Japan
What is happening in Japan is terrible, as you heard, many people died or lost their home because of the Tsunami and earthquake. Some are already going through other collateral problems like the Accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.
It makes me sad to think that some Japanese SLer or SLer’s Friend or Family might be going through that terrible situation and might not be able to be with us.
I hope for the best for every one wherever they are.
Please donate money or things they might need at charities and your local Japan Embassies. Linden Lab is selling some Linden Bears with Values of 300L, 1000L and 3000L. This is their official Link https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/73551
RedCross: http://dft.ba/-DonateForJapan
Thoughts about Rod Humble / Rodvik Linden
I was reading Dusan Writer’s interview with Rod Humble / Rodvik Linden (Link Here) which made me realize that he wants to do something special with SL. I think Philip had the vision but I don’t think he continued it, M Linden had the Cash-in skills but no real vision and maybe Rod has them both, he understands the magic of live content creation, physics, events with people from all over the world and so on.
He is aware of the issues that “take the magic away” like lag and the current limitations of SL, and he probably wants to re-think Philip’s “Fast, Fun and Easy” strategy that didn’t really do lot of what he promised.
However, I feel he is understating “lag” as a thing he could fix by Q2 2012, and by that I mean (Mainstream mesh, perfectly working sim crossings, a more stable Region platform that could also support more avatars, long dead viewer 1.23 and a Viewer 2/3 that most of the people love to use) That is probably everyone’s wishlist, he needs to take away the “beta” feeling of SL that has been here since it came out of the beta in 2003.
I think Rod is the best person that could do this because he has an extensive background in Video Games where Lag is unacceptable, and I wish him good luck and I can’t wait to see the difference he will make here.
Linden Lab wants you to be in 17 more Spam groups, also wants to shrink your avatar before crossing regions
Linden Lab finally gave us a dose of 2011 news, Back in October they announced that they wanted to raise the group limit from 25 to 40, now they want to looks awesomer and raise it to 42, why? I’m not sure. But it’s nice to see this increase, I’ve been many times in the situation where 25 Groups didn’t make it. Now I’m in less than 20, but I will re-join groups I made years ago for which I use alts to keep them alive instead.
They also want to give us some goodies we should’ve gotten 5 Years ago, like a Fixed Group chat that should work as well as the usual website chatrooms, And they are working on a system to send your bizilion-attachment lag-avatar from one server to another faster by compressing your avatar data. (example pic below)
Facebook and Twitter linking is coming too, I hope that they also add some very Social websites of SL like some direct Posterous or Flickr posting.
A few months ago they released s Full 3D Web-Viewer with Server-side Rendering (and not your avatar) and they might offer us a more realistic beta this year, I’m looking forward for a Second Life Zero Viewer, with the real taste but zero computer stress.
I’m still preparing a fruit basket for Rod Linden for when he completely fixes Region Crossings.
All About me!
Name
Alvi Halderman
What is your occupation in SL?
Architect, Lionheart Estate Manager, Starbooks Inc. Owner, Blogger
How many items in your inventory?
20,661 – I did some cleaning 
What are you listening to right now?
The Black Keys – Brothers
What was the last thing you ate?
Scrambled eggs
Can you drive a stick shift?
Yes, I enjoy the sporty side of driving one
If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Red or Brown, depends what I would color 
Last person you spoke to on the phone?
My best friend
Do you like the person who sent you this?
Yup
How old are you today?
I’m getting closer to 10,000 Days
Favorite drink?
Sparkling Orangeade
What’s your favorite sport to watch?
none
Have you ever dyed your hair?
No
Pets?
Not anymore 
Favorite food?
Sirloin Steak
Last movie you watched?
Inception, I can’t stop watching it
Favorite day of year?
Christmas
What do you do to vent your anger?
I like to walk/drive across the city alone
What was your favorite toy as a child?
Not sure, computers probably (Geekkid!)
Whats your favorite season?
Spring
Hugs or Kisses?
I think I’ll go for hugs
Cherry or blueberry?
Blueberry…. Muffin
Do you want your friends to send you this back to you?
Sure! I’d love to read yours :p
Who is most likely to respond?
Readers, Friends. 
Who is least likely to respond?
Da Spambotz!
When was the last time you laughed?
Yesterday, after some beers everything was funny…
When was the last time you cried?
A Looong time ago.
What is on the floor of your closet?
A dead person + Shoeboxes with old CD’s + Shoeboxes with actual shoes.
Who is the friend you have had the longest you are sending this to.
This is for my readers so probably one of my friends would be that one.
Favorite smells?
Coffee
Who inspires you?
Mankind.
What are you afraid of?
Spyders.
Plain, cheese or spicy hamburgers?
I’m not really good handling spicy hamburgers, but plain cheese is lame
Favorite car?
Mini Cooper S, Fiat 500
Favorite cat breed?
I don’t like cats
Number of keys on your key ring?
4 8 15 16 23 42
How many years in your current job?
I think 6
Where’s The Question?
Whut!?
How many states have you lived in?
One
Do you think you’re fun?
I am!
Favorite Tree?
Linden Tree
Favorite all time music Album/CD
The Blue Van – Man Up
Why you shouldn’t Invest (or rather waste) your time and money on SL
SL is an interesting market, I’ve had explosive business startups and also dead ones, but one true thing is that you will depend on Linden Lab’s business decisions and mistakes, and the effort you make for a Real-Life living is almost the effort some people make for multimillionaire Real-Life businesses, so why bother?
The single business you can make is an equivalent of what Zynga is to facebook (Creator of -Ville Games) except that Zynga was only founded 3 years ago and it already has a 600 million dollar revenue for this year, which is probably more than Second Life’s itself, if they get screwed by Facebook they will have money to keep the grandchildren of their grandchildren swimming in money, while you will run out of your earnings in months.
Linden Lab is also doing many anti-business moves:
- The “Editorial” work they do selecting some branded items for their monthly newsletter.
- The extremely, if not most valuable businesses Residents should Run:
- Real estate business ( Linden Homes)
- The eCommerce business (sl,marketplace.com)
- And now the advertising business they try to launch.
Linden Lab has the right to kick you out without any reason nor refunds. I think Linden Lab should make a simple platform, and not a Game or MMO, They don’t have the possibility to fix their base system and they still get busy inventing new projects that affect the current businesses. I hope 2011 Will bring some less blurry view of what SL will be, but until I don’t get a clear image of what they want to do with it I won’t waste my money and time on it anymore.
