The Digital YES Man

What happens to your PC if you agree to install everything you’re offered?

One word can change everything. That’s the premise of Danny Wallace’s 2006 book, Yes Man, where the protagonist spends a year of his life obeying a very simple dictum: say ‘yes’ to everything. He says ‘yes’ to every offer of a credit card, to meetings with people who believe the pyramids were built by aliens, to ‘random solicitations’ over the internet. And, for the most part, he has a bloody good time. So good, they made the book into a film starring Jim Carrey.

I decided to run a similar experiment of my own: say ‘yes’ to absolutely everything I’m offered on my PC. I would tick every box during software installations, accept every download suggested by website pop-ups, and OK every offer to change a default setting on my PC. I wanted to find out what would happen to my computer if I took every last morsel that was offered to me. How long would my over-positivity take to drag my PC to its knees, and what would it look like by the end of it?

The Rapid Rise Of eSports

Over the past five years, the phenomenon of eSports has exploded, becoming a multi-million pound industry and transforming the gaming spectrum. Rick Lane investigates

On 18 June 2015, Wembley Arena was packed out. Originally built for the 1934 Olympics, and host of the 1948 and 2012 Olympic swimming competitions, the Arena was now centre stage for an entirely new kind of sporting event. Tens of thousands of fans gathered to watch the quarter final of the League of Legends (LoL) World Championships, while millions more watched the showdown online via Twitch. Even the BBC streamed the event for UK audiences, the first time a mainstream broadcaster has done so for an eSports competition.

Pi-Top

David Briddock investigates an easy way to transform your Pi into a laptop or desktop

The Raspberry Pi family just keeps growing and growing. Today there’s the Pi Zero, the Pi 1 Model B+ and A+, the Pi Compute Module, the more powerful Pi 2 plus the recently launched and yet more powerful Pi 3 Model B.

But what if you’d like to transform your Pi into a self-contained desktop PC, or even build a portable Pi-powered laptop? One approach would be to buy a collection of Pi accessories and put them all together to create a custom all-in-one computing device. Here’s what you’d need to consider.

Can You Build A Completely Wireless PC?

James Hunt looks at whether we’ll ever be able to completely cut the cords

If you were compiling a list of the most transformative developments in home computing over the last decade, it’s a safe bet that the invention of wireless communications would be somewhere near the top. By eliminating cables, wi-fi in particular made getting online convenient and simple. Most of us would no sooner go back to a wired network than we would start doing our laundry with a washboard and mangle. There’s no disputing that wireless was the future of networking. But is it the future of all computing?

Ransomware. What is it, and how can you fight it?

There’s a very nasty type of computer attack out there, and it can cost you real money

Few PC users will run their system without an adequate form of protection against various kinds of attack. Anti-virus and firewall software is commonplace, and going online without this basic level of protection is seen by most as reckless. Why risk the loss of data or system instability when a simple program, many of which are free, could protect you? Makes sense, doesn’t it? Of course it does, and the majority of users would agree.