The Null Device
2000/2/26
Salon visits the RealDoll factory:
Far in the back is a bizarre spectacle: eight headless female bodies hanging about a yard or so off the floor, suspended from long chains with hooks affixed to the top of the necks. The bodies are, quite simply, gorgeous -- with the sort of firm, round T-and-A that you only find in gentlemen's mags. It's a disturbing sight, reminiscent of plucked chickens on display in a Chinese restaurant. One is torn between lust and horror.
Guinness researchers count the cost of facial hair: (Reuters)
For those trying to count the cost of their mustache, the average Guinness drinker with a mustache like sports presenter Des Lynam is losing over 12 pounds a year, while those with a goatee like pop singer George Michael are nine pounds out of pocket. A full beard could cost you around 23 pounds in lost Guinness -- although the research showed that the amount varies according to the thickness of the facial hair.
The first male idoru pop star in the West is E-Cyas, a Europop singer: (BBC News)
Developed by German-based I-D Media, E-Cyas is an example of Avatar technology - which creates a 3D virtual being. His voice is a digital blend of several session musicians.
Wired News investigates GoHip.com, the secretive company behind the "video browser" that changes the user's signature and home page.
The perils of digitisation: old computer data has a way of disappearing: (BBC News)
When they came to examine them, the archivists found that five percent of the older disks had become corrupted. The magnetic coating on the disks had simply succumbed to the slow erosion of time.
"Old disks are useless when the hardware is no longer available to read them," said archaeologist Keith Westcott... Finding a computer that will physically accept old-fashioned 5ΒΌ inch or Amstrad-style 3 inch floppy disks is not easy.