General News

Wondering Around Second Life and the Web

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This Sunday morning I am going reading blogs and forums to see what is going on in Second Life. The interesting things I am finding follow:

Nice Places

Honour has images of Alice is Wonderland [SIC]. See: SL10BCC, Jumping Down the Rabbit Hole in Second Life. It is a region that is as strange and odd as the original story conveys and Honour does a good job of capturing that in her photos.

L$ Exchange

Maria Korolov on Hypergrid Business post more about the ongoing saga of the L$ Exchanges. See: Linden Lab allows third-party currency sales. Maria sees this as the Lab reversing their position. I don’t.

All exchanges MUST buy their Lindens from the LindeX. People can then buy those L$ from the Exchanges. But, in reality these will no longer be ‘exchanges’ as no one will be able to take money out of SL EXCEPT through the LindeX.

So, the exchanges are now only retailers of L$. It looks like many people will still have a significant problem getting money out of SL. This is of course the whole point of FinCEN regulations.

Forum Discussion

There is a question and discussion in the SL Forum about: Any solution for cashing out in Euro with LindeX? 

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More L$ Exchange Information 2013-20A

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Gwyneth Llewelyn has published her take on the new More Options announcement by the Lab. See: Financial crisis in Second Life ended? There are some details and gotcha’s worth knowing.

Gwyneth speculates on whether the Lab will turn off the cash out feature of the LindeX. As it is now the More Options change means other exchanges CANNOT convert L$ to RL currencies.

If FinCEN is forcing the Lab to move that direction, it will happen. But, that would be a huge hit for the Lab. There are people making a RL living from their SL businesses. Preventing any outward cash flow would kill those businesses.

For instance the motion capture company just covered in The Drax Files would likely drop their efforts in SL and move on to something else.

Personally I think stopping the outward cash flow will kill Second Life. As things are now SL provides entertainment and income. I’ll have to look to see how many private islands/regions are a shop of some kind. Tier is paid by sales. That tier payment thing could continue. But, some significant portion of those people are taking money out of SL. I suspect that significant portion is likely to give up their land.

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The Drax Files – World Makers: Episode 6 – Abramelin Wolfe

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This episode is about Abramelin Wolfe one of the people behind Abranimations. His wife helps him. If you have ever searched for a hard to find animation in Second Life™ you have probably come across Abranimations.

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Check out Abranimations web site. If you like Jo Yardly’s 1920’s Berlin, then you must have Abranimations’ 1920’s Flapper Dances… or so I think. Abranimations also has a collection of Vintage Dances. They should work too.

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Oculus Rift Update 2013-20

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Jo Yardley, of 1920 Berlin fame, has an update on the Oculus Rift from Rod Humble. See: Rod Humble: Oculus Rift already in Second Life, want to make it excellent. The title pretty much says it all. But, Jo provides some interesting background making it worth the read time.

Oculus Rift COmpared to other display systems.
Oculus Rift Compared to other display systems.

I think Jo is somewhat representative of builders like Loki Eliot, Penny Patton, and others that create fantastic builds. I expect many of that caliber builders will be looking at their builds though Oculus Rift eyes.

I suspect that a shift to Oculus Rift will change how Second Life is built and experienced. While I am looking forward to the Oculus Rift arriving in a retail version I am probably not as excited about it as Jo. It will affect all the things she says it will affect. But…

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Lab Makes L$ Exchange Announcement

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There is a new post on the Second Life™ blog announcing: More Options for Buying Linden Dollars.

Quoting:

With a credit card, you can purchase L$ on the LindeX using 27 different currencies, including EUR, GBP, JPY, and AUD. If you don’t have a credit card, you can also use PayPal, which can be connected directly to a bank account in more than 193 countries and regions.

OK… most of us know that. Then they go to say:

Now, to give users more options and make it easier to purchase L$, we’re launching a pilot program of Authorized Resellers of L$. These sites are authorized by Linden Lab to purchase L$ on the LindeX and then resell those L$ using a variety of international currencies and payment methods. To be clear: per the Terms of Service, these resellers will not be allowed to purchase L$ outside of the LindeX (i.e. they will not be able to buy L$ back from users and cash people out). The list of Authorized Resellers participating in the pilot program is available here.

They also acknowledge there is a problem with cash out time via the LindeX saying:

We know that users are also concerned about the length of the LindeX’s cashout process and the limited choice of currencies when selling L$. We’re currently investigating ways to improve that experience for users while still providing superior fraud protections, and hope to hasten the cash out process and offer new currency options in the future.

So, something is at least in the works. I expect to hear more as the day wears on.