ONLINE NOTIFICATION HUD v2.0 README ======================== by Dimitrio Lewis Thank you for purchasing Online Notification HUD! This notecard is split into the following sections to enable you to quickly find the information you need. 1) INTRODUCTION 1a) About 1b) Description of product 1c) Setup instructions 1d) Operation 1e) Ethical use agreement 1f) Updating your HUD 2) SETTINGS 2a) On / Off 2b) Memory / Status / Uptime 2c) Options / Reset / Sorting / Text 2d) Update / F_UPDATE 3) UPDATE SYSTEM 4) TROUBLESHOOTING 5) NOTES ======================== SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION [1a] About Online Notification HUD is a Dimitrio Lewis product. DL and "Dimitrio Lewis" are names used specifically for Second Life by the parent company BotService. The webpage for Dimitrio Lewis is: http://www.dimitriolewis.com [1b] Description of product The Online Notification HUD is designed to track the online status of a list of names supplied by the owner. These names can consist of any registered users of Second Life and there is no requirement for the user to be on the owner's Friends list. Up to 28 names can be monitored simaltaneously. The system functions independantly from the presence server in Second Life and will display accurate data even when the presence server is providing inaccurate data. This makes the HUD an ideal backup to Friends list, particularly when reliable communication is of high priority. The HUD can be worn at all times and activated or deactivated when information is called for. Because the HUD is able to track names which are not present on the owner's Friends list*, it is a useful tool for tracking down users that the owner has reason to contact without having been formally introduced. Rather than having to refresh Search results periodically, the monitored name will simply appear on screen when the user logs on. * Please see Section 1e: Ethical use agreement [1c] Setup instructions The HUD can either be attatched to any of the lower HUD points on screen or rezzed in-world to provide a display in the privacy of the home or office. The default attatch point is the Bottom Left HUD. If attatching to a different point, the HUD will need to be dragged into a position where the text is fully visible. Zooming (mouse wheel) while in edit mode will enable HUD positioning to be accomplished more easily. When starting up for the first time the HUD will report "ERROR: NO DATA TO DISPLAY". This indicates that it is waiting for names to be added to its monitor list. Use the following instructions to create a list. 1. The physical part of the HUD is located underneath the text and is a transparent box. Right click on the box and select Edit to enter edit mode. 2. Choose "More >>" and select the Content tab to view a list of files. One of these files is a notecard with the name "notify". 3. Right click on the notecard named notify and select Open. 4. Type in a list of names you would like the HUD to monitor, one per line. Case sensitivity is not applicable, however the results displayed are dictated by the capitalization within this file. Only the first 28 names specified will be monitored. 5. Press Save to store the new list, and close the notecard and Edit window. 6. Click on the HUD box to bring up a dialog menu. 7. Select "Reset" to restart the HUD with the new list. The HUD will now read the names from the notecard and begin monitoring the online status of each specified. This process can take up to one minute depending on the number of entries on the list and the performance of the current sim. ** IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED NOT TO ENTER A FULL LIST OF 28 NAMES UNTIL YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED THE MEMORY USAGE OF THE HUD ** [1d] Operation During operation the HUD will display the names of all users currently online. This data is retrieved from Second Life's servers and is refreshed regularly. Up to ten names are displayed on screen and results are split between multiple pages if more than ten users are online. Pages cycle on a rotation of ten seconds. [1e] Ethical use agreement The information provided by this HUD is publicly available via Second Life's Search system and dataserver. However, due to the autonomous nature of the product it presents the potential for abuse. It is strongly discouraged to use this product for a) tracking Liaisons b) tracking users who have you muted or who have enabled privacy mode, c) stalking other Residents. By using this product you accept responsibility for your personal use or misuse of the product and absolve BotService and Dimitrio Lewis of liability for your actions. [1f] Updating your HUD When an update becomes available you will be able to receive the new scripts using one of our in-world update stations. These stations can be found at any DL location, and a list of locations can be found at http://www.dimitriolewis.com. Rez the HUD in-world next to an update station and then click the station. In most cases you will receive an updater box. Rez this box next to your HUD and click to begin the update process. ======================== SECTION 2: SETTINGS The HUD has a number of features that can be accessed by clicking on the HUD's physical box. This is located underneath the floating text and is transparent. [2a] On / Off The power commands enable the HUD to be activated or deactivated whilst still being worn. This can be useful because it avoids the initial startup process and retains all prior settings. Off: Press the Off button to enable sleep mode. While the HUD is deactivated no text will be displayed, nor will the HUD seek online status. On: Press the On button to resume normal operation. The HUD may take a few seconds to grab online status information before displaying results. All previous settings will be retained when emerging from sleep mode. [2b] Memory / Status / Uptime Memory: The HUD will report how many bytes of memory are free for use. Scripts in Second Life are allocated 16384 bytes of memory to work with, which includes the compiled code and any arrays stored by the script. When working with a large array, the memory available to the HUD can drop significantly. The more names that are being tracked, the larger the array of data will be. The HUD will issue a warning if the amount of free memory drops below 128 bytes as this is considered a dangerous operating environment. If free memory reaches 0 bytes the HUD will crash. If this occurs please refer to SECTION 4: TROUBLESHOOTING. Status: This command will cause the HUD to report some information about the current operating environment. The following information will be displayed: - Version: the product name and version number, plus compilation date (if applicable). - HUD Active: an integer value of whether the hud is activated or deactivated. - Names Tracked: the number of names currently being tracked by the HUD. Note that this figure may not correspond to the number of entries in the notecard. - Sort Type: the ordering type of results displayed by the HUD. - Text Color: the color of the text displayed by the HUD. - Update Available: an integer value of whether an updated version of the HUD is available. More information on ths can be found in SECTION 3: UPDATE SYSTEM. Uptime: The HUD will report for how many seconds it has been operating. This figure is reset each time the HUD is rezzed and each time the HUD is reactivated from sleep mode. [2c] Options / Reset / Sorting / Text The options menu allows you to customize the way in which data is presented by the HUD, and access advanced features. Reset: The Reset command forces the HUD to restart and reload the list of names from the notify notecard. All personal settings will be lost by this operation. Sorting: This setting controls the order in which results are displayed by the HUD in normal operation. The following options are available: - Alphabet: (default) Results are displayed from A-Z followed by a-z. - Literal: Results are displayed according to the order they appear in the notecard (also referred to as custom ordering). - Reverse: Results are displayed in reverse alphabetical order, z-a followed by Z-A. Text: The text option allows you to choose which color the text for results will be displayed in. The available colors are: Silver, Black, Gold, Red, White, Yellow, Orange, Pink, Purple, Aqua, Blue, Green. The default color for display text is White. NOTE: System messages always appear in White regardless of this setting. [2d] Update / F_UPDATE Update: This command will report whether an update to the HUD is currently available. Additional features for this command may be made available in future versions. F_UPDATE: (advanced users only) This command will force the HUD into update mode even if an updated version has not been detected. This command serves two possible purposes: 1: to force the current version to be reinstalled by an update terminal (i.e. for repairing a corrupted script). 2: to allow for updates if the automatic update detection system should fail. More information on these features can be found in SECTION 3: UPDATE SYSTEM. ======================== SECTION 3: UPDATE SYSTEM Your HUD contains an onboard update system for automated upgrading to new versions of the product that may become available. This system is composed of the following two elements: 1: Update detection system Each time the HUD is initiated it will connect to BotService's server and report its PIC (Personal Identification Code). The server will respond with a product status report. If an updated version of the HUD is available, it will enable update mode on the HUD and information will be displayed on the nature of the update, including instructions on how to initiate the update. There is no commitment to perform a product update or take action when alerted to a new version. F_UPDATE: Should the automatic update detection system fail, users of the HUD will still be able to enable update mode with this command in the Options menu. Enabling update mode does not affect the HUD's operation; its function is to control behavior when interacting with a BotService update terminal. Update mode is disabled by default to prevent the HUD from requesting an update while the owner is updating other products at a terminal. 2: Update system The update system consists of communication between the HUD and a BotService update terminal. To carry out a successful update, rez the HUD in-world next to a terminal, then touch the terminal. Either the HUD or the update terminal will inform you of the steps being taken during the update process. Because the locations of update terminals may change this information has not been included here. When an update is made available the HUD will report where and how to carry out the update. ======================== SECTION 4: TROUBLESHOOTING ERROR: NO DATA FILE - This error is displayed if the HUD cannot find a notecard called notify in its inventory, or if this notecard is empty. ERROR: NO DATA TO DISPLAY - This error is displayed when the HUD is unable to track any of the names specified in the notify notecard. ** This error may also be caused by lag in the simulator you are currently in. Try a different location. NO USERS ONLINE - This status is displayed when none of the names specified in the notify notecard is online. "Sorry, I can't track *name*" - This error is displayed when a user specified in the notify notecard cannot be tracked. This can occur if a Resident is new to Second Life or has only spent limited time in-world. Exclusion is not likely to be permanent and data may become available after some time. "Stack-Heap Collision" - This error indicates that the script has crashed due to a lack of free memory. If this error occurs it should be reported for investigation. Take the following steps to restart the script: - open the HUD's Content and remove a few names from the notify notecard. This will prevent the crash from being repeated. - open the script and ensure that the Running box is checked. - click on Reset. Reporting a bug or memory crash ------------------------------------ You are encouraged to report any bugs you find so that they can be addressed in an update. In particular, please report any stack-heap collisions that occur. You may be asked for a copy of your notify list. The following methods of contact are available: 1) Notecard to Dimitrio Lewis in Second Life 2) E-mail to bugs@bservice.org 3) http://www.dimitriolewis.com/support/bugreport.php Please include as much information as possible when reporting bugs. ======================== SECTION 5: NOTES - If the HUD is renamed it will revert back to its original name the next time it is restarted. This behavior is to accomodate version updates and cannot be disabled. - Personal settings are lost each time the HUD is rezzed. - A recent update to Second Life has removed the ability for users to reset scripts they did not author. This will make it impossible to recover the HUD in the event of a stack-heap collision. If the HUD should crash, please return it to Dimitrio Lewis for replacement. - Data is sometimes temporarily distorted. This is a known issue. - There is a known issue related to memory usage in v2.0. This will be addressed in a future update. For now, the maximum number of users that may be tracked has been reduced from 30 to 28.