Installing Microsoft Sql Server 2005 x64 on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64
These are some issues I've ran into, and their solutions:
- You might stop on the compatibility check saying there is no IIS. The problem here is that you need a certain set of role services installed, including the II6 compatibility services.
- You might stop on a message saying "SQL Server Edition Operating System Compatibility Some components of this edition of SQL Server are not supported on this operating system." - the problem is that the SQL installer does not expect the Windows Web Server 2008 licensing information. Hotfix here.
- If you supply a Local or Domain Account, you might get problems with the service not starting, and install failing. Be sure it has the right permissions, or just install as 'Local System' to get things up and running, then change the service settings afterward - but be sure to do it thru the SQL Server Configuration Manager, as the account needs additional acl and policy permissions.
- Be sure to apply the latest Service Pack directly after installation.
- And by all means, be sure you have your firewall settings in order; SQL server runs on TCP 1433.
Tribal One: Picture Frame Web App
Now for the third video showing an example of the Tribal Server Web API and how you can create custom applications with it - in this case a simple Facebook Picture Frame for Tribal One.
This Video Clip shows the user 'entering' his own home region (which is created on demand as he does it) and clicks on a picture frame to set what pictures are shown; then adds another and finally re-arranges the frames .
Points of interest:
- User Data is fetched thru the "Community Provider", the simple interface that you need to implement to enable the region to pull data from your community or intranet.
- When the user clicks on the picture frame, the viewport action 'OnOwnerClick' is invoked, setting the hybrid web page to the 3D-aware 'choose facebook photo' application web page - in this case, an aspx page.
- The photo album data and photos is fetched from facebook.
- When the photo is clicked, the web application posts an "UpdateTexture" xml message to the Tribal Server, setting the photo frame texture of that object. The UpdateTexture command takes an object, surface and an web image url, which is internally converted to an SL texture.
- When the user pulls a frame from the inventory onto the wall, he's really pulling a command object, with a URL pointing to the web application that will create the picture frame for that exact user, with the configured image, frame type and OnOwnerClick/OnNotOwnerClick actions.
- The pictureframes are viewports, and therefore 'snap' to compatible surfaces; every 'viewport' has a set of 'ranges' on which objects of compatible types 'snap' to with an 'orientation' - so books could snap into a bookshelf, for example, and cutlery to the surface of a table. Even if it's not showed in the clip, the frames snap to all walls and flip thru corners. Quite neat!
Tribal One: Darren Arrives
So, time for clip two in the Tribal One concepts series;
This video clip shows how a user arrives on a public island (islands created on demand, as users crowd them) - bringing with him his "garden" which is a 'viewport' (a web-based parcel-on demand which exists only as long as the user is online) and how the 'viewport' content is restored and the terrain smoothed out to accomodate it.
Points of interest:
- The white line demarks the "garden" - anyhing placed within it is private and will move with the garden as it's taken down and re-created on next login. Anything placed outside will be stored together with the island, as that too is taken down and re-created.
- The garden terrain is smoothed with the surrounding terrain.
- The garden is a 3D "viewport", defined by a cube and a web url pointing to either an (read-only) xml document, or to a REST service that manages updates within that cube. In this case, we implemented a generic "Viewport Content Storage" that would serve and manage content nodes over the web.
Tribal One: Entering
I've promised a few people to show you what we've done with integrating web and 3D. It's a good example of what can be done with OpenSim as it's so modular.
This video clip shows how a facebook user checks a friend out, and decides to enter Tribal One.
Points of interest:
- The 'Friends' list on the facebook app page shows "join" and/or "visit" depending on whether that friend is online in the world. "join" places your avatar next to your friend. "visit" lets you visit that friends on-demand home region.
- When the user presses "Enter Tribal Net" a client is launched, and the user is seamlessly logged-thru into Tribal Net.
- The avatar information is taken from Facebook.
- The left and top panel is web content - the left panel is the web hybrid mini-browser, initially contains Tribal One-aware facebook applications and your facebook web profile/friends and photos.
- The 'Gazebo' next to the avatar is content placed on it's 'garden', a parcel-on-demand that only exists while the user is in-world.
- When an island is full of "gardens", another island is created "on demand".
On Browsers
Recently, there's been an "Cambrian Explosion" of various takes on 3D social world user interfaces.
UgoTrade posted an excellent interview with Avi Bar-Zeev of Microsoft, and the post touches on a number of outstanding issues with regards to the metaverse.
When Darren and I started working on OpenSim, we quickly found out that we had a shared vision of where we wanted the 'metaverse' to go;
- It should be about applications, where social networking would be one. The metaverse will never bloom if it never offers any value beyond 'hanging out'.
- There will be a period of experimentation. For this there will be a need for an open, modularized and available codebase for creative people to use in their prototyping.
- This platform should be as mainstream as currently possible, even over technical finesse. Darren chose .NET and the SL protocol, as these are available technologies with large user bases.
- People will go thru with an installation if the percieved value outweighs the install. So, if you do lightweight value, you need lightweight install.
All this has to do with adoption; you want to make the server side as simple to set up as possible, the client side so easy to deploy and install as possible; the content production tools as available and simple as possible - but still retain enough flexibility so that people can tailor it to create services with percieved value.
We did a concept on this a year ago, called "Tribal One" - but we never published it, as the technology simply wasn't mature enough. Now, a year later, OpenSim is much stabler, and stuff like Adams Xenki looks promising.
I would suppose that we will continue to see hybrids and tests, tailored for specific usage cases, until the 'rock solid' cases fall into place - the ones people find actually useful - then we can start merging those solutions.
I have no problems seeing a world where you have a plugin-based app for viewing scenes anonymously, then switch to a full-featured client for collaborative content authoring, then switch to something a little lighter for swift shopping or a quick virtual conference call - and in between, touching on a couple of scenes embedded in applications.
In the UgoTrade blog, I was quoted asking
"what about the user experience in a new browser hosted viewer? How should the user ‘be’ in several places at the same time, the way he is on a web site? How would you have a shared-space continuum like SL operate over several ‘pages’?"
This question shows how I think we all need to think: the percieved application value first, the user experience second, the technical solution last.
Thus, one answer to my question is "Sometimes, you don't".
Using XBAP to embed the Second Life(tm) browser in a web page
Adam Frisby just posted about his XBAP based embedded browser; an excellent idea - so after a bit of Darrens late-night hacking we just had to share this screenshot with you.
The setup is mostly the same; XBAP on Firefox/IE, the difference being we launch and embed the Second Life(tm) viewer that is already installed on the system (if there is none, you get an option to download and install the latest)
This is using our non-published 'Tribal One' concept client code (embedding the viewer as a facebook application - hey Vivaty!) so with Tribal Server, you just seamlessly log thru from the website into the world.
(I guess this is very close to what Pelican Crossing are doing with inDuality - with the difference that uses the installed browser.)