Blog Posts by Tori Floyd

It might seem like a small change, but the Twitterverse is making good use out of the new feature on the social network: line breaks.

Up until now, users had only one continuous line in which to share 140 characters. Now, if you use Twitter on the web, you can post a tweet with up to about 70 lines of text, according to TechCrunch.

[ Related: Twitter’s Vine: How to get the most out of the new six-second video sharing app ]

Sure, line breaks don’t sound nearly as exciting as some of the other developments on the horizon from Twitter, like its rumoured music discovery service after acquiring We Are Hunted, but for those creative types on Twitter, it’s a great way to transform those short messages into something pretty cool.

Twitter poets are going to get a kick out of it, for starters. Line breaks mean that your feed is likely to now be filled with an abundance of haikus.

There are still a few limitations with the service; for starters, when using the Twitter embed code, it

Read More »from Twitter now permitting line breaks for web and mobile clients

File image provided by Electronic Arts/Maxis (AP)It’s been a rough couple of weeks for SimCity developer Maxis (a division of Electronic Arts). After days of trying to get players access to the servers necessary for the always-online game, there’s now the suggestion by an unnamed insider and Maxis that the burdensome servers that have been the cause of so many headaches aren’t actually necessary.

According to an anonymous source interviewed by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, the servers aren’t handling calculations for the non-social aspects of running the game. EA representative Lucy Bradshaw had told gaming news websites Polygon and Kotaku on a previous occasion that they “offload a significant amount of the calculations to our servers,” and it would take “a significant amount of engineering work from our team to rewrite the game” in order to run it in single player mode, RPS reports.

Several people have tested out playing the game offline, including one Kotaku writer, and found that the game currently will play for about 20 minutes before

Read More »from SimCity’s problems go from bad to worse as always-online servers called ‘unnecessary’

By now, most people know the basics of how to keep their private lives somewhat private on Facebook: don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your boss to read, keep your privacy settings set to ‘Friends Only,’ et cetera et cetera. But could something as innocuous as the brands and celebrities you ‘Like’ on the social network give away some very personal information, too?

A new report says yes.

According to a paper published this week on Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, your Facebook ‘Likes’ can give a clear indication of your IQ, the marital status of your parents and more.

“And you can extract it very accurately – you can get my gender, race, political views, religion, sexual orientation, personality, IQ and so on,” Michal Kosinski, a University of Cambridge researcher who lead the study, told CBC.

[ Related: 104-year-old grandmother gets apology from Facebook for having to lie about her age ]

This PDF document breaks down what the ‘most predictive Likes’ are, and what

Read More »from Facebook ‘Likes’ may reveal more than you wish to share

(Image via 5 Point's Facebook page)In what may be a sign of things to come, a Seattle bar has banned Google Glass well in advance of its launch, promising an “ass kicking” to those violate the rule.

The 5 Point Café’s Facebook page featured a photo and brief caption outlining the ban, presumably in an effort to protect the privacy of patrons. Described as a local dive bar by GeekWire, the ban is thought to be the first of its kind by any restaurant – likely because Project Glass isn’t expected to go on sale until at least later this year.

[ Related: Google Glass video showcases what the Project Glass experience is like ]

GeekWire interviewed some patrons on their way out of 5 Point in Seattle to see how they felt about the ban of the technology, and the reaction was pretty mixed:

While the decision to ban Google Glass was largely a publicity stunt by the bar, as admitted by 5 Point owner Dave Meinert on a local radio show, there is a degree of seriousness to it.

“Part of this is a joke, to be funny of Facebook, and get

Read More »from Google Glass banned at Seattle bar, with violent repercussions for violators

Whether you align yourself with the Jedi or the Sith, there's one key tool you need in your arsenal (other than a solid command of The Force): a trusty lightsaber. While you could always go the discount route and pick one up at your local toy store, the true enthusiast wants all the bells and whistles.

Lightsaber company Ultrasabers makes Star Wars-style weapons for the real sci-fi fans. But instead of offering lightsabers strictly for display, Ultrasabers calls their weaponry 'combat lightsabers,' so you and friends can actually re-create your favourite scenes from the movie, or create your own (and possibly achieve Internet stardom as the next Star Wars kid).

[ Last week's Must-Have: Listen to music in the shower from your showerhead ]

Lightsabers come in a couple of basic styles: single blade, for a traditional-looking lightsaber; double blade lightsaber, best known for being what Darth Maul wielded in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace; and lightsabers in either single or

Read More »from Must-Have Monday: Embrace your dark side with your own custom lightsaber

A new light installation at the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is lighting up the California coastline.

On Tuesday night, a 1.8-mile (about 2.9 km) stretch of the bridge was brought to life with 25,000 LED lights. But this isn't your run-of-the-mill, flick-a-switch-and-voila kind of light display. As Ars Technica explains, each individual light is controlled over an Ethernet connection, with a constant stream of about 32Mbps of data flowing across the network to control the display.

The project is the creation of artist Leo Villareal, who has done numerous light installation projects across the U.S. and overseas. At the launch event for the display, Villareal controlled the light show through his laptop, but for the two-year duration of the project, the lights will be controlled automatically by Villareal's custom-built software. The light show will take place every night between 9 p.m. and 2 a.m.

[ More Right Click: Fido customer gets $22,000 bill for roaming charges ]

While

Read More »from San Francisco’s Bay Bridge puts on a show with light display

Sim City screenshot from EA's Origins Store

After waiting ten years for the release of a new SimCity, it looks like fans of the popular franchise will have to wait just a little bit longer.

Despite promises by EA that its servers would be able to handle the influx of eager players starting up the game on its release today, demand for the game at EA’s virtual Origin store has led to users being advised that they’ll have to wait up to half an hour before they’re able to download the game.

[ Related: SimCity developers’ Reddit AMA turns sour over copyright protection ]

The Origin account sent out several tweets beginning at the midnight launch, indicating that there were heavy delays due to traffic. After ten hours of silence, it looks like Origin still had only bad news to deliver to those waiting to download the game:

We are experiencing overwhelming demand which is keeping some users from accessing their games. We’re working as fast as we can to resolve.

— Origin (@OriginInsider) March 5, 2013

Those who purchased a physical

Read More »from SimCity release leads to long wait times on EA servers

YouTube - iPhone (Pocket-lint image)No one really likes getting those hefty cell phone bills, but a B.C. dad is especially peeved after being charged thousands of dollars in roaming charges while on a family trip to Mexico.

According to the CBC, Matt Buie is a Fido customer, whose parent company is Rogers. The Burnaby father recently took his family of four on a vacation down south, where his 11-year-old son got a sun burn and was forced to entertain himself indoors over the course of three days. He asked to play video games on Buie’s iPhone, and despite his paranoia about roaming charges, Buie relented and lent his son the smartphone.

[ Related: B.C. woman gets charges for cell phone roaming in her own home ]

Before leaving for vacation, Buie turned the iPhone to ‘airplane mode’ in order to prevent any unwanted roaming charges.

“I made a mistake here – as his father – and he made a mistake. He turned off the airplane mode and was watching YouTube videos,” Buie told CBC. “I should have taken the SIM card out… or not let

Read More »from Fido customer gets $22,000 phone bill for roaming charges