It’s called Gaia Online,
“The world’s fastest growing online world hangout for teens.”
That’s the way Sherman and his team prefer to characterize Gaia, the brainchild of Studio XD, a comic art firm which gave the site its anime-influenced look. Gaia’s online world aspect (which launches in a separate Java-powered window) is a series of virtual towns where Gaian avatars can socialize (up to 100 in a single space), with apartments they can own, and treasures they can find. (No combat, however.) It’s just that 10% of total user activity takes place in the world itself.
Gold Currency:
A unique innovation is the way the company distributes its virtual gold currency: instead of selling it for real money (as with There) or allowing its trade on the open market (as with Second Life), Gaians are automatically given gold for participation: You get gold for posting on the Forums, for riding events, for uploading content, for exploring the world. Subscribers are rewarded for engaging in Gaia, in other words— and the reward incents them to engage in Gaia even more.
Gold for Auction
With the gold, Gaia subscribers can buy items, clothing, and accessories for their avatars, some sold by the company, but most of it sold via Gaian-to-Gaian auction. (They estimate some 52,000 auctions are completed every day.)
What pays in Gaia, however, stays in Gaia: the company strongly discourages real money trading, and works with Ebay to curtail it. That’s not to say Gaian treasures haven’t been sold online. “One item sold for $6000,” says Sherman. “Wonderful to tell you, but bad for what we’re trying to accomplish.”
More:http://www.gaiaonline.com/
Monday, April 23, 2007
Robot That Walks And Swim
European researchers have developed a spinal cord model of the salamander and implemented it in an amphibious robot that walks and swims like a salamander.
The robot changes its speed and gait in response to simple electrical signals, suggesting that the distributed neural system in the spinal cord holds the key to vertebrates’ complex locomotor capabilities.
In a paper appearing in the March 9, 2007 issue of the journal Science, scientists from the EPFL in Switzerland and the INSERM research center/University of Bordeaux in France introduce their robot, Salamandra Robotica. This four-legged yellow creature reveals a great deal about the evolution of vertebrate locomotion. It’s also a vivid demonstration that robots can be used to test and verify biological concepts, and that very often nature herself offers ideal solutions for robotics design.
Read More:http://pressesc.com/01173389508_salamander_robot
The robot changes its speed and gait in response to simple electrical signals, suggesting that the distributed neural system in the spinal cord holds the key to vertebrates’ complex locomotor capabilities.
In a paper appearing in the March 9, 2007 issue of the journal Science, scientists from the EPFL in Switzerland and the INSERM research center/University of Bordeaux in France introduce their robot, Salamandra Robotica. This four-legged yellow creature reveals a great deal about the evolution of vertebrate locomotion. It’s also a vivid demonstration that robots can be used to test and verify biological concepts, and that very often nature herself offers ideal solutions for robotics design.
Read More:http://pressesc.com/01173389508_salamander_robot
BuyYourWine
BuyYourWine.com. The online wine seller will then get back to them with a price and delivery details.
In the US, WineZap offers a similar service. If someone emails or texts them the vintage and wine name, WineZap will email or text them the current low, high and average prices for that wine. If a user adds their zipcode, WineZap includes a list of the nearest retailers that stock the wine, as well as their prices.
Both companies are currently offering the service at no charge. Another example of catering to people's insatiable desire for relevant information, when and where they want it. Wine-by-text is a great little add-on both for merchants like BuyYourWine, and for intermediaries like WineZap, and it could of course be expanded with such obvious options as letting customers send in cameraphone pictures of wine labels or barcodes. For more examples of how tuned-in companies are satisfying consumer infolust, check out trendwatching.com's briefing on the subject.
More: www.buyyourwine.com / www.winezap.com
In the US, WineZap offers a similar service. If someone emails or texts them the vintage and wine name, WineZap will email or text them the current low, high and average prices for that wine. If a user adds their zipcode, WineZap includes a list of the nearest retailers that stock the wine, as well as their prices.
Both companies are currently offering the service at no charge. Another example of catering to people's insatiable desire for relevant information, when and where they want it. Wine-by-text is a great little add-on both for merchants like BuyYourWine, and for intermediaries like WineZap, and it could of course be expanded with such obvious options as letting customers send in cameraphone pictures of wine labels or barcodes. For more examples of how tuned-in companies are satisfying consumer infolust, check out trendwatching.com's briefing on the subject.
More: www.buyyourwine.com / www.winezap.com
Bed Sharing
The Bed Sharing project aims to show the host city's most hospitable side, and actively involves Milan residents by inviting them to open up their homes to (young) conference attendees who haven't been able to find or can't afford regular accommodation in hotels. Shared bedrooms needn’t be palatial: "2 square meters are enough to put up a designer."
It's a simple way to add a personal touch and human scale to massive conferences and events, while helping local professionals expand their networks by meeting colleagues from abroad. One to set up for every major conference? Since almost everything can be arranged online, coordination costs aren't high. And given most events’ very specific target audiences, sponsors should be easy to find. (Bed Sharing’s main partners were easyJet, Samsung and Italian mattress manufacturer Ennerev.) A related organisation is SpaceShare, which we'll feature soon.
Website: www.bedsharing.org
It's a simple way to add a personal touch and human scale to massive conferences and events, while helping local professionals expand their networks by meeting colleagues from abroad. One to set up for every major conference? Since almost everything can be arranged online, coordination costs aren't high. And given most events’ very specific target audiences, sponsors should be easy to find. (Bed Sharing’s main partners were easyJet, Samsung and Italian mattress manufacturer Ennerev.) A related organisation is SpaceShare, which we'll feature soon.
Website: www.bedsharing.org
SmartDraw
SmartDraw gives you a head start and complete support.
With SmartTemplatesTM your graphic is practically already completed. Just add your information and easily edit to suit your needs.
SmartPanelsTM allow you to change global colors and styles with a single click.
SmartHelp guides you through the entire process.
Free live support is just a phone call away.
Full Detail:http://www.smartdraw.com/specials/context/finance.htm?id=44672
With SmartTemplatesTM your graphic is practically already completed. Just add your information and easily edit to suit your needs.
SmartPanelsTM allow you to change global colors and styles with a single click.
SmartHelp guides you through the entire process.
Free live support is just a phone call away.
Full Detail:http://www.smartdraw.com/specials/context/finance.htm?id=44672
Won After 5,127 Failures
Today, Dyson makes the best-selling vacuum cleaner by revenue in the United States and is one of the richest blokes in Britain. But it took him 15 years and nearly his entire savings to develop his bagless, transparent creation. His latest innovation, a hand dryer that uses neither heat nor evaporation, took only three years, but Dyson says his grinding, error-filled approach hasn't change.
Y0u once described the inventor's life as "one of failure." How so?
I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That's how I came up with a solution. So I don't mind failure. I've always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they've had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative.
Not all failures lead to solutions, though. How do you fail constructively?
We're taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven't, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something that's very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path. It's exciting, actually. To me, solving problems is a bit like a drug. You're on it, and you can't get off. I spent seven years on our washing machine [which has two drums, instead of one].
How did the hand dryer come about? We had spent 10 years developing a vacuum-cleaner motor that runs at 110,000 rpm, three times faster than other motors. So we can squirt air [at 400 mph] through a .2-millimeter slot and create an air "blade" that literally wipes water off your hands. We were doing research for another product when we discovered this use. The Airblade dries hands in 10 seconds instead of 40, which means it uses less than a quarter of the energy. My business plan is to use technology to create a better product that solves a problem and is well designed. Do that and people will want to buy it.
Read More:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/115/open_next-design.html
Y0u once described the inventor's life as "one of failure." How so?
I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. There were 5,126 failures. But I learned from each one. That's how I came up with a solution. So I don't mind failure. I've always thought that schoolchildren should be marked by the number of failures they've had. The child who tries strange things and experiences lots of failures to get there is probably more creative.
Not all failures lead to solutions, though. How do you fail constructively?
We're taught to do things the right way. But if you want to discover something that other people haven't, you need to do things the wrong way. Initiate a failure by doing something that's very silly, unthinkable, naughty, dangerous. Watching why that fails can take you on a completely different path. It's exciting, actually. To me, solving problems is a bit like a drug. You're on it, and you can't get off. I spent seven years on our washing machine [which has two drums, instead of one].
How did the hand dryer come about? We had spent 10 years developing a vacuum-cleaner motor that runs at 110,000 rpm, three times faster than other motors. So we can squirt air [at 400 mph] through a .2-millimeter slot and create an air "blade" that literally wipes water off your hands. We were doing research for another product when we discovered this use. The Airblade dries hands in 10 seconds instead of 40, which means it uses less than a quarter of the energy. My business plan is to use technology to create a better product that solves a problem and is well designed. Do that and people will want to buy it.
Read More:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/115/open_next-design.html
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