In short, now it is possible to log into second life, chat, teleport, see who's there… in your browser. The one you read this in.
In the post on Kathrine's Second Life blog you can find a link to your flatworld door to second life. Or you could. At this moment site is down. Kathrine made that lovely thing in AJAX. Here is the rather long quote about what the AjaxLife is doing:
Features
- Basic map
- Teleports
- Accepting/declining teleport offers
- Local chat, instant messages (partially – you can’t start them except with online friends)
- Inventory received notifications
- Friend on/offline notifications
- Balance change notifications, etc.
It also correctly logs you in and out, and notifies you if you were disconnected for any reason.
Known issues
- If you’re on the TG and you zoom out too far, the top half gets chopped off.
- Both grids can see each-other on the map.
- IE7 refuses to register double clicks on the map, making it impossible to teleport using it. IE6 works fine here.
- There’s no interface to start IMs implemented, although you can respond to those sent to you.
- Sometimes SL sends the teleport messages in the wrong order, resulting in the modal teleport wait dialog never leaving.
- Teleports sometimes complete without notification that they ever started.
- IE tends to screw up with dragging the map
It haven't took too long for the rummor to spread and for residents to run for a try out. Sure we crashed the server, so now the site is unreachable.
It takes time to log in, though it takes time to log via regular client too. I must admit that in that brief visit I didn't got a clear picture what flatworld client is capable of. I was using IM's. I tried to teleport but after I relogged via regular viewer I was at the old place. But, possibly I screw up something.
If I understood right, avatar is not shown on the grid, and I don't know what is in the window during the presence. I saw just one image. Does it change after tp? Does anything moving at all?
Moving or not, Kathrine did a great job. Way of coming to the second life through regular browsers can be more than handy thing. So many times we just log in to check IM's, inventory, money or something simple like that. Not to mention all the residents who will have their fun during their office hours :)
Woot! :d
The server didn’t crash. She restarted Apache and that brought it down :p Explanation in her blog.
I’m really glad to see she’s getting credits now! In the TG, she is not one of those who script to make Lindens. She’d be the richest girl in the TG if she did, though, I think x]
I honestly think that the people using Ajax on a regular basis won’t be so few, so I hope that someone with a bit of goodwill decides to cooperate with a server, hehe. So far, I guess she’s going to pay for one, but I don’t think it’s fair for her.
Anyway…
Legitimate answer to your question (I promise!!):
[11:20] Katharine Berry: Avatar is shown on the grid, image is a snapshot I happened to like. :p
Even Apache have to be restarted when dealing with second life :)))
Yes, things like this are not made for money. I believe that all good projects pay of more than fairly, though. Sooner or later rewards come.