4 reasons why not to use public standalone for opensim.

First off just like to thank by buddy Tim from Zetamex with doing this list.
This list is for public use of standalones.

1. Strain of having grid services and region load on the same instance.
2. OpenSim's HTTP service can barely handle the requests it has now, forcing opensim to serve both as a standalone just makes things worse.
3. Standalones are not able to contain large traffic, and often need restarting.
4. Limited to just a few regions that the computer can handle‏.

These 4 reasons are why Tim doesn't offer standalones and why i always suggest not using it as a public grid.
I do use a standalone with 2 sims for personal use and testings but i made it so no one else can get on which is fine for just testing scripts but standalone for others to visit and use is very bad.
I lag with just 2 standalone sims on a 12GB ram, 3.1GHZ quad core cpu, but of course i load balance my 2 sims when i boot it up. Most of the time its just unused files on my 1TB hard drive. But I will be converting my standalone to Robust in a few weeks so I don't lag as much as I do right now with it being standalone.

I have seen people use standalones as a public grid and usually the person who made the grid would put up like 10 to 100 sims then complain on social media that they are lagging. Well gee i wonder why. You're using a standalone to host 10 to 100 sims.

Lets break it down to simple terms.

Opensim.exe can only mostly handle sim activity like walking, local chat talking, rezzing, prim settings, physics, scripts, lighting, terraforming, and parcel's. Thats it. You then make the program have to handle assets, inventory, IM's, groups, search, currency, profiles, and logins / logouts its gonna choke and cause lag, even if you have just 1 or 2 sims, Opensim.exe will choke.

This is why experienced grid admins like me, Tim and afew others always strongly suggest opening a grid with Robust.exe cuz that can handle assets, inventory, IM's, groups, search, currency, profiles, and logins / logouts allowing Opensim.exe to just handle all the actual region stuff. Granted Opensim.exe still has to do alot and still chokes and lags when in Robust mode but its less compared to when its in Standalone mode because it doesn't have to deal with everything else that Robust can do.

Also with Robust, you can get as many servers you can afford and host tons of sims across those servers that can connect to your one robust server acting as 1 grid. That's how Linden Labs does it with Second Life, and it's how other big grids like InWorlds, 3rd Rock Grid and Metro does it.
With Standalone, you can only have 1 server hosting everything off of 1 Opensim.exe

So next time you want to boot up a standalone, please remember this blog and go with Robust.

new found hope

Just when i was starting to think i suck at making websites and i should just give up, some moron comes around and says more, what they would think, hurtful things to me which actually made me realize the bright side of my situation.
I R SMARTZ.
Atek grid attacked me on G+ and said they are going to inform the FBI that im a hacker.
Ok first off, good luck, ill be over here in CANADA laughing my ass off.
Secondly, ill be here laughing while the fbi sees that i make secured websites.
Third, laughing over all cuz Atek has made me realize that I am good at php and lsl. I have a very secured website that uses php and mysql in a secured way. The cookies for users are encrypted (even the user ID in the cookie is hashed), my lsl sends and receives secured POST data, i use the latest recaptcha to prevent bots from joining my site, i use bitcoins as a form of premium membership payment (dont worry im looking, researching and testing ways to pay with in world currency as well), only iframes i use is for the recaptcha so no loading external websites, i have drop support for gravatar, and my site is mobile friendly which means the site will load and resize automatically to fit any window/screen size.
What does Atek website have? Lets do a compare on this.

Feature - Vampire City - Atek
Legit SSL (HTTPS) - Yes - No
Secured Cookies and Sessions - Yes - Unknown but probably not
Encrypted transmission of data - Yes - Unknown but probably not
Use of iFrame - only for recaptcha by google - all over the place
Use of latest software - Yes (php 5.4) - No (outdated old ColdFusion)
Is the site for a grid - No - Yes (Vampire City is NOT a grid)
Multi Grid support - Yes - No
Multi Avatar support - Yes - No
Mobile friendly - Yes - No
Does it violate privacy policy laws? - No (well i hope not) - Looks like the registration page does
Website engine - Nginx Community Edition - Apache
Obey Cookie Laws? - Yes - NOPE! (Atek places 2 cookies for just viewing the site without informing the visitor, Vampire City only places 1 for visitors and 3 more at login but users are informed)

So the question here is, which site is better? Ignore the fact that Vampire City is my site and just look at that over all and tell me which site you rather visit? Then ask yourself, is Chris a hacker or just a guy who really knows his stuff?

I did this blog because it was actually bugging me that someone from the Atek grid would say things to me and call me a hacker all because I found some problems with their website that could pose a security threat to their site. In fact it is the same problems as i found with the CloudServ website. Now im not going to make the problems public but i do hope Atek fixes the problems that i found and quit calling me a hacker. I spent 5 years as a real life security guard so i bring my experience from that plus doing websites for 15 years to the metaverse. I will admit i have had my ups and downs, Vampire City was hacked, SQL injected and DDOS'd in the past but those mistakes has helped me learn how to protect the site from attacks.
And i gotta say, looking back at the past history of Vampire City, compared with Atek, i gotta say i am doing a fantastic job now.
So heres to a bright future of making a site i been wanting to make for years. A social networking and role playing website for vampire and lycan lovers.

12 steps to add a sim in opensim

This is just a quick way to add a new sim to a opensim standalone/grid. Mostly for those who dont know how to do it.
Hope it helps.

1. copy the Regions.ini file from one folder to another
2. in the new copy open the ini file and change the sim name that is in brackets.
Example: [Sim name here]
3. change the RegionUUID, can get a UUID from https://www.uuidgenerator.net/
4. change the location to where on the map you want the new sim to be at. Remember it can NOT be the same location as another sim.

5. ignore InternalAddress but change InternalPort to any port that is available on that server. I personally like to do 9000 for the first sim then increase the port number by 1 for each sim after so i can just look at the last created sim, get its port and add 1 to it.

[optional for varregions]

ignore 6 and go right to 7 if you are making SL size sims. Default is 256 which is SL like.

6. change SizeX and SizeY to the size desired/requested for var's. Ignore SizeZ since that is useless.7. save the new ini and close it then go to the console.

8. If the console for the sim is already going, go to it and type shutdown then hit enter. Once shut down start it back up.

9. Once back up the console will see the new sim, if this is a new instance for the sim itself then go to 10.

10. if its the first time for this console it usually will create the database tables IF the Opensim.ini in another folder is set correctly. Let the console do its thing.

11. Once the console is done and it sees a new sim it will ask questions like if you want to hook up the sim to a existing estate or to create a new one. This is up to you.
12. The console will then ask for the first name of the avatar who will own this new sim, enter the person's avatar first name, it will then ask for the last name. once done the sim loads up in world and that owner can do whatever he wants and you can go about your day again.

I quit Zetamex

For the past year before joining Zetamex i been fighting suicide and depression. I joined thinking that it would help me but instead it has been nothing but bullshit after bullshit from the opensim community. Not only has Zetamex been vocally attacked by others on Hypergrid Business and Google Plus community's but also by support tickets. My problem is that I have a mental problem of taking it personally and effects me, on top of it, i wasn't getting paid at all for what i was doing and putting up with. Not one Canadian penny.

I was going to seek help just after my 30th bday (jan 16) but then was hired by Tim as a volunteer so I was focused on that and it was good for while, then negative stuff and drama started and my stress kept rising. I started to feel like what Tim and I were doing was not good enough. Then Tim gave the company on the same day for the same reason as Notch selling Minecraft to Microsoft. It was that day i was going to quit and take care of myself but i held on.

Yesterday (Oct 24) someone posted a private convo i had with him. Now i have not read it and im sure some of it is lies because he said in the convo with me that i was threatening him. I never once did. Yes i told him the truth about AviWorlds because, well, its out in the open what Alex does when things go bad for his grid. I also informed this guy that i still live with my parents and they were sleeping so i couldnt talk on mic but the guy kept calling me so yea i got pissed off, thats when he went all paranoid and threaten to call the police on me. What you dont know is that he kept harrassing me by email till i blocked him. All of that was the night of Oct. 23. He then posted some of it the next morning. I found out through a dear friend and that triggered my anxiety which then triggered urges of throwing myself out of my bedroom window to 6 floors down to the ground and landing on a parked car. Instant death. That was then i decided that enough is enough and i need to guit Zetamex and get help and thats what i did. I told him that i quit and why then called the police who then later arrived and escorted me down to the hospital.

I do wish all the best to Tim and the Zetamex team and really hope they continue on making great products for opensim using php and what i wrote for them.
Now if you could excuse me, I have weight to lose, mental problems to deal with and a gay relationship to fix with my high school sweetheart.

Sincerely Christopher Strachan aka Chrisx84
Christina Vortex - Opensim grids.
VenumusVortex Resident - SL
Venumus - most World of Warcraft private servers and blizzard servers.

is this rollercoaster over with yet?

Its been a hella of a ride for me these past few months since coming on as just to make a vendor and rental system for Zetamex.
What was suppose to be a 1 month thing has end up putting me as 2nd lead website developer and CTO for Zetamex. Tim is always first even though he is learning php, html, jquery and bootstrap off of me.
Now with MyZetamex near completion and ZetamexTech only has about 1 month of testings, i have decided to announce here as to what is about to happen with me.
No im not leaving Zetamex, sorry to disappoint all you haters.

First off, I got opensim.directory to finish, zetamextech to launch, zetamexstatus.com to finish rewriting THEN, AND THEN!
I will be rewriting the following websites,
zetamex.com
gridpress.com
zadaroo.com
and zetamexlabs.com
As for the zadaroo site, will just be making it easier to navigate the website on any device, making API friendly calls and giving tim more control to do what he wants with it.
While i was working on the ZetamexWeb (formally OpensimWeb) i decided to test a theory to see if I could convert a copy of ZmW and turn it into a simple website system and sure enough i did as you will see with zetamexstatus.com
So all of the above sites, since they dont need so much security will be rewriten with zmws (zetamex web service).

As for projects outside of zetamex.
I will be getting back to my number 1 passion. /gasp OMG php is not my number 1 passion?
Music has always been my first passion with php as my second.
I plan to get back to finishing my 2nd album titled Spacial Radiation. It, as with my first failed album title Nebula, it will be alien techno. Basicly its music as if a alien from another planet was doing human music.
Also been thinking, and will talk to Tim about this, do Zetamex Radio.
That way with any future meetings/presentations we do on our office sim, we can do by voice via the radio channel instead of relying on vivox.
Yes it will have a auto dj but also would like to get some live shows and some news too. And as always Dj ChrisX (thats me btw) will return to the cyber air waves after a long 2 year absence since leaving a few Star Trek Online radio stations.
ON TOP OF ALL OF THAT!
I am also planning on getting back to making YouTube videos. I have returned to Minecraft but i still refuse to play anything past 1.7, and certainly not offical Minecraft. I been playing a Feed The Beast mod pack called Mindcrack which is a modified version of 1.4.5, when the game was perfect.
Anyways I will release a video soon about some stuff that all you Zetamex fans will be interested in ;)
Till then keep calm & party hard-core.

Prices are way to high

I get that the price to create, package and ship is costly but come on. $6 for a jar of coffee, $2 for a pack of halls, $3 for a loaf of locally made bread.
Or how about this. $169 for a simple android tablet or $1,099 for a Dell desktop computer.
For someone on disability those prices are just way to high.
I actually had to cancel my sim with Zetamex yesterday, not because of the recent drama with that company, its because after buying all i needed to survive for the month i had no money left.
Some of you may think that $15 is nothing but to me its alot since that is like 1 McDonalds value hamburger per day for 10 days.
Prices for food is just way to expensive for those on a small fixed income by their government.
Then all these tech company's tempt you with all these good gadgets and at first they are very nice and you want one but cant afford it.
"Everyone has a tablet" not really. If you look at the majority of Canadians and Americans. Most of them cant afford a cheap tablet because they either have no job or on a fixed government income that is very tiny.
I would love to have a windows 8 tablet but it's either that or food for the month. Clearly im not going to let myself die from starvation all because i want a tablet.
Same with cars. My parents car is falling apart and is close to being sent to the scrap yard but they cant afford a new car, not even a used one.

In short, price of things are just way to high for most people right now and i really wish company's would lower their prices before it gets really bad and out of control. I fear if life continues like this, there are going to be alot of suicides. People will become so depressed wanting and needed things that they just cant afford that they will kill themselves instead just to end the pain.
Don't worry im not going to kill myself but it is depressing me.
I'm just posting this so people in the same situation as I am in can know that they are not alone.
If you are feeling suicidal because of the way prices for things are to high for you to afford please take a look at this website i found. http://www.suicide.org/suicide-hotlines.html or just google suicide hotline

Anyways thats it for this blog. Thanks for reading it. And remember you are not alone.

Rebirth of a developer

Few months ago when i was still on the Littlefield Grid, i created a vendor system that records buyers to a external database website and called it LittleVend. The website and domain was LittleTech.net
It was a simple system that gave inventory but didnt accept any money. However i did plan to release this to other grids that did have money so i wrote code to only accept money if the amount for a product was more then zero and allow direct BUY from a dialog window if the price was zero. Example: If a smellagram was set to L$0 then the buyer would only need to touch the sign and a menu would pop up with the option button called BUY, when the buyer presses that it gives the inventory directly to them avoiding the whole money() event.
I also had other plans for this for LFG such as a drop box since giveinventory was working across sims on LFG.
However LittleTech died when i was banned from LFG for saying something (rather not get into that again)

Fast forward 3 months later and i saw a comment by the owner of Zetamex saying he was going to do a vendor system. I then left a comment basicly saying that i would give him what i wrote so far. Meaning he takes it with no strings attached and do whatever he wanted with the scripts. Even had a website in the works for him to.
About a day after leaving that comment, he got a hold of me and offered me a job on the spot doing the vendor system for him. Now i was shocked since i been learning php and lsl on my own. Then he told me why he wanted me was because exactly that. Learning on your own with no schooling on the languages was what convinced him to hire me. I didnt even submit a resume, i just offered code to help him get started.
So of course i said yes. And thats when it all changed.

Fast forward another 3 months and WOW what a trip.
Right after i was offically hired i got to work on what he hired me to do. GridVend!
With a newly lit fire under my ass and a server to work on at my finger tips i started writing away.
Hammering at my keyboard typing code, hammering at my brain when lines of that code dont work.
In the end i have made it. GridVend and GridRent! Two powerful systems that wont cause grids to freak out.
Web base settings so no need to play with notecard configs.
llResetScript() is triggered every time the prim the scripts are in are re-rezzed so no save state.
Dropbox system for both vend and rent so no need placing product in every rezzed vendor system.
You can have the same product show up on multiple vendor prims around your grid without having to put your product in every rezzed vendor.
No need to put the same notecards in every rezzed rental box. Just drop 1 copy of rented and available into the same dropbox, set each rental box to those notecards on the site and away you go.
Website uses Bootstrap 3.x so you can edit your products, vendors and rentals right from your smartphone's browser while on the go.
Website also uses a Quadodo Login System for managing logins and registration. And i have also added a system so you can link all your avatars to one account (where ever GridVend/GridRent is supported). So no need making multiple accounts to manage your gridvend/gridrent on multiple grids.
API friendly for both in world and on the website. Start writing your own products that will work seemlessly with our systems or create a buyer's list for your website/records.

Now enough of how uber leet my LittleVend idea has turned out to be and onto working at Zetamex.
One word can only describe it. AWESOME!
Or how about two. F***ING AWESOME!
It's been more like working WITH Timothy instead of working FOR Timothy.
When i was doing Little Tech, it was just me and me alone to do everything. Website, lsl, testings, marketing, sales, etc.
With Zetamex. Well lets just say at this legit company, there is no I in team and it is really felt here :D
When Tim needs my help, i help him the best i can. When I need tim's help, he helps me the best he can.

And now with Vend and Rent almost done with final testings I can finally move onto what i was thinking of doing when Tim offered me the job so many months ago.
Role Playing combat system.
Vampire Bloodbyte system simular to Bloodlines in SL.
And now with avatars able to cross sims while in a vehicle on a bulletsim region i plan to take full advantage of this and do a train and bus system. Meaning vehicles follow a set path on its own. To get a idea of this go check out SLRR (Second Life RailRoad). Or think of it as JohnnyCab from the 1990 movie Total Recall. In the movie he to followed a set path to Douglas Quaid's destination.

Anyways my hands now hurt from typing this so back to watching netflix and youtube.
This was just me blogging about what my life as a scripter has been these past 9 months.
Be sure to check out www.gridvend.com for all the latest info on GridVend, GridRent, GridCombat and GridRails.
Live long and prosper.