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NOVEMBER 10, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 44 | SEARCH ASIAWEEK

Cutting Edge


illustration by Emilio Rivera III.

COMPUTERS: Smoke Signals Prompt Recall
Owners of Compaq Armada E500 or V300 notebook computers could find themselves unwitting guests at an impromptu barbeque. Compaq fears some Sony battery packs installed in the Armada and also sold as separate parts could short-circuit and catch fire. It's recalling 55,000 battery packs worldwide, after a single unit overheated and started emitting smoke, damaging the laptop it was installed in. Users affected by the recall are entitled to two replacement packs for each one they now have. For more information, check out Compaq.com. The Compaq problem, combined with a similar recall by Dell Computers in the U.S. recently, has some critics worried that the industry's quest for ever more powerful, smaller batteries has taken a dangerous turn.


FLASH: Going Up, Up and Away
Someday, we will all travel to space in a lift, according to NASA. People will board, push buttons, stare uncomfortably at their shoes, and sigh impatiently as others stop at various space stations. Okay, so maybe elevator etiquette needs to evolve before we're ready for the space elevator. But the Otis Elevator Co. says it could have the proper technology within a decade. NASA's plan calls for a 50-km high base station, with a 35,500-km diamond-fiber cable extending out into geosynchronous orbit — meaning it would circle the earth at the same speed as the planet revolves. The cable would be tethered to a heavy object - an asteroid maybe - to keep it from falling back to earth. Electromagnetic cars would zoom up to the last stop in a matter of hours. That is, if they don't get stuck. In case of emergency, take the stairs?

GADGETS: The Robot Who Loved Me
If robots are really going to take over the world, they'll have to do a lot better than the AmigoBot e-Presence. The cheery little red machine is about as threatening as a vacuum cleaner. But it does have some potential as a spy. Equipped with a wireless modem and video camera, the AmigoBot lets you use the Internet to keep an eye on children, elderly shut-ins, or lonely pets prone to furniture destruction (yes, it can even bark — watch out Aibo). You can make it roam the house to look for family members, and then hold an impromptu video conference or just chase them around in a game of remote-controlled tag. No chance of playing tricks on the bot though. Sensors keep it from running into objects, even if you try to deliberately send it stumbling into a wall. Buy it for $3,195 at Mobilerobots.com.

JUNK MAIL: Choking on Too Much Spam
Like the goose being fattened for fois gras, e-mail users are being force-fed an ever-bigger diet of spam. Four times as much junk mail reaches U.S. Internet service providers as a year ago, according to Brightmail Inc., an e-mail filtering firm. It says the bulk of the unsolicited messages carry financial advice, pornography, or product pitches. A standard mailing can include hundreds of thousands of letters — the majority of which get through filtering applications. Recipients have little recourse beyond an angry reply — and the delete button.

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