Message in a Blog Post

Hello Everybody!

It's been long since I posted here and due to current events I'd like to keep you updated.

Nothing much changed in regards to making new viewers. I am just logging on to SL once every few weeks and am spending all of my time for my business, where we are working on a major upgrade of the software which pays for my bread and butter. This is my main area of interst now, it is hugely satisfying work and won't change any time soon (we just started beta).

My older viewers still seem to work fine and I am really surprised to hear that people say that --despite all the Linden™ efforts in fixing crashes-- mine are still working better than theirs. Dunno if this is generally so or just in specific cases, but if the Lindens did not catch up by now, I don't know what they are doing wrong. But at least so far they kept their promise to keep their server changes compatible with older viewers.

However, it seems that yesterday Teh Laboratory has uncovered and fixed a security issue (click here for details) and made use of their latest viewer mandatory.

As far as I can tell now, there is no real issue for Nicholaz Editions. The requirement to update does not seem affect 3rd party viewers (I was still able to log in today) and as long as you use my viewers to only log on to the Linden™ servers and trusted OpenSim sites, there is no danger (it's my understanding that an exploit of the hole requires a malicious server, please correct me if I'm wrong (thanks Latif for the clarification)).

I will check which changes they made to better understand the nature of the issue. If it seems necessary or if the Lindens really lock out my versions, I will try to stuff the hole for these (EyeCandy, Bleeding Edge, OldSchool ... in this order). But I think this will need to happen.

So, just take a deep breath and relax ... it may be merely a storm in a coffee mug (I know that the idiom calls for the tea cup, but I'm living on coffee for months now :-)).

Other than that, let me say thanks for your use of my viewers and for your comments and for the occasional donations. I am still glad to make your virtual lives better.

Also, if you are looking for newer builds (mono scripting etc.), make sure you check Henry's and BoyLane's CoolViewer (see links at the right side of this blog).

I'll keep you informed about the security thingy in the comments to this post.

Cheers

Nick

PS: Here are a couple of trademark signs ... if I forgot them, please insert them in the appropriate places: ™ ™ ™ ™ ™ ™ :-)