Jetball

The following is a fictional story based in the video game 'Firefall' by Red 5 Studios. All portrayed stunts are conducted by gamers professionals; do not attempt them at home.

It was indeed a proud moment for me as I was hailed as the top scorer for my team. All the time spent training has finally paid off as I scored the winning goal, securing a spot for my team in the finals. It was my first amateur tournament, and getting so far was not a walk in the park.

The year is 2233. It marked the advent of personal flight propulsion systems, more commonly known as jump jets. Also a time when teleportation was at its infancy. It was developed to replace jump jets by instantly transporting one’s physical body from one place to another in an instant. However, the process isn’t exactly appealing nor comfortable, so it didn’t garner the attention of the general public. Instead, it found a home in competitive sports, namely Jetball, my personal favourite. My grandfather calls it a blend of basketball and rugby with a sprinkle of jump jets and guns on top. Well, non-lethal guns of course.

Remembering Nokia, and How It Changed Our Lives

In all industries, companies rise and fall. Some, sadly, fall quicker than others, and this is perhaps no more true than in the dog-eat-dog tech industry.

Within this decade alone, we've seen Apple rise to become a giant, watched as Google spread its wings to become much more than a search company, held our breath as HP suffered the equivalent of a near-death heart attack as it announced its pullout from the PC business (only to schizophrenically do an about-turn soon after), and mourned the slow crumbling of RIM Blackberry. Even so, arguably the greatest shock arrived a mere five days ago when Microsoft announced to the world that they had purchased the entirety of Nokia's phone manufacturing business, and licensed their "Lumia" and "Asha" brand names. Nokia, as a phone company and brand, was no more.

You've probably read the news, witnessed the collective shock expressed by the many tech blogs out there. But we believe that, more than anywhere else in the world, those of us living in Asia will be the loudest mourners at Nokia's funeral - over the last few decades, Nokia has gradually built a fortress here, with an overwhelming majority of phone owners having purchased a Nokia at some point of our lives. Not seeing the familiar, two-arm logo grace another boot screen will surely be a huge mental shift for many of us.

All of us on the Suburban KID team have owned Nokias. Through this article, we'd like to offer a tribute to our "Connecting People" devices that have changed our lives, in ways both big and small.

Nexus 7: Six Months Later

Words by Matthew Chiam

                    

As some of my close friends may know, I have owned a Asus/Google Nexus 7. I got it as a Christmas present last December. Immediately after getting it, I went straight to reviewing it, which was kinda stupid, given the fact that the time I held the device only added up to a mere 5 minutes. Now, 6 months have passed and I think I have more experience with it so I decided to do a revisited post on the Nexus 7.

REVIEW: A Dream PC

Me: “It’s here.”

Terence: “I want to congratulate you but all I can think of is ‘screw you’.”

Grace: “Yay! Pictures!”

Matt: “Photos please and do review it!”

As mentioned in the title, this will be a review of a custom PC currently taking up much of the desk in my  computer room. I received this computer as a birthday present from my dad and to a lesser extent, Terence, for he advised me A LOT on the specs of this rig. So let’s start with that.

Emotions, Online

“@terencewang101 hey, long time no see bro... How’s life?”


On 11:44 a.m., 19 September 1982, Scott Fahlman became the first person in the world to use an emoticon.

Posted to the Carnegie Mellon University computer science general board, he was proposing characters for people to express themselves online better. In particular, their emotions. In an early digital world that communicated purely in text, Fahlman knew it would be important to have a means to replace one of the most significant parts of human interaction. And so he decided on three characters - a colon to represent the eyes, a dash for the nose, and a curved bracket for the (what else?) mouth.

I suspect, however, he never imagined the crude, yet ingenious smiley would live on to become an irreplaceable staple of the online world.

"I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
:-)
Read it sideways.  Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends.  For this, use
:-( "

A Call to Arms: Protect Our Internet

Not too long ago, two bills quietly surfaced on the other side of the pool over in the United States. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (PROTECT-IP Act). They were called the protector of content creators, championed as the fighter against piracy.

In reality? Not as straightforward.


On 20th January, 2012, both bills were shelved due to “fundamental problems with the approach taken to solving the matter of online piracy”. This came after long weeks of both online and street protests highlighting the inefficiencies of the bills and how they could be used for other ulterior motives. It was a near-save for the concerned internet users watching not just in the U.S., but all over the world, as it was a turning point that would set a precedence for other potential bills to come.

Fast forward eight months, and we face a new, more personal challenge. It’s called Section 114A.

When Eight Isn't Enough: Microsoft's Future Hangs In The Balance

"Windows 8 represents a re-imagining of Windows from the chipset to the experience." 

In a few months time, Microsoft is expected to release its final version of Windows 8, also known as the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version to the public for sale. This newest update to the Windows operating system as it brings some of the biggest changes to the operating system ever since Windows 95. It bring an all-new, touch-optimised UI design and, more importantly, Microsoft's vision to unite devices that, up to now, had overlapped but remained distinctly separate: the desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphone, among others.

This is, clearly, no mean feat, and if Microsoft manages to pull it off, it would bring to life the dreams that many tech pundits (and even ordinary folks) had so fervently clung on to.

The bad news is: They probably won't. At least, not yet.