Once again the world of technology is between major events.

In only a couple of weeks the world of video games will be showing off their latest and greatest offerings to the world with the Electronic Entertainment Expo Business Summit (E3) in LA. This week however there have been same advancements and changes making waves in the world of technology.

What is one man worth?

Will you still love me when i'm 64, Microsoft points

Mini game court failure

Microhoo back on the agenda

.com .gone

Microsoft is 1 man smaller now

Nintendo is the teacher

Monday 23rd June 2008 - 27th June 2008

What is one man worth?

A British born man living in Australia is putting his entire life, job, cars, house, possessions, all up for sale.

After his 5 year marriage broke down Ian Usher decided to start fresh and is selling everything he has made and bought on the auction site Ebay.

At one stage, due to the world wide publicity his auction has garnered, the auction was up to AUS$2.2 Million, before he decided to make only registered members of Ebay allowed to bid.

The auction is due to end midday on Sunday, Perth time, and currently stand just below AUS$400,000, which is close to the market value of what he is selling.

To see the auction you can go to Ebay.com.au or to find out more details on the story you can check his site at alife4sale.com

Source Reuters

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While this isn't the first time somebody has sold their life on Ebay, it is the first time bidding got so out of control.

Due to the way real estate laws work in Australia, any body was able to bid on the auction, whether or not they were a member of the Ebay site. This lead to the extreme value of the auction. After Ian Usher spoke to Ebay he was able to make the bidding binding, as it is with most other auctions on the site.

While the press have been saying he is also selling his friendships with other people, upon reading all the things he has posted online, all he is doing is introducing the winner to his friends.

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Will you still love me when i'm 64, Microsoft points

After years of not being available to legally download anywhere on the internet, rumors are swirling things might soon be changing for the Beatles back catalog.

It is rumored the makers of the Guitar Hero games, Activision, and the makers of the soon to be released in Australia Rock Band, MTV, are both in talks to try and become the exclusive home to the Beatles back catalog as way to gain extra gamers later this year when both franchises have the same functionality.

If the deal does go through, it will be the first time ever any of the Beatles music has been made available, legally on the internet.

Source Gamespot

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With Apple Computer and Apple Corp, the Beatles record label, burying the hatchet earlier this year, people were speculating that the iTunes music store was going to sell the Beatles music online. While that might still occur in the future, if the Video games Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour get the songs first it will be a coup, including the ability to rock like one of the mopped topped fab four.

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Mini game court failure

Last year as part of a settlement in the group action lawsuit against it over the sex mini game in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, Take Two Interactive said they would give reimburse people who bought the game with the minigame if the people returned the game to where they bought it and said they would not have bought the game if they knew the mini game was in it.

As part of the settlement Take Two said they would pay set up at least US$1 million to pay back people who wanted to get rid of the game.

With the deadline for reimbursements now gone, the total number of people that returned the game was 2,676 meaning Take Two only paid out less than US$30,000.

As part of the deal Take Two have said they will donate the rest of the money set aside to charity.

Source Gamespot

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While Take Two had kept their end of the bargain up with the settlement, including publicising the reimbursement system, the other party still is not finished. They want to sue Take Two now for legal costs.

While the mini game was not included in the game when it was given ratings for consumer information, to unlock the game required either downloading a patch for the game to open that feature, or adding a new piece of hardware to a console to unlock it, both of which would require planning prior to playing the game.

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Microhoo back on the agenda

This week speculation was raised again that Microsoft is going to once again raise merger talks with Yahoo!.

With speculation of the talks resuming in time to be voted on at the Yahoo1 general meeting in August Carl Icahn, a major share holder in Yahoo! due to recent purchases, has asked Microsoft to hold off for the time being.

After the rumors started to fly the Yahoo! share price once again jumped and Icahn wants Microsoft to hold off until the price returns to close to the $33 a share offer they made previously.

Source Reuters

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In a court it would be called double jeopardy, in the mind of Carl Icahn it is a profit chance.

Steve Balmer, the chief at Microsoft, has already said they have no interest in buying Yahoo! now but yet rumors seem to pop up and then get a push by the investor Icahn to help him profit from the shares he bought at the start of the year.

While the purchase could go through if the Yahoo! board is sacked in August it will not mend the reputation of the 2 companies.

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.com .gone

At a meeting this week, the governing body of internet domain names ICANN announced they will be opening up the world of online addresses, for a price.

Currently most websites use the domains .com, .net, .org, .gov, .info, .tv or .biz and there is the possibility for .mobi and other domain names. However from early next year businesses will be able to have what ever they want, with in reason, including their own brand name, eg www.coke.coke.

While there will be an unlimited number of domain names, it will be restricted at times for length and decency.

Source ZDNet

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While it will allow businesses to get the website they always want, it will lead to confusion with the general public. Newsthatmatters.com.au parent company Clicksonline.info has to fight to get people to find it's site due to using a non conforming web address and has also had to purchase an address that is more conforming. This leads to the question of how successful will the new domain names be if people still aren't used to what's available now?

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Microsoft is 1 man smaller now

This week saw the retirement of Bill Gates from Mircosoft.

While the co founder of the software giant is still the largest shareholder and still the Chairman of the company he will no longer affect the day to day running of the business, nor will he take any part in the development of any Microsoft products.

3 people over the last year have slowly been taking over roles Bill Gates performed at the company allowing him to slowly move his focus to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation charity.

Source Reuters

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As a parting gift Bill had no programming input into Windows Vista, and that explains a lot.

If you want to know more about Bill Gates last day at the Microsoft office Reuters has a special feature you can read by clicking here , here and here .

For a dramatisation of the Microsoft story from the early years you should watch The Pirates of Silcon Valley

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Nintendo is the teacher

While they are banned in the school most of the time, some schools in Japan are now using the Nintendo DS hand held console to help students learn.

One girls school in Tokyo is using the the console to help students gain higher scores in their English classes by making the subject fun for them.

Some schools are also using the games console to teach kids in Maths classes as well as Japanese.

Kanako Takahashi, a junior at the Tokyo Joshi Gakuen school said "It's fun and helps me remember English,", "There's also math software that would be great to try.".

Source Reuters

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When I was growing up my parents bought a fair few "Ladders to Learning" games for the Commodore 64 to help me with my school work. While they weren't fun and didn't help in the slightest, they were the beginnings for what is happening now.

Computers and games are useful for more than just wasting time, believe it or not but I have to thank the original Playstation and the game Formula One for getting me through HSC English. A long story for another time.

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