Techwatch

By Tam Gray, Anita Hamilton, Janice Horowitz, Nadya Labi, Michael Lemonick, Michele Orecklin, Joshua Quittner, Noah Robischon and Alain Sanders

WAR IS SELL

Who's winning the video-game war between Sony's Playstation and the Nintendo64? Depends on whom you ask. Sony says it's sold more units this year, but Nintendo disputes the figures. Sony has sold more since the Playstation was introduced--6.4 million to Nintendo's 4 million--but it came out a year earlier. The Nintendo64 is more powerful, but has only 43 games, in contrast to hundreds for the Playstation. But both sides agree the industry will smash its sales record of $4.7 billion set in 1994. Who says war is hell?

JUST KIDDING

Computer consultant Michael Murdock was all set to show up at his new job this week as president of Apple Computer. Only trouble was, he didn't have the job. You can't entirely blame him for being confused: according to the San Francisco Chronicle, he had E-mail from Apple CEO Steve Jobs and board member Larry Ellison telling him he was hired. The E-mail was real--but the job offer was totally tongue in cheek. Seems Jobs was fed up with Murdock's persistent inquiries about the position and decided to handle it with humor. Get it?

DANCING THE BYTE AWAY

When Mikhail Baryshnikov premieres his newest work this month in New York City, he'll be dancing to the beat of his own heart. A device modified by artist Christopher Janney will capture electrical impulses passing between Baryshnikov's head, heart and feet and use them to regulate musical accompaniment, making the dancer's body the conductor. "My work is like a visual jazz," says Janney. Amplifying nature's rhythms is Janney's specialty. He built what may be the largest piece of interactive public art ever--a 180-ft.-high mosaic of colored glass--in the Miami airport. What's interactive about it? The mosaic reacts to human contact, emitting sounds of the Everglades. Janney's "performance architecture" has also been played in the New York City and Paris subways, where passengers trigger infrared sensors to set off synthesized bells, flutes and bird whistles. His latest work is more passive than interactive: he's designing a Hawaiian home that is also a sundial.

CAR TECH

AUTO-LOCK Now that every teenager has one, Motorola is looking into a new market for its pagers: cars. Its CreataLink Control Module ($100 plus installation) lets owners remotely lock their cars, disable the engine and flash the headlights to deter thieves.

HACKING OFF

BREAKING AND ENTERING Computer hackers caused no disasters in 1997, but that doesn't mean they were idle. According to hacked.net a Website that tracks such things, 326 sites were broken into from March through December. The major new trend: political hacks by activists against government sites.

BUG OFF

JUST IN CASE Most insurers are anticipating the "millennium bug" by adding fine print to exclude damage caused by computer clocks setting themselves back a century on Jan. 1, 2000. J & H Marsh & McLennan is embracing it with 2000 Secure: the policy offers $200 million in coverage to companies facing millennial calendar meltdown.