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Habitat Chronicles
Cyberspace. Virtual communities. Online games. Distributed systems.
Opinion, history, advice, and silliness from two guys who've been building this stuff for a long, long time.
In 1985 we began work on what would become one of the world's first multi-person graphical virtual worlds, and arguably the first of what are now awkwardly called "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games" (MMORPGs). Thus began a series of adventures in technology, business, and the online world which continue to this day. This site is where we tell our story: the things we learned, the mistakes we made, the people we met, a tale of human brilliance and folly and things you would never have imagined.
About Chip Morningstar
About Randy Farmer
Collected History
The Lessons of Lucasfilm's Habitat
How to Deconstruct Almost Anything
MDC 2004: Habitat Redux
1994: Cyberspace Protocol Requirements
A Walk Through Durham Township
City Comforts
Eric Drexler
John Massengale
Ron Gilbert — Grumpy Gamer
Worthy Things
Douglas Crockford's Wrrrld Wide Web
Metacrap
The E Programming Language
Habitat Chronicles search
Random Lunacy
Second Life History: The Jessie Massacre
Or: The first deployment of user-created WMDs in a 3D virtual world
As told by the perpetrator, Oracle Omega
My first impression of Second Life was formed when it was still under development, when Phillip came to visit Chip and me at our third little startup: State Software. Technically, it was pretty amazing. They'd finally created an extensible, programmable world with physics built right in. On the social side the model was that everyone would live and build on one of a few large continents. We cautioned that this would be fraught with peril. Even before the first beta testers arrived, they'd been warned that their biggest problems were going to be property encroachment, bad neighbors, and script-griefing. Alpha World had demonstrated that many of the neighborhoods would be something between garbage dumps, billboard farms, and smutty slums next to some amazingly creative and wonderful stuff. Much of the predicted chaos happened during beta, but the full force wasn't felt until broader release, especially when anyone could join instantly and for free.
I happened to be unemployed during late alpha and early beta, and had been so intrigued by Second Life that I decided to run some experiments, pushing the limits of what how I thought future users would abuse the system, specifically property rights and scripting capabilities. As I've written elsewhere, regular beta testers normally don't push the limits as much as we'd like them to because they fear losing their status as testers by being ejected.
Having co-created several of the progenitors of this type of system, I knew where to look for cracks. I had no fear of being ejected for taking the servers down. On the contrary, it was an explicit goal. Better now, during testing, than later with paying customers.
Probably the most legendary of my experiments was the Invisible Teleporting Grenade of Death. Nothing special compared to the offensive and defensive objects in Second Life today, but it caused quite a stir during beta because it was the first known deployment of a user-created Weapon of Mass Destruction in a 3D virtual world.
Note: This wasn't the first programmable world I'd done massive damage to: Years earlier, after a certain Wizard on LambdaMOO decided to show-off and summon all the food in his world to our room for a food-fight, I was inspired to write a script that would summon all instances of any class into the room with me. I tried on it Class:Paper, and it worked perfectly , first try. It was at that moment I realized I had no way to put the paper back where it belonged! I quickly wrote a script that stuffed the paper into the pockets of their owners and reported this flaw to another Wizard. She was not happy.
During the Second Life beta test, its initial culture was starting to emerge. In my experience, worlds like this one attract early adopters of a somewhat democratic-libertarian bent – "Lets just all get along" and "Leave Real Life rules behind" often reflect the mentality of the most vocal users. But, something unusual happened this time – another virtualworld, called World War II Online, was failing and its 1940's role-playing refugees migrated to Second Life, en masse. Since it provided for personal combat (hit points), death (teleport you home), and you could build just about anything, including weapons, it seemed like an ideal fit. Quickly they'd built up WWII cultural and military items, including Nazi uniforms, gear and propaganda, including flags and posters with Swastikas and the like. Eventually they took over the only remaining full-combat enabled simulator [patch of land], named Jessie, and made it their home.
A WWIIOL emplacement in Jessie
This ticked off many members of the existing community, who detested all of the pro-Nazi imagery. The WWII online-ers said they just wanted to be left alone to play their war games. Both sides were sniping at each other, both literally and with virtual weapons. Eventually there was a huge wall constructed separating Jessie from its neighbors. It didn't help.
I'd built and run too many worlds and had seen this kind of thing end badly so many times that I just stayed out of it. Honestly, this was the kind of thing I'd warned about from the beginning and I just wanted to see what would happen.
Until the day I'd completed my latest experiment.
I'd been working with the object spawning directives in the scripting language. I'd also discovered that I could make an object very small (less than an inch in diameter), and very transparent (virtually invisible). It struck on me that I could make a weapon of mass destruction and do it very cheaply. It worked like this: a tiny invisible floating grenade that would explode into dozens of invisible tiny fragments flying outward spherically at maximum velocity and doing maximum damage and then immediately teleport itself to another random location in the simulator. It would be undetectable, unstoppable, and lethal: The perfect killing machine. It could only be stopped by me shouting the keyword: STOP!
Small-scale tests on my land were successful. It fired up to 100 rounds per minute. But, where could I test this at full scale? There was only one answer – Jessie – the only Sim with an active population and the fatality flag on. As a special guest beta tester I had 30 minutes early access to the servers, so I dropped six of these little gems in Jessie just before opening time, they wouldn't have a chance to catch me. Back then, each object spawn cost $L10, so my balance indicator started fluctuating wildly as the invisible fragments spawn, flew, and eventually hit something or someone.
I flew to the simulators with the most users and tried to chat naturally, but it was difficult, knowing the chaos that was going on in Jessie when people arrived: Log in, poke around awhile then seem to randomly die, get teleported home, which is also in Jessie, wait a short moment, repeat!
After about a half hour, people around me were starting to say "Wow! Someone is slaughtering those WWII guys in Jessie!" "That place is in a panic!" "That guy's my hero!" "Lets go see!" The grenades were working. Besides making my point about the scripting language, I'd created one of the first legendary events of the world. That was exciting.
But, only then did I realize I'd chosen sides in a fight that I didn't really care about. I wasn't really sure what to do at that moment, when I got an Instant Message from one of the Lindens: "Did you release an auto cannon in Jessie?" I had to be a smartass and answer: "No. I released six. I'll go and deactivate them now."
I flew to the edge of Jessie and shouted the keyword. My balance meter stopped jumping around and stabilized, the attack was over. It had been well over an hour since opening, and I was certain that I had the highest kill rate in Second Life history. But now I had a problem. I had no way to extract them (and I wasn't about to enter Jessie at that moment anyway – I was certainly Kill On Sight at that point, assuming they knew the name of the bomber.
It turned out that my grenades were too small and invisible. Though they were now inert I couldn't find them to remove them. In effect, they were a dormant virus in Jessie. So, I filed a bug report: "Unable to select small, invisible objects." The in next day or two there was a patch to the client to "show transparency" so that it would be possible for me to see them, select them, and delete them – which I promptly did. But the legend remains.
In the end, very little was done to mitigate the design of WMDs like mine, and I was told that to "fix" the problem would put serious limits on the creativity of future users. So be it. But, given the history of the service since then, with so many sim-failures based on malicious and accidental infinite spawning scripts, I'm not so sure that ignoring this problem was the best choice. I hope it is not too late.
History | Posted by Randy at 3:55 PM | You can comment. Trackbacks are closed.
this is the best story ever.
Posted by: peeweejd | May 28, 2007, 6:28 am
funny how you can create stuff but never really follow through on a way to end or uncreate .. typical lazy programmer bs. if this is one of your biggest accomplishments i feel sorry for you.
Posted by: hongos | May 28, 2007, 7:04 am
I think it's a great story, and as a beta tester, the idea of doing some Test-to-Destruction was something expected of you.
It's a shame they didn't have a better way to deal with what you 'discovered'. I suppose somebody might then make countermeasures, perhaps something to attack or zero the momentum on invisible objects travelling over a certain velocity, and below a minimum size.
Could be interesting to see what people do, knowing (in theory) how your attack was done.
Posted by: Daniloth | May 28, 2007, 9:38 am
I wonder if it's possible to make exploding head spray cans? ;)
NONOBADKITTY!
Posted by: NONOBADKITTY! | May 28, 2007, 1:30 pm
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A golden yellow in colour that is deceptive given the wines relative youth. The nose is melon and stone fruit dominant with nougat and flint aromas giving it an extra dimension.
The wine is mouth filling on entry with an array of stonefruits that are accentuated by mineral acidity and supporting citrus that comes through on the mid to back palate.
The finish shows nectarine and touch of butterscotch, with additional bottle derived complexity expected with short to medium term cellaring.


U.S. Department of Energy officials are just now spilling a big secret: They shipped weapons-grade plutonium from South Carolina to Nevada months ago—over the state's strong protests and in the middle of legal wrangling over that very issue.
Plutonium is extremely toxic and can be used in making nuclear weapons, so most states aren't interested in storing it. Turns out that the U.S. government trucked in half a metric ton of the radioactive material to a site near Las Vegas before Nevada asked a court to block the plutonium move last November.
Department of Energy lawyers are releasing classified information about the shipment now because enough time has passed to protect national security. But they won't say when the plutonium made the cross-country trip.
"They lied to the state of Nevada, misled a federal court, and jeopardized the safety of Nevada's families and environment," Sisolak says.
The newly elected governor is exploring options for the plutonium that has already arrived and is working with Nevada's congress to fight back against the U.S. government's "reckless disregard" for the safety of Nevadans. The state is also seeking another court order to block any more shipments of plutonium.
Nevada lawyers argue that the Energy Department failed to fully study the possible dangers of moving the material. They add that the state's lands and groundwater may already be contaminated with radioactive materials.
U.S. government lawyers insist that no more shipments of weapons-grade plutonium are planned from South Carolina to Nevada.
But lawyers for Nevada say an emergency ban is more critical than ever after the Energy Department misled them. They say the government has created the distinct feeling that more shipments are headed to Nevada.
Plutonium is extremely dangerous. If any of it had shifted it could have caused a chain explosion. I understand why Nevada didn't want it to be moved. Also, Why did government moved it in the first place? And to a dry desert state like Nevada?
That was really stupid. They could of killed thousand of people! Our government in not supposed to work like that.
Sorry I meant " Thousands".
I would assume that they did it in Nevada because a large portion of Nevada is federal land, so they can basically do what they want.
I think they made a bad decision in moving the Plutonium without telling anybody.


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Filed under Decision Theory, Multilevel Modeling.
Pele wins. On to the semifinals!
Meryl Streep advances; it's down to the quarterfinals!
As Manuel put it, as Stephen Hawking might put it: It's duets with Pierce Brosnan all the way down.


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We can't let big beverage contaminate Victoria's container deposit scheme
As the last mainland state in Australia to introduce a container deposit scheme (CDS), Victoria has an opportunity to make a real difference. The state's future CDS could be the most efficient, effective and ethical in the country — but only if it is designed right.
Now, the state government is deciding who should run the scheme and has opened a public consultation on the matter. In response, Boomerang Alliance launched the Recycle right Victoria campaign this month to stop big beverage companies Coca-Cola and Lion Diary & Drinks taking control of Victoria's CDS.
Design is key to an effective CDS
We know from experience that container deposit schemes can reduce container litter, increase recycling rates, create business opportunities and jobs, and encourage community fundraising. But crucial for any CDS to successfully meet these objectives is its design. How the scheme is run, and who the key decision makers are, has a major impact on how convenient, efficient and ethical it will be.
The problem with Coke and Lion
Our assessment clearly suggest that the states where Coca-Cola and Lion Dairy & Drinks have a major influence they have failed to meet critical consumer access needs, creating schemes with significant flaws, which will harm environmental and community objectives[1],[2].
Both companies campaigned against the introduction of a CDS in Victoria. They used heavy duty tactics to lobby the government, developing misleading adverts, taking legal action, commissioning questionable studies and even threatening politicians at election time.
In every state, beverage producers are responsible for paying refund and handling costs in the CDS. Our research in WA and Qld shows where they have control, beverage companies limit their costs and protect their profits by making returns less convenient for consumers.
Queensland has less than half the number of refund points New South Wales has, and the state's refund points are open three times less than those in New South Wales. WA is the least accessible scheme in the nation.
As Heidi Tait, CEO of the Tangaroa Blue Foundation and Queenslander commented, "the QLD container deposit scheme has not taken into account the absolute critical need for it to be convenient for the consumer to use. Consumers are being left financially impacted by paying more for their beverages and not being able to easily redeem their refund".
Our Recycle right Victoria campaign is advocating for similar model in NSW to be implemented in Victoria - a split-responsibility CDS whereby governance is shared between industry and community representatives, and recycling and environmental experts. After much research the government announced a 'preferred'' model in its public discussion paper – they supported our position.
The last hurdle
But the battle is not over. Public submissions closed off at the end of November. Now the government has to make a final decision in Cabinet. We know that Coke and Lion are spending stacks of money lobbying Cabinet ministers to support their approach. We are maintaining our campaign.
The final result should be known by March 2021.
[1] WA Container Deposit Scheme: Has it met standards?
[2] Health Report on the Queensland Container Refund Scheme
Back to December 2020 Newsletter page >>
Join over 40,000 supporters of the Boomerang Alliance!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Super and Psychedelic Times
Bayou Country Superfest and Black Moth Super Rainbow top the week in live entertainment in and around New Orleans this week.
The Milk Run
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Friday: Rebirth Brass Band 30th anniversary celebration, DJ Soul Sister, 10 p.m., The Howlin' Wolf: Rebirth has become an institution, and their treatment of the groove has influenced a generation of brass bands. They'll celebrate 30 years Friday and Saturday night at the Wolf with a number of musical friends. To find out who, you'll have to be there. (tickets)
Also on Friday: !!!, 10 p.m., Tipitina's (tickets); Raya Brass Band, 10 p.m., Allways Lounge; Hill Country Picnic Preview w/ Kenny Brown, Alvin Youngblood Hart & Cary Hudson, 10 p.m., d.b.a.; Baby Bee, Ponderosa, 10 p.m., The Howlin' Wolf's Den
Saturday: King James and The Special Men, 11 p.m., d.b.a.: The Special Men play the classic New Orleans R&B songbook as a labor of love.
Also on Saturday: Kirk Joseph's Backyard Groove, New Breed Brass Band feat. Jenard Andrews, 10 p.m., Tipitina's (tickets); Dillinger Escape Plan, The Faceless, Royal Thunder, 10 p.m., One Eyed Jacks (tickets); Rebirth Brass Band, Jermaine Quiz, 10 p.m., The Howlin' Wolf (tickets)
Tuesday: Dementians, Ratty Scurvics, Sundog, High in One Eye, 7 p.m., The Big Top: A night of one-man bands topped by Canadian lo-fi artist David Jacques, who performs as The Dementians.
Wednesday: The Features, Quiet Company, 10 p.m., The Hi-Ho Lounge: Nashville's The Features are a harder band live than their album would suggest, and they can lock into the krautrock motorik beat, but for rock 'n' roll purposes.
Thursday: Black Moth Super Rainbow, The Hood Internet, 8 p.m., One Eyed Jacks: The Pittsburgh-based psychedelic collective almost folded after Eating Us when leader Tobacco thought the group had taken a wrong turn, but last year's Cobra Juicy re-found the group's edge, with vocoder'ed vocals over hip-hop beats that range from dreamy to crushing. Mash-up kings The Hood Internet open this early show. (tickets)
Also on Thursday: Bassik featuring Borgore, Ookay, 10 p.m., The Republic: (tickets); Daikaiju, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, SUMMER, 8 p.m., Gasa Gasa; Rex Gregory CD-release party, 8 & 10 p.m., Snug Harbor; The Men, Lovie Dovies, 10 p.m., Circle Bar
Bayou Country Superfest may be a country music festival, but it's also an old school rock 'n' roll event - two days in Tiger Stadium where the boys where their best baseball caps and the girls dress to get noticed. This year's lineup also walks the line between country and rock withLady Antebellum,Miranda Lambert andDarius Rucker on Saturday andZac Brown Band, Luke Bryan andThe Band Perry on Sunday.
The House of Blues' Parish continues its monthly The Comedy Zone series tonight, bringing to New Orleans up and coming comedy talent. Tonight, Indiana native Andy Woodhull will perform the show hosted by local comedian and regular House of Blues comedy show hostLeon Blanda.
Rob Cambre's Anxious Sound brings to town percussionist Michael Evans and dancer Susan Hefner for a series of improvised shows starting Wednesday. They'll perform with The Death Posture - guitarists Cambre and Donald Miller, and Witchbeam on modular synthesizer. These shows will reunite Evans and Miller, who performed together regularly as part of the improvised music scene when Miller lived in New York. They'll play The Always Lounge Wednesday at 10 p.m., then at The Mudlark Public Theater Thursday and Friday, May 30 and 31.
By Alex Rawls
Andy Woodhull
The Hood Internet
We've Come Too Far to Give Up Who We Are Next article:
Just Say Yes to Another Excess
http://myspiltmilk.com/super-and-psychedelic-times
Shark's Teeth Transfers and Grows
We've Come Too Far to Give Up Who We Are
Hell Yes to Gleason and More


Time for another rock star! This week our team managed to interview a judge from Russia! If you have not read about judges from this Region before, then I strongly recommend you don't miss this JOTW Special Regional Coordinators Edition. It's a pleasure to present Eugeny Bazhenov – RC and L3 from Moscow!
Evgeny Bazhenov . Travelling around the world for Magic events I quickly realized that Eugene is easier for most of the people to understand, so I've used it since PT Prague in 2006.
I was born in Moscow and have been living there for all my life so far.
When did you become a Judge?
That's a tricky question as testing history of those early days is quite blurred. I was tested by Rune Horvik at one of early Russian Nationals some 13 or 14 years ago.
What advice would you give to members of your region?
Communicate more with other members of our community. We're the largest region in the whole world and don't have a lot of chances to see each other in person. Judges from remote areas can benefit a lot from our online discussions!
What advice would you give to a Judge growing up through the program?
I strongly believe that enjoying the game and its social environment is a crucial part of Magic. Make sure your players always do and you will feel rewarded!
Could you recognize a few outstanding members of your region?
There are plenty of them! The community recently built up a strong team of judges translating essential lore into Russian and helping those of us not skilled in English to benefit from our international colleagues' experience. Those initiatives are led by three outstanding judges – Lev Kotlyar , Maria Zuyeva and Irina Samonova with the help of numerous other people.
What's the coolest event you ever been to?
The farthest I've traveled for an event inside Russia is 9 hours on the plane to a PTQ.
My boyfriend is a passionate Magic player. We often travel together to events.
How do you not lose your mind as a RC?
On a more serious note, I try to delegate things. It recently became easier as I've got another L3 in my region, beautiful Maria Zuyeva !
What do you feel needs to be improved in the Judge program?
We're quite an adaptive organism currently. Whenever the change is needed we evolve quickly. So no, I don't think there's something we drastically need to change at the moment.
What has been your best experience in the Judge Program?
My old bones can't really choose – there have been too many. Two that stand out are Riccardo Tessitori trying to comfort me before the last part of my L3 panel and an email hitting my mailbox telling that Maria has become an L3. Also, every time I see Andy Heckt after a long time. If there's someone I admire in the program, it's him.
What has been your favorite magic event that you've judged?
I don't think I've ever associated myself with a Magic character. My alter ego is Londo Mollari, a character from Babylon 5, an ancient sci-fi series. As to why, let's say it's someone who 100% accurately depicts a Lawful Evil character (if you're familiar with D&D alignments).
What are some of your Regional Goals?
As most of the stores here are really far from each other, I have an ongoing goal of having a certified judge available at every Advanced store in the region. There's still a long road to get us there though :). My other important goal is to have another 2 L3s in place in 2015.
What's one thing in your region which makes playing magic special?
That's definitely our distance. Players travel a lot as well as judges to the events. That makes local communities differ a lot from one another.
Tell us an embarrassing story that you're not afraid of everyone knowing.
How has being a Magic Judge influenced your non-Magic life?
Who are your role models within the Judge Program? What are the qualities that drew you to them?
Andy Heckt , the most caring person I've ever met in the Program.
Johanna Virtanen , a person who has a supernatural ability to tell good from bad, a beloved friend and a source of some of the most useful advice I've been ever given.
Watching games of Magic (did I already mention that I'm still a passionate fan of the game?) and asking others how their communities are organized. I've been able to steal loads of precious hints and techniques that I've later used back home over the years.
Any additional questions or comment you would like to have on the interview?
…and we definetly have enjoy this interview with you Eugene, thanks for the time and imput you provide for the judge community.
Kevin Despres "I've played 7 PTs".
Although you might have seen him playing in several PTs he has not quite managed his 7th PT… yet.
Judges don't forget that you can nominate a Judge anytime, we are always willing to read about awesome Judge moments, nominate a judge TODAY!