I’m given to understand, by my bidness podnah, that there are actually people giving money to other people in order to set up virtual conference rooms with avatars in places like that Second Life* thing, and that some of those same people are paying other people for anonymity guarantees for the avatars, and that some other bunch of those people are paying other people for de-anonymizing code because their valuable virtual presentations and meetings are being disrupted by unknown or unknowable avatars. Kind of like me virtually running rampant through a kickoff in a virtual Mexican wrestling mask, I guess. I never did that, you know, no matter what stories you hear.

This disturbs me on many levels, not least of which is that I couldn’t get funding for a real product that serves a $20BB market, and now I’m bootstrapping in my garage with code donated for a handle-bottle of vodka, an ass-pocket full of credit card bills, and lots of teeny-tiny Chinee knock-off components. It’s not that bad, either. I’d love some crazy fucking VC money for hookers and blow and a nacho cheese fountain, but this way, I’m going to own what I own. And I most likely won’t have an avatar dicking around on a virtual island conference package. Though if I did, it would be Sasquatch, and it would be controlled by my comely short-skirted Ukranian secretary while I’m playing First Life golf with the gang.

* Why did they invent Second Life? Because their first one sucked so damn bad. Still, millionaires…who can kick?