thanks
just wanted to take a minute from my crazy sex,drugs n’ lsl lifestyle to extend a thank you.
First to the yahoo! pipes team for a nifty service, and for being so accessible and open when i write them about problems (props to daniel :) ).
I’d also like to extend a thank you to people who answered my call in the Babbler group the other night for people to help test out the latest version. You know who you are.
And, last but not least, i’d like to thank all the users who take the time to give me feedback, good and bad :)
-max
clogged pipes
well, seems pipes are clogged, so babbler working is spotty, at best. Naturally, this would happen during the long weekend, so who knows. I did my little canary-in-the-mineshaft (or alligator in the pipes? no,that doesn’t hold) thing and wrote to yahoo to ask if it’s just me, or pipes in general. So fingers crossed peoples!
Please don’t post comments telling me it’s broken. Although, reports of brokeness are always welcome to my SL IM, or to max.case@gmail.com. I’ll find the time eventually (ed. shurely you jest! time? ilke what, 15mins?) to put a contact form up here.
[update: 11:40AM PST Got a note that the pipes issues are fixed, so babbler works again]
babbler back
Ok. Babbler’s back on-line. be nice to it. Using curl now, so hopefully that will help deal with some problems where pipes’ hangs, which would lead all my babbler processes to back up, which caused the recent kabooms. Let me know if you have any weirdness or problems. Error reports do help.
In a cruel twist of fate (ok, maybe not) it turns out old copies of babbler(v2) were working fine throughout the outage, since I never disabled them. Just sort of figured I would let it tail off. So save those old versions! Never know when they can come in handy.
re: downtime
Sorry about all the downtime this weekend. Just to tell those who are curious whats happening (or i suspect is happening) in the last few days. It seems that pipes is still having some speed issues, which causes the bridge to hang, which piles up, which cause the boom, in non-tech speak. Or course, this is just what I think is happening, Working on doing things a different way, which will hopefully allow it to work a bit, But in the meantime, its down. Sorry.
Babbler Japanese/Chinese update
Thanks for your patience. Japanese and Chinese are now working properly. 1000 Apologies for the delay. Once I narrowed down the problem, it was stupidly simple. doh. (naturally the translation might still not make sense, but it won't be babbler mangling the reply). No update is needed on your end.
This picture is taken on PacRim on the teen grid, so don't bother following the slurl to this spot - won't work. I'm out here installing th babbler for them to use for their project, which involves japanese / na student mixing. You can read more on their site.
An Open Comment on an Open Letter
There’s this open letter to LL making the rounds.
I share the sentiments - just the other day i wanted to smash my keyboard due to the frustration [scroll down a few posts] - LL needs to be more transparent with details of what’s going on, and what’s being done to fix it.
I disagree with a lot of the implications of the letter though: Does anyone really think LL isn’t aware or working on those issues?
Most people in-world have never experienced ghosting. When I joined, it was an ongoing problem. For a good while. Eventually, it got resolved.
I think all of the problems in that letter will go the way of ghosting.
It totally blows that things like friends & notices have busted. Building is an insanely frustrating experience at times. We know though these aren’t permanent features but temporary problems.
And here’s the But™.
But™ I knew getting into SL, and trying to develop there, that it was going to be like this. This is the risk of being tied to this ship.
I don’t get where people had any expectations of it not being like that. Things were going to change. New things come, some things break. I’ve been bit by change in SL before, i expect to be bit by them again.
This is the cost of early adoption - and that’s what this is - make no mistake. The letter implies that phase is over, but i think that’s just because of the echo chamber effect. A buncha oldbies talking to each other. No one knows what platform will become the standard for the sort of experience SL is now uniquely providing. Maybe it will be SL, maybe not.
At the moment, SL is suffering from what some are calling a bubble. Seems more like fear to me. No one wants to miss the boat, the way a lot of companies did when the ‘net came around, while others are having dreams of riches generated by the gross misperception that money is just growing on trees on the grid.
Obviously, I have no special insight into what goes on inside LL. It seems though a general consensus in software development that just throwing more people at a problem doesn’t necessarily fix it any faster, and can often do the opposite. Maybe they need more expertise, but its an open secret that LL has recruiting issues. And the whole she-bag it certainly isn’t made easier by operating on a moving patient.
The simple fact is there’s nothing like SL at the moment, and that shit breaking is just the cost of business. Otherwise, you can always go over There. I hear Laguna Beach is nice this time of year.
[update] cory’s blog post.
attachment issues
I’ve been getting reports of people having trouble attaching babbler. I haven’t changed anything, so the problem is really SL. I would aplogize, but it’s nothing i’ve done :) When you can’t attach a babbler, please file a bug report. It’s under the tools menu.
[update] relogging resolves the issue.
You may have noticed a bandwidth exceeded msg last night. apologies to anyone trying to use the site or any of my services. end of month combined with spike in traffic from ite, mixed in with babbler traffic spike. :) resolved. thanks mr. f.
My ITE Babbler Booth
Just released Babbler3 into the wild, which combines babbler & de-babbler into one unit. There’s now some simple usage videos. I’ll work on making better ones.
The picture is of my booth at the ITE. Come drop by over the weekend. [update] there’s some people’s choice vote there. So, if you a fan of the Babbler, come vote for it! :D
Babbler3 BETA
On my way to bed, but thought I would share this.
Been working on Babbler3 - Nothing ground breaking, just combining Babbler & De-Babbler into one device, some housecleaning. IT STILL NEEDS POLISHING, but it all works. I think the controls are obvious enough for exprienced Babbler users. Please give me any feedback regarding the new layout. To get a copy, just join my Babbler Group, and there is a Notice with the new Beta attached.
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