Day: December 20, 2006

Second Life: a pet rock for the new millenium.

Are there really two million people using Second Life?

Bobbie Johnson
Thursday December 21, 2006
The Guardian

You’d think so. With glowing press coverage, virtual world Second Life would appear to be going from strength to strength: last week it broke through the 2m sign-ups barrier.

But not everybody is convinced by such milestones. Clay Shirky, the respected internet analyst and thinker, questioned how many of those 2m ever return after signing up.

…getting to the punchline below…

And it may be worse even than Shirky’s bleak estimates. Philip Rosedale, the founder of SL maker Linden Lab, last month said that churn was probably around 90% – meaning just one in 10 people who sign up use it in any meaningful way.

For comparison, the online fantasy game World of Warcraft had 5m subscribers – all paying a monthly fee – this time last year.

I haven’t yet found an MMOG I actually like, but I totally understand the appeal the when there’s a significant and enjoyable gaming to them. Something with only a dubious gaming nature, like say The Sims Online (do they even still exist?) I don’t really get the appeal of, but … de gustibus, and all that. When they’re just an online not-a-game, like Second Life, it seems like a glorified form of IM, and I do not get it at all… seems like a real wankfest to me (to borrow a Britishism.)

Software price woes in Britain.

Are we being ripped off over software?

With sterling at nearly $2, the price difference between here and the US looks starker than ever

Jack Schofield
Thursday December 21, 2006
The Guardian

Buy a copy of Microsoft Windows or Office, Adobe Photoshop or even a game in the UK, and you will usually end up paying much more than you would in the US. It could be as little as 20p more for a music download (though even after VAT that’s a near-25% markup), up to an amazing £181 extra for a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2, if you are paying manufacturers’ suggested retail prices.

At least for games and other things not needing localization (*) for functional reasons, why not order from the US Amazon? Though I’m not clear how much of that would be lost to shipping.

In any event, sorry to our neighbors cross the pond, and hey, at least remember you’ve got the NHS while we’ve got the freakishly bad US private healthcare market.

News of the Weird: “El Caganer”

Pooping Peasant Popular in Spain

‘El Caganer,’ the Great Defecating Peasant Increasingly Found on Mantelpieces in Spain

BARCELONA, Spain Dec 20, 2006 (AP)— The Virgin Mary. The three kings. A few wayward sheep. These are the figures one expects to find in a traditional Christmas nativity scene. Not a smartly dressed peasant squatting behind a rock with his rear-end exposed.

Yet statuettes of “El Caganer,” or the great defecator in the Catalan language, can be found in nativity scenes, and increasingly on the mantelpieces of collectors, throughout Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, where for centuries symbols of defecation have played an important role in Christmas festivities.

I couldn’t MAKE this stuff up, folks. More craziness from the same site: Caller impersonates cop, convinces McDonalds crew to abuse coworker