Anyone using the Name2Key database?

Anyone using the Convert Avatar Name to Key database that there was so much talk about a while back?

I've used it to make online indicators for people I need to track but don't have friended. (not in a stalker way... people I'm making stuff for!)

I am the maintainer of the name2key database.

I cannot state how important it is to not respond to this.

I have been harassed aggressively by another SL member concerning this database and I have no doubt that he is behind this new alt asking for personal information. If you give this information, you do so at your own risk.

~Ulrika~

I made a device so I can IM people from offline, and use that to look up keys of someone so i can send them a message without having to go in game.

I have used it, and find it to a very useful tool. TYVM Ulrika!

*shrug* I just said I used it. Do you mean the fella who has several signs around with the "OMG PEOPLE CAN PUBLISH YOUR KEY AND NAME, THAT'S TWO-THIRDS OF YOUR LOGIN!" "warning"?

Oh, well maybe this thread isn't so bad after all.

YW!

~Ulrika~

I'll tell you the whole story in world sometime.

~Ulrika~

How do you do that?

Seriously don't respond to this.

~Ulrika~

When you say track, do you mean locate on the map?

Gonna tell us, why the intrest?

Knowing if my location on the map is known to anyone who wishes rather than just to the people on my friends list seems like a good idea to me.

I think you can rez an object in each sim and give it a person's key and then it can tell if the person is in the sim. Once the sim the person is in is determined then you can rez objects with scanners and locate the person.

It's Tcoz Bach. He's been harassing me over this database for months. He might have even been recently banned for comments he made about it in another thread. With this alt trickery, who knows?

He's harassed me in the forums, by PM, and even contacted my internet service provider, accusing me of violating the DMCA over the past few months. It's a little creepy.

The Lindens stated a while back that we are allowed to keep and publish these lists. As a matter of fact I'm one of the late comers to the list-collecting practice and the only one to provide it in an open manner (not sold behind the scenes), for no cost (I pay all bandwidth fees), and with an opt-out list (names added on demand). Unfortunately, because of my openness, it also makes me the easiest to attack.

~Ulrika~

Nope, not possible.

Frans, llRequestAgentData will tell you if the avatar is online; if they are, use a script that travels from sim to sim doing llKey2Name; that returns the avatar name if the script and the avatar are in the same sim, and an empty string if they aren't. If you find the sim the avatar is in, rez scanners looking for the avatar up to some reasonable height. If you find them, you have the location of the avatar on the map.

What doesn't work about this?

lol. Ok sure that could work. I was just thinking about a simple script call.
Why do you ask if you already got a detailed plan to do it, worked out.
Aliasi cleared stated she made a online indicator not a stalking device.

Ps. SL is more then the main grid, your device wouldn't work for islands.

Ok....I'll bite (and look like a comp incompetent.. ) What "lists", and what benefits are gained from selling them in any case? I'm not 100% sure what exactly "keys" do?

No, no way to do that. Just a simple "on/off line" indicator, for when I need to contact a client type person.

In SL, in order to send an object to someone using LSL, one must have an agent key. Our user names cannot be used for this. For example my name is "Ulrika Zugzwang" and my agent key is "81b730e5-1478-4b59-b5d2-d014d365bd01".

Unfortunately, LSL does not provide a way to convert from names to agent keys, so folks have had to compile their own lists, usually done as part of the normal operation of a web-based SL business. In order to help start-up companies and creative coders, I compiled my own list and placed it on my website with an opt-out list.

There is no controversy, really. The Lindens approved it. Folks use it. Life goes on. However, there is one person in SL who is abnormally and irrationally concerned with privacy and this person thinks this list will somehow harm folks. Because of this, he has taken to personally attacking, harassing, and stalking those with lists like mine. What's ironic is that his harassment has caused ten times the grief (to me and other forum goers) that this list ever has or ever will.

Thus, I do not recommend discussing this subject with the person who started this thread. I hope that answered your questions. If you have more, feel free to email me if you'd like.

~Ulrika~

Keys are unique numerical identifiers associated with each separate object in Second Life. If you imagine not only people but every single thing in the world having a Social Security number, that is what a key is like.

The Linden Scripting Language allows these keys to be obtained by sensor functions and by touch and I think a few other ways as well. Keys aren't hard to find inworld, and there is really no way to have objects, including avatars, interact with each other without revealing their keys to each other all the time.

In addition, there is a file in the Second Life cache in which these keys and avatar names are stored in a very weakly encrypted form. I think the way to decrypt it is to XOR each byte in the encrypted key with 3, something like that. It is easy programming to decrypt these keys. The keys that you get inworld using the scripting language are not encrypted and are ready for use, if you have a use for them.

People have had networks of objects moving around with scanners in them detecting and storing these keys. Who has these lists I don't know, nor do I know just what they want them for. I think some people just like to accumulate data, it's like a hobby.

An avatar's key can be used to send an instant message inworld to the avatar. Sending these IMs uses Linden Research's computer resources, and bothers people - just using our group chat IMs in the intended way is bothersome enough, must less getting automated ad spam, and while one might send a few, to people who ok getting them, sending a huge number of them for something like getting everyone to come to a party would be a real good way to get kicked out of SL real fast. Everybody who knows how to use these keys for mass spamming must think that they would get caught and banned or we'd be getting a bunch of spam IMs all the time, which we aren't. Or maybe there are a few who try and get caught and booted so fast it doesn't make the news. I've not heard of any such thing occuring. I do get the occaisonal "spam" IM, but in almost every case it's someone I don't remember who is in my Friends list (or maybe my calling cards but I have never even looked in my calling cards ). In the few cases I have heard of spamlike IM's going out I suspect it is some poor guy going through the Find People list manually. The only instance of this I remember is someone begging for money to upload textures. That does not sound like what someone smart enough to use the keys to send IMs would be doing to make money.

There's a publicly readable list of keys at the website mentioned above in the thread, and it has been made largely by people giving the website the text from that encrypted file in their SL caches.

There was a rather big deal in the forums about it, some people scared about it even though our keys are public knowledge inworld and there is no way to use the keys without going through the Linden's servers and thus leaving a clear trail of accountablility if they were put to any bad use.

Some people seemed to think an easily available database would be very useful, and I am asking what uses people have this information to.

The big increases in membership we have now must be causing the name to key database to be out of date since it is built from files sent by whoever feels like it whenever they feel like, a rather unsystematic approach.

I wonder why the Linden company doesn't just make the entire database available, with of course an option to have your name and key withheld if you wish.

Yes, *edited*. This should be implemented in LSL. The only reason the database exists is because it is not.

~Ulrika~

What use did you make of the database, Schwanson?

Well, despite Ulrika's request, i cannot help but comment on this:

Sure. In theory. For the main grid. If you didn't mind waiting an hour for the search. If your target never, ever moved.

It would, in fact, be faster to IM the person, convince them of your honest need to know where they are, have an argument with them when they don't wish to do so, and win them down through virtue of your logically flawless premises than to do that.

If the grid is slow, it would actually be faster to hire detectives to track down your targets real life body and take a jet there, I suspect.

In any case, my little online indicators are nothing you can't find out by using Find People; I'm simply lazy and like having a bank of blinkenlights to let me know these things.

You can do that without llKey2Name, sensors allow you to search for names and AGENTs and there are no two identical names.