DIGITAL L.A. : `CONNECTIONS' HOST SOFT-WIRES BOOK OF VAST KNOWLEDGE.

Byline: David Bloom 

If you created a book that mirrored the way many of us seek information on the World Wide Web, it might end up reading a lot like James Burke's latest tome, ``The Knowledge Web'' (Simon & Schuster, 262 pages; $25).

Burke wrote and hosted the PBS TV series ``The Day the Universe Changed'' and ``Connections'' (``Connections 3'' is now on The Learning Channel) and created a fun computer game of the same name a few years back. Now he's taking another traipse through the pages of scientific and cultural history with ``The Knowledge Web.''

As with previous books such as ``The Pinball Effect'' and, of course, ``Connections,'' Burke bounces freely across the centuries, tying together technological developments and their cultural, economic and political impacts with other seemingly unrelated topics in other parts of the world.

The book's subtitle - ``From Electronic Agents to Stonehenge and Back - and Other Journeys Through Knowledge'' - gives some idea of its dizzying breadth.

The result can be remarkably non-linear, hop-scotching across two dozen developments in a few pages, highlighting interesting figures from history briefly before heading on to another one. From Kellogg's Corn Flakes to Coleridge, corn cobs to carborundum, he traces ties across time that prove intriguing and entertaining.

Burke further encourages this Web-like approach with a primitive sort of hypertext that he calls ``gateways.'' Every so often, a pair of numbers will appear next to a term, showing where a connection can be found elsewhere in the book for readers interested in pursuing a different tangent than whatever direction Burke chose in organizing his writing.

You can jump through the gateways, or stick with Burke's meandering story line, depending on your bent. And if you've got a slow Internet connection, you'll definitely be able to hop across Burke's gateways faster than you could surf the Web. Plus, with a book, you can read it on a really high-resolution, easily portable ``flat screen. ''

Guiding Light

Good news for gaming fans online. The same folks who brought us the truly wonderful All-Music Guide (at www.allmusic.com) have created the All-Game Guide (at www.allgame.com) with obvious ambitions to be just as all-encompassing.

The All-Music Guide has long been one of the best resources (both online and in a series of terrific books) for learning more about musicians of all kinds and the music they've created.

The All-Game Guide is similar in its ambitious reach, with information broken down by a dozen kinds of game genres and nearly 50 platforms, stretching all the way back to the very earliest, now long-dead consoles (Pong, anyone?).

You can search by company (Electronic Arts, unsurprisingly, generates a massive list), by character and much more.

There's great trivia here: Nintendo's Mario surfaced in 1981 as Jumpman, in another game. But he got a new name and his own starring role when then-president of Nintendo of America Minoru Arakawa said the character looked a lot like his Italian landlord, Mario Segali.

The site also has reviews, codes and cheats, difficulty ratings and more for specific games. Its creators still have some substantial work to do because many games lack much or any information, and areas like a guide to notable video-gaming leaders haven't yet been implemented.

But the folks behind the All-Music Guide (the general home page has been cannily renamed the All-Media Guide to include sister sites for movies and classical music) built their prodigious database of information by relying on the qualitative input of thousands of fans.

As with the All-Music Guide, a player will be able to provide reviews and other information that will help shape how the game is rated, and give other players a sense of its gameplay.

The more that happens, the more worthwhile the site. In time, this could be a treasure.

Charge it

If your child's Game Boy is devouring batteries at an alarming rate, which it no doubt is if Pokemon or some other all-consuming title is in the house, here's a nifty answer to the battery dollar drain: an attachable, rechargeable power pack that wraps around the game machine for up to 22 hours of non-stop use.

The Game Buddy from Battery Technologies Inc. also doubles as a night light when you plug it in to recharge, giving off a soft glow. (Of course, the night light may just be a beacon of trouble for an ought-to-be-sleeping child).

The Game Buddy uses built-in rechargable alkaline manganese batteries, which the company says will last for at least 2,000 hours, saving you a ton of money over the daily Duracell dose.

I love this product's design, which about doubles the thickness of a Game Boy Pocket but still allows access to all the important ports.

The company also has just released a version of the Game Buddy for the fatter Game Boy Color , though I've not seen it yet. For more information, check out BTI's Web site at www.game-buddy.com.

In the office

Microsoft began its promotional blitz for the latest update of its Office software package this week. Trust me, you'll hear plenty about it elsewhere from the vaunted MS publicity machine.

For those who've been avoiding this kind of thing, however, Office 2000 includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint, along with one or more publishing and Internet programs, depending on edition.

The entire thing is tightly integrated with soon-to-come versions of Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer 5.0, and operating system, Windows 2000, which makes it easier to use, but no doubt will make Microsoft's anti-trust trial more difficult.

But if you're a small-time business or home user, do you really need to spend close to $200 to upgrade to the relevant editions of this software? Probably not, and certainly not right away, a refrain we've sung before regarding Microsoft upgrades.

Most of Office 2000's biggest benefits will pertain to people working in large corporations trying to share information with each other, particularly over Web sites both inside the company and across the Internet.

That said, like remoras clinging to a really big shark, other software companies already are releasing add-on software designed to expand what Office 2000 does. One such company is Streetwise Software, which has two packages that work with both Office 97 and 2000.

Office Letters 2000 provides a series of electronic guides to writing better, along with a raft of stock letters for your business and personal needs. It's just the sort of thing small companies and work-at-home types can most use, given their typically slender resources. The package also comes with 500 fonts.

Office Graphics 2000 packages some of Streetwise's fine Professor Franklin graphics and photo editing tools with tons of clip art, fonts and design templates for all three of Office's main programs.

The package also includes Art Alive 3D!, an art program with more than 500 3-D models that you can manipulate, dress up and drop into your documents. All told, this is a sort of odds-and-ends package of nifty little stuff that fills out some areas Microsoft somehow overlooked.

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Photo: James Burke's latest book reads like a Web-surfing journey.