Easter Backbytes: Tales from the lighter side of IT

Meet the computer that hates messing things up and find why a store in Japan only wants to serve shiny happy people

The PC that feels regret

We weren't at the International Conference on Learning Theory in Haifa, Israel to hear Prof Yishay Mansour of Tel Aviv University's Blavatnik School of Computer Science launch his project, but we wish we had been.

Rather like Prof Mansour's computers: he announced that he is giving them "regret" - allowing them to measure the distance between the desired outcome of their models and what actually happened, so that if they bugger up the first time, they don't do it again.

This groundbreaking research is another step on the evolutionary ladder for computers. As regular readers know, the electronic tykes are terrific at chess and vacuuming, but useless as footballers. This will give computers a skill that bankers and estate agents have been unable to master.

Wood you believe it?

Meanwhile, at Stanford University, subjects who were immersed in a 3D virtual forest and told to chop down a sequoia later used less paper in their everyday lives.
"We found that virtual reality can change how people behave," said Sun Joo Ahn, whose doctoral dissertation outlines the findings. Of course, this applies to learning lessons about saving the planet, which is nice, and in no way applies to shooting people or driving very fast in virtual reality, which the games industry has been telling us for years has no effect on behaviour. So someone must be wrong.

Brighten up your smile

As most of our readers are Brits, you know that we prefer not to show our teeth in case the rest of the world laughs at us. At the other end of the scale, in Japan a department store has created computer-controlled LED lights that make your teeth glow in bright colours. Who wouldn't want to have bright blue teeth that flash on and off?

If you're wondering what this looks like, visit YouTube here or here. The best way to use the product would be in a meeting, while pretending nothing unusual was happening at all.

Brass off fellow passengers

If you have $400 to spend and want an iPhone accessory that might start a conversation, consider artist Christopher Locke's iPhone trumpet. That's right, an iPhone trumpet. What do you mean, we need to explain?

The analog Tele-Phonographer, to give it its correct name, is a one-off design made from a salvaged trumpet and wiggly bits of metal, which amplifies the sounds from any portable music player without using electricity. See and hear it here.

It's not exactly portable, but if you took it on public transport, it would wreak revenge on the kids who believe that R&B is best heard through their phone's speaker at 7.45am on the number 11 bus.

Commodorable?

Dude! We find the 1980s to be mondo copacetic, so we are totally amped at the kick-ass meganews that Commodore is relaunching the Commodore 64! A most triumphant way to spend £364!

Why, are you juiced, you ask? Hello! The C64 was mung even then. Cool your jets. It just looks like a C64, but it righteously runs Windows 7 and you can get a Blu-ray player for it, which is a total head rush. So really the only genuine 1982 thing about it is the fugly beige box it comes in.

Bombdigity or buggin? You decide, if you understood a word of what we just said.

If you've encountered anything weird, wonderful or infuriating relating to the world of IT, we'd love to hear from you. Just email us at [email protected] or leave a comment.

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