[sldev] Re: Texture bugs

Mathew Frank mathew at lifeart.net.au
Tue Jan 23 14:53:28 PST 2007


Argent,
I've combined your emails fro my reply.
> BTW: Your idea for changing the texture based on the results of sensor 
> scans is RATHER clever.
>
> http://example.com/webbug.jpg?Argent%20Stonecutter=12345-etc&Mathew%20Frank=FEEDFACE-etc... 
>
>
> This would have the additional advantage (or disadvantage) of 
> preventing caching on the client from keeping the bug from loading.
Yes it would.   Though I am thinking of thing besides logging actual 
visitors - such as providing a dynamic window on another sim for a 
teleporter (though I admit that is the most frivolous - you could 
definitely use it to plugin external processing power to the sim with 
minimum cost to the sim itself.  As long as the URI was changed in each 
case you wanted to refresh the 'screen'
>> things around other SL clients or something - a bit like TOR.   Or just
>> allow users to run proxys themselves - they would be able to given that
>> this would be standard HTTP traffic.
> If it is a big problem then a way around it I guess would be to proxy
>
> This wouldn't help, unless the proxy was changed for each alt. And 
> it's really too much to expect the user to do.

I wasn't neccesarily thinking it had to be done by the user themselves.  
I would expect though that HTTP traffic would be setup to respect local 
HTTP proxy details as setup on the local machine, in which case if the 
person is using a huge list of proxys and cycling through them (for 
privacy concerns in browsing the web) SL would use it with no extra 
config on the part of the user.

TOR itself would be out of the question becuase it is so s-l-o-w (for 
those that don't know every request routes through a different proxy, 
which restults in Google being supplied in random languages for example 
because of the different coutries running TOR proxies)

If there was a large number of people using the same proxy address then 
I don't see that the avatar could be tracked down in a meaninful way.  
If it was requried to keep each alt Avatar completely separate then you 
could change general proxy on AV change.

*TOR/skype like (in general - not in specific) proxy system in SL clients.*
There already has been a lot of talk - and some feature requests I think 
on the wiki jobs page - of putting P2P features in SL, complete with P2P 
file transfers and the like.

When http texture is requested (and privacy mode is on) what will happen 
is a random SL client will be chosen.  This random client will download 
the texture and send it across to the requesting client.  (the connecion 
to the initiating client would be in a P2P protocol and not http of course)

If you are using privacy mode, you are opting into proxying http calls 
(ie being the random SL client that gets the texture),  Selection of 
clients to use as a proxy would be based on:

    * geographic location?  ( I mention this because that was a one of
      the requested features before - getting data from a guy in the
      same ISP to save money)
    * idle or not - ie when user is away they can proxy more traffic and
      not notice
    * available bandwidth


*community or lindens based*
Another idea would be either a community run or Linden run set of squid 
proxys for logged in SL clients only, possibly with a user-pays system.  
The collective bandwidth costs per person would be negligible.  In fact 
this may spring up anyway with the rolling out of HTTP based external 
textures.

> Yes, I've already had to calm down one person in SL freaking out about 
> media bugs (see my previous message about content creators). There's a 
> huge difference between using media bugs and texture bugs for this 
> purpose, and that is you have to be a landowner to use media bugs, you 
> can't change them quickly, and they're only useful for people who 
> actually visit your property. With texture bugs you could put one in 
> an almost invisible part of an attachment behind a 1% alpha texture 
> overlay and change it every few seconds, and collect information 
> everywhere you go.

This is something I was going to suggest, actually - restricting the 
dynamic textures to land owner only.  This would reduce SL to being like 
the web - the current website can extract a heap of information about 
you if they choose, and often do - but not people like DoubleClick. 

Textures in HUDs would be different of course, given they are only seen 
by the person viewing the HUD, and that is by direct choice of the HUD user.

One thing I am thinking is that it is easy to over complicate all this 
if are not careful - which in itself can actually reduce overal security.

Cheers,
Mathew
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