MaximumPC 2003 12

I hate to follow in the footsteps of a

nitpicker like Harold Foreman, but I

noticed in the “Have You Seen Our

Missing Predicates” gag column on page

79 of the November issue that there’s

some heavy think-tank work going on

involving a whiteboard. Unfortunately,

whoever did the work on the board must

have gone to some mamby-pamby liberal

arts school, like Yale. I’m reasonably

certain it’s momentum that equals mass

times velocity, not force.

—J. CRIZ

WAR MONGER GORDON MAH UNG

RESPONDS: Come on, Mike, haven’t

you ever found yourself sitting on

the couch at 2 a.m. eating Fritos and

watching some History Channel spe-

cial on the secret weapons of WWII,

and wondering what would have

happened if one of those weapons

had actually been produced a year

earlier, and used in the war? I think

someone at the game’s development

house also had the same experience,

except probably without the Fritos.

AND DID YOU KNOW THAT

“HOBO” STANDS FOR

“HOMEWARD BOUND”?

Your magazine often talks about

“mobos” without explaining

what a “mobo” is. I am a

technical writer by training. If

I had introduced an unusual

term without explaining what

that unusual term is, I would be

tarred and feathered! Also, when

I talk about something, I would

like to know what I am talking

about rather than to be some

malaprop that goes slinging

words around capriciously and

irresponsibly.

—JON K. EVANS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF JON PHILLIPS

RESPONDS: Ah, yes. Mobo. That’s

our own little abbreviation for the

word motherboard. In fact, I like to

think that Maximum PC coined the

term, and that all the other web sites

and magazines that now use it on a

daily basis are actually following

our lead. But I don’t have any proof

of this. If one of our readers would

be kind enough to prove me wrong

by showing me an example of the

word mobo printed prior to June

1996, I’ll award that person a signed

copy of our “lost first edition” which

was never released to the public.

But until we hear otherwise, we’ll

just continue in our belief that the

word mobo is ours, all ours, and no

one else’s.

CD SHATTERING: OUR

LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE

IS OVER

In your review of the MSI 52x

CD burner in the October issue,

you mentioned that “like the

PlexWriter, the MSI boasts a

reinforced front bezel in case

of a disc shatter.” How do discs

shatter and do most drives have

reinforced bezels to deal with

that? What are the chances of a

CD shattering?

—PETER

OPTICAL EXPERT LOGAN DECKER

RESPONDS: The chances of a disc

shattering in your drive are not

great, but if it happens, it’s a disas-

ter. Ever tried to snap a CD you hated

in two? The polycarbonate shatters

into bits shaped like razor-sharp

bat teeth, and the data layer flakes

into a million pieces that are almost

impossible to clean up. That’s the

end of that drive. Even worse, it’s

possible that the disc will actually

blast through the bezel—we’ve seen

videos of this happening. That’s

why MSI and Plextor now offer

reinforced bezels as an extra bit of

insurance against this kind of may-

hem (as far as we know, these com-

panies are the only ones doing so).

That said, we’ve tried countless

times to get a disc to shatter with no

success. We’ve even cracked the

inner ring and repeatedly abused the

disc. We believe that you should be

concerned about disc shatter only

if you consistently read and write

discs at the highest speed and use

spindled media. But even then, the

risk is low.

CAN YOU TAKE IT WITH YOU?

I have had quite a few

conversations about your choice

of a winner for the CPL case

modding contest [“Pilgrim In an

Unholy Land,” October 2003].

Lee Rakestraw’s “You Can Take

It With You” is not only “a

little morbid,” it is downright

disgusting that someone

should use a child’s coffin to

house a modded computer. In

conversations about this mod

with more than 20 people, no

one thought that it was a good

mod. The magazine should not

have printed such a disgrace.

—JASON FAULCONER

WILL SMITH RESPONDS: I was one

of five judges for this year’s CPL

case mod contest. Rest assured that

the coffin mod was definitely not my

first choice for the winner. In fact,

the mod that I was most impressed

with didn’t even make the top three.

Regardless of my personal feelings

about the mod, “You Can Take It

With You” was the contest winner,

and it’s our journalistic responsibil-

ity to report on it. n

LETTERS POLICY: MAXIMUM PC invites

your thoughts and comments. Send them to

[email protected]. Please include your

full name, town, and telephone number, and

limit your letter to 300 words. Letters may be edited for

space and clarity. Due to the vast amount of e-mail we receive, we

cannot personally respond to each letter.

CUT, COPY, PASTE

 In the “When Handhelds

Collide” article on page 14

of the November 2003

issue, the URL for Tapwave’s

Zodiac is incorrectly shown

as http://www.n-gage.com.

The correct URL is

http://www.tapwave.com.

PHYSICS IS PHUN!

In/Out

10 MAXIMUMPC DECEMBER 2003