Terra Aeronautics - Virtual vehicles for the metaverse

Hoverbiking in Bay City

2008-05-10T15:45:00.005-07:00

If you haven't yet, go explore the new Bay City area in Second Life. Just west of the city of Nova Albion, the mid-twentieth century styled Bay City is Linden Lab's experiment in providing infrastructure that residents can build on. They've provided not just streets and canals, but factories, a cafe, a movie theatre, a bowling alley, and even a dilapidated "mental hospital".

The roads, incidentally, are great for vehicles. They're straight, level, and at ground level, which is ideal for hovering vehicles. Drop by the vehicle rezzing areas in Molesworth and New Port.

Buy my stuffs kthxbye

2008-05-08T07:42:00.002-07:00

Ever thought to yourself, "Gee, I wish I had an Abbotts Aerodrome tee shirt in real life"? Well, you probably haven't. But I did, and so now you can get the official Abbotts Aerodrome tee shirt at Cafe Press. I have one of these myself (though it has the older logo on it), and it's indeed a high-quality shirt that I'm happy to say covers every part of my upper body that I'd expect to be covered while I'm clothed.

Not only that, but I'm drinking coffee at this very moment out of an official Terrabucks Coffee mug. Mmm. You can really taste the plywood.

Link: Terra Aeronautics shop at Cafe Press

Prototyping the perfect hoverbike

2008-05-02T20:49:00.007-07:00

Someone approached me in Second Life the other day and was astounded that I'd been in SL since 2003. "Whoah, the oldest person I'd met until now was from 2005!" What keeps me in the metaverse year after year? In SL I can create anything I can imagine.

In the past week, for example, I've been prototyping the next-generation Terra hoverbike. This means playing ideas and themes, sculpting shapes in Wings3D, and realizing the creation in three dimensions in Second Life. From there, all I have to do is drop in one of my scripts and I have a fully functional vehicle.

This latest hoverbike is a prototype of a racing bike, destined for a racing sim. It's a first draft, to be revised and improved upon, but I'm happy with the direction it's taking.

It hovers, it's a bike, but... what to call it

2008-04-30T12:50:00.003-07:00

For the last little while, I've spent some time playing with shapes in Wings3D, a mesh sculpting tool. It's easier to learn than Blender, whose UI looks like it was vomited by a team of drunk chimps, but it's still a little tricky. Despite a few setback, the results are encouraging.

My first mostly-sculpted vehicle is this hover bike -- an early prototype now, but in time it should eventually evolve into something that I'll sell. And why would a hover bike need shock absorbers? To absorb all those hovershocks, of course.

So when I do eventually sell it, what do I call it? I already have a Terra Hoverbike and a Terra Skybike. I think I'm running out of names.

Back at work

2008-04-19T09:17:00.001-07:00

Nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, and other uncomfortable positions: I'm back in Second Life and wading through hundreds of waiting messages. If you messaged me in the last week, please be patient as I work through them all.

Run away! Run away!

2008-04-10T19:52:00.004-07:00

I've decided to run away from Second Life for a week for some R & R someplace warm -- a place where I can lie on a beach and drink things out of coconuts all day. I've settled on Winnipeg as my destination. That's tropical, right?

If you need any help with your aircraft or skydiving equipment while I'm away, just leave a detailed message by IM in Second Life. Messages are forwarded to my email, so I'll take care of them when I'm back.

Now where's my sunscreen? I hope I don't get all sunburned on those toasty Winnipeg beaches.

Clogged intertubes keep SL offline

2008-04-05T11:51:00.002-07:00

According to the official Second Life blog, a problem at their ISP has forced them to take Second Life offline "until further notice". Further notices have been posted already, but they're pretty much the same as the previous notices: SL is borked, come back later.

As US senator Ted Stevens pointed out a couple of years ago, the Internet is in fact a series of tubes. I'm no expert, but I think a really long plumber's snake would probably clear the problem right up. See, whenever someone's hair goes missing from their inventory, it just ends up clogging the tubes.

Linden Lab to roll out new physics engine this week

2008-03-30T11:45:00.016-07:00

This weekend, Linden Lab announced plans to roll out the long-awaited Havok 4 physics engine across the grid. As soon as Monday, up to 2000 regions will have their simulator code updated to include Havok 4. If all goes well, the rest of the grid should see the new physics engine by Tuesday.

The implementation of Havok 4 in Second Life is expected to vastly reduce the number of region crashes and incidents of "deep think" -- a state where the simulator is simply overloaded by physics calculations and slows to a dead crawl. It also means that most items that rely on physics, including vehicles and skydiving equipment, may or may not work correctly starting this week.

To ensure that all of my products will survive the transition, I am spending extra hours in the beta grid testing each and every product for H4 compatibility. If there's a problem, I'll update the script to adapt to the new physics engine. At Abbotts Aerodrome, you'll start to see the "H4 Tested" icon appearing next to products that I've tested and updated for use with Havok 4. If it has the icon, you can be certain that it's OK for Havok 4.

Already, I'm in the process of testing products.

[UPDATE: All products but the Abbotts Float Plane have been tested and are fine for Havok 4. Thanks to the Linden devs who ensured that the transition would be so easy.]

Skydiving

Skydiving Pod - OK
TerraSport parachutes - OK
SkySurf skyboard - OK (updated to version 3.4)
Terra E-Chute - OK
Terra Skydiving Target - OK
BubbleTargets skydiving game - OK

Hovering aircraft
All hovering aircraft are presently broken due to a buoyancy bug in Havok 4 (see bug SVC-1947). These include: CLAWW, Futura, SkyBike, Terra Taxi, and all helicopters. As soon as the Lindens fix that bug, they should work fine again.

CLAWW - OK
CTH-100, CTH-100M, CTH-200 - OK
DS3 Drop Ship - OK
Futura - OK
SkyBike - OK
Terra Taxi - OK
Magic Carpet 5 - OK

Airplanes

Abbotts Float Plane - Floats low in the water due to H4 buoyancy bug
Airco DH.2 - OK
Cormorant plane-sub - OK
Cricket tiny plane - OK
Dogfighters - OK
Kingfisher - OK
Manta - OK
Nieuport 17 - OK
Orca plane-sub - OK
Ornithopter - OK
Sparrow - OK
Stearman - OK
Starling ultralight - OK
Tachyon - OK
Tachyon M - OK
Talon - OK
Tigershark - OK

Lighter-than-air craft

Wind Rider hot air balloon - OK
Terra Airship - OK

Speed boost

Terra Z scooter - OK
Terra Speed - OK
Rocketeer pack - OK
Infinity pack - OK

Bookmark this post: I'll keep this list up-to-date as I go.

Linden Lab(tm) drops trademark bombshell

2008-03-25T10:21:00.011-07:00

On Easter Monday the Lindens announced radical new policies regarding the use of their trademarks, including the Second Life(tm) logo, company name, and product name. According to the official Second Life(tm) blog, any website that mentions or uses their trademarks (or even acronyms that refer to their trademarks) are subject to their new license agreement:

Read these guidelines if you'd like to use any of our trademarks on your website, in a URL, in advertising, in an article or book, in a film or television show, in a software product, or anywhere else. You likely need our permission. (link)

Those affected most by the revised rules are owners of websites that begin with the product's acronym, "SL"(tm) or "Second Life"(tm), like SL Universe, SL Exchange, and Second Life Herald. The new rules also affect the press, who are required to comply with the license guidelines in order to show the Second Life(tm) logo in an article:

We've given journalists and media outlets special permission to use the Second Life Eye-in-Hand Logo in published articles, blog entries, and news programs specifically about the Second Life virtual world, subject to our Guidelines and Terms and Conditions. (link)

These guidelines include a requirement to have a business presence in-world or an "association" with the product -- a requirement that would prevent the logo from appearing in casual gaming reviews or news reports about Second Life(tm) or Linden Lab(tm). From a marketing perspective, it's strange to me that the company would seek to limit references to their product in the media, or try to enforce seemingly arbitrary rules, especially at a time where the popularity of Second Life(tm) appears to be waning.

Since 2003, the company had a relaxed attitude towards use of the SL(tm) logo (see the old guidelines), in which many third-party websites established themselves using the product name or an abbreviation thereof. One such example is the low-brow rumour-mill, Second Life Herald, which not only includes the product name in their domain name and site name, but also features the Second Life(tm) eye-in-hand logo in the banner. One can only wonder: after the 90-day amnesty, will the company take retroactive legal action against these well-established websites?

Cristiano Midnight, owner of the popular user forum, "SL Universe", points out, "it seems completely arbitrary, and impacts sites that have been in existence for years and fully in compliance of naming rules, which have now suddenly changed." (link)

In the case of cubeyterra.com, I can't afford to tackle the Linden Lab(tm) legal department, so I'll do my best to comply with the new rules.

DISCLAIMER: Second Life, SL, and inSL are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. Cubeyterra.com is not affiliated with or sponsored by Linden Research. Further, cubeyterra.com hopes that Linden Research will not hurt cubeyterra.com legally, physically, or emotionally, using any means including but not limited to rabid lawyers, hit men, vicious attack penguins, or ninja assassins for any inadvertent infringement either real or perceived. Please don't hurt me, I beg you, I didn't mean to damage your trademark by mentioning you in my blog.

Build your own race track

2008-03-12T14:04:00.003-07:00

Starting today, I'm giving away the Terra Race Track Kit -- a box with everything you need to build your own vehicle race track. This kit helps you get more out of your vehicle purchase, and helps island owners create a new attraction. Hold air, land, or sea races, using any vehicle at all.

The kit includes:

A multi-lap start/finish line
Race gates
A race clock
Unscripted race course markers

Pick up the Terra Race Track Kit free at Abbotts Aerodrome. You can try out the track at 450 meters above Abbotts Aerodrome (free planes available at the start line).

Freebies for newbies: The GNUbie Store relaunches

2008-03-07T07:31:00.002-08:00

This week, Ingrid Ingersoll completed the move of the popular freebie shop, The GNUbie Store, to it's stylish new digs in Powder Mill.

Previously located in Indigo, The GNUbie store has been a repository of free items from Second Life's leading designers, including Juro Kothari, Fallingwater Cellardoor, Forseti Svarog, Jai Nomad, Barnesworth Anubis, Ingrid Ingersoll, among many others. Oh, and me too.

The concept is to provide new Second Lifers with quality free items from hand-picked designers that they can both use and even learn from should they try their hand at content creation. The walls are covered with great free examples of homes, vehicles, clothing, and gadgets. It's a popular approach, because even after relocating, the shop is already buzzing with activity.

(Link to The GNUbie Store)

Take this script and shove it (into your own submarine)

2008-02-28T11:49:00.007-08:00

You know what we don't see enough of in Second Life? Submarines. With all the water available across the grid, I'm surprised that there are so many boats, and so few subs. In a world where there are deep oceans and hidden grottos, underwater travel is an amazing way to explore.

To boost production of submarines and to promote the submarine as a pleasure craft, I'm re-releasing my Herring mini-sub with a new open-source script licensed under the Creative Commons. What this means is that you can get a Herring 2.0 free, rip out it's script, and use it in your own creation.

There are terms of use, of course, outlined by the non-legalese version of the license:

You are free:

* to Share ? to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
* to Remix ? to make derivative works

Under the following conditions:

* Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
* Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license.
* For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.
* Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder.
* Apart from the remix rights granted under this license, nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author's moral rights. (link)

It's my hope that vehicle builders will use the Herring as a starting point for new submarines, either collaboratively or competitively. It's not a perfect script by far -- I know there are flaws in it -- so it's up to you to innovate and improve on it.

You can pick up a Herring 2 at The GNUbie Store, at Stillman Bazaar, and in the underground submarine dock at Abbotts Aerodrome.

Balloonist Michio Kanda missing

2008-02-03T07:47:00.000-08:00

According to CNN.com, the US Coast Guard is searching for balloonist Michio Kanda after he failed to check in by satellite phone. Kanda was attempting a solo crossing of the Pacific by hot air balloon, and went missing off the coast of Alaska.

Read said two Coast Guard C130 Hercules planes conducted searches Thursday 435 miles south of Adak, Alaska, the balloonist's last known position. The searches continued Friday and are ongoing, Read said.

(CNN.com)

He carried supplies and survival gear, but it certainly sounds bad. Hopefully, it's just a problem with the radio.

Update (Feb. 4): On the assumption that Kanda would have ditched in the ocean, Coast Guard continues to search for his capsule.

They are using computer-aided drift simulation to estimate the current position of the capsule. Based on these computer simulations and weather observations, they are explanding tomorrow to the Northeast to encompass a larger area.

A 378 foot Coast Guard cutter is on its way - estimated arrival 7 or 8 February. They have a helicopter on board, which they will use if weather allows.

(Link: kandaupdate.wordpress.com: "Report from US Coastguard in Juneau")

Flying with a keyboard

2008-02-02T09:25:00.000-08:00

Each day, hundreds of visitors teleport to Abbotts Aerodrome to experience the thrill of being a virtual pilot. And while Second Life is not a proper flight simulator, like Microsoft FSX, Linden Lab has given us the tools to create aircraft that are both entertaining and capable of reasonably realistic flight. Part of the appeal of Second Life over FSX is that SL is a social environment: unlike FSX, you can sit your friend in the passenger seat and take them on a tour.

Flight in Second Life also has serious shortcomings -- in particular, there's the annoying absence of joystick support. This single failing has frustrated and confused many novice pilots who aren't familiar with standard keyboard controls. I hear the question, "I'm pressing 'up'... why isn't the plane going up?" surprisingly often. It might seem counter-intuitive, but there is a good reason why the keyboard controls work the way they do. Even as long ago as the early '80s, with subLOGIC's popular flight simulator for the Apple II and TRS-80 , the basic controls for keyboard flight were clearly established. These controls are still the standard a quarter century later, in FSX.

Imagine your numeric keypad as an airplane's control stick, with the stick planted in the centre on the "5" key. Left and right arrows control the aircraft's ailerons, which make the plane roll left and right. Up and down keys control the elevators, and making the plane pitch down and up. This is actually the part that many people find confusing: You push the stick forward (up arrow) to make the elevators go down, which makes the plane's nose go down; you pull the stick back (down arrow) to make the elevators go up, which makes the plane's nose go up.

So that's why pressing "up" definitely won't make your plane go up, and hence your passenger's screams of "PULL UP! PULL UP!" as you hurtle towards the end of the runway at take-off speed.

Part of the fun of flight in SL challenge of becoming a virtual pilot. Sure, it takes a little while to get used to the controls, but once you do, you'll be surprised at the precision of control achievable, even without a joystick.

Terra hot air balloon used to train real life balloonist... to speak English

2008-01-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

Edmund of Social Minds sent me a fascinating link today. Apparently the real-life balloonist, Michio Kanda, will attempt a hot air balloon crossing from Japan to North America. The catch: Kanda needs a crash course in English in order to speak to North American air traffic control.

Enter Australian Aviation English specialist Mike Smith, who uses Second Life and a Terra Wind Rider hot air balloon to teach Kanda some basic English skills.

We mocked up Kanda-san?s balloon in Second Life and built a simulation, along with the instruments that he would need to control based on instructions from the control tower: A transponder to adjust the the frequency on which he would talk to the tower, and an altimeter on which he would base the his reports to the ground.

(LINK: "Social Minds: Aviation English for a trans-Pacific balloonist").

Michio Kanda is an accomplished balloonist with a long list of impressive feats, including the world's longest balloon flight (50 hours, 38 minutes) in January 1997, according to the F�deration A�ronautique Internationale.

Update: CNN.com: Record-holding Japanese balloonist missing

You don't need runways

2008-01-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

Just like the human body, Second Life is over 60% water. Well I don't actually know the exact percentage, but there really is a lot of water in SL, and very few places to land a plane. Unless, of course, you have pontoons.

The new Terra Tachyon M. Yes! Those pontoons are sculpted prims!

As it turns out, it's no simple matter to make a float plane, which is why I hadn't tried it before and why there are so few float planes in SL already. In real life, if you bolt a couple of gigantic pontoons to almost anything, it'll float. In Second Life, it's a little more complicated -- nothing will float unless it's specifically scripted to simulate floating. SL water has no physical substance, which is why most planes seem to fly in and out of water as if it weren't there at all.

The Tachyon M gets the current water height (using the handy llWater function in LSL), and uses that to transition smoothly to a floating state during a water landing, giving all the appearances of floating on the water's surface. Taking off from the water is just as easy -- open the throttle, accelerate to take-off speed, and the Tachyon M practically leaps into the air.

Besides the floating trick, the Tachyon M is identical to its land-based twin. To test fly a Tachyon, visit the main hangar at Abbotts Aerodrome.

Should I eat this?

2008-01-07T11:25:00.000-08:00

Taking a short break from Second Life, I discovered these interesting items at a local specialty supermarket. Now... I usually avoid sketchy canned meat products -- they're often made from second rate meats from unidentified parts of the anatomy of occasionally unidentifiable animals. Canned seafood is even worse. But there's something intriguing about these "Old Fisherman" brand canned seafoods.

First, the "Roast Eel Chili". I'm going to hazard a guess that it's not a hearty Tex-Mex style chili, but chili-flavoured bits of preserved eel meat. The label notes "Shelf life: 3 years". Do I really want to risk tasting three-years-dead eel meat? The chili flavour sounds enticing, but... it's eel.

Next up, the "Squid in Soy Sauce". I don't know why, but I really like that cute little squid. I sort of expect to peel open the lid and find a few of those little guys inside. But sadly, the reality is that it's full of salty chunks of three-years-dead squid meat.

If I look closely at the "Old Fisherman" mascot, that old guy seems to be laughing and pointing. That can't be a good sign.

So... do I open these? Do I dare put these sketchy preserved seafoods in my mouth?

Tear up the track in a Terra Tachyon (this Saturday)

2007-12-19T13:57:00.000-08:00

In Wilder West, at 740m, Niki Wilder hosts an air race track, which I visited for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and was instantly hooked. You can hop into a plane and tear around the track at high-speed, bumping and dodging others as you jockey for position in the turns. Seriously, this is so addictive, that I dropped everything to return to a plane that I abandoned months ago in favour of helicopters.

My new racer, Terra Tachyon, is shaping up to be a powerful little thing. With a top speed of about 110 knots (or around 200 km/h), it can lap the course seconds faster than the competition.

Of course, speed isn't everything. And I wouldn't want to make racing easy, so I threw in a couple of twists. First, you have limited fuel. This means in an endurance race, you need to time your pit-stops carefully, or you'll find your engine sputtering out with another plane on your tail. On top of that, it has an optional damage mode, in which collisions will damage various parts of your plane. So watch your turns around the pylon -- a wing-strike will shear the wing right off. (And no, you can't fly with one wing.)

For novice pilots, or those who like to fly stunts or fly tours over SL, I added easier, optional flight models. Click a button, and the plane becomes slow and forgiving in turns.

As Socrates once said, "But wait! There's more!" Half the fun with racers is the cool paint: racing lines, checkers, and numbers. The Tachyon's paint menu lets you not only choose from five paint schemes, but also add your own. If you have a knack for Photoshop, pick up the templates from my support page, and paint your Tachyon.

It's been a blast working on this one. If all goes well, the Tachyon will be available at Abbotts Aerodrome this Saturday (Dec. 22). Bring it to Wilder West to tear up the track. See if you can beat Niki's top laptime of just under 14 seconds.

Gift-shopping FAQ

2007-12-11T06:28:00.000-08:00

It's the holiday season again in Second Life -- and as I understand it in real life too. The gift-shopping mayhem is in full-swing. Here are the top questions in my IM inbox at this time of year...

How do I give a vehicle to someone for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus?

You buy a helicopter, then find that SL won't let you send it to your friend. How do you buy no-transfer items as gifts? Easy... go to one of the SL shopping websites and have them make the delivery for you.

SL Exchange - Registration is required, but easy. To go shopping, first you can deposit Linden dollars at an ATM on Exchange Island. Then, when you find the item you want, use the Purchase As Gift button. Items are delivered to the person of your choice with a personalized message from you.
OnRez - Registration is required here too. You can deposit L$ to your OnRez account using an ATM or PayPal, then browse the catalogue. Use the Send As Gift button to make the purchase.

Why are you such a jerk, Cubey? Just change vehicle permissions to No-Copy/Transfer!

You should never ever buy a vehicle without Copy permission. Why? SL EATS VEHICLES.

Second Life's quirks (aka, "bugs") often make your items go missing. Asset failures can leave you bald when your hair vanishes, for example. Your favourite furniture might be eaten by a region crash. And region borders eat vehicles for lunch. It's true! I've lost piles vehicles that way, and where they go is a mystery. Maybe they fall through a hole in the space-time continuum and land in a secret place in a corner of the grid where Lindens play with them in their off-hours.

Do you have gift certificates?

No, for two reasons. First, there is no foolproof, secure way to issue and redeem gift certificates in Second Life. The second reason being that, with SL Exchange and OnRez, you can buy the gifts directly.

I hope these answers help you. Good luck in your gift shopping, and a Happy Festivus to all!

LL pushes flawed "age verification"

2007-12-06T07:43:00.000-08:00

On the official Second Life blog, Linden Lab announced that they have pushed their "IDV" scheme -- often referred to as "age verification" -- into a live beta-version SL client. This means that you can download the IDV version of SL and try out the verification features ("Age verification enters Grid-wide beta").

In short, Linden Lab will ask residents to pay them a fee to get "verified" status for their avatar. In the verification process, residents are asked to provide their real name, plus some ID, such as SSN, driver's license number, passport number, among others. This information is sent to a US data-mining company called Integrity (whose sister company Aristotle, sells data...hmm), who sends back a "verified" or "unverified" response.

According to Linden Lab, landowners will be able to block unverified visitors from entering their land, and will be legally responsible for preventing minors from seeing anything objectionable should any happen to sneak into their land.

Reaction is sharp and overwhelming: residents hate the scheme, which they say may be illegal and possibly untrustworthy, among other objections. Despite months since the plan was revealed, Linden Lab fails to address these legitimate objections:

In many countries, it's illegal to require someone to submit ID numbers, like SSN, SIN, driver's license, or passport to a website (or in some cases through any medium).
Many feel that this isn't information verification, but information gathering by Integrity, a data miner. I will not willingly provide my ID to a US data-miner, myself.
Of those who provide their ID data despite the legal question, the accuracy of the Integrity verification is questionable. Many are verified with incorrect information, and other are not verified with correct information. Some report that Canadian residents can't verify, even with correct information.
Many residents don't have any of the ID numbers required. If you're a UK resident, who doesn't drive and hasn't travelled outside the country, there is no way to verify -- banned from large portions of SL, perpetually suspected of being underage.
Many estate owners are faced with a conundrum: If they want to allow their tenants to possess content above kids-level fare, they will be faced with legal liability if they don't block unverified accounts. That would mean losing a great many paying tenants who are undoubtedly adult, though unable or unwilling to use the verification process. It also means estate owners are faced with giving away their ID to Integrity (if the process even works for them) or losing access to their own estate.
Finally, any kid who wants to sneak into SL can just borrow a parent's info. Even ignoring all of the above issues, the process can be thwarted by any child with half a brain.

I have to ask -- why is Linden Lab pushing to implement an identity verification system that can't possibly verify identity? All this will accomplish is to add yet another barrier to new residents and drive away existing residents.

Links:

Official Linden blog: Age verification enters grid-wide beta

SL Official website: Age verification FAQ (requires registration)

Canadians: SL/Integrity cannot verify age based on SIN or passport number

Have *any* Canadians been able to verify?

CTH-200... done!

2007-12-01T14:06:00.000-08:00

Available at Abbotts Aerodrome, SL Exchange, Shop OnRez, and anywhere that Terra Aeronautics products are sold.

Hackers exploit flaw in Apple QuickTime to rob Second Life residents

2007-12-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

If you logged into Second Life yesterday, you've seen the announcement from Linden Lab:

We were alerted a short time ago that a QuickTime exploit has been discovered which may allow an attacker to crash or exploit the Second Life viewer. The Second Life viewer uses Apple QuickTime to play videos and streaming media. This exploit affects QuickTime usage on every platform that uses it, and to date, Apple has not released a fix for the exploit.

While the Lindens are very clear that this is an exploit in QuickTime and not Second Life specifically, they were less than forthcoming about the exact details of the exploit. Mercury News fills in the details.

Charles Miller...and Dino Dai Zovi..., two experienced hackers, say they have found a vulnerability in the way Second Life protects a user?s money inside the virtual world from being stolen. It has significance because that currency, dubbed Linden dollars, can be converted into real world dollars.

According to Mercury News, QuickTime can be directed to a malicious website that "allows them to take over the Second Life avatar."

Personally, I'm not clear about how this could work. Each land parcel in Second Life has an associated video stream, so the landowner would have to add the URL to their land -- it's not something a hacker can do without the landowner's permission. I understand that malicious websites can exploit vulnerabilities in computers, but there's a big gap between planting a virus and taking complete control of the Second Life client. Assuming that this malicious code is able to do that, one can't use the Second Life client alone to plant viruses in-world, as Miller says. Many script-kiddies try that daily, and accomplish only annoyances -- replicating cubes with offensive pictures, for example. Eventually, those cubes either meet behind-the-scenes defenses and get cleaned up with no harm done -- they're hardly viruses.

This isn't the first attempt to steal Linden dollars. Previous attempts have been crude scripted objects in-world that depend on residents accidentally granting debit permissions.

To protect your Linden dollars from this hack, open Second Life and click Preferences in the login screen. From there, go to the Audio & Video tab and disable video streaming.

Next up: CTH-200, the 'copter of a thousand faces

2007-11-29T11:37:00.000-08:00

Technically, the new CTH-200 -- the third in my new CTH line of helicopters -- has aproximately 9600 possible combinations of paint colours, decals, and paint finish. Admittedly, only some of those combinations look good -- a pink and orange helicopter with a jolly roger decal is probably not an attractive choice, for example. But the point is, the script lets you browse your options to find the look that's good for you. The same helicopter can be: search-and-rescue, police, army, heli-tour and more.

It's just about at the beta testing stage, so I expect it to be finished... sometime soon, depending on how the testing goes. Maybe the weekend? Stay tuned.

CTH-100 releases at noon Wednesday!

2007-11-20T14:03:00.000-08:00

Be the first in your sim to own the first ever Terra Aeronautics helicopter: the CTH-100. Be at the Abbotts Aerodrome runway at noon Wednesday to get yours for L$1000.

Paint script lets you pick two colours and a decal.
Let anyone fly your helicopter. The lock script lets you choose who can fly: anyone, group members, or just you.
Heads-up display (HUD) attachment puts the clickable instrument panel on your screen.
Rotor damage detection means rotor strikes cause damage to your helicopter. (You can turn this off in the options menu.)
Popup options menu.
Smooth, easy flight model. If you can fly your avatar, you can fly this helicopter.
Splash and sink if you hit the water... then click a single button to recover.

Hey look! My first helicopter!

2007-11-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

Isn't it weird that after over four years of making vehicles in Second Life, this is the first time I've built a helicopter? I suppose I might have avoided them in the past because a helicopter script -- a really good helicopter script -- is hard to make. It's not enough to just hover and slide forward and back. When real helicopters fly, they pitch and bank in response to thrust vectors. That's surprisingly difficult to reproduce in Second Life.

Another reason why I've avoided helicopters: SL is swamped with the things. If I make a helicopter, it has to fly better than anything out there. Many helicopters use "mouselook steering", which means that you switch to the first person view and the helicopter points in whatever direction you point your mouse. While that's nice for combat, it looks really odd -- real helicopters can't hover in one spot while tilting 45 degrees to look at the ground. The accuracy of mouselook control is nice, but it looks really dumb.

For mine, I opt to use keyboard controls -- controls that are familiar to anyone in SL as normal avatar flight controls. Even novice pilots should be able to hop in and fly away.

I'm tentatively calling this basic model the Terra CTH-100, following the obscure model numbers preferred by real life helicopter makers. I'm happy so far with the natural feel to the flight model, and it will include all of the features that make my other aircraft popular: the ability to let any other avatar fly it, an owner/group lock, a paint menu, decal-changer, and two very comfortable seats.

Expect to see the CTH-100 in a week or so at Abbotts Aerodrome and all other Terra Aeronautics locations across SL.