The Null Device
2000/6/18
Trademarks in the News: A Maori tribe wants to trademark the haka, the traditional Maori war dance, and charge users (such as the All Blacks rugby team) hefty licensing fees. Not surprisingly, there is quite a bit of controversy about this. (BBC News)
PalmPilot shareware of the day: TealScript; a replacement for the built-in Graffiti handwriting mechanism, which allows you to define your own strokes and fine-tune the mechanism. Finally my Pilot recognises the letter 'r' properly...
Getting closer to vat-grown replacement organs, researchers are on the brink of growing replacement human teeth, which could take the place of artificial teeth (except among status-conscious gold-toothed gangsters and the like, of course). (WIRED News)
Today I visited a favourite cafe of mine, the Salamander Cafe. Or rather what had been the Salamander Cafe. It now calls itself the Curry Cafe, and specialises in Indian food. They still serve great (and reasonably priced) chai tea, though now in generic white cups, rather than the eclectic collection of old-fashioned teacups they once had. Gone, also, are the shelves full of bric-a-brac and the noticeboard where Northcote's cat-owning painter/cellists would advertise for housemates, giving their star sign. The place's new appearance is tidier and a bit less funky (though the music was quite groovy no less; let's hope they've kept their Not Drowning, Waving CDs and Bacharach compilations on hand).