( square pic attached. if it's no good, there's a couple more in this zip file: http://a0.sqimg.com/documents/square-media.zip but this one is the best of the bunch ) THE INTERNET COLUMN By Giles Turnbull It's true what they say: we are living in the future. Web services like Square are the proof. Square (www.squareup.com) is a new twist on an old idea. Wouldn't it be great, its founders wondered, if you could pay for stuff without having to carry around old-fashioned things like cash or credit cards? After all, electronic payment shouldn't be that difficult. All you need is for retailers to have a gadget for taking payment (well, all of them already have those), and for shoppers to have a gadget for making payment. Which is handy, because most of us have one already. Our mobile phone. Modern mobiles are basically mini pocket computers with permanent internet connections. All they need is the right software. That's where Square comes in. It's a software package for smart phones, which turns them into internet-connected credit card terminals. Anyone can make - or take - payment for anything, anywhere there's a phone signal or a wifi connection. Paper receipts are ditched in favour of digital ones. And because smart phones have touch-screens, you can still sign your name with a stylus or with your finger. Similar ideas have been touted around before, but this one's different in one important respect. One of Square's founders is a certain Jack Dorsey, a young Californian who did rather well out of his last idea: a little web service you might have heard of which goes by the name of Twitter. If anyone can make mobile payments work, Jack Dorsey can. + Microsoft helps + Need some help with Windows 7? Microsoft is experimenting with a new way of doing product support - this time via Twitter. If you're on Twitter, all you need do is address a question to @MicrosoftHelps and one of the team there will hopefully give you an answer (or point you in the right direction towards someone who can). If you've ever wondered how Twitter is going to make any money, corporate use of it for things like this might be it. If the experiment is a success, we might see a lot more tech support on Twitter in future. + Get your apps fast + So you've just got a brand new Windows computer, and you want to load it up with the applications you always use. But downloading and installing each one by hand will take hours. Enter Ninite (ninite.com). Browse the list, and tick the boxes next to the applications you want to install. Click the "Get installer" button at the bottom, and you'll download a custom installer that will do all the work for you - download everything, install it all, and clean up afterwards. Nothing could be quicker or simpler. + Draw with the flock + Flockdraw (www.flockdraw.com) is a brilliant idea. It's a shared internet whiteboard that you can your friends can scribble on simultaneously, even if you are continents apart. Click the "Start drawing" button to see your personal drawing space, and send the page's unique address to your friends to give them access. It's fast and fun and could come in useful for all sorts of things, from business meetings to trans-Atlantic chats with grandparents. + Browsing around ... the 2010 World Cup in South Africa + :: Official FIFA site www.fifa.com/worldcup/ :: A guide to the stadiums bit.ly/2010stadiums :: Info for tourists in South Africa www.southafrica.net :: The South African Premier Soccer League www.psl.co.za :: Lots of helpful Cup information www.cup2010.info :: News and opinion on African and European football www.kickoff.com + Thing of the week + :: Surprised kitty! The funniest cat you've seen all year bit.ly/6uicgn + Giles Turnbull has a web site at gilest.org + ENDS