The way in which the team works makes this extremely unlikely. Of course I'm not a member of the development team, but given their past comments and behaviours it just wouldn't fit into their ideology.

It has been said that they went out on their own in order to avoid things like crunch time, etc. and by setting publically available goals they're likely to be facing crunch time over and over again.

If you're unaware crunch time is basically a no sleep marathon of programming, modelling, etc. - anything and everything just to get the product done.

The thing is when you're programming on something of any significant scale every now and then you'll come across something which was a good move when it was written, but doesn't quite work with what you now want to do with it. Even the best programmers have to refactor (significantly alter existing code) from time to time - this why programs of different versions are not always compatible with all plugins, file formats, etc. etc. For this reason it's not compatible with the work ethic of the team.

What would you rather have? A stressed out development team who quickly get fed up, or someone who is a bit more relaxed and happy in themselves? In my opinion and experience the latter provides a better product at the end of the day.

Given you can get into safe mode, it sounds like a BSOD (most likely caused by a knackered driver), but the machine is set to automatically reboot itself.

If you can get into safe mode again you can stop it from doing an automatic reboot by going into system properties (right click my computer, properties), then to advanced, settings under "start up and recovery" and untick "automatically restart". (slightly different under Vista, but it's vaguely the same place - havent got a vista vm I can test on right now atm though)

Reboot and see if you get a BSOD. If so, make a note of the first hex value (0x0123123 something), and the words in the top left of the screen (probably something like IRQ_EQUAL_TO_OR_LESS_THAN).

Alternatively if the machine was setup to write BSODs to the event logs, you can check through the system log to find out what it was.

When it freezes up, press num lock or caps lock a few times. Do they toggle on and off (light up)? If not then you most likely have a hardware crash. If you can then it's purely software and we have a whole other ball game on our hands.

Quote from james_bskt :

i have shell access, but as far as i can see all i can do is create/generate a new key or import one. Is this good enough?

Sounds like you're refering to some sort of authentication key, be it an ssh key or something else. My suggestion would be to ask your provider if your account allows you to run bandwidth intensive applications from whatever services they provide you.

1. Cut out the colours. It's annoying
2. You're either attempting to bind to an IP not present on that computer, or you're using a port which is already in use

I will repeat; If you do not understand exactly what the /ip directive does, and why you would want to use it, do not set it.

Quote from james_bskt :

well it's just a standard hosting package for my sites from www.eukhost.com so im not even sure if it will work

If its a web host only package, then no. If you have some sort of dedicated or virtual server, or any form of shell access, then yes. If you don't know what any of these things are then the likelihood of you having them is almost 0.

Quote from MaKaKaZo :

why the "+1". Can anyone explian this to me?

Under unix-like OS' the socket argument is "the highest numbered file descriptor, plus 1". On Windows this doesn't matter too much in my experience (most likely because I believe that the berkeley functions eventually fall back to the WSA stuff), although it does else where (see any man page for select, to explain why it should use the highest fd + 1).

Quote from MaKaKaZo :

All this stuff at the beginning of the main loop could, and in my opinion *should* be taken out of the while. I think the FD_SETs and the timeval struct are defined once and then they keep using the same values during the while, so there's no need to keep that inside.

The FD sets and timeval struct must be reset at each loop, the reason being that you always need to zero the fd sets to ensure you're getting data that's relevant for that select() query. It is up to the programmer to ensure that the memory is clear, select() does not do that.

The timeval struct also needs to be reset each time, because select() can and will modify it. You could delcare it outside, but I'll explain my rational below

Quote from MaKaKaZo :

Another thing I've noticed is that you declare many vars inside the main loop. Those vars get declared and deleted in every iteration. I think those declarations could be made outside the while, making a reference to what they're going to be used to in a comment.

That's a tiny implementation detail. I could've done the entire thing about 5 different ways..? The only difference that you've missed is that you need to ensure the relevant variables are zero'ed/cleared again.

Something I didn't make clear, but perhaps should've was that the tutorial was hacked together from the start of libLFS, which was itself ripped out of luaLFS, which itself was ripped out of another insim v4 project, which itself was ripped out of an insim v3 project that was written years ago - it's never been completely cleaned up since. It's not perfect, and I'm happy to admit that, but what you're picking up on here is a matter of taste. Once the loop iterates over the fact that they're redeclared is irrelevant, although some body new to C might say that it's easier to understand in the current format (because, quite frankly if someone knows the basics of C, and can read a man page, I can't see them needing this example).

Quote from MaKaKaZo :

PACKET_BUFFER_SIZE >= (tbytes - bread - (unsigned char)*p)

You're probably right, but I've literally got in 30 minutes go, so I don't know off the top of my head. I'll check it out tomorrow morning after I've had my coffee and a good night's sleep

Quote from MaKaKaZo :

An IS_TINY is sent as a "version packet". There's no checking the version after this. I mean, the version request is sent but the IS_VER packet returned by insim is not processed in any way.

I had thought I'd made that clear in the comments already? (again, I've not checked, I've not had the opportunity).

Quote from MaKaKaZo :

Another thing is that in the current insim version (4) you can request the IS_VER directly in the IS_ISI setting ReqI to non-zero, there's no need to create a whole IS_TINY for that purpose

Yes, but there are 2 reasons here;
1. As I've already explained when the underlying code was originally written (years ago now) that didn't exist in insim
2. It's an example of how to send a packet, which if I recall isn't given else where in the code

At the end of the day it's a really rough example, like most other code in that thread so far. If anyone wants to replace what's already written then I'm more than happy to remove posts in favour of theirs. If it were perfect then you'd see things like the global buffer, socket fd, etc. put into a central struct, the entire code modularised into functions and so on. But then it wouldn't be an example - it would be a library

I'm afraid I'm away from my home office for a few days, on company business and my laptop has died I'll be back in a few days - if I have the opportunity to tap out a response before then, on a computer I can use for personal stuff, I'll pop it in.

I have the feeling there maybe a more suitable function to use in LFS_External (Send_BFN_DeleteButton seems to apply very specifically to an IS_BFN with SubT of BFN_DEL_BTN), but I'm afraid that you'll have to wait until someone familiar with it comes along or consult the manual for LFS_External.

My guess would be that you're after something like Send_BFN_Clear.. As I say, I don't use LFS_External so I honestly wouldn't know.

Just set them to NULL or 0, would be my suggestion

You were kinda asking for it though

tbh, I cant see any benefit to them at all, but it's here. If anyone sends me a request I just accept it to get rid of the notification, and that way I don't upset anyone

Quote from Silox :

Is it possible to change the Request ID and the Click ID to a short?

Nope - this is a limitation in InSim, not LFS_External. My only suggestion would be to select the player and then present the kick/ban/close buttons for that user only.

Quote from Silox :

2. Is it possible to clear all the buttons on the screen with one command?

Yes - although I don't know the LFS_External API I can tell you that you need to send an IS_BFN, with sub type (SubT) of BFN_CLEAR, which will clear all buttons made by that insim instance.

Quote from P5YcHoM4N :

How is your life that empty that you have to have computer based contact at least once a week?

Grreeeeat. Makes me feel so much better, thanks P5YcHoM4N

As long as the code isn't under AGPL (Affero GPL), or a similiar licence that places restrictions on running software as a service (SaaS), yes.

The GPL, along with most other licences, doesn't cover SaaS.

Quote from Mithras :

But I like how everybody has Alina avatars now. Way to copy

I was wondering who she was.. cheers for clearing that up.

Back on-topic; there's nothing to stop you from using a mad hybrid of insim+outguage to acheive whats needed. However, in future versions of LFS the positioning packets reported by insim will come at a fixed interval.

I wouldn't worry about insim because that's a protocol. I'm hazy on the legals behind it, but you should just consider it open (do what you like), much like HTTP, etc. It's openly documented and you can't make any additions or changes to it since LFS the only provider. Think of it like trying to hold the rights to the entire english language - it's not really something that's done outside of solely proprietory products. If the developers wanted to close it down at a later date they could (say by applying a licence to it - which they can do, since they own the copyright).

You only need to distribute the code (under GPL2) if you do not distribute the code in any form (be it binaries, etc.). In the instance of a website you're providing a service, which means you're not distributing any code in any form, therefore you do not need to make your code available.

I'm hazy under GPL3, but I'm 89% sure it's the same, off the top of my head.

Edit:
From http://www.channelregister.co. ... 9/open_source_licensing/:

Quote :

SaaS providers should ensure any modified GPL'd software they use is not deliberately or inadvertently downloaded to the user as this could be considered distribution. "No one can make that call until there has been a court case. [Use] is at your own risk. I'd say be very sure you are not distributing that software," Peters said.

It gets a bit complicated when you start considering the AGPL, but honestly I've not seen anything using that here (yet).

Quote from G!NhO :

CLOSE THIS THREAD

Quote from mookie427 :

Now

Right let me make this clear. Next to every post there is this icon. Click it and fill out the form. Blindly posting "close this thread" is not helpful breeds ill feeling and turns a thread into total spam. Mods do not roam around the forum looking for people saying "CLOSE THIS THREAD". However, we maybe online else where, and if so we will be notified and can deal with things swiftly.

To the OP, I'm not sure what discussion you wanted and I can't see this going any further than a list which is likely to match up pretty well with 99% of requests in the Improvement Suggestions subforum (handily summarised with this thread).

It's also worth considering S3 is somewhat far away in the future so anything you might want in S3 now may well be defunct by the time development starts on it.

For this post I'm removing my moderators hat. I've put it over there in the corner. These are my personal views.

Erm... personally I'd take XCnuse's comments as sarcasm from that single quoted item, but quite frankly I think you're just trying to be obtuse. I've never seen any statement or actions by nuse here that demonstrate that he believes that he knows everything and only that he's stated an opinion.

Even if he wasn't being sarcastic what's your point? Everyone here is human and is entitled to their own personal view and their own beliefs, which means everyone is allowed to be wrong.

Edit: I've just taken the opportunity to read a little of that thread and determined he wasn't being sarcastic. I'm still not understanding what your point is in this thread though?

To paraphrase myself from another post not a few days ago; time passes, things, people and circumstances change.

phidgets are probably the closest you can get to that..

You'll have to ask the developers very, very nicely using the link below.

http://www.lfs.net/?page=mailus

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

I was thinking more like a xml/txt file for each "level", with the usernames of everybody in that level in it

You're arguing over implementation details. If you're discussing design then that seems irrelevant.

I'm not sure how you'd differentiate between a ".cfg" and ".txt" file though.. XML. Meh..

At the end of the day it's your grandparent's car therefore their decision.

I very much doubt anyone here has seen yourself or your grandparents drive, so I doubt anyone can make an informed comment.

However, a few questions have occured in my head - 50mph around a corner, but capable of 90mph. What was the speed limit? If you were exceeding it your grand father is in his rights to complain assuming that he's the owner, given that any points will be assigned to him immediately and then altered later at request. This can have adverse affects.

Also bear in mind that as a driver you are prepared for how sharply you are going to drive, etc. and your passengers are not, therefore your reactions to it will be different from theirs.

Also bear in mind the age of your grand father. At this age people tend to have a different perspective on life and how to drive.

If you're looking to persuade him then my suggestion would be to respect his decision for the moment and then ask when you genuinely need to borrow the car. If he thinks you're going to borrow it willy-nilly then the likelihood is going to be much lower.

Also something to consider is perhaps he's trying to protect you from the same mistakes he's made himself.

Quote from Mikjen :

you got a link for this plugin ??

I've not seen any evidence that it's been written yet. If it has then it's not been publically released.

Quote from Mikjen :

Was told it couldnt be done, ???

It can't be done without an insim modification, but then you're not going to be giving people the admin password, but using a completely different mechanism where people login via the insim addon and running commands through that.

Quote from Drift King CZ :

We are only amaters...

Sorry, I didn't mean it harshly, it was just a couple of observations I apologise if I've caused any offence :o

On topic, I can heartily recommend Dygear's PHP library for querying LFSW, it takes care of everything for you and works very well, and was used in the stats thingy with great success

Once again, I do apologise

I can see a couple of WTFs in the script and so on, but I can tell you that it seems to be working. At present vrtas123 is online at ANTIK LFS Action Drifting, and the script picks him up as such when its run on my test box.

Could be a number of things - connection time outs, etc. from your connection when it tries to talk to the LFSW servers, etc (perhaps Victor has an anti-bashing firewall script setup to prevent lots of multiple requests (I know I do on certain servers I manage at work), which mine is able to circumvent given that it's geographically and network-wise very close to the LFS servers - only Victor could answer that (I've pointed him at this thread)). Assuming that the text file is actually being updated then it won't be an execution timeout being hit, but this is another thing only you guys can check.

Quote from Drift King CZ :

And we are not using pubstats, because it would take more time - only 1 request per 5 seconds...

However, I'm ignoring the entire problem for a second because what I'm looking at is utterly bonkers in concept (I'm having what can only be described as an exceptionally frustrating day, so please understand I'm not pissed off, but I maybe venting a little bit here, so take how I say things with a pinch of salt).

You're making 48 requests to the LFSW servers to see if 48 individual players are online. With pubstats you make 1. Just one. Uno. Ein. A single request. You don't need to hit each player's pst, you just need to get a host list which includes the list of each player online. This in itself will save processing time, bandwidth, etc. You don't even need to parse what server they're on (but you would get that as an added bonus. You just add the online players to some array then do an in_array() call going through your nick array. If true then they are online, if not they aren't.

In PHP the get_headers implementation uses a HTTP GET, which means more data gets thrown around, which in the long run means you're pulling down more data than you'd get from a hosts pubstats request.

You're circumventing the entire pubstats tarpit.

Look I'm not trying to be purposefully annoying or picky, but the pubstats mechanism exists for a reason.