Thank you!

I'D LIKE TO SEND OUT A BIG, MIKE'S LIST 'THANK YOU' to all who sent words of support, encouragement -- as well as some great ideas -- in response to my special issue of Mike's List following the terrorist attacks. Hundreds of e-mails agreed strongly with my "Fight bigotry" message, and I appreciate that. (If you want to bypass the media on information related to the attacks, you might enjoy this site, which is compiled for journalists by MediaMap.)

I'd also like to thank the hundreds of people who made voluntary contributions to the Mike's List cause. Because of your generosity, I'll be able to send out the newsletter more often, and won't need to pester you with advertising. 

By the way, I've quietly launched what I think is the best technology news portal on the net, right on the Mike's List home page. Check it out!

Fighting Terrorism Is No Game...

Or is it? The U.S. Department of Defense has licensed the game engine from "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear" from Ubi Soft Entertainment to build anti-terrorism training programs for soldiers. The Army plans to add to the engine its own maps and war scenarios. For civilian gamers, Cyberextruder.com now has a "skin" for "Quake" that places Osama Bin Laden in the game, who you can hunt down and blow away using Quake's arsenal of creative weapons. Cyberextruder also has a free Osama Bin Laden skin for "The Sims". There aren't any weapons in "The Sims," but you can lock him in the closet.

Other People's Desktops 

A new screensaver gives you something to look at every day besides your boring Windows desktop: Somebody else's boring Windows desktop! The screensaver, called DeskSwap, captures a picture of your computer screen from time to time and uploads it to the DeskSwap server for the entertainment of others. When the screensaver kicks in on your machine, the software downloads pictures of other people's desktops and displays them on your computer. In one mode, you can exchange desktops with just one other person. In another mode, with a group.

The Empire Strikes Back

Yipee! Now you can buy dusty old Soviet Union domain names for just 15 thousand bucks a pop, according to a story in the Moscow Times. Non-profit groups in Russia have resurrected the old .su country code more than a decade after the Soviet Union came to an end. They're hoping to raise money for research and educational programs. I'm thinking of selling my car and buying www.mikeslist.su quick -- before somebody else does. 

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Previously classified documents released for the first time last month reveal secret CIA spy projects from the Cold War. One of the projects, which was launched in 1967 and called "Acoustic Kitty," involved wiring cats with eavesdropping equipment and sending them into enemy territory. The initiative ended during the initial trial when, sadly, the cat was run over by a taxi. 

Reader Web Site o' the Week

My friends over at TechTV's "The Screen Savers" show (the second-funniest technology-oriented content around...) are big readers of Mike's List, and they're kind enough to have me on their show from time to time. So here's a gratuitous plug for Screen Savers: If you haven't seen it -- or visited their web site -- you're missing some very entertaining and informative fun. Check it out!

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

Gotta-Get-It Gadgets

I think every cell phone should come with a full-size keyboard. So does Motorola. The $99 Motorola iBoard works with i85s, i50sx or i55sr phones. Wheee!

Here's a pocket knife for people with pocket protectors. The $75 CyberTool 34 from the Swiss Army people has all kinds of blades, as well as geek-specific features like mini screwdrivers, hex sockets and a wire stripper useful for taking apart electronics.

Have you seen an amazing new toy? Let me know! 

Wacky Web Sites

THERE SHE IS: Are you smarter than Miss America? Now you can find out. A web site reproduces the "quiz" given to the recent Miss America finalists, and compares your score with that of 2001 pageant winner Angela Perez Baraquio. If you're not smarter, don't despair. You've still got your looks.

CHAIRS ONLY AN ASS COULD LOVE: If you enjoy the sight of hideous furniture -- and who doesn't? -- then check out the Ugly Couch Contest web site, featuring the top ten ugliest couches in America. 

THE APES OF WRATH: "MonkeyPiece Theatre Companion" is devoted to movies featuring monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas and other apes. Go bananas!

HARD TO SWALLOW: If you're having trouble sticking to your diet, a few trips to the Gallery of Regrettable Food might help. Here you'll find nauseating examples of what passed for cuisine during America's golden age of white bread and Jell-O.

SHRINE TO PARANOIA: Here's a unique search tool that's hard to explain. Find the human connections between "seats" of power, and follow the links all the way to Google, where searches tell you more. (I know, it doesn't make sense to me either.) Trust me. This is interesting. And wacky. 

EJECT! EJECT!: If you turn to the Web at work because you need a quick escape, here's the web site for you. The Ejection Site is devoted to aircraft ejection seats, ejection stories and all manner of bailing out. 

 If you see a really crazy web site: Let me know! 

Last Week's Mystery Pic

No, it's not a "pygmy goat," "giant kitty," "flying pig" or even "a steer testing a trampoline for the manufacturer" as suggested by some of my more, ahem!, imaginative readers. It's a bull "sculpture" only 10 by 7 micrometers -- about the size of a red blood cell -- etched in plastic with laser beams by engineers at Osaka University in Japan. It's the smallest sculpture ever made. 

 Have you seen an amazing, hard-to-identify picture? Let me know!

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.