Tag archive: Scotland

Seems like jellyfish are the latest critics against nuclear power use. Earlier this week a nuclear power plant on the coast of Israel was forced to shut down due to a jellyfish clog in their cooling system. Two weeks before this incident, two seperate countries had coastal reactors which were clogged similarly. These events are sparking speculation on whether this is a growing trend driven by climate change. The string of jellyfish surges began… Read More

Using the Freedom of Information Act, Jane’s Police Review has obtained information showing that eight officers of Strathclyde Police in Scotland claim Jedi as their religion on diversity forms. Additionally, two civilian staff claim to follow the Star Wars religion. That’s from a total of 8,200 police officers and 2,800 civilian staff. No other UK force had Jedi members. Jane's Police Review editor Chris Herbert told… Read More

Normally it’s 100 years before a British census is available, to ensure none, or very few, of those mentioned in it are still alive. However, a 2006 ruling by the Information Commissioner has meant that the census information for England and Wales has become available from the National Archives sooner than the projected January 2012 release date. Although searching the census – the first to have data written by the participants themselves – is… Read More

UK cable operator Virgin Media has announced it will be launching 50 Mbps broadband service in Britain, leveraging the company's fiber optic network. The move makes Virgin Media the first UK ISP to roll out 50 Mbps capabilities, and the best parrt might be the pricing: the 50 Mbps package will run just £51 per month, or £35 with a landline bundle. “Today marks a historic moment, for both Virgin Media and the… Read More

Since there seem to be domains for almost everything on the horizon, why not a .scot? The SNP, Scotland’s governing party, seems to see it as a possibility, and is preparing an application to create the domain. In a study, the Office of the Chief Researcher found that 58% of Scots organizations and institutions wanted a top level domain name, the Guardian reports, with 48% feeling .scot was a good idea. Among international social… Read More

Inverness, in the North of Scotland, is definitely going to be part of 21st century computing. IT firm Alchemy Plus is partnering with Microsoft to build a cloud computing complex in the city’s harbor area. Why Inverness? Basically, because it never gets too warm there, which means less energy will be needed to cool the huge number of computers, cutting down on the need for refrigeration. As it stands, the 20,000 square foot building… Read More

Intellectual property is important to companies, and they will prosecute people who violate it. But they’re not always right. Take what happened Scotland’s Gill and Ken Murdoch, who were accused by Atari of sharing the game Race07. As the couple, aged 54 and 66, told consumer magazine Which, they’d never played a video game in their lives. The Murdochs received a letter giving them the option of paying around $900 in… Read More

Last year a small study in Scotland showed that the Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima game for the DS boosted math scores. This year that study has been conducted on a wider scale by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS), which tried it on 600 pupils in 32 schools across the country, according to the BBC. Those who used the game found their math test scores had improved by up to 50%, and the time they took on a math test had dropped by five… Read More

A new report from government communications agency Ofcom has throw up some interesting details about digital life in Britain, not least the fact that there are now more rural households with broadband connections than urban households (59% v. 57%) – the first time that’s happened. Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards commented: "Our report highlights a closing of the geographical digital divide in the UK. Rural households… Read More

A major row has broken out about a web site. Not just any site, but one that details all the mobile phone masts in the UK.   The site, called Sitefinder, is run by the British telecoms regulator, Ofcom. However, following a ruling last year that all mast sites must be shown by map grid reference and in a searchable database, showing the type of mobile phone signal being used, the operator’s name, mast height and signal frequency,… Read More

What its real future use may be is debatable, but Spellbinder is definitely cool.   The project, developed by Dr. Mark Wright of the Division of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, connects the real and virtual world with digital images using image-matching algorithm.   Shown at the Siggraph graphics conference in San Diego, Spellbinder’s heartbeat is a database of images of Edinburgh, Scotland. Uses query the database by… Read More

British teachers have demanded that video-sharing sites like YouTube should be closed in an effort to stop the bullying of school pupils and staff. At the annualconference of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) delegates were told that such sites have been used to post videos showing pupils and teachers beinghumiliated or attacked.   A motion was passed demanding the closure of these sites. It was proposed by Kirsti Paterson, a… Read More

Microsoft Game Studios has announced that its Xbox 360 title Crackdown is now available at North American retailers. Developed by Scotland's Realtime Worlds—who were also the driving force behind Grand Theft Auto—Crackdown is an action/driving hybrid game which invites players to clean up the streets of Pacific City by any means necessary, upgrading their Agent's arsenal, strength, and skills as they go. Any tactic… Read More

The GC Game Developers Conference, being held this week in Leipzig, Germany, has brought on a flurry of pledges from European game develoeprs embracing the Agiea PhysX physics processor. The Physx processor—announced back in March and a hit at this year's E3 Expo—enables new levels of real-time simulations of physical objects in games, including everything from realistic character motion to weather and (a delight to many… Read More

Announced today, the Women in Games International Conference kicks off at Microsoft in Redmond Washington.  With the theme of "Advancing Your Career in Game Development, The Women's Perspective" The conference is scheduled 1pm to 6pm on Saturday, September 10. This forum is intended to discuss issues related to women in games.  The seminar is free, and is aimed at both sexes, both new and veteran to the field. … Read More