Interesting News Of The Week 23/07/2012

New week, new story, you get the idea by now.
Here's the stories.

Windows 8 a 'catastrophe'

Slightly technical story for the first one this week about Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.

Here's the story.

It has been said that the operating system Windows 8 will be a "catastrophe" for the majority if not all PC game makers.

Speaking at the Casual Connect game conference in Seattle, Gabe Newell said the next version of Windows could mean big changes to the PC market, many people took his comment as a criticism of the changed user interface in Windows 8 as well as its built-in Windows Store, but it is unsure that whether that is truly what he meant.

The Windows Store could dent the success of the Valve's (involved in software for computers and other devices) own online market, some of you will know Valve through Steam, which players buy games through.

Mr Newell, who has worked for Microsoft for 13 years on Windows and is now the boss of the company Valve, said his company had embraced the open-source software Linux as a "hedging strategy" designed to offset some of the damage Windows 8 was likely to do to the market.

He followed it up by saying: "We want to make it as easy as possible for the 2,500 games on Steam to run on Linux as well. Windows 8 is a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space.".

Let's put this into perspective, the arrival of Windows 8 would be likely to drive some PC makers and others out of the business because it put so much pressure on them and their sales margins.

He said the success of Valve, known for its Half Life, Left4Dead and Portal titles, had been down to the open nature of the PC. "We've been a free rider, and we've been able to benefit from everything that went into PCs and the internet," he told the conference. "And we have to continue to figure out how there will be open platforms."

The openness of these things that helped Valve also helped firms such as Google and Zynga could disappear with Windows 8.

The new "Windows Store" in the Microsoft operating system is a shop through which users will be able to buy apps for their Windows 8 device and appears to only be those devices, not being open to Windows 7 and earlier versions.

On some versions of Windows 8, it will be the only way to get downloadable software such as games.

Microsoft will take a cut of up to 30% of every sale made through this store, meaning that they could be making a lot of money out of this. This could also be a significant threat to the massively successful Steam online game store.

Windows 8 links with Microsoft's Xbox Live online game service, basically taking that and updating it for their new devices.

Mr Newell left everyone with the following statement:
"This isn't about video games, it's about thinking about goods and services in a digital world.".

Here's an image of Valve and their Steam's logo's:

Flag Fallout - London To Blame?

Well I'm sure you've all heard about this story by now,

but here it is anyway.

Olympic officials in London are said to be to blame for a flag row which jeopardised a women's football game at Hampden Stadium in Glasgow.

The North Korean women's team walked off after a video produced to introduce their players showed the South Korean flag rather than their own.
Fortunately they later returned to play the match.

BBC Scotland understand that the video package was sent from London but Hampden organisers had no input.
Prime Minister David Cameron described it as "an honest mistake".

In a news conference on the eve of the opening ceremony of the Games, he told assembled journalists: "This was an honest mistake, honestly made. An apology has been made and I'm sure every step has been taken to ensure these things don't happen again. We shouldn't over-inflate this episode - it was unfortunate, it shouldn't have happened and I think we can leave it at that.".

The North Korean team could only be persuaded to return for their match against Colombia after the error was corrected, which in my opinion is rightly so, why would they want to play under the wrong flag.

As yet the London games organisers have been reported to be unable to clarify who made the video, either that or they don't want to say.

Now you might be wondering why this flag error had the impact it did, well it's because of the situation which exists between both Koreas.
Both countries are still technically at war after the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, so they were extemely right to be offended.

Speaking after the match, North Korea's coach Sin Ui Gun said: "Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved properly." rightly showing their flag and respecting not only the team but the country.

The incident has made headlines around the world except in communist controlled North Korea, probably because of the outrage it would cause.
State news agency KCNA reported the women's Olympic football team beating Colombia 2-0 but made no mention of the flag row, once again avoiding conflict.

Meanwhile, Hampden Stadium will host two more Olympic football games on Thursday and hopefully getting the flags right this time, more checks are expected to be made before the next games.

In the men's preliminaries, Honduras will play Morocco at 12:00, followed by Spain v Japan at 14:45.

Here's the BBC's news coverage of the situation:

Summary of the week

So this week we have Microsoft possibly making big mistakes causing upset to a lot of people and London 2012 getting of to a bad start.

Interesting News Of The Week 16/07/2012

The weeks seem to go so fast now.
Here's this weeks stories.

Spelling Screw Up

The first story this week is do with the Olympics and a torchbearer who got a new tattoo to celebrate her role in the Olympic torch relay.

Here's the story.

Jerri Peterson, from Atlanta in the US, carried the torch through Derby on 30 June after being nominated by the hotel chain she worked for.

You may be thinking, whats that got to do with spelling?

Well, that's not the main part of the story.

Before coming to England, she had decided to spend $10 (or £6.50) on a tattoo to mark the occasion.

After having the tattoo it was a while later the 54-year-old noticed it featured the mis-spelling "Oylmpic" rather than "Olympic", whoops bit of a mistake there on the artists behalf.

Mrs Peterson was one of 70 international employees selected by her firm to take part in the relay as a thank you for her years of charity work, she said: "I always wanted to have a tattoo but I never quite felt passionate about any one thing to have it put on my body permanently", but this event seemed to be significant enough for her.

She said to reporters "When I was selected for this wonderful honour, I thought 'that's it - I'm ready to have my tattoo'.".
She booked a session with a "really good" tattoo artist in her home state of Georgia, and took a friend along for moral support.

Initially she was delighted with how it looked and it was only when she sent a photo of the tattoo to a friend that the spelling mistake was pointed out.

She then said: "I looked at it and I was so disappointed. I called my husband and he giggled a little bit. Then I started laughing about it and I've laughed ever since.", obviously feeling more comfortable with the mistake after confiding in her husband, which naturally you would.

Mrs Peterson pointed out the mistake to the tattoo artist responsible but declined his offer to correct it.

She said: "He felt so bad when he found out. He wanted to fix it but I decided I want to keep it. It's fine.", she then finished the interview by saying "It's the Oy-limpics, it's as unique as I am.", what a nice way to look at the situation.

If any of you are wondering what this incorrect tattoo looks like here's a picture courtesy of the BBC news team:

£276,000 Victoria Cross

This story is one that's not got anything to do with the Olympics, I thought seeing as it's going to be in most news stories now I would include one that isn't, this story is to do with the Victoria cross which was awarded in World War I.

The first Victoria Cross awarded to a private in World War I has just sold for £276,000 at an auction, that's right £276,000.

The medal, awarded to Private Sidney Godley of East Grinstead, West Sussex, England. The medal originally was expected to fetch up to £180,000 and was valued around that price.

Godley manned a machine-gun position defending Nimy Bridge in Mons while under fire from German soldiers in the first weeks of the war.

A second VC was awarded posthumously to a Gloucestershire soldier around the same time and that was sold for £240,000 at the same auction.

Oliver Pepys of Spink auction house in London, where the medal was sold described Godley's medal as "hugely important". He said to reporters "The Godley VC is one of the most distinguished medal groups of the Great War, so it was not surprising that it attracted much interest. I am delighted that the sale drew attention to such a valiant man.".

Now what I don't understand is if the medal is "hugely important" and part of the "most distinguished medal group", then why would people even consider selling them, they are a great part of history and can be fantastic things to pass down through the generations to show families histories.

The medal was originally presented with the top military honour to Godley by King George V in 1919 after he spent four years as a prisoner of war and unfortunately for us the auctioneers are not identifying the seller, probably due to pride issues.

Well lets have a little more information on Godley.
He was 25 when he was sent to the Western Front with the 4th Royal Fusiliers and was badly wounded in the attack, on 23 August 1914.

At the time of the attack he had shrapnel in his back and a bullet in his skull, but still persisted to protect British positions in the face of a German onslaught until he was captured.

During his four years as a prisoner in Germany, he was told by his captors that he had been awarded the VC and was invited to dine with the Germans one Christmas Day in recognition of the honour, which seemed a nice gesture from the Germans, showing they can't have all been bad, even though they were made out to be.

Godley unfortunately died in 1957 aged 68 and was buried with full military honours in Loughton Cemetery in Essex.

Since his death blue plaques have been placed at East Grinstead Town Council offices and at the house in Torrington Drive, Loughton, where he lived for some time.

Here's a picture of what the cross looks like for any of you who are unsure:

Summary of the week

Time for the summary, this week we have tattoo artists getting all caught up in the "Oylmpic" games and people selling off medals from the wars just for money, so much for family values.

Interesting News Of The Week - 23/04/2012

Time for a new post I think, lets start with some interesting stories I've found this week shall we?

Confused Driver 'Parks' Car in the Paris metro station

The first news story I've found this week that seems interesting is a European story, this news story has taken place in Paris, France.
Here's a basic summary of what has happened. in my own words.

There was a claimed "confused" driver that managed to trap his car on the steps of a metro station in Paris, after somehow mistaking it for the entrance to an underground car park.

Here's what the "confused" drivers excuse was:

"There's a sign saying 'Haussmann Parking' right in front... I made a mistake"

So what this guy is saying (his name only identified only as Johan) is that he managed to mistake a set of public walking steps for a underground parking ramp, how?

Fortunately this 26-year-old managed to brake in time to stop his car, leaving the back wheels sticking out making sure that no one was hurt, but in doing this he only ended up making himself look a bit like an idiot really.
He managed to also immediately get a crowd of onlookers or new fans that just stood there and watched him as he struggled to get out of his car (great citizenship there, what happened to "Love thy neighbour"?).
They just stood, watched and took pictures of the incident.

After all the commotion the driver was later asked by French police to do an alcohol test, which he managed to pass meaning he wasn't drunk (this still doesn't explain how it happened as his excuse is pretty poor really).

Later a member of staff at a local restaurant was asked about the event that had taken place that day and said that a similar incident took place at the site about five years ago.

So this seems to be something that is just a common mistake to the people of Paris and France, maybe driving a car into metro station steps will soon be a sport the French bring to the Olympic Games, I'm sure they will be very good at it.

Here the BBC's video for the story:

CCTV shows girl falling through pavement in China

Here's the second news story I've found this week that seems interesting, it's a Non-European story, this news story has taken place in Northern China.
Here's what has happened. in my own words.

A teenage girl was walking down the path as you usually would and fell through it right in view of a CCTV camera (a good video for You've Been Framed there).

She was described to have had a "remarkable escape" after the events had taken place.
News crews were told that she has "fell into an underground cavern" which basically to you and me means a hole in the ground (and a bit of a drastic description by he media there if you ask me).

The teenager was seen by a taxi driver that rushed to her aid (along with another woman) and he also helped in the rescue process, making sure the girl got out safe (now there's a good Samaritan).

But once again you can see from the news story's video, she along with our man from the other news story managed to attract a nice crowd that once again stood there and watched as she and the taxi driver struggled, which proves the people of our world really do care for one another and will do whatever we can to help others (yeah right, I don't think so somehow).

Here's a link to the BBC's video for the story:

Summary for this week

So an overall summary this week shows that in the next Olympic games it looks like we will have France introducing the the sport of "Car Park Crashers" and China the new sport of "Floor Fallers".

I'm sure we all can't wait for that to hit our screens.