And in other news

This guardian blog post has been sitting in my must read pile for a while but i only just got around to it. Second Life catches the imagination because it's aim is to mirror real life but other worlds such as project entropia are taking off as well. Still if you though the sale of an Entropian virtual island for $26,000 (yes real US dollars) was freaky then Aleks Krotoski's observations on Second Life are a step further yet:

• Space Think Dream provides a real service selling designer clothes for your second life avatar - where's the store? - in second life's Avalon world, just swing your character by there and hava browse... Still personally i like the buggy.
  
• The Gaming Market seems to be doing pretty well (appart from having to drop a number of currencies), and they're even busy setting up ATMs in second life.
  

What's especially interesting about Second Life is that the game designers allow users to retain copyright over their designs - so if it's a hit online, maybe you can get it made for the streets of Paris.