Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category
evawhite on August 13th, 2008
A few articles back I spoke about Virtual Living, I decided to take a better look at this business and here’s what I learnt. There are many virtual world platforms today. The biggest commercial start to virtual gathering was the computer game World of Warcraft. For those who don’t know, World of Warcraft is the fourth iteration of the game Warcraft. It made its first appearance in ‘Warcraft: Orcs & Humans’ in 1994. From simple multiplayer online games it evolved to massively multiplayer online games (MMOG). With ten million gamers online it could be no lesser than that.
Another game which started off offline and simple was ‘The Sims’ in 2000 which was evolved from ‘Sim City’ in which one could build and run a city. In ‘The Sims’ you could build and run a family. Groundbreaking as it was, it took some time to catch on. Namely, more widespread use of computers and better broadband internet availability. ‘Alphaworld’ started in 1995 is said to be the grand-daddy of virtual wording. Still running strong, all names are site linked, hit them to see more.
The most recent and biggest news item was ‘Second Life’. As the name implies you can create an online avatar of yourself in anyway you wanted. Hell, you could switch genders online to offline! Again, a huge hit. Why? Because it allows you to do everything you can do in real life and lets you do things you want to but can’t do in real life. However far your imagination can go. Run a museum if you want or a secret alter ego, anything. Linden dollars in ‘Second Life’ convert in the ratio 250 Linden to 1 US dollar. Money making opportunities can be created.
Then with ‘Entropia’ making news shortly after, one found people buying ‘virtual property’ with real money. Big money at that. One instance was 100,000$ forked up for a piece of online property in ‘Entropia’.
People doing quite the same thing there as in real life. Creating opportunities and making money. There are people developing property and availing to user paid-services. Think for a moment; A few million people logged on. Charging them even a dollar each is raking it in huge. Word is the biggest name in virtual worlds today is ‘Habbo Hotel’ but who’s to really say, there are so many other such platforms in the pipeline we need to wait to see which comes out on top.
We also have today the ‘3D camera’. What it does is digitally map people’s gestures and posture into a 3D world. The technology can also track facial gestures and match them onscreen in real time. It can also read the user’s body gestures to let them navigate and edit within the environment. Quite cool eh? I’d certainly think so.
evawhite on August 8th, 2008
Kid’s birthday parties always made us think of the balloon decorations, the cake, games and lots of colorful activities and added with lots of fun. And with these parties come gifts. Gifts form the essential part of any kiddy party. Now days I see this new trend which has started, people give personalized gifts, i.e. gifts which have a personal touch which are specifically made for the person whom one is gifting with either his/her name written or his/her photograph on them. I really find this idea cool…..reason being the person who receives the gift feels special that the other person ahs taken extra efforts to get something personally done for him or her and secondly the person receiving the gift cannot pass it on to someone else as it has its name or snap on the gift.
I think me too will start giving gifts like this to my near and dear ones.
evawhite on August 6th, 2008
Getting into a right kind of job is plain simple luck. Of course your growth in the job depends on the hard work you put in. Today we see a lot of sites offering job opportunities. There are sites which act like a bridge between the employee’s and the employer’s. These sites sometimes have certain location limitations. One such site is also available for Boston jobs i.e. it mainly has job openings for people who would like to work in Boston and its surrounding areas. They offer jobs of all kinds.
evawhite on July 14th, 2008
What is Mount Everest? The highest mountain in the world you will answer. Well it is that, but dismayingly, what Mount Everest is now increasingly being known as is The Worlds’ Highest Garbage dump. It is hard to reconcile the image of the pristine, snow covered, wind-swept crags of the mountaineer’s ultimate challenge with that of a rubbish tip, but that is grave concern right now. The roof of the world is filthy dirty place!
When I read this news story here, about China’s plans to clean up Mt Everest, I realized what problem climbers can pose to the very peaks that they look to conquer. When people climb Everest, they inevitably leave behind climbing equipment, food, plastics, tins, aluminum cans, glass, clothes, papers, tents, specially along the most popular route to the summit—the Southeast Ridge. The trail consists of a base camp at 17,600 feet and four additional camps closer to the summit. Since the first successful expedition, at least 50 tons of trash has accumulated.
Admittedly, collecting litter becomes rather less of a priority when you are struggling for survival at the higher altitudes when your body and brain is severely oxygen deprived and hypothermia a constant threat. Some estimates suggest that there is some 120 tons of litter on Mt Everest!
Apart from litter there is another rather grim leftover of climbing expeditions to Everest: there are about 120 dead bodies of climbers claimed by the mountain who are frozen in eternity somewhere along the slopes of the mountain.
So according to reports, China is now planning to restrict access to the summit to climbers to allow for a clean up by several of their environmental teams. This will clean up at least some of the litter that has accumulated on the Chinese side of the Everest which is in fact the less popular access route. The Nepalese side evidently is even more popular and presumably more littered.
One person, Jeff Clapp had a good idea, to collect some of that litter (oxygen tanks etc) and turn it them into bells such as this picture, bowls and other stuff such as this glitter ball. Great idea I thought, make a statement against the litter which represents our historical negligence of one of the world’s treasures and make some money while you’re at it!
evawhite on July 7th, 2008
Is it a coded language men speak? A language perhaps that is representative, where one thing actually means another? What is it with them anyway??? It should not take a degree to figure out what it is that they actually mean when they say certain things, but sometimes it seems as though it does take some kind of ‘degree of doublespeak’ or something to figure out what they are actually saying! Women need help decoding this obscure ancient art of men, so I searched high and low and put together a reading list for all those women who require enlightenment:
Here is an excellent collection of deconstructions of statements that men make. Sample this:
He says: “I can’t find it.”
He means: It didn’t fall into my outstretched hands, so I am completely clueless.
He says: “It would take too long to explain.”
He means: I have no idea how it works.
Sometimes men actually mean what they say: When they say “I’m hungry”, “I’m tired” or “I’m sleepy” they may actually mean just that! For more decoding, however, look here, because when they say any of these things, “Can I call you sometime”, “Can I take you to a movie/dinner”, “May I have this dance” they all mean the same thing: “I’d eventually like to have sex with you”.
Then here, is an interesting bit of ranting obviously by a woman who’s learned to decode gobbledygook: “It’s not you, it’s me.” They actually do mean it is you. It is never them.”
““Of course I’m listening to you, dear.” This is usually followed by a few caveman grunts and a nod or two. We’re not really listening but we are paying just enough attention to not get caught watching the football while you describe, in excruciating detail, everything that happened to you today.” Read other gems like this one over here.
Here is another really good collection, sample this:
“Have you lost weight?”
Really means…
“I’ve just spent our last $30 on a cordless drill.”
“Woman driver.”
Really means…
“Someone who doesn’t speed, tailgate, swear, make obscene gestures and has a better driving record than me.”
And finally women, may I just end by saying that this actual statement may come in a variety of disguises, may be so covertly said as to be quite indecipherable, but beware! A lot of things could actually mean this: “I’m just not that into you”. If you need help decoding that one, may I direct you to this most excellent book that will clarify all for you!
evawhite on July 1st, 2008
Top Commentators for the month of June
Michael has a very nice post on how to get Free Xbox 360
Phil Benwell discusses some good ways of dealing with PPC without the hassle. It’s a very nice and informative post.
Equestrian Clothing has a site on all kinds of equestrian apparels and accessories available for everybody.
The rest of our commentators are :
Nathaniel
Online Shopping US
Buzzflash.net
Aaron
Adam Donkus
Aerobics Pilates
Thanks for all your comments. Your appreciation gives me immense inspiration to work even more harder for evawhite.com
evawhite on June 28th, 2008
I took a short holiday in the hills with my family and it really recharged me! I am back and full of a new energy, a fresh enthusiasm and in a more positive frame of mind. I daresay that my creativity is also somewhat enhanced by the break.
In think that the main benefit of a holiday is being able to take a break from a daily routine, from structure, from the sameness that days can assume. With nothing in particular that has to be got done you can please yourself; seeing the sights is an option but not a must. I personally feel that you must not try and pack too much into a holiday or you lose out on the essence of a holiday, which is relaxation and spending quality time with the family.
If you try and do too much of this and that and the other thing as well, then it becomes too busy and then it’s a bit like work really. One day we may decide to do nothing except hang around and read or just lie around the hotel lounging in the pool or playing a game of some sort! If you are paying for a good hotel, be sure to make good use of its facilities! What is the point of paying for a good hotel if you were too rushed to enjoy the lovely pool or gym or other amenities.
It is never worth it to ‘do’ everything on the usual tourist itinerary; if it means jostling with too many crowds I say give it a miss! Instead concentrate on the unusual or that which is off the beaten track; I find that it is often far more rewarding! If there is a choice between a garden and a shopping mall, may I suggest the former over the latter?
If say you have a week off, plan to visit one or at the most two places in that time. I personally prefer to drive our own car to wherever it is that we decide to go. Both because I love to drive and also because it gives you the flexibility of stopping anywhere, for whatever amount of time, to take a detour, so stop to take in the sights, and basically just please yourself.
I firmly believe that the journey is as important as the destination, so take time to enjoy that as well. We saw some unexpected waterfalls in the hills and with no one to please but ourselves, we were able to take the time to stop and admire the scene and take pictures to our heart’s content! If there is a scenic route, take it, even if it is longer. We actually did that, and drove thru a game sanctuary, so driving thru the thick forest; we were rewarded by the sight of quite a few wild animals who were admittedly rather blasé about tourists.
Any interesting holiday ideas or stories that anyone would like to share?
