TECHWATCH

By KATHLEEN ADAMS, ELIZABETH L. BLAND, DANIEL EISENBERG, LISA GRANATSTEIN, ANITA HAMILTON, NADYA LABI, LINA LOFARO AND ALAIN L. SANDERS

LOCK AND LOAD: THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT CD-ROM ACTION HERO

It's the old Fruit Loops vs. Wheaties dilemma. When a crush of games hits shelves this fall, kids will grab the gory action ones while their parents reach for something a bit tamer--an encyclopedia or a math primer, perhaps? Any chance of common ground? Our taste test: Quake, last Christmas' bloody hit, vs. Young Dilbert, an edu-title due this fall. You make the call.

DILBERT QUAKE

Setting Filthy adolescent Filthy 21st century bedroom wasteland

Deadliest weapon Laptop computer Nail-spitting machine gun

Armor Nylon backpack Kevlar vest

Scenes where character uses a grenade None More than 10 launcher

Scenes where More than 10 None character smirks at user

Playing advice Computer opens clues Ax opens opponents

Life lessons Computers are friendly Never use a grenade and easy to use launcher in a confined space

SONY'S OLD IDEA GETS A BRAND-NEW SOUND

When it was unveiled in 1992, Sony's MiniDisc seemed poised to top Betamax as its most ill-starred innovation. To American audiophiles making a costly transition from vinyl to CD, the MiniDisc posed the unwelcome prospect of another shift in music formats. Sales, not surprisingly to everyone but Sony, disappointed.

But rather than hit rewind, Sony has decided it was playing the wrong marketing music. "Many people thought we were trying to replace their CD collection," says Sony senior vice president Mark Viken. "It's a portable, digital replacement for the cassette, to take music on the go and make your own compilations. We didn't explain it clearly." Now Sony is trying to make itself better understood. It has relaunched the Mini with a national ad campaign, hoping to spur the 10-fold increase in sales seen in last fall's test markets and help the U.S. join an expected burgeoning world market. "The cassette and the CD didn't explode in the early years," Viken points out. "In the '90s, I think we're all a little impatient."

GHOST SITES

Techie Steve Baldwin obsesses about Net Litter, sites that linger, forgotten by their creators. The worst trash: pathetic celeb pages.

www.annalive.com This tacky ode to Anna Nicole Smith offers dating tips (but no geriatric pickup lines) and a personal "cool" list (No. 2: "Norway and My Norwegian Fans!").

www.music.sony.com/Music/ArtistInfo/JudgeDredd/index.html Cop Land made Stallone an acteur, but a site from this sci-fi nightmare (describing Dredd as "judge, jury and executioner") is a blast of Sly's past. Can't he sentence this ugly memorial to death?

HYPE PATROL

RAGING BULL

Who says the Net's not a cash cow? Web stocks have been milking Wall Street. Search firm Yahoo!, for example, is up 325% this year, to a $2.2 billion market value. Estimated 1998 profits: $14 million. Can it last? Who knows, but perhaps the firm should rename itself. How about Yippee!?