Warren Ellis who writes this Second Life column on Reuters’ site, found a German master and slave couple indulging in some bottom games with instruments on his land, which is up for sale. They objected to him telling them to go do their business elsewhere so he ejected their objects from his land, meaning the slave fell ungraciously on his arse.
This reminds me of when we came back to our backstage tent on the final night of the Glastonbury music festival a couple of years back to find a couple shagging in there, UNDER OUR DUVET! I threw chairs around outside the tent and ejected them with extreme verbal force. They were falling around starkers trying to get their pants back on and they left a wet patch.
This kind of thing is obviously not unusual by any means in SL, and can sometimes cause anti-social problems for neighbours, as Warren explains, when a sex playground grew up around his land previously:
There was (sic) dozens of people in there at any one time, getting sexual relief from cats and what have you. I ended up selling that land, simply because the region ground to a crawl — that many people in a region at any one time puts a horrendous load on the server and everything happens very, very slowly. And no one needs to see a man getting sexual relief from a cat in slow motion. Trust me.
I watched Heoroes * last night for the first time. It is the ultimate Web 2.0-ish TV programme and has been a massive hit. It is supposed to be comic-book-style, and it is.
But I say Web 2.0-ish because it has so many references to web 2 and 3-type cultures and practices. I think I even spotted the two famous Chinese N*Sync YouTubers, the Dormitory Boys, (seen in original video above) in cameo parts singing the same song in a bar, dressed in the same T-shirts. And one of the characters can teleport, just like in Second Life.
There are also symbols and clues dotted throughout the show, according to Wikipedia, for fan cultures to start gossiping about on forums and so on.
There were other things that I can’t remember right now – oh yeah, one of the characters is an internet stripper and another couple video stunts. Digital cultures cut through the whole thing basically.
*The official websites has all sorts of fun stuff on it, such as Hiro’s blog, a wiki…
Filed under: Nintendo, SL, Second Life, gadgets, gamers, news, technology, videogame, wii, wow
No kidding. The Wii is proving very popular amongst retirees, reports Engadget. They like the bowling. Won’t be long until they all start getting into Second Life, Wow and the like. Hehe. The penny dropped for my muther recently and she suggested a booming business model for SL and old folks homes after hearing me yabber on about it. She already owns nansummers.com.
They should be out getting fresh air! (kiddin.)
Just days after posting about the Adam Buxton piss take of Richard & Judy’s quiz You Say We Pay, I find out the competition has been scrapped.
Turns out the quiz was a little bit of a money-spinning con. Callers have been demanding refunds after they found out they were still being allowed to call in to enter the competition even after potential winners had been chosen each day.
This is more bad news for Channel 4 after the Big Brother kerfuffle. The papers (The Mirror) here say that Channel 4 will be investigated – could be trouble. The Mirror also reports that a 62 year old player had raised this on the show’s forums ages ago, but claims she was kicked off and her posts were deleted. If this is true, then that is really quite sinister. Channel 4 claims she had made libellous comments about the presenters and that was why she was banned.
A spokesperson said people should use “proper channels” if they have complaints to make, instead of the forums. I say they don’t get it do they. They should be using the forums to pick up on exactly this kind of thing. It’s called audience partipation.
Filed under: Flickr
Is it just me, or does this picture* look like a 17th Century painting, probably called something like Girl Poses With Dog?
*…from the mum of a friend of mine I used to work with (I first got my friend onto Flickr, then she got her mum onto it… and so on… total technophobes, but loving Flickr). It is my friend’s child.
Britney’s hair is being apparently being auctioned off. Bids no less than $1m. What on earth would you do with it?? More importantly, does it come with a DNA test for proof of origin?? Place your bid here.
This is from last week, but I missed it: Gizmodo editor on why consumer electronics are a joke and why he blames every one of us but himself. hehehe. A chortle-making read. Via Nerd World.
I posted this from YouTube a few days ago and forgot it did not work.
So here it is again.
The King and Queen of UK daytime TV, Richard & Judy, had a piece on YouTube last week and had some guests on to talk about it. They had the famous YouTube couple who did Dirty Dancing at their wedding (which I thought was incredibly dull), comedians Dave Gorman and Adam Buxton.
They featured some YouTube funnies, but also some of Adam’s stuff, which I love. I even came across his new BBC series Time Trumpet by watching the material on YouTube first. He told R&J that YouTube was full of this kind of parodying (see above – great Buxton remix of their competition*) but R&J weren’t the type to sue over something like this were they. Let’s hope not!
*I once got down to the final for this when I was hungover one day off – they were either going to come to me or another person on the line. They went to the other line.
This article has some interesting new Nielsen data to show what TV viewers who own DVRs already know – that you don’t always forward through the ads even if you own a DVR.
Indeed, some people actually enjoy ads – my sister loves them. Some of the are completely relevant to me – I am a sucker for new cleaning goods. I don’t shop in supermarkets, so the ads are the only way for me to find out about stuff like that.
Even when I am watching a DVR-ed programme, sometimes I a) forget to forward through them or b) use the ad break as a nautral toilet break/social time/drink-and-snack-making moment.
People are also still quite likely to tune into their fave TV prog at the same time as the rest of the world, which I still think is something a lot of people like to do – it’s that feeling of remote connectedness.
Technology like this lets you have more control over how you use your time – it can help you create breaks to do or experience other stuff.
What I especially like about this article is the dog in the picture (which I shan’t post here). He looks like he is fed up watching the ads and is desperate for his owners to fast forward. Or he has just seen a great ad for the latest dog chow. Or he is desperate for a wee and is urging his parents to take him for one during the ads.
This is interesting (even if it took me a while to get my head around the story). This could add some fun into ARGs (alternate reality games) in the future, if it became pervasive enough. Clues could be everywhere and anywhere. Essentially, the technology encodes information and data into images in the way that can’t be seen well by the human eye – they can be seen by cameraphones however.
All sorts of unintended consequences from uses we would never imagine right now, I suspect.
Sea horses are very underrated creatures. Indeed, it is true that it might be to do with the fact we don’t see them very often, so don’t think about them a lot.
Check out this video. Nice and educational. About 3.18 mins in, Sweetpea, the seahorse featured, passes her eggs onto the male sea horse (er – stallion??) and HE gives birth. It looks like an orgasm of tiny white things – and in fact they are baby seahorses.
Now, I know “birth” and “orgasm” may not necessarily go together in one’s mind, but just watch it. Maybe I am just a bit sick.
Filed under: news
I am very pleased with My New Look blog. Kosso has been nagging me for ages to change to WordPress. Now that I am here, we shall see what fun it has in store.
Big thanks to Kosso for helping me tweak the CSS! ;0)
The fantabulosa Sharonspotbottom has pointed me in the direction of My Next Favourite Website.
it is Wiikitty and features cats with Wiis and peripherals.
Reason No. 1001 to get a cat.*
*And indeed a Wii!!!
So if you are a geek and you have forgotton about Valentine’s Day because you have been too buried in code/games/SL/whatever, check out these geek-specific Valentine’s e-cards by Mitch on 4 color rebellion.
Cute.
Tech support woes are nothing new, it seems. Via Nick on the SL educators’ list, via What is the (next) message.
So YouTube funny gal LisaNova has been spotted for her unique take on situations and comedy (very good looking too) has landed herself a spot on the cast of MadTV, a US sketch show. Well done on her. There is much more of this to come, naturally, but good on this particular character. I find her hilarious.
She says she will continue with YouTube, but I wonder if she will a) have the inclination to or b) be allowed too.
I think I have found some real life furries* amongst some anime “chicks” on YouTube. Check out rabbitinthem00n’s friends too**.If you are unfamiliar with furrie culture online, check out Wikipedia. I want “her” anime mask (not shown in this picture, obviously). Her profile says she is 80. Well, no one really pays attention to that – I am 105 on YouTube after all. But, in this case, she could well be. Who knows?***
*Check out this piece for some Second Life furry background.
**Some of whom border on the slightly dodgy.
***Although her hands don’t look like they belong to an 80 year old.
OK – so I am disappointed that after the Big Brother furore, Channel 4 has decided to axe their planned Wank Week.
Shame, I was rather hoping they would feature this video.
*weird*
Time for some more Tube Gossip from the manwhofellasleep. I shall be having to do the tube again soon. Oh how fun.
Taken from 28 December 2006
1. She bought it in New Look for a fiver.
2. Yeah, but how can they justify charging so much for soft drinks?
3. Fuck Christmas. Fuck New Year. Fuck London Underground. No. I’m not drunk. Fuck off.
4. You can call me Mr T-Bone Shabazz.
5. Is anyone going to believe that Ewan McGregor grew that ‘tache?
6. Good King Wenceslas came to town…fa la la la la.
7. We could get naked children and cover them in bubble wrap.
8. She’s a typical student, hates Tony Blair, hates the government, loves Che Guevera… doesn’t really have a brain.
9. CSI’s got a plot. It’s gimmicky graphics and dead people.
10. Meet Pedro, the racist raisin!
An excellent gallery of the women of World of Warcraft – or should that be Phoarcraft – and who would most likely play them in a film. Via Wonderland.
I especially like Troll (played by, er, Pink) and Tauren played by Big Momma.
Spike & Clarissa,
originally uploaded by Knights Alive.
I had forgotten how great the Second Life photo pool is on Flickr. A fantastic insight into people’s lives there…*
*There is a lovely sofa in one of these pictures – I want it in meatspace.
So I have been checking in every now and again with LonelyGirl15 and co. I sort of binge on the videos all at once.
Anyway, given that the news came out today that the ARG Perplex City (or Perspex City, as I have been calling it for a long time, ahem) has been solved (a UK man found a red cube in a Nothamptonshire woods and bagged 100k), I was intrigued to see this set of videos from tigerlilylynn.
Now I have never participated in an ARG – too short an attention span and little patience – so I am not sure about all the language and arg norms.
Whether she/he is part of the action and planted as a guide, or whether she/he is a true ARG nut just being helpful, I am not sure. But this has all sparked my interest again and I will now have to go watch all these other characters’ videos. I need to clone my eyes and brain!
Well bloody hell. Anna Nicole Smith* has only been found dead. Saw the news in a fleeting instant having just logged into my yahoo mail account. Effective eh?
Post mortem is due to be carried out. Tragic story, it really is. Wonder when the film will be made and who will play her? Pammy?
*Image: Fad Toys.
Filed under: London, SL, Second Life, trains, transport, tube, underground
Going Underground reports via Andy Green that there is a London Tube station in Second Life now. She* muses about a SL underground system. Joke not. This would be great. I advise anyone who tries out Second Life to go to bloghud and do a serach for trains etc. There you will find links to SL places where you can sit on a train and get taken on tours of places – the IBM island has a good one.
This, as in meatspace, is one of the best ways to be a tourist in my opinion. Sure, it’s great to walk around and discover bits of cities that no guide book can tell you about. But I like going on organised transport to get a feel for where’s where and what’s what in the city. I am also, ultimately, quite lazy.
Anyway, off to check out the station and see if it leads anywhere.**
* Great links here too to videos of lego and dancing on tube platforms.
** Just had an initial search for it – can’t find the bloomin thing (please can someone sort out Second Life’s search functions??!!) and Andy’s blog is damn hard to navigate imho!!
This is the most amazing thing I have seen all year. Via Lev Grossman.
Samorost 2 is in beautiful Flash – and I am not usually someone who has the patience to work out game puzzles. But here, it is so compellingly stunning, it just hooks you in and you want to click on everything. Magical.
WoW fans will love this – probably. Sarah B tells of her passion for WoW, her social life, and the pain of choosing to let your Warlock die. From minouye.
Why don’t Big Media get it yet?
The New York Times reports that Viacom has demanded that YouTube removes 100,000 of its clips from the site, uploaded mainly by the very people it is desperate to keep as the “audience”. If you listen to what YouTubers say about such clips, their take is characteristic of the culture of media that is growing. By letting the “audience” sort out and share the clips it likes most, which “it” thinks other people might like too, there is a great attention generating thing that happens. Some who stumble across such clips while on places like YouTube may never have bothered to watch the Daily Show before. Hard to believe, I know. But by stumbling on it there, who knows – they might be drawn to watch it properly on the tv (cos that screen is still useful to many you know).
Same goes with music clips and film snippits. Anyone who has spent enough time on the web knows this happens.
Boing Boing makes some more serious points about the “shockingly bad behaviour” displayed by all the corporates involved:
YouTube can’t afford to just let any lunatic — including the savage pricks at Viacom — indiscriminately censor the content it hosts. That’s not fair to its customers.
