The Weekly Round-Up: 07.11.08

The Round-Up couldn't let this week go by without a nod to one of the most fascinating victories ever to grace the world stage. The build up, the triumph, the edge-of-the-seat result - yes, the Round-Up can only take its hat off to the man of the moment.

Well done Lewis Hamilton.

Of course, there was some other big news this week in the shape of the US election. And very high tech it was too, with the fundraising and campaigning heading into cyberspace. And a queue to vote almost as long as the queue for the iPhone when it came out.(A minor digression - check out this month's photos of the month for more on Apple.)

Even the noble profession of journalism got its own futuristic technology makeover from CNN. Rather than getting an expensive video feed for their reporters in the field CNN has opted for a really, really expensive hologram feed of their reporters in the field.

Treat yourself to a look at the hologram in action here.

The Round Up has seen the future and it's… fuzzy. It's not all that much better than the hologram technology Princess "Help me, Obi Wan!" Leia had in Star Wars, and that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

Of course, this side of the pond we had a slightly more restrained take on the whole thing. As the election progressed, the Round-Up got its blow by blow micro-news from the BBC's live blog that went all web 2.0 with Twitter posts from Joe Public.

While the USA picked its next President in a history-making day, the BBC's blog kept the Round-Up in electoral stitches with news gems such as: 'The UK's Whipsnade Zoo solemnly informs the BBC that two American bison - named Barack and John - are involved in a tightly fought popularity contest, to be judged by staff. The winner receives a carrot'.

The self-same blog also gave the Round-Up the following delicious news nugget: 'As the eastern US states head towards mid-morning and thoughts of snacking, another bit of food-related trivia. The Obama campaign had spent $900 at Domino's Pizza by 15 October, compared with the McCain camp's $550.'

And who said the Beeb was dumbing down?

Having young people in the office is not without its risks. They pick up funny ideas at university about what to wear (tie-dyed clothes, at least back in the Round-Up's day) and how to spend their day (sleeping and waiting for Neighbours).

There's also a risk they can bring into the office other alternative "entertainments" that they've come to enjoy in their student lifestyle - things that would leave the average IT chief looking rather like this if they saw them.

The Round-Up is of course referring to open source software and other shocking developments such as instant messaging and fancy mobile phones. According to some research these so-called Generation Y or Millennials will insist on using non-standard kit in the office, including their own mobiles, social networking and mash-ups and widgets to name a few.

And don't bother trying to tick them off about all this with an email - it seems they are giving up on that too, so you'll probably have to Twitter, throw a sheep at them on Facebook or message them a grumpy emoticon instead.

As the report points out: "And if their employers don't support their preferred technologies, Millennials will acquire and use them anyway."

Cheeky blighters. They'll want paying next.

Meanwhile, it seems email messages in Wales have been lost in translation after a misunderstood email left some council workers red-faced.

A road sign in Swansea that should have read 'no entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only' in both Welsh and English took on an altogether different meaning after a council worker sent the English text to a translator who happened to be out of the office at the time.

The response to the translation request came back thus: 'Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w gyfieithu'. The message looked right and was promptly plastered on the road sign in question by the non-Welsh speaking council workers.

Alas, the road signs didn't bear a translation of the heavy goods vehicle warning, merely a response from the translator alerting the council: 'I am not in the office at the moment, please send work to be translated'.

Oops.

And finally a quick race through some of the other news this week:

Think your broadband isn't fast enough? Well, there's some great news on the horizon - chances are your broadband is going to get even slower in coming years if the industry doesn't sort it out. As well as bad news for all you gamers and broadband speed fans out there, this story is also worth noting for bringing together the words and phrases "fibre", "race to the bottom" and "going down the toilet" to bring the discussion of broadband to a rarefied level not often seen. But then again if the predictions are true we could all soon be getting a bum deal…

It seems the UK's boys in blue are looking at getting artificial intelligence involved in their battle against crime, silicon.com learned this week, using AI to help uncover criminals and taking advantage of neural networks to gather evidence.

The Round-Up feels duty bound to point out that it has seen Robocop and doesn't recommend the Met goes too far down this route.

And finally this week the folks over at Blizzard, the minds behind the massively popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft, have called a halt to a plague that hit characters in the online world, turning them into shambling, unthinking, uncoordinated zombies. Not at all a reflection of the real world players then.

But if virtual worlds like Second Life are your thing, and even if they're not, check out silicon.com's whirlwind picture tour through what big business is up to in Second Life.

Or if you'd prefer more news on zombies and why they've got their head in the clouds go here.

If that's not enough news for you, never fear, the Round-Up has better links than your favourite golf course.

Find out why Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff favours a "core strategy of love" here.

Or even why technology could just be your favourite back seat driver here.

And once you're through with that little lot, the Round-Up humbly suggests you get busy with the caption competition, here. Go on, treat yourself.