this project is cancelled… not

We received a comment from someone wondering if this project had been bought out by the current landbot runners because it’s a threat to their business…

No, the project is not cancelled and has not been bought out.

I have received some odd IMs offering to buy the results, but do not plan to  — unless we are talking about millions of USD. 

When an offer for millions of USD comes in, I’m sure Land Shepherd will forgive me for saying yes… as soon as the mortgage is paid for on the Land Shepherd Museum Of Forgiveness.

No one as yet has offered millions of dollars. Please, if you have it lying around, in a sock drawer somewhere, do send millions of dollars. Call your billionaire friends, tell them it’s a good buy. With millions of dollars and a landbot project, you can ensure that people can hate me the way they hate you.

Humans!

/me laughs.

On a more serious note, I realize this has taken a while and appreciate everyone’s patience. If you’ve been in Second Life, or Real Life, you can probably understand how hectic the holiday season can be.

Expect to see more as soon as I can squeeze minutes.

Just an update: 

•  A logo contribution for the program was made by a dear friend, I will be reviewing it.
• I just finished two development projects which were taking time away from this.
• I have been able to do a little editing on the search program and plan to test it this evening, and hopefully to publish.
•  The best is yet to come.

later

I wanted to provide the group with some code that demonstrates how to perform a land search.

This code in and of itself is not necessarily useful, but it could likely be added to any libsecondlife based bot to add land search capabilities.

after I get some rest and possibly some egg nog, I’ll be putting this code into an application that we can try, and I’ll also begin working with the google code repository to publish source.

right now, it’s 5:40 AM and I really should sleep, but there are other things I have to accomplish before that.

performing a land search

This code is still tied to a form, I will be removing the form checks, or maybe not. This code performs an actual land search with the previous specifications.

        void PerformSearch()        {

            // todo: at least some checkboxes must be there

// select a preset

if (chkRotatePreset.Checked)

            {

                CurrentPreset++;

                if (CurrentPreset > cboPreset.Items.Count)

                {

                    CurrentPreset = 0;

                }

cboPreset.SelectedIndex = CurrentPreset;

}

ResetLandSearch();

            lstSearch.Items.Clear();

            lstBuy.Items.Clear();

int.TryParse(cboBuyArea.Text, out LS.qualifyarea);

            int.TryParse(cboBuyPrice.Text, out LS.qualifyprice);

            double.TryParse(cboBuyRate.Text, out LS.qualifyrate);

int.TryParse(cboArea.Text, out LS.maxarea);

            int.TryParse(cboPrice.Text, out LS.maxprice);

if (chkArea.Checked) { LS.limitarea = true; }

            if (chkPrice.Checked) { LS.limitprice = true; }

//

switch (cboType.SelectedIndex)

            {

                case 0: // All Types

                    LS.mainland = true;

                    LS.auction = true;

                    LS.estate = true;

                    LS.newbie = true;

                    break;

case 1:  // Auction

                    LS.mainland = false;

                    LS.auction = true;

                    LS.estate = false;

                    LS.newbie = false;

                    break;

case 2:  // For Sale - Mainland

                    LS.mainland = true;

                    LS.auction = false;

                    LS.estate = false;

                    LS.newbie = false;

                    break;

case 3: // For Sale - Estate

                    LS.mainland = false;

                    LS.auction = false;

                    LS.estate = true;

                    LS.newbie = false;

                    break;

case 4: // First Land

                    LS.mainland = false;

                    LS.auction = false;

                    LS.estate = false;

                    LS.newbie = true;

break;

default: // All Types

                    LS.mainland = true;

                    LS.auction = true;

                    LS.estate = true;

                    LS.newbie = true;

                    break;

            }

//

switch (cboRating.SelectedIndex)

            {

                case 0: // PG & Mature

                    LS.matureonly = false;

                    LS.pgonly = false;

                    break;

case 1: // PG only

                    LS.matureonly = false;

                    LS.pgonly = true;

                    break;

case 2: // Mature only

                    LS.matureonly = true;

                    LS.pgonly = false;

                    break;

default: // PG & Mature

                    LS.matureonly = false;

                    LS.pgonly = false;

                    break;

            }

if (LS.estate) { LS.dstf = LS.dstf | DirectoryManager.SearchTypeFlags.Estate; }

            if (LS.mainland) { LS.dstf = LS.dstf | DirectoryManager.SearchTypeFlags.Mainland; }

            if (LS.newbie) { LS.dstf = LS.dstf | DirectoryManager.SearchTypeFlags.Newbie; }

            if (LS.auction) { LS.dstf = LS.dstf | DirectoryManager.SearchTypeFlags.Auction; }

// todo: cleanly handle dirfindflags or break out into multiple search voids

// sort type is not working correctly

// dwell sort does not return results

// sorting

            LS.sorttype = cboSort.SelectedIndex;

switch (LS.sorttype)

            {

                case 0: LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.AreaSort; break;

                case 1: LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.DwellSort; break;

                case 2: LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.NameSort; break;

                case 3: LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.PerMeterSort; break;

                case 4: LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.PricesSort; break;

                default: break;

            }

LS.sortdescending = chkSort.Checked;

if (LS.sortdescending == false) { LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.SortAsc; }

// query specifications

if (LS.limitarea) { LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.LimitByArea; }

            if (LS.limitprice) { LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.LimitByPrice; }

if (LS.matureonly) { LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.MatureSimsOnly; }

            if (LS.pgonly) { LS.dff = LS.dff | DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.PgSimsOnly; }

//

LS.queryID = Client.Directory.StartLandSearch(LS.dff, LS.dstf, LS.maxprice, LS.maxarea, LS.queryPointer);

//  StartLandSearchEx(LS.maxarea, LS.maxprice, LS.sorttype, LS.estate, LS.newbie, LS.mainland, LS.limitarea, LS.limitprice, LS.matureonly, LS.pgonly, 0);

            //  StartLandSearchEx(32, 200, 4, true, false, true, true, true, false, false);

            //StartLandSearchEx(32, 1000, 4, true, false, true, true, true, false, false);

//

}

resetting the land search specifications

        void ResetLandSearch()
        {
            LS.dff = DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.ForSale;
            LS.dstf = DirectoryManager.SearchTypeFlags.None;

            LS.sorttype = 3;
            LS.sortdescending = false;

            LS.queryID = LLUUID.Zero;

            LS.maxprice = 0;
            LS.maxarea = 0;

            LS.limitprice = false;
            LS.limitarea = false;

            LS.estate = false;
            LS.mainland = false;
            LS.newbie = false;
            LS.auction = false;

            LS.matureonly = false;
            LS.pgonly = false;

            LS.queryPointer = 0;
            LS.resultCount = 0;
        }

landsearchspecifications class revealed

This class encapsulates all of the variables for a land search.

        private class LandSearchSpecifications
        {
            // public int currentpage;

            public int maxprice;
            public int maxarea;

            public bool limitprice = false;
            public bool limitarea = false;

            public bool auction = false;
            public bool estate = false;
            public bool mainland = false;
            public bool newbie = false;

            public bool matureonly = false;
            public bool pgonly = false;

            public bool sortdescending = false;

            public int queryPointer = 0;
            public int resultCount = 0;

            public int sorttype = 3;

            public LLUUID queryID;

            public DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags dff = DirectoryManager.DirFindFlags.ForSale;
            public DirectoryManager.SearchTypeFlags dstf = DirectoryManager.SearchTypeFlags.None;

            // todo: specifications for matching

            public double qualifyrate;
            public int qualifyarea;
            public int qualifyprice;

        }

going with the flow, the ghost of christmas present

This past year in Second Life was also my first. It’s been a long one, and it, along with my Real Life, have kinda sucked in a lot of ways, although I’ve had a few great moments, and I have a feeling I’m about to turn a corner into something good.

If I had a million dollars, I’d buy everyone presents, and try to brighten their day. I don’t understand why everyone who has a million dollars doesn’t do the same, but that’s the world in which I live. Incidentally, I don’t have a million dollars. But maybe I can give something else…

It’s the nearly the end of that year, one with a lot of learning, a lot of travel, a lot of conflict… and I’m very *tired* of a lot of it… and the holiday season is not one I am looking at with a smile, but more of a  *what’s wrong with these people* about those I’ve come to know in my time on this earth. But… I just keep going. It’s all you can really do.

That said… I am making slow progress here, but it’s about incrementalism. Part of me would like to just pound out a piece of software and go at it 24 hours a day, but life doesn’t always give us that option. So one day at a time, one piece at a time, I’m going to be giving away the edges to the Landbot puzzle, then the middle, then the glue. And when I’m through, we’ll have a complete picture, which we can improve upon until it’s as good as it can be.  Whether or not it makes a difference to anyone else, it’s what I’ve got.

In my next post, you’ll see the first piece.

The best is yet to come.

test application for windows readiness

I am assembling information on this blog which will ease time requirements for support issues related to this project.

For this reason I have made available a test program to ensure that a users computer is ready with the appropriate runtimes to run a landbot program.

This program has no functionality, it displays a form. Running the program without error merely indicates that your system can run .net applications. Once you’ve run it, you’ll know you successfully installed the .net runtimes.

This program is designed for and tested on Windows, but it may work under Mono. Information on your experience could be useful.

The source code will be available in the repository asap.

It is likely that we will have other diagnostic tools for the group as needed.

Click Here To Download

Click on the thumbnail for a full screenshot of the program.

Like Sands Through The Hourglass, So Are The Days Of Our Lives…

IMHO there are too many people in the world who accomplish little more in life than to spread rumors and opinions like computer virii.

I’ve read some blog posts claiming some absurd things. from people who simply know nothing, and should not type. I’ll clarify.

The first claim was that I created the original landbots and I am trying to ‘make up for it’.

This is completely untrue. I did not create the original landbots. Thank you for your opinion.

The next claim is that I am not capable of creating a landbot. This is in spite of the fact that I demonstrated a screenshot of my previous application and made it clear that the only reason I did not update it is because I was simply not interested in monitoring the activities of a landbot.

And yet another claim is that I am a “double agent” of some sort out to cause more problems than good. To this, I can only reply… I cannot predict the future, and neither can you. Once these tools are made public, the problems could get worse, the problems could get better.

All of SL could become 16m parcels for L$10,000,000 each, or we could have world peace.

How the PUBLIC uses a screwdriver is not the responsibility of the inventor of the screwdriver, it is the responsibility of the PUBLIC, or Henry Ford is responsible for the death of everyone who ever died in a car, or the Wright Brothers are responsible for every plane crash.

I realize this won’t make sense to some of you. Many illogical people have illogical thoughts and type on the internet. I would never get anything done if I spent my time trying to reply to all of them.

update on landbot merlin ebay auctions

I’ve been informed that Landbot Merlin did sell one copy of the landbot software for $423.

We will be paying close attention to these ebay auctions and when our product is ready we will advertise it on ebay. The program will be free, but auctions will be for software support.

A link to the sold landbot is here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120195048709

landbot merlin’s landbot auction closes unsuccessfully

just an fyi, landbot merlin’s landbot auction, which I’d previously mentioned was up for sale on ebay for $523 usd, was not purchased during the ebay auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/landbot-second-life_W0QQitemZ120195198197QQcmdZViewItem