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Focuses on denial-of-service (DOS) attacks by computer hackers in early 2000 that were routed through computers at Stanford University and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Investigation by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) into the DOS attack on Web sites such as Amazon.com and eBay; How the vandals prepared for the attack; Profile of the perpetrator by the hacker-watch website, AntiOnline.com. INSET: The World's Most Hunted Hacker, by Kevin Mitnick.

Profiles Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs. His life and career; Various business enterprises in which he has been involved; His success at Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios; Release of a new iMac by Apple; Scheduled release of motion picture `Toy Story 2'. INSET: Meet the New Macintosh, by Joshua Quittner.

Reports that Americans are increasingly engaging in risky behavior in the late 1990s. Involvement in extreme sports in the United States; Number of people changing jobs; Those that leave secure positions to start Internet companies; Quit rate, day trading and the way people spend money; How US culture is built around risk taking; Profiles of risk takers. INSETS: For Our Ancestors, Taking Risks Was a Good Bet;We Dare You to Take This Quiz.

Reports on the shooting rampage of Buford O. (Neal) Furrow at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles, California, as of August 23, 1999. Details; Wounding of five people, which included three children; Charges that he faces, including federal charges for killing an on duty federal employee, Joseph Ileto; Biographical and personality information; Involvement with the Aryan Nations, an organization of white supremacists; Comments from family friend and former classmate Loni Merrill. INSETS: Fueling Hate;The Journey of a Gun.

Discusses violence in video games, and its possible effects on children in the United States. Profitability of the electronic games industry; Benefits and drawbacks of the games; Concerns about desensitizing children to violence; Views of Doug Lowenstein of the Interactive Digital Software Association; Opinion of David Grossman, professor at West Point; Who is responsible for children in a society; Targets of violence in video games. INSETS: Learning to Love Zelda, by Claudia Wallis;I Beg to Differ, by Michelle Slatalla.

Discusses the role of parents in monitoring the use of the Internet by their children in the United States. Influence of the Internet in US culture; Role of the government; Privacy issues; Advice for parents who monitor; Use of filters; Importance of parental involvement. INSETS: Pokemon: The Cutest Obsession, by Michele Orecklin et al;Cyberguide, by Chris Taylor.

Focuses on the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. by the United States Dept. of Justice as of June 1, 1998. The belief of Justice Dept. chief Joel Klein that the ways Microsoft uses its Windows monopoly to dominate other markets violate antitrust law; The filing of separate suits by the Dept. of Justice and several states, as well as requests for preliminary injunctions; Details leading up to the lawsuit; The remedies proposed by the Dept. of Justice. INSETS: Gunning for Gates;Microsoft's trophies;So who was Sherman?.

Reports on the claim by the US Justice Department's antirust division that Microsoft Corp. violated the terms of a 1995 agreement that bars the company from using its operating-system dominance to strong-arm computer makers such as Compaq Computer Corp. and Micron Technology into installing additional Microsoft software on their machines. The questioning of Microsoft's requirement that its hardware partners use its Web browser, Internet Explorer, onto the desktop of every computer they make.

Considers how the competition between Apple Computer and Microsoft ended when Microsoft decided to bail out Apple, financially. The reaction of Apple followers to the deal; The rise in Apple's stock price in relation to the deal; Timeline showing Apple Computer's stock price from 1980 to 1997; The effort of Bill Gates in helping Microsoft dominate the Internet; The speculation as to whether Apple can survive through its deal with Microsoft.

Reports on the ongoing United States Department of Justice investigation of Microsoft President Bill Gates. Efforts of Gates to avoid being prosecuted for charges of anti-trust practices; Reasons why talks fell through. INSETS: Exclusive interview with Bill Gates, by Walter Isaacson.;What led to the impasse....

Reports on the crash of Alaska Airlines' Flight 261 on January 31, 2000. Description of the stabilizer problem on the MD-83 airplane; Question of whether the crash was avoidable; Grand jury investigation of Alaska Airlines Inc. by the United States Federal Aviation Administration into alleged falsification of maintenance records; Recovery of material from the crash site in the Pacific Ocean.

Focuses on the increasing number of women in the United States who are using the Internet. Differences in how and why women and men use the Internet; Reasons more women are using computer technology; Shopping on the Internet.

Reports that Americans are increasingly engaging in risky behavior in the late 1990s. Involvement in extreme sports in the United States; Number of people changing jobs; Those that leave secure positions to start Internet companies; Quit rate, day trading and the way people spend money; How US culture is built around risk taking; Profiles of risk takers. INSETS: For Our Ancestors, Taking Risks Was a Good Bet.;We Dare You to Take This Quiz..

Focuses on the increasing interest for the growth of high technology industries in New York City. Gatherings and network parties of cyberspace executives; Eagerness for supporting the industry by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Governor George Pataki; Description of industry trends and buyouts; Comments.

Reports on how the breakdown of talks lead to the US Department of Justice's (DOJ) launching of an antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. DOJ antitrust chief Joel Klein's assertion on Microsoft's violation; Microsoft chairman's Bill Gates' attempts to offer concessions concerning his company's Windows 98 operating system; Withdrawal of Gates' offer.

Profiles the chief executive officer of Dimension X software company, Karl Jacob, while focusing on the Venture Market West conference, held in California. Indepth look at the conference; Comments from Jacob; Discussion on the computer industry.

Focuses on the confession of Cary Stayner to four murders in Yosemite National Park. History of the Stayner family's difficulties, including the abduction of their son Steven in 1972 and his death in 1989; Details of an interview with Cary by writer JP Miller while preparing to write `I Know My First Name Is Steven,' an NBC mini-series based of Steven Stayner's kidnapping; His anger and jealousy toward his brother; Comments from relatives.

Discusses censorship on the Internet. Services and software to filter out objectionable sites; The US Supreme Court's decision that the Communications Decency Act was unconstitutional; How filtering programs work; The ideological biases of some filtering programs; The growing popularity of self-censorship.

Focuses on CAA/Intel Media Lab, which was unveiled in December 1996 by Creative Artists Agency (CAA). CAA's appeal to the United States motion picture industry in an attempt to take advantage of the popularity of personal computers (PC); Comments from CAA President Richard Lovett; CAA's rivals, International Creative Management and William Morris Agency; Other details.

Considers the launch of the first commercial cable-modem services in the United States by cable operators TCI and Time Warner. Time Warner's system, Road Warner, in Akron, Ohio; TCI's joining with @Home, a Silicon Valley start-up, launching in Fremont, California; Data-carrying capacity of consumers' cable lines; Why the cable operators are anxious to become Internet providers; How the telephone companies will likely respond to the challenge.

Relates that science-fiction literature has evolved along with the rest of United States popular culture, despite the genre's nerdy image. Changes from the 1950s to 1996, including broader authorship and readership; Moving from the publishing industry's paperback margins to the big-money mainstream; Movie tie-ins, such as `Star Trek' novels, as the most popular genre; Other subgenres including horror, fantasy, and cyberpunk; Fears for the genre's future.

Discusses possible ulterior motives for the decision of Microsoft Corp. to settle its continuing dispute with the United States federal government. The agreement of Microsoft to let computer makers remove the icon for the company's Web browser, Internet Explorer, from their machines' desktops; Whether requiring computer vendors that license Microsoft's Windows95 to license Explorer as well constitutes product-tying.

Features computers and related products and services in New York City as of fall of 1995. Includes Windows 95; ThinkPad 701C; America Online.

Informs that China has been inducing its business partners in the United States to provide it with military-related technology. The thin line between commerce and military assistance; China's boom in trade with US technology firms; Question of whether rules against technology sharing are effective.

Reports the discovery of a burned-out Pontiac Grand Prix rented by missing woman Carole Sund in Yosemite National Park. Car containing two burned bodies; Sund missing with her daughter Julie and their friend Silvina Pelosso; Victims not yet identified; No sign of a third body; Views of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Women last seen February 15, 1999; No suspects yet named.

Announces that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ordered Microsoft Corp. to stop forcing personal computer (PC) makers to include its Explorer Web browser on Windows 95 machines. Results from a study of the company's business practices as they relate to federal antitrust law by Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig.

Discusses the response of Microsoft executives to the US Justice Department's contempt action, withstanding two days of populist attack from Ralph Nader and girding for assaults by both the House and Senate judiciary committees as of November 24, 1997. Microsoft's long-term problem; How Microsoft has regarded the Federal Government in the past.

Discusses the summer 1997 beef recall in the United States, the largest in history. The outbreak of Escherichia coli in Colorado due to hamburger patties prepared at the Columbus, Nebraska Hudson Foods meat-processing plant; Concerns over the government's attempts to ensure food safety.

Reports on the growing trend in the United States toward home-designed, prevention-oriented vitamin and drug regimes. Explanation for this from Earl Mindell, registered pharmacist and author of `Secret Remedies'; Sources for the information; How the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 enabled the process of do-it-yourself nutriceuticals; Comments from John Troup of General Nutrition Centers, the largest retail supplement chain store in the United States.

Looks at the decision by the Federal Communications Commission in 1997 to give broadcasters free channels on which to broadcast digital versions of their current programs. Discussion of high-definition television (HDTV); Benefits of HDTV; What HDTV might mean to subscribers to cable and direct-broadcast satellite; Thoughts about the costs and availability of HDTV; Comparison of the resolution between analog and digital HDTV.

Discusses the use of scanning equipment to eavesdrop on various wireless devices. The popularity of wireless communications leading to an increase in scanners; The question of whether activities involving the use of scanners are legal or ethical; Provisions of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act and other applicable statutes; The ease of modifying scanners; The role of scanners in a case involving Newt Gingrich.

Reports that the liquor company Seagram's has broken a self-imposed ban on television advertising, adopted in 1948. The response of Democratic Congressman Joseph Kennedy II of Massachusetts, whose family fortune is derived from liquor profits; Seagram's operating earnings in 1995 from sales of spirits and wine; Crown Royal campaign; Why Seagram's executive vice president of marketing feels that the company is entitled to equal access to the media.

Discusses the $22 billion merger in April 1996 of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX and the new company being called Bell Atlantic. Their revenues estimated at $27 billion, second only to AT&T; Raymond Smith and Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive officers of the respective companies.

Discusses how Internet users can protect their online user profile. What a profile is and how to find it; Profiles being swapped by Web sites; Ability of others to monitor a user's online activity; Pending legislation regarding the use of the Internet by children; Skepticism about a voluntary system of Internet privacy regulation; How to protect one's privacy. INSETS: `Bet on Bill' Gambling Site;Tamagotchi for Your Wrist;Call-Waiting for Netheads.

Discusses how appeals court has agreed to hear arguments as to why Microsoft feels that special master Lawrence Lessig is too biased to review the federal antitrust case against the software giant. The halting Lessig's investigation.

Focuses on the server struggle between personal computer (PC) networks in the interactive television (ITV) business in the United States. Implications of the distributed processing technology; Debate concerning centralized versus distributed network; Effects on multimedia and ITV industries; Critical challenge of consumer-level reliability.

Discusses the effects of technological innovations in information gathering and distribution on the American society. Control given to consumers; Prediction of chaos created by continued diversity in mass media; Changes on traditional cultural assumptions and upbringing.

Profiles major interactive multimedia creators. Pop Rocket founder Joe Sparks; Peter Barrett and Mark Mullen of game development company Rocket Science; Production team of motion picture `Black Diamond'; Da Vinci Time & Space's team of writers and programmers; Cyberlab 7.

Discusses the impact of technological advancements to consumer goods marketing and brandbuilding. Digital informational transactions; On-line services; Multimedia technology; CD-ROMs; Internet; High-definition television (HDTV); Effects to the marketer.

Reports on the growing number of companies offering auditing services for information sites on the World Wide Web system. I/PRO's Web-site measurement service; Benefits of auditing Web sites for advertisers; NetCount's plan to release tracking and auditing product on October 31, 1995.

Examines the impact of interactive digital technology on the cable television industry. Description of technology; Display of technology's capability at National Cable Television Association 1995 convention in Dallas, Texas; Functions of cable modems.

Focuses on the Baby Stargazer interactive television (ITV) service of Bell Atlantic. Comparison with Full Service Network ITV service of Time Warner; ITV alliance called Media Company.

Focuses on the proliferation of set-top machines for interactive television. Analog set-tops; Customizable electronic program guides; Set-tops and upgrades of existing machines; Companies that manufacture set-top machines; Significance of interactivity tests that are emerging across the country; Issues concerning set-top machines; Companies' use of different strategies in developing set-top machines.

Reports on the reaction of cable television professionals to government regulation of the industry. National Cable Television Association's 1994 convention in New Orleans, Louisiana; Search for financially strategic ways to take after the regulations from the Federal Communications Commission; Technological innovations in the industry.

Describes Rizzuti Marketing & Media's advertising media plan to sell Modatech Systems' contact management software `Maximizer for Windows'. Details of the advertising campaign.

Discusses several aspects concerning interactive television (TV). Review of what the interactive TV industry will offer on September 1994; Stop-Gaps, Testers and the Alternatives as three categories of the 1994 interactive crop; Challenges to providers.

Reports on the online strategies of television networks. Experimentation of interactivity by ABC; Reasons for online companies' interest to merge with networks; Online application plans for CBS' advertisers; Marketing Direct program of NBC; Advertising support for online services.

Reports on a spelling-bee held in New York City. Participants; Prize; Judges.