Commerce and trade have long been integral parts of the virtual lifestyles found in RPGs. From weapons and clothing to gold and other health consumables, the online worlds of multiplayer RPGs, like DnD Stormreach, are rife with business opportunities both in the virtual realm of the game and real life.

In a modern continuation of this tradition the coin lords and house kundarak have teamed up to open several "auction houses" in Stormreach. The new auction houses are accessed and operated in a similar manner to other familiar virtual "stores," making the process of trading and acquiring goods in the game an intuitive one.

For those who are not familiar with this brand of virtual commerce, the auction houses are akin to Ebay in the real world. The auction houses will be located throughout Stormreach making them easy to find. Players who access the system user interface (by talking to the auctioneer) to gain access to the store will eventually be assessed two fees once they have completed their transaction. 

The first fee is a "posting" fee (which is paid when the item goes on sale and is not refundable) that pays for the services of the auctioneer and his efforts to place your sale items in the best possible advantage to make a sale.  The second fee is the "auction" fee (which is paid at the time the sale takes place) and is comprised of a percentage of the total revenue generated by the sale (in other words it comes out of the sellers profits).

On the other side of the coin, the bidders must remember that all bids are final; so once a bid is made it cannot be retracted in any event. The "winner" of the auction is, of course, the person with the highest bid. Once the auction is complete the item that was sold is sent to the winner via the mail system and the bid money is sent to the seller via the mail system as well.

   

As a Linux user who is currently hooked on the Ubuntu distribution, I must admit that there are times when I am forced to ditch the lovely, stable and forgiving OS for the more game-centric, but unforgiving, unstable and un-lovely Windows XP. Aside from gaming, the only other time I use XP is when I am away from my beloved desktop and using my not so beloved laptop.

Just as I was about to surrender to the forces of Windows in order to get my gaming fix, in comes Darin, the shy, quiet developer of SuperGamer-1. SuperGamer-1 is an entirely remastered version of PCLinux that gives gamers the chance to experience the best gaming the Linux platform currently has to offer.

The full article awaits after the jump!

A college in Dover, UK (South Kent College) has spent over $50,000 to outfit the student body with the iPod Nano. 250 very lucky students will receive the iPods, free of charge, with the expectation that they will use them for handling lectures from their professors- which will of course be in podcast format.

Digital music players are already in use at Georgia college and the State University in Milledgeville (in the US). At many colleges, the use of digital music players, and other similar digital devices that have the ability to record sound, has become an integral part of the coursework.

Surprisingly, some people in Dover have raised objections to the faculty's decision to spend taxpayer's money on what is seen by some as a "bribe" to get students to attend college. Some, like pressure group Campaign for Real Education Chairman Nick Seaton, have even gone so far as to call the program "a scandalous waste of taxpayers' money." Fortunately, others involved with the situation are more circumspect. Mr. Coleman, the principal of the Dover college involved with the case, asserts that the iPods would only be handed out to those teenagers who had completed all their assignments and had full attendance.

He further added legitimacy to the project by adding that the entire project was funded by money the government saved in a business venture and not from a general fund contributed to by taxpayers. Officials at the school maintain that the staff reaction to the plan has been positive.

Lectures surrounding IT, motor vehicle engineering, and childcare will be the first courses that offer podcast formatted lectures with the remainder of the course offerings scheduled to be available as podcasts next year. Although some people reacted negatively to the plan to give iPods to students, the course has already been set.

Technology is an inseparable part of the educational experience. Students who are not acclimated to technology by using it during their coursework each day will be sorely missing out on an important part of the learning experience.

For those laptop and ultra-portable PC owners who are currently using or thinking about using EV-DO, the Kyocera KR-1 EV-DO router is a suitable solution that will keep you connected to the Internet even away from hotspots.

The price of outfitting your KR-1, along with the appropriate wireless card for your machine and the carrier you selected, usually runs somewhere above $300. You insert the wireless card into the back of the KR-1 and it becomes an instant WiFi Hotspot and router for your LAN. For the entire month of September Kyocera will be selling the KR-1 EV-DO router with a $50 mail in rebate.

This little price reduction makes justifying the purchase of EV-DO service and equipment a little easier. Plus, you can add the $50 you saved on the cost of the router on the monthly service fees you'll be charged for the service. As a current EV-DO subscriber, and KR-1 user I can attest to the convenience it provides when traveling.

If you are a student or currently in a job that requires you to bring a computer with you into the field, a solution like the KR-1 provides unrivaled freedom, and the $50 rebate only sweetens the pot!

Laptops are made specifically to offer portability to the user. Unfortunately, laptops are still fragile digital devices that are prone to picking up damage unless properly outfitted with, and secured, in a case during transport.

Adding to the conundrum is the ironic fact that portability is almost always hindered in direct proportion to the durability, thickness and protective properties of the case being used.

In other words, the more protective laptop carrying solutions usually come with the unwanted side effect of being heavy and cumbersome; while the light and easy to carry laptop cases are more portable, but offer little protection as a trade off.

The trick is to find a laptop case that is both strong enough to offer protection and also portable. Finding a case that fills both of these necessities is difficult enough; finding one that you can walk around with and not look like a tool is near impossible!

Since I am a student I decided to look for a more aesthetically pleasing solution than the common, rectangular, black, business-looking laptop cases. In the end I found the High Sierra Cove Island Laptop Computer Rucksack, which filled my needs and then some.

Made from 1680-denier ballistic nylon and leather, this rucksack provides durability and strength without sacrificing portability. It can accept over-sized laptops (up to and above 17 inches) in a dedicated compartment that is isolated from the remaining structure of the bag and padded and rubberized to keep out water.

There is a front pocket designed for storing small objects like CDs, cellphones and IPods and two side pockets that work well for storing power, Ethernet and USB cables. On the uppermost flap there is yet another zippered pocket that can be used for storage of miscellaneous extras.

The main storage space inside the bag is right in front of the dedicated laptop area. This part of the bag is not divided into separate sections; which leads to my only complaint about the layout of the bag. In my case, I end up wasting about a cubic foot of valuable space because the main part of the bag is not divided into usable sections.

Other than the minor issue with the main compartment being too large for me to use efficiently, this bag is definitely one that I am glad that I purchased. The quality of the material from which it is made, the attention to detail evident in its construction and the overall look and feel of this bag put it near the top of my list.

I feel that the High Sierra Cove Island Laptop Computer Rucksack successfully blurs the line between providing adequate protection for your laptop and maintaining the desired level of portability; it also provides the added bonus of actually being stylish. This is definitely not your Father's computer backpack!

This DIY project, sent in by QJ reader HeMan, looks almost too good to be true! At first, we kept looking at the pictures closer trying to find evidence of photoshopping, (moving a square photo onto a wall is simple using photoshop) but so far we've found little proof it's a fake.

More of HeMan's DIY Project after the jump!

Supernovae are a rare phenomenon indeed. Major ones tend to be seen only about once every 10 or 20 years. The most recent supernova, observed by scientists on Earth (before February 2006), occurred in 1998. The supernova (or death of a star) that was seen in 1998 was considered minor by celestial standards.

That explosion didn't even give rise to a black hole, as is common in the case of large exploding stars. A neutron star, common after smaller supernovae, was the final result of the 1998 explosion. The supernova that was observed this February was similar in size to the one in 1998; it was small, if you can call any supernova small.

NASA has a system in place that utilizes available technology to alert scientists as quickly as possible to instances of supernova in the vicinity and quickly pan their instruments and telescopes to gather data about the event. This particular supernova lasted an unusually long time (some 40 minutes); giving NASA's Swift satellite plenty of time to pan over to bring the supernova into view and gather as much data as possible.

"Usually these gamma ray bursts last fractions of a second to a couple hundred seconds," said Alex Filippenko, professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. "This lasted many thousands of seconds. "The Swift satellite finds these things as soon as they go off, but the longer they last the more we can watch in real time, and others can turn their telescopes to it in real time."

Scientists continue to speculate about why this supernova lasted so long and what made it so unique. By getting such a detailed view of this most recent supernova event scientists will be better able to answer questions about supernovae from concerned policy makers and even possibly create technologies or methods to mitigate any possible hazards the Earth may face from gamma ray bursts in the future.

As EV-DO technology has become more and more popular over time the variety of solutions available to meet the needs of EV-DO users has become equally diverse. Carriers like Verizon and Sprint are currently in the process of maintaining and, in some cases, upgrading their EV-DO network infrastructure to keep up with the expected demand. The depth of the financial investment in network infrastructure alone demonstrates an iron clad commitment to the future of this technology on the part of the carriers.

The new AirCard 597E from Sierra Wireless is evidence that the next generation of EV-DO (known as Revision A) will be a viable competitor in the future of high speed wireless data services, and the investment will not have been in vain. "Built for notebook computers with ExpressCard expansion slots, the AirCard 597E will be fully compliant with network operator requirements and will offer user-friendly features such as Assisted GPS (aGPS) location based services; a robust, fixed antenna design; and an external antenna jack for flexibility and improved reception in fringe coverage areas or for specialized applications. The AirCard 597E is expected to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2007. ExpressCard models for HSDPA networks are expected to follow later in the year."

Sierra Wireless has been carefully watching the market and has plans to benefit from an overall trend in consumer habits that they expect to peak in 2007. "Notebook installations of ExpressCard slots are expected to move toward critical mass in 2007 - we are timing our ExpressCard products to match market adoption." said Trent Punnett, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Development for Sierra Wireless.

Since Dell and Apple (along with most all of the other manufacturers of laptops in the world) have moved to the express standard and basically abandoned the older PCMCIA standard, the market for express based network and storage solutions is expected to continue to grow. Eventually, everything will be done without wires, under one universal standard that is expandable, extensible, modular and fully self-sufficient (yeah right!). Until then we are left to choose between the various competing standards available today until we find a winner.

Although Microsoft's convergence OS, Windows CE, and others have made inroads into the Symbian market share over time, the operating system still maintains its historic  position of dominance in the smartphone operating system market.

The number of units shipped running a version of the Symbian OS rose 4.5 million (compared to last year's second quarter) to reach 12.3 million for the second quarter of this year. Royalties for the use of the operating system, mainly in Nokia phones, are what made up the bulk of the company's revenue for the year.

With $41.2 million in gross revenue the $37.9 million gained in royalties from companies like Nokia was a necessity. Although Symbian is a privately held company that doesn't disclose much financial information, it is widely known that the company is becoming more dependent upon royalties to make profits in light of the slow down in revenue coming from the company's partnering and consultancy ventures.

Overall, 93 percent of the 3G smartphones being made today are running the symbian operating system. There are literally millions of third party developers and homebrew enthusiasts creating and tending to a vast library of compatible content. The availability of compatible software, along with the near bullet-proof level of stability possessed by the operating system itself contribute greatly to the popularity of the Symbian OS. Because of the stability and utility of the Symbian OS (and because of the lack of a viable alternative) the trend of growth that has taken hold at Symbian this year is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

As the market for ultra-portable computers continues to expand and manufacturers scramble to meet demand while also trying to keep consumers interested in their products, originality and uniqueness are sometimes lost and products start to blend into a sea of blandness.

Leave it to Korea to buck current trends and release an ultra-portable that is truly without peer. The HiPAD (or HiPDA I've seen it written both ways on the same site!) is a tablet PC, or at least it looks like one. At the heart of the machine is an AMD Geode LX-800 CPU; a processor that is a compromise between power and efficiency.

With an available Gigabyte for memory (256MB standard) the processor will not have memory bottlenecks to slow it down. The most unique thing about the HiPAD has got to be it's ability to run both Windows XP (tablet edition) and Windows CE. The touch screen allows you to take advantage of the best features included with XP tablet edition while still giving you the option to run "normal" PC software designed for Windows XP.

WiFI, DMB and HSDPA provide connectivity and media services for the device. PCMCIA and CF slots provide effective expansion capabilities to the little portable that hint at some interesting possibilities. With Windows CE underpinning the media player and PDA-like functionality and XP tablet edition taking care of the tasks that involve heavy lifting (or heavy processing), it's almost like having two devices in one.

There is also a camera and navigation software embedded within the device. This hybrid-like device has a 10.4 inch touch screen, is one inch thick and weighs 2.9 pounds. For those who care about looks, the HiPAD isn't at all bad looking either! It has a sleek, smart design that only hints at the amount of productivity it can help you to achieve.

There's no word on cost as of this post. The amount of features packed into this tiny portable make it attractive, but price is always an issue. Hopefully, we'll see a version of the HiPAD in the US. American consumers would go crazy for a device like this if it was marketed well. (hint!)