As I’ve been helping prepare for Cisco Live I’m learning some pretty interesting stuff on how technology convergence is creating an impact on many different industries in interesting and unexpected ways. Although what I’ve learned doesn’t apply specifically to gaming it serves as a good example. Gaming technology is no longer just the realm of game developers, ABI Research suggests that Mobile gaming revenues will exceed $16B by 2016, today that number is less than $5B. We’re talking significant growth here, growth that has many leading enterprise companies trying to figure out how to engage customers, or even employees, using games.

With so many mobile devices, mobile networks and ways to connect, the promise of opportunities to gain new customer insights from analytics of consumer behaviors, including structured and non-structured elements such as social are huge. Brian Burke, VP Research at Gartner, discusses some interesting perspectives, trends and applications of gaming for Enterprise organizations, check it out.

It’s the intersections of networking, compute, storage and applications that give Enterprise organizations the opportunity for new ways to engage customers and gain new insights. Intel and Cisco are standing at the middle of that intersection and Cisco Live brings together the technical professionals and companies that are making these opportunities possible today.

Cisco Live will be a great show! If you are heading to Orlando and want to know more about enterprise class cloud computing stop by our booth and check out demos with partners Virtustream and Hytrust. You can also learn how Intel helps you feed I/O starved application and how our customers are accelerating their analytic and business intelligent initiatives with Intel Hadoop and SAP HANA solutions.

If your household is like thirty-two percent of the USA, your PC is four or more years old.

Technology has changed quite a bit in those four years, including convertible laptop/tablets, and touchscreen PCs becoming more mainstream experiences.  You can also get a new computer that delivers amazing gains in performance for about $200 less than you probably paid for comparable PC four years ago.

A contest sponsored by Lunchbox, a digital shopper marketing agency, provided Moms with an opportunity to refresh to new PCs.  Lunchbox reached out to influential Mom and savings bloggers and their audiences, asked them to visit the Intel PC refresh page on Walmart’s website, select a qualifying system, and explain why they’d want this model on sites like www.momdot.com. Winners were chosen at random, and the tone of comments back were like this one from the Stories of Kel blogspot …

Trisha of MomDot.Com shared her recent PC upgrade to a Windows 8, touch-enabled Lenovo system.   In order to increase her on-the-go productivity, after 11 years and a few repairs, she decided it was time to let go of her old PC.  (Trisha notes on her blog “My personal laptop in post was not provided or paid for by this promotion.”)

Check out Trisha’s full write-up:

Nine PCs will be given away, and Lunchbox will contact winners.  Good luck to all who participated!

Contest terms and conditions (contest is over) 

Visit Walmart PC refresh website

You can also hear some sweet sounds from Dinesh Boaz of Sweet Sounds Studio, based here in New York City.

Dinesh Boaz has created a state-of-the-art recording facility in Manhattan where he combines his passion with technology to produce cutting-edge projects. Not only musicians, but also talented engineers work together with the world’s best equipment where the computer serves as the centerpiece of the studio allowing effortless music creation and multi-tracks editing.

Their current projects focus on re-working mainstream sounds into deep, soulful musical experiences. You can hear some of those sweet sounds today at 5:00. Come out and see us on this last day at Experience Intel.

It used to be that she would put together a mood board as a source of inspiration, but she found that the stacks of paper and things clipped to a regular bulletin board would fly off if she had to leave the studio with it.

Now she can use technology to create a series of images that are her design inspirations. She flipped through several images and showed us how she was inspired to create a yellow spring dress (below).

Today is the last day for Experience Intel in New York. Come out to Look Inside all the latest Ultrabook devices and see Michelle at 3:00 p.m.

At Experience Intel, Carlye shows a short film that shows how they were able to make their idea of collaborating as filmmakers come to life through the use of modern technology.

Using technology such as the Ultrabook, they can remain in constant contact and communicate as if they were working together in the same room, instead of in different countries. Technology helps them run their business and develop their innovative work. It’s crucial to the way they work.

Visit Experience Intel this weekend to learn more about Smoke & Apple Films and all the latest in Ultrabook devices. Plus, you can recycle your old laptop for a discount coupon on a new Ultrabook.

Chelsey and Matt can bend, twist and slide like an Ultrabook [video]. They are incredible to watch. It’s like a yoga circus act.

See the Experience Intel schedule for New York City to come see them perform live.

Xpogo has rapidly grown their business over the past ten years as their fans watched performances online.  Now a world-record setting organization, they perform, shoot and create videos in real time using cutting-edge technology.

At the Experience Intel event, their CEO, Nick Ryan, talks about their use of Ultrabook technology.

Sleek and portable – Xpogo travels a great deal and they need a sleek, mobile device that keeps up with them.

Convertibility – They can take advantage of the convertibility of Ultrabook because not only is it portable, but there are tasks like reviewing photos and videos, which they can do more easily on a tablet and then when they’re in full production mode, they can flip, twist, or slide back into laptop mode.

Responsive – Since Xpogo is on the road a great deal, they can take advantage of the responsiveness of Ultrabook to connect while traveling, making video calls to with family, fans, and business contacts.

The Xpogo team are true performance athletes and they need an Ultrabook device that can stay on while they are on. They really count on the long battery life of Ultrabook so they can capture video during their performances, which they are doing in the photo below during a pogo stick backflip.

 Come see Xpogo and all the latest and best Ultrabook devices in Gansevoort Plaza, this weekend only, at Experience Intel.

See the images below to see how the Intel events team has created an event hub in Gansevoort Plaza, one of the hippest parts of NYC. Come see us in Gansevoort Plaza this weekend only. Not only can you experience the newest devices powered by Intel, but you can also recycle your old laptop and get a discount coupon on a new Ultrabook.

This image shows Gansevoort Plaza before the Experience Intel event space goes up.

This next shot shows the frame going up for Experience Intel event in Gansevoort Plaza in NYC.

Now you can see the Experience Intel space really take shape in this next photo:

In this next shot, the team is working on the giant screen for the Experience Intel space that will show data visualizations throughout the weekend.

Here is a shot of the Experience Intel event space last night at a pre-show for media and other VIPs.

Come see us this weekend in NYC at the Experience Intel event to recycle your old laptop, and Look Inside all the new Ultrabook devices.

You can also check out the Experience Intel website to see if the tour is coming to your city.

Just suppose…hospital cafeterias can be more germ-ridden than kiddie arcades.  Canine saliva doesn’t kill general bacteria.  The “5 second rule” doesn’t apply.  Sleep deprivation eases PTSD.  Spices could help the food industry’s fight against bacteria-related illness. 

 

These were just a few of the research findings posited by students in the 2013 Arizona Science and Engineering Fair (April 1-3, 2013), of which Intel Foundation is a Gold sponsor.   

 

As a two-time returning judge, I reviewed projects in the elementary school category (grades 5-6),  as well as a special project award that crossed student age groups.  I was reminded of the old teaching cliche,  learning more from the students than they did of me. 

While You Were Out: AzSEF judges review projects prior to student presentations

I do, however, have a few presentation tips for those considering submitting their projects in 2014, in particular the youngest scientists (the elementary school category, grades 5-6) and their supportive elders.  My colleagues and I are schooled in variants of the below for our own presentations, so you just might find it useful beyond the fair …

Stand and deliver.
Adults aren’t scary, even when they’re judging your project.  So please do not remain seated.  Make eye contact, and present with confidence.   Rehearse, so you know your subject matter and can field questions.   

Use the Internet and existing research as a starting point.  “Science Buddies” is just the start.  To create something original, something you can truly call your own, try to build on what someone else has done, not duplicate their project.

Form meaningful conclusions.

“Mom” is not a sample size.  Many studies at the fair (especially among the elementary school submissions) were inconclusive because of low sample size.   Family members were often test subjects, which is fine as a starting point, but they’re not a basis for meaningful conclusions. How you want to sort depends on your research, but when it comes to sample size, more is more. 

Focus on long-term research. In the end, it boils down to a refrain from AzSEF’s organizational leadership to focus on long-term research, because doing your research six weeks prior to the fair (which is what most students do ) is not enough. 

Get Involved.  Sixty percent of AZSEF judges return, yet with 1,500 participating students, the fair needs more than the 350 judges it had this year. While registration isn’t open yet for 2014, I highly encourage students and adults to participate in this fun and educational activity. 

Next week, Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), May 12-17 comes to my backyard in Phoenix.  More than 500 volunteers for a varierty of general activiites are needed during the week, in daytime and evening shifts.  Learn more about becoming a general volunteer or grand awards judge. 

I’ll be judging.  What can you do to advance education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)?

Learn more about AzSEF

Learn more about Intel ISEF

As you may know from my “What Happens in an Internet Minute” post, billions of devices are poised to make more than a trillion Internet connections at any given moment and, in the process, those devices are generating enormous volumes of data, spurring the next wave of “Big Data.” Nearly 640K Gb of global IP data, or the equivalent of 61,000 hours of music, is transferred in just one Internet minute. That number is predicted to explode exponentially and huge portion of the growth of this Big Data will likely come from intelligent systems – machines that communicate with each other, both directly and through the cloud, to make up what is frequently referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT).

It extends well beyond just mobile devices, too. The infographic below illustrates how our connected, IoT world touches many aspects of our lives. From connectivity in the car to digital signs in the mall, we’re contributing data to the IoT most of the time without even noticing it. Even the medical data that’s generated every time we visit the doctor contributes to big data and the IoT.

With our lives so digitally interrelated, it’s imperative that we keep these intelligent systems connected, secure and managed. For example, when we bring a smartphone into the car, we expect it to connect seamlessly with the in-vehicle infotainment system. And when a brand like Pepsi invests in an interactive vending machine, it’s important that we can remotely manage and repair the machine to save on costs and downtime.

To address this, Intel developed the Intelligent Systems Framework – a set of interoperable solutions designed to enable connectivity, manageability and security across devices in a consistent and scalable manner. The Intelligent Systems Framework eliminates a lot of legwork for developers and frees up valuable time to focus on unlocking the valuable Big Data that the IoT is generating. What can we do with all that Big Data? That’s a complex topic that we’ll tackle at another time.

For now, let’s focus on celebrating International Internet of Things Day. I, for one, plan to observe today’s holiday by doing some online shopping with my smartphone. How are you celebrating?

That’s no slouch of a milestone and almost tops the one DreamWorks Animation reached a few years ago when it unseated Pixar as the all-time box office champ when it comes to CGI features. The “Shrek” film franchise, alone, has made $3.5 billion worldwide, and you can tally another $1.9 billion from the three “Madagascar” movies and $1.2 billion from just two “Kung Fu Panda” pictures.

We’ll get to the review of “The Croods” in a minute, and where Intel fits into all of this a bit later, but first the “but.” While the talented folks at DreamWorks Animation have succeeded in getting the civilized world to side with a giant green ogre and cross fingers for lost, misfit zoo animals and root for a fat and lazy panda, none of the studio’s features can hold a computer-drawn candle to the stories that make Pixar movies magical. Oh, they’re funny and exciting, all right — many times even more so than what the rival puts out under the Disney banner. But what Pixar’s movies have that those from DreamWorks and the other big studios seem to lack are heart and smarts — the stuff that makes a film endearing and everlasting, and makes the sentimental cry. Call me soft if you must, but nine of Pixar’s baker’s dozen have caused me soggy eyeballs. When Sully reunites with Boo at the end of “Monsters, Inc.” I bawled like a baby. The tender and wordless montage in “Up?” Serious Kleenex time. And don’t even get me started on the second-to-last scene in “Toy Story 3.” DreamWorks’ “How to Train Your Dragon” came close to activating my waterworks. I’m a sucker for injured mythical creatures.

With “The Croods” (rated PG), a prehistoric comedy adventure that follows the supposed last surviving family of their era, tears of laughter are sought much more than the other kind. Yeah, there’s a father-daughter bonding moment at the end (spoiler alert!), but 97 1/2 of the movie’s 98 minutes are devoted to slapstick and 3-D eye candy. Thank goodness for the eye candy.

In this “Flintstones” meets “Avatar” (apologies to Hanna-Barbera and James Cameron), belly laughs are at a premium. I counted two: the scenes when the Croods are introduced to fire and footwear by Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a more advanced human who after a meet-cute charms Eep (Emma Stone), the bored, rebellious daughter of Grug (a miscast Nicolas Cage). The brutish patriarch believes there’s danger in anything new, Guy included. Grug’s cautious ways have kept the family alive, but as Eep says, this isn’t living, it’s just not dying.

After an earthquake destroys their cave, Eep gets her wish to see the world, or at least the part that gets them to safer ground as the Earth begins to shift. Wish I could say that getting there is half the fun. Wit doesn’t exactly ooze from the thin story and even thinner characters that lack originality. The littlest Crood, Sandy, is the spitting image of Darla, the dentist’s daughter in Pixar’s “Finding Nemo.” Gran, voiced by Cloris Leachman, is the same crabby-sassy old mother-in-law seen in movies from “National Lampoon’s Vacation” to “The Grown-Ups.” Thunk (“The Office’s” Clark Duke) is the idiot son who does yield a laugh when he teaches his new pet to roll over, unfortunately, over a cliff.

Where this Stone Age picture rocks is in the graphics, and no Pixar movie comes close in this department. The other-worldly plant life is a feast for the 3-D glasses-enhanced eyes. So is the non-stop parade of Seuss-on-acid creatures (piranha-owls, mousephants and turkeyfish, really?). The billowing smoke and blanketing clouds that dramatically bring this otherwise middling movie to a close are flat-out arresting.

Helping DreamWorks Animation and its latest movie look good is Intel, a strategic partner of the studio since 2009′s “Monsters vs. Aliens.” Intel provides high-performance desktop workstations and server blades powered by the company’s latest multi-core processors. Cloud computing also is a critical component to the studio providing a robust, scalable infrastructure for rendering multiple CG films in production. In fact, “The Croods,” comprised of over 400 million data files, relied on Intel processing power to provide 12 percent of the film’s cloud computing needs.

Clearly, Intel was pivotal to DreamWorks Animation challenging the technical status quo with “The Croods.” Maybe with the snail-centered comedy ”Turbo,” due out this summer, the studio will advance the genre of computer animation in other ways.

2 1/2 Stars (out of 5)

12 teams from Asia, Europe and America competed for the League of Legends World Championship. The Koreans proved to be unbeatable with CJ Entus Blaze taking the win over sister team Frost with another Korean Team, SK Telecom, taking home 3^rd place.

StarCraft II: heart of the Swarm saw the Korean teams dominating the competition once again. LG-IM Yoda took the win over LG-IM First with LG-IM Mvp and LG-IM YongHwa coming in 3^rd and 4^th respectively. If there were a prize for best eSports nation Korea would win hand down.

The Sick Nerd Baller title of this year’s World Championship went to Polish player MaNa who managed to make it to the quarterfinal where he was eliminated by Mvp. What is a Sick Nerd Baller you ask? Sick Nerd Baller is a StarCraft phrase created by StarCraft players to show their nerd love to fellow team mates and friends during tournaments. The term is also used whenever a sick play is made.

i.e. Did you see MaNa play yesterday? That dude is one sick nerd baller.

Intel Extreme Masters website has everything you need to know about the World Championships, if you didn’t follow all the action live during the tournament you can catch up on all the action with video of the matches, pictures and stories.

All-in-all Season 7 was a fabulous season with exciting gameplay at each of the stops, proving once again just how popular eSports has become worldwide. We will start the planning for Season 8 soon so check back this summer to find out if we are coming to a city near you.

 As always I welcome your comments and for those of you keeping track, the final schnitzel count was 10.

 See you next season.

The most recent example of this was the ominously nicknamed, “Snowquester.” With nearly a foot of snow forecast Washington, D.C., the capital prepared for the worse – the government shut down, schools were closed, flights were cancelled, supermarket shelves emptied and shovels and snow blowers were at the ready. So what happened? A slushy mess that didn’t even amount to one inch. Aside from the more serious inconveniences and economic ramifications this presented, the Washington, D.C. Snowball Fight Association also had to cancel a planned battle in DuPont Circle.

Meteorology has never been an exact science although advanced technology has resulted in more accurate forecasts over the years. And forecasters place a lot of faith in certain weather models in order to offer a more confident weather prediction.

These models represent simulations created by powerful supercomputers that analyze complicated numerical data related to temperature, barometric pressure, wind direction and humidity. A lot of attention has been paid to the European model, delivered by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), which has proven to be more accurate than the U.S. models of the National Weather Service. For example, the European model predicted that Hurricane Sandy would make a direct strike on the East Coast, days before the U.S. model identified that same pattern.  In the case of “snowquester,” U.S. forecasters predicted 10 inches of snow, while forecasts based on the European model predicted that it would be too mild for a significant snowfall.  

So why the discrepancy? Perhaps the biggest reason is that ECMWF has more computing power. The ECMWF model can process higher resolution images which allows forecasters to better pinpoint lines of snowfall, rain and other patterns. They’re also able to provide more frequent models – up to 100 per day – than the National Weather Service (84 per day).

A Look at the NWSC Supercomputer's 100 Racks. (©UCAR. Photo by Carlye Calvin.)

However, the U.S. isn’t standing pat and investments are already being made to level the computational – and forecasting – playing field.  For example, Intel is working with organizations like the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to deliver the computing power needed to study the climate and atmosphere in the new NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center (NWSC). According to NCAR, the new supercomputers can run one and a half quadrillion operations per second, in other words a one followed by 15 zeros!

In just one node in these supercomputers there are two Intel chips, which includes eight processors and billions of transistors. Check out this video to learn more about why such powerful computers are needed to analyze the vast amounts of weather related data.

Accurate forecasts mean we can better plan out home improvement, travel and recreational activities. Business can better guard against lost work time, state governments can better manage their emergency resources, and when it comes to public safety, a portion of weather-related fatalities could be reduced with more accurate forecasting and better warning systems.

The lesson here is that better computing means better forecasting. Of course, from a personal standpoint, better accuracy also removes the stress level when it comes to those all-important “what to wear” decisions.

“Knowledge is power.”

I attended the Girl Rising documentary film this past weekend directed by Richard E. Robins, a moving and inspirational  film that highlighted the lives of young girls around the world. The film captured the innocence gained and lost yet the perseverance that each one endured to overcome their circumstances.

The film features voice over from Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchet, Selena Gomez, Liam Neeson, Priyanka Chopra, Chloe Moretz, Freida Pinto, Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Alicia Keyes and Kerry Washington.

It’s a film that highlights the journey of 9 wonderful young girls: Ruksana the Dreamer, Suma the Emancipated, Yasmin the Defender, Senna the Warrior, Azmera the Courageous, Amina the Hopeful, Wadley the Undaunted, Mariama the Catalyst.

This movie work is fabulous, with vibrant colors and intertwined animations to illustrate the stories of challenges and success for each one of these young women. Exposing both the beauty of each one and the dark obstacles each one has faced.

In other parts of the world the reality for young, poor girls is a fate expected to work, fetch water and care for children with many culture norms it is typical  to send off their young women to work for others because they cannot afford school costs. If they can afford it, many send the boys in the family and the girls have to work, or married off.

In many developing  cases up to 75% of AIDs cases are girls or women. In some places the #1 death of girls or young women between the age of 15 and 19 years old is child bearing.

The documentary movie assigned a writer to each of the young women’s personal story. From Ruksana from India to Senna in Peru, each story follows the triumph and strife these young women have lived. It’s main message, girls that get educated grow in better living situations, having the ability to care for themselves and t heir family and making a difference not only in their own life, but community and country.

With the support of 10×0, Intel sponsored the movie, along with CNN films. It’s a tribute to young women around the world. Please visit intel.com/women and review an interesting report on the digital divide, take action and host a screening or text 55155 to donate.

@IntelInvolved, #GirlRising, #GirlRisingHero

This morning I was fortunate enough to talk with some of the players and believe me it was an interesting conversation. To a person, everyone of the players spend 8 to 10 hours a day practicing their chosen game, be it StarCraft II or League of Legends. I was talking with StarCraft II player Grubby asking how he practices against other players without giving others insight into his technique and strategy. The answer was trust, he has a select group of friends he practices with that he has total trust in to not divulge any of his strategy or tactics to other players. You can imagine how this could affect the outcome of future tournaments if secrets and strategies were known to his competitors. He also practices by playing in “ladder’ tournaments anonymously so other players don’t know who they are playing against.

As I was talking to these players I was thinking, wow, 8 to 10 hours a day playing a video game can’t be very healthy, right? Wrong… most player have a very strict regime that they follow daily. Stephen Ellis of team Evil Genius says his teams day starts at 9:00 am with a healthy breakfast followed by an hour workout, a couple of hours of individual practice online followed by 6 or so hours of team practice, dinner and the rest of the evening to themselves, and this is happing six days a week. Seems to me like a pretty structured training schedule on par with any other athlete.

While there may not be a “physical strength” aspect to these competitions there is definitely extraordinary skill involved in hand-eye coordination and mental focus. These players will average between 250~350 keyboard/mouse actions per minute for the entire length of the match; this requires incredible concentration and focus, a different type of athlete for sure but an athlete none the less. These players are the best of the best and are incredibly passionate about what they do and to a person have expressed their appreciation for what Intel has done to elevate eSports with Intel Extreme Masters, allowing them to compete on a world stage. 

Our consumer zone has been a hopping place as well, lots of people stopping by to tryout the games we have for the general public to play. An added bonus to this stop has been our display of Intel Inspired Ultrabook convertibles. We have several models from Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell, Sony and ASUS out for the public to see and touch giving everyone the opportunity to see first-hand how cool these new touch enabled devices are and how easily they convert from notebook to tablet.

If you haven’t already done so join the excitement and go to ESL TV and watch the matches live on-line. I’ll be posting next week with a wrap up post of the event so check back, and the Schnitzel count is now at 7.

I welcome any and all comments so please feel free to let me know what you are thinking.

Intel Extreme Masters World championships are getting underway today here at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. The title of this post says it all but the added bonus is $250,000 in prize money.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm kicks things off starting today, Tuesday the 5^th, with Groups A and B competing. This is the first time ever Heart of the Swarm is being played on a world stage in a major competition, props to Blizzard for allowing us to use the title prior to public release on March 12th.

League of Legends is the second tournament vying for a portion of the $250,000. Action starts on Wednesday March 6^th with teams in Group A getting things started. As usual it’s the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processor taking center stage, once again powering all of the tournament systems.

Finals for both tournaments are on Saturday March 9^th, preliminary rounds, quarter and semifinals will be happening daily, all the action can be seen live on ESL TV so tune in and catch all the action.

There will be lot’s of action taking place over the 5 days of the tournament, keep up to date with the latest results, interviews and news at the Intel Extreme Masters web site and check back here on InsideScoop as well to get the latest on my schnitzel consumption count currently holding at 4.

Obviously I had a great race, the racing was very intense but I managed to complete all 200 laps around the 2 ½ mile Daytona International Speedway and bring home the win. Here’s a brief recap on how the race progressed for me.

My qualifying time had me starting the race in 3^rd place so I decided to try and stay near the front of the 42 car field and hopefully avoid the carnage that would ultimately take place behind me. That was a good decision; the first part of the race was marred with multiple crashes and caution periods.

At lap 28 I was running in 6^th position when the leader tangled with a lapped car causing a big crash in front of me, I wasn’t able to avoid a spinning car and damaged the front end of my car. Although I could see that the hood of my car was bent up the car seemed to be OK so I decided not to pull into the pits to repair the damage. Not pitting put me in 4^th place for the restart but I soon found out my car was damaged more than I thought, although the car handled OK I had lost about 15mph in straight-line speed, I continued on until lap 45 when I finally had to pit for repairs dropping down to 12^th place.

This is where the race started to go my way, three things happened in this pit stop that would shape my race going forward. First, I lost one lap to the leaders. Second, my pit crew did an excellent job repairing my car (after the pit stop it bad fast). Third, and most important, I was now on a different pit sequence for tires and fuel than the rest of the field. This meant that I would be able to stay on track while the cars ahead of me pitted for tires and fuel. Everything played out as I had hoped, when the leaders pitted on lap 86 I was able to pass them and get back on the lead lap in 6^th position.

As I said earlier my car was fast, really fast, rocket ship fast, and now that I was back on the same lap as the leaders, my speed, coupled with mistakes by others, allowed me to take the lead on lap 135 and cruise home for the win.

I have to say that the 3 hours and 45 minutes that it took to complete the virtual 500 miles were incredibly intense, my hands and shoulders were sore from gripping and constantly turning the steering wheel. The level of concentration it takes to drive a virtual race car at speeds up to 200mph within inches of other cars is beyond imagination; I was worn out at the end of it, but not too worn out, I was still able to spray virtual champagne all over my pit crew!

Unfortunately I was not able to capture video from the actual race, however, I did have video from one of my practice sessions prior to the race. The video link below will show you just how immersive on-line racing is, giving you and idea of what I see when I’m racing at Daytona as well as what the spectators watching the live video stream of the race saw.

For those of you that tuned into the race broadcast on Glacier TV, leave a comment in the comments section and let me know what you thoutht of the race. I had a great time doing this race, over the year iRacing does several of these special races and I’m going to try and race in all of them. The next big one is the Virtual Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend, hope you all will tune in to the braodcast and watch.

Here’s Max:

Since I first started playing video games, it has solely been on a console, but with modern technology, the way I play video games is changing. Last month I built my own gaming computer, equipped with a ASUS GTX660 GPU and an Intel Core i7-3770K CPU. I installed a plethora of PC games, including personal favorite “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2,” and I’m blown away. The powerful 660 always maintains 60 frames per second on COD, and on “Team Fortress 2,” I get 300 frames per second. There are many debates on why PC gaming is better or worse than console gaming, and now having seen what a PC can do, my original opinion and partiality of the PlayStation 3 has drastically changed.

Now a convert, I offer my reasons why PC gaming is superior to that on a console:
• Consoles play games with 20-30fps, a PC with 60+ fps.
• Consoles have 1280×720 and even sometimes sub-HD resolutions, but PCs have 1920×1200 and 2560×1600.
• PCs have better graphics (lighting, textures, etc.).
• Consoles don’t have anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.
• With a console, you cannot mod the game.
• With consoles, you cannot play multiplayer with more than 16 players, but with PCs, you can play with 50 or more players.
• With PCs, you have a dedicated server, but with consoles you do not. Consoles use peer-to-peer only and that is very bad because if someone lags then everybody lags.
• There are tons of exclusives on PC gaming including “StarCraft II” and “DayZ Standalone.”
• If you like RTS and MMORPGS games, then PC gaming is your only choice.

All in all, the debate of whether PC gaming is superior over console play will be a constant battle, but for this gamer, at least, I’ve seen the light. Thanks to an amazing GPU and CPU, console gaming is game over.

The racing takes place this Friday and Saturday, Feb 22^nd and 23^rd. Because this is a world-wide event, iRacing.com is hosting two races in order to accommodate time zone differences. Friday’s race will take place at 9:00pm EST (02:00 GMT Saturday) and Saturday’s race will take place at 2:00pm EST (19:00 GMT Saturday) you can watch the races live on Glacier TV (http://www.glaciertv.com).

It is expected more than 1000 on-line iRacers will be competing  so in order to accommodate everyone iRacing.com will divide the iRacers into multiple 43 car “splits” based on each iRacers iRacing.com ranking. The top split from Friday and Saturday’s races will be broadcast live, I probably won’t make the top split but don’t let that keep you from checking out the on-line action; you’ll be amazed at the level of competition and just how realistic the racing looks.

I’ll be competing in the race held Friday night and I’ll be doing my qualification run before the race to determine my starting position within my split. Not sure yet what my race strategy will be, the on-line races at Daytona tend to mirror the real races at Daytona, all the cars tend to run close together in a huge pack, while this is exciting it also lends itself to huge wrecks that can destroy your car and knock you out of the race. I need to decide if I hang towards the back of the pack to avoid the wrecks and make a move to the front during the last 20 laps, or if I qualify up near the front do I try and stay ahead of the pack for 500 miles, decisions, decisions!

I’ll also be practicing my pit stops prior to the race; getting the car slowed from 190+mph down to the 55mph pit road speed limit faster than the other drivers means I’ll spend less time on pit road, an easy way to gain positions.

Horsepower for my virtual race car is courtesy of an Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition processor so if I don’t win it won’t be for lack of speed.

Here’s a picture of my virtual Intel car and pit crew

 and a picture of my racing rig, the three monitors help make the racing a more immersive experience.

Notice the keyboard/mouse tray? That’s where I’ll keep my drink and snacks; I fully expect this race to last 4+ hours so I’ll definitely need drinks and snacks.

So wish me luck! I’ll be sharing video highlights in a follow-up post so check back to see how I finished.

From January 29^th through February 2^nd Intel Extreme Masters is hosting the best gamers from Brazil and around the world competing for $50,000 in prize money in our League of Legends tournament. For our StarCraft II fans we hosted an all Brazilian tournament where 12 players battled for prizes that included Intel Core i7 Extreme Processors, Intel  SSD drives, Patriot “Intel Extreme Masters “ memory and some really cool little USB drives.

IEM also hosted, for the first time in Brazil, a StarCraft II “Heart of the Swarm” mini tournament featuring four of the best international StarCraft II players. Grubby, KiLLeR, Strelok and White-Ra played a round robin showing this soon to be released expansion pack to StarCraft II, look for it March 12^th 2013. Interesting side note, White-Ra is north of 30 years old, the other gamers refer to him as daddy or grand-daddy and his secret to winning at StarCraft II is “Special Tactics” I’m sure the other gamers would like to know what those are…

A special guest appearance from California’s Josiah Bruny also known as Rapper V, added some rap spice to the music mix, Josiah took to the tournament stage and treated our gaming audience to some top shelf California rap. Josiah was also kind enough to sign autographs and take pictures with some of our visitors in our Photo Booth.

Josiah heads up Music Changing Lives, a non-profit organization that offers the highest quality of music and art enrichment programs to underprivileged and at-risk youth between the ages of 8-18 years old, helping them improve their chances of achieving a positive and successful future.  The programs are designed to reduce the local communities’ dropout rate by assisting youth in connecting with their own passion and purpose in life.

In our Customer Experience Zone we were joined by LG showing off their latest UltraBook’s, giving our visitors the opportunity to see for themselves just how cool UltraBook’s are. Microsoft was also part of our Customer Experience Zone, they had several different touch enabled UltraBook’s available for visitors to try out Windows 8 and the touch user interface.

We don’t have the crowds here in Sao Paulo like we had in Poland but the crowds we do have are way more enthusiastic and by far the loudest of any of the IEM stops so far. But it’s not just about the crowds attending the event; it’s also about the number of people watching on-line. Our partner, ESL, has live streams from the tournament going out over the internet in seven different languages. If you had any doubt about the popularity of eSports on line how does 100,000 concurrent viewers sound? And that was the number for the first day of the League of Legends tournament; we expect even larger numbers for today (Friday) and Saturday. If you haven’t done so have a look on-line, just go to the ESL Extreme Masters website.

That’s about it from Sao Paulo, the League of Legends tournament concludes tomorrow (Saturday) so check out the final standings or maybe even watch the finals being streamed live. I’ll be in Hannover Germany for the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship March 5^th through 9^th so be sure to check back.

We’re simply setting out to “change minds, change lives, and change policy” with film. These lofty goals are what film director Richard Robbins shared during Monday’s panel hosted by Intel on “Creating Social Change with Film at the Center” at Sundance Film Festival.

The worldwide premiere of the trailer for Girl Rising, an innovative documentary that is the result of a collaboration between Intel, The Documentary Group, Vulcan, and CNN Films, was held during the noontime panel. They say hindsight vision is 20/20, and looking back now, when we were planning our presence at Sundance this year we should have included a line item in the budget for Kleenex. There were definitely tears in the audience as we watched the inspirational trailer and learned about the filmmaking process and evolution of Girl Rising.

That evening, Intel held a salon during which renowned actress, Freida Pinto, introduced the film by sharing some moving facts about education worldwide: there are 66 million girls who are not in school; 14 million girls under the age of 18 will be married this year alone; and 150 million girls are victims of sexual violence each year. While the statistics may seem daunting, Pinto perfectly summarized the optimistic and empowered mood of the audience that night- “there is so much hope in the world if you just look for it.”

Through Girl Rising, we hope to do more than just spread awareness– we aim to change the state of girls education worldwide. Pinto was joined by a cast of other notable speakers: Edwidge Danticat, award-winning author and writer of the film chapter on Haiti; Holly Gordon, Executive Director of Girl Rising; and Shelly Esque, Intel VP of Corporate Affairs; who moved the audience on to action by saying “If you educate girls, you will change the world.”

Girl Rising is gathering a lot of support from the thespian community, and is narrated by Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Alicia Keys, Cate Blanchett, Kerry Washington, Selena Gomez, Priyanka Chopra, Chloë Moretz, Freida Pinto, and Liam Neeson.

We believe that Girl Rising is a documentary like no other. It is a call to action. As such, we have partnered with Gathr, an innovative new model for theatrical distribution that puts film screenings in the hands of the audience. We hope in doing so, people will be motivated watch the film as a community and make Girl Rising into a true social action movement. Girl Rising makes its theatrical debut on March 6, 2013,in New York City and through Gathr, you can request a screening in a theater in your local community.

Now is the time. The stories of the nine girls profiled in the film are real, written by notable authors from the countries the girls are from, and will inspire you to rise up and take action. What does your education mean to you? What would your life be like if you had not gone to school?

@IntelInvolved #GirlRising @10x10act #Sundance

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have  reached the 20,000 ft cruising altitude you may now start writing your blog.” Ok, so maybe the pilot did not say that last part, but that is what I wanted to hear, to get the buzz out  and I’ll be giving you an all access pass to everything Intel at Sundance Film Festival!

Intel has been a corporate sponsor of Sundance for quite a few years now, but this year we have something very special to share with you – the worldwide premiere of the Girl Rising documentary trailer! Intel is a founding corporate sponsor of 10×10, a social action campaign to raise awareness of the importance and value of educating girls worldwide. The cornerstone of the campaign is Girl Rising, a documentary that uses powerful storytelling to tell the stories of girls across several countries as they fight for access to education.

The worldwide premiere of the film trailer will be held at Sundance on Monday, January 21^st. There will also be a panel discussion that morning on how film can be used to jump start social change campaigns featuring Shelly Esque, Intel’s VP of Legal and Corporate Affairs, and speakers from our partners at 10×10, Vulcan Productions, Gathr, and the United Nations Foundation. While not everyone can attend in person, I’ll be giving you an all access pass to everything Intel and Girl Rising at Sundance. Follow along on Twitter at @IntelInvolved as I post updates from the panels and events, take a walk down Main Street with me in my video diary series, and see how many celebrities I can accidentally bump in to… (So far my running count is one, but it was a big one!).

It’s been a culmination of excitement to be heading to Sundance and it’s been over 2 years that I have heard rumblings about this film. I can’t wait to share the trailer with you on Tuesday, but in the meantime you can check out the teaser at spr.ly/GirlRisingTeaser.  Trust me, the full trailer will give you goose bumps (and not just because the nighttime low tonight is 1 degree Fahrenheit).

We estimate more than 40,000 eSports fans will have attended Intel Extreme Masters here in Katowice over the three days of the event. 40,000 eSports fans watching the world’s best gamers play for $82,000 in prize money tells you how hugely popular computer gaming has become, and the really cool thing; each and every competitor here is playing on a computer powered by a 3^rd Generation Intel Core i7 Extreme processor!

Besides the StarCraft II and League of Legends competition we have the Intel Extreme Masters consumer experience zone up and running for our guests to experience gaming on 3^rd Generation Core i7 processors for themselves. We also have an Ultrabook zone where people can check out and play with the latest Ultrabook convertibles.

I’m not going to go into the tournament details, I’ll leave that to our partners at ESL they do a much better job at describing the action. You will find all the results at ESL Intel Extreme Masters website http://esl.tv/iem-katowice-2013/ .

This IEM stop has been amazing and not only from an attendance standpoint. The people we’ve met here in Katowice are awesome, very warm and friendly, but then that’s the way it is everywhere we go and that’s one of the greatest things about Intel Extreme Masters, the opportunity to travel the world meeting people as passionate about eSports as we are.

For our next stop Intel Extreme Masters will be at Campus Party in Sao Paulo Brazil, January 28^th through February 3^rd where we will be hosting another League of Legends tournament worth $50,000. The top two players from Brazil will qualify for the Intel Extreme Masters World Championships being held at CeBIT in Hannover Germany.

That’s it for now, I’ll be blogging from Brazil so be sure to check back for news from Sao Paulo where I’ll be swapping out my Katowice winter wear for shorts and t-shirts.

A group of culture influencers including Justin Chatwin, Mark Foster, Beau Garrett, Chase Jarvis and Bryn Mooser join Grammy-nominated singer and philanthropist Kenna, educators and other partners for a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro for an initiative called Summit on the Summit 2 (SOTS2). I’m climbing on behalf of Intel.

The objective of SOTS2 is to create awareness for the global clean water crises and drive change.  This crises is staggering – more than 780 million people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water, and more than 3.5 million people die each year from water-related diseases.

As “sponsors of tomorrow,” Intel believes that its technology helps make the world a better place and can improve the lives of people everywhere.  This is why it is participating as a corporate sponsor of SOTS2.  (Intel also helped sponsor the initial climb in 2010).

Intel and HP are contributing a range of Ultrabooks^TM and computer devises that are being used as a “voice from the mountain” to help communicate and educate people on this crises. This includes climbers posting updates through social media channels, summitonthesummit.com – including on anline summit seeker community, and a full blown Intel powered production tent that is capturing and distributing content about the crises and the climb.

It’s been an educational and inspiring journey.  Upon arrival, we visited the Maswakini village where clean water is a daily matter of survival.  We learned through Dr. Greg Allwood how P&G is the community by providing clean water sachets that can make dirty water drinkable in about 20 minutes.  I was personally touched by the children of the community who smiled constantly, laughed and played absent of material passions and despite their living condition.

We are day 2 into a 7 day climb, Im writing this blog at 11,500’ with an amazing view of the tallest mountain in Africa (19,341’).  It’s been a fantastic and challenging experience and the team seems destined to summit in the name of clean water.

To find out more about the SUMMIT ON THE SUMMIT, please visit summitonthesummit.com and follow the climb on social media via:

•  @SOTSK on Twitter
•  summitonthesummit on Facebook
•  summitonthesummit on Myspace
•  sotsk on Instagram
•  stosk on Tumblr
• YouTube

#CES, @Intel, #Ultrabook, #IntelTablets #lookinside