WE ARE not alone in finding the UK-Info CD-ROM phone directory well nigh
useless (Feedback, 7 March). Because BT claims monopoly on its database of phone
numbers, UK-Info has to get its information from other sources, and this leaves
gaping holes in the CD鈥檚 data鈥攁s many readers have corroborated.
UK-Info now has a website (www.192.com) which cleverly snaffles the
192 dialling code used by BT for its own directory inquiry service and bravely
hosts a bulletin board on which users can post their frank opinions of the disc.
Most are too frank to print here.
So why does UK-Info run a free website that publicises its users鈥� abuse?
Well, the site also allows online searching and a page pops up when the search
engine fails to find full details. 鈥淧lease make your corrections,鈥� it urges.
Users then get the chance to add entries that are missing and correct errors in
those that are there. So eventually UK Info gets a database of information on
which BT cannot claim any copyright.
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A clever ploy, but BT is still laughing. Reading some of the hate mail and
trying a search took Feedback more than 20 minutes. At peak phone rates, that
put nearly 拢1 in BT鈥檚 pocket.
ONE OF those who found the UKInfo CD well-nigh useless was Geoff Drage, who
was so frustrated when he tried to use it that what he wanted to do with it was
. . . well, he wasn鈥檛 sure.
鈥淒o you know what I really hate about CDs?鈥� he tells Feedback. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 put
them over a baked bean can in the oven and turn them into plant pots like you
could with good old vinyl.鈥�
This is true. But by coincidence, Anthony Bullock writes with a recycling
suggestion for unwanted CDs, such as the ones mounted so often on magazine
covers鈥攖he ones you sample once and instantly regret the time you鈥檝e
wasted.
His sister finds them very handy as art material at a children鈥檚 activity
group, he says. Apparently, they make excellent fish scales, haloes and
mobiles.
Has anyone got any other ideas?
FEEDBACK IS INTERESTED to note that God has thought it necessary to publish a
legal disclaimer with the electronic version of His best known book, the
Bible.
While installing a shareware CD of the Bible, Leon Coles came across were
these words: 鈥淭his program and text is free and may not be sold, but can be
copied and distributed as free. The software is provided 鈥榓s is鈥� without
warranty of any kind. The author disclaims all warranties, either express or
implied, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a
particular purpose. In no event shall the author be liable for any damage
whatsoever including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, loss of
business profits or special damages, even if the author has been advised of the
possibility of such damages.鈥�
Clearly, the author in question (or should we say the Author) has a
remarkable command of legal terminology. Or does God hire solicitors to write
His disclaimers for Him these days, being too busy to write them Himself?
CONGRATULATIONS to Central Trains for the elegant phraseology of its
announcements to passengers. Vivienne Griffiths came across this notice on a
Norwich-Thetford-Ely-Cambridge-Peterborough timetable: 鈥淭rains on occasion may
be formed with more coaches than can be accommodated at some stations during the
course of its [sic] journey. Before alighting customers should take care to
ensure the station platform is immediately adjacent.鈥�
WHILE roaming the newsgroups, Mark Roberts came across a question that had
not previously occurred to Feedback, but which clearly demands an answer: Why is
there only one Monopolies Commission?
Answers on a postcard, please.
IT IS unusual for US government agencies to recommend watching television for
your health, but that is what the Environmental Protection Agency is doing. An
EPA scheme provides ozone measurements on TV and the Internet (see
http://www.epa.gov/region01/eco/ozone/).
More than 100 million people are estimated to live in areas that do not meet
the national air quality standards for ozone. The EPA hopes that the animated
smog map shown on the Internet and on TV will increase public awareness of the
problem.
Unfortunately, some computer equipment, such as the laser printer, generates
ozone. Perhaps the agency will also provide a chart showing whether it is safer
to stay indoors with the computer or risk the smog outside.
JIM HOWES writes to tell us he was intrigued by a note in his local Tesco
supermarket鈥檚 meat department which said: 鈥�25 per cent off per kilogram.鈥�
鈥淒oes this mean that I get 50 per cent off if I buy 2 kilograms?鈥� he
asked.
鈥淓r . . . I think so,鈥� came the reply.
MEANWHILE, Geoff Diver鈥檚 two young girls recently received a small cosmetic
kit each. The product label said: 鈥淣ot tested on animals except if you count
尘别苍.鈥�
FINALLY, a friend of David Brodrick works as a maintenance engineer for
Qantas airlines in Sydney. One of the chemicals he works with includes a label:
鈥淲arning: Found to cause cancer in California鈥�. Lucky he鈥檚 in Australia.