skills

LinkedIn for the working stiffs: SkillPages hits 10M users

SkillPages, a startup that helps people find skilled workers like carpenters or painters, has been quietly gathering millions of users over the last two years. Now, at 10 million users -- with 1.5 million of those users coming online in just the last month -- it's launching mobile app to localize searches even more.

The site's services are a mixture of social-networking sites like LinkedIn and job marketplaces like TaskRabbit or Zaarly. People with specific talents start a skill page, a profile that lists their skills and what type of work they are looking for. On the … Read more

Steve Case: America must 'double down on entrepreneurs' (Q&A)

Steve Case, who made his vast fortune as the co-founder of America Online, wants to help America's startup scene flourish. Not the scene in Silicon Valley, but in all the pockets between there and the East Coast -- what he calls the "rise of the rest." Cities like Cleveland, Memphis and Detroit. Through his Washington, D.C-based firm, Revolution, Case has invested in about 25 non-Valley startups, including LivingSocial and the now-public Zipcar.

That mission plays into his big cause at the moment, pushing to reform America's high-skilled immigration system so that the country keeps and … Read more

Top side-scrolling racing games on iOS

Yesterday, I posted a review of Mad Skills BMX, an excellent sequel to the popular Mad Skills Motocross game that uses a completely new control system. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend Turborilla's latest game.

There are a ton of side-scrolling racing games in the App Store that I've played and reviewed over the years, but only a few can match the level of polish and challenging gameplay found in the Mad Skills games. I've added a couple more to the list here, but if you have a good one you're playing, let me know in the comments.

This week's collection of iOS apps consists of two excellent side-scrolling racers that I recommend wholeheartedly. The first offers a Trials-like experience that has you restarting tracks over and over to get the best time. The second is a recent release with (mostly) lifelike physics as you race giant four- and six-wheel drive vehicles.… Read more

Online tool gauges if your home is stimulating enough for baby

As a first-time expecting mother who doesn't know many kids, setting up my home for a baby is a mysterious process that involves procuring little outlet covers and stacking wine bottles on the counter instead of the floor.

As for maximizing my home's environment for optimal infant motor development, let's just say I'm the aunt who assumes a newborn can play with tangrams (turns out they just chew on them).

So this morning I rather eagerly checked out a new online test that assesses the quality and quantity of motor development opportunities my home currently provides. … Read more

Test your math skills with RekenTest

Let's be clear and up-front about RekenTest: It's a math test. Not only that, it's a math test you take deliberately, without anyone making you. That adds up to two important facts: 1) Your ability to think up excuses to get out of the test will be strained like never before; and 2) You'll learn math. This simple but effective freeware will see to that.

RekenTest's ultrasimple interface opens in full-screen mode with an optional wizard. Unfortunately, the program only offers full-screen or fully minimized modes. The true full-screen, fully maximized mode showed our toolbar … Read more

Enjoy this classic game with 100% Free Checkers Board Game Windows

Checkers is a game that's easy enough for even young children to play, but that doesn't mean it can't be a challenge when you're faced with a skillful opponent. 100% Free Checkers Board Game Windows offers a variety of skill levels and options, but we couldn't help but be a bit put off by the game's constant pressure to upgrade to Championship Checkers Pro.

When we launched 100% Free Checkers we had to wait a while for the program to get past the opening logo and actually launch the game. We then entered our … Read more

Fun and challenging motocross

Mad Skills Motocross is a fun and addictive game that started on desktop computers, but seems much more suited to the iOS. Sort of in the vein of arcade classic Excitebike, Mad Skills Motocross is a side-scrolling racer in which you race against a single opponent on several challenging tracks. The default controls give you buttons for throttle and brakes on the lower left and buttons for tilt control on the right. You can switch tilt controls to the accelerometer in the settings, but both variations proved to work well after a bit of practice.

You will need practice, by … Read more

Study: Video games aid post-stroke motor skills

Researchers around the world have been studying whether interactive video games can improve motor skills since, well, the advent of video games. (For instance, this study on the effects of video games on hand-eye coordination in the elderly was published in 1985.)

But a team out of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto finds that after analyzing 12 studies looking at the effects of these games on upper arm strength and mobility, stroke patients who game are up to five times as likely to improve arm motor function than those undergoing standard physical therapy.

The meta analysis, published in the April issue of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, suggests that video games on systems such as the Wii and PlayStation help the brains of stroke victims recover by improving neuroplasticity--which is the brain's ability to create new nerve cell connections.

Related links • U.S. Navy submarine sonar tech targets strokes • Robot's handshake helps stroke survivors • Grandma had a stroke? Teach her to play Wii

"Recovery of motor skill depends on neurological recovery, adaptation, and learning new strategies," said Gustavo Saposnik, the lead author of the study and the director of the Stroke Outcomes Research Unit at the hospital, in a news release. "Virtual-reality systems drive neuroplasticity and lead to benefits in motor function improvement after stroke."

Seven of the dozen studies monitored patient improvement before and after playing the games, and found a 14.7 percent improvement in patients' grip strength and a 20 percent improvement in standard task performance.

Because most of the studies had small sample sizes, Saposnik says the next step is to conduct a far larger trial; he hopes to randomly assign some 140 patients to either play virtual reality games or undergo standard therapy and dig even further into the results.… Read more

Bulletstorm: The pinball shooter

Among the sea of trite and unimaginative first-person-shooters is Bulletstorm, the latest offering from developers Epic Games and People Can Fly, some of the fine folks who brought us the Gears of War franchise.

Bulletstorm has been touted as a departure from the typical cookie cutter first-person-shooter. Does it achieve that distinction or sink to the bottom?

Jeff: In the weeks leading up to its release, the marketing minds behind Bulletstorm sent shockwaves through the gaming world by attempting to attract gamers who were sick of the same old shooter experience. To reinforce the campaign further, a parody game called "Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm" was developed to poke fun at modern shooters and their redundancies, clearly singling out the Call of Duty franchise as major culprits.

Now that we've actually had some time with the game, we're pleased to report that Bulletstorm does in fact separate itself from the monotony of the average shooter. In playing and reviewing Bulletstorm, a new genre popped into mind; we're calling the game a pinball shooter.… Read more