Cobalt Blue has posted about three or four posts a month since my analysis. I still have never seen more than one or two comments on each of his posts, but that doesn't mean people don't read his blog. Basically all of his posts are videos or audio clips. His blogroll has a couple more people than it did than last time. He also updated his profile as well. It appears that his blog has experienced a small amout of growth in fan base. His content also steadily is added as well.

According to the case, which was heard by a court in Beijing this week, Beijing Guge Sci-Tech Co. was officially registered at the Beijing Municipal Industrial and Commercial Bureau on April 19, 2006, but Google didn't register the name "Guge" in China until Nov. 24 of that year.

Both companies claim that they were the creators of the word, and both say they have different meanings.

All that I have to say about this...these idiots in China are going to get what is coming to them. Google is going to unleash the wraith and fury of its thousands of patent lawyers, and harness the energy and power of its web presence to wipe this company of the face of the internet.

As they once said, "Don't Mess with Russia."

the new saying of the wise is, "Don't Mess with Google."

I have only realized that the skiing industry has really been on ball with emerging web technologies and has gone all out on web design, podcasts, blogs, and even wikis. I think that it is great for skiers to take advantage of information technology and spread the joy of the sport. Ultitizing these kinds of information services makes the sharing of information very fast and concentrated. Every month I wait for all of the skiing podcasts that I subscribe too come out, so I can find out what the Pros are up too, how the season is going in various places, how big the parks are out west, and how much pow was dumped out in AK in the most recent snow storm. This makes it really easy for skiers like me who can't get out all the time to know what is going on in the skiing world.

And now some good stuff...if you skip over this entire blog at least watch this video. This is a twelve-year old kid out in Mt. Hood Washington last summer:

Kamkwamba is a 20 year-old resident of Malawi a relatively small country in Africa. In the past couple of years he has devised a couple of windmills that power his family's house: three light bulbs, one radio, and one television. At first, his family thought he was crazy with his idea of using a windmill to create electricity, but after studying a windmill in a magazine, he was able to build a 39 foot windmill out of blue-gum trees and used bicycle parts. With no prior education, Kamwamba electrified literally and metaphorically his neighborhood, and now with the publicity that African bloggers have gotten it, nation. What amazes me with this story is that it was because of African bloggers that this story was pushed throw the pipeline. After this news hit the blogosphere, a group of independent investors decided to fund Kamkwamba's education.

Here is a link to Gomcha, a social networking site for students involved in the challenge.

Linden Labs has a very intersting exchange system set up. They call it LindenX. To control LindenX Linden Labs has set up “circuit breakers.” They are market mechanisms that basically freeze the exchange levels if market acts in certain ways. If the average exchange rate in any given day increases or decreases more that 10% the Exchange market freezes for one hour. 20% for two hours. 30% until noon of the next day. These circuit breakers help keep the exchange rate stable. One thing to look out for is Linden Labs handling of monetary policy in Second Life. Linden Labs maintains a currency peg of about L$270 for $1. This is similar to what the Chinese do with Yuan. This practice could be argued to inhibit change in value. Currently, the exchange rate is US$1.00 US dollar for L$267. L$51 million changed hands today.

The Second Life market is a free market or laissez-faire economy. There are two types of costs to to be taken into account when doing business in Second Life: Membership plans and Virtual Land Use Fees (Tier Fee). In order to own land in Second Life, a Premium membership is required. A Premium account comes with advanced technical support and a 512m2 parcel (if you donate 512m2 to a group). These issues are really insignificant compared to the amount of space. If the Penn State Library were to move onto Second Life they would need at least a 1/4 Region or more. An entire region costs $1675 US dollars and an additional $195 per month in Tier fees.

From this brief economic analysis of Second Life, one can assume that the Second Life economy is growing at a stable rate, and under the eyes of Linden labs, the exchange rate between Linden dollars and US dollars has stayed the same over the past few years. This makes it a safe environment for businesses. The facts about increasing annual GDP also prove that profits and revenues are possible.

Sun opened their presence on SL in 2006, and they have the title of being the first Fortune 500 company to hold a conference on SL. From perspective of their guided tour, I found the Pavilion to be very well designed and visually appealing. The textures where detailed, and there weren't really dull areas anywhere. Sun Microsystems doesn't have any dedicated website for their SL presence, but there are many press releases on their main page.

In the center of the parcel there is a media center with a lot of seats and large video display screens. There was an information booth that told me Sun used this to display new products. Other Sun affiliated locations offer a tour of their new supercomputer which they showed at the 2007 conference in Reno, Nevada. Inside the visitor center there are also rooms for SL meetings and conferences. A recruitment center and press briefing lounge are located here as well.

Sun showcases their products in one of the building in the Pavilion. All of their servers are set up. You can actually open them up and see what they look like inside.

One thing that I really liked was a nifty little marketing ploy. Sun gives away free SL clothing that has the Sun Microsystems logo on it. The shirts are pretty cool, and it promotes their company as well.

I was a little disappointed in the amount of Sun employees on the site. During the time that I was touring the site I saw only one person there. The map revealed that there were only three people on the entire island. To improve their SL presence, Sun needs to get more people actively involved during the day to roam there island and talk to visitors. Without people there, Sun's island appears very desolate and empty. I would only really recommend this island to a friend who is interested in buying products or services or looking for a job with Sun Microsystems.

IBM has a very similar island layout. Like Sun, IBM focuses on using SL as a communications and marketing platform. They have a plethora of confrence rooms and media centers, they even have a large theater. Unlike Sun, IBM seemed to have more employees on the island, and people specifically working there to help visitors out. They even had their own sandbox that had various projects under construction. Based on my tour of Sun Microsystem's Pavilion, and a brief stint in IBM. It seemed to me that IBM had a better and more complex island.

Exotic dancers Rachel and Zimmy work for a SL company called Club XTC Elite. According to Rachel, "I can make around 2000 Lindens a day on average." I asked Zimmy more about her SL employer and she told me, "XTC has about 25 dancers working for them, and their own island." That is 50,000 Lindens per day (estimated).

I'm sure people wonder who is really behind the mask. For all we know, one of these dancers could very well be a man. Rachel and Zimmy both claim to be college students and girls. Zimmy goes to UCLA, and Rachel goes to Texas A&M. Marketing and Business Supply Chain majors respectivley. These stories (if they are true) make sense. Two intellegent college students in business majors trying to bring the Lindens on SL. Rachel even calimed to have a boyfriend in RL. If these two SL hookers are telling the truth, it is great insight into what kind of people get into this business into SL. These people are not necessarily in a lower socio-economic group like their counter-parts in RL. "I do this job just to get Lindens for clothes in SL," says Rachel, "It saves me a lot of money from shopping in real life."

Second Life's features allow XTC to have virtual ads almost anywhere. And a query for XTC retrieved multiple XTC affiliated locations. XTC is one of many producers in this particular market as well.It would be interesting to see a report on the economy in general of Second Life.

"There is a very high demand for our business in Second Life."
---Rachel

LONG LIVE TARKUS OCTAGON!

Here is what remains of this spectacular SL battle:

(Matt and Eric)

I Need Sleep

(Paul)

Editing

(Matt, Martha, Eric)

Karma

(Paul)