"You have cabin fever!" It was my editor on the horn making a crackerjack diagnosis. "Get out of the house and find a computer show to attend."

"Great," I said. "Will ya pay my way to PC Expo in New York?" I could hear the wooden tip on his Hav-a-Tampa splintering. I took it as a no.

Still, getting out of the place sounded good. So I packed up my ancient HP OmniBook and headed to a favorite watering hole: Crown City Brewery in downtown Pasadena.

GIMME SOME JUICE

Writing a column while sitting in a pub is way cool. I'm surrounded by computer babes vying for my attention while the barkeep insists on buying me another Mt. Wilson Wheat.

O.K., maybe it's not that much fun. I usually spend my time watching the notebook's battery indicator drop faster than Apple stock. (And no, I wouldn't even consider bringing along an utterly uncool AC adapter.)

The solution to my coolness crisis was the Portable Power Pack, a seven-hour battery that can run just about anything: notebook, cell phone, or camcorder. I ran my OmniBook from noon till 6:30 p.m. without recharging. Ditto a pal's AST notebook. It even powered my cell phone in standby mode for six days. The company claims camcorders can run on it for 10 hours, something I didn't try. Of course, mileage will vary depending on your notebook and how you use it. The Pack takes 24 hours to recharge.

Did I say there was a catch? The battery weighs three pounds and costs $149. But it's amazingly flat and comes with its own notebook-like travel case.

The battery connects to your notebook by means of a car cigarette-lighter cord. Most modern notebooks come with the appropriate adapter, but my grizzled OmniBook doesn't. (I need the $79 NOTEpower, a DC-to-AC converter. It's a handy device to have around since it can power other AC devices.)

Is the Pack worth the bucks and the weight? Maybe. It sure beats looking for a power outlet when I'm on those Area 51 Stealth practice missions.

ROAD SOUNDS

The one thing that's missing from most old notebooks and even more business PCs is sound. I'm not talking about those squirrelly beeps but sound-card kind of sound, WAVs crashing against speakers.

Fear not. The StreetSound parallel port sound card is an answer. Sort of. You get a microphone port and outputs for a headset (included) or amplified speakers (not included). Plug the AC adapter into the wall, connect the card to a parallel port, and you've got sound. But don't get too excited. You can only play WAV files (that leaves out a lot of Web sites) and only 8-bit mono sound files at that.

Who's been naughty and nice? Gotcha! can turn your PC into a personal watchdog.

WHO'S WATCHING THE STORE?

As I finish this column (and my third beer), things are happening back at my home office. And Prescient's Gotcha! is recording every movement.

Gotcha! is a devilishly ingenious motion-detection program. Connect a video camera to your PC, and Gotcha! creates a video file of everything that happens in the office.

The program has several record modes. My favorite is Intrusion. Gotcha! records any movement in the camera's view. If there's no movement, the recording stops. And no one's aware it's happening. When Gotcha! notices movement, it starts recording and pops up your screensaver.

Aim the camera at the door, set the LookOut mode, and start playing Solitaire. If Gotcha! detects movement--say, your boss or spouse--it minimizes the topmost application.

Less interesting is Time Lapse, which takes snapshots at fixed intervals. Non-linear Time Lapse is subtler, recording the slightest change in the camera's view. I used this mode to record a wilting flower coming alive after it was watered.

The program's VCR-like controls let you view and save events, fast forward and reverse, go frame by frame, and view specific clips. You can also save files in AVI format to share with, um, friends.

You can even use Gotcha! to guard your cubicle from intruders or keep track of after-hours workers. I used it to see what in the world my dog does when I'm not around. I always thought he sat there and chewed the rawhide. Nope. The damned dog jumps up on my desk chair, pulls Computer Currents off the shelf, and paws through it.

© 1997 Steve Bass. All rights reserved.

Where to Buy

Portable Power Pack
1-800-Batteries
800/228-8374
www.800batteries.com/spec18.html
List price: $149

StreetSound
Street Technologies
914/682-4300
www.streetinc.com/stsound.htm
List price: $89

Gotcha!
Prescient Systems
415/366-5816
www.prescientsys.com
Web price: $44.95

--SB