CD-ROM
As a means of creating the ultimate autobiographical document,My Life - a CD-ROM packaged in a metal film canister - promises to ask about "your every feeling, thought, and memory." It comes darn close to doing so. Fifty thousand beefy, probing questions are the disc's most impressive, if overwhelming, feature. Yet even for the very patient, completing My Life and reproducing your life in electronic form may take more time than you have in this lifetime.
Instead, try a selective approach to this self-inflicted interrogation. To navigate the disc, use its multilevel map with 235 topics grouped under headings such as Who Am I, What I Have Done, and My Sexual History, each leading to wagonloads of questions. Remember, you don't have to talk about the relationship that failed years ago. And believe it or not, whenMy Life asks about your first experience with a magazine and a flashlight, you aren't required to provide a memorial. Instead, have some fun recalling your favorite baby-sitter. Look back on those people you hated. Record your favorite salad recipe for the benefit of future generations. The casual user will pick and choose, wandering through questions while enjoying references and quotes from Matt Groening, Harry Crews, and Socrates. For most,My Life will be an entertaining memoir, not an obsession.
Your autobiography, in all its glorious detail, is preserved for posterity by burning it on CD-ROM or putting it on the free Life.com Web site. The software tutorial helps with each step, although you need the right equipment to add images and sound. Somewhat strangely, each individual collection of personal information is accompanied by the same semitransparent company logo that shows up onscreen. In fact, the very act of popping Grandma in the computer seems rather too much like Wesley Crusher learning about his dad onStar Trek.
As for the free Web site, I started creating mine and ran into a 10-page memorandum of rights and responsibilities; I was most put off by Life.com's additional feature of creating an extensive user profile of me for its advertisers. Evidently the company's ultimate vision involves a world of My Life converts, their well-organized and integrated selves displayed proudly on the Web - and brought to you by Bud Lite.
My Life: $69; $59 for download. Life.com: (888) 882 5433,www.life.com.
STREET CRED
Camtastic
The Drive to Drive
Bot-Conquest
Is That a V Series in Your Pocket ...
Scripting With Sharks
A Brighter Idea
This Life's for You
Read Me
Music
Meat and Greet
The Rite Stuff at JPL
Headset Smasher
Thief of Arts
Just Outta Beta
Think Small
Finding the Fast Lane Fast
Contributors
