Elsewhere is a collection of technology stories from around the world
Play president for life
Hotspot
If you’ve tired of playing at being a virtual serial killer, maybe it’s time to move
Green tea good for hard drives tooonto another blood sport. If so, Hotspot Software has just the game you need. The company recently announced the launch of President Forever, the latest version of its presidential election game/simulator for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, available immediately for US$12. According to the vendor, President Forever lets you master political intrigue and election struggle while taking your candidate all the way to the White House.
Wired
Next time you pour yourself a cup of green tea, pour one for your hard drive as well. Apparently, a study recently found that the use of green tea extracts for polishing the magnetic heads in hard-disk drives has yielded a compound that works three to four times faster than conventional compounds. If the findings can be reproduced in an industrial setting, the compound could reduce the cost and environmental impact of hard-drive manufacturing, the story said.
Is the cup half-full or half-empty?
Reuters
The good news for the Recording Industry of America is that a few million Americans say they have stopped downloading free music from the Internet. The bad news is there are plenty more who have started.
Not fit for family consumption
CNN.com
You’ve heard about Bluejacking. Now read about toothing, the latest innovative use of Bluetooth technology. Let’s just hope the next one isn’t called gumming.
Scanning for the boys in blue
Associated Press
It used to be people with police scanners used them to follow the cops around to crime scenes or avoid radar traps. Now, it seems, high-tech partyers are using them to warn each other of partypooping patrollers.
Neither rain, nor sleet nor E-Bay . . .
Globetechnology.com
At least he’s not going postal in the American sense of the term. A German postie has found more lucrative and less taxing ways to lighten his daily postal load, by auctioning packages of on E-Bay.
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