Easy

What fun to find Vanity Fair refraining from its usual star worship. The gusher runs dry for Ralph Fiennes, the pale British actor who played such a convincing Nazi sadist in "Schindler's List." During his two-hour interview in the November issue, Mr. Fiennes is a model of chilly reserve: "Not that one expected a teddy bear," writes Leslie Bennetts. "Maybe an infinitesimal bit of charm, perhaps -- would that be too much to ask?" Indeed, Mr. Fiennes declines eye contact with the reporter, who is left to theorize about the murky depths lurking beneath the 32-year-old actor's "aristocratic exterior," depths that have electrified his performances -- in "Hamlet" onstage, in Robert Redford's "Quiz Show," in the futuristic "Strange Days."

The groundhog didn't see its shadow yesterday, which means six more weeks of Bruce Chen on the free-agent market. ... Nobody said it was going to be easy for the Maryland women's basketball team to repeat as national champions. No, wait ... everybody said it was going to be easy. Guess again. ... Corey Patterson and Erik Bedard are the only Orioles still eligible for arbitration. Must be nice to know you're getting a raise - win, lose or settle. ... This week's best quote, courtesy of Chicago Bears quarterback Rex Grossman: "I'm realizing how ignorant you guys [reporters]

Hollywood scripts need to stop taking the easy way out. The Sentinel opens today, with Kiefer Sutherland playing a Secret Service agent struggling like heck to keep the president of the United States from being assassinated. It's no accident that this is essentially the same role he's been playing for five years on Fox television's 24. Casting him in such a similar role keeps the filmmakers responsible for The Sentinel from having to make his character believable; audiences have been buying him in that role for years.

MicroCarb Inc. officially changed its name yesterday to Antex Biologics and is trading under a new ticker symbol.The Gaithersburg-based company's common stock now is quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board under the ticker symbol ANTX.Dr. Vic Esposito, chairman and chief executive officer of the 5-year-old biotechnology company, said the company changed its name because MicroCarb no longer describes the technologies that the company is working to develop."We wanted to more accurately reflect our mission of developing and marketing products based on our anti-infective technologies," he said.

$20 for Nintendo DS. Rated Everyone 10-plus (cartoon violence) ** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS) games For an unassuming handheld game about boxing animals, Animal Boxing sure covers some ground. It's brilliantly clever, yet fundamentally broken. It's impossibly easy and unnecessarily difficult. Finally, depending on the quality and proximity of your friends, it's both easy and impossible to recommend. As touch-screen boxing goes, Boxing, which stars you as a custom-designed human fighting some 50 not-so-innocent anthropomorphic pugilists, nails it. The game uses the touch screen as the top screen - you play Boxing by holding the DS upside-down - and your punches are registered through corresponding gestures: Tap to jab, swipe horizontally to hook, swipe vertically to uppercut.

The General Assembly hasn't distinguished itself for courage in tackling hard issues in recent years, so it is not surprising that a number of lawmakers are touting video lotteries as "an easy way" of increasing state revenue. But if there's one thing states should have learned about lotteries, it is that they are not a steady source of easy money over the long haul.For the first four months of this fiscal year, lottery profits were up 6 percent over last year -- one of the few bits of good budget news the state has had recently.

PHILADELPHIA -- Dick MacPherson seems almost embarrassed that so many people are pushing him for NFL Coach of the Year.MacPherson points to Joe Gibbs with his 14-1 record in Washington and Wayne Fontes with his turnaround season in Detroit and Dan Reeves, who is once again riding mile high in Denver."

I have a 5-year-old computer. I'm ready to get a new, more powerful one. The only thing stopping me is that I don't want to lose any files or programs. Is there a device that makes this transfer easy? If you can afford the luxury, nothing beats having a techie do these transfers at a storefront computer shop or at some of the large consumer electronics stores that offer this service. If you want to do it yourself, I favor the PCsync program from LapLink Inc., of Bothell, Wash. (www.laplink .com)

NEW YORK - With tens of thousands of heavily armed police officers swarming the streets around Madison Square Garden, helicopters whirling overhead and bomb-sniffing dogs on every corner, the Republican National Convention was supposed to be the most tightly secured political event in history. But over the last four days, roughly two dozen hecklers have proven that all that was necessary to penetrate the cordon and disrupt the convention was a delegate's spare guest credential or a media pass, which protesters said were surprisingly easy to get. At least six times in the last four days, protesters have managed to get into the arena, twice coming within yards of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Quote: "I'm really having a hard time watching the guys play on TV. That's the worst. Plus, if you watch that game on television, it looks so easy." - Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, who suffered a season-ending knee injury Aug. 1 It's a fact: The Marlins have used 14 players born outside the United States this season, second only to the Expos, who have used 17. Who's hot: The Braves' Greg Maddux has gone 30 2/3 innings without issuing a walk....