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Net Gains (Jul 23, 97) |
While surfing the Net at that unearthly hour (believe me, it's
no trouble connecting at 3 am in the morning), I came across a
web page with an equation known as Drake's equation :
N = R* x fs x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x L
where N = The number of civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy
whose radio emissions are detectable.
You can use the above equation to calculate the number of intelligent
civilizations able to communicate within our own galaxy.
While you can choose your own values and let the web page calculate
the answer for you, using the values provided by default, there
are 15 other intelligent civilisations in our galaxy. The expected
question popped up in my mind - do they have Net connections too
? :-D
But seriously though, this was part of a site publicising Warner
Bros' latest hit - The Contact (http://www.contact-themovie.com).
The site kicks off with four self-refreshing screens that keep
bombarding you with images and accompanying sound effects, until
you reach the main page.
The site has cast info., production notes, interviews (including
one with Dr. Drake of Drake's equation fame), trailer (7.7 MB
- ouch !), a dozen stills, and a lot of science-techhie trivia.
Each page has a strange hieroglyphic associated with it - for
those who understand hieroglyphics instead of English - maybe
for people from one of those 15 other civilisations.
Until the movie finally makes it to our shores (it was released
in the second week of July in the US), you will have to make do
with the story on the website, and catching the trailers and interview
clips. Interesting links here lead to information on the Voyager
and Pioneer mission among other NASA efforts. The Arecibo message
- sent out in '74 from the Arecibo Observatory - showing our chemical
makeup, our population, our height, our planetary system, and
the telescope transmitting the message, is there for all to see.
One bit of interesting trivia - the original episodes of I Love
Lucy, first broadcast around 40 years ago, have travelled 40 light
years into our surrounding neighborhood, an area inhabited by
roughly 100 stars. If anyone out there is paying attention, they
could also pick up news of the Vietnam War and the first man on
the Moon; Dynasty, America's Funniest Home Videos and The Simpsons
! Imagine the impression they have of us …
In a smart marketing & PR exercise, surfers are given 250Kb
space on the web and a "Contact toolkit" (1.6Mb) to
create their own personal "Contact web pages". This
is part of the most interactive part of the site - the Contact
Community. Another feature offered as part of the community area
is real - time chat that allows users to discuss anything related
to the movie. While the rest of India was in dreamland, junta
from other time zones were logged onto Contact chat. The first
message that bit my monitor was a two line description of the
movie - "It was an idiot segan preaching his views about
God. I love the God who gave his son Jesus, not an alien. Thanks
for the chat anyway…." … and he logged off ! Then
there were the usual "I love Jodie Foster" messages.
Oh just one more thing - I can't give this site a "shell
friendly" stamp. So you'll just have to use ShellSock to
visit this site…
Another new site on the web is the online version of Education
Times (http://www.educationtimes.com). The site aims at presenting
a comprehensive picture of education and career opportunities
in India to a phoren audience interested in pursuing studies here.
The website has a host of options to choose from - campus news,
career options (list of different colleges for different
streams, with links to individual home pages soon), focus
(in-depth analysis of careers in India), competitive exams,
and take a break (fun reading). The interactivity of this
site lies in the Helpline and Bulletin Board sections,
the former catering to questions relating to career and self development.
The Bulletin Board, not yet inaugurated at time of review,
offers to post for free, education related messages.
This site too fails the "shell friendly" test - it's
design is frames - based, and there's no explanatory message for
browsers that don't support frames. A lot of potential in a site
like this, once it reaches it's target audience - maybe this could
even turn into an Indian "Petersons Guide". Time will
tell …