Yesterday in Second Life we:

• Spent US$1,372,000 at an exchange rate of L$268.7 to US$1
• Exchanged US$274,000 at an average of US$11,400.0 per hour.
• Market buys were US$197,000
• Market sales were US$75,000
• Limit-limit buys were US$1,400
• The busiest time was at 11am when about US$16,000 was exchanged.
• The quietest time was 3am when about US$6,000 was exchanged.

According to the official blog there's a rolling restart underway. Details are sketchy, but when they're this poorly announced they usually mean it's an exploit fix and we won't get a lot of additional details, although it is also setting up for the new search, fixing sale auction IDs and (most interesting) allowing inventory databases to switched in and out without booting everyone.

The restart is running North to South, so jump North if you get caught by it. It started at 2:17pm and will run until about 6pm.

If I were a pagan, this would be the first day of the new year. Although it's not a description I'd use, I've known more than enough over the years, and sometimes that feeling of looking forward now (in relative sobriety) rather at the more normal new year (which is also a RL friends birthday and rarely sober if I'm healthy) feels right.

Somehow I think this year to come will be a year of massive changes. Looking back, a year ago I wasn't writing, now I find things to write about in SL most days as well as the "boring numbers" column - although a lot of people read the boring numbers too, and find them useful.

A year ago I was trying to make a living from SL. Now, I still am - having meningitis and recovering from it slowed me down, but I'm close to the point of making a comfortable living now, and writing for SLI helps with that massively. Over 125,000 words so far, and more to come, whatever the future might hold for us all - at least unless LL shut the door!

There have been things of a personal nature that have changed my life massively and that haven't made it into press, but journalism of this sort agrees with me equally massively. Hope you'll follow through whatever changes the next year brings and enjoy what you read.

Yesterday in Second Life we:

• Spent US$1,284,000 at an exchange rate of L$266.4 to US$1
• Exchanged US$257,000 at an average of US$10,700.0 per hour.
• Market buys were US$173,000
• Market sales were US$84,000
• Limit-limit buys were US$200
• The busiest time was at 11am when about US$26,000 was exchanged.
• The quietest time was 11pm when about US$5,000 was exchanged.

Carl Linnaeus is a personal hero of mine (and probably every other biologist in the world). He's responsible for developing the structures of taxonomy in biology, the thing that makes humans Homo sapiens sapiens, and the MRSA a multi-drug resistant strain of Staphylococcus aureus.
The Swedish Embassy in SL is expanding its presence and activities with a permanent exhibition about this famous citizen, which will be inaugurated with an event on Friday (November 2nd) with a couple of competitions (best 18th Century costume, build a plant) with cash prizes as well as information books in a variety of languages. Read more about it on their website.

(Thanks to Stefan Geens for the head's up.)

If you're not sure who Stephen Fry is, can I direct your attention to his blog and his wikipedia page. He's a quite famous comedic and serious actor, appearing in Blackadder amongst other famous shows, and he's also famous for his erudition as the host of QI.

I've been a fan of his blog, which is relatively new, and his "blessays" and "blisertations" - his blog is not something to skim quickly, but is clever, fun, and interesting as well as blogging his life as an early adopter of technology - something dear to the hearts of many of us.

I have the thinnest of excuses for posting this. In his latest entry (also printed in the Guardian on Saturday) he admits to having a private existence in SL too. I'm not going to try to expose him further than this, but to say a public hello to him.

Yesterday in Second Life we:

• Spent US$1,145,000 at an exchange rate of L$270.2 to US$1
• Exchanged US$223,000 at an average of US$9,300.0 per hour.
• Market buys were US$156,000
• Market sales were US$67,000
• Limit-limit buys were US$600
• The busiest time was at 5pm when about US$22,000 was exchanged.
• The quietest time was 3am when about US$4,000 was exchanged.

Happy halloween, or Samhain Blessings for those of you that celebrate such things.

Those you in the twitterverse, and possibly other places, might have just found out that, according to rumour, LL is no longer responding to emails. They will, hereafter only respond to Live Chat or the Web Support Pages.

There is a side comment to the effect that this may not be universal: certainly there are people who still give out their email addresses, it would be interesting to suggest that, for example, Catherine Linden, in charge of PR, can't be reached that way. A policy statement would be useful, but I would suggest not holding your breath for that. There are mailing lists that still request email replies too, so presumably they don't count in this.

We all know SL is growing, and growing faster than LL, appreciably faster. However, is moving to a position of fewer routes of communication a good thing? In light of the earlier news about sexual ageplay in SL, I wonder if anyone will answer our emailed requests for a statement?

Sloog, you may remember, is a HUD that lets you tag places and people and search for them both inworld and via the web. MERLOT is a tool for indexing, and a database of, online learning and educational materials. SaLamander is a system to tie them together, led by Wainbrave Bernal, aka Jonathon Richter of the University of Oregon, in partnership with Sloog.org and yours truly.

What does it all mean? Well, anyone is welcome to go and pick up a Salamander HUD from the Centre for Advanced Technology in Education and when you find somewhere educational in SL, click the button, follow the instructions and register the site. The UOregon people will sift feeds and transfer them over to the wiki, and we will gradually acquire a register of folksonomy tags for education in SL.

Yesterday in Second Life we:

• Spent US$1,234,000 at an exchange rate of L$268.9 to US$1
• Exchanged US$236,000 at an average of US$9,800.0 per hour.
• Market buys were US$165,000
• Market sales were US$70,000
• Limit-limit buys were US$1,300
• The busiest time was at 5pm when about US$18,000 was exchanged.
• The quietest time was 5am when about US$5,000 was exchanged.

I've posted several pieces about the magic of presence in SL. Today, in my daily trawl through news related to SL, I came across this gem from Gavin Keeley, General Manager of Solutions at Suncorp Metway. The basic thesis: whilst meetings have their official uses, and video conferencing serves them, a lot of the real value of a meeting is the informal chatting before and after the meeting - something video conferencing doesn't encourage whilst meeting in SL enables it just like IRL.

Whilst it's a fascinating thought about the value of meetings, it's a fairly insightful piece about one benefit of meeting of meeting in SL. But what do you think? Just Askin'

(Original piece by Simon Sharwood)

Yesterday in Second Life we:

• Spent US$1,124,000 at an exchange rate of L$268.7 to US$1
• Exchanged US$238,000 at an average of US$9,900.0 per hour.
• Market buys were US$166,000
• Market sales were US$71,000
• Limit-limit buys were US$1,300
• The busiest time was at 1pm when about US$18,000 was exchanged.
• The quietest time was 2am when about US$4,000 was exchanged.

Yes, it's a Sunday; sometimes you have to wonder who makes the decisions about when to release these things. But Sidewinder Linden is calling for you to fill in this survey to help the Lindens determine how inventory is still occurring. This is in addition to reporting inventory loss via the support portal.

The survey is mercifully short (9 questions, mostly pick one type answers), and forms part of the initiative both Moo and I wrote about recently. Let's hope not too many of us need to bookmark the survey page, and that it helps find out and stamp out inventory loss.

According to reports I'm receiving, and my own experience, SL is having a bad hair day, at least at the moment:

• Teleports are optional,
• Search won't,
• Friends lists are optional,
• Money is Loading....,
• Changing clothes is a luxury,
• Europeans are reporting packet loss at high levels too

Be braced for a bumpy ride people.

Yesterday in Second Life we:

• Spent US$1,187,000 at an exchange rate of L$268 to US$1
• Exchanged US$226,000 at an average of US$9,400.0 per hour.
• Market buys were US$166,000
• Market sales were US$60,000
• Limit-limit buys were US$300
• The busiest time was at 1pm when about US$21,000 was exchanged.
• The quietest time was 2am when about US$5,000 was exchanged.