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A L S O__T O D A Y Are we having high-tech fun yet? By Janelle Brown With group activities and a gourmet menu, Entros joins the pack of game palaces for grown-ups - - - - - - - - - - T A B L E__T A L K What sucks about cyberspace? Counter the abundance of Internet hype with some whining and complaining in the Digital Culture area of Table Talk - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE 21ST LOG ARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - -

S.F. classic "Lensman" moves to the desktop Long before Luke Skywalker was a gleam in George Lucas' eyes -- long before Kirk and Spock ever stepped inside a transporter room -- there was Lensman Kimball Kinnison, the hero of E.E. "Doc" Smith's classic "Lensman" series. Smith's gadget-filled galactic sagas defined the genre of "space opera" for generations of young science-fiction readers. Though Smith's books are sporadically available in paperback, they're the kind of thing you can't count on finding on a store shelf, even at a specialty shop or superstore (though you can find them at online shops like Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com). Now online book publisher 1stbooks is making Smith's series available in downloadable, all-electronic form -- beginning with "Triplanetary," the 1934 intro to the "Lensman" series, for $6.95. Can book lovers do without the feel of paper and the crack of a binding? Can Internet distribution lead to a revival in the availability of beloved obscurities? 1stbooks is one place to look for the answer. -- Scott Rosenberg SALON | Dec. 23, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - Net stocks: Who said "irrational"? Two years ago, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan chided the stock market for its "irrational exuberance." Everyone could see that the markets, fired up by spiraling Internet stock prices, were into bubble territory back then. Well, if that was irrational exuberance, we must be well into the land of demented mania by now. Monday's markets paid no heed to the first impeachment of an elected U.S. president. Perhaps, as Wired News suggested, they were fired up by a bullish profile of Net-stock analyst Mary Meeker in Barron's. Whatever the cause, Wall Street went nuts, capping the rally of recent weeks by sending Net stocks to the moon. Yahoo gained 35 points to close at 247; its market valuation is now $24.4 billion. Amazon gained 32 points to close at 319; it's now worth $16.8 billion on paper. EBay gained 44 points to close at 296; it's now theoretically worth $11.9 billion. Of course, these stratospheric numbers may reflect how little stock in these hot companies is actually available to the trading public -- eBay, for instance, has only 3.5 million shares publicly traded, less than 10 percent of the total shares (37.2 million) outstanding. There's a lot of money out there, fired up by a lot of media hype, chasing a limited number of shares. It's true that, if these companies grow up to be the cornerstones of the new digital economy, then they're still a steal. That prospect was framed yesterday by TheStreet.com founder and columnist James Cramer: "What if it turns out that the fundamentals are on fire? What if it turns out that the Net has energized everything and made it so that there are more tech purchases, both corporate and individual, than anybody expected? What if it turns out that the reason tech is going up is because the earnings are going to explode?" A fair question. Here's another: What if the law of gravity hasn't been suspended, and what goes up must still come down? -- Scott Rosenberg SALON | Dec. 22, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - If Big Brother is watching you, watch him back You are being watched -- and no one knows this better than Steve Mann, the poster child for wearable computing, who views the world through a head-mounted video camera. But although Mann is all for personal videotaping, he is concerned about the surveillance cameras that surreptitiously observe Americans everywhere they go, from shopping malls to city sidewalks. In response, Mann and a group of artists and scientists have designated Dec. 24 as ShootBack Day (or "National Accountability Day"). This "international coalition" is encouraging citizens to take to their shopping malls with cameras and video cameras of their own and go on a shooting spree -- taking pictures of surveillance equipment that is taking pictures of them in "totalitarian establishments." What, exactly, is a totalitarian establishment? As the event's press release explains, "Examples of totalitarian establishments are those in which we are placed under extensive video surveillance, yet we are prohibited from taking pictures ourselves. The goal of National Accountability Day is to challenge this one-sided aspect of Totalitarian Surveillance." Participants are warned to expect to have their cameras confiscated by angry security guards. So while there's no telling whether the protest will be effective, at least participants will know what to ask for for Christmas. -- Janelle Brown SALON | Dec. 21, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - L A S T _ W E E K .|. Write free software -- and write it off your tax bill?