Fixing Things Up

I Reset the Script of a Dead Albatross

Written 7 January, 2018

When you own property in Second Life, things-- usually little ones, fortunately, go spontaneously amiss-- although see my post here about when BIG things go wrong. Things happen for a variety of reasons-- you, or someone with permission to modify your objects, accidentally lassos and drags one or more objects, little script errors accumulate, eventually crashing an object or walking it a couple of meters from where it should be. These things happen on a day-to-day basis, so imagine what might happen over a period of three years (that's how long I was away).

Actually, very little went wrong on Whimsy.

I've snooped all over Whimsy and Whimsy Kaboom and found a dozen or more small problems and only one major one. "I think the duck near my house is upside down," said Sere Timeless when I asked her if she had noted any problems.

It was actually on its side. Sweetie had already noticed and set it upright. I may need to move that swan; it's in a little cove near the sim edge and doesn't have quite enough room to wander, and it occasionally whacks into the land and makes a bump noise and goes all weird.

I found three dead scripted fish, all by the same creator. Rather than teach them their routes all over again, I just zapped them. There are plenty of fish that can make it three years without running down.

I also found a dead albatross. That particular albatross dies on a regular basis. The other albatrosses (what is the plural for albatross?) were all placed  years ago from the same copyable bird in my inventory, and they circle high over Kaboom and keep on ticking.

The Abrupt End of the Tracks Results in a Spectacular Train Crash, Every Time

The carriages to Kitto Flora's little train disappeared some months ago; I knew that, but didn't log on to replace  them because of my slow laptop. I found them in my inventory, so I didn't have to search the land for them. The train is fine now Well, not fine. It still crashes, as planned, at the end of every route.

I got an error message from a prim that gives avatars free parachutes. I had dropped an owner-only script in the box when I made it ten years ago, so it didn't break over time, it was broken from the get-go and I just realized it. I also removed a copy of Bits 'N' Bob's great Devotion pose, as it was returning script errors. Other copies don't. Sometimes Second Life is inconsistent. It's due to either magic or science, I'm unsure which.

The big problem-- which wasn't all THAT big, was at the Robot Sanatorium-- the conveyor belt had somehow been rotated and was sticking out of the side of giant Rosie the Robot's plastic head. I must have lassoed it somehow, and moved it. It was easy enough to put it back in place.

I found a couple of wall prims that were a little short of reaching the ceiling and stretched them. I don't think they were that way before.

The doors of the HAL 9000 Memorial Secure Facility for the Robotically Criminally Insane had strayed a meter or so from their proper locations-- which could be a problem, as HAL is incarcerated there and his homicidal inclinations are well known. If you've never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, he's sort of the Hannibal Lecter of robots. If you've not seen Silence of the Lambs, just watch the evil pretender to the Presidency of the United States and you'll know what I mean. So anyway, HAL was still in lockup, so the virtual world is safe for now.

An old ca 2005 plant I have here and there around Whimsy was looking fuzzy to me. I rebaked it and it was still fuzzy. When Sweetie and our friend Cillian Dyrssen looked on I asked them to tell me if it was rezzing properly for them. They said it wasn't, so I suspected its texture had become corrupted on the Linden servers-- but when I went back a couple of hours later to remove them, they looked just fine, so so much for that theory.

So anyway, Whimsy and Whimsy Kaboom are in good shape after three years unattended. All my scripts have functioned reliably, which makes me happy, as when I was learning to script I was sure  the scripts I created would go wonky because I wasn't quite sure what I was doing. Looks like I am a better scripted than I gave myself credit for.

Note: Good form, Chey, ending your post with a preposition!