Technology

Television Critic David Bianculli previews "Dream Season," a production of NFL Films that creates dream teams that compete in dream Super Bowls. Through computer generation and sophisticated editing, the producers take film from the last 20 years of televised football and extract key sequences featuring players from from top teams of their times and match them with other top opposing teams from different times. The effect is the video equivalent of the `what-if-the-'85-Raiders-played the-'87-Redskins' questions typical of radio call-in shows.

Cinematographer Stephen Burum. His latest film is Brian De Palma's "Casualties of War." This is his third film for De Palma; his first was "Body Double." He also shot "The Untouchables," which was nominated for the American Society of Cinematographers Award. Burum got his start as an assistant to Francis Ford Coppola on "Apocalypse Now." His other films include "St. Elmo's Fire," "The Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish."

Computer expert Clifford Stoll. When Stoll discovered a 75-cent accounting discrepancy in his work as systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, he thought the intruder was a student prankster. But after tracking the hacker for almost a year, Stoll discovered an international spy ring, operating out of West Germany, which sold the data it collected to the Soviets. This is the subject of his book "The Cuckoo's Egg".

Rock critic Ken Tucker review the new albums from Janet Jackson and Laurie Anderson. Ken says the two performers are seemingly miles apart...Jackson's the sister of Michael Jackson and her albums are huge urban contemporary hits, and Anderson's a product of the New York performance scene...but there is common ground. Both albums (Jackson's is called "Rhythm Nation 1814" and Anderson's is titled "Strange Angels") have unifying themes and draw heavily on the latest technology.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the annual New Music America festival just completed in New York and sponsored by the Brooklyn Academy of Music and corporate donations. Whitehead questions the value of the 10 year-old festival.

Commentator Ilene Segalove (seg-ah-loff) bucks the trend toward the compact disc, and rediscovers the joys of old LPs.

Consumer electronics expert Howard Blumenthal. He writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column called "The Hi-Tech Home," and has also written "The Electronic Home Advisor," a guide to consumer electronics products. In his books and columns, Blumenthal writes about new developments like HDTV, and gives advice on buying everything from VCR's to laptop computers.

Scientist and writer Dr. Arno Penzias (PEN-zee-us). He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1978 for his work supporting the big-bang theory of the universe. Now, as vice-president of research at AT&T he's responsible for innovation and risk-taking. Though Penzias is at the forefront of technological development, he remains aware of its human implication. His book, "Ideas and Information" is a crash course on the history of computers and communications-technology and is addressed to the general reader.

Computer word processing has changed the way writers think of their work. Linguist Geoffrey Nunberg was an early and enthusiastic convert to the new technology but now he is beginning to have second thoughts.

New Yorker writer Paul Brodeur's new book considers the health hazards and cancer risks associated with power lines and electronic devices. Later, Fresh Air host Terry Gross talks to Dr. William Farland of the EPA to get the agency's perspective on this matter.

Norman's book, called the Psychology of Everyday Life, is about the effect of poor industrial design has on our interactions with new and familiar technology. He says not enough consumers complain; without their influence, corporations will continue to produce difficult-to-use products.

Attorney and consumer advocate Carl Oppedahl has compiled a Consumer Reports Book, "The Phone Book: How to Get the Telephone Equipment and Service you want and Pay Less." He joins Fresh Air to share his tips for how to choose a phone carrier and optimize call quality.

Reporter Leonard Lee. Lee's new book, "The Day the Phones Stopped: The Computer Crisis-- The What and Why of It, and How We Can Beat It," examines how our growing dependency on computers, and the growing complexity of computer programs, have led to expensive, and sometimes deadly, computer failures. Prior to becoming a journalist, Lee was a systems engineer for IBM. ("The Day the Phones Stopped" is published by Donald I. Fine).

Writer Howard Rheingold. Rheingold's new book, "Virtual Reality," is a look at the growing promise and impact of a radical new technology. By combining computers with sophisticated equipment (such as 3-D video glasses and gloves that sense how the wearer is moving their hands), it's possible to create the illusion that one is in another world, one that may exist only inside the computer. The technology has implications for everything from space exploration to entertainment, medicine to warfare. (The book's published by Summit Books).

Journalists Katie Hafner and John Markoff Their new book "Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier" (Simon & Schuster) is about the growing importance of computer networks, and the growing importance of computer crime.

Computer programmer Richard Stallman. Stallman's a genius, he's been called "the best programmer who's ever lived", and he received one the MacArthur Foundation's so-called "Genius Awards," but he's become more widely known for his push to make computer programs freely accessible to everyone. Instead of software companies charging hundreds or thousands of dollars for programs and forbidding the purchasers from giving copies to other people, Stallman wants an unrestricted exchange of programs, and thereby the creativity that they represent.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers an alternative to the question, "Can computers think?"

Rothfeder has just written a new book called "Privacy for Sale: How Computerization Has Made Everyone's Private Life an Open Secret." Using Dan Quayle and Dan Rather as examples, Rothfeder shows how easy it is to get access to a person's personal life -- such as a their birthdate, unlisted phone number, financial status, health status, and even what prescription drugs you take and where you shop -- all through a computer.

Gonzales has a new book about his love affair with flying, called "One Zero Charlie: Adventures in Grass Roots Aviation." He grew up listening to the stories his mother told of his father's last flight in a B-17 bomber over Dusseldorf in World War II. Gonzales is a commercial pilot who competes in aerobatics flying.

Journalist David Sheff gained unprecedented access to the toy wizards at the Nintendo Corporation. His new book "Game's Over" explores the Japanese domination of the video-game market.