"c|net central"
TRANSCRIPT
- EPISODE 24 -

Original air date: 9/9/95


HOSTS: RICHARD HART and GINA ST. JOHN



GINA:  Go online with one of the hottest home arcade systems.  And, 
RealAudio technology lets you listen to live radio on your computer.  
Hi, I'm Gina St. John.  Those stories, plus a look at the arsenal of a 
road warrior.  All when we return on "c|net central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  Welcome to "c|net central."  I'm Richard Hart.  How would 
you like to become your own disc jockey, broadcasting your own 
music out of your own home without having to spend a lot of money 
on expensive equipment?  In fact, you don't even need an FCC 
license.  Here's Kate Kelly to introduce you to a couple of people who 
are going to change the way we broadcast new music, new ideas, 
forever over the Internet.

KATE KELLY:  Sound on the Internet isn't new.  But until now there 
hasn't been any real-time, high-quality audio.  Well, stay tuned.  The 
Internet is about to become the hottest place to premier new music 
and all kinds of other exciting audio programs.

CHRIS DURITAS (KCRW RADIO):  I'm Chris Duritas, "Morning Becomes 
Eclectic," on KCRW.

KATE:  Radio isn't exactly a technological breakthrough.  No matter 
how quirky or curious the format may be.

CHRIS DURITAS:  The Theremin, the only instrument in the world 
that you play without touching it.

KATE:  But listeners all over the world are now tuning their 
computers into the Internet for the most innovative radio around.

ETHAN GOLDSTINE (KCRW RADIO):  I think the World Wide Web 
already is an information revolution.  I mean, it really means that 
anyone, whether it's someone in their home or a station in the 
basement of a community college like we are, can reach the world.

KATE:  To reach the world, public radio station KCRW in Santa 
Monica, California, uses technology created by Progressive Networks 
called RealAudio.

CHRIS DURITAS:  Well, what RealAudio is--literally--is a system that 
allows you to listen to--using the Internet--listen to audio 
programming from anywhere in the world.

VOICE-OVER:  From ABC News, I'm Tim O'Donnell. This is now the 
Fuhrman trial...

ROB GLASER:  Rather than having to download audio, you just click on 
a link, typically, in an Internet browser like Netscape.

VOICE-OVER:  Surrounded by some of the most magnificent scenery 
in the West.

ROB GLASER:  What we tell people today is that RealAudio is about 
equivalent to AM radio.

VOICE-OVER (JIMI HENDRIX):  There's a red house over yonder...

ROB GLASER:  So AM radio people know is good enough to listen to 
but certainly imperfect and rough. By the end of the year, we'll have 
out to the next generation, which we think will be equivalent to FM 
radio.

KATE:  At its Web site, KCRW features music clips from its show 
"Morning Becomes Eclectic," as well as interviews and special 
programming.

ETHAN GOLDSTINE:  Right now we've put up a few clips of a series 
we just produced called "Jewish Short Stories from Eastern Europe 
and Beyond."

VOICE-OVER:  Shalom alechem.  Welcome.

ETHAN GOLDSTINE:  Basically we want to put almost everything we 
do here up on the Web.  We really want to become a fully 
functioning Internet radio station.

KATE:  But RealAudio has competition.  Xing Technology, a small 
company based on the central California coast has come up with 
software that has not only radio stations excited, but television 
broadcasters are curious as well.  Like RealAudio, Xing Technology 
developed software called StreamWorks that provides a way for 
Internet listeners to hear sound without having to download a file.  
But Xing Tech has gone a step further; they do it with video.

TIM HARVEY (XING TECHNOLOGY):  I think it's going to revolutionize 
the video industry, the videotape rental industry. You can start, stop, 
fast forward, rewind.  It's your own personal video stream coming 
straight to you.  And you have complete control over it.

KATE:  It's now possible to set up your own Internet radio station at 
home using this new technology.  But what may be even more 
exciting for the future is the ability to set up your own Internet TV 
network.  But please, no more talk shows.

RICHARD:  If you'd like to get in touch with Xing Technology or 
RealAudio, they both have sites on the World Wide Web.  And both 
of them are good examples of a kind of multimedia transformation 
that's taking place on the Internet.  In a couple of weeks, "c|net 
central" is going to present a story about things such as virtual 
reality on the Net, QuickTime VR, HotJava--maybe you've heard of 
some of these--all the technologies that are going to change the 
future of the Internet.  When "c|net central" continues, find out what 
it takes to be a road warrior in a digital world.  And John C. Dvorak 
reviews the new CD-ROM "Buried in Time."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  Ever wonder what PC users say about Mac users?

MALE 1:  Are PC users better than Mac users?  Well, let's see--yes!

MALE 2:  I didn't know there was much to think about them.  I don't 
know.  I don't use a Mac.

MALE  3:  The others are wimps and I don't think they could read a 
manual.  I think they want their mommy.

MALE 1:  The Macintosh is OK.  But for me, I like a split-second 
response.

RICHARD:  When we return you'll hear the Mac users fight back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  Now it's time for a quick look at some new stories from 
the digital world this past week.  Microsoft admitted this week that 
Windows 95 users may have problems cruising the Net.  Windows 95 
will often drop users' connections to Net access providers unless they 
use Microsoft Internet Explorer.  Go to www.clark.net for info on how 
to solve the problem.  And the new Sony PlayStation becomes 
available this week.  To promote it, Sony has created a Web version 
of the home arcade system featuring a fully interactive game.  The 
site has been one of the most popular on the Web during the last 
week.

GINA:  I'm here today with John C. Dvorak, and he's the one that's 
saluting you.  He'll be reviewing some CD-ROM titles for us today.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  That's right.  Three.

GINA:  Three?  Well, the first two are going to be gaming titles.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  That's right.

GINA:  And gaming is the biggest part of the CD-ROM industry.  The 
first one up is called "Buried in Time," and it's the sequel to the 
"Journeyman Project."

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Yeah, this is a three-disc set.  It's very visual and 
actually, probably the hot game right now.  "Buried in Time, the 
Journeyman Project II" begins in your apartment--pretty futuristic. 
Well it should be, it's the year 2319.  You're confronted by your 
future self.

VOICE-OVER:  Yes, I am you.  I've come from the future.  I, you, 
we've been framed.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  That funny jumpsuit is your time-displacement 
unit, which lets you time travel so you can collect clues and solve 
puzzles in an attempt to prove your innocence.  Your travels take you 
to ancient Mayan Mexico, Leonardo da Vinci's studio, and King 
Richard the Lion Hearted's medieval castle.  This guy's dead--let's get 
the arrow that killed him and store it in our inventory.  These 
buttons are your navigational mechanism, allowing you to explore 
your environment.  The graphics are near-photorealistic, and the 
motion is fluid. Oops!  Looks like I'm dead now.  Yep.  Pummeled to 
death.  "Buried in Time" sells for $64.95 and is available on the PC 
and the Mac.  This is a Buy It, Buy It, Buy It.

GINA:  Did you say that three times because there are three discs 
involved?

JOHN C. DVORAK:  No, because it's that good.  In fact, this may be the 
best game of the year. Don't even think twice about it.  Get this game.

GINA:  Well, if you're that impressed by that one, what do you think 
of this one?  It is the "Star Trek, the Next Generation."  The release on 
this was delayed so they could get the original cast members' voices.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  And they're all in there.  There's a lot of people 
that will like this game and a lot of people that won't.

VOICE-OVER:  Space, the final frontier

JOHN C. DVORAK:  What other opening sequence could you expect 
from a CD-ROM called "Star Trek: the Next Generation, 'A Final 
Unity'."  So, what's the plot?  The "Enterprise" is patrolling the 
neutral zone and happens upon a Garidian warship charging a 
Garidian shuttle.

VOICE-OVER:  This is an internal Garidian matter.  Withdraw at once!

JOHN C. DVORAK:  It's your turn, now.  Maneuver the "Starship 
Enterprise" and control the actions of the crew members.

VOICE-OVER:  Any suggestions, Number One?  

VOICE-OVER:  I'm sorry, captain, I don't have any suggestions right 
now.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  "Star Trek: the Next Generation 'A Final Unity'," 
sells for $60 and is available on the PC. I give this a Try It.

GINA:  OK.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  It's actually a very deep game.  Gamers will like it, 
Trekkies will like it, but it doesn't work on all machines.  I had to run 
it off of a Windows 95 DOS prompt to get it to work.  And a lot of 
people can't get it to work, so you should be warned about that.

GINA:  Well, you have certainly saved some Trekkies some 
disappointment with that one. Here is a serious title.  It's about 
Mumia Abu Jamal.  Now, this man is currently on death row, has 
been there since 1982, convicted of killing a Philadelphia police 
officer.  Yeah, this has both his writings and also the information 
about the court case that's kind of interesting.

VOICE-OVER:  From death row, this is Mumia Abu Jamal.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  This is a comprehensive exploration of the life and 
works of Mumia Abu Jamal including items such as his government 
dossier, the Cointelpro documents, video footage of Leonard 
Weinglass discussing the court case, and the appeal paperwork.  
"Live From Death Row," Jamal's book, written in prison, is included, 
along with audio commentaries taped in prison for radio broadcast.  
There are interviews with Jamal.

VOICE-OVER:  I am fighting my conviction, fighting the sentence, 
fighting for my life.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  And people like John Edgar Whiteman, Melvin Van 
Peebles, Juan Gonzales, and many others express their feelings about 
Mumia and what he stands for.  "Mumia Abu Jamal" sells for $29.95 
and is a hybrid disc--works on both the Mac and the PC.  I give it a 
Try It.

GINA:  OK.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  I think it's a little political, and not everybody's 
cup of tea, but if you're in that cocktail party scene, you need 
something to talk about, this disc will provide you with plenty of 
ammo.

GINA:  But the release of this product was timely.  It was released 
just before this man's stay of execution, so...

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Could have had something to do with it.

GINA:  It might have.  Well, thank you so much for the reviews this 
weeks.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  See you next week.

GINA:  Richard?

RICHARD:  Each week, we receive more than 1,000 email messages 
from our viewers. We thought we'd share a couple of those with you 
this week that have to do with the kinds of computers we use on this 
show.  Robert Freeman writes:

"I want to complain that you show far too many screen shots of Macs.  
We all know the Mac is easier to use than the PC--so what?  More 
than 90 percent of users on the Net don't use Macs. I suggest 
portrayal of the PCs more often."

On the other hand, Mark Kaufman writes:

"I just finished watching your show here in Miami, Florida, and I 
think that you should show more Macintosh stuff.  All we hear about 
is PC, PC, PC.  I'm sick of it.  Let's get into the Mac operating system.  
It's better than DOS, Windows, or Windows 95."

The amazing thing is, they're both right.  And you wouldn't believe 
how hard we work at c|net in order to keep a balance here.  Believe 
me, we're aware of this.  If you have suggestions for this topic or any 
other, just send them to us at suggestions@cnet.com .

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  Time now to hear what Mac users have to say.

FEMALE 1:  I'm in life for the giggles, and my Mac is one of my most 
enjoyable things.

MALE 4:  It works really well.  And it's easy.

MALE 5:  You kind of get that warm fuzzy feeling from it.

MALE 6:  And I have used a little DOS and found it very strange.

FEMALE 1:  Windows 3.0 was the Mac interface done in crayon, and 
the 3.1 was a vast improvement because it was the Mac interface 
done in felt tips.

RICHARD:  Stay tuned for more "c|net central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:   People whose jobs keep them on the road all the time 
today are called road warriors.  And the dream of the road warrior is 
to have some small device that is a cellular phone, a pager, a 
calculator, a word processor--everything--rolled up into a package 
small enough to put in your briefcase.  Dream on.  The fact is, the 
technologies have gotten small enough to carry with us, but we have 
to carry one of each, and the choices are bewildering.  A beeper, a 
cell phone, an alphanumeric pager, a personal digital assistant, a 
laptop.  Now, a tapeless digital memo recorder.  Just what the heck 
are we doing carrying all this stuff around?

DOUG RITTER (PAGENET):  I want someone to be able to get in touch 
with me--my boss, my wife, my kids.

PAUL SAFFO:  The reason why I carry all this stuff, in fact, is to make 
life easier for everyone else. It doesn't make my life easier.

RICHARD:  Paul Saffo is a road warrior.  One of 5 million of us who 
take our offices with us wherever we go.  As director of the Institute 
for the Future, he travels more than a 100,000 miles a year and on 
the way has tested every digital widget there is. So many now, the 
choices are bewildering.  OK, let's take them one at a time.  First, the 
time-honored beeper, or numeric pager.  There are 12 million of 
them out there already.  They're down to $30 for the unit, $15 a 
month.  They beep, you squeeze them and read a number.  But that's 
not good enough anymore.  Today you have to have an alphapager:  
an alphapager displays a typewritten message.

DOUG RITTER:  But if the person who's going to send you the message 
is your child, for example, how are they going to input it?

RICHARD:  Right now, if you want to send a message to somebody 
who has one of these new digital pagers, you could type in the 
message on a PC with a program like this.  The software comes free 
from the pager companies.  You could telephone each time and 
dictate to a dispatcher, but each one of those calls costs you 50 cents.  
Sometimes it might be just easier to use a cell phone, but that's twice 
as expensive.  Besides, today you have to get a digital cellular phone 
or you ain't current.

STUART JEFFERY (TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANT): The 
advantage of digital is you can put more traffic, you can put more 
users, on the same frequency.

RICHARD:  Translation:  it means more profit to the operator.

STUART JEFFERY:  It was originally positioned that it was like CDs.  
You think of digital and you think of high quality, but it's not really 
the case.  There's a reduction in the fidelity of voice.

RICHARD:  Do you have a cellular phone and a pager on you now?

STUART JEFFERY:  No, I do not.

RICHARD:  Why not?

STUART JEFFERY:  (laughing)  It doesn't meet my price point.  

PAUL SAFFO:  Actually, my pager is more expensive than my cell 
phone.

RICHARD:  So that means the cell phone is better?

PAUL SAFFO:  With cell phones you have the hassle of running; it's 
also very intrusive in meetings. And batteries are critical.

RICHARD:  Show me everything you got.  You're carrying--you got 
the MagicLink, you have the MagicPager card, you got the Textpager 
Alpha cell phone, and you have a recorder with you.

PAUL SAFFO:  Oh, right.  It uses a single double-A battery, it runs for 
7 hours without recharging, and each one of those is a tape.  A simple 
tone dialer if you're trying to get out on a phone where the tones 
don't work, and today, in racing out of the office, I forgot the phone 
cord. So somewhere between here and my final destination I'll tell 
the cab driver to stop at an electronics store and I'll buy a phone 
cord.

RICHARD:  But these are the tribulations of a road warrior, though.

PAUL SAFFO:  That's right.  And now, there's my pager.  No, it's 
something else beeping and I'm not quite sure what it is.

RICHARD:  One of the many electronic gadgets he's wearing is 
beeping.

PAUL SAPHO:  It's the cell phone.  Well, I'll ignore it.

RICHARD:  No, no, take it.  The road warrior's motto:  reach out and 
touch yourself. And there are voice pagers, there are picture pagers.  
This is Motorola's personal messenger, a PC card with a cellular 
modem that you can think of as a two-way pager. Will they ever be 
combined into one device?  Not likely.  Gina?

GINA:  Just as there are more and more gadgets with special 
purposes, there are more and more software programs that are 
specialized.  Well, Dave Ross this week takes a look at some new 
software titles, and he gets The Last Word.

DAVE: So if John C. Dvorak can tell you what to buy, then why can't 
I?

And so today, I'd like to share with you some of my own software 
picks.  Software which I think you'll agree is long overdue.

The first is called PseudoShop.  This is an online home shopping 
service, but with an important difference:  it's NOT CONNECTED TO 
ANYTHING!  No matter how many times you order the large stuffed 
pandas or the commemorative Pearl Jam juice glasses, they're never 
delivered!  You can shop, shop, shop, but your house doesn't fill up 
with a lot of junk.  $19.95.

Next we have this:  SoftKid.  A simulation of what it would be like to 
have a child who listens to you.  Watch this:  "Well, son, I guess it's 
about time to do the lawn."

(DAVE PLAYS THE VENTRILOQUIST)

"Sure, Dad."

"And I believe you were going to resurface the driveway too, right?"

"Right away, Dad." 

"And don't forget, your little sister needs braces--better get that 
summer job."

"Glad to do it, Dad."

It's a beta copy.  We're still trying to find an actual kid willing to say 
those lines.

And finally, my favorite.  This is called WATCH-IT.  You know how 
every high-tech family in America has about 10,000 hours of home 
camcorder tapes?  You know you won't live long enough to watch 'em 
all.  But now you don't have to!  Because this software will watch 
them for you.   

You set up your computer to face the TV, boot this up, and it spends 
all day watching while you go off and do something productive.  If 
you have a sound board, it'll even generate random comments like, 
"Were the kids ever REALLY that small?"

$79.95.  Works with any videotape.  Also works with slide shows.  I 
say Buy It!

I'm Dave Ross, and I get the Last Word.

GINA:  You know, don't forget--for every story that you see on our 
show there's tons more information online.  At c|net online this week 
you can find a great list of the sites that utilize RealAudio.

RICHARD:  And you can find all sorts of cool stuff related to every 
story we've done on "c|net central."  You can still download that 
controversial animation of the Simpson/Goldman murders featured 
on our very first show.  And there are hotlinks to Web sites we've 
mentioned in past programs like science fiction sites, those about 
travel and Internet dating services.  And there's our virtual software 
library, where you can get games, utilities, and other software over 
the Internet.  And best of all, everything on c|net online is free.  Well, 
that's it for "c|net central" this week.  Our producers decided that 
instead of crediting themselves this time, we'd end by crediting some 
of you.

GINA: Well, thanks for tuning in and logging on!


(END OF TAPED MATERIAL)
