| Outspark Announces $11 Million in Series B Funding from Internet Powerhouse, Top VC Firms
Outspark, a new unique publisher and operator of free online community games, today announced it has raised $11 million in Series B financing. Leading the round is Tencent Holdings, the operator of China's top Internet portal and instant messaging service. Existing investors DCM and Altos Ventures also participated in the round, which will help Outspark expand and enhance a virtual playground that has attracted more than 1 million registered users in less than five months. "Online gaming has become one of the most important new cultural phenomena in Asia, and we believe that PC-based online games will find a huge market here in North America as well. Outspark is off to a great start in building a strong user community with its titles," said David Wallerstein, Tencent Senior Executive Vice President of International.
Coming Soon: SR to Release E-mail Exchanges ... (Not so fast...)
Update: After reviewing the messages and our options (none good), we've decided not to post the messages. Here's the situation: Of the 50 messages, a few have explicit photos embedded in the message. We can't publish those photos (one shows a toddler's penis). We also have a strong ethical policy against blurring or otherwise manipulating photos. Some of the messages are completely innocuous. The rest of the messages only refer to attachments. Those attachments are explicit, so we can't publish them. We've also gone through each message to blur e-mail addresses for privacy reasons. So, if we don't publish any of the explicit images, and we refuse to blur, crop or otherwise alter them, all we're left with is a bunch of forwarded messages that say things like "take a look at this!" We decided that did not advance the story in any significant way.
Much ado about next to nothing
She walked well off the roadway with her back to the traffic yet seemed to ignore it in her steadfast stride. She swayed occasionally in the wind wash of big trucks and started reflexively at the ominous sounds of sirens or horns or the screeching of tires, yet continued without pause as she had done for years. She remembered things while she walked. She remembered loves and losses, remembered children and injuries, remembered friends and families, but they seemed long ago. She didnt remember it being so cold. Many of the car drivers were familiar with her Sunday routine and took appropriate care when nearing her. Some slowed to offer a ride but she always refused politely. She always blessed them. She continued in this manner for almost two hours, sometimes longer depending on weather or road construction, until she reached the entrance to the parking lot of the hospital.
Viacom's Dauman
Many of Viacoms brands are household names around the world. MTV is synonymous with cool across countless countries and is widely recognized for having revolutionized television. Nickelodeon redefined childrens programming with the irreverent fun of SpongeBob SquarePants and the lovable lessons for preschoolers provided by Dora the Explorer. One of Viacoms top priorities has been keeping up with the young generation, providing content they want on all the platforms and devices they are using—the Internet, cell phones, iPods and more. The other major objective has been delivering profits to shareholders. To that end, in March of 2005, Sumner Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Viacom, announced that he was splitting the company into two separate entities in order to increase the value of its stock price.
MacBook 1.83GHz and 2GHz
The release of the MacBook Pro ushered in a new era in mobile computing for Apple: It debuted two processing cores, a built-in video camera, remote-controlled multimedia software, and more. The three new MacBooks—one 1.8GHz and two 2GHz models available in either white or black —replace Apple's entire iBook line as well as the 12-inch PowerBook G4. They incorporate many of the upgrades included in the new Pro machines and offer impressive performance and features for an entry-level laptop line, blurring the distinction between consumer and professional models. We tested the low-end white and the high-end black models for this review. Even though Apple no longer offers a laptop for less than $1,000, the improvements built into the new MacBooks are well worth the added cost.
Software Researcher: Video Games Possibly More Analgetic Than Drugs
Even though researchers have increased focus on video games for a variety of research projects, very few of the endeavors have yielded astonishing results. A researcher working at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada claims playing video games could be more effective than using certain drugs when treating chronic pain sufferers. During controlled experiments, professor Diane Gromala reported that participants who played virtual reality games were more comfortable than participants who on pain medication only. "Controlling pain through computerized VR and biofeedback meditation therapies has the promise of providing successful, cost-effective alternatives to pain medications," she said in a statement. As founder of the university's BioMedia Lab, Gromala believes there is a "real demand" for the technology. Gromala adds, "As Canada's baby-boomers enter old age, pain management looms as a huge public-health issue." Patients enrolled in programs to treat chronic pain typically endure physical therapy, counseling sessions and prescription pain-killers.
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