First of all, Merry Christmas Eve. Can't think of a better place to be. As for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, round up all the women and teenaged girls you know who thought Charlie's Angels was awesome and take them to see the real thing, perhaps the greatest and most beautiful kung fu movie ever made. "Crouching Tiger" makes The Matrix's martial-arts choreography seem primitive.

Below is part seven in our continuing reprint of John Katz's columns about the events in Littleton, Colorado, and the reaction that the columns and that tragedy generated.

Less than a decade ago, the Virtual Community was one of the most powerful ideas emanating from the Net, and BBS's and the nascent Internet were already providing glimpses of a better world to come. Proponents are a lot wiser -- and sadder -- now. Can the Virtual Community survive adolescent flamers and the dotcom era? Yes, but it will have to be dramatically reconceived. (First of a series).

Gaming cheats like "Up, Up, Down, Down..." are techno-folklore, a universal introduction to people of the gaming era. Other generations told war stories or bragged about their sexual exploits. Gamers trade techniques and other lore -- early experiences, confrontations, conflicts, great exploits, cheats, tricks, myths, and legends. Gaming is moving so quickly that it's time to start building some gaming archives. What, for example, is the most addictive game, now or ever: Asheron's Call? Quake? Final Fantasy 8? Red Alert2? You can testify, brag, reminisce, and otherwise post your own gaming stories and experiences here. (And more below about some surprising new stats on Xmas game sales figures, and gender and gaming)

Yes ladies and gentleman, its Rob's favorite time of year: No not the seasons with the fat red-suited man, or the candle thing, or that manger thing, but rather the time when the new Disney flick hits theaters. Its been a long time since Tarzan, and I've watched around 250 hours of anime since then, so click on to read my full review of the flick. (The short spoiler free version: its fun, but its very kid oriented.)

Below is another sampling of the email and comments that Jon Katz inspired with his "Voices From The Hellmouth" series about the events that rocked Littleton, Colorado.

The average American child plays videogames forty-nine minutes a day. Some play for much longer and over many years. There are few studies of the effects of gaming, but some traits are increasingly obvious: gamers are often independent, strategic-thinkers and problem solvers. Their interactive instincts often collide unhappily with the traditions and institutions of a static, passive world. Gamers are the new artists, visionaries, and story-tellers of our time, sparked by astonishingly inventive new technologies like the PS 2. Ready or not, they will become increasingly influential. Third in a series.

Way back in October we solicited ideas for Christmas presents for geeks. This was done with Wired, and the results appear in the current issue (the lime-green colored one: unless you're blind, you can't miss it. You'll only be able to find the first copy, tho). The authors' money will be a nice Christmas present to the EFF. Thanks go to Paul, who did all the really hard work compiling the final list from all your ideas. Now read on to see the list.

There's almost no political discussion offline about the fuzzy boundaries between human and other "lifeforms" -- clones, cyborgs, mutants, AI. That topic has mostly fallen to Hollywood, which has taken up the issue in a series of movies -- Blade Runner, Gattaca, The Matrix, X-Men. Some of these movies are masterpieces. Some, like "The Sixth Day" are less ambitious. They are just entertaining. (Note: As some of you have noticed, we're doing a regular Sunday tech culture column devoted to certain movies, TV programs, music and books with tech themes.)

If the iPAQ looks nice, the Yopy looks sexy, the Agenda intrigues you, and a V-Tech Helio running Pocket Linux looks interesting to you ... then you may enjoy this sweep of the available Palmtop GUIs with an emphasis on Free ones, written by reader 1010011010.

Gaming has dramatically widened the growing cultural schism between the young and old. Historians and sociologists call the adult world's response to gaming a "moral panic," defined as a severe societal response to a dramatic development that elders and institutions can't control or understand, so therefore demonize and fear. Even before this, the young are increasingly coming to believe that older people have less and less to teach them. Second in a series.

Five months ago, in the name of authorial independence and technological empowerment (not to mention money), Stephen King decided to bypass his publisher and sell his serial novel The Plant directly to readers over the Net. The story is about a predatory vine that terrorizes a small publishing house. Last week, the experiment was suspended. Whether or not he scared his e-readers, King instantly traumatized the publishing industry, which suddenly had to confront its worst nightmare -- technologically-empowered writers end-running Stone Age marketing notions to tell their own stories and sell them to readers without middlemen. An analysis.

Unbreakable is a darkly fantastic movie from director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense). Starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, Unbreakable is an instantly recognizable (to fans) homage to Superhero comic books, to which it is unwaveringly faithful. Anybody who loved (or loves) comic books will grasp its fidelity and complexity, and love it. Anybody who loves movies and comic books will love it all the more. (Note: this review gives away no plot elements not shown in the ads and trailers.)

The pace of cultural change in the western world has accelerated so rapidly that it's reached the breaking point, according to the late anthropologist Margaret Mead. And that was before the Net, and the ascent of role playing and electronic gaming. No longer a subculture, gaming is becoming our ascendant culture, growing more than any other cultural form, sparking a moral panic and affecting the way people think, play, learn, communicate and work. First in a series.

Here are some more of the Slashdot comments (and sobering e-mails) that Jon Katz inspired when he started writing about the frustrations of high-school life in Voices From The Hellmouth and subsequent columns.

Here is the next in our Hellmouth Revisited series; below is Jon Katz' column "The Cost of Being Different," a look into what it means to grow up and face high school for a painfully large number of kids. What would make things better? Will being different always cause so much suffering?

The country that helped invent the most technologically advanced information network in world history can't eliminate bureaucratic lines, create simple ballots, or tally up the votes that will determine the future of its own government. We need technological reforms, not merely political ones. Government has failed to use technology to deal with issues such as fund-raising and civic information in the Information Age, and citizens are paying the price.

If Victor Frankenstein were running around 21st century America, he wouldn't have to hide in a tower with the monster. He'd be in Silicon Valley, lunching with venture capitalists or counting his bio-tech shares and planning the move to shiny new offices. If the Net is, in fact, the New Jerusalem, it needs a different kind of politics, especially the kind that begin with an ethical and moral purpose. Some ideas of mine follow; please add yours.

Details of the Napster-Bertelsmann deal have been dribbling out all week, and they're interesting. Micro-payment subscription models are now the talk of drooling CEOs everywhere, many of whom think that Bertelsmann head Thomas Middlehoff has saved the idea of profitable intellectual property. Bertelsmann is clearly mulling the possibilities of open-media business models as well. Has Middlehoff found the perfect compromise, or has he jumped into the Big Muddy? (First in a series.)

Here are more selections from the flood of comments that followed Jon Katz' series about Voices from the Hellmouth. See Part One to see the words which started this outpouring.