shockwave

If I have to prove my identity to everyone else in a video game in order to play it, or to ask a question on a forum, then I'll go play some other game. If Blizzard implements this, then my plans to enter Starcraft 2 when it comes out will be over with, dead and gone. If I wanted trolls to hassle me in RL, I'd give them my name and address myself.

I don't care.

While the game looks neat and entertaining, there is no escaping the fact that it comes from Sony. And I do not trust ANYTHING from Sony on or in contact with my computers. They hacked (and ruined) millions of computers by their placing rootkit infections on music CDs a few years ago. Only God knows what malware an actual program from Sony will inject into my computer, and what evils it will try to do.

It is called "Second Life", not "Easy Street". People who want a simple step-by-step gaming experience where they hack monsters on a preprogrammed schedule should play other things. Those of us who want to socialize, chat, DJ, build, show off our latest purchases, watch movies together and perhaps if there's enough time later, knock pretend parts, we interact in Second Life. And just like First Life, what you get out of it is what you put into it. Unlike First Life though, you can behave in ways you'd never dream of behaving in RL - the RL cops tend to frown on people walking into malls with armor and swords, you understand. Shy people can be gregarious. People living in crowded environments can find open spaces to relax in. Just like RL you have to go look for what interests you, because your interest won't seek you out.

And noplace but SL allows you the power to be disappointed that there isn't a Smurf Massacre game inworld (or whatever recreation you are interested in), so you can make one for you and your friends to play with. And perhaps even sell it, letting your imagination and skills earn you a little coin on the side. If you cannot find what interests you, then you can make it yourself. Try that in WoW or what have you...

For all of SL's leadership faults and tech problems, it's still the most fun I have had in years. And unlike other games, when you get bored swinging a sword, you can go elsewhere with you friends and do something completely different.

I will never allow any program from Sony to run on my computers. If they tried to put in Rootkits and spy programs with their CDs, who knows what they are trying to do when you install their software?

I had this phone for a couple of months. I absolutely HATED it.

Good: Sexy look.
Bad: So-so phone quality, slow transfer rate, lame capacity.

The telephone conversations break up bad, no matter where you are or how good/bad the signal strength is. I've replaced my unit and the fault was still there. It sounds like someone is trying to talk with marbles in their mouth. As a phone, it's barely usable.

As a music player, it's actually retro - putting music on this thing will take you back to the days when you painstakingly copied tapes. 50 minutes to load 100 songs? Over USB, plugged into the computer? Terrible loading speed. The 100 song limit is set by the software in the phone so getting a bigger Transflash won't get you more music, even if you have the spare couple of hours to load it.

I finally had to get mine replaced with a Nokia. As a phone, the SLVR is terrible.