Seems as if the Second Life publicity frenzy is finally dying down. As a result there’s been relatively little news surrounding Dell Computer’s entry into Second Life. Having taken a few minutes to take a tour of their virtual digs, I did, however, find something worth sharing: a production room with a bunch of almost steampunkish drafting tables hooked up to individual virtual rapid manufacturing machines. Once you sit your avatar down you get to choose computer components from a drop-down menu accessed via graphics that appear on the drafting board (this makes the choice of the board understandable, since it functions like a huge computer monitor which is what would be more realistic). When complete, the fabber rez’s a virtual PC {which is, of course, a doppleganger for the one you can order using that information and the embedded link to the Dell website}.

This sounds familiar.