Techno Page
by Harendra Alwis
Sites you can't get enough of
War strategy on the net
Sites you can't get enough of
For a long distance chat
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how clumsy the Internet is with its
crawling speeds of data transfer and stereotype interface, but this time
around we'll look at why it is still such an important part of out lives.
Without knowing, we have come to depend on it so much that even a couple
of days without a functional Internet would spell losses of trillions of
dollars worldwide. This week we will take a look at a few websites that
would interest us all and despite the sluggish speeds would reassure you
that surfing the net is a fun thing to do after all.
As well as very real horror, the New York attacks created a telephonic
nightmare. A system designed to be in use by about 5% of all users at one
time, and based on 100-year-old concepts, suddenly lit up like a Christmas
tree with frantic callers. But some telecom providers now claim a technology
know as VoIP held up very well under the strain. It sounds like something
out of Star Trek, but the acronyms actually stands for Voice over Internet
Protocol, and if you've made an international phone call recently that
cost you only a couple of rupees, you've used VoIP.
Traditionally, you have a direct link from your phone to the phone of
who ever you're calling, but with VoIP your call is split up into tiny
data packets, which swarm their way through the telephone networks and
reassemble themselves at the other end.
Instead of gridlock, pieces of phone calls can find their own route
from phone to phone. It's exactly the same technique you use to make phone
calls on your PC over the public Internet. VoIP is now increasingly used
on the big dedicated telephone networks so they can work more efficiently,
using lessons and techniques learned from the public 'net'. Those in the
industry admit there's a lack of awareness about the technology, but they're
doing their best to talk up VoIP.
For the doodler
Apart from making international calls, if you consider yourself a bit
of a doodler, you can now do it online to amazing effect at Sodaplay. This
type of creative play is totally addictive. On the site you can construct
3-D models that walk, bounce, roll, or jiggle their way across the screen,
depending on your design. Each model is made of joints and springs that
move a particular way when you apply pressure to them. The game has two
main modes, which you can choose from the popup menu - 'simulate' to animate
and play with a model or 'construct' to stop the animation so that you
can add new masses and springs. And if you're really proud of your artwork
you can add your animation to the 'sodazoo' which houses some bizarre-looking
shapes or, having set up an account, you can also e-mail it on to your
friends. Mac users, just be aware that as this is a JavaScript program,
you may have problems running it in a Netscape browser - Internet Explorer
works fine.
Encyclopedia at your fingertips
Now for another great site - How Stuff Works literally an online encyclopedia
at your fingertips where 'How Tattoo removal works' sits side by side with
'How sleep works'. There's plenty in each category to keep you interested.
The How Stuff Works TV section provides downloadable video clips, which
will add some clout to your trivia knowledge! The clips are available for
different connection speeds but you'll also need the Real player plug-in.
Overall a brash, but amusing site - you just end up wanting to find out
about the strangest things!
Becoming Human is a fantastic site with an interactive documentary that
tells us the story of our origins - what makes us human. It's been primarily
designed for those of you with broadband connections and don't forget,
you'll also need Flash 5. For standard connections, don't worry, as there's
other stuff to keep you interested. Discover the latest advances the scientists
are making (news and views) and find out what a prehistoric archaeologist
actually does. Make sure you return to this site again, as it's expanding
and there'll be lots more to explore.
Illusions that fascinates and frustrate
And finally a site that'll make you stay connected long after you should
be! Illusionworks is an online world of illusions that fascinates and frustrates
in equal measures. The introductory page provides a link to a beginner's
guide to illusions and perception, but it's difficult to concentrate on
this when you know that just beyond there's so much to actually interact
with. The Illusions in art pages show examples of artists weaving their
optical magic - the ones by Dutch artist MC Escher are simply amazing and
there's a mini-gallery of Escher's art with interesting analysis of his
work. If you want to get deeper into the puzzles take a look at 'Interactive
demonstrations'. Here, you can fiddle and experiment for hours with impossible
shapes and camouflages illusions. There's actually so much content here
- images, animations and commentary - just bookmark it and keep going back.
Sites to visit
http://www.sodaplay.com/
http://www.howstuffworks.com/
http://www.becominghuman.org/
http://www.illusionworks.com/
Email: technopage_lk@yahoo.com
Write in to:
Techno Page
Mirror Magazine
C/o The Sunday Times
No 8, Hunupitiya Cross Road,
Colombo 2.
War strategy on the net
With all these wars going on everywhere, why not engage in a bit of war
strategy ourselves? Strategy games are becoming very popular these days.
Games like Dune, Age of empires, Red Alert 2, Star craft, Myth, Tiberian
sun are just some of the many strategy games available on the market, but
when it comes to real human war (i.e. without aliens) with real forces,
Red Alert 2 is probably the only one that stands out of the rest.
RA2 is based on the war between America and Russia. Here the Russians
have launched a large-scale attack on the US.
You can also play a skirmish game where you can choose other countries
like Cuba, Iraq, Britain, or Germany.
RA2 has all the features of other strategy games building supply depots,
refineries, barracks, radars and machine shops and train infirmaries, medics
and engineers.
But RA2 has some added features that other strategy games don't have,
such as you can construct a naval shipyard and build battle ships, submarines,
hovercrafts and ever aircraft carriers. If you choose Russia or Iraq, you
can train spies, suicide bombers and even soldiers that use biological
weaponry (this is only available when you choose Iraq). This is the edge
of RA2.
Overall, RA2 is a good strategy game compared with other strategy games.
The only drawback is the graphics aren't as realistic as strategy games
like Tiberian sun and Star craft. I'd rate this 6 out of 10.
Sent in by Ameen Akbar |
