Letters An anti-poverty campaign has set up its stall in Second Life, the online virtual world game that is so popular with so many. Our short, and somewhat cheeky, story on this collision of the most and least real of places to live (poverty vs. Second Life, for those only on coffee no. 1) has provoked quite a storm:

Yes there is close to 2m registered users in Second Life, but how many of them are regular users? A far lower number, probably in the region of 300,000. Most of the others are griefers and others who realise it's not for them. Those that do stay in the system are merely taking advantage of a novel way of communicating with others with similar interests around the world.

In fact, I'd suggest that they're exactly the sort of people who are less ignorant of the world around them because they want to learn more, and will already be more than aware of the situation in real life, compared to the many many millions in the real world who don't know/care about anything outside of their own country.

The resulting news articles will probably reach more people than the original actions will. What a waste of effort on WDM's part, and shame on the Register for using it just to continue their attack on Sadville! :)

Rather than get your knickers in a twist over a virtual world, If you want to do something useful, why not post a few links in the article to encourage "real world" readers to do their bit for the cause? or have you omitted them because you know everyone in the real world is obviously already doing their part?

And while we're at it, let's put one of those counters in some online FPS games: "Every time you frag, a child dies" - Is that not escapism as well?

Warm regards,

Andrew

How about opening a 'Free Condom' stall next to the "guilt trip' stall in Second Life? Or perhaps a "Get snipped here!" stall?

On a global scale, more money is spent on beer or 'lattes' that is spent on online gaming. More money is spent on movie rentals (a form of escapism), more money is spent on buying books, watching cable television and every other form of escapism than on all the online gaming in the world.

Whatever happened to taking responsibility for your own actions? If you can't support your kids, then stop fucking breeding! Stop trying to put a guilt trip on other people and take responsibility for your own actions.

Yes, it's sad that there are kids out there that are in dire need of assistance, but why the fuck should other people care? If you can't support them then don't have them in the first place? Don't' want kids? Don't want to support and raise them? Then don't have sex! What the fusk are the 'parental units' thinking? Drop a slew of kids and expect someone else will take care of them? Get real, not 'virtual'.

- Mark

Second Life escapism and disturbing parallels to Grant Naylor's 'Better than Life' virtual reality in Red Dwarf. How long before someone creates a virtual reality suit to interact with the game? It may have it's benefits. The USA may become so self absorbed that they ignore the rest of the world and we can get on with living in the real world.

- Ian

What a bunch of crap! There are many people in Second Life who do care for real world problems and dedicate their time and money to the causes. Just to name a few: there are Relay for Life and Toys for Tods fund raiser events, there was fund raising going on for many many weeks all over the map for Kathrina victims last year.

There's U2 in SL (www.U2inSL.com) and various live artists with awareness and charity concerts, there are people who pull off charity sales. There are groups that support ONE.org, MakePovertyHistory.org, AfricanWellFund.org, various health and other support groups and whatever not. And I'm pretty sure there are many more people out there in SL who did and do something on a regular basis to support all kinds of causes because their real life is affected by "the problems of the real world".

Mr Taylor obviously didn't do alot of research and exploring, before putting down his fancy gadgets. They are here to remind us? I for sure don't need an arrogant announcement to remind me of problems in the real world and to remind me to get off my ass, even in a virtual world.

It's true that I try to escape real world for some time when I log into SL. I do it to relax, to forget my worries, to have some fun, some peace of mind. It's the same as reading a book or watching a movie or going for a skydive or having dinner with friends. By doing stuff like that I am NOT trying to ESCAPE the problems of the real world...no no, I am trying to FORGET them for a little while, just a little while, to prevent me from going insane. And when I'm done forgetting them in SL, I still stay logged in and work on some stuff to support projects in SL, projects like those mentioned above. And I'm damn sure so do many others.

Mr Taylor seems to be an oblivious clown. May he take his counters, shove them and get the hell outta SL and go back to saving the world in real world and leave the SL stuff to the real world escapees, who at least have their "metaversial act" together and do their things, even without counters.

Demian

More letters, but none about Second Life, on the next page...

BT's Vision launch is not winning hearts and minds among El Reg's readership:

Am I right in thnking that BT wants us to pay £90 to install a freeview recorder/receiver that costs about £80?

Sorry, it can also connect to BT's version of iTunes so that we can pay to download "other" content, and also requires you to pay for BT's unlimited broadband connection service.

They're off their rockers! I can get Sky basic installed, in time for christmas too, and have a load more channels available, or even go with the dreaded NTL.

In my view it would appear that they want to charge us maximum price for a Comet digital recorder, maximum proce for a broadband connection, and then charge us again to download crap content. Sad...

- Damian

When did health and security get so mixed up? Doughnuts might be bad for your waistline, but that doesn't mean that they are likely to be the next weapon of choice wielded in the War on the War on Terror (TM). Does it?

The War on Terror claims doughnuts

In addition to this I live in Amsterdam and popped over to London for the weekend. Am having a Christmas dinner soon so I purchased some Bon-Bons for the festive spirit as you can't get them easily in Holland.

Sadly, I was not allowed to have them in even my checked luggage as they apparently contain small amounts of explosives. So the guy at London City Airport kept them - £30 worth. :( Sadly, no Bon-Bons this year...

Keep up the good work,

Giuseppe.

Last weekend, my son, transiting Miami from UK to meet us in Central America, was refused by the security man in Miami to carry-on a mature cheddar cheese he had bought airside at Heathrow. The excuse? It was a 'gel'. The restrictions are bad enough, but who trained this 'security expert' to recognise cheese as 'a gel'? Small wonder these foolish restrictions are adversely affecting tourism.

Dennis

It's not just doughnuts, but cheese as well.

It has not yet been confirmed whether the White House said: "From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support cheese will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."

Hugo

Next, your thoughts on our slightly satirical take on news that the average Mac user is probably your dad. Or 55, at any rate:

This scurrilous attack on Apple is typical of the young Applesnappers of today. You can see them in groups peering into the windows of PCWorld trying to catch a glimpse of Windows Vista working and just waiting to be guided to the latest Compaqell 32Ghz, 55in screen, 14 foot tower in Glitzocolor running AutoBeheader III. Well, I for one am sick of them!

Bring back the stocks and the cane!

Lt. Col. (ret) Cupertino-Jobbs Apple Cottage 1 Infinite Loopy

Hang on a minute. The reason more than half of Apple's customers are over 55 is because Baby Boomers are the only ones with (i) enough money to buy Apple gear and (ii) enough desperation to rely on product as an indicator of cool (cf. Jeremy Clarkson still in jeans, etc.). Better start discreetly sticking those Saga membership forms in Mac Pro boxes...

- Gary

I enjoyed your take on Apple users average age. Another take might be:

A. Proof that Apple has the loyalist fans. (I've used them since '88 and am 66 yrs.)

B. Proof that Apple's hardware has a longer useful life. (with upgrades 1st Mac 8 yrs.)

C. Apple's Mac are easier to use. (Our MUG expanded with "over 65" members of late)

D. PCs dominate the Game market attracting the next generation of kids. (Apple may be (able to change this over time if they're interested. The iPod certainly has attracted them)

As I go to Macworld every year I see the "Berkeley Radical Geeks" are still in attendence.

Robert Boylin

And finally, Symantec is not coping well with requests for corporate anti-virus license renewals:

"So last Century"? Bah Humbug!........a couple of days ago my Norton IS 2005 install on living room MCE box started barfing at Symantec/Norton "Liveupdates" claiming my subscription had expired.... rubbish thinks I, it's not due to die until well into Q1 07.....further investigation shows something amiss as it claims my subscription ran out in 1899! Dare I say "beat that"? (a challenge to El Reg readers if ever there was one ;-)

Cheers Tony

Indeed. Can anyone "beat that"?

We'll leave it there for today. But come back on Friday and we'll have another slice of the malted loaf that is the Register mailbag. ®