Bank shutting down: Problems inside Second Life

Second Life is a game where you can feel that you are in a different world, and indeed you are. It is a world with different rules, totally online and where you can be somebody different from what you are in real life, and also do something different. This lofty objective seems to have been getting badly bruised in the last few months. First, it was the whole concept of gambling inside Second Life that got clobbered by the real-world rule about no online gambling in the United States. And now this, a closure of a bank in the online world has prompted calls for monitoring of Online Financial Institutions by the actual real world monitoring bodies. Calls for monitoring of something that happens in an Online Game may seem crazy for an outsider, but things in Second Life are not so disconnected from the real world.
The currency of Second Life, the Linden is not disconnected from actual Dollars of the real world, with there being an actual conversion factor. And hence, the closure of a bank, Ginko, located in the online game, has had an impact on the real life wallets of people playing the game. The affected people are now obviously calling for greater supervision:

The recent collapse of Ginko Financial, a "virtual investment bank" in Second Life, has spurred calls for more oversight, transparency and accountability, especially when it comes to business practices in the metaverse. Last week, Ginko Financial -- an unregulated bank that promised investors astronomical returns (in excess of 40 percent) and was run by a faceless owner whose identity is still a mystery -- announced it would no longer exist as a financial entity.
The declared insolvency meant the bank would be unable to repay approximately 200,000,000 Lindens (U.S. $750,000) to Second Life residents who had invested their money with the bank over the course of its three and a half years of existence.

Combined with recent stories about the link between people who have had romances online and the obvious resentment felt by their offline mates, it seems that the original dream of 2 separate worlds, an offline world where you live in reality, and an online world where you live the life you want to lead, this dream is gone. There is just too much linkage between these 2 worlds, and to wish otherwise seems unlikely. What all of us are just waiting for is the first divorce case based upon a person being too dedicated to an online partner, and real world spouses. This will get to be even more problematic as you get better game playing equipment that provides a sensory feeling of the game.

Microsoft drops price of HD DVD add-on for Xbox 360

The battle for the next generation of DVD players is getting hotter, although it is a long way from decided right now. Sony's Blu-Ray seems to be ahead in the race with the HD DVD, with increasing adoption by the retailers and media industry. However, these are such early days that things can change a lot in the next few months, eventually leading to a decision on the winner. The ones who lose out are the early customers, who end up choosing Blu-Ray or HD DVD players and discs, and then it turns out that the format they choose is the loser and not supported later, or that they buy a player and do not get movies for the player later.
Microsoft is doing its bit in the fight against Blu-Ray and for the HD DVD player, by reducing the price of the HD DVD add-on to the Xbox360 by $20 to $179. In addition, Toshiba extended the offer of 5 free HD DVD movies to people buying this add-on:

"With the price reduction to $179, the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player continues to be the most affordable way to enjoy high definition," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of the global marketing, interactive entertainment business, entertainment and devices division at Microsoft.
This price drop and movie giveaway may entice some buyers who already own an Xbox 360, but Sony and Blu-ray's recent victories in retail and rental outlets may prove to be a more powerful weapon. $179 HD DVD players won't be too attractive if consumers can't easily find HD DVD content in their favorite stores. Conversely, if Microsoft's price drop results in sales of large numbers of HD DVD players, retailers may change their tune.

Still a long way to go, and the fight to attract people to these respective platforms will keep on happening for some time more. It would seem like that Blu-Ray is currently leading the fight, and Sony will keep on pushing for more alliances and adoption.

Selling security exploits

The biggest fear of software makers, application system makers and the like (Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, and numerous other big entities) is coming true. Ever since software holes and bugs started to come into existence, there was always the pressure between the software company trying to release a patch, and hackers trying to exploit this defect. In the past, software makers would try to apply pressure on the defect finders to keep it quiet till the patch is released. If the patch was found by a big company, they would normally respond to pressure from the likes of Microsoft and not release into the public domain.
However, this was not happening more and more, with the security companies releasing their findings independently of the software makers. Some of them would even sell these to people who would exploit them for nefarious purposes. As an example, review the number of botnets that exist in the internet today, with millions of computers being hacked into and controlled. The situation was literally demanding a market-place for such bugs:

An eBay-like auction site that sells vulnerabilities will improve security by ensuring researchers get a fair price for their work, its founders say. "The existing business model to reward researchers is a failure," said Herman Zampariolo, chief executive of WSLabi, and the man behind the WabiSabiLabi auction site. A tiny minority of vulnerabilities currently get patched, he said, because IT experts aren't paid for their work in uncovering them.
"As long as vulnerabilities are bought and sold privately, the value can't be the right one," Zampariolo said. "Our intention is that the marketplace facility on WSLabi will enable security researchers to get a fair price for their findings and ensure that they will no longer be forced to give them away for free or sell them to cybercriminals," he added.
So far, no bids have been posted, possibly because of delays in identifying the buyers, each of whom must use snail mail or fax to deliver proof of their identity and their bank account--electronic currencies are not accepted on the site. Around 20 buyers have been registered so far, as well as 30 sellers, who have provided another batch of flaws that should be on the site next week.

In this case, the intention may be genuine; however, where is the control mechanism to ensure that these sales are happening to the right people. If we are just dependent on the operators of the exchange, then there is no guarantee. Later, if the number of such buyers increases, it would be very easy for the cyber-criminals to pretend to be a genuine buyer and get access to top-notch holes on a very quick basis.

Something to keep watching on Google: Top searches

Google came out with new information that will typically bring in a large number of people on a regular basis. People running blogs geared about adsense, researchers looking at social trends in terms of large searches, culture icons and their fans, etc. So what is Google doing ? It is going to start listing 100 top searches of the day at this website on Google Trends, HotTrends. Refer this story:

A feature listing the day's 100 fastest-rising search requests has been unveiled by Google.
The chart, part of the search system's trends service, will be refreshed several times a day using data from millions of searches, the company said.
Requests for pornography, the weather, popular websites like MySpace.com and some celebrities will not be included.
Instead, Hot Trends will provide a glimpse of what is baffling and interesting web users from day to day. The service merges elements of Zeitgeist and Trends - two existing products which give a glimpse of search habits but only based on weeks-old data.

Can you imagine the trends coming out from this ? Some examples I can think of:
1. Like 15 minutes of fame, you will now get your 15 hours of Google Top 100 ranking
2. Celebrities will be able to rank themselves on how many people search for them: Britney Spears telling Paris Hilton, "Sorry Paris, more people hunt for me, you are an also-ran!"
3. Serious writers bemoaning people in the US searching for what a celebrity said rather than hunting for information about Darfur or global warming
4. PR agents will be evaluated for how they can somebody into the Google top 100
You can just let your information run riot