Your2ndPlace

Real life is still happening all around me at a frantic pace, so I haven't been able to do as much as I would want within Second Life. Ciaran Laval notes the unfair marketplace practices, which is true on the Linden Lab side of things - but 2 things, as noted in the title, are quite simply not happening.

First of all, WSE remains closed - now for 4 months despite promises and platitudes. I'm fairly certain that the only people surprised at this point are a minority that LukeConnell Vandeverre has assuaged into staying or threatened with having them lose their work (or something in the middle?). However that works, it quite simply doesn't look too awfully good.

And SLCapEx's SL Wallet is beginning to be doubted severely, with prices dropping despite 2 buybacks in the past. Arbitrage Wise posted that a shareholders meeting is supposed to happen this week, but I strongly suspect more people are wondering about the buyback. Full disclosure: I've got shares there, trying to compensate for my losses when JT Financial became SLWallet. However, I am not day trading - I am being bullish with spare change.

It begins to be a little disturbing when I mention WSE and SLWallet in the same breath, but there it is. There is absolutely no evidence to support SLWallet at this time, and even with promises of a shareholder meeting... things do not look well right now for WSE Live and SLWallet.

This petition is for someone - I believe Linden Lab - to freeze Intlibber Brautigan's account due to, broadly speaking, alleged crimes against virtuality. Or something like that. I honestly don't want to make of it. I think Intlibber Brautigan has made some shady and even poor business decisions, but I don't know how signing a petition will do anything about it. It's sort of like WSE Live being closed for 3 months with people unable to access their funds.

People put themselves in bad situations.

At this time, 10 people have signed the petition:

We are people of and who were affected by Intlibber Brautigan due to his stunts of slander, threats, lies and harassment. Also, his actions have caused over 8,000,000$L+ in total loss for a lot of people in Second Life. His blatant action of finger pointing on innocent people, slandering, and using excuses for his own failure has to stop. His actions have violated 2 bans by linden lab and have violated countless SL TOS standards. Linden Labs, please freeze all assets Intlibber Brautigan has to prevent further cause of harm from this person.

I'm not signing it. Frankly, if he violated TOS then abuse reports should be filed. It is unclear which parts of the Terms of Service that Intlibber Brautigan allegedly broke. There really isn't anything in the Terms of Service about slander, threats, lies and harassment - all of which he stands accused of by those that sign the petition.

I'll just file this one under 'weird'.

While I was away, the SLCapEx site was down - I instant messaged Bogart Beck on it prior to the site coming back up (It is back up). I'd heard of an attempt to crack the site - less technical readers would inaccurately write 'hack' - and Bogart didn't say anything about that. What he did say was that they were plugging some holes to avoid future problems.

The World Stock Exchange (WSE) is still down after the perpetual month of upgrades that has lasted 3 months and 5 days so far. All of LukeConnell Vandeverre's live announcements have not breathed enough hot air into the site to get it up and running again.

Ancapex.net? No clue. Ancapex.com is still up and running, but as we all should know by now - that site has a new owner.

International Stock Exchange seems up and running.

The suspected links between World Stock Exchange owner LukeConnell Vandeverre and Linden Lab­® may well be true, given that rumors indicate that Linden Lab is expected to go public on WSE at this point.

Apparently, talks with the Ancapex stock exchange failed because of technical issues as well as questions as to who truly owns what there. SLCapEx was also passed over, apparently due to issues with SLWallet buyback where some Linden Lab employees are suspected of having large holdings. VSTEX was considered too community oriented for Linden Lab. ISE apparently wasn't even looked at.

When asked to comment, Linden Lab suggested looking at Prokofy Neva's blog for details of the IPO since she would be 'the first to know'.

LukeConnell Vandeverre is probably quite busy right now trying to figure out how to delist the new IPO quickly so he can go swimming in his WICs on Facebook as well as integrating Mitch Kapor's Lotus 1-2-3 Technology into WSE to better serve Linden Lab. Philip Rosedale was unavailable for comment.

A few people had asked me to check in on the ANCAPEX.com video below.

In the video, Intlibber Brautigan blames Yukiko for the failure of the exchange, and has even mentioned IBM's name in vain. When MySQL files are corrupted, they are corrupted. I tried to contact Yukiko, but she was unavailable at this time. However, it came to my attention that Yukiko was serving as a web host - she was providing a service, and part of the service included the backups regularly done by web hosts.

It doesn't make sense. As someone who has been dealing with MySQL with websites for over 8 years - sites like LinuxGazette.com, all of this is completely idiotic... So let me lay it out for you.

• The domain name 'Ancapex.com' never, ever belonged to Intlibber Brautigan or ACE. Ever. So claiming that they had 'problems with one of their domains' is inaccurate, and perhaps intentionally misleading.
• If you only have one backup you are depending on and it is the backup done by your host, you're wrong. It really is that simple. If you're depending on backups, you should have them archived off the site and stacked in chronological order. Period. The responsibility to back up any database belongs to the person who owns the site - not the web host.

Tonight I was chatting with Fugazi about my SL unemployment and prospects for the future. A company or business? Potentially an IPO? I have a great voice and have been paid IRL for voice work in the past, maybe that's an angle? Actually, I might try the latter. Since I'm almost seven feet tall (204CM)and shrugged off my opportunity in basketball for lazy days reading Salinger & Tolkien, maybe I should reap some benefit of my gigantic frame (and vocal cords). Of course, I'm taking offers. But while we were discussing these prospects, something became extremely clear to me: In my 5ish months in Second Life, I've learned some great ways to not make any money in Second Life. I'll share these in Lettermanesque Top-10 style.

10. Slingo: This is a wonderful game...if you're the owner of a gaming parlor. DONATE to the piggy, we'll take a huge cut, and you'll have a chance to win a prize. Since most gaming parlors have a policy requiring that you return a portion of the winnings (usually 20-30%), you'll typically walk away with 50L$. Of course, the establishment takes a cut of the winnings you "re-donate." Decorum requires that you tip the host/hostess 10-20% as well. Like I've always said when it comes to gambling - if you walk away dead even, you win.

9.Slingo Host: Remember when I said decorum required a tip? Yeah, people don't tip. And you'll usually make anywhere from 50-100L$ per hour, but most hosts end up using these funds trying to spice up the pot. Redundant gestures/poses will find you further in the red as you scrape up money to find a shrink.

8. Restaurant owner: Amusingly enough, I've seen this tried over and over again. Problem is...you guessed it: You don't eat in Second Life! Cafes can be pretty cool if you can get acts, but if that's your angle, try a nightclub.

frageurs Hock, for the price of $110 US.

His comment:

[12:41] frageurs Hock: i am thinking what i will do with this site
[12:41] frageurs Hock: i bought it for fun
[12:41] frageurs Hock: any suggestions?

Thank you all for participating.