Olympics

Olympics notebook: Mapping the Vancouver Games

Among the many battles being waged in Vancouver is the Olympic struggle between Microsoft and Google.

The Internet giants are both aiming to make sure that their search engines, mapping programs, and mobile software all capture the spirit of the Winter Games.

Google has been featuring Olympic-themed doodles on its home page, while Bing is featuring Olympic-themed photos as its background, with the images rotating several times a day. Microsoft can also tap the fact it is helping power NBC's Olympics Web site through MSN, giving it access to quite a bit of content from the Games.

More importantly, … Read more

Skier Vonn uses Twitter, Facebook for leg update

In case you weren't on Twitter or Facebook in the last few minutes, Lindsey Vonn wants you to know that she's feeling a bit better about her injured shin and her prospects at the Winter Games.

"I was really happy to be back on snow today even if it was for only 1 freeski run," Vonn said in a Facebook post. "My shin was still very painful, but I feel like the injury is finally progressing a bit. The pain level has gone down from a sharp debilitating pain to something that I feel I … Read more

Wiring the Vancouver Olympics

Organizers of the Vancouver Olympics had a pretty simple message to the technology providers creating the massive network to power this month's Winter Games.

"We demand that this is flawless," Chief Information Office Ward Chapin said in a briefing with reporters this week. To meet that goal, Chapin said, there has been a tremendous amount of redundancy built into the network as well as thousands upon thousands of hours of testing.

"I would not want to be the individual that had to go up to Hans the ski jumper after his world record jump and say '… Read more

Olympic snow still in short supply at Cypress

With the Winter Games in Vancouver only a few days away, a continued topic of conversation among Olympic watchers remains the snow, or lack thereof, at Cypress Mountain.

Although Whistler, home to most of the skiing events, has plenty of the white powder, organizers have been scrambling to get Cypress Mountain ready to host events such as moguls and snowboarding. The enemy has been an unusually warm winter, combined with rain that has further eroded the snow at lower elevations at the venue.

In addition to continuing to shuttle in snow via trucks and helicopters, event planners have now shortened … Read more

Olympics and tech: 'No room to fail' (Q&A)

There are numerous companies whose electronics gear goes into making the Olympics happen, but the responsibility for pulling all that technology together rests largely on the shoulders of Magnus Alvarsson.

As lead integrator for tech firm Atos Origin, Alvarsson is in charge of making sure all the PCs, phones, servers, and other gear are up and running so that the judges can judge, the athletes can perform, and the media can write about it all. Their systems handle, among other things, volunteer coordination, reporting of medical issues, and the accreditation of athletes and other Games personnel.

"The world is … Read more

Microsoft aims for smooth streaming in Vancouver

Microsoft is aiming to make Web viewing of the Winter Olympics a lot more like watching the events on TV.

While Beijing brought the first widespread use of the Internet to deliver live video of the Games, the Vancouver Olympics--which starts February 12--will offer a range of new options, including TiVo-like features like pausing, rewinding, and replaying during a live broadcast. In addition, broadcaster NBC is using the adaptive streaming capability of Silverlight (Microsoft's rival to Adobe's Flash) to allow those with a good connection to get the Games in up to 720p high-definition quality.

"At the … Read more

Olympics to athletes: Go ahead and tweet

The International Olympic Committee on Friday made it clear that athletes should feel free to share their experiences via Twitter at the upcoming Games in Vancouver.

In a post on its own Twitter feed, the IOC pointed to its detailed rules (PDF) for bloggers, but summarized its position with the succinctness called for in a tweet.

"Athletes go ahead and Tweet as long as it is about your own personal experience at the Games," the IOC said on the microblogging site.

Some Olympians, including skiing star Lindsey Vonn, had expressed confusion over the policies. At one point, Vonn … Read more

Want light? Just think about it

Ever wish you could move objects using only your thoughts?

That vision is becoming closer to reality. Toronto-based Interaxon has created technology that lets users control a series of lights using only their minds.

At this month's Winter Olympics in Vancouver, visitors to the Ontario House will be able to try out the technology, using their brain waves to control lights at either Toronto's CN Tower, Niagara Falls, or Ottawa's Parliament building.

Users wear a headset that measures the brain's alpha waves--associated with relaxation--and beta waves, associated with concentration. By focusing or relaxing, a signal is … Read more

At Vancouver Olympics, straw battles sun, rain

With snow at a premium, Olympics organizers at one Vancouver, B.C., venue are using bales of straw to augment the white stuff as they construct runs for snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and other events.

Although there is plenty of powder at Whistler, B.C., where many of the skiing and sledding events take place, a combination of rain and unseasonably warm temperatures have left Cypress Mountain with less snow had been anticipated.

Olympics officials have taken a number of steps to preserve snow on the mountain and ensure that they have enough powder to make it through the games. Earlier … Read more