See the Netscape 2.0 Enhanced cyber art show at , including videos and animations, VR movies, vector-based images, pixel manipulation, and 3-D images. [, net-hap, 10/25/95.]

The Bones is a color slide show of cartoon after-life characters in real-life situations, linked with a RealAudio sound track. Requires Netscape. . [, net-hap, 12/19/95.]

For business, travel, or cultural information about Asia, follow Jim Turley's tour from XAI Staff Presentations, . Contact for info on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean language kits from Apple, and get the RealAudio player from . If you don't have them, you can still appreciate many of the graphics. Ming's Restaurant (Palo Alto), for instance, has its menu in English and Chinese at . [Charlie Pfefferkorn.] (My daughter Kelsey and I helped proofread the English side of Ming's menu last year. I hope we did a good job.)

Hong Kong world news in Cantonese (via RealAudio) is , from Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). (You can also get Chinese pop music.) The "Yahoo of Asia" is , from UOregon's Council of East Asian Libraries (CEAL). It lists 30 categories for mainland China, including "Internet." If you really want to get into Asian sites, though, see the Asian character sets, text processing, and software tools on Ken Lunde's home page, . [Charlie Pfefferkorn , Software Forum, 10/95. Bill Park.] (Software Forum is a professional organization of about 1,000 Silicon Valley software entrepreneurs. Charlie Pfefferkorn is chairman of its International Software SIG.)

For small, crude video with sound, check out VDOLive at . [Internet-on-a-Disk, 12/95.]

ABC's World News Now is the first regularly scheduled newscast on the Internet, 2AM to 4AM ET starting 11/23/95. It uses Cornell's CU-SeeMe with commercial enhancements by White Pine Software, , (800) 800-7759. 20 frames/sec at best; 10 with a 28.8kbps modem; and at 14.4kbps you can't get sound and video simultaneously. Source sites are gsh.org in the US and 158.36.33.3 in Europe. [Victor Dorff , Internet-on-a-Disk, 1/17/96.] (Dorff may have started color broadcast this month.)

Nettoob is a live video feed from NetWeb Interface TV. Download software from the Aquila Virtual WWW BBS, . [WEBster, 1/23/96.]

VideoVu is color Internet videoconferencing software for PCs, including voice transmission. Free demo software at . [, net-hap, 1/18/96.]

"Other Realms: Meridian 59" is a 3D graphical MUD. "Talk with other players, explore the countryside, slay monsters, find treasure, learn skills, solve puzzles, and take part in political intrigue..." via animated 3D avatars communicating via text, gestures, facial expressions, and swords. The alpha client program can be downloaded from or . [Michael Sellers , comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.announce, 1/5/96.]

Bandwidth is still a problem, but you can tour the beginnings of Cybertown, a virtual-reality city at 3-D Web world. You can even add your own apartment. Download the viewer from . [PC Magazine, 1/9/96, p. 31. Flash Information, 11/12/95.]

TV Guide critic Jeff Jarvis suggests that the new aliens-encounter-humanoid-form sitcom, 3rd Rock From the Sun, would work best as 30-second shows interspersed among commercials. (Sort of like Sesame Street, or newspaper/magazine articles, or the old amateur hour shows with Arthur Godfrey, Ted Mack, and Ed Sullivan. Or the late-night programs selling music videos.) I think he's onto something -- and it could destroy life as we know it. Since the TV industry won't change, Internet video broadcasts may be the venue for this new narcotic. [1/20/96, p. 12.]

"Just a little less pathetic than the other guys." -- AOL's president (joking). [Broadcasting & Cable, 12/4/95, p. 83. EDUPAGE.]

-- Ken