Monthly Archives: December 2009
Predictions for 2010
2009 comes to an end, and after the traditional snowball fight with the Lindens, where residents redefine the concept of physics-induced lag by shooting everything in sight with utter prejudice, it’s time to relax, rethink about what went wrong in 2009, and how 2010 will look like. Keeping in tradition, I’ll try to get my 2010 predictions for Second Life (which are more likely “wishlists”) and see if I can…
The First-Hour Experience
I’ve added a few thoughts on the first-hour experience in Second Life on my other blog. We all know that M Linden’s top priority is dealing with the first-hour experience of newbies and trying to get a better retention rate. Apparently, 99% of all new users leave before a month has elapsed (and don’t even become active users on the statistics!). This is way too much. Even though SL doesn’t…
Metaplace’s out of business; will Blue Mars outlast it?
On the same day, I got hold of two bits of news from the metaverse front: first, Blue Mars announced their pricing. Oh, all right, I know I’m behind the news… the point is that this relaunched the Second Life® vs. Blue Mars debate once again. I started following the SLED (Educators in SL) mailing list and how the academic community was not impressed — neither with the pricing, but…
1MAG – a new magazine for Second Life – launches
Proudly announced as “1MAG is more than just a fashion magazine in Second Life!”, this new magazine, created by Elettra Blachere and Jhao Oh, is the latest editorial inroad into publishing for a Second Life®-specific audience. You can join the in-world group “1MAG – International Magazine” (click here to join) to get new announcements. Created for the real peoples who love fashion, music, art and make believe 1MAG is a…
Virtual Worlds as Green Workplaces by Draxtor Despres
Drax sent me the above video, which is a nice way to tie this to the Copenhagen conference What amazes me is the quality of the video overall — specially in these days where so many people still think that the SL rendering engine is “outdated” and such. You start getting more and more “uncanny valley” effects out of machinimas like this one! Send article as PDF to
It’s Alive: The Theory and Consequences of Technological Evolution by Extropia DaSilva
Four years after Darwin published ‘On The Origin Of Species’, Samuel Butler was calling for a theory of evolution for machines. Most attempts at such a theory have tried to frame it in terms of the steady accumulation of changes, recognisable as Darwinian. But natural selection has certain limitations. For one thing, a new species can only be created through incremental steps. What is more, each step must result in…
Linden Lab’s Promotional Videos
I can’t stop watching this one. Ill Clan, you guys are amazing! Forget the stupid comments on that video and just enjoy the experience… More videos from Linden Lab. Send article as PDF to
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