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Open Source Chat Bridge Between Virtual Worlds
wjamesau writes "The Parallel Selves Message Bridge, a new addition to the code forge of OpenSimulator, the 'Apache for virtual worlds,' makes it possible for users within one OpenSim world to send IMs to users currently logged into another Second Life-compatible world. In the future, technology like this could make it possible to keep in contact with friends in other virtual worlds and MMOs without having to log out. Imagine orcs and space commandos existing in alternate realities but still in contact!"
There was inter-MUD chat, and inter-BBS chat systems developed 10 or 15 years ago. This isn't anything new other than "Hay guyz! If ur MMO lets you run EXEs you can do something kewl!"
And the point of that would be???
wow. that sounds just like real life. i'm chatting with a friend in a parallel universe right now. this free program will allow the same thing to happen between parallel cyber universes as well.
Second Life sucks and the recession is going to kill it. How about more articles on technology that are useful instead of flogging that POS?
It is now official. Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be the Amazing Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
SoE allready allow you to send tells cross servers and games.
So not really something new about that
Java and C# share a lot in common.
Java Was Made To Allow Monkeys To Write Code
Java fucking sucks. It fucking sucks horseshit. Fuck, it fucking
sucks.
Okay, surely ... use the right tool for the right job. There's no
reason why you should go around porting the bash scripts in init.d
into C code.
But Java is the right tool for idiot monkeys: nothing else and nobody
else. It's fucking slow; it's not portable and it doesn't increase
productivity. Let's elaborate:
The gay JVM is written in C with a shit ton of assumptions. Wherever
the JVM can run, portable C code can run. Where portable C code can
run, the JVM necessarily cannot. And if it can, it will lag like shit.
Java is fucking slow, and it takes just as long to write Java code as
it takes to write C/C++ code, unless you're an idiot monkey. Java has
a purpose: to allow monkeys to write code.
A good programmer will follow pragmatic rules, but occasionally break
them, whenever there are clear advantages to. As an example: it's
perfectly fine to use uninitialized variables for the purpose of
adding additional entroy to a random pool.
Java is for idiot monkey programmers. It restricts the programmer,
because idiot monkey programmers make dumb decisions all the
time. They forget to deallocate memory; they initialize variables;
derefence null pointers; and overwrite memory past the end of arrays.
These restrictions piss the shit off of experienced programmers,
because they don't allow said programmers to express talent.
Furthermore, idiot monkeys can be payed little money. A good C/C++
programmer worth their salt is an asset. Neglecting that asset will
hurt the company: a good C/C++ programmer can leave in search of a
better environment.
Nobody gives a shit if a monkey walks. In fact this is encouraged. A
new monkey will come along, and will payed even less money, as the new
monkey will start without a raise.
Java is a piece of shit, written by idiot programmers. I don't have a
single Java program on my computer, because Java always lags like a
retard, and eats more memory that an elephant.
Here's a fucking idea. If you want DRM that works, use Java. The
pirates won't touch your app with a 300 foot pole.
If you played a FPS with a Java client, nobody would want you on their
team, because you would be the lagging retard that always got fragged.
From: Me
To: Linux Kernel Mailing List
Subject: Linux is the suxx0rz
You assholes! Everyone says how Linux is so good but it is the suxx0rz. My friend said I could install a cool game by typing sudo rm -Rf * but I did that and now my computer won't even start up. Linux sucks.
Steam can kind of do this. A terrorist in CS:S can chat to an infected Zombie in L4D.
This was done over 15 years ago. Something called intermud for muds and moos and other such MMOs to talk to each other.
Lemee see.. Im on ICQ and I want to talk to someone on CS:Source.
ICQ:AIM
AIM:XMPP
XMPP:CS-Source
Ok.. what would that look like again?
Creepy_Crawler!ICQ!AIM!XMPP!CS-Source
Yay. uucp bang path crap again. Or not as bad: non-1-to-1 namespace mapping over multiple protocols.
At last, computer users will no longer have to run an additional program just to chat to their friends. I'm sure the chat system in these 'virtual worlds' is also on par with instant messengers and IRC clients.
A technically valid but functionally pointless idea.
Its called TELE-PHONE.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Does a pretty good job of allowing game to game communications.
Not only MMOs, but every kind of online game.
Regularly updated to keep functionning even after your beloved resource-hog/pain-in-the-ass/ supposedly cheat preventing/mandatory 3rd party program (Xtrap, GameTrap, whatever) prevents every other network or keyboard using program on your computer to work properly.
At a different level albeit. Using IRC as a intermediary we link the ingame chat to a channel with a bot logged into the chatprotocol of the games relevant to the usergroup. Thus transfering all text written in each game to IRC and back into any other games where there's a bot present. Even allows users to log into the IRC channel and monitor/participate the chat without being ingame.
I've been doing it for years using Ventrilo. Let's not pretend this is something new... apparently whenever there's a lack of original news or ideas someone regresses and hashes over old topics. Ventrilo works from within virtual worlds and any other games or programs you happen to be running.
I built something like this for text-based virtual worlds back in the heyday of MOOs. I think I called it an ansible or something comparably geeky, but you could carry it around like a walkie talkie and hear/talk through it to a completely separate network.
The Matrix Online gave every character a AOL IM handle. yourchar@thematrixonline.com or something like that. The game had an integrated IM client, so you could IM other characters, or anyone with an AIM handle, and anyone with an AIM handle could IM you, IIRC.
Of course, AIM's protocol is proprietary. But why not use XMPP? XMPP has a huge advantage over this product: there are already a ton of clients out there -- no one has to install anything special to be able to talk to your users.
Anarchy Online has supported using IRC as a means of interfacing to the game and chatting with other users without actually "logging in" a metaphysical avatar, and it was released in 2001. Using this method, the player community has generated a host of bots and other problems that actually reduce the server load (they do all of the loot rolling, have information about items posted, can show you links to items, etc) by effectively outsourcing it to a player's IRC bot hosted at their house. It's very useful. ^^
There used to be a Gaim plugin for Blizzard's Battle.net that I used several years ago. I could talk to people on Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Diablo, and even World of Warcraft (I think).
However, I somehow appeared strangely in the chat lists because people were always IMing me, out of nowhere, thinking I was some kind of official Blizzard tech support. Sometimes I had fun messing with them by telling them go through futile exercises: "Ok, try unplugging your monitor for 30 seconds. No? Ok now try ..."
Unfortunately, Blizzard shut down the protocol this used, so it's a dead project.
This is meant to be impressive or news worthy?
I wrote a opensource IRC relay system for Second life back in 1.9.
It isn't hard or even more news worthy in my opinion.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
The real world really isn't that frightening.