The U.S. Defense Department's program to create a "virtual, centralized database" of potential criminals' and terrorists' electronic records has topped Fortune magazine's technology "Worst of 2002." The Total Information Awareness program is to be developed through the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency using "revolutionary technology" to mine data from public and private records, including information on telephone calls, credit card transactions, a record of e-mail and instant messages, as well as medical and banking records. TIA's three main goals, according to the DARPA Web site: to create the database's architecture, to create new methods for "mining, combining, and refining" information, and to establish "revolutionary new" models, methods and tools for analyzing and correlating the database's information to derive "actionable intelligence." TIA, which Fortune said topped the list because of its "potential impact on our lives," beat out another Fortune technology "favorite" -- continuing efforts by media companies to restrict consumers' access to digital movie and music content.

WANTED: NEW OWNER FOR RUSTIC CALIF. TOWN

If you've ever fancied yourself the owner of a rustic town in Northern California, you've got until Friday to put in your bid on eBay for Bridgeville. As of Christmas Day, the online auction site showed that 185 bids had been submitted in the private auction, with the bidding exceeding $1.5 million. Successive bids must be increased by at least $100. The deadline is 12:56 p.m. EST Friday. The eBay description says the town "can be a private retreat, basking in the glory of redwoods," encompassing 1.5 miles of "the beautiful Van Dusen river." The 137-year-old town a few hundred miles north of San Francisco in Humboldt County includes 10 houses and four cabins scattered about on 82 acres, according to the description on eBay. But in case you happen to be a reticent investor, you could operate Bridgeville "as a remarkable tax shelter, check with your accountant," the eBay description advises.

(Thanks to UPI's Carolyn Ayon Lee)

INDIANA LIBRARIES OFFER 'E-BOOK CLUBS'

A growing number of Indiana libraries are offering electronic book club memberships to help get people back into the swing of reading, IndyStar.com reports. Readers can sign up for Indiana libraries' E-book clubs from around the world logging onto the library's Web site. Each week starting Mondays the library will send, via e-mail, members about 5-minute excerpts of a book each day throughout the week, starting with the beginning. Members can discuss the excerpts online or take the book out of the library if their interest is piqued. "We see this as a way of reaching a new type of reader, especially those who don't have a lot of time to browse at bookstores and those who are more into technology," Georgia Goode, electronic resources librarian in Franklin, Ind., told IndyStar.com. Libraries purchase the service for about $550 from chapteraday.com, run by founder Suzanne Beecher. The book clubs are offered by over 3,000 libraries, schools, and businesses to promote reading and continuing education, Beecher says.

DORM LIFE 2002: ONLINE LAUNDRY?

It seems the 'Net has finally permeated every aspect of our life, with its addition to a college staple: dorm laundry struggles. eSuds.net, a new system developed by Stitch Networks Corporation, uses a central hub to collect and control information about sales, service, usage and availability. The system saves students time by allowing them to view their laundry room on eSud's Web page to check washer or dryer availability, Popular Science reports. If all machines taken, students can find out how much time remains on the machines' cycles -- or, once they have put their dainties in, students can add fabric softener via an online command, and also can be alerted when the wash is done by e-mail messages, page or cell phone text message. According to Popular Science's Web site, a pilot eSuds university program was launched at Boston College and MIT, with the company reporting students doing their laundry more often. Esuds.net currently is being marketed to colleges and universities nationwide.

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