess that by reading my blog you will find a hand full of them.

Why are you doing this?

Because this is something I'll use. Because I know others that will also use it. And more.

Hey, I'm doing the same as you (or something simillar)!

Great! Please leave a comment in this blog post telling me about it!

Can I help you?

Sure. Please leave a comment and we'll talk about it.

What does that mean to you other related projects?

Well, I've talked about several things that might be considered "related projects".

Tints aims to be a talker protocol, but it's yet being developed, and in a phase where I can only contribute with ideas and thoughts, but not with code. I'm still on the mailing list, and waiting for the first release of code, but until then there's nothing more that I can do for it, I'm afraid. When it is in a state where I can help more, I intend to do it, and, by then, I'll probably rephrase this paragraph. Anyway, both concepts (that of TINTS and SLTalker) aren't really clashing - as a matter of fact I think that they can both be used toguether.

GNUnet-chat is another thing I've talked about a couple of times. I aim to do a talker based in the GNUnet network, but for that to happen, the next release of GNUnet have to be out there. GNUnet-chat will probably have, by then, much more attention by me than this project, since with GNUnet I can build the Virtual World I allways wanted to see, and I'm not even very keen of Second Life. But, until then, I wasn't really helping GNUnet until now, so it won't loose nothing with this, just probably win (since I think I'll learn a couple of things with this project)... Also, don't worry, I won't ditch this project to embrace fully GNUnet-chat without making myself sure that this project isn't going to die.

What about VOS? I've had the idea to do exactly this, but for VOS instead of for Second Life. I still believe that VOS is a much better project and will enable the creation of much better virtual worlds than Second Life. Yet, VOS is still in heavy development, so it's better to postpone the talker interface for VOS for one year or so, and until then I'm getting lot's of usefull experience for that specific project.

I'm not willing to let Mamnuts die, but unfortunately I don't have the patience to maintain it as once upon a time I had. If you're willing to help me out with Mamnuts, that's great. I'm looking for a developer to that particular project, and if you make me feel like you're taking Mamnuts to the direction I want to (a less buggy, more stable and more secure Mamnuts) I'll gladly give you the project.

Finaly, PyTalker, the project that will surely suffer. PyTalker isn't really in a usable state at the moment, even if I know of at least three talkers using it as a talker base. 0.1.* had good and awfull things, 0.2.* had good and awfull things, and the next version planned is 0.3.0, which I started some months ago, completely rewriting the damn thing, and using the good stuff from 0.1 (basicly the modularity and the sessions handling) and from 0.2 (characters handling, database). I've been stuck with some issues regarding external libraries, but I've fixed that today. But there's still a lot of code to be written before I can release 0.3, and I don't think I'll be into the mood of doing it until there isn't a more or less stable version og SLTalker. Sorry.

Where can I try SLTalker?

Hold down your horses mate, you still can't, so it's not about where but when. Yesterday I made my "0.0.0" version (a backup tarball basicly), that already works. With it, I was able to log in, teleport, peek my inventory, talk, shout and use Instant Messanging. For each one of those operations I hade to hand-write XML - not fun. Also, the experience didn't work as good as it should - IM'ing, for instance, broke what I said into several messages, some of them with whitespaces only. This basicly means that, while I'm on the right track, there's an awfull lot to do until there's something you can peek into. When it is, I'll set it up as a talker (with telnet and telnet-ssl interface, as an usual talker), and I'll let you know.

Will it be Open Source?

In the right time, yes. First, I have to write a working version. Then, going publicly about it, I'll surely stumble upon lot's of bugs and issues, stuff that needs to be fixed until I can call it a "proper version". Then, I'll have to clean it up, package it, find the right license for it, and yes - by that time it will be Open Source.

Where can I find more about it?

Now? Nowhere, really. I expect to create a website for SLTalker soon, where you can keep track of its development, and more. Until then, keep reading this blog and I'll keep you updated.