The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 83

wm i 107. Spokane, Wash, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Thursday, November 24, 1994 Page E13 HotWired Munches a revolution Commentary erviceZ Furniture tt rr 3 DAYS ONLY! Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12 to Today's feast will be history tomorrow. Tomorrows feast of savings will start at 9 am, and for 3 days we've gone all out to save our customers money. Prices are reduced every department, with price slashes up to 50. Free delivery, satisfaction guaranteed or money back, and 90 days same as cash with qualified credit.

Tuck a napkin under your chin and have at it! gSSgQ SngKKgEgp) SMsSP (870 89 J- f1 gpOlUQll. Recliner Table With pull-out tray A SIS products Corp. furniture 3-Pc. Dining Set Drop-leaf. Perfect for that small dining area Lane Recliner Your choice of rocker recliner, wall saver, or swivel rocker recliner in J- sna products Corp.

Furniture I Bar Stools Available In warm oak or maple finish 24 or 30 inches tall v. Furniture International 3-pc. Cocktail Table and 2 End Tables From Slip Bunk Bed Wood twin over twin Only By David Plotnikoff San Jose Mercury News '-V To live on the electronic frontier is to live on unsettled ground. The geography of cyberspace is changing so rapidly that only fools (and newspaper pundits) try to guess what the major landmarks will be five years or even five months down thejfoad. With thaj said, I brazenly predict that HotWired is going to be an imposing part of the Net-scape for a long time to come.

The new (and free) on-line service, billed as a cross between Peewees Playhouse and Wired magazine, is probably the most highly anticipated debut in the explosive two-year history of the World Wide Web, (The Web is an Internet-based, global network of linked documents thats estimated to be growing at the torrid rate of 35 percent per month.) HotWired, with its staff of 25, is not an on-line version of Wired magazine. Its a whole new breed of media beast part publication and part place. Based on my first impressions, Id guess this is what most of the Web is going to look like when all the construction dust finally clears: seamless, professionally edited and brought to you by the hipper half of thq, Fortune 500. HotWireds parent firm, San Francisco-based Wired (which also publishes Wired magazine), occupies a unique place at the center of the new digital culture. Not since the halcyon days of Rolling Stone has one magazine had such a dominant role in setting the agenda for an emerging subculture.

fn terms of impact, the launch of HolWired is somewhat akin to what might have happened in the early 70s if Rolling Stone had decided to open its Own concert venue. This cyberstation will be where the big brains and the big bucks come together for some real fireworks. Author Howard Rheingold (Mister Digital Community himself) is one of the main pilots on the coptent side. t)n the sponsorship end, IBM, Volvo, Club Med, Coors and many other familiar names are all down for substantial deals. JWe all had ideas about what we wanted it to be, says Rheingold.

And when it came to designing something from scratch, what we learned from other media is the people who use it are ultimately ping to define it. We have to stay legible enough to grow in interesting new directions. (One architectural genius stroke I particularly liked was the form where readermembers suggest hypertext links to other services. This essentially lets the users constantly remodel and expand the clubhouse.) At the moment, the primary audience for HotWired is the hardcore techno-elite the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 power-users who jaCk-in through high-capacity university or corporate Internet connections. Rheingold says hes hopeful that widespread, easy consumer access to high-capacity lines could come as early as next 'if you have access to a good phical Web-browser such as saic, the address is http: www.hotwired.com (the trailing slcish is often optional).

Jf youre running a text-only browser such as Lynx, dont even bother to dial in you wont get the sound or the eye-sizzling, Keith Haring-esque graphics and photos. The editorial content organized broadly into news, Net-scouting and arts sections is all unique to HotWired, yet it bears a very close resemblance to that of Wired magazine, right down to some of the section names. A The advertising is fairly low-key just one banner at the top of every content section. I particularly liked MCIs warm and well-written ads about the digital revolution at Gramercy Press its a sitcom tale ideally suited to the new medium. Louis Rossetto, HotWireds editor-in-chief (hes also the publisher of Wired magazine), didnt let modesty get the best of him in his first HotWired communique: This medium is not magazines with buttons any more than television was ridio withpictures, he wrote.

Its Rational Geographic live, twitching, the real-time nervous system of the planet. (I dont know ij I want my cerebral cortex sponsored by Zima, Louis.) By offering free, high-quality services, HotWired has upped the ante. The rest of the big-time players will have to either follow or fold. Ipoucll. Twin Size Headboards Red, white, blue, or black RJ MM MOUStmtS INC Mirrored Glass Top Tables Cocktail or End Tables Your Choice! iHLEY RNfTUftf MOLtSTOFA MC Single Door Curio From Town Square Glider Rocher Sink into the comfort of this solid hardwood glider.

RJVTRMDC FlUNTTURE Flat Top Desk 54 with five drawers From FIRESIDp A CLASSICS Fin Fumitun soiir With a multi-colored earth tone fabric and wood trim. Lovaseat We have a reputation for the lowest furniture prices in the West. We defend it eveiy day. You always buy better from the Low Cost Provider. Thats us.

1994 Satisfaction or money back. We will not be undersold. Price Protection Guarantee details in store. erviceZ Furniture NORTH SIDE 7520 N. DIVISION 484-6740 VALLEY 5415 E.

SPRAGUE 535-4277 OPEN Monday thru Friday 8:30 to 9 pm, Saturday til 5:30, Sunday Noon to 5..