New UK Consumer Protection Laws

From today, there are new consumer protection laws applicable in the UK, which outlaw all sorts of rogue trading, bogus selling and advertising. This will include misleading blogs by companies.

New rules for consumer protection
Will fake business blogs crash and burn?

These are actually an implementation of EU directives. Ireland already has such laws, and the other EU countries either have, or will implement such laws. Something else to remember next time UK citizens bleat about the EU being a waste of time.

Windlight and Havok - more havoc!

Ah, here we are, Havok 4 having moe problems than thought, not just vehicles, but rotations and flying at the top of stairs and tripping over things, and unrealistic immediate stop physics. And shiny new Windlight, which 50% of people can't use, and the new 1.19.1.4 viewer causing loads of crashes. Even the Linden blog says 50% rave and 50% threaten death to Lindens lol.

The new viewer a well oiled machine?

Strangely, that has stopped them just three blog posts later making 1.19 MANDATORY !!

Update to second life - 1.19 viewer now required

They should learn what is working and what doesn't, and instead of switching back and forth each update, incorporate two code streams like the rest of the industry does. Certainly never going to be Web 3 at this rate lol.

SL Herald nicks an idea from SL Exchange

Under the guise of accusing SLX of promoting inflammatory arguments, it has posted a story about a heated thread What do you REALLY think of the U.S.A. ??? Needless to say, it is an attempt to boost it's own hits with its usual flavour of rubbish, and idiots foaming and the mouth with lies. I posted a rebuttal, their spam filter has it on hold, so we will see whether they promote free speech or not. In case they don't post it, here it is in full:


Aside from the fact that no one gives a shit what the idiots here think, or what the Herald says, or even that most have ever heard of it, anyone reading the thread can make their own conclusions. That is if they can read with the red mist of slavering rabid dog foaming at the mouth bigotry clouding their mind instead of using their critical faculties.

But you might as well get accurate while you do it, which is easily verifiable if you read the thread itself, and the one here on the reasons for the ban.

You might like to note, that unlike I and many other posters, Mr Wierwight posted not a single link, or shred of evidence to back any of his claims and views. That's generally counter to having a proper, civilised, scientific, informed debate.

>>the venerable SLEXChange forum decided that inciting RL factionalism is the best way to... increase sales?

Not at all, it's a separate part of the web site. Forums are free speech areas, the Exchange is where currency and sales are done.

>> Mr. Adromor Wierwight - was banned from the forums for his vigorous defense of the USA.

No, he was not banned for that. He was banned for insulting and threatening other posters, showing lack of respect to other users, not using the proper procedure for reporting posts he was unhappy with but resorting to bad language (which has to be cut to keep the prudish PayPal as a money transaction entity) and furthermore threatening two moderators in PMs that he would in fact make all this crap up that you have "reported" here. Oh, and ignoring a warning on respect:
"I got a fucking 'respect' policy warning for my earlier posts but guess what?"

>>will they continue to sit and watch idly while their forums are ripped apart by individuals that idolize Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte?

On another thread, I pointed our that the view of Napoleon depends on where you stand. To the British, fearing a revolution in their own country, following those in America (1776) and France (1789–1799) he was painted as an ogre. To the French, and many others in Europe living under unfair yokes, he was a hero. You might care to reflect on history that the mere 13 years between the American and French Revolutions, put them similar, both overthrowing unjust monarchies, and supported each other. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803. Aside from his generalship, he wrote the Napoleonic civil code, adopted in many countries across Europe and surviving to this day, he reformed the administration of the country in to Departments, which exist today and many other reforms. He ordered the pretty roadside plane trees in France to be planted (to give shade to marching troops, very future thinking when they take decades to grow) and invented the baguette, so his soldiers could carry bread in their trousers on marches and reduce the effect of living on the land as armies of that time did.

"Napoleon himself once said: "My true glory is not to have won 40 battles... Waterloo will erase the memory of so many victories. ... But what nothing will destroy, what will live forever, is my Civil Code.""

Wikipedia on Napoleaon: His legacy

He was right about that. But I don't idolise Napoleon.

As for Hitler, I have never idolised him either, or supported him or the Nazis. That comes from Mr Wierwight himself, Page 8:

"Oh and Im sure you're more civilized claiming that Napoleon was a visionary and a good guy like you did in another post before. Maybe you think Hitler is a great guy too! "

Obviously you have an eye on the law for libel by not connecting my name. Kudos and two stars for that. Zero stars for inaccurate reporting.

And so on to the comments:

>>@ "Anonymous" - "FYI most of the bullshit on those forums starts and ends with Montana Corleone

Well, I didn't even weigh in on the debate with a serious point until page 7, when the debate was already heated and underway. The OP of that thread - an American soldier - regularly starts inflammatory threads.

>>And Addy was right, she does spend a lot of her time accusing people of libel who argue with her and threatening to sue people over every little thing.

Really? Care to show me where? I have over 5,000 posts on those boards, I've mentioned being libelled a couple of times. I have never threatened to sue people over every little thing. In fact the only time I have said I would would be on copyright theft of my work. As usual no links or data to back up the bizarre and untruthful statements from "Anonymous".

>> @ Greg - "The only time he called Montana any name or anything was when he called her a bitch right before he was banned"

Perhaps you missed these gems then:

Page 8: "I dont give a crap what you are. Right now you're a sub human racist"

Page 8: "I'd feel sorry for europe, thankfully there actually are some intelligent people over there....it's just that you aren't one of them."

Page 10: "Thats right, you heard it I am WILLFULLY being malicious and inflammatory towards people"

Page 10: "Many people think you're a loudmouthed imbecile"

Page 12: (To another poster) "Damn liberals. You're the same kind of idiot whining because we want to enforce immigration laws. Get some nuts and stand up for yourself and stop trying to brown nose everyone who hates you, being all apologetic thinking thats going to improve the situation.
They hate you for no reason and you can't reason with them so insult them back. I dont give a flying [Admin Edit: Foul Language removed] what you say, as far as I'm concerned liberals are almost as bad."

Page 15: "So chew on that, bitch."

Page 15: "I'm going to continue to express the same contempt and I would encourage anyone else to do the same. Furthermore there are people alot more malicious than I that will read these articles"

>> @ Jumpman

You know full well the real reason for you ban, again insulting posters and the mods, reposting not just from SL, but locked threads on SLX. I am sure I can quote many song lyrics to you that you've never heard of. Does that make you a tard? Or just your assumption that everyone thinks like you do and knows what you know?

"That "respect" clause of Tigress I selectively enforced."

Ah I see, it's okay for you to selectively enforce, but not when you claim somebody else does? Which SLX doesn't, they enforce it across the board. I myself have had a 7 day suspension for arguing with Sami.

Oh, and Tigress is not the "Big Boss" of SLX, that's Apotheus, but I expect that with your childish behaviour you weren't around long enough to find out stuff.

>>@ Sami Selective "I agree that SLX forum moderators are selective in their censorship of forum posts. Sami is the worst of them. He plays favorites and is more likely to censor something if he feels personally threatened."

No. They have a set of rules, and you abide by them or get censored. They include profanity and lack of respect to other users. They do not entertain censorship of free speech, they encourage it. Unlike the whiner at the cause of this article because he doesn't like criticism, and attempts to bully, and threaten to shut it down and cause griefing. Allowing such criticism is called Freedom of Speech. We have it over here in Europe, I guess the American definition is different.

But that's right, Freedom of speech and press freedom is lower in the US and elsewhere, as detailed by Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders in the US) a French originated group to support free reporting and journalists around the globe, like Medecins Sans Frontiéres, another French invention.

Reporters Without Borders: Worldwide press freedom index

Details are there, the US ranks 48th out of 169 countries, just behind Nicaragua and well behind most of Europe. The actual site seems to be down atm.

The Annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index.



Well, the thread title said it all: "What do you REALLY think of the U.S.A. ???"

(The OP says he is an American soldier posted in Iraq, and well known for starting inflammatory threads. It had reached 5 pages before I even saw it.)

Mr Wiewight seems to think that means only positive views of the USA are allowed and you can't say what you really think. On those boards we think Freedom of Speech is important. Mr Wierwight seems to think that unless you agree with his views, you should be shut up or griefed. Some freedom.

Selective enforcement is most of the reason why the world has a problem with the USA. Let's consider an example. When Saddam invades Kuwait, a force is assembled and he is booted out in a couple of months. Fair. When Israel invades several other countries, they are allowed to occupy the land for 40 years, illegally building settlements, and breaking scores of UN Resolutions with the full support of the US who give them money and arms to carry on their genocide. (1 dead Israeli in 9 months of rocket attacks > over 100 killed, at least of third of them civilians and children in a few days.) Unfair.

Is it any wonder then that some of those abused people then attack the USA. An educated person would ask WHY do they feel like this? What have we done, is it our behaviour, and should we change it? When when you go on a revenge rampage against the wrong country and kill 1.7 million people on a pretence of lies, that should draw criticism. Regime change? How about North Korea, or Rwanda, or Zimbabwe. Ah, well they don't have oil like Iraq, or country for an oil pipeline from the former Soviet Republics like Afghanistan.

When you ignore the world, break international law, illegally hold and torture prisoners, snub your nose at Kyoto, the International Criminal Court, grant immunity to Blackwater murderers before an enquiry, and let off Scooter Libby, you draw criticism. When because of gun policies, a man walks into a Wendys and shoots 20 people, you get criticism.

I'd like to quote Mr Wierwight one more time:
"We have guns AND freedom of the press because we aren't pussies, unlike you."

I've dealt with "freedom" of the press in the US. Well, it seems he doesn't want to extend Freedom of Speech to anyone other than himself either. He wants to shut them up, bully them, and threaten them with grief. Then again, he calls France "broke 3rd world country whith a bunch of idiots". Funny that. France's economy is growing, stronger than the UK. How is the US economy doing these days? Who is broke with $9bn of deficit? Whose homes are being repossesed?

If that is the attitude that Mr Wierwight wants to be portrayed with, and by implication the USA, then fine. Happily, there are a lot of sensible, decent, and good Americans in the US who wish otherwise.

Oh, and Mr Wierwight,

>>"Thats a from Montana Corleone. She's too stupid to think people would recognize her arrogance. Ah, Oh well. It seems I can recall many an SLH reader saying the same things, yet a dozen external websites still subscribe to our RSS feed.

Montana: Don't get mad cuz you got exposed, bitch. And no one cares what your little crowd of loud mouth hate mongers have to say. oooooooh Im sure everyoe is so scared, we pissed off the wrong person, right? lmao.

Fummy how your 'in game' poll started two days before the article came out. hmmm. You psychic?"

That was not fro me at all. But at least I have the guts to post under my name and not "Anonymous".

Happily, we know that the Second Life Herald is tongue in cheek, and a lot of fun. They have Freedom of the Press to say what they like. The test will be to see if they also support Freedom of Speech, and allow this post, or censor it.

And finally, far be it for me to suggest that in fact the SLH might be taking a leaf out of the SLX Forums well populated and lively debate arena to steal an idea and inflate it's own sad hit count... ;)

OMG 3 - Linden Lab do something else good!

This was a bit unexpected: Mainland and the Ad Farm Problem. Yay! That and SLX no longer allowing prim replicators to be listed. That's two in the eye for parasites in SL!

Finally it seems that the residents are being listened to. Now we need better controls and protections on intellectual property, some new ways of preserving copyright and protecting from theft. Of course upping the morals and education of people would be a good start, but that is in the hands of governments, but while the benefits, sick note, greed and money for nothing culture exists, hard to see things changing.

3greeneggs

Thought I'd introduce a little gem I discovered ftom the 3greeneggs web site, run by "professor curious about virtual worlds, web systems, and pretty much everything else": an autoscript generator for the Linden Scripting Language.

This has a limited selection of radio buttons for what you want to do, and then, if appropriate, there will be pulldowns for content, then press the button, and the script is generated for you.

You can read about it here.

It's awesome!

OMG 2 - Linden Lab have finally done something!

Woo, Linden Lab have banned banks from SL, at least those that are not officially registered and regulated. Now not a bad thing, as so many of these are simple scams. But what could the effects from this be?

It could be vast.

Several unknowns here: how many people it affects, how much money they have "invested", and whether the banks have the funds to cover it or not. Short term, there will be runs as investors panic and try to withdraw their money, and we've already seen this.

It's not banks per se, but the fact they are unregistered and unregulated, not transparent, and with most seeming to be run as Ponzis rather than having sensible investments and business plans. As such, no better than gambling, which is already not allowed. As usual, LL acts too late and too quickly without considering the consequences. They could have set up their own regulation process, since Lindens are supposedly tokens, and given a sensible amount of time - not just 2 weeks - to comply. Any wanting to register in RL would not be able to do so in such a short time frame. Regulatory authorities do not give out licenses willy nilly. The fact Linden hasn't is part of their washing their hands of all responsibility in the thing they have created, covering their legal asses, and a tacit admission that Lindens are real and have real value.

The latter would have wider consequences, as every transaction would have to abide by sales and contract law: many shop no refund policies would be against statutory rights for example, it would change estate land "sales" and covenants, employment law might have to be considered for larger enterprises, not just to do with banking. Gambling is a good example. If Lindens were tokens, then there would have been no need to comply with the Internet Gaming Act. However, since they are exchangeable into real USD both ways in many places, they are as real as euros, yen or Canadian dollars, as I'm sure their counsel advised them, and we are seeing that position with every new policy change from Linden Lab. Really, it's astounding LL thought they could create a virtual world where people do real transactions and not be bound by any rules or laws, their own or RL.

So basically, by allowing just two weeks, that guarantees runs on banks. No bank in RL could realise assets that quickly, most are required to hold less than 10%, sometimes as low as 5%. In the UK, in Northern Rock's case, it was just 4% I believe. Of course, now we will find out exactly how many were legit and how many not. But even the most legit, and I don't think many, if any, really are, are going to have to convert assets in a hurry. That means selling land, and if there is a lot of it, that could have a dramatic effect on land prices. Further, that land is probably being used, so under the idiotic land transfer rules on private islands (ie there are none, and no tenant protection whatsoever), anyone with a business on those could lose their land and business with no recompense.

Many have invested in shares on one of the exchanges of course, and that is yet another problem. In their FAQ, LL have hedged a bit as to whether exchanges are included, but if banking laws are supposed to apply, then so are securities laws, and they intimate that, and again, no exchanges are regulated by the appropriate authority in RL. So that means the exchanges are likely to have to stop too, meaning a run on those. Since as LL make clear, there is so much cross investing, then many assets of many financial "institutions" will become worthless over night. That sort of behaviour is of course, regulated in RL, because that has led to RL bank failures in the past.

So it seems likely that they will not have funds sufficient on tap, a lot of their assets will be of little or zero value, or decrease in value in the case of land, so even if they want to repay all investors, they will have insufficient assets. Thus it will be of great surprise to most people if any substantial chunks of investors get their money back or any of it.

That then leads on to user effects. Some use the interest to pay tier or rents and support their businesses. Not only are they going to lose that source of income, but very likely their capital too. That will see a lot of businesses in trouble, resulting in yet more land sales pushing down prices further. If the losses are high, they might leave the game altogether. If they lost out before, maybe with Ginko, almost certain. Even the greediest and most stupid of people are going to baulk at losing money several times and possibly their land, or at least see it of lower value - hardly a good investment, so they will leave too. Any that do leave are likely to try and recoup what they can, and sell their entire businesses, and for most that means posting them in BIABs, which over a very short period of time tend to zero. That then will hit merchants again, as well as the land price effects.

The more empty land there is, the more rental rates will be driven down, the more empty sims around, the more empty malls etc etc. It becomes a spiral. That will push more people out of business as they give up trying to make their land economically viable.

Every previous decision by Linden has had an effect on the economy, but things like gambling were fairly limited to a few hard core people, gamblers and casino owners. But each made the new users, and current users trend down in decreasing new people if you analysed the Key Metrics, until October when the numbers actually dropped for the first time. Not a surprise, since the trends were there and mirrored the effects of RL: Linden's decisions and the waning of interest in countries after massive publicity. Magically however, LL decided that these were now unreliable, and did not give us those user numbers for November, but suffice to say on analysis, and inworld experience, they are likely to have dropped further. This will push it more so.

At the end of the day, it depends how many people were stupid enough to have put money in these scams, and without regulation, that's all they were really, whatever their intentions. If it's a large proportion, and the amounts are high, then the effect could be tremendous, and have many repercussions for CEOs holding IPOs for instance. That might mean yet more businesses going, people without jobs, and more land being sold, so expect a recession. We just don't know how deep it is. Can SL keep taking these hits and surviving, or like climate change or biological systems, is there a level at which it becomes unrecoverable? Time will tell.

But overall, coming on top of all the other bad Linden decisions, this is likely to have the widest impact.

On top of that, there are quite large amounts at stake here, hundreds of millions of Lindens, or several million real USD. Ginko went with 700K USD, that's enough to hire a lawyer. Personally, I don't think the banks and exchanges would take legal action against Linden for unreasonable behaviour on time frame, since that would open them up to investigation. However investors, and land owners, business owners who lose out through no fault of their own in the way Linden have this private island land set up, is another matter. I think we might well see some court cases on this in RL, as people attempt to recover their investments. If I lost a few thousand USD through not fault of my own, I'd do something, and I suspect many will. I'm not talking investors in banks here, but the innocent fall out, businesses and renters who have land stolen from them for instance.

LL will get bad enough publicity from this as it is, that will put of many people from joining in the future, it adds fuel to the flames that SL is a place for scammers, and any legal action will make it worse. It might just all blow over in time, we'll have to wait and see, but certainly short term there will be some effects on the economy, and I can tell you, they won't be good for the majority.

Confidence in both LL and SL has been shaken yet again, whilst it's generally agreed to be a good step. Just Linden's ineptitude that is the root as per usual.

OMG Sale !!!

Yes, OMG i can't believe it. My favourite designer, Myllie Writer at Persona is having a 50% sale. Naturally I hitched up my skirt and ran over there as fast as I could. Imagine my surprise when I already own more than half a wall of Myliie's stuff, and some other bits and bobs, but still plenty to choose from, including some great new outfits. Can't buy them all, so I'm deciding which... Hurry, sale ends on 18th January. :)