The result of too many surnames in SL Episode #1

Until one or two years ago, Linden Lab used to retire lastnames when 150 people had gotten each of them. This was done on the basis of Malcolm Gladwell's socialogical writing "The Tipping Point". These days, you get about several thousand people sharing the same surname... and the results are startling. On a recent go through I found these people sharing my prims in Second Life:

• Catherine Fitzpatrick (I have it on good faith that whoever took this name is Second Life is NOT the genuine article. And so you know - judge a person in Second Life by his or her actions, not by his or her name...)
• CatherineAnn Fitzpatrick (EDIT: so Prokofy Neva registered this instead to play safe. Rationale: the horse may have bolted, but the pony hasn't... so shut the door already!)
  
• Oysters Fitzpatrick (Erm... I thought that stuff with the bacon and cheese bake was Kirkpatrick?)
  
• Paul Debevec (doesn't ring a bell? Think HDRI)
• Paul Huldschinsky (1944 Academy Award Winner - Best Arts Direction - for the movie 'GasLight")
• BaiOu Chemistry (Bio-chemistry. geddit? xD)
• NoDetectable Paulse (No Detectable Pulse xD)
• Vincent Price
• Half Price, HeavilyDiscounted Price and RecommendedRetail Price
• TheWorldOf Tomorrow
• PennyPinching Miszer
• Jonah Lomu
• Camui Gackt
• LetMeTellYouA Cooljoke
• Natsume Aya
• Ham Burger, Beef Burger, Chicken Burger, QuarterPounder Burger
• Maccaron Charron (think 'batmanbox')
• Judi Dench
• Electric Eel, Moray Eel
• EbbAnd Flow
• RollingInTheA Lisle

here's a hint, not all of these names have been actually taken... which ones though? :D

[EDIT - clarified actual ownership of Catherine and CatherineAnn Fitzpatrick names in Second Life. Catherine is owned by some random person, CatherineAnn by Prokofy Neva. Apologies for the misunderstanding]

Why Prolonged grid issues are harmful...

[22:49] Patchouli Woollahra: for dinner tonight we'll be having fillet of gridbork served with gridbork sauce, with a side of gridbork salad. To warm your appetite up we will first have some soup: cream of gridbork. For dessert, gridborkcake.

[22:49] Patchouli Woollahra multiplies into a horde of SL Vikings and chants 'gridbork' repeatedly.

yeah, me noggin's taking a funny turn. losing IQ points on a visible scale, even.

[2:17pm, 31/07/07] - Things are looking up more and more. TPs still borking regularly, and item rezzing not working perfectly, but considering where we were earlier, it looks better.

Going to sit for a while longer, then go to sleep in the sun.

End of The Line

I woke up late this morning and found my Wake Up News clock had pulled this up:

Wagering In Second Life: New Policy

Now I don't know about you, but I'll bet this is going to be a total bitch to enforce. Seriously guys, where do you draw the line? This is a question that needs a relatively clear answer.

All I can say is that Torley's office hours this Friday are going to be decidedly less civil. Ah well.

What worries me is the abruptness with which this policy is being announced. Governments that abruptly announce an about face on national tradition and prior rules tend to make abrupt turns like this only if they're totalitarian. More fuel for Prokofy, I say.

---

People are also asking me how I can continue to defend the Lindens after repeated incidences of this. I need to clarify some matters:

1. The Lindens I work with are associated with first responses. They help to ensure the rules are followed, and that wrinkles in the system are followed.
2. The Lindens I work with do NOT have much say as to exactly how rules should be formed. They also do NOT have much say to voice their opinions on this sort of thing, as to whether it is good or it is bad.

I feel perfectly justified and willing to stand behind them on the matter until there is clear evidence that whatever they are doing is contributing to the current situation. Not something that has happened... yet.

It just wouldn't be fair. It would be something I would be against doing.

Off-Topic: The Theory of Cat Gravity

A friend of Robin Wood nee Sourjourner came up with a curiously compelling theory as to why felines seem to exert so much gravity on others around them...

Cats, as everyone knows, sit on the window ledges where, as everyone knows, they collect solar rays. What everyone does not know is that they transform these solar rays directly into gravity. You can tell that they are doing this because when they get into the window they hardly ever make any noise; but when they get out they almost invariably go "thud."

You can't seriously make stuff like this up. To read the entire text (which makes a almost Agnian sort of sense), click over to: Robin Wood's Cat Gravity Poster. xD

Starry Starry Night - Robbie Dingo Rox!

Please watch this and then try telling me Second Life is overrated. I dare ya.