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Jul 15, 2000, 4:49pm

The latest AW newsletter has the following article:
DON'T CRACK!
Get the real story on using cracked versions of the AW Browser.
http://www.activeworlds.com/newsletter/0700/070016.html

Although I fully agree with the spirit of the article as far as viruses
etc are concerned, I fully disagree with the contents. AW has neglected
to provide a trans-universe browser, thereby fractalising its own
potential community and earnings. Many attempts to change the code of
the aw browser are aimed at correcting this behaviour. There is still
no way one can use ONE aw browser to surf the multitude of aw based
software (not to mention that you can't even interact or load the
rendering machine from a web page). The fact aw based worlds are only
reacheable by downloading the 1.5 MB files, plus that this action will
only work for one universe, handicaps the whole system... You will
never be able to organise a multi-system, multi-universe event unless
you tamper with aw's shortcomings: that is what most of the efforts to
modify the aw browser have been aiming at. Instead of publishing such
an article, it might have been much better if aw would have tried to
solve (it's not at all difficult to do so, MUCH simpler that trying to
push the rendering engine) their universality complexes. AW is worth a
lot to users, and promises a bunch... but it still seems to be
contemplating its own navel :(

Jul 16, 2000, 3:41am

LOL, kinda ironic. Seeing the fact that so many people have to crack the
browser to enjoy themselves kinda gives AW a clue that what AW has to offer
is no good.

[View Quote]

Jul 16, 2000, 2:17pm

Roland tries very hard to implement features in new releases of AW. In fact, I find him to be the one that that actually interacts
with the community the most out of all of the AWCI members.

Anyway, if people need to crack the browser to do something, then I'm sure AWCI (or at least Roland) would want to implement it.
This way, people wouldn't need to crack the browser at all.

-Agent1



[View Quote]

Jul 19, 2000, 2:15am

Hi Agent1,

I am not blaming Roland at all for this. Roland works for AWCI for his money, and does his best. He is not the policy maker, nor
does he have the final say on priorities, as far as I know. Who does, I don't know, and I frankly don't care. But many people have a
lot of hopes and illusions set on AW, it is by far the best system around. I have been around long enough to see that many many
oportunities are being missed because of small and not so small negligences. If AW wants to 'break through', they should try to make
their system more available and user friendly. RW 3.0 may be great, and I am full of awe at the effort being done, but it does not
favour in any way AW in the short run: it requires restricting software and hardware, by which I mean, AW's potential user base will
get smaller, not larger.

Do you imagine new people and organisations trying to use AW, for instance for educational purposes, or commercial ones. How do you
explain to them: you need to download our very special browser... oh no, not fronm a web page, OUR browser... go delete your
cache...download our other browser (AW and Eduverse belong to AWCI, they can't communicate)... no we can't teleport you
cross-universe, no cross-universe features... well no, no interaction between your WWW browser and AW unless it is the imbedded
browser... no streaming audio nor video, no support for new technologies... oh sorry, only wav and midi... please don't have your
bots query the universe server for citizen numbers, sorry we can't provide them automatically, no not even the acting citizen number -
no, no inmediate identification... All these things may seem trivial, but you can not explain them to outsiders who inquire about how
to use this system, and you can not implemaent very basic commodities required by potential users :(

The focus still seems to be: THE Active Wordls universe, THE Active Worlds browser. The bot SDK, a wonderful acquisition, still
thinks, looks, acts the browser way. In fact, we have in the bot SDK a sub-set of the browser SDK... as if that was the limit to what
should or could be achieved. It all depends on the policy making department, not on the programming department.

Alex :(

[View Quote] > Roland tries very hard to implement features in new releases of AW. In fact, I find him to be the one that that actually interacts
> with the community the most out of all of the AWCI members.
>
> Anyway, if people need to crack the browser to do something, then I'm sure AWCI (or at least Roland) would want to implement it.
> This way, people wouldn't need to crack the browser at all.
>
> -Agent1
>
[View Quote]

Jul 19, 2000, 2:15am

Hi Agent1,

I am not blaming Roland at all for this. Roland works for AWCI for his money, and does his best. He is not the policy maker, nor
does he have the final say on priorities, as far as I know. Who does, I don't know, and I frankly don't care. But many people have a
lot of hopes and illusions set on AW, it is by far the best system around. I have been around long enough to see that many many
oportunities are being missed because of small and not so small negligences. If AW wants to 'break through', they should try to make
their system more available and user friendly. RW 3.0 may be great, and I am full of awe at the effort being done, but it does not
favour in any way AW in the short run: it requires restricting software and hardware, by which I mean, AW's potential user base will
get smaller, not larger.

Do you imagine new people and organisations trying to use AW, for instance for educational purposes, or commercial ones. How do you
explain to them: you need to download our very special browser... oh no, not fronm a web page, OUR browser... go delete your
cache...download our other browser (AW and Eduverse belong to AWCI, they can't communicate)... no we can't teleport you
cross-universe, no cross-universe features... well no, no interaction between your WWW browser and AW unless it is the imbedded
browser... no streaming audio nor video, no support for new technologies... oh sorry, only wav and midi... please don't have your
bots query the universe server for citizen numbers, sorry we can't provide them automatically, no not even the acting citizen number -
no, no inmediate identification... All these things may seem trivial, but you can not explain them to outsiders who inquire about how
to use this system, and you can not implemaent very basic commodities required by potential users :(

The focus still seems to be: THE Active Wordls universe, THE Active Worlds browser. The bot SDK, a wonderful acquisition, still
thinks, looks, acts the browser way. In fact, we have in the bot SDK a sub-set of the browser SDK... as if that was the limit to what
should or could be achieved. It all depends on the policy making department, not on the programming department.

Alex :(

[View Quote] > Roland tries very hard to implement features in new releases of AW. In fact, I find him to be the one that that actually interacts
> with the community the most out of all of the AWCI members.
>
> Anyway, if people need to crack the browser to do something, then I'm sure AWCI (or at least Roland) would want to implement it.
> This way, people wouldn't need to crack the browser at all.
>
> -Agent1
>
[View Quote]

Jul 19, 2000, 2:14pm

oh my :) I was simply replying to:
LOL, kinda ironic. Seeing the fact that so many people have to crack the
browser to enjoy themselves kinda gives AW a clue that what AW has to offer
is no good.

I agree that inter-universe teleport and communication are good things, and I would love to see them implemented along with the
mile-long (I'm sure) list of features everyone is pushing Roland to include. Hopefully, Roland will be able to hire one (or better,
two) more programmer(s) and we'll be able to have things done just that little bit faster.

-Agent1


[View Quote]

Jul 19, 2000, 6:30pm

Here's a suggestion if you want to visit universes other than AW and
not hack an exe file. You just edit the aworld.ini file. It's a
nuisance but effective. Just edit or add the [universe] section and
use a semicolon in front of those universes you DON'T want to visit.
Here's an example:


[universe]
host=www.ultra-worlds.com
;host=193.186.168.183
;host=www.vectorscape.com
;host=www.seeray.com
;host=www.vmenta.com

As set, this ini file will take you to the Ameriworld Universe
(www.ultra-worlds.com). To go to AW, put a semicolon in front of every
host entry. Be sure to make a backup copy of the ini file and
contacts.txt before editing... just in case. Also, since the contacts
list refers to cit #s, they might be a little different in each
universe.

Happy universe hopping.

Wendel

On 15 Jul 2000 14:49:45 -0400, "Alex Grigny de Castro (XelaG)"
[View Quote] >The latest AW newsletter has the following article:
>DON'T CRACK!
>Get the real story on using cracked versions of the AW Browser.
>http://www.activeworlds.com/newsletter/0700/070016.html
>
>Although I fully agree with the spirit of the article as far as viruses
>etc are concerned, I fully disagree with the contents. AW has neglected
>to provide a trans-universe browser, thereby fractalising its own
>potential community and earnings. Many attempts to change the code of
>the aw browser are aimed at correcting this behaviour. There is still
>no way one can use ONE aw browser to surf the multitude of aw based
>software (not to mention that you can't even interact or load the
>rendering machine from a web page). The fact aw based worlds are only
>reacheable by downloading the 1.5 MB files, plus that this action will
>only work for one universe, handicaps the whole system... You will
>never be able to organise a multi-system, multi-universe event unless
>you tamper with aw's shortcomings: that is what most of the efforts to
>modify the aw browser have been aiming at. Instead of publishing such
>an article, it might have been much better if aw would have tried to
>solve (it's not at all difficult to do so, MUCH simpler that trying to
>push the rendering engine) their universality complexes. AW is worth a
>lot to users, and promises a bunch... but it still seems to be
>contemplating its own navel :(
>
>
>
>

Jul 20, 2000, 2:32pm

Gads, wouldn't it be easier to simply put each browser into its own folder,
then put a shortcut on the desktop and rename it to whatever the universe is
for that browser? Yes, it would take more diskspace, but, at least then it
would simply be click and run.
It works for me.

Just my .02

Terry

[View Quote] > Here's a suggestion if you want to visit universes other than AW and
> not hack an exe file. You just edit the aworld.ini file. It's a
> nuisance but effective. Just edit or add the [universe] section and
> use a semicolon in front of those universes you DON'T want to visit.
> Here's an example:
>
> [universe]
> host=www.ultra-worlds.com
> ;host=193.186.168.183
> ;host=www.vectorscape.com
> ;host=www.seeray.com
> ;host=www.vmenta.com
>
> As set, this ini file will take you to the Ameriworld Universe
> (www.ultra-worlds.com). To go to AW, put a semicolon in front of every
> host entry. Be sure to make a backup copy of the ini file and
> contacts.txt before editing... just in case. Also, since the contacts
> list refers to cit #s, they might be a little different in each
> universe.
>
> Happy universe hopping.
>
> Wendel
>
> On 15 Jul 2000 14:49:45 -0400, "Alex Grigny de Castro (XelaG)"
[View Quote]

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