Think of it as an ultra-realistic version of Second Life. Co-founder of MySpace, Brad Greenspan may be helping to develop a massive online city currently dubbed City Space, set to be the most complex and intricate representation of a city, entirely-rendered on the servers and then streamed to your computer. This means all you may need is a browser plug-in to participate in this world. LivePlace.com has been under construction for about a year now.
TechCrunch has posted a video demo of this city. You must see it to believe it.
Tags: brad greenspan, liveplace, myspace, realistic, second life, virtual world
Anthropologists have never directly observed a female-dominated society among humans, but many have speculated that such societies would be less violent than male-dominated ones. Now that postulate has been challenged by hard evidence. Bonobos, a primate species that is female-dominated and bisexual, have now been observed hunting and killing other apes in the wild. A group of evolutionary anthropologists will publish a paper in Current Biology tomorrow documenting evidence that the supposedly peaceful bonobos are as bloodthirsty as their male-dominated chimp counterparts.
Evolutionary anthropologist Gottfried Hohmann, a co-author of the study, says this discovery might change how we understand male dominance in society:
In chimpanzees, male-dominance is associated with physical violence, hunting, and meat consumption. By inference, the lack of male dominance and physical violence is often used to explain the relative absence of hunting and meat eating in bonobos. Our observations suggest that, in contrast to previous assumptions, these behaviors may persist in societies with different social relations.
Tags: anthropology, bonobo, female, society, violence
A team of researchers led by Spanish scientists has published their discovery of the complex molecule naphthalene in an interstellar star-forming cloud, indicating many prebiotic organic molecules necessary for life as we know it could have been present when our own solar system formed.
Tags: molecules, naphthalene, space
Now you don't see it, now you do. Something in Bootes truly in the middle of nowhere — apparently not even in a galaxy — brightened by at least 120 times during more than three months and then faded away. Its spectrum was like nothing ever seen, write the discoverers, with "five broad absorption bands between 4100 and 6500 Angstroms and a mostly featureless continuum longward of 6500 Angstroms." Even the cause of the spectral features is unknown.
The Hubble space telescope has found a new unidentified object in the middle of nowhere. We’re talking about an object much larger than the sun. Some are even suggesting that this could be a new class of object. Of course, without actually understanding more about it, the speculation seems a bit wild. “The object also appeared out of nowhere. It just wasn’t there before. In fact, they don’t even know where it is exactly located because it didn’t behave like anything they know. Apparently, it can’t be closer than 130 light-years but it can be as far as 11 billion light-years away. It’s not in any known galaxy either. And they have ruled out a supernova too. It’s something that they have never encountered before. In other words: they don’t have a single clue about where or what the heck this thing is.”
Tags: astronomy, mysterious, object, space
Sick of your dog or cat constantly needing to be fed, walked and cared for? Goodbye needy pets of today, hello Genpets: Your new bioengineered best friends from Bio-Genica. They’re allergen free, child safe, and best of all, low maintenance. Run, don’t walk, to the store and pick up your hibernating pet now.
The GenPets come in a variety of personalities and can be purchased with a one or three-year life span. The Genpets personalities are color coded:
Red – Athletic and energetic
Orange- Adventurous, confident and curious
Yellow – Playful and fun
Home Grown
Green – Helpful, harmonious and peaceful
Blue – Communicative and serene
Violet – Imaginative and spiritual
The website has a run-down on every possible question you could have for these adorable little monsters. Do they bite? No, but Bio-Genica will provide you with their patented teeth-removers. The little tykes “wiggle” walk around and have the mobility of an infant. They are fully grown in the package and only need to be fed once a week. The Genpets won’t make a lot of noise, since they don’t have such powerful vocal chords.
From Bio-Genica:
“GenPets™ are mass produced Bio-engineered pets implemented today. Each pet comes pre-packaged as a fully self-contained unit. GenPets™ learn and adapt. They are fully living pets, but better, modified to be as reliable, dependable and efficient as any other technology we use in our busy lives.
Obviously this isn’t an actual reality but an art piece created by Adam Brandejs, who’s just trying to warn us of the future, or make us think about it a little. The piece has been circulating for some time now, but is still one of the best scifi pieces of art from the 00’s, in my humble opinion.
Tags: bioengineered, future, pets
Are you smarter than a goose? Sure you are — one on one. But when it comes to working efficiently, you and your colleagues can’t touch the gaggle. According to author Ken Thompson, geese and other animals that naturally form groups have a lot to teach us about business. In a theory he calls organizational biomimetics, Thompson lays out the principles underlying nature’s management strategies. So what can you learn from a bird or an ant? Take a gander.
Ants and Bees
Ants use pheromones to transmit messages about predators. Bees wiggle around to tell their comrades the location of food supplies. Thompson says people, too, could benefit from broadcasting more whole-group communications. While mass emails may seem annoying, one-way bulletins can actually increase group efficiency by giving everyone access to information and letting them decide how best to act on it. 
Geese
When geese fly in a V, the birds rotate in and out of the lead position. This is both to conserve energy and, according to Thompson, because no single bird has memorized the whole route. Collective leadership is the norm in much of the animal world, he says, though rare for humans. In the context of business, groups with rotating leaders possess greater initiative, resilience, and agility than those led by one executive.
Worms
The brain of the tiny C. elegans worm has a mere 302 neurons. It doesn’t need any more, because some of those neurons have an exceptional number of interconnectors. Translate this to the workplace: If an issue arises, the best-connected group members can serve as guides and help the team avoid bottlenecking at the top. These “hub” people can also quickly fine-tune strategy when new information comes in.
From the article at Wired Magazine.
Many people have asked me why Windows Vista is so bad. They’ve noticed all the bad press and users’ desire to downgrade back to Windows XP. And each time, I discretely “roll my eyes”.
Let me tell you what I’ve told them. Over the past 4 to 5 years, the number of computer users have grown substantially. There are now many more millions of Windows users and during that time, the internet community has exploded with blogs, home pages, social networking sites and gossip.
Now, add to that the fact that the general population is generally against any kind of change from the routine. They don’t like to upgrade and update their software unless it’s necessary.
Even further, the tech community already despises Microsoft – the company in general. They tend to write about this ad nauseum. The gamers, in particular, don’t appreciate the incompatibilities they encounter with badly written graphics drivers for Vista.
If you add all the above elements together, the general consumer will come to the conclusion that they shouldn’t touch Vista with a stick.
The truth is, Windows Vista is more secure, more user friendly and more easier to use. In fact, it’s really Windows XP with a shinier interface and the same level of security other operatings like Macs provide. The incompatibilites are disappearing with each new update. The so called “nag screens” have been found in other operating systems since the beginning of time.
Don't feed the mass hysteria
The sad truth is that Windows Vista isn’t enough of an improvement. Apple underwent a dramatic change from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS 10. This was necessary to bring the operating into the modern age. Windows needs the same change. It may be incredibly painful at the start but it’s necessary to get rid of Windows’ aging infrastructure, its legacy code.
For those of you still holding out on Windows XP, read the following article and learn the truth about Vista. If you already have Windows XP, there’s no need to buy Windows Vista. If you bought a new PC, stick with Windows Vista. It’s as simple as that. The shenanigans regarding downgrading to XP is just sheer hysteria born from the fear, uncertainty and doubt generated by the anti-Microsoft blogging community.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is running a story about a recent ruling from the Washington State Supreme Court, which decided that AT&T’s service agreement was not capable of waiving a customer’s right to file a lawsuit against the company. The full opinion (PDF) is also available. From the conclusion:
“AT&T’s Consumer Services Agreement is substantively unconscionable and therefore unenforceable to the extent that it purports to waive the right to class actions, require confidentiality, shorten the Washington Consumer Protection Act statute of limitations, and limit availability of attorney fees. … Courts will not be easily deceived by attempts to unilaterally strip away consumer protections and remedies by efforts to cloak the waiver of important rights under an arbitration clause.”
Do you think as a geek you’ve already got your life optimized? Here are some tips that you or may not have already implemented in your online lifestyle, from Gina Trapani for PC World.
Technology is supposed to make life easier, but it doesn’t seem that way when you’re struggling to wrangle 289 new e-mail messages, dealing with a hard-drive crash, or suddenly realizing that you left an important file on the office computer. Thankfully, plenty of tools can help. We’ll tell you which ones are worth trying, and we’ll also suggest some practices that you can incorporate into your workday to use tech tools more effectively and efficiently.
Here is a hypothetical, analytical look at how the English language may evolve over the next millenium. Based on how the language changed from 1000 AD to 2000 AD, linguist Justin B Rye extrapolates how the language will change. By also examining how people whose first language is not English are speaking English, he can deduce how certain words will eventuallly be pronounced. The number of English speakers other parts of the world greatly outnumber those from the U.K. and North America. Creole is an example of a mish-mash of proper English and local languages.
Example:
2000 AD: We children beg you, teacher, that you should teach us to speak correctly, because we are ignorant and we speak corruptly…
3000 AD: *ZA kiad w’-exùn ya tijuh, da ya-gAr’-eduketan zA da wa-tAgan lidla, kaz ‘ban iagnaran an wa-tAg kurrap…
Check out some more fascinating examples from article FUTURESE
The American Language in 3000 AD.
Tags: 3000, american, english, evolution, language, linguist
