world

If you've followed virtual worlds at all over the last four years, the name Urizenus Sklar will probably mean something to you.

Uri, as he was known, was the muckraking journalist who founded the Alphaville Herald, a blog that reported on, among other things, the seedy underbelly of Electronic Arts' disappointing virtual world, The Sims Online.

In late 2003, he was banned from TSO by EA for what the company called terms of service violations, but which was widely seen as retaliation for Uri's critical coverage of EA and its approach to specific in-world issues. Smelling a free-speech … Read more

The death last month of one of the most successful Second Life fashion designers has sparked a curious dynamic: in an open-ended virtual world, who should take responsibility for issuing public proclamations, the publisher or the users?

In the wake of the tragic real-world death of one-half of the design team who used the SL avatar Ginny Talamasca to operate the popular Last Call by Dazzle Haute Couture clothing empire, a call has gone out for a special day of memorial to remember the late designer.

The movement was started on Saturday by Katt Kongo, the creator of a Second … Read more

We've good and bad news for you soccer fanatics awaiting the upcoming PlayStation 3 installation of Konami's World Soccer Winning Eleven 2008. The highly anticipated game will finally be launched on Nov. 22 in Singapore--but the only way tp take one home is to purchase a $430 40GB PS3 bundle.

While our Sony contact was unable to comment on the actual savings, we were reassured that there is in fact some discount thrown in for the package. A goodie bag including Winning Eleven 2008 collectibles such as a towel, whistle phone strap, and calendars will be included as … Read more

WorldTV is one of the companies making its debut at today's NewTeeVee Conference here in San Francisco. The site is hyper-focused, letting users create custom channels containing videos taken from Google's videos properties, along with AOL and Yahoo's. Once you've added the videos either by URL or built-in search, you can simply pass along the permalinked URL to friends to have them watch your collection in a full-screen player.

Channels can be branded with a text logo that sits to the right of the player, although advanced users can go in and upload an image instead. … Read more

I liked previous iterations of WorldMate, a travel organizer best suited for power business travelers, at least in theory. The app grouped valuable travel information in one place, but pricing made it impractical for most casual users. WorldMate Live for BlackBerry is an app I can get behind, with its clean, friendly interface; fully synchronized Internet maps and alerts; and a more congenial pricing model that assumes basic, free usage and provides frequent, but never obnoxious, opportunities to upgrade.

The revamped WorldMate Live adds more value with a brand new on-app itinerary section for inputting flight, hotel, car rental, and meeting details to go along with a corresponding Web app, where you can also input information. All trip data is stored on WorldMate's servers and synced in real time when the app opens and auto-connects online. Maps, powered by Google on your online account and by BlackBerry's native map on the device, are another new addition.… Read more

A global leader in commercial satellite imagery and geospatial information has just doubled up.

DigitalGlobe has released photos captured by its WorldView-1 remote sensing satellite launched in September that have twice the resolution of previous images, allowing viewers to see things on the ground as small as 20 inches in diameter. The black and white shots captured with equipment developed by ITT's Space Systems Division are part of a program sponsored by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to provide imagery for military, intelligence, foreign policy, homeland security, and civil use.

They include shots of Houston, Texas, Yokohama, Japan, and Addis … Read more

The enterprise computing industry seems like it's turning into one big utility company.

It's a good thing the accountants didn't have to sit through the keynote speeches during the first two days of Oracle OpenWorld, because no one would be allowed to attend next year. Hector Ruiz of Advanced Micro Devices showed video clips of Star Wars and the World Series. Mark Hurd of Hewlett-Packard discussed whether or not he thought Oracle's Larry Ellison could beat him at tennis. At least Intel's Paul Otellini tailored his Tuesday morning address to the actual attendees of the … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--For the record, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd would not let Oracle grand poobah Larry Ellison beat him at tennis.

These and other important questions were answered in a more conversational approach to the afternoon keynote slot at this year's Oracle OpenWorld here. In lieu of a traditional speech, Hurd, chairman and chief of the world's largest PC company, answered previously videotaped questions--most of which seemed canned--about a variety of topics.

The questions, posed by ostensibly random conference attendees, ranged from the obvious ("Should I buy an HP or a Dell?"), to the unnecessary ("Would … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--AMD CEO Hector Ruiz devoted his opening keynote spot Monday morning to educating thousands of corporate technology types on the technology challenges facing the gaming, sports, and movie-making industries.

The 42,000 attendees at the Oracle OpenWorld show probably weren't expecting to hear about how Electronic Arts needs more technology to support online gaming. Or how Major League Baseball is buying servers to support the growth of MLB.com. But that's what they got in a presentation from Ruiz that only mentioned Oracle a handful of times, but spent plenty of time with AMD partners EA, MLB, … Read more