Before we begin, I am of independent employment, again. The possibilities look promising, but today's bills require today's money. This status was inevitable, given some rather eyebrow-raising decisions on the part of certain parties. Let's just say that the future is a much better, much richer and much more equitable place. But doesn't that always seem to be the eternal hope? Anyway, on with the survey.

Few people beat Linux's drum harder than I did in 2002, and I found a Linux distribution that makes installation and, more important, updates and upgrades a snap. It is not based on "dependencies" (files that depend on the presence of other files to load or work), so the update path is not the minefield that the mainstream distributions made it. It is based on Debian, a Linux distribution that is mostly the province of hard core Linux geeks.

It is called Libranet, a user-friendly form of Debian. Check it out at http://www.libranet.com.

As if the world needed yet another reason to migrate to the Linux desktop, Microsoft and some of the scarier factions of the federal government are giving us a dilly in an upcoming technology called Palladium. This is, at its core, snoop technology that keeps an eye on what you do and use on your PC (pretty much removing the "personal" from the acronym). Microsoft will weave Palladium into upcoming versions of Windows and turn it "off" by default. But it won't stay off for long, because mainstream application vendor's wares won't work unless it's activated. The looming possibilities?

Say goodbye to mixing your own MP3 collections. If Palladium thinks an application is not correctly licensed, it will disable it. Microsoft claims that Palladium will cut down on spam, but this will come at the expense of examining your e-mail. No thanks, Microsoft.

If you are not thoroughly spooked by now, you've got ice water in your veins. Since 9/11, our civil liberties have taken a slamming, particularly via something called the USA Patriot Act of 2001. Membership in, gasp!, the ACLU has risen dramatically since the word finally got out that USA Patriot (an ironic moniker) disabled the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. If this surprises you, you might take the trouble to investigate the Act further.

The cell phone explosion has reached 128 million. This year saw serious PDA/cellphone introduction. I discussed this a bit in last month's column, but it's amazing to see hordes of people from all walks of life poking at these things one minute, as if trying to spear some tiny gremlin scooting about the PDA's surface, then planting them in their ears and jabbering away, the next.

Cell phones have taken a lot of blame for car accidents, but I wonder how many more accidents have been caused by fiddling with CDs and radios, rubber necking and trying to negotiate a burger, fries and drink. One can imagine the reaction by the fast food lobby if states banned eating in cars. Solve this cell phone problem by buying one that has a speakerphone capability.

Most cell phone companies offer them. Plop it on the seat next to you as you keep both hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road ahead.

Digital cameras added pixels in 2002, but wait! At long last, razor-sharp (we're talking Kodachrome quality, here) images will come to mid-range priced cameras. Right now, you can't get tremendous clarity without resorting to 4 or 5 megapixel cameras. But they are expensive and don't really solve the sharpness problem. They divvy up the available pixels into thirds (red, green, blue), diminishing sharpness. Foveon (www.foveon.com ) has come to the rescue with X3 technology that ingeniously triples pixel capability without tripling the number of pixels. In a 4 megapixel camera, 1.3 million pixels go to red pixels, 1.3 million pixels go to blue pixels and 1.3 million pixels go to green pixels. With X3, you get 4 million red, 4 million blue and 4 million green pixels, in layers, like pancakes. Neat trick. This technology will flower in 2003 and put a serious dent into the argument that you still need film for the last word in sharpness.

The movie studios have made impressive strides in opening their old libraries to DVD. Even with some obvious omissions (where is "Inherit the Wind", for example), we film buffs can thank 2002 and look forward to 2003.

Disney has spooled out much of its catalog, but it scored a bulls eye earlier this month by releasing possibly the funniest material it ever made, the Goofy "Art of" and "How to" shorts from the 1940s and 1950s. Those familiar with these little masterpieces remember the hilarious mix of a serious voice describing the careful steps to mastering skiing or golf, while watching Goofy massacre not only those steps but also, nearly, himself. We are talking laugh-until-you-can't-breath funny here. Somewhere, Uncle Walter is smiling.

After a brief hiatus for University of Dayton football, "On Technology" is back on the air in full orchestral strength, with new and more understanding sponsorship. Listen each Saturday at noon on 1290 WHIO-AM. We are the most listened-to technology show in the region, and we continue to explore the issues I've touched on here as well as many others. Check us out and give us a call!

Reading. Remember reading? You can visit the popular online bookstores, or you can get the great classics for free. Yes, free. Visit the Gutenberg Project (http://promo.net/pg/) and rediscover the wonderful thoughts and styles that laid the foundation for today's authors. Let today's technology take you back to another time.

We live in a strange world of high technology that opens possibilities that used to reside only in comic books and science fiction novels. At the same time, we are living with the consequences of that technology that expose us to equally unimagined dangers. It's up to us to maximize the positive and minimize the negative. Whether or not we do that is something we cannot know right now.

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