THE TRADE in Internet addresses鈥擴RLs鈥攇ets more and more
bizarre.
According to a bulletin in The Associated Press, journalist Ted
Fishman registered the name FreeWheelz when he was writing an April Fool鈥檚 story
for Esquire magazine about the excesses of e-commerce. In the story, he
invented an online company that gave away free cars and made money by covering
the vehicles with advertising slogans. He registered the company鈥檚 fictitious
name to make sure he wasn鈥檛 treading on the toes of any real businesses.
The story was peppered with outrageous details intended to alert readers that
the whole thing was a send-up. But that didn鈥檛 stop a group of entrepreneurs who
had been planning just such a business from telephoning Esquire after
the article appeared. 鈥淎t first when they called, we thought they would be
really annoyed with us,鈥� said Jay Woodruff, an editor at Esquire. 鈥淏ut
it quickly turned into this discussion about how they wanted to buy the URL. I
guess irony pays.鈥�
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It certainly did pay. The founders of the real company, Freecar.com, paid
Fishman $25 000 for the rights to the address鈥攖he URL he paid
$70 to register. Freecar.com hasn鈥檛 officially been launched yet, but
founder Larry Butler says the responses from readers who believed the parody to
be true 鈥渧alidated our business model鈥�.
Meanwhile, another of Fishman鈥檚 spoof ideas has jumped into the real world.
The phoney founders of his FreeWheelz had an earlier venture, I-Coli.com, which
invited restaurants to post their health reviews online. Shortly after the
article came out, the New York City Department of Health began posting health
violations by New York restaurants on the Web.
At the time of writing, you can still see Fishman鈥檚 article at
www.freewheelz.com.
CONCERNED about rising levels of obesity among the British population,
retailers are switching to low-fat products and promoting 鈥渄iet鈥� ranges of
foodstuffs鈥攕uch as the Waitrose 鈥淒iet Choice鈥� range, which includes its
honey roasted cashew nuts.
But hang on a minute. The information on the packet states that 100 grams of
these nuts typically contain 42 grams of fat, 35 grams of carbohydrate and a
whopping 595 calories. So how on earth is this a 鈥渄iet choice鈥�?
Because it鈥檚 also a 鈥渟ource of fibre鈥� at 3.2 grams per 100 grams, that鈥檚
how.
CONFUSION abounds about Australia鈥檚 newly introduced goods and services tax
(GST), which we mistakenly called 鈥済eneral sales tax鈥� a month ago (24 June).
People are so muddled about the tax that the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission has set up a 鈥減ricing hotline鈥� to help them out. Very useful
too, we are sure鈥攂ut we can鈥檛 help questioning the way the recorded
message greets enquirers. It begins: 鈥淚f you understand English, please press 1.
If you do not understand English, please press 2.鈥�
EVEN the most laudable schemes can fall foul of corporate intellectual
property lawyers. Don Mueller, president of a company called Good Guy and a
science tutor in New Jersey, wants to market cookies stamped with physics
formulae to 鈥渕ake science more palatable鈥�. Unfortunately, he also had the neat
idea of calling his product 鈥淣utri Brain鈥濃�攗ntil Kellogg鈥檚 drew his
attention to the fact that this infringes their Nutri-Grain trademark.
We are indebted for this little item, by the way, to Bob Park, a member of
the American Physics Society, who posts bits and bites like these at
www.aps.org/WN.
THE BBC recently ran a page in its online news section about the stress
caused by increasing e-mail overload, headlined 鈥淥ffice workers drowning in
e-mail鈥�. The 鈥淭alking point鈥� section on the page concluded with: 鈥淎re you
suffering from e-mail overload? . . . Send us your views and experiences鈥�.
Somehow, we don鈥檛 think this is going to help matters.
APART from overloading people, we had never thought of e-mail as particularly
dangerous, but apparently it is. The terms and conditions of ONdigital鈥檚 ONmail
e-mail service include this alarming clause: 鈥淲e will always be liable to you in
full for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.鈥�
What, we are forced to wonder, could ONdigital possibly do鈥攐r not
do鈥攖o cause death or personal injury through its e-mail service?
IMPARTING important information by telephone, on the other hand, can be
dangerous.
New 杏吧原创 recently received a review copy of a French book
called Le Coeur en Action. The inside cover states that the book was
originally published in the US with the title The New Living Art.
The original title was actually The New Living Heart鈥攂ut try
saying that with a French accent.
FINALLY, there will be no Feedback summer competition this year. But look out
for the Opinion section competition, to be announced in full next week. There
are books and bottles of malt whisky to be won, and all you have to do is write
the first lines of an imaginary science book that are so gripping readers can鈥檛
fail to buy the book.