Mike's List
Internet Zeitgeist

ONE OF THE MOST UNDER APPRECIATED "APPLICATIONS" on the internet is worldwide pulse-taking -- finding out what the mood of the public is.

If you know where to look, the web will reveal the collective fears, anxieties, desires, obsessions and interests of the world on any given day.

(I guess this would be as good a time as any for a warning. Clicking on the links below may not be suitable for all readers. The public's "desires" aren't always rated PG-13.)

One of the best places to gauge the Zeitgeist of the moment is to find out what people are e-mailing to each other. Services rank the most commonly e-mailed articles or pictures: Yahoo's "Most E-Mailed" page, The New York Times' 25 Most E-Mailed Articles or Clickability.com's Most E-Mailed Articles.

Search engine keywords are another place to compare internet interest levels. Whenever net-heads are curious, worried or obsessed about something, they usually head for their nearest search engine and type in revealing keywords. By listing these in order of popularity, services can tell you a lot about the human condition -- or at least about the compulsive, prurient and fickle interests of web surfers. Check out Google Zeitgeist, the Yahoo Buzz Index, the Lycos 50, Jeeves IQ, and the MetaBuzz Index.

And finally, the blogs are a great place to learn what people are talking about on the web, since bloggers do most of the talking. Check out MIT's Blogdex and DayPop, which ranks the global bloggers' top 40 links, News, Posts, "Word Bursts," "News Bursts" and Weblogs.

Of course, these web services aren't perfect social mind-readers -- in the best of cases, you're getting a wildly skewed demographic sampling of only the kind of people who use specific services and site features. Still, it's instructive, entertaining and outrageous to take a peek at these real-time information popularity contests and find out what people are thinking.

Bad Robots

Two inventors in Scotland, Bob McIntyre and Allan Davie, have created a robot falcon that scares away pigeons and seagulls. Called the Robop, the robot mimics the movement and sounds of a hungry falcon looking for lunch. It squawks and flaps and looks around at seemingly random intervals. Like real falcons, it leans into the wind. The inventors are working on a Robop 2.0 that features behavior modification via cell phone. Users can adjust the volume of its squawk, or even check the batteries using a WAP phone. When batteries get low, it will automatically send the user's cell phone an SMS message saying so.

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Give Cell Phone Thieves the Finger

Japan's NTT DoCoMo plans to introduce in May a 505i series i-mode compatible cell phone that features fingerprint-recognition security. Thieves who know about the feature won't steal it if they know they can't use it, and if it is stolen, your data will be protected (unless they cut of your finger and take it with them). The phone also sports a built in Macromedia Flash browser, megapixel digital camera, an infrared port and external memory slot that supports both Sony Memory Stick and MiniSD media.

Found Video

Check out this montage of video from Japan's recent Robodex 2003 trade show.

And here's the Gateway PC ad CBS refused to broadcast because they felt that it advocated the illegal downloading of music.

Mike's List on the Radio

Craig Crossman's Computer America features Mike Elgan every Thursday night. The show runs from 7pm to 9pm SVT (Silicon Valley Time). Listen to Computer America on your local Business TalkRadio station or over the Internet every weeknight. Don't miss Computer America!

Gotta-Get-It Gadgets

The Dutch company Allied Data Technologies sells a watch called the Tornado USB Memory Watch that connects to your PC or Mac via USB and serves as peripheral storage. The sleek watch comes in 64, 128 and 256 megabyte versions. All can be password-protected.  

Reader Web Site o' the Week

Want cheaper phone bills? Then check out IWantCheaperPhoneBills.com, our Reader Web Site o' the Week. The site is packed with tips and information about reducing how much you pay for phone service.

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

Wacky Web Sites

One of the worst things about weddings is the ugly dresses typically worn by bridesmaids. Finally, someone has stepped forward to chronicle these fashion travesties with a web site called -- what else? -- UglyDress.com.

There's something about these canned Thai snacks that really bugs me.

WatchThatPage monitors specific web pages and e-mails changes to you.

Blogger April Winchell collects wacky MP3 files, including songs recorded by TV stars. Listen to Jerry Springer's special rendition of "Mr. Tambourine Man," Leonard Nimoy singing "Both Sides Now," and even Ed McMahon belting out "Thank Heaven For Little Girls."    

Learn all about the mysterious world of the 404 Not Found error pages at the 404 Research Lab.

D.J. practice.

Ninja practice.

Twisted Games

Reader Comment

Mike,
Love your newsletter!! Your piece on airport ac outlets reminded me of piece I heard on National Public Radio by Commentator Andrei Codrescu about AC vampires, I nearly drove off the road laughing so hard. Here is link for audio. Your readers should get a charge (heh heh) out of it.
Rich

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Mike,
I install and program computerized energy management systems for commercial buildings so I get around construction sites a lot. I can tell you the one reason there are never enough outlets: People are stingy about construction costs. It's no plot, just lazy, stingy cheapness. I wish I had a dollar for every mechanical closet I've been in that had 5 or more breaker panels in it AND NO OUTLETS! How expensive can it be to put an outlet right next to the breaker panel? Love your newsletter!
Steve

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Mike,
"Mike's List" is great! I've been reading it for about 3 years and have recommended it to all my friends. Your issue 58 (April 5,2003) has an item about finding Internet servers' physical locations. Steve Gibson has a wonderful free (and small --- 26K) utility called ID Serve, which can also tell one the make, model, and version of most web sites' server software, along with whatever server software any given web site is using. The utility also reveals:

• HTTP Server Identification
• Non-HTTP Server Identification
• Reverse DNS Lookup
• Simple Cookie Scout
• and Simple Port Probe

"ID Serve" can be found here.
Marty

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Mike,
I'm a technology-obsessed news junkie, who goes to all the major geek news sites, blogs and lists, and I have to tell you: Elgan.com is the best by far! How do you beat the other sites with breaking news coverage? You always have stories nobody else has. It's incredible.
Stan

I get hundreds of reader e-mail messages per week, so I can publish only a tiny fraction of them. I reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Send comments to: [email protected]

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Last Week's Mystery Pic

No, it's not "the world's first inter-cranial hardrive," "a shoe bomb," or even "an electronic coin" as suggested by some readers. In fact, it's Cornice Inc.'s new one-inch, 1.5 gigabyte hard disk drive designed for gadgets. A hearty Mike's List congratulations to Mathew Lu of Ithaca, New York, for being first with the right answer!

Mystery Pic o' the Week

What is it? Send YOUR guess to [email protected] (be sure to say where you live). If you're first with the right answer, I'll print your name in the next issue of Mike's List!

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