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T A B L E__T A L K

With its announcement of a $45 million quarterly profit, is Apple in the clear? Join the Apple deathwatch in Digital Culture

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R E C E N T L Y

Let's Get This Straight
By Scott Rosenberg
Microsoft spins, Netscape liberates, Wired ... synergizes?
(01/23/98)

Let's Get This Straight
By Scott Rosenberg
When it comes to new media, the New Yorker remains hopelessly out of the loop
(01/22/98)

The mayor of cyberville
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
A conversation with Echo founder Stacy Horn
(01/21/98)

Education in the ether
By Vicky Phillips
The classical ideal of learning thrives in Net-based classrooms
(01/20/98)

The return of the electric sheep
By Andrew Leonard
New "Blade Runner" game reviewed
(01/19/98)

BROWSE THE
21ST ARCHIVES

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[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 this round will receive a signed copy of Salon technology writer Andrew Leonard's new book, "Bots: The Origin of New Species." We'll publish the winning entry and other select entries. Then the whole thing will start over again.]

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C H A L L E N G E_N O ._4

Haiku error messages

The world of high-tech has been called soulless -- a charge that is borne out by on-screen error messages like "abort/retry/fail?" and "404 -- file not found." Below, a modest attempt at change -- an error message in the form of a haiku poem:

Something you entered
transcended parameters.
So much is unknown.

Readers are invited to submit up to three error messages written as haiku poems. The haiku is a three-line poem in the 5/7/5 form (first line 5 syllables, second line 7, third line 5).

R U L E S: Send your submissions via e-mail only to salon21st@salonmagazine.com. Please include your full name and an accurate e-mail address so we can contact you if you're a winner. By submitting your entry you give Salon permission to publish it. Deadline for entries is Feb. 2, 1998.

In two weeks we'll publish a winner and some selected entries -- and start over with a whole new challenge.

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N E X T_P A G E | Results of Challenge No. 3: Caller IQ and other new premium phone services