Communication Breakdown

Pipex decided to launch its latest commercial trial of WiMax at the European Cup Race Walking Championships in Warwick this weekend just gone. No word yet on how the trial is going, but the event does serve as an interesting metaphor for WiMax itself, certainly in the UK (or, for that matter, the rest of Western Europe). Going at a gentle clip, but not speedy enough for most.

Come Ofcom's spectrum auctions later this year, things could even accelerate to a hearty sprint against the 3G/LTE team. In the meantime, we'll just have to sit on the sidelines and wait.

I'm not in the habit of reprinting people's press releases verbatim, but this practically demands it. My favourite bit comes at the end: "The mobile fume cupboard supplied by Air Science Technologies will help bees to be trained ‘on-the-fly’". Cross-breeding, anyone?

Bomb-sniffing Honeybees trained on Air Science Technologies Fume Cupboard

"Air Science Technologies, a specialist designer and manufacturer of fume containment systems, has supplied a mobile fume cupboard to Inscentinel Ltd a company based in Hertfordshire who is developing a sensor using trained sniffer bees to detect odours such as trace vapours of explosives.

"The researchers train the honeybees by placing them in front of an airflow which contains traces of chemicals commonly used in explosives. Simultaneously the bees are rewarded with a sugar solution which the bee then quickly learns to associate with the smell of the explosive. Within 15 minutes the bees are trained and ready to be placed in a specialist box which monitors the movement of their proboscis (tongue). As air from the surrounding environment is passed though the box, the bees sticks its proboscis out if it detects the explosive chemical vapours. This then triggers motion detectors inside the box and alerts the operator of the detection.

"Defence research agencies have taken a special interest in the technology which could potentially be used on a global scale for the detection of land mines and terrorist bomb threats. Other applications includes food quality and safety, medical diagnostic and environmental survey.

"The mobile fume cupboard supplied by Air Science Technologies will help bees to be trained ‘on-the-fly’, regardless of environment or location, providing a safe containment area to protect researchers from the chemicals and also preventing unwanted outside odours from contaminating the bees airflow."

Ever get tired of reviews that concentrate too much on the needs of humanoid users? It's just discrimination, really, isn't it? What the world has been crying out for is a good round-up of the latest smartphones by a representative of the next rung down the ladder of mammalian intelligence. And, thanks to The Onion, we now have just that.

Whoops! Plusnet's little spam problem has resulted in the ISP's entire webmail service being taken offline. Indefinitely. Any of you folks experiencing this joy?

"Following a faull [sic] audit of our @Mail based Webmail service we have identified some minor security vulnerabilities that it is not possible to patch. While these potential vulnerabilities have not been exploited we are not prepared to compromise on customer security so we are immediately taking our Webmail service offline," says the update. Fair enough, but ouch.

More info on this ongoing saga can be found here.

Here's a good contender for the stupidest thing I've seen in, ooh, days. It's a vertical workstation, as reported on the BBC, designed to help people lose weight while slogging away at the computer.

Where to begin? The inherent difficulty in typing while walking - let alone using the mouse? The fact that it will make you look like a complete berk? The way in which it encapsulates the drudgery of office life by actually making the worker look just that little bit more like a rat in a cage?

Nah, let's be positive and look at the possibilities of such a thing. Ever-increasing moves towards power efficiency and reducing IT's carbon footprint... can you see what it is yet? It's the treadmill-operated PC! Environmentally conscious and health conscious all at the same time. Genius.

Just remember to hit the save button before you get a cramp...