Intel Shows Off a Web-Surfing Surfboard
Oct. 8, 2004 — -- In this week's Cybershake, we take a look at Intel's innovative attempt to show how riding the waves really isn't that far from surfing the Web. Plus, we note what happens when people — especially powerful U.S. vice presidents — confuse ".org" Internet domain names with similar ".com" Web sites.
Twice the Surfing Champ
What do you think of when someone says "surf?" Do images of sun, sand, and ocean waves pop into mind? Or do you imagine sitting in front of a computer, browsing through the millions of Web pages on the Internet?
Thanks to imaginative engineers at chip-maker Intel, both mental images can be combined into one.
Ralph Bond, a spokesman for Intel, says the company has helped designed a surfboard that contains a fully functional wireless laptop that would allow riders to "Surf the surf and surf the Web at the same time."
Bond says the one-of-a-kind creation is meant "to show how wireless connectivity to the Internet is really permeating every aspect of our lives." And while mixing the waves with the Web might sound like an ingenious idea, it wasn't an easy task to accomplish.
"[We had to] insure that it would be water tight and protected from the salt water, which is doubly dangerous for a piece of electronic gear," says Bond. And to maintain the balance of the surfboard so it would still be rideable in the waves, the team at Intel turned to noted surfboard maker Jools Matthew in North Devon, England, to craft the final 10-foot-long waverunner.
The result is a long board that lets riders crest the wave — and send pictures of their surf back to those on dry land and on the Net.
"They can pull out a little stylus pen and surf the Web," says Bond. "They can take pictures of themselves with the built-in Web camera."
And when surfers have had enough surfing and want to catch some rays instead, so will the board.
"[It] also has solar panels you can connect to the surfboard when you're out of the water [and] on the beach to recharge the battery," says Bond.
But Net-addicted surfers shouldn't run out to their local shops to order one. Intel created the long board with Matthews as a technology demonstrator for the GoldCoast Oceanfest, a sport and musical festival the company sponsored in North Devon last June.
And while the board probably won't make it to commercial release, "the page of creativity is blank right now and ready to be written with a lot of fun ideas," says Bond.
— Larry Jacobs, ABC News
In this tight presidential election race, candidates on both sides are pulling out the stops in bombarding the voting public with plenty of information — not all of which might be entirely true.
But even when candidates try to set the record straight, they might end up doing more damage than damage control. Consider the gaff Vice President Dick Cheney made during the recent televised debate with Sen. John Edwards.
When Edwards challenged Cheney's involvement with Haliburton, a company involved lucrative with reconstruction projects in Iraq, Cheney replied the truth could be found on a Web site called FactCheck.com.
But the facts weren't exactly right. FactCheck.com is a Web advertising site run by a for-profit firm in the Cayman Islands. And Cheney's mention during the debate caused a huge surge in traffic — about 100 hits per second — to the site, causing it to crash repeatedly.
FactCheck.com's lawyer, John Berryhill, says that the company decided to redirect all that Web traffic back to billionaire George Soros's Web site, a well-known critic of President Bush and his administration.
"The idea was something that would make it clear that we're not supporting Bush-Cheney," says Berryhill. "And I think they made that clear."
What Cheney meant to say was "FactCheck.org," a nonpartisan and nonprofit Web site that is run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania to cut down on the confusion and deception in U.S. politics.
Still, some attention is better than none — especially for the non-partisan FactCheck.org site. Brooks Jackson, director of the Annenberg Political Fact Check project, says even the botched mention directed enough traffic to cause the FactCheck.org site to crash several times on Wednesday after the debate as well.
"We knew it was good to have the name out there, even if the vice president didn't get it entirely right," says Jackson.
— Cheri Preston, ABC News
Cybershake is produced for ABCNEWS Radio by Andrea J. Smith.