are some of my favourite places to
chat, and fun pages to visit on the Web.
San Francisco View
A view out over the wonderful city of San Francisco, updated every five minutes.
The Longevity
Game
Want to know how long you're going to live? Try out this handy questionnaire!
World Population
Wondering just how many people are squeezed on to this planet right now? Well this counter continually
keeps track of the teeming hordes, allegedly.
Subway Navigator
Trying to work out a complicated journey on your city's underground/subway/tube/metro/u-bahn? Take
a look at this site which could tell you all you need to know.
For me, the best thing about the internet is being able to talk to all those different people out there, and
telnetting to one of these services is my favourite way to chat to people in real time - they have
much more sense of community than Internet Relay Chat.
I can usually be found in the early hours, UK time, hanging out at one or more of these fun places, under
the pseudonym of Fabius. A couple are MOOs, but I never really got in to all that programming, house
building role-playing kind of stuff - they are however great places to meet interesting people.
Club Wired
This is the live chat section of Hotwired, Wired
magazine's online presence. It can range from having only a couple of people around, to being crammed
full of folks from
all around the world yakking about their good/bad days, their net.relationships, the state of the world
(very occasionally), how they really should get on and do something more useful, and assorted
meaningless flattery and insults. There are even special guest speakers, some of whom I've also heard of,
so it's well worth popping in
to say hi.
If you've already been there, you could try looking at the Club Wired People page, to see if anyone you
met is mentioned in this hall of infamy, or maybe even has their photo on display.
Bay MOO
A virtual San Francisco, where you can wander around the many
locations, most of which I've never been to. The best thing about chatting to people in a MOO, as opposed
to a simple chat board like Club Wired is being able to 'emote' - it makes it so much more realistic and
friendly to be able to hug/kiss/laugh at/poke your fellow citizens. Well, OK, maybe 'realistic' is pushing
it a bit, but it makes a difference anyway. It's also handy being able to leave internal email for other
MOOers, especially on those annoying occasions when your net sessions never seem to coincide. A busy,
bustling place - if you just want to chat to someone, your best bet is to hang out at The Aquatic Dome for a while.
Spacebar
Very similar to Club Wired, and the regular haunt of many of the same people. It used to be pretty quiet
much of the time, but lately it has been known to out-bustle CW. And as it's easier to register for
Spacebar, it's well worth popping in.
U-MOO
Another MOO, and one I don't know a lot about really. Much quieter than BayMOO, and
run by the University of Windsor, Canada, it's an alternative if you want a more secluded, exclusive virtual
world to build your home. I've no Web address for this, so if you can, telnet straight there.
