CLICK & DOUBLE CLICK: RING IN THE NEW YEAR WITH PARTIES, CONCERTS, CAMERAS ON INTERNET (COLUMN 19)

Cybertip: Stay tuned in 1997. We plan to start the new year with the weirdest and the best of the Web in 1996. If you have suggestions, e-mail us at movnldd.net

It's New Year's Eve and you don't have a date or a baby sitter? Never fear -- cyberspace is here.

Apparently Yahoo, the search engine, will be throwing a big New Year's Eve party on the Internet at

http://www.yahoo.com/promotions/newyears/

Peggy: You can share your New Year's resolutions on Yahoo's message board. Categories include resolutions for 1997, your most romantic New Year's Eve, party ideas, and what would you like to be doing when we say goodbye to the 20th century.

Joni: We hope that Yahoo and the rest of these pages resolve to get a spell check program for message boards.

Peggy: It also offers online events and celebrations from Yahoo! Japan and Yahoo! Deutschland.

Joni: They're already planning New Year's Eve 1999. Times Square 2000 is a 24-hour global celebration centered at Times Square.

Peggy: It will salute the coming of the Millennium in each of the world's 24 time zones. The event will begin at 7 a.m. (EST) Dec. 31, 1999, when the new year arrives in the Fiji Islands. Now that's planning.

Joni: Peggy, this site must have been designed just for you: It's crawling with specialized live cams aimed at Times Square. You can see the action from five different cameras, including a live satellite feed of the ball drop.

Peggy: The live cams are provided by EarthCam, which bills itself as the most comprehensive and easily navigated reference directory of live cams on the Internet. Let's take a peek.

http://www.earthcam.com

Joni: I guess we can see how the rest of the world is spending New Year's Eve. I'm attempting to fit this sidetrip into the theme, Peggy. You can browse sites by category or geographic region. I like their boast on the Netscape header: We never close.

Peggy: There is need to make excuses for a visit to a live cam site. Time for a peek should take precedence over all other stops. We, of course, went to the weird and bizarre category. You can view a turtle aquarium, a dorm room, a wallet cam (feel the pain) and even a potty cam.

Joni: What kind of people have time for this? There's a feet cam, which provides a view from ground level of feet and legs.

Peggy: Now where else could you find that but on the Internet.

Joni: There is also guinea pig television and a stimulating view of someone's lava lamp. Another computer wizard has put their 2-year-old's play area on live cam.

Peggy: Obviously, a parent gone berserk. Perhaps that parent should have bought a wearable, wireless web cam instead. It's the latest thing, and several can be seen on this site.

Joni: Leave you passport at home. You can see beaches, mountains resorts and other scenic wonders, a room with a view, up close and personal.

Peggy: You can visit spots around the globe -- Switzerland, Germany, the Empire State Building or "dull Nebraska." You can view a sunset in Hawaii or a live volcano ...

Joni: And of course one of our favorites, the Bourbon Street Cam.

Peggy: Or the camera focusing on Times Square as the ball drops tonight.

Joni: You don't have to wait for the ball to drop for New Year's fun at the Mediadome.

http://www.mediadome.com

Peggy: This party originates in San Francisco, and they plan a full night of music and comedy featuring a live webcast with Chris Isaak, Los Lobos, Tom Rhodes and others. To participate, you need to download RealAudio and StreamWorks Player to watch and hear live, streaming video and audio. Both can be downloaded from this site.

Joni: Streaming means you can experience live audio or video over the net without waiting for long downloads. This is certainly welcomed by those surfers with little patience. While it works with almost any browser, you should have at least Navigator 2.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0. You also need a sound card and speakers.

Peggy: All you have to do is turn on your computer and provide your own champagne -- of course. Three channels of live audio that will play during the evening. You can pick. The party is brought to you from the people of C-Net and Intel. Should be good.

Joni: If you are interested in some more facts and figures on the New Year's celebration in Times Square, you can find it from the Times Square Business Improvement District.

http://www.times-square.org/newyear.htm

For example, did you know the ball is made of aluminum and weighs more than 500 pounds? It's 6 feet in diameter and is illuminated by 180, 75-watt halogen lamps. It's also covered with 12,000, 3/4-inch rhinestones. It says it will begin its descent from the 77-foot flagpole atop One Times Square exactly at 11:59 p.m. and will reach the numerals 1997 exactly at midnight. At that moment, 3,000 pounds of the world famous New Year's Eve confetti will float onto Times Square from 13 different buildings.

Peggy: I didn't know.

Joni: Funny. If that weren't enough, there will be fireworks, lasers, and search lights and spot lights scanning across the crowd of 500,000. About 300 million television viewers will also watch the spectacular. I'd hate to be in charge of cleanup on the morning after.

Peggy: Kids might find some global New Year's perspectives at KidLink. This grass-roots project aimed at getting as many children in the age group 10 to 15 involved in global dialogue. Since it started in 1990, about 60,000 kids from 87 countries have been involved. One of the projects is holiday legends, poems and stories from around the world. To get to the posting about New Year's Eve, go to

http://www.kidlink.org/KIDPROJ/MCC/New_Year_s_Eve.html

Joni: You can read about rituals from Sri Lanka, Guatemala, Norway and, of course, the U.S.A. No doubt, there's a lot more happening out on the Internet tonight. Much has happened on the World Wide Web in 1996. The sights and sounds have literally exploded on the Internet. We're looking forward to see what 1997 holds.

Peggy: For one thing, it will bring an on-line version of the Southeast Missourian. Stay tuned for details.

E-mail us at movnldd.net.

See you in cyberspace.

~Joni Adams is managing editor and Peggy Scott is graphics editor at the Southeast Missourian.