My slides from my foray into prophecy and proving the title’s statement are here. As Damion noted, we were entirely too collegial. Maybe we should invite Jerry Springer next time.

Sending this post from the Seattle airport. It will come as a tremendous surprise to regular travelers: my flight was delayed. Yay for crumbling transport infrastructure!

What I learned from the Hello Kitty Online keynote

More info

Massively already has pictures from my panel discussion at Ion up, which I suspect means that they’ll be posting notes of how badly my presenting skills have atrophied to shortly (Edit: whoomp there it is) (I tried to speak extemporaneously instead of reading-in-a-monotone-from-a-script and about 7 minutes in started running into lots of “Uhh”). But here’s the slide that really explained my entire talk (courtesy of Massively):

I’ll update this when more reviews and whatnot trickle in from teh intarwebs.

Because, really, it does make everything better.

Next week I will be in Seattle for Ion (formerly OGDC) to sit on a panel pontificating on what’s up with online games in 5 years. (I’ve already done a powerpoint!)

If you’re going to be in the area, feel free to yell at me.

Rep. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) blasts Second Life as a haven for child predators and a “new, scary, uncharted territory”.

The dark side of the Internet site quickly became evident when one of his aides created an account last week, Kirk said.

Within half an hour, the aide said, she was perusing pornography and roaming in “virtual rape rooms” and drug dens.

Chris Hansen had no comment, though Ars Technica, CNET, and Valleywag did. But what do they know. Also, I have heard unsourced rumors that you can actually download pornography on the Interweb. SAVE US, CONGRESS!

Well, that was quick.

Virtually Blind has word that the judge in their case has ordered the participants in to explain why they haven’t settled affairs yet.

Now, I’m not a lawyer - I’m not even a space lawyer. But quick research of Judge Manuel Real implies that this could get pretty darned interesting:

Judge Real is a decent man off the bench. But when he puts on the robes something seems to go wrong.

This lazy, vicious monarch has terrorized litigants and lawyers for 42 years and has the highest reversal rate in the Ninth Circuit, which virtually automatically and sua sponte re-assigns his cases to other judges when it remands them.

It is difficult to describe the terror he visits upon those in his courtroom and the shame that he makes lawyers feel.

It is impossible to describe accurately in mere words how bad this judge is. He is so mean and intimidating that one really needs to sit in his courtroom in order to fully appreciate how awful he is.

He should be removed and replaced by a coin-flipping machine, which at least, over time, would get it right 50% of the time, and would have virtually no upkeep costs, such as salary, staff, pension benefits, and health care premiums.

This judicial tyrant is a disgrace to the entire federal bench. He is the very best example of why lifetime judicial appointments are a very bad idea.

There simply is no judge worse than him, living or dead.

This is a truly evil man.

Based on all this, I’m hazarding a wild-arsed guess that we have not heard the last of this case.