The Null Device

2001/5/13

The WINE Windows emulator for Linux may be a long way from replacing Windows, but it is bearing some fruit. First came WINE-based video players which used Windows codecs to decode proprietary formats, and soon Linux users will be able to use Windows web browser plug-ins in Linux browsers. At last; non-brain-damaged Flash support on Linux, not to mention QuickTime, Shockwave and such. Now the only reason to use Internet Exploiter under VMWare will be if you want a browser that doesn't crash.

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On May 8, staff and students at Amherst University arrived to find a campus-wide ban on coffee, aimed at stamping out caffeine use. Signs on campus announced the ban, a press conference was held on the dangers of the drug caffeine, and black-market coffee dealers sold espresso beans to addicts jonesing for their fix. The whole thing was an art project, organised by a student and drug policy critic named Andrew Epstein, who persuaded the administration to go along with it.

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Coming soon to a McLympiad near you: genetically engineered posthuman athletes capable of outperforming ordinary humans.

In a 1995 survey, nearly 200 aspiring American Olympians were asked if they would take a banned substance that would guarantee victory in every competition for five years and would then cause death; more than half answered yes.

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Once they were acclaimed (mostly by themselves, mind you) as the New Beatles, but now, alternative/britpop band Oasis' fortunes have sunk to a new low. How low? Well, they've been reduced to having slanging matches with boy bands.

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A moment of silence, please: Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a number of other things, has died of a sudden heart attack. Adams had been working on a Hitchhiker's Guide movie.

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