Game for some nostalgia
One of the first video game/movie tie-ins was 1982′s ET; The Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600. With terrible gameplay and universally damning reviews, Atari nearly went under and the home video...
View ArticleHow big data can result in bad data
A couple of years back, ratings agency Standard and Poor’s downgraded American debt. Not because of the state of the economy, but because of an error in its original calculations… a mere US$2.1...
View ArticleSpam comes from ‘bad neighbourhoods’: study
A landmark study by a Netherlands university has found that less than half a percent of ISPs sampled were responsible for around half the world’s spam. Using data from the Composite Blocking List,...
View ArticleInnovation and inspiration from science fiction
Researchers, inventors engineers and entrepreneurs are increasingly looking to the arts for the next big thing. If history has taught us anything, it’s that tomorrow’s technologies already exist on...
View ArticleComing soon to you: the information you need
The day when your hat can extrapolate your mood from your brain activity and make a spa appointment on your behalf may not be far away. The next big thing in the digital world won’t be a better way for...
View ArticleTeaching computers the meaning of words
“People say the damnedest things in the damnedest ways,” is how Google research director Fernando Pereira sums up the challenges of computers understanding human speech. Computer language, after all,...
View ArticleThought-controlled computers closer than we think
We’ve gone from the mouse to Kinect-style gesture control in just thirty years. Might the next frontier in computer interfaces be controlling machines just by thinking about it? A recent breakthrough...
View ArticleCall for better privacy protection in the cloud
It might be easy to click “I agree” on the bottom of endless software end user licence agreements (EULAs) without a second thought, but when it comes to putting one’s data on the cloud the...
View ArticleComputers are getting creative
Humans and machines have traditionally had clearly defined areas of expertise. We have the ideas, and they do the dangerous, complicated or boring parts. If we write a poem, a computer can check the...
View ArticleWhy you are your best cyber security
In case you’ve been living under a rock, online security is back on the agenda in a big way because of a little thing called heartbleed. It’s not something you get from too much saturated fat, it’s a...
View ArticleThe Internet Police
If you’ve ever done your banking or paid for porn online, that little padlock in your browser or the green address bar means you’re dealing with someone a security company has authenticated as a legit...
View ArticleEvery Move You Make
I’m a 40 something self-employed writer and a huge movie and technology fan, and will happily admit, I can’t live without the internet. I post to Facebook and Twitter, watch YouTube videos, buy...
View ArticleFunbots
How robots for fun and leisure will change the way we relax and play in years to come In case you hadn’t noticed, there are robots everywhere. But instead of the malevolent killers of the Terminator...
View ArticleRescue Robots
Imagine the scene after a huge earthquake or natural catastrophe, of the type we’ve seen in Fukushima or Haiti, an injured victim or terrified child pinned under rubble. After some jostling a spotlight...
View ArticleTomorrow’s AI Helper, Today
Movies and pop culture have always depicted the ideal electronic companion to help manage your life. Siri was a good first step towards that long-promised future but as Drew Turney discovers, you...
View ArticleSuper Power
It’s a century old idea, but wireless electricity is finally coming into its own. Drew Turney learns about the horizons, limits and products you’ll use wire-free in the near future. We’ve all seen the...
View ArticleFun and Games
When you consider the effect game engines will have on moviemaking, one term that might spring to mind is ‘flattening’. Not having to wait for render farms to spit out shots to review (and change – or...
View ArticleDas uncrewed boot
Boeing’s Orca is set to change the face of US undersea battle-readiness. Drew Turney reports. There’s no doubt drones are becoming lynchpins in the future of US warfare. Barack Obama authorised 506...
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