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Microsoft mashup competition for cash

microsoft mashup
Web 2.0 is all about mashups, and Microsoft wants to get in on the action. They have set up a new competition where winners can walk away with up to $25,000. The competition, announced at the 3GSM World Congress, is asking developers to create mashups that merge telecommunications features with Web 2.0 applications. So, basically, calling for some applications that weave voice and text with mapping and search features. The winner doesn't only get their share of the prize money, from $2,500 to $25,000 in cash, but if their mashup gets scooped up and released by a telecommunications company the developer could see a chance to share in revenue that it generates.

The first stage of the competition set for March 6th will see developers creating storyboards with written or graphic ideas of their ideas to show to a panel of judges. The winners from this round will move to the second phase which is to build a prototype with winners being announced for June.

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Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

CiviballsI have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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