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Latest Gear Live Videos
eScavenger Teams Up For More Adventures
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Internet, Video Games,
Since we last checked in with eScavengers, the online-search-and-find site has teamed with Overstock and eBags to bring even more adventures to their crews. The beta site has already given away almost $21 million in gifts. You can also earn dubloons to trade for gifts for referring others to the site, which lately has featured hunts for pet supplies, r/c vehicles, outdoor equipment such as butterfly kits and hammocks, and $25.00 Amazon gift certificates. What can we say except, “Thankee, mateys!”
Read More 
| eScavengers
Gallery: eScavenger Teams Up For More Adventures
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Become a South Park Kid on Facebook
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Home Entertainment, Internet, Misc. Tech,
We were kicking around Facebook last weekend and noticed all kinds of new applications. There are over 2,500 of them now, including fish tanks, gardens, games, video uploading, and becoming a zombie or vampire and infecting others. Our fave, however, has to be making yourself a South Park Character. We have Simpsonized, IMVU’d, and M&M’d, so we figured why not? Tell us what you think of our Goth representative, then head over to Facebook to come up with your own. If you are truly gifted, perhaps you can create your own cartoon character application and share it with us.
Read More | South Park Character Application
Gallery: Become a South Park Kid on Facebook
FreeWebs Make for Simplified Webcrafting
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Home Entertainment, Internet,
FreeWebs not only helps you design and host your own website, they do it in a way that allows any user the capability. Created by the Mokhtarzada brothers, they figured that they would design the site for others so that it would be “easy enough for their mother to use.” You can choose from hundreds of templates, create a single page or full site, then add a blog, forum, chatroom, pictures, videos, and widgets to spice it up with their WYSIWYG editor. Make it personal or turn it into a business site. Our props to those who are most kind to those of us who are not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier.
Read More | Freewebs
Gallery: FreeWebs Make for Simplified Webcrafting
Coldwell Banker Goes Virtual
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Smart Home, Internet, Video Games,
Real estate company Coldwell Banker has brought house selling to the virtual zone by creating a mock-up of a real house on the online gaming site Second Life. If you are interested, your avatar can meet their avatar, tour the $3 million house, make a bid, negotiate and then do lunch. You only have to meet to sign the papers and seal the deal. The NAR (National Association of Realtors) claims that 81% of recent home buyers used the Internet to buy their homes. We suspect it will be the shape of things to come, although we hope that we don’t see Golden Arches in the near future.
Read More | ABC
Gallery: Coldwell Banker Goes Virtual
Plusmo Offers Free Widgets for iPhone Users
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Apple, Smartphones, Handhelds, Internet, Portable Audio / Video,
Get excited, new iPhoners. Plusmo, the free widget folks, is now available for your new toy. With them you can get news feeds, traffic reports, store locators, games, sports, daily cartoons, and more. Around since 2006, Plusmo now has more than 20,000 widgets created by users and you can get yours by downloading and registering from your iPhone, Blackberry, cell phone, or other mobile device. The service, currently available in beta service, also allows you to create your own widget and share with others.
Read More | Plusmo
Gallery: Plusmo Offers Free Widgets for iPhone Users
NYC Taxi GPS: More Income or Invasion of Privacy?
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: GPS, Internet, Misc. Tech, Transportation,
Beginning October 1, 13,000 New York City taxi drivers must have GPS touch-screen monitors installed that allow passengers to check out the news, find entertainment and restaurant information, and pay their fare by credit card. However, the Taxi Workers Alliance claims that GPS devices, because they can track the cabbies, would be an invasion of drivers’ privacy. Taxi officials feel that the systems will boost ridership as well as drivers income since no cash is involved, but the TWA is considering a potential work stoppage in September if the city decides to go through with the it, unless there is a compromise with the GPS part of the plan.
Read More | CNN
Gallery: NYC Taxi GPS: More Income or Invasion of Privacy?
Disney Purchases Club Pengun
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Video Games,
The Walt Disney Company has announced that it has bought the Canadian-based Club Penguin for $35 million. The two year-old Website offers free games and chatting for those between the ages of 6 to 14 and the site claims that it already has over 700,000 subscribers. Although basic membership is free, for a $5.00 monthly fee users can build their own virtual igloo and dress up their penguin. Penguin Executives hope to reach out globally and connect with other Disney-branded sites with the partnering. With all the controversy of parents being concerned with online predators on sites such as MySpace, we hope this alternative will live up to the Disney rep in trying to keep kids safe while they continue to “waddle on.”
Read More | MSNBC
Gallery: Disney Purchases Club Pengun
Californians Can Watch Quake Within First Half Hour
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Internet, Misc. Tech, Science,
Residents in California will soon be able to watch a 3-D, locally made, super computer-generated earthquake video in about 28 minutes of its initial strike. Scientists at Caltech and the SDSC (San Diego Supercomputer Center) use data from ground sensors and archived information of the region to create images with OnDemand that can be viewed on a PC or TV screen. The information will be made available beginning in October when a quake of 3.5 magnitude or greater occurs. We think we would prefer spending that time getting out if indeed it is the “Big One.”
Read More | Live Science
Gallery: Californians Can Watch Quake Within First Half Hour
Virtual Graveyard Features Deceased From MySpace
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Editorial, Internet, Misc. Tech,
Mike Patterson, a 26 year-old paralegal from San Francisco, wondered what happened to two recently killed teens who had pages on MySpace. That incident led into his creating a living journal online with publicly available information which he decided to call MyDeathSpace . Anyone with a computer can submit an obituary or remembrance for a loved one, which already lists over 2,700 dearly departed and gets over 100,000 hits a day.
The site has received so much publicity that the server has gone down several times but it seems to be stabilized now. If you would like to add your own virtual comments about someone you loved or would like details of its “members,” we suggest you do so remembering that we believe the viewpoint is a tribute to those deceased.
Read More | CNN
Gallery: Virtual Graveyard Features Deceased From MySpace
Would You Like Fries Delivered With That Big Mac?
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Editorial, Internet, Transportation,
How does McDonalds compete with Burger King’s recent success with its tie in to The Simpsons Movie? They offer free delivery, at least in Brooklyn and the Bronx in New York. There is no charge for businesses and residences. You order online, following the trend of many other fast food restaurants, especially pizza. We notice our fries are not always all that fresh just getting it from the drive-thru window to our mouths, so in the time it takes to deliver we think we will just grab our usual yogurt for lunch and save the carbs.
Read More | McDonalds Delivery
