ONE of the showcases of Britain鈥檚 millennium celebrations is the London Eye,
the huge Ferris wheel dominating the Thames close by the Houses of Parliament.
Some may disagree, but Feedback thinks it is a dramatic structure entirely in
keeping with its millennial role.
Or is it? Bookings for trips on the wheel can already be made on the Web, so
a colleague of reader Alan Harding tried to buy tickets for 29 February 2000.
But she found that this date was not available.
After a long series of phone calls, she got through to a human operator, who
had to confess that the software was unaware that 2000 is a leap year.
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Should we be amused that the millennium wheel鈥檚 booking software isn鈥檛 Y2K
compliant鈥攐r should we be worried?
HOW right and proper that the International Radiation Protection Association
(IRPA) should give an award to Itsuzo Shigematsu of the Faculty of Medicine of
the University of Tokyo. The former president of the Radiation Effects Research
Foundation has played an important role in the field of radiation protection and
public health.
We鈥檙e not so sure about the name of the award he鈥檚 been given, though.
According to the IRPA bulletin, Shigematsu has been chosen to receive the 鈥�2000
Sievert Award鈥�. Sounds to us less like an award and more like a particularly
nasty punishment.
A COUPLE of weeks ago we commented on the way language evolves, constantly
incorporating new words and phrases from commerce, science and technology. We
gave as an example the expression 鈥渟everal rows short of a spreadsheet鈥� and
wondered if readers could tell us more.
It turns out, of course, that there is already a document flying round the
Internet which lists dozens of such examples. We can鈥檛 give them all, but here
are a few we particularly liked: 鈥淕ot into the gene pool while the lifeguard
wasn鈥檛 watching鈥�, 鈥淪o dense, light bends around him鈥�, 鈥淎 room-temperature IQ鈥�,
鈥淎 prime candidate for natural de-selection鈥� and 鈥淕ot a full six-pack, but lacks
the plastic thingy to hold it all together鈥�.
Several readers also sent us their own suggestions. Clare Lloyd offered 鈥淎
few pixels short of a screen鈥�, while Nico Veencamp suggested 鈥淎 few dots short
of a URL鈥�. Edward Sparkes explained that, as an octogenarian, he is somewhat
distressed to find that his attention span is shortening, leading him to
describe himself as being 鈥淎 bit short of a byte鈥�.
Lastly, Shaun Walsh tells us he has a temporary job in a large department
store selling Christmas gifts. One customer recently returned a Bethlehem scene
complaining that one of the figures was missing. It was, she said, 鈥淥ne king
short of a nativity鈥�.
On a similar festive theme, Walsh asks: could people who believe that the
third millennium begins on 1 Jan 2000 be described as 鈥淭welve months short of a
尘颈濒濒别苍苍颈耻尘鈥�?
Walsh adds that, as a chemist, he supposes he could be described as 鈥淎 few
molecules short of a mole鈥�.
NO MATTER how many times we ask them not to, companies keep sending publicity
e-mails with bloated binary attachments that take an age to download and, even
more important, can contain macros that conceal a computer virus.
鈥淧lease send plain ASCII text,鈥� we beg. 鈥淚t is the words that count, not
fancy formatting and fonts.鈥� But no one takes any notice.
Last week it was the turn of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts,
which sent us a bloated binary advertising 鈥淭he Future On Line鈥�, the latest in
BAFTA鈥檚 series of 鈥淚nteractive Events鈥�.
Sure enough, a few hours later, another e-mail arrived. 鈥淚mportant
message鈥攑lease read,鈥� it shouted. 鈥淧lease disregard the e-mail sent to you
earlier; we understand it contained a macro virus.鈥� Surprise, surprise. And yes,
you鈥檝e guessed it, this second message was also sent as a bloated binary
attachment.
WHAT is happening to UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service,
which handles all university admissions in Britain? Sam Adams applied through
UCAS to study physics. He subsequently got a letter from UCAS, dated 9 November,
informing him that the University of Warwick was offering him a place. A week
later a letter came from the physics department at Warwick, dated 15 November,
to say that the department had just received his application form and would
shortly be making him an offer.
Adams also received a letter from Imperial College, London, inviting him for
an interview there. Two days later along came another letter from Imperial,
thanking him for his application but regretting that the college was so busy it
would not be able to contact him for several months.
FINALLY, how very considerate of Sabena, the Belgian national airline.
Passport, the airline鈥檚 in-flight magazine, has this to tell passengers in
the 鈥淚nformation on your Flight鈥� section: 鈥淭hroughout the whole flight, you may
use your electric shaver, hearing aid device and pacemaker.鈥�