Sick of the current real estate trends? It might be time to turn your eye to the virtual real estate market of Second Life.

For those of you unfamiliar with Second Life, it isn’t a game, per se. It’s an online virtual universe where you can live out an alternate fantasy life — a virtual online universe with millions of registered users.

Meet one of Second Life’s richest land barons, Anshe Chung:

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I have been reading some very interesting things about the brain lately, particularly regarding memory. Memory has always been puzzling to me. Why is it I can remember every Futurama episode ever made, hundreds of IP addresses, and countless CSS tricks, but not all the names of my forty-some cousins?

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There have been a lot of rumors about Google releasing a mobile phone. Well folks - they’re not gonna do it, they’re just going to give away the software for you to create your own phone. I’m calling mine the _Phone.

Available as of yesterday, programmers can download Google’s SDK for Android. Android is Google’s open source mobile phone operating system. This is probably a very good strategic move for Google - remove obstacles for accessing its applications, making it very, very easy to work within Google’s burgeoning framework of applications from Google Docs to Google Maps….

Anyway - I’ll let Sergey tell you all about it.

I won’t argue that it’s OK to break the law. But I would also say it’s not OK to break the law in order to catch people breaking the law. The RIAA, everyone’s favorite association (racketeering group), has gone to great lengths in the past to prosecute copyright violators.

Lately, however, they are stooping to unheard of depths, even pushing legislation that would pull funding from colleges who don’t comply with their strong arm tactics. This would mean schools that decide not to get in bed with the RIAA would lose federal funding, and important grants that often help pay for low income kids to attend higher education.

If this legislation becomes law, and rampant copyright violations continue, what will RIAA do then? Maybe build some sort of P2P downloader-zapping death star.

A new study proves what I have known for a long time: a fun office environment is a productive one. At ArcStone we believe in this so much, it is even part of our core values.

The basic idea is that as people form tighter bonds through fun shared experiences they open up more, trust each other more, and can generally work better as a team.

To all my past bosses who frowned on my antics: I told you so.

Across the world on Thursday, people learned how to “make life easy.” Yes, there is an entire day devoted to ensure that the services and products important to life are easier to access and simpler to use. While this year’s theme was healthcare, we are going to focus specifically on the Internet, or as some of us like to call it, the Global InterWeb.

The University of Minnesota Office of Information Technology and Digital Technology Center celebrated the day by organizing a free event in the Walter Library on campus with the help of the UMN Usability Services Laboratory. Yesterday’s event included guided tours of the state-of-the-art usability lab, a presentation discussing practical usability practices and a professional panel discussing an overview of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

So what does all of this mean and why is it important?

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Great strides in the brain / computer interface domain recently. Researchers at the Wadsworth Center (apparently affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh) have created a brain/computer interface which enables severely disabled people (completely unable to move their limbs) to do complex computing tasks like writing Word documents and sending email.

They have even taught a monkey how to control a robotic arm to grab food and feed itself. All with the power of the mind.

Read the original article.

It gives me hope that I might see the day where I can toss out my keyboard and mouse and simply put on my thinking cap…

I grew up in a household saturated with the latest in computer technology, coding books and magazines, and general gadgetry. I have reaped the rewards of that upbringing, and I want to raise my children in the same forward-looking environment.

For those of you with a similar mindset, I present to you a handful of resources to get your young ones started off on the right foot.

Lego Mindstorms - programmable Lego system that is loads of fun for kids and adults alike. Create robots, strange creatures, or automate repetitive tasks. Just remember to instill your creations with the three laws.

Young Coders - a kid-friendly forum with lots of coding advice and tips. Many topics and languages are covered, and the site has an active community behind it.

Kid Computers - hook your offspring up with a styling computer they will want to take care of, and make their friends jealous with. You can also find kid-sized mice and keyboards here, which will help their all night coding sessions be more comfortable.

There have been a few nerds who have attained prominent positions in politics, but you rarely hear about the flip side of the coin: the nerd vote.

Chris Knight of North Carolina is clearly vying for the nerd vote with his campaign commercial.

It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, tries to capture the nerd vote in the 2008 presidential race. Without Al Gore running I fear this growing and misunderstood voter group will once again be ignored. [Gizmodo]

Your house, like mine, probably consists of entries, rooms, hallways, closets, and miscellaneous items to help us run our daily lives. When you open the bathroom door, you expect a toilet, not a wandering herd of donkeys in gorilla costumes.

I’d say a good 99% of us like our homes to be laid out in such a way as to enhance our everyday living – we expect and/or require them to have some modicum of functionality.

Web sites should be the same way. Even a visitor who’s never been to the site before should immediately get a feel for where they are, where they can go, and what information will be waiting for them when they navigate away from their current spot.

My question is: Why do so many architects have dysfunctional websites?

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