CNN Scoops Fox, MSNBC

IF YOU SAW LIVE FOOTAGE of the 24 U.S. Navy crewmembers boarding their 737 to Guam in Hainan last night, then you were watching CNN, which was the only network to film the event. I saw the footage, and was struck by how, well, Internet-like the quality was. The video was jerky and grainy, just like low-bandwidth streaming video on the web. 

It turns out, CNN used a cheap satellite phone to transmit the picture, according to the Washington Post. 

Normally, news crews drive electronics-laden vans with giant satellite dishes on top. That wasn't possible in Hainan because of location and tight security, and most other networks apparently came to the conclusion that live transmission was out of the question. CNN, however, kludged together a low-tech solution that enabled them to use a standard camera and transmit the feed with a cheap, commercially available satellite phone sold to business people. They powered the whole thing with a car battery. 

While filming the event, Chinese authorities arrested the CNN crew, and they're still being held. Despite strong protests from CNN, the Chinese military is likely dismantling the satellite phone to learn valuable American broadcasting technology secrets. 

The Accidental Firewall
A server at the University of North Carolina worked fine for four years, but nobody knew where it was. Finally, with help from Novell, Inc., university IT staff painstakingly followed the server cabling until they disappeared into a wall. Apparently, maintenance workers had mistakenly sealed up the server behind the wall four years ago, and nobody noticed. 

'Wombat-Proof' Cable to Link Australia
Nextgen Networks will soon link major Australian cities with 5,250 miles of underground custom-made "Wombat-proof" fiber optic cable. The special cable, made by Lucent, is designed to withstand the teeth of one of Australia's most annoying marsupials -- wombats, which are essentially burrowing koalas with fangs and claws -- tend to chew their way through conventional underground cable.

MoD's Got a Brand New Bag
In response to the loss of 204 laptops stolen since 1997 from British security ministries and the military, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) plans to buy 15,000 high-tech, bomb-proof laptop bags estimated to cost nearly $1,500 each. The bags feature an auto-erase function that wipes clean the contents of hard disks if the person opening the case doesn't enter the secret code. They also feature built-in tracking technology and pry-proof bars that protect the bags from being forced open. Unfortunately, many of the laptops that have gone missing over the last few years were the result of officials too drunk, lazy or careless to protect their government's vital secrets. The new bags are everything but idiot-proof. And the auto-erase feature could do more harm than good if officials are too drunk to remember their secret codes. Good luck! 

Weather Report: Should Be Toasty Today
A student at the Brunel University, UK, has created a toaster that browns the weather report on toast. The special toaster grabs weather data from the Internet and, based on that information, uses heat stencils to toast sunny, cloudy or rainy symbols on your morning bread, according to the BBC. Eventually we may get more sophisticated versions, such as toasters that imprint today's news on your bagel, or perhaps waffle irons that print your e-mail.

Zero In on Searches
A new web site called Lasoo lets you zoom in on a map of the world, then click on a category (such as "shopping" or "car wash"). The site shows you all the businesses in the area you selected. Amazing! 

Proof You Can Buy Anything On the Internet
Who says CD-ROMs have to be round? Thanks to the Corporate Disk Company, now you can have custom disks made shaped like hearts, sprockets, or even the State of Texas! And they work just like round CDs, although they tend to have much lower capacity. 

Follow-Up
There's an old saying in journalism: "Nothing wrecks a good story like good research." I showed a picture of a woman, said it was a spy photo of Gwyneth Paltrow, and linked to the web site that made that claim. A few hours after I sent the newsletter out, the site changed its story. Apparently the woman is a *stand-in* for Gwyneth Paltrow, who will, in fact, be wearing makeup and a special suit designed to make her look overweight in the upcoming movie "Shallow Hal." 

Reader Web Site o' the Week
If you want to become the ultimate PC know-it-all, you've *got* to subscribe to Fred Langa's "LangaList Plus!" newsletter. Although the regular "LangaList" is free, the "Plus!" edition -- which is ad-free and contains *really* great additional content -- costs just $10 per year but is worth ten times that. (Note that I don't normally recommend for-pay stuff, but LangaList Plus! has got to be the best bargain anywhere.) For the price of lunch at a cheap restaurant, you can get more than a hundred issues packed with exclusive, bleeding-edge PC and Internet information. Get the LangaList now!!

Get YOUR web site on the high-traffic Mike's List Reader Links page. HERE'S HOW! 

Mike's List o' Gotta-Get-It Gadgets
The Wave Link PDA for kids features a built-in digital camera, which kids can beam to anyone else with a Wave Link within 1000 feet, as well as e-mail, chat, voice-messages and games. 

A company called Digital Ink, Inc., has come up with a very cool way to get your pen-on-paper scribbles into digital form. You simply place a harmonica-size device at the top of your pad of paper, envelope or whatever, then write with the "n-scribe" pen. The pen transmits your scribbles to the device, which can be plugged into a PDA, cell phone, laptop or PC to transmit your writing as a .JPG or .PDF file.  

Mike's List o' Wacky Web Sites

I'm not sure if this is wacky, or just plain weird. 

Do you like useful travel-related services? If so, you'll hate this one. Simply enter in your departure and arrival cities, as well as the airline you'll be flying, and the site calculates your plane's chances of crashing. 

Here's a hoax web site that goes quite well with fava beans and a nice Chianti. 

"Deep Cold" is a very interesting and sophisticated site devoted to secret cold-war projects that were never completed.

Science Project: This guy worked hard to give himself athlete's foot, then -- unfortunately -- documented the entire process. Disgusting!

Speaking of athletes (and things that smell bad), now you can buy the dirty laundry of famous sports stars. Sick!

Last Week's Mystery Pic
No, it's not Gwyneth Paltrow's car. A hearty Mike's List congratulations to Steve Matthews for being first to identify last week's Mystery Pic as a spy shot of a BMW 7-series car sawed in half on the set of "The Matrix II." Why it has been split in two, or what the car's role in the movie is, I haven't a clue. We'll have to wait for the movie. 

Mystery Pic o' the Week

What is it? Send YOUR guess to [email protected]. I'll publish the name of the first person who gets it in the next issue of Mike's List. 

Mike's List o' Required Reading

Space Diary Details IT Headaches
By Ivan Noble 
"Before you punch the computer screen in front of you as your machine crashes for the fifth time today, spare a thought for the first crew of the International Space Station. They spent much of their time aloft dealing with exactly the same kind of problem, albeit a lot further away from the nearest IT helpdesk, as their commander's diary reveals."
BBC News Online

The Real Computer Virus 
By Carl M. Cannon
"The Internet is an invaluable information-gathering tool for journalists. It also has an unmatched capacity for distributing misinformation, which all too often winds up in the mainstream media."
AJR NewsLink