If you think that forest of wires growing out of the back of your home computer setup is outrageous, consider what happened at the Museum of Science and Industry when they set up 33 computers for an exhibit called Networld that opens March 2. The idea is to teach youngsters how the Internet works.
However, the best lesson about the tribulations that computers foist on humans might be to show the kids the wires behind those 33 computers and assorted screens–18,473 linear feet of networking cable, almost 3 1/2 miles. Now that’s wired.
FLOATS LIKE A BUTTERFLY
STINGS LIKE A PC
Bill Gates says he’s seen the future of cell phones and it looks a lot like a $400 gadget Microsoft calls Stinger. It’s a 4-ounce cross between phone and hand-held computer with a dramatically big color screen about the size of a Pocket PC or a Palm IIIc.
Stingers are being manufactured by Mitsubishi and Samsung and will go on sale this summer in Europe. Stingers will dock with Microsoft Outlook on desktops, play MP3 files, display color photos, run word processors, let you use Microsoft Reader to read books from Random House and, oh yes, make phone calls.
A HIT FROM ADOBE
NEAR PICTURE PERFECT
File it under “Too Good to Be True,” and watch www.adobe.com for the arrival of a $100 miracle, a near magical photo hobbyist’s version of industrial-strength Adobe Photoshop called Adobe Photoshop Elements. Elements delivers powerful computerized home photo editing without treating the user like a dithering idiot, as does Adobe’s super-dumbed-down PhotoDeluxe, which now is widely included with scanners, digital cameras and other gear.
Sophisticated tricks include color correction tools like fill flash and backlighting and an automatic montage creator called Photomerge.
TV OR A SNACK?
IT GIVES ONE PAUSE
Americans have reached the point where their television sets do more than merely get 125 cable channels (with nothing worth watching). Now we can worry whether our TV sets will crash just like our computers do.
Panasonic joins forces with embattled Mountain View, Calif.-based ReplayTV with PV-SS2710, a $900 product that builds a computer hard drive into a 27-inch color television set so that users can store movies and other programming on the drive for later viewing and pause live shows for comfort stops and pizza runs.
Although badly lapped by TiVo in the race for digital television program storage, ReplayTV hopes for a rematch by offering a product that buyers simply switch on and play, rather than having to wire it into a cable box and then try to figure out which wires go into which holes in the back.
