Second Life 1.18.4 Viewer Release Candidate Update Linden Labs has posted a new release candidate, but, it has numerous bugs that keep it from being “officially” released. Some residents in the comments who have tried it say it has helped them, one was having problems with textures, others report it is worse, while most are just going to wait, like me.

The Geek Keyhole on Second Life This is a post about the huge perception problem we all face in SL, and it’s time for those of you who can understand this to declare war on it, in ways that I’ve hardly been able to do in Second Life as much of an Infamous Antagonist as I’ve been — the walls of geeky perception really need to be broken down and the geeks really, really need to stop seeing through their keyholes.

Some Random Thoughts on CSI:NY As the hubbub starts to subside on the whole CSI:NY thing, I thought I would record some of the stuff that’s been rattling around in my head over the last few days.

Dwight Schrute gets a ‘Second Life,’ still needs a first one On Thursday night’s episode of The Office on NBC, dweeby Dwight Schrute (played by Rainn Wilson) revealed himself to be a Second Life addict–something that doesn’t require any suspension of disbelief.

Mobile operator Orange launches Orange Island in Second Life More from the virtuality / mobility crossover: operator Orange has opened Orange Island within Second Life, taking a different tack to Vodafone’s recent debut of Inside Out. Instead of letting SL users make virtual calls, Orange is trying to build more of a community experience. The island is the work of agency Metaversatility, which will be helping Orange’s team on new projects and content going forward.

The future of virtual worlds The Virtual Worlds Forum in London this week brought together a bunch of business people, technologists, entrepreneurs and marketers to network and exchange ideas around virtual worlds. I had wondered if there was enough activity in the UK for a conference like this to make sense in the UK, but more than 400 people showed up and it felt to me as though it caught the wave just about right.

Make-Believe College Emerges in Second Life Those who want to relive their college years — the Greek houses, sporting events, or late-night cram sessions at the local pizza parlor — can now do so thanks to a role-playing game, Kindly State University, that arrived this month in the virtual world, Second Life.

Who Has ‘Metaphysical Jurisdiction’ In Second Life? Before the end of this sentence you will have to make a choice between the blue pill and the red pill, for as soon as we step over the period we will enter an alternate reality and it will not be easy. Lawyers are looking into virtual worlds like Second Life, studying whether the environment is suitable for regulation and asking who has “metaphysical jurisdiction.”

UK government to police virtual worlds like Second Life The UK government has pledged to start policing virtual worlds such as Second Life. Government minister Lord Triesman was talking at the Virtual Worlds Forum in London when he vowed that the authorities would start to address causes for concern such as ID fraud and money laundering.

CSI:SL — The Dawn of the Mainstream Second Life A page gets turned, and Second Life is now mainstream.

For us residents what this means is that from now on, we’re not “early adopters” any more.

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