Again on the topic of e-currency..

I've been wandering around on the web and reading up about LETS, and other funny nontraditional ways of trade, and found this pretty interesting page, which has a lot of information on various projects.

One of those, which has some interesting ideas, is the epoints. Quite funny how they tackle the issue of "copying" of the notes by using the one time challenge-response scheme - maybe this could be usable in the future as a base for something...

A picture worth remembering

I stand on a train station, and the train arrives. I am amazed - it is much cleaner and nicer than any other trains that I've seen today or before even. The passengers are unusually friendly and smiling. The attendant is calmly talking to them and making them the tea. More amazingly - this is the train to my destination, and I see a familiar face in there - and I give my shoes and other stuff through the window, because I already want to be served this wonderful tea - and this tiny station I am standing in, is tremendously short - and start to run to another carriage - because in this carriage the attendant is busy serving the tea.. But all the doors are hopelessly closed, and I keep running. My friend who was with me, is already far ahead - near the first carriage, whose doors are always open, and is already paying the fee to get on. The train slowly starts to move, and I realise I am going to stay on this platform, unless I do something. I see the nearest carriage door and start to force it open. It opens up a little bit, but since the train is already moving it is hard. I walk, without shoes, together with the train, while trying to force the door open, and the train gains more speed - but the door is still way too far from being open enough for me to squeeze myself in. I realize that I indeed will be probably left behind here - without the shoes and papers, or anyone I know. This gives a rise to the panic fear, and I scramble more - but still there's no realistic chance of getting on. Suddenly I notice there is someone on the other side of the door - there's an attendant from this carriage, who by some virtue have seen me trying to get in, and, against all rules and the regulations of safety, also forces the door open - and it starts to submiss to our joined efforts... She puts her foot in the way of the door so it does not close, and frees up her hand to give it to me. I almost hang on it, throw myself into the whatever little space the door has for me. I miss, and fall on my knee and my point of balance is still outside the carriage - now I have a prospect of staying at this station forever, in the form of molecules on the rails - if I fall, it's going to be the end... We are both granted with the understanding of the immediate possibility of this. She seems to be almost angry for this stupid mistake I made - and I do not know what my face looks like as I do not see it, and don't have the cycles to think about it - everything is concentrated on the one and only goal of getting into the train.. The few seconds seem to be eternity - and eventually, somehow, I get in. I stand in the exit compartment, stupidly shoeless, and now see her supervisor, who is shouting at her. She's speechless. Our hands still holding each other, I can feel hers tightening the grip, with her nails starting to bite my skin. This lasts. And suddenly I can hear the people bursting in applauds. I stand there, and do not know what to say - the stress of the situation made everything of feeling go away - I'm like a big pile of meat, or, pixels, for that matter, and I am just mentally not fully here yet. But we've made it - I'm on the train which moves faster and faster. And soon there will be the warm tea in the company of the people I know. But the painful sensation of these nails in my skin will still stay there in the corner of the mind - there's all too much in it for me to forget...

The everyday evil...

a very dramatic and interesting read on the "roots of evil".

Human beings will always betray you

Ciaral Laval posts an interesting question/news: apparently the stuff created by "Cory Linden" is now seen as created by "Cory Ondrejka", and there is a discussion of "Is using your real life name for your avatar name good or what ?"

I can understand the possible reasoning on LL side for musing with this idea - the attempt to avoid the burden of regulating the world by attaching this burden to possibly "spoiling" one's RL identity by "wrong" inworld actions in SL, and as well to assist in RL legislation over the activities of SL.

To me, quite frankly, this would mean the end of the "our world, our imagination" thing, and it's one of the worst moves that LL could make - unless they want just to become a kind of "virtual 3D communications platform for real world".

I've been always saying that one thing SL did not do what it could - to become a field for trying out the possible completely and crazily new economic and society ideas, at a relatively small expense - compared to trying them out in the real world. Ok, well, maybe replacing the centrally-issued currency with some other form of interaction is too much - so the crazily new economic ideas are out. But still there is/was the interesting social experiment - how will the world organize if left unregulated.

The absence of the bind of RL name to avatar name inworld, means that the people are able to act genuinely, with much less constraints put on them - hence allowing for a better exposure of the true human nature, as opposed to the "human nature altered by the society, economics, and current morale".

But as soon as you bind the RL name to SL name - you push the actions under the microscope of their interaction with the real world.

There's quite an interesting video documentary series. I do nt agree with at least some parts of it, yet it makes one think and wonder - which is, although painful, is always a good thing.

It makes me draw some parallels, and argue that if there is a RL name exposed by inworld, this means the end of SL.



SL is unique in comparison to many other environments is that there is no explicit purpose in playing it. So, it is an extreme experiment in "negative liberty" as defined by Isaiah Berlin - see the third movie of the documentary series for an indepth discussion on this.

I'd argue that the low concurrency numbers of SL and declining growth are the consequence of the absence of purpose. The exponential growth was the hype that has arised there - you can make millions while not standing up from your chair!. While not necessarily the most sophisticated (there might be some things in the world that are better than money), it is certainly a purpose. And this has attracted new millions to SL.

And together with that there was a discovery of wildly deviant behaviours for someone with "augmentist" view on SL and strong conservative view on RL - so there were vocal few who said "Pheww... Beurk!", and the chanting crowd that always follows the leaders went into the same spin - and the same folks who a few months before were blindly singing hallelujah, were now throwing the stones. Couple this with some attempts to regulate the scammers or the biz that was not legal according to the US legislation - and you get what we have now.

Cory pushed out or simply left, Philip steps down, and everyone seems to understand and welcome the move. I can understand both. It gets boring - it gets exactly the same like any other business. Noone would argue that the toilet paper is extremely important, yet it's not something worldchanging - and it's worldchanging possibility that I like SL for, not just being an "3d business platform".

Nobody Fugazi argues that it would be hard to introduce this in a way that hurts the community. I would argue the opposite - it is hard to introduce this in a way that does *not* hurt the community.

As a pure "3d business platform", SL is years before being mature. Besides, if i am in for a serious business, like buying the car, I'll still prefer to go to the dealer and try out the real thing. It's this magic smell of "you can be anything and anyone and do almost anything without bringing the baggage of your RL reputation and without risking much" that makes SL so special.

Do not take it that SL reputation is not important - I hope "Dalien Talbot" has some reputation and some image, which I value. It's maybe even not so different from the one of the meatball behind the keyboard, but I prefer to keep the two - to be able to clearly separate where I try things and dream about things - here, and where I do the things "as I am supposed to".

If that little invisible and shaky wall of different identities disappears - there will be much less room for experiment - and, remember, as they say, human beings will always betray you, so think twice before you fully trust your avatar life fully to them...

A story of copy-competition in RL

Quite interestingly, I've stumbled across the relevant article on Vindy.

This shows interesting view that what we want to call "copycat" is not necessarily a copycat - and even does not technically violate the patents submitted - and you can bite your nails as much as you want - and even if you have a strong feeling they "stole" your idea - alas, they did not do anything wrong.

So, indeed coming up with the new stuff all the time will allow to stay ahead of the curve with the copy-competition.

The end of the free primskirtbuilder.

I've written about a supposed clone of my primskirtbuilder.

Well, subsequent discussion, where phloughi tizzy helped me understand my mistake with accusing the item without testing, I think the following is the best way to do:

1) Herewith, I bring the public apology to coral giha for apparently accusing the item to be a copycat without the proper study of it.

2) I would like to thank phloughi tizzy for helping me understand my mistake

3) I am now ceasing the distribution of the free full-permissions version of the primskirtbuilder - the item will be sold at L$1500. I think it is a reasonable price to still allow a wide range of folks to use it.

You can find the item inworld, and also at SL Exchange, and OnRez.

Feel free to write up your review if you like.

Indeed, if you still have the "free" version - feel free to give it to the friends, and they can still use the "tips-based" compensation model.

Look at your website in different browser

browsershots allow to see how your design looks in various browsers.

Of course, this is static screenshots, but still could do you a good service if you are designing a website.

Inflation-free money

I've stumbled across a page with a bunch of interesting money-related links - this one.

Quite interesting book there is about inflation-free money. Unfortunately, it's not available on amazon, so I could not get a paper copy, so will have to continue reading online. There are a few interesting thoughts about avoiding inflation, and community money. I'll include one interesting quote here:


Between 1932 and 1933, the small Austrian town of
Wörgl started an experiment which has been an
inspiration to all who have been concerned with the issue
of monetary reform up to this day. The town's mayor
convinced the business people and administrators that
they had a lot to gain and nothing to lose if they
conducted a monetary experiment in the way suggested
in Silvio Gesell's book "The Natural Economic Order".


People agreed and so the town council issued 32,000
"Work Certificates" or "Free Schillings" (i.e.,
interest-free Schillings), covered by the same amount of
ordinary Austrian Schillings in the bank. They built
bridges, improved roads and public services, and paid
salaries and materials with this money, which was
accepted by the butcher, the shoemaker, the baker.
The fee on the use of the money was 1% per month
or 12% per year. This fee had to be paid by the person
who had the banknote at the end of the month, in the
form of a stamp worth 1 % of the note and glued to its back.
Otherwise, the note was invalid. This small fee caused
everyone who got paid in Free Schillings to spend them
before they used their ordinary money. People even paid
their taxes in advance in order to avoid paying the small
fee. Within one year, the 32,000 Free Schillings
circulated 463 times, thus creating goods and services
worth over 14,816,000 Schillings. The ordinary
Schilling by contrast circulated only 21 times. (8)
At a time when most countries in Europe had severe
problems with decreasing numbers of jobs, Wörgl
reduced its unemployment rate by 25 % within this one
year. The fees collected by the town government which
caused the money to change hands so quickly amounted
to a total of 12% of 32,000 Free Schillings = 3,840
Schillings. This was used for public purposes.


So it looks like "decaying money" were very much stimulated to circulate - so they were a much more effective instrument of enabling the trade.

In my mental experiments I came to concepts that were similar, better yet, they did not require the any centralized authority to govern them - which is pretty cool, I think.

I'll write some more about that in a separate post, when I can crystallize it more.

How to do business in SL: find a freebie, reduce permissions, resell.

update: the continuation of the story is here.


One of the SL residents has kindly mentioned to me that apparently there's a clone of the primskirtbuilder for sale on the SL Exchange.

In case you prefer to pay L$3500 for a clone, when you can get the original for free, you can visit the seller's page here.

Now, looking at the whole range of products offered by this seller, I suspect that I'm not the only one from whom this undoubtedly entrepreneurial person have "borrowed".

I do not feel like pursuing any legal actions for this person - it's boring.

But I hope you might help me by just exposing this.. err... arguable commercial practice by dropping this person ("coral giha", as it is written) an IM with your opinion about his actions.

I suggest that if you have purchased this item, you grab the original *full permissions* item for free from me, and claim your money back. (hey, and you can drop a fraction of that L$3500 into my tip jar, I would not mind :)

HTML on the parcel media in the new RC viewer

this is pretty neat.

Even though no clicks, I guess a lot of cool stuff could be already possible - if the browser does support something with AJAX (aka XMLHttpRequest) and indeed JavaScript.