I have long been a user of Internet e-mail address directories. However, I have longed for a directory that uses Chinese characters and lists Chinese Internet users. Do you know of any? MATTHEW WONG Sha Tin Check out a service called LOOK4U at the Web site www.look4u.com . Set up by a Taiwanese firm named Overseas Connections, LOOK4U is being billed as the first global Chinese name and e-mail address directory on the Internet. The directory lists more than 500,000 Chinese names and e-mail addresses, and you, as a Net user, can add yourself to the list free of charge. LOOK4U has both English and Chinese interfaces. When searching for a Chinese name, LOOK4U will find matches in the two Chinese character systems, GB and BIG5, and when necessary, convert names and other text into a format readable on the user's computer. Have you come across any device, probably in a briefcase, that could wipe clean (or at least seriously affect) a computer hard disk through proximity? NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED A very powerful magnetic field would do it. If done deliberately, the device would be more at home in a Mission Impossible episode than in a Tech Talk column. Of course, the hard disk could well have been wiped by accident - by something as weak as the magnetic field from a briefcase clip-lock. Most computer manuals will tell you to keep magnets well away from your machine.
