Håkon Wium Lie

The inventor of CSS explains how it saved the web - but warns that the battle is not over yet…

When it comes to web design, few people have been more important or influential than Håkon Wium Lie. Working at CERN alongside Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the web itself, Lie is the man who gave it its familiar look by inventing CSS.

Without that bold move, the whole business of web design could have been a totally different beast today. As Lie puts it: “This thing could have been owned by one company. It could have been France Telecom, it could have been Microsoft. It could have been one private owner.

“Instead we have a web which is slightly disorganised, and there’s a lot of rubbish out there, but it’s also a wonderful place that reflects humanity as it should be. And it’s free for everyone to use.”

Remembering… Atari ST

This week, we celebrate the birthday of a 16-bit favourite

The arguments in the school yard between the Spectrum owners and the C64 owners didn’t stop at the end of the 8-bit era. By the time everyone had ditched their childhood 8-bit computer, the talk of the school was which 16-bit home computer you had: Atari ST or Amiga?

The Amiga was the better machine, technically years ahead of its time and with a far better operating system. I was an ST owner, and I’ll concede that fact to the Amiga owners – sad but true.

Microsoft Hololens: Is The Excitement Real Or Virtual?

Mark Pickavance examines what we know about Microsoft HoloLens and questions where it fits in among the many competing devices

The words ‘Revolutionary’ and ‘Microsoft’ haven’t made it into the same sentence for some time, but the arrival last year of something quite unexpected from the Redmond-based company did find many combining them.

After the retreat that Kinect ultimately became, few were expecting Microsoft to launch something quite so radical again anytime soon. Yet the appearance of HoloLens provided an interesting counterpoint to what Google and others are doing in the virtual reality marketplace.

So what is this new device, and should we get excited about it?

2015 Gaming Hardware

David Hayward checks out what gaming hardware we can expect for the remainder of the year

When 2015 started, we were tantalised with some pretty impressive-looking gaming hardware. Devices and technologies were promised, and we lapped up every word while eagerly awaiting the arrival of the return of virtual reality and the much talked about Steam Machines.

We’re now halfway through the year, which gives a pretty clear view as to what to expect for the remaining half. What gaming hardware can we expect to have in our possession by the end of 2015?