Techwatch

By Kathleen Adams, M.M. Buechner, Daniel Eisenberg, Tam Gray, Anita Hamilton, Glenn Kaplan, Jodie Morse, Michele Orecklin, Alain Sanders, Hiroko Tashiro, Susan Veitch

ONLINE WARRIORS SUE THE ORIGIN OF THEIR DISCONTENT

Sword-wielding virtual warriors in the medieval world of Ultima Online have become real-life plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Origin Systems, creator of the popular Internet game. Fed up with service lags and other bugs, they charge Origin knew it couldn't deliver 24-hour real-time play but advertised it anyway. Their lawyer says it's time the computer-gaming industry quit hyping its wares; he wants Origin to drop its $10 monthly fee until the problems are fixed. The company won't comment but invites players to call its help line: 512-434-4357.

WORLD WHITE WEB?

As more and more surfers flock to the Net, a new study warns that African Americans may be left behind.

Students who own a home computer Whites 73% Blacks 31.9%

Students who have ever used the Web Whites 65.8% Blacks 48.6% (weighted percentages)

Source: SCIENCE; Hoffman And Novak, Vanderbilt U.

THE NET'S GREATEST HITS

They produce some catchy tunes, but one-hit-wonder bands can be more trouble than they're worth. You end up shelling out $15 for the CD only to discover that the rest of the album isn't fit for listening. Now there's a remedy. A new crop of Websites lets discerning fans mix and match from a long list of digital cuts to make their own custom CDs. At musicmaker.com you can assemble a personal hit parade from 150,000 tracks, from rock to gospel (cost: $9.95 for the first five tracks and $1 for each additional). Edgier cductive.com offers a smaller (4,000 titles), more specialized selection with an emphasis on hip-hop and techno, while supersonicboom.com boasts 51,000 songs. Who ever said Mozart, Louis Armstrong and Puff Daddy don't mix?