The basic premise of Mike's List is that "technology is funny." It's written by Mike Elgin, who started sending out strange-but-true e-mails to his friends and colleagues in 1997. After a more successful than usual dot-com career (he was editor of Windows Magazine, for example), he still ended up where most dot-commers did, when his personal website venture failed. Having time on his hands, he launched Mike's List on July 31, 2000.
I found out about Mike's List from a friend in Luxembourg, who regularly forwarded the newsletter to me at work. It has many pictures and seemed to always get garbled through the tender mercies of our corporate firewall, so I didn't pay much attention to it. Still it kept coming and eventually I got curious. Using a standard web sleuthing technique, I figured that if it was called Mike's List, there might be a web site at www.mikeslist.com and of course, there was.
The home page of each issue contains a humorous story, usually relating to technology. The latest issue, for instance, details the fun when a joint Microsoft/Unisys anti-UNIX website was found to be running on a UNIX server. When that news hit the web, Microsoft quickly put together a Windows 2000-based system to run the site. It hasn't been heard from since. Neither Microsoft nor Unisys seems to want to comment further on what is going on with the vanished site.
You'll see a link in the upper left corner to the "Current Issue." The lead report today is called "Obvious ... and Oblivious." The article points out several things easily implemented, eminently useful, that never seem to get done. One item is standard 120 volt power in motor vehicles. Nobody really needs a cigarette lighter in a car anymore, but a real outlet or two would be a godsend. A few models have it as an option - it costs money, but most automobile manufacturers act as though household power doesn't exist. Another innovation that would be trivial, but never seems to happen is embedding ATM language settings in your ATM card. If you speak Urdu, your bank probably knows it and can give you an ATM card that knows it, too. When you access the ATM, it would be simple for it to deal with you transparently in your language. Implementing a few hundred of the most common languages would be easy for today's ATMs. Yet such a logical extension of technology hasn't happened.
Mike often latches onto strange or goofy technology. One recent example is a computer-controlled cat door, which blocks the cat's entry if it is carrying a rodent. Another issue detailed where you can buy generic S*lly P*tty very cheaply. You can also see the Dow Corning Fact Sheet for Dilatant, which is what S*lly P*tty really is. If you're really technically minded, you can get more information by searching Google for "Dilatant Dow Corning."
How about putting a fan in your mouse, so your hand stays dry? A watch with a bb-launching catapult? A rubber band gatling gun? There are 35 issues archived, so you can find many such jewels. Mike also covers a healthy number of wacky web sites in each issue. For example, Pseudodictionary is a dictionary of "made-up words, obscure slang and random jargon". Do you know what a "jed" is? It's a very regional slang word in Canada to refer to the letter "j" (like "zed" for "z".) An abandoned subway stations website and an amusing American-British travel dictionary are two other recent standout links. There is also a "Mystery Pic o' the Week" section.
One additional feature: at the left side of the home page, there is a "Friends" section which links to a number of very good informational homepages by computer professionals (as well as a few commercial pages.) I especially recommend the pages of Fred Langa and Karen Kenworthy; each provides valuable Windows information and tools, respectively. If you want reader's pages, click on the "links" link at the top of the page for a list of them.
CATBAR - Brain Candy #57 - Fun with Mike / Brian Rock / Jul 3 2002