Here is the next in our Hellmouth Revisited series; below is Jon Katz' column "The Cost of Being Different," a look into what it means to grow up and face high school for a painfully large number of kids. What would make things better? Will being different always cause so much suffering?

The ongoing Slashback assault on previous stories here reveals that (among other things) 1) Maybe Compaq's Transmeta plans are at least slightly more up in the air than previously claimed; 2) Hasbro has again been unable to nab a clue(.com); 3) Hope still springs eternal that you won't have to give your address and DNA sample to RadioShack in order to use some nice (but high-ping) satellite bandwidth. Read on.

Apparently, the Panasonic Showstopper is doing a fine job of living up to an unfortunate name, by -- yup -- stopping shows, thanks to the wonders of Macrovision. Ars Digita's long-heralded free online university has released its first lecture, and now you can use double coupons for presidential candidates! Well, you can trade like action figures. No, that's not right ... but is it wrong? Oh, and something else for you to do with your Palm, after work of course. All below.

vees writes "Have you ever wanted to reprogram your Furby toy to do and say vile and obscene things, but just needed a good excuse? How's two-hundred and fifty dollars sound? Peter van der Linden is offering $250 to the first person who modifies a Furby so it can be reprogrammed. If you can read a schematic and wield a soldering iron without causing permanent personal cosmetic damage, be sure to visit his challenge page for more information on how to win."

valmont: "The folks at cnet have this article about Sony's latest toy: The Airboard. It seems to merge all kinds of wild stuff in a pad hooked to a base station with TV Antenna and wireless modem: simultaneous TV and Internet/web browsing, remote-controlling of home appliances. Looks pretty nifty ..." And considering that Sony is hep to Transmeta, I wonder what chip and OS will power this thing.

suwalski writes "ZDNet is running a sneak-preview of the upcoming FreePad, as announced on Slashdot awhile ago. The FreePad is a wireless device that can be used as a wireless phone and as a web browser. The technology appears to be finished, and the FreePad looks like a toy that could be in your house pretty soon." Provided you live in scandanavia ;) Its a lengthy article with lots of good stuff: standards in open source, certification, wireless protocols in europe vs the US.

bildstorm asks: "Has anyone seen a really good use for WAP? So far, for most of what I've seen WAP is just a nifty little toy which the paranoid use to monitor their stocks and make sure their flight is on time. But aside from that is there any good use of it other than as a buzzword?"

This is Slashback. Read it before it's wrong again. Find out more about Mandrake's new honcho, the neurons firing in the American legal system's brains on Napster, Yet Another Cool GPLization, and Larry's new toy.

cstaples asks: "I came into a bunch of hp C3450A's. They are basically a 486 DX 100 mini computer, built in video, Ethernet, 2 com ports and 2 ps2 ports and 1 ltp. You can also connect a HDD to this thing, it's a nice little package, 2"H X 14"W X 14" deep. I can see a couple of uses for it, Linux router(there is what appears to be an expansion slot on the motherboard for a 2nd NIC), DSS hacking box, Linux firewall, etc....great little toy to play around with, -if- I could find some info on it somewhere on the Web. Even HP seems to deny its existence: product #C3450A, model #4100DX and it was made around 1995. Any ideas?"

Updates below await your raw, chafed eyeballs anxious for information about new domain names (more than you can eat), developers eating bugs in contrition (more than you want to eat), a question about the EULA bundled with the new Larry Ellison toy (to chew on), and RSM's [Oops. That's "RMS's" -- timothy] reaction to the Qt / TrollTech take on software freedom. MMMmmmmm.

A few weeks ago, you asked questions of Ryan Lackey, CTO for HavenCo, a company dedicated to providing secure off-shore data hosting from Sealand, a principality off the coast of England. Ryan has lately survived dental emergencies, the loss of a laptop (it dropped into the North Sea -- how many people can say that?) and other stresses, but he's followed through with some interesting answers. He even has some ideas for how you can make a lot of money, and lists the tools you need to start your own data haven. Kudos to Ryan for taking the time to answer so thoroughly.

In this episode of slashback, there's more on NanoStuff, censorship in various forms and venues, and further proof that the word "upstart" uttered or tapped in computer journalism regarding Linux is ever so much twaddle. You have been warned.

brundlefly writes: "Brian Walker, a toy inventor with no college degree and almost no flight experience, plans to blast himself into space next summer in a rocket he is building in his backyard." Man, I gotta get myself a backyard!

Toy companies sending data (no matter how innocuous) from your hard drive out into the wide world might not be such a hot idea, and it looks like that realization has spread. Virginia and D.C. residents (and truthfully, many others as well) may be ubterested in upcoming UCITA action. AT&T has won another round in the regulation / deregulation scuffle, and there's a suprize bit of tasty news to top to wash those down with.

After being purchased from Amiga earlier this year, former marketing execs Bill McEwen and Fleecy Moss are back on the road to building Amiga into the multi-platform, multimedia-savvy company that the fans have been begging for. Well known for being an on-again, off-again brand name, it looks as though things may have settled down long enough for the new team to make a difference.

Bob McCown asks: "I got my Virginconnect box over the weekend. Its a nifty little toy, and has great coolness factor sitting next to the phone and answering machine in the living room. It only connects via the phoneline, no 10baseT port (too bad, the phone line in my area wont let me connect above 26.4k, but I lub my DSL!) The advertisement that is always on screen isnt that obtrusive (about as big as my thumb, in the lower right corner). Its basically a browser and mail client, and the user agreement say that they track what you do to 'enhance your online experience', so no secrets here. It comes with a USB port in the back. I havent opened it up yet, but I was wondering if anyone else has?"

Jacek Fedorynski writes: "Take a look at Project Earthlight, described in this interview. Basically, this guy took a webcam and a lightsaber toy and turned them into a virtual saber duel. Sounds supercool to me. Plus, he gets a style bonus for quoting Carmack's .plan." (Admit it -- you're swinging your hands and making lightsaber noises.) Since I grouse a lot about the disconnect between controllers and game actions, this is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

Universal Access to computing and the Net is edging closer to reality. One company after another is now offering computing equipment and Net access to new employees. enRamp announced last week that it's offering a program to provide complete technology benefits to associates and their families. This is definitely a great moral (and business) idea whose time is coming. (Read More).

Polo writes: "I always though it would be cool to create something like this. Here is a look at the 'Audiotron,' a standalone device you hook to your stereo system and that networks with your PC to play MP3 files. This version uses that strange HPNA network standard (sends network data over copper phone wiring without interfering with the phone calls). Future versions will support ethernet and USB. Now if someone got this working with Linux, you could serve your MP3 library to multiple rooms in the house as separate streams. Obsolesence nears for my 200-disk CD changers ... " Hmm. What happens if you already have HPNA networking? That aside, this looks like a good toy for the MPAA as well.

Professor Pollack put a lot of time and thought into answering your questions, and it shows. What follows is a "deeper than we expected" series of comments about Artificial Intelligence and intellectual property distribution from one of the acknowledged leaders in both fields.