"c|net central"
TRANSCRIPT
- EPISODE 26 -

Original air date: 9/23/95



RICHARD:  Now you can control your computer using only your mind.  
Controversy flares over child pornography online.  

MIKE GODWIN (ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION):  Now, in 1995, 
everybody's frightened.  

RICHARD:  Hi, I'm Richard Hart.  Those stories, plus how you can 
make money in the stock market via the Internet.  Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GINA:  Welcome to "c|net central."  I'm Gina St. John.  As we reported 
last week, FBI agents had made several arrests as part of an ongoing 
investigation into online child pornography.  In cyberspace, the 
investigation has re-ignited the controversy over censorship and the 
right to privacy on the Internet.

Using undercover agents posing as children, the FBI infiltrated 
America Online bulletin boards and chat rooms in search of child 
pornographers and pedophiles.  They say both are thriving--thanks 
in part to the Internet.

MARK MERSHON (FBI):  The old story of the individual who drives 
down the street and offers a child a piece of candy to hop in their 
car, you know, they have a license plate on their car, their face has 
been recognized.  The computer is anonymous and essentially 
faceless and with the use of screen names, provides great privacy.

GINA:  There is little argument on the Internet about what to do with 
child pornographers and pedophiles, but the FBI investigation has 
only triggered a larger debate about pornography and privacy on the 
Internet.

MIKE GODWIN:  Because this is a new medium, people are a little 
more scared about it.

GINA:  Mike Godwin is an attorney with the Electronic Frontier 
Foundation, which promotes a free and open Internet.

MIKE G.:  In this particular case, the crimes in question are really 
offensive crimes that any moral, any reasonable person would be 
opposed to.  And few people will object to the prosecution of child 
pornographers or pedophiles.  So the question is:  to what extent are 
the online service providers free to monitor how we use their 
services and to disclose that to the government if they think it's 
suspicious?

GINA:  America Online released a statement to c|net outlining its 
standards on what it calls unacceptable behavior online.  The online 
service says it does not monitor private communications such as 
email or private chat rooms.  But it does rely on volunteers and 
subscribers to report illegal activity.  The statement says AOL reports 
that activity to federal law enforcement authorities.

COLIN HATCHER (CYBER ANGELS):  Everyone's fighting to try and get 
into this room.  These rooms are so popular.

GINA:  Colin Hatcher is a Cyber Angel, a member of the Guardian 
Angels crime patrol that hunts down and reports online child 
pornographers.  Exactly what would you do to end this kind of a 
situation right now?

COLIN H.:  OK, I'll key Guide Pager and then I'm going to report 
rooming violations.  I'll just write pedophiles operating in this room.  
And you know, every single member of AOL could do this.  And then 
those rooms, they wouldn't be allowed to be there.

SAM FAUSTINE:  They want to do bookmarks?

GINA:  Yeah, which one is your favorite?  The chances of five-year-
old Sam running into pornography or explicit conversations online 
are remote.

JONATHAN FAUSTINE (PARENT):  Right now, it's very easy to be a 
responsible parent because they're really not on the Net unless I'm 
with them.  You got them all here.

GINA:  But as the Internet expands and his sons get older, it'll be 
more difficult for Jonathan Faustine and other parents to police what 
their children have access to online. That's why Jonathan recently 
joined a group called Safe Surf.

JONATHAN F.:  What I look for from a more mature cyberspace is 
some kind of guidelines, some kind of vehicle that I can use as a 
parent to determine the content of a particular site or the content of 
a particular area.

MIKE HOMER (INFORMATION HIGHWAY PARENTAL EMPOWERMENT 
GROUP):  In newspapers and in the movies, you have a way to know 
what movie you're about to go see and kind of what to expect when 
you get there.

GINA:  Mike Homer of Netscape is a member of an Internet industry 
group.  They're trying to come up with the tools and standards to 
help parents like Jonathan Faustine filter the good from the bad 
online.

MIKE H.:  If we give you those tools, then we can hopefully have the 
best of both worlds--where you get what you want, but if something 
there is objectionable to you, you know it's there and you don't have 
to look at it.

GINA:  For more on the issues of censorship and pornography on the 
Internet, go to c|net online.  There, you can share your opinion with 
other members of the c|net community and find out how you can 
protect your children.  To bring you this breaking story about the 
pornography issue, we rescheduled a story about medicine on the 
Internet.  But tune in next week when we'll look at an Internet 
medical breakthrough that can save your life. Richard?

RICHARD:  When "c|net central" continues, how to control your 
computer using only your brain.  And how the Internet could help 
you make money in the stock market.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  Now, here's a quick look at news in the digital world from 
this past week.

PRESIDENT CLINTON:  Where's your playback button, here?

RICHARD:  President Clinton and Vice President Gore met with 
children in a high-tech classroom in San Francisco this week as part 
of the announcement of a business and education partnership to link 
schools across the country to the Internet.  This is the first president 
and vice president with an email address and the first time the 
White House has had it's own Web page.  How long before every 
student has the same?

PRESIDENT CLINTON:  By the year 2000, every classroom in America 
will be connected.

RICHARD:  The audience consisted of Silicon Valley executives and 
students like Kathryn Robinson.

KATHRYN ROBINSON (STUDENT):  I think it's really good that he 
decided to come to visit the schools.  He needs new voters because 
we're going to be voting in three, four years.

PRESIDENT CLINTON:  If we make an opportunity for every student, 
a fact in the world of modems and megabytes, we can go a long way 
toward making the American dream a reality for every student.  Not 
virtual reality, reality for every student.

RICHARD:  In other news, Intel announced this week it will call its 
next generation microprocessor the Pentium Pro, not the P-6.  
Optimized for 32-bit operating systems, the new chip will be 
available later this year.  And a flaw was discovered this week in the 
security of Netscape's Web browser. The software fix should be 
available at Netscape's Web site soon. Also, Navigator 2.0, an 
enhanced version of the popular browser, will soon be available. 
We'll take a look at the new features in a future episode of "c|net 
central."

GINA:  Thanks, Richard.  I am here with John C. Dvorak today and his 
shark.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  You know, people wanted this shark.  I got mail to 
bring the shark back.

GINA:  And it's back.  And he's back to tell you about all the CD-ROMs 
that are out there and which ones are the ones that you should buy.  
This first one that we're going to be looking at today is the 
"Consumer Survival Kit" from Clark Howard.  Now, this guy has a 
radio show and he tells people what to do if they've been wronged 
by a company or government agency.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Yeah, I'd recommend the radio show over this disc.  
This is Clark Howard's egotistical stab at multimedia.  It's a 
compilation of transcripts from his radio show with a few pointless 
sound effects.  And video of himself, of course.

CLARK HOWARD (VOICE-OVER):  Don't ever, ever, ever pay one penny 
until you're in that job.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Clark offers advice on matters such as money, 
insurance, cars, travel, and real estate.  In a quandary over how to 
keep your clothes clean?  Then check out this section on how to 
choose a dry cleaner.  Or, how about rip-offs like employment scams?

CLARK HOWARD (VOICE-OVER):  Anybody who wants money up front 
from you or placement, they're just stealing from you.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Boy, is he boring.  "The Consumer Survival Kit" sells 
for $25.95 and is available on the PC. This is a definite Skip It.  In 
fact, that's my consumer advice--skip this disc.

GINA:  You know, someone should have given Clark Howard some 
advice on art, because the interface was really--go ahead.  You know, 
if the shark doesn't do the trick, he's not happy.  But this one's not 
the one for anyone to get.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Nope.

GINA: OK.  What about this one?  Now, you remember the Nixon 
administration.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  I remember reading about it.

GINA:  Well, what about this--it's the "Haldeman Diaries" and it looks 
really good.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  I think anyone interested in history or just recent 
history will love this disc.  The diaries of H. R. Haldeman, Nixon's 
chief of staff and right-hand man, takes you inside the Nixon White 
House and offers you personal documentation of the break-in and 
subsequent cover-up that led to the demise of the administration.  
The entries get longer and longer as the Watergate panic escalates.  
There's a complete photographic archive. Is that Bob Dole in bell-
bottoms?  Along with video clips taken by Haldeman with his 8mm 
camera, there's Nixon campaigning with George Bush in Longview.  
Bay, Barbara was young looking back then.  "The Haldeman Diaries:  
Inside the Nixon White House" sells for $69.95 and is available on the 
PC.  Despite the fact that this is 70 bucks, this is a gold mine and I'd 
give it a Buy It.

GINA:  Great.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Anyone even remotely interested in this period 
should get this disc.

GINA:  Well, that was such a turbulent part of American history.  
That was an interesting way to learn about it, you know.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  You think so?

GINA:  Oh, yeah.  Absolutely.  What about this one?  It is from 
Broderbund and they are so good when it comes to educational CD-
ROMs.  And "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?"

JOHN C. DVORAK:  She's at the bank cashing in a lot of money.  They 
sell a lot of these things and they're well worth it.  You're the 
detective spanning the globe in search of Crooked Carmen and other 
mischievous members of the Vile Gang.  Headquarters will brief you 
on the case.

HEADQUARTERS:  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is 
being transmitted.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  You must combine the program's features and 
clues with detective ingenuity and geographical and cultural 
knowledge.  In order to arrest the suspect, you need to supply 
headquarters with sufficient evidence for the issuance of a warrant 
and to follow up by nabbing the ever-fleeting crook before time runs 
out.  "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" sells for $50 and is 
available on the PC and the Mac.  

TALKING SHARK:  Gina, this is a Buy It.

GINA:  I can't believe it.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  It's my new career.

GINA:  A talking shark.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  This is an outstanding CD-ROM.  I'd recommend to 
anyone, especially with children, to get this thing.  But the whole 
Carmen series is good.

GINA:  Yeah, it's already a best-seller so you couldn't go wrong.  And 
we did not go wrong with your reviews today.  Thank you so much.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  I'll see you next week.

GINA:  Richard?

RICHARD:  Here's a stock tip your broker might not enjoy: use your 
computer modem and eliminate the middle man.  Well, you won't be 
able to do that entirely, but for the small investor, staying on top of 
the news and stock prices has never been easier or cheaper thanks to 
online financial services.

Wall Street, watch out.  The Internet is fast becoming the most 
complete resource for the small investor.  The Wall Street Journal 
and Fortune magazine are just two of hundreds of sites containing 
free stock quotes, business news, and market analysis.  The wired 
trader can also take advantage of investment newsgroups to 
exchange advice with other investors and databases to search for 
company information.  At Hoovers Online and the Security and 
Exchange Commission's Edgar, you type in the name of a company 
and get instant access to its financial records.  The wealth of data on 
the Net can be overwhelming, but there are sites that offer one-stop 
shopping--for a fee.  Around $30 a month for QuoteCom, for example, 
which offers premium news services such as Standard & Poors and 
Dow Jones.  It also provides instant stock books, tracks your portfolio, 
and alerts you when your stock is in the news or hits a certain price.

Now, that's service.  Some discount brokers, like the PAWS Financial 
Network, even allow traders to buy and sell stocks on the Internet.  
As easy as getting a quote, punching in a number of shares, and 
hitting "submit."  America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy provide 
similar resources, which are easy to use and are a good starting point 
for most people. With cyberbrokers and endless electronic data 
online, investors can be wired right into Wall Street.

So, if you've decided to go it alone and invest online yourself, there is 
a lot to learn. Fortunately for you, this week c|net online features a 
look at some of the best investment sites and a step-by-step guide to 
help make sure that you invest your money wisely.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  How are we going to control our computers in the future?  
Well, a prominent pioneer in the video game industry from the 
1970s has resurfaced with a really wild idea. He says, forget the 
mouse, forget the keyboard, forget the touch screen.  You can control 
your PC with your mind.

Ever since the dawn of man, humans have been captivated by the 
brain.  Gray matter, the old noggin, the noodle, that mysterious 
cranium in the center of our very being.  Yet, from the outside it 
appears to be functionless.  Mind over matter, the mind and body as 
one. If you put your mind to it, you can do anything.  Except control 
your computer.  But now, the journey to your mind begins with a 
touch.

RON GORDON (CEO, THE OTHER 90% TECHNOLOGIES):  This censor 
measures the composite neural activity, which essentially is your 
brain waves as measured through the electrical activity of the skin.

RICHARD:  Ron Gordon, best known as CEO of Atari in the '70s, now 
honchos a high-tech firm called The Other 90% Technologies.  Amid 
considerable skepticism, Ron asserts that his MindDrive device can 
turn a user's thoughts into a new kind of input device to operate 
your computer.

RON G.:  Right now, you can move this to the left or to the right.  The 
left brain activity would move it more to the left; the right brain 
activity would move it to the right.

RICHARD:  Strapping on digital skis by slipping on this prototype 
finger censor, I took a schuss down Ron's version of the Hanaan-Kam 
downhill course called MindSkier.

RON G.:  Try to ski in between the gates, the red and blue gates.

RICHARD:  Are we getting nervous?  Here we go.  Got to try to get 
over to the left.

Believe it or not, it works, though not with great control.  Thinking 
left made me turn left and right went right.  And if I take this 
off...it's going crazy. Actually, it just goes straight.  Now watch this.  I 
put my finger in and we're in business again.

The process is not unlike the old galvanic skin response technique 
used on a lie detector, but ramped up several notches.

What exactly was going on?  What am I doing in here?

RON G.:  We're looking at over 70 different signals that emanate from 
the electrical activity of the skin.  Also, in the finger, we look at 
heartbeat, blood pulse volume, nervous system activity, micro 
changes in temperature.

RICHARD:  The 70 or more signals are picked up in this digital digit 
censor, once you learn how to train your thought.  Here, I'm 
exercising mine from a calm, blue state to a rip-roaring red arousal.  
You can then manipulate things on the screen, but how to train your 
brain to get into the zone, ahh, that's the trick.  Varsity brain trainers 
can even get into the left/right brain thing, which is way cool.

RON G:  The first few times I didn't know what I did but as I did it 
again and again I learned, just like when you ride a bicycle.  You 
don't know exactly how you learn to get your balance but once you 
do, you can do it all the time.  That's how this works.

RICHARD:  Can you tell somebody's sexual thoughts at this point?

RON G:  I can't tell exactly what is the thought in the person's mind, 
but we can certainly tell if that person is excited or aroused or not.

RICHARD:  Eventually MindDrive will enable you to move the cursor 
around the screen, open applications, and have complete XYZ access 
movement.  The finger sensor will be wireless, allowing remote 
operations.  MindDrive will launch early next year, priced in the 
neighborhood of $200.

This new mind control system is supposed to be revealed to the 
public for the first time in January at the Consumer Electronics Show.  
Now, even though it will be years before this kind of thing is 
commonplace, the dream is getting closer all the time.

GINA:  Still, there are some skeptics.  No one is surprised that Dave 
Ross is one of them, and he gets the Last Word.

DAVE ROSS:  Imagine...games that can be controlled with your mind.  
Now THAT is an amazing concept--the idea that you can sit there, 
just think thoughts, and have things happen.  And it REALLY WORKS!

Why, just the other day, I was thinking I might want to drive here to 
c|net--and before I knew it, without being conscious of what I was 
doing, I was in the car, and all of a sudden, I'm HERE!  And right now, 
I have this thought that I might want to scratch my head--and 
suddenly, almost automatically, I'm scratching my head.

I'm trying to remember what life was like BEFORE we had all this 
thought control.  I guess back in the old days, you'd be thinking 
"scratch head," but instead your hand would go off and do something 
else.  That must have been annoying.

The point is, folks, we HAVE thought control.  We have control over 
all THIS!  (PUTS ARMS OUT)  We just don't USE it a lot of the time.  
But some people are not content.  They want to give us control over 
OTHER stuff--before we've even learned to control ourselves!  
Thought control over computers, and then what--office chairs?

Come to think of it, that WOULD be great--chairs that adjust 
automatically by THOUGHT.  "Gee I feel a little pain down here...."  
Rrrrrmmmm...lumbar support rolls right in.  Except that when you're 
sitting at your desk, you're not thinking of work, or even back pain.  
You're thinking, "I sure wish I were somewhere else."  And the 
moment that thought enters your head...vooom!

(CHAIR SUDDENLY SPEEDS OFF WITH DAVE IN IT)

(FROM OFF CAMERA)  I'm Dave Ross.  And I get the Last Word.

GINA:  You know, for every story you see on this show we've got tons 
more online.  At c|net online this week, check out our in-depth guide 
to online investing.

RICHARD:  And you'll also find out more about tools to help make 
your use of the World Wide Web more enjoyable, tools like Adobe 
Acrobat, QuickTime Virtual Reality. We'll tell you what's out there, 
what you might need and how best to use it.  Also, don't forget all 
kinds of shareware and freeware.  There are spreadsheets, games, 
utilities such as screensavers.  To find them, you just type in the type 
of software you're looking for, and our virtual software library will 
find them for you.  Best of all, everything that's on c|net online is 
free.

GINA:  Well, that's all for "c|net central" this week.  Thanks for tuning 
in and logging on!
