I was going to get to the mindmanager seven

installation this weekend, but I ran into some video card issues.  I was also experiencing a Microsoft Windows XP not Vista but the older version issue on my laptop when it comes to upgrades, I’ve got the automatic upgrade or update that is not upgrade, option turned on on my computer and it was supposed to automatically install the junk e-mail update for Outlook.

For whatever crazy Microsoft reason the automatic update just wouldn’t install, it kept trying and trying and trying but would not work.  Eventually I found an article online that described the problem that several of the people were having as well and I followed the advice got it to work.

Then I went into SecondLife as I hadn’t been to SecondLife awhile and I needed to check on the couple recent news articles that I’d come across, but every time I went into SecondLife my system would lock up and crash.  I thought maybe I had a video card driver problem, so I attempted to check for updates on my graphics card in put in an update and tried it again and it crashed again.  Well that turned into about a six-hour endeavor and I lost the time that I had set aside for installing mindmanager seven, so now a couple days behind my updated schedule to put in mindmanager seven, of course days Monday and I’ve got other obligations today so I’m hoping to get to this install later this evening.

My computer is Vista ready and I’m just about ready to give up on XP and jump on the bandwagon dealing with the problems with Vista, Guillen thing holding me back is QuickBooks.  I’ve got QuickBooks 2006 and I don’t feel like upgrading to 2007.  2006 is incompatible with Vista. 

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Last year the US Congress passed a number of laws that cracked down on online gaming sites.  This has not slowed down the industry and probably shows the impotence of US law to impact an internet industry all by itself.  US authorities were obviously influenced in part by established brick and mortar gambling institutions when they crafted the laws that were not friendly to the online community.  This coddling of brick and mortar institutions that have long histories of problems makes the moral stance that the US took online seem hollow.

More and more sites that were once dedicated solely to carefree online games are moving into the virtual big time offering people the opportunity to gamble online.  Playing games is a social aspect of life that goes back many millenia.  The internet is almost a perfect tool for enabling people to socialize from all around the world and when you bring the two together you get an online gaming industry that really can not be stopped or slowed down. 

The internet has long had the potential to flow like water around physical jurisdictions and that is exactly what is happening with gaming online.

Case in point is BackgammonMasters.com, they have historically provided people with the ability to play backgammon online at BackgammonMaster.com and at a sister site for backgammon, called gammonish.com.  They have now opened up poker rooms on their site where people can gamble for real money.  They even have setup an incentive where the house will not take a commission on the games played by members against other members.

The bottom line is that online gambling is legal throughout most of the world.  The United States has established a law that is only partially enforceable against businesses in the US and against persons in the US playing games.  The concern of the US government is that these sites and the people that gamble on them could use the site to launder money, collude or a number of other activities.

Online gambling sites do have this potential, but the nasty truth is that any business that operates online has the same capability.  If someone really wants to launder money, they do not need to attract attention by establishing an online gambling site, all they have to do is establish an online business.  In fact, the law has probably done more to hide money laundering activity than to prevent it.  It has probably also served to clear money launderers out of a large segment of the online gambling industry.  Why would money launderers choose to perform their illegal activities where they know the authorities will be watching when the world wide web is infinitely large and offers many other rocks to hide under.

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Winster (pronounced Win ster) has established a social collaborative gaming site. Winster - the Win-Win Game Site games are not complex. They are probably on the order of playing a flash game and of a variety similar to that on the Price is Right. You are not going to find a first person shooter game here, but something along the lines of Yahoo Games with a real prize twist.

Players can win points with their free moves and if they earn enough points they can win prices. The social aspect comes in to varieties.

First players never compete against each other. Chat is available to talk with other players that are online.

Second, players can benefit from helping each other play the games which helps promote Winster’s goals of helping people collaborate in a positive environment while they are having fun.

Prizes include things like a pair of movie tickets or an iPod shuffle. Each player can play for free with a certain number of moves or they can upgrade for a nominal membership fee and get more moves. This membership provides more moves and enables players to gather more points to win the prizes.

Play Nice

You can benefit during the game by trading the puzzle pieces you win with other players. You can see 4 other player boards at the same time. This helps you to understand what they have and see maybe what they need. You can then offer to make a trade by dragging pieces to their board.

Price

A basic member ship starts off at $4.99 per month and is capped with a premium membership fee of $9.99 per month

Technorati tags: interactive games, social games, cooperative games, games, flash games

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So Nintendo comes up with a hot idea, a motion sensing controller. The new controller gets lots of attention and great reviews. So what is a company that leads the market share for gaming devices to do?

“Sony has copied Nintendo’s controller, tweaked it and called it its own, just like many feared it would. The gyroscopes inside the controller detect all sorts of movement, similar to the freehand Wii-mote, sending back the results to the PS3 base via a Bluetooth wireless connection for instant changes to the action on-screen.”

Check out the complete saga here The Greatest Nintendo Wiip-Off Ever

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bit-tech.net DS Lite will cost $130, released June 11 in the US

“Nintendo has announced details of the US release of the DS Lite, ahead of E3 next week.

The DS Lite will go on sale for $129.99 on June 11.

The only colour announced so far is the Polar White, with variants of blue likely to tip up too, if not on the 11th itself. American gamers have been clamouring to get their hands on the DS Lite, which is thinner, lighter, and has a brighter screen.

It is currently selling for over $200 on import from retailers like Lik-Sang.”

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