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WEB FED NEWS YEARBOOKS Earthdate November 2003 |
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WEB FED NEWS YEARBOOKS Earthdate November 2003 |
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OFFICIAL
NEWS |
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Having been complaining that things were too quiet, suddenly everything got very, very interesting at the end of November - Fed died! At least, one of the disk drives on the server did, which meant that Fed and the web site vanished. Luckily, our email was still running so we were able to keep players informed about what was going on. The computer Fed runs on is fairly old, and is no longer made, so spare parts for it are not exactly easy to come by. We managed to find a source for replacement disk drives but it took a few days to lay our hands on one. And then Bella jumped on a plane and flew out to New York to replace the dodgy disk drive... but Fed wasn't back until December! Elsewhere... Two new articles
appeared on Hazed's personal web site: one about blogs,
and the other a progress report about her diabetes:
Does anybody remember Risadeamonconia? She was a Fed player from a few years back, and I nominate her for the longest, and most difficult to type, Fed name. I am sure she suffered from people attempting to hug and kiss her, but giving up after three mis-typed commands. Judging from a conversation on channel 9 recently, the issue of long, long names is still one that concerns people, and various solutions were suggested. You can, of course, set up a hot-key or f-key so you don't have to type the very long name when you want to TB or hug someone. But if you use FedTerm32 then there's a much simpler solution. Click on the person's name in the player list, so it's highlighted, then click back into the input window - and then, whenever you press Control-space, the highlighted name will be pasted into your command. So you can type TB and then press Control-space, followed by return to send the command. No more typing of unfeasibly long names!
Last week I talked about how to deal with long-named players, and used a particular name as an example. A few days ago, this letter tumbled onto the mat at the Chronicle headquarters:
Well, I think that proves my point! Risathingummy's name is so long that even demi-goddesses cannot spell it reliably. [Comment from Bella: Of course - you wouldn't except a demi-goddess to be able to spell more than half of someone's name!]
Once again, the issue of long, long names that are impossible to spell correctly has caused a concerned Fedder to put pen to paper... erm... finger to keyboard... or maybe it's tentacle to touch screen... well, you know what I mean! We've received another letter, as follows:
Yes, well, what else do you expect from the woman who brought us "Castillo"?
How many times have I told you to make sure you're insured? Oh yes, you think I'm nagging you. You tell me I sound just like your mother. You accuse me of treating you like a child, who doesn't understand that the Galaxy is a dangerous place, who isn't bright enough even to wipe your nose (or equivalent) without parental interference. So here's a little cautionary tale. I ran into a Commander the other day, called Trentkriss. Here is his story:
Yes, I am sure it is a record, although probably not one that anyone will clamour to break. But you see my point? You see why I nag you about insurance? It really IS dangerous out there, and you really DO need to make sure you have adequate insurance cover, before you go and pick up something strange, or poke something, or push a button saying innocently, "I wonder what this button does?", or put some unknown foodstuff into your mouth, or find yourself involved in some dangerous alien religious cult, or... Well, you get the idea. Go insure. And don't call me mother!
SCIENTISTS SAY CHILLEAN DESERT IS LIKE MARS A report last week says that the Atacama Desert in Chile is like Mars. Well really, have they ever been to Mars? If they had, they'd know there are lots of differences. The Atacama Desert does not have any ruins from a long-dead alien race. There's no strange equipment, no radioactive rooms, no deadly altar and no maze. There are no marsrats scurrying around the Atacama Desert. There is nowhere to land a spaceship, let alone get it repaired. And I don't recall reading about any weapons shops or clothes shops, either. You cannot sell goods in the Atacama Desert because it has no trading exchange. Most importantly, there is no Chez Diesel! The Atacama Desert doesn't have anywhere to buy pizza or enjoy the services of Diesel's executive staff. And there's definitely nowhere to buy Diesel's Old Peculiar, the prize-winning ale. If you want to read just why those silly scientists are claiming this desert is like Mars, then go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3244927.stm. But don't believe a word of it!
THE SPACE MYTH THAT'S JUST NOT TRUE There is an urban legend that says that the only manmade object visible from space is the Great Wall of China. Ignoring the smart-arse comments about being able to see your own spaceship, which certainly counts as being mad-made, it's still not true! There's plenty of artificial things on the Earth that can be seen from orbit. Astronauts on the space shuttle can see highways, airports, dams and even large vehicles when they orbit at 135 miles high. Even from the Interstellar Space Station, 250 miles up, cities can be plainly distinguished from their surrounding countryside. In an email to an earthbound correspondent, astronaut Ed Lu explains just what can be seen out of the window - including the pyramids! And yes, you can see the Great Wall of China, but it's not that easy to find compared to other mad-made objects. You can read more about what Lu can see from space, at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/visible_from_space_031006.html. Space.com is a great web site with a lot of fascinating information about all aspects of space. On their front page at the moment are links to some beautiful pictures of auroras, caused by the recent solar flares; a web cast of the total solar eclipse happening today (Sunday) but only visible from Antarctica; and reviews of space-related entertainment, such as spooky new film Gothika starring Halle Berry.
REAL LIFE NEWS: FISH WITH CHIPS Occasionally a story comes along that has newsdroids weeping with joy, because a natural pun to use in the headline just jumps out and hits you over the head (or equivalent). This is one such story. Investigators from the Australian fisheries inserted microchips into fish, in order to catch poachers. The hi-tech sting began when officers found an illegal fishing net in a creek, in the northwest of the state of Victoria. The officers removed the fish - golden perch and murray cod - and put microchips under their skin, then put them back in the net and waited for the poachers to come and get them. A day later, they checked the nets, to find the fish had gone. Using the tracking devices in the chips to trace the missing fish, they opened up a deep freezer, where they found fillets, still emitting signals! Three men have been charged with illegal commercial fishing.
REAL LIFE NEWS: DANGEROUS TECHNOLOGY Sometimes when computers go wrong, they can really go wrong! Staff at a business in Lincoln, in North England had to evacuate their building last week when 30 computers exploded! Computers in one block of the building blew up, producing smoke and setting off fire alarms, so around 400 people had to leave the building. It was 90 minutes before they could return. The cause was, apparently, an electrical fault. All the affected computers will have to be replaced.
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