Choosing A Good Domain Name
Choosing a domain name for your site is one of the most important steps towards creating the perfect internet presence. If you run an on-line business, picking a name that will be marketable and achieve success in search engine placement is paramount. Many factors must be considered when choosing a good domain name. This article summarizes all the different things to consider before making that final registration step!

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How to Switch Web Hosting Companies Without Downtime

Let’s face it - quite often many people tolerate less than great service from their hosting provider simply because it can be a real pain to move your site, your domain name and your email accounts without creating major downtime for you and your site visitors. Here’s a general checklist to follow to ensure that you have the smoothest move possible, and hopefully with no down time.

Note: although this procedure will work fine on most all sites, there are some template generated sites that this procedure may not apply. For example, if you have a CitySearch site then you are going to need to just rebuild a new site.

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What Makes a Good Logo?
What is a logo?
A logo is a design, graphical representation, image or symbol that represents a business or organization. Logos were initially used to distinguish and differentiate products, the logos assisted purchasers in finding the product they prefer or have come to trust (or not trust). When product selections were limited and items were marked with a logo which a consumer was familiar they would naturally assume a certain level of quality or value, even if they had not previously used that specific product from that vendor. Now many companies not only have a corporate logo, but they have a logo to represent each of their products or product lines.

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Sex and marriage with robots? It could happen
Robots soon will become more human-like in appearance, researcher says

By Charles Q. Choi
Special to LiveScience

Updated: 6:05 p.m. ET Oct. 12, 2007

Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows.

“My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots,” artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience. Levy recently completed his Ph.D. work on the subject of human-robot relationships, covering many of the privileges and practices that generally come with marriage as well as outside of it.

At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, “but once you have a story like ‘I had sex with a robot, and it was great!’ appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I’d expect many people to jump on the bandwagon,” Levy said.

The idea of romance between humanity and our artistic and/or mechanical creations dates back to ancient times, with the Greek myth of the sculptor Pygmalion falling in love with the ivory statue he made named Galatea, to which the goddess Venus eventually granted life.

This notion persists in modern times. Not only has science fiction explored this idea, but 40 years ago, scientists noticed that students at times became unusually attracted to ELIZA, a computer program designed to ask questions and mimic a psychotherapist.

“There’s a trend of robots becoming more human-like in appearance and coming more in contact with humans,” Levy said. “At first robots were used impersonally, in factories where they helped build automobiles, for instance. Then they were used in offices to deliver mail, or to show visitors around museums, or in homes as vacuum cleaners, such as with the Roomba. Now you have robot toys, like Sony’s Aibo robot dog, or Tickle Me Elmos, or digital pets like Tamagotchis.”

In his thesis, “Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners,” Levy conjectures that robots will become so human-like in appearance, function and personality that many people will fall in love with them, have sex with them and even marry them.

“It may sound a little weird, but it isn’t,” Levy said. “Love and sex with robots are inevitable.”

Sex with robots in 5 years
Levy argues that psychologists have identified roughly a dozen basic reasons why people fall in love, “and almost all of them could apply to human-robot relationships. For instance, one thing that prompts people to fall in love are similarities in personality and knowledge, and all of this is programmable. Another reason people are more likely to fall in love is if they know the other person likes them, and that’s programmable too.”

In 2006, Henrik Christensen, founder of the European Robotics Research Network, predicted that people will be having sex with robots within five years, and Levy thinks that’s quite likely. There are companies that already sell realistic sex dolls, “and it’s just a matter of adding some electronics to them to add some vibration,” he said, or endowing the robots with a few audio responses. “That’s fairly primitive in terms of robotics, but the technology is already there.”

As software becomes more advanced and the relationship between humans and robots becomes more personal, marriage could result. “One hundred years ago, interracial marriage and same-sex marriages were illegal in the United States. Interracial marriage has been legal now for 50 years, and same-sex marriage is legal in some parts of the states,” Levy said. “There has been this trend in marriage where each partner gets to make their own choice of who they want to be with.”

“The question is not if this will happen, but when,” Levy said. “I am convinced the answer is much earlier than you think.”

When and where it’ll happen
Levy predicts Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize human-robot marriage. “Massachusetts is more liberal than most other jurisdictions in the United States and has been at the forefront of same-sex marriage,” Levy said. “There’s also a lot of high-tech research there at places like MIT.”

Although roboticist Ronald Arkin at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta does not think human-robot marriages will be legal anywhere by 2050, “anything’s possible. And just because it’s not legal doesn’t mean people won’t try it,” he told LiveScience.

“Humans are very unusual creatures,” Arkin said. “If you ask me if every human will want to marry a robot, my answer is probably not. But will there be a subset of people? There are people ready right now to marry sex toys.”

The main benefit of human-robot marriage could be to make people who otherwise could not get married happier, “people who find it hard to form relationships, because they are extremely shy, or have psychological problems, or are just plain ugly or have unpleasant personalities,” Levy said. “Of course, such people who completely give up the idea of forming relationships with other people are going to be few and far between, but they will be out there.”

Ethical questions
The possibility of sex with robots could prove a mixed bag for humanity. For instance, robot sex could provide an outlet for criminal sexual urges. “If you have pedophiles and you let them use a robotic child, will that reduce the incidence of them abusing real children, or will it increase it?” Arkin asked. “I don’t think anyone has the answers for that yet — that’s where future research needs to be done.”

Keeping a robot for sex could reduce human prostitution and the problems that come with it. However, “in a marriage or other relationship, one partner could be jealous or consider it infidelity if the other used a robot,” Levy said. “But who knows, maybe some other relationships could welcome a robot. Instead of a woman saying, ‘Darling, not tonight, I have a headache,’ you could get ‘Darling, I have a headache, why not use your robot?’ ”

Arkin noted that “if we allow robots to become a part of everyday life and bond with them, we’ll have to ask questions about what’s going to happen to our social fabric. How will they change humanity and civilization? I don’t have any answers, but I think it’s something we need to study. There’s a real potential for intimacy here, where humans become psychologically and emotionally attached to these devices in ways we wouldn’t to a vibrator.”

Levy is currently writing a paper on the ethical treatment of robots. When it comes to sex and love with robots, “the ethical issues on how to treat them are something we’ll have to consider very seriously, and they’re very complicated issues,” Levy said.

Levy successfully defended his thesis Oct. 11.

© 2007 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

 

Electronic Arts to buy BioWare, Pandemic
Deal with parent Elevation Partners is worth up to $860 million

Electronic Arts acquired Pandemic Studios and BioWare, maker of the much-anticipated “Mass Effect” game for the Xbox 360.

The Associated Press
Updated: 1:39 p.m. ET Oct. 12, 2007

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Electronic Arts Inc., the video game developer known for titles such as “Madden NFL” and “The Sims,” said Thursday it will acquire two software studios from Elevation Partners in a deal worth up to $860 million.

The studios, BioWare Corp. and Pandemic Studios, have a total of 10 games under development. Elevation owns their parent, VG Holding Corp.

Together, the studios employ about 800 people in Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, as well as in Canada and Australia.

Under the terms of the deal, EA will pay VG stockholders up to $620 million in cash and issue as much as $155 million in equity to some of the company’s employees. The shares will be subject to certain time and performance-restricted vesting criteria.

In addition, EA will assume outstanding VG Holding Corp. stock options, and has agreed to lend VG up to $35 million until the deal closes.

Microsoft Corp. is planning to publish BioWare’s Mass Effect game next month, and the studio is in the early stages of developing a multiplayer online game, EA said. Pandemic is planning to release “Mercenaries 2: World in Flames” and “Saboteur.”

The acquisition, which is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval, is expected to close in January.

EA expects the deal to lower its 2008 earnings by about 30 to 40 cents per share. EA shares fell $1.22, or 2 percent, to close at $58.69 Thursday.

12 steps to become a millionaire
You don’t have to own the company or be a CEO. Here’s how to build a rich nest egg one paycheck at a time.

By Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine

 

A number of the people profiled in “Millionaires tell how they did it” made their millions as entrepreneurs. But working for the Man doesn’t mean you have to be a wage slave or resort to buying lottery tickets to strike it rich. The trick is to maximize your income on the job (and know when to move on), make the most of your employee benefits and tax breaks and use that extra money to start investing.

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Charlize Theron Named Sexiest Woman Alive
Oct. 10, 2007

Charlize Theron attends the premiere of “Monster” at the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 8, 2004.

NEW YORK — Charlize Theron has an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award. Now she’s Esquire magazine’s “sexiest woman alive.”

Past winners of the title include Jessica Biel, Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson. The issue featuring Theron hits newsstands Oct. 16.

Theron talked with the magazine about growing up on a farm, her political interests and her work, including her latest movie, “In the Valley of Elah,” a murder mystery set among U.S. troops newly returned from Iraq.

“I wanted to make the movie precisely because it evades formulas about guilt,” the 32-year-old actress said. “I’m drawn to ambiguity.”

Theron also candidly discussed her least favorite film, “Reindeer Games.”

“That was a bad, bad, bad movie,” she said. “But … I got to work with John Frankenheimer. I wasn’t lying to myself — that’s why I did it.”

Theron won an Oscar for her role in “Monster.” Her screen credits also include “North Country” and “The Cider House Rules.”