The opener is another from Gerry Emson, slightly adapted by me.

This EUG is late. The latest ever I think. The reason is that I was holding out until the last moment to see if anything else would come in. As EUG is a user magazine, it relies on your submissions to continue. Many members do send in things regularly but many more do not. It doesn't need to be some grand problem or insightful point. It just needs to be anything that interests you.

The Internet continues to be a source of anguish for the Censorship Brigade. It seems that a program written for the American 'Net which tries to root out "rude" words has been rejecting access to people who give their address as Scunthorpe!

Another feature in this program is that it is designed to pick out pronography and eliminate it. It apparently does this by looking at graphics files and checking the tones to see if there is too much flesh. A 'bug' was discovered however when the program rejected images of Botechelli's Venus. Presumably we are being expected to believe that Botechelli had only pure angellic thoughts on his mind and wasn't tainted with the carnal lust of these modern photographers. This reminds me of a group who tried to censor all songs with suggestive lyrics. Someone pointed out that they hadn't included Irving Berlin's song Let's Fall In Love. This group denied that there was anything suggestive about "Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it".

A similar group had tried to censor John Denver's song Rocky Mountain High on the grounds that it was a reference to cocaine use. John Denver himself appeared before a government hearing on the subject and said, "Anyone who claims Rocky Mountain High is about drug abuse has obviously never seen the Rocky Mountains". As someone who has, I can confirm they really are breathtaking.

Meanwhile, China continues its dash for an Orwellian society with the establishment of The Internet Police. It seems that anyone connecting to the internet in China must first register with The Internet Police, and give them full details of their internet address and such.

The journalist who reported this said that when she went to register the inspector was busy at his desk playing some pirated software. Some are more equal than others.

The information on the censorship program and China's Internet Police was found in The Independent newspaper.

A while ago, I made a reference to a third world government that has apparently put a tax on exports. When I first heard this, I was stunned at the stupidity and greed that had motivated such action and the short-sightedness of it. I was recently speaking on the 'phone to an EUG reader who suggested that perhaps the products being exported were being produced at the expense of more important products (such as food) or even that they might be products which were needed at home but commanding a far better price from European buyers. I must confess that I hadn't thought of this aspect and it seems obvious now.

But this is surely what EUG is about: exchanging ideas and points of view.

I don't know how many readers read the Maplin magazine on Electronics. There is a series at the moment on the Internet. It is quite good and features information on some of the items that can be accessed with this media of communication. As a bonus you can read the EUG advert it has carried for some time now.

Gus Donnachaidh, EUG #25

Gus Donnachaidh