IBM's announcement that it was funding a Deep Computing Institute made news on the Web when it was announced on May 24, but little offline. That's a shame. Deep Computing is a hugely significant convergence of technology, deep corporate pockets, the open source software model, artificial intelligence, powerful new 3-D visualization programs, a new generation of supercomputers and some of the best researchers in the world. This won't solve all the world's problems, but it will sure tackle them in a radical new way. Especially the ones whose solutions have been beyond reach.

For more than a decade, various law enforcement agencies -- perhaps in need of bad guys to replace Soviet spies and jailed Mafia bosses -- have warred in a very public way against hackers, maligned by both media and law enforcement as a dangerous menace. So Kevin Mitnick ends up doing more jail time than a true convicted robber baron like Michael Milken. This stereotype is as false as it is dumb. Real hackers don't steal, vandalize or damage. They are most often freedom-loving and generous problem solvers and information sharers.

"The Matrix" and "Phantom Menace" are a great study in contrasts when it comes to looking at movies, technology and geek culture. "Matrix" might be the easiest and cheapest test of geekdom yet. Geeks will almost surely love it. Others might scratch their heads in wonder. This is the closest popular culture has ever come to capturing the strange world of virtual reality.

You won't see Colonel Sanders out shilling for "Trekkies," or that noxious little rat who works for Taco Bell, either. But this documentary, which bravely opened against PMenace this last weekend is a loving tribute to that other Force in sci-fi and techno culture -- Star Trek in its many incarnations, and its fans. At the end I post a mini-review of Menace, too. (The first one to read it wins some fried chicken, a Jar Jar air freshener and one of my dozen"How To Install Linux" handbooks.

Weblogs -- described by one of their creators as the "pirate radio stations" of the Web, are a new, personal, and determinedly non-hostile evolution of the electric community. They are also the freshest example of how people use the Net to make their own, radically different new media. A look at Weblogs plus a list of a few identifiable existing species in the electric community. Feel free, of course, to add your own.

I've seen it. A gang of LinuxExpo attendees and exhibitors ranging from Larry Augustin and Tim O'Reily all the way to Raster and Mandrake and lowly scum like Hemos and I raided a local NC theater. A large number of the people in the group had already seen the movie, but I went in as open minded as I could be. My review will attempt to be as spoiler free as possible, but no guarantees. The short review is that I really liked it, but with a few disclaimers. It is not a perfect movie, but it ain't bad.

Electric Communities are used by almost everyone online, but they're little studied or understood. Scientists like Mark Stefik of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center are finding that e-communities have their own social and biological traits: that e-dwellers show many of the same traits as animal species. Some are hunters, others gatherers, watchers and defenders. Part One looks at the biology of e-communities. Part Two looks at the evolution of new kinds of communities -- weblogs, in particular -- and lists some species traits.

Just weeks after Littleton, there's been another school shooting -- this time in Conyers, Georgia, where a sophomore student shot and injured (none-fatally) six students. The suspect profile is familiar. Classmates describe him as a "normal" kid with plenty of friends, and no associations with any particular "groups". These shootings will almost surely re-spark, at least in part, the post-Littleton hysteria, including the media notion that computer gamers and people who wear dark clothing are mass murderers. Here's some perspective. This week, the FBI announced that crime is dropping like a rock, to its lowest levels in half a century. Says a leading criminologist: "For most of our kids, school is the safest place to be."

Twenty years ago, people were delighted to discover "Star Wars" an original movie fueled by the power of mythology and some great effects. This isn't a review (I haven't seen the movie yet) but times have sure changed. "Phantom Menace" is being launched in a cloud of greedy, obnoxious, even shameless hype. Lucas, a self-styled Hollywood rebel, is proving himself to be yet another sell-out, his hypocritical posturing collapsing under the weight of countless toy store tie-ins and inter-galactic pizza and soda promotions.

Physicists, gamers, Web designers and developers and engineers took up (with a vengeance) the question of whether or not the Net and the Web was an Infinite Space, forever expansible. Most felt that while Web Space was infinite, desirable property isn't. Also comments about crackers, cryptography, gaming, virtual property, the future of the Net and the Web, and concerns about whether real world property laws apply online. All in all, a great cyber gab-fest, pro and con.

As promised, we've taken a look under the hood and banged the tires on Lokisoft's port of Civilization:CTP to Linux. I've given my thoughts below, and included a review from James Brief-click below for the details. If you know you want it now, buy it at Handeye.com.

Wednesday's column on Virtual Property brought a massive and fascinating outpouring of e-mail from gaming programmers and execs, Web architects, Cyber Movers and others transfixed by the idea of virtual property, an idea being dramatically advanced this week on eBay, where middle-class Americans are starting to shell out big bucks for virtual characters, potions and symbols. Quotes from a fraction of the enormous response to this idea, and some questions some of you might be able to answer (hopefully):

On eBay, people are shelling out thousands of dollars for gaming characters, symbols, armor, magical potions of trinkets. The media has missed the real story as usual: it isn't online violence, it's digital property. eBay may be even more significant than Mp3's. As the middle-class plunges into gaming, the Net is facing real world problems like housing costs and congestion. The result is another landmark in Net evolution: the owning of virtual property, something that may change the nature of Net economics and knock the gaming world for a loop.

The bad news was that countless geeks and nerds were hassled, "counseled" and sent home from school last week for looking odd or saying what they thought. Geek Profiling was epidemic. The good news was that there was an extraordinary sense of community on the Net and Web last week, and that the word got out, big time. The "Voices From The Hellmouth" were heard and quoted on some of the country's most influential mainstream media, just as many of you had hoped for. You did good. And a whole new stream of messages came in, many hopeful, positive and looking ahead Beyond the Hellmouth. They ranged from starting a Geek Church to offers of help from kids, parents, and teachers.

Since Littleton, the cost of being different has gone up. Thousands of powerful e-mail messages have chronicled an educational system that glorifies the traditional and the normal, and brutalizes and alienates people who are or who are perceived as different under various names -- geeks, freaks, nerds, Goths and oddballs. One of the powerful messages coming out of Colorado is that so many of these "different" kids say they find school boring, oppressive, and utterly hostile, feelings echoed by educational survivors, many of whom are now parents. The hysteria over Littleton has only made things worse. It's time geeks defined and lobbied for some new rights. From their own messages, here are some places to start.

Rob/Jeff and the hardware need a rest, Slashdotters need to be able to log on, and I have thousands of e-mails to read and sort through. These messages are a river of pain, and we could all use a breather. I'll be back tomorrow with "The Rights Of Geeks."

Heads Up. This is in the Be Careful What You Wish For Dept: A bunch of reporters and producers are trawling the site looking for geek kids to put on TV and radio, and to interview for newspaper stories. Journalism has suddenly discovered that this story is a little more complicated than violent video games and geek monsters.

Be careful, especially those of you who are younger. Some of these reporters get it, some don't. Some will worry about your best interests, and others won't. I've declined to give any e-mail addresses of kids relaying the realities of life in High School to reporters, since in some cases, radio and TV exposure would make their lives worse, not better.

It's an individual choice, but think about it. If you need guidance, please feel free to e-mail me, as I worked in newspapers and for a TV network before becoming a cyber-gasbag and writer.Update: 04/28 02:03 by H : Doug has also put up ListenToUs. This is a gathering place for us to communicate with each on social issues, especially in light of Littleton.

The one and only Eric S. Raymond has submitted his response to the Mind Craft report that we've talked about a bit here lately. This is a good wrap-up type piece which nicely summarizes the flaws with the testing (which range "yeah maybe" to "you gotta be kidding!"). Anyone who thought the tests had any validity should read this.

Enlightenment Philosophers battled for a revolutionary freedom beyond what they called "The Holy Circle" that dominated their culture. The wall-busting Net, it turns out is also busting up the "Holy Circles" of our time. The Net isn't just one revolution, but a series of social revolutions. More and more, it's beginning to look like the first Enlightenment never ended, but just took a breather until the Digital Age arrived. Second in a series.

Generations no longer last a generation. Whether software applications or people, the length of a generation is decreasing, making communication across different platforms and languages difficult. "Sometimes I feel like a legacy system," goes the old blues song ...

Swept up by still more media hype, journalists are calling Kosovo the world's first Internet War. In the process, they advance an inherently creepy notion and manage to distort media, technology, the Internet and war all at the same time.