YOU may already have seen them or read about them in the press. If not you soon will. Mysterious chalk marks appearing on pavements around the world show where there are Wi-Fi wireless Internet nodes that anyone with a portable computer can use to surf the Web at someone else鈥檚 expense.
The idea behind the marks dates back 70 years to the Depression, when hobos in America developed a secret code to tell each other which houses were friendly and offered food and shelter, and which would let the dogs loose. They called it 鈥渨archalking鈥� and the new marks are the modern equivalent.
Wi-Fi works like a cordless phone, but for computer Internet surfing instead of ordinary phone calls. It lets several computers around the house or office use the same Internet connection. And it鈥檚 catching on fast, with about 10 million Wi-Fi adapters or laptops equipped with it expected to sell this year.
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But the radio signals are strong enough to reach out of the house or office and into the street. Step forward the counterculture, which sees skimming off access as a poke in the eye for big business service providers such as AOL Time Warner.
Now an insider has kindly revealed the warchalkers鈥� secret code to Feedback. Free access is signed with a symbol that looks like a reversed C backed against another C. A wireless node that is working but denies access is marked with a closed O. Nodes that can only be used if you have a password are marked with an O with a W inside it.
Why use chalk? It doesn鈥檛 cause damage so stays within the law. It also needs refreshing after a few days, which is fine when a node is likely to disappear as soon as its owner realises what all those people out in the street are doing with their laptops.
WHAT鈥橲 going on at Ananova? During a two-month research stint in Japan, reader David Parkinson turned to Ananova.com for news and information from Britain. He noticed on the list of 鈥淪port latest鈥� the title: 鈥淭his story no longer exists鈥�. Intrigued, he clicked on the link to find a story filed at 07:04 GMT that wasn鈥檛 a story any more.
Scrolling down the page, he noticed a link to Orange, asking if he was interested in this type of story. If so, he could click on the link to find out how to follow the story on his cellphone. He briefly flirted with the idea of having non-existent news sent directly to his mobile, but decided against it.
Then, turning to the 鈥淐heck for more鈥� section, he discovered that the story concerned the following keywords: 鈥淲ithdrawn鈥�, 鈥淩ichard Quinn鈥� 鈥淜empton racecourse鈥� and 鈥淩acing鈥�. Clicking on the 鈥淲ithdrawn鈥� link, he found a long list of stories that no longer existed, including one from the previous day involving soccer.
Perhaps Ananova would like to tell us what all this means.
AUSTRALIAN newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald ran a piece on 29 July about a giant squid that was washed up on a beach near Hobart, Tasmania. It noted that: 鈥淭he condition of the squid indicated that it was alive and swimming just offshore shortly before its death.鈥�
It failed to add that the squid was dead shortly after its death.
THE BBC website has a plug for the UN鈥檚 online, interactive World Atlas of Biodiversity: Earth鈥檚 living resources for the 21st century. It tells us excitedly: 鈥淭he amount of data currently downloaded from the site every month鈥� would fill seven 12-metre (40-foot) articulated trucks.鈥�
Reader Paul Richards, who spotted this, wonders how the data would be assembled to fill the trucks. Would the bits be kept together as bytes and stacked on pallets, or just be poured into the trucks all jumbled up?
ON holiday in Greece, reader Nick Bowick was given a card at a restaurant with tips on how to stay safe during his stay. He was particularly struck by the usefulness of the instruction: 鈥淒on鈥檛 play with the Sun, it is dangerous.鈥�
THE spellchecker on Lotus Notes has a bit of catching up to do with the modern world. Reader Dan Lambert was doing a routine check on an email and was startled when the checker rejected 鈥淚nternet鈥� in favour of 鈥淚nternment, internee, interned, internees鈥� and 鈥淓mail鈥� in favour of 鈥淢ail, embolism鈥�. And this, on a program for sending emails鈥�
MEANWHILE, Irene Merk was using a Microsoft spreadsheet to compile invitations to her birthday party in Cologne. Every time she tried to add her friend Ide, it insisted on changing her name to 鈥淒ie鈥�. She was quite upset, until she realised that this was not a threat but the German feminine definite article.
FINALLY, reader Guy Matthews was mystified by the Co-op paper-based cat litter he bought, with its instruction: 鈥淐aution. Keep out of reach of babies, children and animals.鈥� What, he wonders, is the science behind this action at a distance?
Frozen chips supplier McCains is now selling what it calls 鈥淢ega Microchips鈥�. Reader Alan Charlton, who spotted these in his local supermarket, wonders if that makes them normal-sized chips