Submission + - Making a Real Living Out of a Second Life Career
blackbearnh writes: "The virtual community known as Second Life has been getting a lot of press lately, as the hyperbolic real estate market has made some residents into real life millionaires. The Christian Science Monitor set out to find some Second Lifers making a good living doing something other than land speculation. It wasn't hard to find. From the article:
Blaze Columbia is, by any measure, doing well with his line of designer clothing. He's on track to generate more than $100,000 in annual profits, barely a year after launching his business. And that's in addition to a first career as a professional photographer. There's just one big difference between the clothing that this Missouri resident produces and that of any other top-of-the-line dress or business suit: His don't exist — at least not in the physical world.
The article also considers the real life problems that Second Life may face as virtual money is used for real world vices. From the article:
Some SL businesses already may be operating outside current law. Casino gambling and sports betting are pervasive in SL. The fact that bets are made in lindens, not dollars, won't shield gamblers from possible prosecution under federal laws banning Internet gambling, says Jaclyn Lesch, a spokeswoman for the US Justice Department. "Regardless of how one pays for the bet, it is still a bet if it involves something of value. While not a credit card or cash, [virtual currencies] would still be a 'thing of value' especially considering the fact that they are later redeemed for cash.
Truth in advertising: The submitter is also the author of the article."
Blaze Columbia is, by any measure, doing well with his line of designer clothing. He's on track to generate more than $100,000 in annual profits, barely a year after launching his business. And that's in addition to a first career as a professional photographer. There's just one big difference between the clothing that this Missouri resident produces and that of any other top-of-the-line dress or business suit: His don't exist — at least not in the physical world.
The article also considers the real life problems that Second Life may face as virtual money is used for real world vices. From the article:
Some SL businesses already may be operating outside current law. Casino gambling and sports betting are pervasive in SL. The fact that bets are made in lindens, not dollars, won't shield gamblers from possible prosecution under federal laws banning Internet gambling, says Jaclyn Lesch, a spokeswoman for the US Justice Department. "Regardless of how one pays for the bet, it is still a bet if it involves something of value. While not a credit card or cash, [virtual currencies] would still be a 'thing of value' especially considering the fact that they are later redeemed for cash.
Truth in advertising: The submitter is also the author of the article."
Feed Gambling Subpoenas on Wall St. (nytimes.com)
Four investment banks have been issued subpoenas in an investigation into the multibillion-dollar online gambling industry.
Two Snowflakes May Be Alike After All 180
An anonymous reader writes "LiveScience is reporting that it may be possible for two snowflakes to be alike after all. For anyone who studies probability, this seems reasonable, given that the article mentions that 10^24 snowflakes fall in any given year. The article contains links to fascinating snowflake pictures. From the article: 'A typical snow crystal weighs roughly one millionth of a gram. This means a cubic foot of snow can contain roughly one billion crystals ... "It is probably safe to say that the possible number of snow crystal shapes exceeds the estimated number of atoms in the known universe," Nelson said. Still, while "no two snowflakes are alike" might hold true for larger snowflakes, Nelson figures it might ring false for smaller crystals that sometimes fall before they have a chance to fully develop. "How likely is it that two snowflakes are alike? Very likely if we define alike to mean that we would have trouble distinguishing them under a microscope and if we include the crystals that hardly develop beyond the prism stage--that is, the smallest snow crystals," Nelson said.'"
Submission + - Xbox 360 Tilt Controller - Wii60?
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.adamthole.com/?cat=4
This is a link to a mod for an Xbox 360 controller. This mod uses the tilt of the Xbox 360 controller for the left analog stick input. It is based on the same technology as the Nintendo Wii. Site contains video, pictures of construction and some technical details.
Submission + - NASA educator-astronaut Barbara Morgan to fly STS-
WaltonNews writes: "Barbara Radding Morgan is scheduled to fly on STS-118 aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station on June 2007. A member of NASA's Teacher-in-Space program in 1985, Morgan has remained active in the U.S. space program. In January 1998, she was selected as the first NASA Educator Astronaut.
For the complete story: http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/8802/1066/."
Submission + - Soft Drinks....Is There Anything Good Aboout Them?
Karen Minnis writes: "Some people drink soft drinks instead of water, but for every soft drink that you consume, you need one or more glasses of water to flush out the harmful effects of the acids & sugar (regular or artificial) that you consume."
Journal Journal: Why "C:\Program Files\" ?!? 2
I've always installed software to the default location authored by the vendor, usually somewhere under "c:\Program Files\". Most installation software vendors (InstallShield, Wise, etc.) tout that location as an "industry standard best practice" for installing software on Windows systems and point to Microsoft's Application Development Guidelines. Now I'm working on the next release of some software that has been installed to a folder on the root of the hard drive for 25 years (that's not a ty
Submission + - Kaspersky offered through The LuvComputers
TheDavinator writes: "Hi there, my name is Davin Ogden, known to some as "The Davinator", and I own and operate "LuvComputers" PC Repair and Factory Direct Sales in the beautiful city of Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada. Let me tell you a little about myself.
Predominantly throughout my adult life I was a professional musician playing drums in various bands for near 14 years. Throughout our travels
we had the pleasure of opening for such bands as April Wine, Nazareth, had beers with Jimmy Rankin of The Rankin Family, and I even had the chance to dance with Beverly Mahood in a Calgary, AB club once. It was a lot of fun for a long time but as with many things, sometimes, it must come to an end. So after struggling with that business for so many years and with age catching up, becoming a daddy to a beautiful little girl, " Hi there, Jade!", and trying to settle down etc., I decided that it was due time to make a change. With that I decided to go to college and get some training in the only other thing that I knew I loved besides music, computers!
Well to make the long story short, after 3.5 years of college, I came out of it with several certifications for the IT industry. With honors to I might add.
I had to throw that in! And THEY, said I couldn't do it. I'm living proof that
even us stereotyped musicians, can do something else, other than party and play music if we put our minds to it!!
Originally when I was planning a website for my business, it was going to be a place where my much appreciated local customers could come and see the pc repair services in which I was offering, view my credentials, my pricing, any upcoming specials and so forth. Then as I was working on the website one day, it came to me, "Wait a minute here Dav," I says to myself, "Why not make the website a place where, not only my local pc repair service be offered, Kimberley, BC, but also a place where practically anybody, with any sort of computer related need, could come and find what they might be looking for, "All in One" place."
Whether it be PC repair services, computers, laptop computers, computer accessories, pc repair information, pc articles, you name it. Hence, the website was born!!
So please, have a look around at the different pages in the site. I will be updating and adding awesome new features all the time, so please come back often, and hopefully we'll be able to provide you with something related to computers, that you need.
I'd like to sincerely thank you for allowing me to introduce myself, and to the website as well, Godbless!!, Godspeed! Carpe diem!!"
Submission + - How Steve Jobs blew his iPhone keynote
jcatcw writes: Mike Elgan at Computerworld lists six reasons that Jobs blew his keynote at Macworld: 1) raised iPhone expectations too high; 2) raised Wall Street expectations too high; 3) gave competitors a head start; 4) undermined Apple TV hype; 5) put iPod sales at risk; 6) wrecked Cisco talks.
Submission + - XM Must Face the Music in Court
stress_weenie writes: Reuters reports: "A federal court has denied XM's motion to dismiss the recording industry's copyright infringement lawsuit against XM, according to court documents.
The case, originally filed May 2006 in New York federal court, alleged that XM's portable Inno device — which can store music — infringes on copyrights and transforms a passive radio experience into the equivalent of a digital download service like iTunes."
Submission + - New Gravitational Theory - Elegantly Simple
Richard Mueller writes: "I believe this guy has stumbled upon something that will shake the physics world. His papers are currently being reviewed by physicists, who so far are necessarily skeptical. But the (relative) simplicity of the theory, coupled with his derivation of quark energy with it, is astounding. See his paper at http://base.google.com/base/a/7110682459597836712. Also see his other supplemental papers there. He was on the local Mankato MN news show yesterday. See it here, but ignore typos in transcript: http://www.keyc.com/article/view/114511/
Can any Slashdotters help dispel or expand?"
Can any Slashdotters help dispel or expand?"
Submission + - Want safest spot for a data center? Pickin's slim
netbuzz writes: "Combine heat maps for hurricane, tornado and earthquake threat levels and you find there are precious few places in the U.S. where you can expect to avoid all three. And we aren't talking about major tourist destinations either. As for the places where the combined risks are highest, let's just say you don't want to be a CIO in South Carolina unless you've got your disaster-recovery plan up to date.
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1058 0"
http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/105
Submission + - An 80- Core Chip is coming to a board near you
An anonymous reader writes: http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?a rticleID=196901171
The introduction of an 80 Core Chip that will use less power than a quad-core and has teraflop performance
Submission + - Microsoft Vista Family Pack
Vinit writes: "Microsoft has announced a new plan according to which if you buy the Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, you can buy two more licenses of Vista Home Premium for only $50 each. The buy-one-get-two-at-reduced-price offer is available only in America and Canada from the January 30 launch until June 30. The software giant is following Apple's successful OS X "Family Pack" scheme which allows you to legally installed OS X on up to 5 Macs for US $199 — only $70 more than the US $129 cost for a single OS X license. But in Microsoft's case, you can only install Vista on two more PCs besides your main computer. The company also lets you to upgrade your Vista (in case you run Vista lower than the 'Ultimate' version) by paying some bucks, so you don't have to buy a new box or re-install your computer systems.
Don't be very happy with the "upgrading" scheme because if you want to upgrade from Vista Home Premium to Vista Ultimate on your two additional PCs, then you have to pay $159 — for each computer.
According to a report at CNET, Bill Mannion, a director in the Windows Marketing Group, said that: "It's targeted at what we term the 'super-engaged customers' [that have more than one PC]. This is a focused program designed to encourage these super-engaged customers to upgrade multiple PCs in the household."
http://www.pclaunches.com/software/microsoft_vista _family_pack.php"
