Geekery

Microsoft’s new technology for schools

Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by Jake.

So Microsoft, for all the flack open source dev dudes and Apple fans give them, are involved with some pretty awesome social upliftment schemes.

They have now released a product which they bill as a “simple and affordable technology for schools that allows several students to work a single computer at the same time – each with their own screen, mouse and keyboard”.

If you’re in Joburg you can see this new technology, which is currently on display at the African School Technology Innovation Centre (STIC) in Newtown, Johannesburg.

Called Windows MultiPoint Server 2010, it aims to give more teachers and students access to technology at low cost.

Check out these videos for more info:
mms://msvcatalog-5.wmod.llnwd.net/a2249/e1/ft/share3/be21/0/70e11e70-326a-403a-b719-f329f803c12b.wmv

mms://msnvidweb.wmod.msecnd.net/a10026/e1/ft/share15/e1ed/0/5bbc002c-a4c7-41e6-92ac-cd15f2e0ee0d.wmv

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No sex please, we’re Apple

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Jake.

App by app, Apple has spent the last couple of days embarking on a moralistic cleansing of their iPhone App Store. Porn fiends the world over wanted answers, and now. So, thanks to an article on Gizmodo.com, let’s here what the official word from Apple executive Paul Schiller is:

“It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see.”

Fair enough. What those who have come out strongly against the move have pointed out, though, is that those parents who have complained are not aware of, or simply aren’t using, the parental controls available to them that would restrict their kids from access to these apps.

Also controversial is the fact that Apple have retained two risqué, borderline soft-porn apps in the form of Sports Illustrated and FHM. Are these two allowed to remain because of the commercial clout of the companies they represent? And, if so, is Apples app purge aimed only at smaller developers, who need their products to remain in the App Store the most?

Schiller, when asked about Sports Illustrated, does not deny this: “the difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” he said. But, the idea that it’s fine to publish half-naked women as long as you’re famous is insulting.

And, many Apple-heads want their favourite brand to be cooler than the others. We want it to treat us like adults, and that is why the idea of the brand condoning a world in which we cannot choose which Apps we can and can’t to download is troublesome.

Are Apple in the right self-censoring their App Store at the expense of developers? Let me know below.

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Nokia tells over a million people where to go

Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by Jake.

For quite a while now, the rise of the GPS device has provided a solution for the eternally lost motorist. But what about those particularly loskop types who can’t even find their way when on foot? Nokia, with the launch of Ovi Maps, a downloadable phone app boasting free walk and drive navigation, came to the rescue in January.  Now, thanks to the good people of Moral Fibre, I now know that there have already been over a million downloads of Nokia’s latest initiative.  Which means over a million people are going to be too busy watching their phones to keep their eyes on where they’re going, whether by car or on foot. Motorists and pedestrians alike are advised to be on the alert.

Just to put into perspective exactly how much of these babies have been downloaded since the launch in Jan, Nokia’s Executive Vice President, Anssi Vanjoki tells us that “we’re averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day,” That’s a lot, he said, stating the obvious.

Good news for those too silly to work out how to download something is that next month all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with high-end walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost.

Ovi Maps is pretty comprehensive, covering more than 180 countries with car and pedestrian navigation for 74 countries, in 46 languages, and traffic information for more than 10 countries. There are more than 6000 3D landmarks for 200 cities around the world.  Lonely Planet and Michelin guides have information on more than 1,000 destinations globally.

All of this means that I, a Nokia user, may never get lost again. Unless I lose my phone, in which case I will have to sit on the pavement drooling on myself until someone with Ovi Maps (or, although less likely, a sense of direction) tells me where to go.

Check out the full press release here.

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The 2010 Nerdy NomNoms have begun

Posted on 25. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

SheBee, otherwise known as Sheena Gates, the queen of online culture blog Nerd Mag, has invented her own award ceremony – The Nerdies. Now in its second year, the first instalment even saw one of my good friends nominated – none other than social media don Mike Stopforth. I’m not too sure who the winners were and, strangely, couldn’t find this info online. Feel free to comment below if it is there and I’m just blind. But it doesn’t really matter who won last year, since the process of this year’s nominations, cutely dubbed the Nerdie NomNoms, is currently underway.

In case you’ve never heard of them (which I assure you is nothing to be ashamed of), they are a tongue-in-cheek attempt to honour the sexiest geeks in South Africa (or the sexiest nerds, as Nerd Mag would have it, although we all know that there is a big difference between nerds and geeks, this competition really targeting the latter. But I digress…) in a manner echoing Wired’s annual Sexiest Geek awards.

Unlike in a more conventional beauty pageant, when it comes to online beauty looks aren’t everything, as Gates herself puts it, “The nominees should be nominated for their personalities more than anything else, this is onlinedom okes, shallowness is null and void here.” So, if you know someone of such extreme online sexiness that you think they can take the title, nominate them here. The finalists get cool prizes including free hosting, Mowali and Ster Kinekor merchandise, hampers, a Connect Magazine subscription, a Springleap shirt and Kalahari vouchers.

And it’s for a good cause too, people. The awards will culminate in an auction, and the money will go to a charity which will soon be announced. For more info click here.

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Google vs China

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Jake.

Google vs China is threatening to take over from past rivalries such as 50 Cent vs Kanye West and Microsoft vs Apple as the world’s most newsworthy beef.

The latest news in the whole debacle is that Google have postponed the launch of two of their new cellular phones using the Android operating system. The monolithic web company and China’s government are apparently in negotiations, and Google is reluctant to release the phones until the terms of their remaining in China have been agreed upon.

For the four people in the world who don’t know, it all began when Google was hit by a series of cyberattacks in China, and as a consequence threatened to withdraw from the Chinese market altogether, particularly because the attacks aimed to collect information about Chinese dissidents and human rights activists. Google reacted by slamming the censorship imposed by the Chinese Government and threatening to withdraw from China.

The next little twist in the story was when it was determined that Google staff could have been involved in the attack. It was claimed by ‘unknown sources’ that hackers targeted people who have access to specific parts of Google’s networks, with employees based in its Chinese offices helping to facilitate the hackers.

But the latest and most interesting twist in the story is that, since the whole debacle started going down, there has been a marked increase in those using Google in China. In China, 60 percent of all internet users utilize massive Chinese search engine Baidu and only about 35 percent use Google. Since the controversy, however, recognition of Google has risen in China, which has led to more users. Their share price, however, is down as a result of the possibility that they will leave China.

For an interesting article clearing up misconceptions regarding the search engine’s involvement in China, see here.

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