A new study finds computers have become a fixture in many kid's lives at an unbelievable pace -- 72 percent of U.S. households with kids now have computers, many times the number five years ago. But the study by the Packard Foundation also finds an outrageous gap in computers and Net access between rich and poor kids at home and in schools, an issue that has so far failed to arouse campus activists, the tech industry, or President Bush, who outlined his educational initiatives this week without once even mentioning computers or technology. The study also has new stats on kids and computer use by age and activity. (Read more).

Dracos asks: "Some friends and I are developing a tabletop fantasy RPG. The concept for our magic rules is based on a fourth generation language ^[?] , combined with an object model. I've spent the last few days searching the net, but all I've found is information on how to design data structures for use with 4GLs, not 4GLs themselves. The related alt.lang.* newsgroups appear to be dead.Does anyone know of any resources on how to design a 4GL? Information of our game, as well as the rules, can be found at http://www.thedragonsforge.com."

zuluwarrior writes "That Beatdown Reporter braved the sea of smelly geeks and visited this year's Gen Con in Milwaukee WI. for the latest computer game news, RPG and board game info and to see if he rolls a natural 20. Top stuff."

Ant was the first of a number of folks to write about the press release that came out from LucasArts and Bioware. Bioware, you probably remember, has done Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate with their Infinity Engine. Pretty cool stuff - the setting of the game is going to be prior to the Star Wars movies. I don't know whether that means prior to Episode I or Episode IV, but the real-world ship date is supposed to be 2002. So, donna hold your breath.

On April 5th you asked Ian Clarke of FreeNet many questions about this new project, which is designed to permit almost totally anonymous Internet posting of almost any kind of material. Here are his answers.

Nastard writes "LucasArts announced that they will be partnering with Sony and Verant (the guys who brought us EverQuest) to bring us a massive multiplayer RPG based upon the Star Wars universe. The article doesn't give any dates, but I'm sure we're all gonna be in line for this one. "

"X Company now supports Linux" announcements are coming in thick and fast these days. Examples: yesterday J Ellerbroek sent this link for Aureal's Linux drivers and Drakar wrote, "I e-mailed Sigma Designs asking them about Linux support for the RealMagic Hollywood Plus DVD Decoder, and they say they're working on supporting Linux for a future product." And Nicholas Tang turned us on to this announcement about an upcoming open sourced RPG with a Linux client. Very nice! But we're getting so many of these announcements that we can't possibly run them all. If you've spotted any others recently, please post them below. (Click for more.)

Mandoric writes "Verge2, a fairly popular 'Create-your-own-RPG' system, was GPLed today. Basically, this system allows one to create a console/Japanese style RPG with routines for graphics, audio, etc. already in place. Source is available here"

Splatta writes "Someone bought an RPG character for $521 on eBay. The character was from Ultima Online. " Does this strike anyone besides me as being strange?

Joe Jenkins writes "The GPL Linux equiv. of Ultima Online now has a name, and a new domain: Altima." They're looking for people to assist in development. People with talents in RPG story writing, design, graphics, or just a love for RPG's should check the site out, and help create an online world.