Today in North-East Zazi, Freya Becquerel and I are proud to announce the Clock Shop. A variety of designs of clock will grace the hallways of any home. Scripted to allow for ease of use, most models also display dual-time, with a secondary dial showing in-world time. A simple toggle deals with daylight saving.
They look great at night too…
Prices start as low as L$500. All clocks are sold as Copy, Modify and No Transfer, for your resizing needs.
I got this gem in my mailbox this morning when I woke up. I had submitted the request in January after taking an enforced break from mentoring. It took this long to respond.
Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 21:59:15 -0700 (PDT)
Dear Siobhan,
We have denied your request for listing in the Mentor Group.
It may be your application is incomplete, or had inappropriate content.You are welcome to submit a new request for listing. Please review our criteria and make sure your submission content is correctly spelled, complete, appropriate, and gives sufficient evidence of your experience.
Due to the volume of submissions, we are unable to provide you with details or a personalized response to your submission.
Thank you for your interest in a Mentor Directory listing.
There’s history here. (more…)
I was reading Second Citizen, as I do. There’s a few threads there at the moment regarding both Project Open Letter, and the new verification system that Linden Lab wants to put in place for Second Life.
Well, I was also chatting happily with Peasan in IM, and she was saying she felt like Cassandra before the fall of Troy, with everything she said being ignored, and everyone bringing it up later as their own. Well, I tied this into the state of SL as it is, and what with all the problems and drama, I wondered if it really could be linked to the last days of Troy.
So do you think Paris (Philip) and Helen (Robin) will accept a small gift that might solve all our problems, and get us past the verification without giving away dangerous information…?
Technorati Tags: secondlife, verification
A lot has been written in the blogs and forums about the new verification policy in Second Life. Some I agree with, and some not, of course.
I had planned to rant, but it’s been done already by others, so I won’t, for now. I still don’t trust it one bit though. Robin and Daniel met some residents yesterday to explain more, and guess what? Everyone started saying “Ooh, that’s alright then”, when they really didn’t tell us anything more than they already had. We now have confirmation that Integrity is the one owned by Aristotle, and Linden have told us, don’t worry, they’ll never share data, in fact, it’ll not even be recorded – though they will store it for two years in a vaulted database in case the US government wants a quick peek. So um, how do they do that if it’s not recorded? And um, if, as they said, they couldn’t unlock it if they wanted to, then how can they unlock it for the government?
It’s all stuff we’ve heard before from every company that wants to store your information. It’s usually lies. So if they store it, then where are the servers? Do they comply with the UK DPA, or similar legislation elsewhere?
So anyway, that’s Integrity for you. What about the grid. This is where it gets challenging, and it’s been asked by many. The current payment based verification is being removed, so all the allow access by payment status will be gone… Maybe good, maybe bad – I never agreed with it in the first place and have been banned because of it, even though I was verified myself, being paid-up. Well also now, since there are so many anonymous accounts here, it opens the door to more griefing, so, in order to defend themselves, more and more places who normally wouldn’t will declare their land to be Adult. There will be some hold-outs for sure, Caledon and Darkmere are two I know of, but for how long once they start getting griefed? The ban-list can only be so long after all. And once 99% of the grid is Adult, those of us who are left will have to verify or leave Second Life.
So ok, maybe that’s a little paranoid, maybe not. It’s unlikely to happen yet anyway. In the normal course of things, what makes a place Adult. Well, according to Linden Lab, it’s explicit sexual or violent content, but it will be the community who decides via the Abuse Report system. Of course, estate managers, being immune from abuse reports will decide as they like, at least to begin with. On the mainland though, hrm, there are some ultra-conservative types among us. What will get abuse reported as being adult content first? Will it be furries, or Gor, or the bdsm community, or the lgbt community or who? If you’re slightly off-message with your neighbours, you could be forced to declare your land as Adult. Nice!
There’s potential for more, but nobody knows yet how it will pan out. Opt-in verification by age, gender, location and so on in your first-life profile. You know how this works though, if and when it comes… It’s not optional at all, because not opting in gives an unverified status, and that means you’re lying about something… This will wait for another post, or posts, on another day.
Technorati Tags: secondlife, linden, verification
You know, I really shouldn’t have a problem with this. I’m plenty old enough, it’ll keep kiddies away from stuff they’re not meant to see and will be a good thing for Second Life as a whole…
Won’t it?
Well you see, it’s not that simple, not by any means. Not even slightly. The problem is the way they’re going about it. The identification they require; passport, driving licence or social security number (national insurance number if you’re in the UK). I mean, in the old days, verification was by credit card and yeah, that was naughty of them, it’s not an age check, and in many places you can get a credit card at sixteen or even younger.
But look at it this way. If you’re a sixteen year old with a credit card, then the chances are that you’re working. Though age isn’t a check, most banks like to see income before they issue a loan. If you’re one of these, then the chances are that you’re responsible and adult enough that you’d never get caught anyway.
If you’re using a parent’s card though, or an elder siblings to verify yourself, then the chances are you’re not going to miss a beat scanning the same parent or sibling’s passport, driving licence or SSN card. I mean, it takes just a few seconds to scan them and put them back. I seriously don’t imagine a requirement to send originals… do you? I mean, we’re constantly told never to give this information away except to an employer. It’s absurd to have to give it for a game, but this is what Linden Lab want of us.
OK, so that’s why it will fail in the first place. But then we have the fact that verification is via th third party site. At first, we didn’t know, but people asking finally got Linden Lab to admit it was Aristotle. You should check them out, their site makes interesting reading. Linden Lab say our data will be safe, not even recorded… Aristotle on the other hand, happily proclaim their willingness to sell collected date to political lobbyists. I’d certainly not feel happy giving them all the information they need to reproduce my identity.
So ok, I’m almost 39. I’ve been in Second Life for nearly 4 years. I became a life member in 2003, and part of my in world business is adult furniture. Many of the Lindens know me fairly well, certainly well enough to know approximately how old I am. So, should I need to pay this albeit small fee to be allowed to give my personal details to a self confessed spam shop in order to continue my own business? I think not, and I suspect from the comments both on the Linden Blog and in Second Citizen, that I’m not alone.
Someone has suggested a repeat of the tax revolts. Personally, I doubt it would work, but there is support for the idea. I say, read the comments and make up your own mind. In my opinion, we’re going to hell in a handbasket.
And that’s it. There will be a parcel level flag for “Adult” that of course unverifieds can’t enter or interact with. As someone posted, there will be a sea of 16m Adult plots advertising, nay spamming their wares, and of course, providing links to the off-site markets for the forbidden items. All that will change is that people who respect the rules will be put out of business… again.
I hear the weather’s nice in World of Warcraft this time of year…
Technorati Tags: secondlife, linden, verification
In one of Second Life’s most heinous crimes yet, the avatar called Lewis Nerd has apparently stolen the search function, making use of the Sheep-built external search engine to steal it straight from the hidden land of another avatar. The victim being the ever popular Prokofy Neva.
The details of this whole gruesome tale, coming on top of Thursday’s Town Hall debacle, and of Nerd’s continued assaults on Neva can be read here.
As expected, the entire Second Citizen community has rallied to Neva’s defence. In one thought provoking comment Weedy Herbst said “Rejection over narcissism is a very unhealthy combination of extremes.“
So the debate goes on. We expect the truth to come out in full, but since it has to be extracted from reams of extremist rhetoric that would make Osama Bin Laden proud, it might take a while. For pity’s sake, don’t hold your breath!
Technorati Tags: secondlife
My Plurks What I am reading…
