Philosophy

What’s Next Second Life?

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Several things are coming together. First is my slow FPS rate. I’m looking for a solution. I can’t find my processing bottle neck. The research is taking me far outside Second Life ®. Complaints about slow or poor performance in OpenGL based games are not limited to Second Life. So, I’m not accepting it is solely poor programming on the Lab’s part.

New Tech - Image by sidduz - Flickr

As one moves through the technology world in such a search it is obvious that we are becoming highly dependent on computer technology. OMG! At my favorite bar they did a BBQ event and brought in a company to do the BBQ food. Patrons pay the caterer direct for the food. The cash register was an iPad with an app.

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Second Life 9th Birthday – Perception

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Linden Lab® has announced Second Life’s coming ninth birthday in June. It is a small announcement, 158 words. See: Help Us Celebrate Second Life’s 9th Birthday! If one had no history with Second Life® the announcement would just be an announcement, neither good nor bad. But, those having history with Second Life are having various reactions to the announcement based on their history, expectations, and perceptions of Second Life and Linden Lab.

Tateru in an article on Dwell On It, Anniversary time. Everything new is old again, recalls what, to her, is probably the best SL Birthday in all time: SL3B. Tateru see this announcement as possibly opening the best opportunity for a great celebration in years. She goes on to speculate on why the Lindens are proceeding this way, but that is speculation.

D'ni Refugees at Second Life 5th Birthday

Innara Pey at Living in a Modem World sees it as a shame. For her the collection of regions devoted to the celebration and the large number of builds for the Second Life 8th Birthday (SL8B) made for a great party.

I was somewhat disappointed with SL8B. I like to see great builds. I like to see creative ideas well expressed. I love things like Kerryth’s lacy, fairy like buildings. I like the interactive art. I like finding a bunch of friends parting and having fun. There were 3 or 4 builds in all the dozens that fascinated me. I want to be endlessly fascinated. But, such builds take a huge amount of effort. Building just for a few days and then seeing the build disappear has to take its toll.

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Second Life Interesting

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Strawberry Singh with her fun nature does a fashion blog and a hilarious Plurk line (example she Plurked about: Brown Vag) I check both each day. She finds awesome skins and lingerie. Great photography. But today she surprised me and posted about doing a promotional piece for Linden Lab. See the image. I think it is one of the best promotional pieces for Second Life that I’ve seen.

Strawberry's Blog and Art

To see it on the Second Life site, you need to log out of the SL web sites. Then visit SecondLife.com. You may not see it as the first image. However there is a pager button in the images so you can look through the images. I have all the ones that came up for me, 5, after the fold.

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Rebuttal to Second Life Failing

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I like clear thinking. I especially like it when it recognizes information limits, meaning it deals with the unknown as unknown. The incorporation of known facts for the foundation is always good.

Such an article just appeared on the Sand Castle Studio blog: The Virtual False Dilemma. It is a very well written article, short and succinct.

Unfortunately, when speculating on the future we always deal with the unknown. The recent article by Botgirl, My Take on Why Linden Lab is Investing in New Products Instead of Second Life, uses an ‘employee review’ found on Glassdoor: Linden Lab – “A once great place to work with an exciting product now on the decline.” From there she builds her viewpoint of Second Life and what Linden Lab is doing. Sand Castle’s article disagrees.

The decision we all have to make regards the accuracy of the entry on Glassdoor. It is filed by Anonymous. Depending on how we decide to evaluate its accuracy and believability affects how we see the articles on Botgirl and Sand Castle’s blogs.

There are other points in the articles. But, the review is a primary foundation point for Botgirl’s article.

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#SL Linden’s Blogging Offer

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This is probably of more interest to bloggers than blog readers. But, opinion on the Lab’s request for guest bloggers has been the topic in many blogs. Some are outraged that Linden Lab would dare to insult them by offering to allow guest articles without offering to pay the writer. They see it as the height of arrogance and insensitivity. Others of us see it differently.

One person taking a minority stance is Gwyneth Llewelyn in her blog article: Working for free for Linden Lab’s blog. Its long 4,838 words. You won’t be left asking, ‘Wonder why she thinks that?’ You will know.

She points out the aspect several others are over looking or discounting. Having an article on the Lab’s blog has value. The systems that analyze the value of advertising and links on a site give a high value to the Lab’s blog. CWire.org gives Text Link Advertising on the Lab’s site a value of approximately $929/Link/Month. So, the link they allow in the bio is worth almost a grand. On my blog a link is worth $2… whoop! whoop!

The comments after the article are as interesting or possibly more so than the article. The comments do show that the Lab’s offer is not unique. Online blogs often have the same arrangement with writers or make a standing offer for guest posters.

Whether one thinks a link is worth as much as CWire is what the free market is about. We are all free to decide for ourselves and participate or not. But, one has to wonder why people are outraged, upset, or otherwise annoyed at the Lab’s offer.