Home visits and the consequences

Yesterday I visited the new home of my dear friend Lu Stapleton. It’s a very nice and modern house somewhere on the mainland, which is definitely a good fit. She was quite impressed by the work of the builder and for sure is going to recommend him to others.

While I was there, some classic music played on the parcel. She told me that she bought SLTunes, a nice interface for iTunes to set the media URL on the parcel based on the radio station list in iTunes. It was a cheap buy, doesn’t get in the way and gets its job done. A well thought out piece of software, just like all software should be. A tool that doesn’t get in your way!

Well, I was curious, so I used Google to find some information about this tool and stumpled upon the website of the maker, Darius Lehane, named „Darius Lehane’s Second Life.“ Doh!

Ok, the name of my blog isn’t exactly brilliant, either, but I gave the site a try and it was worth it. First, if you want to buy some nice software, you can get some very good things there.

But, more important and fun to read for me, was Mr. Lehane’s „Hall of Shame“. It’s a list of 8 points and listing some of in his opinion bad developments in SL. And guess what? He’s right!

For example he mentions empty malls (even the idea of opening another mall is bad), Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong and other stuff. It’s worth a read!

Well, he also has a short list of three points of „Top Places“ in his opinion, also a very nice read.

And last, but not least, his very interesting article „Guide to Land: How to Own Land and Make Money (or not spend much).“ It has some very good tips you should consider when buying land and tells you in all glorious details why it sometimes could be better to buy land from a land baron, and sometimes it is better to buy on mainland and the differences between these two fundamental choices.

My Friday in SL

Well, today was smooth and without any trouble. All was quiet in the garden, danced with several nice ladies and I found some stuff to read and to do.

Well, here’s my roundup:

  • An article named „What do Paris Hilton and Second Life have in common?“ from the CEO of Iron Realms, a company doing business in and with MUDs, from 10/20/06. Well, Matt Mihaly takes a very negative stance against SL. No great news there, because they are competitors. The quote „SL is famous for being famous“ sums his opinion up very well! He has some points there, but the reason for a company going into SL is always first – cheap publicity. If you join there, then you’re hip, you get big press for nothing at all and the project costs are just a very minor part in your budget. That’s the way it works!
  • A piece named „Relay for Life and Exploits“ from Hiro Pendragron from 06/20/06. Quote: „Linden Lab loves to play this game called „Let’s release a patch befor a major release!““. About the problems of the patch schedules and that he is the opinion that the Lindens should be allowed to play actually in the world while at work to get a grip of it. Point taken there, but not all Lindens are technicians like he writes.
  • The article of the day: „Politiker in „Second Life“: Der US-Kongress wird virtuell.“ This was today at the frontpage of the website of the German magazine „Der Spiegel“. It’s about a new sim, in which the US congress was put into. Well, actually good PR for LL at no cost at all, since this is a biggie.

Second Life in 2007 – potential backlash?

In Terra Nova is an interesting article about potential backlashs about Second Life in 2007 by Ren Reynolds.

Points one to three are:

  1. It’s all just sex. sex sex sex I tell you
  2. It’s not just sex, it’s prostitution
  3. It can be used for hiding / laundering money

Well, guess what? Point 3 already has happened, there are already articles about this possibility in the web. Definitely also worth a read and some of them are just bound to happen sooner or later!

New wiki in town: Second Life Business Communicators Wiki

There is a new wiki in town: the „Second Life Business Communicators Wiki“! To state from their first page:

This wiki is intended to be a collaborative resource for anyone interested in business and communications applications of Second Life, virtual worlds or 3D user interfaces.

It is in its infancy and is by no means exhaustive, complete or ready for prime-time. This is just a start, but it will continue to grow. Contributions or ideas on what resources you’d like to see here are most welcome!

So it is for sure worth watching if it is able to get a decent community.

Wagner James Au about Hype and Anti-Hype

I’ve found the article „Second Life: Hype vs. Anti-Hype vs. Anti-Anti-Hype“ from the midth of December 2006. A very well thought article from Wagner James Au about the recent developments, company side and growth in SL. Definitely worth a read, so not a short one, so take your time!

[Update]: Seems the user base grows about 23% per month according to this artice based
on numbers bei Philip Linden.