The Weekly Round-Up: 22.04.05

"I want to apologise to the nation. I didn't really want to resort to that in front of hundreds of thousands of people..."

As many of you will be aware, those were the words of marathon sensation Paula Radcliffe after she was forced to take a break during last Sunday's London Marathon in order to sort out some stomach cramps. (The Round-Up promises to handle the following sensitively, aware that many of you read this email over lunch and aware that 'stomach cramps' is euphemism for needing to go 'do-dos'.)

Radcliffe, to her own embarrassment but showing no little amount of professionalism and competitive single-mindedness, squatted down at the road side, in clear view of, well, thousands, and reportedly answered a call of nature – laying a little 'teddy's leg' on the road.

The irony is, of course, that she won the race by such a margin she could actually have stopped off, bought a newspaper and gone for a relaxing sit down somewhere more private and really taken her time before emerging to win the race at a canter.

The Round-Up is sure the capital's many publicans would have broken their 'toilet for patrons only' rule for Dame Paula.

But where's the tech angle? Where is the Round-Up going with this?

Good questions both.

As is often the case, the eBay community was among the first to react to the event and 'genuine' Paula Radcliffes were appearing on the website the very next morning as fans claimed to have swiped the still warm item from the street – as proof that behind every world number one is a very impressive number two.

eBay acted reasonably quickly to remove the doubtless bogus lots, but it does prove that anything is now fair game to the legions of would-be auctioneers of the bizarre out there.

However, the Round-Up won't hear a word against Radcliffe.

The woman is an inspiration to everybody. Irrespective of what she did last Sunday on the streets of London. While the Round-Up would prefer she had saved it for Paris, that opinion shouldn't diminish.

If Paula walked into the pub while the Round-Up was holding forth at the bar, she would certainly be invited to pull up a stool. And if the Round-Up was unable to get down to the local hospital to deliver Easter gifts for the children, there is no ambassadorial figure more fitting than Paula to be trusted to go drop off some chocolate eggs.

The Telegraph's sports website also leapt to Paula's defence... with an impressively bad piece of journalism that began:

"So Paula Radcliffe had a call of nature on Sunday. So did I."

Thank you Andrew Baker.

The Round-Up never thought it would see the day when Telegraph journalists started to brag about such things.

He added: "So did Tony Blair and Michael Howard. What's the big deal?"

Putting aside the fact there's no way he can know that (the Freedom of Information Act has its limits), the Round-Up can't help thinking that if Michael Howard or Tony Blair did crouch beside the kerb and 'lay some cable' it would be quite a big deal – especially in the full view of thousands and in the run up to the General Election.

Another lot appearing on eBay and gaining some media attention this week was an old 1962 Rover P5 motor car which Westminster Council auctioned off, having impounded it from a deceased resident who left the vehicle for some time (indefinitely, the Round-Up supposes, given she wasn't likely to come back and get it) in a council car park.

The Round-Up particularly enjoyed the hint of moral outrage effected by the silicon.com reporter when calling up the Council about the story – even though it sounded like a rather interesting and borderline commendable idea that proves local government is getting its heads around the interweb.

"I've just heard you're auctioning cars on eBay... is this TRUE?!" he asked.

You pretty much had to be there, but it was exactly the right level of 'outraged in Tunbridge Wells asks...' incredulity that council press officers appreciate. It was resplendent in its 'why on Earth would you do such a thing?' crescendo at the end of the question.

It's exactly how local councils expect to be approached. Where's the fun in dealing with somebody who sounds like they're not going to take a minor local issue and blow it out of all proportion? After all, the story had already been in the Evening Standard.

It turns out this was the second car the council has auctioned off in this way – having previously made £6,000 on a Range Rover, with more expected to follow. The council takes ownership of around 30 cars each year – though probably not too many 43-year-old classics.

The Rover P5 has 65,355 miles on the clock and slight lime-scale damage to front, far side, the listing added.

It also didn't have a reverse gear (well it does... but it didn't work). And it needed a new battery.

Other than that, it's a steal!

Bidding ended yesterday at the princely sum of £4,100 after 33 bids, with a starting price of £1,000. (Click here to read more.)

A council spokeswoman said: "We were looking for a more cost-effective way of disposing of cars that have been abandoned."

And with a tidy £10,000-plus sat in the bank already, it looks like they've found one.

Of course, all this aside, it's just nice to see somebody actually buying Rover motor cars – albeit one which is more than 40 years old.

The plight of Rover is a cautionary tale – especially for all those critics of offshoring who currently threaten to boycott banks and insurance firms who don't 'keep it British'.

What's parked in their driveway?

The plight of Rover is probably a sign that for all the bullish resistance in the short-term, times inevitably change, opposition inevitably mellows and acceptance sets in.

Heading slightly further afield, as mentioned last week, silcon.com had somebody in Las Vegas last week and our man in Sin City returned, somewhat begrudgingly, with a bumper crop of goodies (and very little money... and a story about an abusive taxi driver and some showgirls... but frankly the rest of the team had stopped listening by this stage).

Much as the streets of London are paved with gold, the streets of Las Vegas are clearly paved with exclusive news stories. silicon.com published the first couple this week.

First up, Caesars Palace told silicon.com it will be installing VoIP phones in its stunning new $289m Augustus Tower, which opens later this year (click here for a pic).

It will also be using biometrics, enabling guests to access their rooms with a fingerprint (their own, obviously) rather than having to worry about a key card, which can easily be lost or stolen.

It sounds like a great idea – though hopefully punters will remember that if they're going to lose an arm and a leg playing blackjack not to lose the limb that has their room key at the end of it.

The other story from Sin City is news that Harrah's Entertainment – soon to be the largest of the casino groups in Las Vegas, pending a mega merger with Caesars – is the latest company to start using radio frequency ID chips.

The tracking tags have been fitted on the collar-worn name badges of all their waitresses.

That's right – a Las Vegas cocktail waitress with a chip on her shoulder... whatever next?

The idea behind the scheme is that the company can make sure gamblers in the casinos at Harrah's and the Rio and other properties such as Binion's Horseshoe are getting served quickly and efficiently.

Among the most Brit-friendly initiatives in the casinos are the free drinks that keep on coming as long are you are playing and now Harrah's is upping the ante to ensure customers are served within an internally agreed time limit (seven minutes, we were told unofficially).

Managers will also be able to monitor the human traffic of their waitresses and spot whether areas of the casino floor are going unloved and also whether any staff are dawdling and letting the team, the customers and the casino down.

Harrah's CIO, Tim Stanley, told silicon.com that that is exactly what happened almost on day one of the system being up and running – one waitress was found to be dilly-dallying along the way and was 'dealt with appropriately'.

Harrah's isn't alone in rolling out RFID. For the record, the new luxury Wynn resort casino, which opens next week, will be including the tracking tags in all of its casino chips – with the intention of limiting cheating and improving customer experience – making sure people are credited with appropriate comps for all bets they make.

Of course RFID chips normally bring with them a healthy dose of controversy – normally raising the ire of the Christian right, who fear them as the 'mark of the devil' and threaten to boycott whoever mentions the latest implementation.

Las Vegas must be shaking in its spangly boots, because of course this creates a tricky situation for the Christian activists in this case.

"What can we do about these casinos using RFID chips?"
"Let's boycott them."
"Yeah... normally we would, but it's not like we go to Las Vegas much."
"Oh right, of course. What about standing outside with a placard?"
"Well it's crap, but it's the best suggestion we've had so far."

(Click here to see just how out of place such a protest will look.)

The Round-Up can't help thinking opponents fighting a losing battle here – especially once people find out the chips will get them served drinks more quickly.

Speaking of travelling on business, it appears the IT industry is losing its wandering habit, with more and more techies seeking to escape lengthy time out of the office.

In fact, surprising new research from Barclaycard has claimed IT workers actually travel less than their peers in most other sectors.

Such findings may shock those in the IT industry who are travelling from site to site and project to project, attending customer meetings and partner events and racking up the Air Miles weekly, but they may also suggest techies are simply ahead of the curve in adopting technologies which limit the need for time out of the office.

However, more than a quarter (28 per cent) of respondents still claim to be spending more than five days each month away from home.

But it seems a little bit of travel broadens the mind and makes for a happy workforce – or at least two thirds of the workforce.

The research found 65 per cent of respondents enjoy travelling, while 32 per cent said they didn't – a dissenting figure which was higher than any other sector.

Part of this is no doubt down to the fact that for every trip to more exciting venues there are always days spent in places such as Birmingham, Eindhoven, Frankfurt, San José, Slough and Swindon, all feared names on the IT industry tour of duty.

'Work in tech for long enough and you'll go to them all, my son' the Round-Up's first editor once said. Heady days.

Of those who said they didn't like to travel, 70 per cent said it intrudes on their personal life while 65 per cent added it is tiring and stressful and 55 per cent said they don't like staying away from home.

A grumbling 35 per cent said travelling on business is "mundane".

And finally, speaking of travelling, one high-tech CEO has made an outlandish promise (it's actually a big fat lie) about the length he'll go to if his product conquers the world.

Jon S von Tetzchner (if only you were allowed names in Scrabble), the CEO of browser builder Opera has said if Opera 8 is downloaded one million times within the first four days of its launch he will swim from Norway to the US "with only one stop-over for a cup of hot chocolate at his mother's house" in Iceland.

No he won't.

Let's put aside the fact that it's a rather lame stunt to publicise the launch of the product and study the practicalities of sea temperature and distance.

He will actually die if he attempts this – as his promise said he "will" not "will attempt to". Sounds like quitting isn't an option.

Thankfully for Tetzchner it sounds as though it may not happen anyway, as the company is currently experiencing technical problems in handling requests for downloads.

"A lot of people had great difficulties downloading Opera 8 because the traffic on the servers was simply too high," said Carsten Fischer, VP Desktop at Opera Software.

Must have been the CEO leaning on the big 'go slow' button.

Until next week, that's all folks! Now read some news: