As the virtual worlds turn
Metaverses come and, mostly, go. Those created as avatar-based watering holes have rarely lasted more than a few years, falling...
Metaverses come and, mostly, go. Those created as avatar-based watering holes have rarely lasted more than a few years, falling...
More on http://www.there.com:
There Inc. invites you to sell your wares in the most realistic and commercially sophisticated virtual world ever created. Now for the hard part: Getting people to show up.
Most of the time, when Tom Melcher looks at the desktop wallpaper image on his Dell (DELL) Inspiron 8200 notebook computer, he sees just what's there: a screen-size photo of two dark-haired, smiling little girls, his 7- and 8-year-old daughters. Sometimes, though, he catches sight of another image. It's a glimpse of a not-so-far-off future, on a day when his girls, both away at college, are settling in for their weekly long-distance check-in with Dad. Unlike the "Sunday phone call from hell" that Melcher remembers from his own college years, however, this one takes place through a screen like the one he's looking at now, in a shared virtual space the whole family connects to from their computers. He sees his daughters onscreen, each represented as a walking, talking, gesturing 3-D caricature of herself (an "avatar"). They're sitting beside one another on a couch in what appears to be a well-appointed Swiss chalet. The girls in turn see their father's avatar on their screens, seated in a nearby armchair.
Dishwashers, automobiles and other products are increasingly driven by software. But digits don't always do a better job. Where do you turn when your appliance's software goes south?
Maurice Bailey's Miele G885 SC dishwasher cleans dishes almost as well as a human being. Its 10 separate programs control the washing and drying of fine crystal and crusty pans. Its electronic controls warn owners if the drain is blocked. It also carefully regulates both the temperature and the consumption of water, something humans often neglect to do.
I think I finally found the phone I'm going to marry:
The large, bright screen of the Kyocera 7135 smartphone displays over 65,000 different colors. Download and view pictures and videos, play games, color code all those spreadsheets - things are just more exciting in color. What's more, you can do it all while listening to your favorite tunes with the onboard MP3 player.
The sleek, lightweight clamshell design of the Kyocera 7135 smartphone gives you brain without all the brawn. Plus it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to take advantage of all its great features.
![[smartphone7100.jpg]](http://www.zuckervati.com/archives/images/smartphone7100.jpg)
And it's lemon scented, too.
America Online has quietly secured a patent that could potentially shake up the competitive landscape for instant messaging software. The patent, filed in September this year, grants AOL instant messaging subsidiary ICQ rights as the inventor of the popular IM Internet application. The patent covers anything resembling a network that allows multiple users to see when other users are present and then to communicate with them.
BEA Systems will seek to reposition its WebLogic line as a Swiss Army knife for business software development when it launches a major upgrade to its flagship products in the first half of next year.
Code-named Gibraltar, the upcoming version of WebLogic is intended to strengthen the application integration and portal features of the company's Java application server and integrate closely with BEA's development tool, WebLogic Workshop. BEA and IBM are battling for the top spot in the market for Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application servers, which let companies build Web-based business software.
DiscT@2 is an exclusive Yamaha feature that allows text and images to be drawn on the unused portion of a CD-R disc. You can now etch a memo, your signature, photo thumbnails or your company's logo right onto the bottom of the disc.
Segway Human Transporter
First come, first served for delivery starting March 2003. Exclusively at Amazon.com! You won't find Segway anywhere else. Be the first on your block! Available now for delivery starting March 2003. First come, first served.
"He encouraged me to dream about what it would take to make Waterloo the top place in the world for research in quantum information. So I started drafting what I called the quantum computing dream team."
Get a case wrap instead. Guaranteed to block 99% of all STDs and it's even ribbed for her pleasure. Looks nice too. It's kinda the equivalent of ricing up your Honda Civic by putting a coffee-can muffler cap on the exhaust.