Mark Kirk has a bit of a problem, that’s likely to soon be a very big problem. See, it turns out he’s been less than truthful about his own military service, and that it’s looking like it’s a bit of a habit with him.

In 2005, a political tussle in Ohio led to Rep. Jean Schmidt claiming that Rep. Mark Kirk (who’s currently running for Barack Obama’s former Senate seat) was a “veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom.” It was news to me that any politician had served in Iraq by that time and, as it turned out, it wasn’t true. Mark Kirk was claiming on his campaign site to be “the only member of Congress to serve stateside during Operation Iraqi Freedom,” which was true, but on his official web site he claimed to be “the only member of Congress to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

Then there’s this:

From U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk’s official website.

The U.S. Navy named Kirk “Intelligence Officer of the Year” in 1999 for his combat service in Kosovo….

…Try doing a Google search for “Intelligence Officer of the Year” and “U.S. Navy…

It doesn’t surprise me that a slimeball like Mark Kirk would add Theft of Valor to his crimes against large numbers of innocent Americans he’s never met. He’s fundamentally a coward, and I hope his career in politics is soon to be finished.

-Big Adz))

So, the scientists went along with some fishermen one night and put some cameras into the ocean to observe a bunch of the squid (called a “shoal”). The fishermen threw something like dead sardines into the water, as they usually do, and some squid came nearer to the surface. Normally the animals like to stay down very deep in the ocean (200 – 700 m), but convenient food is always interesting.

The squid stayed in one spot in the water, near the food. Suddenly, a large metal thing plunged into the water and narrowly whizzed by one of the animals. Another one nailed a squid, and it was whisked out of sight. It didn’t matter how hard it fought; the rope pulled it away faster than anything. Squid watched as one by one their friends and relatives got sucked into the sky. What the scientists observed next was very interesting. In the midst of this experience, the squid got very agitated. They started darting around unpredictably. They bumped into each other. They lashed out indiscriminately. They attacked each other mercilessly. They even ate each other, on the spot.

The squid are victims of their own awareness. Smart enough to know what is happening to them, but not smart enough to do something constructive about it.

When your friends get sucked out into the sky, try not to panic. There’s not much you can do. Eating your friends alive isn’t going to help. My advice is to just pack up as best you can, and try to find some tastier sardines somewhere else.

/me skin turns different colors and he squirts water at you.

I have done this out of protest. The Linden Lab software responsible for tracking friend referrals stopped working one year ago, today. As far as I know, Linden Lab has not publicly addressed the issue.

About the only acknowledgement that there even is a problem is that WEB-841 was assigned to WorkingOnIt Linden about six months ago. There are no comments from Linden Lab representatives.

This site isn’t very expensive. It runs on a shared web host. The data collection bot continuously requires a small amount of processor and network resources on my home network, which I don’t mind lending. However, the Google Ads alone are not quite enough to cover the expenses. I’m slightly in the hole, here, going by cash alone. Before the refer-a-friend system stopped working a year ago, I received dozens of calling cards per week (You can see a blurred out picture of a volume of calling cards in my inventory, here) Occasionally, these accounts would upgrade to premium. The bonuses associated with the upgrade went a long way to offset costs and were a great motivation for me to invest more into the site.

Then, it stopped. LL launched a new registration portal, and my best guess is that the developers neglected to include the referal id handler. This affects referral urls, slurls with referral ids, and postcards.

I’m not asking for a freebie, here. I assume I am still driving a modest number of new registrations to Second Life. Without the stream of calling cards I have no way to know exactly how many. Over the last year my traffic has grown, so I feel it is safe to assume that traffic I driving to Second Life has stayed steady or grown. According to secondlife.com, Linden Lab offers L$2000 (about 7.50USD) for each new account that is upgraded to premium. Linden Lab is not making good on the offer, simple as that.
I have written a few words about this on the disabled website, and on SL’s pJIRA issue WEB-841, which I created over 9 months ago.

I understand, mistakes happen. New features introduce new bugs. Some business decisions that make good sense at one point in time outlive their usefulness. I get it. But, what is promised on the Second Life official web site for the last year does not match reality, to put it in the most generous terms possible. It is way past time to confront reality.

I will re-enable the site early if Linden Lab

• Acknowledges the problem, offers an explanation, and articulates a plan to repair it, which includes at least addressing the issue of the payment backlog, and/or
• Removes the false offer of 2000L from the official website, accompanied by a public announcement of the end of the program. Again, the announcement must at least address the issue of the payment backlog.

I don’t pretend that this will have a strong impact on Second Life’s thousands of new registrations per day, but maybe this will raise awareness of something that is clearly unfair.

See you in 2 days 8 hours, ….
-Big Adz ))

“Children are solicited every day online,” Mr. Blumenthal said. “Some fall prey, and the results are tragic. That harsh reality defies the statistical academic research underlying the report.”

So classic. When the science disagrees with the premise, damn the science! In the end, the likes of Blumenthal will win, naturally. Sexual predators, insomuch as they actually exist, are vile and indefensible Attacking anything remotely associated with them is a bottomless apple basket for politicians, who experience no downside to amping up the parental anxiety as a campaign device. After all, “what are you, a pedo sympathizer?” Nevertheless, it’s nice to see rational, calm thinking to have a small victory for once.
There is much information in there with relevance to Second Life. Here, I will just quote the part that mentions age verification,

Among the systems the technology board looked at included age verification technologies that try to authenticate the identities and ages of children and prevent adults from contacting them. But the board concluded that such systems “do not appear to offer substantial help in protecting minors from sexual solicitation.”

That said, no alternatives to countering the legal risks facing Linden Lab were proposed in the report.
-Big Adz ))

1. A RL celebrity will sue for the rights to use their own real first and last name on Second Life, which someone in Second Life has already reserved months or years ago either on purpose or by coincidence. If the settlement is reached within the year, then the outcome will be that the defendant will have to give up the name but can keep the avatar.

If it happened, I didn’t hear about it. Score: 0

2. A major virtual stock exchange, perhaps The World Stock Exchange (WSE) will close or will be shut down. Customers will lose money. It will re-invent itself in another form, in a move widely seen as a way to avoid paying liabilities associated with this failure.

I was right about everything except the very last part. Indeed, WSE closed within four days of me making this prediction. It reopened in August, definitely in a different form. Ordinal Malaprop had the quote of the day, saying, “I’m sorry, but after this lengthy downtime, I expect an unusually entertaining form of con-job to have been developed. I will not be mollified with the usual tripe; I demand something particularly complex and imaginative, and not just ‘hello perhaps you have forgotten that we are crooks’.”. However, the reopening was not “widely” seen as a way to avoid liabilities. There was my error. Aggressively de-listing companies, while the WSE itself was closed mind you, whenever the management of listed companies spoke poorly of WSE in third-party forums, was more closely associated with reneging on liabilities. In any case, it is currently closed again, after a November announcement with almost identical wording as the January 2008 one. I should have made the prediction twice. Lots of news happened in-between these closings and openings, but who cares. Honestly, I’m glad I don’t have to pay attention to it anymore. Score: 0.75

3. There will be a significant change to the “Community Standards” document. Specifically, section 5 will be significantly changed or removed.

Wagner James Au gave me a bit of a freebie in January 2008, saying,

but I’m not going to take it. There were several other virtual edits to the CS document, for example, there was a definite change in advertising rules on the Mainland. However, with this prediction, I had in mind that the text of the CS document would be revised. It wasn’t. Score: 0.

4. Child avatar boy and girl shapes and outfits will be added to Library available to new users, or a 3rd-party registration portal that includes such shapes or specifically markets to adults wishing to join a community centered around child and family simulation will emerge.

I’m going to declare a small victory with this one. Only a child would be able to fit into a costume this small:
I’m going to ignore the second-class status lent to us on the eve of SL5B, since this policy was eventually reversed, and grant myself a win just for the cardboard robot costume. Cute! Score: 1

5. Total residents will not exceed 16million. Refers to http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php Number of users logged-in in the previous 30 days will continue to hover around 1million, its current average for the last six months, until next summer, when it will take-off to 1.25million by the end of the year. It will not exceed 1.5 million. Or, the way the statistics are calculated will change in an intractable way.

No and no. Score: 0

6. New last names available for new accounts will be released sporadically in 4 batches of 150 to 500, for a total of 1200 new last names available to the general public. This includes last names exclusively provided by alternative registration portals as long as they are open to the public.

Here is a recap of last name release episodes in 2008.

There were a total of 7 batches with 100 to 1254 names in each. The total number of names released for public consumption in 2008 was 2,954. I was quite off with the predicted numbers, but I was correct that the names would be released in irregular batches. I’ll give myself a Score: 0.25

7. Very few mainland regions will be released. LL will not return to auctioning new mainland regions until Q2. It is difficult to find statistics about mainland supply. But, supposing such statistics are available, however many regions were added to the Mainland in 2007, only half that number will be added to the Mainland in 2008.

This prediction was about Mainland, not Private Islands or OpenSpace. I said LL will not return to auctioning mainland regions until Q2. I was off on the timing by six months. LL did place a hold on Mainland auctions, but was delayed until June. The hold on Mainland auctions was pledged for only one month at first, but was renewed for two weeks, then another month at least, then despite a promise of an update nothing was posted on the subject again. The economic stats show there have been few if any full region auctions. I think Jack Linden should read my blog. As far as net Mainland growth goes, let’s compare years. In 2007, Linden Lab added 98 million square meters to The Mainland. In 2008, Linden Lab added 41 million square meters to The Mainland (pending December 2008 numbers not yet released). (Source: Key Metrics Downloads). I was dead on with the overall numbers, but I overestimated LL’s responsiveness and got the timing wrong. Score: 0.75

8. The distance between the world of Second Life and the Second Life Grid technology behind it will increase. (blah blah)

None of this happened. Score: 0

9. This will be the year of intellectual property in Second Life. My specific prediction is that a patent will be issued on a virtual invention. (blah blah)

This didn’t happen the way I expected. In March, Linden Lab decided to enforce some of its trademark rights. It was a big story that I don’t feel like writing about. With the threats of trademark enforcement, it shaped up to be the year of IP in Second Life by mid-year. I think I get partial credit for it. However, I can’t really call it that, since Linden Lab did not exercise all of the trademark challenges against individual SL users some of us anticipated it would. That said, there was some IP-related news this year. Most of it was related to trademarks, namely the SLArt controversy. Also, I’ll give myself partial credit for this patent granted in 2008, though. Score: 0.50

10. There will be a breakthrough in technology that allows integration of 2D and 3D Internet. For example, there might be a Second Life plug-in for Firefox.

The HTML-on-a-prim feature was stagnant. Maybe there were some technologies I didn’t hear about. Dusan Writer recently wrote about the awkward marriage of 2D and 3D, here. There are many neat ideas brewing, but there is nothing I would call a breakthrough in 2008. Are we stuck? Score: 0

Total Score 3.25 out of 10.
Feel free to comment if you feel I’ve missed any 2008 news affecting this analysis.
- Big Adz ))

Yes, this is a vendor image for Robin (Sojourner) Wood‘s kid skins. Adz wears one of these exclusively (he wears the version show above, with bonus freckles!). Robin is a terrific artist with a stunning attention to detail. She is especially good at making realistic skins for pre-teen shapes. When I try to explain why I feel this way, I realize it is not right to pick apart a masterpiece. I’ll just say, this is one piece of art where it’s okay to look at it close up!

Robin’s vendor objects were returned to her on Sunday night (11/30), with a note from a Linden. The note read, “Real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors are never allowed within Second Life. … Please update your vendors so any child-like avatars are fully clothed.” (ht: Marianne McCann). Robin appealed the decision to the G-Team, who reaffirmed it (see comment). Robin’s has re-rezed her vendors, but instead of a snapshot depicting the skin for sale, there is a text-only message explaining the problem and offering to have Robin manually drop textures on anyone expressing interest. Each skin purchase comes with three skins, two of which have the tie-dye underwears permanently baked on. The baked-on version are what appear on the vendors. UPDATE: Robin’s vendors now show a head only, and offer a demo version of some skins.

I’m speechless. Thankfully, Ceera Murakami, a poster in the SL Official forums said much of what I’d like to say, in reply to the thread, Resident Conversation > Resident Answers Define: Broadly Offensive I will simply repost it here.

Clearly there is a need for a path of appeal to G-Team decisions when the G-team itself refuses to reconsider an action that would be deemed insane by any rational person.

I can’t speak for the newer vendor’s images, but the images on the second merchant’s vendors would have been right at home in any Sears catalog. Heck, the pics my Grandmother happily used to show at church of me and my sister, as two topless kids in their diapers, were potentially more “offensive”, because there were adults in the same images!

The vendor pics showed a child avvie, in her can’t-be-removed kid’s cotton underpants, in a completely innocent and non-suggestive pose. Anyone who saw that pic as being in any way “a lewd or sexual act” needs to be seeing a psychiatrist. Because they are VERY sick.

The only potentially “offensive” factor was that the avatar, who was portrayed as too young to have the slightest need of a bra, (as flat-chested as any boy), did have childlike nipples. Same as the boy skin vendors from the same merchant, which were NOT removed! [editors note: I believe both vendor objects were returned] Putting a bra on a child that young would be overtly sexualizing the avatar, and completely inappropriate.

The G-Team needs a reality check, and an administrative review by their superiors. Disney has more lax standards than what the G-team is trying to force on us.

*This LL policy wording is attributable Daniel Linden, former employee of Linden Lab. Please note that the CS document and the TOS document make no mention of this rule.

Update: Robin writes:

[18:21] Robin Sojourner: Hi Adz, thanks. Only one of my vendors was returned; and that one had girl skins on it. However, one of the G-Team Lindens that Mari spoke with said that she wasn’t sure, but she thought that boys also need to be covered. (Not being sure of a rule she’s supposed to be enforcing is a whole ‘nother question.) Also, I haven’t appealed yet. I’m still trying to get the wording perfect on the appeal letter. But except for that, yeah, you got it right.

To this, I add a pair of photos available from ShutterStock.com

This coincides with the launch of the new registration portal. My theory is that the new portal does not honor the u= parameter in the Refer-A-Friend url. (Refer-A-Friend URLs are described, here, on SL website).

Please note: If someone signs up for Second Life using your code, your name won’t be auto-filled on the registration form, but we do keep track behind the scenes. This is prevent folks registering from being confused by the sight of a potentially unfamiliar name.

Remember, anytime you use one of these methods to refer someone to Second Life, that resident is tagged with you as the referrer. Once they upgrade to premium, you will receive a referral credit of L$2000.¹

The L$2000 promise aside, Basic accounts should at least have a calling card exchanged with the person who referred them. This allows the fragile new SL user to have contact with the SLexperienced referrer without needing to navigate in-world search. Normally, a little blue dialog box would pop up telling the new signup where to find the referrer’s calling card. It would say, “You can now contact Nicolas Biddle, or any other resident of Second Life.” or something to that effect. That dialog box doesn’t come up anymore.

The absence of a calling card for the referrer in the new signup’s inventory indicates that the referral was not recorded “behind the scenes”. It is a difficult system to debug on the user side, indeed.

The last word from LL on the Refer-A-Friend program that I know of was in this blog post.
Refer-A-Friend Program Changes Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 2:49 PM by: Jesse Linden

Anyway, please take a look and vote. Thanks. Here’s the JIRA link again: WEB-841.

Also posted on SL Forums and SLUniverse.

-Big Adz ))

I apologize that I cannot be more specific about this, but I can only say that since this event several months ago, other similar events have happened that only reinforce my decision never to A.R. underage, even if this age is expressed in open chat, which is the firmest evidence possible from my limited position. I have parcel powers to ban such residents from my land, and from several regions, and I can alert the leaders of some of the kid community groups. But, that is as far as I will go.

For the record, I do not want anyone under 18 on the main grid simply because that opens us all up to multiple vectors of real-world liability. Unfortunately we the residents have no way to affect this. All we have is a false sense that the system helps protect us, somehow.

Rai Fargis agrees. In a recent blog post, he writes:

We have no means to verify the real age of a resident. To do so, we would have to meet them in person or check their real life ID, which we are not obliged to do. A resident stating to be underage could have lied, could have been drunk, could have made fun. Heck, it could be a typo. A chat window is not RL identification.

An abuse report is a measure not to be taken lightly. Residents banned from SL lose their land, their Linden Dollars, their creative work and probably their friends.

I will not abuse report residents solely based on them saying they’re less than 18 years old, as long as I can not prove this to be true.

Perhaps if there were a system of sanctions against filers of false abuse reports, a faster turnaround time requiring less sensitive personal RL documentation to clear one’s name, benchmarks to show that the system is working or not, greater communication and sympathy from Linden Lab, or if they would at least work on weekends for crying out loud, I would change my mind about this. But as it stands now the system is so broken as to be useless and, sadly, dangerous. It is more of a griefing tool than anything else. All it does is cause trouble for many adults who have done nothing wrong. I hope I am never a direct victim of it.

-Big Adz ))