Technofile

A competition for teenagers to create their own websites has thrown up a winner, in Technofile's opinion anyway. It is a detailed, intelligent and feisty exploration of death, which not only describes some unusual ways to die, but also tells you how long you have to live. Plus, digital technology arrives on the radio

DEAD RECKONING

I don't suppose it'll win, but my favourite site among the ThinkQuest finalists (see box below) is the portentously titled Death: An Inquiry Into Man's Mortal Weakness. A collaboration between Beth Abraham in Australia, Thijs Jacobs in the Netherlands, and Kushal Dave in the US, it's a site with an authentic voice. You can see how hard the trio worked on their creation. You can also see that, at some points, they bit off more than they could quite digest, and that the monster got on top of them at times.

They certainly have the knack of getting a visitor's attention. On the first page you are invited to complete a questionnaire, based on actuarial analysis, about such details as your age, family history of illness, vices and habits. On your return to the index page, you are welcomed back with a message telling you how many years you have left to live.

Assuming you don't decide that the time it takes to look at the rest of the site is too high a proportion of the figure given, there's plenty more fun to be had with features such as "Unusual Ways People Die", which includes a True or False quiz. Here the team has run up against the reality that the truth is often neither black nor white.

Their answers, it must be said, are sometimes equivocal to the point of evasiveness. "Left-handed people die sooner", for example, deserves a fuller reply than "not necessarily"; and "sort of" does not really resolve the question of whether the Challenger astronauts were still alive when they hit the sea.

On the other hand, they do give the correct answer to the frequently asked question "do you know there's a typo on page such-and-such" - "obviously not". Anybody who ever put together a website will recognise the mixture of pride and frustration that animates their FAQs. If I were judging the contest, I'd give them the prize on the basis of their answer to the question: "Can you tell us more about you because we need to verify your legitimacy as a source?"

"Yes we can, but we probably don't need to," they answer. "We are high school students who invested countless hours in researching this project from original and secondary sources. You decide if we're credible." Damn right! The Net doesn't accommodate the sheeplike attitude that you need to see credentials before you can trust anything you read. You can't rely on artificial intelligence. You have to use your own.

Next week, the winners of this year's ThinkQuest contest will be announced. The organisers are Advanced Network & Services, a non-profit- making outfit dedicated to encouraging education via computer networks, and all the entries are websites created by school students aged between 12 and 19. The competition is intended "to promote the Internet Style of Learning - an interactive, participatory style that encourages students to take advantage of the Internet as a constantly growing source of information and as a powerful collaborative tool."

ORDNANCE SURVEY, INDOOR LEISURE

Whereas encyclopedias are better in every respect on CD-Rom than on paper, atlases are basically worse, but have some redeeming features. The measure of an atlas is its graphic reproduction, and the book remains the superior medium in this respect. It is generally easier to use, too, although multimedia may be friendlier under certain circumstances: a zoom facility may be preferable to a magnifying glass, for example.

Where multimedia does score is in your ability to play with maps. You can remove information layer by layer from the maps in the Ordnance Survey Interactive Atlas of Great Britain (Third Edition, Attica, Windows, pounds 30), creating specialised charts from general ones. There's a device, new to this edition, for measuring the distance between points of your choice. Also new, and actually quite practical, is a London map with a streetfinding facility. Points are deducted, however, for the claim that the tourist symbols on the main maps are "interactive". They reveal the names of attractions when the mouse is passed over them, which is about as interactive as a light switch.

TECHNOTIP

You want road travel information, but Teletext is slower than the northbound rubberneckers passing a pile-up on the southbound carriageway, the premium phone lines cost too much and local radio is unbearable. The solution is on the front page of the RAC website, where Live Traffic News lets you select detailed traffic information by region, updated every 30 minutes.

AFRICA DIRECT

If you want substantial, trenchant information about the world's trouble spots that adds depth to the best foreign correspondence, the International Crisis Group's website is an excellent place to start. The ICG is devoted to the proposition that the phrase "international community" should actually mean something. It also recognises that popular perceptions of Africa leave something to be desired, and has recently posted a directory containing over 200 links to sites on or about Africa. They range from academic and non-governmental organisations' sites to on-line versions of African papers, such as Kenya's Daily Nation, Le Soft International from the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa's Mail & Guardian, Tanzania's Daily News and the Zimbabwe Independent.

OBJECT LESSON

ARCAM ALPHA 10 DIGITAL RADIO TUNER

In all the fuss about digital TV, radio seems a bit left out. There are 44 music channels available on BSkyB Digital, but not everyone has a dish, and anyway, what about The Archers? In fact, the BBC is already broadcasting digital radio, available to 60 per cent of the UK. Now Arcam has released the Alpha 10, the first digital radio product for the home. It connects easily to hi-fis, and, like digital TV, promises much higher quality reception. Enthusiasts rave about the "ultra-clean music", which is received from a regular indoor aerial. A text display tells you which station and track you're listening to, so you can avoid your least favourite DJs and songs with the sound off. It costs pounds 799.99, so it's for serious enthusiasts only, but prices of digital radio technology will drop. And manufacturers are keen to point out that in real terms, this is half the cost of the first CD players of 1984. With new channels promised, like live parliamentary broadcasts, who can resist? For stockists, call 01223 203 203. David Phelan

YOU'LL FIND LINKS TO THE WEBSITES MENTIONED IN TECHNOFILE ON ITS HOMEPAGES AT: http://www.poptel.org.uk/technofile