Molotov cocktail at the movies

Filmmaker and multimedia artist Douglas Gayeton is about to release his new virtual documentary titled "My Second Life - the video diaries of Molotov Alva" and will be shown to audiences in two continents almost simultaneously. Douglas himself is the star of the show, as Molotov Alva is his virtual counterpart.

"It premieres at Hot Docs, the international documentary festival in Toronto and at The Fantastic Film Festival in Amsterdam", Douglas told SLNN. That inworld movies can find a stage at these festivals is promising for future productens as there is increasing recognition for SL as a mature cinematic medium.

Ridin' the virtual wave

Saturday 14th brought us a massive Surferdude party at the epic condition sim (by the Weatherchannel). The virtual surf contest was organised by Namiko Surf Co in cooperation with GR Boarfds, Reaction, Sport2.de and some other sponsors. 22 surfers signed up to start surfing for Lindens and other prices.

Keala Mimistrobell, creator of Namiko told SLNN that one of the main goals of her company is to create events like this.

see also blog article http://blog.mindblizzard.com/2007/03/virtual-weather.html

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Epic%20%20Conditions%20%20Surf/240/170/%2023

Grids under attack

Yesterday I received a group notice from one of the groups I'm in. It warned me of a possible attack on the grid. Precautions had been taken, building had been turned off for the groups sims, only special measures would make it possible for members to do some scripting and building on their own parcels.

Here's the news from SLNN:
GRIDWIDE - Griefer group Patriotic Nigras (PN), also known as /b/, have had their most damaging weapon disabled, but residents are urged to take precautions with their land to avoid smaller-scale attacks in the coming hours.
PN have recently developed a very powerful griefing weapon known as the "Grid Destroyer," which is a very powerful and fast self-replicating object that could take down the entire Second Life grid in a short period of time, according to an anonymous source.

read the full article here

Level 3

I've been pottering about in SL this evening, in a rather random, aimless fashion. I read that Coca Cola launches officially in SL tomorrow, but I couldn't find any useful location, and I think I will have to wait a good while yet before anything starts happening on the cluster of Tokyo islands. So I just mooched about, until I came across Level 3. I have spotted this one before, but it's the first time I've tried to gain access for a while and, lo & behold, I got in.

Level 3 Communications (to give the full company name), based in Broomfield, Colorado, operates one of the largest communications and Internet backbones in the world. They "offer a comprehensive portfolio of network offerings that spans Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport, colocation services, and patented Softswitch-based managed modem and voice services." And they are yet another comms company to set up shop is Second Life.

The island is only part-complete. There is a rudimentary "backbone" with a number of functioning slideshows that give you background on their products and services, and music is tuned to an internet African Music radio station (nice bit of soukous).

The far end of the backbone structure is given over to the "Broadband Theatre". I notice the English spelling here - hmmmm... curious. But aside from a few seating areas, and the start of an auditorium(?) there's not a great deal here as yet, although there are clear signs of work in progress.

The builders are coreaudiovisual, based in Santa Monica and Saint Louis, so I really don't get the spelling noted above - though as a Brit, it is nice to see. Given the relative immaturity of the island it is not really fair to critique it. It is simply not clear what ideas will be implemented here. At present, it is the basics one would expect (some meeting spaces and some weblinks) but I have no idea where it will go from here.

(from Ambling in Second Life)

Virtual banking (4) Saxo Bank

In january and february virtual land was falling short and the Lindens had a large que of requests. Early march we saw an explosion of new sims. One of these new launches was the Saxo Bank, an online investment bank, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.


Jeffrey Limpele, executive director of quantitative analysis at Saxo Bank (whatever that means), told SLNN that the bank ultimately plans to offer "leveraged Forex trading on the lindens... We want to give you access from Second Life to your Real Life foreign exchange." We'll see.



The bank shares the island with a volcano viewable from the bank's roof terrace. There is also a bizarre Rio carnival parade that processes around the island. Whether there is some deep symbolism in the use of the volcano and carnival, or whether it is an amusing whimsy.

SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Saxo%20Bank/128/128/0
The site is built by Beta Technologies
Pictures kindly provided by Sir Aleister Kronos