The Alphaville Herald

Metaplace – Pools Closed Due to Lack of Traction

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tizzers Foxchase got in the last word in Metaplace Central -  “POOLS CLOSED DUE TO AIDS” – and seconds later Raph Koster’s user generated virtual world creation service closed permanently last weekend. What went wrong – and how did the end of the virtual world affect the community?
Informed [...]

Try All Your Chance – Banlink Passwords Were An Open Book

Rainbow tables, SQL injection, and why you want to use a different password for e-mail
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
The new Try All Your Chance blog details the frightening extent of the BanLink security problems that led to the Second Life ban list sharing site's apparent demise – and suggests that BanLink user passwords might [...]

Is ToToM the Metaverse Soundtrack?

Balancing creator, mixer, and consumer rights
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
While I was visiting Soviet Woodbury Saturday, the resident communists took time away from building their new workers’ paradise to rez a brightly colored dance floor and an impromptu worker’s dance party took place to an audio stream from http://www.maxxhitsbootlegs.com – a French mashup site [...]

Metaplace Worlds Now Embed Into Any Web Page

1.) build a world    2.) add it to your web site    3.) profit?
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
If the name of the game in MMOs is to grow the user population in preparation for an eventual IPO, Metaplacetook a significant step forward this week by allowing Metaplace spaces tobe inserted into players' web sites. For [...]

Browser Based 3D Worlds: Are the Pieces Finally Falling in Place?

by Urizenus Sklar, Contributing Editor
Raph Koster is expressing a kind of jaded been-there-done-that-saw-it-coming attitude about what he is seeing at the Game Developers Conference this year, and I’m not surprised. One year you are the crazy nut describing the future to an audience of twelve other nuts, and the next year the room is full [...]

Wikipedia Helps You Create Your Own Bots — For Free!

Wikipedia links to ready-to-use Copybot V4 download
by Kris Dibou, part-time bot
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CopyBot – external links section includes open source copybot

So you've visited some of the big stores in SL, and noticed the models who look exactly like avatars, but never say anything; in fact, they may even have a tag over their heads saying 'Bot'.  [...]

Pop Bots of Second Life

e-Business demands bots!
by Idoru Wellman, e-business consultant
 
bots done right – a stylish addition to any business
A flair for witty and artistic placement of population boosting bots — pop bots — can enhance not only your in-world shop’s traffic, but is also crucial in projecting a professional image. The Herald visited several shops to illustrate pop [...]

New Torley Linden Documentary Features Mitch Kapor

An all too accurate picture of the state of SL
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
Mitch Kapor promises less novelty, less freedom, uneasy transitionas Torley Linden signals disapproval with bad sound, gray textures, low framerates

Noted virtual filmmaker Torley Linden’s latest production is a documentary of the closing keynote address from the SL5B 5th “birthday” celebration. The [...]

Network Culture Challenge

by Jessica Holyoke
Cory Ondrejka and Doctor Ludovico recently announced the Network Culture Challenge from the International Island sim.  The University of Southern California’s Network Culture Project, in conjunction with the MacArthur Foundation, is inviting the residents of Second Life to imagine new ways that virtual worlds can be used to make contributions to the public [...]

Primjackers Trash LL’s Digital Rights Management

Copy “protected” prim hair, motorcycles now easy to copy -In-world economy threatened?
by d3adlyc0d3c, ex griefer
video demonstrating use of a prim replicator for potential customers on onrez
Recently it came to our attention that certain devices have begun to circulate inside Second Life that allow object owners to circumvent Linden Lab’s digital rights management/permissions system. These new [...]