Blog Posts by Tori Floyd

  • Cursive writing facing extinction in face of technology

    By Tori Floyd | The Right Click – Sun, 16 Jun, 2013

    In the not so distant past, it was a rite of passage for student in elementary school to sit through lessons on cursive writing, slowly learning how to shape connected-up letters in the hope of one day having legible penmanship.

    But with the increased presence of keyboards everywhere, the days of cursive writing may be numbered and schools are seeing the writing on the wall.

    As the end of cursive writing appears to be nigh, many parents and educators probably find themselves wondering: should we still be teaching cursive writing?

    There are at least 45 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Quebec) that have nixed cursive writing as an official part of the curriculum. Other provinces, like Nova Scotia, allow teachers to decide how often students need to practice their cursive. And why should it be part of the curriculum? With limited time to cram everything in from the curriculum as it is, cursive writing is just one more thing teachers have to help students with in light of

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  • Last minute Father’s Day gift ideas for the techie dad

    By Tori Floyd | The Right Click – Thu, 13 Jun, 2013

    In case it’s slipped your mind, this Sunday is Father’s Day. You’re getting down to the wire if you haven’t picked up anything for Dad yet, so you’re basically down to two options: pay for the rush shipping online, or get out to the store and grab him something ASAP.

    We’ve put together a list of some of the best gifts out there for the technology-minded father, in a range of prices. And if your dad isn’t a tech head? Well, we can’t help you, but check out Yahoo! Canada Finance's list of gifts for Dad for under $30.

    MIMOBOT 8GB Character USB Drive

    $25.00

    Is your dad a Star Trek fan? How about a history buff? No matter what your dad is into, any fun-loving dad will enjoy an 8GB USB drive with his favourite character on. MIMOBOTS come in a huge range of designs, from real people like Elvis and George Washington to characters like Batman and Darth Vader. You can order directly from the Mimoco website (where you can get 20% off on select designs until June 16), or you can visit your local

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  • Canada ranks highly as a hotbed for cyber-criminals

    By Tori Floyd | The Right Click – Wed, 12 Jun, 2013

    Normally when Canada ranks third on an international list, we’re pretty proud. But when it comes to cybercrime, our high ranking is a little more ominous.

    A recently released survey shows that Canada ranks third on the list of places that cyber-criminals set up shop in 2012. Instead of choosing Russia or China, some cyber criminals have been setting up servers with Canadian IP addresses for their attacks, says Websense's cybercrime report card on Canada.

    Canada was the No. 3 country of choice for cyber criminals to set up virtual bases with advanced malware for corporate espionage, said the report, to be unveiled Wednesday at the SC Congress in Toronto, a conference on information security.

    Ahead of Canada on the list was the United States at No. 1 and the Netherlands was No. 2.

    [ Related: Microsoft disrupts cybercrime networks that stole $500M ]

    An even more disturbing finding from the report is that it isn’t just lone cyber-criminals who are coming to Canada; according to The Vancouver

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  • Do you have a Facebook feed full of friends who have been hashtagging their posts for ages, even though hashtags only work on Twitter? Well, there may be a chance those friends of yours were clairvoyant and just preparing for today, when Facebook officially announced it would now support hashtags in posts.

    In a blog post today, Facebook’s Greg Lindley said that hashtags would be introduced as a way to get “the larger view of what’s happening [and] what people are talking about.”

    By adding a pound sign in front of a keyword in your post, like #this, it will make the word link up with all other uses of that hashtag on Facebook. So if you’re posting about #GameofThrones while you’re watching the latest episode, you can click the hashtag to see what others are saying about it, too.

    [ Related: UNICEF to slacktivists: Facebook likes won’t save lives ]

    The new hashtags will be a way for Facebook to capitalize on all the people who automatically post to the social network via other services like

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  • Super Mario 3D World (Business Wire)Nintendo decided to buck the trend of giving a live presentation at this year's E3 by trying something new: they took to their Nintendo Direct service, a video stream they use throughout the year to announce new games and features for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

    And instead of only having games out on the show floor, they're bringing games to Best Buy locations across North America in order to bring E3 "directly to gamers" and let everyone have a chance to try the games announced for themselves (if you're near a Best Buy location, of course).

    So did Nintendo's attempt at democratizing E3 work? In a word, no.

    Despite multiple livestreams, the vast majority of tweets being sent out were people complaining of technical issues with the livestream. At no point was it worse than the very end, when Nintendo revealed their big game announcement: Super Smash Bros. coming to both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. The game will also include two new characters: The Villager from Animal Crossing and

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  • Fans of the Square Enix series Kingdom Hearts got a huge boost last night when it was confirmed that yes, a sequel would finally be coming after seven long years.

    After Square Enix revealed that Final Fantasy Versus XIII would actually be a new installment in the series as Final Fantasy XV, FFvXIII director Tetsuya Nomura said he had one more trailer to show at Sony's E3 press conference:

    The popular franchise, a blend of Square Enix and Disney characters in an original storyline, first debuted for the PlayStation 2 in 2002, with an official sequel in the form of Kingdom Hearts II in 2006. Multiple other entries in the franchise have been published, predominantly for handheld systems, but fans have been eager for a proper sequel on the console for years.

    [ Full Coverage: Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 on Yahoo! Canada News ]

    Many Disney characters, including Donald, Goofy, Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Jack Skellington, Maleficent, Jack Sparrow, Jiminy Cricket, Yen Sid, Chip 'n' Dale,

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  • You almost had to feel bad for Microsoft.

    After Sony's presentation at E3 this evening, it was clear that the PlayStation 4 was being sent in with a mission: to take down Microsoft, and capitalize on all the snafus the Xbox One has faced since it was first announced. And with a lower price ($399 USD compared to the Xbox One's $499 USD), no online check-in requirement, and no measures to prevent players from sharing games or buying used ones, Sony may just succeed in that mission.

    Amongst a robust library of games (with 100 titles expected during the first year of launch), Sony Computer Entertainment of America President Jack Tretton took to the stage to deliver plenty of tidbits about the new console, many of which were direct shots at Microsoft's controversial new Xbox One.

    [ Full Coverage: Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 on Yahoo! Canada News ]

    For starters, the PS4 won't be limiting players on what games they can play, be they new, used, or borrowed. Sony even took the time to throw

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  • Join in the discussion while you find out what Sony has up its sleeve for the PlayStation 4 and PS Vita in our liveblog:


  • Microsoft's President of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick speaks during E3. REUTERS photo

    Microsoft kicked off the first day of E3 with a proper gamer’s welcome to the Xbox One, its next-generation console. The tech giant offered up a host of exclusives and a wide range of games for the Xbox One – although not necessarily anything that will move a console on its own.

    Coming to multiple markets November 2013, the Xbox One will retail for $499 USD, putting it on the high side of what analysts were expecting it to sell for. Microsoft’s Don Mattrick announced there will be 13 next-generation titles already coming to the Xbox One, many of which were shown off in the presentation.

    While the presentation felt like it got off to a bit of a slow start, showing off a redesigned Xbox 360 and a few new Xbox 360 games, things picked up with Crytek’s Ryse: Son of Rome. The game makes you the leader of a Roman army, issuing commands to your army as you march as a unit, and engaging you in melee battles that include quick-time event finishing moves.

    [ Full Coverage: Electronic Entertainment

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  • Attendees at E3 2012 visit the Electronic Arts booth on the first day of the expo in Los Angeles.
    It’s that time again: E3 starts Monday, and for video game fans, it’s like Christmas in June… or at least a hint of what they will likely be asking for on their holiday wish lists.

    On June 10, E3 will kick off with keynote presentations from Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Sony – yes, all on the same day – followed by three days of game journalists testing out all of the newly announced and soon-to-be-released titles on the show floor.

    [ Full Coverage: Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 on Yahoo! Canada News ]

    We’ll be providing coverage during the week at our E3 Control Centre, including live coverage of the keynotes. Before we jump into that next week, though, here’s what we’re expecting to see from the companies, and a little of what we’re hoping we will get a glimpse of from the three big console companies at this year’s show.

    Microsoft

    After a largely underwhelming (and kind of confusing) presentation by Microsoft in May, gamers are chomping at the bit to get some concrete

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(605 Stories)