11/08/2012 Click

Now on BBC News, it's time for Click.

If ask geeks into talking code, this week's programme is for you.

We are going to a cut in class which aims to turn people into

Programmers in one day. If cows, what do young people really think

about technology and how do you make a career in the field more

appealing? We also get into charted territory, looking at the Matt King

advances getting us closer to home. All of that and the latest

technology news and a new way to shake your online activity with

your friends. -- Matt King advances. Welcome. Are you confused by

computing jargon, take technology - - terminology too much to taking?

Does programming make you think of your favourite television show? It

could be asked. We have been tracking down ways to decipher the

language that dominates. Lines and lines of numbers and letters. To

those in the know, it is computer programming. Two others,

meaningless and confusing symbols which may as well have been can

foist -- composed in an alien tongue. But computer programming

and coding doesn't have to be confusing. There are now an

increasing number of ways for people to equip themselves with the

skills necessary to decipher the language of machines. All those

people need is a bit of help. Online signs are chock-a-block with

free tutorials and exercises designed to gently guide users

through the basics of coding. But if you have the cash to spend and

prefer personal tuition, just a stone's throw away from London's

start-up Harb, we find an outfit which makes a bold claim that they

can teach the basics of colluding in one day. When we launched,

everybody said it was impossible. - - coding. We have absolutely proved

that we can do it. Hundreds of people come through it and it is

about making people feel confident and literate in a lot of the jargon

of language that can create such a barrier about wanting to learn the

skills. The students in the calls come from a wide variety of

different backgrounds. -- course. Publisher, marketing director.

have had people from boards of the FTSE 100 companies, right through

to people looking for a career change. It is totally eclectic. Not

typical codas, then. Why is it important for these people to

understand what goes on behind a machine's could? There is an

element of being able to talk to the people who are writing code. It

is such an important interaction to have with the guys who are

producing the stuff you want to build, the analogy would be if you

are in fashion to be able to talk to the people cutting the textiles.

It is the same thing. But once you start knowing what is possible from

what is not possible, you can make your own plans and decisions about

what can we actually do in taking things to a different direction.

Before anybody can begin crafted lines of code, the day begins with

a history lesson, introducing the group to html - the language used

for creating Web pages which describes the content and also CSS,

a language that can be used to control the appearance of a Web

page before moving on to JavaScript which can be used to add features

to a page or sight. In the normal course we go through the history of

the Web, the could in language that underpins the Web. I look into

history, we can illuminate the present. -- coding language. We can

then look at the detail and start coding a simple website. Then we

look at JavaScript detail. We start building some quite cool behaviour

where the pages track the physical location of the user and show

different content based on that. Then it is time for the students to

fire up their laptops and get their fingers dirty. Most of the students

are novices to coding. While the learning curve initially appeals --

appears daunting, the penny starts to drop around the room. And their

simple location based apps start taking form. I knew very little

about the language that we have been using. I was looking at things

like Javascript, html, html 5, CSS, with no idea what they meant. I had

a vague notion that they existed but I was not sure what the

differences were. Now when I am talking to our Web developers, I

can actually understand what they are saying. There is a lot of fresh

-- rhetoric about the hopes of our economy in the government. And yes

it does not necessarily always get fed through to the policy and the

curriculum. It is vital for us to have a competitive economy in the

future so that that children can at least understand the basis of

coding. As the end of the day approaches, a new -- a room full of

apps are born. Alerting users to offers or services once they arrive

at a particular place. But most of these people aren't aspiring codas.

More often than not, they will be employing or engaging coding

professionals. So, what have they got out of the day? When I came

this morning, I would not have believed it if he told me that I

was going to walk out having designed and developed my own app.

Now I have an understanding of what is going on behind the scenes. I

have heard to speak kind of not fluently but speak the basics.

While learning to code perhaps is not for everybody, in the

increasingly competitive 21st dysentery jobs market, the

additional skills can't hurt. 21st century. Next, a look at the big

stories making Tech News. It seems this PC maker does not

want Microsoft to start making its own tablet. Microsoft surface is

due this autumn when its Windows 8 operating services released. But

they serve's boss and one of its biggest customers says the software

giant is not good at making hard work and should think twice. Out!

Microsoft says its devices are spot on. It is no longer personal but

serious. Facebook's first real cash gambling game has been launched. It

is the first to offer real cash prizes but only two adult players

it is hoped self-help tools and spending limits will stop people

getting carried away. Other Facebook game developers plan to

follow suit next year. The world's biggest bookseller has become a

library. At least four people in the US who can borrow the expensive

textbooks they need by the sinister from Amazon. Copious notes in the

margin will attract a fine. This comes in the week the UK operation

follow the American won by selling more digital books than paper. And,

finally, planes aren't the only thing flying at England's Bristol

Airport. So is the food. The airport plans to be the first in

the world to offer an Act that allows customers to order meals

straight from their phone. Pizza Express introduced a similar scheme

last year but this app can be adapted to work with most retailers.

I wonder if we will start to work out out tip based on these

connection fees? Some of the most successful people

in the world started their careers as bedroom programmers. But when it

comes to making job choices, the average teenager seems more

interested in consuming tech than understanding it. So we went to

find out how learning technology can be made more interesting for

teenagers. Despite what many of these

youngsters may think, not all techies antiques and most

scientists don't fit the crazy professor kindy Lad image. Here,

the aim is to inspire teenagers by showing them the jobs available to

them in the technology industry, some of which they probably don't

even know exist. There is no doubt that kids love using technology,

depending on their phones, laptops or tablets, on a daily basis.

don't really remember how I got by without Facebook. Our whole life is

based around by phone. They got a chance to come up with ideas for

apps they would like to use themselves. We are creating a party

planning app. If you want to do like an 80s deemed party, it will

tell you every place that has stuff for 80s and you can give it a

budget and it will tell you cheap and expensive places. This is

helping students plan for their GCSEs. It has a search engine,

helps students know what they are doing. Teenagers are certainly not

short of ideas about the tech they want. But it is not all about apps.

Taking a ride on this Bob skeleton simulator may seem like an odd way

of enticing kids into a career in technology but this in this live

experience teaches them about various scientific principles, such

as aerodynamics. We are introducing this bald and showing how typical

it is. On the software, we have principles wear when you go into

schools, we talk about Engineering Science, changing the perception of

their ideas about Engineering. Generally we talk about engineering,

you learn about the theory but don't put into practice. But using

this Patfull you can. Through the software, they learn how to shoot

the virtual sled. -- plat form. They can compensate for the

characteristics of the passenger and of course have a go themselves

to see how they customised set up pounds out. And what more of an

incentive is there to take techs seriously than this? -- pans out.

The objective is to build a load- bearing brick out of the staff and

calculate how much weight it can handle, often with surprising

results. -- load-bearing Bridge. At least we learn from our mistakes.

In this activity, they saved the Transport and egg from one stop to

another. By taking into account speed and gravity, eventually they

get the train to run smoothly to the end. And it is through these

hands-on experiences that team take, the organisation backed by 50

different companies and universities, hopes to encourage

kids to think about the technology sector. With day activities around

the UK, they want to show pupils that they are plenty of options out

there. We need to give the right messages to young people because

there are companies on the one hand with a very cool jobs and they are

crying out for people. And then we have a raft of young people coming

out with inappropriate qualifications. There is a real

disconnect. We wanted to show them what is really going on. That,

actually, careers in science and technology are really cool, and for

the most part pretty well paid. 20 finally to get a job, there are

plenty of ways like about to distract you. -- and finally.

The ways London is trying to get teenagers more interested in

technology. If the possibility of becoming a multi-millionaire wasn't

enough. Anyway, there was a time when not

have long ago if you wanted to find your way around a new place, he had

to buy a map. On paper. Recently, some will large tech companies have

charter -- managed to chart our world to the finest detail. It has

become a big selling point on getting us to use their services.

We have been unable year age of We lose ourselves exploring maps.

In fact, among Android and iPhone users the most frequently used app

is Google Maps. Which explains why many tech companies are trotting

out slick new features designed to hook and lure the navigator in all

of us. Google's offline maps, just made available on Android, is sure

to win over anyone who refuses to pay extortionate data roaming

charges while traveling. Choose the area you'll be visiting and select

'make available offline' from the menu to download the map. One gripe

- the maps didn't seem to list many businesses, but streets are

labelled and you can navigate around and zoom in as if you were

online, even when you're not. But don't expect the rich environments

we have grown accustomed to while we are online. For example, there

is no Street View, Google's enormously ambitious eye level

perspective on the world. The project has proved controversial as

it captured data from unsecured Wi- Fi networks. At the same time, many

people find the immersive outlook it offers utterly captivating.

These are the cars they use to capture those images. They work

really well, when you have roads, that is. But some of the most

stunning places on this planet are only accessible by foot. What then?

Take the technology, shrink it down and stick it on a backpack.

Naturally. Feast your eyes on Google Trekker, the smaller sibling

to the full-size car version, which still crams plenty of pixels in

this 18 kilo pack. These cameras have actually 15

lenses, each is five megapixels. So it's like 75 raw megapixels, two

GPS antennas right there and you know heat sink, a mini computer in

here to drive the whole thing. And it's controlled by an Android phone.

Trekker has gone off-road before, on snowmobiles and trikes, but the

backpack form factor unlocks unique possibilities. I personally would

love to take it to Venice, you know why Venice? It's big, it's

complicated, it's narrow streets, canals. The device is still in beta,

so the verdict is out on image quality, at least for now. In

October, Trekker's lenses will be trained on the mighty Grand Canyon.

The images will be published soon after. But the fiercest competition

in the mapping space is from the skies. Bing Maps has offered

stunning mid-air views since 2010 and Microsoft has pledged to

publish aerial images that cover the whole of the US and Europe by

the end of the year. That kind of competition is keeping Google on

its toes. The latest version of Google Earth drastically improves

on the current 3D offering, clearly showing differences in terrain and

making buildings far more realistic. The technology uses aerial

photographs captured by planes from directly above a building and at

45-degree angles. What we do is using image

processing and something called stereophotogrammetry, we're able to

actually extract the 3D model from those images. You can appreciate

the merits of stereophotogrammetry as you take your own sky high tour

of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge or the Coliseum in Rome.

Sadly no 3D peak at Click's HQ in London. Google's first priorities

have focused mainly on West Coast American cities. They say the rest

of the world will follow as soon as possible.

Not surprisingly, when a data mining company deploys planes over

urban areas in tight flight patterns, people raise privacy

concerns, like US senator Chuck Schumer. He's accused Google of

using military-grade spy planes. Schumer wants the search giant to

notify residents before mapping their communities and give them an

option to opt-out, that's clearly a bit late for some already, but

Google isn't wavering. These are just standard common commercially

available aircraft. And these are the same types of images that have

been available for a number of years in Google Maps and in other

mapping products. It's not just Google under fire from the Senator,

Apple's forthcoming update for iPhone and iPad users will see

Google ditched as a mapping partner. In iOS6 we've built an entire new

mapping solution from the ground up. And its stand out feature? Flyover!

You guessed it, a 3D model of cities similar to Google's efforts.

And from what beta testers have been showing off, even more detail.

Apple has tried to allay the senator's concerns by stressing its

commitment to privacy and pointing out that details like faces and

licence plates aren't identifiable. Other features in Apple's mapping

update like local search and turn by turn navigation are a direct

swipe at Google. It's differentiated its navigation

traffic feature by alerting you to specific incidents on route. And

crowdsourcing info from other iOS users as well. And Maps will be

tightly integrated into the rest of the OS too. With Siri offering some

useful and fun information along the way. So here we are in San

Fran! It's clear competition in the

mapping arena is heating up. That's ultimately good news for us, after

all we will have more ways to daydream about our next holiday

spot. We mentioned Google in that report,

but even though it has access to so much of our personal information,

Google's social network has not created the same kind of buzz that

Facebook has. But it is still quite young. Kate Russell seems to have

found a new use for the social network baby.

Google does not have a great track record in the social space, Buzz

Bond, 'Wait' was a report, it has not found its niche. But hang outs

may be about to change all about. It lets you and nine others are

videotaped in real time. -- video chat. It is already being used for

things such as cooking shows and DIY shows, or even to share a

family moment. Videos can be saved to YouTube for watching a game

later. There will be an add-on to a deal to such fiercely dedicated

niche market. I am talking about RPGers and I am one of them.

Tabletopforge.com integrates everything you need to run a table-

top game, including dice rolling, all functions, seamlessly into

doable Hangouts. -- Google Hangouts. This free add-on is likely to catch

on fast. There are now lots of futuristic apps for my windows

phone seven. But sometimes you have to admit the oldies are the goodies.

Tom and Jerry Free serves up lots of Abersoch of the classic cartoon

series in block -- inglorious dreamy MP4. Remember to stick to

wi-fi if you do not want to demolish your data allowance. The

app does buffer pretty well. Thankfully, it is not too hard on

your back reduce either. With ongoing doom and gloom hanging over

the economy, how do you prepare your children for the world of

business? Playing a Facebook game may seem like escapism, but

playfootfall.com has designed -- has been designed to teach children

how to run a business. It would develop skills and improve

financial literacy. Unusually, the subject-matter, produce use, may

not discouraged some boys from taking part. -- pretty shoes. If

people marked the mask science lab mission site, you probably saw the

red planet's latest residents touchdown on Monday morning. If not,

you can book mark the site to watch the action replay and you the very

first pictures beamed back from the surface of Mars. That was Kate

Russell with Webscape. As usual, all the links are available on our

website. If you would like to get in touch with us, maybe to suggest