Computer Screen

It's hard to believe that computer users will put up $30 or $40 for a program that does absolutely nothing, but After Dark, from Berkeley Systems, does nothing with such elan that the price seems almost a pittance.After Dark is a screen blanker, or more accurately a screen saver. It takes over when your PC is idle for more than a few minutes, replacing whatever appears on your monitor with a dazzling aquarium, a screenful of flying toasters, or one of dozens of other animated images.When you press a key or use your mouse, it restores your !

The Churchville Lions presented a computer, complete with JAWS software, to Tatyanna Ditzenberger. JAWS (Job Access With Speech) is a computer screen reader program for Microsoft Windows that allows blind and visually impaired users to read the screen with a text-to-speech output. Tatyanna and her teacher, Karen Karnes, demonstrate its use by making "Thank You Lions" appear on the screen.

The Churchville Lions presented a computer, complete with JAWS software, to Tatyanna Ditzenberger. JAWS (Job Access With Speech) is a computer screen reader program for Microsoft Windows that allows blind and visually impaired users to read the screen with a text-to-speech output. Tatyanna and her teacher, Karen Karnes, demonstrate its use by making "Thank You Lions" appear on the screen.

Dennis Pitta keeps getting friend requests on Facebook from hot-looking women, which is all very flattering, although it probably doesn't go over real well with his wife. The only problem is, he's not THAT Dennis Pitta. Not even close. "After I tell them I'm over 60, 5-feet-6 and 180 pounds, I never hear from them again," he says with a laugh. "They don't even bother to write back and say 'I'm sorry!'" That's because this Dennis Pitta is the genial, long-time marketing professor at the University of Baltimore and not the Dennis Pitta who's built along the lines of a stand-up freezer and plays tight end for the Ravens.

Internet moneybags and Silicon Valley kingpins may be concerned about the recent tumult on the stock market, but cat-lovers may have another worry: how to keep kitty off the computer keyboard. A software designer says he has a solution, a program that is designed to detect when a cat is walking on the keyboard. The software, called PawSense, automatically ignores anything the cat types. The software also instructs the computer to emit scary, cat-repelling sounds -- for example, the sound of a harmonica.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Until now, decorating your computer meant taping family photos or attaching magnetic gadgets to the side of the monitor. Some people, like Rosie Grazre, a California state government typist, decorate their monitors with personal memorabilia.To "perk up" her computer, Ms. Grazre has taped or attached the following to the side of her monitor: Seven pictures of her two children, five Mickey Mouse magnets, menus from three nearby restaurants and one picture of her husband.

Just when we thought we'd seen enough of "Pokemon" on the big screen, here comes a cinematic version of a similar Japanese cartoon, "Digimon: Digital Monsters." Here's some advice for parents whose kids are big fans of the popular Fox Kids Network cartoon: Stay away from this movie - if your offspring will allow it, that is. "Digimon: The Movie" logs the violent travails of a group of Japanese children who each have Digimons - sort of a cross between a pet and an invisible friend, except they often go from smiley furballs to horned creatures in nanoseconds so they can plunge large swords into the enemy's chest.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's recent firing of a New York City employee after he spied a game of solitaire on the man's computer screen was a high-profile reminder of the risks workers face when they mix work and play. Still, prohibiting online games or other personal computer activity during working hours is rare among companies, some experts said. "Those companies are still in the minority," said employment lawyer Robert Lipman of Lipman & Plesur in Jericho, N.Y. He said most of his firm's corporate clients permit employees to shop online or play games once in a while.

Looking for the public's help identifying two individuals who robbed and assaulted a convenience store cashier at gunpoint in Laurel on Friday, Prince George's County police released Wednesday a gripping surveillance tape of the encounter. (Scroll down to view the video, or click here .) The video begins about 1:07 a.m., just before a masked suspect becomes visible in the store in the 15000 block of Sweitzer Lane, suddenly leaps onto the cashier's counter and squeezes through a small window to gain access to the cashier's booth.

Garry Trudeau, award-winning "Doonesbury" cartoonist, is getting animated.Some of his most famous "Doonesbury" characters -- Zonker Harris, J. J., Duke, B. D. and more -- are represented in a new collection of computer screen savers dubbed "Doonesbury Toonscapes."Mr. Trudeau is not apologizing for selling out. In fact, he is trumpeting it. That is because the royalties from the screen savers and other "Doonesbury" products are donated to several of his favorite charities.Screen savers are software programs designed to take over the computer screen when it is unattended.

Looking for the public's help identifying two individuals who robbed and assaulted a convenience store cashier at gunpoint in Laurel on Friday, Prince George's County police released Wednesday a gripping surveillance tape of the encounter. (Scroll down to view the video, or click here .) The video begins about 1:07 a.m., just before a masked suspect becomes visible in the store in the 15000 block of Sweitzer Lane, suddenly leaps onto the cashier's counter and squeezes through a small window to gain access to the cashier's booth.

Wearing a headset and facing a computer screen, Dale Olsen is interviewing Rashid Abdullah in what appears to be a video conference. Abdullah is responding, but his eyes are narrowing, his mouth is hardening and his answers are growing more clipped. The interviewer covers his mouthpiece. "Now I'm going to offend him," Olsen says, as he chooses a prompt from a dozen displayed on the screen: "Your wife is very attractive," he says. "Where did you meet her?" Abdullah erupts in a rage: "Where did you meet my wife?"

The Inuit have no shortage of words to describe snow and ice and whether the stuff is falling, floating or just lying around. Living near the Arctic Circle is bound to do that to a culture. But what about a people trapped in an equally hostile (if somewhat warmer) environment of personal computers, cell phones, big-box stores, avian flu, pop psychology and mass media? The effects on their vocabulary are bound to be revealing. That brings us to the nearly 100 words the folks at Merriam-Webster have decided to add for this year's update of the company's widely circulated Collegiate Dictionary.

Brooke Bell is a celebrity. The fourth-grader, who has thick, waist-length hair and a smile that lights up her face, is the only student in Maryland to win a Yes I Can award from the Council for Exceptional Children. Brooke was one of 27 winners chosen from more than 300 applications worldwide, and one of two winners out of 22 applicants in the technology category. "I already know Brooke is special," said her mother, Stacy Bell of Severn. "It just kind of shows how special she really is."

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's recent firing of a New York City employee after he spied a game of solitaire on the man's computer screen was a high-profile reminder of the risks workers face when they mix work and play. Still, prohibiting online games or other personal computer activity during working hours is rare among companies, some experts said. "Those companies are still in the minority," said employment lawyer Robert Lipman of Lipman & Plesur in Jericho, N.Y. He said most of his firm's corporate clients permit employees to shop online or play games once in a while.

For as long as armies have waged war, the generals and strategists have leaned over models of artificial landscape to plot their battles and ponder the terrain. But now, if a Glen Burnie technology firm succeeds, they will no longer have their heads in the sand. Xenotran LLC, a small high-technology firm that "graduated" last year from the University of Maryland's small business incubator program, has invented a computer-driven mapping device that depicts landscapes in three dimensions.

Brooke Bell is a celebrity. The fourth-grader, who has thick, waist-length hair and a smile that lights up her face, is the only student in Maryland to win a Yes I Can award from the Council for Exceptional Children. Brooke was one of 27 winners chosen from more than 300 applications worldwide, and one of two winners out of 22 applicants in the technology category. "I already know Brooke is special," said her mother, Stacy Bell of Severn. "It just kind of shows how special she really is."

For as long as armies have waged war, the generals and strategists have leaned over models of artificial landscape to plot their battles and ponder the terrain. But now, if a Glen Burnie technology firm succeeds, they will no longer have their heads in the sand. Xenotran LLC, a small high-technology firm that "graduated" last year from the University of Maryland's small business incubator program, has invented a computer-driven mapping device that depicts landscapes in three dimensions.

Most schools have a newsletter they send home periodically to parents. Some even post the newsletter online as part of the school's Web site. But a computer-savvy eighth-grader at Glenwood Middle School has found a way to combine the ubiquitous parent newsletter and the latest technology - sending the week's news and tidbits home on the Internet in an innovative and informative way. Joey Spurrier, 13, has developed an online video newscast that he...

Youngsters who use the same computer setup as you - without an adjustment for their size - may be bound for trouble down the road. Ergonomics experts, school technology specialists and medical professionals say that incorrect posture at the computer puts kids at risk for wrist, neck, back and shoulder problems, not to mention a variety of other injuries. The health risks should not be ignored, especially since many youngsters spend one to three hours daily in front of a computer screen.