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Weekend Feature: The How of Habbo Hotel — How did a small Finnish company create an online world which now boasts the largest current active user base in Europe and North America (about 6.5 million)*, far larger than World of Warcraft (around 4.5 million, not counting its Chinese audience)?
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How To Be Habbo Hotel - Tips on Going Global — Sulake Labs, the VC-backed Finnish startup behind Habbo Hotel and IRC Galleria is a success story that by now offers up a few lessons for other social networking and roleplaying business. — Founded way back in 2000, it has come a long way since sister site …


Microsoft Launches Translation Service — Microsoft launched a service for automatic translation called Windows Live Translator. The site lets you translate a text limited to 500 words or a web page from English to German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Russian.
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Windows Live Translator — Darren Straight has been snooping around some Windows Live Translator domain names, and today, for the first time, the Windows Live Translator beta site is live. According to Darren, the following urls are now working: — translator.live.com — translate.live.com


Even in a Virtual World, 'Stuff' Matters — IT'S payday for Janine Hawkins. Not in the real world, where she is a student at Nipissing University in Ontario, but in the online world of Second Life, where she is managing editor of the fashion magazine Second Style.


Rainbow Hash Cracking — The multi-platform password cracker Ophcrack is incredibly fast. How fast? It can crack the password "Fgpyyih804423" in 160 seconds. Most people would consider that password fairly secure. The Microsoft password strength checker rates it "strong".
Discussion:
Miguel de Icaza


SINGULARITY SUMMIT TALK: OPENNESS AND THE METAVERSE SINGULARITY — The following is the text of the presentation I'm giving today at the Singularity Summit. I've set the post to go live at the same time I go onto the stage. Update: this is now the corrected version …
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Singularity Summit 2007: Designing rational self-improving AI — I interviewed Steve Omohundro prior to the Singularity Summit 2007 about his notions of developing artificial general intelligences (AGIs), but he went into far more detail about his views. He applies what he called …


Search For Steve Fossett Expands To Amazon's Mechanical Turk — It's been five days since adventurer Steve Fossett disappeared in the Nevada desert. So far, searchers have found half a dozen previously unknown crash sites, but no sign of Fossett's plane. — Earlier we reported …
Discussion:
Googling Google, BloggingStocks, Google Earth Blog, Connecting the Dots, Mashable! and Digg


Can Michael Dell Refocus His Namesake? — "Some of our competitors jumped over us in a Darwinian way," Michael S. Dell says. "Now it's our turn." He recently returned as C.E.O. — Round Rock, Tex. — ON a recent afternoon at his company's headquarters here, Michael S. Dell is seated …


iTunes 7.4.1 ringtones re-rename workaround discovered — So last night iTunes 7.4.1 came out which, among other things, blocked off the custom ringtone renaming method, which allowed users to add their own ringtones to their iPhone without buying them on iTunes.
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3G, 16GB iPhone for Europe in November? — Apple may launch its iPhone campaign in Europe with a 3G-capable iPhone with enhanced storage, according to what appears to be a leaked ad from T-Mobile Germany. The ad promises a version of the handset with support for 3G-level cellular Internet access using …


Virtual Worlds Are The Future Of Global Commerce: ICANN CEO — In a wide ranging keynote address at the 2007 Influence Forum, ICANN CEO Paul Twomey told the audience that virtual worlds are the future of global commerce. — Twomey used The Sims Online as an example of the sort of interface …
Discussion:
istartedsomething


Top Twenty Five (25) Best Selling Video Games Of All Time — Video Gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry where over two (2) billion video game titles have been sold. Below, we examine the top twenty five best selling video games of all time including a title that sold over 20 million copies.

Klobuchar and Rockefeller Announce Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007 — Empowers consumers to get the best wireless service for their needs and budget — Washington, D.C. - Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) today unveiled legislation aimed at empowering …