GeekSugar

Vintage Geek: What I Learned From '80s Computer Games

GeekSugar — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:30:02 PDT

It was a gorgeous weekend here in San Francisco, so I took advantage of it to go on a night walk with some friends. We started talking about how Jupiter was the closest to Earth in 50 years (if you noticed a bright star close to the moon last week, that was it!) and how you could see four of Jupiter's moons with just binoculars. I realized that everything I knew about these moons was straight from one of my top geeky computer games of yesteryear - Where in Space is Carmen Sandiego?

That feisty fugitive taught me a lot of facts about space, not least of which are that Io looks like a pizza and that Europa is a frozen ball of ice with water underneath. Who knew that while I was chasing all those V.I.L.E henchmen around I'd actually retain the information years later?

So, fellow Carmen Sandiego fans, which game was your favorite? Where in Time? Where in the World? Or did you have another go-to geeky computer game?

Want to reminisce about the olden days of tech? Join our Vintage Geek Group and get in on the fun, and your story could be featured on GeekSugar!

Photo source: Moby Games

Computer Games a Threat to Bhutan's New Democracy?

LibertySugar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:30:58 PDT

The Asian nation of Bhutan has banned members of parliament from bringing laptops to work since they apparently cannot control their urge to play computer games. The lawmakers in the new democracy reject the accusation, saying that their computers are needed and do not distract them from their work. But their protests do not compute with the National Assembly's Speaker credited with the ban, reports BBC.

Eating, smoking, and other electronic gadgets are also banned at the National Assembly. The isolated Himalayan country just got Internet and television nine years ago, and held its first elections last March. A Bhutanese contingency traveled to Washington, DC, this week, with plans to introduce the small Buddhist constitutional monarch to America.

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Would you rather have a lawmaker who is distracted by computer games, or one who cannot use a computer at all? Do you think motivations for the ban on food and technology, likely to result in less time spent at the Assembly, go beyond innocent? Could a mix-up over computer games shake up this fragile democracy? Source

Library of Congress Classification Game to Tests Your Wits

GeekSugar — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:11:33 PST

No really, I'm not kidding. If you have a few minutes to spare check out the Library of Congress Classification Game, which offers a timed test of your knowledge of the Library of Congress classification system (yes, it's different from the Dewey Decimal System you learned in grammar school). Sure, it sounds less than extraordinary, but it's actually a ton of fun. You pick up the books from the cart with the cursor and have to place them on the right shelf, in the correct spot in an allotted time frame. First the Library of Congress joins Flickr and now this?! I'm sensing a geek trend.

Statetris: It's Tetris On A Map Of The US

GeekSugar — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:00:54 PDT

In search of your afternoon distraction? Check out Statetris, a free Tetris game based on a map of the United States.

You chose "easy," "medium" or "hard" options and proceed to fit descending state pieces into a map of the U.S. The "easy" option provides you with both a colorful state piece and its name, while the "hard" option shows just the state piece without any name. Clearly, I took the easy route.

See if you remember anything from third grade. I dare you.

Source: Neatorama

How To: Get Your iPad Ready For Resale

Kristy Korcz — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:48:28 PST

If the rumors are true, the iPad 3 should be announced in March. If you're ready to upgrade from your first-gen iPad or iPad 2, now's the time to start thinking about selling. But before you post a listing on Craigslist or eBay, get all your ducks in a row first. Here's a few tips on how to prep your gadget for resale, and get top dollar for your efforts.

Back up your data and do a clean sweep - First thing's first - make sure you connect your iPad to iTunes and back up all of your data. You'll be able to sync it with your new iPad after you bring it home. And just like a computer, before you sell your old tablet, you'll want to wipe it clean of any sensitive information, apps, and contact lists. Erasing all of your content and settings (go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings) is great, but go ahead and perform a full restore in iTunes as well.
Polish the exterior - Cleaning your old iPad is kind of like cleaning your LCD monitor - you don't want to use any harsh chemicals or, even more damaging, water. Using a tried-and-tested cleaner like iKlear ($30) will ensure you won't damage your iPad's sensitive bits. Use the included microfiber cloth (or one of your own) and shine that baby up.

To see the rest of my list, including tips on how to get your gadget sold quickly online, just keep reading.

14 Geeky Languages to Learn With Your Love

Kelly Schwarze — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:15:00 PST

Love may be a universal language, but we're not sure that phrase includes the sci-fi alien races and fantastical creatures that rule the far depths of the galaxy, who express love in words beyond our human comprehension. When you're thinking of a unique way to woo your valentine this year, plan a tutorial to learn together one of these 14 geeky languages. While several of these Trekkie, Tolkien, or computer gaming-inspired languages have enough depth to warrant a university level class, many are not fully realized, so have fun discovering select words and phrases to bring to future geeky date outings.

Wookie - Made up of three dialects, the main Wookie language is Shyriiwook. As you'd expect it consists of lots of barks and grunts, but don't you dare say that to Chewbacca. The Star Wars Christmas Special has detailed examples of this mystifying tongue.
Klingon - The language of Klingons, the sometimes ally of the Federation, is arguably the best known of the imagined star languages. Described by its Hollywood creators as gutteral in tone, dedicated Trekkies maintain the Klingon Language Institue, preserving the galaxy's "fastest growing language."
Vulcan - Known as the language of Spock, one version of Vulcan looks like musical notes. Much of the language is available online today as Gene Roddenberry was insistent when making Star Trek: The Motion Picture that the Vulcans receive their own linguistic treatment.
Romulan - As biological cousins of the Vulcans, the Romulan language is difficult to differentiate from Vulcan to the untrained ear. The Central Institute of the Romulan Language ensures you get the right training to one day know the difference.
Cardassian - Residents of the Alpha Quadrant, Cardassians are a fearsome foe of the Federation. Little is known of their language, maybe because of its rectangular-shaped letters and script.
Andorian - The blue-skinned moon species from Andora appeared throughout the Star Trek series and would of course show up in the directory of a PADD.
Elvish - With a background in linguistics study from Oxford, Tolkien did not take the creation of the Lord of the Rings languages lightly. Based on Welsh and English, you can study Liv Tyler's Arwen in the film trilogy for pronunciation and read the many online Elvish resources, including an English to Elvish dictionary.
Dwarvish - Also called Khuzdul, Tolkien is said to have drawn inspiration for the secret language of the Dwarves from Hebrew, reflecting many of the same sounds and structure. As many Lord of the Rings languages, it's been almost fully realized and you can study up with the Dwarvish dictionary.

Check out even more languages to geek out over after the jump.

Daily Tech: Facebook - Fan Fic Edition

GeekSugar — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:48:17 PST

Um, Mark Zuckerberg fan fiction. It's a real thing - Dvice
5 things to know before attempting to fix your computer - Cracked
Secrets revealed in Facebook's IPO filing - Newser
Test your space knowledge on NASA's new trivia game - Tecca
How to protect your passwords on the Chrome browser - Geek.com
Aw, nostalgic and sweet E.T. poster art - GeekTyrant

CNET's Women in Technology Panel: Where My Ladies At?

Kristy Korcz — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 12:06:03 PST

We just arrived back in San Francisco after a whirlwind four days at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and while we're still processing the stats, data, information, and products we've seen, there is one thing we noticed: there's an obvious disconnect in the ratio of men to women at the show.

CNET brought together some of the most influential and powerful women in the tech field - including Padmasree Warrior of Cisco, Marissa Mayer of Google, Caterina Fake of Hunch, and Lindsey Turrentine of CNET - at this year's CES to talk about the state of the tech industry, pink gadgets, and how to strike a balance between work and home. You can see the entire panel (it's about an hour long) in the embedded video after the break, but first, a few highlights:

The general consensus is that women have come a long way in terms of the technology field, but there's a lot more work to be done.
Marissa Mayer says that more students (men and women) should be exposed to computer science at the high school level, so that they have more of a chance to get into the technology industry after college. When speaking about women in technology, it becomes a numbers game, but it's not about the size of the slice of pie, it's the size of the pie as a whole; we need to make the pie bigger, and expose women to computer science earlier.
Caterina Fake lets her daughter in on her work life in order to make her feel included. She conducts family meetings every morning around the breakfast table to talk about what worked yesterday, what they could do better today, and the goals they have for the week ahead.
Lindsey Turrentine says that one of the most important things you can do for your children is to show a strong partnership at home. When raising kids - girls and boys alike - it's important to show that you can do both: have a strong family and lean on each other to pick up the slack when work needs to be done. No one's career is more important than the other.

See what all of the amazing women had to say about the state of the tech industry for women in the full video after the jump.

Pigeons: Future Leaders of Tomorrow?

Kelly Schwarze — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:15:26 PST

They know you call them winged rats and they're sick of it. So pigeons are stepping up their game, taking back their name and proving they have a level of smarts city dwellers never knew about.

Re-creating an experiment from the 1990s that originally tested monkeys' ability to rank numbers from lowest to highest, researchers from the University of Otago, in New Zealand, discovered pigeons could be trained for the same task.

The study included a year of arithmetic training for the pigeons included using different shapes, sizes, and colors of items to learn the abstract rules of ordering groups of one, two, or three. The researchers advanced pigeon math training to include the numbers six and nine, with the birds selecting displayed screen images in the right order just as before with the lower numbers.

Bow down, pigeon naysayers, as it's only a few more years of training and studies before the urban birds move on to computer science and start crafting the next hot mobile OS.

Kiddie Tablets: Let's Compare the Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer and the VTech InnoTab

Rebecca M Gruber — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:32:18 PST

The iPad may be top on Mama's holiday wish list this year, but there's a good chance it's on her tot's too! Kids can't keep their hands off the tablets, leading two of the largest educational games manufacturers to create tot-friendly versions this year.

I told you about the LeapFrog LeapPad Explorer ($100) when it first hit the market this Fall, and now I just finished playing around with the VTech InnoTab ($79) and can't help but compare the two units. Similarly priced, they are both designed for kids 4 to 9 years old, both run on four AA batteries (or, better yet, burn through them), and both are designed to educate as lil ones interact with their favorite characters. Though neither device runs as fast as an iPad (and neither offers a WiFi option), gadget-oriented kids can't put them down. See how the two hot holiday gift items compare!

Screen size
Both learning tablets have five-inch color touch-screen LCD display screens, though the InnoTab's appears to be more responsive to the finger touch than the LeapPad, which worked better with the included stylus.

Gadget size

LeapPad: The gadget's screen is surrounded by one inch of casing to protect it from drops and spills.
InnoTab: The product's screen comes packaged in a case that provides a two-to-four-inch border around the gadget, giving tots more room to hold it than its competitor. It is almost the same size as the iPad.

Activities and Games

LeapPad: The tablet comes with four free apps - Art Studio, Story Studio, Pet Pad, and one of your choice - to entertain tots. Additional cartridge games are $25 with downloadable apps ranging from $5-$25.
InnoTab: The tablet's PDA-like capabilities - a calendar that allows tots to plan their days and add in stickers, a clock to help learn to tell time, a stopwatch for timing kids, a world globe, etc. - are both fun and educational. They also give kids a sense of independence, turning to their devices for information much like mom and dad. The system also comes with an Art Studio. Additional cartridge games are $25 with downloadable apps costing between $5 and $8.

Keep reading to see how the products compare in other categories.