XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Tuesday, March 21. Today’s theme is Another Monday, and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Video games bad? Video games good! Under the latter category we can put video games as therapy for trauma patients. Ethan Myers was brain dead after a car accident in 2002.
  Since then he has made a remarkable comeback thanks, in part, to
  neurofeedback training on the CyberLearning Technology system, which is
  often used to play car racing video games.Also, the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) opens this week and we expect lots of news and new developments. The biggest theme so far is related to mobile game development. Soon, this extension of the video game market may rival the console game divisions. Also, Sony has announced that it will be using open source database software from EnterpriseDB for its Sony Online gaming hub. Finally, Nokia has announced that it will provide a simplified business solution for creating online communities in mobile Java games.

• Blogging, mediacasting, and online creations — Diane Duane is making good on her vow to to write the last volume in her Feline Wizards trilogy as a reader-supported open ebook (thanks to Cory Doctorow for the link). She’s soliciting donations from readers, who get early access to her chapters as she posts them and a hardcopy of the book from Lulu.com once it’s done. This is an interesting business proposition for writers and one other publishers may pick up on as well.
• Handhelds – The Mercury News has an article about Microsoft’s plans for its handheld gaming device/iPod killer. Interesting reading. The article’s author,
  Dean Takahashi, writes, “By anchoring its entertainment device as a handheld game player,
  Microsoft is starting from its position of strength in the
  entertainment business that it hopes Apple cannot match, even with its
  iPod.”
• Social Networks – Nike and Google have teamed up to create Joga.com, The site is dedicated to creating a niche social network for soccer fans worldwide. Windows Live Expo goes after Craigslist. So, can a behemoth generalist beat out a niche-player specialist? Sure! The average person simply wants results.
• Technology Talks — From the “this ain’t your daddy’s oldsmobile” category, Texas Instruments’ calculators can now play students’ favorite music as well.
  

  “Besides whiling away boring Calculus and Physics classes with grainy movies and
  painstakingly-detailed recreations of such classics as
  href=”http://gaming.engadget.com/2005/08/01/wolfenstein-ported-to-ti-83-ti-84-calculators/”>Wolfenstein, Tetris and Super Mario Brothers, disinterested students can now actually listen to music from their trusty TI’s, thanks to James Montelongo’s Real Sound 1.0.”