Clipmarks | kidora's 'second life' clips

CSI Comes To Second Life

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 16:59:26 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: An upcoming episode of CSI:NY will occur partly in Second Life. It will center around a murder who is stalking his prey virtually through SL.

While I am not a big fan of CSI (can anyone say overacting) this episode will be interesting for one main reason...

How many people will sign up for SL after the episode, and will the influx of users crash the SL servers?

This should be cool

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

Second Life is bracing itself for an influx of new members this coming week with the long awaited episode of CSI:NY does Second Life to be shown in the United States on Wednesday.

The episode will see Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) entering Second Life to pursue a killer who has killed a Second Life user in a case of virtual stalking gone too far.

CSI:NY fans will be encouraged to join Second Life and investigate the case by following a link on the CBS website. CSI:NY will have three options for CSI-related inworld activities. The first option will allow viewers to walk around virtual New York buildings and visit a CSI lab and play forensic games.

The CSI:NY episode also sees the launch of the Electric Sheep Company’s OnRez Second Life client, the first major independent Second Life client launched since Linden Lab moved to provide open access to their virtual world in January.

[Video]

Tags: second life, csi, forensics, computers

IBM and Linden Lab Team Up

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:51:54 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: Very interesting ... IBM and Linden Lab teaming up. Trying to get a jump on Googles foray into virtual worlds?

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

IBM and Linden Lab (the company behind Second Life) will announce a new partnership at the Virtual Worlds Conference in San Jose today that will focus on virtual world interoperability.

The initial focus of the joint effort will be the ability to allow users to use a single virtual persona (or Avatar) across multiple virtual platforms, with seamless interworld transactions to be considered later.

IBM has been highly active in the virtual worlds space, both as a user of platforms such as Second Life as a conference and business communications tool, and as a creator with its Active Worlds chat platform. IBM’s Italian employee’s went on strike within Second Life in late September.

Tags: ibm, "linden labs", computers, "virtural worlds", "second life"

Buy Armani In Second Life

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:00:06 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: Interesting ... Now you can buy pixelated clothing from Armani in Second Life. This will most likely prove to be a more successful venture for a clothing company than other business that have attempted to set up shop in SL.

Clip Source: mashable.com

Armani’s virtual store in Second Life has opened today, and the designer himself has gone to the grand opening as his avatar, and was interviewed by Style.com’s fashion director Candy Pratts Price for the event.

Second Life users can now don themselves in Armani clothing, purchased with Linden dollars or directly through his online store for non-virtual items. Finally, a really smart integration of a clothing brand and Second Life, with options for purchasing real life items as well. Furniture next? Please?

It’s good to know that not all brands are having second thoughts on investing in SecondLife, and it’s far easier for a brand like Armani to take advantage of the virtual world for direct sales, as opposed to Pontiac, or companies that have purchased virtual space for office collaboration purposes. Other virtual worlds that are integrating real brands include Stardoll, Meez and SceneCaster.

Tags: second life, armani, clothing, virtual, worlds

Virtural Integration: Google and Second Life?

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:21:16 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: There has been a lot of talk lately about the integration of virtual worlds with the internet. The fact the Google likes to have it's fingers in all honey pots does not surprise me.
While I enjoy Second Life as a creative platform and sometimes virtual vacation it is in need of a more stable and powerful system to work under. Perhaps Google and Linden Labs (the creators of Second Life) could work together. Google would be able to supply a much needed power boost to the relatively small Linden Labs.

Clip Source: www.webware.com

For some time now, we here at CNET News.com have been hearing whispers that Google might be looking to get into the virtual world space, particularly in light of the increasing interest of existing environments like Second Life, and the success of Google Earth and the search giant's purchase of the Sketchup technology.

Well, now we might finally be on to something. According to TechCrunch, Google may already be testing its own 3D virtual world technology, in a secret experiment at Arizona State University.

And according to a report published Monday from eMarketer, Google is "planning enhancements to Google Earth to let users connect virtually with one another."

If it's even happening. And with rumors being what they are, you never know.

Tags: google, second life, virtual, computers

Second Life's First Credit Card

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:14:38 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: Wow who would have thought that a virtural world citizens will now have access to real world credit.
This is just strange!

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

Singapore based FirstMeta has launched MetaCard, a credit card for Second Life that is claimed to be the world’s first virtual world credit card.

The MetaCard works in the same way as a normal first life credit card works. Applicants are provided with a credit limit and present the card when purchasing goods at merchants who accept the card.

Although the amount of credit offered by FirstMeta is (in real life terms) rather low, it will be interesting to see how services like these develop in online worlds given that in effect they are financial services that would likely be subject to real life laws. Whilst Second Life companies such as the World Stock Exchange clearly state that they are in effect pretend outfits (ie: games), and therefore are not subject to real world laws, FirstMeta is actually providing credit that is tied to a real world account; in effect by securing their credit services they have crossed the line into the real world.

Tags: second life, credit cards, money

Virtual Business

Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:42:59 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: Interesting article.
Despite the drawbacks I believe that it can be assumed that the future of the web, and business conducted on the web, will be done more virtually than it is done at the present time. Because of this business will have to adapt and learn how to run within a virtual environment like Second Life.
Despite the present drawbacks I believe that this is all very exciting for the future of business and the web.

Clip Source: www.pcworld.com

Virtual worlds such as Second Life can be useful to businesses if they evaluate the risks involved, according to a research note from Gartner.

Gartner analyst Steve Prentice, who recently published an in-depth study on virtual worlds, said virtual worlds can pose problems to security and corporate image, but shouldn't be automatically written off as time-wasting games.

Large companies are beginning to take virtual worlds seriously, with enterprises such as Intel, IBM and Sun setting up virtual offices in Second Life, and using it to hold press conferences and even internal meetings.

Dell uses Second Life to allow customers to build custom PCs and then order the real thing, while US retailer Best Buy uses its Second Life facility to give customers access to troubleshooting experts, and Cisco hosts virtual user-group meetings at its Second Life HQ.

Tags: second life, dell, best buy, business

Terrorism In Second Life

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:48:47 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: I guess not even on-line worlds are safe anymore

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

With the game taking such a sinister turn, terrorism experts are warning that SL attacks have ramifications for the real world. Just as September 11 terrorists practised flying planes on simulators in preparation for their deadly assault on US buildings, law enforcement agencies believe some of those behind the Second Life attacks are home-grown Australian jihadists who are rehearsing for strikes against real targets. Terrorist organisations al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah traditionally sent potential jihadists to train in military camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia. But due to increased surveillance and intelligence-gathering, they are swapping some military training to online camps to evade detection and avoid prosecution.

Be alert, but not alarmed

“Community representatives are relied on to report suspicious or inappropriate behaviour to the owners or the SL authorities, just as in the real world.”

Tags: "second life", terrorism, terrorists

Second Life Better Off Without Big Corporations

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 05:23:30 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: Just a little article for all you Second Lifers out there. I think its great that all the cookie cuter corporations are pulling out of SL. Second Life is to imaginative and free thinking for business like that. I know that when I shop in SL I love to buy what people like you and me create, people who work on the internet or in photoshop a lot and when we have free time we create stuff for Second Life. That's way cooler than any old corporation.

Clip Source: www.google.com

The LA Times has an interesting article up on the failure of real life businesses in Second Life.

The crux of the piece is that despite the hype, real life businesses are closing down their Second Life outposts due to little to no interest in them.

The reasons for the failures are open to debate; from firms not engaging Second Life citizens, through to simply a lack of actual people using Second Life (the LA Times says it peaks at 40,000 users at any one given time).

Au’s later notes in the same post that Second Life doesn’t rely on corporations for revenue and the decline of corporations on Second Life doesn’t really matter all that much to Linden Lab. Once the last corporation leaves Second Life, the user-generated metavserse will continue, and in some ways may even end up being better off.

Tags: second life, business, gaming

Gaming On A Saturday Night Anyone?

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 04:39:17 GMT

clipped by: kidora
clipper's remarks: No longer hiding in your parents basement playing Dungeon and Dragons anymore are you? Nope you now do your gaming in a world that is made up of ones and zeros.
Oh geeks of yore that once rolled the dice and played the card you now develop c. tunnel syndrome due to abuse of the mouse and the joy stick (get your mind out of the gutter). I salute you and your never ending quest in the search for magical mystical games, and the passing of the torch to the web 2.0 generation.
Be proud, play loud, and don't piss-off the Dungeon Master.

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

217 million people worldwide play online games, according to new figures released by comScore.

The study took into account all sites that provide online or downloadable games but excluded gambling sites. The 217million users account for 28 percent of all people online.

Yahoo! Games led the pack, attracting 53 million unique visitors. The fastest-growing Top 10 gaming property was the WildTangent Network.

The report appears to count visits to the actual gaming sites as opposed to actual user numbers. Under this methodology, online worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft attract a smaller share of the market as many users would not regularly visit a central page (such as with Yahoo Games) but play directly via a desktop client. Notably though, traffic to secondlife.com is surprisingly close to the visitor numbers for worldofwarcraft.com.

Tags: games