Since Avatars Can Be Perfect, "Flawed" Hair Seems Stylish Miss Ophelia's Metaverse Manners: The SL Etiquette of Copycats, Copyright, and Crying Wolf Give a Warm Reception to coldLogic's New SL Mesh Fashions Last Names for SLers Return Soon -- Plus... SLHamlet Weekly Recap

When I noted that Linden Lab's private estate revenue in SL has fallen to 2009 levels, famed steampunk land baron Desmond “the Guvnah” Shang stopped by to offer his thoughts in Comments: "Cutting back on land mass is actually a... SLHamlet Comment of the Week Linden Lab News & Analysis

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion Women have been dyeing their hair for a very long time, and for almost all of that time it was key to maintain the illusion that it was your natural... Iris Ophelia Avatars and Identity Iris Ophelia's Gaze Second Life SL Fashion Virtual Fashion

The SL Bloggers group is back in business, thanks to Tymmerie Thorne, who has all the details here, including an in-world hang-out, and a group Twitter account. "We take 'em all," says Ms. Thorne, "news bloggers, fashion bloggers, badly dressed... SLHamlet SL blogger link

Back when Apple unveiled the iPhone 4s' Siri, I wondered if she'd be the first AI we'd fall in love with, so it's too surprising that the Times just noted Siri & Me "a new work of fiction by David... SLHamlet

mvfapp.com is a fun, possibly ego-stroking Twitter widget that shows you your most valuable Twitter follower, i.e. the follower who in turn has the most Twitter followers. Mine (I'm @SLHamlet on Twitter) include the official SL Twitter account, legendary SF... SLHamlet New World Culture New World Tech

Iris Ophelia's ongoing take on etiquette & ethics in virtual spaces It should be no mystery what this week's Metaverse Manners theme is, so let's cut right to the chase... Is there a right/wrong way to call out an SL... Iris Ophelia Miss Metaverse Manners Second Life SL Fashion Virtual Fashion

Now that Facebook has filed for IPO, we're starting to get a somewhat clearer picture of its virtual goods market, and as expected (as Wired reports), it's fricking huge: "Facebook users spent roughly $1.85 billion on virtual goods within the... SLHamlet New World Culture New World Gaming

Ms. Munchflower Zaius just showed me this badassariffic Hellboy avatar she created in Second Life on a lark, a tribute to Guillermo de Toro's movie adaptation of the character. She was stirred to send it to me after I posted... SLHamlet Avatars and Identity SL Fashion

The Associated Press' Jason Straziuso has a great article about a great story: How the virtual community Reddit quickly rallied to raise $80,000 in donations to help a a Kenyan orphanage beset by violent thieves, one of whom hacked an... SLHamlet New World Culture

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of virtual world and MMO fashion coldLogic [Teleport to ColdLogic in ZYRRA] is a brand new all-mesh venture from Janie Marlowe, Zyrra Falcone, and Damien Fate that has a lot of fashionistas in a flutter. If... Iris Ophelia Iris Ophelia's Gaze Second Life SL Fashion SL Mesh Virtual Fashion

There once was a friendly and beautiful girl named Aretha Millsaps, whose only flaw was that she didn't exist. Also, that she only existed to promote a commercial website link on her Facebook profile, but then you probably guessed that... SLHamlet New World Culture

Speaking of indie games, there's a new kind of SL roleplaying game from Grendel's Children, longtime and widely admired manufacturer of fantastic bestiary avatars in Second Life: LifeCycle Rats, which as the name suggests, turns your avatar into a rodent,... SLHamlet Games New World Gaming

This looks really great: Indie Game: The Movie, a documentary on the sweat and tears poured into producing low budget indie games which aspire to greatness: Indie Game: The Movie Official Trailer from IndieGame: The Movie on Vimeo. It just... SLHamlet New World Gaming

After a month long absence from social media, Linden CEO Rod Humble posted an update on his SL profile, updating the company's plans for returning last names to SL avatars, along with other features to names, such as titles: Speaking... SLHamlet Linden Lab News & Analysis

Berkeley philosophy professor Alva Noe has a pretty fascinating take on the Uncanny Valley as caused by 3D computer-generated movies like The Polar Express and Tintin (which I talked about recently). If understand him right, he's arguing that the feeling... SLHamlet New World Culture

Viddy this SL fashion tribute to Clockwork Orange, which was created by Nestag Itano, who has a well-named male SL fashion blog called Untouchable Life. It's from a series of movie-themed fashion spreads, which also includes this equally great Rorschach... SLHamlet SL blogger link SL Fashion

Tyche Shepherd's latest indispensable Second Life economic analysis is up on SL Universe, and the news is not good: "Monthly private estate tier estimate is down below US $5 million for the first time since I began the monthly surveys... SLHamlet Linden Lab News & Analysis Sim Deathwatch

I have a new post on Internet Evolution about the rise of Reddit in the age of Facebook and Twitter, which I'm pretty proud of. Why does Reddit, a content-sharing community with pseudonymous identities, keep rising in the face of... SLHamlet New World Culture

SL/OpenSim news: Tokyo University Developing Real Time, Open Source Kinect-to-Second Life Software Explore OpenSim & SL Regions on the Web & Convert Others for Web Use With Avatars Via the ArchTech Engine Google Reportedly Allows Second Life User to Keep... SLHamlet Weekly Recap