Just when things turn bleak for Second Life maker Linden Lab — CTO Cory Ondrejka recently "left" the company — CEO Philip Rosedale manages to pull a fluff piece out of the BBC. He's previously denied he has anything to do with timing these media wet kisses, but we're skeptical. Perhaps it's his boyish charm and ability to spin numbers — or the fact that these media outlets are easily impressed by the whizzes and bangs of virtual worlds.

Rosedale's first order of business with the BBC is to dispel rumors that Ondrejka was fired because of a shift in the company's direction. Then he blathers on, unstopped, about the untapped potential of virtual worlds, "how we're at the early stages of something very big." (Right. Because we all want to be able to turn to our neighboring virtual Amazon.com browser and ask for purchasing advice.) Thanks to the Beeb. Without your bully pulpit, Rosedale would be left talking to tens, if not dozens of users in a Second Life amphitheater. (Photo by Lane Hartwell)