NEWS: Second Life Sex Business Sells On eBay For $50,000

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Sex
Found on: informationweek.com

Virtual sex sells but who's buying? Apparently some guy named nedstede2769 form the Netherlands and he is shelling out some big bucks for it, over $50,000 US dollars -- isn't that like a 500 billion Linden dollars or something?!?



InformationWeek post:

One of the landmark businesses on Second Life, Amsterdam, sold on eBay Monday for $50,000 to a buyer located, appropriately enough, in the Netherlands, said the developer of the popular adult-oriented business.

Amsterdam's developer, Kevin Alderman of Tampa, Fla., put the site up for sale on eBay last week, and it sold at 6:34 a.m. PDT, according to the eBay listing. The buyer didn't bid; he just paid the asking price.

We weren't able to find out who the buyer is; he goes by nedstede2769 on eBay, where his 3-year-old account has no feedback. Alderman said he didn't want to give the buyer's name without checking first.

NEWS: Hacking John McCain

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Politics
Found on: newsvine.com

Presidential candidate John McCain announced today on his Myspace page that he had reversed his position on gay marriage and is now in support of it, particularly marriages between passionate females.

Sounds too good to be true - you're right, it's not. This now infamously delicious prank or what some are calling "the immaculate hack" was the handy work of Mike Davidson, CEO and co-creator of Seattle-based online news media company, Newsvine.com.

Newsvine post:

If you visit John McCain's MySpace page (as of 9am PST Tuesday morning), you will notice an interesting announcement from him. He's apparently reversed his position on gay marriage as well as revealed a bias towards attractive lesbians.

Why would a presidential candidate make such an important announcement on his MySpace page?

The answer? He wouldn't.

But I would.

You see, John McCain's people commandeered my world-renowned MySpace design template and did a few things wrong:

1. They did not credit me for the template, even though the template explicitly requested credit.
2. They used my own unmodified imagery, specifically for the "Contacting John McCain" table.
3. As if #2 wasn't bad enough, the McCain crew is actually pulling their image directly from my server on each page load. So every time someone visits the McCain MySpace page, my bandwidth is being used to deliver part of the page! Bad McCain!

NEWS: GDC 2007: Phil Harrison, Sony, Unveil 'Home'

News/Social Networks/Sony/Games
Found on: 1up.com

Sony's set to muscle in on Second Life and their market share with their forthcoming online social media metaverse called, "Home", should be available as a free download for the PlayStation 3 in autumn 2007.



1UP post:

Last week's reports on Sony's potential 'Home' service either generated even more hype for Phil Harrison's Game Developer Conference keynote or stole the thunder from Sony's big unveiling. Maybe it did both, and considering what Sony showed with 'Home' -- that may not be a bad thing.

Home is officially being branded as a "3D user community for PlayStation 3" by Sony, but it's also being called an "innovative user community title," effectively blurring the line between "service" and "game." The two-pronged approach to marketing this product may show some confusion as to what home is. That's a question Sony won't be able to answer until this Fall, when PlayStation 3 owners will get their hands on the final free download (the experience enters beta next month).

BONUS YOUTUBE VIDEO --> PLAYSTATION 3 HOME

NEWS: Taking Out A Second Mortgage In Second Life

News/Social Networks/Second Life/Real Estate
Found on: webpronews.com

Are you in the market for a new home? A new virtual home? Coldwell Banker, one of the nation's largest real estate brokerage firms has over 500 "inworld" homes with styles ranging from modern to southwestern colonial and if you're a little tight on "lindens" (second life currency) right now, no problem, you can take out a virtual mortgage to finance it and they'll even throw in a complete set of virtual furniture as a closing gift - now you know.

Webpronews post:

Buying a home is usually the single largest investment that the average individual will make over the span of their life. Careful thought and planning are exercised when determining how much of a mortgage to take on, how large of a home to purchase, and what realtor to use.

Indeed, home ownership is not something to be entered into lightly. Buying a home in Second Life, however, can be as simple as a point-and-click transaction, and Coldwell Banker has decided that it wants to be the real estate company to meet the needs of the virtual world’s potential homeowners.

NEWS: Most-Searched-For Brand In 2006?

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found on: publications.mediapost.com

Just when you think Myspace is losing some of it's luster, look who's brand is still on top and reigning supreme.

Market Daily post:

THE SOCIAL NETWORKING HUB MYSPACE was the brand most searched for in 2006, based on a 52-week average of industry search terms (excluding porn) among all U.S. Web sites, according to competitive intelligence monitoring service Hitwise.

Here's the complete list of Top 10 Searched for Brand Terms* (with spellings as reported by Hitwise):

1. myspace
2. ebay
3. yahoo
4. mapquest
5. craigslist
6. walmart
7. google
8. target
9. match.com
10. bank of america

NEWS: LONELY PLANET AND CURRENT TV

Web Culture/Website/Videos/Travel
Found on: lonelyplanet.com



Professional travel documentaries with user-generated content, sounds like a new online video network to me.

Lonely Planet TV post:

Lonely Planet and Current TV have teamed up to launch a new travel television franchise, “The Bluelist,” based on Lonely Planet’s well-known brand of the same name. The series of 26 short-form, three-minute “pods” will be hosted by writers and staffers of Lonely Planet worldwide, and will debut on January 18 on Current TV.

Lonely Planet’s “Bluelist” (www.lonelyplanet.com/bluelist) brand presents hip “top ten” lists of travelers’ favorite travel experiences, and the new program on Current follows the same format. The show will spotlight some of Lonely Planet’s writers’ and staffers’ “Top 3” travel recommendations, from the expected (big wilderness escapes; best places for 24-hour party people) to the more unexpected (best places to have an existential crisis; best places to get into a fight).

NEWS: Man Behind the Clinton Clip Worked for Obama's Net Strategists

News/YouTube/Video/Politics
Found on: washingtonpost.com

With the presidential elections still a good two years away the fight for the democratic seat just got really nasty and the fireworks are already starting to fly - yeah, I'm talking about the Hilary video that's running viral on YouTube, "allegedly" sanctioned by Obama's camp.

Washingtonpost.com post:

The creator of a controversial YouTube clip that attacked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was an employee of the Internet strategy firm on the payroll of the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

"I made the 'Vote Different' ad because I wanted to express my feelings about the Democratic primary, and because I wanted to show that an individual citizen can affect the process," Phil de Vellis wrote on the liberal blog Huffington Post.

NEWS: MySpace News is for real

News/Social Networks/Myspace
Found on: wired.com

Wired.com is reporting that Myspace "NEWS" site is a done deal and it's just a matter of time before Myspace starts slugging it out with the likes of Digg, Newsvine, Reddit and other Social news sites.



Wired post:

A leaked document from MySpace's parent company, Fox Interactive Media, confirms the existence of its rumored Digg-style news aggregation portal.

The leaked sales document outlines the structure and taxonomy of the forthcoming site, and includes screenshots of the site, but gives no details about when the portal will launch.

MySpace News will automatically collect news items from various news sites and blogs. MySpace users will then be able to discuss and rate each story on the site, and the stories will change position on the page based on popularity. The portal is rumored to launch during the second quarter of 2007.

Monty python - Black knight (star wars)

Web Culture/YouTube/Video/Parody
Found on: Youtube.com



Youtube Stats(as of this post):

Views: 659,227
Comments: 475
Favorited: 3810 times

Some of my favorite comments:

zaminvakhan:You people are so stupid...there isn't a word yet invented that encompasses that accurately describes the sheer lack of interior support in your cranium. These types of posts where you predict people's deaths are bs, cause i have read them. they were mildly amusing the first time but mind-boggling quantity of these type of posts is getting me ticked!

GerevulSnizer:Monty Python is new thing for me... Why's the Black Knight (who is Darth Vader now) still alive? No hands or legs... great vid still

NEWS: Tech Firms Push to Use TV Airwaves for Internet

News/Web Culture/Internet
Found on: washingtonpost.com

If the coalition made up of six of the biggest tech companies in the world (Microsoft, Google, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Philips) gets the green light from the FCC, we could start seeing unused television airwaves called "white space" being gobbled up to bring high-speed internet access to consumers as early as 2009.

Me in 2009; "Hey hun, come quick, look what's on TV -- it's the internet and it's fast!"

Washingtonpost.com post:

A coalition of big technology companies wants to bring high-speed Internet access to consumers in a new way: over television airwaves. Key to the project is whether a device scheduled to be delivered to federal labs today lives up to its promise.

The coalition, which includes Microsoft and Google, wants regulators to allow idle TV channels, known as white space, to be used to beam the Internet into homes and offices. But the Federal Communications Commission first must be convinced that such traffic would not bleed outside its designated channels and interfere with existing broadcasts.

Stylehive bookmark of the week: Integrated Digital Camera and Printer

Web Culture/Social Shopping/Stylehive
Found on: stylehive.com

It's been almost 2 months now since some turd stoled my Sony digital camera out my wife's car - bastards! So I've been on the hunt for a new one and low and behold, I found this little guy on Stylehive: the Zink Integrated Digital Camera and Printer - interesting.

Description: Integrated Digital Camera and Printer The integrated digital camera/printer is a full featured digital camera with a built-in full color printer. Take digital photos like any other digital camera, review them on the digital camera's color display, and print just the ones you want. The digital camera with integrated printer prints full-color 2" x 3" digital photos.

Tags: camera,camera printer,cameras,digital camera,digital cameras,gadget

URL: stylehive link

NEWS: Ex-Disney chief launches Web video company

News/Web Culture/Video
Found on: news.com

Ex-Disney CEO Michael Eisner launched a new web video company called Vuruga this week - it's mission: deliver "high-quality, story-driven content" on par with all the other crap on television.

Vuruga's first series will be a mystery drama called "Prom Queen," the first of 80 (90 second long) episodes will begin airing next month.

Cnet post:

Vuguru, officially a project of Eisner's investment firm Tornante, debuted Monday along with its first production and set of sponsors. According to a statement from the new company, Vuguru aims to focus on "high-quality, story-driven content for the Internet" on a par with professional television and cinema productions.

The inaugural Vuguru series, a mystery drama called Prom Queen, will release the first of its 80 episodes on April 2. The 90-second clips, aimed at a tech-savvy teen audience, have been produced in conjunction with Web video company Big Fantastic--best known as the team behind the video podcast Sam Has 7 Friends. Among Prom Queen's sponsors is the magazine-turned-webzine Elle Girl, which stopped print publication last year to focus on online and mobile distribution.

NEWS: Wanted poster on MySpace

News/Social Networks/Myspace/Police
Found on: smh.com.au

Talk about your virtual Dragnet - some web smart cop in Arkansas created a Myspace profile page for a serial bank robber in hopes to enlist the millions of other Myspace members to help the Arkansas Police Dept. track down the guy pictured in the image below.

SMH post:

Police have have created a MySpace account for a serial bank robber hoping to enlist the millions who use the popular social networking site as a cyber posse to help track down the fugitive.

The MySpace profile - Do You Know Me??? - is the work of Sgt. Jarrard Copeland from the Fort Smith police department in Arkansas.

The suspect, a man estimated to be about 60, is linked to four bank robberies across the US state.

NEWS: EA Targets Women With New Venture

News/Web Culture/Online Games
Found on: wired.com

Calling all female gamers - here's your oppurtunity to get some street cred with your geeky guy friends: EA just announced a partnership with iVillage to provide content just for the ladies.

Wired.com post:

The so-called "elusive female gamer" is a much sought-after demographic in gaming, but EA is hoping its new alliance with iVillage will help bridge the gender gaming gap. EA's successful casual games portal, Pogo.com, will be the exclusive supplier of gaming content to iVillage's 16 million members. That is a heck of a lot of Word Whomp.

iVillage offers content geared specifically toward women readers, including beauty tips, information on pregnancy and parenting, and fashion. It will host monthly game nights and offer free two-week Pogo passes to members.