06/08/2011 Click

is time for Click. It's your birthday, it's your birthday, it's

your birthday. That's all the BBC budget could stretch to. This week,

as the World Wide Web reaches a special milestone, Click looks at

its future and asks whether it is finally reaching maturity. Mobile

phones and cancer. We look at the latest research to find out if

children in particular are at risk. And the latest Tech News from

around the globe. And if you find this annoying, we have a handy way

to connect this to this. Welcome to n

important anniversary in the history of the World Wide Web. It

was originally conceived in 1989 but it was not until two years

later that it was launched to the rest of the world. In August of

1991, 20 years ago, British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee

sealed his place in history when he posted a summary of his big idea on

the internet. It didn't look like much but this summary was about to

make the internet a whole lot easier to get around. In the 1960s,

the internet was reserved for military and academia. It was

thought it was difficult to use and not much fun. Tim Berners-Lee

decided what the world needed was an easier way to navigate all the

data that were stored online. And a quick way to jump from one document

to another. The World Wide Web was born to a very modest start.

fact that a hotchpotch of people came up with this is one of the

main amazing things. A number of people played different parts.

Web has grown since then to billions and now hundreds of

billions of pages, where people meet, businesses trade, revolutions

rise, knowledge grows and animals do the funniest things. But over

the years, Tim, now Sir Tim, has high hopes that as the information

continues to grow, the scale of solutions will occasionally help us

make giant leaps forward. The thing explodes when somebody looks at a

piece of data and realises it connects with something else. It

could lead to the curing of disease or figuring out why this has

something to do with Alzheimer's or cancer. Or realise something about

global warming because we managed to get all the data about the state

of the world out there. continues to nurture his baby which

is no longer an infant and has arguably now come through its

adolescent years too. He is as excited as anyone about where it

goes from here. I have learnt the most exciting thing about this

technology is that people do with it things you could never imagine.

This week we will look at the next 20 years of the Web. Thinking about

what it might look like. With me is the Deputy Editor of Computer

Active. Welcome. And a professor who has a CV so long we do not have

time for it. He advises the government on all things web. In

fact, you are doing that today. Welcome. Starting with the big

question, what do you think the biggest change to the Web will be

in 20 years? It has got to be languages. The first ten years of

the Web, it was a medium mainly involving English and using the

Roman alphabet. Over the last few years we have seen a huge growth of

users from people who don't speak English. A move to allow Web

addresses to be written in other alphabets. Billions can get on the

internet through general support for their language. The other thing

is mobility. So they will get internet on smartphones or through

all sorts of services delivered on a range of devices, not necessarily

your standard laptop or desktop. are hearing now of the rise of the

app, on smartphones and personal computers. They do not technically

use the internet, they access the information on the internet in a

different way. Will that be the future? Do you think the Web has

had its day? I do not think the two are separate. Some apps, on their

own, have no connection to the internet. Most of the really

important apps are incredibly reliant on the internet for their

data. But they have only come along in the last two years and there is

a lot of evolution to go on in the next ten years. Back in 2003,

scientists said we have to keep open to the Web so anybody can

innovate. Is there a danger big companies are trying to lock down

parts of the internet for their own services in order to make money and

shut their competitors out? There are issues with monopolies but the

fact that in order to start up most companies or businesses, you might

take a couple of weeks or months of preparation to build machinery and

hire people. To start on the Web, you can start immediately and make

a product in an hour. That kind of innovation is always a threat to

the big companies. It may feel like Google is the only game in town

here but there are 6 billion pages of Mandarin they have not indexed.

Google is not the search engine of choice in China. And the Twitter

equivalent in China that put on 14 million users in two months. There

is a lot of space for people to enter the market. What we have with

the Web is the potential to get anywhere at any time at a price

that is marginal. There are the occasional reports you see that

suggests the Web is changing the way we think. It is affecting how

bothered we are to remember things because you can just go online to

check the facts. Is the Web changing the way our brains work or

the way we go about our thinking? Technology has always changed us,

ever since we developed the first tools. So you can argue the brain

has been changed and shaped by the tools available to us. This is not

new. Literacy did the same thing. Offloading certain search tasks is

exactly what we will do. But do we have the skills and ability to

review, create and generate stuff, that is the measure of human

intelligence. Thank you for your time. Next, this week's Tech News.

One security firm says it has uncovered the most sustained and

widespread series of hacking attacks on a single source ever. In

the report, it says more than 72 institutions, including the UN,

defence firms and the International Olympic Committee, were

systematically attacked over five years. There is speculation the

Chinese government is behind the attacks. But it isn't known who's

responsible and the Chinese government refuses to accept any

responsibility. It is now OK to mash-up music and videos without

asking for permission. If you are in the UK, that is. It is part of

the British government's relaxation of copyright laws. Copywriting

media for personal use or 'format shifting' is no longer against the

law. Even though most of us have been doing it for ages. And the

makers of the BlackBerry have launched a new line of smartphones.

The first is the updated operating system, BlackBerry 7. It includes

the all touch-screen Torch. The company's first touch screen phone.

It's been updated with mobile payments and a digital compass. The

popular BlackBerry Messenger is being integrated into some apps,

meaning people will not have to leave the application to chat. A

couple of weeks ago we talked about podcasting and we asked you what

you thought made a good podcast. We got a lot of emails and tweets like

this one. This person thinks his podcast is the best. Then we had

more insightful feedback as well. Like this one. It says, what makes

a good podcast is the same as a good radio station. Content first,

then a presenter who is worth listening to. In fact, we have had

so much feedback that we invited LJ Rich to come back to give us

another sound bite, this time to share some industry secrets on ways

to improve the output. Making your broadcast sound better does not

have to cost any money. Like programmes, they benefit from some

structuring. A few short items with presenters in between. Keep your

listeners interested by propping up the show with other voices. We keep

it tightly formatted, so we have eight minutes on air and then we

edit it down. If your voice over is recorded in the studio, it can have

little echo. Like this. A few different acoustic backgrounds can

also add interest. But do not be afraid to get out and about.

Natural sound sets the scenery. Once you have sorted your content,

there are free programmes on the internet that can give you extra

control of the sound. For example, Audacity is free sound editing

software that lets you stick your sound together. Professional radio

programmes tend to have a constant sound level. There are no overly

loud bits that make listeners keep messing with their audio control.

Free programs can normalise your files for you. Although lots of

sites will help you upload and host a podcast, the quick way to get

your audience is to upload pre- recorded files and let listeners

access them through iTunes or by clicking on the RSS link. With

radio broadcasting, you have an on- air audience that can listen to you

as it goes out and there is an audience that will download it

later. That changes the way you think about radio. Some people may

download your podcast after its release date. That does not mean

you have to ditch time-sensitive content, just add a bit of

background information or context. Be consistent and get your audience

used to when they can expect the next episode. These tips are on our

website. Follow them and you never know, you may make it to the top of

Given that we are using these more and more every year and usually

close to our heads, it is understandable that mobile phones

have been the focus of health concerns ever since we started

using them. But now two decades on, what is the truth? Are they a

health risk and should we be thinking twice about letting our

children use them at such an early age?

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has reclassified

mobile phones recently. The UN agency has fallen short of saying

mobile phones are definitely hazardous. Instead they have re-

classified mobile phones as possibly carcinogenic. The

reclassification was the result of a meeting held here at the

headquarters in Lyon of the world's leading scientists. They reviewed

experimental data on animal research but also the longest

running research project into the use of mobile phones by brain

cancer sufferers. The strongest evidence came from the evidence of

cancer in humans. There was evidence that there may be an

association between the use of mobile phones and certain types of

brain cancer. The body representing the interests of the mobile

industry followed up the findings, saying that the classification

suggested that a hazard is possible but not likely. While they

acknowledge that some mobile phone users may be concerned, they said

that present safety standards remain valid and there was need for

further research. Research into health and mobile phones has been

beset with difficulties. We have been using them for a relatively

short time. Cancers can take decades to develop. It is an area

replete with debate. Most scientists seem to agree about one

thing. If mobile phones are hazardous, children may be more

vulnerable than the rest of us to their possible ill-effects. If the

penetration of the electromagnetic waves goes four centimetres into

the brain, four centimetres in an adult brain is just the temporal

lobe. Not many important functions there. In a child, the more central

brain structures are going to be exposed. In addition, kids have a

skull which is thinner and less protected. There are many reasons

that make them absorb more radiation.

European research just published in America's Journal of the National

Cancer Institute has concluded children who use mobile phones are

at no greater risk of developing brain cancer than those who don't.

Critics say the research is too short-term and the data it used out

of date. Certainly for parents giving their children mobile phones

helps to keep tabs on them when they are out and about in a world

full of hazards. But if the hazard is the mobile phone itself, we

would be well advised to take precautions. Text, hands-free, use

a landline, the sort of advice that many would like to see passed on to

customers. After 20 or so years with mobile

phones, some experts say there is nothing to worry about. The UN said

there might be a problem. Others believe there is definitely an

issue. It is up to us whether to decide to dismiss the warnings or

to take minor precautions to make sure those most vulnerable do not

blame us if the most dire predictions turn out to be correct.

Another thing about modern smartphones is that many of them do

not have physical buttons. When you are typing e-mails or texts you

have to use the on-screen keyboards with the tiny keys. I don't know

about you but sometimes I miss having a full-size physical

keyboard. Kate Russell has a solution to my fat fingers.

If you are all fingers and thumbs when it comes to touch screen

keyboards, Android owners can find some relief when connected to a

desktop machine through wi-fi. The wi-fi keyboard application is free

to download unless you change your input method to hook up with your

computer's keyboard. Then you can input text through your browser.

You can also connect to your computer using a USB cable. This

works best in terms of latency. It takes a little more technical know-

how to set up. Launch the application icon for full

instructions. It is worth noting that any text you input through

your browser could potentially be recorded, so don't do your internet

banking. If you have a lot of text to reply to, I can see this saving

a lot of frustration and random auto corrects.

You, dear viewer, are such an interesting person with so many

fascinating friends. You should have a museum dedicated to you. Now

you can at Intel. By linking your Facebook account the account

creates a visualisation of all the texts, videos, images and connects

them. This three-minute sequence is built using a snapshot of the media

that is connected to your account. All accompanied by piano music. My

favourite is the end room where you see pictures of your friends and

family being sorted by robotic arms. When you are complete you can share

the exhibition on your wall with a series of stills. It is a shame you

cannot share the whole animation sequence.

If you have trouble understanding the drivel posted on Twitter, this

next site will not help you. It might make you laugh. The URL is a

little complicated. And yes, dot, that can be dot...slash.. Don't

worry, it is on the website. You just enteryour Twitter handle and

the application will draw a random selection of its words and phrases

that you have used to suggest what your next tweet might be. I found

it more fun putting in the user names of some of Twitter's biggest

personalities, comedians, and some of the more outspoken celebrities.

It is a fascinating and random glimpse inside their minds. The

results can be surreal to say the least. But entertaining enough to

pass a few minutes at lunchtime. With the school holidays in full

swing the children are running around everywhere, fighting over

the best toys, waggling their tails. I am of course talking about the

kind with four legs. You can watch them to your heart's content on the

Mead Open farm GoatCam. The Webcam shows their seven nanny goats and

two kids rambling about enjoying their first summer. Tune in quick

because the camera only feeds live until the beginning of September.

Don't you hate it when you have got an itch you cannot scratch?

If you have any suggestions for a future Webscape get in touch. You

can e-mail us or tweet us. Those are the contact details if you have

any ideas about the future of the web. Don't forget, everything from

the programme is on the website. That includes a link to Click on

the radio. The Web is not the only technology

celebrating an anniversary this week. The click radio team is

celebrating the 30th birthday of MS dos. That's it. Thank you For

A week ago, we were suffering for with an uncomfortably warm night.

But at the moment it is much pressure. It is going to be a cool

day. Temperatures are rather disappointing for August and

feeling even fresher because of the strength of the wind. It is kind to

be wet in places as well. Bands of Shari rain also tracking their way

southwards. Before they arrive, parts of north-east England and the

Midlands will hate this might well have some sunshine. Blue skies for

East England it -- a East Anglia and the south-east. Sunny spells

for much of the south coast of England. Shell was not too far away

from the south-west. Some of them get blown through here on a fairly

brisk wind. Also most of Wales. Much of the south-east of Wales and

the West Midlands will start with some more cloudy in north Wales and

a cloudy start in Northern Ireland. The breeze is going to make it feel

particularly miserable on the Moray coastline. Temperatures struggling

through the day. The wind is making it feel really quite chilly. Some

sunny spells in south-west Scotland. It will disappear from southern

areas as the cloud develops more widely. Some places will stay dry.

But nowhere is going to be particularly one. Temperatures at

very best, 20 Celsius. The rain does peter out, it makes it through

the evening, but one of two are scattered showers, most of us will

have a dry night. It will bring cooler air. It will -- it will be a

chilly night again. Temperatures down to single digits. Tuesday

looks like being a largely dry day. The area of high pressure keeping

things settled. A weather front will arrive on Wednesday. On

Tuesday, most of us will be dry. Temperatures nothing spectacular.