Online Games

Movies "on demand. " Interactive television. Software that you can use instantly simply by visiting a Web site. High-fidelity online music. Lightning-fast video games played over the Internet. They all are examples of broadband content - the stuff that proponents of fast Internet connections hope will entice consumers to sign up for cable modems or digital subscriber lines. Thousands of companies are experimenting with broadband content, and many - including multimedia Web sites, America Online, and broadcast and cable-TV networks - are already delivering it to those Web surfers who can get it. "Everyone thinks of movie trailers, or MP3 downloads [when broadband is mentioned]

It was billed as Karpov vs. the Rest of the World. After a long battle, the rest of the world resigned. The first match between a chess champion - Russian master Anatoly Karpov - and a global audience that had logged in via the Internet ended 64 moves and 4 1/2 hours after it began yesterday. It was a battle waged by democratic rule; whichever move was selected by the majority of participants was the move selected by a computer that counted the votes. Karpov, playing in Helsinki, Finland, had no such consensus-building to worry about; he moved wherever he pleased.

As Insight Interactive Group grew, the advertising agency's founders decided they needed a more visible home. So they moved their three-year-old firm specializing in interactive marketing from Wilmington to Philadelphia, a block north of City Hall. Started in 1999 by three friends at GDA Digital Media, a Wilmington agency, Insight had five employees plus the founders. When it moved here in May, it already had grown to nearly 40 employees, and it has added about 10 more since then.

Moments after extricating his 6-foot-5, 265-pound frame from the stock car's cockpit, Sav Rocca walked sheepishly toward the board toting the speeds posted during yesterday's exhibition runs at Dover International Speedway. Rocca is no oversize would-be NASCAR driver, but rather a burly Australian-rules football star who hopes to turn coaches' heads when he joins fellow rookies and free agents for the opening of the Eagles' training camp tomorrow at Lehigh University. By topping the charts with a run at 119.72 m.p.h.

L INDSAY LOHAN'S house arrest got a bit more boring yesterday. She can't have any more house parties. She can, however, still listen to house music. And watch reruns of "House. " Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner chided Lindsay for having rooftop parties at her home while serving out her probation violation, but said that the actress hadn't violated any other rules. "If you are guilty of some violation of your probation, I don't see it," Sautner said.

The key feature of HTC's new Thunderbolt smartphone is its ability to tap into Verizon's speedy next-generation data network. Unfortunately, there's little else to distinguish or recommend about the device. The Thunderbolt is the latest in a string of supersized smartphones running Google's Android operating system. With its 4.3-inch screen, touch-sensitive buttons below the screen, forward-facing camera above it and 8-megapixel camera and metallic kickstand in back, it's a close cousin of the Evo 4G, a phone that HTC released for Sprint nearly a year ago. The chief difference between the two is that the Thunderbolt can access Verizon's 4G network rather than Sprint's.

In the Region Rite Aid sees Nov. sales fall Hurricane Sandy and generic drugs teamed up to squeeze drugstore operator Rite Aid Corp.'s revenue from established stores last month. The Camp Hill, Pa., company said that revenue from stores open at least a year fell 3 percent in the five weeks that ended Dec. 1. That included a 4.2 percent decrease in pharmacy sales - even though the prescription count climbed 2.2 percent - and a drop of less than 1 percent from the rest of the store.

My alter ego, Chille, has got it made. She sports a to-die-for Afro and shows off washboard abs in a red halter top and low-waisted ankle-length skirt. Complete strangers invite her to star in beauty pageants. Handsome men with rippling muscles tell her she's gorgeous. She pops up at folks' homes uninvited, eats, naps, and plays pool in her pajamas. Yes. Chille is chillin'. No wonder I enjoy roaming around as carefree Chille Sim, as opposed to trudging through life as worker bee Elizabeth Wellington.

It was 6 in the morning when Karen Kosoy discovered her kindergartner still glued to the Nintendo game - he'd stayed up all night trying to rescue a legendary princess named Zelda. "My God, he's addicted," she remembers thinking. Jamie Kosoy has his own memory: His mother pulled the plug and threw the video game player in the trash. "The most traumatic moment of my life," he says. By middle school, while friends were playing street hockey outside, Kosoy was rushing indoors to chart their stats on his computer.

Mariano Rivera and the New York Yankees closed in yesterday on a 2-year contract extension through 2006 that would be worth about $21 million. "They're very close," the reliever said. "I don't think it should be tough wrapping it up. " The deal would be worth about $10.5 million annually in 2005 and 2006. New York would have a team option for 2007 at approximately $10.5 million, and the option could become guaranteed based on statistics such as games and games finished. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman planned to talk last night with Rivera's agent, Fernando Cuza.