Your Technology

By M.M. Buechner and Anita Hamilton

THE NEW PARKING METER

If you tend to drive your car too far into the garage--say, into the bikes or the washing machine--or not far enough to clear the door, there's help in sight. Park Zone from Exeter Technologies in New York City is a $100 ultrasonic motion sensor that mounts on the garage wall. It uses green, yellow and red lights to guide drivers as surely and smoothly as if they were docking a passenger jet.

BOOKS BACK IN PRINT

Digital printing systems are breathing new life into out-of-print books. Lightning Print Inc. of LaVergne, Tenn., makes inexpensive ($15-$25), quickie paperback versions of older books, allowing bibliophiles to discover forgotten works from Phillip K. Dick, Doris Lessing and others. Only 150 titles are available to date, but the company hopes to offer 10,000 by year's end. The catch: Lightning Print works directly with publishers and prints only books ordered by them. To buy a Lightning Print book, customers must check with a bookstore or online seller to see what's in stock.

NOW YOU'VE GOT VERSE

About a billion of those magnetic word tiles already decorate refrigerators and file cabinets. This week the makers of Magnetic Poetry kits leap onto your PC. A $30 ElectroMagnetic Poetry CD-ROM sends word chips skimming the background of your choice (our favorite: the Fruit Loops). Just click and drag the words you want onto a palette, and voila.

--M.M. Buechner and Anita Hamilton