If you've been with us from day one you know that this column was to have been named MacScope. But after buying the domain name and starting promotion, I discovered that someone else had a Mac column by that name, so I revived the old Northern Spy instead. I offered the domain to the other folk, but they declined, and until last week it linked here. I almost let it expire, but was persuaded I ought to keep it lest it become a porn link (the usual fate of expired domains with any links in the indices).

However, the folks at Sensory Arts and Science, makers of various medical devices, recently approached me about owning the domain. Seems they make something called MacScope for diagnosing early Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and wanted MacScope.com to point to their site.

With a little horse trading for some web hosting on another domain of theirs, I agreed to the transfer, and so MacScope.com now belongs to Sensory Arts and Science and points to pages on their site.

In view of the way this month's column ends with a promise to Nellie Hacker she can invent an implantible medical device in the next volume of my Irish Christian series The Interregnum, (which treats ethical and social issues relating to technology in a fictional context) there is something both appropriate and satisfying about this transaction, and I am pleased to link to the new MacScope.

Disclaimer: These comments are not of course to be taken as an endorsement of this or any other product mentioned at the site linked to. The Northern Spy has not tested these devices and does not know if they perform as indicated.

--the Northern Spy

Rick Sutcliffe's The Peace, Volume I in his Irish Christian science fiction series The Interregnum is available from Writer's Exchange ePublishing or by following the links to the store pages on the author's own site At this writing Volume II of The Interregnum, The Friends was expected in the Spring of 2003, with Volume III The Exile later that year. Alas, Nellie's invention does not come until Volume IV, tentatively titled The General, and only about half written.