C|NET CENTRAL
TRANSCRIPT
- EPISODE 4 -

Original air date:  4/22/95




HOSTS:  RICHARD HART and GINA ST. JOHN

(MUSIC) 

RICHARD:  Become the architect of your own city and join the 
phenomenon.  We'll show you how.  

(MUSIC) 

GINA:  It's steamy, it's sexy.  c|net takes you into the world of 
cybersex, and we'll show you who's creating it.

VOICEOVER:  Sex is not going to be lost in cyberspace; it's going to be 
enhanced.

GINA:  And who wants to censor it... 

VOICEOVER:  The First Amendment does not say anything goes.

(MUSIC) 

RICHARD:  Ever wonder whether your laptop is safe going through 
that airport X-ray machine?  We have the answer.

(MUSIC) 

GINA:  Hi, I'm Gina St. John.

RICHARD:  And I'm Richard Hart.  Those stories next on c|net central, 
your new home for digital technology.

(COMMERCIAL) 

RICHARD:  Welcome to c|net central.  Our new home here in San 
Francisco is your showcase for digital technology.  Each new medium, 
from cave drawing to oil painting to radio to home video, has brought 
its own promise and problems with sex.  The newest is digital, and as 
Gina St. John tells us, it's already a quarter of a billion dollar 
business.

GINA:  That's right, Richard.  You know, in the early ‘80s, X-rated 
videotapes played a large part in creating the home video industry.  
Now, X-rated images and files are doing the same for CD-ROMs and 
the Internet.  And as you can imagine, not everyone is happy about 
it.

VOICEOVER:  Hi, I'm Sam Phillips, and I'm going to take you for the 
ride of your life.

(MUSIC) 

GINA:  Sex.  It's business, big business.  And with sexy CD-ROMs 
selling by the thousands and the Internet bursting with erotic 
images, sex is pushing the boundaries of the digital world.  In fact, of 
the three billion  (ed. note:  should be 30 million) CD-ROMs sold in 
1994, 20%, or 6 million, were erotic--twice as many as were sold in 
1993.  Half of the 20 most popular Usenet forums on the Internet are 
sex-related topics.  In fact, alt.sex rates as the most popular site, with 
more than half a million hits a day.

GINA:  In the ‘70s, when fewer than 1% of all American homes had 
VCRs, over 75% of all videos sold were pornographic.  This launched 
the era of home video as we know it today.  Now, with Playboy and 
Penthouse getting into CD-ROMs and online services, erotica drives 
the sale of CD-ROMs the way it did for home videos. 

GINA:  Bob Guccione and Kathy Keeton think so.  They've taken 
Penthouse magazine and gone digital with sizzling CD-ROMs, like 
Penthouse Virtual Photo Shoot.

VOICEOVER:  What do you think about these curves?

KATHY KEETON:  We decided to try and capture something that every 
man fantasizes about when he reads Penthouse--and that's 
participating in a photo shoot--and you have live models, and you 
can tell them what to do.  You can tell them to dress, undress, change 
their costumes, change the focus, and talk to them.

VOICEOVER:  Just because I'm digitized, doesn't mean that you can 
ignore me.

GINA:  But seductive CD-ROMs are just the tip of the iceberg.  
Penthouse has launched into cyberspace with a site on the World 
Wide Web, attracting more than 800,000 hits a day.  This makes 
Penthouse the most sought-after site in history.

BOB GUCCIONE:  So, it's not that Penthouse is a unique success 
because of its photographs of pretty girls.  There are 250 magazines 
that do that.  The reason why it works is because we are making 
these moves in advance, we do see the handwriting on the wall.  We 
do see new directions as they develop, particularly in the area of 
technology.

GINA:  But Penthouse isn't alone.  Playboy is in on the action with a 
site featuring many popular elements of their own magazine.  Pull-
down photos, cartoons, in-depth interviews, and their latest venture:  
a worldwide search soliciting women to be featured in their 
upcoming layout, Girls of the Internet.  

FEMALE:  I had some friends in school who modeled and I thought it 
would be fun and glamorous; and when I found out that this was 
going to be online, I thought, you know, what the heck!  I'd try it out 
and see what kind of response I'd get from them.

GINA:  It's simple.  With a computer, a modem, and a scanner, you're 
able to email your photo and relative info, like your measurements, 
off to Playboy.  Then, it's wait and see what happens.

So, isn't all this talk of sex going a little too far?  We asked Lisa Palac, 
known for her outspoken views on sex and technology.  She 
produced the first erotic virtual reality audio recording--called 
Cyborgasm, of course.

LISA PALAC:  Well, a lot of people really get freaked out with this 
combination of sex and technology--because they think, "Oh no!  
Cybersex is going to replace real sex!"  Or people will just stay at 
home and log on and have sex online and never go out of the house 
and never even kiss another person or have any other kind of face-
to-face encounter.  But, in fact, I think the opposite is true.

BOB GUCCIONE:  Sex is not going to lost in cyberspace; it's going to be 
enhanced in cyberspace.  We will learn to be better people, to have 
better relationships, to be more loving, and so on, by the simple use 
of cyberspace. 

GINA:  With CD-ROMs like Nolo Dancer and Seymour Butts, they are 
not only three-dimensional, but interactive.  In Space Sirens, for 
example, you click on the part of the model you want to touch and a 
hand comes out and does the rest for you.  But there's more than just 
CD-ROMs.  With over 5,000 newsgroups or discussion groups on the 
Internet, and 2 1/2 million sites online, there is something for almost 
everyone.  Places to see, things to buy, and people to talk to. 

GINA:  Is the information superhighway turning into a red light 
district?  I'll tell you who thinks so:  Senator Jim Exxon.  He's trying 
to pass the Decency Amendment Act, which would restrict "obscene 
and indecent materials" on the Internet and other online services.  
Now, the question is, "Is this fair or is it undue censorship?"

KATHY KEETON:  The First Amendment and the free exchange of 
information is the bedrock upon which the success and the 
prosperity of this nation was built.  Who is Exxon to tamper with 
that?

GINA:  Alameda (California) Prosecutor Don Ingraham agrees with 
Senator Exxon's legislation.

DON INGRAHAM:  There are a lot of people who take the position that 
the First Amendment is an absolute, which is nonsense.  The First 
Amendment does not say anything goes.  The First Amendment says 
Congress will make no law respecting the freedom of speech or 
limiting the freedom of speech.

BOB GUCCIONE:   In the first place, these people have no real feeling 
for censorship.  They don't give a damn about kids.  They care about 
votes.  

DON INGRAHAM:  The media belongs to everyone, and the idea that 
some people should be able to take it over, that some people should 
take the information stream and be free to pollute it with any 
sewage they have in mind, is nonsense.

LISA PALAC:  I think the very same people who are trying to pass 
legislation to ban obscenity, whatever that is, on the Internet, are the 
same horndogs who are logging on at every opportunity to see what's 
available.

DON INGRAHAM:  The Bill of Rights is not intended as a suicide pact.  
People are responsible for what they do, and to say that the 
government can't tell me it's me alone, when there are other people 
out there being victimized, is just arrogant nonsense.

GINA:  Whatever your opinion, the fact is, sex-related topics are the 
most popular sites on the Internet today.  And just like the very first 
issue of Playboy magazine, this business is bound to become more 
and more profitable and controversial.

GINA:  Cities like Los Angeles are now gearing up to fight illegal 
pornography in cyberspace.  They have asked for funds to put 
cybercops on the digital highway with new computers to cruise the 
back rooms of cyberspace.  In the meantime, for you parents 
concerned about what your kids have access to, you can call your 
Internet access provider and have certain sites blocked from your 
home computer.  Commercial online services, like America Online, 
also offer parental control.

RICHARD:  Coming up on c|net central...  He's a comic book hero and a 
movie star, and now, he's on CD-ROM.  And look out, the Sims are 
coming!  After this...

(MUSIC) 

(COMMERCIAL) 

RICHARD:  Those of you who have already logged on to c|net online--
use your computer to visit us on the Internet--would probably like 
to know that this is it.  This room, in here, is c|net online.  These 
people are working hard to answer your email, provide you with 
more information, building it into an even bigger and better online 
community.  And we'd like you to be a part of it.  Please join us.  
Send us your suggestions and comments to suggestions@cnet.com.  
And of course, you can visit us on the World Wide Web at 
http://www.cnet.com.  c|net central will be right back.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL) 

RICHARD:  According to Information Week, the best-selling program 
for Windows in 1994 was...A word processor?  A game, maybe?  No, 
a program designed to take other programs off your computer:  
Uninstaller.  Which suggests two things:  one, computers are still too 
hard to use, and two, now might be a good time to do some spring 
cleaning.  Uninstaller 3.0 is the updated version of one of last year's 
hottest-selling programs.  What is does is delete unwanted software 
left around by Windows applications and gets rid of junk files you 
don't want.  When you install a program like Microsoft Word, there 
are bound to be some features that you really don't use.  Just 
deleting the icon that represents a program doesn't get rid of all the 
files.  That's because software used with Windows roots itself into 
your computer.  For example, Microsoft Word has up to 150 software 
elements scattered through 10 or more directories.  What Uninstaller 
does is search your hard drive and get rid of unwanted files, roots 
and all.  The folks at MicroHelp who make Uninstaller say the new 
3.0 version adds three new functions:  move, archive and transport, 
which will help make spring cleaning even easier.  

GINA:  Well, it's multimedia review time, and the man here to give us 
the goods on CD-ROMs, or the not-so-goods, is our own John C. 
Dvorak.  Hi, John.

JOHN:  You know, it's really a lot of work going through these CD-
ROMs. 

GINA:  You are not going to get any sympathy from me!  Not at all.  
Just tell me what you've got here.

JOHN:  Well, we've got three titles this week, and they're all very 
different.  I've got Leonardo the Inventor, an exploration of the 
world of Leonardo Da Vinci.  And then there's Relentless, Twinsen's 
Adventure, an actually very difficult adventure game, and finally, 
Mask, an interactive comic book.

JOHN:  The first one is about one of the most original thinkers in 
history on CD-ROM;  and yes, the glasses do come with the disc.  Do I 
look cool?

(MUSIC) 

JOHN:  Leonardo the Inventor.  It's a reference title, but it's so clever 
you forget that it's educational.  You can study Leonardo's original 
drawings as well as listen to what Leonardo wrote about his 
inventions.  

VOICEOVER:  Observe how the movement....

JOHN:  Of course, it's not his voice.  There is a biography along with a 
timeline mapping Leonardo's life.  The games are the only 
disappointment.  You have to be a nitwit to spend much time playing 
these things.  Look at this diving game.  You travel from the boat to 
the treasure, you collect the treasure without getting attacked by 
sharks and jellyfish.  Real challenging, huh?   And then there are the 
musical instruments, like Leonardo's flute, that you can sort of play--
not too stimulating.  Leonardo the Inventor sells for $49.95 and is 
available on the PC and Mac.  Gina, this is kind of a "try it."  I 
wouldn't recommend this package.

GINA:  You know, I don't think Leonardo would dig on these games.

JOHN:  No, he wouldn't.  But, you know what?  We've got a game here 
that I think he might like himself.  It's called Relentless, Twinsen's 
Adventure.  If you're up for a complicated and mind-boggling 
fantasy, then Relentless, Twinsen's Adventure is the CD-ROM for you.  
More than an adventure game, you assume the role of Twinsen.  You 
must rescue your girlfriend, beat the bad guy--and it's not trivial.  
Then you have to save the planet.  Game play is tough, very tough.  
Relentless, Twinsen's Adventure sells for $59.95 and is available on 
the PC.  I say "buy it," it's very cool.  If you're a gamer, you'll love 
that game. 

GINA:  I think I'll keep this one.  Now, you have one more and I can 
tell already you don't like it.  

JOHN:  The Mask.  First, there was the comic book series, then a 
smash hit movie, and now the cybercomic.  This is nothing more than 
an expensive comic book that flips the pages for you automatically.  
One of my real beefs with this game is that the box copy insinuates 
that there are hundreds of animations; there are only six.  And look 
at them--very disappointing.  The quality is poor and the animations 
are unimaginative.  Not much else to show except, uh, do I want to 
get out of here?  Yes.  Mask sells for $39.95 and is available on the 
Mac and PC.  Another "skip it."  

GINA:  Oh no, I am really upset.  I loved Jim Carrey in The Mask.

JOHN:  Jim Carrey isn't even on this disc.   He had nothing to do with 
this. 

GINA:  Oh well.  Well, thanks for looking out for my pocketbook.

JOHN:  Hey, any time.  I'm John C. Dvorak.  That's it for this week.  
I'm out of here.

RICHARD:  So, I guess this week it's Twinsen's Adventure for fun.  
Remember when video game fun used to mean shoot-'em-ups?  One 
thing that changed that forever is a phenomenon called SimCity.  It 
allowed you and me for the first time to play mayor or president or 
even world leader.  And the ironic thing is, it didn't even begin life as 
a game at all, but a serious research tool on university campuses.  

(MUSIC) 

VOICEOVER:  They're boisterous.

(BACKGROUND NOISE) 

VOICEOVER:  They're opinionated.

(BACKGROUND NOISE) 

VOICEOVER:  They're not easy to please.

(BACKGROUND NOISE) 

RICHARD:  They're the Sims.  And they're all part of a craze that's 
sweeping the nation.  Welcome to SimCity.

WILL WRIGHT:  SimCity is an environment where you construct your 
ideal city.  You sort of paint your city on the screen, and as you're 
doing this the simulation underneath actually calculates what would 
happen if this were a city.  It calculates land values, crime, pollution-
-and as you start building this thing, it really comes to life, and you 
have to start reacting to that. 

RICHARD:  Just how they react you'll see in a moment.  Being a big-
city mayor comes with big responsibility.  You need to plan your city 
carefully.  To design something, you pick a structure in the toolbar 
and drag it out and there it is--a road or a bridge.  You can select a 
power plant from different energy sources, establish zoning for 
factories, businesses, and residential areas, and then build railroads 
and an airport to move your Sims around.  And as you build your 
city, the Sims arrive. 

JOHN HOLLAND:  The first time I played SimCity it was almost 
magical because I zoned my little districts and I waited and all of a 
sudden, there came the Sims--they're here, you know, and it was like 
the field of dreams, "If you build it, they will come."

RICHARD:  So, you're inspired to build more.  A primary school here, 
a police station there.  Before you know it, the Sims have all the 
conveniences of a modern-day utopia.  But wait, you discover that 
you've emptied your city's bank account building this mecca.  

WILL WRIGHT:  We can go in and raise the taxes.  Let's raise 'em a 
little bit.

(BACKGROUND NOISE) 

WILL WRIGHT:  They don't like that.  If you raise the taxes too high, 
people start moving out of your town.

RICHARD:  Or maybe you haven't installed enough power plants.  
Your city has brown-outs.  You haven't hired enough police and your 
Sim citizens begin to riot, or even worse, out of the blue, a fire or 
other major catastrophe.  You dispatch fire crews.  Can you save your 
city?  Not as easy as you thought, huh?

(BACKGROUND NOISE) 

RICHARD:  Challenging?  Sure.  Fun?  You bet.  It's a phenomenon.  A 
high-powered civics lesson.  And for some, no matter what age, it's 
become an obsession.

RICHARD:  Anyone in your own family addicted to this?

STORE EMPLOYEE:  My daughter.  My daughter is absolutely addicted. 
She has Penguin City.  She has been working on it for, oh, I'd say two 
weeks now.  And she knows how to cheat everywhere there is to 
cheat.  

BRODY GILES:  I enjoyed the simulation part of SimCity because it's 
constantly changing, constantly moving.  I could go out to lunch and 
come back and go, "Oh my God, my city died!" or come back and go, 
"Oh, wow!  What happened here?"  

RICHARD:  Despite the success and popularity of computer 
simulations, sometimes only a physical model will do.  In fact, the 
whole phenomenon began not in a computer, but in this room in 
Berkeley at the University of California's environmental simulation 
lab.

PETER BOSSELMANN:  So, that's the way it is today, right?

RICHARD:  Professor Peter Bosselmann is a real builder of cities, of 
simulated cities.  He has been using simulations in his work since the 
Ô60s, way before games like SimCity were around.  

PETER BOSSELMANN:  We create images here of the future, certain 
new buildings or the effects of a plan, and we show it to the Board of 
Supervisors or the Planning Commission.  And then it is shown at a 
public hearing.  And everyone has a reaction to these scenes. 

RICHARD:  And the simulation craze hasn't stopped there.  Want to 
rule an entire planet from birth to death 10 billion years later?  
Then, try SimEarth.  Or maybe you've dreamed of being a real estate 
tycoon and building skyscrapers.  SimTower is for you.  There's 
SimAnt, where you command an ant colony, and even SimHealth, 
where you get to play Hillary Rodham Clinton and design your own 
health care reform.  It's a phenomenon that's taking on a life of its 
own, and don't take that figuratively.

WILL WRIGHT:  The situation is totally out of control at this point.

(MUSIC)

RICHARD:  Well, if things get really out of hand, don't worry, you're 
still the boss.  A new game is as easy as the push of a button.

RICHARD:  For you serious SimCity players, here's a little Easter egg.  
Now, Easter eggs are secret key combinations that allow something 
magical and special to happen in a program. In this case, click on the 
little blue bar at the top of the window and type in these words, 
"porn tips guzz ardo."  For some reason, you get 500,000 extra bucks 
to spend any way you want.  Now, of course, that makes it less fun 
because it is cheating, but for novices, it gives you a head start.  c|net 
central will be right back.

(MUSIC) 

(COMMERCIAL) 

(MUSIC)

RICHARD:  One of the questions we hear a lot around c|net central is:  
how safe is my laptop computer going through the X-ray machine at 
the airport?  Well, X-rays do more damage to film.  What you've got 
to worry about with electromagnetic devices is electromagnetic 
waves, such as those that come from the motor inside the X-ray 
machine.  In that case, the computer is safe.  You can send the whole 
thing through.  However, disks are a different story.  Those, you're 
better off sending around the side with your keys.

GINA:  And finally...today, on national television, Dave Ross has a 
confession to make.  And, as always, he gets the last word.

DAVE ROSS:

People ask me, "Dave, what's your email address?"  And usually I tell 
them, "It's unlisted."  And I have been doing it for years.  But today--
I can't believe this.  I wasn't going to, believe me.  I didn't PLAN this.  
Oh, man--this is entirely spontaneous, but what the hell?

I...I don't HAVE an email address.  I have NEVER HAD an email 
address.  Oh, this is going to be in all the tabloids.  The staff said I 
shouldn't reveal this last private recess of my life, but now it's out on 
TV.  I can't take it back.

So, I'll just say it again:  I don't have an email address.  You know, in 
a way it feels good to finally admit it.  I don't HAVE one.  I've never 
had one.  Yeah, it feels good.  

So if you want to write me a letter, you're going to have to use a little 
thing we call PAPER.  That goes for all of you:  Mom, Dad, Mr. Info-
highway Al Gore--and that goes for you, too, Mr. Bill Gates.  Mr. Bill-
so-rich-it's-gonna-take-three-years-to-build-your mansion-Gates.  
That's one thing your fancy Windows 95 is NOT going to be able to 
do: get in touch with ME.

Why?  Because having an email address is like telling the world, "Go 
ahead, waste my time with your every thought!  I've got nothing 
better to do than to read all the bright ideas you came up with at 
three in the morning while you were playing Doom for the 50th 
time."  No sir, if I'm going to spend time reading email, I want to get 
it from someone who thought his idea was good enough that he went 
over to the desk, got a piece of paper, found a pen, and wrote it 
down.  That's why the computer industry is so big on email--they 
can't actually write anymore.  They've been typing so long that when 
they pick up a pen, it just oscillates uselessly in their hands.

Well, it won't happen to me.  So, if you want to reach Dave Ross, use 
the post office.  That way, there's at least a chance it'll get lost 
altogether.

And one more thing, no more sideways smiley faces!  You people are 
clearly part of some strange cult that goes around like THIS all day 
(TURNS SIDEWAYS AND SMILES) and I hear from enough crazy 
people as it is.

I'm Dave Ross.  And I get the last word.


GINA:  Well, you can write to Dave.  His mailing address is Dave Ross, 
150 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, CA 94111.  Of course, that is also 
our U.S. mail address, if you prefer to use a stamp, but we prefer you 
send email.  We both have addresses.  Gina's is..

GINA:  gina@cnet.com. 

RICHARD:  And mine is richard@cnet.com.  That's it for c|net central.

GINA:  Thanks for tuning in and logging on!

(MUSIC) 

GINA:  If you need help getting online or simply want to know more, 
c|net is offering a one-hour special home video hosted by Richard 
Hart called the “Ultimate Internet Tour.”  The cost is $19.95 plus 
shipping and handling, and the number to call is 1-800-445-CNET.  
That's 1-800-445-CNET.

(MUSIC) 



END OF TAPED MATERIAL

