CERN, where the web was born (), was unfortunately a little lax in acquiring the domain names one would expect it to have, such as cern.org, cern.int, and so on. It so happens that cern.org was registered to a company in Texas. The following conversation took place when Robert Cailliau of CERN phoned Texas Traders to see if they would sell the name.
âTexas Traders, good morning!â
âGood morning, Iâm calling from CERN in Switzerland, and I have a question about your website.â
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âSure, letâs see how I can help you.â
âWell, when I go to cern.org, I end up on your site, but your business is not cern.org.â
âNo, thatâs right.â
âSo why is this?â
âWell, I donât know about Switzerland, but in the States these names are for sale, so we bought a whole bunch of them some time ago.â
âI see. Is it possible to get that name?â
âYes, weâll sell it to you.â
âAh. How much?â
âJust a secondâŠlemme seeâŠOK: for $500 itâs yours!â
âDo you have a discount for educational institutions?â
âNo, $500 is the lowest I can go.â
âOK. You realise that the business youâre doing is actually largely due to us inventing the web?â
âBut we have been in this business for over three years now!â
âRight, and we invented it in 1990.â
âReally?âŠI think there is some problem with our connection. Iâll get back to you. Can I have your contact details?â
Cailliau gave his details and waited a couple of days. Texas Traders, of course, had thought that he was joking. But when they found out he wasnât, they called back and all ended well. CERN now owns cern.org.
EVER wonder what military press officers are thinking? Feedback recently came across a paper from a meeting last year posted on the website for the Directed Energy Professional Society. In it, a US military press officer suggests how to deal with press enquiries about âdirected energyâ laser and microwave weapons. He reassures his readers that science fiction books and movies have prepared the general public for laser weapons. And then he adds a line that Feedback has heard before only too often: âDonât worry! We know what we are doing.â
OVER the years readers have told us some nice stories about the mistakes made by Microsoft Wordâs spellchecker. Now it seems even Microsoftâs own people have given up and turned it off.
A recent press release proudly announces âresults of independent researchâ which show Microsoft âcontinuing to take charge of the business intelligence industryâ and being the leader in âonline analytical processingâ.
What a pity the very first line of the emailed release gives the companyâs name as âMicorsftâ.
READER Jim McGregor tell us of a curious entry a friend came across in the Library of Congress Cataloging Service Bulletin, number 97. Under the title âSubject headings of current interestâ he found: âButtocks exercises (May Subd Geog).â
âMay Subd Geogâ means âmay subdivide geographicallyâ. If any readers can offer an explanation of how this particular subject can be geographically subdivided, we would be interested to hear it.
HOW technophiles would miss the Innovations catalogue should anything untoward happen to it.
Where else, several readers have asked us, would you find âthe Ultimate Sailing Watchâ, boasting not only a wristwatch but also three sailing timers, a barometer, a thermometer and an alarm clock, all designed for the yachtsman. It even has an altimeter â presumably for noting how high the waves are as your ship bobs up and down.
MEANWHILE, Innovations also provides us with this weekâs prize bit of pseudoscience nonsense. It is an ad for the CatanDog aluminium dog tag: âIf parasitic pests make your petâs life a misery this innovative âcontrol tagâ may be the chemical-free solution youâve been waiting for.
Designed to be worn on the collar, the aluminium tag is charged with escalating waves that create a protective field around the animal, helping to drive away fleas and ticks, and stop new ones hosting on it.â
Escalating waves? What are they when theyâre at home?
FINALLY, Bill Richmond was impressed by the can of Newport extra-purified butane lighter gas he bought. The maker, Keen of Newbury in Berkshire, states that it âfills every refillable butane lighter in the worldâ. Richmond observes that the problems of energy supply are clearly not as severe as suggested by many.
On 20 June the BBC website bore the headline âCall to ban rogue meat in chickenâ. Feedback heartily endorses this call. The application of free market principles to the criminal justice system has, it seems, gone a step too far.
