Archive for July, 2007
July 31st, 2007 by Caleb Booker
This week proved that the Linden Dollar is just for pretend.
First the “World Stock Exchange” is robbed of L$3.2 Million which, while not a significant number from an economy-wide perspective, severely damaged confidence in the WSE. There was a cover-up, possibly with help from Zee Linden, which is pretty much the exact opposite of how exchanges are supposed to handle these things. Four IPOs de-listed themselves. That was hushed up too.
After that, Linden Lab banned gambling in Second Life entirely. Panic panic panic, and a flush of islands go up for sale in an already saturated land market.
A run on “Ginko Financial” followed. It’s one of the largest and most influential in-world banks. They couldn’t cover the withdrawals. From the sound of it, they may never be able to. Also, there are stories of conflict of interest, poor management, and a lack of any assets of any kind… and really poor public relations, yet again.
There’s also the fact that over the last few days there have been grid-wide problems that prevented anybody from spending anything.
Looking at the above charts, however, everything is just fine. All of these recent events caused a tiny little bump in the Linden Dollar market value, and that was it. So…? What am I missing here? Shouldn’t the value of the L$ tank?
Insert “OMG THE L$ IS A LIE” rant here, but there’s more. Things are not what they seem. Continue reading ‘Funny Munny’
July 24th, 2007 by Caleb Booker
John Martin
Pandemonium, 1841
Oil on Canvas Click
The FORBES Magazine Collection, New York
Click image for 1800×1198 version
Drama and the Second Life Herald have always gone hand in hand, but drama about the Herald is a bit different. Some changes have been made, and as a result Prokofy Neva will no longer be contributing for the paper.
It’s a complicated situation with a lot of moving parts. One part has to do with Prokofy Neva’s particular take on the events in question. Another part is Pixeleen Mistral’s new editing powers. Some would say that this all boils down to communication problems, betrayal, scheming – all the elements of a good drama. Personally though, I think it mainly has to do with Urizenus Sklar (Peter Ludlow) and Walker Spaight (Mark Wallace) publishing this:
This is going to take some explaining. In fact, it’s going to take an epic (read: long) tale to truly explain this situation. Let me pop one of those fancy WordPress <!–more–> tags in here and then dig into a brief history of the Herald and how things have kind of, well, exploded lately.
Continue reading ‘Pandemonium Herald Style’
July 19th, 2007 by Caleb Booker
This morning my Twitter feed tweeted about a takedown notice over on TechCrunch. Scholastic, the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter books, wants them to remove the article that mentions that the latest Harry Potter novel has had all its pages photographed is available for download through The Pirate Bay. USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and CNN have all reported on this as well.
So, to be clear: they’ve filed public legal documents saying that we shouldn’t report about what their public legal documents are referring to.
That bit of irony aside, Scholastic couldn’t possibly be more unrealistic about this. You can’t just do a bunch of paperwork to make it all to go away. It doesn’t work. Just ask Blizzard.
Scholastic and Blizzard are basically doing the same thing: fighting the wave. One is trying to make piracy disappear by pretending it doesn’t exist, the other is trying to get gold farming to disappear by chasing after hundreds (maybe thousands) of individual farmers with throwaway accounts. Both are in denial of just how big the wave is, and of the direction that it moves. They’re trying to beat the ocean back which, obviously, doesn’t work.
What is this wave I’m referring to, exactly? Call it self-determination. We have decided, individually and collectively, that we will have what we want. Go ahead and write your paperwork, file your lawsuits, and define your ‘Terms of Service’. None of it has anything to do with what we want, and our will is a juggernaut. Work with it or work against it, that’s up to you. We’ll have our way regardless.
This wave is the future. Here it comes. React.
July 15th, 2007 by Caleb Booker
Note: this post will contain a grand total of 14 images, several of which (see just above this note) are in 1600×1200 format. There just wasn’t any way to do justice to this incredible build.
Today VeeJay Burns tipped me off (via Twitter) to this place. (SLurl) It’s called Greenie’s Home Rezzable. I have to admit, I thought I had the wrong place at first. It was a crappy looking uneven tunnel that let out to a crappy looking house… but as it turns out, the tunnel was a mousehole and the house was a dollhouse. I found myself in a gigantic room filled with small green aliens and the most detailed work I’ve ever seen in Second Life.
After a few minutes I came across a very put-out Pavig Lok. Apparently Tenshi Vielle wrote the place up in the Herald and did NOT give credit where credit was due. Instead of interviewing the builders, she wrote an edgy little “is Starax back?” piece. Now, I get that… it sells. You namedrop an infamous builder (who, by all accounts, left SL ages ago) and people will get excited. Unfortunately…
(Read more after the jump) Continue reading ‘Rezzable’s Big Gamble’
July 10th, 2007 by Caleb Booker
In the old media system all you had to do to get a little press is write a press release and send it out over the wire. If it was the kind of story that a reporter needed, they’d put their name on it, edit for length, and up it went mostly as-is. Others would see it and follow suit. Better than a full-page three-color.
Things change a bit once you’re not dealing with the “just print something” environment of a major newspaper. Everything is person-to-person. As a new media reporter I get approached by a lot by people wanting press. If I pick up their story, it often gets picked up by others and we all discuss it. We give the matter real thought. There’s analysis and investigation. The public, ultimately, gets a better story and is far more inclined to look into whatever the product in question is.
It’s a pretty good deal, but first you have to get me to want to write about you. Old media will print anything, but new media would rather print nothing than print garbage. Here are some tips if you want us to talk about you:
1. Don’t just send me a press release without comment - This happens all the time. It’s how I know whoever sent it sucks. A press release in my inbox is somebody else’s garbage. If you’re lucky, I’ll delete it. If I’m in a bad mood I’ll read it and write about how much you stink.
Continue reading ‘Five Tips For Getting New Media’s Attention’
