PLUGGED IN : NEWS BYTES.

HOME ON THE NET: As part of an effort to increase homeownership among minorities, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has posted lending data on the Internet so community groups can have it to work with lenders. Data recently released by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council show the number of mortgage loans approved for African-American home buyers between 1993 and 1995 increased by 48 percent, from 162,379 to 240,271. For Latinos, the increase was 37 percent, from 157,434 to 216,049. The data on the internet will offer detailed statistics on home loan applications, approvals and denials from 9,500 lending institutions that must report this information annually. The Internet address is http://www.rtk.net/www/data/hmda-area.html. The data also is available through the HUD home page at http://www.hud.gov/toolkit.html and clicking on HMDA.

GAME PLAN: Two small companies that have developed on-line game networks, Mpath Interactive and Catapult Entertainment Inc., today will announce plans to merge. The combined company will be use MPath's name. Terms were not disclosed. MPath plans to soon launch a service on the World Wide Web that will allow people to play games with other people through their personal computers. Catapult's XBand service allows owners of video game systems, such as Nintendo or Sega machines, to play games with others across the country.

RANDOM ACCESS

A BIRD IN THE COMPUTER: You no longer have to venture outdoors in search of feathered friends. Your personal computer can now become a helpful, if occasionally imperfect, bird-watching companion. The two largest publishers of bird-watching guides in print have released CD-ROMs offering extensive databases of text and photographs, as well as one incredibly valuable feature that books can't match: audio clips of bird calls that play through your computer's speakers: ``National Audubon Society Interactive CD-ROM Guide to North American Birds'' (Knopf New Media, 800-793-2665; Web site at http://www.randomhouse. com/audubon; Windows, Macintosh; $49 street); and ``Peterson Multimedia Guides: North American Birds'' (Houghton Mifflin Interactive, 800-829-7962; Web site at www.hminet.com; Windows; $49 street).

CYBER-NIXON: ``Nixon: The CD-ROM'' could have used a Rosemary Woods. Woods, you may recall, was the White House secretary blamed for cutting 18 minutes from one of Richard M. Nixon's potentially damaging Watergate tapes. An equally forceful editor might have been in order for this new CD-ROM account of Nixon and Watergate. The $39.95 disc, a companion to the Oliver Stone movie, was released last month in conjunction with the video version of the film. The CD-ROM includes thousands of pages of previously unpublished documents, a graphical representation of the Oval Office, and searchable transcripts from the Watergate hearings and the White House tapes. All in time for Friday, the 22nd anniversary of Nixon's resignation.