Your Technology Jun. 22, 1998

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A VIRTUAL THEME PARK

Imagine building and then riding your own virtual-reality roller coaster or going rafting in a river full of dinosaurs. At Disney's new high-tech theme park, DisneyQuest, which opens Friday in Orlando, Fla., visitors can do that and more--like ride bumper cars equipped with cannon balls that send other cars spinning out of control. Can't make the trip to Orlando? Don't worry. Some 25 regional DisneyQuest mega-arcades will open around the country by the year 2000.

DOWNLOAD A BEST SELLER

Books and computers are merging, thanks to the first electronic books, being introduced this week. The Softbook ($299) from SoftPress in Menlo Park, Calif, is a 3-lb. unit with a built-in modem that can hold up to 100,000 pages of text. Owners simply download text from the company's website and click through the pages on the unit's 9.5-in. black-and-white screen to read each book. (Cost: about $20 for a best seller.) Both the Softbook and the smaller, lighter RocketBook from NuvoMedia in Palo Alto, Calif., will be available in the fall.

BEYOND THE BEIGE BOX

Longing to make a style statement with your fabulously fast new PC? The Panda Project of Boca Raton, Fla., has introduced the Rock City PC ($2,595) in a distinctive 12.5-in. blue aluminum cube. The striking case isn't just for looks, though. The aircraft-grade aluminum cube houses a powerful 400-Mhz Pentium II processor, 64 MB of memory and a gargantuan 6-GB hard drive.

--By Anita Hamilton