Salon | 21st: The 21st Challenge -- Rename that software

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T A B L E__T A L K

Whatever happened to customer service? Come to Table Talk's Digital Culture discussion area and talk about Internet Service Providers from hell.

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R E C E N T L Y

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(12/04/97)

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A review of Steven Johnson's sharp critical manifesto, "Interface Culture."
(12/03/97)

Are we ready for the library of the future?
By Cate Corcoran
Librarians have become the public's last-resort help desk
(12/02/97)

Pornutopia lost
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(12/01/97)

Apache's free-software warriors
By Andrew Leonard
Developers collaborate online -- and shake Microsoft and Netscape
(11/20/97)

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BROWSE THE
21ST ARCHIVES

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THE 21st CHALLENGE BY CHARLIE VARON AND JIM ROSENAU

BY CHARLIE VARON AND JIM ROSENAU

[Editor's note: Welcome to the 21st Challenge. Every two weeks, Charlie and Jim will devise a new challenge and offer some examples of what submissions might look like. You e-mail us your responses to the challenge. The winning response will receive a $25 gift certificate from Borders Books & Music. We'll publish the winner and other select entries. Then the whole thing will start over again.]

C H A L L E N G E_N O ._1
Change a letter and
rename that software
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E X A M P L E S

QUACKEN. Find the health practitioner that's right for you! No need for time-consuming office visits -- just enter your symptoms, fill in our short belief-system profile and Quacken does the rest. You'll get a short biography and anecdotes of success from each healer. With over 75,000 chiropractors, herbalists and shamans in the database, there's bound to be one that's right for your disease.

BILE MANAGER. For the executive committed to the strategic use of anger, this program is a must. Tracks your outbursts to up to 75 subordinates and automatically prompts you when an underling has gone for more than eight days without a dressing-down. Now with audio Quote of the Day, taken from just-released Nixon White House tapes! IBM 486 or better.

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R U L E S

Change only one letter of any existing product and write a brief (75 words or less) description of the new product.

Send your submissions via e-mail only to salon21st@salonmagazine.com. By submitting your entry you give Salon permission to publish it.

In two weeks we'll publish a winner and some selected entries -- and start over with a whole new challenge.
SALON | Dec. 5, 1997

Charlie Varon is a humorist and playwright. His works include "Ralph Nader Is Missing" and "Rush Limbaugh in Night School." Jim Rosenau is executive editor at Books That Work, a home and garden software publisher in Palo Alto, Calif. Jim and Charlie are also co-founders of the citizen group Californians for Earthquake Prevention.