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Filed under: Internet, Social Software

Bluetooth + facebook = creepy, but kind of cool

For far too long you had to tell Facebook who you know. It's about time Facebook smartened up and garnered the ability to tell you who you've been in contact with automatically. It's impossible for Facebook to completely take over all of our lives unless it can follow us around everywhere we go. Finally, a team of Bath University scientists have come up with a solution. Combine Facebook with mobile Bluetooth electronics! You can now install a Facebook tool, called Cityware, and register your Bluetooth product, and it will atomically tell you who you've come in close contact with. The best part is that now, instead of actually meeting someone on the street, you can just go home and meet them in the more intimate and personal Facebook environment.

It's actually kind of neat how it works. The catch is that in order to use it you have to live in a city that has a 'node' installed. These nodes are computers that will scan for Bluetooth devices and match them up with other devices from the area. These nodes are currently installed in a few places in the UK, as well as at the University of California in San Diego. Basically, you just go for a walk around one of the nodes, then when you log into Facebook, it gives you a list of everyone who was in the same area. It's a wonderful way to meet new people, without, you know, actually meeting them. Also great for stalkers. Can't forget about the stalkers.

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Featured Time Waster

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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