鈥淪CIENCE of Star Wars鈥� is an intriguing title for an exhibition, but Feedback is a bit nervous of getting too close to some of the 鈥渞eal-world science鈥� displays, especially the 鈥渘uclear pulse engine鈥� and more so the 鈥渕atter/antimatter powered spacecraft鈥�. But if you want to take the risk, you can do so at the in Texas until 3 September.
The exhibition鈥檚 previous spot, in Los Angeles, was sponsored by US aerospace company Northrop Grumman 鈥� which in its press release modestly omitted to mention its large involvement in President Ronald Reagan鈥檚 Strategic Defense Initiative 鈥� known, to its , as 鈥溾��.
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THE gentlemen鈥檚 toilet in the London offices of construction company Sir Robert McAlpine contains a machine selling tampons. The reader who told us about this 鈥� who wants to remain anonymous 鈥� wonders whether this may be taking gender equality too far.
I command you, unclean search result鈥�
AGAINST his better judgement, a reader who wants to be known simply as John opened a spam email which turned out to be offering 鈥淔aith Based SEO Services鈥�. What does that do, then? It鈥檚 鈥渁 Christian based company鈥� formed by Don Conrad and Jeffrey Sloe to provide excellent search engine optimization service to businesses and individuals鈥� We feel that God has called up [sic] to help you, whether large or small, move your website to the top of Google.鈥�
Riiight. And how might they use the 鈥淏iblical principles鈥� they refer to at to order search engine results? Will they 鈥渙ffer all burnt sacrifices unto the Lord in the sabbaths, in the new moons, and on the set feasts, by number, according to the order commanded unto them鈥� (1 Chronicles 23:31)? Or do they simply enjoin the search results 鈥淏eloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good鈥� (3 John 1:11)?
鈥淪een on a New York dry-cleaning establishment鈥檚 van by Piera Robson: 鈥淲e use organic solvents鈥濃��
They have a ready-made disclaimer, though: 鈥淚 am the first, I also am the last鈥� (Isaiah 48:12).
ON THE UK鈥檚 National Health Service website Graham Nash found a calculator to work out how much you could save by giving up smoking. It asks how much you pay for a pack of 20 cigarettes and how many cigarettes you smoke a day. He wondered what would happen if he put 0 in both boxes, and was told that the cost of a packet 鈥淢ust be greater than 拢00.00 and up to 拢1,000,000鈥�. And the number of cigarettes smoked 鈥淢ust be greater than 0 and less than 2,147,483647 [sic]鈥�.
WIKIPEDIA entries are, we know, never finalised, and their reliability varies 鈥� sometimes from minute to minute, as a look at their editing history can reveal. But when Gary George looked, and also later when we did, the table summarising road speed limits around the world at listed the limit on some German autobahns as infinity.
Apart from the obvious question of how the German parliament managed to repeal relativity, George observes that this measure could solve the problem of traffic jams, if everyone arrived at their destination in an immeasurably small amount of time. On the other hand, he adds, 鈥淚鈥檇 still end up late for everything, having taken an infinity of wrong turns.鈥�
A geek interjects: the symbol they want is not infinity, which is in some sense a magnitude, but NAN (not a number), the non-value reserved in computer programming to represent the case when the result of a calculation is not, in fact, a number. Obviously.>
Feedback responds: Er, obviously. Please don鈥檛 explain.
WHEN Nick Christie was filling in a form for the UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, it gave him this warning: 鈥淒o not use your browser鈥檚 鈥楤ack鈥� button as this may cause your transaction to fail and you may have to start again. If you do have to change any of the information you have entered so far, please select 鈥楥ancel鈥� and start again.鈥�
FEEDBACK frequently fails to make high-tech things do what is promised on the box, so we feel much better for hearing a gloriously frank admission from an expert would-be user.
At the end this month the BBC is launching its system, which will let a PC download almost any TV programme broadcast over the last seven days. It all relies heavily on Microsoft鈥檚 Windows technology. When unveiling the system, Ashley Highfield, the BBC鈥檚 director of future media and technology, said his ambition was to have the system built into TV sets, so that you don鈥檛 need a PC to use it. To underline the desirability of this he recalled how he recently tried to set up a home entertainment network.
He said he took the signal from his living-room Media Center PC and plasma screen, squirted it round his house via Wi-Fi and received it on an Xbox games console. The object was to watch entertainment from the living room in his bedroom. 鈥淭he only thing wrong with all this is that it doesn鈥檛 work鈥� he admitted. 鈥淟et鈥檚 just say this is nascent technology鈥�.