Walk into Jim Gimzewski´s UCLA laboratory, and the first thing you´ll notice is the music thumping out of the speakers. It´s a New Age?y, rustling kind of melody punctuated by a rhythmic drumbeat. You can´t quite dance to it, but it has its own hypnotic allure. The musician?

Playing football videogames
is most fun when you’re pitted against your friends. For those of you who no longer live in a frat house, though, finding an opponent whenever you get the gaming jones just isn’t practical. But now there’s ESPN NFL 2K5 ($20 for Xbox and PlayStation2; espnvideogames.com). It creates computerized versions of your friends, saddled with their identical sorry style of play, so in their absence you can practice beating up on them.

Space Saver
Make way for desktop clutter with the IBM ThinkCentre S50 Ultra Small, IBM’s smallest desktop PC ever (3.3 x 10.2 x 11 inches). It weighs just 13 pounds, yet its steel frame can support a 67.1-pound, 22-inch CRT monitor. The thriftiest configuration has a 2.8GHz Intel Celeron processor, 256MB of RAM, a 40GB hard drive and a CD-ROM drive.

Replacing your TV today is more complex than buying a new PC—and a lot more expensive. You can still get a CRT set, but typically not with the size and sharpness you deserve. The myriad digital technologies address every pixel with a precision and clarity befitting a large-screen, high-definition picture. First decide which type best suits your needs: rear projection, front projection or flat panel. Native resolution is no longer a limiting factor; now you can find the superlative 1,080-line picture in any of these technologies.

TiVo may be the best-known brand of hard-drive TV recorder around, but it’s certainly not the only one. Two other biggies warrant consideration: ReplayTV and, now, the latest incarnation of TV Guide On Screen, coming out this month. First you need to figure out how plain or fancy a personal video recorder (PVR) box you want—from a rudimentary, freestanding hard drive, all the way north to a souped-up version with an integrated DVD burner. But the biggest decision is what sort of program guide you want to live with.

In the 1970s, Americans had a love/hate relationship with diesel cars. Though more fuel-efficient than their gas cousins, the cars were noisy, underpowered, smog-belching reminders of just how badly the fuel crisis had crippled the nation. By the mid-’90s, lower gas prices all but banished them from U.S. showrooms.


Meanwhile European carmakers, spurred by diesel-friendly tax structures, kept at it. They traded sloppy mechanical fuel injection for high-pressure electronic systems that better atomize fuel.

Satellite Radio Traffic Info
Free with satellite radio: xmradio.com; sirius.com
Tech Continually updated local traffic reports
Roadworthy? Yes for both, but XM is better


It was the friday before Father’s Day weekend, and we faced a long, hot drive from New York to D.C., fighting beach-bound traffic and swarms of commuters.


But we had a secret weapon: satellite-beamed, continually

Dept.: Geek Guide
Tech: Mobile Entertainment
Cost: $100 and up


You have every right to think your car stereo is hot. After all, the dealer said it was the “upgraded” system, with speakers all over the place and a name you actually know on their grills. There’s probably even a screen in the dash.

Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has received at least 300 applications for devices designed to win the war on terrorism. “Historically, when there is a cataclysmic event, there is a surge in inventor response,” says Richard Maulsby, public affairs officer at the agency. Among the newly minted patents is Boeing’s “intruder-proof flight deck door,” which secures an airplane’s cockpit from the cabin.