News
CONGRATS CANADA!!
Feb 28th
Congrats To Canada on Winning the Gold In Hockey and many other Olympic Sports!
WE ROOOOCCKKK!!!!!! 14 golds!
Polish People Think We’re Pedophiles
Feb 25th
It seems that a Polish newspaper, Gezeta Olysztynska, published a news story a while back about the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. This featured a picture of our mascots, and, it seems, a certain internet meme that involves lolitas. As part of the picture, Pedobear, the deceptively harmless little bear that prefers sexual partners of the underage variety stands opposite the Sasquatch.
Games soon to increase in price but how?
Feb 24th
Its inevitable and gamers should be aware that your typical game could cost more. This coming from Jason Rubin himself, co-founder of Naughty Dog Productions, on Bonus Round. You can watch the Bonus Round Interview at Game Trailers.
In the interview Jason Rubin makes some interesting suggestions about how to strategically gain profit from games without increasing the initial retail cost of the game. He suggests that people can have the option of paying REAL money for items in a game that may take countless hours of gameplay to acquire. I think this is a brilliant idea and I think it is a great way for the gaming industry to gain profit without effecting our wallets unless we choose to of course.
You see it has been proven that some people are willing to pay money to play a game at a certain level without committing a massive amount of hours. World of Warcraft is a great example. This game takes a ton of hours to get to a decent level and from what I hear gets funner when you reach those levels and people have actually payed some serious money for a character with a high level. They average around $100 for a character and Im pretty sure that someone has paid $1000 for one. Jason Rubin makes a point of this by using farmville as an example. Farmville is a Facebook game that is free to play but it makes millions monthly. The reason is because people can get further in the game quicker by forking out cash.
So the question I ask is, which direction is the gaming industry gonna go. Will we see more games with the option of paying real money for quicker access to items inside the game or will the initial retail price of the game just increase?
MAC VS PC
Feb 16th
We all know the stereotypes. Apple’s popular commercials have painted the picture in stark terms: There are two types of people, Mac people and PC people. And if the marketing is to be believed, the former is a hip, sport-coat-and-sneakers- wearing type of guy who uses his computer for video chatting, music mash-ups and other cool, creative pursuits that starchy, business-suited PC users could never really appreciate unless they tried them on the slick Apple interface. Then again, Windows PC enthusiasts probably think that Mac guy is a smug slacker with an overpriced toy that can’t do any serious computing anyway. Funny thing is, both stereotypes are wrong. With a 7.5 percent market share, Macs are no longer just the computer choice of artists and unemployed writers. (Apple is, in fact, the fourth largest computer manufacturer in the world.) And now, more than ever, the guts of both platforms are remarkably similar. Both types of machines use Intel proc essors (although some PCs can be configured with processors from AMD). Both buy memory, hard drives and graphics cards from the same small pool of suppliers. The underlying operating systems have distinctly different flavors, but in terms of functionality, Microsoft Windows Vista and Mac OS X Leopard have surprisingly similar built-in multimedia, Internet and… [Read More....]
This article is brought to you by: http://www.popularmechanics.com 
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Vancouver 2010 – RIP Nodar Kumaritashvili
Feb 15th
As many of you may already know Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21 died Friday durning a practice run on Whistler Mountain. The tragic accident happened just as Vancouver and Whistler were reaching hours before the official opening of the Winter Games. On Behalf of the INTE@CAP team we would like to pay our respects and condolences to his family and friends. Feel free to leave your comments/thoughts as well below as loosing a friend or family member is never easy.
To Watch the video please click here. (CTV OFFICIAL FOOTAGE OF THE CRASH)
WARNING: Graphic Footage.
Rest In Peace – Nodar Kumaritashvili, 2010
Radio Tags – A glance into Our Future.
Feb 9th
What’s a radio id tag?
A radio frequency identification tag is a tiny tracking device with a microchip and antenna. Each tag has a unique code to identify the product, person
or animal wearing it. More than 50 million pets and 20 million livestock have already been tagged. Are humans next?
It is said that soon humans will started being implanted with radio tags so it is easy to access their medical data. These are called VeriChip. It is a medical radio identification tag that can be implanted under the skin of a patient. The chips memory holds the patients indemnification number. This enables doctors to access quickly the vital medical records of unconscious patients in the hospital emergency room. The Verichip is about the same size of a coin.
How do medical tags work?
- Chip is implanted into the arm of a human
- Handheld scanners send radio waves to the tag’s antenna to power chip.
- Powered chip sends radio frequency signals back to scanner.
- Patients number is sent fro ma scanner to a local computer
- Computer connects to main server and requests patients file.
- Server uses patient number to find file and send it to local computers in seconds allowing them to access all the medical history and information for the human.
Uses of ID chips:
- Pets – with tags on their collars, stray cats and dogs can be returned to their owners.
- Prisoners – whether in jail or out on parole, the authorities can track their movements.
- Marathon runners – runners can have their laces tagged so supporters can check locations and times.
- Medical patients – in the future, tags will store patient’s medical history as well as their patient number.
- Car Security – A chip in the car key holds the drivers number. If it matches the number in the cards memory, the card starts.
Also See … Smart Cards for more information on micro tagging and security.
Smart Cards – The magic bankcard Chip! What does it do?
Feb 9th
Smart card is a plastic card with an embedded microchip. It can store large amounts of data, from bank details to medical records in its memory. The data is encrypted – put into code – for security.
So why a smart card? How does it protect me?
A smart card is more useful and secure than a magnetic strip card. The card can hold up to 80 times more data and is much harder to copy a chip than magnetic strip. Data is protected because it is encrypted inside the chip. Although it is not possible to steal data from the chip, the high cost and computing power required deters criminals. The memory chip requires authentication before stored data is unlocked.
The “Chip & Pin” process makes a card payments more secure. The chip in the cards holds an encrypted copy of the users four-digit personal identification number (PIN). By entering the number into a reading device, a user can prove they own the card. This has reduced instances of card fraud; without the PIN, it is almost impossible for a crimincal to steal and use another persons card.
Smart card uses
- In money – people use smart cards to access their individual bank accounts and withdraw money or check their account information.
- Telephone calls – prepaid telephone cards are credited with a number units to make calls
- Cell Phones – Smart cards in cell phones contain subscriber information to identify the user to the network.
- Computer Security – to gain access to a personal computer, a smart card can authenticate the user.
- Travel – Many subway systems use prepaid smart cards instead of tickets, passengers swipe their cards to gain access.
- Health – smart cards provide an easy and safe way of storing and checking confidential medical information.
Interesting Facts:
- The gold pad found on top of a Smart card allows a two-way flow of data between the card and the reader.
- The first smart cards were introduced in Europe during the 1990s. They were mainly used as pay-phone cards.
- Smarts cards will be replaced by radio tags embedded in objects that can be scanned remotely like key rings or even the uses body.
Want to know more about Radio Tags and Smart Card Like Chips? Will a Radio Tag be eventually implanted in you? Click here.
Site’s Ready!
Jan 24th
Capilano University’s Interactive Design program’s student blog is now ready to go. We’ve posted some tools, tutorials, program details and other stuff, so check back often as we’ll be posting new stuff daily!
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