DO YOU believe that cold fusion works? Think hard, because your answer could
have far-reaching consequences.
Paul LaViolette, who used to be an examiner for the US Patent and Trademark
Office, is a believer. When the PTO sacked him last year, he appealed against
his dismissal, claiming he was fired because he believed in cold fusion.
Back in the days of the Vietnam War, the US Supreme Court had ruled that
sincerely held personal beliefs should be treated like religion even if they
were not conventionally religious. That ruling extended the effect of laws
against religious discrimination, and La Violette argued that his beliefs should
be protected under the legislation.
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The PTO summarily dismissed his appeal, so LaViolette took his case to the
Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and has just won round 1. An
administrative judge for the EEOC told the patent office that it had to
investigate his claims and ascertain whether or not his beliefs were legally
equivalent to a religion.
The PTO could decide against him, but he could then appeal again. 鈥淭his could
be a protracted process. Many of them are,鈥� said an EEOC spokesman.
In the meantime, Feedback is still wondering if it鈥檚 good or bad news that
cold fusion might be ruled a religious belief.
DOTCOM BUSINESSES invest much time and energy seeking clever names for
themselves, but even the best names won鈥檛 assure survival. Word has just arrived
that Living.com is dead. The online furniture store is filing for liquidation in
an American bankruptcy court.
As Kurt Vonnegut used to say: so it goes.
AFTER NOMINATIVE determinism comes nominative censorship鈥攂y Net Nanny
software designed to block pornography.
Sherril Babcock, a Los Angeles lawyer, tried to sign up for BlackPlanet.com,
an 鈥渙nline community for the African diaspora鈥�. According to the Newsbytes news
service, her application to join was rejected three times. She realised the
system had decided her name was inappropriate because of its last four
letters.
She sent a light-hearted note to the company鈥檚 member-service department
pointing out the problem and expecting them to correct it. They refused, saying
that 鈥渃ock鈥� was an objectionable word, regardless of whether or not it was part
of her name. She would have to change her name to register. She tried that and
it worked. The software happily registered 鈥淏abpenis鈥� and 鈥淏abdildo鈥�.
Unsurprisingly, Babcock considers the incident laughable. But censorship
opponents wonder how far the trend will go. 鈥淲ould St Francis of Assisi or Emily
Dickinson also have been banned from BlackPlanet.com?鈥� asked Bobson Wong of the
Digital Freedom Network.
READERS MAY have heard the recent news about the discovery of a planet in the
Epsilon Eridani system, but did anyone notice the spooky Star Trek
parallel?
Leading the research team that identified the planet was Dr William Cochran
of the University of Texas McDonald Observatory. In Star Trek, the
scientist who invented warp drive was also a Dr Cochran (hence warp fields are
measured in Cochrans, apparently). It was Cochran鈥檚 first warp test flight that
provoked the Vulcans to make their first visit to Earth.
And where do Vulcans come from? Yep, you guessed it, Epsilon Eridani.
HOW EFFICIENT is Millennium Edition, the latest consumer version of Windows,
which Microsoft launches in a couple of weeks? One of our colleagues got hold of
an advance copy, took his life in his hands and installed it. After an hour or
so, and only one crash, ME was working and looking very much like the Windows 98
which it replaces. There was one obvious nasty, though. Outlook, the program
that controls e-mail, had lost its list of all New 杏吧原创鈥檚 e-mail
addresses.
So our colleague set about downloading the list from New 杏吧原创鈥檚
office system. ME promptly shut down, saying: 鈥淢icrosoft Outlook could not
download your offline address book. There is no answer.鈥�
This quaint little message seems to be an innovation. But one thing hasn鈥檛
changed. It still ended with Microsoft鈥檚 traditional method of infuriating
users.
鈥淥碍.鈥�
READER ALLY ALLEN tells us that she recently went to the local agricultural
supplies store, where she picked up a new pair of wellington boots for her
husband. The boots were made by Dunlop Hevea of Liverpool.
She was relieved to find that a 24-page user鈥檚 manual in 11 languages came
with them. The only remaining problem was to get her husband to read the manual
before tackling the problem of putting the boots on.
FINALLY, here is a safety-conscious railway line that even keeps its safety
equipment safe. Reader Nick Ewans reports that on a ScotRail train from Carlisle
to Dumfries he saw a prominently displayed hammer with a sign stating that in an
emergency it should be used to break the windows. The hammer was in a box鈥�
behind a glass window.