1,000 Second Life Videos Added - SLPopularPlaces.Com

I just added 1,000 second life videos and a video search to SLPopularPlaces.

SLPopularPlaces.com interacts with in-world voting booths to display the most popular places in SL as rated by player votes.

You can get a vote box for your land at SLExchange, or in-world at the Matrix for free.

http://www.slpopularplaces.com

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I have a few other SL related sites that I hope to finish in the next few months as well.

How are you adding these movies on your website? Whilst we do have a lot of content protected movies made for clients, we also have a few fun ones that we like to submit, is there a process for that?

Your voting booth is a nice feature, but the listing at SLPopularPlace.com is in serious need of a cleanup. LOTS of duplicates places in the lower vote counts.

Thank you for letting me know, I will go through and take care of that. I should have an auto-routine that will clean up the database on a regular basis to correct that very soon.

The videos are currently being pulled from YouTube. You can just upload them there with the tag "Second Life" and they should appear at some point. I will upgrade the search function and add a few more standard searches soon.

I'm making alot of sites at the moment but I still have a handful of SL Related sites that interact with the in-world environment that I hope to finish in the next few months as well.

Sounds great, however we/I do not promote our/my movies on youtube. In a recent TV report, it would appear Youtube actively supports (by not moderating either movies or comments) violence and racist comments.

A reporter met the owner of Youtube and asked why there were 100's of mobile (cell) phone movies uploaded every week, showing gangs of school bullies attacking children (the goal is to beat them until unconcious) and when comment were posted encouraging these acts, along with racist comments about victims of ethnic origin, he said on camera and for the record 'we don't remove movies like this, simply because it's the now, it's happening in the world, we have a responsibility to allow people to show real life and current events', when pushed about the racist comments, he said they should have been removed by the moderators, but some 6 weeks later, they still remain.

I also recently contracted a nasty virus which effected my quicktime programme and pluggins, the origin was from a movie I had watched on a 3rd party server (no names mentioned), that is why we (WBA) only host and stream our own content from our secure server network. The virus (a worm) apparently is attached to a movie stream by altering the code of a single frame (much the same way you can introduce a virus signature in a jpg), the result causes an internal buffer overrun and locked administration permissions for the player, programme and pluggins to protect the virus while it does its dirty work.
Fortunately, our own network systems which we use to make machinima before uploading it onto our server network, is fully encapsulated and the virus was unable to spread through our systems, it only existed on a single HD which is closed off from the rest of the network for that very reason. The worm effected not only programmes, including existing media files (none of our company stock, just the freebie media from the OS), on the HD, but tried to corrupt the MBR. Under normal circumstances this would prove distasterous for the average user.

Enjoy

i am sorry that youtube would allow something so hurtful to all human beings to go on like this. i have seen some of the worst most disrespectful things on youtube and it is all kept in the name of freedom. what kind opf freedom takes away someone elses freedom to
live and act peacefully something that damages people is not freedom, it's a way to lock them into a cell of what other people do, so you should do it to. or think it's alright, because thats freedom. that is not freedom one bit. all the best to you, and i am sorry that you got a virus, it isnt fair and it is not freedom to throw viruses into people computers either. but i am glad you got it out.

YouTube removed my latest Second Life video due to adult content.

Was this done using the API from youTube?

I'm impressed!


How often will the site be updated? Daily? Weekly?

Thank you. The site is updated in Real Time. It was made using the youtube API. I'm trying to learn a bit more about some other APIs and add some more content. I will fully integrate the search function in the next few days, for now it goes to another of my sites.

YouTube (now owned by Google) has always seemed fairly safe to me (I've never had any issues). I'd make sure to have the latest macromedia flash player installed if you are worried about anything AWM mentioned.

The millions of comments YouTube gets on their site on a daily basis would be a monumental chore to moderate I bet. All comments are removed on the SLPopularPlaces site so that shouldn't be an issue. I'll add a contact form somewhere on the site soon too for comments/suggestions, as well as a few other features.

Thanks for your opinions.

Funny, your last comment was almost a mirror quote from the guy that owns YouTube.... he looked most unconcerned about the violence showing in the movies, and was only margingly concerned that the moderators missed the comments... although they do use a word search programme to weed out specific wording.. in his words.. such phrases as 'get the nigg*r' probably would appear as a keyword anyway. 'A daily basis' hardly excuses the fact that 6 weeks after the reporter pointed out specificly, from a written list of, every racist comment on the website, they were still there.

Brushing aside the fact that worm visues can be and are, spread by media formats, having the latest version of shockwave will not offer any protection whatsoever, as flash uses the same jpg compressions as QT does, so does 99% of media formats, so thats invalid.

Websites like YouTube, are cheap, quick and have little checks on content and attract a lot of people.... I'm not just talking about viewers, I mean virus creators, haters, script kiddies, racist idiots.. etc etc...

Google bought YouTube, for one reason alone.... exposure... the only thing is... a few more reports on the TV like the recent one, will they still support the site?

You seem to be trying to start a confrontation..

I'm sorry that YouTube gets millions of comments & videos daily and they are unable to moderate them to your satisfaction.

The way you lay that at YouTube's feet almost reminds me of O'Reilly talking about DailyKos (some people who visit that site leave hateful remarks, even nazi-type remarks, therefore DailyKos support Nazis, according to O'Reilly).

This is non-applicable to this issue as SLPopularPlaces doesn't even have comments.

Now I'm almost willing to bet that if you did get one of those flash viruses it was from a .SWF file and not a .FLV file like YouTube uses. Am I right? I have yet to hear of a FLV file that contained a virus. (Prehaps you could point me to an article if I am incorrect).

Yes, Google will still support the site come hell or high-water, you do not spend multiple billions of dollars on a website to simply forget about it later down the road.

The odds of you getting a virus from youTube (in my opinion) are virtually nil.

The level of caution you share is good, I just wonder how you can connect to the internet with all the threats out there.. Something tells me if Youtube had a virus problem my cursury search of the Internet would have mentioned quite a few articles about it (which it didn't).



I would not call Youtube a "cheap", "quick" site.. If only I could get a couple billion dollars for selling a cheap quick site I'd be extremely happy. The reason they likely attract alot of people is likely because they have so few checks on content.

YouTube is a huge public forum there would simply be no way for them to moderate every video/comment that got posted on their site. You couldn't moderate them if you tried.

For millions of users YouTube is safe.



Outlandish claims like this I have trouble believing. The reporter came up with a list of EVERY racist comment on youtube? For starters that's impossible. Secondly 6 weeks after the fact most of those comments would have been buried, thirdly it would have required going through every video, finding the specific comment from a list of hundreds, locating it and removing it. Unpractical.

Videos and comments do get removed on a regular basis when reported in the appropriate fashion (ambushing the former owner on TV is not the appropriate fashion, but makes for good sensationalist journalism). Did the journalist report each video and inappropriate comment by clicking the very visible "Flag as inappropriate" or "Spam" links? Or did she simply ambush the former owner without doing that knowing it would make for better ratings on TV?

Sensational news stories are just that sensationalism, and usually overlook the facts of the case. Good for ratings, lowsy for informative reporting.

I think you are engaging in hyperboyle here..

Making sure you have the latest IE, virus scanner and the like is about the best you can do. If you are afraid to visit YouTube as tens of millions of people do every day, then it is likely an irrational phobia which I will be unable to cure you of, I just wonder why you would have the Internet to begin with if you fear such a large segment of it..

Next you'll be telling us how our computers can get infected by watching a movie in SL.. If not why not, SL uses Quicktime which you claim has the ability to hide viruses.



So why wouldn't viewing such a video in SL infect your computer if what you say is true? And if it is true why do you play SL?

Now I do already know the answer to this, I just want you to say it..

The file that infected your computer FLV file (ie: streaming video) or .SWF file (ie: script), which was it? And did you get it from YouTube?

There is no one guy that owns YouTube. Google owns and operates YouTube. Google is a publicly traded company run from a board of directors. From what you said in your post about the virus I would say you are completely full of it. Millions of people use YouTube daily and have no issues as you describe. Sounds like something on YOUR end. Nah that couldn't be......

And for anyone to says YouTube is promoting violent content is ignorant fool. They provide a service for anyone to upload their content. If violent content is popular it is not YouTubes fault but the people that watch it. Yeah, censorship will fix the world! hahaha.

Oh dear... how the fools gather.. The only fool here is yourself. If you knew as much about how virus's are spread.. you would know that JPG's have been used for some years, QT, flash etc all use the JPG compression engine. I have caught one virus in the past 4 years, not because as you state, I am overly cautious and am afraid to frequent the internet blah blah.. but because I systematically run several layers of checks on my system on a regular basis, hence why I was able to find the virus and contain it in a very short space of time.

Don't blame anyone who gets a virus on them... people that create virus's are the culprits, those companies that create anti-virus programmes are always one step or more behind the virus creators, otherwise that scurge would not be an issue.
The only person posting on here thats 'full of it' is yourself, you are a niave at best.

I would also suggest before you make rash statements defending YouTube, you do some digging yourself. Your statement about not being able to search for racist comments is false. Google won an award for producing the fastest search engine on the internet.. and how do you think that works? And you positively state that controlling content is impossible.. not so.

If you read my statement, I said the owner (as he portrayed himself) was handed a written list of content that showed racist comments and violent movies, giving specific details. You would have expected that at least those would have been dealt with.

On your statement about my comment regarding Cheap and Quick... I was referring to the users.. it doesn't cost you anything to post content, and it delivers that content very efficiently.

Somehow you have got this twisted as some sort of attack on your website. My thread stated by asking you how I could share some of my own content on your site.. I would not have done that, if I didn't like the concept.. however, as you only mirror that from YouTube's servers, I will not host any of my content there for the very reasons I stated.

You have a great day....

Getting a virus through a JPEG is pretty hard to do, as the following articles seem to indicate:

JPEG Virus:
http://www.secureworks.com/research/threats/jpegvirus/
http://www.securityfocus.com/news/482

Also they aren't really viruses, they are either exploits are silly hacks.

Also you didn't get that virus from YouTube as you allowed someone else to think. Youtube uses FLV files which have never been reported to carry a virus, if you have an article that claims otherwise please point me to it.




I'm not making rash statements you prehaps are. I asked you if the reporter appropriately reported each comment and video they felt were inappropriate on the website or not. I explained that giving the FORMER owner of youtube a list isn't the appropriate fashion.

I also did do some digging. I searched for "Youtube virus" "Flash virus" "Quicktime Virus" "JPEG Virus" "FLV Virus". All of which didn't imply any great dangers (unless you download some program in the process, but then you can't on youtube or my site).

The former owners can be seen here talking about how Google acquired Youtube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QCVxQ_3Ejkg

Which one was it you saw on TV?




Yea, but you said that like its a bad thing.. That sounds like a good thing to me.. Would you feel better if it cost to post and the content was delivered inefficiently?



Not if you take into consideration that as of December last year he is the former owner. I would have expected each complaint to be submitted properly if they expected it to get resolved. A written list is not submitting it properly, have you seen a youtube URL? In a written list it would be hard for someone to diciper between a 1 or a 7, no search engine will help resolve a written list. Each link must be reported through the website, if the reporter didn't do it someone else would have had to. Do you have a video of this report you saw? Prehaps its on youtube?

You implied that youtube spreads viruses (which by extention implied my site may as well) which I find to be untrue. You provided no evidence for your claim aside from the fact you got a virus from an un-named 3rd party server from a video of unknown format, and you also didn't detail if you downloaded anything, ect.

You also claimed that Youtube supports violence and racist comments. The proof you provide is that the former owner was ambushed on TV once about it, without stating if the videos were reported in the appropriate way through the website. You don't phone youtube or ambush a former owner to get a video removed, you follow their procedure. You don't call Bill Gates if you need a replacement Win XP CD, you follow their procedure.

The two claims you made I found to lack evidence to support your claims that's all.

When did this video air? This year?

PS - No hard feelings from me, you just seemed confrontational when you implied I sounded just like the owner of youtube after you claimed youtube supports racist comments and violence. I don't support racist comments or violence, but I also don't believe in holding a company responsible for every comment posted in a public forum. Nor do I hold them responsible for not removing it if not reported in the appropriate fashion, that's all (call the former owner of any company and complain about something, see the response you get).

We are all friends here either way..

I won't try and drag out this post, as it is becoming off topic... however, the statement about it being hard to get a virus from JPG compression engines used in media, I don't remember saying it was easy.. I just said its a fact. Just the fact it can be, and is being done should be sufficient. If I knew the exact file that infested my system, I would have posted the name of it. Programmes like virus's do not like to leave calling cards with a neat trail back to the orginator, they migrate. My definition of a virus is a programme that I did not knowing allow onto my system that carries out actions that were not intended, and or destrcutive, or perpetuate themselves from my system onto others. BTW, you can contract a virus simply by watching media from an unknown source (YouTube isn't a source, is a delivery mechanism, the media hosted is a source). MP3 files are another source for spreading virus's, peer to peer networks such as LimeWire etc.. The virus doen't have to be fully encapusulated in the media, just have sufficient code to open a port, or piggy back a stream to your system while you watch/listen.

I would be cautious reading virus reports that are dated 'Date: September 28, 2004 ' and 'SecurityFocus 2002-06-14
' when it refers exclusively to SP1 on XP... which has more security holes, security updates and malicous software removal tools installed in the history of any OS.

The person interviewed stated for the record, that he was/is the owner of YouTube... To say he was hijacked into an interview suggests he was forced/kidnapped. However any responsible business person would have perhaps done something when presented with concrete information about actual violence and or racist remarks being hosted on their servers.

The part about responsibility about hosted content is incorrect. Authorities have the right to demand content be checked, and do not contact the person who uploads the material in the first instance, they get the webhost to remove the content in the first instance, before taking action against anyone else.

As I said before, my initial post was enquiring what mechanisim you used to get content onto your website... the fact that you use YouTube, leaves little interest for me for the reasons I stated... It was not intended to slight your website, even though it would appear to have been interpreted as such, resulting in name calling and accusations. If I misrepresented my reasons and they appeared to be in some way an attack on you and or your efforts, then I am sorry.. that is not my intention.

GL with your project.

I Googled: MP3 Virus

Result #1: http://www.f-secure.com/hoaxes/mp3vir.shtml

Article about allegations of viruses being inside an MP3 being a hoax.

Source: Leading anti-virus comany.




You must first download an executable file, you cannot get a virus by simply viewing an image. I will require a 3rd party article as verification of your claims if you deny that.



That article said only systems with XP SP1 were vunerable to that jpg virus, and even then a program had to be downloaded.

It said of the virus:

"It's not a virus. The posted JPEG is actually a trojan downloader. It has no ability to spread on its own. "

"It only affects users with Windows XP Service Pack 1."

"It's does not automatically execute on reading the message..."





I simply don't believe that, I believe it could be done if you downloaded a plugin or other file, but that's getting a virus from downloading something, not viewing a video. I do not believe by simply viewing a streaming video (without downloading something) your computer can become infected, certainly not an FLV file. There may be a few exploits with some video formats/players, but that still doesn't fit the definition of a virus, and not even an exploit assoicated with FLV files which youtube uses.



Unless this happened before December of last year they were not his servers, if it happened after December of last year he was not a businessman, he was a billionaire playboy. Contacting the former owner of a company is no way to file a complaint, I can't explain that any better.

Your claims simply do not hold up to scrutiny. I can't accept them at face value. You are free to not use Youtube for whatever reasons you wish, I just don't think the issues you brought up reguarding youtube are valid. Again, it's nothing personal I just want to point out a few of your concerns should be clarified a bit better and a few of them turned out to be hoaxes.

Anyone recall a virus that would infect cookies just visiting websites?

My PC got infected with a virus called "Cookie monster" once..

Searching google for Cookie Virus brought this article in place #1:

http://www.cookiecentral.com/c_virus.htm

The possiblity of a virus being in a cookie is nil. There may be some concerns with exploits reguarding older browsers and the like but no viruses in cookies.

Strange how some cling to the notion that a virus has to be something that comes as a package.. then acknowledge that the media files do/can carry a downloader trojan programme.. and what do you think that will do.. say a polite Hi to you eachtime you log on?
If you wish to continue believing that there are absolutely no virus's from media sources, great, keep doing so.. and as you say, don't take what I have said on face value.. but you keep trying to disprove any such notions by using a single source of proof that uses 2-3 years out of date information. Quote your latest evidence 'SOURCE: Internet Western Associates, Inc. 1998 BetaNews.Com. All Rights Reserved'

checkout http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39286182,00.htm

It's absolutely np to me what you believe... But in retrospect, that doesn't mean I am wrong. FLV formats cannot be played in SL, I never mentioned that format within the context of SL. But as they are veiwable from the likes of YouTube, which converts uploaded files from native formats into FLV for their streaming hardware, is mute as any infections will be encapsulated. Virus's dont have their own file extensions like exe, com etc, they hijack those formats.

Anyway.... as I said, GL with your project.

[url=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=quicktime+virus

My last virus was a nasty cold, been in bed for days.

Seriously though, I also got a virus through YouTube...so I'm cautious with it now.

Mandy C

I think you guys are refering to the Quicktime EXPLOIT, and the Myspace/Quicktime WORM. Neither of which are a virus. Also neither of which affect youtube. In fact they are both simply exploits. There is a huge diffrence. These programs use security holes in the Quicktime player to do their dirty-work, absent those security holes in the quicktime player there is no threat. An exploit, well exploits security holes in programs, a virus is a self-replicating program which does not require any security holes in programs to do it's business.

Also see in one of my 1st posts I said to make sure you have all those programs updated, I was then told that wouldn't help.. In the case of the "quicktime virus" and a number of other things it would help to make sure you have the latest quicktime player.

My source for the JPEG virus can be as old as I like, there are simply no newer articles which contradict the article I shared with you. You can complain about the age of the article but unless you share a new article that says the JPEG "virus" is spred by simply viewing a picture you haven't rebutted it.



Agreed. Youtube FLV files do not pose any threat of spreading a virus.



Care to share details?

<sigh> There is an old saying 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'.... I would add '.. and some horses you have to explain what water is'...

People have supplied you with search engine (including google) pages full of links to research... Having been in computing for over 20 years, programming, building custom systems, seen the OS go from cpn to XP, written games and even created VR worlds not unlike SL, I have 4 companies that all revolve around the creation, hosting and streaming of media.... I have done my research.

A 'Virus' in its orginal term when used in context to computers, is a code that makes the system do, against your knowledge, something unintended. The variety and range of what that type of programme can do these days, has seen the creation of a prolifercation of companies trying to combat these programmes. Goverments at International levels are involved in combatting this scurge.

If you think for one second, that virus's are only interested in corporate or government systems, that the vast majority of systems connected to the internet aren't scanned on a continous basis, whereby those of the ilke to do such things, aren't trying to find a way to either gain financially, or in notoriety.. then you need to be a bit more cautious.

My comment about the conversions of media files into the format that the likes of YouTube use, I stated that any virus present in the orginal media would be 'encapsulated' that means 'still within'. I am curious how easily you play down 'its only a exploit'... do you know what an 'exploit' does or mean? The jpg 'exploit' which is as you say 'old' is still present, and is being used within media even today, it's one of the mechanisms used to transport the code that can then create the effects of a greater threat. Media is 90+% based on jpg compressions routines, that is how you get to see 'moving' pictures, its a flipbook representation of jpg compressed single frames.

Oh, as a matter of interest, having the latest verion of a delivery programme such as QuickTime or Shockwave will not offer you the protection you proclaim. Those that combat virus's are always one or more steps behind those the create them.

If you think I am in some way attacking you, or your efforts with your website/business, you are clearly mistaken. My comments are aimed generally at how 'virus's' are spread and those hosts of such potential threats, are either niaeve or simply don't care.

Again, good luck with your project.