[Opensim-users] Strange effekt / Avatar totaly stretched

[Justin Clark-Casey]

Frank W Sweet wrote:
> Dave Coyle wrote: At the top of opensimulator.org it says
> "OpenSimulator is still considered alpha software".  Don't run
> businesses from a development repository for self-admitted
> alpha-quality software without being prepared to ride a bumpy road.
> This doesn't happen in 0.6.3.
> 
> Adam Frisby wrote: While this was a prank, sooner or later, we're
> going to have something like a full blown exploit, or DB crashing bug,
> or similar. You are a lot safer in a somewhat tested and confirmed
> stable branch than you are on trunk.Trunk is very much an 'at risk'
> environment, and people putting OpenSim into production need to be
> aware of this fact. If nothing else, this prank has given the
> opportunity to highlight the importance of sticking to a tagged
> release for production work.
> 
> MW wrote: We also can develope a lot faster and easier if we know that
> trunk is being used as it should be. As a place to do development,
> knowing that sometimes what we do will cause new problems rather than
> fix older problems in opensim. Trunk isn't a daily release system for
> people wanting stable versions. Its great that lots of people run it
> to help test and debug opensim. But it shouldn't be used when people
> don't want to take all the risks that come with it.
> 
> Gentlemen, you are utterly missing the point. When we decided to try
> out Opensim (trunk, bleeding edge) it was in the hope that our usage
> might help uncover problems. We made this decision with the full and
> concious knowledge that trunk could break due to: (1) unanticipated
> interaction among modules, (2) simultaneous incompatible changes to
> different modules (3) well-intentioned changes that break something,
> or (4) programmer carelessness, fatigue, sleeplessness, whatever. For
> each of these contingencies we have procedures in place. We can (and
> often do) fall back to prior releases within minutes.
> 
> But we did not and cannot anticipate deliberate vandalism by a trusted
> developer. Reverting to prior releases cannot work in such cases
> because the time-bomb might have been planted weeks, months, even
> years ago.

Frank, this really isn't 'deliberate vandalism', it's a fun April Fool's joke.  If one is following closely trunk then 
one has to be prepared for this kind of thing, which will only last one day and has a patch in

http://www.linkedin.com/e/avn/30232980/744527/EML_anet_nws_title-cThOon0JumNFomgJt7dBpSBA/

by which it can be readily reverted.

The 'time-bomb' itself was planted only two and a half weeks ago and I have no doubt that it would not have been done 
any earlier (let alone months or years earlier) due to the risk that it might slip into a release or release candidate. 
  The fact that it may have got into a 0.6.4 RC is unfortunate so maybe the time period before 'detonation' should be a 
bit shorter.

> 
> I understand that some of you kind and dedicated folks simply cannot 
> grasp the difference between accidental (and revertable) breakage on 
> the one hand, and a deliberately planted (and unrevertable) time-bomb 
> on the other. If most of Opensim's developers also cannot grasp this 
> difference, then I assure you that the project is doomed in the real 
> world.

With all due respect, the project is much more likely to be doomed in the real world if we can't find developers to work 
on it.  And many of those who contribute the most are doing it out of sheer altruism.  We all need to have some fun and 
a nice joke now and again.

-- 
justincc
Justin Clark-Casey
http://justincc.wordpress.com