DIGITAL L.A.; NOW, THE `WHOLE EARTH' IS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS.

Byline: David Bloom 

Off and on over about three decades, Stewart Brand and his cohorts created various versions of the Whole Earth Catalog and the equally useful quarterly Whole Earth Review.

It was a terrific resource for people trying to find the best tools and technology for all kinds of tasks, because Brand defined the term ``tool'' in the broadest possible way, with essays, reviews and contact information on everything from computer software to post-hole diggers.

The last catalog came out a few years back; the quarterly shut down then reopened for a while under other, less interesting management; and Brand went off to write books about the 10,000-year clock and other futuristic visions. Thankfully, however, something of the Whole Earth spirit is living on with the release this month of Informatica 1.0.

Subtitled ``access to the best tools for mastering the information revolution,'' it fancies itself a Whole Earth Catalog without the manure spreaders (other than metaphorically speaking; he DOES include some politically oriented Web sites).

It's a great resource, loaded with reviews, excerpts, tips on buying things such as laptop computers and broadband services, even goofy odds and ends like a search through an IBM database of U.S. patents for hits on the term ``mouse trap.''

Each page-long review gives prices, contact information, background, related resources, even a product's likely obsolescence horizon.

The book nicely rewards a sustained read or the serendipitous opening to a random page. And though the book's organization feels a bit haphazard, it is functional enough, with an index and table of contents to make searching a bit more straightforward.

I suspect part of my problem is that I long for a good search engine for the book itself, and ``paperware,'' to use author Peter M. Black's term, isn't so good for that. I'm guessing a more effective electronic search tool is included in the CD-ROM (which I didn't get to review) that can be bought in a bundle with the book, or separately, through www.etronica.com.

Black also promises to issue regular, downloadable disc updates to the book through the etronica Web site, creating what he calls in the introduction ``a kind of a magazine, but without the lag time of paper.''

Even with its minor shortcomings, I highly recommend this book as a cool, quirky compendium of goodies for the digital age. After all, as Black admits, this is version 1.0, and the first version of anything technological always stinks. Imagine how great this will be when Black hits his stride.

THROUGH THE ROOF

With the Consumer Electronics Show safely behind us, it's a good time to note that the show's sponsor, the Consumer Electronics Association, has now declared DVD the fastest-selling consumer electronics product ever.

Electronics companies sold 349,000 DVD players in the product's first year, 1997, then jumped to 1.08 million units in 1998. Final figures for 1999 are expected to top out around 3.5 million, and that doesn't count millions more DVD-ROM drives installed in computers of even modest cost, such as those by budget-conscious e-Machines and Avatar Technologies' V-Box.

Overall, about 5 million DVD players already have been sold, compared to about 1.1 million VCRs between 1975 and 1977, and 1.2 million CD players between 1983 and 1985.

For comparison, CEA officials said, almost 10 times as many DVD players were sold in their first year as CD players were, back in 1983. Of course, DVD players are helped by the fact that they are backward compatible, in that they can also play CDs, whereas CD players definitely couldn't play cassette or eight-track tapes or vinyl records.

Digital televisions, by the way, have been selling pretty well, too, topping out at more than 100,000 units this year, despite a couple of pretty substantial problems: They cost a lot - anywhere from $4,000 to $20,000 - and there's still not that much to watch, random sporting events and the CBS evening lineup notwithstanding.

My latest fave pick for a great DVD is ``The Wall,'' the old Pink Floyd film that has been completely redone for the digital age. Just as digital versions of ``Dark Side of the Moon'' were an early favorite among audiophiles with compact-disc players, so, too, this will likely be a hit with DVD cognoscenti.

The whiz kids over at Sony's High-Definition Data Center put the original print through a transfer to sparkling high-definition video, and the soundtrack was carefully remastered to 5.1 channels from the original stereo under the direction of Chief Floyd, Roger Waters.

They put in a ton of extra goodies, including two different documentaries about the film and band. The film itself may not have been blessed with the visual jaw-droppers of ``The Matrix'' (a k a, The Film That Sold a Million DVD Machines), but it's a great disc.

For oddball disc releases just in time for Valentine's Day (yes, men, it's almost that time, so think ahead), how about Fox Consumer Products' release of three two-episode volumes of ``Ally McBeal''?

Fox is also issuing a boxed, two-disc compilation of all six ``Ally'' episodes, a Vonda Shepard music video and a booklet with excerpts from ``Ally McBeal: The Official Guide.'' < In case you have legitimate wonders about how many times you can watch ``Ally'' hilarity or what impact it might have on your love life, Fox is also releasing some legitimately romantic movies, like ``Hope Floats,'' ``Ever After'' and ``One Fine Day.'' Float on.

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Photo: Informatica 1.0 provides readers worlds of information.