Word: virtual
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...their interest and imagination." Companies interested in participating have until Jan. 14 to tell the Pentagon just how they would do it. Sometime around April, the Pentagon plans to award as many as three contracts of up to $100,000 each to begin work on what it calls its Virtual Dialogue Application for Families of Deployed Service Members...
Home is Sony's ambitious (albeit boringly named) attempt to create an online place for gamers to hang out in realistic virtual environments. So far, that includes a mall, a town plaza, a bowling alley, an arcade and apartments. Sony is betting Home can generate new revenue, since gamers will be able to try--then buy--all kinds of video games, movies, music and other offerings from Sony's many business partners.(See the 50 best inventions...
While you can clothe your character in free off-the-rack stuff, Sony clearly hopes you'll spend real money to buy virtual outfits from the likes of Diesel, which will have a store in the virtual mall. Sony has a number of partner relationships already in place. You'll be able to buy furniture from Ligne Roset to outfit your apartment, quaff virtual Red Bull or watch a movie trailer (and maybe the whole thing someday) at the virtual cineplex...
While I know Home is still a work in progress, Sony ought to lighten up and give its users tools to build things, as the more adult-oriented virtual world Second Life has done. The past five years have been all about putting the users in control, which is especially smart in a place many people gather. To succeed, Sony needs to understand that an avatar's virtual Home ought to be his castle--not just Sony's mall...
...Moscow began turning off the gas to Ukraine's pipes on Jan. 1, and by Tuesday it had reduced the supply to one-fifth its normal flow. On Wednesday, it cut the supply entirely. By then, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Greece, Croatia and Bosnia all reported a virtual shutoff in gas deliveries, and a resulting shortage in homes and businesses. So did Bulgaria, where the chill of the Russian gas cut was so swift - and where reserves are so low - that officials said they would consider restarting an unused nuclear power plant to compensate...