TechCrunch reports on a company in Singapore (FirstMeta) who have introduced to the world it’s first virtual credit card for Second Life residents, and in turn solidifying any doubts we may have had about the upcoming boom in virtual business models:
MetaCard comes in two flavors: Basic and Gold. The Basic card is subject to a avatar check and provides a credit limit of L$5000 ($18.60) per month. A Gold MetaCard offers a credit limit of L$10,000 ($37.20) per month and can only be obtained by providing real world credentials and a real life credit card for automatic payments.
Interest is charged at between 0.13% and 0.15% per day, which would we roughly 54% per annum, but compounding. Payments are 2% of the total amount used plus fees outstanding at the end of the month, and users have 21 days to make their monthly payment. MetaCard holders must also spend L$500 ($1.86) per month or face a monthly maintenance fee of L$300 ($1.12).
Although the amount of credit offered by FirstMeta is (in real life terms) rather low, it will be interesting to see how services like these develop in online worlds given that in effect they are financial services that would likely be subject to real life laws.
Whilst Second Life companies such as the World Stock Exchange clearly state that they are in effect pretend outfits (ie: games), and therefore are not subject to real world laws, FirstMeta is actually providing credit that is tied to a real world account; in effect by securing their credit services they have crossed the line into the real world.
First Meta Pte. Ltd.
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1 George St, #17-05, Singapore
Tel: +65-6435-5295
Fax:+65-6536-7908
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Email contacts:
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08.Sep.07 
Funky Things, World Wide Web 
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US$ 250 REWARD!
NI-Limits have decided that the temporary penguin we had been borrowing from KLews as our company mascot was simply not hot enough for us any longer, even though he was pretty cool, he was perhaps a little too cool, and not hot or funky as we would have liked.
What with the difficulties he has been having with the heat and all the crazy AJAX work we have been doing, we are going to return him to his owners in January of 2008, and give him some much needed rest.
What Does This Mean?
It means that as of next year, we will be without a mascot and as branded as a second-hand elastic-band.
We Need Your Help!
If you can design a mascot that meets or exceeds the quality levels associated with our temporary penguin, we will reward you with two hundred and fifty dollars ( US$ 250 ) for all your efforts.
In addition, we also reward the runner-up with fifty dollars ( US$ 50 ).
And if that was not enough, we are even asking fo help in the promotion of this competition, where if you place our corner-banner-badge-ribbon on your website, and someone learning about the competition from that website wins, we will reward the website owner with fifty dollars ( US$ 50 ), or US$ 25 for the runner-up referral site.
For those willing and wanting to help us promote this competition, and in turn stand to win US$ 50, please add the following line of code to your site:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://lab.ni-limits.com/scripts/rewards_public.js"></script>
The Rules:
We are open to anyone and everyone living within the Milky Way, no matter of their age, occupation or nationality - so long as they are living on Earth.
We will even accept multiple entries per person, and even though the more ideas you are able to develop, the better your chances, be warned that we are all about quality, not quantity!
We will accept any digital form of entry, whether it be an illustration of just the mascot, a new logo concept or a splash page, animation, banner, or movie – so long as the proper entry-form is submitted, the more flushed-out your concept is, and the more supporting documentation or alternate visualizations and scenarios that are used to support your idea will obviously improve your chances of winning.
During the initial stage of submission, images alone will suffice, but all finalists will be required to re-submit their work along with the master-files and supporting documentation.
All initial entries must be provided before the 31st of December, 2007 and any entries already submitted can be re-submitted, altered or edited anytime before the deadline, so long as the proper submission forms are used to do so… Before the 31st of December, all finalists will be informed of their finalist status and will be required to submit the final master-files in order to qualify for a chance at the title!
So long as someone has entered something that meets or exceeds the quality of our temporary penguin, a decision will be made within the first week of January and announced not only on the blog but with a private email to each and every person who entered the competition. Judges will include the five board of directors that control NI-Limits.
If upon reaching the deadline, there are no finalists (designs that meet or exceed our expectations of quality), we will notify all entrants and extended the deadline to accommodate new designs, for which we will provide a detailed breakdown of what we are looking for and why we are looking for it…
However, anyone that contacts us to ask more about what we want and why we want it will also find that we can be helpful and accommodating…
The NOT-so-Small Small-Print:
Please note that all designs must be composed of graphical elements either entirely designed by yourself, or using 100% royalty-free imagery.
Please also note that any finalists will need to submit master-files showing some form of history for the design in an editable state, for we will not accept unoriginal pieces of work and need some way to validate whether or not you have actually designed these pieces of art.
Please also note that any master-files sent to us will then become the intellectual property of NI-Limits for us to do as we wish with.
The Reward:
Not only will we give you two hundred and fifty dollars ( US$ 250 ) to spend on your friends or mother’s friends, but we will also feature you in several of our blogs and possibly even offer you a job, which at the very least, you could always turn-down and use as a story to brag about with your friends!
Did we already mention the two hundred and fifty ( US$ 250 ) dollars?
The Submission:
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21.Aug.07
Funky Things, Graphic Design, NI-Limits Updates
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