Nintendo has released a puppy simulator for the North American market. This game lets players nurture and train a virtual dog. Nintendogs has been a big hit in Japan but then we know the kind of stuff the Japanese like. The Japanese have always liked taking care of virtual animals, children, friends and plants too, I guess. Back to Nintendogs, the game comes out in three editions and offers 18 breeds for the players to care for, train and play with. Using artificial intelligence, a built-in microphone, and a touch screen, Nintendo’s puppy responds to a player’s voice and reacts to praise and discipline. The game also has a “bark mode??? that detects an available wireless network for contact with other players. Nintendo hopes to put a leash (no pun intended) on the Sony PSP sales with this game and frankly, I do not think this game will affect the sales of the PSP.
Nintendogs is available for the Nintendo DS.

Health officials in Japan announced a drop in the rate of smoking among teenagers in Japan. Kenji Hayashi, the head of research at the Health Ministry, said that “There is a high chance that phone bills are weighing on the money they spend on cigarettes. The monthly allowance students get ranges between 6000 yen [$A72] and 7000 yen, but over 80 per cent of them own a cell phone and some studies show the phone bills they pay amount to 4000 to 6000 yen. We need to investigate the correlation between the two.” Thanks to mobile phone companies and their hidden costs, I have not only stopped smoking but started eating lesser too. They care about us and just want us to be healthy.

The Bush administration has asked for a hold on the release of the new domain .xxx. Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the Commerce Department, said “The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and emails from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children.” The domain was to get its final approval today. The .xxx domain was definitely a shot in the arm for the porn industry. Before you know it, we will have a porn search engine that searches only the .xxx domain for content, images and videos. Porn will have its own exclusive space on the internet and it would definitely make it easier for children to find porn and easier for child porn addicts as well.
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India Celebrates its 58th Independence day today. We have achieved a lot in only 58 years and we still have a long way to go. To learn more about India, click here.

Well, if not smarter but definitely more aware of the world around us. Thanks to laptops, search engines and Wi-fi, people at conferences and in classes are asking smarter questions. During a presentation or a lecture, someone in the audience can Yahoo certain facts and understand the topic better which would help ask better questions. Some teachers say that today’s students are asking more questions than their predecessors, possibly because parents have access to the internet and when asked a question by their children, they can have a reply other than ‘Because!!’. If your kid was to ask you something you don’t know about, search Wikipedia and you should get the answer.

Zopa lets ordinary citizens borrow money from other ordinary citizens — no bank needed. This service is open to any UK resident over 18 years who clears a credit check. There are 2 categories for borrowers, those who have strong credit history and those who have a weak credit history. Those in the latter category pay higher interest rates. Zopa, meanwhile, takes a 1 percent commission from every borrower’s loan. I think the eBay model can be added to many other businesses too and it may well bring the barter system back from the dead.