Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 51

F4 TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2001 The Arizona Republic Touring the Web Mr ml RadstiidBuMist Ctei 3 Fans write stories on own Internet Elements of Tliai Buddhist Cftves pSATURtWY UORNINiS PfiWETIUEl TOYS isW ARCADE OMFS MOVIES POP MUSIC 1 UNCHBOXFS FASH-OM 1 Maricopa County cell-phone usage at new heights LI i- IEEE I Fat Albert and tha Cosby Synopssjl Memories Take a trip back into time to relive your childhood at www.yesterdayland.com Kids Messages Learn about the Buddhists of Thailand mri: I -rr ill-1 consider that his works have been ghost written since the author's death nearly 20 years ago.) With a few mouse clicks, one is liable to discover an original "South Park" episode in which the kids travel through time and new adventures based on the video game "Quake." Launched in 1998 by Los Angeles software designer Xing Li, FanFiction.net reads like the 21st century successor to the poetry slams of the Beat Generation. Encouragement comes in the form of short reviews, usually positive, that 'op culture exposed, By AS. Berman USA TODAY The "X-Files" agents find themselves lost in the nightmare world of "The Matrix," Ally McBeal loses her brother to a predatory secretary, and the chief Nazi of "Hogan's Heroes" seeks deathbed absolution on a very special "Touched By An Angel." Sweeps week fare? If only. These are just some of the strange story lines found on FanFiction.net (WWW.fanfictiOD. net), a site that whisks popular culture through the looking glass by letting visitors con tribute original stories based on movies, video games, TV shows, even music acts.

Contributors to the site are neither paid nor charged for posting. Here, amateur works based on TV programs long dead (anyone remember "21 Jump JmUn I FaiiDc Orectory Hary Cortes. laws expsaitiei fanfiction.net'9'" rub shoulders with "Harry Potter" spinoffs fanFiction.net contributors organize their writing into and the superhero ad- "here can cmoe ventures of classical Sam Vincent Meddis USAT0DAY.COM literature and music where "inspiration remains a fickle entity." www.perfectory.com In our popular "tired of the new millennium already" category: Yesterdayland, which offers to help you relive your childhood. www.yesterdayland.com Traveling salesman Max Hunter decided to take his reel-to-reel tape recorder into the hills and backwoods of the Ozarks. Here's what he heard.

www.smsu.edutolksong maxhunter ODDITIES Don't have enough useless things at your disposal already? Join the Useless Facts Daily Mailing List Avoid buying a lemon at www.lemonlawamerica.com chanteuse Charlotte Church. "It's like the adult version of when kids play at being TV characters," said Steven Savage, 32, of Columbus, Ohio, who writes a column for FanFiction.net, in addition to doing programming for the site. The stories, he said, are an example of what can happen "when people really care about something." Indeed, with a casual tally of stories posted on the site reaching nearly 100,000, FanFiction.net contributors seem to care about quite a number of things. Some highlights: New stories based on the hit film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Fan fiction based on the novels of horror writer VC. Andrews (even more interesting when you emon CULTURE reators and sellers of I popular culture, the Merchants of Cool pursue the hearts and wallets of America's youth.

A Frontline expose. www.pbs.orgwgbhpages frontlineshowscool Here's one word for today's pop culture: Plastic, a collaborative 'zine that describes its plane of creative existence as "somewhere between anarchy and hierarchy." www.plastic.com EDUCATIONAL Witness the restoration of the fabled Library at Alexandria, which is seen by the Egyptian government as focal point for culture, education and science. www.sis.gov.egalex-lib MmlIront.htm Sacred Rocks and Buddhist Caves uncovers the ancient religious and cultural roots of Thailand. Interactive images and text. http:home.worldnel.fr-eimioku ENTERTAINING Perfectory describes itself as an ever-evolving collection of art.

WEB BRYANT I USA TODAY Oscarmania! Immersive Majestic heralds future of electronic content Cell survey "Hang up and drive. Hang up and drive." If you find yourself repeating that phrase more often these days, it's because cell-phone usage is up in Maricopa County. Six out of every 10 adults have mobile phones, according to a study by the Phoenix-based Behavior Research Center. Cell-phone ownership is highest in the most affluent families -86 percent in families with income above $65,000 compared with 46 percent among families with income below $45,000. People 35 to 54 had the highest rate of phone ownership, 73 percent, while retirees had the lowest at 43 percent.

No numbers were available on the percentage of cell-phone owners who shout tedious, personal conversations into their cell phones while strolling store aisles or sitting in a restaurant. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.05 percentage points. Hot DVDs DVD sales in February established the home entertainment product as the "fastest selling consumer electronics product of all time," according to the Consumer Electronics Association. The 556,000 DVD sales represented a 39 percent jump over February of last year. The February sales topped off 33 consecutive weeks of increases.

Camcorders sold 340,000 in February, a 13 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the CEA. Fuel-cell news Fuel cells are generating good news on several fronts, according to the Breakthrough Technology Institute, www.fuelcells.org. The group announced that Mazda plans to start test runs in Japan on its Premacy FC-EV car powered by a methanol fuel-cell system. Mazda has set a target date of 2005 to market its fuel-cell cars. Fuel cells generate electricity from a fuel without combustion.

Meanwhile, Honda is demonstrating its FCX third-generation fuel-cell vehicle, which runs on hydrogen. The vehicle will take part in California's Fuel Cell Partnership demonstration program. Several other manufacturers, including Renault and BMW, are working on fuel-cell applications for cars, buses and boats. On the home front, prototypes of residential fuel cells are making progress, according to the nonprofit group. Several companies in conjunction with Tokyo Gas unveiled a prototype I-kilowatt fuel-cell co-generation unit that runs on natural gas.

Closer to home, Long Island Power Authority and NBG Technologies will develop a 4.5 kilowatt prototype. In a sign that the clean power source may be coming of age, DuPont has formed a fuel-cell business unit to market components and materials to what the chemical giant estimates to be a 1 0 billion industry by 20 1 0. Compiled by Jonathan Sidener of The Arizona Republic. See E-section weekly in Tuesday's Arizona Republic. Tip of the week It vou want some of the ad vantages of wireless Web serv ice without the monthly service fee, you can get local movie listings, restaurant reviews, news, and other timely information on Palm and PocketPC PDAs.

Avantgo is a free service that lets you download customized local and national information. -from sources such as Rolling Stone and TV Guide from your PC to your PDA for reading later. at http:home.worldnet.fr-eimioku. and make your e-mail even more inefficient. www.juselessfacts.net When something the size of a Mir Space Station comes hurtling out of the sky, most nearby folks would beat a hasty retreat.

But not these "lucky people." www.mirreentry.com TECHIES Searching the Web gets a visual makeover at Room 102. With its SlideShow Technology, this search engine spits back mini-page views of sites it finds. www.room102.com USEFUL RESOURCES If that new car's a real clunker, find out your legal rights with a visit to the aptly named Lemon Law America. www.lemonlawamerica.com USATODAY.com 's Sam Vincent Meddis reviews new and notable Web sites daily at' www.usatoday.comtech.htm 3 Everything you need to know about Russell Crowe his life, his films, his loves, his rock band: www.geocities.comHollywood Cinema1501 Tough lady This site celebrates "America's Sweetheart," Julia Roberts: www2.netdoor.comcplowejulia. htm Survivor A chronicle of Tom Hanks' long career from TV to film: www.tomhanksweb.com Chocolatier The sweet successes of Juliette Binoche: www.cling.gu.se-cl4dberg juliepage.html Phoenix rising The promising career of Joaquin Phoenix: virtue.

nujoaqmaln.htm Abstract expressionist Ed Harris, star of www.geocities.comcewerdt Well-scripted career "Quills" star Gocffrey Rush: www.fortunecity.comlavender diaz1020 Playing in "Traffic" The official site of Benicio del Toro: www.beniciodeltoro.com SOMETHING ABOUT ROSES? Can't remember who won last poll.imdb.comSectionsAwardsA cademyAwardsUSA WHO NEEDS THE LITTLE GOLD MAN? Success isn't always golden. Here are some great films that never won an Academy Award: www.filmsite.orgAioawards.html Send comments to Mary Pat Hyland at pressaxcesaol.com. ifSil1ir anil ifiiHiiiiiiM Russell Crowe, is nominated for best actor and Zhang Ziyi, -f Kevin fvt Maney 2 tSw USA T0DAY mHui I. imoginfbn and be your smi PiwwiKin Fonro Autimra tannery tfifl Crossover gM CJ oilial Final Nowis, Sengs. jj Lists.

Movtoi Chicks Oa TV aims visitors submit after reading a story. Writing under the pen name, Lynxara, college junior Alicia Ashby has received comments such as "This is so cool," and "I can't wait to read part two," in reviews of stories she has posted based on Pokemon and Digimon. Although Ashby said she used to write "extra scenes" for favorite shows as a child, she "was rather surprised to find that other people apparently did this, too, and that they shared their ideas by posting them on the Internet." FanFiction.net seems "the best way to connect with a large audience that would be interested in reading something I wanted to write," she said. Commentary is a detective game, and you end up inside the mystery. Maybe your phone will ring, and one of the characters a pre-recorded voice will tell you to do something, or drop a hint, or scream.

Maybe you'll get e-mail from a character. If you e-mail back," you'll get an appropriate response. You might be on the Net and an instant-message box pops up. A character wants to chat. You chat back.

It seems real. You can hardly tell it's driven by a software robot. It's pretty elaborate, what EA has done for Majestic. The whole thing sits on top of a massive database that keeps track of everything you see and hear as you play, then feeds you more to guide you through the story. EA developed the technology that lets the database send and track those feeds across all kinds of platforms, from e-mail to phones.

The company spent $10 million creating Majestic. When playing Majestic, certainly there are times when it's obvious you're in a computer game. But because the game can strike anytime, anywhere, through any device, sometimes it's not so obvious. Some test users found Majestic disconcerting, said Joe Keene, chief operating officer of EA.com. "It's a fine line," he said.

"We're after the 'War of the Lroucning nger, Hidden Dragon, is nominated for best actress. Web sites preview 73rd Academy Awards show Two colleagues plop down in your office to talk about a project. A skinny laptop is popped open on the desk. Next to it is a multibutton speakerphone, which suddenly twitters to life. You punch the answer button so all can hear the speaker.

A woman's voice comes on, hysterical. "You have to help me," she says. "Oh, God, help me! They're here! You've got to find out what they want. They're going to kill me! "The scream ends with a click and a dial tone. The two colleagues don't budge, their faces blank.

After a pause, one of them flatly says, "New computer game?" You say, "Yep." It's part of one of the coolest new concepts in computer games. The first of its kind is called Majestic, from Electronic Arts (www.ea.com). Before its official public unveiling at a February conference, meeting host Chris Shipley introduced Majestic by saying it would change games the way "Survivor" changed television. In fact, this development might turn out to be about a lot more than games perhaps a whole new way to think about electronic content. Web-based beginnings Majestic is basically a game that invades your life.

Its marketing tagline is: "The game that plays you." It starts like a lot of Web-based games. You use a browser to go to the Web site EA.com to register and download a little piece of software. You also answer a lot of questions: name, age, e-mail address, phone number, cell phone number, fax nunv-ber and more. You start to play, but you quickly find out that the browser is only a piece of how you do this. Then the fun begins.

Majestic By Mary Pathyland BINGHAMT0N (N.Y.) PRESS AND SUN-BULLETIN Hollywood fans will love browsing these sites in anticipation of the 73rd Academy Awards on March 25. Here's the official site: www.oscar.comoscarshome. html You can count on to dish Oscar-night dirt: www.eonline.comFeatures Awards0scars2001 KEY GRIPES Post your views on this year's nominees: www.insidetheweb.commbs.cgi mb331519 RUN FOR THE POSES Movie critics rate who has the best chance to be photographed with an Oscar: www.goldderby.com TRAILER PARK Official sites of some of the nominated films: www.almost-famous.com www.before-night-falls.com www.billyelliot.com www.castawaymovie.com www.miramax2000.com chocolatyindex.html www.crouchingtiger.com www.erinbrockovich.com www.gladiator-thefilm.com studio.go.commoviesobrother www.thepatriot.com www.foxsearchlight.com quillsoptions.htm www.requiemforadream.com www.trafficthemovle.com www.wonderboysmovie.com www.youcancountonme movie.com FANFARE These fan sites feature some of the nominated actors. TotheMaximus! Worlds' kind of thing. We expect some similar reaction." Targeting television Now that Majestic is built, the idea is to keep it going by creating episodes.

You finish one, you move to the next The game would have continuing characters, so you'd get to know them, like characters on the great TV detective shows. Majestic is the first series of this kind. EA plans to use the technology to create other series. "We're going after television with this," EA's Jeff Brown said. The concept could spread.

If television were smart, it would cor at EA. A show like "The West Wing" could become much more than something you watch for an hour a week. A Majestic-like game could make you a member of the White House staff. It could call you at all hours of the day and night with national emergencies, some real and some more like the horror of an improper silverware setting for entertaining the president of Swaziland. It could call you back from vacations and make you work until 3 a.m.

I've known White House staffers. This would be realistic. It all seems kind of spooky and manipulative. But so did "Survivor" when it first came out, and we got used to it.