Web Fed News Yearbooks - December 2001

THE MONTH IN BRIEF

The seventh event season closed, with Fancy winning the Cerebral League and Alternate and Jazir sharing the top fighting spot. Or did they...? Alternate didn't want to share his title with anyone. Tying for first place in the fighting league for the seventh season of events wasn't good enough for him. No, he wanted to show people that he was the top dog, the number one, the best fighter in all the Galaxy. So he arranged a death match with Jazir, to prove once and for all which of them should hold the crown. The shoot-out was held after Blood Zone on Thursday, and presided over by fighting host Chiefsgirl. A raucous crowd looked on, cheering their favorite fighter to win.

The shooting started. Missiles flew, lasers burned, hulls started to get holes, and finally, the winner emerged, proving once and for all, that Alternate... wasn't the best fighter after all. Because Jazir beat him! Oh dear.

Christmas in Fed involved two puzzle planets - a brand new one, and a revival of an old one. Bella ran a trivia quiz on the web: you can see

Alan wrote an article about misapplied technology. Read it at http://www.ibgames.net/alan/society/misapply.html.

December 11 marked the hundredth anniversary of a significant event in the history of communications. Marconi sent a radio signal across the Atlantic Ocean, thus proving that world-wide communications were possible, and that radio signals could ride the curvature of the Earth across an ocean. At that time, intercontinental messages were sent via cables sunk on the ocean floor, and one of those cables arrived in Newfoundland almost 50 years before Marconi did.

His success was not greeted with joy at the time - in fact, Marconi was hounded out of Newfoundland after receiving the signal on Signal Hill, St. Johns. The Anglo-American Telegraph company threatened Marconi with a lawsuit if he persisted with his work, because it threatened their monopoly on trans-Atlantic messages.

Marconi was for a long time regarded as the father of radio, but in fact the first patents on the technology were filed by Nicholas Tesla in 1897. The two fought over who owned the technology, and Tesla sued Marconi. In 1943, after Tesla's death, Marconi's patent was overturned and Tesla was vindicated. But no matter who invented the technology, it was Marconi that made it work and made possible the communications we enjoy today.

IT'S HIP TO BE SQUARE

My, how times change. When I first got into computers and comms 15 years ago, I was considered a real nerd - a sad geek, someone who couldn't make real friends so had to talk to people using a computer, someone who couldn't cope with the real world so chose to hunch over a computer instead.

Apparently, that's no longer the case. Being a geek is now cool. A survey of 2,500 randomly selected Brits revealed that people who go online:

Tend to be better paid than those who don't
Are better educated than non surfers
Lead more sociable lives than those who don't use the net

Nice to know that I am no longer a social outcast!

The study was carried out by Warwick University. Andrew Oswald, who conducted it, said that contrary to popular opinion, surfers don't spend their days slouched over a computer, they simply watch less television.

The net-heads are also more likely to be regular churchgoers, and to belong to a community group or voluntary organisation.

Again, I say... how times change!

FOR THE GEEK WHO HAS EVERYTHING

Stuck with what to buy the geek in your life for Christmas? Here's a few ideas.

Home Arcade Simulator

Players of arcade games love those full-scale hydraulic simulators you find in arcades; the ones that let you feel every turn, crash, and explosion. But they cost tens of thousands of dollars so are way beyond the pocket of even the most fanatical of gamers. Step forward James Bobrow at the University of California at Irvine, who has come up with a much cheaper way of achieving the same effect. He adapted an office chair! He replaced each leg with thick tubes that can be extended or contracted by forcing air in or out. When linked to a computer game, the chair responds to action taking place on the screen, reproducing those lurches and turns. And the good news: the chair costs less than a thousand dollars.

Posh Mouse

Once you've got every conceivable gadget attached to your computer, including the ones so bleeding edge that no software works with them yet, what do you spend your money on?

How about a silver plated mouse? This luxury item was found in one of those gift catalogs that get mailed to me at this time of year. It comes superbly presented in an elegant velvet-touch gift box along with its own mouse mat. And if that's not enough, it can be personalized by added up to three initials. All this for just £24.95.

If you don't believe me, you can see it on their web site - go to http://www.houseofbath.co.uk and use their search facility to look for "computer mouse".

The Best CD Storage

If you have taken a look at our game Age of Adventure which is currently in development, you might be interested in things to do with ancient Egypt. In which case, the same catalog has the perfect item for you - a sarcophagus in which you keep CDs. This one has to be seen to be believed. It's hardwood, and hand painted, and 2 foot high, and costs £129.95...

Go to http://www.houseofbath.co.uk and search for "cd sarcophagus" to see it in all its glory. And perhaps order it for a friend!

OVER-ZEALOUS FILTER HITS CHRISTMAS CAROL

I've said before the software filters don't work; here's another example of the ridiculous result of using an over-zealous filter.

The police force in Hampshire, England, has a choir. They wanted to publish the list of carols they intended to sing. But the firewall rejected their list because it contained an obscene word, and wouldn't let the choir secretary mail the list out to other officers.

The offending carol turned out to be a popular little number called "Ding Dong Merrily on High", the naughty word being "dong".

The filter's list of bad words has now been amended!

THEY ALWAYS SAID COMPUTER GAMES WERE BAD FOR YOU!

Proof, if it was needed, that your parents were right. A news report from earlier this month tells of a deckhand on a ship who was killed while playing Playstation games.

The Australian deckhand was electrocuted when a wave smashed into the boat's wheelhouse. The 19-year-old was sitting at a metal table playing with the console when a huge wave broke through the cabin window. Three other crewmembers suffered shocks and burns while trying to rescue the unfortunate gamer from the cabin.

See, they told you it was bad for you!