A few odds and ends from the notebook:

While watching a recent NHL playoff game, it was momentarily disconcerting to see that the list of topics for the upcoming intermission report included ''Return of Satan,'' until I realized that if it was anything other than an injury update on Buffalo's Miroslav Satan, they probably would have broken into the broadcast earlier. Then again, check the URL for Satan's page on the CNN-SI site.

Can the commercial breaks on television get any closer to oldies radio? The other day, on three consecutive ads, I heard the Who (''Magic Bus''), Jimi Hendrix (''Are You Experienced?'') and Paul Revere and the Raiders (''Hungry'').

One sign of the Web's arrival in mainstream culture is seeing a creative effort with online origins make the transition into more established media. So it is that ConvoNation, a Web hangout for seriously ill children, gave birth to ''Pulse: The Rhythm of Life,'' a stage production of the San Jose Children's Musical Theater, which gave birth to ''PULSE,'' a musical/documentary premiering on KTEH public television at 8 p.m. June 8 (repeated at 6 p.m. June 13).

Moat Duck update: The three surviving ducklings are growing quickly and finding new amusements in the reflecting pond at the Mercury News building -- playing King of the Hill on the filter floats and practicing deep diving under the spray of the aeration fountains, looking a lot like kids playing in a sprinkler. Next: flying lessons.

WEDNESDAY, 6/2

One in a series of occasional reports from the porch of the Villa Murrell:

Between the ambient metropolitan glow and the bright moon, the night feels unfinished, a simulation of darkness, more charcoal than black. It's quiet -- remarkably quiet for the middle of a development in the middle of a suburb in the middle of a vast and crowded sprawl.

Somewhere just beyond the first row of houses, a mockingbird has taken to holding nightly recitals. It shows up around 3 or 4 a.m., and in the silence, with no competition or distractions, it dumps the core, working its way through every call it knows, sounding each twice, three times and moving on to the next.

This bird is good, maybe the Rich Little of the locals. Into the night pours a stream of varied chirps and whistles -- finches, warblers, robins, jays, a crow's caw as it would sound from a distance, gulls, ducks, owls, and some trick calls in which the bird, like a Gyuto monk, produces two sounds simultaneously.

Intermingled with the natural calls are the unnatural ones -- a perfect car alarm, the chirp and double-chirp of alarms been activated and deactivated, a phone ringing, and something that sounds very much like trucks shifting gears. I'm not surprised. I start thinking about unintended consequences, about technology leaking into nature, about the atmosphere of information we breathe and absorb unconsciously and how it changes us. It's all too much. I head inside. The bird keeps singing.

All is well.

THURSDAY, 6/3

Today we have some Sidetrack Serendipities -- things I ran across while looking for something else:

Check out Bookmarklets. You need to see these things in action to fully appreciate their coolness. Bookmarklets are tiny JavaScript applications that you save as browser bookmarks and activate by choosing one as you would any normal bookmark. More than 150 are available (free, no downloading, no installing) and they perform functions that allow you to change the appearance or organization of Web pages, extract data from pages, and add navigation and search options.

Info-nuggets from Nua Internet Surveys: A survey found that 63 percent of Slovenians between the ages of 15 and 65 have no intention of ever using the Internet in any capacity. A word-of-mouth study found that the typical Net consumer tells 12 other people about his or her online shopping experience; in general, a U.S. consumer will tell 8.6 people about a favorite film and 6.1 people about a favorite restaurant. In Argentina, the cost of a 128 Kbps Net connection is about $4,500 a month.

A while back, tech columnist Dan Gillmor wrote about the Cluetrain Manifesto, saying it contains some valuable advice for old-line companies adapting to the consumer markets of the wired world. Of course, nothing so earnest goes unsatirized, and so we have the Gluetrain Manifesto.

FRIDAY, 6/4

For your weekend Web wandering pleasure, here are a few sites to see:

In the continuing trend, fueled by the time pressures of this age, toward outsourcing what were once personal tasks (doing your taxes, buying gifts, raising children), a new service has arisen. Should you find yourself on the bad end of an unsatisfactory consumer experience but don't have the time, inclination or tact to write your own nasty-gram, the folks at Complain!com will handle things for you. Using the information you supply, they'll craft a letter of complaint, provide envelopes addressed to appropriate company officials, send it all to you for review and mailing, then send a reminder later to follow up if necessary. This will cost you $20 a pop, however, so you probably won't want to use it to complain about the vending machine that ate your change.

One more good site to add to your art bookmarks is Mark Harden's Artchive, which provides links to images, criticism and more resources.

This is pretty cool -- NASA's J-Track tool shows, in real time, the location of the space shuttle, the space station, Mir (for the moment) and all manner of satellites.

Boy the Bear's Age Gauge will put your lifespan into historical and cultural context (Note: This page may leave some people tired and depressed).

MONDAY, 6/7

While some of us are still trying to get our heads around all the implications of Sony's mechanical pet dog, Aibo, the patrons of Chris White's Top 5 site came up with some signs that your own hound has been replaced by a robotic mutt:

No longer has any problem typing; in fact, he's posted naked pictures of your cat on the Web.

''Fetch!'' ''I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave.''

Playful ''mailman's here'' yap replaced by maniacal paw-flapping ''Warning, Jim Rosenberg, warning!''

Shorts out every time he licks himself.

Three words: ''Yo quiero Pennzoil.''

Routinely kicks your sorry Mensa butt at chess.

When you fake throwing a ball for him to fetch, you hear, ''Projectile Analysis Module reports error Division By Zero. Aborting!''

Pages you when little Timmy falls down the old well.

After he's mangled in a terrible explosion, his one-armed torso still pursues the mailman.

Frequently eats documents left lying around the house, presses tail into phone jack, and leaves you with expensive long-distance phone bills to China.

Telltale oil stains when he drags his butt across the carpet.

Run-in with the invisible fence makes for the greatest Fourth of July spectacle the town's ever seen.

TUESDAY, 6/8

''The older we get, we find out it's less and less about music and the musicality of the instrument.''

Interestingly, that's jazz great Wayne Shorter in an interview before performing with fellow legend Herbie Hancock last week. Here are a few more quotes about performing, but really about living.

''Everything you've learned about government comes into play, what you've learned about democracy, the things you hear people talk about, what men and women talk about. All of that comes marching across the stage, right in front of your mind's eye. When a musician would play something and really attack it, Miles (Davis) used to say, 'You wouldn't ask a girl to dance that way, and after you asked, you wouldn't dance that way.' ''

On playing without a rhythm section: ''No challenge as far as wanting to have two or three or four other people. The challenge is to do what you do extemporaneously, as when you were a child. You know, kids stay out and play all day, and you ask, 'What are you doing?' 'Playing.' But they're not just playing; they're making up stuff. We lose that as we get older and get encrusted.''

On improvisation: ''You know that feeling, like when you're flying? Those moments don't last long, like when you're drinking a good glass of lemonade. But looking for it is actually doing it; it's always being curious about flying. That's what we're going to do on stage, look for velocity.''

WEDNESDAY, 6/9

A few odds and ends from the notebook:

I'm sorry about the layoffs at DuPont and everything, but in the big picture, I have to think the decreasing worldwide demand for polyester is a good sign.

As tempted as I would be (assuming it actually worked) to pay a few bucks a year to get telemarketers to stop calling my house, as proposed in a bill before the state Senate, the idea grates on me. Paying to get someone to stop bothering me smacks of a schoolyard protection racket, with the state as the bully you pay to keep the mean kids away. Here's a more palatable suggestion, again assuming there's a way to make it work: All you telecom companies that are going to be trying to sell me a big service bundle-- throw in some way to ward off or insulate me from telemarketers as part of the package and I'm yours.

I just loved it that the National Spelling Bee contestant who went out on the word ''sousaphone'' was from Tuba City, Ariz.

OK, all you dot-com outfits trying to get your ads to rise above the noise -- see if you can mix in a little actual wit with your outrageousness. The pack of wolves attacking the high school band was brilliant, but some more recent images -- the guy in his briefs chasing a goose over hill and dale, the fellow whose discovery of online shopping frees him to live as a suburban nudist, the full-page photo of some unfortunate woman's hirsute upper lip -- are just unpleasant.

THURSDAY, 6/10

Here's another batch of Sidetrack Serendipities -- sites I ran across while on my way somewhere else:

If the more dire millennial predictions ever start to get to you, take a reassuring and entertaining visit to a site called It's The End Of The World As We Know It ... Again, which offers an extensive review of apocalyptic predictions from ancient times through, oh, two weeks ago, all of which, so far as I can tell, have been wrong.

Here's a product you could see coming down the pike: The Empeg Car Player is a Linux-based computer, available with hard drives of various sizes, that fits into your dashboard and lets you take your MP3 music on the road. The kit with the 4-gig drive runs about $1,100 and holds about 70 hours of music.

The Copenhagen Web design outfit Kaliber10000 has a neat exhibition of people's computer desktops. This may not sound too thrilling, but these are the desktops of designers and other arty types, so you'll find lots of eye candy.

The BabyCenter very considerately provides a Birth and Labor Conflict Catcher that tells you which sporting events you'll miss if the little whippersnapper arrives on time. And the Conception Catcher can let you know, for instance, that to assure uninterrupted viewing of the 2000 Tour de France, you should avoid your spouse for most of October (and if that's a measure of your priorities, please rethink procreation).

FRIDAY, 6/11

For your weekend Web wandering pleasure, here are a few sites to see:

There are a number of social, political and philosophical subjects that stir the emotions so deeply as to create a polarization that won't melt away (these are the topics that are best steered clear of at family gatherings and anywhere alcohol is served). The least significant of these (though you wouldn't know it from the passion with which it's argued) is the choice of computer operating system. Those who enjoy such debate as a spectator sport will want to visit osOpinion, where you can watch the armies of Windows, Mac OS and Linux duke it out.

The sole offering of Old Books Online, for the moment at least, is a pair of narratives by people who were captured by Indians -- one a Revolutionary War soldier, the other a woman seized from a fort in Texas in 1836.

As an antidote to the ''Star Wars'' hype, try this low-tech but very impressive version of the original film done in ASCII animation -- pictures drawn using keyboard characters.

Wendy and Matthew Fiallos are having a baby in September and they can't decide on a boy's name, so they are doing the natural thing -- soliciting the opinions of random Web surfers at their Name Our Child site. So far, voters favor Matthew, followed by Logan and Caleb.

MONDAY, 6/14

The Bob Dylan-Paul Simon tour pulls into the Bay Area at the end of the week, and with two such well-established performers, you might think you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. In fact, though, there are a few surprises (courtesy of the patrons of Chris White's Top 5 site):

Brisk ticket sales as fans realize they no longer need baby-sitters for their 40-year-old children.

Audience shouts for ''Sounds of Silence'' every time Dylan sings.

''Hey, don't Bogart that Viagra, dude!!''

Sound man? Check. Video feed? Check. Emergency medical team? Check.

New lyrics: ''EVERYbody must get stoned ... besides, it helps my glaucoma!''

Microsoft provides cutting-edge software to translate Dylan's vocals in real time.

Paul's the neat-freak prude; Bob's the beer-guzzling slob.

Dylan annoys Simon by constantly calling him ''Al.''

''Hyears to yeeewwww, Meeeeesuuus Rhhhobinson. Jesus luvs yeeeewwww mooorrrrrre than yeeeeewwwwww will knooow. O...O...O.''

''Now raise your cell phones way up in the air, and press star-99 like you just don't care!''

PA announcer introduces them as Mumbly Spice and Shorty Spice.

Simon's emotional ballad for Dylan: ''Fifty Ways to Kill Your Liver.''

TUESDAY, 6/15

So the other night I was sitting at home, sipping a Pepsi (with a picture of young Anakin Skywalker on the can) and leafing through a magazine (with a ''Phantom Menace'' cover story), when yet another TV ad with a ''Star Wars'' tie-in came on, and I thought maybe it was time to go see this flick.

I hit an after-midnight show and was surprised to see a long line, until I realized most of the folks were there for Austin Powers, not Jedi powers. My verdict on the movie? Very entertaining without being very engaging.

Technically, aesthetically, the movie is a knockout. The advances in computer graphics have really opened up the universe, yielding panoramic planetscapes and a seamless blending of human actors with digital sets and characters. And the actors, for the most part, were fine (though I hope the next time we see Anakin, he'll be of an age that can't be played by the lad who draws the duty this time).

What was missing was what makes life interesting on this or any other planet: richness, depth, complexity and ambiguity in plot and character, a real sense of jeopardy and triumph, a reason to care. Everyone on screen is as flat as celluloid. Even the Force is reduced to a parlor trick, used for shoving enemies and passing ESP tests.

In a way, the movie unintentionally symbolizes one of the longstanding challenges for our species: Technology is easy, the human heart complex; our tools evolve much more quickly than we do.

WEDNESDAY, 6/16

I'll share this with you, but I'd rather it didn't go any further because it could jeopardize my standing in the Guild of Gadget Geeks.

I was working the other night when some e-mail arrived from a fellow guild member tipping me to a hot deal. An outfit that sells home automation equipment had posted on its Web site an offer that was good only until midnight: a kit consisting of a couple of modules, a remote control and a serial port interface, all aimed at getting you hooked on controlling lamps, appliances and electronic gear from your computer, and all for a $6 handling charge (a $75 value!).

My first thought was, ''Cool!'' And then an unusual thing happened: I had a second thought, specifically, ''Now what would I use this for?'' For a gadget geek, the mere presence of a question like this, however fleeting, signals the edge of a slippery slope. Once practicality enters the equation, you might as well hang it up; you'll either stop buying anything that's not food, clothing or shelter, or you'll start concocting bizarre justifications that can't be verbalized with a straight face.

Still, there I was, staring at the offer and wondering under what circumstances I'd be at the computer and want to turn on the stereo or turn off a light in another part of the house. I just couldn't come up with a scenario, and I passed on the deal.

Postscript: To refresh my memory as I wrote this, I clicked back to the site, and darned if the deal wasn't being offered again. This time I took it. Who knows what I'll do with this gadget; it's just cool.

THURSDAY, 6/17

A few odds and ends from the notebook:

This one is left over from the last round of the NBA playoffs. NBC's Jim Gray was interviewing the Knicks' Larry Johnson, who was coming off the floor after winning a game with a last-second three-pointer (plus a foul). Johnson, a convert to Islam, was giving credit for the shot to a higher power and ended his comments by saying, ''Allahu akbar'' (God is great), and Gray, still thinking about the shot in secular terms, said, ''That was a prayer.''

Following up on the TV-commercials-as-oldies-radio front, the latest triple play I heard on consecutive ads comprised ''Come Together,'' ''Free Ride'' and ''Things That Make You Go Hmm.''

And speaking of oldies, what do you suppose Jim Morrison would think of hearing ''Light My Fire'' played on the organ during a break in the action of a hockey game? Seems just a bit too cheery for the Lizard King.

Interesting to see some organized opposition cropping up to the new Third Voice software, which lets users put ''virtual Post-it notes'' on any Web site (here's a site for more information and a story for background.

As Nelson Mandela steps down from the presidency of South Africa, now might be a good time to review this remarkable life on the PBS site The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela.

FRIDAY, 6/18

For your weekend Web wandering pleasure, here are a few sites to see:

For the past 10 years, Dr. John H. Lienhard of the University of Houston's College of Engineering has produced a little feature heard on some public radio stations (none around here, unfortunately) called ''The Engines of Our Ingenuity,'' bite-size and stimulating commentary about the ways in which culture is shaped by creativity in art, technology and ideas. Almost 1,500 scripts are posted on the show's Web site, and they make for wonderful browsing.

This one goes out to all you capitalist cats doing the big-bucks boogie over on Sand Hill Road. The Museum of American Financial History's Web site features exhibits and articles on such topics as the history of IPOs, the financing of the Civil War, and how investors financed the early growth of baseball. Party on!

You can never get enough randomly generated silliness, I say. The Random Log-line Generator cranks out imaginary TV show descriptions (''A comedian, a biologist, and a gambler plot to kill a zombie''). The Weekly World Spews does something similar with tabloid headlines (''Tostadas Can Destroy Your Achilles' Tendons, Claims Mechanical Engineer'').

Abstract interactive entertainment for your right brain can be found at MrNoodlebox.

MONDAY, 6/21

This week's Monday chuckle comes from the archives of Chris White's Top 5 site. These are a few signs that your co-worker sells Mary Kay cosmetics:

Declares that she simply can't get along with her boyfriend because ''he's a winter.''

Tells everyone he arrests, ''You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney, and you have what we call combination skin.''

Bumper sticker on her car: ''I brake for cosmetics-testing animals.''

Munches on lipstick like it was a Milky Way bar.

Dennis Rodman personally implores her to ''try to be more subtle.''

Refers to Cindy Crawford as ''that Revlon bimbo.''

He's never used the word ''exfoliate'' in his presentations before.

Drive-through customers momentarily confused by ''Would you like lip liner with that?''

Demands that Kosovar Albanians be treated with dignity, respect and a moisturizing skin lotion of at least SPF 12.

Always pregnant by a teenage boy. (Oops! That's a sign your co-worker sells Mary Kay LaTorneau cosmetics.)

She's perkier than Katie Couric, wears more make-up than Tammy Faye Bakker, and chants ''Make the most of what you have'' even when alone in the restroom.

This is the 19th ''UNSUBSCRIBE'' reply today you've sent to the e-mail message ''Moisturizer Roundup.''

TUESDAY, 6/22

So Saturday night I was over at Doug Engelbart's house, talking to Carver Mead ...

Let me pause here to emphasize what a thrill it is for me to be able to write that. Some people might get goose bumps over the chance to hang out with movie stars or pro athletes. For me, it's visionary geniuses who have changed the world, and both the above-mentioned gentlemen fall into that category. Engelbart's inventions include the computer mouse, windowed displays, hypermedia publishing and dozens of other innovations critical to the PC-and-network revolution. Mead's contributions include the microwave amplification system used in communications technology, the concept for very large-scale integrated circuits and electronic systems that model human senses.

The occasion was a get-together of members of the Foresight Institute, an organization that, among other things, assembles diverse bunches of very smart people to use their collaborative brainpower to anticipate and respond to the challenges of a world in which technology is evolving far faster than our ability to direct it for the common good. I'm not a joiner by nature, but that's my kind of crowd.

The kicker was that Engelbart and Mead spent time telling me how important my job was, in view of the responsibility of the popular media in shaping perceptions, explaining issues and maintaining, against the distraction of short-term economics and gee-whiz gadgetry, the focus on the human condition. That evening will keep me humbled and inspired for a long time.

WEDNESDAY, 6/23

A few nuggets from the in-box today:

Computer viruses, worms and such grab all the headlines, but a survey of 300 Windows NT system managers indicates that the great bulk of data-loss damage is attributable to something both more mundane and more intractable: screw-ups. Eighty-eight percent cited accidental deletions as their worst data-loss problem vs. 3 percent for viruses, and snafus were considered 30 times more menacing than virus attacks. We have met the enemy ...

Here's another fun event up at the Exploratorium that you can also enjoy online. At noon each Friday in July (except the 23rd), a group of educators will compete for the title of ''Iron Science Teacher,'' in an arena format modeled after ''Iron Chef,'' the competitive cooking show from Japan that has built a cult following here. The teachers will be given 10 minutes to come up with a classroom science activity designed around a ''secret ingredient'' (an ordinary item like a straw or a soda can) that is sprung on them at the last minute. Should be a hoot.

Oh, great. A company called Captivate Network plans to deliver news, business, sports and weather info from the Net to a new audience, namely people in hotel and high-rise elevators. A flat-panel screen will give you something to look at during your short trip besides the floor numbers or your shoes. My prediction for the next leap: Similar screens on the inside of restroom stall doors.

THURSDAY, 6/24

I'm afraid I have some sad news for those of you who consume these little epistles in the printed paper.

I'm off on vacation after Friday (no, that's not the news). I'll be taking two weeks this time (that's not it either), making a swing back East to see friends in Philadelphia, visit Mom in Pittsburgh and attend the 30th reunion of my high school class.

No, the sad news is that while I'll be back in a couple of weeks, this column won't be returning to its customary corner of Page 2A or anywhere else in the dead-tree edition, though it will continue to be available online.

A little background is in order. In contrast to the carefully chosen selection of voices given space in the paper to opine and entertain, this was sort of a stealth column with online origins that sneaked into print. In its first incarnation, as Editor's Notes on our America Online site, it was supposed to be a promotional vehicle, a friendly way to steer people to features several layers down in the Merc Center area. After a while, though, I found that format confining (how many different ways can you tell people to check out our Niners forum?), so I started injecting more of myself. No one told me to stop, so I didn't, and eventually my daily musings were added to Mercury Center's space in the paper, where they've resided for almost five years.

But a newspaper writer doesn't own his or her space. It's sort of like some of the old company towns on Minnesota's Iron Range, where I used to work: There were places where you could lease a nice plot of land from the mining company for a dollar a year, build on it, put down roots, but when the mine started coming your way, you had to leave. Well, the mine is coming my way. The powers that be have decided to reclaim the space I've been using and turn it to promotional and marketing purposes.

Naturally, I'm sorry to lose this connection to so many of you, especially the unwired, to whom I've tried to bring a little taste of online life. But so it goes. Those of you who are able are cordially invited to visit my page on Mercury Center and keep up with the Villa Murrell, the Kray, the Monday chuckles and the weekend sites to see. To the rest of you, thanks and adieu; perhaps we'll meet in the printed pages again, someplace, someday.

FRIDAY, 6/25

For your weekend Web wandering pleasure, here are a few sites to see:

Heaven knows if you look around these days, you can find plenty of reasons to feel fearful and anxious, but if you regularly experience fear or anxiety that feels way out of proportion to the realistic threat and if this anxiety is causing physical distress or limiting your activities, you may have something bigger going on. A good first step in such cases would be a visit to The Anxiety Panic Internet Resource.

Beauty may be only skin deep, but that's deep enough to prompt plenty of research into the specific qualities of a face that render it attractive. At the Perception Lab of St. Andrews University in Scotland you can find information and links on the subject and also participate in an online experiment.

By the way, if my mention a few days ago of the Foresight Institute and its collaborative approach to the Big Issues in technology and communication intrigued you and you're interested in getting involved, here's the page with the info.

As I mentioned Thursday, I'm off for a couple of weeks, and on my return will be writing online only, so remember to keep this page among your sites to see.

By John Murrell
Mercury Center Senior Online Editor