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“and drugs” ? !

Taser Sues Second Life Virtual World Creator Over Gun Sales.

“All of the defendants that sell virtual weaponry like plaintiff’s real ones, under the mark Taser for use in the Second Life programs and grids, also sell adult-only explicit images and scenes” and drugs, according to the complaint.

First, I don’t understand why trademark infringement would be anything other than a straight yes/no question. Either someone is using your trademark or not. Why should other products sold in the same store make any difference?

But notice that the “and drugs” is not a direct quote of the complaint, it is something that Bloomberg made an editorial decision to include. Even though (I trust) the complaint may claim that drugs are sold by Linden Research and Virtualtrade, it is irresponsible to report this as though it is possible.

And finally, I find the idea of tasers far more disreputable than either pornography or drugs.

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“Real” life

Tateru Nino has a trenchant post on Massively: Exposing human nature through virtual environments.

That virtual environments, like Second Life, manifestly have not and do not rapidly devolve into random and uncontrollable anarchy is an interesting commentary on how little we know, and how much we assume about human nature.

And more broadly, we are who we are, even when we’re pretending to be something else.

Also of note from Tateru on her personal blog is her decision to honor her time and effort at the keyboard: Breaking a habit: No more RL for me.

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Beta testing with Pony Linden

At the end of my work day, I read a tweet about the Lindens doing a stress test on the beta grid (aditi). It was past the time stated, but I went anyway. w00t! Lots of lag. Lots of walking and TPing hither and yon. Lots of touching scripted objects across sim boundaries. Some amazing, amazing avatars. And Pony Linden!

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Second Life reading material

Enough to last two or three lifetimes, in fact! Second Effects has refined the list of Active Second Life Blogs, 2009:

After last week’s update, we received so much feedback and so many suggestions that we have prepared yet another even more extensive list of Second Life blogs. But this will be the last time.

Kudos to all involved. What a lot of work went into this task.

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In honor of Ada Lovelace

In honor of Ada Lovelace Day, I want to highlight the generosity and good spirit of Her Grace, CoyoteAngel Dimsum, Duchess of Primverness, the Baroness Lovelace, Defender of the Faith(less), Keeper of the Light (Beer), Speaker to Machines. CoyoteAngel is to me the epitome of a “geek duchess”: creative, experimental, savvy, patient yet no pushover, and extremely generous. Not only are CoyoteAngel’s lands open to all for recreation, she also hosts the long-term site of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Second Life, with all its prims, scripts, avatars and their attendant lag. Anyone who needs a megaprim can find them in her domains, along with sculpty stairs and arches, girders, a variety of flying machines, and sculpty maps of parts of Caledon.

And all this while carrying on a career and building a business as a programmer in “real life.”

Brava, Your Grace!

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Pyramid schemes

I’ve been playing the HUD-based Tiny Empires game in Second Life, in a fairly casual manner (although I am using the Federation version). I came to the party late, and I’ve never tried much to create a downline (“subjects”), but I like the approach taken by Valentine Janus, the leader of New Deseret, the kingdom I belong to. So it’s an amusing diversion.

The creator of Tiny Empires has come out with a new game, Tiny Empires 3000, and when Val offered the opportunity to try it out, I decided to take her up on it. Similar concept: hierarchies of players amassing property, capital, rank, etc., but this time with a space traders theme. If you’d like to try it out, let me know, and I’m happy to drop a trial HUD on you (also available via the website), and of course I’d be glad to have you join my guild!

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Meeting in “real life”

If you have an interest in meeting in “real life” at a convention or special event (or even if you don’t), please take a quick survey to help determine interest in meeting at SteamCon, Seattle Airport Marriott, Washington, October 23-25 or Second Life Community Convention, Marriott San Francisco, California, August 13-16. This is an effort started by those who attended and created CaleCon last year, who wish to attract a much wider range of participants this year. Please pass the word around the neo-Victorian, Steampunk, themed, je ne sais quoi communities that might be interested.