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From gaming teen to virtual entrepreneur: how to cover college tuition [update 1]
Despite devoting much of the past three years to hunting and mining, Ogulak Da Basher, or Mike, a 17 year-old from Durango, Colorado, rarely breaks a sweat. Ogulak is Mike's Project Entropia avatar who has earned more than $35,000 through hard work in the Entropia Universe, becoming captain of the "ck Coat Killers" hunting society, and creating a potentially lucrative new business model based on Ogulak's mastery of crafting weapon and mining attachments.The next step in this young virtual entrepreneur's budding career is to donate $12,000 to pay for parts of his siblings' college tuitions. Lovely story, right? But wait, before you go and sign up your future collegiate kin for Entropia accounts, know that MindArk's inspiring tales have a history of being manufactured. Think of Entropia like Poker, you might have fun playing, but chances are, you're spending dough, not making it.Update: added "Ogulak Da Basher" image.[Via Terpin Communications press release]
ESPN Mobile to offer full-length college football games
Mobile ESPN might not have attracted quite the following they'd have hoped for so far, but that's certainly not to say they won't keep on keepin' on. In a deal with potentially broad-reaching implications for 3G data, MVNOs, and mobile entertainment in general, the sports-oriented carrier has announced plans to broadcast live college football games to their handsets, with as many as 25 planned for the 2006 season. Details are slim for the picking -- including the all-important question of pricing -- but if they can get this feature out the door for little or no additional cost on top of their basic service plans, we can definitely see this winning a few converts (not to mention flooding Sprint's EV-DO pipes in the process).[Via Moco News]
iTMS offers cultural explorations through music with new Back to School section
Just in time for a new fall semester, the iTMS has introduced a Back to School (iTMS link) section, offering playlists based on the many cultures, cliques and stereotypes that (love it or hate it) exist and collide on so many college campuses across our great planet. Groups like Hipsters, Hippies, Greeks, the Honor Roll, Club Kids, The Faithful and even Cowboys (and more) all are represented, with playlists ranging in price from around $25-$45 USD.If you ever needed a stereotyping microscope to peer into what these hooligan cliques are into these days, or if you're looking for a way into said cliques, these Back to School lists might just be the ticket.
Software every college student needs
Willie Morris has put together a list of Mac software that he calls 'Crucial Mac Software: College Edition.' The list has lots of great software on it (including the fantastic Quicksilver), but I have one problem with that list. What makes it college specific? Other than including Microsoft Office (and not even the student edition) I don't see any applications that would be uniquely useful for college students.Perhaps I'm an old so and so and I just don't 'get' the kids anymore. College students (and I know are some of you out there reading TUAW) let me know what applications you can't live without in the comments.[via Digg]
Colleges phasing out landlines in favor of mobiles
In an effort to get hip to the times (read: stop hemorrhaging cash on unprofitable landlines), some colleges are now submitting to the reality that virtually all students prefer mobile phones as their primary form of contact by decommissioning or reducing reliance on campus and dorm phone systems in favor of wireless. Several are going so far as to provide their students with custom plans and mobile apps connected to campus systems. As we initially reported last year, one of the more ambitious projects is coming together at New Jersey's Montclair State University where incoming freshmen now receive obligatory LBS-enabled cellphones loaded with school software and services co-developed with Rave Wireless. The LBS aspect has apparently been a hangup for some students, though, weirded out by the concept of being tracked by their deans and professors until they're assured that the GPS tracking functionality of the phone is strictly opt-in only, which can be activated by individuals in an emergency to assist police. Morrisville State in New York even buddied up with Nextel Partners (yeah, that Nextel Partners) to beef up campus coverage in exchange for bundling wireless plans with students' room and board bills. It's always refreshing to see stodgy institutions wising up to these sorts of trends -- albeit late -- but as the AP points out, many students are likely to be coming in with existing phones and family plans that end up cheaper than what the schools are able to offer. Of course, if Montclair offers real-time tracking of every pizza delivery driver in town, well, there's your killer app right there.
Girls = Way Cooler than WoW
This letter from a frustrated female college student to her school's online newspaper paints a sad, lonely tale of a young woman competing with the latest in video-game technology for the attention of her man. Or maybe she's got a point, what do I know?"These boys spend a majority of their day in their rooms. Not that this is a bad thing. There are plenty of productive things you can do in a dorm room. One specific thing they do is play the role playing game World of Warcraft. The boys are able to create a character and spend time in a world being able to fight, learn certain techniques (i.e. Magical, healing, fighting), go on missions, etc. I, myself, have played this game. And I proudly admit I have made it to level seven. This dims in comparison when compared to their characters who have reached level 100 and so on."Hmm, sounds to me like someone is just jealous. Level 7...ha!
How Schools Want You to Spend Your Summer
In response to our summer vacation topic the other day, the Collegiate Times has posted a list of summer vacation 'do's & don'ts' (how quaint), and coming in at number five on that list:5.) DON'T lock yourself in your room all day playing video games. It's only acceptable to spend eight consecutive hours in a virtual fairy-land if you are doing so with another human. Instead of closing your door and giving everyone the sneaking suspicion that you have formed an irrefutable bond with your right hand, knock on the next room down and make friends with dudeface so you can combine your warrior fighting noob powers. Don't worry, Zelda's Twilight Princess will be out in November, and you will have plenty of time to hide away in the darkest corner of your room to ride Chocobos and raise your HP to "Level 9 - Congratulations! You've graduated to the shameless rank of social outcast!" - insert retainer slurping noises here.So, does that mean that as long as you're playing games with other people, then it's ok? Is it just the Zelda games they want you to stay away from? And if so, why do they want you to wait until the school year to start playing? Something's fishy here...
Street Fighter comes indoors and picks up some chalk
Need I say more? A couple of college kids decided to apply their Street Fighter obsessed brains to an available blackboard. It's the kind of thing you look at and say to yourself "why didn't I think of that?" I'm sure that a lot of copycat examples will be popping up in the next few days: I can't wait to see someone attempt to capture a Mario level up, or a sticky grenade from Halo, or a terrorist facing off a counter terrorist à la Counter-Strike or... you get the point.[Via Wonderland]
MIT students automate dorm room, add "party mode"
Even though they may have somewhat of a geeky reputation, MIT students party just as hard as the white hatters at your local state school, and probably graduate in larger percentages to boot. It should be no surprise, then, that a couple of dorm-dwelling party animals at the university decided to use their copious electronics skillz to convert their room into the ultimate cramped disco -- and because this is MIT we're talking about, everything goes live at the push of a single button. Using an X-10 control system, Zack Anderson and his roommate RJ Ryan hooked up strobe lights, black lights, a fog machine, laser light show, scrolling LED sign, disco ball, and an LCD projector to their computers so that all the effects would sync with whatever music was playing, and even retrofitted their window blind with a motor so it can drop down and act as a projection screen for some trippy visualization action. Calling their setup MIDAS (Multifunction In-Dorm Automation System), the pair also included a security alarm and camera for remotely monitoring their now-famous room, and situated small VFDs throughout the interior to deliver system status updates or other types of infoswag. Hey guys, if you don't land some hotshot jobs after college with your MIT degrees, we always have room for clever DIYers right here at Engadget.[Via MAKE: Blog]
North Dakota students show off Mars spacesuit prototype
We had assumed that with all the robots being developed for deployment to Mars, the human astronauts would mostly be lounging around inside the comfort of their robot-built habitats and ordering drinks from their robot bartenders, but yesterday's unveiling of a prototype spacesuit for navigating the Martian terrain proves that manned missions might not be as cushy as we anticipated. The 50-pound suit (which they somehow got The Office's Steve Carell to model) was designed by students from five North Dakota colleges in a collaborative project funded by a $100,000 NASA grant, and includes at least three innovative technologies for which patents have been filed. Among the slew of sensors and communications gear designed for the harsh, low-gravity environment are oxygen and carbon dioxide detectors, GPS system, full suite of health monitors, shoulder mounted CCD cam, Bluetooth server to coordinate all the data, and a high-power transmitter for beaming info back to the mothership -- though curiously, there's no mention of an onboard weapons system that would be crucial for encounters with the occasional hostile Martian. Also, as the AP helpfully notes, even with all the research and design that went into this project, the forty-odd students seemed to neglect a key feature of any good full-body suit, which is an "escape hatch" for when the astronauts need to "jettison their waste."[Via futurismic and abc]
Professors banning in-class laptop use
In yet another sign that Luddism is alive and well in academia (remember Lakehead University's silly WiFi ban?), the Associated Press has picked up on a disturbing "trend" of professors banning laptops in their classrooms. Unlike the WiFi brouhaha, which revolved around fears that the wireless signals might be dangerous, keeping laptops out of the lecture hall is seen as a way of forcing students to pay attention. The AP article cites several law school professors who have enacted the ban, including one whose inspiration came while serving as an expert witness in a trial, when he realized the court stenographer wasn't absorbing any of the content that he/she was transcribing. If you ask us, not only does this policy fail to address the root of a problem -- hey Prof, try making your classes more interesting if you want people to pay attention -- but considering what students are paying for a higher education these days, they should be allowed to lug a mainframe and three monitors to class if that's how they like to get their learnin' done.
