To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://comment.silicon.com/weeklyroundup/0,39024756,11032604,00.htm

It's tough being a cyborg
The future may not be all it's cracked up to be, especially if you're a cyborg.

By Graham Hayday

Published: Friday 22 March 2002

American academic Dr Steven Mann has been testing the limits of technology for two decades by blurring the lines between human and machine.

He now has over $500,000 worth of computers, wires and sensors attached to his body to boost his physical and mental abilities.

Unfortunately, this landed him in some hot water recently when he tried to board a plane at Newfoundland airport.

He was strip searched by suspicious security personnel who, with all their legendary delicacy, managed to inflict $56,000 worth of damage to his equipment, Mann claims, including the glasses with which he used to 'see'. They're now completely knackered.

Mann said he was left highly disoriented by the experience and fell over twice after the search. On one occasion he tottered into some fire extinguishers, got a nasty knock on the noggin and lost consciousness. He was eventually put on the plane in a wheelchair.

That's an aspect of life as a cyborg the creators of Terminator over-looked. And quite how Mann takes a bath without electrocuting himself remains a mystery.

The world went broadband crazy this week. First, ecommerce minister Douglas Alexander laid out exactly how the £30m 'Broadband Britain' aid package first announced in February 2001 will be spent (better late than never).

The cash will go on wiring up business parks in Yorkshire and Humberside, a trial of wireless and satellite broadband in the East Midlands, and reduced price connections for some users in the South East.

In the east of England, there will be a "connecting communities" competition, in which the prizes will be free broadband.

And finally, Buckfastleigh in Devon, previously famous only for its lethal fortified wine (much loved by Glasgow's discerning tramp community) will become a showcase for broadband with the school, health centre, town hall and library all being wired up. (Cream teas will be available in the rectory afterwards).

The Welsh Assembly has also got in on the act, awarding a £14m contract to integrator Logical to build a high-speed network linking the country's 22 local education authorities and eight university sites. This will bring broadband to schools, colleges and libraries throughout the country.

A pat on the back for all concerned, but there are still black smudges on the horizon (well, directly overhead actually).

Sandip Sarda, a member of BT's original broadband taskforce back in the heady days of 1995 (and that's not a typo), believes there are 'fundamental shortcomings' in the UK government's broadband strategy. It's called content.

In the UK, over 60 per cent of the population could have broadband, but take-up is nowhere near that (despite the sudden surge in demand BTopenworld has seen since the much-vaunted price cuts were announced - it's attracted 16,000 new customers in two weeks).

But in Japan, Sarda says the number of ADSL subscribers has increased by 20 per cent in six months because of the work of a content-led, government-backed consortium. NTT, Sony and Yahoo! Japan aim to provide "must-have" revenue-generating content services. And it seems to be working.

Sarda, now CTOO of AssetHouse Technology, is trying to create something similar in the UK. For more info, email broadband@assethouse.com .

Another problem is our own stupidity (or that of customer support staff). Or perhaps more accurately the complexity of the technology.

Software outfit Motive carried out a survey of broadband users in the UK and found that two-thirds had experienced difficulties getting started. Ninety per cent of these considered themselves technically competent as well, so the issue really must be the technology itself, and the support (or lack of it). One third of those surveyed said they'd phoned call centres with connection problems up to three times per month.

The kids'll be alright when they grow up though, won't they? They're being taught IT properly& or are they?

Well, no, not really - not if this silicon.com reader's experience is anything to go by. A Mr Nolan writes: "A school in Armagh is about to open a new technology centre, but the headmistress has decided not to run "A" or "AS" level classes in Technology in spite of high demand among pupils for the subject. When the parent of one of the kids wrote to the head, he was told that his daughter could do A-level Home Economics as 'many of the processes dealt with in Technology are covered by Home Economics'."

The Round-Up did some home economics in primary school, but all it learnt was how to make an upside-down pear sponge type thing. My, how time's have changed.

Another silicon.com reader has had a bizarre experience in cyberspace (no, not THAT kind of experience). A John Greer of John Greer Associates tried out Michelin's new online maps and guides site recently (www.viamichelin.co.uk ). He tested its route finding capability. Unfortunately, it had chosen (perhaps wisely) to ignore the existence of Widnes, Mr Greer's home town. (No offence meant to the people of Widnes, honest. It was just a cheap joke).

He then typed in his own postcode and that of a former employer 14 miles away near Warrington. The site correctly pinpointed that the destination was a place called Risley, but got the wrong one: it wanted to send Mr Greer on a 90 mile detour to the Risley near Nottingham.

And last but not least among these marvellous Michelin quirks was the drop-down country menu. Mr Greer scrolled to the latter end of the list, got to Uruguay, Ukraine& but there was no United Kingdom.

Sacre bleu! Qu'est-ce qui se passe? Ahhh - bien sur, the United Kingdom was there after all, sandwiched between Romania and Russia. Michelin had translated the list from the original French but forgot to check the alphabetical order (UK = Royaume-Uni, for all of you who bunked off French lessons to play computer games or something). That little peculiarity has now been corrected however.

But as Mr Greer says, "This glorious nonsense deserves a wider audience. Can anyone else harness Mr Michelin's Vulcanised logic to beat a 90 mile error for a 14 mile journey? Bon voyages, mes amis!"

Til the Friday after next (we're having time off for good behaviour - or even the Easter weekend), au revoir...