Back when I was a wee newblet (the second time around), Secondcast was the Second Life podcast to listen to. Since that time, almost two years ago, they've recorded 63 total episodes, of which only about 13 of them were in the last nine months. One fifth of the cast, Lordfly Digeridoo, recently pronounced Secondcast dead, after months of inactivity.

While I can't speak for them, I can speak as someone who has been on the show four or five times, with the latest being an episode that never aired in July. I heard the tone of the program change before me. What was once a fun project ended up taking a backseat to their own personal projects. Walker Spaight wrote a book, Johnny Ming and Torrid Midnight went to work for the Electric Sheep Company, Lordfly Digeridoo for Millions of Us, among others, and Cristiano Midnight busy as ever with SL Universe.

Instead of focusing on the fact that it's gone, though, I'd rather relate a happy memory I have from the show. After having been on a couple of times, Johnny asked me to make an episode into a Machinima. It turned into a total disaster. The rest of the cast was really bored and did not hide that fact. They goofed off when I needed screenshots, then got cranky before they were to watch all the Machinima.

Read on for the rest of the story ...

I know that this is Second Life Insider, but I just can't wait to show you a preview of the game that I think will replace Second Life. It's called Real Life. Supposedly you're able to do almost as much as you can do in SL, except maybe fly.

In all seriousness, I think "Log off now!" is a catchphrase that's here to stay for a long time. While I thought that CSI:NY and Electric Sheep Company did a great job with the episode, it was hard to resist mocking them in a fun way. Just remember that if SL becomes too much for you, you can always give RL a go!

Well, I lucked out a bit and peeked in on the state of the OnRez viewer about a minute after it went live. It takes about as long to download as the regular viewer (about a minute and a half) being similarly sized (not like LoTRO's 900MB update today).

First impressions? Nothing is where my fingers expect it to be, and my visible view of the world is a bit reduced. Second impressions? I rather like it. The location bar (and embedded browser) can be hidden or revealed at the touch of a button (though the much larger new Linden Dollar balance display remains onscreen at all times).

We already knew that, if you live in the USA or Canada, or surf the internet desperately, 24th October (a fortnight today) will see SL feature in CSI:NY.

What has just come to light is that ESC will be launching a new, commercially licensed, viewer for SL at the same time. Details are currently rather sketchy, but there will be an option to sign up from the CSI:NY site, and it will be available to residents. The interface will, according to the press release, more closely resemble a browser than the current client (one has to ask which browser, Sidebars? Customisable folders on a book marks bar? Widgets?) which is probably a good thing, because the current viewer is not the most elegant piece of UI design. To quote: It also combines Second Life features, such as teleporting, with sophisticated OnRez services for virtual shopping and searching. Perhaps less desirable in the general run of things to most residents?

Update: The viewer will apparently be available from here.

In Hollywood, things never happen in a vacuum. If one studio has a thriller involving time travel, chances are another will have one ready shortly. To wit: Those of you horrified by the recent episode of Law and Order, in which a SL-like virtual world played a major role, might be equally frightened by this news: CSI: NY will feature its own whodunnit, but this time it really is Second Life that's involved.

Unlike the Law and Order episode, this sounds like it might approach SL with a little more respect. In a nutshell, ace investigator Mac Taylor is called upon to track down the killer of 'the Paris Hilton of Second Life', who has taken over the victim's avatar and assumed her identity. More intriguing than the plot, however, is CSI creator Anthony Zuiker's ideas on pushing viewer involvement further, with the help of the Electric Sheep Company.

There will be follow-up interactivity for viewers to pursue, including visiting NBC's website to try to guess the murderer's identity -- which will remain unknown until the resolution of this episode's cliffhanger, which will be in February of 2008. One of the best things about the embedded clip from that episode is the rundown of SL given by a younger member of the CSI team, talking about the things you can do in SL. When one of his colleagues asks 'Why?', he replies in an isn't-it-obvious-voice: 'It's ... fun?'

For full details, visit the New York Times story on this episode, which airs Oct. 24th. Side note: Mr. Zuiker will be giving the keynote speech at this year's Virtual Worlds Conference in San Jose. It's not too late to register!

(Thanks, John!)

The Life 2.0 Summit, produced by CMP Technology/Dr. Dobb's Journal, is a quarterly conference on metaverse technology and best-practice for software developers and business stakeholders seeking to understand and use Second Life and other metaverse environments for customer engagement, commerce, collaboration, education, simulation and research.

The summit is on now and running until Friday. Below the fold, you'll find a roundup of today's schedule.

The Life 2.0 Summit, produced by CMP Technology/Dr. Dobb's Journal, is a quarterly conference on metaverse technology and best-practice for software developers and business stakeholders seeking to understand and use Second Life and other metaverse environments for customer engagement, commerce, collaboration, education, simulation and research.

The summit is on now and running until Friday. Below the fold, you'll find a roundup of today's schedule.

I know it sounds unlikely to anyone that scripts in lsl, but according to the BBC Technology news a firm called Novamente is working with ESC to produce AIs in pets, with the aim of branching out into babies, talking parrots etc.

The article points out that they believe places such as SL "will have a ready market for artificial pets" which is true - there is already such a market. You'd hope with ESC in the mix they'll actually be adding something to the pet market as well doing their research.

Do you want you're pet whispering "Dave? Dave?" as you tear memory modules out though?

Seriously though, good luck to them all.