June 13, 2007

Top 5 Ways to Develop LSL Scripts for Second Life

Filed under: Ideas, Musings, Projects — Benjamin Chodroff @ 11:03 am

So you have registered with Second Life and read some tutorials on Linden Scripting (I recommend the “Tutorial” and “Kan-ed: Using Linden Script Language” to start with). Now, you need to get the tools of the trade to get your LSL code going! There is a lengthy list of possible LSL editors, but here are my top choices.

5. Notepad

Trusted and proven reliable, many a great Second Life script has been jotted down or at least temporarily saved in this application. Second Life scripts are saved in objects which reside on Linden Lab’s servers - so when the internet connection goes away, so does your development. Having your scripts backed up in a text file is highly recommended in case the object gets deleted, is lost, or floats away!

4. Second Life Editor

It’s built in and there’s no extra downloads required. Simply go to a sandbox, right click on the region, select “Create”, and put an Object in. Then, go into the object’s contents and add a script. The built in compiler can be somewhat slow for large scripts, but doing these steps is inevitable for creating objects in Second Life. The obvious downside is when you have a large script that needs lots of testing, these steps become very time consuming. On the plus side, the code is kept safely on SL’s servers and by using groups you can allow multiple people to work on the code. However, there is no revision control or undo - so beware!

3. lslint

When used alone, this handy tool is one of the quickest ways of checking if an LSL script is syntactically correct. It simply checks variables and functions for validity and can even warn you if defined variables are not being used in the script. However, this program is console based only and therefore is quite limited in ease of use. On the plus side, it is incredibly tiny, allows you to work offline, and integrates quite nicely into other tools, such as Eclipse, with no modification. Of course, you will ultimately have to copy your LSL code into the Second Life Editor for testing and integration.

2. Byronstar-SL - Eclipse LSL Plugin

Eclipse is just a beautiful IDE tool and having an LSL plugin is quite a nice addition. Not only can you work on LSL scripts, but with additional Eclipse plugins, you can synchronize your Trac wiki, upload your scripts to an SVN using Subclipse, and develop Java, PHP, C++, <your favorite code here> too all in one nice package. The downsides are Eclipse isn’t for the light of heart - it is a professional tool for developers and the learning curve is the steepest among all the tools. It can be integrated with lslint to give very detailed errors in the code. The downside is it still doesn’t allow you to test code at all beyond syntax errors. However, if you plan on working on a team of cross-platform LSL developers and need a nice IDE that integrates well with a central code version repository, Eclipse is a great solution.

1. LSL-Editor

What a great application. Not only does it allow you to test your script for syntax errors while offline, it actually emulates Second Life and allows you to *run* your code. This includes llHTTPRequest and many other advanced functions, dialog boxes, and more! It has a very nice GUI interface for editing code complete with highlighting tips and IntelliSense-like functionality. The downsides are that this is a .NET application and if you’re running Linux, you might be out of luck (might run in WINE - not sure). Also, it lacks the integration that Eclipse provides, but honestly, it more than makes up for this loss with its advanced features. You’ll love the ability to both check and test your code.

Know a tool that has revolutionized your Second Life scripting that isn’t mentioned here? Please let me know!

May 5, 2007

Hidden Process Download for Windows (Cyber Cafe)

Filed under: Hacks, Ideas, Musings, Travel — Benjamin Chodroff @ 12:03 am

Suppose you’re in a foreign land and the only internet you have is a cyber cafe that considers 5 kb/sec as “broadband”. Obviously, downloading your 600 MB CD Image file is going to take you longer than a good sitting, so you need a plan. To further complicate the problem, these computers have no cd burner - but you’re lucky enough to have a single USB port and a memory stick.

Tools:

  • wget for Windows - a unix http/ftp download utility ported to windows
  • quiet - a freeware command line tool that spawns a process into the background (does not show up in taskbar - only processes)
  • file splitter
  • computer with Windows 95 or above, usb port, internet
  • a USB memory stick

Once you have all these tools, you’re ready to start.

In my case, I placed all these tools in a single directory in c:\windows called “quiet”. I then created a shortcut on the desktop (right click, new shortcut). For the command line, i set it as:

C:\WINDOWS\Quiet\Quiet.exe C:\WINDOWS\Quiet\wget.exe -c http://www.website.com/DOWNLOADTHIS.ISO

The “-c” argument for wget tells it to continue. This is important in case the computer is restarted, it will resume the download. I then placed the shortcut in the Windows program files startup folder in case the computer is restarted, logged off, etc.
Of course, this trick might not work for you if they really have the computer locked down.

Return back after a few hours, use the file splitter utility to split the downloaded file into chunks to copy onto the memory stick and copy to a laptop. Piece the files back together, and enjoy :)

Simple, but quite handy.

December 10, 2006

20 Days Without a PC

Filed under: Ideas, Job, Life, Musings, School, Travel — Benjamin Chodroff @ 9:17 pm

After reading an article about a PC World writer who goes without a PC for twenty days, I was inspired to try it out for myself. The question is…how?

Unlike the writer, I am not doing this for a good story but rather for my own benefit. I spend countless hours in front of a computer. In fact, I would be willing to estimate that I spend well over a third of the time I’m awake using a computer. Yes, it really is that bad. Ask my girlfriend about my email addiction. I respond to emails in *seconds*. I have every aspect of my life connected to the slickest Web 2.0 gizmos and open-source gadgets and spend each waking moment contemplating the latest computer news story or beta testing the newest product or…. Is this really what life’s all about?

This holiday break I am going to Costa Rica with my family. I think this would be the perfect opportunity to unplug. Granted, it is somewhat of a cop-out period to do this experiment since I will be on vacation. You have to start somewhere. I might be thousands of miles away from home, but I’d find a way to get my computer fix.

I am trying to think of everything this experiment will impact. No more DVD’s on my media center. I’ll have to contact my advisor via phone about my non-existant progress on my masters project. Eek - that’s going to be a sore subject. I’ll miss many important emails from work regarding the plans for my trip to India. However, I think I can do this.

My last final is on December 20th. I leave for Costa Rica on the 31st and will be gone for a week or so. Classes start back up on January 16th. If I stop using the computer December 20th at midnight, I can (hold on - let me check Google Calendar)….start using computers again on January 9th at midnight. Perfect! That gives me just under a week to catch up before classes start. No sweat! I will try to keep a written journal of my daily thoughts during this time.
The only problem I’m anticipating will be uploading pictures I take during my vacation. I think it’s fair to allow my father or someone else to do this for me so I can continue taking pictures.

December 21st is just around the corner and I have to start exporting my life to analog ASAP. I announced my plans to my roommate and he said, “You’re not going to last.” With that said, let the games begin!

December 9, 2006

Forbes Ranks Cleveland as the 24th most wired city in US

Filed under: Ideas, Life, Musings — Benjamin Chodroff @ 7:11 pm

It is no surprise to me that Cleveland only ranked the 24th most wired city in the US according to Forbes.

Having lived outside the digital haven of Case Western Reserve University last semester, I realized the prohibitive cost of purchasing broadband internet. We’re talking $35+ a month for your basic run of the mill broadband internet connection. Wireless hotspots? Not unless you hack your neighbor’s WEP key. Wasn’t ClevelandOne supposed to solve all these problems. Why is providing high speed internet going so slowly in the US? A better question is…why was there absolutely no competition for providing such a service? My only option was Adelphia unless I wanted to purchase a phone line just to get DSL. Adelphia’s speed was mediocre at best and their customer service was poor in my opinion. How much do I, the consumer, think is fair for a speedy broadband connection? $20 a month.

Mail me all the equipment, email only technical support, and a customer website with a community forum and I’ll be happy. Oh, and could I *PLEASE* get an upload speed greater than 20 kb/sec? Perhaps 200 kb/sec and no restrictions on outbound ports? I’d pay up to $25 a month for that service.

Problems with Hauppauge PVR-500MCE with Windows Media Center Edition 2005

Filed under: Ideas, Life, Musings, Projects — Benjamin Chodroff @ 6:37 pm

I have spent the better part of this last month wrestling with technical support and a slew of forums trying to get my Hauppauge PVR-500MCE tv tuner to work in Windows Media Center 2005.

At first, the card that I purchased from NewEgg had experienced poor reception quality in the lower chanels (mostly 2-8). I noticed this problem while running the card using MythTV (using ivtv 0.7 and knoppmyth). I assumed this must be a problem with ivtv’s support for the card under linux, and decided to see what I was missing by switching over to Windows MCE 2005. The card was designed for the Windows operating system, so how hard could it be to install it?

Very, very, very hard.

First of all, hauppauge’s support page is very confusing. It provides you with a download for some zip file which contains all the drivers for Media Center - but then they have a whole slew of other drivers and beta drivers and….which one is the correct one? Who knows?!

To make a very long story short, I ended up getting the card to work in Windows XP, but not in Windows Media Center. I was able to run the TV in WinTV 2000 and the lower number channels were *still* very fuzzy and would sometimes even go into black and white. Horrible. In Windows Media Center, I was unable to event tune into the channels.

I had Hauppauge replace the card. They commented, “This card [the PVR-500MCE] would be great if it ever worked.” Apparently, I am not the only one who has experienced problems with this card. Simply google the card and be amazed at how many people have problems with it.

After two weeks, I received my brand spanking new Hauppauge PVR-500MCE card in the mail. I popped in the card and got it to work in WinTV2005, but Media Center reported:

“the tuner hardware is either malfunctioning or not installed. please ensure that both the tuner hardware and a valid tuner hardware driver are installed.”

I played it safe - I reinstalled Windows XP Media Center 2005, including rollup2. Still, the same problem. I took out all the PCI cards from the computer except the card, and changed the cards position. Still, the same error.

Now, this is clearly a Windows XP Media Center problem - because the card works beautifully in WinTV 2000. However, I blame both Hauppauge and Microsoft for such a horrible experience. I am going back to Linux (SUSE + MythTV), but I am not happy.

Older Posts »
Copyright 2008, Benjamin Chodroff.
Site design by Flique Creative, Cleveland, OH