HOWARD DAVIS takes a look at some of the more interesting sites on the net

It has been a rather dull week for news on the Internet.

The Internet babies saga rumbles on with Oprah playing God. Hackers obtained information on 27,000 of the world's most influential businessmen and politicians - and then gave it back. And there was more carry on as another handful of dot.com businesses went belly-up.

So, with barely a news worthy story to rub together I trawled the world wide web in search of something much more interesting.

The first site I cam across was www.lamhfada.com, an on-line magazine of myth and story. The editor describes the site as "an attempt to combine serious scholarship about myth with artistic innovation, to study the subject not as a butterfly preserved under glass but as a living, breathing animal" and the name itself means "of a long arm". Fair enough.

It is surprising how enticing things you don't actually need are. Take www.metalcards.com, purveyors of the completely pointless, yet wonderfully compelling, stainless steel business cards. The spiel says: "Want your prospects and customers not only to keep your business cards, but also be impressed by them? Then try metal business cards, they stand out, get noticed, and do not get thrown away." And they also make you look like an ostentatious buffoon.

Want to create your own conspiracies, then visit conspiracytheory.warnerbrothers.com and click on the question marks half way down the right-hand side.

I won't tell you what happens, but I was laughing for at least 30 seconds.

One site that I have never shared with you before, more from a desire not to appear nerdy than anything else, is theforce.net. This site, a sprawling homage to the world of Star Wars, seems to be run by people who's actual job is to collect as much Star Wars trivia as possible (lucky beggars). Main reason to visit is their section on the upcoming Episode II, which is full of hearsay and rumour, plus a plotline of the movie gleaned from snippets of conversations and interviews over the last 20 years (it is that anal). I used to think that Star Wars fans were a cut above Trekkies, in that they had a life. Now I am not so sure.

Next a word from the wise: visit www.copernic.com and download Copernic 2000. I did and have never looked back. Basically, all you are doing is downloading a small application on to your PC which automatically searches ALL the best search engines whenever you start a search - and it's free.

Let's hope something interesting happens before next week's column.