In the below video we see that Second Life does not yet work with Windows 7. The new operating system has launched and has become quite popular yet we have heard nothing yet from Linden Lab about when a version of the Second Life client compatible with Windows 7 will be released.

Check out the below high definition video demo.

Second Life Doesn’t Work With Windows 7 Video:

Second Life was mentioned briefly on Geek Brief TV. A Second Life meetup will be held in the Shadow Falls virtual sim on Thursday November 30, 2009 at 6 pm Second Life Time. Cali Lewis will be there as well. After the mention of the SL meetup you see some bloopers. Check out the below excerpt from Geek Brief TV episode 99.

Teleport there now

Check it out below.

Geek Brief TV Second Life Meetup:

In the below video we see a seemingly current but completely out of touch video from Representative Mark Kirk from the 10th Congressional District of Illinois. He seems to post to YouTube regularly so I find it hard to believe that this video is not current although it seems like it should have been made over a year ago.

The main problem I have is that congressman Mark Kirk lumps Second Life in with Myspace even pointing out the number of sex offenders there. But then he says Second Life is his main concern. He calls for the Federal Trade Commission to issue a consumer alert to all parents. Aside from the other errors that Second Life is not a web site or web space, congressman Mark Kirk seems to not understand or be completely out of touch with recent developments in Second Life or what exactly it is.

Are you not aware that Linden Labs just completely segregrated all Adult content to an Age Verified island called Zindra?

And is taking massive steps to regulate, filter, and flag all Adult content in Second Life to age verified areas only?.

Besides that you do not even mention the Teen Second Life or the educational or business advantages and eventuality of large scale use of virtual worlds?.

I guess we should shut down the internet and all video games. No that would be ridiculous. Guess what? If your kids lie about their age they can see all kinds of terrible things all over the internet. It is parents that need to monitor their children’s internet activity. If a parent was involved in their kids lives then they would know they were using Teen Second Life (which blocks all of the things mentioned in the video) or the Adult Second Life (which is segregating and age authenticating adult content as we speak) and monitor it as any good parent would.

It seems like congressman Mark Kirk is simply a Johnny-Come-Lately demanding new regulations and change after they are already in progress and I am sure one of the first to claim credit in his bid for re-election. You can visit his web site here: http://kirkforcongress.com/

Video of an Out of Touch Congressman Mark Kirk Wanting FTC to Issue Consumer Alert to Parents About Second Life

In the below high definition video we see some really cool visual and environmental effects in Second Life.

The video starts off with fire and hits some of my favorite locations including Insilico City. the Eiffel Tower, and the Volcano.

Check it out below.

HD Environmental and Visual Effects in Second Life

In the below video we see what can only be the avatar of President Barack Obama visiting Second Life.

This 3d virtual Barack Obama just came buy to see what this game is all about.

Maybe we will see more of him in the future.

Virtual Obama: 3d President Barack Visits the Second Life Game:

You may have heard a lot about the Republican GOP having a tea party to protest increased taxes and to teabag Washington and teabag Obama. This protest will also be happening in Second Life on Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 6pm Second Life time (9pm EST time) at the GOP cafe. Join with others in annonymous teabagging to protest higher taxes and dump tea bags in the river. Here is your SLurl. Check out the below video:

Video: GOP Tea Party Teabagging Washington Protest in Second Life

Why are so many Lindens leaving the lab in 2009? Linden Lab has had quite the shakeup of executives and employees in the last six months and the last year.

Things seem to be accelerated however in 2009 with several well known Linden Lab employees leaving so far in 2009 and announcing it on the Second Life blog.

Continued below:

For example:

1. February 2, 2009: Robin Linden left

2. March 27, 2009 Zee Linden Left

3. April 7, 2009: Ginsu Linden is leaving

Maybe there is a major restructuring happening to cut costs, or maybe there are some idealogical differences, or maybe the newer management and the older employees do not always see eye to eye. What are your thoughts? But the question remains: Why are So Many Lindens Leaving the Lab in 2009?

I have written before about pet dogs in Second Life comparing them to Neopets Virtual Pet Games 3d Dogs.

Second Life pets are still vastly superior and nothing proves that more than the Zooby ULTIMATE DOG 7.0. Zooby is a English Bulldog virtual pet.

Aside from looking really cool here are 9 reasons this virtual pet is better than the 3d pet dogs in Neopets:

Features of Second Life Virtual 3d Pet Dog:

1. Artificial Intelligence allows virtual pet dog to interact with toys on his own

2. Virtual Pet Actually Pees

3. Plays Fetch

4. Random actions

5. Ride him like a horse

6. Allow Friends to control him

7. Security patrol and attack intruders

Second Life Virtual Pet Dog in Guard Mode Video:

8. Avoids collisions with built in sensors

9. Swims in the Water

Zooby does cost L$2800. If only he was free.

Linden Lab announced today the 2009 Seocond Life Choice Awards. These awards will be determined by votes on an awards voting site.

Recommendations and votes for people, places, and things in the virtual world of Second Life are being solicited. Please note that a SLurl is required with any submission.

Read more below:

6 Things to Know about the 2009 Second Life Resident Choice Awards

1. Voting period March 31, 2009 through April 7, 2009

2. Only active accounts can vote and they must provide usernames

3. Winners from each Language

4. Results posted April 17, 2009

5. Questions about 35 favorite things, places and people in Second Life

6. Only one vote (per question) per avatar

Lol. This is a crazy griefer video made by a griefer who has a very high opinion of himself. The Scout CntrlAltLeet uses the Lulz Turtle Cannon (Scattergun) and Cosby Cube for his griefing.

Remember to check out this post on how to stop griefer attacks.

Griefing Self Promotion Second Life Video

I have written before about artificial intelligence and bots in Second Life. They can be used in a useful way or a negative way but most are against terms of service.

The below videos show the installation and customization of PikkuBot a bot for Second Life.

What PikkuBot Can be Used For

1. Customer Service

2. Camping to earn linden dollars

3. Make machinima movies

4. Modeling

5. Running 10 or more bots at the same time

Update: – It looks like ValleyWag may have just been regurgitating an article on Feb. 20 from Forbes.com The Second Life Hype Has Fizzled —Is Twitter Next?.

Yesterday ValleyWag wrote a poorly constructed post declaring Second Life dead and trashing education and teachers with the opening lines:

“Those who can’t do, teach. Second Life, the most overhyped virtual world, has been abandoned even by its most fervent journalistic promoters, like Reuters and Wired. It’s now pitching itself as an online schoolhouse.”

It was quickly featured on Digg which shockingly proved ValleyWag wrong by getting mixed comments including tons of positive ones (a rare thing for Diggers who usually mock and trash everything).

8 Reasons ValleyWag is Full of Crap & Flat Out Wrong About Second Life

1. Video Production Tool – Second Life is hands down one of the best machinima video production tools around including advanced 3d video production tools for making movies and many examples of professional commercials made in Second Life.

2. Conducting Scientific Research and Model Simulations – Volcano eruptions, scientific research, and even forensic analysis conducted in Second Life to solve real world crimes.

3. Limitless Things to Do – Just take a look at the Virtual World Experiences section of this blog or a Video of Different Second Life Activities – Including skateboarding, surfing, horseback riding, scuba diving, ice skating, skiing.

4. Better than PS3 Home and World of Warcraft – Read the 10 Reasons Second Life is Better Than PS3 Home and the Ten Reasons Why Second Life is Better than World of Warcraft.

5. Virtual Education is a Good Thing – Umm hello? Why do you think there are so many profitable online universities? Isn’t cutting costs and educating people a good thing? Oh that’s right you have no respect for teachers. Apart from traditional virtual education in Second Life there are also sailing video tutorials and similar projects made every day in Second Life.

6. Business for Profit or Business as Gameplay – Some people actually enjoy running a low stakes virtual business in their free time for fun.

7. Business Meetings – ValleyWag even admits that businesses and organizations are actively holding virtual meetings in Second Life. This includes showing Powerpoint presentations in the virtual world and even alcoholics anonymous meetings.

8. Second Life is an MMORPG Game Development Platform – Second Life is being actively used to create new massively multiplayer online role playing games, mini games are created in Second Life such as virtual soccer.

9. Smoke without the Harmful Effects – Second Life is a very popular smoking video game. What better way to smoke without any harmful effects?

In the below video we some some crash test dummies get run over repeatedly by a 3d virtual prim car. It is part of the physics test in the 3Di OpenSim using Networked Interactive Jointed Assembly. It is interesting to see the development of OpenSim as an alternative to Second Life.

Lol this is hilarious. Monkeys have been trained by evil scientists for the government in order to assassinate key political adversaries. They are known as the Monkey Assassin Organization and here is a video of their devastating tactics and cold, monkey efficiency. I honestly don’t know what is funnier, the monkey avatars in Second Life or the music….

Devistating Tactics and Cold, Monkey Efficiency – Video:

On Wednesday the CBC ran an episode on Second Life called Strangers in Paradise.

They do not really have much of their facts straight such as the number of residents in Second Life but the story is compelling covering internet addiction, love affairs in the virtual world, and the breakdown of marriages.

Get Some Balls and Cancel the Internet

The dad needs to get some balls and cancel his internet subscription. And the wife needs to get some counseling for internet addiction to Second Life. But the real problem is that she is having an affair online. So throw in some couples counseling as well.

It is pretty annoying how there are so many shots of eyes blinking. The large amount of footage from the Second Life virtual world is pretty good though.

There are two different online and real life couples that are covered with interviews in real life and in the game. The affairs and even the virtual weddings are covered in good detail. The video is about 39 minutes long and I find myself wanting an edited version of 15 minutes.

LOL I almost lost it when the husband compared himself to “Forest Gump”

One of the funniest parts is when a wife discovers that his husband’s girlfriend avatar had the same avatar last name and asked “Are you married?”. Or maybe it was when the husband compared himself to “Forest Gump”. LOL I almost lost it after that.

Is Cheating Emotional or Physical?

It is interesting that the question of cheating comes between physically or emotionally unfaithful. One of the wives divorced her husband in real life over it which got a lot of press.

Then the two avatars got together in real life. One couple got married in real life and the other didn’t make it. Of course the conversations that one couple has are quite awkward and they are after all antisocial people who are not the bold and playful virtual avatars that they were in the game. The saddest part is the kids that are involved in the whole thing.

If you play Second Life don’t let your family or friends see this video. Watch the full episode here.

In the below video we see a griefer practicing his Griefing skills in Second Life.

If you have never been the victim of a griefer attack it may look a little something like this:

Lol. This is a totally inappropriate and very funny spoof of those popular Bud Light commercials. It was created in Second Life.

You have seen them the ones that salute some inventor of something and promoting Bud Light? Well this one is really funny.

Bud Light Salutes Athletic Groin Protector Inventor Video

I would like to take this opportunity to wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of the Second Life avatars and readers out there. Here is a special Christmas Video from Dianna Melson which I hope gets you into the Christmas spirit and warms your hearts:

Second Life Merry Christmas Video 2008:

LOL this is a funny video courtesy of Hulu.com of the Simpsons mocking Apple, the Apple Store, Steve Jobs, Mac Users, and Dane Cook all in one fell swoop. This is a level of funny reaching back to of old for the Simpsons. I even edited the time frame so you see only the best parts:

IT Pro recently wrote about the Ten reasons why World of Warcraft is better than Second Life by Asavin Wattanajantra. He did a pretty good job but I am going to disagree and offer up the:

Ten Reasons Why Second Life is Better than World of Warcraft

1. Play for Free

Unlike WoW Second Life gives you the option of having a free account without the monthly fee. If you do not own any land in Second Life you have full access to the game and do not have to pay the required $155.88 to $179.88 (depending on your payment plan) needed to play World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King. For free you get an awful lot including a very good set of 3d modeling tools.

A Comparison of World of Warcraft and Second Life Avatar Characters

2. Be Whatever the Hell You Want

What? You mean I am limited to a certain race and characteristics? In Second Life make your avatar whatever the hell you want with no limitations or restrictions. And that includes a human, a bat, an organ, a robot, a monkey, a cat, an alien, a penguin, a wolf, a bug, a dragon, a bear, something abstract, a horse, metal, a bird, yes anything.

3. Stream Live and YouTube Videos In Game

It is just cool that you can show video in Second Life and even YouTube Videos. WoW? No? Awwwww.

4. Hold Business Meetings

Aside from the stray business raiding party (which can prove distracting to go over the minutes while fighting off a giant Monster) Second Life is the clear winner for virtual business meetings with employees from all over the world or even a virtual alcoholics anonymous meeting in Second Life. Especially when you take into account the recent developments with Immersive Workspaces 2.0 and the ability to show a Powerpoint presentation in Second Life.

5. Game Development

Have you ever wanted to create your own game or your own mini game? You can create mini games within Second Life such I am Legend first person shooter, virtual soccer, and more.

6. Second Life Gives You Intellectual Property Rights to What you Create

Read that terms and agreements from WoW sometime. Technically Blizzard owns everything including your character and everything you do or accomplish. In Second Life a developer can create full custom programs and own them and sell them. Fashion designers design clothes for large profits and more.

7. Scientific Research Can be Conducted

There are several examples of simulations, scientific programs, research, etc being run in Second Life which is extremely useful and practical. Try doing that with your Orc. There are many many organizations performing research, simulations, and scientific study in this virtual world.

8. More Diverse Players

As Wattanajantra points out you will most likely run into an IT worker in WoW. In Second Life it could be anyone from any diverse walk of life including fashion designers, business women, djs, artists, etc.

It is Not As Addictive

Second Life is more of a casual gaming experience for most and is far less addicting without the need to constantly level up as in WoW. There have been far fewer lives destroyed by playing Second Life (there have been a few) than World of Warcraft (there have been many many more).

9. Limitless Possibilities of Things to Do

In Wow it is all about leveling, crafting, trading, quests, battles, and maybe a few other things. In Second Life you can build an art gallery, become a property owner and open a mall, build a business, design clothes, program applications, shoot the breeze with friends, go jet ski-ing, play in mini games, create 3d objects with 3d modeling, get a battle Hud and fight as Storm Troopers, or fight as ninjas and that is just scratching the surface.

10. With a Move to OpenSim OpenGrid and OpenSource as Well as IBM Business Applications the Future is Limitless

IBM has developed a corporate version of Second Life, recent moves to Open Source, use of OpenSim, and OpenGrid puts Second Life into an open source world unlike Blizzard tightly holding the reigns on their software. The possibilities are limitless and the power of tens of thousands of developers can be harnessed. Just look at the success of FireFox.

Make sure and vote today. In Second Life Barack Obama and John McCain gave a speech to try and win the vote of Second Life avatars.

Here is the video:

It is obviously biased for Obama so to balance it out make sure to vote for McCain and Republican:

Actually the whole thing is fake but is pretty cool. Go out and Vote this Election Day.

Video of Political Camps and Dancing Obama in Second Life:

A booming industry and perhaps one of the more soothing things to do in Second Life is to buy, control, and befriend a Second Life pet that will follow you around and do stuff.

I have written about Pet Training in Second Life before and here is the content of that post:

———–

Pet Training in Second Life

If you had a virtual life in Second Life what would you need? Why a virtual dog of course! And wouldn’t you like to teach your virtual dog virtual tricks? Why of course you would. Watch what can be done in this short YouTube Video Clip below:

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That is pretty normal. But if you want a Freakish Anime Floating Panda to Follow You Around in SecondLife then the small Lemon Mascot Manapanda Tiny Life pet may be more your style. (see the video below).

The funniest part was when it pulled a plank of wood out of it’s ummmm…. stomach…. and started walking the plank. Then hid the plank away again in some secret pouch. Towards the end of the video it half explodes itself which is also really funny. I would really like to see these things fight each other or go all feral on something.

Wait…Wait…Get yourself a Panda Avatar and then attach the Panda Second Life Pet:

eCards are pretty boring and two dimensional. The Animated Greeting Card Generator allows you to create greeting cards in Second Life. You can select textures, music, particle effects, and more.

Now the main merit of this is the idea. It is still a card of sorts. What I was really hoping for was a way to create a pre-recorded virtual greeting card with an avatar speaking to voice sink with some crazy background, dance moves, etc. But maybe that is a version 2.0 idea. Check it out.

Now This is a Second Life Christmas Card:

So I guess it can only really be done manually and the old fashioned way. So get started today making your YouTube video 3d Merry Christmas Cards and submit them to me!

Merry Christmas Video Holiday Card and Snowman Building:

In a recent report by the Auatralian IT News site they reported that Second Life is no longer being used for mass marketing. They mentioned how brands such as coke have left the virtual world (my note: and then returned with Nestea) calling it no longer worthwhile.

Also called to attention was a large drop in commercial interest. We have all been to large sims that were deserted and had no visitors.

Other arenas such as MySpace and Facebook seem to be taking much of the money for a number of reasons including ease of use. The new focus on Second Life seems to be for educational purposes.

I tend to disagree with this assessment. I see Second Life as a long term player and by increasing the prominence of Second Life in other countries Linden Lab can quickly increase corporate advertising and interest in other countries.

Griefer Attacks in Second Life are annoying. This one shows some Obama cubes as the weapon of choice. This is a strange griefer choice and if anything should present a negative opinion of Obama. Maybe that is the griefers goal.

In a related item I saw a Clinton and Obama Second Life video:

It shows Obama and Clinton getting their groove on and dancing around Second Life together. At the end Hillary gets hit meets with an unfortunate end. The video does not make a lot of sense.

Wink is a people search index. There are now over five hundred million profiles. It indexes social network profiles. Wink has plans to increase to over one billion profiles in the next year. Wink launched in 2005 and changed in 2006 to indexing social network profiles across MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Bebo, LinkedIn, and more. It appears to be a different animal than ZabbaSearch but it does make it easier for those who want to find out more about you across more networks. You just have to be careful not to include contact or personal information. But what if Zabba Search and Wink combined? That would be truly an invasion of privacy.

But guess what? It is that. Right along the main navigation are information on a people search, background check, phone and number search. What does it say at the top?

“Find people by name and get their phone number, address, Websites, photos, work, school, more.”

This is dangerous indeed. Especially for children using these social networks as it should allow child predators to more easily track them down from a social network profile.

People talk about why Second Life is successful. Sure it was timing and was one of the first big players. Sure they had awesome news coverage and kick ass marketing. Sure they offer some of the best features and graphics out of the massively multiplayer online games out there. But the sucess really boils down to two points:

1. It is free. There is no getting past it. They were the first major free MMO when World of Warcraft was striking it rich off of the pay to play model. Say what you want about Second Life reliability, etc but hey it is free and you get a lot for what you are paying for.

2. The users retain the rights to what they create. So many other MMOs give users the ability to create but try to maintain ownership. People do not want this. This is why their virtual economies struggle.

This is a really funny Daily Show Video of Barack Obama making fun of him. I don’t care who you are or what political party you belong to; it is really funny. Just watch the whole 5 minutes very carefully and see if you don’t laugh:

I have written before about both the usefulness and invasion of privacy of search zaba com. Well now zaba people search has a free service where you receive email notifications when someone is searching for your name.

ZabaAlert is a service for the Truly Paranoid and for those that Search Zaba

Who is searching for me?! What was that!? The funny thing is that ZabaAlert claims to provide you information about the person performing the search. Is this an invasion of their privacy too?

Second Life Real Estate Crash Is Coming. Experts in Second Life are predicting a land price drop soon. The supply of land is balooning and Linden Lab continues to pump out land. The virtual world is becoming biger and emptier as newly created land has outpaced population growth.