The Ithaca Journal from Ithaca, New York • 7

The Ithaca Journal Tuesday, April 27, 1999 ConsumersComputersCareers 7A Test extreme moves with video game Cyberia Material can help found in diapers fight, delay fires ft RIC MANNING f-- -T 'I've seen a lot of new products. This is the only one that gives the fire chief a quantum leap to put lasting protection on a burning Bill Kramer, professor of fire science, University of Cincinnati You probably already know how to ride a bike or use a pair of skates. Maybe you've even been on a skate-, beard once or twice. Here's some advice: Try the videogame version first. Pick up "3XTREME" for the Sony PlayStation (about $40 from 989 Studios).

You will be doing rail slides, board grabs and 360-degree turns without first breaking any bones or crunching any vital organs. Check the game's opening video clip to get a real feel for this sport It shows a skater jumping his board over a metal post the size of a fireplug, then colliding nose-first with the next post a few feet away. This is your face. This is cold concrete. You two will get to know each other quite well.

"3Xtreme" is the third chapter of Sony's trilogy of skate, bike and board racing games. Product manager Ed Loonam thinks it is the best The first game got rave reviews for its speed and graphics. The sequel added more fighting options kicks and straight-arm tactics designed to slow down the competition. "People liked the fighting in 2X, New on the Net Need something new to pop up on your monitor each day? The Fix Express offers a daily quote, trivia, humor and vocabulary builder. www.fixexpress.com NetWorkingMoms appeals to working mothers looking for more support and balance in their lives.

The Mom-to-Mom Solutions Club offers some home-grown advice and old-fashioned camaraderie. Or click on the photo for some inspirational messages. networkingmoms.com If the stock market these days makes your head spin, the redesigned SmartMoney.com promises to be an By KAREN TESTA Tlie Associated Press JUPITER, Fla. A soggy, stinking baby diaper is helping save everything from homes to utility poles from wildfires. A fire-resistant gel developed by a firefighter who noticed a disposable diaper was the only thing that survived uncharred in a house fire is being touted by experts and businesses as the greatest invention in firefighting since the hose and pump.

Barricade gel is made from the same super-absorbent polymers found in baby diapers. They act as tiny, mega-absorbent sponges that can hold off flames for up to 30 hours and even put out a fire, says John Bartlett, founder of Barricade International and a Palm Beach County firefighter. And he's not just blowing smoke. Already the gel is being used by the Los Angeles fire department, the U.S. military and Florida Power Light one of the nation's largest utilities.

The gel which looks like shaving cream and can be applied with a hose was credited with saving several homes during last year's blazes in Flagler County and recent wildfires in Port St. Lucie. "It's impressive stuff," says Bill Kramer, a professor of fire science at the University of Cincinnati and fire chief of Deerfield Township, Ohio. "I've seen a lot of new he adds, launching into a litany of but they said we lost the speed element," says Loonam. "This one has the speed from the first game and the fighting from the second." "3Xtreme" boasts improved graphics.

Programmers used polygons rather than sprites to create the game's 13 characters. Like the players in the new generation of basketball and football games, the skaters and bikers look more realistic and fully drawn. Once you've selected a character, you can choose to race on BMX bikes, in-line skates or skateboards. Pick a freestyle track to learn the button combinations and refine your moves. The game has more than 270 tricks, compared to 16 in the last versioa online compass.

Lots of financial decision-making tools in a more user-friendly format. www.smartmoney.com Bruce Springsteen fans can sample sound clips from his latest "Tracks," build a fantasy concert or check out multimedia interviews at this great virtual shrine. Includes a timeline going back to the early days. www.nj.comspringsteen Wireless Dimension lets you research and compare available wireless phones and service plans in the top 50 U.S. metropolitan areas.

The free site pledges to be impartial. backpack that allows firefighters to carry the gel with them. The company is cultivating corporate and government customers and hopes to market to homeowners and the industry. Earlier this month, Barricade was credited with saving homes in Port St Lucie. FPL publicly praised the invention, saying it saved about 100 utility poles.

Then the phones began to ring. Strangers pulled into the Bartletts' driveway looking for gel. They sold 500 one-gallon jugs at $35 each in the past 10 days, Bill Bartlett said Monday. Patrick Dennison of FPL says the utility has bought hundreds of gallons. "You can put it on metal, you can put it on wood, you can put it on grass around a transformer," Dennison says.

"It's a proven product for us, and I think we're going to do real well with it." Bartlett is still with the Fire Department. The county is now considering using his invention. Court to decide scope of disability law Announcing Our Reopening Once you're in competition, you can earn points for each trick and points let you move up to better equipment. The bikes, skates and boards are modeled after real gear from manufacturers such as Trek, K2, GT, Turn Yeto and Santa Cruz. "We had the companies send us the gear and rate them from bottom to top," says Loonam.

And you don't get the good stuff until you earn it. Get your grinds and grabs down and you're off to the competition. Try one of five extended downhill courses, including a coastal highway, a city park, a subway, an island road or the big concrete ditch they call the Los Angeles River. This may be the only way youll run a course like that and live to talk about it Write to Ric Manning at The Courier-Journal, 525 W. Broadway, P.O.

Box 740031, Louisville, Ky. 40201-7431 or send e-mail on CompuServe, 72715210; on Prodigy, VSJM92A; or on the Internet, ricman (a iglouxom. The Cybtech Web page is wwwJglouxomlgizweb. www.wirelessdunension.com Compiled from Gannett News Service. -TT "Tl'T 3 TENET the Ithaca Computer Factory Factory-direct Sales, Service Rentals New Equipment Old-Fashioned Value at 306 Auburn Street Come in for a visit, or call 273-3670.

ATTENTION PC BUYERS! COMPAQ COMPUTERS FACTORY DIRECT BELOW MAIL ORDER 800-825-2664 191 South Main Street Cortland, NY 13045 fM7-7itf 607-753-751 7 Internet Accessl Clarity Connect is Ithaca's Premier Internet Service. 1 15.30month for one year subscriptions) No setup fees! 5MB web space, e-mail, telnet and morel Call 257-8268 to sign up today. 7 Enjoy an Evening of Elegance, Romance Cool Jazz the Carriage House Jazz Club Restaurant Friday, April 30th Bob Keefe Margaret Wakely-Harris (jazz guitar vocal) Saturday, May 1st Steve Brown (jazz guitar) 1999 season heralds a new menu crafted by Chef Ken Atlas and a newly expanded, world-class wine list featuring both New World wines Please call 533-7905 for reservations or details 813 Auburn Road, Route 34 North By MAGGIE JACKSON The Associated Press Vaughn Murphy controls his high blood pressure with medication. When UPS fired him as a mechanic and driver, saying his condition made him unfit to drive, he sued under the law protecting the disabled. But is he really disabled? This week, the Supreme Court considers whether Murphy, and workers in two similar cases, are protected by law from discrimination even if they have corrected their conditions with, say, medicine or eyeglasses.

The court's eventual rulings will define who is protected under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act: just the severely disabled, or millions more with contact lenses, diabetes or hearing aids. Employers and advocates for the disabled alike are closely watching the cases, which will be argued before the court starting today. "The importance of this case and the other two is that they will determine how open the front door to the ADA will be," said Kirk Lowry, a Topeka, Kan, lawyer representing Murphy. Lower courts have come down on both sides of the issue, giving the Supreme Court an impetus to step in and clarify the scope of the civil rights law banning discrimination against the disabled. "Both employers and employees need to know what the correct rule of foams and other items.

"This is the only one that gives the fire chief a quantum leap to put lasting protection on a burning structure." The gel can be washed off after the fire threat is gone. And it all began with a diaper. Bartlett, 45, says he was rummaging through charred trash from a house fire when he happened on something slimy and white. It was the diaper, the only thing that hadn't burned in a huge pile of garbage. A year later, he talked to a chemist and began experimenting.

He soon realized a powder wouldn't stick like a gel or a foam. He set up shop with his father, Bill, himself a retired firefighter, and fellow firefighter Bruce Hill. They worked in a cramped garage without air conditioning. After five years, countless planks of plywood burned in the backyard and 60 formulations, they believe theyVe got it The company has developed a $189 home protection kit that includes an attachment for garden hoses. There is also a "Ghost- law is," said Aaron Hughes, lawyer for Karen Sutton and Kimberly Hinton, severely nearsighted twin sisters who sued United Airlines for rejecting them from jobs as pilots.

Their case comes before the court Wednesday. The third case involves Hallie Kirkingburg, who has poor vision in one eye. He sued Albertson's grocery stores after they fired him from a truck driving job. Employers have fared well in ADA court battles. They have won 92 percent of the 700 ADA cases resolved in court from 1992 to 1997, according to a study by the American Bar Association.

But now employers fear that victories by the workers in the Supreme Court cases could lead to a flood of new lawsuits. "It will allow a much larger population to claim rights under the ADA," said Quentin Riegel, deputy general counsel for the National Association of Manufacturers, which has filed a brief with the court siding with United Parcel Service. The numbers of people protected by the ADA would skyrocket. Take one example: Nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population or about 152 million people are nearsighted enough to need glasses.

Employers scoff at the idea that a person whose impairment is corrected day-to-day can sue for discrimination under the ADA, which defines a disability as an impairment that substantially limits a major life activity. on computers using Windows 95 and Windows 98 on Monday. Another version, less common, strikes computers on the 26th day of any month. At Cornell University, many computers are Macintosh machines or use other operating systems that aren't affected, and Cornell Information Technologies has many checks and forms of anti-virus software to guard the network, spokeswoman Linda Grace-Kobas said. As of Monday evening, she said she wasn't aware of any affected computers.

Unlike the recent "Melissa" scare, which automatically propagated via e-mail but did no direct damage, the Chernobyl virus didn't spread as quickly because it required a person to launch an infected program file to contaminate a computer. Jk. Super Duty A F-SerlesWork Trucks Available Nowl -J Ithaca 272-8000 Anticipated computer virus flops, infects few computers UPS lawyer William Kilberg argues that by the ADA's definition, Murphy is "not entitled to the advantages that the statute reserves for people who are disabled." UPS says Murphy was fired in 1994 because his blood pressure exceeded federal regulations for drivers. But advocates for the disabled along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission argue that if someone is fired or rejected from a job because of their impairment, that is discrimination. A Tt AMI EVENT TO FIGHT CANCER loin the fight gainst cancer.

Tompkins County will gather July 16 -17 for the Relay for life to support the Tompkins County unit of the American Cancer Society. Relay for Life is not just a fund raiser. It's a unique opportunity to participate in the fight against cancer. Planning Daily Tuesday, May 4 5:30 p.m. Kendal at Ithaca 2230 N.

Triphammer Road, (North Parking Lot) RSVP by Friday, April 30 to Nadine Baker at 1-800-725-3181 or email: nbakerlcancer.org Please come and bring a friend! Refreshments served. Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca The Ithaca JOURNAL UHSTfm WHCU879 TIME WARNER CABLE (( vv If TOW law COUWTY From Wire and Journal Staff Reports NEW YORK The computer virus known as Chernobyl seemed to be affecting few computers Monday, allaying fears that the computer bug would sweep the world as another virus did several weeks ago. By midday Monday, the 13th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, only four sites with 30 individual computers had been infected, the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh reported. "It's clearly not comparable to what we saw with Melissa," said CERTs Bill Pollak, referring to the recent computer virus. The most common version of the Chernobyl virus, also known as "CIH," was programmed to activate Before you buy or lease your company's next vehicle, contact Pat Arnold, our commercial account specialist, for the BEST POSSIBLE PRICE ANYWHERE! When you're managing your employees' healthcare needs, wouldn't it be nice to work with a company that really cares and has a willingness to listen.

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