Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Quote of the day

Second Life will "soon" launch an internal search mechanism, Rosedale says -- but won't say when. Now, you can't search for much of anything on SL -- can't look for people, events, nothing. That will change


Philip Rosedale aka Philip Linden

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

We will let ya know when SL is ripe for the picking - Said the Ad man.

So I was reading an article today and happened upon this gem from an Ad man via NY. Seriously unimpressed with how big business has stepped into the virtual world of Second Life; I keep these quotes to remind me how arrogant and ignorant the Ad men are to how Second Life "is".

-----

"We have counseled our clients to stay away [from Second Life] for the time being," said Drew Neisser, president-CEO of Renegade, a New York-based integrated marketing agency. "The quick-hit PR route is now closed, so marketers need to carefully consider why they want to be in Second Life and make sure they have a sincere commitment to the betterment of Second Life."

Neisser pointed to issues such as technical glitches, security concerns (for example, hackers breaking into presidential candidate John Edwards' virtual campaign headquarters on Second Life) and difficulties attracting a sizable audience.

"There are a lot of other ways to engage your targets online and offline that may in fact be more cost-effective and more rewarding than Second Life," he said.

However, he added, "We are monitoring Second Life on a continuous basis and will let [clients] know if and when the time is ripe for their participation in Second Life."

----
Dear Ad Man;

Second Life is a unique world unlike any other; you wish to market your real life products to a very large customer base....that's all fine and good but do you even realize the majority of Second Life users enter the Second Life world to escape your corporate reality?

No I didn't think so; or you wouldn't be failing so miserably.

Cat

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Cristiano Diaz has gone off the deep end again!

Not that this is the first time Cristiano has lashed out as Philip Linden or Second Life or even Linden Lab for that matter. However one of these days calling Philip an "asshole" is bound to get this guy into hot water. Well we can always hope so anyways. Sorry Cris but I dig Philip, I dig Linden Lab and I adore Second Life. Someone should give this guy a virtual pop in the chops!

Cristiano; Without Philip; there would be no you. k thanks bye :)
Read it here.

Angry Dear Philip: You're an Asshole KTHNXBYE
I was reading an article about Second Life on news.com, and stumbled across this:

Quote:
Originally Posted by cnet
Linden Lab, too, is a bit unapologetic about its technical headaches, promising that it has been working to eradicate them but encouraging both current and prospective residents to accept them as a necessary component of such an experimental medium. Second Life got to where it is, Rosedale explained, by not waiting for the kinks to iron themselves out.

"If we had had that sort of traditional 'stop, think carefully, seek feedback, listen to everybody' (mentality), I can tell you that as the entrepreneur behind this thing, even starting in 1999, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't have made it," Rosedale said
So in other words, we just need to accept worsening conditions, monetary loss, and the other myriad problems, because Philip has a vision and his crack team doesn't have time to stop and think and plan because they have a metaverse to build. We just need to shut up, pay their salaries, and play with our prim hair if it manages to rez. Pardon my French, but fuck that. What insulting, pandering tripe and a pathetic excuse for why the grid is so royally fucked.

If they had stopped to actually fix things instead of taking big bong hits off the Love Machine, SL would be on a solid foundation instead of the house of cards it now sits on. Congratulations on making it - so what if the entire thing now falls apart because you didn't bother to actually screw anything correctly except your customers. I would look for the middle finger smiley but it doesn't convey my disgust strongly enough right now.



Here is the full link:

http://news.com.com/Second+Life+The+....html?tag=item
Cristiano Diaz

reprint of the boston globe piece

Finally an article I can get behind. This one finally nailed it on the head where all things Linden Lab are concerned. 2 million US$ per day being traded before gambling became illegal in Second Life. Hard to believe but that may be true; seems like a hot bed for money laundering if you ask me. However I am sure the Feds are very keen as to what is going on in Second Life these days. Anyways the unpopular Zen Linden also has a few things to say in this article I was not surprised to read his limited view of Second Life as a place to socialize and advertise. Yawn Zen get out more visit some of the role play, residential, and unique communities popping up in Second Life. Even Linden Lab might be shocked at how creative ppl are when they are NOT making 30KUS for doing a project.

Read it;

Even a virtual economy needs a Ben Bernanke
Zee Linden - the online persona of John Zdanowski, Linden Lab's CFO - manages the economy of Second Life. Zee Linden - the online persona of John Zdanowski, Linden Lab's CFO - manages the economy of Second Life. (LINDEN LAB VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By Associated Press | September 5, 2007

NEW YORK - Just before a global credit squeeze roiled US financial markets this summer, an equally dramatic financial crisis threatened Second Life, the much-hyped online world.

On July 25, the company controlling Second Life said it would no longer allow gambling. Economic activity was cut by nearly half as gambling halls shut down.

That's a recipe for disaster in any economy, with job losses and a possible currency collapse, but the online world stayed on an even keel. That's in part due to the fact that few people make a living there. But Second Life's equivalent of Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, also keeps a firm grip on the currency.

It's just one example of how economists and virtual worlds are teaming up, to mutual benefit. Outside Second Life, a game company just hired its first full-time economist. Another economist, coming from the academic side, believes that just as virtual economies need economists, so economists need virtual economies - to experiment with.

The Second Life equivalent of Bernanke is John Zdanowski, chief financial officer at Linden Lab, which runs the online world. Using Second Life software, he spoke to the Associated Press in Linden Lab's virtual headquarters.

Before the gambling crackdown, "residents" exchanged about 2 million US dollars a day in Second Life. That dropped to $1 million shortly after. Gambling wasn't quite as important as those figures indicate, Zdanowski said. Second Life is more than an online Las Vegas - it's a place for socializing, games, advertising, and other activities enabled by a world where residents can, with sufficient skill, create almost anything they want out of thin air.

Gambling inflated the economic activity because it meant small amounts of money changed hands relatively quickly, often several times a day.

But the gambling shutdown was still a potential problem, because Second Life has its own currency. The Linden dollar is convertible to US dollars at an ostensibly floating exchange rate.

Losing even 10 or 20 percent of its real economy set it up for a currency crisis, as gamblers and gambling hall operators tried to cash in their gains for US dollars and put their money to use elsewhere.

If the exchange rate started to plummet, remaining, nongambling residents would also feel compelled to trade their virtual dollars for real ones, making the currency nearly worthless. Zimbabwe is currently struggling with that kind of hyperinflation. But in Second Life, that's not what happened.

"The reason it hasn't hit the exchange rate is that we were exercising one of the controls we have," Zdanowski said.

Linden Lab has for more than a year put a ceiling on the value of its currency. It's done that by selling Linden dollars on the currency exchange for around 270 to the US dollar, and that's where the exchange rate has stayed since then. In a year, the company has made about $5 million on this trade.

Like China, "we basically manage the supply of our currency so that the exchange rate stays fixed against the US dollar," Zdanowski said.

With visitors taking money out of the world because of the gambling shutdown, Linden Lab simply stopped selling its currency to compensate for the greater supply of Linden dollars for sale on the exchange.

Eve Online, an online science-fiction game, has avoided some of the complications of having an online currency by banning its conversion to real money. Yet the company this summer hired its first full-time economist to keep tabs on what goes on inside the game and to look at whether more complex financial institutions, like banks, are needed, and try to cultivate relationships with real-world academic institutions.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

LL Bans Cory Edo a 2nd time.

Whoa ok now we all know I am not a huge fan of the electric sheep company and all it's inside deals but you know shit is pretty messed up over at Linden Lab when one of their darlings get's her ass banned not once but twice while trying to test some sort of a pay out system. Word on the street is that if you pay 5 ppl 5kL$ your ass gets flagged and you are then banned and so are they. Not only that but then if you dare to do it again expect another vacation from SL. Here are some quotes from Cory Edo I had to keep because most ppl wouldn't believe this shit.

Cory commenting on illegally logging in as an alt while her main is suspended. Which is against the TOS for LL btw. You cannot log on as an alt if any of your accounts are suspended;

For what I need to do today, it would involve redoing about 2 hours worth of work at least, plus reuploading a ton of textures, before I can even start doing the work I need to, which will be fun because its mostly texture uploads and any other account I have access to is pretty broke.


Yeah, I can make do if I have to, but its overall putting me in an insanely hobbled position since I don't have access to my inventory, nor do I have any other account with the admin access to ESC's projects that I tend to need.


LL doesn't work on weekends; but lookie Guy Linden was kind enough to somehow find out about this and take care of Cory. How nice to get such service! Go LL.
Yeah what about ppl who can't afford a concierge; you tell em Cory!
UPDATE: Guy Linden got me back in, thankfully. I'm still insanely pissed. This shouldn't happen to ANYONE. Me working for a dev company is probably the only reason I've gotten these situations taken care of, but its utter bullshit that unless you have connections you can get locked out for a weekend twice in a row over $L5000 in transactions. What's happening to people that don't have a concierge account?

---
Least Guy was in a talking mood, most Lindens are not.
According to Guy the only thing in my account was a note regarding my original suspension on August 10th, so either the first instance triggered twice, or I got popped for paying out $L5000 to 5 av accounts this past Thursday.


The Lindens have never all been on the same page; I blame their damn love machine lol.

Io: from what they've told me its payments to a number of avatars that does it, but don't put any weight to that statement because so far I've been told different stories from everyone at LL involved in this, including two completely different things from Robin herself. I am throwing up my hands in exasperation and letting my work take care of it because like I said if it was up to me right now I'd sell everything off and tell LL's autoban and their lack of internal communication to kiss my ass.

---
Ut oh not just Cory but her friend/employee got wacked too. Wonder if the girl knows anyone at LL who can get her back on line this weekend?

...and I just checked Search and one of the girls that got suspended with me last time because of the payout (a stress tester), who also participated on Thursday's stress test, isn't found in Search, so they tagged her again.

---
Robin Harper is in charge of PR she has no idea what is going on; backend wise.
Well according to Robin, first it was an automated system, then she said it wasn't an automated system. So their VP doesn't even know what the hell is going on apparently.


Say it with me....FIC.

Considering ESC's top three managers are at SLCC and one of them is on a panel with Robin today, this is already past JIRA stage I think.

---

Well connected = FIC (fetted inner core; group of ppl who consistently get jobs from LL over everyone else and nice perks like having their accounts unsuspended on weekends.)

Was Cory right? Probably; but I gotta say bummer for those poor souls who don't have any connections at LL or can't afford to have any type of concierge service.

Lucky for Cory her pals at the Electric Sheep Company were sitting on a panel right next to Linden Lab's Robin Harper this weekend at the SLCC huh.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Page elements added

In the past I have been careful to state my political views. Mainly due to the fact I have found out things about ppl I respected that made me no longer respect them. Or call them friend for that matter. I thought about the day that Aimee Weber issued a "Jihad" or whats known as a "holy war" against me in the forums. I'm still pretty pissed off about her lack of caring or understanding my point of view and my loyalty to my family and my country. I was even more upset when I realized she lived in New York and thought herself funny or clever to make such a statement. I have always respected her work and drive. Well I did up until that point. During the time of her "Jihad" statement it was more than a little ironic that she should be working for a US Senator on the Millions of US project. I personally sent him a copy of her statement IW. He should know who he hires and their political views. Especially given the callus nature of some hand picked employees. I was a huge Aimee Weber fan; but make no mistake. I am not now. She should be ashamed of herself.

That's my stand. I support our troops, I support the American contractors, I support those in office who day after day make the hard decisions that help me sleep at night. War is hell but it has no place in a game called Second Life.

Catherine

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Liverpool Philharmonic to play Second Life gig

Liverpool Philharmonic to play Second Life. My only response is; Well that's great for the 40 ppl who might get to see it. If there are any more than 40 with bling, hair, 500 prim count boots. They will crash and burn just like ever other large event in Second Life. Not only do I know they will fail, they cannot help but fail. SL cannot and never has been able to hold more than 40 av's on a simulator without that simulator failing. Crash and burn. So why do ppl continue to even try to have these kinds of "big" events? Press, it's just good press. Well at least until the reporters all need to do a hard reboot.

My advice; yank the cord from the back of your computer and pop a DVD or CD of the Philharmonic in the stereo and skip this event. Trust me you will thank me later when your enjoying that glass of wine and not ripping your hair out.

Cat

Thank GOD they are not all mindless sheep!

Arsheba Nasu Says:
August 14th, 2007 at 8:24 PM PDT

Let me set the record straight regarding the so-called Second Life Economy. There isn’t one. Not any longer.

You only need to look at the Popular Places list to see what the vast majority of active accounts in SL are doing. They’re camping.

The first and last impression most new sign-ups see is the camping farms. This is what Second Life has become, and Linden does not seem to mind at all.

These camping farms, largely driven by the too-good-to-be-true idea sold to advertisers that there is some value in advertising to zombies, have completely taken over not only the ebb and flow of the money supply, but also the overall trend that accelerates away from the days when real people spent real money developing real virtual content that real people wanted to find. Now all they can find is camping farms. And those who have invested large sums of time and money creating content, whether social or commercial in nature, are finding it more and more difficult to reach the few genuine customers left.

Businesses are gasping for air. All the methods of advertising and publicity that once allowed us to thrive, based on our own merits, no longer function. Does it really take the collapse of Ginko to make it obvious that the SL economy is in a death spiral?

The traffic-point system has been completely corrupted to the point that there is a seemingly endless supply of advertisers who have been duped into thinking it’s a no-brainer to fund these camping farms in exchange for Top-20 advertising. When one realizes the money was wasted, there are hundreds more waiting in line to advertise to the chronically AFK.

There seems to be no end in sight to the camping farms’ control of Search and Popular Places, and the air’s getting quite thin for the rest of us.

Joseph Woolley Says:
August 14th, 2007 at 8:39 PM PDT

Linden, since you don’t want to publish my blog regarding the land sales. I will repeat it here, if you keep it out again, i will publish it on the world wide web.

1st - forget about the good old day land price of average 2.5L per sqm. Linden stop ding first land sale of 1L per sqm now.

2nd - Forget about wanting to have land price below 5L per sqm. The lowest possible start cost for a sim now is 5.84L per sqm. Minimum bid of US$1250 plus Tier cost of US$195 equal to US$1445. Take that multiply by 265 linden, you get 382925 linden. Divide that by 65536 sqm, you get 5.84 Linden per sqm. This is assuming you can sell the linden at 265 linden after deducting all the necessary cost charge by lindex or other exchange. More often than not, you will sell at 275L.

3rd - Linden is the only one to really profit substantially. They remove the first land sale, then they increase the minimum bid to US$1250. They put out more land auction than now during period when the average land price is more than 10L. Check back few months. They just choose to put land as and when they can profit the most. There is no systematic approach.

4th - They are just pumping more sims into their pathetic infrastructure to gain more profit in terms of land sale but more importantly the tier charges.
They will be just happy that you keep buying the auction land. This greed is now starting to come back to bite them. More sims with items vs inadequate infrastructure = more bugs & problems = slower user growth.

5th - I dare them to be transparent about their infrasructure support. Eg. Sims per Server now compare to 1 year ago. The network bandwidth, database asset, etc, etc compare to 1 year ago. What have linden done to support the EXPLOSIVE growth in the number of regions. All of us premium users are paying to support them. Instead of providing good service to us, Linden is ripping us off by having indiscriminate land sales.

6th - Linden, if you are so “noble” compare to those land barons, then i dare you to stop charging for land sales, since we don’t own them legally anyway. Charge just the current tier. Can you do that? Nah, i don’t think so, cause you want to profit more & more. You guys are just getting farther & farther from when second life first started, but towards the bad side of it.

7th - Yes, linden control the SL economy. However the land price tanks, they can simply ignore it. So long as the auction land & islands keep getting bought and they keep getting the tier charges. My dear fellow SLers, this is the real BIG BUCKS. Not their so called SL economy or the Casino guys, the land barons, these are small peanuts.

FINALLY, I AM QUITTING THE SO CALLED PREMIUM USER, I NEED TO STOP BEING A SUCKER. good luck to you all.

SL Bank Fails, Oh MY!

Bank Failure in Second Life Leads to Calls for Regulation
By Bryan Gardiner Email 08.15.07 | 2:00 AM

The recent collapse of Ginko Financial, a "virtual investment bank" in Second Life, has spurred calls for more oversight, transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to business practices in the metaverse.

Last week, Ginko Financial -- an unregulated bank that promised investors astronomical returns (in excess of 40 percent) and was run by a faceless owner whose identity is still a mystery -- announced it would no longer exist as a financial entity.

The declared insolvency meant the bank would be unable to repay approximately 200,000,000 Lindens (U.S. $750,000) to Second Life residents who had invested their money with the bank over the course of its three and a half years of existence.


750,000.00 US$ gone from users accounts, and no one knows the name of the guy running Ginko Financial. I can pretty much guarentee someone at Linden Lab, knows the name of the guy who funneled 750,000 GRAND threw LindeX this year. I can nearly guarentee this because the thought of Linden Lab not having a clue as to who would be funneling that kind of cash threw their game; makes me want to vomit in disgust at how piss poorly their company has been mismanaged. So my money is on Linden Lab knowing full well who the money makers are in their little world.

If you lost money threw Gingo Financial; well your a dumb ass. Handing your money over to a complete stranger. No I am not laughing with you, I am laughing AT you.

-----

New Product announcement! "Box of b ox", and only L$135. You loved "Box" and this is the follow up product "Box of box" more of that "wood like" texture you all have come to love. And our person plot in Itbeajoaken sim where we have managed to scoop up some of the atmosphere of Second Life. Quantities are limited so you must act fast. Please send L$135 to Martin Magpie and you will receive your "Box of b ox" within 7 working days. We expect like the famed "Box" this too will be come a collectors item.

Cat

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

4 years of Second Life

After 4 years of Second Life I figured it was about time to tell my side of the things. Without interruption, without blatant insults, without worrying who I was going to piss off with what I had to say. To post without fear of being belittled or insulted.

My first thought before publishing this blog is "Now wouldn't that be refreshing."

-Yeah it would be.

I'm going to finally have my say and there isn't anyone who is going to be able to shut me up. I like that. I have heard all the comments I wish to hear; about what ppl think of me and fact of the matter is I no longer give a shit. Their reasons are so rediculous and so far "out there" for publically bashing me at every turn; I decided not to post in fourms any longer. Why would anyone subject them selves to that kind of treatment any further if they knew the end result.

I have been called every name in the book over my valid opinions of SL. I am tired of telling ppl they didn't change my opinion, to lighten the hell up and mainly "Why is only your opinion valid?"

Oh yes I have much to say but I won't say it all here and now. Instead this is my journal of Second Life and I will say everything I have to say in my time and in my way.

If the reader doesn't like it, I suggest they don't read any further. Because it's all going to be said. I no longer care who I offend, I no longer care to be "politically correct" I simply no longer care about being honest or true to anyone but me. I suppose the critics of me will have a field day, let them, I will not be reading their reviews of me. I have for the past 4 years to sum up their opinion;

"I am a worthless cunt who should die."

-for what? My opinion of a game called Second Life.

Tell me; who has issues? Quirky as I may be; I never wished anyone to die. I never said their lives were not worth living. I never lashed back without damn good reason.

4 years huh, at least for me this ends with my words of reason, and honestly.

Catherine Cotton