OVER recent months electronics companies have come up with ideas for
wristwatch-sized devices that function variously as a cellphone, pager, voice
recorder, radio, TV, camera, GPS satellite navigation system or computer.
Consumers get very excited by these promises, because a watch is one of the few
things we carry with us at all times.
The fly in the ointment is battery life. If the battery is small it quickly
goes flat. If it鈥檚 large, the watch looks ridiculous.
IBM鈥檚 Zurich Research Laboratory thought it had the answer. The battery of
the IBM watch would be recharged via an induction coil that is energised by a
little tray that sits on your bedside table and plugs into the mains. Drop the
watch into the tray at night and it is recharged by the morning.
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This being Switzerland, the researchers talked to local watchmakers. Forget
it, was the response. Sixty per cent of the population wear their watches in
bed. They will wake up with flat batteries.
So IBM has gone back to the drawing board, wondering how many of the
companies now promising power-hungry wrist gadgets have talked to a
watchmaker.
WHATEVER the outcome of Glaxo Wellcome鈥檚 proposed merger with SmithKline
Beecham, it seems that Canadians will not be allowed to enjoy the benefits. Or
perhaps we have misunderstood the strange disclaimer on Glaxo Wellcome鈥檚 Web
page discussing the deal.
It reads, in part: 鈥淭his site is not provided for, or directed at Canadian
persons. If you are a Canadian person or are viewing this page from Canada you
must exit this part of the site by clicking on the `I disagree鈥� button.鈥�
IS THERE anyone out there who doesn鈥檛 know how to open an envelope? The
people at Britain鈥檚 Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, who are at the cutting edge
of particle physics and presumably have enormously powerful brains, seem to
think there are several.
When they send a letter to lesser mortals, the envelope containing it has a
couple of arrows pointing to the flap stating 鈥渙pen here鈥� in three languages. In
case the recipient still hasn鈥檛 got the idea, underneath the text goes on to
advise: 鈥淭o examine contents, lift flap.鈥�
DVDS are taking over from CDs and CD-ROMs because they hold at least six
times the quantity of pictures, sound or data. The Holy Grail is a blank DVD
disc that can not only record, but can then play back on existing home DVD
players or computer DVD-ROM drives.
At the IFA electronics show in Berlin early last year, Philips demonstrated
just such a system, called DVD+RW. Japanese companies Pioneer and Panasonic, who
have rival recordable discs that cannot play back on existing players, claimed
that to make this work Philips must secretly have modified the players they
used.
At the recent Comdex computer show in Las Vegas, Philips hired a room in the
Hilton hotel and invited the press to try a DVD+RW video recording on any of
five ordinary DVD players. As at Berlin it played perfectly.
鈥淏ut you could still have modified the players,鈥� piped up a sceptical
journalist.
Robert van Eijk, who heads Philips鈥檚 Optical Storage division, responded with
a theatrical flourish. He dug into his pocket and pulled out receipts that
proved all the players had been bought for cash over the counter from a local
Las Vegas store only a few hours earlier.
Buying the players must have cost Philips several thousand dollars. But if
DVD+RW eventually replaces VHS tape as the standard home-recording format, those
off-the-shelf players could be the best investment the Dutch electronics giant
ever made.
READER Laine Cousins tells us she was in Sydney for New Year鈥檚 Eve and went
with a friend to Darling Harbour to watch the fireworks.
While they were there a couple of people went past selling festive items for
the occasion, including special glasses so that people could 鈥渨atch the
fireworks in 3D鈥�. Sadly, it seems they were doing a roaring trade.
TELEPATHY rules at Kingston University in southwest London, Godric Wilkie
informs us. When Wilkie is at home, he routinely collects e-mail sent to his
university account. On 17 December he accordingly tried to log onto the
university mail server, which rejoiced in the name of Bob, but was told that Bob
was unavailable. He tried again the following day and the day after that, but
still with no luck.
On 4 January he finally called the university鈥檚 Computing Advisory
department, who told him that he now had to use a different server name. After
making the change, he successfully logged on and collected his e-mails.
The first message was from Computing Advisory telling him that as of 15
December 1999 the e-mail server identity would change. The message was dated 16
December 1999.
FINALLY, a door at London鈥檚 South Bank University bears the sign 鈥淔ire and
Explosion Research Group, please knock鈥�.
Beneath it, a thoughtful passer-by has added the word 鈥淕ently鈥�.