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Practical Internet Magazine Review of 21stCentury.co.uk
Were you under the impression that the new millennium started last year?
Think again...
The 21st Century is upon us. No, not that one - this one. 21stCentury.co.uk is a great collection of futuristic gadgets, toys, free online games and amazing cars with more fun than you can shake a book of Nostradamus' prophecies at.
21stCentury.co.uk is essentially a science and technology portal, covering everything from cars to fashion. It's a sci-fi tech-head's dream, a kind of Tomorrow's World on the Web, but the site is presented in a very accessible way. Worth checking out just for the robot butlers (we've waited for them to come on the market since Buck Rogers), there are some unexpected and interesting things that crop up.
21stCentury.co.uk has biographies of notable scientific luminaries, from Lao Tzu to Galileo and Douglas Adams and there are works from artists who have painted visions of the future. The Places section includes all the best Millennium projects including the Lowry, the Tate Modern and the Eden Project. The Dome is there as well, but you can't have everything.
The ubiquitous Humour section is well put-together; the spoof tech-support query Girlfriend 7 ("I've upgraded Girlfriend 7.0 to Wife 1.0 and it won't let me run Pokernight 4.3 any more...") is particularly good. As for the cars, well: read, look, drool...
NEWS OF THE WORLD
Links to news about science, technology, the Internet, space, and the environment (among other things) with live audio and video streams for those who can handle them.
TECHNOLOGY
Gadgets, essentially. It's possible to find a robot butler, an underwater laptop computer and an automatic lawnmower. You can't buy the items on the site, but there are links to the relevant places. There are also technology articles here on subjects such as the testing of the world's first military laser (a frightening piece of hardware, actually).
PLACES
Covers information about different places of scientific interest around the country - like the Eden Project, the world's largest greenhouse and a project that restores pride in the word "dome".There are links to other sites of interest and information on how to book and get to the various places, as well as a concise summary of what each place is all about and what you can do when you get there.
PEOPLE
A look at the people who have played a prominent role in scientific advancement and hear what they had to say. People like Lao Tzu, a man who rode off into the desert on a water-buffalo, or Galileo Galilei whose support for the heliocentric theory got him into trouble with the Pope (the scamp).
SUBSCRIBE
Keep up to date with the latest news from 21st Century in the usual way; input your email address and wait for those messages to arrive.
GAMES
All free and downloadable, including Pong 2000 (a classic) and a photo-based shoot-em-up. All these are entertaining enough but there's nothing like an online Rubik's Cube to remind you how far mankind has advanced in the last millennium.
ONLINE CHATROOMS
Talk about anything you like on the site; there's a chatroom for each section. It wasn't very busy when we had a look, but we're sure by the time you read this there'll be thousands of eager scientists sharing their knowledge with the world (probably).
Reproduced with permission from Paragon Publishing © 2000/2001.
