vancouver

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

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 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

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

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

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

The last time we spoke with Shaun White on The 404, he was promoting his multiplatform video game Shaun White Snowboarding. We got to sit down with the Olympic gold medal winner again this week at an Ubisoft event in lower Manhattan where he explained what's new in Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage, an exclusive title for the Wii.

With the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver around the corner, World Stage focuses on taking snowboarding globally. The game will once again take advantage of the Wii Balance Board, allowing you to sway back and forth like you're actually … Read more

Forget copyrighted comedy ripped off from some cable channel. Even forget the made-for-YouTube teen fantasy. This is real video of a real-life couple, laid bare before all the world. And the world, as reflected by YouTube, seems to love it.

You may be the last person on earth who hasn't already seen the hand-holding otters. The video is years old, but it wasn't posted until March. In less than two months, nearly 6 million viewings have been recorded.

Canadian TV reports the two otters have become big celebrities thanks to the video. Here you can learn the two … Read more