Yellow Dog Democrats distressed at the plight of their embattled leader now have a morale booster on-line. No, it’s not a full retraction from Monica, but a one-minute game that lets you help Bill bash the opposition.
“Good Willie Hunting,” at www.nvisiondesign.com, can be played on-line or downloaded (a better option since the site’s pretty busy). It’s like the “Whack-a-Mole” arcade game, but the whacker is Bill Clinton and the whackees include Ken, Newt, Sam, Hillary and Monica. As they are bopped, the characters react with a rewarding grimace.
Adding realism to the fantasy, you can give Bill extra energy by clicking on a bucket o’ chicken whenever it pops up.
THE MILLENNIUM
NO BUGS HERE
Seems that every time the words computer and Year 2000 are uttered in the same breath the air is filled with predictions of doom. Not so at the Kodak PhotoQuilt 2000 Project.
The Web site, at kodak.com/go/photoquilt, aims to create a people’s tapestry of life at the Millennium by letting ordinary folks weave their most cherished snapshots into the virtual quilt. There are about 400 pictures up so far, including one of four guys high on milk (they’re wearing “moo-ski” T-shirts) at Milwaukee’s 1991 Polish Fest.
Kodak’s Colleen Whaley says there’s room for thousands more pieces of the quilt, so get snapping.
GEAR
GEEK CHIC
The press packet calls it “geek sheik,” actually, but you know they’re not talking about nerds of the desert. What ViA Inc. is touting is a new version of its wearable computer that’s 20 ounces light, runs Windows 98 or NT and packs 64 megs of RAM. You communicate with the thing via voice or stylus.
ViA, with headquarters in Northfield, Minn., is selling the gizmo to U.S. troops in Bosnia, traders on the exchange floor, emergency room staff–people who need quick access to detailed information updated by wireless modem.
It’s quite an improvement on the first wearables introduced two years ago, certainly, but only a geek would consider it chic to walk around mumbling to himself while wearing a double fanny pack.
NETWORKING
FEEDING THE HUNGRY
By doing good in partnering with Chicago’s Second Harvest hunger relief organization, Hewlett Packard hopes to do well in a business sense, too. The Palo Alto, Calif., computer manufacturer so far has helped the Second Harvest headquarters and four regional food banks get networked for efficiency, and in the process the company learned a good deal about making not-for-profit organizations work better.
One result of the work is a free booklet, “Successful Networking: A Guide to Small-Office Technology,” written in conjunction with the staff of the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida.
It’s available for download at www.hp.com.
