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  • For You Second Life Fans

    Do you play Second Life? Are you looking for some action? Then check out SL Escorts for listings and reviews. Also see an article on 1UP on MMO Call Girls.

    [via Waxy Links]

  • Doctor Who review in NYT

    The New York Times has a short review of the new Doctor Who online. Pretty decent.

    The familiar blue police box doesn’t seem much revamped, either; it appears to run on pneumatic tubes, and there is no sign of a computer on board. The Doctor, on the other hand, almost quivers with energy. In previous regenerations, depending on the actor playing him, this character has variously been crotchety, spacey, avuncular and even a little glamorous. Christopher Eccleston brings a kind of manic blokishness to the part, giving the Doctor a sardonic grin and a working-class Manchester accent. (When another character says, “If you’re an alien, how come you sound like you’re from the North?” he replies, “Lots of planets have a North.”)

    This Doctor is a little forgetful and inept, but nevertheless fairly contemptuous of the human beings he has come to save — except for Rose Tyler, a shop girl to whom he takes a completely understandable shine. Rose, played by Billie Piper, a former pop star who used to occupy roughly the same niche in Britain as Britney Spears does here, is not just cute but also quick and inventive. She’s much less frightened of lumbering mannequins or boiling plastic than either her vain, slutty mum or her well-meaning but dopey boyfriend, and she even gets the careless Doctor out of a jam.[New York Times]

  • Looking for Martians

     Mars Images Mars Logo

    Today brings us the latest offering from Google: Google Mars. Explore the red planet in three different ways: an elevation map shows color-coded peaks and valleys, a visible-imagery map shows what your eyes would actually see, and an infrared-imagery map shows the detail your eyes would miss. It is pretty nifty. Check it out!

  • WoW and Golf

    Jane Pinckard asks the question Is World of Warcraft the new Golf? in an article over on 1UP.com.

    Overheard, at brunch: two tech entrepreneur types discussing World of Warcraft. What server are you on? What guild? Oh yeah, me too, I heard it’s a good way to schmooze.

    Is that true? Has logging in to the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online game replaced a few rounds on the links as the way to make the right business connections in a tech-driven culture?

    The particular Guild discussed by the brunchers above was started by Joi Ito, who became a WoW fan after embarking on the game to do some research on social networks. Joi, the money-and-idea guy behind internet companies PSINet, Digital Garage, Infoseek Japan, and social software like Moveable Type, Technorati, and Socialtext, has quite a few hangers-on who hit him up for advice, money, or access to his Rolodex. [1UP.com]

    The fun thing about this is that the guild I’m a part of, We Know, is the guild Joi started. It’s become a fun group of people with more than a few people from various other startups and internet companies. It’s kind of fun knowing that the person you’re questing with could be the CEO of some company you’ve heard of for ages.

    Is it the new golf? I’m not sure about that. Maybe it’s like the new paintball instead.

    Edit: It’s even hit Slashdot.

  • Doctor Who in America

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    It finally happened. Dr. Who will be hitting the airwaves in the US starting in March. Taking up a slot on the SCI FI Channel’s Friday lineup. While the SCI FI Channel has done its share of annoying things, this is a great move for them. Even if they were way too slow with it. This is definitely a show to check out. It starts out a little slow, but quickly gathers speed. Almost everyone I’ve shown it has enjoyed it.

    The only downside is that now the season one DVD release has been pushed back till July.

    [via rfrancis]

  • Fly Away

    Here’s a quiz for today.

    The Butterfly
    BUTTERFLY – Your daemon may be a butterfly. It is
    ironic that the butterfly traditionally
    represents the psyche, yet it is one of the
    least emotive physical forms that your daemon
    can take. It is very hard to tell what a
    butterfly is feeling, and perhaps that is why
    you feel so comfortable with this form. You
    have many, many friends and a beautiful soul,
    but you don’t like to reveal what your
    innermost feelings are. You aren’t afraid to be
    yourself – you are vibrant and colourful. But
    at the same time, you don’t like to wear your
    heart on your sleeve.

    What Is Your Daemon?
    brought to you by Quizilla

  • Dr. Who Christmas Special

    Not being able to sleep at 5am this morning, I decided to check out the Dr. Who Christmas Special. Overall I give it a thumbs up. The story felt like a kind of typical regeneration story, with David Tennant making his first real appearance as the Doctor. I think he’s going to make a pretty good Doctor overall. I won’t discuss any of the content so as not to spoiler people, but I do recommend downloading it if you can (along with the children in need special, which you should watch first if you could).

  • The Gizmo Project

    Gizmo Project A Free phone for Your Computer

    I’d heard of Gizmo a while back, but hadn’t had a chance to check it out until today. I’ve got to say, it’s pretty slick. I think it may just replace Skype for me.

    For those of you who aren’t up on the latest in internet telephone services, Gizmo and Skype are internet telephone services. You can call other users on their services for free, and for a small fee make outgoing calls, and accept incoming calls if you rent a phone number from them. They also have basic IM services built in.

    So why do I like Gizmo? It uses open standards and I’m a geek for that kind of stuff. The interface also seems quite nice and it runs on everything (Skype does too). It also offers some features for free that cost money on Skype (like voicemail). So if you are doing the internet telephone thing I highly recommend giving it a try. You can give me a call at gregoryblake.