Server crashes and unauthorized duplication are only the tip of the iceberg

Last week I read about the second major "threat" to hit the virtual world of Second Life and I started to think about the realities of both real world economies and their virtual counterparts. Are the two really so different, and should they be?

Second Life is an Internet phenomenon that has generated more hype than it has broken new territory. A few months back I logged into the virtual world to see what the fuss was about, and quite frankly I was unimpressed. It was my first time in a virtual world since around 1999 when I first logged into Active Worlds. Since then the graphics have changed but largely the "game play" of the VR world is still the same. You can walk around, build things and of course chat with other VR residents. There is of course one small difference with Second Life and that is the ability to buy and sell goods in a virtual economy.

The grueling reality of producing a weekly show wears down *casting pioneers

Absolute turmoil, if that is the correct word, erupted earlier this week when an extremely popular netcast (or podcast) failed to go live. This Week in Tech or TWiT as it's called by show host Leo Laporte is a weekly *cast about juicy tech news. What sets TWiT apart from the masses is that it also features several guests usually widely known tech commentators on every show. The problem is that coordinating the guests can be a bit difficult, but until now that had not been a problem.

However according to Laporte's official TWiT blog last week's episode wasn't recorded for this very reason. In a spur of the moment reaction he made the now infamous post that caused TWiT fans, otherwise known as the TWiT Army, to launch into a frenzy. Leo later posted reassurance that TWiT would continue though probably not as a weekly show.

The BBC recons that this time it's different. Yeah, we've heard those words before.

The BBC published a snippy little article today in the wake of a confirmed deal between Google and YouTube. The article speculates that though we may very well be experiencing a new Internet boom, however it stops short of predicting another Internet bust. Several reasons are cited and it's clear that the author is in a bit of denial.

The first claim is that this time Internet companies are real businesses. Evidence of this is in the sheer number of customer or viewers sites like YouTube and MySpace have. But nothing could be further from the truth. These people are not customers, they are users. They don't buy services from YouTube; they consume resources and pay nothing for it. Unless the nature of consumerism has changed in the past five years I'd say that these people were nary customers at all. Leeches is likely a better word.

Stability control may save lives, but it won't fix the problem.

In an effort to make driving safer, the NHTSA has suggested that stability control be a mandatory part of all new cars and trucks. They cite the reduction in single car accidents and rollovers based on 10 years worth of data. While I agree that stability control systems (SCS) are a great feature and can help folks avoid an accident, I stop short of calling for a mandatory requirement. The main drawback to SCS is the added complexity of the system that's required. The primary monitoring network this system are wheel speed sensors located on all four wheels, sometimes referred to as the ABS sensors. Wheel speed sensors monitor how fast each wheel is turning, and can thus figure out if one wheel is slipping, or locking up under hard braking.