The Floppies: April 2002

Besides Britney Spears, here's another reason to avoid pop music. British marketer Elulla Sounds has begun selling inflatable speakers for use with a computer or personal stereo.

Meanwhile, Big Brother is watching you watch Britney. In audience measurement research paid for by the NFL, digital video recorder maker TiVo tracked 10,000 of its subscribers during February's Super Bowl. It found viewers used TiVo's instant replay function on the commercials more than on the game. The most frequently revisited ad was the one where Britney Spears revisited old Pepsi ads.

This is just a coincidence, but if you upgrade to a Pentium 4, you'll help the cause even faster! Visitors to Intel's Web site can download a screen saver that lets their computers help identify molecules that target anthrax.

Thinking of you . . . and the wonderful idea we shared. After being sued by Tumbleweed Communications, Hallmark Cards agreed to license technology Tumbleweed had patented for sending greeting cards online.

And in arrested-development Lego news . . . Chemist Bruce Hietbrink depicts the Lord of the Rings saga, Robin Hood, Romeo and Juliet, and other classic tales using scenes created with Lego pieces, at his Web site. Separately, programmer Olaf Christ has created the first Lego brick with TCP/IP Internet protocols built in.

You'll watch the 45-second version of Pulp Fiction again and again. Trilogy Studios' Movie Mask Player software can alter the content of DVD movies played on a PC to cover up the nudity, replace the profanity, and skip the violence.

A truly pint-size computer. Researchers in the wearable computing department of England's University of Bristol have created a wristwatch PC with a built-in global positioning system that locates the four nearest pubs.

Finally, the kind of TV/computer convergence Americans want. Sony's new PEG-T615C Palm-compatible handheld can manage your phone numbers and schedule and function as a TV remote control.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.