How sports sims became the real deal
Ever wondered how video game characters are able to replicate the unique technique of a David Beckham free kick or a Tiger Woods drive?
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How sports sims became the real deal
Will Foursquare be the new Twitter?
An application that allows friends to track one another's movements when they're out and about could be the next big thing in social networking In 2001 Dennis Crowley, a young interactive telecoms graduate from New York University, found himself turning over a particular problem in his head. Crowley and a lot of his friends had been involved in various internet start-ups which, after the dotcom bubble burst, had gone pop. The problem was this: the friends were mostly living in East Greenwich Village, and they were around most days, but they never got together as much as they liked. Some days someone would be going to a baseball game, or someone would be going to a bar, or to the park, but there was no easy way of co-ordinating this social life among the group (this was back in the mists of networking time: Facebook hadn't been invented; even Friendster hadn't been invented). Crowley found himself applying his idling mind to the question of whether there might be a way of letting your friends know where you were, without making 20 phone calls; of taking the chance out of chance meetings. A decade later, after various part-evolved efforts to come up with a solution to this problem, Crowley seems to have found one that works. He is the co-founder of Foursquare, an internet site and iPhone application that allows you not only to advertise to friends (or friends of friends, or friends of friends of friends) exactly where you are in the world, but also incentivises the processes of going out, and meeting up. Foursquare has extended way beyond Crowley's mates; it is becoming a bookmarked fixture among circles of friends in cities across the States and the world. The application is approaching its millionth user; inevitably, in the way of these things, blogs and investors are buzzing about it — and rival "location, location, location" services, such as Gowalla — as this year's Twitter: the next geeky obsession to become a mainstream media compulsion. Crowley explained some of the potential to me last week on the phone. "We want Foursquare to be a lot about encouraging adventure," he said. "To give you a reason to do things and go places that you might not always think to do." He was, when he was developing his idea with his business partner Naveen Selvadurai, particularly interested in a couple of phenomena: the first was the psychology of Nike+, the sensor that allows you to collect data about your jogging and store it and analyse it on your iPod. "After I started using it," he says, "I was struck by the idea that if you forgot to turn the sensor on one day, then the run itself seemed to have no point. It was the sort of game-playing, data-collecting habit of the run that encouraged you to do it." He became fascinated by the idea of virtual rewards. "A lot of our group," he says, "had grown up with Super Mario and they wondered about the possibility of turning life into a game. Getting rewards for adventures just like Mario did on screen." Foursquare incorporates all of these ideas into its format. Using GPS location in your mobile phone it encourages you to "check in" to any location – bar, café, shop, event, park bench – and not only to share that fact with your friends but to win virtual badges and points for your activity. There is a competitive element to this.
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Will Foursquare be the new Twitter?
Martin Freeman: ‘I hate the fact that so much of our life is computerised’
Actor Martin Freeman might enjoy downloading, but his favourite piece of technology turns at 33rpm What's your favourite piece of technology, and how has it improved your life? It would have to be a record player, because that's the one I've used most since I was a child and the one I use most now. It's the one I use for all my music, and I thank the person who invented that. When was the last time you used it? I used it last night for a couple of albums I've just bought. I'm still always buying records, but finding the time to play them isn't always easy. What additional features would you add if you could
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Martin Freeman: 'I hate the fact that so much of our life is computerised'
Sir Clive Sinclair: "I don’t use a computer at all"
The entrepreneur and innovator tells Simon Garfield about inspiration, determination and why he doesn't do email… Thirty years ago this month, Clive Sinclair launched a computer that he hoped would change the world. In the majority of cases it only changed the way people played primitive computer games, but it also turned a bespectacled, prematurely balding man into a hero for our times. In those dark days before Windows 7 and the iPad, the Sinclair ZX80 represented the pinnacle of affordable domestic computing. It was a flat box without a screen or proper keyboard, it had the memory of a hamster and at the back of it was something that looked like a radiator grille but was actually a strip of plastic designed to look like a radiator grille. It promised it could do "quite literally anything, from playing chess to running a power station", which was good value for something costing £79.95 in kit form and £99.95 assembled, about one fifth of the price of other home computers. Sir Clive, who was knighted for services to industry at the age of 43, will be 70 later this year. He lives in an apartment overlooking Trafalgar Square, and from his adjacent office he has a magnificent view of tourists and lions (recently he also had a view of people performing on Antony Gormley's fourth plinth, but that "got a bit boring really"). He was a household name before Sir Alan Sugar, and for a while was the unlikely future of modern electronics: a bright, hi-tech uncle rejuvenating British industry blighted by decay, unions and Thatcher. Sinclair helped transform Cambridge into the computing capital of the world, a homegrown version of Silicon Valley and Taipei, and for a couple of brilliant years he made the bestselling computers in the world
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Sir Clive Sinclair: "I don't use a computer at all"
Thanks, Mr Jobs, for my new iNanny | Jemima Kiss
They said the iPod would never last, so only a fool would bet against the success of the iPad "A ll this hype for something so ridiculous! Why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!" "It won't sell. It will be killed off." "The reality distortion field is starting to warp Steve Jobs's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off." It's reassuring to know that some things never change: those were comments made on Apple fan sites as the first iPod was released in October 2001. Despite initial doubts, the iPod has become the symbol for seismic change, and very much to the benefit of Apple. The "iPod effect" boosted sales of its computers and also successfully staked out a lucrative chunk of the nascent digital music market by locking consumers into its own music store – effectively stealing the future from under the noses of the old music industry. Less than nine years later, Apple has sold 250m iPods. So what of the iPad ? Apple did no formal promotion ahead of the launch
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Thanks, Mr Jobs, for my new iNanny | Jemima Kiss
Computer security: fraud fears as scientists crack ‘anonymous’ datasets
Computer experts in the US can now identify people from personal information, leading to concerns over security and confidentiality Computer scientists in the US have discovered ways to "re-identify" the names of people included in supposedly anonymous datasets. In one example, a movie rental company released an anonymous list of film-ratings taken from its 500,000 subscribers. Using a statistical "de-anonymisation" technique, the academics were able to identify individuals and their film preferences. The discovery raises concerns about how safe it is to release personal information – such as medical records or mobile phone data – even if details such as names or national insurance numbers have been removed
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Computer security: fraud fears as scientists crack 'anonymous' datasets
Learn to remove a stuck CD from a computer
5 minutes Professional cost Varies: depends on the problem DIY cost Free Difficulty: PC or laptop Turn off your computer. Bend the end of the paper clip outwards, so that you have a straight section of wire. Look closely at the front panel of your CD or DVD drive – you should see a tiny hole. Push the wire into this little hole: you should feel a bit of resistance, but the paper clip will push in further and the disc tray will eject slightly. Pull the disc tray into the open position and remove the disc. Remove the paper clip and power up the computer. Use the button to open and close the tray a few times. If the tray does not open consistently, replace the drive (see here for how to do this on a desktop PC ). On an Apple Mac There are a number of ways to remove discs from an Apple Mac, so try each of these until you find one that works. Try the following: • Power up the Mac with the eject button held down. • Power up the Mac with the mouse button held down. • If your Mac has an emergency eject hole on the drive, follow the instructions above for ejecting a disc from a PC or laptop. • If you have a MacBook, tilt the machine towards you while trying the first Mac solution. • As a last ditch attempt to remove a disc from a MacBook, turn the machine off and insert a piece of thick (about 300gsm) card a little way into the drive slot.
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Learn to remove a stuck CD from a computer
Learn to fix a loose laptop screen
15 minutes Professional cost Varies: depends on brand and model DIY cost Free Difficulty: All laptops are slightly different, but the design and position of laptop hinges is generally the same across all models. Unless you have a Mac. As Apple puts its products together in a very different way, it's difficult to open up a Mac laptop screen. For more information on how to fix a loose laptop screen on a Mac, visit ifixit.com. Remember: do not attempt this if your laptop is still under warranty as you will invalidate it. Take it back to the retailer to repair. Before you start Turn off the laptop and remove the battery (refer to your instruction manual on how to do this). Open the screen Look at the laptop screen. You should see several rubber plugs in the corners of the lid. There will probably be two plugs near to the hinges, and either two or four plugs at the top of the screen. Pop the plugs out using a sharp knife, and put them to one side. There should be screws underneath the rubber plugs
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Learn to fix a loose laptop screen
Learn to repair broken headphones
30 minutes Replacement cost £17.50-£119: cheapest to most expensive DIY cost £10.37: excludes cost of soldering iron (see below) Difficulty: Diagnose the problem Are they broken at the plug or the speaker? Plug them in, turn the music on and wiggle the wire near the plug. If you hear a crackle (or they go off completely), you probably need to replace the jack plug. Repeat near the speaker – a crackle after a wiggle at that end means you need to repair the speakers. Changing a jack plug Cut the old jack plug off using wire cutters. If your headphones consist of two adjoining cables, gently pull 4cm of the cables apart and strip the same amount of outer insulation from the end of both cables. If you have single-cable headphones, strip 4cm from the outer insulation If you have two cables, one will contain two unshielded copper ground wires, the other will contain two insulated signal wires, the left signal (white) and right signal (red). Single-cable headphones will usually contain one copper ground wire and two insulated signal wires. Use the wire cutters to strip 5mm of insulation from both signal wires. If necessary, twist the two unshielded ground wires together. Regardless of your variety of headphones, you should now have three exposed wires at the end of the cable: left signal, right signal and ground. Use the soldering iron to "tin" (see box, right) each wire. Add just enough solder to cover the wire evenly, not so much that the solder starts to form blobs. Unscrew the case from the replacement jack plug. Slide the outer case along the headphone wire, with the threaded end closest to the solder joint
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Learn to repair broken headphones
Learn to turn slides into digital images
30 minutes Shop-bought cost £99.99 DIY cost Free to 99p: if you need to buy a hand mirror Difficulty: To scan a 35mm slide or a negative you could buy a slide adapter or a slide scanner. However, a significantly cheaper option is to make your own. Making the slide adapter Measure your mirror and draw a rectangle on to the card (illustration A): the longest side of the rectangle should be twice the length of the mirror, plus the width of the mirror. The shortest side is the same as the length of the mirror (for example, a 5cm x 4cm mirror would need a 14cm x 5cm rectangle). Draw two diagonal lines (A) and cut out your shape: it looks like a triangle with its top cut off (B). Fold your card along the diagonal lines. You will now have a pyramid shape that looks like it is missing the bottom and one of it's sides.
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Learn to turn slides into digital images