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Barclays, the U.K. banking behemoth, is challenging Barclays To Host Blockchains Hackathon developers to assist refurbish the worldwide derivatives market next month at a hackathon. Disclosed to the media this week, DerivHack will take place at Barclays' Rise accelerator spaces at the same time in New York and London on September 20 and 21, 2018. The ISDA (International Swaps and Derivatives Association), Thomson Reuters, and Deloitte are co-sponsoring the hackathon.

Smartphones have already replaced cameras and calendars for many people - and piles of gaming controllers might be next. A startup called WanderPlayer has developed a technology that turns iPhones (and soon Android phones) into controllers for computer games, no matter whether those games call for a classic controller, Wii-like motion controller, a steering wheel or five other options. Here's how it works: Users download a desktop app and a mobile app. The mobile app lists online games from around the web. Selecting a game from the mobile app menu opens it on the computer, and the two devices communicate over Wi-Fi. It's not an easy technology to make work well. "You could probably build a crude equivalent at a hackathon," says co-founder Ayo Omojola, "but both the user-interaction and performance required for games [as well as] the controllers and console that work across local environments are really difficult and take a while to get right." WanderPlayer has developed a controller without a noticeable delay that it says can work with pretty much any game (so far it's applied the technology to about 150 of them). As is, the product is impressive.