Online horseplay for the MMO community

Developer Mindscape revealed an exciting new product this week, in the shape of Horse Star - an online MMORPG for horse fans.

The eventual aim of the bizarre online game is to become an equestrian champion, sitting triumphantly atop a totally customised horse that has evolved based on how well you've been feeding and grooming it. And yes, we have just used the word "grooming" in its correct historical context.

There are horse beauty and jumping competitions to take part in, with a variety of saddles and other horsey things we don't really understand to pimp your physical ride with - leading Mindscape to claim it's "the most comprehensive equestrian MMO game ever made".

We can only agree. We also suspect the server will be jam-packed from day one - but mainly with Daily Mail journalists hoping to pull off a successful sting operation involving "grooming" of an entirely different kind.

Prison Break

The lack of Twitter updates about the breakfasting habits of their friends was no doubt a contributing factor in causing 14 men to stage a breakout from a Chinese 'Internet Addiction Treatment Centre', where the poor youths - aged between 15 and 22 - had been placed for their own protection, due to their non-stop use of the internet. Which some people see as a problem.

According to Metro, the kids were so enraged by the centre's insistence they get up at 5.00am and spend an extremely lengthy day without any sort of online stimulus, they tied up their supervisor with bed sheets and made their escape.

We like to think they were apprehended in the nearest internet cafe, but The Times says they were busted after taking a taxi - and not having enough money to pay the fare. 13 of them have already been sent back - to the centre, and in time.

Year Taiwan-K

The major tech-producing nation of Taiwan is getting ready for its own super-local version of the "Y2K" bug, with Taiwanese computer users worrying about their own date with computer disaster - December 31, 2010.

According to news reports, the Y2K issue is hitting Taiwan a decade later than (it failed to hit) the rest of the world due to the country's unique calendar system, which only started counting modern years from 1911 - when the country booted out the Chinese emperor.

This has led, as we saw in the UK ten years ago, to numerous random claims of impending doom for the nation's tech-using businesses. However, we are happy to assure any concerned Taiwanese readers that the main problem you're likely to face is maybe having to reset the clock on the household microwave, if your household microwave is more than 25 years old.

Ashes to caches

The Hong Kong government has launched an odd initiative designed to help commemorate its dead online, with users able to sign up to an official mourning page for deceased relatives through a new governmental mourning portal.

The site, which Google charmingly translates as "Endless Miss", can be found at http://memorial.gov.hk while its FAQ page tells us it's free to use for HK residents - and there's a public search option so locals can while away evenings seeing if any of their old school teachers have died yet or not.

Virtual emoticons can be left on the pages of the deceased, symbolising offerings of fruit and other foods, if you're feeling generous or guilty about not phoning more.