inphinity - Slashdot User

Submission + - Why Y! Answers Got Big but Google Answers flopped

Submitted by blogdig on Monday January 22, 2007 @06:17AM

blogdig writes: http://www.thebizofcoding.com/2007/01/why_yahoo_an swers_is_flourishi.html The simplicity of Yahoo! Answers is at the source of its surging popularity. Anyone can ask questions or provide answers. Yahoo's Rating and Reviews platform gives Reputation points to participants. Highly rated answers build a participants Reputation incentivising good participation. Google Answers on the other hand has been retired. It is no longer accepting new questions. When Google tried to build an online paid "Answers" product it made two mistakes: 1) Google blocked the Mass Participation that is typically required to build vibrant online communities....

Submission + - Making a Real Living Out of a Second Life Career

Submitted by

blackbearnh

on Monday January 22, 2007 @12:13AM

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."

Two Snowflakes May Be Alike After All 180

Posted by Zonk on Sunday January 21, 2007 @08:52PM from the everything-you-know-is-wrong dept.

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.'"

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