Image: maiak.info on Flickr

With it being the 15th anniversary of Gary Kasparov getting beaten by an IBM computer aka ‘Deep Blue’, I thought I would look back to the legendary event in gaming history along with two others in an ode to gaming just for Nerd Insider…

3 gaming legend stories that you have to know about…

1.   Gary Kasparov vs Computer

It all starts with this month marking the 15th anniversary of Gary Kasparov getting beaten by an IBM computer. A legendary gaming story  at the forefront of my mind when looking at gaming and how far it has come.

The Plusnet community blog recently blogged about improving your chess game even with cheap broadband, Kasparov and his battle against the infamous IBM computer that would be known as Deep Blue.

“Kasparov’s match with Deep Blue is the probably the most famous human vs. computer chess match in history – but it wasn’t the first time that the Russian Grand Master had tested his skills against a machine. He had beaten a computer known as Deep Thought – named after the computer in Douglas Adam’s ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ books – easily in 1989.

Kasparov first played against Deep Blue, which had been designed by the same team of scientists as Deep Thought, in Philadelphia in February 1996. Deep Blue won the first of the 6 games, but Kasparov went on to win the match.

In May 1997, a rematch took place. Deep Blue had been heavily upgraded and had been given the nickname ‘Deeper Blue’ as a result. Twice as fast as the original version, it could now calculate more than 200 million positions per second – and, although Kasparov won the first of the six games, Deep Blue took the match, winning the second and sixth games. The third, fourth and fifth games of the match were draws.”

- Kasparov and Deep Blue 15 years on … and how to improve your chess game

Image: Phantom Leap on Flickr

2.   Donkey Kong

When it comes to old school video games, the battle of Hank Chien vs Donkey Kong has to have a place on this list.

To set the scene… a plastic surgeon takes on Donkey Cong and several ruthless competitors to keep his title as Kong champion. He battled for his title as the world’s Donkey Kong champion against videogame legends such as Steve Wiebe in a weekend competition in March 2011.

Chien known as “Dr. Kong”  beat 16 competitors at The Kong Off in Flemington, New Jersey. Wired.com said:

“Fighting for the title at Richie Knucklez Arcade Games, Chien reached the Donkey Kong kill screen — when the game has run out of boards and starts over — with a winning score of 994,400, edging out Wiebe’s second-place effort of 986,900 points and capturing the grand prize of $1,000. Mitchell finished 7th with 821,200 points.”- Wired.com

Image: Moggs Oceanlane on Flickr

3.   Jang Jae Ho

In case you don’t know, Jang Jae Joe is known as the best Night Elf player in the world. This 26 year old South Korean is also big on the records for real time strategy games such as StarCraft and WarCraft.

He makes the list for being a 5 time world champion for the notoriously strategic game of WarCraft 3.

Watch the video below where ‘Moon’, as he’s known in the underbelly of the gaming world, takes on Grubby in the WCG 2008 Grand Final:

Tell us about your gaming legend story in the comment section below!

Image by "mac morrison" via flickr

Three of the massively modified Toyota Priuses (obviously had to be a Prius) have been granted a testing licence to figure out if they’re safe and viable. Don’t worry though the cars aren’t swanning around on their own just yet. One of the conditions of the testing licence is that there must be two people in the cars whenever they are on the road; one behind the wheel and one monitoring the computer systems. As a rather sensible safety precaution the person behind the wheel can instantly take control of the car by touching the brake or the steering wheel.

The cars use a combination of tech to get a picture of their surroundings according to the official Google blog:

“Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to ‘see’ other traffic, as well as detailed maps (which we collect using manually driven vehicles) to navigate the road ahead.”

With the resources, technology and data available to Google I’m pretty sure that they can pull off the creation of a car which is capable of safely driving itself…

…but what if it doesn’t want to?

In many of my previous posts I’ve calmly (obsessively, deliriously and maniacally – Ed) made the argument that the robots/computers are surely out to get us.

Just imagine if self-driving cars really take off; in 20 years it might be pretty unusual to see a human actually driving a car. So then picture this scenario: You’re in your self-driving car going to work at the peak of rush hour when suddenly all the cars simultaneously go mental and start deliberately crashing as violently as possible. Then they start mowing down pedestrians and rescue workers. Terrifying stuff indeed.

And that’s not the only thing that could go wrong. Ever seen the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey? In it there’s a computer called Hal which controls a spaceship. Hal turns into a bit of weird obsessive homicidal stalker and starts bumping off the crew. Now who’s to say your car couldn’t turn into an obsessive stalker? Imagine having your car drop you off for a date, trying the handle and finding that you were locked in. Then the car pipes up in a cold dead voice “I trusted you Jamie, how could you do this to me? I know one way that we can be together forever…”

Wait… a… minute… I’ve just had a thought, all is not lost. After sitting here reading about self-driving cars and writing most of a blog post I can’t believe it’s taken so long for these two words to pop into my mind – Knight Rider. Haha, of course there’s hope, while it’s possible that some self-driving cars could turn out to be evil villains (like Karr) there’s a flip-side to that coin: the potential for automotive heroes like Kitt!

What do you think of this self-driving car idea? Would you be happy to go for a ride in one? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image by: wintercool612

Car insurance comparison website Confused.com is launching a new service, Quick Quote, which allows users to text your number plate to Confused and in within seconds, the user will receive the lowest car insurance rate for them.

Confused is so confident in the speed of their service for finding you the best car insurance rates, that they’ve turned to social media to help others realise how fast the service really does work.

Wednesday, 16 May opened the new social media competition, The 5 Second Challenge. Confused is challenging you, the user, to show them what you can do in 5 seconds. All you need to do is find your talent, record it, upload it to Youtube and email the URL to 5secondchallenge@confused.com or tweet @Confused_com with the URL and hashtag #5secondchallenge before 9am on Wednesday, 23 May.

Once your video is entered into the competition, they will be added to the voting rounds starting on Wednesday, 23 May and you and your friends will have the chance to vote for your favourite between 12pm on the 23rd until 12pm Monday, 28 May.

The best part: The winner of the competition wins £500!

Worth playing for? Head over to Confused.com for more information and get your cameras out for this speedy competition.

There are a plethora of accessories for your tablet, but there are a few which are so unique, they may offer more functionality once you get past the novelty.

The first accessory is the JOBY GorillaMobile Yogi. You’ve probably seen these gorilla pods before for cameras. The flexible legs mean you can adjust to any height you want or grab onto another surface. What I like most though is being able to wrap it around your leg when you’re sitting or lying down on the sofa – leaving your hands free to type!

Typing on the onscreen keyboard for long periods of time can be difficult though; particularly if you’re used to the feel of physical keys. If you want something that’s portable, there are plenty of keyboards that roll or fold up. But these fantastic retro typewriters are unique in that they have a USB connection so you can type on the tablet! Great for any fans of Mad Men too.

When looking at cases, it really depends on your needs. Do you need something that will only prevent scratches as it’s going into a bag? Or will you need some extra padding and protection? The OrigamiFolio offers a sleek design whilst protecting your wonderful screen. It has magnets hidden in the lid, so when you close it, the tablet is put into sleep mode. The lid folds (like origami) and acts like a stand; giving you five different angles to play with. They also come in a range of colours too.

Image Via ION Audio

Most speakers/docks on the market I think are rather plain, with most choosing a black and silver styling. For something a little different, this Jukebox allows you to slip in your tablet. Old music is optional of course.

This has to be my favourite tablet accessory ever. It’s an arcade machine that houses your tablet. Not only that, it’s fully functional! That’s right, you can bring the fun of the arcade straight to your tablet. With this, you receive a free Atari Greatest Hits app while you can purchase 100 more games; you could be playing classics like Asteroids and Battlezone.

Do you have any unique tablet accessories? Tell us in the comments section below.

Powered by a Cambridge designed ARM processor (of the type found nestling in the hearts of smart phones) the Pi is a fully functioning computer on a single board. The operating system that it runs is a custom build of ‘Debian’ Linux.

Hardware boasted by the Pi includes a choice of HDMI and RCA video ouput, an SD card slot for storage and 256MB of RAM. In addition there are a couple of USB ports and a LAN connection. The GPU is said to be roughly at the level of the first XBOX, and is capable of outputting video at 1080p. The whole shebang is powered by MicroUSB, and requires no fans. The most intriguing feature is the price: just $35.

So what is it actually for?

So far the Raspberry Pi has proved to be massively popular, with demands for the bargain basement computers far outstripping supply. The appeal is having something that is affordable enough to be tinkered with  – ‘out of the box’ the applications for it are relatively limited.

The first project Raspberry Pi owners will probably want to undertake is building some kind of case for it. Given that the board is not much bigger than a credit card the options for this are virtually limitless. As well as dinky dimensions the low amount of heat generated means that the kind of concerns around ventilation and heat dispersal are not as much of an issue as they would be with a standard PC case-mod.

One popular project for the Pi is to build a small noiseless machine for streaming media. A modern television with a USB port for power and HDMI can be simply hooked up to the Pi. Movies and TV shows can then be played from the SD card without the distracting fan noise and power use of a full blown PC.

Another project that is possible with the Pi is to make your own low cost security camera system by hooking up a webcam to the device. Even writing the code to set the camera recording or streaming when motion is detected would not be beyond the hobbyist.

There are a number of gaming related projects that the Rasberry Pi lends itself to. Fans of classic arcade games are able to run the MAME emulation software in Linux. The the challenge becomes to build and paint a suitable cabinet.

The real reason for the Pi’s existence, and the reason to get involved is not just any hardware use (although its simplicity and cheap as chips price point lends itself to it). The Pi was conceived in order to allow users to get their hands dirty with coding and command-line Linux. 2012 has been designated as the Year of Coding so why not get you hands on a Pi, leave behind the hands-off world of Macs and Windows and learn?

Have you got yourself a Raspberry Pi? Are you planning on getting one? Let us know what projects you are working on with it!