There must be millions of sad and single nerds who would like nothing more than to live the lives of their celluloid heroes. Some may even be rich enough to pay US$1 million to US$2 million for the opportunity. That seems to be what Tony Alleyne had in mind when he put his flat up for sale on eBay. Mr Alleyne, a retired DJ turned '24th century interior designer', believes that's how much some Star Trek fan will be willing to pay for his tiny flat in Hinkley, Leicestershire. He began modelling a Star Trek transporter console as a distraction after his marriage broke down. Four years later, he had converted his whole apartment. Pictures of it are available at www.24thcid.com . 'As a fully convicted science fiction fan, living in a spaceship environment is about as exciting as it gets,' said Mr Alleyne. Reactions to the conversion vary. Mr Alleyne told the BBC his mother quite liked the place, though he has been viciously criticised by some online Star Trek fans. One Trekkie was incandescent with rage when he spotted that the transponder used technologies from both the original TV series and The Next Generation. Personally, I thought the most disturbing aspect was the presence of a life-sized cutout of Patrick Stewart. If the idea of living in a one-bedroom spaceship in Leicestershire with a cutout of Captain Jean Luc Piccard for company appeals, you're in luck. The auction has two months to run, and so far there don't seem to have been any bids. So, Siemens finally saw sense and abandoned the folly of its Xelibri fashion phones. The idea was an interesting one - produce low-cost, wacky looking handsets that could be sold as fashion accessories. New phones would be released each season, so people could co-ordinate their handset with the weather. Unfortunately, to keep the price low, Siemens was forced to cut back on quality. The first generation had monochrome displays and lacked all the features like multimedia messaging, cameras, Bluetooth, GPRS, MP3 players and games. The most recent models managed to rectify at least some of those weaknesses but it was too late. Xelibri had established its reputation as a range of cheap, ugly handsets with outdated technology. Far from creating an instant fashion hit, Siemens found it had created the ultimate anti-status symbol: a product that screams out 'Look at me - I'm hopeless!' Reports say Siemens sold 43.4 million mobile phones last year, but only about 200,000 of them were Xelibris. Xelibri's motto was 'That's so tomorrow', but as we pointed out nearly two years ago, it was really, like, totally yesterday. When it comes to sport, the Philippines may like basketball, but it loves cockfighting. Also known as Sabong, cockfighting is about to enter the internet age, thanks to local regulators the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, or Pagcor. The organisation intends to legalise online betting on cockfights and believes cyber-sabong will generate 60 million pesos (HK$8.41 million) a year through its partnership with local internet service provider Philweb. Some news wires reported the figure as 60 billion pesos, which may have just been wishful thinking. Manila Times columnist Francis Lagniton suggested that 'digitising the noble sport' might be a good thing for the country's image. 'Sabong not only illustrates Filipinos' propensity to gambling, it also reflects some of the qualities that redeem the Filipino,' said Mr Lagniton. Animal lovers may feel a little differently. Maybe the Hong Kong Jockey Club can follow the example. We could bring the world dogfights from South China, horse fighting from Guizhou or cricket battles from Shandong. Send your backspace gripes or gossip to Neil Taylor at back.space@scmp.com
