wikiHUD and the JIRA

The in-world web browser JIRA is at 20 votes already, asking for better integration between the mozilla browser that is in the client at "In-World Help" (Would "Web Browser" have been so hard? Would it be that bad to have a "web" option pull down and a resize box in search? You might even be able to sell ad at more of a premium). The reason for wanting better integration is simple: cut and paste, llLoadURL and multiple windows would allow many of the development projects on hold to go forward, because it would give us, long before "HTML on a PRIM" is available, the ability to use external resources inside of Second Life.

Many people know about the browser in client, but many active residents, myself included, were not informed of it. It's one thing to not have functionality ready or secure, it is another thing to provide it and hide it or cripple it. If LL wants to know why it is widely distrusted in world, it is because of things like this: blatant dishonesty attached to monetary gain. LL sells ads, and therefore does not want competition with its search.

So what is my contribution to this situation. The reason I want better in world integration is because of a problem that bedevils gadgets and devices in world: storage. Let's say it, notecards are less. They are slow, laggy, buggy and limited. Scripts cannot write to them, only libsl based bots. The only alternative was to pay for your own website and write your own code. "Just pay for a web server..."

However, this had several major problems. The first is that as soon as storage is based on the gadet maker paying for it, it becomes a service, not a gadget, and charged for accordingly. Only stable and built in resources, or free outside resources, can be made ubiquitous. More over the 2048 byte limit was more than obnoxious, it meant writing code to transfer data over in pieces.

This is where wikiHUD comes in. There are plenty of places to get free mediawiki installation space. The deal being that while you edit or use the wiki, the get to advertise at you. Say for play, as it were.

By using the built in features of Mediawiki, it is possible to read the whole of an entry, this means that configuration information can be put in one entry. This means that it is possible to freely store, outside of SL, configuration data, and edit it with no more difficulty, or hazard of data lose, than any other web page.

It's also possible to easily read that information, put it in chat, search it, and therefore combine it.

The source code is available online, and the technique is very stable, you can find it http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/WikiHUD_%28Source%29.