Study shows gamers get a thrill out of dying

By Mark O’Neill

Not being a gamer, I wouldn’t know myself. But according to Wired, a new study just out has shown that gamers get distressed at shooting their opponents dead but they get very happy when they get killed themselves.

According to the piece :

Ravajas (the study author) isn’t entirely sure why gamers feel this way, though he has theories. If we feel distress when we kill an in-game opponent, it may be because it violates our ingrained sense of morality; we know killing is bad, even when it’s virtual.

His much weirder experimental result, though, is our thrill at dying. Ravajas thinks this might occur because getting killed is “transient relief from engagement”: A first-person shooter is so incredibly stressful that we’re happy to get any respite, even if it requires being blown to pieces.

What do you think? When you get blown to pieces in a computer game, are you annoyed as hell or are you completely exhilarated that you’re being hacked to pieces by a two-headed monster with a bad breath problem and a bad attitude?



On the verge of creating synthetic life

“Can we create new life out of our digital universe?” asks Craig Venter. And his answer is, yes, and pretty soon. He walks the TED2008 audience through his latest research into “fourth-generation fuels” — biologically created fuels with CO2 as their feedstock. His talk covers the details of creating brand-new chromosomes using digital technology, the reasons why we would want to do this, and the bioethics of synthetic life.

Want to play God? Hold the Milky Way in the palm of your hand

I don’t usually fall for useless desktop accessories, but when I saw this 3D Living World model of the Milky Way, my brain started trying to convince me that I couldn’t live without one. Each 12 X 12 cm glass cube is created using real space data collected from Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory and holds 80,000 laser etched stars. Unfortunately, the privilege of holding a galaxy in the palm of your hand comes at a very steep price: $770.

[Product Page]



When Dad wants to be your Facebook friend

By Mark O’Neill

It seems that American teenagers these days are terrified of logging onto Facebook and finding one thing.

Nope, it’s not finding out that they’ve been slaughtered by a ten year old at Scrabulous but instead finding out that that Dad has sent them a friend request!  Oh shock!  Horror!   How will you be able to show yourself in polite society ever again?

What about you?  Would you be mortified if your parents tried to befriend you on your favourite social network?   Or would they be going one step too far poking you on Facebook?

Geek Support : Using your Blackberry as a voice dictation machine

By Mark O’Neill

Serge Nicaudie asks :

I have a Blackberry and one thing I would love is the ability to speak into it and it would write an email for me. Like a dictation machine. I also want to use it for quick notes to remind myself about stuff. Can you see if there is a way to do this?

blackberryjott.gifMark replies :

Ah! A question I can answer! It seems that the best option is Jott for Blackberry which allows you to :

reply to emails on your BlackBerry just using your voice – either speaking directly into your BlackBerry, or while wearing a Bluetooth headset.

It’s apparently free for the moment while in beta but will not be free when it comes out of beta. So get it for nothing while you can.

Has anyone tried out Jott? Is it good? Bad? What features do you like or hate about it? Can you suggest any Jott alternatives to Serge?

Do you have any questions for Geek Support?   Send them in!

Submit your questions to Geek Squad management

By Mark O’Neill

geeksquad.gifTomorrow, I will hopefully receive a callback from Geek Squad management in the UK about the possibility of an interview for GAS to address some of the negative comments that my last story received and about some of the negative issues about Geek Squad in general.

Assuming that an interview is granted, is there a question that you would like me to ask Geek Squad on your behalf? If so, please send the question to me by email or IM. Please don’t leave it in the comments here because if Geek Squad is looking at this site, I don’t want to give away any of the questions in advance and give them time to prepare pat answers.

Bear in mind though that we can’t really hold the UK office to account for the actions that their US counterparts may have committed or have been accused of. But any other questions are fair game (“question one : how much do you charge for titty pictures?”).

Just send them all in and I’ll sort through them all.  I am hoping to get an interview for Tuesday or Wednesday so you have a day or two to submit your questions.

The best geek hotels in the world

By Mark O’Neill

I don’t like to go on holiday much these days for a variety of reasons, one of them being that if I am offline for more than a hour I break out in a cold sweat. So an article on the best geek hotels in the world caught my eye because they are all fitted out with wi-fi internet access (among other things).

Candidates range from the hotel within a stone’s throw of the Googleplex to the hotel where the Matrix movie was filmed (the Deja Vu scene).

But the weirdest candidate has to be the Pod Hotel in New York, nicknamed the “Facebook Hotel”. It’s supposed to be for the social media junkies and the hotel has its own social networking site where you can leave messages for people to meet up with you for drinks, dinner, shopping and so on.

As I was reading this, I thought to myself – why are all these unique hotels in the US and not in continental Europe? The last time I stayed in a German hotel room, I almost had to declare war to get some hot water to make a cup of tea.   But US hotels?   “You’d like a social network user ID?  No problem sir!”

AIR + AOL = One nice little desktop music widget

By Mark O’Neill

AOL Desktop Music Widget

I am normally rather wary of anything coming from AOL, but I have to admit that their free little music desktop widget, which runs on Adobe AIR, has impressed the hell out of me. It’s a nice little program to have running while you’re surfing away on the net.

If you download it,  it will also download the latest version of Adobe AIR (if you don’t already have it).   AIR is rapidly becoming THE application to have on your computer right now as more and more apps are being made for it, the best one in my opinion being Google Analytics.

This music widget, upon opening, asks you what music genre you want, and when you’ve chosen your genre, gives you the top 100 music videos on AOL Music. You can then listen to them immediately inside the application.  Some of the videos are apparently not available, which must mean that the player is not updated as fast as the site.

You can keep the app on top of all browser windows, create custom playlists and share videos with other people by emailing them the links.

Along with the fact that AOL has opened up their AIM chat platform to developers this week, I am starting to develop a new respect for AOL in general.   Long may it continue.

Silver TAG $100,000 Shower will wipe your butt clean in no time

Silver TAG Shower

If you think that your “working-class” shower isn’t quite as effective as you’d like it to be, then you’ll want to have a look at the $100,000 Silver TAG Shower. This baby comes equipped with 18 computer-controlled showerheads, including one that looks to be specially made to clean dirty derrières, and features six zones, which can be individually customized for temperature and water pressure. The whole thing is controlled via a touch screen that is located right outside the shower. Come on, you know you want it! Having the world’s cleanest butt is definitely worth $100,000!