The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 61

'T lywwip Thursday January 8 1 998 F5 Gadgets: Try learning one device at a time Maria Bello and Noah Wyle have added a spark and some romance to this Surgically enhanced gets leverage from end the road we are going to see 12-step programs for online addicts it is becoming that big a The Reuters survey found many people including often feel over-whelmed by all the information at their disposal and worry that their children ard turning into info-junkies too The survey follows a 1996 Reuters report that found that increasing numbers of people suffer ill health due to the stress of information overload In the latest poll 46 percent of those surveyed said their children already prefer computers to their peers Weil and Rosen have seen that phenomenon as well which they call shutting out the world and socializing through this intoxicating new medium It is especially important to guard against children getting caught up in the online world Weil says Making technology kid-friendly your children Internet access is a wonderful thing but parents cannot abdi- cate their responsibility to supervise how their children use the say? Weil should know what their kids are doing online where they are going who they are speaking with And they must set rules especially about what information a child is allowed to give out over the I But how can parents know if a child is get-ting into trouble online? Rosen and Weil say parents should watch for these warning signs The child: Gets less sleep and stays online at night Wakes up at 2 am and then logs on for- several hours Stays home sick from school more ofteHl (She suggests calling home to see if the 1 phone is busy a potential sign they are oilj the Internet) "-r Talks a great deal about online friends but not about buddies at school sports or their teachers Blanks the computer screen when a pat- ent walks into the room perhaps concealing something you want the child doing: Weil suggests walking into the room every so often when children are online to see what they are doing And perhaps place the computer in a public area of the house so it is easier to monitor The bottom line? i gives us wonderful tools? says Weil consumers need to step back and ask is this doing to my But even if technology enables you to do something the key question experts say is whether you should do it Information obsession Drawing that line is getting more and more difficult for the average consumer especially when it comes to communicating and using that entrancing new medium the Internet people feel they have to be in contact all the time They compulsively check their e-mail and voice mail every 20 minutes They become addicted to the new says Weil John Krill might be described as an Information Age junkie: He subscribes to electronic mailing lists that deliver him daily and weekly news summaries he uses PointCast which dispatches news flashes to his desktop and he frequently trolls the Internet for topics that fit his interests such as digital photography But Krill says no different from subscribing to multiple newspapers and magazines You take what you need and wrap fish with the rest love to read but probably 70 percent of it I read the headline and I just delete said Krill a computer consultant who lives in San Juan Capistrano met a lot of people who are paranoid that not going to get the right Two weeks ago a Reuters survey documented the rise of what it called people addicted to information The survey of 1000 international business people said 53 percent admitted to craving information and 54 percent claimed to get a when they find what they have been seeking in an electronic search the information is endless it is tough to set says Weil used to be you would go to the library and just had four hours so the time limit decided how much was done But when the information is endless it is tough to set limits It is very stimulating to search the Web More of the brain is involved as you surf download radio clips or watch videos People are getting In June a Cincinnati woman lost custody of her three children due to neglect because she was spending up to 12 hours a day online In the Pacific Northwest a man divorced his wife last December claiming she was so hooked on the Net she forgot to take their children to the doctor These seem to be isolated cases but Weil says the problem will grow Continued from page 1 how to tape shows at a different says Weil is important for consumers who have new tech toys to realize that even though that cell phone may have hundreds of features you as a consumer may ohly need it to make calls in case of an emergency Consumers need to feel fine just using the part of the technology they Loss of boundaries Stop Before you start handing out the number for that shiny new beeper or cell phone set some ground rules for those who will be calling you all used to have boundaries that structured us the workday world was 8 to 5 and we knew when we were on and says Weil communications technologies you can go home and check voice mail e-mail log on to work or bring work home on disk Work invades the home boundary and family concerns can intrude on the The distinctions blurred years ago for Tracy Lenocker The software developer runs four computers in his home office in Orange lugs his laptop and cellular phone to client meetings and admits to toting the laptop along to his mountain cabin retreat to check e-mail And plenty of e-mail to rifie through: He averages 400 messages a day It would seem Lenocker is consumed by Information Age convenience But this is the way always been for dedicated professionals he said ago we did the same thing: We brought home documents to read and to mark up and We read the technical magazines we read at Lenocker said Only now the tools are different sometimes taking away the choice of whether you want to deal with work issues at home Weil says the way to avoid stress is to set ground rules and to know when to say no you give people your cell phone number or pager number tell them when you want to be paged Train people to your she says James Sanders of Garden Grove found a more effective way to prevent the professional side from intruding on the personal stopped carrying a pager an electronic ball and Sanders said just tried one for a while and I decided that I like being in that position of if I get notification that got a call pending now I feel guilty if I do something about ON TV ER 10 tonight onO By Brian Lowry Los Angeles Times Despite reports to the contrary Fox Television denies that its president sent Jerry Seinfeld a thank-you note after the comic announced plans to end his dominant NBC sitcom this season Flowers could just as easily have come from fellow NBC series or rather from the studio behind the show Warner Bros Television leave-taking will focus the spotlight on efforts to renew which after an exclusive monthlong negotiating period that begins in February would be free to entertain offers from other networks While NBC was already motivated to retain prime top-rated series industry sources say that with out of the picture securing rights to beomes even more vital to the No 1 network Published reports have indicated Warner Bros might seek $10 million per episode of compared to the estimated $15 million the company currently receives Sources say the asking price could actually be even higher have to be a genius to figure out that (Seinfeld) gives them more leverage because NBC needs the show said an executive at another studio the other hand NBC has a certain amount of leverage The dynamics work both The negotiations are more complicated than just the money at stake because of the intricate workings of network television gives Warner Bros clout in gaining possible concessions from NBC regarding the ordering and scheduling of other programs The studio produces and for the network plus at least two projects planned for next season: another comedy from the trio behind and a new drama from executive producer John Wells On the flip side Warner Bros still faces a delicate juggling act Beyond serving its own interests the studio must make a good-faith effort to generate full-market value for its production Some tales are not for the squeamish i Tl il 1 1 nnf OnQ £3 Til ferret and she partners including series creator Michael Crichton and Steven Amblin Television Those entities share in the negotiated network licensing fee The actors also will doubtless want to sweeten their deals just as the cast members launched bids for new contracts in 1996 after hearing about the $4 million an episode that show was expected to earn in syndication Whatever the final price the buyer may have to accept as loss that is a franchise such as NFL football that by itself costs too much to be profitable but helps a network in other ways In case those ancillary benefits are substantial Not only does the series contribute mightily to prime-time dominance but the show also boosts ratings for late local news after the program and for Tonight Show With Jay which generally does its biggest ratings of the week on Thursdays For CBS then acquiring might not only alter the primetime balance of power but also rattle late night where David program consistently trails Leno Historically because change entails risk hit series seldom jump networks although that prevented attempts to nab them Most recently ABC inquired about acquiring which NBC retained at a substantial raise for its production com- pany Paramount Network Television Few believe in part because of the ripple effect it would have on the television business that NBC will lose Though the series is owned by Time Warner whose co-chairman Ted Turner made a bid last year to bring to his cable networks insiders believe cooler heads will prevail The question now is to find a resolution that can satisfy all the interested parties without upsetting the economic structure of network television THEATER REVIEW Old Man in a Baseball Cap Continues through Sunday at 6:30 pm Thursday 8 pm Friday 5 and 9 pm Saturday and 2 pm Sunday at the Street Theatre 2711 St Running time: 70 minutes 443-5300 like a speaks only broken English the two embark on a journey across the country to get Rochlin into friendly territory They walk by night and sleep by day to avoid German soldiers 1 Along the way they drink from a river poisoned with mustard gas-The incident leaves them ill and smeared in their own vomit and excrement barely able to continue when Marushka makes her move saying think I no beautiful Why we make Rochlin copes with the absurdity of a courtship on the and the equally bizarre events that follow with the same sense of integrity forthrightness and sanity that make his one-man show so refreshing Devoid of the whining and ego-stroking that clog so many £olo forays this piece delivers exactly what it promises a rare view into the life of one everyday man who was plunged into momentous times and lived to tell about it- to blow into oblivion If there is no railroad there is no munitions depot and therefore the town is not a real military target First the commander demands that a non-Jewish officer confirm the facts Then he turns a blind eye to the truth and orders his crew to decimate the town anyway just blew the hell out of says Rochlin who cannot reconcile his actions with his beliefs He returns to base and pours out his fears to his buddy who responds with the obedient mantra of their era it happen And if you pretend then deny deny Acting like a man in those days meant hiding your pain behind a stiff drink and a foul mouth Later Rochlin runs out of places to hide After parachuting out of a plane over Yugoslavia a wounded Rochlin is befriended by a Serbian partisan named Ma-rushka Though he says she has a face jntinued from page FI If-deprecation and a flair for iwdy talk the soft-spoken Roch-l recalls his youth He was almost 20 and a college udent in Arizona when he was ruck by an overwhelmingly pa-iotic urge to enlist It was he adits with a twinkle in his eye a ere two weeks before finals "Tuch easy humor fills every Scinch of his reminiscences casting forgiveness over en the prejudice he encountered i the Air Force Informed that all swish people were with Rochlin was made a avigator As one anti-Semitic aining officer said navigator i just a flying naivete about the orld its evils and its adventures tended to women Before helping doctor with an emergency Cae-arean birth he had never seen a aked woman But that night in a mall Italian village he saw more aan he cared to His graphic recol-ction of the bloody surgical affair i not for the squeamish As the monologue continues the sights and sounds of carnage and senselessness grow more grotesque That such raunchy details about the barbarity of war are coming from a gentle old man in a black baseball cap creates an unsettling counterpoint The morning after Rochlin helps bring a baby into the world he tells us he partakes in the destruction of thousands On one bombing mission narrow-minded squadron commander grows furious when his navigators (all Jewish) tell him there is no railroad in the tiny German hamlet they are about Sauter: Station made progress Rivers dons best-accessorized title Focus on the Positive 916 564-FACE 3 2 2 3 Patrick McMenamin MD Lou Gallia MD DPS FACS fcr? When asked how she happened to win the award she remarked was between me and Janet There is more The list of best accessorized celebrities includes well about everyone who has worn jewelry in public recently It includes Y-necklace-lady Katie Couric Fran Drescher Nicole Kidman Susan Lucci designer Paloma Picasso Sharon Stone Elizabeth Taylor New York socialite Blaine Trump Tina Turner Barbara Walters who is seldom without her brooch and Ru Paul brought in needed revenue allowed us to go from the sponsorship boards to some tasteful commercials that interrupt said Elmets generated additional revenue at a time when it was clear financial support was waning from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and from those who felt they have the Channel 6 was without a president and general manager for eight months before Sauter was hired were lucky to get him to come to said Elmets has been sort of a renaissance for KVIE to have somebody of stature The challenge will be to find somebody to carry on his legacy and leadership Those are big shoes to Knight-Ridder Newspapers heard of the Dressed It has been around since the new is the Accessorized List" and the 1997 award winner is a little drum rumble please our lady of the QVC jewelry sales Joan Rivers She took the honor at a recent gala in New York City sponsored not surprisingly by the New York-based Accessories Council an industry group She has had her own successful jewelry line marketed through the home shopping network since 1990 (Industry estimates put total sales since launch at $100 million) Council president Joel Pinsky called Rivers authority for women not only for style but for savvy Pacjic CosmncSTns Esample of chi taptou www renewyoucom Continued from page FI here and help them pick a new general Doug Elmets chairman of the board at Channel 6 and head of the search committee said finding a replacement of stature will be difficult Before coming to Channel 6 Sauter had been head of CBS News Fox News and CBS Sports we can appreciate his desire to be with his wife but it is clearly a loss for KVIE and the said Elmets our challenge is to find somebody to build on what hes On watch Channel 6 finally emerged from years of operating at a loss and posted a slight profit in the most recent fiscal year Channel 6 also launched several staff-produced programs and specials Focusing on local and statewide topics such as Valley and The station was also able to lease the top floor of its sprawling costly building to Golden Gate University KVIE also increased its membership 20 percent during jhe past two years and ushered in brief commercials on public television that Are you taking or considering hormonal replacement therapy due to postmenopausal symptoms? 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