XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Monday, March 14. Today’s theme is get a life , and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — It has often been argued that games are an escape from reality. Bending that idea into a fill circle, some argue that the fantasy aspect of games can help prepare people for real life. Check out this article with ideas on how Second Life can help people deal with real situations .

• Blogging, Podcasting, and Vodcasting — Bloggers showed up in droves at SXSW and one of the main attractions was a keynote by
  Heather Armstrong (Dooce) who was probably the first person to be fired for blogging. What’s interesting about Armstrong is that she has become a real celebrity (although most wouldn’t recognize her) and is actually supporting her family with her blog. If you look at Armstrong’s blog, one of the things you’ll may find interesting is the number of comments on her posts. It is not uncommon for her to receive 100-300 comments per post. That is a big audience of regular readers and it’s also a testimony of sort for posting regular content.

• Handhelds – The biggest observation from last week’s CeBIT conference was thatgadgets are starting to blur the lines between the concept of the telephone and the Internet appliance. More and more handset manufacturers are coming out with phones that surf, take pictures, play games, blog, and watch TV. Oh, and you can handle most of your office productivity work too. And, speaking of mobile, TV, it seems that Europeans are giving it a thumbs up.
• Social Networks – Just when you thought there was nothing new under the sun when it comes to Instant Messaging, MySpace Messenger is on the way. Screenshots seem to indicate that the IM service will support listening you users’ music. Okay, maybe AIM didn’t have anything to fear from MSN or Yahoo, but this is something different. The kids may have found something they like more than their parents’ Oldsmobile. By the way, Crisscross.com, a mix of news, social network, and tagging. Also, The Physics of Friendship is a cool depiction of
  a high school’s empirical friendship network from the scientists’ data.
• Technology Talks — A few years ago, I was advocating that people take an interest in Questia, and online library that comes with a subscription of $20 per month or $100 per year. Well, Questia may have a few holes in their holdings, but they keep chugging along and continue to get press.At the moment, the roughly 150,000 Questia subscribers can download 65,000 books accessible through the site.