Your Technology

By Anita Hamilton

AMUSE YOURSELF This summer you can skip the long lines and outrageous prices at theme parks and design your own instead. The Legoland CD-ROM ($30, available in July) lets kids ages six and up build castles, waterways and monuments, then see how "visitors" like their design. If roller coasters are more your speed, Microprose's RollerCoaster Tycoon ($30, available now) lets you build fantasy rides, carousels and haunted houses. But don't forget the snack stands; hungry patrons can get grumpy.

DON'T TRASH THE TRASH CANS Billboards and bus stops are fair game for advertisements, so why not trash bins? Starting this fall, receptacles in some 450 cities, including Atlanta, Denver and San Francisco, will sport lighted ads on all four sides. AdBrite, which designed the bins, used what president Caesar Passannante calls "space-age technology," including shatterproof panels and energy-saving, fuel-cell-powered fluorescent lamps to make the spiffy, gold-trimmed black bins glow in the dark. But inside it's still just trash.

WAKE UP, LAZYBONES Tired of waking up to an irritating alarm clock or even more irritating talk radio? Jazz up your morning routine with a wake-up horoscope, inspirational saying or your own good-morning message instead. mrwakeup.com offers a free hotel-style call service that gives you the time, weather and choice of greeting. For custom messages, just type in a brief sentence to be read aloud in a synthesized voice. Then select the time and date, enter your phone number and wait for the call. The catch? You have to listen to an ad first thing in the morning.

--By Anita Hamilton