C|NET CENTRAL
TRANSCRIPT
- EPISODE 14 -

Original air date:  7/1/95


HOSTS:  RICHARD HART and GINA ST. JOHN


GINA:  Aliens are taking over the Internet.  Details straight ahead.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

RICHARD:  And take a ride in a 3D virtual vehicle that could be the 
way you custom design your next car.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

RICHARD:  Hello, I'm Richard Hart.

GINA:  And I'm Gina St. John.  These stories, plus John C. Dvorak 
reviews a hot new title from "Sports Illustrated."

RICHARD:  And Dave Ross wants your money.  Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  Welcome to "c|net central," your interactive showcase for 
digital technology.  First off today, UFOs.  That's right.  Next to sex, 
the most popular subject on the Internet is UFOs, and at sites like 
this, believers are gathering in huge numbers to swap stories, 
photographs, and theories about aliens among us.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

RICHARD:  This is how it all began, America's obsession with 
unidentified flying objects.  Locked in the cold war, we turned our 
attention from the enemy within to the enemy that was the 
unknown.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

RICHARD:  Whether there is life out there has been pondered by 
more than UFO buffs.  Astronomers and other scientists have used 
radio telescopes like this one for years in SETI, the Search for 
Extraterrestrial Intelligence, but for citizens with smaller budgets, 
what has become the instrument of choice is the Internet.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

RICHARD:  There are videos for sale, photos you can download, even 
UFO games.  You can debate current theories in Usenet groups like 
this one.  Or check out sightings by former presidents at the Regulus 
home page.  So, how are the UFO faithful receiving these out-of-this-
world graphics, text, and sound?

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

DAVE SCHMITZ (EDITOR, SMITTY'S UFO PAGE):  We're not on a quest-
-we're just out to provide information.

RICHARD:  Dave Schmidt began his World Wide Web site--Smitty's 
UFO Page--a year and a half ago.  With two other friends, he also 
works on the Internet UFO Group, one of the largest sites on the Web 
for information about UFOs.

DAVE SCHMITZ:  I get email from people in South Africa, Europe, New 
Zealand, other people in the government--I've even had some from 
the House of Representatives.

RICHARD:  UFO groups say the Web provides a sort of community 
gathering place for people to share information--from what to do if 
you see something to how to file a Freedom of Information Act 
[request] to get declassified government documents.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

RICHARD:  Some believers on the Net assert not only that we are not 
alone, but that the government knows.  At the center of those 
allegations is a mysterious top-secret air base in southern Nevada 
called Area 51.  You say you can't get to Nevada?  Well, you can on 
the Web.  The air force says the air base doesn't exist, nor is the 
government developing technologies based on recovered UFOs.  
Sound like science fiction?  Go on the Internet--Area 51 is very real.  
You can download maps, diagrams, even personal accounts by people 
who've been there.  People like James Fox and Angelika Oedekoven.

JAMES FOX (UFO EYEWITNESS):  We headed out of the town of Rachel 
around 7:30, 8:00.  It started to get dark.

RICHARD:  Then, one of their friends noticed a light hovering above 
the car.  James, who is a cameraman by trade, quickly grabbed his 
camera to take this video, seen here for the first time.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

VOICE-OVER:  Big-time fast.  Big-time.[???]

VOICE-OVER:  Oh, my God!

JAMES FOX:  I didn't hear any sound.  One light turned to two lights, 
to three lights; three lights turned back to two lights, and then to one 
light, and no lights.  It was silent and it was hovering.

RICHARD:  James and Angelika say they don't know what it was they 
saw that night, but in a special arrangement with c|net, the UFO 
Photo Archive, and Village Labs in Arizona, they're allowing us to put 
home videos like this on our new online service.  Just go to 
www.cnet.com and become a part of history as the first-ever video 
clips of alleged UFO sightings go online.

VOICE-OVER:  I'm going to expose you and your project.

RICHARD:  The saying "the truth is out there" has become a rallying 
cry for UFO groups on the Net.  But whose truth?  Even Dave Schmitz 
says as much as 90 percent of the stories he reads are, well, 
questionable.  He even provides links to so-called skeptic pages, so 
online readers can see the other side of the story.  Still, in the spirit 
of the Net, he says that's as far as he'll go.

DAVE SCHMITZ:  We basically let them, let the people, let the users, 
the readers of the material, decide for themselves.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

RICHARD:  Whether UFOs are from another planet, part of a 
government conspiracy, or just our collective imagination, is a 
question we can't answer, not yet.  But today, more Americans than 
ever are using the Internet to look for clues.  Now, by logging on, you 
can boldly go where no one has gone before.

To get all the Internet addresses of those alien and UFO sites, just 
visit c|net online.  Go to c|net central and click on "television."  What 
you will find there is more than just information about what you see 
on the show.  It's a whole interactive community--and we really 
mean interactive--devoted to multimedia, computers, and all kinds 
of digital technology.  And by the way, you'll also find there a very 
interesting clip of an alleged UFO sighting.  Gina?

GINA:  If you'd like to get that clip and you have Internet access, 
here's how to get to c|net online.  It's located at the address 
www.cnet.com.  Once you type that in, you'll arrive at our home page.  
Just follow the icons--the same ones that will appear at the bottom of 
the television screen--to the various areas.  The first is c|net central, 
where you'll find the latest breaking news about computers and the 
online world, updated every day.  c|net's hot list of new gear you 
can't live without, a library of 100 CD-ROM reviews, plus reams of 
original content written exclusively for c|net online.  And of course, 
links to the stories you see on this TV show.  You can even tour our 
studios.  Next is the forum--bulletin boards where you can share 
your opinion and connect with other c|net members.  We'll show you 
more about how that works later.  And finally, resources, where 
you'll connect with the most complete shareware library in the 
world, where you can download great games and software.  You'll 
also find extensive technical support and a reference desk with all 
the answers to your computing questions.  When you become a 
member of c|net online, you're automatically entered into a 
sweepstakes where you can win all sorts of digital prizes--including 
multimedia computers from Compaq and great c|net gear.  Go online 
for all the details at www.cnet.com.  Richard?

RICHARD:  When c|net central continues, find out how you can design 
your own next car, virtually.  And John C. Dvorak with the naked 
truth behind three new CD-ROMs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  Here are some of the technology headlines from this week.  
MasterCard has joined Visa in adopting a security standard that will 
allow anyone to buy goods online with a credit card.  PowerPC PCs, 
including the first notebook, were unveiled by a dozen companies at 
last week's PC Expo.  Two expect to start shipping them this August 
for under $2,000.  And CompuServe's new Internet software that 
allows parents to monitor where their kids go online will be available 
this fall.  For all the latest technology news, check out c|net daily 
news in the c|net central area at c|net online.

GINA:  Thanks, Richard.  Now, if you're getting ready to buy a CD-
ROM, you have come to the right place.  Don't do a thing until you get 
our multimedia review with John C. Dvorak.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Hi, Gina.

GINA:  Hi.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  This is the right place, by the way.

GINA:  They're his reviews.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  We do the absolute best job of reviewing CD-ROMs 
anyone does.  But you know why?  We make it simple for people.

GINA:  Yeah, we do.  We have a system.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  That's right, a rating system.

GINA:  And I know it.  There is "buy it."

JOHN C. DVORAK:  "Buy it" means don't think twice.  We've gone over 
this thing, it's a quality product, go buy it.

GINA:  Then there's "try it."

JOHN C. DVORAK:  "Try it" means you go look at it and check it out 
first and then, you know, if you like it, then buy it.

GINA:  And the one he uses the most, "skip it."

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Skip It.  That's the one where I usually throw the 
disc at the camera--and that's what you'll do if you buy one of the 
products I say "skip it" to.

GINA:  Oh, really?

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Yeah.

GINA:  Hmmm.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  So this week we've got a couple of outstanding 
products, including this "Sports Illustrated Multimedia Almanac," 
1995 edition.  An entire year of "Sport's Illustrated" magazines plus 
the complete facts and figures of the magazine's 1995 Sports 
Almanac, including detailed team and individual records.  Also, 
statistics for 18 different sports.  Everything is laid out at your 
fingertips in an easy-to-use and good-looking interface with over 
600 photos from the SI archives.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

JOHN C. DVORAK:  The video highlights are the only disappointment:  
lots of interviews.  Let's SEE the sports, not talk about them.  There 
are some videos worth mentioning, like the O.J. Simpson car chase--if 
you want to call it that--and the New York Rangers winning the 
Stanley Cup for America.  And finally, for those who like to test their 
sports knowledge, there is the sports trivia game.  "Sports Illustrated 
Multimedia Almanac," 1995 edition, sells for $44.95, and it's a hybrid 
CD-ROM, working both on the PC and the Mac.  I'd say "try it."  I 
think if you're a sports junkie, you'll probably get a kick out of this 
thing.  It's not the thing I'd want, but I think a lot of people would 
like it.  It's kind of misleading, though.  It says "the only sports guide 
you'll ever need," which is hardly true.  It's the 1995 edition but it 
contains only the 1994 statistics and it doesn't go back in time.  It'd 
be nice if it went back for a decade or two.

GINA:  Well, you know, 1994 wasn't exactly the best year for sports.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Well, there's that O.J. Simpson chase, that was 
pretty good.

GINA:  Right.  Well, what else do we have today?

JOHN C. DVORAK:  "Thinkin' Things," collection number one from 
Edmark, one of the leading developers of children's software.  It's a 
collection of six learning activities that are incredibly fun and 
imaginative.  It promotes critical thinking and memory skills.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

JOHN C. DVORAK:  My favorite activity is a tuning booth.  You can 
create your own tunes on a variety of wacky xylophones and Toony 
Loon will play them back.  Or there's question-and-answer mode, 
where Toony plays a musical pattern and asks you to repeat it.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

JOHN C. DVORAK:  There's the Fripple shop, a great place to learn 
about logic.  Customers request a Fripple and you must fill the order.  
And then there's the feathered friends--there's a lot of tongue 
twisters in here, folks.  You must determine which baby bird is 
missing and create it with the right color, body pattern, hat, and 
shoes.  "Thinkin' Things" sells for $40 and is a hybrid CD-ROM.  It 
works on both PC and Mac.  I say "buy it."  It's quite good, yeah.  It's 
outstanding, actually.  Edmark makes good products, and this thing 
has an interesting feature which I've never seen here before, which 
is a kind of slider.  If you're a four-year-old, you get kind of a 
different program than if you're a six-year-old or a seven-year-old.

GINA:  Oh, that's perfect.  So if you have kids at home, different ages, 
they'll all be able to use it and not outgrow it quickly.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Right.  You'll find if you have children in the house, 
the older one won't play anything if it's under their age, so this sort 
of makes up for that.  Buy it.

GINA:  What else do you have today?

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Well, the next product is called "Nine Month 
Miracle."  It's from A.D.A.M. Software, and it's about giving birth.  
There's a family album filled with animations, videos, and narrations 
which guide you through the development of a new life, month by 
month.  Topics range from fertilization to ultrasound.  The actual 
views of inside the uterus for each month of pregnancy are 
fascinating.  There's a comprehensive section on anatomy, including 
an amazing depth bar that reveals each anatomical level.  You can 
change the skin tone of the models, and there's even a modesty level.  
You want your models stark naked?  Don't worry, I won't show that 
feature.  There's a section just for the kids with special games and a 
storybook intended for siblings, to help them prepare for the new 
baby.  "Nine Month Miracle" sells for $39.95 and is available on the 
PC and the Mac.  I'm depressed.

GINA:  Why?

JOHN C. DVORAK:  Because I've got no CD-ROMs that I can throw at 
the cameraman.

GINA:  I'm glad about this.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  This is a highly recommended buy, especially if 
somebody in the family is pregnant.  And I think other CD-ROM 
producers should take a look at what they do on this software 
package, which is allow the whole family to find some section 
specifically for them.  There's a bunch of stuff for kids, there's stuff 
for Dad, Mom, the whole thing.  A.D.A.M. Software makes a good 
product, and I recommend this a lot.

GINA:  Thank you very much for your multimedia review this week, 
John.

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

GINA:  Bring lots of CD-ROMs with you.

JOHN C. DVORAK:  I will.

GINA:  Richard?

RICHARD:  In addition to the titles John has reviewed, you'll find 
more must-have CD-ROMs in a list at c|net online.  We call it the c|net 
100.  So check it out.  Just log on and click on c|net central.  You'll 
find 100 in-depth reviews written exclusively for c|net online, as 
well as transcripts of the reviews you saw today.

What we have next is not an interactive game yet, but it should be.  
The University of Illinois in Chicago has a visualization lab that came 
up with an amazing way to put you and me inside an artificial 
environment without using those heavy virtual reality helmets.  
General Motors used it to build a virtual car.  I climbed into it, and I 
can testify it is astonishing.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

VOICE-OVER:  People spend more time in their vehicle than they do 
in their living room.

RICHARD:  Well, if all that you want inside your car is a pair of tuck-
and-roll buckets and maybe a couple of cup holders, you probably 
won't be interested to know that General Motors has dropped a 
bundle on something called VisualEyes.

VOICE-OVER:  If people don't like the interior, they're not going to 
buy the car.

RICHARD:  Randy Smith is one of General Motors' top digital motor 
heads.  His R&D crew is using a system called VisualEyes developed 
at the University of Illinois in Chicago.  They're using it to make a 
computer-generated vehicle interior--the virtual 'vette.

VOICE-OVER:  I mean, this doesn't even look like a car interior.  It's a 
chair.

VOICE-OVER:  We have three screens surrounding you.  We have a 
projection from a graphics projector on the floor, on the front wall, 
and on the side wall--and when we turn the program on, you're 
going to see a 3D movie, except you're going to control the movie.

RICHARD:  Where's them fuzzy dice?

Now, you might be wondering, why spend millions on what might at 
first appear to be just a big video game?  Well, when you think about 
the hundreds of models and literally thousands of interior 
combinations each platform can accommodate, building full-blown 
prototypes for each one is serious money.  This is going to be great.

This is so spooky.  The steering wheel does not exist, the shifter does 
not exist, this door is not really here.  I'm in a virtual car.

The pocket protector types call this concept "human in the loop."  I 
think I'd better explain.

Everybody comfy back there?

RICHARD:  You're seeing this in two dimensions, but it's not really a 
projection on the wall as you might think.  It's in three dimensions.  
With these special glasses I actually perceive the shifter, for 
example, to be right out here in space--not on any of the walls but 
right in the middle of the room, and I almost feel like reaching up 
and adjusting this rearview mirror.  Everything in here looks like it's 
floating in space in 3D to me, with these glasses.  That's what really 
makes it cool.  So with this I can change what the dashboard looks 
like.

Bing! We have a beige dashboard.  I think I'd like a teal interior, so 
you point it back up there and select teal.  We can mess around with 
dials, buttons, positions--anything we want here.  We can change the 
actual configuration of the dashboard so it looks different.  I think I'd 
like something more on the right-hand side that is kind of dished-
out, so I'll dish it out.  Bing!  Console, change the console here.  Each 
time I pull this trigger, whatever I'm pointing at cycles to another 
option, so I'm actually selecting my options.  Stick shift here.

Some major computing power is behind the VisualEyes technology, 
including three Silicon Graphics Onyx workstations.  Design concepts 
can be viewed at any angle, from infinity to right through the sheet 
metal.

RICHARD:  Clearly, what GM hopes that it will do for us is save us lots 
of time and money, and a sort of virtual reality system lets them 
understand the full scale of the design.  They may decide they don't 
like it at all, but the only thing that they've spent is some time in 
modeling the vehicle itself in the computer.

RICHARD:  (SINGING)  I don't care if rains or freezes . . . 

VisualEyes has already been used to help develop 1997 and '98 
models, cutting years off the normal development time.  What's 
next?  Look for VisualEyes in your dealer's showroom someday, 
where you can custom order an entire car and design it yourself 
right down to the gear shift.

It would make a heck of a video game, wouldn't it?

To find out more about virtual cars and when one might show up in 
your local dealership, just go to c|net online and travel to c|net 
central.  That's where you'll get information about this story and 
everything else you've seen this week on c|net central.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD:  Hi, once more, we're at the heart of c|net online to try to 
convey to you a little more how much more this is than just another 
source of information.  Sure, you can get materials in addition to 
what you see on the television show, plus original articles, but it is 
also a complete resource center for all of your computing needs.  
There's the reference desk and tech support, where we've catalogued 
answers to some of the most frequently asked questions--or FAQs--
and connect you to hardware and software vendors.  You say you 
want shareware, you want software to download into your own 
computer?  For that, there's our virtual shareware library.  It's the 
most complete shareware resource available and can find shareware 
anywhere on the Internet.

GINA:  Shareware is one of the best reasons to be on the Internet.  I 
mean, you can download it directly into your computer, use it, and if 
you like it, you pay for it.  At least, software developers are hoping 
that people are honest enough to pay for it, and so is Dave Ross.  And 
he gets the last word.

DAVE ROSS:

I am so excited today because I just figured out how to get rich:  it's 
shareware.

Shareware is software that's OK to copy and share!  Now, THIS is 
traditional software: 

(PICKS UP BOX)

You see, big expensive box full of air, and a package with a warning: 

(READS)

"This software should work, but if it doesn't, you can't sue us, and if 
you copy it, a big guy named Chuck comes over and breaks your 
arm."

They're not very friendly.

But with shareware, ANYBODY can copy it--it's just that when they 
USE it, it displays a guilt message saying, "If you like this software, 
please send us $5."

And people DO!  Thousands of checks come rolling in!

You know the computer game "Doom"?  It's on every office network, 
KILLING American productivity--it started as shareware!  They 
posted the game on the Internet and said, "Go ahead and take it, copy 
it, and if you like it--buy it."  Then they began selling updates and 
the creators are now millionaires!

All you have to do is come up with a good idea, post it as shareware, 
and ask people to pay!  You're RICH.

You don't believe it?  Well, just watch . . . Unbeknownst to you, this 
whole piece has been "shareware commentary."

(GRAPHIC: "SHAREWARE COMMENTARY" FLASHES ON AND OFF)

I'm Dave Ross.  I get the last word--and that'll be $5.

(OFFSTAGE HAND GIVES DAVE $5.  DAVE LOOKS AT IT. LOOKS BACK 
AT THE AUDIENCE)

This is coast-to-coast.  It's supposed to be $5 from EVERYBODY who 
found today's commentary useful.

(OFFSTAGE HAND GRABS $5 BACK)

Maybe I should rethink this.

(DEADPAN.  BLACKOUT.)

GINA:  I think that he should pay us the $5.

RICHARD:  That's a great idea.  That would make it "fair-ware," right 
Dave?  That's it for c|net central this week.  And you know, Gina and 
I would like to know how you think we're doing.

GINA:  So visit us at our Internet site at www.cnet.com, and if you 
have any suggestion or comments, email us at letters@cnet.com.

RICHARD:  Thanks for tuning in--and remember, you can always log 
on!

(MUSIC)

(END OF TAPED MATERIAL)
